Introducing Sebago House

 Allow me to introduce you to our tiny little domicile, which Zach refers to as the "Fry Sauce" house. We are significantly downsizing this time around going from about 3200 sqft at our Hamilton house to the new grand total of 1700 sqft at the Sebago house- approx 864 sqft on the main floor with a rather pathetic basement of the same size.
Joseph had been searching diligently for a home for 6 months give or take and we just couldn't find the house that was right for us, that would suit our needs, and be in the area with the schools that we were interested in having the kids go to, and close enough to Joe's work etc. (We got to know the area very well via Google Maps). As it turned out everything kept falling through, the places we tried to rent were just not panning out and we didn't have any leads on houses that we liked enough to purchase. It is not that there aren't any houses that we liked, it was the fact that they were either out of our price range or not for sale!
So we accepted a gracious invitation and moved in with the Stake President and his wife- no pressure right?? We are so indebted to them for letting us stay with them during some of the most difficult and low moments of our lives! It has been a rough journey to be sure, we have tried to weather it well and stay positive, but I acknowledge that it is really difficult to be homeless and I hate feeling like such a huge burden to anyone else, but alas we really enjoyed their company and we did make an impact on their lives, perhaps not always for good, but we left our mark for sure! It was lots of fun working out the showering schedule with 1 shower and 9 people; good times never to be forgotten. Really it all worked out surprisingly well!

Front of the house- it has since gotten much greener due to the addition of moisture- it also has a plethora of leaves falling right there- too bad this isn't one of the colorful varieties of maples.

Anyhow, the way we ended up with the Sebago Drive house is that one day I had my lengthy list of houses to go look at while Joseph was at work and I ended up in this area which is on the border of the two townships that we were interested in living in, Millcreek and Fairview. Mostly I just didn't have any idea where I was since this wasn't an area that we googled much, but as I was looking around I really felt directed to this quiet little neighborhood just on the Fairview side of the border. I drove through the neighborhood and really liked it because it was quiet and tidy and in a gorgeous area, and for my benefit it was not near the airport or train tracks or highway. I called Joe and asked him if he had ever seen this house and he said he hadn't so he called the agent to see if we could get an appointment to come and see it. The agent said that we could, but that there had been an offer presented to them that morning. We decided to take a look at it that evening and had to make a quick decision. 

No it is not our dream house, in fact it has the bare minimum on our want list, but it is do-able. We will just say that we will be cozy 3 small bedrooms 1 bathroom and a small living room and kitchen. I am not sure how long we will stay there, it could be a year or two or 10, I can't really say at this time. All I know is that we have the smallest mortgage we have ever had, with the smallest interest rate and that seems like a good plan to us. We did not want to get in a bad place and over buy just so we could have something like we had before. On that note, it is funny that I just started reading Sense and Sensibility this week and the section where they are leaving their beloved home at Norland to move to a pokey little cottage really rang clear in my mind as we are living that reality. We loved our Hamilton house and it is so hard not to compare everything to that, we have all lamented it at one point or another through this process and I am certain that we will continue to do it some more! 

This is the backyard looking from the door of the garage. There is a very pish posh neighborhood directly behind us and our yard backs up to someone's extra lot (meaning a couple of extra acres of beautiful grass) that is their yard- sweet set up for us!

Well, we bought it and now we are staying in another house while some other friends from church are out of the state on a medical rotation for a couple of months. Another tender mercy from God, which is allowing us to remodel without having to live in it during the process. That is something we have not experienced with any of our other homes- so it is a great blessing. I am wishing I had better pictures of everything and in all the excitement of clearing that garbage out of the house we didn't take any pictures of the huge trash container that we filled to the brim with all the yucky, stinky stuff from the house. It was unfortunately the home of a smoker (or two) and even though it was vacant for a year, everything was permeated with that oder- so out went the cabinets and carpet and 4 layers of kitchen flooring.

Eli living it up on the swing in the backyard!

So as far as the grand plan goes, we intend to remove that wall completely from between the living room and kitchen to make it one "large" open room and we are going to ingeniously add a half bath and a laundry into that space as well. We just love a good challenge!!

 The garage is just behind the refrigerator etc. and we intend to take out the cabinet from the garage side and build an area to shove the fridge back into and add a little pantry cupboard next to that making it flush with the garage wall, then move the dishwasher so it is along the back wall in the corner next to the sink. And if anyone is dying to have that light fixture we haven't dismantled it just yet- we could put your name on it then you could be the proud owner of some classy craftsmanship!

Yuck, yuck and more yuck!! Zach is working on removing the wallpaper, but you might be able to note 3 of the 4 layers of flooring on the kitchen floor. Yes, that would be 2 inches worth that was nailed and stapled every 4 inches over the whole of the floor and 1-2 inches on the seamed areas. Let us just say that this was not the favorite part of the demolition process, and the flooring choices were all hideous in case you were wondering!

We still have the rest of the wall to remove and a beam to add in its place, also need to remove the soffit above where the cabinets used to be, but we were delighted the moment we got all of the disgusting carpets out of the house to reveal the nice hardwood floors, a vast improvement if I do say so myself!

This picture above is just a view from the "Master" bedroom- it kind of doesn't qualify for the title of Master, Minor is more like it! But you will note the beautiful teal carpet leading to the lovely mauve carpeting in the hallway and living room!

The boys room had the most lovely carpet of all- not sad at all that it is gone now!

This is looking into the girls room sans blue green carpeting! 

Gratefully the house is already smelling better, it is a huge relief I assure you! Now this next picture is part of my joyful adventure. Joseph departed on Friday to Lansing MI for the AIO Organ Builders Convention so we worked like crazy up until that point and we got everything out so the trash bin could be picked up on Friday. Thursday night we got the sink and dishwasher out of the kitchen and finished up with the floor removal. Yea us!! I called to have them pick up the trash and proceeded to live the other chaotic part of my life which encompasses the crazy rushing to and fro all the time- luckily the kids had Friday and Monday out of school and that coincided nicely with General Conference weekend. However, Zach and Kaija had band concerts and competitions to attend on Friday night and all day Saturday- so it was back and forth, back and forth and I had no desire to go pull staples out of the floor or wash walls or anything like unto it. I drove by the house on Saturday morning to make sure the trash bin had been picked up and rushed home again to be able to listen to Conference. I intended to enjoy this little bit of downtime that I had been afforded and it was glorious! Sunday we spent at our friends watching Conference and Monday we enjoyed the day together doing some shopping for Zach's birthday. So by the time I got back to the house it was on Tuesday afternoon; Zach and Kaija were at band practice so I just had Izzi, Eli and Spencer. We came in ready to mow the lawn and rake more leaves and pull staples, when we realized that the bucket we put under the faucet hose was overflowing and the kitchen floor was a puddle. DRAT!! I got that all cleaned up and decided to check out the basement where I was greeted with floating wood and standing water! Lucky me, about 2 1/2 inches of water in the front room area and puddles along into the other rooms on the other side of the basement.

I am sooo glad I decided to put the shop vac into the van that day, it paid huge dividends as I hauled 200 gallons of water up the basement stairs. I did count each of the 70 trips I took up and out to dump all that water! Hey, on the bright side though we have well water so we don't have to pay some horrible bill for wasted water and the plants got some extra loving!

Spencer loves to be right in the middle of everything, especially when his daddy is around! 

  Okay so this last picture has a great story... Spencer loves to be a "holper" (as seen above) he wants to be involved with the whole demolition process, and he gets so excited when we go to the house everyday to work. He puts on his mask and gloves and gets right down to business. Well, while I was dealing with the flash flood, he was in the back of the house with all of the yard ornaments and was trying to get Mary to wear the mask and be a "holper", what a priceless moment and a treasured one since I needed a laugh right about that time!

The Summary

I periodically compose blog posts in my mind and assume that I actually posted them online. 

Somehow it never ends up miraculously written with every detail remembered as I would wish. It has been such a whirlwind but we have been trying to fit in lots of fun things along with the crazy.

We have been to Sara's Diner at Presque Isle and have enjoyed delicious American fare 

and silly tourist photo opts, it is a great little place to go after a stop over at the lake!

We made it to the Crawford County Fair and had a wonderful time trying out all the yummy food while watching all of the interesting people; the animals were amazing too! We especially loved the horses,  Spencer thought it was wonderful watching them go around the arena. The poultry section was wonderful as well, there was a great moment when the turkeys flipped out and sent all of the birds into wild hysterics. I was lucky enough to catch it on video, though I missed the part where Zach jumped out of his skin.

The prize winning pheasant- Gorgeous!!!

Labor day weekend was fantastic, we celebrated my 38th birthday and Spencer's 2nd birthday! On Saturday we took a drive, went to see the land lighthouse then we kept on driving and ended up somewhere in New York. We drove through Welches' grape territory and since it was only a few days before harvest, you could smell the scent of grapes in the air. The weather was perfect for us and we nearly hyperventilated from over-sniffing, we embraced the aroma as we stopped for some ice cream and shakes. Obviously our lives revolve around food- I think we have all gained a bunch of weight, we have had such terrible eating habits over this last little while, we really look forward to being settled. One day it is going to happen! 

Land lighthouse with the Minions and Waldo!

After our drive we went to Waldemeer which is the amusement park at the entrance of Presque Isle. It is a fun little family friendly place and it worked out famously that Eli was just tall enough to go on all the big rides and Spencer was just tall enough to go on all of the little kid rides. 

It is a shame that we didn't get any pictures of Eli having the time of his life on the log ride, we went on that a million times mostly towards the end of the night, soaking wet and savoring every minute. Eli especially loved it because his dad was just as excited to go on it with him. (Joe doesn't delight in amusement park rides- poor lad, motion sickness isn't fun at a place like that- but log rides he can do!) 

I also wish I had a picture of Izzi when she threw up in the car as the the roller coaster ride came to the end. Bwahahaha!!! Honestly we all felt like that, she just followed through with the deed. We now know that we will never ride that one again, even if it does go over the road and has an amazing view of the lake from the very top. I took all of the big kids on that one while Joe took Spencer on the train- they definitely had the better ride! Glad Joe missed out on that one- he would have been doomed.

Spencer adored all the little rides, Eli tolerated them, but was a good sport to go with him!

Sweet Becky, who we are staying with got us an ice cream cake to celebrate our birthdays. This is the only picture we have of the moment, but Spencer enjoyed the blowing of the candles!

Last weekend (a week ago saturday) while Zachary went canoeing with the scouts at Presque Isle, we took the kids to the zoo since they were celebrating 50 years and admission was $.50, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to go. Spencer called the alpacas "bawk, bawks" which is funny since that is what he calls the seagulls. We love seeing the Amish people at these random locations, drinking their Cokes and Orange Crush. We also saw a whole bunch of them at the beach one day, which was a surprising sight, mostly because it was at a beach where there was a wedding taking place.

Other news here on the home front... Zach and Kaija have joined the marching band at Fairview High School. The band director is fantastic and wants anyone who would like to participate to be able to do so. Zach is still playing trumpet and Kaija is playing vibes and piano (and the symbols in the stands). They have made some good friends there which I am grateful for.

Isabella has signed up to do fencing, and hopefully they get enough students to make it happen. Her favorite teacher is the coach, so she is anxious to try it out.

Eli and I are already on the 2nd Harry Potter book since school started. We read for a while between dropping Bella off for school and when he has to go. It is our favorite part of the day!

We spend time at the beach periodically and have been checking out the different beaches- we like certain things about each of them, we like the lighthouse beach, but most recently we have spent some time at Beach 1 with the cool crooked dock and great skipping rocks.

Perhaps you guessed that not only do I like sail boats, but I enjoy light houses as well!

And the major news is that we finally signed on the house. I will post some pics on that later!

Our Daily Bread

So truth be told, I love bread in all it's forms and I crave it like crazy. Obviously I should eat less of it and be much more selective with what I do choose to eat.  I just read this article and thought it was interesting. Our Daily Bread - you don't have to look far to find someone with wheat allergies; I have many friends who are sensitive to wheat, and this article is certainly food for thought.  What do you think?
I have to admit, some nice orange (cinnamon) rolls sound pretty good right now and I could use a good bakery close by! We were so spoiled in Lawrence KS with Wheatfields bakery, now I think I would like to try making some sourdough bread- anyone made it before with great success?

We Are Alive

This is our favorite image from Joe's work- it is on a time saver sander.

I know it would seem that we have fallen off the face of the earth, but we really do still exist and we are tremendously happy to be all together again. It would be an understatement to say that things have been a little complicated over the last little while. But we are going along day by day and finding joy in the moment.

First day experiencing the beach while Zach and Kaija were at Youth Conference

The Brigg Niagra docked outside of the library

Presque Isle Beach 9

I love how Joseph and Zachary are doing the exact same thing- like father like son 

Kaija trying to keep Spencer from swimming off in the sunset- he loves WATER!

This kid was meant to live on the beach

Here are some things we have been noticing:

• finding just the right house in a little amount of time is much harder than we wanted it to be
• people don't want to rent with us because we have "too many children"- they haven't even met them, I am sure they would change their minds if they knew them
• well...they might not Spencer has taken to making some ridiculously loud noises during the last few weeks
• the right house for us right now is going to be a very tiny place
• the taxes and fees and all the other little expenditures are alarming here
• the clouds are amazing here all of the time
• there are always beautiful sunsets as well
• we love living so close to the beach/lake
• even an hour at the beach relieves many stresses and worries
• there are lots of crows and seagulls here
• i love seeing sailboats- something about it just makes me happy
• we really enjoy seeing all the different flora and fauna around us and I spotted a Ginko tree just down the street from where we are staying- talk about happy!
• we are having fun meeting new people
• we are missing all of our friends and family (though Skype is a great way to stay connected- perhaps Facetime in the near future as well)!
• the traffic on Peach Street is hideous- notoriously and accurately called Peach Jam
• the checkout lines anywhere take considerably longer to get through- I am not certain why this is the case, but we have made note at nearly every retail location we have been to, who knew!
• we love/hate living with friends- love getting to know people on a more intimate level/ hate being a burden on others and living out of a suitcase and our cars
• we like having a dollar movie theater here- wish we could choose what films played there though
• we feel sad to not have Costco closer
• we feel happy to have everything else closer
• people now believe that Joseph did indeed have a wife and 5 children
• our children love television- which is why we will never have it!!!!!! There has been a lot of time wasting going on, but I can't blame them.
• I can find my way around really well- thanks to 8 months of studying the area via google maps
• even though I have studied the area so well, I still get all turned around in the area near the house we are in the process of purchasing- it's very strange

KC Temple Events

The last several months have been an absolute whirlwind, we have had so many events piled on top of each other and I am still trying to catch my breath.  Besides all the projects and challenges with the house and plans for moving, we were involved with the wonderful events of the temple open house, the cultural event and the dedication of the Kansas City Temple. 

It has truly been a spiritually stimulating and awe inspiring time in our lives.

The kids had so many opportunities to go up to the temple with our youth group as well as with friends and of course our family. The girls were able to do a special tour of the brides room as well. I had the opportunity to spend a day as an usher at the temple, which was a wonderful experience. I couldn't help but smile the entire day, it is a serious workout for the cheeks, but the greatest part was seeing people who we know, many from Lawrence and even the Wright's from Provo. 

My heart has just been filled with so much gratitude for this rich blessing in our lives, especially since our children got to be so involved.

This was at the cultural celebration at the Municipal Auditorium on May 5th as the youth performed for the Prophet. Zach is in the upper left corner of this photo. 

I think this one was from the church news article.

The kids had a blast learning the German Polka. 

Here is Isabella front and center and Kaija is off to the right.

All three of the kids are in the left half of the picture, Kaija and Bella at the bottom left and Zach in the distance at the top center left. Many Where's Waldo experiences trying to find them in all the pics!

The Young Women all wore their skirts to church the week following the dedication. They all thought the skirts were terrible, but they looked great for the performance!

What an incredible time we have been experiencing and we have been building some wonderful memories that we can carry on to our next adventure.

Hamilton House

Eli had a Birthday (like 6 weeks ago)!

It is completely amazing what can happen in six weeks: 

 Eli had a birthday! He turned 7 on April 14th. We did everything pretty low key, I took him lunch at school, later on he wanted to go to Cave Hollow Park (like I did with Zach on his birthday). We Skyped with Joe and Eli enjoyed getting Legos from his dad and grandparents.

Here he is with his BFF Shade Stewart at lunch (Sam too)!

Having some special moments with his gifts- classic Eli!

Cave Hollow Park

The scary part of the day was that Zach got his drivers permit and drove around the parking lot many times whilst we ate pizza and wanted to throw up; that was a really good time! Eli was glad when we could go hike up the trail!

We love our young master Eli, he really enjoys life and loves when he gets to have a moment to snuggle and read a good book like The Hobbit and Harry Potter, which we have been trying to fit in amidst all the other goings on around here. Honestly it is hard to remember where each day has gone sometimes (or always) I wonder how I could be working so hard every day and still feel so far from reaching the goal! I look forward to the time when this challenge will be behind us. But everyday we are realizing our blessings and I am so thankful for wonderful kids, I want to celebrate their goodness each day- they are truly my treasures and have been wonderful to pick me back up when I start falling apart. Hopefully the glue will hold for a little while! This has been the time that I want to remember the most, but don't have the time to record the millions of things going on in our lives. I am determined to add more on the blog, but right now I am going to go spend some time with the kids at the temple grounds- I think a picnic is in order!