Moved!

We'd moved!!  Yeah!  I've had no time to take pictures, but just wanted to let you all know we've moved!  We bought our first home.  Seems funny to me that by the time Mike and I finally bought a home he is 36 and I am 35 but it just worked out that this is the best time for us to buy our home. 

New address:

740 NW Bryant St
Pullman, WA  99163

Pullman's only about 8 miles from Moscow, where I work.  Today was our first commute day and it took us just over 15 minutes - Nice!


CJ and Dexter are getting acclimated to the new place.  It's quite a bit larger than our apartment was.  They are still a little unsure, but they seem to be loving the windows. 

I'll post pictures soon!

Rural Washington

Mike and I had to be in Spokane on Monday and on the way home we took some back roads.   Got somegreat pictures:

Grain Elevators in Fairfield, WA using the 'retro camera' app on Mike's phone.  There are grain elevators dotted all over the Palouse. 

Cool old Public School building in Latah, WA.  I got out and started taking some pictures, then noticed that there were drapes in the windows and a piano in the window.  Then I saw a cat on the front stoop... I think its someone's home now!  Oops. 

Keeping up with the Joneses' in Washington?

Wow, I didn't realize that I hadn't posted in such a long time.  Mike and I may be moving to Pullman, Washington.  Now, its really only about 8 miles away from where we currently live in Moscow.  We are right on the Idaho - Washington border.  Mike is going to be graduating in May, and he wasn't really sure where he was going next.  He realized he needed to take some programming classes still, not for his degrees, but to be successful and using his degrees.  So, since he won't be a full time student we are going to have to move - we live in married family housing on campus.  Its been way too long in this tiny apartment!  

I started looking at apartments/duplexes/houses to rent and realized, yikes - this is a college town.  They are all in terrible shape and are relatively expensive.  So, about 5 - 6 weeks ago, I started doing some online searches for inexpensive houses - still living on one income.  This is Idaho right, they can't be that much.  Well, funny thing about Moscow, the prices of homes, while still not sky high, are relatively expensive.  A newer 3 bedroom/2 bath 2000 sq foot home is at least 200k, go much bigger and its quite a jump beyond that... Just outside of Moscow, in Troy, ID or Potlatch, ID they are much less expensive, same size'ish home would be about 120k.  But then you have a bit of a drive - and you are living in SERIOUS small town Idaho. 

We found a real estate agent, really just by chance.  I think we lucked out because so far he's done a good job.  He showed a few houses, then Mike found a listing on Craigslist for a home in Pullman.  It was 3 bd, 2ba, living, dining, breakfast nook, fireplace, garage, basement... and we drove over to check it one day in the snow.  It had these amazing picture windows, a funky old kitchen, a huge living room, we really liked it! 

Flash forward... we are closing on the house (finger's crossed) on 4/15/2011 !!  It will be so amazing to have our own place.  A couple of pictures:

Pretty snow!  Look at the shaped and pruned tree - are we going to have keep that pruning up?

The garage is in the basement of the house.  There is also a laundry room and finished 'workshop' type room.  The workshop even has its own fireplace.  We don't know where the car came from, maybe the neighbors?  The house has been empty since last summer.

Close up view of the front entrance.  I love that the garage doesn't make up the majority of the front of the house. 

So, here we are jumping into the world of home ownership!  This whole buying a home process is another blog all on it's own! 

Still Alive

Yes we are still here and still alive. We have been extremely busy this past month or so. Mike took his physics GRE a few weeks ago, I've been trying to get through open enrollment, and hire a new communications person at the same time...

My cousin Amber got married in Dahlonega, GA on 11/13/2010. Mom and I flew out to GA on 11/10 (super early in the morning!) and got to spend a great weekend with family. The wedding was held at a resort where a lodge had been rented out for the wedding attendees. Friday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, and in true family tradition, my 3 Aunts and I got everything set up for dinner! Then the ceremony and reception were Saturday. Amber's husband is in the music business and makes electronic music and he also DJs. He travels around the world doing this and has been pretty successfull. After the reception there was a drum circle at the lodge. It was really fun listening to all the very musical people playing and grooving. I decided not to join in since I have a rough time carrying any sort of tune or beat. :-)

Mom and I at the wedding.

My mom (Bobbie), my Aunt Kathy, the groom Richard Devine, the Bride Amber Vaughn Devine, my Aunt Emmy, and my Aunt Murnie (Amber's mom)

Amber, my cousin Rachel (bride's sister) and the little flower girl who just stole the show! Aren't the field and the trees just amazing?




On Sunday we went and explored Amicalola Falls. There was a short hike up to the beautiful falls. And the fall colors where AMAZING!

Reflecting Pool at Amicalola Falls State Park

Loved the Fall Colors!

So, now I've driven through rural Georgia. There were all these little churches. And each church had its own cemetary surronding it. I haven't seen that much where I grew up.

We are just a day before Thanksgiving today and Mike and I will be celebrating with my Mom, Ryan and our neighbor Nita and her daughter Lila. Nita's in law school here and her home is in New Mexico, only she couldn't go back for Thanksgiving. It should be a day filled with relaxation, football, and yummy food! Happy Thanksgiving Ya'all!

Garlic & Coconut

I really love the fall here on the Palouse, the leaves are changing, its getting cold and the apples are delicious! Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to buy all the delicious locally grown apples at the farmers market. This is where Backyard Harvest comes into play. Backyard Harvest started when its founder accidentally grew 200+ heads of lettuce one year thanks to her young sons scattering the seeds all over their backyard. Rather than throw them away she donated them to the local foodbank.

I has since grown into much larger project, they have farm plots around the town, they will harvest fruit trees in peoples yards, they set up a program so that people can use their food stamps at the farmers market, its really a fantastic program.


What does this have to do with Garlic & Coconut? Well, it has nothing to do with coconut, but I spent a little time volunteering on Saturday planting garlic for Backyard Harvest. We planted a lot of garlic! I had no idea that if you just plant a clove of garlic in the fall, come next harvest you'll have a whole bulb. I found out that we were planting the garlic because BYH also does a CSA, where people pay a fee and have fresh fruits and vegtables delivered weekly during the growing season. It is subsized for those with low incomes, just $5 a week. I learned a lot this weekend. And, we harvested a couple of apple trees right next to the plot. Yummy apples! It was kinda cool standing in the branches of the tree munching on an apple and picking them for seniors and the food bank.

Green Apples we harvested.

The garlic field all planted. We covered it with Hay to protect it this winter.

And Coconut...?? I've been saying to Mike for a few weeks that I wanted to try and make a coconut cake. So yesterday, I made a coconut cake. It was blustery raining day so it seemed like the perfect day to bake. I don't have a picture of it because . . . well my phone was dead and it didn't occur to me to use the actual camera. Ooops! But it turned out really well, really messy, but really yummy! The frosting was almost like a homemade marshmellow cream. And I think I'll be finding shredded coconut around my kitchen for days, but it was fun.

Where do we live?

For some reason, Mike and I have lived pretty nomadic lives as a married couple. We've lived in 7 different homes in 6 towns since we got married. Sometimes we've moved because we had too, other times we moved for new opportunities, and once we moved just down the street because we liked the house we moved into better! Even where we are now is relatively temporary so we'll be continuing our nomadic lifestyle for at least a little while longer. Here is where we've lived:

1. Chico/Durham: When we first were married we lived in a modular home we rented. It was in an almond orchard between Chico & Durham Ca. When we moved in, it was in the middle of an old orchard, unfortunately they began tearing out the old orchard to replant right after we moved it. So, instead there was a BIG dirt field behind us. We lived there for just about a year and just had to move. We shared the house with Mike's sister Stefanie, which was fine, but we rented it from her boyfriend, who she promptly broke up with shortly after Mike and I moved out. So you can imagine the stress. We did have our dog Max when we lived there. He was so fun and we miss him a lot, but when we moved we didn't think it was fair to move him into a small apartment. So we found a really good home for him out in Willows.

2. Temecula: We lived in Temecula, CA for 4 months 2001. It was such a crazy time period. We were staying with Mike's dad and step-mom in a beautiful home. I really got to know Don and Kathy and Mike's sister Erin and her little girl Nicolette too. We were there when the twin towers were bombed and it was such a crazy day. Mike and I commuted a really long way living here, but looking back we are very happy we got to live there. Mike's dad passed away just a couple of weeks after we moved into our own apartment. We all knew he was ill, just no one had any idea he was that ill. Living there was a blessing to us all.

3. Encinitas: I almost lived by the beach! We were pretty close when we lived in this little beach town. We loved heading over to the Cardiff Seaside Market and getting some expensive little snack and watching the waves. They decided to turn our apartments into condos and both Mike and I were working in San Diego so we moved after just one year.

4. Banker's Hill/San Diego: We loved this apartment! It was in the Banker's Hill area of San Diego. Right on a canyon so there was open land in front of us, we were just blocks from Balboa Park, not far from Downtown, Ocean Beach, and I really got to spend some time with my sister, Christine and her husband Brooks. Unfortunately, I really missed my mom and Northern California. If our landlord hadn't decided to sell our condo we would have stayed there longer.

5. Roseville - Folsom Rd.: Pt. 1 - We hosted our first Thanksgiving together in our first house in Roseville. This house had the biggest living room I've ever had! It made all our stuff look tiny. It was an ok place, but there was a back house that someone rented and a basement apartment and we were just ready for a place of our own. So we moved down the street:

Folsom Rd. Pt. 2 - Such a cute little grannie house! This was such a special place for Mike and I. Even
though we didn't move there until about 4 1/2 years into our marriage I think this was really our first true home together, everywhere else seemed kind of temporary. We loved loved loved the house, but we hated our commutes and weren't fond of our jobs. So...

6. Moscow, ID: And now here we are in Moscow, ID. We moved here 01/01/2008 and will be in our current apartment until at least May of next year. We live in University housing at the the University of Idaho. Who knew that at age 35 we'd be in family housing at a University. Sometimes this really bothers me, but then other times I couldn't be happier. Mike is getting to go back to school, I've been able to get out of the insurance brokerage arena, and am now working at the University. And we really love Moscow.

We'll see where the next 10 years takes us. We really don't know. If anything the last 10 yrs has shown... it really doesn't matter. We can make anywhere home for a little while.

Anniversary

Ten years ago, I was scrambling - running around town, getting my nails done, buying last minute things, confirming pick up times, waiting for my family to get to town, all so that I could marry my best friend. Looking back at the planning of the weekend, wow, I was so naive about planning a big party. I'd never done that before and I was really doing a lot of it on my own.

One thing I wouldn't have changed is the way we started the day. Mike and I decided that we weren't going to follow the tradition of not seeing each other the day the wedding before I walked down the aisle. The day of the wedding Mike and I woke up together early and we went and had breakfast just the two of us. We talked about what an amazing day it was going to be and just spent a little time together. We then drove up to find the bed and breakfast where we were staying the night, since we knew it would be dark when we drove out there after the wedding. Of course, we still drove right by it that night! But at least we knew we drove by it.

Then we headed back to our house and the chaos began!

We will celebrate our 10 year anniversary on Thursday. And what a wonderful 10 years it has been!