Some things have to get worse before they get better

Jason & I were excited last Wednesday when we got Luke's room re-painting finished and started prepping our room for a new coat of paint.  We'd hoped that we could be finished and able to sleep in our room by the end of the weekend. Well, I'd noticed that there were a couple spots where the paint was peeling off so went to work scrubbing it ... only to have the paint start coming off in some huge hunks.  That's when we realized we were probably going to have to scrape the paint off the ENTIRE room. Ugh.  This Old House's plaster had turned powdery underneath the paint. Fun :) It's now 10 days later and while we've made significant progress getting it off so we can treat the plaster and then start the painting process, we're still not there yet.

We know this is all part of owning a home - those fun, little surprises that make what you thought would be a simple task into something horrendous instead. We continue to feel blessed to even have the opportunity to be doing this, but it is a tad annoying to say the least.

First day of school - 20th grade?

Yesterday marked another first day of school for Jason :)
I was trying to calculate what year of school he's actually in and had trouble ... I think he's starting year 19 or 20. Pretty crazy.
We are super thankful that our house is just a couple blocks from campus which means he can walk there and even come home for lunch on some days.
(and yes, that's painters tape holding a broken window together in the background :) )

A quick house tour

We've been in our new space a week and are making some slow progress toward getting settled in. It's challenging to get settled without furniture to unload our belongings into, so collecting a few pieces of furniture has been a bit of a priority while trying to make the space a little more livable. I don't think it's really recommended to be moving into a fixer-upper at 8 months pregnant with a two year old, but it IS an adventure of sorts :)

The house has one fairly major issue/repair (very, very OLD electrical wiring) and then lots and lots of things on the more cosmetic side that are a result of poor upkeep/tenant abuse. We are thankful that these seem to be the only problems in this ~ 90 year old house and to have a place that is a livable space even while needing work.

Short hallway with bedrooms and bathroom - the bathroom is one of the sadder rooms at the moment.

The second bedroom, which will be shared by Luke & #2 ... came with a built-in queen size loft bed and this lovely "built-in" closet ...

The larger of the two bedrooms which will be our room. Our favorite feature ... that the mail slot comes right into the bedroom! 

A few of the random things left behind by the rental tenants.

Fenced backyard (woo-hoo!) in need of some serious love --

And .... the scary basement. Has less than 6 foot ceilings and thousands of spider webs, but comes with a washer/dryer (thank you!) and will be something we can hopefully transform into a usable space.

First meal in our new home

Camp chairs & a storage bin for a table. Couldn't be happier :)

This is the very first time Jason & I have needed to furnish a place. Thank goodness for giveaways from friends & family, plus garage sales, thrift stores and craigslist!

Are we grown-ups yet???

I have yet to really think of myself or feel like a grown-up…even as I just passed my 39^th (yikes!) birthday, I mostly still feel like a kid who doesn’t know what they are doing. I don’t know if that really ever changes? My Mom says she still feels like she’s in her early 20’s, so probably not J 

BUT, a recent purchase has us feeling a little more grown-up – we bought a little fixer-upper cottage in Moscow!! Personally, I think the responsibility of a mortgage is more aging than the fact we have a house to do what we want with. No matter what, we are completely thrilled though to have a HOME with a yard and a place that’s walking distance from most things in Moscow.

I came across this verse recently and it has been really timely –

“O Lord our God, as for all this abundance…it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.” 

– I Chronicles 29:16

Happy Birthday Jason!!

Happy 37 Years!!!
To the love of my life -- you are an amazing man and I feel so so fortunate to just be part of your life but most especially, to be your wife. Thank you for being such a great adventure partner :)

The beginning of the "last things"

As we prepare to move back to Moscow shortly, we noticed that this week marked the start of us doing our "last things" here at Priest Lake. Some places are harder to leave than others and this is going to be one of those difficult goodbyes. I am glad and so thankful to have had such an amazing summer here and although I am sad to go, the sadness means there was lots of happiness, so that's a good thing, right?

We took our last canoe ride on Wednesday. It was a pretty foreboding afternoon, but gorgeous nonetheless and makes me thankful all over again for the opportunity to have been here.

Simple Summer Days

Since getting settled in here, I've been reveling at how good it has felt to be here and been trying a little bit to understand why it feels so good (besides the fact we're living at a vacation destination rent-free!)

I realized right away that a big part of it was that we have fewer belongings here. Our trailer was just partially furnished with beds, table, chairs & sofas and since we moved here "only" with our Jeep (see picture below of how loaded it was!), we had to be fairly minimal with what we brought. Oddly enough, that has simplified life. It's strange to me since we've gone through this packing and moving process SO many times, you'd think I'd remember how much better I feel with fewer belongings and yet it seems in most scenarios, if I can, I do collect more stuff -- ironically, in order to make life easier.

Outside of the spectacular beauty of this place and the host of recreational opportunities right out our door, the people have been incredibly inclusive which was unexpected from such a small, tight-knit community. Luke has made several friends and I am thankful to have found the same.

Lastly, this is the first summer in our eight years of our marriage that we've had our own place to live. Every other summer has generally involved us being virtually homeless combined with a lot of travel so that we could visit and stay with family/friends. It was certainly super fun, but not always the most relaxing. With that being our history, this summer feel amazingly relaxing in spite of needing to move twice.

Moving day -- the Jeep was riding very low in the back and Luke not sure what to make of his small nook.

What we've been up to the past couple weeks since Jason returned from his fire duty...

Free ice cream at our local marina & cowboy day at the library





















Canoeing from Lionhead State Park -- perhaps the prettiest beach on the lake.

Watching airplanes (probably Luke's favorite past time)























Luke getting to check out one of the fire helicopters --