November

We are still in work-in-progress mode, but are starting to get more settled in our house. Some fun things we did this month...

We did an escape room at the Towne Theater after watching Something's Aftoot. It was fun having the staff in character and being on the set. At the end there was a knock on the set door and an envelope was left revealing a picture of the culprit blackmailer. We felt dumb, but escaped with about 20 clues.

Saw my friend Jamie who I hadn't seen for 8 years.

Went to Silas's school's Madrigal Dinner. (Think Medieval Times as presented by middle schoolers.)

 

Stayed in cabins at Table Rock State Park with church buddies.

 

Visited Starr for Thanksgiving.

Lucas

Our buddy Lucas passed last week. He was the funniest, most thoughtful kid. He lost out on so many experiences and coped with so much more pain than could ever be fair. Still he shined. I know a lot of kids. I like them all. He was a gem. Alex, Andrew, and Lilly walked a road no one would wish on their worst enemy. They made his life full and fun and beautiful. Their faith and love glorify God. I wish they could be spared from the grief and the quiet. I wish he were still here. But he doesn't and that brings some peace. His name will still be frequent in our house. We'll look at photos, and notes he wrote, and talk only about the brilliant person we knew...until we see him again.

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.  -Isaiah 41:10

https://www.poseyfuneraldirectors.com/obituaries/Lucas-Oliver/#!/Obituary

September/ October

Big life update... we moved! (Feeling iffy on that exclamation point.) Daron's family was amazing helping us and Mary came too and was our box supplier! Here is my blabber on all things move related. Keep in mind I am a pessimist with high expectations. I wrote a novel of detailed disappointments, (this is the short version!) but no one needs all that.

I have definitely had some buyers remorse. I probably would not choose this place again. I think I like new things even though I want to pretend I like old things with character. Turns out character is mostly gross, outdated, and expensive.

Our new house can practically be seen from our old one. A little woodsy area we would walk past in our old neighborhood is now our neighbor's backyard. This makes me a little leery of him due to the smell of death that came from a large pile of pine straw on his property for almost a year. At least the possibility of a murderous neighbor adds a little intrigue. I like that we don't have to change our side of town or driving routines. We originally wanted to move because the boys still shared a pretty small room and with a middle schooler, it seemed like those days might need to come to an end at some point. I didn't want to wait and wait and then move and get less time out of the space. Eventually I think it will be good to spread out and now we have more of a chance to be the "hangout house", but my first reaction is...everyone is so far away... Rory's room swallows him... I can never find anyone... So much to clean... I miss sidewalks...We need half a house of furniture... 

The last residents were evicted and all their things scattered about the lawn.  It is like an archaeology excavation out there. Then a flipper had it before us, but there was still a lot of neglect and disrepair. Plus the flip seemed to be a slap/patch type job that was not necessarily to our taste and with not too much craftmanship or thought to practicality. We keep getting notices about bills they owe.

Based on the price tag I had in my mind that it was pretty move in ready, but we have spent quite a bit of time and money actually getting it there. We had to buy all new windows and are still waiting on blinds, much to our neighbors' dismay. We paid a crew to fix the heavy texture on the kitchen and bathroom walls. That was a fail. They tried to sand it off, so our house is caked in dust and we can still see all the ridges. I was assuming they would skim coat, but didn't want to tell them how to do their job. They say, "Just mark where you want us to touch up. "...Everywhere??" (Also they are horrible painters and I am scraping paint off trim and fixtures and finding places they missed completely.) They did make us a lovely arch to open up the place a bit. They also demoed the tile and drywall on the fireplace to help us get back to brick. Verdict is still out on that project. They also put in wood floors which they had to do twice.

Anyways, it has been weeks of unsettledness and poor Daron is always meeting someone at the house during his work day for something or other. It didn't help that we had baseball almost every night. Hopefully we are near the end. We decided to take one room a month going forward and try to relax a little bit.

Here are a few pictures of my neglected children and dog. We did go to the Greek Festival for a requirement for Silas's school. We toured the Greek Orthodox Church downtown and it was amazing (although there was a consensus that the artist painted weird feet). We just sat staring at all the things.

Baseball season has been taking up most of our evenings. Silas has the old coach that doesn't know his name again, yells at kids for cheering in the dug out, and leaves him at the bottom of the line-up even though he has one of the best averages on the team. Also, there are only 2 teams in his league so we just play the same one every night. Rory has a cute coach. I don't know if everything is just always better for Rory or if I am more first-child-protective of Silas and judge everything more harshly.

We had a fun day with the Dolans at the zoo.

The kids were anti-trick or treating this year, which was sad. We went to the Olivers' where Alex had a candy hunt that resulted in a bigger haul than if we had hit up the whole city. That was great, but I feel like the season as a whole was a waste. I didn't even decorate. I am planning to be all in for Christmas, however with our spending rate, the kids should probably expect to receive a few bathroom hooks and a desk lamp. 

 

 

 

 

Morganton, GA

It was time for our yearly Labor Day mountain trip with the fam. We went to the tiny town of Morganton, Georgia. Minus the curviest road ever, it was a great spot. We did a good bit of hiking and waterfall viewing. We also ventured into Helen, which was toasty and crowded but certainly unique with it's German flair. We also went to Blue Ridge to ride the train. It rained while we finished off the day eating in a Mexican restaurant there. This is pretty much my ideal scenario. The boys loved the air hockey and shuffle board at the cabin. I loved the swingy chairs. Nox loved chewing up Logan's shoe strings. Returning to the real world was extra painful. Daron had to fix a flat tire on the way home and then we forgot our key and were locked out of the house. We survived and would do it again! Look at all these dreamy cousin shots! They didn't even complain!