A Near-Miss!

Wow. We so nearly avoided a huge temper tantrum this morning. The child in question saw something he or she wanted really bad and came so close to kicking and screaming right out in public for the whole world to see. Thankfully, I got the child under control just in time. It was a near miss. And that child was me.

On my walk this morning I passed an empty lot. We looked at it briefly back when it was for sale. But it looked like it was almost all bedrock and we were sure we wanted a basement. And we didn't really like the area of town it was in. So, even though the lot itself was pretty, we never really considered it.

This morning the lot was no longer empty. On it sat a big, beautiful house- siding, brick, shutters, window, shingles. Well, it was half a house. I could see the trees behind it through the windows. The other half was sitting there waiting to be attached. I could see the beautifully-painted rooms inside, just waiting to be occupied.

The sight of this house filled me with such shock and jealousy that I almost screamed, threw myself down and pounded the pavement with my fists. Just a few days ago, this lot held a foundation. Today it held a gorgeous house. We're looking at 5-6 months until we can move in to ours. Not fair!

Pre-fab houses are popular up here. There aren't that many contractors (we couldn't have found a good one available until next spring- Thanks to Dave Miller for being a good contractor available this fall), supplies are limited and very expensive (we're traitors and buying our things in the States), and the building season, weather-wise, is quite short (we're just ignoring that one). We looked into the pre-fab option, but just couldn't justify it financially. With our resources (mainly fathers and Kendall's experience), we knew that we had to build or flip. But seriously, from the time the house arrives from Winnipeg to the time you can move in- it's only a few weeks. grrr....

For months now I've been operating in the we're-almost-out-of-this-place mode. That means that I really don't like the wreath on my wall, but I'm just letting it there because we're almost out of this place. My curtains really need to be fixed, but I'm just letting them because we're almost out of this place. I've never gotten around to really decorating the boys' room, but forget it because we're almost out of this place. I've already had thoughts of Christmas enter my mind and I think, Do I really need to set up a Christmas tree, because we're almost out of this place. Bedroom needs to be organized, baseboard heaters really need a coat of paint, thing on the wall fell apart and should be fixed, garden needs to be cleaned, etc. etc., but we're almost out of this place!

I'm thinking I should reconsider. You know how your job is fine, but when you know that you'll be soon moving on you can hardly stand it anymore? That's how I feel. I'm thinking I need to accept the fact that we will be moving long after Christmas. I'm thinking I need to work on the contentment issue. I'm thinking I need to decorate for fall.

A House

Well, we are in the process of buying a house. Finally. We've been looking for a very long time. I think we made the official decision to stay in Red Lake back in January. And we've been seriously looking ever since. We'll just say there isn't much available around here. And prices are high. We felt like we either needed to build or buy a fixer-upper to make it affordable. Well, we bought a FIXER-UPPER. And by FIXER-UPPER, I mean we need to gut it and add to it. It has a good, solid skeleton, but it's stinky. So we'll tear out the flooring and tear all the paneling off the walls and so on and so forth. And, sadly, it will take a long time. sigh...

(As you will notice, I am not going into all the grisly and emotional details about the decision to buy this house, nor the larger decision to stay in Red Lake that it represents. I have talked about it in this blog every once in awhile, but the story is too long and it's draining and it's ongoing and I don't feel like writing a book. There is no simple or brief overview. I am not completely on one side or another. I have mixed feelings about staying or going and anyway, we're buying a house now, so the decision is made and I still have mixed feelings, one of which is excitement. The End. Whew!)

And (drumroll, please) I present to you......The House!

The house is on a lovely island. Just a short boat ride across the lake. It sits on a small, private lot surrounded by golden poplars, birch and pine. Wild life abounds on this island. So far I have seen cats and one mouse. (Please don't mention the mouse to the boys. It's a little secret that they would not be impressed with.) Unfortunately, 2 of the cats still reside in the house. The animal-loving executor of the former owner's will feeds them every day. Possession is October 20 and then the 2 cats will be evicted by the new owners.

But anyway, back to the nice part of the new house. It has a beautiful view out the back. No close neighbors, though we can see one family that we really like across the water. And I'm sure all the wildlife common to this area is in the neighborhood. That includes moose, bears, wolves, foxes, and several reports in the area of the less common cougar. Other than the cougar, I feel excited/nervous about these animals. The cougar just plain freaks me out. By the way, we're getting a dog. A big one.

P.S. I made up the part about being on an island and getting to our house by boat. The rest is true.

Sunday afternoon we explored the land around "our" new property. There's lots of bush around the house.

The property we are buying is 1.9 acres, but we have so much bush around us that will, in a way, be ours. There are no close neighbors and the area around the house is pretty-well untouched. So, even though we won't own all the area around us, we will feel free to explore. It was exciting to explore and think that the beautiful land will be our area to hang out in!

This shot is taken beside the house, looking out the back.



Here we found our way around the marsh behind the house to a rock point. You can't see it, but the house is up behind the trees on the left side of the photo.

Yes, Evan has his sweatshirt on backwards. He just didn't care.

Dancing

Please excuse the video quality and if anyone can tell me how to rotate these videos, I would appreciate it.

Here Eli is demonstrating his mellow, smooth dance style. He is accompanied by the 'demo' button on the keyboard.



Here Evan demonstrates his...um...different dance style. He is accompanied by the 'demo' button on the drum set he bought at a garage sale. (kicking ourselves for allowing this purchase)

Soccer

My little soccer players... They've been so excited about soccer starting. Now we're 2 weeks into it.

Evan was fairly disgusted with soccer the first night- They didn't even play a game! Only practice! It was clear (to him) that he didn't need lowly practice! He enjoyed the next night of soccer and then refused to participate last night, choosing instead to stack orange cones with fellow sitter-outers. We'll just say that soccer night is a rather laid back community event. Here Eli and Evan pose along with our little friend, Hannah:

Eli is still loving it. Kendall helps with the kids. Here the 6-year olds are doing push-ups. Kendall appears to be searching for bugs or something microscopic. Eli is in the center of the photo doing his version of a push-up and I have no idea what the pink and purple girl in the background is doing. But it's typical of this age group.

Too bad I can't show video highlights here. I was smiling/laughing through the whole practice and game. Little kids are just too funny playing soccer. One kids appeared to randomly be doing CPR on another during the action. When the action was at one end of the field, another kid was sitting at the other end playing with grass. He was right in front of Kendall, the goalie. I saw Kendall lean down and encourage him to join the game, but Isaac seemed quite content to watch the game from afar.

Here are my favorite coach quotes of the evening (a dad who, though he remained kind, seemed to be feeling rather exasperated):
"Everyone who's not a goalie, Get out of the net!"
"You can't be on the ground! Why? Because you'll be stepped on and it's REALLY GONNA HURT!"

So the other night on my way to soccer practice I had a realization: I'm a soccer mom! At least I looked the part- I had a lawn chair, water bottles, my new Land's End down vest (a rather shocking purple) and a mini-van. Scary! Good thing soccer season only lasts a month.

Camping (A Last-Ditch Effort)

Amid much disappointment, our weekend plans to spend time with Kendall's cousin, Delton, and his family fell through. So we came up with Plan B. We just couldn't let a free weekend pass us by. We have been so busy this summer that we have hardly done any camping. And, of course, that is such a loss now that we have our gorgeous new camper.

Kendall had a place in mind, so, after sleeping a few hours after a night shift, we loaded up and set off for the bush. (That makes it sound so simple. In reality, the preparation involved me dragging myself around all morning trying to think through a very tired mind about what might be needed for a night or possibly 2 in the bush. At noon I wake up Kendall and fall already exhausted onto the bed. 4 1/2 hours later we crawl out of the driveway with a heavily loaded camper and truck...)

But, back to the part of me that really enjoyed the weekend. I think we needed a weekend to all get to know each other after this summer of near insanity. It was beautiful weather in a beautiful place.




Much needed Father-Son time. The boys ate it up.

Evan liked fishing, being timed on an obstacle course and having a contest to see who could get the biggest jumps on bikes. Eli liked fishing when a big Northern grabbed his lure and tore it. He also liked the night where supper ended up being so late that we ate inside the camper. He adds that he just liked all of it.

Nights were quite cold. We bundled up and then stuffed everyone in sleeping bags. It actually wasn't too bad, though there was frost in the morning.

Here Evan shows off his fancy bed:

And here is Eli in the top bunk on the other end of the cabin:


Do you really want to know what is going on here? Here are a few hints: A sandy area, Kendall's holding a bag of toilet paper, and a shovel nearby for the necessary clean-up. And yes, it was a group activity.
On Monday Kendall helped the boys make bows and arrows. (Actually, I made the arrows. I'm gettin' purty handy with a knife.) If you look closely, you can guess what happened just prior to this photo...
Notice the bandage on Dad's thumb. In the spirit of the old favorite, the Berenstain Bears, Papa Bear taught an important lesson through demonstrating how not to use a knife.
Here they try out their new weapons (for hunting only). See the lovely camper in the background? It survived the drive to the bush and back. And that's good enough for us.