Today was pretty busy. We woke up, Mike did some editing and I cross-stitched and had breakfast. About 11AM, we headed for Pullman, the closest "big" city and home of the Cougars of WSU - Washington State University. We drove and walked around basically the entire town, stopping at a quilting store (got on the mailing list), bookstore (of COURSE), gun store, Goodwill (still in search of a pressure cooker - no luck), and ShopKo (like a Wal-mart, but smaller). We were there about 2 1/2 hours, 30 minutes of which was spent on the phone with the Companion Animal Aid and Placement Society. They got more information than a humane society can POSSIBLY ever need, and we're on a waiting list for a stray dog... a waiting list for a stray, can you believe it??
On the way back, we stopped in Colfax - the closest town with a real-life grocery store. We bought some potatos, onions and a few other odds and ends. They were having a sale on both, so we thought it was a good time to start stocking up the root cellar. Then it was back home. We started cleaning out the root cellar, carrying buckets of what claims to be paint to the detached garage, furniture and "workstuff" (junk) to the attached garage, and poking through cans of stuff that's been canned for God-only-knows-how-long (that's an actual unit of time, by the way; I looked it up). Then it was off on a very long walk. It was probably a medium-sized walk for Mike and Max, but for li'l ol' me, it was LONG. I have blisters on my feet and brambles in my hair, but I feel good... healthy.
Snuggles followed along with us. I probably haven't acquainted you with Snuggles by name, but I think I did mention two cats we'd inherit with the property when we visited it back in January. Anyway, Snuggles is one of those cats. She's a short, fluffy, extremely affectionate orange-and-white kitty with beautiful yellow eyes. The other is named Yowler (if you ever visit, you'll know why). She's affectionate, too, but she'll make quite a ruckus until she gets some attention. We found out Yowler was named "Casey" by some previous tenants, who are the ones who actually brought her here, but we can't seem to stop calling her Yowler.
Last night I made some more apple butter, and Mike worked some more on his books. And he read. And we watched Donnie Brascoe (again). I still have some apples left, so I'll probably make some applesauce.
We closed on Monday. We drove into Spokane and closed. We also visited the Costco (like a Sam's Wholesale Club), the general store, and the power company (to put down a deposit). By then we were pooped. But we're happy. There's always alot to do, but it's fun, and rewarding, and we're working for our own future.
Boy, are we ever becoming Maw and Paw Clampett! Yesterday, Mike made bread. Homemade bread. From flour. That he GROUND himself!!! And on the 25th, I made apple butter, from scratch, with real apples. OK, we didn't grow the apples or the wheat ourselves, but I'm sure that's coming!
What else has been going on? Hmm... well, we're both still editing, and Mike's authoring (a VB book at the moment). Most of the boxes have been unpacked, and now fuel our fireplace at night when it gets really chilly. Speaking of chilly, we got our first snow last night. It was really only flurries, and none of it stuck, but it was snow nonetheless. Big, fat white flakes of snow. I'm used to the light, powdery stuff that melts as soon as it hits anything, so this was new. We woke up this morning to more snow. Again, it melted off (no shoveling yet!) but it was beautiful. Today, as I look out the window in the office (we're using the upstairs "bedroom" for an office) it's partly cloudy, windy, and cool. More or less what you'd expect of Eastern Washington in March. Mike has finally managed, along with Max, to walk the entire bounds of this property. I wasn't up to walking it with him, but he tells me all about it, and I'm sure I'll be up to walking it when it warms up a bit.
Big news!!! Tomorrow we (finally!!) close on this piece of land! It will officially become "ours". We're pretty excited about that. It seems like we've been waiting an awfully long time, and it'll be nice to have it done.
We've met lots of local people. Yesterday, the seller of this property came by to pick up some of his stuff, and point out what else he'd like to keep. Then in the afternoon a man came by looking for a piece of property that was supposed to be for sale. I had the pleasure of telling him he was too late. :) The day before that, we met BJ and Lynn Johnson, who live in town now, but lived in this house a year ago. They warned us that EVERYONE in town will have a story about this house. "My Grandpa helped _build_ this place back in..." But apparently there was a death on the land. A man was standing near the loading dock which marks one of the corners of this place, and his son backed the truck over him and killed him. Great bedtime story to tell the kiddies, eh?
My new passion is canning. I was so pleased with the apple butter that I'm anxious to make something else. We're doing alot of shopping tomorrow (since we'll be in Spokane for the closing anyway) so I think I'll get the ingredients to make salsa and a few other things. If anyone has any tips or recipes they'd like to share, I'd LOVE them. :) Just email me.
Speaking of email, our mail server is down at the moment, so if you haven't heard from us, you know why. It should be working again by tomorrow (cross your fingers!).
We made it to Endicott! Actually, we made it here Saturday, but we're just now settled down enough to do a webpage update. First we had to unload the UHaul, then we had to unpack some of the boxes (by no means ALL of the boxes - more on that in a second) and set up the bed, then our friend Steve showed up with his friend Matt, and we all went to sleep. Sunday morning we finished unloading the UHaul (big strong men, ya gotta love it!) and I rode back to Seattle with Steve and Matt. By this point, Mike had thrown out his back helping unload a desk my daddy gave us. I had JUST recovered from throwing out MY back in Albany loading boxes there.
I got to Seattle, loaded up the rest of our stuff there into our truck, then drove the truck all the way back to Endicott. I got in at 1AM, stumbled to the bed, and collapsed. The next morning, Monday, I drove all over Tarnation (that's what we call the local area <wink>) trying to get to LaCrosse. LaCrosse is a tiny little town, about the size of Endicott. They house the phone company, though, so we went there to pay our deposit and have our phone line put in. Incidentally, Mike should be sending out a travelog today or tomorrow that includes our phone number. If you're not on his travelog mailing list, email him and tell him you'd like to be added. Monday afternoon I did a little grocery shopping at the Endicott Food Center. Then I unloaded some of the stuff from the truck and threw out my back again! So needless to say, there are still boxes all OVER this house. Most rooms have boxes stacked from floor to halfway up the ceiling. Mike hasn't seen many of these boxes in about 6 years, so he's like a little kid at Christmas, opening them at random and rifling through them. So we have all these little box "mushrooms" all over the house. :)
Yesterday, we rode tandem (I in the UHaul and he in the truck) to Spokane to return the UHaul and make a trip to the bank. We did more extensive grocery shopping there and came back home. Once we got here, we were finally relaxed enough to take a leisurely stroll along our little creek. We flushed so many pheasant I lost count. By the way, if you've never heard pheasant being flushed, they're NOISY little creatures. They sound like helicopters or something, and I about had a heart attack every time we came onto one. Anyway, we unloaded the truck and I sat down to work on the book I'm editing. Mike cooked dinner for us (corned beef, mashed potatoes, coleslaw). I finished a chapter, emailed it off, then we went to bed. Today we have nothing pressing on our agenda (which is why I could finally get to this update!). Mike just now headed out the door to fire his rifle (ya gotta love the country) and I'm going to work on some stuff for my dad's vegetable business. After that, I'll probably edit some more.
Oh, kindof as a by-line, I'm wearing my Sig on a holster on my hip. I've never done that, because we've never had our own place, but I'm doing it now. It's taking some getting used to, but it feels good. It cements the "it's really our place" feeling.
A wedding side-note -- I need help picking the music to be played at the wedding reception. So if you have a few minutes, please take a look. (UPDATE - this page is no longer available, so the link has been removed.)
We're in Ennis again. We flew to Albany, as planned, and drove a UHaul to Dallas. Nothing really notable happened, luckily. Tomorrow, we drive both the UHaul and the RV to Spokane. We still haven't closed on the property. Keep your fingers crossed!
Yesterday we went out to my dad's house. Max had fun playing with Dad's dog Charger, and Mike took lots of pictures. We stayed out there all day, then drove back to Dallas. We were so tired by the time we got home we just went straight to bed. Today, I went shopping for a petticoat and those accessories I was talking about. It took three malls to finish, but I finally got it done. Now I'm just working on updating this website, and working on one I'm designing for a local company, in hopes that they'll buy it. That's right; I'm trying to break into web design. More than anything, I'd like to make enough to pay to put a data line into the place in Endicott. We still haven't closed on the property, by the way. We found out the acreage was 105 instead of 120, and that since it was listed, the owner sold off part of it, so we dropped our offer. We'll see. Mike has spent the whole day writing and editing. He's working on some books for Sybex, and wants to get ahead of schedule before we fly to Albany on Friday.
More later....
Still busy. Tuesday I went to pick up my dress from BridesMart. Yes! It's already in! Can you believe it? I have a fitting scheduled Monday afternoon, which means sometime this weekend I'll need to go pick out my.. um... accessories. You ladies know what I mean. You guys don't need to. ;-)
Wednesday we went to the cake place, and chose our bride and groom's cake. (UPDATE - This page is no longer available so the link has been removed.) They're absolutely beautiful. We didn't get a chance to do a tasting, though, because all of them had been made with liqueur. We might do a tasting when we get back, but basically we went with amaretto for the bridal cake and chocolate for the groom's cake. Thursday we met with the photographer. His name is Ralph, and he's one of the sweetest people I've ever met. Plus his house is decorated with wedding photos, so it makes me happy to just sit in his dining room and look around. :-) The BIGGEST news, though, is that I finally got the invitations out yesterday! woohooooo!!!! It was such a monkey on my back! And I didn't even do the calligraphy! I still have some, though, so if you forgot to send me your address, it's not too late.
Today we went to Ascot Tuxedos and placed our order for tuxes. We also had Mike fitted for a tux. He looks stunning! I can't wait to see him all gussied up.
Yesterday we drove out to my mother's house in Kemp, Texas. We took her the pattern for the bridesmaid dresses and visited for awhile. Then one of my bridesmaids (Julie) showed up, and my mom measured her for the dress. Then I got hungry, so we all went out for Chinese in Seven Points (actual name of city). We left, then came home, where we lounged around and tried to rest.
Today we worked in the morning, then drove out to the Arboretum to meet with Julie Hopkins, their wedding coordinator. We toured the grounds, took some pictures, then came home. Mike cooked a wonderful dinner for us -- chicken apple curry sausages in a cornbread casserole with boiled ears of corn. For dessert we had a chocolate pie I had made right after we got home. God, aren't we sickeningly domestic?