House News

We have officially SOLD our house (home inspection and appraisal went well and are finalized), and we close on October 29th or thereabouts.

After a lot of looking, we've found a new house!!!
What? You can't see it behind us?! That's because we are going to build a new one right there! We looked long and hard in other areas of the county that we really wanted to live in (especially Fieldstone Farms), but this seems like it fell out of the sky into our laps. We are going to build a new home. Just in case there are any creepy people reading this, we won't post here where in town we are moving, but you can email me and I'll tell you.

We signed the paperwork last night and are waiting on the builder's approval, but that should be a slam-dunk. We are going to have to move into an apartment for 4 months, but it will totally be worth it for a brand new home. The specs: 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 2 story, 2-car garage. It is so wonderful, I am still in shock!!! The woods on the side of the property will stay for now, but there is a possibility that the developer will buy that farmland and develop... so we will enjoy the trees while they are there.

As long as everything goes ahead as scheduled, we'll move in to our new home at the beginning of February!

The Spaids Visited!

Tyler's parents visited this past week. As always, we were busy and the time flew. We went out to eat multiple times, I wowed with my mad couponing skills, Tyler and his Dad fixed a couple of plumbing issues, we shopped, watched a movie, played with Maggie... all things we could do indoors because it rained every single day they were here. Like we were in Seattle or something, not Nashville!!!! I can't remember the last time it rained so hard for so long, not even the residual storm we got from Hurricane Katrina was as bad. Anyway, it's partly sunny today, but no rain at least.

Grandpa played with Maggie just about non-stop. Here they are using her bristle bricks to build a mini version of his new Corvette.

With Gramma in their matching Fresh Produce outfits. The dress really is darling on Maggie, and is the best shade of butter yellow ever!
Tyler's parents got to be here for Maggie's first night at AWANA (a children's Bible club/activity night). Posing with her new "Cubbies" bag - the vest was on back order, and the bag distracted her from the much sought-after vest.
Here she is right after we dropped her off. She wasn't sure she liked it at first, but she was having a great time when we picked her up at the end.

We Have a New Pet

Amanda DeHoog, this post is for you! Talk about good timing.

Not the kind of pet you bring inside (or at least not one that will be coming inside MY house!), but a new pet. Or I guess pest. It's too big to kill (I can't see Tyler trying to squish that one in some TP), and it made the most spectacular web I have ever seen in person and that's saying a lot coming from someone who HATES HATES HATES (and is incredibly afraid of) S.P.I.D.E.R.S.

This "little" arachnid is about 3 1/2 inches from one end to the other, and is bright yellow and black. I think the black, poky legs are just insult to injury - so scary looking! Maggie likes to check in from time to time.
Her web is on the front of the house, right next to the bay window, and I can see it all the time... not my favorite. But the web is about 3 feet in diameter, and there is a ladder wrung about every 1/4 inch. There's also a bizarre zig-zag in the very center of her web. She sits there all day, and doesn't move much. The web is just amazing. If butterflies could make cute webs, that would be better. But the Lord has a perfect design. I haven't seen any other bugs near the front of the house lately.

The web the day it was put up.
Here's Amron holding up my raincoat for a black background.
Here is most of its diameter.
One more showing all the detail.

Did I Mention I Love Dilbert?

This particular strip came out in 2003 when I was still working at Wells Fargo/BPSM. It made me laugh every day when I turned on my computer as I made it my desktop background at work. Tyler and I stumbled upon it last week, and I've thought about it off and on, so now I have to share. I can't help myself. I indtroduce you all to my very favorite Dilbert cartoon ever drawn up. {Click on the strip to see it bigger. I had to make it small enough to fit on the screen.}
It's like when Maggie used to get upset about her skin: that she had skin, on her hands, and that it touched everything. This would not be a problem if she could keep her hands off of things... Perhaps she wanted her hands to be made of construction paper or something? It was just one of those things she would get upset about and it continues to make no sense to me.

Mommy's Fancy Post-Its Provide the Best Muse

Yesterday afternoon Maggie found a pen I had out and asked if she could draw on my post-its. I don't know about you, but I love my post-its, especially the fancy ones I get from my mom or whoever for my birthday, Christmas, etc. But I knew Maggie would enjoy drawing on them, so I sacrificed. Maggie really must have liked them, too, because after a minute she said in a very excited voice "Mommy! Mommy, Mommy, I drew a moon, and a man painting the moon blue!"
Then after a couple other scribbled pages, she says "Mommy, I'm drawing a picture of me and my cousin. See, here's me, here's Alexis... oh, and I need to draw Gabby. See, she's little." {and has a caved in head}
These aren't her first stick-figures, but they certainly are the first ones that she's ever had anything to say about them. I think these used post-its are my new favorite. So sweet!

Fulfilling Childhood Sterotype, Check!

This afternoon Maggie asked to use some scissors. So I got out a couple of sheets of construction paper, set her up at the table, and let her at it. I also left the room. I came back a couple of minutes later and took this picture.
15 minutes later, not hearing anything out of the ordinary (which includes Maggie chattering away to herself) I came back in the room to find this.
At first it didn't click with me that it was her HAIR on the floor. I thought she had shredded her paper really fine with her scissors until I remembered I did not give her yellow paper!!! I did what any camera-loving mother would do. I shrieked, then grabbed my camera and took a shot before she realized that what she did was really naughty. She gave herself some nice framing pieces, wouldn't you say?
Here we are at Great Clips 30 minutes later getting this mess evened out. I know I couldn't fix it at home.
More devastation for the corrective trim.
A front shot. It really is a lot shorter. I wonder if Daddy will notice?
A view of the back. I had the girl round it a little in the back so it wasn't quite so short, but she still had to take off about 2 inches to even it out.

In other news, we have a buyer for our home! The purchase and sale agreement are signed. We just need the home inspection and appraisal to go well, and after that we'll find a new house for us in Williamson County.