Just wondering...
If Pop and Mom have moved yet? If so, how is life in the new house?
Also wondering, if Jake and Dawn accepted that contract on their house?
Also wondering, how Jenni is doing?
We had a nice day today. We went out this afternoon with Sara's sister Grace and her husband John to the Marble Slab for some ice cream. It was good, but the cones were too big and I couldn't finish it. Next time I think I'll just order a kid's cone.
I've been clearing alot of small trees here lately, mostly 4" diameter and under, trying to open some spots to do some new planting. I want to put in some good fruit and nut trees, like apples and peaches and pecans and filberts, and some of those trees need alot of room. We have 10 flowering trees already coming from the arbor day foundation. You get those free if you sign up for a $15 one year membership. Seems like a good deal. I'm going to order the fruit trees from them if these trees work out. Most of our property here is wooded, but it's so thick that none of the trees are healthy, and they are all just oaks and poplars and pines, nothing very interesting. All the good posts I cut down I'm using for fence rails and building stacked rail fences.
I just ran outside a few minutes ago to scare a fox away from the hen's cage (the door was open!) It was big gray fox, about the size of a medium-sized dog. We haven't lost any of the new hens yet, and I hope we don't. They've just started laying pretty regularly. I think I gave that fox a pretty good scare with all my running and screaming and waving.
Tomorrow I'm taking the morning off so that we can go to the Social Security office and try to get Miriam squared away. I haven't had any success getting her a card through the mail, so it seems like we need to go in person. They wanted me to mail them my drivers license and I just can't do that. We sent them Sara's and after a few weeks they sent it back and said they needed mine too. The last time we went we waited for about an hour and then left because they still hadn't called our number which was about number sixty and they were only on number twenty something I think. We're going to try to be there tomorrow when the doors open so we can be first in line. I'm almost ready to give up, but the tax implications really are worth the effort.
Virginia and Miriam are quite a handful these days. They are busy and noisy. Our Church actually banned them from the service because they said they were too much of a disturbance, but I think they were over-reacting. I think the Church is just too full of old people who don't understand. We are the only family left with small children. I really can't see putting them in the nursery so we are looking for another Church again.
Anyway, hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life out there! Happy spring to everyone! Sara is making us a pizza for a late dinner and we hope to have a relaxing evening.
posted by Sara @ 7:04 PM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
Wow, Luke. Nice post. I appreciate the time you put into keeping us abreast of the happenings down there.
You need to invest in a small rifle (maybe even just a 22 mag). Eliminate the foxes instead of just scaring em away. Some nice fox pelts would give you a good return on your investment.
I talked to Mom yesterday. I had tried two or three times previously on different days and had not been able to get an answer. Mom said that they have just been so busy with the moving and stuff. It was very hard to hear her though and she was having a very hard time hearing me because of a local radio station nearby whose transmissions are bleeding into the phone lines. We could hear the station much better than we could hear ourselves. Pop was going to go to the phone company today to try and get a filter to put on the line.
It might be best not to call for a few days. Mom said she was going to call me after the problem was fixed.
In case you didn't know it yet, their phone # is 276-728-7530.
Our days have been busy lately also. We have been investing some money (not to mention sweat) into our home lately. Our entryway was nothing more than about a 4' by 4' square of ugly brown linoleum. We did not like the look of it; but more than that, when it rained or snowed and we all came inside with wet/snowy shoes on and did not want to step on the carpet, we were all packed together and it was quite a scientific feat to work ourselves around the edge of the door in order to get it closed without anyone stepping on the carpet. Since we will be having new carpet installed in about a week, I did not want this to continue to be an issue.
We have a coat closet directly across from the front door, but we used to have to walk across the carpet to get to it. This never made any sense to me. We decided to tile from the door to the closet and even the closet floor. I worked on this Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday afternoon for the last two weekends, and am finally about done. I had never done this before, but was pleasantly surprised by the real lack of skills needed to do this. We bought three boxes (48) of 13 inch Italian porcelain tiles that Jenni and I both really liked and only had about 4 or 5 left over (for spares). I had to rent a wet saw to cut some of them, which I hadn't anticipated, but it was a lot of fun to use.
We are also replacing the base molding around where the carpet will be installed as it is all cracked and some is in pieces. I will be pulling all of this off this week and ripping and stripping all of the old carpet up as this is saving us money. I will then do my best to prep the floor for the installers. Some plaster patching at the base will also be necessary.
Jenni and I are both exited to see what the finished product looks like. It will probably be a couple weeks yet until totally done, but maybe I will post some pics of the progress along the way.
Luke,
It's funny that you should mention about your kids getting "banned" from the service. While this has never happened to us directly, when we lived in Mississippi, there was a family that visited whose kids were crawling under the pews and climbing over them and yelling and running in the aisles. This one experience led to the abolition of children under 4 years of age from the sanctuary during services. This was when Claire was not even 1 yet. Jenni was very upset (and I was a little also), but we continued to go as we really didn't know of anyplace else. Our church here allows children in the service, but if they are a severe disturbance, our Pastor will kindly ask them to step out. Usually this isn't necessary as the parents take them out anyway. This seems like a much better approach to me. Why penalize everyone?
ARRRGGHHH...THE GOVERNMENT IS SO AGGRAVATING!!!!
Here is a summary of what I have had to go through to get a social security number so far.
1. Call Social Security office. Am told the only thing I need is Miriam's birth certificate.
2. Order copy of birth certificate at a cost of 35.00.
3. Spend a friday afternoon waiting at the social security office for my number to be called and end up walking out after about an hour.
4. Mail in the application with the birth certificate.
5. The application is returned with a note attached which says, "Need ID from parent also".
6. Mailed application again with Birth Certificate and Sara's drivers license as well as some other proofs of ID that we had.
7. The application is returned with a note attached that says "Need ID from parent who signed the application."
8. Call social security office to schedule appointment and am told they don't make appointments.
9. Take a monday morning off work, and bring in all paperwork including my drivers license and Miriams's birth certificate and her baptismal certificate. After waiting for an hour my number is called and the lady looks at the paperwork and says we need another ID for Miriam because they don't accept birth certificates for ID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10. Nearly jump over the counter and strangle the woman.
I am at my wits end on this. What the lady suggested we do was to make a doctors appointment for Miriam to get her shots and then use that as a "Medical Record" form of ID and bring that back. Of course, that means another morning off work, another hour or more waiting in line....
I can't stand the madness!!!!!
I think it is time to call your congressman/woman.
I don't think that would help in the short term. Anyway, it's too late at this point to get the number for this year's taxes. I found out that even after they accept the application it takes another 12 weeks to get the number. So, I'm just going to file without it, and then file an amended return later this year or next year. According to the IRS website, they give you three years to file an amended return to claim addtional dependents or deductions.
I did make a doctor's appointment for Miriam anyway. Just to get a wellness checkup and some shots. This will be her first (and hopefully her last) visit to a doctor. She needed the shots anyway, and that should give us the right paperwork to go back to the social security office with.
Interesting you should mention doing the tiling. I looked in to doing that when I replaced the floor in one of our bathrooms, but I decided it looked to complicated what with renting the saw and getting the subfloor set up right and all that. Maybe I should have given it a shot after all. I would like to see a picture.
Everyone sounds so busy, but it seems you still have the time to write...you make me feel guilty. Even more so than when I was asked to leave church the other week for making to much noise. I sure would like to be there to lend a hand in the project, Justin. I've always loved doing stuff like that.Even though it can get expensive,it is usually always a smart investment to improve your home. Ive been going a little nuts here latley because,with the house under contract,there is no point to taking on new projects.
The first contract that Dawn mentioned a couple weeks ago we ended up turning down due to the unlikelyhood of the buyers selling their home. It turned out to be a good decision because only about a week later we were presented with a much better offer. This one is still contingent upon the buyers other property selling but the odds look much better of that happening in a reasonabe time frame. We have been spending alot of time searching and driving for rental properties the past few days. I had no idea it was so expensive to rent. Even the houses that are smaller than what we really need and seem a little run down are still more than what we are used to paying for our mortgage. We dont want to make quick decision when it comes to buying though. We are still looking at all our options. We would really like to buy land and biuld a house but with the way prices are here it is almost impossible. We have also looked into moving somewhere where houses are cheaper but I would more than likely take a pretty good paycut so it's hard to find the advantages in it. Anyway we figur if we rent for now it will give us time to figure it out. With inerest rates going up maybe house prices will come down...who knows. We had a big yard sale Saturday before last. We were able to get rid of a lot of stuff,stuff I didnt even know we had. Its amzing how much junk you can fit in a little house. It went quite well though. Remember the basket man beside the Reva market. Well it turns out he lives three houses down from us and he came over for the sale. We must have talked for an hour,one of the nicest people I've met in a while. It seems a shame it took us moving to meet such a good nieghbor.
Well got to get ready for a meeting at work,maybe I'll think of something more interesting to write later.
I am trying hard to remember a basket man, but for some reason I do not remember him. Was he only there in recent years or even when we were younger?
Don't feel guilty Jake. You wrote a nice post. We all lead busy lives. If you are not posting things, you are probably tending to more urgent things.
I wish you were here to help, too. That would be a lot of fun. We worked together with Pop so much, but it seems like those times are gone for good. I miss helping Pop together. We worked on a lot of fun projects around that old house on Dove Hill. But, time marches on, I guess...
Looking forward very much to seeing you this summer and reaquainting myself with your family. It is a shame that we live so far apart, but it makes the together times that much more meaningful.
Rental prices around here are rediculous also. Not that we want to, but I don't think that we could rent a 3 bedroom apartment/condo for anywhere close to what we are paying for our mortgage. Renting a two bedroom is about comparable to the price we pay now. Renting is convenient and in some cases (like probably yours) a smart decision for the short term, but doing it long term is almost always a bad idea in my opinion.
Don't be limiting yourself in any way because of our coming this summer. You do what is best for your family, Jake. We are going to budget for hotels anyway, so it will not be an issue. We appreciate your wanting to let us stay with you even if it doesn't work out.
Hope your meeting at work went well.
Talk to you later. By the way, Jenni is fine. I guess Luke had asked that and I never answered.
-Justin
Hi everybody, Yes we are moved in and about 80% unpacked. I never want to move again!!! We rented a 24 ft truck and with the help of Jacob,Dawn and Julia it was packed FULL!! Pop went back to Brightwood yesterday with his truck and got a load from the basement. There will still be at least two more trips. We do love it here but sure seems strange not to be within close range to Julia and Jacob and all. We have filled out some job application but so far nothing. We are really in amongst the mountains here and it is breathtaking!!! The pace seems slower here and people are friendly. Alot of country music events here. There is a fiddlers convention here every years that they say attracts people from all over the world. We will try to attend that! I am really looking forward to Easter. We will have all three daughters together for three days!! We havw two extra bedrooms here and a basement that would work for sleeping also two baths. So if ay of you can come visit you can!! In fact I can't wait for yoy all to see this area. I am 4 hours closer to Grandpa and only 2 hours or less from Luke and Sara.
Love Y'all, Mom
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