Home is where your heart is......

Home. That concept for me if complicated. We moved a lot as a kid and my home life was, well, we'll just say....turbulent. When people ask me where I am from, I have no answer. The places I've lived? The people? I don't really associate with any of it. I've lived in Iowa almost half my life, so that is the closest I get.

My husband asked me of the farm house: Can you call this home?

Wow. That question has really set in my heart. Because really, I will follow him to the ends of the earth. Where he is, where my children are, that is home. That's not what he meant, but that is really the heart of it.

We've been back to the farm house. I took better pictures. I allowed myself to get excited. Now I am listening to Christmas music and cleaning house. I spent a good part of the morning on the phone with insurance, utillity companies, the chamber of commerce, the county development corporation, and both the realtor and my Dearest.

We took a break and visited an old friend and her brood. Little anxiety over that, but it went well, I think.

Tomorrow we are going back. We are closer to our dream than ever before. We are in that excited, anxiety, frantic, calm before the change phase. You know what I mean? It is hard to explain.

Me? I'm craving Cajun food and Christmas cookies.

My House That Is For Sale......

The amazing Sarah at SarahSignature came over yesterday with chocolate and took these pictures. These are my favorite ones, though they are all amazing.

It occurred to me that we may not live here long and many of you ask what my big Victorian mess, I mean, house looks like. Well, here it is! I'll post more next week.

Also, a big thank you to my MIL and GMIL who came over and cleaned and arranged furniture.

Dreaming Big

I've always been one to dream big. When I was younger I was often mocked by friends and family for my lofty goals. It was not until I was an adult that my tenacity and goal orientation (obsessed focus) paid off. My impatience and my big dreaming.

But first let me tell you about my day......
7 AM load car with sleeeeeepy, cranky girls. It is raining.
7:10 AM Pull over to feed, discover milk duct yeast infection.
7:20 AM Pull over, change Blueberry's diaper, discover that what I thought was yeast infection was actually red paint from painting night before.
7:25 AM Finally leave DM city limits and head south to meet Realtor at farm previously mentioned (the big pond with house restored by Amish people....)
8:20 AM pull into town, easily find road, 30 miles short of Google maps? Ok. Turn in, read addresses, check maps, assured farm is 1/2 mile away down this road.
8:21 AM Road turns into Grade B access road. I can see the farm. Turn in.

8:22 AM Get stuck in mud. Call Realtor who says he's on his way and going to help us. Call Dearest. Get mocked by Dearest and his co-workers. I hand Lil'Bug a chunk of cheddar cheese:

8:40 AM Realtor arrives. Verifies stuckness. Heads over to the neighbors to borrow truck to tow us out. Yay. I get to meet my possibly new neighbors. Lil'Bug proceeds to spit out cheese go and paint her car window and seat. Car smells like cheddar and......poopy diaper? Gah. Get out, sink 6 inches into the mud while sloping around the car to get out Blueberry and change her diaper AND then feed her.
9:20 AM Get towed out. Still raining. Follow Realtor to farm. Get reassured that every southern Iowan gets stuck in the mud at least once.
9:30 Amish family is home. I somehow must have violated every single etiquette rule ever. I try and photograph house, not very successfully.

9:50-10:30 AM Head outside to photograph farm buildings and lake. It is still raining. End up with not very many, not very good pictures, find a beehive, and get soaked up to my waist, but at least no longer as muddy. Listen to Lil'Bug throw a couple fits.

Yes. That's honey.

10:30ish AM Get back on Hwy 14 and head home. Car starts to shake over 35 MPH. Alignment messed up durring tow? Gah. Drive home taking back roads going 35 MPH. In the rain, pulling over to feed, re-diaper, find pet cricket, cry in the rain.
12:55 PM Get home. Wet, muddy, cranky. Dump kid in bath. Answer phone. Try to download photos to dump to flickr (if you know my account, the pics are there now) but computer freezes and eats them, deletes from my camera. Gah.
2:PM Retrieve pictures from obscure folder on desktop. Sarah calls.
Rest of Afternoon:
Sarah arrives to take pictures. Hold squirmy baby while shoving toys and bins and tornado tots into places behind camera to photos can get taken. Done. Eat chocolate, drink tea. Answer Dearest's 35 million+ phone calls to me to ask questions about the farm and the pictures.


Get excited about the farm. Decide to go back tomorrow to take better pictures and such.

Dream Big. Start picking out house colors.

Check Up!

Blueberry's well baby check: 13.5 lbs, 24 inches. She grew 3 inches since our last visit? Yup, and 2.5 lbs. She's been busy.

All systems a go. She's a thriving, squishy, big, healthy baby. She even laughed for the Doc. :)

As a side note: We no longer use the silicon breast shield. I had her off of it at 5 weeks, but we needed to go back for a while due to severe pain (incorrect latch). Once I healed back up, I taught her the correct latch and we're back off the shield. Yay! She's 14 weeks now, but things take time. I forget that sometimes.