New House Pictures

Front of house.

Don't let the inviting front yard fool you: the rocked flower bed in front of the porch where the iris plants are host a healthy and fecundate family of snakes. Lots of snakes.

The grass in our front yard is the nicest grass we've ever had but we always wear shoes, thanks to the consistent presence of snakes. There's nothing so chilling as walking through plush grass bare foot only to feel something slide between your foot and the earth.

Did I mention you can look for a snake at any given time and 9 times out of 10, you'll find one? And yes, I still scream when I see one.

Although they are a nuisance, the snakes seem to go well with the Northern Wisconsin Rock front flare of the front of the house. Kinda gives it the "up north cabin" feel you get when you're camping: cabins and snakes. Rocks on houses in Nebraska are a rarity so I feel blessed that of all people to get to live in The Rock House of Nebraska, I do.

I could do without the snakes though.

Our Address etched in stone.

Now that you have our address, please don't send us junk mail. Thank you.

Looking into the house from the front door.


This is the entire half of the house. The other half accommodates three bedrooms, three tiny closets and one bathroom. (not pictured. Our cleaning lady/photographer was only contracted for this half of the house. The rest of the pictures coming at a later date.) This half holds our entry, living room, "office, " dining room, kitchen and basement stair way. We plan to move the office down stairs some day when we get the basement finished. The upstairs "attic" also has refinishing possibilities someday down the road even farther than the finished basement. There's also the possibility of extending the kitchen into something a little bigger but that's somewhere down the road too. It all depends on which roads you take, but owning your own home gives you so many possibilities! If only it provided the check book to match then possibilities could become realities.

The Living Room.



The furniture makes it look bigger than it really is. In real life, the furniture actually makes the living room smaller. On pictures though, it has an opposite effect. Oh, and yes, we do plan to do curtains someday.

The Galley Kitchen.

What you see is what you get. Not a lot of counter space but you should see how much stuff fits nicely in the cupboards. I love being organized! I was going to go with a different theme for the kitchen but decided against it. I stuck with my previous apple theme that I have purchased mostly from second hand stores and garage sales or on major Michael's clearance sales. I hate getting rid of good deals like that.



The "country kitchen" arrow was a $0.70 deal from TJ Maxx. I really do love a good deal.

This is the Other Side of the kitchen, not seen in the first picture.

With no counter by the stove, it does make it a little bit more challenging when preparing meals. But, having the glass top makes the parts of the stove that aren't hot, seem more like a counter. I've been surprised at how much easier this kitchen is to work in than I first thought it would be.

My Kitchen Window.

It takes a lot to smudge that window.

My China Cabinet.

No, not all my china fits but at least some stuff could get out of it's box.

Our Dining Room Buffet.

Craigslist rocks! I found this on craigslist.com just days before we moved. This old piece of furniture by itself wasn't exactly the prettiest thing but it sure can hold a lot of pretties. We topped it with an antique mirror that's been in Toby's family for years. I've guarded and protected it's foggy glass since I first found this heavy wooden framed mirror in a dark corner but never have I had "use" for it. I really do like foggy mirrors, actually. I think they look so old and quaint -- and the fog helps hide a few blemishes like extra pregnancy weight. To spruce up the outdated features of the buffet and make it look like a real antique, I laid an antique beige dresser scarf (Goodwill deal) on it's top and we added a few vintage and antique looking treasures on it and around it.

In the far distance of this picture, you can see a Pot Rack.

My parents bought us this for our last anniversary but since we knew it wouldn't fit in the kitchen anywhere, I hung it out in the dining room and dolled it up a bit with red berries and a red lantern. Kinda gives the whole room a neat effect. Some day I hope to use it for a real pot rack but for now, it's unique. And being used.

And there you have it, the first half of our new house. We love it here and are so thankful for how God has blessed us with this house.

For those of you that have commented on how the "N" page in your address book is getting worn from being erased and whited out so many times, we plan to stay here for quite awhile. At least a year anyway. No really, this is home to us and the community, Church friends close by and family connection we have here has been an overwhelming confirmation that Milford will be home for a long time.

Come see us! Don't worry about the snakes; we'll scare them away before you get here.

(All photo contributions were made in full by Beemoo's Photography. All cleaning and photo props are compliments of Beemoo's Nanny Services. To find out more about this amazing person, visit this site.)

Moved And Waiting

We're moved. And ready. And waiting.

Don't ask if we're settled. Everyone asks that question and I've come to the creative conclusion to just say, "no."

But, we're ready and waiting for the baby.

The combination of a busy move, frantic unpacking, semi-settling and then a bout of the flu, made this pregnancy jump ahead a couple weeks. They tell me I'm only 35 weeks but the labor activity I have on a daily basis puts me right about at 40 weeks. It could be anytime.

So, I guess if I don't have the baby real soon, he'll be considered over due then... or, maybe not...?? I'm confused too. It's just a strange feeling to compare a 35 week pregnancy with past 35 week pregnancies and come up way off.

The good news is we are moved into the "new" house and the old house is ready to sell and boasts a cheery for sale sign in the front yard. That was a huge hurdle to get over but we made it -- flu, contractions and all.

As for the settling part, we're getting there. Not only do we have to settle this house down but we also had to work on getting the baby's stuff ready.

Britt and I are quite the team: nothing can be missed by our blonde (me) and blondless (her) brains. (notice I said brains, not hair.) But tragically, the imminent birth of the most recent child was daily being left very unprepared for. The diaper bag was unpacked, the clothes were unwashed and the blankets were unfound. Our brains had just not quite registered the importance of setting other daily tasks aside and focusing on this all important occasion.

The quote of the day was heard at my latest midwife's appointment. Bear in mind that I am very ready to have this baby so you can understand that her kind words were like the healing balms of Gilead on my worn and weary spirit and body.

The dear, kind woman said, (and I quote) "if labor starts now, we won't stop it."

I just chuckled and said, "good, because I won't let you."

But then I realized that not even though I felt ready to have this baby in body and spirit, domestically he would be hideously lacking in many vital necessities. I know they say it doesn't take much to take care of a baby (not to put down the typical American lifestyle of 'see it, gotta have it') but he does need necessities like diapers and blankets at least, not to mention a few socks. I really don't care about the wipes and bottle warmers, just get a few blankets washed, please.

This morning, the first words out of my husband's mouth weren't "good morning honey." Rather, he shared what must've been pressing on his mind all night.

"So Honey, are you all ready for the baby?"

I could tell he expected the answer to be, "Oh, of course dear." But I had to tell the truth.

"Nope. Not a thing done," I confess boldly to him.

Confused, he didn't know how to respond. I heard a long drawn out, "Soooooo.... you at least have the diaper bag packed, right?"

"Not even the diaper bag, Hun." Another brave confession.

"Not even your bag then?" he asks me, obviously catching on that nothing is done.

"Nope, don't even know where the luggage is," I bear my soul.

"Well, don't you think you should get that done first?" Now he's thinking!

Today set a new milestone: the baby's stuff is ready. But, that's only due to the thoughtfulness of the baby's kind aunt. Between trips to the park and hauling arm loads of boxes, my sister set to work getting the clothes ready while I nursed a flu ravaged body back to full health -- whatever that is. Being 9 months pregnant makes it hard to feel anywhere close to "full health" but at least the flu isn't quite as bad as it was.

And now we wait. The changing table is ready. The diaper bag is packed. My bag is almost packed. The blankets are washed.

But, this couldn't have all been done except by some very well meaning and affectionate dear ones -- including both the baby's father and the baby's aunt. A little motivation helps this pregnant diva to really get in gear... once in a while anyway.

As I struggled to merely get in bed last night while juggling all 5 of the necessary pillows around our bed and huffing as I positioned the king size pillow between my knees and stopping every couple minutes to let a contraction go by, my strong husband casually looks over the top of the book he was reading on his side of the bed and in sublime comfort and ease as he lays on his back on ONE pillow, calmly asks me if the next 4 weeks will be like this. I think he was concerned I was turning into an asthmatic or something, with all my breathless breathing and puffing.

Between my huffs and puffs and sighs, I assure him, "Babe, there won't be another 4 weeks of this."

At least, there better not be. The blankets are ready, the pillows are getting to be a hassle and I'm ready to sleep on my back again. And contractions don't keep babies in for very long.

New News

But, what is news if it's not new? :)

May 11 is a new and exciting date for us: we're moving!

Through a turn of events that we've been waiting for but not expecting to quite happen like this, we're actually moving to Milford, not Seward. (Why did I ever say I'd NEVER live in Milford??? Yes, eating my words again...)

A little back ground... For the past several months, we've been preparing financially, prayerfully and spending a lot of time researching houses for sale. Every option we thought we had, something would turn up sour. Either we didn't have peace or the house was just not what we wanted.

Recently our tax money surprised us in a good way and that never happens when you own your own business. Just a week ago, Toby called me with the news that he had just talked to our tax accountant and found out that we were actually going to put a certain amount of money in our own savings this year, not Uncle Sam's.

On the tail end of that news, this house opened up for us. It's amazing too because this house has been for sale for several months and there's no reason why it shouldn't have sold by now. Somehow we never saw it advertised either. Which is amazing considering we combed all the ads and websites of houses for sale and never saw this one.

Other interesting details follow. When we bought our first fixer upper 3 1/2 years ago, our plan was to fix it up over a 2-3 year period, sell it and then buy another fixer upper. Repeat until we were debt free. When the 2-3 year period came to a close, we re-evaluated some ideas we had and decided to step out of that plan for awhile. It was a good time to rethink motives, options, family plans, etc. and pursue other things.

But, then when we started looking at our future and the goals and purposes we wanted for our family, it was hard to figure out how to balance church life and even work life with where our current home was situated. It is next to impossible to be involved with our church and with many of our friends and yet live so far away from them all. The challenge to maintain relationships was making it very difficult to actually participate in a lot of what we normally would've been involved in.

So, we started thinking about moving. We had a mental list of the things the next house would have to have and the price range we would stay in. I mentioned to Toby one time that we needed to remember that when we bought our first fixer-upper, we had no children. This time around, we'll have 3. The condition of the house needed to be a bit more livable than the last house was at first. He agreed entirely with me but couldn't promise that it would go that way, which I understood.

We could only hope and pray.

When we stepped foot into this house, we found everything to be very much in move in condition. Except for washing walls and eliminating a mild cigarette smoke smell, this house is ready for a young family too busy to make improvements right at first. The entire upstairs has been updated and remodeled so our decision was based on if the basement had potential for improvement, which would ultimately increase the value of the house once Toby fixed it up.

So, the upstairs was ideal, even more so than we had ever hoped but what about the basement?

As we headed downstairs, we found the lower portion of the home to be more ideal than we could've even dreamed of. 8' foot ceilings, nice new windows and a space for a second bath, the potential waiting down there is endless.

I looked at Toby and he had that "I'll take it" look on his face.

We then made an offer. We shot kinda low (at our realtor's advice) and expected a counter offer. The sellers surprised us by accepting exactly what we offered and under our terms.

It seems like it's been go, go, go right from the start. At this point, we're waiting on inspections and other legal stuff to go through but with the way everything looks, there should be no problems.

If I'm not blogging real regular, you'll understand where my focus is: get packed, moved and settled before the baby comes! I'll post updates as they evolve so stay tuned.