In the midst of a whirlwind...

We have been casually looking for a place to rent in the Soo, for months. 

Mainly because we want to be closer to Nathan's work. 

This was tricky because most of the places we could afford were ANCIENT!

Did you know that Sault Ste. Marie is one of the oldest towns in the U.S.!!!

Because of the fur trade!

So, lots of the houses are OLD!!

And drafty.

So, even if we could afford the rent the landlords were telling us the gas for heating in the winter would get up to $150 a month!!!

Yaowzah!

Well, we found a perfect place on December 8th and they wanted to fill it right away! 

So we signed! 

Paying double rent in December is CRAZY!

But, thankfully, we were prepared. 

Christmas shopping was done, thank goodness!

We had a lot to do the week of the 8th.

Family Night with a family in our branch (I will blog about this soon!)

Get the utilities in our name.

Giving our current landlord notice.

Policy Council for Marley's school (where I was elected Chairperson and elected to the Headstart Association). 

Branch Christmas party.

Needless to say, we are having an extra busy December.

Here is the low down on the house we are in the process of moving into:

Four bedrooms!

One and a half bath.

No garage :-(

But, it does have a shed that will be just right for our garage stuff, minus the car, of course.

Built in 1994.

Remodeled six months ago. 

New carpet

New kitchen cabinets and dishwasher and counter tops and sink.

WE WILL HAVE A DISHWASHER!!!!

AND this is our first place to live where we are not sharing a wall with anyone else!!!

Seriously! 

This is big news!

Now for the pictures!

This is on the front door....from the last tenant. 

Cute huh?

Living room. Front door on right.

Living room.

It is heated with what is called "radiant" heating and each "outside" wall has those vents.

It's going to make for creative furniture arrangements.

But we can tell it is already SO much warmer and better insulated than our current place.

 View into the kitchen from living room.

Hallway on left then bathroom through the doorway.

Half bath / laundry room.

 opposite toilet and sink is washer dryer hook ups

 kitchen

 back door

 back door and "pantry" but it's the lamest pantry closet.

 coat rod in the kitchen pantry?

 and that weird little bench?
I think it's for the dryer exhaust...or whatever the dryer emits.

 shed in back

this is looking into the master bedroom. Master because it has the biggest closet.

Going into the door of master

Master closets (bathroom is on the other side of closet.)

Can you tell Marley is excited?

Bedroom on back next to master

We are really excited! 

So close to work, play, grocery shopping, church, friends!

And we just found out, Marley will be able to transfer to the school in the Soo!

We have already started moving random stuff we don't use day to day. 

Every time we go to the Soo we load the car up.

We are packing our Christmas stuff up on Christmas day. 

Then Dec 26-28th we are packing everything in the house.

And by "We" I mean me and some Sister-Friends from the branch. 

Then the Elders' Quorum is helping us move on the 29th. 

It is all working out very nicely.

We feel so blessed.

I am so thankful!

There are so many things for which I am so grateful.

Before November is officially over, in a few hours, I wanted to express my gratitude for a few things. 

(I'm keeping these short, I could go on and on, but, no, short and sweet.)

#1 Nathan

He is such a loving and supportive husband. 

#2 Being a Mother

I love my girls and I love being their mother.

#3 I love Jesus Christ and being a member of His church and having the knowledge of the Gospel.

"I know who I am. I know God's plan. I'll follow Him in faith."

#4 Having goodly parents

Both mine and Nathan's.

#5 Having a steady income.

A job is such a great blessing.

That's it for tonight. 

Like I said, I could go on and in great detail...but, I'll leave it at that....

wait.

One more.

I'm so grateful that NaBloPoMo is OVER!

Headless Isabelle

This was at my Aunt Mary's house this summer. 

Isi had just started scooting head first on her back. 

Marley and I came out of the bathroom and found headless Isabelle!

Marley had to join her. 

It was funny!

No matter how much she moved and wiggled she could not get her head out from under the bed. 

We did rescue her...eventually. 

You gotta love babies and how they get trapped.

Full Moon

It's a full moon tonight!

My mom has a tradition of calling her grandchildren when there is a full moon and she howls at the moon with them.

When I was a missionary in Montana, I made my companions howl at the moon with me. 

Since, we see the moon first over here in Mich. and grandma doesn't see it until after we are in bed, we call her when we see it. 

Last year, grandma had a full-on Moon Party with her grandchildren in Utah. 

She even gave them assignments before hand. 

One had to make a moon decoration, for the party.

One had to do a report and make a poster on the phases of the moon. 

One had to read Goodnight Moon to everyone. 

I can't remember all of the assignments because we weren't able to be there,

but they had Moon Pies and then watched a movie outside and had it projected onto the shed in the backyard. 

Doesn't that sound FUN!?!?!

source

This summer, since we were not available to celebrate the full moon while we were in Utah, my mom took us all star gazing. 

I think there was a meteor shower going on at the time, but I think we might have been on the wrong side of the Wasatch Mountains to see it? Or something?

But we did see some shooting stars!

Grandma brought along Starbursts!!!

And donuts.

And chocolate milk.

And glow in the dark necklaces for a ring toss game...

and then everyone got a glow necklace after the game!!

We brought blankets and chairs.

My sister Liz was using an app on her phone to name and point out constellations. 

It was SO fun!

 I edited this one below...but I kinda like the dark ones....cuz it was getting dark. 

 

Last month, our little family had a moon party. 

I made homemade pizza....

cuz, "When the Moon hits your eye like a biga' pizza pie, that's amore!" 

We looked that song up on youtube and watched Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis sing it in Moonstruck. 

Marley LOVED that and sings the song all the time now. 

We had OREOs and then called Grandma and howled. 

It was so fun!

I think the full moon is a great excuse to have a party every month! 

And when there is a blue moon month...twice in a month!

So far we haven't had a Moon party every month but we do manage to eat a sleeve of OREOs from the Family Sized boxes every full moon. ;-)

Owoooooooo......Owo...Owo...Owooooooo

Robin....if  you're reading this....next full moon!  

Party at my house!

Owoooooooo......Owo...Owo...Owooooooo

Nice day! Eh?

I'm always so relieved to find new, easier, low stress ways to get things done around the house.

Quickly, efficiently and organized.

I feel like this comes easier to others.

When I've had jobs...like outside of the house, that is how I roll.

Quick, efficient, organized.

You'd think my house was perfect!

Always, clean.

Always, organized.

No.

My babe is 7 months old and we are just figuring out a nice daily schedule.

Namely, a nap schedule. 

Cuz, lets face it, that's when I get the most done.

I've noticed recently that Isi's best nap is in the morning. 

It's the longest. 

Usually from around 9-ish to 11-ish. 

And she is the crankiest right around the time I am trying to get dinner made and on the table. 

So, today I was a genius and during Isi's morning nap I prepped all the ingredients for our soup we had for dinner. 

AND I started salmon chowder and put it in the fridge for tomorrow night! 

Tonight, all I had to do was cook up ingredients that were already, washed, peeled, and chopped. 

Just threw it all together. 

Tomorrow, all I gots to do is heat the start of the soup and add the cream corn, salmon and evapt'ed milk. 

I think I might try this everyday...takes so much pressure out of the end of the day, when everyone is tired.

*******

ALSO

This week I officially changed laundry day from Monday to Tuesday.

Mondays were stressing me out. 

I wanted all the laundry done and put away by dinner. 

I wanted dinner on the table when Nathan got home.

And I wanted us to clean up dinner and then have Family Home Evening. 

But, most Mondays the laundry wasn't put away. 

Dinner was barely on the table in time. 

And I wasn't ready for FHE so the dishes would wait til the next day. 

So, laundry day is now Tuesday and it worked out perfectly today!

******

If anything is "missing" which in our house usually just means miss placed, 

Marley's serious and heart felt suggestion is,

"Maybe rats took it?"

or

"Maybe rats carried it away?"

I am seriously SO glad we don't have rats!  Ick!

********

Isi's most favorite time of day is when Nathan walks in the door. 

She is IN LOVE with him. 

Her second favorite part of the day is when Marley gets home from school.

Her LEAST favorite time of day is when she wakes up from her morning nap and realizes she is home alone with boring ol' mom.

Her favorite thing to do is dance with Marley. 

She always looks for me as they are moving and sort of spinning and if we make eye contact she smiles so big and then can't stop laughing. 

She still has no teeth...not even one little crest of a tooth anywhere in that mouth. 

I'm not complaining though. 

She hasn't started crawling.

She rolls everywhere and scoots backwards.

She gets stuck a lot!

She loves to be held in the standing position or held by her hands standing against the couch.

She does get up on her hands and gets into a crawling position with her knees...but nothing yet. 

She has been sitting for long periods of time for awhile now.

Today, she sat up all by herself!

She was in the crawling position and then just leaned to the side, swung her right arm to her side as she sat on her bum and used her left arm to sit straight up!!!

It was awesome and surprised us all! 

********

That's about it for today! 

Remember this little peanut?

She's my Brown Eyed Girl.