Brownie Beach

One other thing Lauril asked me to put on the blog is about our adventure to Brownie Beach. We were told that we could go there to find fossilized shark's teeth. We thought it would be a bust but we hadn't been to Chesapeak bay yet and I really wanted to go. It's in Maryland and about 1.5 hours from our house. We regretted that we didn't budget enough time to have a nice fresh seafood meal as the roads are lined with these little shops that sell seafood and plenty of "the freshest seafood around".

We got there on a day that wasn't extremely warm or blue sky but once we saw what we were looking for we found a few teeth and had a lot of fun. There are folks that sell these things on the internet for $30 to $100 but they are quite a bit larger than the ones we found. Our biggest one is about 3cm but the ones you can buy on the internet are up to 5".

I'm sure we'll go again when the weather is nice and we can wade into the water. Lydia waded anyway which caused some hassle but was a great day

Update!!

Its been three weeks since we closed on our house and got our stuff moved in. Today we celbrated Lydia's 2nd birthday and she seemed to enjoy herself. In the three weeks we've been in our house there has been a really wild time. We had a Nor'Easter' which provided 48 hours of heavy rain followed by 48 hours of winds up to 50mph. We lost one tree at the ground level and we also had a pretty big branch from another break. We still have to clean up that mess but it won't be difficult. As you also know this last week were the terrible events at Virginia Tech. Blacksburg Virginia is about 250 miles from where we are but a large percentage the college is from our part of the state. The event affects all people everywhere but there seem to be a lot of closer connections with people in this area.

A couple of evenings ago I was looking out the window from our sunroom and saw a cardinal (you know, a bird) and just one moment later a wild rabbit. Its still wierd to get used to having forests throughout the city and the wildlife that goes with it. Of course Austin chased the rabbit away with kindness (here, take this carrot) and i haven't seen it again. We seem to have nice neighbors. The boy next door is Willy's age but we haven't gotten the boys together yet to play. He's in Lacross so he's a busy boy. His dad is also interested in getting the boys together. It could be pretty nice for Willy to have a buddy on the same street. He hasn't had a boy his age to play with in the neighborhood for a long time, maybe ever.

Jessica went with the band to festival yesterday where her band took second place in the division. Every year here they combine festival with a trip to a pretty neat place. Last year they went to Hershey PA and this year they went to Paramounts King's Dominion theme park. Jessica hasn't stopped raving about what a great time she had and how nice the kids and adults in her group were.

We've been very pleased at our kids' ability to adapt to this new place. Its the adults that are having a harder time trying to meet people and make friends. We forget that it does take some time.

We Did it!!

We finally closed on our house and moved some of our stuff in! The closing went very smoothly and we were having a Pizza Party in our new sunroom by 7:00 pm. Lauril has been looking at different color combinations that she likes and the interior colors of the house are not really to our taste. Saturday morning (almost all day) we spent painting the family room. We'd found a great deal at a furniture store for some sitting furniture so we laid our cash down and that furniture was delivered on Saturday afternoon.

Our other furniture and stuff will be delivered tomorrow morning. The hard work will be worthwhile...

Fredericksburg

We are 6 days from closing on our new home. I can't describe how anxious we are to be moving from this three bedroom apartment. We have been able to tolerate it fairly well but having our stuff in storage has stifled creativity. Lauril took the kids to the park and they flew some $10 kites made of cloth. The kids had such a nice time that there was no fighting at all for 4 days.



Today we went to Fredericksburg. It has Civil War era history and colonial history as well. We'd been a few weeks ago and visited Kenmore plantation which had been owned by George Washington's sister. Today we visited the home of Mary Ball Washington, George's mother. We also visited the Rising Sun Tavern which was run by George's Brother and the Mercer Apothecary and Dr.'s Office. They are all restored to their Revolutionary War Era condition and the people who give the guided tours are dressed in period costumes.



The kids sure loved it and so did the adults. There about 10 neat things to see in town related to both eras. We boutght a passport of prepaid entrance to 9 sites that has no expiration. We expect that it will take at least three more visits.



Afterward, since we were so far south of Manassas, we decided to seek the nearest beach. We ended up at Fairview beach. Unfortunately, the whole beach is "private for residents of Fairview" we finally found a restaurant that was on a pier out into the water which technically made it in Maryland. We didn't go in since we'd packed sandwiches but we felt like we could step onto the beach just outside the place. The kids found all kinds of shells and thought that was pretty cool. To be honest, this beach is not on the Atlantic but on the Potomic near the mouth of Chesapeak bay. Since it was a little overcast we couldn't see to the other side so it felt just like the ocean. It was really a lot of fun.

This is the house we are buying. it is just over 2000 sqft plus 1000 sqft unfinished bsmnt. More info soon.

Its been a wild time...

Friday night, 3-9-7.
We have good news and great news. We accepted an offer on our Nampa Home and the deal should close next week toward the week's end. We are anxious for all the details to fall into place. The better news is that we had our offer accepted on a home here. We'll be posting photos of it in the next few days.





Last Saturday we had several sets of plans that kept getting shuffled and jostled so we could place our offer so ultimately we ended up at the battlefield where the Battle of Manassas or Battle of Bull Run was fought. It was the first battle of the civil war. There is a very nice museum and 5000 acres of preserved land including some restored and original buildings. It was at this battle that Thomas Jackson stood calmly atop his horse and was dubbed Stonewall. The man who gave him the nickname died shortly thereafter but Jackson was not to blame.
Stonewall Jackson died before the end of the war due to complications from gangreen developed after he was accidently shot in the hand by his own men. He lost his hand then his arm then his life.

We'll try to keep more frequent updates. We are still deciding what to go see tomorrow...

They Cancelled Church--snow day

We just got a call from a lady from the church that today services were cancelled. They shut everything down around everytime there is snow. The weather here is a big topic. They have been talking about today's snowstorm for 5 days...

It is snowing a little heavily now.