It's the details I love...

Yesterday I went out to the new house to pick out the roof shingles. In our offer, the bank said they would replace the roof. Part of me is sad to have the wood-shake shingles go, but it needs to be done. I just hope we don't lose an element of the "character" of the house. Oh well, better that than having a fire hazard. How can people put up wooden roofs anyway--I'd be scared to death on the fourth of July.

I fell in love with the house all over again. I realized it's a lot of the details that make me love it so much so I thought I'd include some of them here just so I can convince myself again that all the work of selling my old house, packing up my stuff, is worth it.

I love the English ivy that crawls up the house and up around the arch on the front door. It seems so European. I like the stone on the front of the house as well.

This is door to the coat closet. I love that they used actual antique doors and mantels. I feel like a get a piece of history without having all the problems of a 100-year-old house.

This is the antique mantel in the master bedroom with wood-burning fireplace. I love the smell of a real wood-burning fire but part of me wishes it were actually gas. So much easier to turn off and on. And a lot cleaner.  Eric's not wild about the old tiles but I like them.

This is the door to the master bedroom. It's another antique door, but you can tell it once was an exterior door because it still has the cool postal slot where the mailman would slip the mail inside. I love the old knob and the imperfections of this door as well.

One of the things I love about my mom's old house is the stained glass. This house has two stained-glass windows. This one is on one side of a bedroom (Bianca's I think) and it looks out onto the library.

Finally, a half bath. I've been dying for a half bath for years. Not sure what to do with the wallpaper here though. Should I paint over it, take it down, or keep it? Oh, and how can I hide that awful baseboard radiator? 

Did I mention there's a drinking fountain? For some reason, this is a very popular idea in this area.

Our music room. I love that there are french doors so that I can shut them if we need to. Also, there's finally room for a grand piano if I can ever afford one. I'm thinking of replacing the mushroom light though...

Let's go downstairs now. I love the craftroom. Look at those cabinets and all the storage! Eric hates these florescent lights though. I'm not as biased.

There's another wood-burning fireplace in the basement. The previous owners were even kind enough to leave us some wood in the closet. 

There's this back house. It's about 500 square feet. At first, I immediately thought, "Writing Retreat." I'm not sure now. There's a hot tub in one room and exercise equipment in the other room. Maybe we'll just use it as that for now. Maybe someday it can be my writing retreat though. 

Another thing that reminds me of my mom's house is this wonderful rope swing and I love that there are trees big enough to hold a swing. I already have picked out the two trees in the backyard that are going to hold my hammock. I've wanted one of those since we went to Maine and spent a lazy afternoon in a hammock. Oh, and another thing I love--the stone fence in the background of this picture of Bianca. Not faux stone like they seem to only do now, but big fat stones all stuck together in this one. 

Oh, here's the creek. It's a little snowed over now but the sound of the water is amazing. I'm so excited to give my kids a creek to kick through, the way I used to when I was a kid.

I'll end with this picture. My Aunt Joanie came with us and took all these pictures. But this one I think is my very favorite. I'm walking with my kids down the quiet street in front of the house with the guy from the bank. But look at those mountains next to the house. 

We're under contract

...but I'm still no where ready to list my current house for sale. This is going to be a lot of work.

To Do it or not to do it--That is the question

We're in negotiations about a house.

I love the house. There are so many, many things I love about it--the old tudor style with stone and brick.

the nearly acre lot with huge mature trees and creek running along the back.

The library with spiral staircase. I mean, really, a house with that only comes along so often.

The newly remodeled kitchen isn't too shabby either.

So, why did I wake up afraid that maybe I can still get out of it? The list of things that needs to be done to it is long--new roof, AC put in (it has a swamp cooler now), somehow cover up the ugly baseboard radiators, redo some of the older looking bathrooms, a lot of the closets don't even have doors (Oh but the ones that do are antique and amazing ), tile the ugly linoleum laundry room floor, some of the light fixtures are really pretty bad. So, do we do it? Or would it just be a moneypit and a thorn in my side? Or does the good outweigh the bad?

Christmas Break

Christmas break is nearing its end. I'm happy, though, about how many fun Christmasy things we were able to do since returning from Mexico.

We went ice skating three times (Portia went twice and is learning slowly, but Bianca really flies around the rink and she's working on twirls now) at the South Jordan free rink. You can't beat the price!

I took the girls skiing up at Brighton on the bring-nonperishable-goods-and-we'll-give-you-a-$20-lift-ticket day. Santa was even skiing around on his skis. Portia went to the all-day ski school while Bianca and I rode all over the mountain. This is the first time I've opted not to put Bianca in lessons and to see if she's ready to go without. I was shocked that she was able to go so fast. I'm impressed with how good she is! This is awesome too because SkiUtah did a fifth-grade pass where fifth-graders could ski free three times at each of Utah's ski resorts. Yay!!! It was snowing really hard though but we muscled through it.

Bianca and I stopped at the restaurant to share a huge plate of nachos and have hot chocolate. We also bought a couple cookies from a girl who was selling them "for a good cause." Bianca started eating a cookie before lunch. I looked at her and said, "Bianca, what are you doing?"

She responded with, "Well, I thought you were my snowboarding buddy so. . ."

"Yeah, well, I'm still your mom first."

Bianca and I stopped over on the bunny slope to see how Portia was doing. I was a little disconcerted when I went to pick Portia up at 3:30 when Portia told me, "I fell off the ski lift." I didn't understand at first, surely she meant she fell down when skiing down the ramp. But no, she actually fell off the ski lift. I thought a teacher should be keeping her safe. I'm just glad she didn't get hurt.

I want to make an effort to get us on the mountain more. It is a lot of work to get out all the ski stuff, pack the car, put all the stuff on, do the skiing, take half the stuff off, pack the car, take the rest off, hang it all up so it can dry, then put it all away. I'm tired just remembering it.

The rest of the two weeks is a blur of messy house, clutter everywhere, wrapping paper and scissors and tape strewn about. But the girls had a great Christmas morning. I decided to adopt the Santa-only-brings-stockings idea at my house from now on. This is how they do it in England with Father Christmas only bringing stockings. Then Mom and Dad bring three presents each, to represent the Wise Men bringing three gifts to Jesus. I had themes for each gift. Bianca had (1) creating things--crochet and knitting kits, with a gift card to Hobby Lobby to buy more yarn; (2) music--this year Bianca asked for a guitar; (3) exercise--a Zipfy sled that steers. Now if only we could get some snow already. Portia got (1) better sleep--a Minky, a koala pillow pet and an "alive" koala; (2) art supplies--lots of them; (3) exercise--a walrus sled. Again, where's the snow? I got some cozy slippers and a whip-cream maker from Williams Sonoma.

We had church for an hour and then headed off to Bruce and Joanie's with our Bread Pudding Quiche topped with raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and bacon. It was so good! Bruce and Joanie gave the kids an aromatherapy bear and monkey, to Bianca and Portia respectively, which I'm hoping to snag once Portia loses interest. It smells of mint and lavendar and can be microwaved to get them warm. Here's Portia loving her monkey up.

We spent all day laying around (I believe each of the moms got a much-needed nap in the afternoon), playings games, snacking, and visiting. I love our Christmases with the Quigleys!

Preschool Christmas Program

Portia's preschool's Christmas program was last week. They do a recap of a lot of the songs and poems they learn the first part of the year. It astounds me how very many songs and poems these little children can remember. This year, the kids get a weekly French lesson by Madame Danielle. Here is a song they learned in French class.

They sang Jumbo Elephant.

They also sang Suzie Snowflake, played the bells for Jingle Bells, among other things. Here is Portia with her teacher Miss Melissa.

Here are two of Portia's friends from preschool, Naomi and Shelby.

Christmas Concert

When I was in high school, my band director Mr. B. asked me to play the bells for a couple songs for a concert that had a bell part. Probably he picked me because I could play the piano and it converted over nicely to the bells and although I'm not proud to admit it, I really was dispensable on the flute. But because I had to stand up and walk back and forth between the two instruments, I got a new dress for the occasion. For me, this was a big deal. I remember it clearly and can still see the floral-printed, ruffly dress in my memory. I still remember the banana clip I wore my curly permed hair in that night.

Last week was Bianca's elementary school orchestra's Christmas Concert. Bianca decided she would play double bass for the songs that had a separate bass line (not the same as the cellos) and she would play viola for the songs that did.

Here's Bianca playing bass in a Christmas medley.

Next is one of my favorite Christmas songs that you don't often hear. It's supposed to sound like the camels traveling across the desert on the journey to see the baby Jesus. Bianca's plucking (as opposed to bowing as she was on the first video) on double bass here.

Then Bianca played a solo on her viola of "I Wonder as I Wander."

Bianca had her friend Hayle spend the night after the concert. We stopped at Menchie's for frozen yogurt on our way home, which is a tradition that my parents started to stop for ice cream after a concert or special performance. Here are the girls at Menchie's.

Strangely, this black-and-white dress is a Christmas dress from like four years ago Bianca chose because they were supposed to wear black and white. Yes, that's my ten-year-old daughter wearing a size six dress. Remarkably, it still fits. She is small, which makes the fact that she plays the double bass even funnier. But still, this is a far cry from the special new dress I got for my concert, but hey, that's what she chose to wear.

Smoker

I was driving carpool a week ago and was singing along with a Steve Miller song that was playing on the radio. As I sang, "I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight toker," the little girl Ava who I take to preschool with Portia gasped.

I quickly turned to her and explained, "No, I'm not really a smoker. I'm just singing along with this song."

Portia chimed in, "But my dad's a smoker."

I turned to Portia and said, "No, he's not, Portia. Your dad isn't a smoker."

"Yes, he is," she replied. "He smoked a turkey on Thanksgiving."

I hate to think of the other things that get misinterpreted. Gotta love innocent children!