More Visitors!

Last on the visitors list (so far), were my parents, Toby and Whitie.  This is a long way for them to come, and I wasn't sure that they would make it, but I'm glad they did!  I think they were surprised by how pretty this part of Missouri is, and how much it actually looks like north Georgia.  (I think maybe they were expecting Kansas!).  We had a great time during their visit!  Our first outing was to the town of Hermann, which is the county seat of Gasconade county, where we live.   Hermann is a very old town and it also has a lot of wineries.  It makes for an interesting day touring wineries, with many nice places to eat.  We later stopped by a sausage store in Swiss and sampled many varieties of sausage.  We bought some cherry sausage, which we haven't tried yet, but I can't wait to find out what they taste like!  Hermann has a large German population, who started the wineries, and also named the streets many unusual names that are hard for me to pronounce!Hermann also sits on the Missouri River, which is pictured below.

The next day we drove over to Meramec Springs, which is a spring where almost 100,000,000 gallons of water comes up out of the earth every day.  There's a place where the water just comes pumping out, and then it turns into a beautiful creek.  It is very picturesque and the water is nice and cool as well.  Unfortunately, we had had a storm that morning, so the water wasn't a crystal clear as it typically is.

Always fascinated by the wildflowers....

They raise trout to stock the river with, and these trout were being caught to the placed in the river.  I wish they had a restaurant there on site to get some wonderful fresh trout!

Mom wanted to walk across the pond and take a picture of the house from that vantage point.   I'm not sure if I've already posted a finished picture from this point.

The cloud picture of the day isn't a sunset, but a cloud formation that came up late afternoon.  I love watching the sky!

Better Late than Never Update....

Once again I have done a poor job of doing updates, but this time I have an excuse (at least a new one!).  My very faithful computer had a meltdown.  I was able to send it to my brother David and he recovered all my data (thank God).  I was using Mark's laptop in the meantime, but I was trying to avoid littering his hard drive with the multitude of pictures that I produce, so I just avoided downloading them until I bought a new laptop.  Here's the quick update:

We've been fortunate to have lots of visitors these past few weeks!  My friends Marla and Joanna came first, along with Marla's two sons, Tony and Damien.  We did some good chillin' out and visiting, and Mark also took Tony and Damien out to catch fish one afternoon.  This is Tony with the fish, Damien had had enough of the hot outdoor weather and didn't come back out for photos.  Mark taught Tony how to clean fish, and this was his first opportunity to eat fish he had caught.  They were delicious!

.

Our next visitors were Sara, Ryan and Emery.  We all went to Meramec Caverns, which isn't too far from the house, and a great place to go on a hot summer day.  This area is surrounded by caves.

That night we had round Two of home caught fish for dinner.  Mark and Ryan caught these in a very short time and provided us with another wonderful meal!

We practically live out on the porch when it isn't too hot, and here is Emery enjoying her breakfast in the fresh air.

A later trip to the Magic House in St. Louis provided the opportunity for this picture that I just couldn't pass up!  The Magic House is a Children's Museum and Emery had a great time exploring the place. 

This is a giant bubble maker.  Look closely and you can see Sara working hard blowing the bubble, while Emery seems fascinated with what her Daddy is doing, oblivious to the bubble!

And another gorgeous sunset.  We knew they would be great to watch from the porch, but I don't think we had a clue how spectacular they would actually be.  I keep snapping photos, and each one is different from the day before.  We do try to make it a point to be paying attention as the sun goes down in the sky each evening.  Way better than TV!!

Sunsets

I thought about trying to capture each and every sunset after we moved in but quickly decided that would be pretty impossible. But, I do watch them every night and when it is camera worthy I drag out my constant companion, my Canon DSLR.  Last night we had a big thunderstorm come rumbling through late in the day.  There was lots of rain!  Afterwards, this very unusual sunset occurred.  It was incredibly gorgeous!  I find myself watching the clouds constantly throughout the day as the vantage point is perfect for cloud watching.  This sunset was the best!

We're here!

It has been a busy couple of weeks, but huge progress has been made. After spending 75 nights at the Holiday Inn, we are outta there!

I came back from SC on Thursday and Mark’s plan was for me to return on Thursday, help move on Friday, with the final move taking place on Saturday, before he left Saturday night for Australia. After getting bent out of shape about him possibly moving in without me; me moving in without him didn’t seem right either! So I bumped our move in date by a day and we cleared out of the Holiday Inn and got to the house Friday evening. We stayed up till 1AM watching the night sky, then continued moving furniture in on Saturday morning. He left for the airport Saturday night, but had to return after leaving his passport in his office and missing his flight (have I stated that we’ve had too much going on lately?)! Flight rebooked for Sunday and we were able to get some more things moved in on Sunday morning. Now I’m here along with Gus and Lucy enjoying the peace and quiet and trying to sort through the plethora of boxes in the garage. There are boxes from GA, boxes from Richmond Heights, boxes from two classrooms, and boxes from the Holiday Inn. It is the first time that all of our possessions have been in one location! Sadly, after living with very little in the hotel for two months, we have wondered why we brought so much stuff with us to the new house. Things are staying outside until they get sorted, cleaned up, dusted, Lysoled and polished. We’ve gotten the furniture in our bedroom, the bed downstairs, and very little else into the house so far. The builder is still here finishing up little details, which he probably will be for awhile.

I had the best of intentions of taking photos of the entire house before we started moving in, but….it didn’t happen. I also had the best of intentions to take a photo of the overstuffed garage before we started emptying it, but…it didn’t happen. Missed moments, for sure.

Exterior of the house.  Final grade still needs to be done, but we've got to decide how we want the dirt sloped, what to do with the rocks, etc.  Then it is time to plant grass!

Downstairs bathroom.  We still need vanity mirrors, towel rods, shower curtains and doors, etc.

Downstairs guest bedroom.

Living room.  The slate tiles in the corner are where the wood burning stove will go.

North porch

West porch

First night's sunset

Babysitting!

Several months ago Sara and Ryan scheduled an anniversary trip to Colorado for June.  Ryan's mom, Nancy, and I both agreed to babysit for the little munchkin.  We figured two eyes were better than one for keeping Emery safe!  I drove down a day before they left and Nancy came up that evening.  We had a blast spoiling Emery rotten while they were gone!  We took her to the Children's Museum, the zoo, and the park before things got so hot that we didn't want to leave the house.  We also spent plenty of time playing in the sandbox, the pool and checking out the garden.  Nancy and I also enjoyed getting a chance to visit together.  We can't wait to talk Sara and Ryan into another trip!

Nancy and Emery watching Baby Einstein on Nancy's computer.  Emery got so excited!

Emery loves her bucket of balls!

This was the toddler play area in the Children's Museum.

This contraption was like a giant Light Brite for children.  It was so very cool!

Playing in the toddler water area...

Picking out groceries...

The next day we went to the zoo.   Emery was brave and sat on the lion!

I never got the opportunity to feed a Galapagos tortoise while we were in the Galapagos, but we were able to feed this gentle giant at the Greenville zoo!

This might be my most favorite picture of my trip (at least so far!).  Emery and I were outside and it was her snack time, so Sara gave her a container of cut up cucumbers for snack.  Here's Emery just hanging out while she's eating cucumbers.  Note the necklace and the laid back appearance....life is good!  Emery loves most fruits and vegetables and just like her Uncle Austin, she will eat blueberries till she turns into one! 

We also went to the park, and Emery had a good time, although it was scorching hot. When we decided to go home we found out that the heat index was 97 degrees! Too hot for us! After that, we did early morning outside activities and spent the rest of the time indoors.

Memorial Weekend Update

The best news of the week is that I have accepted a position as a middle grades science teacher for a very tiny elementary school in the town of New Haven, MO. It is a gorgeous town, right on the Missouri river. It is an area full of wineries, winding roads, rolling hills, and beautiful scenery. It is about 30 miles north of the farm, so I'll have a longer commute, but definitely a prettier one! Considering the job market for teachers this year, I am thankful to have found a job and relatively easily. I only went on one other interview before this offer was made. New Haven also works two weeks less than SSD, so that is one thing that is a definite bonus for this job! I have to take the Praxis test, but that shouldn't be too difficult. Then I'm off on a new adventure!

As for the house...we are in a holding pattern. The builder has been on vacation this week. I'm sure the vacation was scheduled with the thought that the house would be completed by now, but we've had some issues concerning which type of septic tank system needs to be installed. Once that was decided, it has been continual rain for several weeks. Of course, the week the builder has been gone things have been relatively dry! His crew is continuing work on the house though, so things aren't at a standstill. We have finally gotten the electrical poles run to the house, so we are closer to getting electricity. The crew has been sanding EVERYTHING inside, because the next step is to spray clear coat varnish inside the entire house. This protects the walls, beams, ceiling and upstairs flooring. Once this is done, there is no more maintenance on the interior walls. Then they can start putting in the flooring downstairs, cabinetry, electrical fixtures, and all the other things that make it a house. I've said once there was septic, electricity and water we would go ahead and move in, and the detail work can continue around us. We started clearing out one of the storage units this weekend and are putting everything into the garage. This is also progress. We have been going out there, taking a dinner and hanging out while we drank a beer and talked and pretended that we lived there! Some new pictures are below.

Here's the upstairs bathroom.  There is a shower on the right side, the copper pipes coming out of the floor will soon be attached to the claw footed tub, and the toilet will sit near the center of the photo.  There is a large linen closet and double vanity also in the room. 

Here's the upstairs bedroom.  It will be a tight squeeze to fit the sleigh bed under the purlin beams, but we are crossing our fingers that it will fit.

This is one side of the loft area. 

Here's a picture of the loft area and the catwalk from the bedroom doorway.

These are all the picket posts for the railings that are stacked in the downstairs vanity.  They look so funny in here,  but hopefully they will soon be installed!

Here's the half log stairs going up.