10.26.2020

The Last Week of October

Not sure exactly where this month... or for that matter, this year went. But, we are down to the last week of October. Just thought I would share a few more fall decor pics and the three cat pics. Yep, we are a "three cat family" now. lol There has been a lull in the real estate market for a couple of months (at least in our price range). I can see that we are still getting good "views" and pretty good "likes"...so people are at least looking online, if not looking in person. I have been looking at homes in San Antonio. Since Ron and I were driving in there at least a couple times of week for the past month, I decided it was time to look "inside the loop" ;) and try to find something in there with big trees and a lot that doesn't feel like it's "inside the loop". Well... I found it. Now, just hoping it stays until we sell... but not holding my breath on that- lol. My second criteria on a home in there is a back yard that looks like a park with lots of trees... for Ron and the cats. (Ron won't tell me anything about what he might want. He says he's not making any decisions until he has to.) He is fine without a plan. I need a plan, even if it has to change... so I am "looking". haha

Oh ...and a cute, simple, Halloween treat, that I took to Sunday dinner last night. Served with ice cream and Halloween sprinkles. 













  

10.12.2020

Fall is Here

 Fall is here... kind of 😉 

At least a week ago, it seemed like Fall, then last week and so far this week, it still seems like Summer. But, we are hoping the cooler weather will come back. I wasn't going to do any Halloween decorations, because they are all packed up. I may "give in" and get some out, but I at least made some new table runners, out of Halloween fabric that I already had. It is difficult to find Halloween fabric in some of the stores, because the manufacturing got messed up with covid. So here are two decor pics and a fox pic. The foxes have been coming around for the water in the front yard, which allowed me to get a good photo... finally. 






9.23.2020

Another Bday

 64 this month- lol. Some how these birthdays just aren't very exciting any more- haha 😆 It came and went... pretty much just another day. But there were some pretty great gifts from the kids.







Kittens

 Okay... one of the side issues of the past 6 weeks has been baby kittens. Two white ones and one grey one. The momma is "Lady"... we think the father is "Grey", but could be another tom cat. I reached out to a group in Bandera for help on how to deal with a feral cat with kittens. Actually, Lady has become pretty friendly... I'm not sure she could be classified as feral any more. And we have been keeping her and the kittens in the exercise room for the past three weeks. I want to keep the grey one... calling her GreyC (Gracie). Ron wants to keep Lady. And we already have Kitty. I'm not sure exactly what having three cats does to our move. lol. Our plan is to take Lady soon and get her spayed and shots. Ashley and Hailey think they want the white male kitten. That leaves the white, female kitten to find a home for. Anyway... they are super cute- haha. And they give Ron something to do 😉






 

The Real Estate Market

 When "covid" set in during the Spring, I assumed that the real estate market for this year was dead. I assumed that we would be still sitting here until next Spring. (which could still be the case 😢) But... things went crazy during June and July and August. People were buying and selling at a fast rate. We started having several showings and some people who were interested in the house. Unfortunately, no offers yet. (I am writing this on Sept. 23rd). So... it is still to be seen what will happen for us on selling the house, but as showings picked up, I realized that we were not ready to move anywhere. I have been working like crazy for about 6 weeks... purging and organizing. I have thrown things away, given things away, sold a few things, and donated things. I kept looking at houses on the market to see what else might be appropriate for us...each time I tried to envision ourselves, moving and living in a smaller house... then, I tried to figure out what things were essential and what things needed "to go". As the weeks went by, I watched almost all of the homes that I liked be sold. Then I would watch for new homes to be listed. Each time that I was disappointed in a home being sold, I realized that I learned something from that home and where it was located. Even at this point, we are not quite completely ready to move somewhere else... but we are in much better shape than we were at the end of July. I have a feeling that things are really slowing down now, which means more waiting and wondering. But... maybe the right house has not been listed yet. Maybe we haven't found the right area yet. Maybe we have not been looking at the right homes. For certain, the right buyer has not shown up here yet. (There is a family in SA that was very interested, they could still be out there, or maybe they have changed their mind.) Maybe, I haven't gotten enough things organized yet. Maybe, I am supposed to go look for a job. (I had decided that if we didn't get an offer in September, that was my plan.) If every house that I am interested in is gone, Heavenly Father must have some other plan for us. The uncertainty and the disappointments of the past year have been taking a toll on me. Recently, Mike suffered some severe disappointments with his job. I learned some great things from how he dealt with that. He reminded me of some important gospel principles. 1. God is in charge. 2. Keep moving in the face of uncertainty. 3. There is refinement in waiting. 4. We don't see as clearly as God sees. 5. We don't always get what we want. Mike set goals for himself to have humility, gratitude, and excitement for whatever happens. Those are my goals too. And while I am working on that... stuff is disappearing around here, things are getting organized, and things are getting packed- lol. (I even took time this week to purge old Christmas cards and letters and made 4 notebooks of the ones to keep.) Yep, things are desperate here. haha. 




Brown Baby Bird

 I finally got a good photo of my inspiration for my business called, Brown Baby Bird. Love these little creatures. It is difficult to get good photos of them. I call them the little "bug eaters" because they hop around on the porch eating all of the bugs they can find... even the scorpions (minus the tail). 



A Birthday Party for Two

 Since Weston and Hailey both have birthdays in July... we planned a double birthday party. Remember, parties are epoch, at our house- lol. Which is totally amazing to me, because we never did very exciting parties for our kids when they were growing up... I guess maybe they are making up for that with their kids. Grand kids get spoiled right?! 😂 Anyway... there were two cakes, pizza, balloons in the house and in the pool, gifts, swimming, and an outdoor movie. Great cousin time. Happy Birthday to Hailey and Weston.