Mix of Emotions

We have a swirl of emotions in our house this week. We went to our first official open house on Saturday. A beautiful old, powder blue farm house. A home that while we toured the inside, our children, even the youngest, felt comfortable wandering the grounds and playing tag and using fallen tree branches as swords. Tall ceilings, original woodwork and pocket doors lead us through the stone cellar, four bedrooms, updated kitchen and grandiose dining room. A gorgeous home. The down side...it's only on 1.3 acres. We'd like more...we'd like 5...hell, we want as many as we can possibly get. But we can see how we can make it work. We envisioned how we'd layout our trees and where we could put our garden...We'll see...
Also on Saturday, came great sadness. A young couple that we know lost their baby. The baby was born with the cord wrapped several times around his neck and was lifeless. I've lost two babies. Fortunately for me it was very early on. I think that sounds a little heartless...but I had just found out that I was pregnant and had barely gotten used to the idea of a baby growing in my belly. I couldn't imagine growing that baby for nine months, feeling the kicks, growing more and more attached...more and more in love each day and have it taken away before we even got the chance to meet.
Then, Tuesday came. One of my co-workers called to say that one of our other co-workers had unexpectedly passed away. This man was young, had children (a daughter and son), was the life of the party - hell, he was the life of life. I had the opportunity to get to know Dave as a client, prior to becoming his co-worker. He was a strong reason I sought out my current position. An aneurysm took his life.
...and now, I'm sick. Which seems so insignificant compared to everything else. But it is a bad sick. Everything is hurting...my sinuses are filled...my eyes sting.
I'm hoping for a do-over.
But to lighten the mood of my day...and this post...we received all of our seeds today from Victory Seeds. The mailman delivered them to our door. I can't wait to sow the seeds. I can't wait to have dirt under my nails. I can't wait to eat our veggies. I just can't wait.

But wait...there's more!!!!

As if it wasn't enough to buy all of our seeds online...we decided to become members of the Arbor Day Foundation. Our membership provides us with 10 free trees (we chose the Autumn collection, because it contains two of the sugar maple trees - maybe one day...far, far away - we will be able to collect and make our own maple syrup) - the membership also gives us special pricing on their other trees. Sooooo I went to town and essentially ordered the remainder of our orchard needs. We ordered 2-Plum, 2-Apricot, another Pear, Peach and Pecan tree. Due to the fact that we ordered so many items, they gave us a Red Maple and two Forsythia shrubs. Whew...Come on farmhouse!!! Now all we need is to work on our berries - but there's no plans for that until we actually have a place and know how much space is leftover for that type of thing.
Today we went to an open house - the house was beautiful. Big! Lots of bedrooms...1 1/2 bathrooms (doable) - pocket door and original woodwork. Ahhh...BUuuuttttt 1.3 acres. Totally not what we want for property...but can we work with it? Maybe...

Drum Roll Please

Mark and I ordered our seeds for our garden today...it felt so good to look through all the different varieties. We ordered from a company that offers heirloom, non-gmo seeds...something VERY important to us. I know we don't have the ground to put the seeds into...YET! Hopefully that will happen soon though. Here's the list of everything we ordered (we still need a few more items):
Shasta Daisy
Blue Columbine
Garden Thyme
Sage
Oregano
English Lavender
Echinacea - Purple Coneflower
Dill
Chives
German Chamomile
Sweet Basil
Lemon Balm
Crimson Sweet Watermelon
Heinz VF Tomato
Katinka Cherry Tomato
Beefsteak Tomato
Roma VF Tomato
Sunflower, Giant Greystripe
Waltham Butternut Winter Squash
Bush Table King Acorn Winter Squash
Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash
Black Beauty Zucchini Summer Squash
Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach
Small Sugar Pumpkin
California Wonder (Bell) Pepper
Jalapeno Hot Pepper
Little Marvel Garden Pea
Ringmaster Onion
Little Gem Butterhead Lettuce
All Year Round Lettuce
Birdhouse Gourd
Ashley Cucumber
Homemade Pickles Cucumber
Golden Bantam Sweet Corn
Orchard Baby Sweet Corn
Tall Utah 52-70 Celery
Snowball (Early Snowball) Cauliflower
Little Fingers Carrot
Danvers 126 Carrot
Charentais Cantaloupe
Glory of Enkhuizen Cabbage
Catskill Brussels Sprouts
De Cicco Broccoli
Detroit Dark Red Beet
Kentucky Wonder Pole Green Bean
Great Northern Bush Dry Bean
Large Purple Kidney (Norberg / Wanda) Bush Dry Bean
Mary Washington Asparagus
WHEW! I see lots of planting in our future :-)

ketchup...

Hurry up...sprint..screeching halt...faster!
I feel like that is always our life. I've been putting in a bunch of time at work...helping my previous manager transition into his new role with our parent company. I'm also playing catch up from being off with jury duty AND learning my NEW JOB...since I got MY PROMOTION!!! WOOT! I'm up another rung on the ladder...and it feels so good. I found out that I should be getting my bonus around the 3rd (all of which is going toward the house)...and we only have 30 days until our lender is going to pull our credit for our loan (fingers crossed). This weekend I had a Green Energy Ohio event for work and we'll be doing drive-bys for potential homes..finished off with dinner at my parents'.
...a life spent trying to "ketchup"...

Ice Storm and Trial by Jury

This week was interesting to say the least. Monday I was selected as a juror on a murder trial. This is an incredibly difficult task...one that I hope I never have to endure again. The "man" was charged with two counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault and one count of carrying a weapon while under disability (meaning that he has previous convictions of violence)...he shot his (ex?)girlfriend in the head and left her five year old alone with her dead body and a loaded gun. Her son was left with the responsibility of calling 911 and telling the dispatcher that his mother was dead because this "man" shot her. I spent my days listening to the heart wrenching 911 call where the boy was asking the 911 dispatcher to come to his house and be with him. I viewed photos of her dead body on the ground...autopsy pictures of her flesh peeled back to see the hole the bullet made in her skull. In the end, we found him guilty on ALL counts. After we were released from our duties as jurors, we were allowed Google his name and the case and I am so thankful we came to the decision of guilty on all counts...this dude is a MONSTER.

In addition to the nightmare of my civic duty...we had an ice storm...a major (if you listen to the news/weather people - it was Armageddon) ice storm. In fact we watched from a restaurant as the transformers blew all the way down the street and lit the night sky for about 30-45 seconds straight. That night, we lost our power and didn't get it back for 40+ hours. The temps dipped below 50 degrees in our home. We had everyone sleep in the living room together one night - to keep our body heat in one room. Times like this make us realize how truly unprepared we are. In our home, we want a fireplace/wood stove to keep us warm. We want more canned goods on the shelf. We want to be able to cook. We want to be able to keep the food in our fridge. It was an experience...

On a good note? We celebrated my handsome, wonderful, amazing, sexy, awesome husband's 47th birthday! Happy Birthday Mark!!! I am so thankful that my in laws created this beautiful, strong, caretaker for me and and our children. I am going to attempt making a carrot cake...from scratch for my man...fingers crossed everyone! I'm also taking him the the home and garden show today...hopefully getting some great information for our home buying experience.