BakerBits

This post will make more sense if you learn that in internet language, DH=Dear Husband, aka Kyle.

We are having a heat wave and we have no A/C and hardly any windows that open. It’s been miserable. No windows in the living room that open means that it gets suffocatingly hot in there. Yesterday it got to over 90 degrees in the house. My chocolate chips melted in the cupboard. DH’s aunt came over and watched the kids for us so we could go outside in the carport and pack/sort through boxes. The kids got to play in the pool for a good while for the early part of the afternoon.

Peter, who is two, had been having an awful day. He woke up at four in the morning from nightmares about ‘Owwie bees’ what we call wasps and yellow jackets, and would not settle down and go back to sleep, so DH was up with him. Peter began feeling sick to his stomach and eventually threw up on DH’s aunt. My kids have never thrown up before. They really hardly ever get sick. Since Peter had no other symptoms I’m thinking it was something he ate, but I can’t figure out what since everyone else ate the same stuff he did the day before and that morning. Peter was in general whiny and clingy all day and wouldn’t nap and I just felt so awful for him.

In the carport are several paper wasp nests. They are not aggressive unless they sense you are threatening their nest. I wasn’t much of a threat, but DH is 6’2 and his head comes really close to the nest so they kept going after him. So DH declared the nests must come down. So he knocked one down with a broom and we ran like the dickens. That wasn’t enough for DH though, because even after the air cleared they didn’t like him and kept swooping him. So then he decided to go forth with a fly swatter and attack them. They didn’t like this very much (duh) and thus it was…DH vs. The Wasps. I steered clear because I’ve had allergic reactions to yellow jackets but have never been stung by a wasp and didn’t want to find out. Dh committed much carnage and we gave it a break for awhile and then tried working in the garage, but wasps from a different nest started harassing DH. So the whole process was repeated, except this time while leaping away from a wasp that flew at his face DH fell to the ground and got a nasty big patch of skin scraped off his elbow and shoulder. So he didn’t get stung, but his elbow hurts bad enough. This happened at least two more times (knocking down nests and running.) We did get almost all our storage sorted through. We have a HUGE stack of yardsale stuff. Anybody need baby girl clothes, I’m your woman!

So eventually it got too hot and DH’s aunt had to leave. By that time the temp was over 100 and I was one cranky cranky woman. The house was just miserable to be in, and DH wasn’t feeling up to taking the kids to the shady park. He wanted to nap, but there was no way I was taking care of three hot sweaty miserable toddlers in the early evening while I was hot sweaty and miserable myself. Otter pops can only reduce the misery so much.

So we loaded all three kids in the car and I drove around a local lake with them, just resting in the AC and watching other people without the restraint of having three toddlers enjoy themselves at the lake. My kids were happy, I was happy. I stopped at McDonalds on the way back (would have done Safeway but Peter and Todd were shirtless and I wasn’t sure what the rules are about taking partially clothed toddlers in stores were :lol). Anyway, after we went through the drive-through I got out and handed out french fries for the kids to eat on the rest of the way back home. The temp difference between the car and outside was easily twenty degrees. It just shocked me.

By the time we got home, it had cooled down a few degrees, and DH had had a nap in the steaming hot bedroom and felt better. We gave everybody baths and that made a big difference. I think we’re gonna head out to the lake today for the hot part of the day.

Oh, and a little update on house stuff-we are having inspections done and it looks like everything is going to work at the moment. Which is but the bummer part is that we have to pay a lot of money for the inspections, two of which were done two years ago and really really don’t need to be done again (well and septic) because nobody has lived in the house for two years and it’s a new tank and the well tested waaaayyy beyond requirements last time. But the loan people have their rules so we just are whipping out our check book more and more. But hey, we’re getting a house. This one just better work out because if for some reason it doesn’t pass inspections, we are simply just out of the money and we’d have to pay again to get inspections done on a different house.

So there. That’s a big long post and :goldstars: if you read the whole thing. Send happy cooling vibes our way, this heat wave is supposed to persist for another few days.

Hi there!

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We made an offer on a house and it was accepted!*insert happy dance here*

The house is a completely redone three bedroom on five acres in Sweet Home. It’s beautiful pastureland with a mountain view. We are so excited to find something like this. It’s actually a foreclosure, which we jumped on and made an offer the day after it was listed on the market. It is a total of four minutes from where we live now. We’re extremely excited and pray everything goes smoothly.

We hope this means we move in a month or two. For those of you who haven’t been through this process before, having an offer is just the beginning of the end. From the time a selling contract is signed until the house is ‘closed’ aka ‘ours’ it’s called escrow.

We need to have the house inspected by our lending agent. They go through and analyze the house and make sure it is worthy of them lending the money to you for. They appraise it, meaning they figure based on what they see how much it is worth.  We also need to have a well inspection and a septic inspection done. Surveying the house sometimes happens during this period, meaning they go and mark the boundaries of the lot. I think the house was surveyed last time it was sold, two years ago, so I think they can use the same paperwork.

If all goes well, then we fill out a small boatload of paperwork. We pick out insurance.  And then all the closing paperwork. And pay all the closing costs. Then, we can move.

Most things worth having require work. So we know this is worth it. Probably a lot easier on our systems than house-shopping has been.

I am going to unleash SPOILERS here. So if you haven’t seen it, don’t read this. But you should go see it, so go see it quickly!

Pixar has just been really impressive the last few movies. This one, however, went a little deeper than the other Pixar films.  We see two children with hearts full of adventure become adults in love, and experiencing a tragic loss. We see them grow old together and the wife dies. We see a man at the end of his life, Carl Fredrickson, who has a dream to fulfill. He promised his wife he would take them to Paradise Falls in South America, but life ran its natural course and there was always something else to spend the money on. So instead of going to a retirement home, he decides to use his resources and heads south.

On just the background of the story-first of all, what a loveable character we have in Ellie, the wife. I don’t know if anybody has read Caddie Woodlawn, but this is what she’d be like on film, I’ve no doubt, red hair and all. Her character gives a spirit to the movie that embodies both a thirst for adventure and a love for other people. Her miscarriage was an intense pain for both of them, and they had no more children after that. And wow-a miscarriage in an animated movie? I told you it went deep! Ellie brought a spark and vitality to Carl’s life, and when she died, his world became bland. He became a crotchety old man, and even grew insensitive to other people.

With the start of the story, we find Carl in a world he snarls at. His home, as a huge reminder of his wife, became his prized possession and all he really cared about. His defensiveness of his home led him to hurt another-which leads to his motivation to finally leave.  His stowaway is Russell, who brings us a coming-of-age story along with all the other intriguing drama in this movie. Carl and Russell need to get along in order to make it to Carl’s goal of fulfilling Ellie’s dream. Russell is passionate and has the ‘spirit of adventure’ along with compassion for other people-Carl has a lot to learn from him.

Charles Munz adds the element of change Carl really needs in order to get his priorities straight. Carl meeting his lifelong hero is a dream that becomes rather jaded as we find out Munz will stop at nothing to accomplish his personal dream of capturing the exotic bird and clearing his name. When Munz’s ambition shows itself cruel, suddenly Carl is faced with a choice between following his dream and being compassionate towards others. When he defends his house rather than help another, he finds himself alone. He has finally met Ellie’s dream of having a house next to Paradise Falls, but he has abandoned and let down his friends in the process. He sits in his house and instead of triumph, emptiness haunts his heart. The rest of the film is as adventurous as it is encouraging. The unlikely team of Carl, Russell, Doug, and Kevin prove that friendship knows no bounds, and following your heart brings happier endings than following your dreams.

What is Up about? If you see the movie trailers you could say it’s about an old man who takes his home for a journey with the aid of thousands of balloons. But if you turn this gem of a movie around, you will see the in-depth faucets of much more.  It’s about following a spirit of adventure no matter where it takes you. It’s about Carl following his wife’s dreams of South American exploration, but more importantly, her dream of loving other people. A fatherless son finds a sonless father, and both are profoundly changed by the experience.  It’s about a man learning that compassion towards others is more important than achieving even the loftiest of goals.  It’s a journey, yes, but when Ellie’s spirit of adventure leads, it’s not just about crossing continents, it’s about plunging the deeper needs of the soul. Add a cute talking animal, and you have a movie that is loved by a three year old, both his parents, and both his grandparents.

As a human, I am very easily distracted by tangible goals. Careers, houses, money, etc, are the values of America. Ultimately, thirsting after such things will leave us like we find Carl at the beginning of Up’s main storyline. Alone, crabby, and empty. The ‘much more’ to life has a lot to do with relationships. It’s easy as a stay-at-home mom to feel my job is pretty worthless compared to most people’s. If I look at the values America portrays, it is worthless indeed. However, the heart that invests in people leads a richer life. I believe I have precious things here at home with my little ones. It doesn’t matter what it looks like on the outside.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as we did.

Not everybody is smiling, but everybody’s eyes are open and looking at the camera! With three toddlers, you take what you can get!