This Week

Feel free to continue to comment on the Happiness post even though I'm posting anew. The 2 comments we have are really great and I love that they are of different perspectives. Good stuff.

Interesting week in that this weather is crazy. I'm trying to remember if I've ever been paying this much attention when our temperature was so low for so many hours in a row. Illinois is more akin to the drastic change: it's 0, now it's 40, now it's 60! what the hay?! But this 20 below windchill for an entire day... yikes. So I'm not going to leave my house for at least 36 hours. It may sound drastic, but Clare isn't feeling that well with the runniest nose ever and she just looks pathetic. Between that and us not really having a good reason to leave, we're staying put. Wonder what I'll do with all of Sophia's energy tomorrow.

The real reason I'm here though, is because I'm excited about a small purchase we made this weekend. We found our first bargain - the kitchen sink. Wandering past some random items on clearance, the sink caught my eye. It's extra deep, a brand name, and the under-the-counter kind (can't remember the name, and I hate to wake Brad up when he is sleeping so soundly on the couch :). Maybe you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, the sticker said the price is normally $258, and we paid $110. :) Now, really, do you believe the original price listed? I am so cynical about this stuff. Whenever I see things like this I usually just roll my eyes. But now that it's our money that we are potentially saving; our amazing deal that we are finding - I want to believe the sticker. Either way, I've decided that anybody that keeps a tab of how much they save on "deals" uses this same number, so I will too.

So we have the sink, and for Christmas Brad got me the entrydoor handle that we picked out. When I opened it Joseph was like, "Nice! Now all you need is a front door to put it on. Drive around and look for a house with a front door missing the handle, and that's yours! No problem." hilarious.

I'd like to think the list gets longer, of things we have for the house. But I'm not real sure it does. Brad has probably been stashing away this and that in materials, but it can't be too much. Surprisingly, I'm ok with this. We should be getting the house and ice-storm-damaged trees out soon and then we'll really feel like we're making progress. In the meantime, if you run across an amazing deal on a newer dishwasher, let me know. :)

Just Curious

Lately I've been running into the elusive concept of "happiness." Besides media, friends, and family refering to the idea, I would love to help my kids get closer to such a thing in their own lifetime. But when confronted with choices about how to find happiness, people sometimes make decisions that confuse me.

Ok, so happiness isn't the same to everyone. Got that. And I'm sure there isn't a magic recipe. But how do people define a "happy marriage," or what does "I've found happiness" mean? I consider myself in a "happy marriage," but it is a lot of work, and it doesn't mean I wake up singing and whistling everyday. I worry about people who are looking for happiness, and I have to think that the disappointment people have, might be because they are looking for something that doesn't really exist. I want to raise children who are happy, but I feel silly even saying such a thing. They would be better off if I focused on things like hope and faith and kindness and compassion.

If you feel like commenting, share your thoughts on the topic. I'm interested in an off-the-cuff response, something short and sweet and from your gut. If someone is looking for "happiness," what is it they want?

Randomness

For those of you too lazy to look at the link, here is an image of the new house, the someday house. The hopefully-someday-in-the-year 2009 house. :) Sounds like we should have demolition of the current mess sometime next week. Guess I should take pictures of that. If I haven't told you, the ice storm reeked havoc on our trees, so the place looks ridiculous. I've told this to a few, but if you are standing in our driveway (between the fallen limbs) and you look to the north and east, it's like "Oh, this would be a nice place for a house..." Then you turn around and it's like "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?!?!?!" :) Anyway, hopefully it will be looking better soon.

Meanwhile we're doing the mom thing here at home. Well, I am. Things are settling down after the holidays and we are finding our routine again. I am finding more and more contentment with my new "job" as stay-at-home mom. (New? It's been a while. Whatever.) I'm still planning to sub, but my real job is here at home. Forever I've had issue with it. Like I'm not contributing enough, like I'm suppose to be doing something more. Without going more into detail, I'm happy that I'm finally feeling like this is a real job, and that it matters even more than I realized before.

Clare is killing me, in more than one way. The last few days she is cracking us up with more laughter, more joking, more singing, and silliness. She's increased her volume level (I know, was it possible?) and orneriness. You can see where this is going. Not only is she funnier, she's more exhausting. She has found a new response to denial - yelling loudly and steadily for 5 seconds or more. Gritting her teeth and staring at me angrily has also been added to the repertoire. It's great. There's a lot of noise around here. Silence is golden.

Thanks for bearing with me through the random thoughts. I felt like writing and hated to pass that up. Who knows what the rest of the week will hold. Have a good one!

House Plans 101

So most of you know the plan, but for the sake of record, I’ll briefly review. I’ll move quickly through it. It’s not something I feel like dwelling on.

In late June we purchased this property:

It is 3 acres, a rundown story and a half, a Morton building garage, and a decent sized shed. Most of the trees have something to be desired, but it’s still a pretty spot in the country with lots of room and potential.

The house was too small and while the structure was very solid, the basement had a huge crack in one wall. Plus mold and mildew down there was bad, so we planned to lift the house and pour a new basement. Then we’d lower the house back down, gut and remodel; new floor plan and an addition. We felt there was a solid frame that we didn’t want to waste. Other than that, all would be new.

Brad and Calvin have been a big part of at least 2 other house liftings and felt confident they could handle the job. We were all convinced of as much, so after plenty of plans and preparations the house came up, November 25th.

The day before Thanksgiving the house was at least a foot up when the girls and I went out to see and take some video. Literally seconds after I shut off the camera, the house started to groan and the beams fell over. It happened so fast, but there was warning yells from underneath, me screaming, men running and then all was silent. Too dramatic for all of us. The guys were safe – Brad, Calvin, and Dad-Denny, but the house was not.

Let me explain. There were 4 vertical columns with jacks on them lifting the 2 horizontal beams the house was sitting on. The weight had not been distributing properly on one of the columns, and a wooden block (a piece of the column) busted and shot out. Brad had been trying to reinforce that particular column when it happened. So when the block busted, the jack tipped, and so did the beams which sent the house falling. Thank God, enough of the old foundation had not been removed yet and the house landed on the old center wall and the old north wall of the basement.

More details on what exactly happened certainly exist, but they don’t really matter. We’re not planning to do any more lifting jobs.

What matters is, what next? Brad wasted little time before thinking on a new plan. Obviously we were upset and sad and there was grieving. And I was mostly crying and praising God about how close I felt I had been to losing my husband. But we moved quickly and confidently onto the next plan. The weather hasn’t cooperated, so we won’t get started till after winter. And I don’t know how soon we’ll be moving in, but here is Plan B: http://www.frankbetz.com/homeplans/plan_info.html?pn=3894.

After months of drawing and discussing a floor plan for the first house, it took us all of 4 days to pick out this one. Thankfully we had learned something in the process of Plan A, and not just about houses. With the help of God, we’ll learn a lot more and make it through the process of building this house, a dream we have stumbled upon. Keep us in your prayers.