what's up weekly. (plot twist: house edition.)

Well, apparently as a reward for actually chronicling all the stuff that's been going on around here, life decided to throw me a light week.  Well, I guess what I mean to say is that there were only a few items of note.  That doesn't mean they were small items, just few in number.  

(I'm going to just add Fourth of July photos, because that's all I have from this week.)

First, we went to Leavenworth last Friday for the inspection on the house we were buying.  We made a day of it - we ate breakfast on the road, we met my sister and brother-in-law there to start making plans... and then, long story short, the inspection went poorly so we backed out of the contract.  It was really the right choice - the house was in much worse condition than we expected - but it was hard to feel like we were starting back at Square One.  We spent the weekend feeling very overwhelmed by the unknowns.

Saturday morning, we got a flat tire on our way up to the Amish.  It didn't end up being a huge deal, but it was quite the spectacle for a while as Todd and our Amish friend Eli tried to troubleshoot things while seven Van Voorsts and eight Amish kids ("Am-lettes", as Todd calls them) ran around underfoot watching and "helping."  I wish I had photos to share... but obviously not.

It made us take longer in getting home than normal, though, and I had made arrangements through FB marketplace for someone to come pick up our basement piano.  (We're keeping our living room piano, but didn't want to move the basement piano with us.)  The gal had a kind of middle-aged haircut and showed up with a bunch of teenagers, so I asked if they were all her kids... to which she replied, "No, um, I'm only eighteen."  Whoopsie.  I shouldn't be allowed to talk to human people.  They did get the piano wrestled out onto their truck bed, but it was only by the grace of God and the Herculean strength of one Todd Van Voorst.  That thing seriously weighs a million pounds and they somehow lifted it up there.

Monday was the Fourth of July, so Todd picked up some sparklers and we had a celebration in the front yard.  (The first year we lived here, we forgot to pick up sparklers and didn't realize you buy them at specific tents around town, rather than just at Walmart like it was in Iowa, so some friends stopped by with sparklers and saved the day!  Our Fourth of July traditions are a work in progress.)

The rest of the week was spent packing and staying in from the heat.  We had heat indices of up to 110 degrees, and it was HUMID.

We are headed to Leavenworth again tomorrow to do some house hunting.  By the grace and blessing of God, and the kindness and incredible generosity of family who loves us, we have been able to expand our budget and I am feeling so much more optimistic.  I feel so much more hopeful that we will all actually fit in the new home we find.  Seriously, the houses in our previous price range were primarily three-bedroom, one-bath homes, many of which didn't have any space for storage or even a garage.  Imagine trying to street-park the Kraken all the time!  So we are going to look at a few houses tomorrow and hopefully will have some more good news to share next week.  

Penelope is not what you would call "intrepid."

And that was our week!  I'm continuing to try to clear out the house and get everything boxed up, but I'm in that weird lull where all the unnecessary stuff has already been packed, and everything that is still out is all stuff we still use on a regular basis, or things I'm waiting to pack until I know the layout of the new house.  So not much going on with it right now, but I'm sure once it picks up it will be pretty consuming!  So I'm going to enjoy these more restful days while I have them.

Happy weekend!