November 9, 2013: New House, New School Year, New Do

I know.  It's probably weird to start out the post with a giant picture of me. But here's the deal: I have zero pictures of me because I'm the one capturing all these precious memories to begin with. And it's been a wild few months, so family portrait time has seriously taken a backseat to keeping our sanity. The reason for this picture, though, is obvious. No more long hair!

Okay, so on to the real news.  Most of you know we moved. Well, we had to move at the beginning of August because our landlord was selling the townhouse we'd called home since our arrival in the Emerald City.  No problem; we knew that was a possibility, though she had promised to extend our lease into 2014 previously.  We found a place right away, a neighborhood south of West Seattle and we packed our stuff and set up camp on Marine View Drive (isn't that a great street name?). Then we found out that landlord was in bankruptcy and the bankruptcy trustee was selling the property. Of course, I checked the property out before we signed the lease, but I didn't check bankruptcy records. I checked for foreclosures and scam-oriented clues. [sigh]

So, we packed our stuff in order to get ready to move again. Though the idea of signing another lease with these idiot, flaky Seattle property owners was not ideal, I was adamant that we not buy a house until we sell our house in Ohio. The problem with that is that the rental market was terrible in September. Unless we wanted a $3,000/month beach house, or a 1-bedroom, $800/month, no-pets-allowed apartment, we were looking homeless. So, we decided to enter the market and look to buy.

And this is where we landed:

Isn't it cute? At the risk of going down a seriously boring path, it's an old craftsman house, built in the 1920s. I guess you could say it's loaded up with character, but also loaded up with things that need to be done to it. For the most part, though, it was move-in ready and the kitchen remodel and basement finish can wait until we sell our other house.

The short of it is, we love it.  We feel more at home in this house than the other places we've lived in Seattle. It's 3 blocks from Lorelei's school, and 3 blocks from the store, our pizza place, and favorite pub. Perfect. It also has a wood-burning fireplace, which I've always wanted.

The animals fight for space on the hearth.  I think you can see a cat in the picture above. Even though the road to this house was a curvy one, in the end it worked out. Now we can catch our breath in time for the holidays!

In other news, Lorelei started off third grade with a bang! It's been quite a transition for her. She has a lot more homework this year, and a lot more going on in general. The other night at dinner she confided to me the name of the boy she has a crush on in school.  Lord, help me.

Here's the first day of third grade picture:

She and Shawn also carved pumpkins, as is their Halloween tradition.

Lorelei dressed up as Marceline the  Vampire Queen from the cartoon Adventuretime.  Only, I don't have any good pictures of her in her costume, as she refused to keep the wig on. But she had fun, all the same. She went to trick-or-treat at my office, and then to Shawn's office for the AllRecipes Halloween party, and then trick-or-treating with her bestie in the neighborhood! She had a blast.  And it all led to this:

Which inevitably leads to this for Mom and Dad:

Whew.

We also had a fantastic visit in Ohio with the Sieferts. It was so great to see everyone; I hope I can manage to see some of them out here on the west coast, too!

I love that one of Lorelei and Brianna. They are making buckeye necklaces!

We also got some good time in at our favorite haunts:

It was so great to be back, not just visiting family but to be at Ohio State for the tailgate. The weather was fabulous and the Buckeyes won, of course.  What could be better? I'm so glad we made it back. Even though Lorelei is going to need long-term therapy over the "underdog" Paul gave her, she still managed to enjoy the Siefert swingset.  :)

With that, I will sign off for now. It's almost time to get Lorelei to tae kwon do, and start our Saturday. Love to all, and Happy Thanksgiving!