Where To Go

Poppy is 17 months now. I'm amazed at how much she can communicate and follow instructions. For a few months now she's been throwing appropriate things in the garbage can (only once our twice did we have to rescue non-trash items). She loves shoes: wearing whatever ones she can find, squealing at pictures of them on-line. She would get mad at me if I didn't put the right shoes on her feet and she would make noises while pointing at the basket in her closet that held the shoes she wanted to wear. I think she learns a lot from having an older sister to watch and mimic. When I say "bye" at the end of a phone conversation Poppy begins to repeatedly yell "bye" as well, usually right after I hang up. So now I frequently say "bye" just so the caller (a family member) can hear her cute voice. Her favorite foods are applesauce, yogurt (flavored by itself or vanilla with Rice Krispies mixed in), lentils with vegetables (first day only, no leftovers), chicken nuggets, pancakes, sausage, and sometimes toast with butter. Applesauce and yogurt are really the staples of her diet, usually we can also get her to eat a banana, but other days she wants nothing to do with food if it's not yogurt or applesauce. It's been frustrating, but we keep putting different foods in front of her. In the last week she's started to sample a few more things, so we're hopeful that she'll start eating more meals with us, instead of her special orders. (She also loves marshmallows and chips, she would eat those things all day if we let her.)

If she doesn't have hair, how are we clipping the flowers in? (July 2012)

Poppy likes to be outside, so for her birthday we had a picnic and went on a short "hike."

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Zarina turns five next month. She has such a tenderheart, I'm kind of glad she's not going to kindergarten this year. I feel that she needs to toughen up a little bit. She loves to draw and color, all the time. I have a real artist. Zarina commented that Poppy liked to be outside and watch things, so maybe she'd become a scientist. Brien told Zarina that she could also be a scientist, and she replied, "Dad, I'm not a scientist. I'm going to be an artist." Hopefully we haven't pigeon-holed her too early. She entered some pictures and a snowflake into the fair. Her picture of two kids that she drew and colored specifically for the fair ("look mom, I colored in the whole page so there's no white) won a blue ribbon and her other entries received 2nd place. We're expecting a $7 check later this month, her prize money. She also loves to have books read to her and she loves to go back and read to herself. We've been reading chapter books for a while now, but at the beginning of the summer read our longest book yet, The Little House on the Prairie. I remember a friend reading the series with her son, so I decided to try it out. I was amazed at how well she comprehended the book and how much she remembered. As we would see things (tee pees) and do things (drive to the next town over) Zarina would relate it back to Laura and Mary in the book.

Zarina loves parades and was excited when a friend needed a bunch of young kids for her float. The only disappointment was that they didn't get to throw candy.

Someone also likes to dress up ... She's looking forward to our Disneyland trip next month.

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Speaking of Disneyland, when we booked the trip in January, then paid for it in February, we didn't think we would be moving in October.

Nationwide the NRCS closed about 20 soils offices. A few of the approximately 75 employees retired, but most are relocating to different offices. Brien was able to get a position in the Elko office. When we first moved here 6 years ago we thought we would be relocating to the Elko area, but we gave of hope that the relocation would happen. (Mainly because they couldn't get anyone to move to Ely.) When we first found out about the office closure in February Brien thought we wouldn't move until almost a year later. The NRCS service center is staying open in Ely, they just won't have any soil scientists there helping to pay a percentage of the rent budget.

Since it's a forced relocation we thankfully qualify for so reimbursements and extra benefits. It's not a great time to sell a home, but we have a relocation company that will be purchasing our home, unless an offer comes in, and then they will be responsible for it until a private buyer comes along. The rental market is not big enough for the Elko area, and it's quite expensive. The housing market can move quickly, especially since one of the recently opened mines requires you to have housing before they will officially hire you. Brien had visited the Elko office multiple times for work and thought that over the mountain in Spring Creek would probably be the best area for us. The houses are newer overall and the lots are HUGE (most a minimum of 1 acre). After looking on-line I agreed with him. We're on .22 acres here in Ely, and I didn't want a bigger house on a lot that was half the size and close to the interstate, I-80.

We ended up in contact we a realtor (afterwards I thought we should of had my mom, or sister, refer us so they could get a little kickback) anyways, Janell was enthusiastic and nice, so we decided she could make lots of money by being our agent. We have great an AWESOME credit score (remember we paid off our cards last September, our only debt is our mortgage and student loans), so we qualified for a great interest rate; which in turn made a nice, normal home completely within our reach. Well, actually, the fact that Elko County is considered rural and we qualified for the USDA Rural Development Title II Guaranteed Loan (or something like that), made purchasing a home completely in our reach.

Monday a week ago, August 27th, we went to Spring Creek and Tuesday afternoon we made an offer. By the time we got home Wednesday night we had been outbid and our offer rejected. Lucky for us there was another house that we had been talking about, wondering if we should have offered on it instead. So Thursday we put in another offer, using email and creating PDF copies. After lunch I checked my email and our agent said that someone else had also offered on the home. Since there wasn't currently another house on the market that fit our needs we decided to do a 2nd offer, and a few hours after the first offer was sent off we gave the seller our best offer. It felt like we were begging him to sell his house to us, we felt desperate and I'm sure it showed. He accepted our offer and so we're under contract.

Since we're not experienced in purchasing and selling homes we are feeling lots of stress. Some of that was alleviated today when we received an offer from the relocation company. Ely's housing market is incredibly slow, and the prices are down a bit from what we'd like to see as sellers. We were relieved that the offer would cover the balance of our mortgage. Brien and I would take turns feeling stressed out that we might have to short sale our home.

We're now hoping to move the first part of October. As things fall into place it just makes us more anxious to sell our home and close on the new home and move past all the anxiety and stress that's associated with relocating. With any luck we'll be in Spring Creek for a long time, enjoying a view of the Ruby Mountains through our living room windows.