Lately...

Before he realized I was taking his picture...

And after!

Family: we've actually been on a mini-tour of the southeast. Well, Gadsden, that is. We went down a couple of weekends ago for one of Walden's oldest (as in history, not as in age) friends' wedding reception. Question, does the apostrophe come before or after the "s"? The newlywed is the light blue polo...you can tell by how big his grin still is...

It was good to see Walden with some of his childhood friends. Lets you know where he comes from, I guess, or some other cheesy platitude. 

Then we went down last weekend to help Walden's dad & stepmother celebrate twenty years of wedded bliss and shared craziness. They had a renewing of their vows at the Bellenger house, a beautiful old home built in, I think, 1886. It really was a nice ceremony, and I saw a grown man cry. Well, more so tear up than cry, but I'm sticking to my story. Even my parents came up for that, so we also got to celebrate Mother's Day with them, so that was nice. All of Walden's brothers and sister came too with their collected spouses & children. The third man in the picture is the judge (Judge Rey?) who married them twenty years ago, so that was a pleasant little touch. We also got to see a lot of family that we haven't seen in months - Walden's extended family, aunts, uncles, people who are somehow related, maybe by blood, or maybe just by long-enough association...gotta love it. Family, that is.

But ours all the same.

Weeeeee!

Well, we have narrowed it down to this particular neighborhood. The subdivision is built on an old dairy farm, & there are still farms back behind it, so it's really quiet out there. But it's located just minutes off the interstate, so it would take us twenty minutes tops to get to work. Also, there is a mall close by, & a brand new Target (what! what!) a couple miles away. They're also building a lot of other new stores & commercial areas, so we're pretty centrally located.

The main thing that drew us into this particular neighborhood was the community pool, clubhouse & playground. It's perfect for our family! And homeowners get to reserve the clubhouse & pool up to four times a year without charge. I've been envisioning Max's birthday parties at the pool...

This particular home actually has a contingent contract on it, & it's listed about $15k higher than we want to spend on a house. But the good news is with a contingent contract, the home is still technically on the market - if someone (read: us) were to put an acceptable offer on the home, then the other couple has 24 hours to either choose to buy it, or walk away from it. The issue with contingent contracts, though, is the other couple hasn't sold their other home yet - so the purchase of this house is contingent on whether they sell their other house (in Florida, nonetheless) , or if the realtor accepts another offer. If we were to put an offer on the house & the realtor were to accept it, then the other couple would be forced to buy it now & carry two mortgages, or keep looking. Bam! That's right, people, just move right along.

Also, this home has about $12k worth of upgrades than the standard floor plan: the porch rail is an upgrade, plus hardwoods in the foyer & dining room, an island in the kitchen, a smooth-top stove, a utility sink in the garage, & the other little upgrades to the hardware - brushed nickel door knobs, faucets, etc. if I remember correctly. 

The builders of this subdivision are wanting to build about twenty more new homes as soon as the weather permits, so they've really been pushing these homes that are already built. The realtor actually showed us four more homes he wants to sell us. Two are unfinished, & if we were to choose one of them, we could probably get all the upgrades without the cost (floors, appliances, etc.) - they're major downfall, though, is the backyard. Both of them back up into a little country road (it doesn't even have a yellow line) but the yard has a pretty severe downward slope. But it is on a cul-de-sac, which is a perk. Walden would have quite a time mowing that sucker though.

The other two are finished, & he's ready to drop the price by about $10k - no upgrades, but that would put us even lower than what we want to spend. The backyards to those two though are even more steep (would be a kickass yard when it snowed...all the kids would come to our yard then), but because the house sits so much higher than the backyard, it has a crawl space under the deck, and it backs up to a huge field that they won't be building anymore homes on because there's a small creek back there. Past the backyard, the field is about the size of a football field - meaning Max would have plenty of room to kick a soccer ball around or something, & our closest neighbors behind us would be about 200 yards away from our deck.

All five houses are the same floor plan too, same layout, same square footage - but almost $20k in price difference between the least & most expensive. So needless to say, our biggest dilemma isn't finding a home...we've already found five!

Well, it finally snowed in our little pocket of the world. Enough to stick, and enough to make some serious snowballs. For the record, I absolutely won the snowball fight. Max didn't stand a chance.

Well, we're a small family big on love in the heart of Orange Country, Tennessee. That was the dorkiest introduction ever, but I doubt anyone cares.

This is probably the fourth or fifth blog I have started with every intention of keeping our extended family across the country in our lives, but like its predecessors, this blog will probably also fall by the wayside a few months from now. So...sorry.

In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy peeks into our lives! From our points of view...it sure is a fun ride.