Yellow Wallpaper

Last week we finally closed on the house; yes, we've been living here for three weeks now and thought we were going to close much more quickly. It has been a long and weird saga and none of us understand why the seller's bank felt such a need to make things difficult. But now Mr. Fob and I are the proud owners of our very own home and a mortgage that looks pretty daunting from this point of view (seeing 2040 on several papers kind of freaked me out a bit--hopefully we'll pay it off sooner than that). The only thing that has kept me going has been the assurance that this is the right place for us. I really don't know how to explain it any more than that; this whole time I've had a feeling that we are supposed to live here for some reason, and that somehow things would work out. It wasn't just the house itself, though it is perfect for us. I've had some doubts because it is pretty big. The family that owned it for a long time had 10 children; we only have thr...

Last Tuesday I came home from an appointment and Mr. Fob greeted me by asking 'what's the happiest news I could give you right now?' I guessed, correctly, that it had something to do with our house. The seller's bank finally did whatever it was they needed to do for us to close on it, so we scheduled closing and moving. Since we were anxious to move and we had time off for the holiday we made plans to move last Friday. This was probably one of our craziest moves yet, though not as bad as the time we suddenly had to switch apartments due to water damage a few years ago. We spent most of Thursday packing what we could. Mr. Fob's sister was awesome and helped us out for most of the day as well. I avoided lifting anything but still ended up completely exhausted for the entire weekend. I tried getting in touch with our home teachers on Thursday and wasn't able to, so reluctantly had to call Friday morning to tell them we were moving within a few hours. Amazingly we h...

This afternoon Mr. Fob and I spent several hours hanging around our new home (we hope) with the home inspector and the real estate agent. The inspection went well, and though the home is a bit old it doesn't have any major problems. It gave me some time to really get a feel for the place and I noticed that it's easier to notice flaws when you're spending more time than a quick walk-through with an agent. For the first little while I did feel a little worried about the things I didn't like; we've moved so much during the last few years that I'll admit I've developed a habit of focusing on all the negative aspects of our homes in an effort to not repeat those mistakes. After a while of hanging around and visualizing where everything will go in my new kitchen I realized that I do like the place even if it isn't perfect. Not only that, but it will be ours and we can change some of the little things we don't like. Now we just have to get the bank to get a...

When I started this blog four years ago I didn't realize that it would turn into a chronicle of the constant upheaval that has marked our lives for the last few years. A quick look at the archives reveals over twenty posts labelled " moving ", and reading through them brings back such strong memories that the stress hormones start racing through my blood all over again. I thought this time would be different because we had a nice house picked out and we were moving somewhere familiar and cheaper. Plus we weren't dragging things out over several days or weeks and Mr. Fob actually still has a job. Well, I discovered that moving is never fun. This move was a little less painful than others, but more in the way of ripping off a band-aid rather than peeling it slowly. Still hurts. Friday morning we picked up the moving van and loaded it up. That morning actually went pretty well; we had a lot of people show up to help us load the truck and clean our apartment. I was so gra...

We just signed a lease on a house in Orem . It has many of the things we would like to have in a home: a yard, a garage, three bedrooms, central air, and a great location close to an elementary school and park. It has a few things we didn't really want, like an occupied basement apartment and no dishwasher. We also haven't seen any pictures of it; Mr. Fob's sister agrees with the landlord in warning us that the kitchen is small and old. Nice kitchen was lower on our list than garage and neighborhood, so we ended up compromising. And this is the third time in a row that we've moved into a place without seeing it first. We wanted to do things differently but keep reminding ourselves that we're too poor to have the ideal life we'd like to have, and this really is the cheapest and most convenient way to move. Hopefully I won't regret this, but I'm looking forward to seeing it in just two weeks. At least we're only a few blocks from a pool.

I have a few things I've been wanting to write posts about, but I haven't been able to get around to writing posts. So it's time to clear out the brain space and get it out there. First of all, we've come to a decision about our life plan. Mr. Fob explains it in much more detail here , but the short version is that we've decided to move back to Utah this summer. A few weeks ago we confessed to each other that we've been harboring secret desires to live in that state, and we both feel pretty happy about this plan. We're looking forward to getting back close to family and I'm already praying that Mr. Fob can find a good job soon. I'm also considering applying to teach part-time this fall, but that might depend a bit on what else I've got going on my life. I can't believe that by the time we get there in June it will have been a year since we've seen most of you. Time is flying too fast. Second, I actually feel relieved at the thought of mov...

I think this is probably the longest amount of time I've gone without posting since I started blogging three years ago. We've had some trouble with getting the internet hooked up in our new place, which has been a headache not only for my personal use but also because Mr. Fob needs it for work. Today we finally found out that AT&T delivered our modem to us last week, before we even moved in and despite telling us that they couldn't get service to us before we had moved in. Thankfully the office had the modem and we were able to hook things up, but we are still very annoyed with both AT&T as well as Comcast for being entirely confusing and unhelpful when it comes to installing internet for us. Blah. But we made it and our now in our lovely spacious new apartment. And California decided to bless us with a heat wave this week in honor of moving in. It's going to be 100 degrees today, and the wall unit in the living room mostly just cools the living room and kitc...

After four weeks of visiting we finally left Utah yesterday afternoon. It was nice to visit all of our family members and friends who live there, but I think we'd all agree that a month is a pretty long time to visit. As much as we like everyone, Mr. Fob and I are anxious to get back into a home of our own. It really was a great visit, and as we drove away with our car packed full of hand-me-downs for S-Boogie and Little Dude as well as birthday presents for them, we felt grateful for the generosity of our family members. Thanks everyone for letting us visit. Now we're in Las Vegas for a few more days of fun. Yesterday we spent two hours in the pool with the kids, and then we had a delicious dinner and dessert. True to form the kids refused to go to sleep in yet another new place. Things were also complicated because Little Dude wanted to sleep in a bed (not his crib) and kept crawling in with his sister in her bed. Then this morning the kids got up at 6:30 thanks to the time c...

So, remember my last post about how wonderful moving was? And how I was so excited to be doing it? I think reality caught up to me sometime around two this morning while driving through Boise. We had a lovely Fourth of July, which included a very short local parade (one fire truck and a few random people), a pancake breakfast, and a barbecue with friends. It also included a whole lot of frantic packing, continued on Saturday morning. On Saturday afternoon we had a bunch of guys from church show up and empty our apartment in less than half an hour. Then we realized that our stuff wasn't all going to fit into our moving cubes. About two hours later we finally made it fit by giving up our bed. It was either getting rid of it or a bunch of smaller things, and I figured the bed would be the easiest to replace. Then we had to spend Saturday night cleaning and Sunday morning entertaining children in a barren apartment. After church some sweet friends had us over for lunch and we finally ...

This afternoon I decided to suck it up and clean our fridge, since I haven't cleaned it since some time last year and it's now nearly empty (anyone in Seattle want a half-empty bottle of Hoisin sauce?). While I was cleaning, Mr. Fob received a phone call from the moving cube people saying that they are willing to drop the cubes off on Saturday instead of Monday. This accelerates our moving plans a bit, but we're actually both happy about it. I'm definitely going to miss our friends (and the nice summer weather) here in Seattle, but we're getting to the point where we're ready to pack up our stuff and head off to a new adventure. I'm looking forward to seeing all our friends and family in Utah for a few weeks. So tomorrow we're going to spend the holiday enjoying a parade, pancake breakfast, and barbecue with friends. Then Saturday we'll hopefully farm our kids out to friends and spend the day packing like mad. Sunday Mr. Fob will clean the apartment...

I've already been a big fan of Craigslist , but the last few days have really deepened my affection. During this last week we've been watching the "free" section like hawks in order to score moving boxes. And we have, including about 20 small boxes we picked up last night. Then tonight some neighbors who are moving generously shared a bunch they had received through Craigslist (thanks so much!), and I think we might be getting closer to the amount we need (crossing my fingers). I've also managed to sell a number of smaller items that we've been trying to get rid of, and we have a few other things we may just end up giving away for free since I don't really need them. Last night we listed our washer and dryer, and all day my inbox has been full of people desperate to take them off our hands. I listed them early thinking that it would take a while, but the peace of mind and extra space from selling them is probably worth being without them for a week. Hopef...

I actually gave away a lot of books, but we still ended up with about twenty boxes worth of books in the corner of our living room. And we haven't even packed up the kids' books yet!

Unlike the last time we moved, so far this time is going much more smoothly. Keeping my fingers crossed. We have signed a lease for an apartment in California starting on August 7 and have arranged for our stuff to be shipped from here on July 7. I'm trying to get more excited about the apartment; it's bigger than here, has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and a dishwasher. It's also really close to campus. Even more importantly, they're actually renting to us long distance. But every time I think about the rent I want to throw up. And we won't have our own laundry in our apartment any more. So if anyone reading this lives in Seattle and wants to buy a cheap washer and dryer, let me know. Or a gliding rocking chair. During the month that we are without housing we will be wandering nomads in Utah and Nevada. Again, I have mixed feelings about this. I'm really looking forward to seeing family and friends, but I know that by the end of that month we'll be read...

The good news is that I am teaching a class this quarter. There's only one available, and even though I'll miss the extra money I'm looking forward to more free time. And it means that we have more income and a plan through the end of June. The other good news is that the college of Humanities at Davis has awarded me a special four-year fellowship. I get tuition and a stipend for four years of school, plus I don't have to teach the first or fourth year. Hopefully this means that I'll actually be able to get finished up in four years. I'm not sure since I might have to take some extra classes because I'm going from a single-language program into comparative literature. I don't really know yet what my requirements are or anything like that. The bad news is that my stipend at Davis doesn't start until November first. It's also just enough to cover rent and maybe a bit more, so one of us needs to get a part-time job. And Mr. Fob's stipend ends in...

Mr. Fob brought today's mail with him when he came to pick me up at the airport. I'm glad he did because there was a little letter from the University of Oregon: they didn't accept me to their program. This is fine because I made up my mind this weekend to accept the offer from Davis; getting rejected from Oregon just makes things easier. I've had several people tell me--and not just the ones working for Davis--that Berkeley's program is really not great right now and they don't give a lot of support to students. And if we're going to live somewhere expensive I'd rather go for the city that's only 150 percent above the national cost of living versus 180 percent. We'll miss being neighbors to the Ttheed family, but maybe we can convince them to move out to the valley with us. Did you know there's a housing development there that not only boasts solar power and communal gardens but also has streets named after Middle Earth geography? I'm al...

According to my horoscope in Southwest Airline's magazine, "The March 7 new moon plants pleasant surprises in your path, urging you to embrace serendipity rather than kick it to the curb." This afternoon I decided to spend a little time looking at apartments here in Davis on craigslist. A listing popped up for a two-bedroom apartment at a somewhat reasonable price available on August 5 ; not only that, but it was within walking distance from my hotel. So I hurried on over and gave the complex a looking over. We were hoping for something a little bigger, but it's a nice complex and we would have two bathrooms and a dishwasher. Oh, and air conditioning (a big plus during the hot summers here). We have until Monday to decide if we want to sign a contract. The somewhat serendiptious nature of finding the apartment leads me to want to take it, but I'm afraid of placing too much stock in what could just be a coincidence. On the other hand, the summer we spent trying to ...

Last night we finally unpacked the very last box. Plus we got a free couch yesterday. It's kind of beat up and definitely looks like a free couch, but at least it doesn't smell like one now that I washed the cushion covers. It was the only one I could find on craigslist that would deliver, so we couldn't really be picky. There's no way we were going to fit a couch into our car. We did, however, find a nice dining set, a free desk, a dresser for the kids room, and a nice little bed for S-Boogie. And we managed to furnish our place for just under 200 dollars, with most of that going for the dining set. We liked the bed from Ikea, but it wasn't in stock and we found one on craigslist for half the price. I'm not super happy about our couch, but at least we have one and maybe we can find a nice slipcover for it. I think I would eventually like to get a rug for the living area also, since we have brown carpet, brown drapes and brown bookcases. A lighter-colored rug wo...

Actually, the move has mostly not sucked after all. I'm just feeling tired from too many late nights and too much stress. We are in Seattle, and our apartment is partially unpacked. We still need to track down furniture, but at least we have internet access. And S-Boogie is overjoyed by the fact that we have a playground right outside our front door. On Tuesday we met one of our new neighbors as we were moving in, and when we pointed out which apartment we would be in he knowningly replied "Oh, the fishbowl". Yeah, I think we know why this one was vacant for a while and why we were the ones who got it, since we were willing to take it without looking. We have a nice big sliding glass door and a little patio off our living room, and about 10 feet away from our door is a walking path. Just beyond the path is a fence and then the entrance to University Village, the large outdoor mall that's right behind our housing complex. There are a few trees, but they don't do a ...

But they're changing for a really good reason! University housing somehow managed to find an apartment that's available for us next Tuesday, September 12. That means no temporary apartment, no storage for a month, etc. We're still going through with the move on the schedule that we had planned, since we've already arranged for our utilities to be shut off here this weekend, and I have plane tickets, and Master Fob has to be there on Monday for his job. We'll just get to stay in a hotel for Monday night (well, Master Fob gets to stay in a hotel for a few nights). We actually have a real, confirmed address and we're going to be able to move right in. Whew--I think this is the craziest move ever! (Hopefully it's still not going to be as bad as the time my family moved from California to Idaho and all five of us kids managed to get the stomach flu at some point during the three-day drive).

I can't believe this week is already here! We've already started packing up some stuff and have quite a few things in boxes. All the furniture we wanted to get rid of has found a home--a few things went through craigslist (I'm typing on top of a box since our computer desk has a new home), a few more pieces went to our next door neighbors that recently got married and have no furniture, and our lovely futon couch is going to a new home with friends in Salt Lake. I would have liked to make a little more money on our furniture, but it's all so old and junky and we'd rather be kind and generous than make a profit. We'll just look for free junky furniture in Seattle. Today and tomorrow Master Fob is working, so I don't know if I'll get any more packing done. Plus we're temporarily out of boxes for the moment. Thursday is our big day for packing everything up. Friday morning we get the truck, load it up, and Master Fob and his brother leave for Seattle. I...