Location

 

Sunset from a few days ago

We had a little bit of snow today. It was another lovely lazy Saturday. We made it out to breakfast by 12! We tried a new place....Hi Spot Cafe in Madrona. I think this is my new favorite breakfast place. They have scones, which I haven't tried yet, but brought one home. My omelette was amazing with flavorful mushrooms and cheese. The coffee and bloody mary was very nice as well. It's a cute little neighborhood that I've never been to and will definitely go back.






We booked our moving truck yesterday! It's coming on April 17th. We have three days to pack it and it has to be unpacked by May 7th at a location undetermined at this point, likely a storage unit. That gives us 17 days to get to Massachusetts. Plenty of time to visit people and perhaps even a flyball tournament or whippet race along the way. One less thing to worry about. We've been thinking about things we want in a future house and making lists to organize our thoughts. When we bought this house our only requirements were that it was in a certain location, the layout was decent for us and the dogs and some garden space. It wasn't our dream house, but it's served us well.

Anyway, in our next house the requirements are: location (I want to be a short distance from a playground, stores, restaurants, places for me to work), land (has to be at least 4-5 acres and some portion flat), old (I want an old house ideally from before 1940), not astromonical taxes.  Other things that aren't absolute requirements but would be nice: fireplace, hardwood floors, 4 bedrooms, mudroom, pond/river/lake/pool, barn, sunroom/greenhouse. We have big plans for a set up that would be better for the dogs. I'd like to have a mudroom/dog room that has a doggie door leading to an outdoor dog run area.  This area would be separate from our other outdoor space. We'd also like to have enough space to exercise and train the dogs outside. I'd also like to have a dining room, playroom, and a larger master bedroom. Lots of these things probably won't happen anytime soon, but it's fun to think about. 

Here is Finley's favorite project - organizing her lotions, salves, creams etc. They have to be organized by size and each one has to be shaken and thoroughly inspected

Mellow

We've been having a nice mellow January so far,  which is nice. We are enjoying our last few months in Seattle. Last weekend we went out for breakfast, to the farmers market and took the dogs for a run and then spent the rest of the day cooking. It was perfect and relaxing. On Sunday I took Goose herding and then took Indy and Pax to flyball practice. During the week starting in January I have Finley home with me on Tuesday and Wednesday and Ben has her on Friday. On Tuesdays we have gym class just a few blocks away. It's so cute to watch her jumping and tumbling. The trampoline is the best.

Finley is still getting more teeth. She's got a few pushing through right now. As usual with daycare, she has been sick off and on and has had on going ear infections. We've decided not to treat with antibiotics, but keep watching them and giving her immune boosting supplements. We are avoiding antibiotics as much as possible. Also she's got a toe nail with fungus, that we've sucessfully treated with a plant called Neem.

The amount of time that this kid spends sleeping is amazing (or so we thought). It turns out that she quietly plays in her crib a for awhile. Yesterday she starting making noise to get up at around 10:30 am (who knows how long she was up before that). And then wanted a nap at 2 pm. I put her in and went to check on her every so often. She didn't actually fall asleep until 3 pm and then we woke her up at 5 pm for dinner. Her favorite toys right now are stacking blocks and her "purse", which contains various business cards for organizing. Favorite foods are still almost anything, but the best thing are grapes, cottage cheese, yogurt, pineapple, sausage, cheese, bread, kefir, eggs, olives, broccoli. She still isn't ready for potty training, but has finally started to ask for diaper changes and will bring the wipes and a diaper. She is also very good about putting things away and taking things out that we ask. When she is hungry, we tell her to get her bib and she goes running for it.  Talking is getting better too. Lots of it is not possible to understand, but she is trying lots of new words and putting them together.

We are still working on slowly packing up our house and getting rid of things that aren't worth selling or bringing. All of our off season clothes, most decorations and books are packed. We decided to find a 6 month-1 year apartment to rent when we get there and house shop after our house here in Seattle sells. So we are focused on finding a rental for May 1st.

Ben finally heard from Tufts! He has an interview on Feb 6th! We are very excited that he has make it one step further. While we are moving either way, it would make this move much more positive if we knew he was admitted to start school in the fall. We are crossing our fingers!

Owl Through 20 Months