Photo Challenge: Day 24

This is Jordan's BLT lunch. The rest of us don't eat pork - just her & Tim these days. I posted this to remind me to tell you something funny I came across this week:

Did you realize that if you say "beer can" with a British accent, you're also saying "Bacon" with a Jamaican accent?

Try it...see?...isn't that so funny?!!!

Photo Challenge: Day 23

Summer Time Vegetarian...well, almost.

In the summer, it's hot in the Phoenix area. In fact, the past 2 weeks have been between 107 and 112, every day. When we get those couple of weeks of extreme heat, no one feels like cooking, nor eating a heavy meal. Summertime is when we (almost) become vegetarians. We eat lots of fresh fruits that are in season - the berries, peaches, and nectarines, the peppers, summer squash & zucchini, fennel, and more! Meat becomes something we still eat, but it's more of an ingredient in something else rather than a big hunk taking up 1/3 of the plate. Take this picture for example...

I made a great stir-fry the other day. I tried to get in every color of the food spectrum for the most nutrients. I had red peppers, carrots, yellow squash, bok choy, fennel, purple cabbage, celery, and zucchini. I made it with sesame oil, ginger, and Bragg's Liquid Aminos (like a healthier soy sauce). I did add chicken to it, but only very small cubes that had been marinaded in teriyaki sauce, fried til they were cooked, then broiled for that crisp edge. I made a huge wok full of this stir fry and it was so good! I enjoyed eating it for lunch for 2 days afterwards.

Other summer lighter ideas are tuna in cucumber boats or cups, salads topped with chicken, tuna or egg salad, salads with berries & nuts, and lots of fruit salads - with and without yogurt.

Once the heat is back under 100 degrees, we'll change our eating habits to what's in season then, but for the summer - we're (almost) vegetarians.

Photo Challenge: Day 22

This is Sammy. He belongs to our friends that are traveling east for a month. He's been babied and spoiled and now he's spending a month with us. Jordan's asked for a dog for the past 5 years, so I figured this would be the best way to see if the novelty of a dog wears off soon, and if she'll really be responsible for all it takes to have a dog. We've had Sammy for a full week as of today. He's been great. He doesn't bark a lot, never even thinks about making a mess in the house, he doesn't scratch doors or anything (he waits patiently by the door to go in or out), and he sleeps by my feet almost the entire day. I guess I really couldn't have asked for a better experience babysitting a dog. He's not a puppy, he's actually pretty old, so we knew he wouldn't be hyperactive or anything. The first night he jumped up at every unfamiliar noise, but now he's fine - even when Adam gets up for work from 2:30 to 3:30am. Not only does Jordan get to "have" a dog for most of her summer break, but our friends were generous enough to pay us for watching Sammy and guess what?...it was enough to purchase all of next year's curriculum for Logan & Jordan! Perfect timing. Great dog. Good experience.

Photo Challenge: Day 21

TARPING - the one thing that distinguishes between driving a flatbed or driving a box truck.

Tim chose driving a flatbed instead of a box truck because of a few reasons:
1. It pays a bonus of $11 - $22 to tarp/untarp loads he'd be transporting.
2. The per mile amount is higher overall if you drive a flatbed.
3. The best company that fit our needs doesn't have a box truck division in Phoenix yet.

So Tim has had to learn the art of tarping & untarping his loads. It's not something they really teach you in truck driving school. They give you guidelines based on general sizes, or weights, or materials the load consists of - but nothing too definitive. Most of what he's had to do comes from over-the-road experience and asking other drivers. He's had everything from hay bales, to steel tubes, to oversized-load fans, to spools of copper, bags of salt, and so much more. I had no idea there was so much to it. Between straps, bungee cords, and tarps, there's got to be hundreds of combinations!

Father's Day, Tim had to head back out on the road after church, so we went to take him to his truck where he had to put 2 tarps over his load before he could leave. Logan agreed to help him so it could be done in half the time. The biggest challenges: The tarps weight as much as Tim now that he's down to just 150 lbs, if the company forgot to put the tarps on the load with their forklift, he'd have to climb up a ladder dragging it, then on top of the load, dragging it. Also it was about 110 degrees that day and the trucks in a cement parking lot. Strapping dozens of cords & straps would take 2 hours or more by himself.

Logan did a great job, the company did remember to put the tarps on top for him, and they got done in only an hour. In heat like that, I was so glad Logan is such a hard worker and good helper.

Photo Challenge: Day 20

The Father's Day cake that Logan made...

Logan: "Mom, the cake came out uneven because the oven's on a hill. What do I do?"
Me: (assuming he used actual CAKE pans)..."Take it out of the pan and trim off the part that sticks up. Then flip it over and frost the smooth bottom of it."

Logan: "It fell apart and the entire middle of the cake is still in the pan, stuck."

I got up to see how bad it really was. He tried to flip the whole 9" x 11" cake out of the glass baking dish onto a paper towel, to make it easier to flip back into the dish later, he said. When it stuck, he put the stuck part in the hole on the paper towel. THEN he called me in. Too late to fix it now. He just covered the whole thing with the entire can of frosting, which was white but he added flavorings & color to it.

It was an honest try. It still tasted good, and was a nice gesture on his part for Tim on Father's Day. I didn't want to make him feel bad, so I simply said, "Logan, you and I cook. Jordan bakes."

Photo Challenge: Day 19

FREE! It's my favorite word, especially when it comes from smartly hunting out grocery bargains and matching them to coupons. In this picture, everything in it was free! The bath tissue, the deodorant, air fresheners, toothpaste, toothbrushes, all of it! And that's just from one week.
Other weeks, I've gotten free relish, yogurt, dish detergent, salad dressings, mints, and more!

I love seeing the savings to my family every week, and I really enjoy teaching others how to do the same. I'm so thankful for my new friend, Kara Rozendaal, who showed me how to maximize them. If you've ever said:

- I only buy store brands so they won't work for me.
- I don't have hours on end to cutting, gathering, and organizing a binder full of coupons.
- They're really only good on baby products & pet stuff, so we don't need them.
- I'm a good "by the unit price" shopper, so I save more than that 15 cents coupon on the name brand.

That's where I was. I said all those same things. Truth was, I shopped store brands, dollar stores, clearance racks, and I did save, but I also had to be willing to sacrifice quality. Most things were watered down or didn't perform as well as the national brands. All I looked at was that I saved more on the store brand than a coupon's face value on a non-sale item. There's so much more to it!

Now I buy $4 mayo for under $2. I never pay as much as $1 for cereal or pasta. I get coconut and almond milk for about the same price as store brand regular milk, yogurts are usually half price (off the sale price) or better when I get done. And I consistently pay a lot less for turkey sausage, kielbasa, and Lloyd's shredded beef & chicken than most people.

If you'd like to know how to save on everyday items, from snacks, to food, to personal care & paper items, let me know. I'd be happy to show you how.

Photo Challenge: Day 18

Okay, it's hard to write about me. I've spent years scrapbooking and journaling about others around me, always from behind the scenes. But I do realize that this photo challenge is to capture our world - and since I feel it's my job to tie it all together and make it work on a daily basis - I'll include a brief snapshot into ME.

I can't write about myself because I know me differently than how others see me (they aren't in my head hearing my thoughts, fears, and hopes). Instead, I'll just give a list of words that describe me, my likes, my habits, my world. Here goes:

Pink (the color, not the singer), denim, scrapbooking, 80's, Phantom of the Opera, Air 1 radio, my faith, open book, reading, cooking, "doing tea", coffee, vanilla not chocolate, sunshine, tanning, encourager, swimming, palm trees, no snow, hate the cold, family, building memories, couponing, homeschooling, Facebook, Zumba, Monavie, learning, friends, extended family, board games, loyal, helpful, teaching, bible studies, writing, blogging, motorcycle rides with Tim, dogs, bubble gum flavored anything, sneakers over heels, roller skating, ice skating, Chinese food, Greek anything, life is funny, humor over jokes, detailed planner, organization, the answer person, solution oriented, clean house, organics, non-GMO, conservative republican but respect others' rights to think differently, share my faith but not pushy or judgemental, lunch with Mom, and long phone conversations with Tim while he's on the road.

Photo Challenge: Day 17

Logan...if Jordan is a "mini me" in her appearance, then Logan is a "mini Tim" in his. They look so much alike, but they're so different in so many ways.

Tim: introvert, quick to judge, snap decisions, always running late or taking a long time to get things done, prefers to stay home and watch superhero cartoons & movies.

Logan: extrovert, accepts everyone where they're at, agonizes over decisions, ready to run out the door in a flash to be with friends, hates staying home, likes the latest, greatest, action movies.

They see people differently. They empathize with others (or not) differently. They have very different opinions on things. Their idea of fun varies quite a bit. But yet, they actually have so much in common. They share many of the same strengths:

Both: Are loyal to those they love most, are very hard-working, have very inventor/engineering minds, understand physics like no one else I've ever met, share the same hobbies (like shooting, camping, playing guitar, etc.), and come to the rescue when someone needs help. They are the last 2 boy scouts in my book. As Tim once put it, "I even change tires for UGLY women." They'll get the door for the elderly person behind them, they'll ask if someone needs help when they see them looking around confused. They're first to jump in at an event when they call for volunteers to help set up or tear down the room. They're both very, very smart about a wide variety of things. And in a survival situation - my money's on them.

I treasure my homeschooling years to really, intimately, know all the little details about each family member. I know their strengths, weaknesses, hopes, dreams, failures, lessons learned, points of views, and most of all...I know their hearts.

I see so much more when I look at this picture. I see a Father and Son, and all that goes into being who they are.

Photo Challenge: Day 16

Raising the First-Born...They say the oldest of the siblings grows up to be more driven, more responsible, and more independent. In my experience, I find that to be true. I'm the oldest, so is Tim, so you'd expect that we'd understand Adam, our own first-born better, right? Also, my personality is a Melancholy (the thinker, planner, list-maker & organizer). That's the same as Adam's main personality too, except that his can often border on OCD, but he's doing much better these days.

So why so many struggles as we were raising Adam? I think it's the being independent that really makes the difference. He's always been a hard worker and more responsible than anyone else his age (more than most adults, to be honest), but that independent streak is so strong in him! We have a great relationship because I've homeschooled him. I've been there for everything in his life. I've never missed a sporting practice, game, tournament, play, or anything else important to him. We've had thousands of hours to discuss life, politics, faith, dating, life skills, careers, personalities, academics, music, friends, plans for the future and disappointments. Tim, unfortunately, had to be gone for most of his childhood to provide a living so I was ABLE to do those things for our kids. That put them on very different sides of almost every issue for about 5 years.

Adam begged to work at an early age so he could be responsible and buy himself those things he wanted just weren't in our budget - brand name shoes, skinny jeans, video games, movies with friends - to his credit, he's never asked us for a penny for anything - not even once that I remember. If he wanted or needed it, he found a way to earn it. Anyway, being in a new environment where people were lazy, selfish, and had little if any character traits worth copying, changed Adam. He stopped appreciating what he had and instead, complained because his life wasn't as "easy" as he thought his friends had it. Granted they may have had parents buy them more stuff, or they took vacations to exotic places, but Adam failed to see that they lived in a home with an alcoholic, or drugs, or had been through rough divorces in their home, or never had either parent around - which led to life-altering poor choices in these kids' lives.

Then we had to move to the mountains. Although it was pretty traumatic for him to leave his friends, have to quit his job and be broke, live in a very isolated, rural area with nothing much for teenagers to do...it did do a lot of good as well. He learned to appreciate what he had. He began to see the poor choices of others for what they were, and how they led to bigger issues down the road. He learned to work hard again after thinking he could be lazy and "deserved" to make the salary of an experienced professional at the inexperienced age of 16 (I believe his words were, "I'm all done with physical labor and minimum wage jobs." - at 16!!!). Over those 2 years, he grew, matured, learned, and worked. When we returned to the Valley, he came back happy, out-going, willing to do physical work at odd hours for things he needed.

Over the last few years, Tim too has undergone changes. He's had time to rest from almost 15 years in high-stress sales jobs and working 60 - 70 hour work weeks. He had time to live where there's space, open sky, clean air and water, and to sleep in - a lot! He's also grown and matured. He let go of selfishness and trying to have so much control over others that he was micromanaging everyone and everything. Now he's in a job where he's gone a lot, and it gets lonely, but when he's home, he's really home and with us. He's not overly stressed, doesn't do a lot of physical (although he works hard in spurts, it's not a taxing job all the time). He gets plenty of sleep and rest. And when he's home, he wants to be with us, doing family things together, and he's learned to appreciate his children, and their individual personalities and strengths. He's more accepting of their weaknesses as he's learned to understand his own. He's become the husband and father I've always known he could be.

So here we are about 4 years later. Tim and Adam, his first-born, now on a new journey to discover each other all over again, through new perspectives. Each learning how valuable the other is, and both appreciating their time together.

I love this picture of them sharing a moment together and smiling. Although Logan looks more like Tim on the outside, I see lots of Tim in Adam, on the inside. And I love them both.

Photo Challenge: Day 15

Still Daddy's Girl - Jordan has always been very clingy with me, but she's always been Daddy's Girl, too. When she was an infant and a toddler, she was Punki-doo to him. She would race to the door to be the first to greet Tim when he got home from work. She would sneak into the room (with my permission first) to tickle his toes sticking out from the edge of the blanket to wake him up in the morning. She watched cartoons and movies from his lap instead of just on the sofa or floor.

Once she was starting school, she became "Monkey Duck" to Daddy. I'm not sure where it came from, I think I'd feel insulted being called a Monkey Duck but she always liked it. She even used it as a password for a game page she used to go to. Maybe it's just knowing she was special to her Daddy? That he picked her name just for her, and only to be used by him. She knew she "belonged" to him.

In the early teen years, Jordan's been more independent and moody, as expected. She's had lots of times when her own insecurities and Tim's stress levels caused them to drift apart a little, but her new name is "Chickie". Now I think I gave that to her, but maybe I got it from Tim, not sure - but it defines yet another season of her life.

Now that Tim's home time is special and he's changed so much that he's a joy to be around, she's once again, Daddy's Girl. She wants to talk to him on the phone when he calls. She wants to cook and bake things for him when he's home. She wants to go with me to pick him up. And I even notice how she dresses up for his arrivals and departures.

I don't know what her new nickname will be once she's an adult, done with school, but I'm sure they'll have a new pet name he'll call her, and she'll plan dates with him to have coffee, or lunch, or to feed the ducks in the park.

I aggressively protect my relationship with Tim, but with Jordan, I don't mind sharing him with her one bit.

Photo Challenge: Day 14

This photo challenge is to take time to enjoy the everyday moments around me. One of the highlights of our family's month is when Tim comes home for a few days. Things run pretty smooth while he's on the road for 2 to 3 weeks at a time, but when he's home, we change things up quite a bit.

We have a ton of errands to do when he first gets home so he can leave for his next trip fully stocked with things he needs to make his trip more successful. It means grocery store runs, Dollar stores, usually some kind of new tool to make his job easier, and a trip to American Discount Foods. They buy out other grocery stores' and restaurants' inventories and sell great stuff, brand names, high quality items - but at a fraction of the cost.

Anyway, after the initial errands are run, we stop having any type of schedule and just let Tim relax and play it by ear. We take time to eat a sit-down meal together as a family. We take time to watch movies on Netflix or from the library. We may go to the park, or walk around Ikea for ideas, or walk around some stores for exercise. We just let our days unfold while he's home, since it's only a day or two that he gets to rest and feel like he's been on vacation.

It's sad when he has to leave again, but this new schedule has made all 5 of us appreciate each other more. The kids have learned to follow my leadership, I've learned to give each of them individual attention where they're at, the kids miss Tim while he's gone and want to be around when he's home, and when Tim's here, he's actually "all here" with us. He's not stressing over not being at work like when he was in sales. He's calm, more understanding, less demanding, and enjoys doing things together as a family - as well as making time for just the two of us to be alone too.

We miss him, and someday he won't have to be gone so much, but for now, I think it's what we all needed to get where we are right now, and it's what's best for everyone. I appreciate Tim's sacrifices that he's made and continues to make to provide us with a wonderful home, in a great neighborhood, living where we want to live, with the resources we need. I pray that I never take it for granted.

Photo Challenge: Day 13

You know what I love about our new home? It's comfortable. I feel so relaxed when I'm at home. Maybe it's all the neutral colors? Maybe it's because everything is new and in great working order? Maybe because it's the nicest home we've had since Dover, NH back in 2003? I don't really know, but I love being at home.

I can nap or read on my bed and be at peace in my room. I can stay focused and clear-headed typing away at my kitchen table, I can feel God's peace as I read my bible in my chair on the back patio, I can relax completely sitting on the sofa watching a movie with one of the kids, I even feel contentment as I fold laundry in the new laundry room.

They say a man's home is his castle. I say for this woman, my home is my refuge, my place to ease into the mornings, rest and restore my soul during the night, and create great memories with my family and friends during the days.

Even Furlough has her favorite spots to relax and take a nap - like hiding in the dark corner of my room in the laundry basket.

Photo Challenge: Day 12

Reinventing or Rediscovering?

Logan is like many teens (and adults)...he's always in the process of reinventing himself - or is it just rediscovering?

Reinventing fits, because he tries new hairstyles, new clothes, with or without hats, new styles of music, new guitar techniques, new circle of friends, and more.

I also think rediscovering works because I've watched Logan through the years. He actually cycles through things. He's got habits, mannerisms, key phrases, interests, and more that he changes, but tends to return to a few years later.

Right now, he's broadening his guitar playing to include some classical, some jazzy-sounding riffs, and he's backing off some of the more modern metal-sounding songs. He's recently changed his hairstyle again to a more front-sweeping style instead of just having it hang straight down - I like it better now. He spent a long time wearing a hand-crocheted cap from his grandmother, but now he's wearing a fedora style hat wherever he goes. He always recycles his interests in 80s music and vintage games he played as a little boy.

I don't know how long it'll take him to find who he thinks he really is and feel comfortable with where he's at. Some people spend a lifetime trying to figure it out, but I think he's getting closer. I think once he does, he'll rediscover what I've known all along...who he is deep down is a wonderful, loving, caring, highly intelligent, engineering, helpful, hard-working, out-going, man of God who could change the world if he really wanted to.

Photo Challenge: Day 11

Finding the perfect pair of jeans fixes everything, doesn't it? We don't have the money right now to buy big name jeans, so we just keep an eye out for a pair that might fit better than sweatpants and don't cost a fortune.

Jordan found this pair while we were in the Goodwill at the corner. Where else can you find jeans in great shape (if you search carefully) for just $7.99?! (Or half that if it's got the right colored price tag). Jordan found a pair that made her legs look thinner and longer and when she put them on, something magical seemed to happen to her. She came out of her room with her head held high, feeling more confident, just KNOWING that she looked good in them. Now when she wants to look and feel her best, these are her go-to jeans.

Yes, the perfect pair of jeans fixes everything...well, almost. But that's close enough.

Photo Challenge: Day 10

Oh, how we love to swim! Maybe it's because we were born on the seacoast. Maybe it's the heat here. Either way, our family loves to swim. Especially me and my 2 youngest. We do miss having a pool right outside our front door like we did in the condo a few years ago, but there's so many pools here that finding a place to swim isn't a problem. We have several lakes that aren't too far away, public pools that are actually managed better and cleaned more often than those I grew up in back in Massachusetts. There's also lots of friends & neighbors here with pools that invite us over to swim now and then.

This particular pool is just about a mile and a half from our house. It's only $1 for Logan & Jordan and $2.75 for me - where else can you spend a day for just $4.75 of our entertainment budget?

Jordan likes to swim, Logan enjoys the 2 water slides there, and I love tanning - so this place, especially because it's only 5 minutes away, is perfect!

Photo Challenge: Day 9

There's always something new or different to see around here. Sometimes it's a plant or flower we've never seen. Other times, it's a home feature you'd never find in New England. Sometimes it's a bug or spider that you don't want to ever see again. On this particular day, the "strange scene of the day" was a guy up in a tree quite a few stories high, trimming off all the dead branches off a tree on the next street. You know how it is...you wake up to the sound of a chain saw, and something inside you has to go see where it's coming from. I'm not sure why, but it will stay in the forefront of my mind unless I make a point to see what's going on. Well, I found it - I'm glad Tim doesn't have to do THAT for a living!

Just popped in to say Hi

My camera's not working properly right now. I'm taking pictures but it's kind of a pain to download the new ones every day. I'll try to get all caught up by Monday night, that'll be Day 18.

Photo Challenge: Day 8

Ahh, the thermometer...

When we lived in Concho, it symbolized justification for me always being cold. Very often we had a hard time keeping our bedroom, kitchen, and living room above 60 degrees. Especially at night or first thing in the morning. Our main living area was at the back of the house where we went without the sun hitting our side of the walls for 6 months out of the year, so it never got a chance to warm up. We just spent half the year in the shade. I'd look at the thermometer to prove to myself I'm not crazy about being SO cold all the time.

Now in the Valley, it's a symbol of happiness for me. I don't care that I was born in New England where it's often very cold. My body "belongs" in the heat. I look at the thermometer when it says 100, or 108, or even 110 degrees - and it makes me happy. The heat really doesn't bother me. Thankfully, I don't have to work outside in it like so many people do, and for that, I'm truly appreciative. But there's something about the way my body feels when the heat hits my joints. The pain I experienced in the cold mountains is gone. My joints feel warm and pain-free here in the Valley of the Sun, even in spite of having rheumatoid arthritis in my neck and right hand.

Seeing so much red in that thermometer is a quick reminder to be thankful for days without pain, shivering, gloominess, and sadness. And this next winter, my body will be very thankful that we live here.

Photo Challenge: Day 7

Computers - What would our life be without them?

I've recently gotten to ask myself that very question. In November, our home computer died. Fortunately we could go to the library a mile from the house and use theirs for an hour at a time, but how different our lives have become without them. I know people use them for all kinds of things, but without ours, here's how our life was different:

1. I didn't have access to Google. I love information, reading, research, and being able to look up locations, recipes, and answers to my questions as they come up. I've become rather spoiled when it comes to getting answers right away.

2. No entertainment. We lived where cable didn't exist, and we didn't have money for satellite TV (not that we watch enough to warrant the cost anyway), but when our computer died, we lost ALL forms of entertainment. We lost browsing through websites like Pinterest.com, we lost communicating with our Facebook friends & family, we lost Netflix so we had hardly any movies we haven't already seen 100 times, and we lost the chance to play the games we used to fill our days while living in such a rural place with few attractions.

3. We lost the ability to Skype with my sister - something we rarely get the chance to do with her work & nursing school schedule plus a 2 to 3 hour time zone difference.

4. I lost the ability to blog. Sometimes I just HAVE to write. It has to come out through my fingers typing or I feel like I'll go crazy. Losing that was no fun. I spent too many hours losing sleep with no outlet to blog.

5. I couldn't print out photos to scrapbook. I love to scrapbook, and it helps me get out my creative urges - but without a computer to edit & print the pictures I had taken, I was a little wound up.

I didn't grow up with computers like my kids did. In fact, I think I was 30 when we got our first one and I barely knew what to do with it. In high school, it was so new that I had "keyboarding" the year after I took typing on an electric typewriter! We learned to cut & paste, edit & delete paragraphs, and not much else. Everything was still DOS back then, no such thing as Windows.

Fast forward to Christmas. I got a laptop from Tim for my gift. It was more expensive than anything we'd ever gotten each other before, but our desktop was barely alive and was dying any minute, holding on by just a temporary attempt to fix the problems. We got it to work long enough to transfer most of the stuff out we wanted - good thing, too - because it died again about 3 days after moving here in May. Had I not gotten my laptop, our home wouldn't have a computer right now. That makes it very hard to grow an internet-based business.

I'm sorry that we've become so dependent (and expectant) on our computers, but I'm also thankful that we have one that works.

What would you do without yours?

Photo Challenge: Day 6

A neighborhood, at last!

The last 2 years were spent living in a very rural area. It had many advantages and a lot of good things came from it, but for 3 teenagers, there wasn't much to do - especially for our "middle child" who needs new things, people to see, stuff to do, and a new adventure all the time. Boredom would have led him into trouble.

Before that, we were in a very congested condo complex in the city. Although there were lots of people and cars (and stray cats), it wasn't what I'd call a neighborhood. To me, that word conjures up images of houses, green lawns, private driveways, neighbors who spend time together on the weekends, kids that grow up together. We had that back in NH for 2 1/2 years before we decided to move permanently to Arizona. After 7 years in that complex and the 2 years in the mountains, we're finally in a neighborhood again.

We're still pretty new here, so most of our interaction with our neighbors is just waving for now, but we did get to talk to one family here in our cul-de-sac that were very friendly. I'd like to get to know them a little better. There's a few teens just a few doors down, but I don't think our kids have met them yet. It's summer here, and in the Phoenix area, it's hot. People leave for vacations and the teens try to get summer jobs, so I think we'll see more of our neighbors when the fall comes. Hopefully by winter, we'll be enjoying the beautiful weather outdoors with them.

To me, a neighborhood has a community feel to it, a sense of belonging, and we feel at-home here already. The palm trees, nearby park, birds of every type, quiet streets - it's a great place to live. Almost all the streets around us are cul-de-sacs and dead-end roads. That keeps us a little more protected from speeding cars, strangers that don't belong, and excessive road noise. I don't know how long we'll stay here, or if we'll end up buying a place in a new neighborhood in a year or two, hopefully if we do, it'll be our last move for a long time. But either way, we're thankful and happy to be in Carriage Lane, our neighborhood, our home.