I Got My Wish.... It Shocked Me Anyway!

I spent the morning on the phone trying to figure out where to pay all the bills and getting the addresses changed and all that good stuff that comes on the tail of moving. Most calls were just endless journeys through automated phone systems (which I think are just shy of evil) and digitally voiced prompts. Then it happened. I called the new power company to figure out what the "bill" they sent me was supposed to mean.

They had sent me an application for membership and a "bill" with no amount. My first shock was that a person... a real person.... answered my call and asked how they could help me. I explained what I had received and he told me that up here in Elk the power company is a non-profit and is mutually owned by all the residence. My ten dollar one time fee was to add me to the account that now makes up share holders along with everyone else. Weird but this is not the shocking part I was referring to. Next he explains that the amount wasn't on the bill because you get charged after the usage each month and that the blank was to fill in the number on my meeter.

Here comes the shock, are you ready? You're not really ready, you just think you are LOL! My bill is paid "on the honor system" I am to try to read my meeter about the same time each month and then mail in the new slip with the new reading and the payment for last month. They only check the meeter if a house is sold for legal purposes. I asked if people ever skunk out and he said "Never that I have heard of. Sometimes people have trouble paying but the community usually gets together to help out". Go ahead, read it again... that is really what I just said!
This phone call comes on the tail of me chuckling to myself over the FOUR page spread in the Elk Sentinel (our local paper) with 4X6 photos of each child 9-16 who got their first deer this year (holding up the antlers... with the deer still attached mind you LOL). I feel like I am living on the set of Little House on the Prairie! My friend Leslie is right... I have teleported back to the 1950's and I couldn't be happier!

The top picture is our house from the S. W. and the bottom one is from the East

Fun with a chainsaw...

So, this was the view from our back deck before Ben got a chainsaw...

And this is the view from our back deck after Ben got a chainsaw! Much better view!

Firewood anyone...? We waited all of one night in our new house to completely rip out the kitchen and two whole nights to cut down six huge trees. The neighbors must be scared at this point. Oh well, this is how we role. LOL The kids are doing well and we are... adjusting to our new adventure one and all! Even with some interesting and very untimely setbacks, it looks like we will be done with the kitchen in less than a week so, look forward to some wild before and after shots. They will leave this one looking a little tame!

A long road ahead...

This is our new driveway. You can just barely see the house up there just to the left of it. In the spring this will be a million shades of green. I am sitting here in my chair trying not to go out of my mind not being up there already!

We had the walk through with the people buying our house Sunday morning. Actually, since it is now Monday morning, they own this house and we are renters! We are picking up the truck today and moving tomorrow. It has been such a long road getting here but it is really happening! This has been our dream literally since we got married almost fourteen years ago and I am in a state of shock that it is about to become our reality. The people who built it and lived in it until now, are a Christian family too. In fact, one of the grown sons and his wife are teachers at a home school program like the one that our kids attend here in town. Up there however, it is a full size school as there are even more home school families in that area then in Spokane.

I will not have a computer for a good week I am sure (so we will see how deep this addiction has really gone) but I will be back with a vengeance and lots of pictures of updates when I return. Now this driveway is my long road ahead and I couldn't be more grateful or excited if I tried!

EXPELLED

If you can, please take the time to watch the Ben Stein movie EXPELLED. It is a very good movie and makes the truth of the situation very clear. If you can do nothing else, please do this...

Go to this site and sign the petition. You will be asked to fill in your information and then an e-mail will be sent to you. Once you click on the link in the e-mail your name is added to the petition and you will not receive anything else from them unless you ask to.

www.academicfreedompetition.com By signing the petition on this site you are telling law makers that you believe that we should have freedom of speech in Science. You will tell them that there are no bad questions and that we, as well as children in school, should be able to talk about Intelligent Design, Creation Theory OR Evolution. Not just one or the other.


This man has a voice that the scientific community will not be able to ignore the way that it has chosen to so many before. I truly believe this petition could make a huge difference. Please consider taking the time to sign. There is so much at stake. Thank you.

Seven

I was tagged by Everyday Life to write seven random things about me. I am now sad and slightly embarrassed because I so don't know how to do the different color "linky thing" yet and it is oh, so obvious now! You win some you lose some... but at least I was invited to the game so... here goes! LOL

1. My name was supposed to be Melissa. I am the youngest of 5 and the only girl (yes, I speak spoiled fluently) and my mother was positive I was a boy while my brothers were convinced I would be a girl. While my mom was desperately trying to think of a girl name in the room, my brothers were out in the hall telling the nurse my name was Amy. When they wheeled me back in the room to my mom, baby girl McCoy had already been replaced by Amy Marie McCoy! My mom was so glad the boys were happy that she just left it!

2. I married my husband during senior year in high school while I was still 17. We skipped school on a Friday and my parents drove us to Idaho and signed the papers. On Monday we went back to school as a married couple.

3. I read an average of 200 pages a day. I love to read and always have.

4. I have never colored my hair... not even for Halloween.

5. When I was little I was in a Christmas production at our church every year in the month of December. We did 23 shows a year with 3,000 seats at each show. Some times they even had to go into the overflow seating. I got to do solos, studio recordings and dancing. It was really a wonderful way to spend the season. My favorite part was hearing how many people responded to the alter call every night before we went home.

6. I am a karaoke junky and I am toying with the idea of trying live stand up... yeah, I'm serious!

7. My nicknames are "the Entertainment" (Katrina),
"Marshmallow" (Jen & Nikki),
"Orange" Dad,
"Braveheart" (Moe) and
"the world most misunderstood person" (Leslie)

Still haven't missed one...

I am still a record holder (in my mind anyway) and have not missed an Amy Grant tour since Age to Age! This one was so amazing for me as she only did songs recorded prior to 1988. This was an anniversary tour and with each song, memories of a lifetime washed over my mind's eye. She was with the original band from that tour, which was really cool. Most have made names for themselves now but still did this tour with her. I will be digging out all the old albums and will clearly need to re-purchase some of them since many are on tape... LOL! Regardless, I still remembered every word to every song!

At the end of the show she sang several new songs that she has written while on this tour... just her and her guitar... wow, is all I can say. I was sobbing like a baby (which I generally avoid like the plague... and yet) and for good reason. I will run (not even jog) to get the next album if these songs are on it (who am I kidding, I will anyway).

My only sad note on this one, is that my husband married a stalker... and I did not. I know which hotel she stayed at and she made a comment during the show that she had to be in the lobby at 4:30 tomorrow morning to leave for the airport... and I would have been sitting in that lobby all night with a heartfelt letter of thanks, in hopes of being able to give it to her... but SOMEBODY thinks that that is socially unacceptable. Now you all know why I wanted to go alone. At least we had the sweetest seats in the house... or maybe I would have come home alone! LOL What? I am mostly kidding!

Kaeding Decision 08' ...

While most are focused on the national election we have been deep into our personal Decision 08' as to where we are moving. The sold sign is up, the requested repairs have been made... now where do we go? The inspection on the house in Elk went really well and we had a long talk with our kids and each other last night and we have our "final answer". We are moving to the log house in Elk Washington!

For some of you this is a longer drive and somewhat of an inconvenience but please know that we did take all of that into consideration. This is what we have dreamed about for so long and I still can hardly believe it is going to happen. We had the house inspected by two professionals and they both found the house to be structurally sound and very few things in need of actual repair. The things that do need repair, we are very capable of doing and are not concerned about. The logs are in great condition and have finished settling which is a very big deal when it comes to log homes.

So... get ready for some twisted-fun before and after shots as we tackle each new project! Thank you everyone for your prayers, affection and blatant patience as we have wrestled with this. Moving day is November 13th, 2008. Decision made.