A River Runs Through It...

A river of snow that is! We were awakened on Christmas morning to a rumble and cracking so loud it was a little scary. We looked out the window just in time to see a river of snow come sliding off our roof that swept the log railing away with it like it was made of toothpicks!

The long awaited Kitchen pictures!

What do you do on the second night in a new house? You rip out the kitchen of course! This is what it looked like in all of it's Marigold colored glory! The cabinets were made of the same wood as the logs... and the counter was faux wood... I basically felt like the bride of Woodywoodpecker!

We painted the cabinets black and put in a speckled gray countertop with a stainless sink and new dishwasher (that didn't leak!).

The Stove had barely been used but was... Marigold so...

I painted it. No, I am not kidding, I painted it with appliance paint! I personally think it turned out great and cost me $6.48!

This is my very large pantry but if you can't see it, it is because it is camophloged with the logs! LOL

Much better! (In my opinion anyway)

I felt like the cabinets up top really boxed off the kitchen from the great room so...

We took the small one down and re-hung it in another part of the kitchen making it more open and adding a whole other section to the kitchen. For those of you who think you recognize the little rolly cart you are not mistaken. It is the same inexpensive rolly cart that I had in the other house but we painted it black too and then used some leftover countertop on it to make the match just right!

I decied to leave the other upper cabinet as the area behind it will eventually be part of the master and it will be a hallway so it will not be blocking anything and will give me more room to hang pictures later. I took the sliding plexy glass doors off and left them open to provide easy access to my dishes and spices (I think it looks great with the all white dishes).

The kitchen is about three times the size of my old one and I love it. It really stands out now as a room of it's own instead of dissapearing into the solid wood vortex! I bought the dishwasher and stovetop on sale at Sears and with all supplies the grand total for this remodel.... $650.00! Not bad eh?

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)