Officially Moved In

So here is a photo of our babies out enjoying the perfect weather here and being mesmerized by all the little butterflies that hang out in the front yard.  They get SO excited and chase them all around trying to catch them.

One of them flew through the sprinkler and got its wings wet and couldn't fly for like 5 minutes, so Clark got to hold it and he has never been so happy.  He talked about it for the rest of the day.

Kal thought it was cool, but was mostly just happy to be eating a cookie

Last week we had a storm hit.  It wasn't raining at all, just super windy and this crazy sandy fog rolled in and made it so we couldn't hardly see across the street.  The power went out for a little bit, but honestly, the power goes out in Lovelock like once a week.... so that was pretty normal, I guess.  Weird.

We have these crazy old and brittle trees lining our yard and any time there is even the slightest breeze, giant tree branches break and fall.  So pretty much we cant park cars in the driveway or be outside in any amount of wind.  Its crazy.  So we sat and watched in rain tree branches for a few hours through the storm.

Then had our work cut out for us the next morning

But we have two eager little helpers, so that's good.  (see that bow in the fence?  Yeah, thats from branches falling on it)

The boys have loved finding 'hide-outs' all over the place.  Closets and cupboards and there is this hole in the wall of the garage that they crawl through into the storage shed attached to the house.  Funny how great old, run down houses are for kids.

The baby and the belly are growing.  This boy moves constantly, but not so much kicking.  He just stretches and rolls around a whole lot.  He seems too strong for being so small still, but I guess that is a good thing.  (I don't think my bladder would agree with that though) I think I finally found a Doctor in Reno and I'm anxious to get in and make sure all is well.  I feel pretty good, but I have always had a hard time gaining enough weight during pregnancy and as far as my calculations go, I've only gained 6 lbs so far.  So I want to go make sure the little man is healthy and okay.  And if you are hating me right now for not gaining weight while pregnant, don't.  I gain TONS while breast feeding, so that makes up for it.  I'd much rather do it the normal way and be able to start losing weight once the baby is born, but that's just not how it works for me unfortunately.  

We are loving our washer and dryer, as you can see.  However, the oven in my kitchen sucks!!  It heats SO unevenly.  I made shepherds pie the other night and only the left side of it cooked.  It was weird.  So I guess I get to start turning everything I cook like its a microwave or something.  Also, no dishwasher.  I spend SO much time washing dishes everyday.  You just don't realize how many cups your children go through until you have to wash them all by hand.

We went back to Overton over the weekend to get the rest of our stuff moved up here and it was such a wonderful weekend!!!  Oh my gosh we miss them!!!  We miss the house and the boys having cousins around all the time and sitting around talking and laughing with everyone.  Oh, and the water softener.  The water here is killing my hair and my skin!!  That's something we need to fix soon!  So anyway, we got everything loaded up in the trailer that Brad's Dad borrowed for us and on Sunday we headed up north with the parents and Kelby and Scott.  I'll tell you what, leaving the valley really isn't so sad when you get to take half the family with you!  It was a memorable trip, for sure.  We ran out of gas about 30 miles outside of Tonapah and then a rain storm hit.  haha It all worked out and we made it to Lovelock before sundown.

So we got to show them all Lovelock and Brad's clinic and the house and stuff.  And we now have all of our stuff, which means there are boxes EVERYWHERE.  And I am not even slightly motivated to unpack a single one.  Maybe one day... But I guess now that means that we are officially moved in.

We have some fun projects to get working on over the next few weekends.  We have the boy's beds that need to be painted and Brad bought me this old dresser I fell in love with for the baby's room, but it needs some work.  Its solid wood and all antique looking, but someone did the worst, ugliest paint job on it.  So I need to strip it and either paint or stain.  We will see what it looks like underneath all the ugly.

We also have to refinish the dining room table we have, but I need to work on some technique before I attempt that, because I want it to be perfect.  So I am going to play with this dresser first and see how it goes.

So that is the latest from Lovelock.  Hope Summer is going well for everyone else!!

Our First Few Weeks In Lovelock

So this post is basically from the last month.  Its been an interesting month to say the least.  We planned to have Brad move up to Lovelock to begin working, so that we could buy this house here that we put an offer on.  After a couple of weeks of him being here, the sellers changed their mind.  SO stressful!  This town is not like most towns.  There aren't really rentals.  A few terrifying apartments, like the one Brad had been staying in and every once in a blue moon, a house.  But there were no houses for rent and barely any for sale when our house fell through.  So we were sorta stuck with Brad up north and me and the boys home in Overton.  We didnt know what we were suppose to do.  

After lots of thought, we decided that the boys and I were just going to move up and stay in the apartment with Brad.  We packed up a few of the things we would need over the weeks and Brad came home to get us and move us up to what we now call, The Linoleum Palace.

Having Brad back was heaven!!!  Oh my gosh we hated being apart!!!  The boys missed him so much.  Clark cried about every night Brad was gone.  I was about the same. haha  Brad was miserable all by himself in that sad little apartment.  But, then he came home and all was right with the world again.  We got our stuff together, loaded up the car, cried through saying goodbye to family and hit the road.

The whole trip up Brad kept saying, 'remember, you wanted this.  You wanted to leave home to move into this apartment.  You didnt want to be apart anymore.  You said that you would rather be together, even if it meant being cramped in this little apartment.'  hahaha  he was doing his best to prepare me.

So, the linoleum palace...  I cant even write down all of the weirdness that is that apartment.  Its wall-to-wall linoleum, hence the name we gave it.  Its so small I dont think it can legally be called an 'apartment'.  Every room was the size of a closet.  Maybe thats exaggerating a little, but not much.  We moved our bed into one of the rooms and that was all that fit in the room.  You step into the bedroom and onto our bed.  The kitchen was so narrow, you couldnt turn around, you had to back out.  Not even kidding.  You couldnt open the oven or the dishwasher, because they would hit the cupboards across from them.  

There were SO many bugs.  Like tons.  I started out killing them everytime I would see one, but after a few days of doing nothing but that, I just let them go.  Unless it was a spider of course.  The boys and I would sit on the couch and just watch all of them scurry across the linoleum.  The worst was when I saw the mouse.  I about had a heart attack.  It was so gross!  Then I saw the roach the size of the a mouse.  They lived in the same closet together and would run back and forth between the water heater closet and the hall closet.  At night, I'd lay in bed and listen to their tiny gross feet running around and see their shadows.  We never knew which was which in the dark, so we referred to them, of course, as the caucamouse.  Magical times....

But we really were trying to make the best of it.  Brad got his very first paycheck and that was an awesome feeling!!!!  We went out and celebrated by eating at the Black Rock Diner.  Not very good... but it was still a great night!!

This is the clinic where Brad works.  He really has been loving it a lot!!!  

And this is the hospital thats right across the street from the clinic where he works most days too.  Its really nice, cause he can just walk back and forth between the two.  His Summer schedule has been so great!!  Plenty of days when he gets to go in later or come home early.  And his schedule is a little lighter, so the boys and I like to go visit him and bring him drinks or lunch.  The kids love climbing on all the equipment that hes got down there and playing with the balls and weights and trampoline and stuff.

We have been spending time getting to know the area.  We hated being home in that apartment, so seems like everyday when Brad would get done with work, we'd find somewhere to drive to or explore.  (I dont know how Kal pulled his pants down and then fell asleep, but we just looked back and saw this)

We didnt like cooking in that grossgusting apartment with all the bugs and no room and everything, so we decided to try out the local restaurants throughout those couple of weeks.  Turns out the local restaurants are grossgusting too.  We got pizza from the local pizza place and do you remember that part on The Office when Kevin says that the pizza tastes like 'a hot circle of garbage'?  Well that is the only way to describe the pizza here.  A hot circle of garbage.  The few other places are equally bad.  With the exception of the Cowpoke Cafe and a gas station that makes food.  I know right?  We didnt believe anyone when they would tell us that the gas station had the best food, but it really isnt bad at all.  

We have been enjoying getting to know all the other places too.  The tiny grocery store that has next to nothing, the park that does free lunch for all the kids in town every week day through the summer, the ice cream shop that has really good huckleberry ice cream, the super old buildings, the antique shop, the trading post that is surprisingly huge.

Its so funny how old this town is.  Pretty much every house or building here is like at least 50 years old.  Its crazy.  There are no new houses here.  Like really, maybe 5 houses that have been built in the last 20 years.  Its just so old, every inch of it.  It reminds Brad and I a lot of Overton like 30 years ago.  Lots of fields and farms all around and lots of old houses.

So as far as the whole housing situation, as you know, we were going absolutely crazy needing to move.  We found a little house from the 1940's that we fell in love with, but that needed some work.  So we put in an offer and the person selling wouldnt come down in price at all.  He was asking way too much for it and with it needing new floors and a new roof, we just couldn't pay what he wanted.  So we went back and forth for a while and then finally decided it just wasn't going to happen.  But then, as fate would have it, a rental house became available.  A rental house that wasn't a haunted shack.  I mean, its an old, old house, but its decent.  Plus, from what we've seen, I think anything that was built in the last 50 years, is considered new here. So we jumped on it.  There were lots of applicants, but somehow we got it!  Oh my gosh the best feeling in the world!!

We had been honestly feeling like the month of June was cursed.  So much crappy stuff happened the month of June!  And to end the month in a similar fashion, Brad got super sick one night with BPPV.  Its like a crazy inner ear Vertigo type thing where the room was spinning and he couldn't stop throwing up and his eyes were literally shaking back and forth.  It scared the crap out of me!  I was sitting there at 3 in the morning trying to figure out how I was going to get him to the hospital in Reno while I had the two little boys with me.  Luckily, BPPV is actually something that PT's treat, so Brad knew exactly what was going on and we just had to wait til 7am to call the therapist hes been working with to meet us down at the clinic so he could do some treatments on him.  It was nuts.  So after being treated, he layed in bed for a day while I read to him for hours and then he slept and felt fine the next day.  It was so weird.  Anyway, after everything, we started to wonder in Lovelock was cursed.  But, Im happy to say that after moving into our house, the clouds have parted and life has been great!  So I dont think that Lovelck or even the month of June is cursed.  It was the linoleum palace that was cursed!  I swear I felt it lift as I handed in the keys to that place.  Good grief!  The caucamouse can have it!!!

So we moved in the weekend of the 4th of July.  The boys and I spent the whole first day scrubbing and cleaning every lat inch of the place.

Then we moved our stuff in.  Not that it was very much stuff.  Most of it is still back in Overton and we really need to go down and get all of it, but we have been making do with what we've got.  Camp chairs and a toy box to sit around the dining table, the boys sleeping on mattresses on their bedroom floor (which they think is great) and all of our clothes being stored in laundry baskets and boxes.  Oh well.  It felt pretty good opening up my beautiful new pots and pans that Brad bought me and putting them away in the empty kitchen cupboards.

On the 4th of July, Brad had a couple patients in the hospital, so he had to go in to work for a couple hours.  But he was home in time for us to all have our traditional pancake breakfast.  the rest of the day was spent recovering from moving.  We watched a movie and napped and watched another movie and ate and then watched another movie....  It was super exciting.

Then after dinner, we drove out to the baseball fields here and watched the firework show.  It was pretty good.  We were just happy to be watching a firework show in under 90 degree heat.  Dont get that back home ;)

The day after the 4th we felt like doing a little exploring, so we drove out to a little ghost town nearby.  I love ghost towns!!  They are so creepy and awesome!!  Can you believe people lived there??

Then we drove up a pretty little canyon and had a picnic.  We are really loving that its not a million degrees up here!!

So life is just moving right along now.  Our days have been good and busy, but not too busy.  

We have been over-joyed to have a yard again.  Our boys aren't so much for being inside all day.

I am anxious to plant a little garden somewhere.  I really miss gardening!!  And there are so many birds in all the trees, so Im excited to get our bird feeders back home I can watch them like an old person.

Speaking of old people, I think that there are only old people in our whole neighborhood.  But I like that!  They are quiet and take care of their yards, so thats perfect :)

We are still considering buying a house, but it would have to be the right one for the right price, which doesnt happen much here apparently.  But its nice not to feel pressured.  We can just take our time and enjoy being where we are. And we are.  We are enjoying being able to cook in our kitchen.  And having hot water.  And a garage.  And Grass.  And now, the internet!! 

However, there is a house here that is 100 years old thats for sale that I am a little bit in love with.  I have to keep talking myself out of wanting to buy a 100 year old house with only two bedrooms thats probably only 900 square feet.....  Its like a tiny little cottage and I am obsessed with it.