Backyard, Baseball, and General FUN

We've been reminiscing about places we've lived and our various living situations over the years.

Provo, UT

We rented a cute, tiny 1-bedroom apartment in a really nice complex as newlyweds---we LOVE that place! Our landlord adored us and, we found out 2 years later, never raised our rent even though he had raised everyone else's. It came up as he was showing our apartment (we kept it clean and didn't mind him using it as a "model apartment" as they called it) to some prospective tenants. They asked about rent and we started to answer, "$490 including utilities" and Henry (our awesome Chinese landlord) quickly cut in and said, "Uhhh, Fi-ten! Fi-ten!" We looked confused and didn't say a word and after they left, he explained that he liked us and that everyone else was paying 510 but for us "Fou-Ninety." We love Henry. He told us to go off, graduate medical school, make lots of money, and go back and buy the complex from him and then he'd laugh and laugh at his funny sense of humor. He'd also come to our apartment while we'd be out of town (with our approval for some repair or something) and while there, he'd even change our light bulbs! The guy was seriously awesome. Anyway, we had a tiny patch of shared grass with a picnic table on it behind our complex.

That's our apartment behind us

Arizona

Then we moved to Arizona and bought a double-wide trailer. We purchased it for $26,500 (approximately the cost of one year of medical school if you don't count the books and supplies . . . oh yeah, and living expenses) and paid the monthly lot fee of $220 (you own the house and sort of rent the land/pay for the pool/clubhouse, etc. and that covers trash and sewer as well). That saved us loads of money. And mock if you will but it was a SWEET doublewide with about 1400 square feet. Beautiful. We loved it. It was tricky to sell it for a profit (trailers usually depreciate, not appreciate like houses--remember, it's technically a vehicle. Not kidding, tail lights and all--Mark found those in the crawl space during one of his 17 plumbing fixes.). We learned a lot in that house and really got started with home maintenance and fix-up stuff. Amazingly we sold it for the same price for which we bought it (we did upgrade the place!). We held the mortgage on it for an in coming med student with a contract set up for him to pay it off in 3 years so that by the time we finished up residency, he'd own it outright and he'd be square with us. It was great, since we made a little interest on it as well. We put in a small grassy (I know, totally unearth friendly--we didn't know better back then) fenced-in area with garden and BBQ/walkway for our kids to play outside (when it wasn't a million degrees out :P). The rest of the yard was rocks.

Pennsylvania

Then we bought our beautiful PA townhouse. Lovely place. We love our townhouse. We upgraded and painted and even finished half of our basement with my Dad's help. We learned even more home improvement skills and really, really love it. We've enjoyed a nice grassy backyard there, but it was shared with . . . everyone. Sometimes fun, often a pain when you're simply hanging out as a family and playing and not necessarily wanting to hang out with the whole neighborhood, but it was fun to have pick-up touch football games with everyone and simply enjoy. Anyway, it appreciated like crazy but the market went south right as we tried to sell it (we must've shown it 30-something times). Just weeks before, they'd been selling like hotcakes for really good prices in our neighborhood. Then the media scared everyone (we don't live in an area where the "bubble" has really been an issue). So, we're landlords! We're very grateful to have it as a rental and the income it generates is extremely helpful and takes the sting out of our cashing out our small Roth IRAs to start our business. :P


Holy Tangent. You can tell we've been reminiscing. Anyway, the point is that we've owned in some form or another since 1999 and we've always enjoyed our little outdoor, often-shared spaces. And we're so thrilled to own our gorgeous farmhouse and our own backyard.


We love our farmhouse and we have our own backyard that we LOVE. We have a carriage house and a shed. We have a garden and grapevines. We have a patio and a swingset. We love it. We live in the perfect area--Main Street out front for our business and farmland out back for our house/backyard (next year, chickens!). It's the perfect size, too. Not so big that we're spending ages on it, but big enough that we're out there gardening and tinkering and enjoying it. Here are some pictures and videos of just that--sheer enjoyment:

M calls this game "Damage Ships"

Gotta love when the kids sprinkle you with buttercups while you read on the patio (never mind the lounge wear--I was sick, okay?!) :P The book is "Ella Enchanted" in case you're looking that hard.

Minor League Baseball game with our awesome homeschool group

Parading around the field as part of the reading program

Some of our group

Omigosh, we had SO much fun! You can see it in our faces--lots of laughing and goofing around, so fun, so comfortable. I love easy-going friends!

Sequoy caught a ball that one of the baseball players threw to him and he shared it with M--how sweet is that?!

Yep, that's a tie in the 11th inning. 2 innings later, the local team won. I really didn't care who won, so long as they wrapped up the game! It was a blast, though, and who cares how late you're out when you homeschool anyway. We simply slept in the next day. Glorious freedom and flexibility.


Helping some friends move

M kicking back a bit with Allan in the moving truck--deservedly. Our kids and Ronald and Sequoy and I *hauled* with that move (family of 7). I am astounded at how hard these kids work! They worked for over 3 hours and got just about every box out of the house. I am so impressed and so proud of them.

We love our bird feeders!

We can (and do!) enjoy them as we eat our meals

The kids enjoy it so much--we have a bird book and they keep a log of the birds they see and know all their names and habits!

The backyard is really looking so nice!


The Joy of Brothers and Sisters

I love these pictures. It's salon time!

M informs me that it's "boy nail polish like transformers and stuff." I don't care if it's pink with purple flowers--I simply love that they play together so well and so creatively!

Before installing ceiling fans--omigosh, what a difference they make! We LOVE having them installed and they feel so great!

I'm bummed this one is so fuzzy--what a cute picture! K and Shannel and Shavon had a great time at Activity Days. They're so cute!