420 Park Avenue.  I have to admit that I love this house.  It's a little heavy to the left but the garage should balance it out quite nicely.  Oh and gardens....the whole front yard will be trees and flowers.  A secret garden if you will.



This is the side entrance, going into the mud room.  The honeysuckle is growing up and smells delightful.  It's the north side so maybe I will be able to grow some amazing shade plants here like hydrangeas, hosta, liriope etc. 



Sam hanging out on the rock wall at the front of the house.  This is definitely a before picture as there's grass - did I mention I want a "secret garden" here.  Lots of work to be done to create the secret part.

Our front porch.  Lime green cushion covers aren't quite creating the ambience that I was hoping for, but they work for now.  Changing the cushions is project #176 - there's a few that rank higher than cushion covers. 

There you have it - the outside pictures.  I need to take pictures of the back yard as it has some pretty awesome "bones" and interesting brick work, but that's where I hide boxes and bikes and weeds.  No one wants to see that - or maybe you do.  I should do a realistic photo shoot of the house in it's current state.  I just cleaned the bathrooms tonight - Balin's coming home tomorrow - so they look decent enough.  But the closets...yikes...piles of clothes everywhere with no where to put them.  What's a girl to do?  Exactly, leave the piles.

The house project is going to be a big, continuous project.  Like years.  I'm good with that though.  I'm just going to relax and know that with time will come inspiration.  Meanwhile I've got a lot of stuff I have to do.  We're throwing a dinner party next week for hopefully around 15-20 people as a fundraiser for Young Life.  I'm hoping to raise $200/month, which will be matched.  In the past we've asked people to a large banquet type dinner and though they're effective to some degree, they aren't...intimate.  I'm hoping to share why Young Life is so important to Balin and I and ask others to join us in supporting the ministry.  I'll give an update on that next week.

Perrin was pretty warm this morning so I took her into the doctor and got her on antibiotics.  She had a 101 temp and with Sam's illness I didn't want to take any chances.  I made myself an appointment for tomorrow as I don't want to spend the time Balin is home being sick.  A day at the spa maybe, but not sick.  We're heading down to Phoenix tomorrow to pick Balin up at the airport.  It'll be a late day for the kids but after 3 weeks I think we all need to have as much time with him as possible.  I'm hoping to take the kids to Ikea and pick up a few things.  We'll have to play it by ear and see what time we get out of Prescott.  I'd love to spend the night down in the Valley, but I think Balin will want to come home and get a good night's sleep.

Sam and Perrin's fall break is almost upon us.  They have 17 days off, at least Sam does, and I'm biting at the bit to do something interesting.  I've looked at condos down in Puerto Penasco but not sure Balin's going to want to travel much while he's home.  I'm thinking we'll just head to San Diego a few days before he has to be there for work, on the 10th, and play around San Diego.  There's so much to do there and it should still be nice weather there.  We'll see.  I've got reservations for camping at Lolomai springs for next week, but again we'll see what happens.  I've gotten a little gun shy with planning things around Balin's schedule 'cause it's always changing.  Hate to pay for vacations and then not go because he's got to leave for work.  But then again, if I wait for him we'd never do anything.

Best go and clean up the closets before Balin gets home.  I'm finding that the way I'm cleaning/organizing is just getting rid of stuff.  We've got way too much stuff and it's liberating to get rid of it.  Something has to pass my 3 rules: (that I got from someone else) Do I love it?  Do I use it?  Does it hold sentimental value?

With those questions in mind, I'm off to unpack a few more boxes.