Lovers of Fat Quarters!

This post is for you!  I don't know about you, but for some reason Fat Quarters have always been a little passion.  There is something really fun about those little squares of fabric.  So many, many possibilities!  Well, speaking of possibilities, you can hop on over to the Gaerte Gang Blog and have an opportunity to win a Moda Layer Cake from The Fat Quarter Shop!  Danielle gives a ton of chances to win!  So hop on over and check it out!  The hardest part about this contest is picking out which Layer Cake you want if you are the lucky winner!!!

Moving: We found the house!

I'm so excited.  The house we really wanted....we got!  Did I mention how excited I am!  I am jumping around doing the happy dance.  Be happy you are reading about it and not witnessing it.  It ain't pretty, however it is fun!

Besides getting a beautiful new house, the most exciting thing is getting rid of Danielle and Alan.  Our neighbors.  Or as we refer to them, the neighbors from hell.  I heard a quote the other day that is very fitting:
"Going to church doesn't make you any more a Christian than going to the garage makes you a car".  How true this is.

They have been a great reminder to me that when you profess Christianity you need to really watch how you present yourself to the world.  You never know who is watching.  So, if you decide to get a big tattoo of "Forgiven" on the side of your leg, or the words "Holy Spirit" tattooed on the back of your arms, you better make sure you are living/acting/behaving accordingly.  I have noticed myself saying and doing things I normally wouldn't out of frustration with them.  I hate the thoughts I have had and things I have said.  It's amazing how quickly a situation can take over.
Enough about them.

I really hate moving, but I am excited and feeling inspired about decorating!  I like the house we are in.  It's ok.  But my decorating mojo has suffered.  In fact, it has done more than suffer, it left the building!  But, I feel it coming back. The ideas are floating around in my head.  The decorating blogs are once again at my fingertips.  Ideas are a comin'!  I have several projects on the back-burner.  Waiting to get boxes unpacked so I can start!  I love turning a house into a home.  I've got some really great inexpensive projects that are itchin' for me to do! 

But, I still have to pack this house before I can do anything with the new house!

Saying goodbye to a pet

I didn't want another cat.  I especially didn't want a cat with long hair.  But Chris found "Buffy" on the local shelter website and begged if we could go look at her.  I said fine, but we are NOT coming home with her.  Well......we came home with her. 

Chris fell in love.  And how could I say no?  I mean, he isn't even a cat guy.  But there was something about this one.  We quickly changed her name to Gracie.  I think she even liked it better. ;)

Our hearts were recovering from the loss of our sweet Harry.  He was our first "baby" and we loved him so much.  Gracie sure did help heal that wound.  Now, she was NEVER a cuddly cat.  She hated being picked up and only wanted to be loved on when SHE wanted it.  She was very independent.  A loner.  If she were human, she would be the old lady on the block that the kids would be afraid of.  Not because she would do something mean, but because she was just old and crotchety!  The crotchety part of Gracie's personality is what we loved best!  Especially with the kittens in the house recently.  She was never mean, but the kittens new without incident that they should just stay away.

Everyone that would come into our house and see her would ask how old she was.  She looked old!  You could just tell by looking at her.  She had this weird habit of doing "the running man" in front of the water bowl.  We still don't know why she did this.  It was weird.  But that was our Gracie!

Her hair.  Oh my gosh.  The HAIR!  I HATED the hair!  She would shed something fierce.  She would lose clumps of hair, but never managed to be bald anywhere.  I don't know how something could lose so much hair and continue to shed for years and years!  Gracie's only really bad habit was at night she would lay on my kitchen table.  She knew she couldn't get in trouble for doing it then.  Every.single.morning I would have to come out and clean off the table.

That didn't happen yesterday.

All the years of complaining about it and I was sad yesterday to not have to clean her hair on my table.

I did however find a few clumps on the kitchen floor. What used to bother me, comforted me.

Gracie had a peaceful death.  She lived a great life.  14 years!  She gave a lot of joy and happiness to my family.

We love her.

We will miss her.

We will never forget her.

The decision to move.....

Sorry I have been so quiet lately. We have had so many things going on, decisions to make.  For the last two months we have considered moving.  Not something we take lightly.  Especially for Maggie's sake.  She is so happy here, settled.  BUT, we have two big reasons we need to move.  (1) We want to be closer to Chris' work and Maggie's school and (2) we live next to the neighbors from hell.

So we have spent our evenings when Chris comes home from work and our weekends looking at homes.  We have found 2 that I think I could be happy in.  We could have the chickens at both places :)  There is a third that I have not seen yet.  The setting is intriguing.  A horse ranch.  They have horses, pigs, etc.  I think it would be an excellent place for Maggie to be at.  The house is tiny.  It's dirt cheap.  That's what scares me.  I love the fact it has solar power.  We could be saving up to about $600 a month (or even more), which would be really nice.  We would definitely not be there long term, and I know it.  So that's a huge plus.

Part of me wants to move into the beautiful new home, fresh paint, new carpet, hardwood floors, huge layout where we wouldn't be on top of each other.  Part of me wants to save money.  I guess nothing can be decided until we actually see it.  I am hoping it is as "charming" as the ad says.  :) 

I am sure I will be posting more about this!

CSN giveaway winner!

I am so sorry about how late I am getting back to you all!  My computer crashed on Thursday afternoon and I just got it back a few minutes ago.  {sigh}  Lot's of catching up to do!

I ran the numbers through Random.org and the magic number 3 came up! 

Congratulations to Gabriele from Work of Childhood!