proof that I am not a hermit

Tomorrow is a red letter day.  Deputy Danny and I are entrusting these kiddos

 to this lovely couple

so that we can go to the big city to see this beautiful lady

and spend some time with these two (who are also perfectly splendid)

and perhaps come home with a little something special to celebrate my birthday. Only a moth late ;-p

home!

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing this letter in addition to the offer submitted to purchase your property located at 410 Court Street in Little Valley. I thought it might aid your decision to let you know why we are looking at this particular house and what we intend to do with it.

My husband and I are high-school sweethearts. We were engaged while I was in college, right after my husband joined the Navy. During our tours here and overseas we agreed that a life in the military was not conducive to the type of family life that we were hoping for, and so when his enlistment was over we moved back from Italy with 2 children and a very small house fund. We have been in the states for about a year and a half now, living out of that fund while Daniel finishes his Associates in Criminal Justice in preparation for the Sheriff’s Academy next year.. His ultimate goal is to work for the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Department, hopefully out of Little Valley. With 2 little boys running around, a newborn 3^rd boy, two cats and a dog, we were very excited to look at this house. After our initial tour, we decided it would be worth every bit of labor and cost involved to invest in this old house to make it into a home for our family.

H will be sworn into the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Department this spring, and we must be living within the County limit before that (we are currently in Allegany County). If you accept our offer for this house, it is our intent to put a lot of sweat equity into restoring the flooring, woodwork, windows, and walls of the downstairs portion of the house during the summer. We will tackle the upstairs, insulation, and put a new roof on as soon as H is done with school and the Academy and working full-time again. We are excited about the potential that a double lot brings for a sandbox, garden, and plenty of grass for the kids and dog, and the fact that the county seat, local elementary school, and library are all just down the road is an extra bonus. When the upstairs is complete, it will boast a larger bathroom, sewing room, and playroom/schoolroom in addition to bedrooms.

Purchasing our first home is something that we have been praying about for years now, and we are excited that we might be only days away from making that dream a reality! Thank you for considering our offer.

Sincerely,

ps: we got it!

home?

still praying about it (a LOT). join me, won't you?

more pics

photo backlog pt. 1

the trip here. As it turns out I didn't have much time for pictures; almost all of these were taken on the last leg of the trip. Which, coincidentally, was one of the shortest legs and the only one during which both children fell asleep. for the record. And about that flight book/bag I spent so much time creating and organizing and imagining would save my sanity? yeah...we used maybe 3 activities from it. ugh. Looks like I've got enough car and church activities to last me until the kids are 5...

did I mention we went to the beach?

same spot (almost exactly!) as the first time. Luckily no popped tire this day. A few pictures:

In-Laws in Italy: Day 2 part 2

More Palermo. Patrick's only memories of this trip might very well be chasing the birds and looking at the castles.

































Outside view of the featured church.












Inside view(s)













































This tree was pretty neat, the roots grow from the branches down into the ground.

In-Laws in Italy, day 2 part 1

Palermo. Zach, wanna help me out with captions? While I absolutely love tours and traveling, I'm not so good with the remembering what I've seen, especially if I've forgotten to bring my camera and have 2 babes in tow. Sorry!

click to enlarge.
17th c. carriage, Prez Palace:















amazing church (all the sparkly bits are gold):




















Mt. Etna (notice that it is actively smoking!) and an Italian funeral parlor. Probably only funny to those in WNY, but we ALL noticed it:








PS: did you notice the quilt inspirations post on the mountain blog?

have SPOC, will travel

this is how we roll (through Sicily):




ps: can anyone guess what the acronym stands for?