Cleaning

We spent last weekend cleaning the house we're moving into. Originally the house was a barn on the property of Nathan's grandmother's spinster cousins. When their parents died in the same year, the two ladies decided their house was too big for them, so they moved the barn to its current place and had it changed into a house. They lived in it until their passing, Joyce in the early nineties and Clara in 1996. The house was then rented and the last tenants treated it badly.

We have a long way to go.


This is the living room with the beautiful fireplace, built in bookshelves, and all our crap. There is a large window on the south wall that makes the room bright and airy.


We think the streaks and spots on the wall are paint balls. This is actually my favorite room, it has beautiful glass paned French doors and is a very bright yellow color.

In which we pay tribute to Nathan, who spent six hours on Saturday bleaching the hell out of the kitchen cabinets.
These are both views of the kitchen. I love the tiny cabinet under the normal-sized one and the shelf off to the left. The bottom picture is where my mom says a phone would have sat. Nathan is convinced we need to have a rotary phone now. I love that little shelf, it's so cute.This is the linen cabinet, for which my love borders on the unnatural. It is nice and deep and the top shelf isn't too high for me to reach. The drawers are also very convenient.

One thing I've noticed in the moving process is that Nathan and I have way more books than is probably either normal or healthy to have. What can I say, I love to be surrounded by books. That is why I was very excited when I saw these shelves in what was Joyce's bedroom and what will be our bedroom. The room itself is so big, we are thinking of halving it and making the end with the bookshelves a study.


This set of closets is in what will hopefully before too long become a nursery. The one on the far end has shelves, the middle one comes with a dresser, and the one closest has a clothes bar.

It's so cool.

The house also features a full basement, full attic, one and a half bathrooms, and another bedroom, which Clara once used as a sewing room.

It's a pretty great house.

PS, sorry it too me so long to update, we haven't had the Internet since the 13th. I'm actually at the library now.

Stats

We've lived in our little apartment for three years and in seven days, we're moving out. Here are a couple stats on our housing situation.

Apartment:
two bedrooms
five rooms
no dishwasher
no washer or dryer
cable internet
no basement
very little storage
suburbs
at least an hour and 20 minutes from friends and family
forty five minutes to an hour from work

House:
Four bedrooms
eight rooms
no dishwasher
washer but possibly no dryer
DSL
basement
lots of storage
thirty to forty five minutes from work
two to ten minutes from family and friends
fireplace
built in bookshelves
two car garage

Moving

It is shocking to me how much crap two people can accumulate in three years. Nathan and I started moving boxes two weeks ago. Even though we've gotten a bunch of things moved, it doesn't look much like it. There are still boxes stacked all over the kitchen and obviously everything we use on a daily basis is still here.

But this is a step up. The last time Nathan moved, when he left Waterman to come to Tinley Park before we got married, I showed up at his house the night before he was supposed to move and he hadn't packed anything. It was very stressful as we and his parents ran around throwing things in boxes and bags.

My biggest worry is the house. There was a time we were going to buy it and I'm kind of depressed now that we are just renting it. Originally I had so many plans for it, and Nathan had to remind me last night that things might not be able to work out the way I want them to.

We're really grateful to Pam and Craig, my in-laws for letting us live there and, when I thought about it, I actually really like the paint colors of almost all the rooms.

The house is in pretty rough shape, but it's a beautiful old place with lots of character and, as my friend Jules pointed out, it's going to look amazing once we're done with it.

Looking for the levity

It wasn't long after Nathan lost his job that we were able to at least see what the lighter side of the situation might be. We get to move home, like we wanted and Nathan doesn't have to commute. Thought we'll be trying to make it on like one and a half incomes for a little while, it's not like we haven't been in that situation before. It took me four months after we got married to find a job, and things worked out all right.

The truth is that this just proves to me life really is a wheel. A few months ago things were going very well for us, we were both working and at least relatively happy, we were saving money and getting ready to start the adoption process.

But, Nathan has a job interview later this month at Northern, which is where we want him to work, anyway, so everyone say a little prayer that he gets it.

The moving process has been interesting. I've never been in charge of moving a whole household before. We've already got a few boxes at the house with more and furniture to follow this weekend. Mostly our living room is filled with boxes in various states of readiness.

My Lenten mind set

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. Things have gotten a bit tricky lately.

Since my job is anywhere from forty minutes to an hour and fifteen minutes from where we live in the South Suburbs, Nathan and I were planning on moving when our lease is up, which is at the end of next month. We looked at apartments in suburbs between here and work but everything seemed way too much money for not too much apartment.

Then, Nathan's dad, Craig, offered to let us rent the house we were going to buy earlier. The rent would have been much cheaper than anything we could have found in the suburbs. As we started to plan and get ready for that, Nathan came home from work last Wednesday and told me he'd lost his job.

His company's profits have been falling and Nathan already survived a round of layoffs in December. Being in HR he knew this round was coming, but he was let go a day before everyone else.

I panicked at first, but when we calmed down and looked at things more objectively, the situation isn't as bad as it could be.

We did the whole living on one income thing when it took me four months at the beginning of our marriage to find a job. I make more now than Nathan did then and while we both worked, we were able to put some money in the bank. As long as Nathan gets a job before too long, we should be okay.

I don't know what's going to happen with the house. I'd like to think we can still live there, but we'll have to see.

And to be honest, this all comes at just about the prefect time. We were trying to move back home anyway and home is closer to my job than here, so it works out.

Still, last Thursday I reflected on the situation and found it to be just the right mind set to go into Lent with. I'm scared but hopeful.

Love is Murder

This past Thursday night, I came home from work fairly certain I wouldn't be able to eat anything until the Love Is Murder Conference was over. Fortunately, Nathan encouraged me to eat and I did have dinner.

However, I was still so nervous about having to pitch to agents that when I bumped into two ladies from my writer's conference in the hallway just before my pitch, I asked them to let me practice with them. They were great and listened to me stumble my way through the pitch and offered wonderful advice and told me I'd do fine.

My first pitch was to a small publishing company and though they said they didn't want to see the book, they did say it sounded like a good story and something they would read, just not something they published. My second pitch didn't go well at all, except that the agent told me to shorten my pitch and make it punchier.

The third agent I talked to (who was later described to me as the toughest person in the room) could tell I was nervous and was very patient and helped me with the pitch and then said the book sounded fantastic and she wanted to see the whole thing! That helped a lot.

I went back the next day with a shorter pitch and more confidence. I pitched to everyone else in the room (I think there were 9 or 10 agents or publishing houses there) and all but one said they wanted to see some of it.

I really hope this yields at least one offer. It was really nice that by the time I was done I had my pitch memorized and people were interested.

I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without all of you. My friends and family gave me so much support and encouragement that you are the reason I went in the first place. I also owe a debt to my writer's group, who also provided a great deal of support and encouragement, even at the conference itself.

Lastly and most hilariously, in the conference room next to ours while we were there, was the national Reenactor Fest. Every time I stepped out into the hall there were people in costume. All kinds of costumes from Vietnam all the way back to Classical Greece. It was fantastic!! I have always wanted to be a reenactor. While Love is Murder was having its awards banquet, the reenactors in the next room were listening to a bagpipe corps. It was funny.

Raglan Road

My family is into Irish music in a big way. Every time we all get together, whether it's just my immediate family or the whole big group of Eatons, there's always Irish music playing somewhere.

My father asked me a while ago what my favorite Irish song was and I couldn't come up with one. Well, now I know. My favorite Irish tune is called "Raglan Road." The best version I have heard of it to date is the Dubliner's late lead singer Luke Kelly's version, it's mournful and beautiful. Here's a little rundown of my favorites.

1--Raglan Road
2--Fields of Athenry
3--Carrickfergus
4--Gypsy Rover
5--Spanish Lady
6--Wild Colonial Boy
7--Minstrel Boy
8--Leaving of Liverpool
9--Rare Auld Times
10--Caledonia

Let me know if I forgot any that you know I like.

P.S. I'll post on the conference after it's over...I'm just too stressed right now.