Adios Old House

Hello all.... Brittany here. Since we have yet to have a tutorial on how to upload pics to the blog, I have hacked in to provide some enjoyment. I have tried to tell him that people don't just want to read all of these things, they want to SEE them! So, here you go. You can thank me later.


This is what happens as a result of the dog running away... We think he had some unfinished business he had to clear up.


Grandpa's tree. One of our best memories is when he built a tree house for us, but did not leave a spot to get down! We will never forget him getting stuck in that tree.


One last climb up that tree. And yes, Philip was there thanks to the magic of Photo Shop.


Family pic in the backyard.


A man and his pond.


Goodbye bedrooms.


These are not entirely accurate -- these rooms have been painted / wall papered / redecorated many times..



I am not fat, I am pregnant.


And this is why you hire movers.

When I was in Austria this summer

Now that the move crunch is passing I want to go back and share with you all some of the amazing experiences I had while in was on sabbatical this sumnmer in Austria.

I stayed in an amazing place - called Schloss Mittersill. It is now the home base of a Christian Conference center for pastors breathing new life in to the Christian church in Europe. It is 5 hours (by train ) south east of Munich,Germany and 2 hours west of Salzburg, Austria.

The "castle" sits on a hillside just above the little town of Mittersill, at the base of the Alps! It was originaly built in the 13 century. In the 14th century the peasant form the town got upset and burned it down, 50 years later they were "invited" to rebuild it! In the 17th century witch trials (and executions) were held in the dungeon. During WWII it was taken over by the Nazi's and used for Medical experiments. In the 1960's it was a popular destination for the Hollywood elite such as Bob Hope, Clark Gable, Sophia Loren etc.

While I was there a class was in session for Campus ministry leaders from universities through out Eastern Europe. It was taught by a professor from Oxford. I sat in on a number of the classes and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I had occasion to share meals and conversation with young men and women from Georgia, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Bulgaria. They were full of questions about the USA, Texas and our Presidential election.

Watch next time for photos!

Rambling about adjusting to a new house

Well - we are finally in the new house.
We have slept there for about a week...
We have also cooked there, cried there, argued there,
cut the grass there, spilled there, the dog has teeteed there, we laughed there, had an accident involving alarms there!(more about that later)

So - I guess it is becoming home?!

Today was a really big day - we got our TV, phone and Internet hooked up - hoorah!

Other new home ramblings...
we had to get a new home phone number (we had our old one for 24+ years!)
our mail is still not arriving,
I am still not clear what day is garbage pickup?

So far the neighbor to the left is very nice,
the neighbor to the right asked me to stop hammering the other night at
9 pm cuz I was keeping her awake!
the neighbor across the alley has 4 little dogs!?

I have buffalo grass/turf in my front yard, and
I have sprinkler system for the first time but don't know how to use it?

There is a really good Chinese restaurant just around the corner,
the grocery store acrss the street is expensive but the people are very nice
(almost too nice)

I rode my bike on the bike path early yesterday morning -

and finally I now can get to work in 13 minutes, from our old place it usually took 1 hour!

IMPORTANT when buying a house!

I will start with the good news -we have sold our house, officially closed and have the money in the bank. We are now renting our home back on a day to day basis but have to be out by 12/midnight Sept 15!

Now for the unsettling news...we learned Friday at 5pm of a hitch in the sellers paperwork of the house we thought we were buying. What it apparantly comes down to is the sellers grandson thought he had power of attorney for his grandmother when in reality he has guardianship status. IF he had Power of attorney he could sign for his grandmother, as a guardian her can NOT do anything without the go-ahead by the courts!! What does this mean for us?

Our current contract is dead and we will have to re-do everything. In the meantime our seller had to get their act together with a judge to see how they can proceed. Word on the street is that is could take weeks to settle.

We have asked if they will lease the house to us, we hope to get that issue settled either Monday or Tuesday - argh!

Stay tuned for further details.

SOLD! Now what?!

We are scheduled to close on the sale of our home and the purchase of our new house within the next 9 days! I have not done this in 25 years so I am asking for your advice - what should we do first?

We are getting bids for having the interior of the house painted as well as getting proices for new flooring. It would be great to have it all done by the time we move in but that does not look likely! At best we hope to have all the painting done before we move in, the floors we want will have to be special order so we are looking at 3-4 weeks before they arrive.

Any suggestions on movers? on comparing prices on Dish or Cable. High-speed internet?

I promise - details and pictures on my great trip to Austria and Germany will be on my blog real soon.

buying and selling a home - argh!

We are in the process of selling the home we have lived in for over 24 years. I thought it was going to be tough because of the down housing market...boy was I wrong!

It is tough because our humble little house was more than a 4 bedroom 2 bath in the suburbs of Dallas - it was a home of love/tears/sleepless nights/unspeakable joy!

It was in this home that we raised 3 great kids, have buried countless beloved family pets in the backyard, laughed and cried, applied band-aids to scrapped knees and broken hearts, survived puberty and "first" car accidents, mourned the loss of a loving Grandpa and a one of a kind Mema.

From here we said good-bye to 3 young adults - with their cars packed with all their earthly belonging as they went off to make their own way.

We've battled cancer, and liver disease, the mysterious loss of vision in the eye of a 4 year old little boy, endured monthly infusions of gamma-globulin from age 5-13 in order to fight off infections that could have taken a life, dibilitating migraines, battled MRSA staph, the early on-set on rheumatoid arthritis...I could go on and on.

Selling our home is the closing of countless chapters in our family story.

The good news is...it is not the wood, windows, brick and glass that make this a home..it is the stuff of our hearts that made this a place I shall always treasure ..thankfully this will go with us no matter our address.

What is the big deal about turning 50?!

I turned 50 yesterday.

My wife, kids and friends gave me a great party -a surprise with 50 of our best friends with a picnic at the Lake followed by an hour and half trip on a huge catamaran!

To be 50 means I get to be philosophical for a moment.

My first observation is that 50 is not nearly as old as it seemed it would be when I looked down the road in my 20's. I am not sure what it is supposed to feel like - but in truth it is not much different than how I have felt over the past couple of years.

If anything, I do feel a bit bolder in acknowledging what I know and what I do NOT know. In fact I am keenly aware that I do not know very much and that which I do know has been learned in the "university of life."

Some of the courses I have taken are:

Marriage 101, 201,& 301...my wife and I got married 12-15-79..and we are still together. We are the same in some ways and radically different in other ways. If given the opportunity for a do-over I would do it again..with some adjustments here and there. My wife has put up with a lot and helped me become a better person.

Parenting..out of our 29 years of marriage have come 3 wonderful children - who are now each in their own way 2 wonderful young men and 1 wonderful young woman. They have each turned out to be good people, who care about others, able to laugh at themselves as well as at a good joke, they can hold their own with the best of them. They have each experienced life's ups and downs and are wiser for it. We have had some serious health scares, some moments of extreme pain and disappointment as well as times of great joy and accomplishment. In addition to the 3 kids my wife "birthed" we now have a great addition to our family - a wonderful son-in-law. He is fun, caring, drives fast, and loves our daughter!

GRIEF...My wife and I have each lost a parent to health related diseases. My father died of a massive heart attack almost 15 years ago at the age of 59 - after never having a sign or symptom of heart disease!
My wife's mother died last year after a long challenging journey with Alzheimers.
We miss them both so much - your heart never feels the same after a parent dies.

We are so happy though that we have a healthy Grandma and papa still with us - they bring much to our lives.

Health stuff..We have had some damn scary moments with health issues. One day while having her hair cut at the mall my wife collapsed, was unconscious and taken via ambulamnce to the hospital. After many anxious days shw was diagnosed with an extremely rare migraine syndrome. She still gets migraines but has medicine that is usually helpful.

Five years ago I had a radical prostatectomy to remove my prostate which was full of stage 3 cancer! Go figure - where the hell did that come from?! I am so happy to be here today to talk about it.

that is all for tonight - more to follow tomorrow!