sheep Sheep and More shEep

We went ahead and bought 2 more sheep for a total of 4 sheep. Its fun to keep them. Sheep seem to be easy keepers. They don't try to get out. They can be friendly.

The first 2 sheep we bought were bottle babies and are used to humans around. One even comes and plays with the kids. He would follow them around the yard if we let him out. today C had the container for the chicken feed and Charlie the friendly sheep wanted to see what was in it. It startled C a little and so she ran, but was giggling the whole time. I was watching carefully just in case it became a sheep attack of some sort. But C was giggling the whole time. I did step in front of Charlie and slow him down at one point . Just to make sure he didn't actually catch C. I wasn't sure what he was going to do. I was probably being overprotective. The only thing Charlie ever does to that chicken feed container is try and see if there is food in it and then he nibbles on the container.

I'm glad we got the animals. Even if their only benefit is to give the kids experience with animals, since we don't think we'll have any inside animals. We don't like the shedding. At one point we did have a yellow lab. But that thing shed year round. We had yellow hair on everything. While moving (4-5 years after we found him a new home) we pulled out a blanket and it was covered with hair.

The sheep will give us about 5+ pounds of wool each. The Chickens give us 3 eggs most days. They take about 1 day off a week. The rabbit...well, we are halfheartedly trying to find him a home. She will give a couple of ounces of really soft fur in the spring. But I've been questioning if it is really worth it. The poor thing sits inside her cage all day. She's afraid of people. she's afraid to be out of her cage. I don't know what to do with her. But I don't feel great about her being outside in this really cold weather.

So an announcement.

Something big is coming to our house for a Christmas present. I'll keep you in suspense until it arrives!

Happy holidays!

Enchanted

So I was reading a favorite blog the other day and they had posted some Youtube videos from Enchanted and said that the songs were stuck in their head.

I was watching them and the kids came in and they were mesmerized.

If you haven't seen any videos from Enchanted, here are a couple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv350WPnBNk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KObgs81QyR4&feature=related

The movie looks like a lot of fun. Probably one that we will have to own one day.

now for a real post

sorry about that last post. I was typing on a computer in the same room my hubby had been asleep in for 3 hours. you'd think he'd be sound asleep, but somehow I woke him up. so I was trying to finish my post and was super concious of every single key stroke. Therefore use of backspace was denied. Anyway, here is a real post.

We have a new neighbor. Not a big deal. The only thing is hearing heavy machinery for the next few months. and then again when he builds his house. But he seemed like a nice guy when I (nosy neighbor) shouted through a space in the trees and introduced myself. He seemed like a nice guy.

Our other neighbor whose house has been for sale for a few months now is another story. He bought the house last December right out of a divorce. He lived there for a few months and then moved in with a girlfriend. That was ok because he had some strange friends over there from time to time. Then his sister moved in with her hubby and 2 kids. She seemed ok, but her hubby was a little different. One day he road their 4 wheeler around and around in some water from their above ground pool that they had drained. I think there might have been some drinking involved. He did that for about 3-4 hours. And then there was the 2 week period where they kept having bonfires in the backyard at 1-3 in the morning. Not a big deal you say? Well, out here in the somewhat country there are not as many things in the way blocking the sound. My parents (with my property in the middle ) were kept awake by their noisy antics. I was woken up a few times, but Mom is more sensitive to noise at night due to her working nights half the week. Anyway, after Mom called the cops at 3am, they only had one more bonfire.

This was not huge for us, not a party, but bearable, until we realized that they were stealing wood from our woodpile in order to fuel these bonfires. Ok, I don't know if they stole more than one log (they put it back on our woodpile half burned) but that was enough. Wood costs money! And that is how we heat our home in the winter. So if I had had the guts (and not cared about neighbor relations) I should have marched up to their front door and demanded payment. But I didn't. all I did was put up a 'no trespassing' sign to replace the much worn one. I hoped that they would get the drift.

Anyway about November first the sister and family moved out. The house was still for sale. Strange thing was that the owner never did any clean up. There were still a large pile of garbage near the back door from the sister moving out, and a huge pile of broken cement and junk on the side of the property. For me and other members of the family, this was weird because when you are selling a house (especially in this market) you have it spic and span. Repaint and clean the carpets. The yard needs to be immaculate. Nothing like that ever happened over there. And we have to pass this place every time we leave home.

So yesterday the for sale sign had a new addition. It said 'short sale'. So I called the realtor to get the scoop. I had met the realtor when the owner bought the house. He had come and introduced himself and asked about the neighborhood and also the former owners. Also about the well which is shared with my parents home. Anyway, nice LDS guy.

He filled me in that after the owner had moved in with his girlfriend he married her and then got sick for a few months. This was a problem because he owned his own buisiness and was unable to work and so no income. So then his sister became unable to pay the mortgage, and that was when he put the house on the market.

He has it listed at 184,000 or so, but I know he bought it for around 160,000. So he must have borrowed more than he needed for upgrades and improvements. But now he can't afford the house, so the bank has to deal with it. Anyway, in today's market the house, although on 1 acre is probably worth $120,000. It has a huge 3500 worthless shop in the back that is dark, drafty and scary and it just needs to be knocked down because its taking up valuable real estate.

The house is a wreck . It was built in the 60's and not taken care of. When I met the realtor I begged for a tour of the house and shed. It was very small. Had 1.5 baths, 3 bedrooms. One bedroom was about the size of my closet. The other bedrooms are about as big as my kids rooms, including the master (what master?). The floor under the washing machine when stood on, you could bounce. If you tore down the shop, stripped and redid the house from the studs, floors included, could be worth a decent amount of money. But I don't think there is any profit in it. The people who owned it before this guy were house flippers and they barely got out with their shirts. They probably lost money. Also, the house has a one car garage that is very very sad. Made out of old mobile home material. Get my drift? This place is sad.

Well, I've got to go and pick up C from preschool.

New neighbors

We recently discovered that our neighbor sold his front acre. Its the one right next to the street. It makes his house back from the road, and once the new neighbor builds it will make it so cars driving by can;t see his house.

So we aren't unhappy about it. There is a thick row of trees between the neighbor and us so it's not like we can see him.

Anyway, that is all on that subject. I think I'm keeping hubby up with my typing.

The birds!

So about this time every year we reenact scenes from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". Its kind of cool. And no, we don't have a problem with poop. I don't know why. Maybe its because the birds like to hang out in the trees that are in the neighbors yard instead of ours?












All I can say is that these pictures don't show anywhere near all of the birds we have hanging out around here. But it gives you and idea.

We also had our first snow a few weeks ago. Just a skiff.



We also went to hubby's company Christmas party! We had a whole lot of fun!

Question

should we buy more sheep?

Are 2 enough?

I think the thing that is really bothering me is the fact that these are Cormo's are excellent sheep and the price is 50% of what we would normally pay.

Do I want to feed them all winter...

Do we want to sell Bertha and Lucky? (The goats) That would give us more pasture, and Dad would probably feed the sheep since the pasture is so close.

I'm also a little nervous because I don't know all that much about sheep care. They need hoof trimming like horses. I've never done that. Also, is it expensive?

So many costs!

Also, do I want to pay $8 each for shearing of more sheep.

Maybe I can get a deal. But would I be getting in over my head?

These are the thoughts I'm consumed with right now.

Oh, and I've figured out I'm not feeding the chickens enough. so egg production is down to 1 egg a day. I've increased feed. If I don't see an increase in egg production, I'm decreasing it again. Not starving them, just decreasing it because they don't need to eat as much if they are not laying an egg every day.

anyway, I love all the animals around here. The kids love the sheep. Charlie (the fixed sheep) is so nice! Callie (the female) just follows him around.

I've also decided to stop obsessing about a spinning wheel. I don't really need one. I mean, my spindle is working just fine right now. I don't need to spend at least $400 on a spinning wheel at this point in my life. (unless I find a used one close by and for a good price) :)

Old McDonald had a .... chicken?

Well we did it again. We've expanded out menagerie. We now have 4 chickens.

This time it was hubby who wanted them. He built the coop with a little help with our wolf scouts (passing off the 'build something' arrow point). Then we couldn't find any chickens to buy!

So I advertised a few times on craigslist.org and finally found 3 rhode island reds. Of course after I found them there was a whole week where chickens were available nearly every day.

Anyway, our research showed that Rhode Island Reds do well in cold weather, lay brown eggs, and are pretty hardy. Most of these chickens are heavy layers, laying 6 days out of 7. Also, they don't tend to slack off as much during the winter as most other breeds do. Something about it being colder. Anyway, they lay on average somewhere around 260 eggs per year.

The person we bought the chickens from also threw in a black silkie who lays white eggs, but not yet because she's to young. She said something about how anyone who has chickens should experience this kind. I should take some pictures of them all, but especially the silkie. It looks like it has a mohawk or something.

Anyway its been a lot of fun. The kids helped me feed it, and I may let them help a little with egg collecting.

We put the hen house and run inside our pasture. So the 2 sheep keep the chickens company. I've also moved the bunny inside the pasture, next to the hen house. We had it on the back porch and had some poop catchers under its cage, but man that thing is a poop machine. so I say let it poop in the pasture. I just have to figure out how to make the cage more weather proof. The bunny is long haired so seems to stay warm. I just worry about it once it gets really cold.

So the hen house has 3 nests. Hubby needs to build a 4th one so that the silkie has one.

Each nest has a little door that has a hook keeping it closed. Well Charlie the sheep figured out how to open it. Actually, he just nosed around enough to make it open so he could investigate. So hubby looks outside and says 'the chickens are out'. We raced outside and figured out that only 2 chickens were out. We chased them around the pasture and finally got them back inside. We tightened the hooks and are hoping that we're good now. If not, we may be getting different closures. We really don't want to chase them around anymore.

I'm really excited about the eggs. Today was the first time we got 3. So finally all 3 chickens are laying. I had heard that when they get moved around (or chased around :) they tend to take a few days off to get accustomed to their new surroundings.

The strange thing is that instead of all 3 chickens laying in the morning like most chickens do (according to the internet), we have lazy chickens who lay throughout the day. This morning I fed them at 9:30. Only one egg. I checked again around 11am (we had been getting 2 a day, so I didn't want to miss one) and there was another egg. I checked once more before church for fun and there was another egg! I hope these guys know that I'm not checking 3 times every day!

The other thing we are dealing with is that its been so cold lately that everyone's water keeps freezing. Yesterday i had to use an ax to chop through the ice on the sheep's water trough. The chickens keep stepping in the water, making it filthy and then it freezes. The bunny's water bottle (supposed to be weather tough) has been freezing solid.

My solution? pour hot water on the chickens water. this melts a little of the ice and fills the bowls the rest of the way. The bunny has a water bowl that I've been doing the same to. I fill it with hot water every day. The water bottle is useless. (weather tough, my foot).

The girls love to help. They love that hubby installed a new gate in the pasture so that feeding and caring for the animals is super easy now. It is literally a hop skip and a jump from our back door.

On to other things. My parents next door have 2 goats. One is sort of ours. We tried to give her away last summer, but things got complicated and we took her back. Then the neighbors intact nigerian pygmy goat hopped the fence and we thing bertha may be pregnant. If she is, she is due the first week in Feb. Its hard to tell for sure with goats, but her stomach is very different that it used to be. Lots of strange bumpy angles and her tail is at constant attention. I'm not sure that I'm looking forward to it if she is pregnant. I don't know if I'm up to a delivery!

Mom and Dad are in the process of putting in their papers for their mission. They could have a call within 3 months. Its exciting and scary.

They could stay in the area, and at home. Or they could go anywhere. We are pretty sure that because of Dad's allergies they would stay stateside. But you never really know.

So that is the excitement in our lives. I'll try and post chicken pictures soon.

Some of my adventures in Dying!

I'm finally having the fun that I thought I should have in my dyeing! When I first started dyeing, I wasn't sure how serious I was about spinning, etc. So I thought I would just use Kool-aid. It is said to be colorfast when using vinegar, but will fade with washing. I was making and felting a bag, so I thought that would be ok for what I was using it for. I mean, how often do you felt a bag? Anyway, I posted pics of that in previous entries.

I was a bit dissappointed with kool-aid because it seemed like the colors were really bright and it didn't seem like I would be able to produce a variety of colors.

Well I've since decided that spinning is for me. Just look at our two adorable sheep!



They are Cormer. A girl and a boy who is fixed. They come from a registered Cormer dad and different mothers.

The other day it was raining and I thought 'poor lambs!' and went out to pet them. They were wet, but if you looked deeper into their coat they were dry and warm. I'm so excited to use that wool! It has a great crimp to it and it's so soft.

Don't tell hubby, but the next thing for the sheep is coats. This makes the wool that much nicer and keeps trash out of the wool, and is supposed to improve your yield.

So back to dyeing. I decided to stay with food based dyes. They can fade over time, but I really like the thought of this being safe to use around my kids. The only thing I have to worry about is staining fingers and clothes. Chemical dyes you have to worry about inhaling and it looks like you have to be careful with it, and of course your kids can't help! So food dyes work for me at this time in my life.

Another thing I've learned is that yes, red yellow and blue are primary colors. But its really hard to make all the colors you may want from them. Using icing colors works great when you want a specific color. And its much easier!!!

Anyway, Here are my adventures from dyeing from today.

All of these results were obtained in the microwave. The wool was soaked in water for 10-15 minutes to wet it. Then the wool spent anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes in the microwave. I just kept cooking it until the dye was exhausted, or nearly exhausted. :)

I also added about 1/4-1/2 cup of vinegar. I didn't measure this.

First up is hot pink!

I used 1.1 oz of spun wool and Wilton icing paste, color pink. 1/8 tsp. Way to intense. Doubt I'll do this one again.



Next up is blue and purple tie dye.

I used 1.4 oz of spun wool and 1/8 tsp of Wilton icing paste, color delpinium blue.



Next is a pretty rosy pink
I used .9 oz of spun wool and 1/16th tsp Aster Mauve wilton icing paste.



Next is another hot pink. Just a little lighter.
I used .9 oz of spun wool and 1/16th tsp of pink wilton icing paste. I was trying to get the pink just right.



Next is something I made up myself! It turned into a pretty light pink.

I used 1.1 oz spun wool and the Neon food coloring kit from Mccormick. 10 drops of purple, 2 drops pink and 1 drop blue.



I tried to take a picture of all of the pink colors I created in my quest for the perfect pink. It didn't turn out well, but it does show the differences in shades.



Next I made another sort of tie dye blue/purple.

I used 1 oz spun wool and the neon food coloring kit from Mccormick. It was supposed to be sky blue. 12 drops blue, 6 drops purple, 2 drops green.

Washing wool

I've been washing wool for about 24 hours now.

The first time I washed wool (2lbs, looked very dirty) it was a breeze. It happened just like the instructions said it would. Thank goodness.

This time, it has taken forever. And I'm very happy we don't have to pay for our water, because I have used a ton. I just worry a little about our septic system.

Anyway.

This time I followed the exact same instructions as last time - If you are a first time wool washer, please don't follow these instructions. I'm leaving a lot of "don't do this" and "do this a certain way" out of my post because these are not instructions, rather this is what I did in general. (there are other websites with great instructions available).

1. very hot water. Add dish soap of choice (nothing with bleach) about 1/3 cup to each pound of wool. Soak wool in this for 1-2 hours.

2. drain water, add fresh water.

3. step 2 again.

By this time you have clean wool.

Well this time after step 3 I noticed that there were areas of the wool where there seemed to be a slick and sticky substance. This is known as lanolin. If left in your wool it will make it hard to card and eventually make the wool stiff and sticky.

So its late, I thought I'd be done by now, and I'm tired.

So I add all the wool together and start at step one.

I let it soak all night in this.

This morning, same spots of lanolin.

So upon further research I decided to try super washing soda from Arm & hammer. Also, I've switched my tubs of water and big laundry sink full of water for my washing machine. At this point, since the wool is pretty clean, It's ok. But I would never use the washing machine from the beginning. To much sheep poop on the wool. Yuck.

Using the washing machine means that all of the wool has to be bagged so that no fiber can sneak into my washing machine parts and cause me to have to buy new parts.

So I just filled the washer and put in 1/8th of a cup of washing soda per pound. Since I have 9 pounds, I put just over 1 cup in.

I let it soak for no longer than 20 minutes. Washing soda can harm your fiber if left to long.

I just put it through the spin cycle. This is safe because unlike the agitation cycle, it doesn't move or agitate the wool.

When I pulled the wool out of the machine (never refill the machine while the wool is still inside!) I noticed small brown dirty looking, slightly greasy small blobs. These lightly coated the inside of the washer and the pillow cases that I have all the wool inside.

I wiped down the inside of the washing machine, but couldn't do much with the pillow cases. As long as I keep the water hot, this yucky stuff shouldn't redistribute onto the wool. As long as its not hanging out on the wool, I'm ok with this.

Anyway, the wool is currently soaking in dish liquid again. Since the wool is pretty clean by now, it won't soak in there very long. I'm thinking about 1/2 hour.

The next rinse I'll use vinegar. Washing soda is very base, so you need to bring the wool back to somewhat neutral I guess. Anway, after the vinegar I may rinse one more time. I'm not sure how necessary it will be though.

Please cross your fingers for me that I didn't somehow felt the whole 9 lbs. I would die.

Oh, and we'll be getting 2 sheep on Monday. More on that later.

I'm so excited!

I just arranged to buy 9 pounds of wool this evening.

Help me think of great colors to dye it and projects to use it on!

I'm already seeing pretty pink slippers from Santa for the girls. Maybe I could figure out how to cross stitch (or iron on) princess. They are so into princesses!

I found Snow White at the DI today. $4 seemed a little over priced, but I know it would cost me more at the store (if they are even selling it). I guess I was spoiled by that awesome garage sale a few months back where movies were .25 and .50 each.


I'm liquidating my Nintendo collection.

I was amazed to learn that I have 2 super nintendo systems, 1 super nintendo game

2 rf's
2 power cords

5 NES systems
20 NES games
13 NES controllers

Also 2 Atari systems
7 atari games
2 Atari joy sticks
1 Atari rf

I actually think there is another box of NES's around here somewhere.

I know there is a box of 5 or so new replacement connectors for the NES.

If anyone wants one, they better speak up!

I ramble on answering machines

I'm sorry!!!

cute kids

C and M are sitting here next to me discussing hubby and my's wedding photo.

M says " Mommy" pointing to me "Daddy" pointing to Daddy. "Daddy is a nice boy" :)

She is putting together words very well now. Lots of 3 -5 word sentences.

"daddy fall down on my feet" the picture is on the ground now

"I fall down. I fall down Mommy" She is laying on the ground.

C says "your so silly M." and "I have Mommy and Daddy right here." holding the picture.

Now its "Mommy I Hungry" from M which means that I must feed the troops.

M calls C "honey". I think its because hubby and I call each other that. Occasionally she will say C's name.

Way to much to say for one entry

There is now way to explain what has been happening with just one blog entry. So I'll start with my new passion. Felting!!! And Spinning! And all that sort of stuff.

So, I recently got back into spinning wool after not doing it for about a year. I guess I was to busy with life and moving and building a house and landscaping and .... well I could go on, but I'll stop.

But I've gotten back into spinning. I started out spinning on my spindle again


and then decided I wanted to take a class. There is a local place called the sheep shed where they offered a spinning class for $40. the class is around 4 hours so I thought it was worth it.

The class was fun and while maybe not worth $40, it was a lot of fun. The lady who taught it is recovering from cancer and she and her husband are in their 70's. She spent the first hour or so going over wool quality and types of wool and gave us a lot of pointers on buying quality wool and types of sheep that produce that wool. Also what to look for when buying wool (veggie matter, etc).

We also spent about 1.5 hours spinning on various spinning wheels. Of course I liked the $700 wheel the best. That's not going to happen!

Anyway, after having so much fun, I came up with all sorts of possible money making ideas that would make it possible for me to really get into spinning.

After much thought, of course none seem really feasible.

Anyway, for my birthday my hubby gave me the latest Nancy Drew game !!!! and said that I could spend $50 over at the Sheep Shed. I decided that if I was really going to get into spinning, I should think about getting some sheep eventually. So if I was going down to that level, then the best thing for me to buy for my birthday would be some carders for combing and blending wool. When I called the Sheep shed to make an appointment, Cleo , the owner said that she would give me some wool to play around with as well.

Well, when I got there, she pointed out a huge back of yucky looking wool. There was a lot of it though. So I felt like I should spend a little more money in her shop to help cover it. So I spent another $15 and bought a Niddy Noddy for winding spun wool.

Hubby thankfully wasn't upset when I came home having spent $73 instead of $50. He was little surprised though.

Anyway I weighed the wool. To my surprise it was 2 pounds. Wool typically sells around here for $5/lb, so Cleo really gave me a great gift. Anyway, before washing the wool I thought for sure it was multi colored brown colors. I wasn't super thrilled, but was excited to try washing and carding wool.

I put the wool in a huge bucket of hot water and dish soap. After that, I took it out and gave it 2 rinses (1-2 hour soak) in hot water. This rinses out the rest of the soap and lanolin.

Imagine my surprise when the wool came out off white. Now I should mention that each sheep varies in the shade of white that it produces. Also each sheep's wool takes dyes differently. So you typically dye all the wool at one time, and probably try and limit the sheep involved. A fleece from a sheep typically weighs around 5 pounds.

Anyway, I dried the wool next to the fire for the next few days. Then I started to card the wool.



after carding, it looks like this



It took about a week to get through all of that wool.

I should probably mention that you can dye the wool at two different stages in the process. You can dye it after washing it, or you can dye it after spinning it. I chose to dye after spinning it.

It took about 2 weeks to card and spin the wool.







In the meantime a project had been suggested to me. My parents are going to serve a mission for our church in the spring and Mom would need a sturdy church bag. I forget where I got the original idea from, but it got me excited. Now I remember. From this blog - http://letsknit2gether.com/blog1/

So after the wool was all spun, I had to figure out how I was going to dye it all. For wool (or any animal fiber) the best dye is a protein based dye. If you go this route, you need to buy pots, pans, measuring stuff, and stirring spoons specifically for this. You can never use these things again for food cooking.

Since I don't have that kind of disposable income, I opted to go another route. Kool-aid. Now, this dye does have its problems. It will fade over time. But for my purpose, it seemed ideal. A bag doesn't get washed very often. So the only way for the color to fade seems to be regular use, and maybe the sun.

So I bought several colors of off brand kool-aid and a couple of packets of real kool-aid blue and dark red that weren't available in the off brands.

I experimented with these colors in the microwave and then showed the results to my Mom and let her choose. I have to admit I sort of talked her into my favorite. Purple. the purple wasn't that dark purple you might think of. I'll add a picture once I have it. She was leaning towards a dark red or blue thinking they would hold up better. I was thinking more about what color would go with more outfits. :)

Anyway, it took me a couple of hours and every packet of purple I had to get the right shade. Even then I had to grab a couple packets of blue and red and mix them to get the right shade and add them to. I really liked that effect. It made the purple more reddish. It was nice.

Anyway, after that, I hung it all up to dry in my laundry room and almost overnight it was dry enough to start crocheting.

After looking at bunches of patterns on the web, I couldn't find any I thought would hold up to what my mom needed the bag for.

So I decided to design my own. This resulted in a week or so of crocheting and re-doing. This was partly because of design stuff, crochet errors, and even running out of yarn.

Anyway, after a week I was ready to felt. Here is the result.

With a box for shape -


Without the box -



I think Dad is going to put a cardboard square into the bottom of it for shape.


Now I'm really into felting. Since the first bag, I have crocheted and felted a purse for me



I haven't decided if I like it yet.

2 soap holder thingeys for use in the shower from this website - http://bricoreandfamily.blogspot.com/



and a pair of slippers for C that I will felt today.

before -


After -


I'm not sure if they are felted enough. I think I'd like to try and felt them some more.

Now here's the problem. I'm out of wool. Without wool or some other fiber from and animal, I can't felt.

What am I going to do? I am going through withdrawals!!!!!!

Mcleods daughters

yes, I'm addicted. I just am. They showed Seasons 1-3 on the We channel a few years back and now I've been catching the current season.

I've just got to rant.

If Mcleods daughters was to be taken seriously, then the crime rate in Australia must be out of this world. A few episodes ago the girls were kidnapped when they knocked on a farmers door in order to get water for their overheated radiator. Last week Rose fell and is now in a wheelchair and should walk after a lot of rehab (and in this episode tries to kill herself due to not wanting to live without walking). The week before that Rose narrowly escaped being date raped after being given a drug. The preview for next week shows Rose being held hostage at Drovers Run while some random guys search the house.

These episodes are 4 in a row. (kidnapped, date rape, accident, hostage). I can swallow all of this happening over maybe 1 season, but 4 in a row? Come on! seriously!

What happened to this show being about relationships? Family and romantic.

I still like the show, but am just finding it a bit hard to swallow at the moment.

so much to say

Heres the Readers Digest version of what I've not felt like posting about.

The day we got the occupancy permit for our home, my husband decided to move in. This was Mid-December. The next day I awoke to find that I had herniated a disc in my back. Lovely.

After much pain, and after trying a visit or two to the chiropractor, I decided to visit my normal doctor and get the good pain meds. My real doctor was out of town for 2 weeks, and so I had to go to another doctor. He prescribed a pain med, anti inflammatory, and a muscle relaxant. I was in bed for a week and things seemed to be getting worse. One day I forgot to take my pain pill (hey, I was on 3 different pill schedules!) and ended up in the ER because I was in so much pain. The sad thing was that after I got there, they made me wait so long to get in, my pain pill FINALLY started working. Although it was making me very nauseous. Anyway, the ER doc prescribed me a heavier hitting pain med for emergencies like that one where the pain was just awful. I never ended up taking it, but held on to it just in case.

By the next Wednesday I was spending more and more time out of bed. I still had 3 or so relapses, but was doing all right. I started going to and have since graduated from the physical therapist. I also started going to a chiropractor who practices kinesiology, and acupuncture. It was ok. I don't know how much it actually helped. And, this guy has since turned his practice over to another guy who is just awful. So I'm thinking about going to another chiropractor because about 2 weeks ago I had another setback and am having major sciatic pain again.

My husband has been a real trooper and has supported me through it all. He is going to school, working full time, and helping with the kids and doing dishes and laundry.

Since spring arrived we have been working hard. I think this might be what has been leading up to this latest setback.

We've had grass planted, planted trees, planted a garden, planted shrubs and flowers, etc, etc. We've been very busy.

We've also been very busy helping my parents. They are having my sisters wedding reception in their yard in July and of course they have to whip everything into shape. We haven't actually done all that much, but we have helped out.

My hubby and Dad work together really well, and help each other out physically, and with coming up with solutions.

Anyway, we are also Wolf leaders in our ward and are having a lot of fun with it.

C has a new friend who she has play dates with.

C and A are hard to keep from Grandma and Grandpa's house. If they see Grandma or Grandpa, they always have to say hi and go and see them. I think G & G might finally be getting tired of it. Last week Grandma started talking about rules at Grandma's house.

I'm sure there is more, but that was the basics.

more pictures!

Tile in the entry way and 1/2 bath


Tile that will be under the fireplace


My dream kitchen!!




My awesome laundry room


I'm looking forward to a soak in this!!!

Life goes on

So we got the final-ish move-in date from our builder. Now we've been told that the final inspection will be the first week in December and we should be able to move in after that.

So a bit of a delay just like everyone else warned us about. Lets just hope that it doesn't get moved again. Again, its very nice not to have to be out of the house by the end of the month. We would have had to live somewhere for 2 weeks and that would have been a pain.

So my Dad called with one of his occasional updates yesterday. Since he lives next door to the new house, and just retired last week due to his back getting worse, we are lucky enough to get these updates from time to time.

He said that the tile backsplash was going in and just about done. They were also working on the tile entryway. The sinks had been dropped in, and the plumber was hooking everything up.

Earlier this week the cabinets were finished up (my kitchen rocks!) and the linolium went in last week. The painter still has a few places that need touch up.

I can't believe how quickly things are going!!! But not quickly enough for the original finish date of Thanksgiving that our builder originally gave us. Oh well.

The house has been on the market for one week now, and not one call. Its going to be fine though. We have been very calm about it, and I feel comfortable about things. We are going to be fine.

Interesting development

The offer on our house fell through on Tuesday. Talk about the bottom falling out. Everything has changed.

The home under construction is coming along well and we should be moving in around Thanksgiving. That will make selling this home a little bit easier.

We are still in a little bit of shock.

Anyway, we put our house back on the market today. Its nowhere near ready to show. Its a stinking mess. The carpets need to be cleaned again and the bathrooms need a good scrubbing. The whole house needs to be picked up and vacuumed. The dishes need to be done.

I need to start packing.

And we are talking in church on Sunday.

I feel a little slammed.

Why do they do that? Why do they ask you to speak in Church when you are under a lot of stress and have a whole bunch of things to do. Oh yeah, lets write a talk and then stress about giving it. AAAHHHHH!!!!!

OK, enough of that.

They finished painting our new house on Monday or Tuesday and they put down subfloor and linoleum yesterday and today. They also got the well hooked up to the house on Tuesday, and inspected on Wednesday.

Things are just coming along swimmingly.

In a way its nice not to have the stress of having to be out of the house by a certain date. That way I'll have a bit more time to do the final cleaning. And if the house was to be delayed, we would have had to find somewhere to live for a little while, so I guess its good not to have to stress about that.

The thing that really stresses me is potentially having to carry this home through the winter into next summer.

I sure hope someone is looking to buy a home during the holidays. Cross your fingers for us.

Our Front Door


Front door from the inside. Front room to the left, 1/2 bath to the right.


We have 4 bedrooms. The closets in 3 bedrooms look about like this. The master has a walk in.


Our dream pantry!!!


The cool trench that leads from the well to the house.

Nancy Drew "The Creature of Kapu Cave" walkthrough

So, this game was a bit of a dissapointment. It was to short, to easy, and was it just me or did Joe Hardy look like he had a bad comb over?

However, it was a New Nancy Drew game from Herinteractive, so its better than nothing right?!

Herinteractive releases 2 games a year. One in July and the next in October. I would like to take this time to suggest that they may want to space these releases a bit. I've found that both games never excel. Usually one is awesome, and the other is ok. Maybe if they space them a bit, they'll have more time to concentrate on each game. Another thing they could do is introduce a 3rd release per year. I know I'd buy them. They could release in April, August, and then in December, just in time for Christmas. The only person who wouldn't like this would be my husband. He enjoys the easy birthday gift that the October released game brings.

Onward with the walkthrough!

So start the game, look through Nancy's room if you want. Its basically the same as last time. Click on the ticket when you are ready to go.

Watch the movie, talk to big Island Mike, exhaust all conversation topics and then go shell hunting. Find the beach by walking around to the back of Mikes place and following the path to the beach.

Surprise! On the beach you run into Frank and Joe with his bad comb over (shame on you for ruining his hair Herinteractive!)

Listen to them and then look for shells. There are only 5 places on the beach you can find them.

Click on the small pool in front of you, go forward once and click on the wet spot on the sand, go forward again and click on the big rock in front of you.

Now turn around. Go forward once, and in the lower left hand side of the screen is a cairn. or pile of rocks sort of like a trail marker. click on that. Now go forward twice more and click on the log to the left of your screen.

OK, now time to go and make an Aloha necklace. Go back to Mikes place and find the outside necklace making area.

Flip through the necklace examples to find the Aloha necklace. Then simply string the beads so that it looks like the necklace in the picture.

Give it to Big Island Mike and he will give you the keys!

This is the last time I will say this. Always and forever, exhaust ALL conversation topics when talking to people!

OK, as soon as you click on the jeep, a GPS screen will come up. And I was hoping to be able to drive this jeep! Anyway, in my opinion, the GPS screen is cool, but after you've seen it come up 3 times, it gets old. They need to shorten it just a bit.

Anyway, choose Camp Quigley.

OK, once there, explore! And of course, pick up everything that is not nailed down.

Near the jeep you will find a winch and a panel with lots of numbers on it. In front of the tent you will find a tape recorder.

Rewind the tape and listen.

go into the tent and explore. Find the Clipboard, the radio with no power, the note with the radio frequency from Dr. Quigley.

Check out the table with the microscope on it. Strange that the radio has no power, but the "Formula" machine does???!?

Also check out the green box with the strange lock on it. Push the buttons and hear a familiar sound. Rewind the tape and write down the order you hear those sounds. Herinteractive was nice enough to "Name" the sounds also, so write down the "Blah"s and the "Blee"s correctly.

ok, now that the box is open, read the notes about Professor Craven, notice the phone number at the end of the notes, get the hook, and the pass.

Call the number. Whether you try and be Dr. Kim or try and be yourself, the lady hangs up on you.

Lets fix the jeep. Use the winch and the hook, you should be able to get it out.

Look at the panel with the numbers. This time Nancy will recognize it as a solar panel and tell you that some of the cells are missing.

Lets go and see if those lovely people at the Hilihili research center have some extras.

Whether you use the pass or not you end up in front of Professor Craven getting yelled at. Don't worry, he calms down.

When you ask for solar cells, he asks you to get some seeds. They are downstairs. Or should I say down a ramp? Anyway, look around all you want. Despite the high security, no one is around, and you won't get stopped.

Once you've found the plants that need harvesting, look to the right and find the card that describes the seed you are looking for. Its easy.

Once you are done, bring them back to the Professor and he will instruct some guy to put the cells in your vehicle.

Back to Camp!

Lets fix the Solar panel. If you are familiar with Suduko, this should be fairly easy. If not, just remember that in each of the 4 squars, there should only be numbers 1-9. In each row, there should not be any numbers repeated. When the lights are all green, you are done. Just keep messing around with the numbers if you don't understand Suduko, and eventually it will come together.

Now hook it to the winch and wind the winch so its back in the tree.

Lets go call Dr. Kim.

Turn on the power and figure out how to input the frequency found on that note from Dr. Kim

Pick up the microphone on the table to talk to Dr. Kim.

Call Joe and see if he can help.

Now we are playing as Joe.

Go talk to Big Mike.

He will send you fishing.

On the way to the beach, live through the earthquake and talk to Pua at the surf shack.

Now head down to the pier and start fishing. Click on the fishing rod and then the bait each time you want to catch a fish. Watch your bobber. When it dunks down below the water, click on your rod. It will show you the fish that you caught. Some are dang ugly!

As soon as you have caught 6 of the Ulua, you will run out of bait. That really stinks because all these fish are worth big island bucks (from Pua).

Go and give the Ulua to Big mike.

Leave, once your around the first corner you hear a car leave.

I'm going to bring the rest of these fish to Pua so I can get some big island bucks.

OK, now that I'm $9 richer, lets go check out big mikes office.

There is nothing on the desk to see, just look at the calendar. There you will find a post-it and the key.

Once you get into the locked cabinet, you will find a map. Now you know that Dr. Kim is at 3 finger rock. Joe calls Nancy and leaves a message with the coordinates. Then he gets clobbered.

Now as Nancy, you know where to find Dr. Kim. plug those coordinates into the GPS and get going!

As you are going down the trail you will see colored flags marking other trails with plants at the end. At each plant take a colored baggy and collect a sample. This will save time later.

once you get to the end of the trail, look up and click on dr. kim to talk to her.

She sends you back to camp for her clipboard. Hop in the Jeep, go back to camp. The clipboard is in the tent. Hop back in the jeep and head for 3 fingered rock (really should have been called 3 toed rock in my opinion)

Give the clipboard to Dr. Kim. she will tell you that the first page is missing. Now you have to gather all the data and analyze it according to the instructions on the clipboard.

Back to camp! Look at the clipboard and find instructions. You will need a microscope. If you look at the one in the tent, you will find that the one there is broken.

Lets go to the Hilihili! Don't worry, they'll let you in. Just push the white button for assistance.

Dr craven will give you the microscope part, but needs you to fertilize some plants first. The plants are down the ramp and on the right side of the room.

The first time I did this puzzle, I just kept pushing buttons and solved it pretty quickly. This time I made a chart and figured out what each color would do. Either way works!

Talk to Dr. Craven again and he will give you the part you need.

On the way out you hear him firing Mr. Fiderman.

Back to camp!

Fix the microscope and pour the contents of the red pouch on it. If you read the clipboard instructions you know that you need to seperate and weigh the frass (pictures on the clipboard), count the seeds and count the insect parts.

Also note that you are missing 2 colors of pouches. Those are at kapu cave but dr. kim hasn't told you about them yet.

One thing on the clipboard that you have to do is identify the plants that the samples were taken from. Lets call Joe and see if he can help.

Playing as Joe, lets go and play some of those games in Big Island Mike's office.

The Wiki Tiki game is just for fun. You can win a sharks tooth that can be made into a necklace and exchanged for Big Island Bucks.

The other game is an informational game. You will need more bucks to read everything. You can catch fish or make necklaces. Either way is pretty easy. Don't forget to ask Big Mike about Franks accident and pick up the paper on the ground.

When playing the informational game, don't forget to take notes while looking at the plants!

Lets go talk to pua now. Hey, she's renting snorkel gear!

After talking to Pua, lets round up some bucks. You can make necklaces or catch fish if you have any money left for bait.

However you do it, once you have $30, rent some snorkel equipment.

While you are earning money, you will hear Pua and her father arguing. You will want to talk to both her and Big Mike about it.

Once you are able to rent the snorkel equipment, go down to the sand where the big wet spot is. You will be able to enter the water there. There are 5 places to collect shells down there, and at the end you will find a dark hole where an eel lives and won't let you through.

hey, we forgot to call the pawn broker. Lets do that.

Now lets call Johnny Kuto.

OK, now its time to talk to Big Mike.

Now lets go talk to Pua. On the way, Johnny Kuto calls you back. Nothing.

Pua tells you about the chart in the courtyard. Lets go talk to Big Mike to find out his favorite flavor of shave ice. You'll need money for this one.

Go and talk to Big Mike. He'll tell you to guess his favorite shave ice by making them and bringing them to you. This is sort of fun. He will tell you how many flavors you have right. But it could get expensive.

After you get the right answer, you will be able to open the box in the courtyard. you will find a strange map and Joe will call Nancy.

Ok, look at the clipboard. the first page of directions has the coodinates for Kapu cave. Lets plug in the coordinates and check it out. Also, collect the samples there.

OK back to camp to analyze the new samples.

Once you have the clipboard full, turn on the Krolmeister Formula machine and put your clipboard in it.

Now we need to take the results to Dr. Kim.

The first time you talk to her she'll tell you about the webs at Kapu cave.

The next time, she'll get excited about your results. the nice thing about this puzzle is that she'll tell you which color has the wrong data.

Make sure you exhaust all conversation topics with Dr. Kim. She may finish a conversation, but if you try and talk to her again, you'll find that you have more questions to ask.

OK then, off to the Hilihili! Dr. Craven is asleep so now you can check out his thingeymajig. Be sure to hit the settings tab at the far right in order to turn off the sound. Also, check out his lab coat near him.

Remember that Fiderman guy who got fired? Well, I bet his locker would be a good place to find one of those protective suits! Write down his combination and his employee number.

When you get in the room with the plants, go left and then all the way to the back of the room. You will find a room with a computer in it. This is where you'll figure out what plant to take a sample from.

The HH3333 is right outside the door to the office you are in, and to the left. very easy. Get a sample, and get out.

Getting out is a bit of a problem. Review these directions, don't pause a lot, and you should get out just fine. If not, you'll just have to try again.

R,S,L,S,S,S,L,S,L,S,R,S,L,S,S,R,S,R,S,S,S,R,S,L, at door, and leave!

We're out! Back to camp.

You'll need to go into the tent and put the plant sample in a test tube. When you click on the table to use the test tubes, you'll find that they helpfully put the plant sample on the table for you. Just put it in a test tube and squirt in some liquid from the bottle in front of you.

They also put the Red sample on the table in front of you. By clicking on it, it will put some of it in the test tube in front of you. Do the same with the liquid.

OK, back to Dr. Kim!

Talk to her and then take the canopy samples from her pack. Back to camp!

once you analyze all those canopy samples (using the test tubes and that liquid) then its back to Dr. Kim!

OK, after taking the ring from Dr. Kim's pack, lets go to Kapu cave.

There is only one place where anything can be put in Kapu cave. Find it, Its on the main statue.

I hope you took notes from that map Joe got out of the box in the courtyard. You'll need it now.

Put the pictures in the order listed on the map. If it doesn't do anything, play with the block on top, second from the left. That always works for me.

OK, so lets go into this cave filled with lava. The first 2 jumps you take, you'll make. Don't forget to look at the statues you are passing. The 3rd (or so) statue you see, you'll be able to pull his tongue out. This will make a ledge come out of the wall. Take the ledge. There is no other way over. But once you use the ledge it will disappear and you will be stuck.

You'll come to a lovely puzzle. Basically its one where you find the right sequence and you solve the puzzle. Only problem is that when you push any wrong rock, you die. And you get to second chance it for the next try. Lovely, eh?

For all you cheaters, here's the answer. Center top is #1, second from the left on the bottom is #2, the big button in the middle towards the left is #3, and the very left middle button is #4. This will cause you to slide down a tube.

The next puzzle is fairly easy. You are going to put the turtle laying eggs story in order. Use the domino style tiles for it.

When you get the puzzle right, the head will sink and the eyes will look right. As soon as you can, click on the right arrow. Otherwise you will get squished.

Now we go back to Joe.

OK, after we hear the message from Nancy, Joe says we should go and see if the eel is still there under the water. Get out your list of animals from that map again. Make sure you have them in order and handy. You will need to choose the right directions according to that order while Joe holds his breath.

Lets go!

What I'd like to know is how Joe can say "Whoa" every time you choose a direction, without drowning!

Once you get there and the rock breaks the bridge, you are again, stuck. Climb the bridge 'ladder'. Explore the cave and you will get to a statue thingey where you can push a button. Push it and go in. Look around and find the canisters. Then Big Mike shows up. And then Nancy shows up! Wow, lets have a party!

I'm not sure there is anything to this next puzzle other than dumb luck. Just keep trying and you'll make it. Though I have to laugh at Nancy's instructions. Like Big Mike can't hear them also! Ha Ha!

I'm disappointed in the lack of a big finish on this one! And, hey! I wanted to make some more necklaces!

Anyway, the next game looks good.

Looking forward to it in 9 STINKING MONTHS! Man Herinteractive, could you possibly produce more games, or at least put them out every 6 months or something?

Just plain weird

So our realtor called me this morning and our conversation went something like this:

"Did you show your house?"

Me "No"

"Well that's really weird because we just got an offer"

Me "Are you kidding?"

Anyway, our Realtor received some random offer for our house today. Full price, site unseen. We do have to give him a fridge (I'm not giving up mine! We'll have to buy a new cheap one) and pay a large part of the closing costs. But a full price offer.

Turns out it was an investor. So we might just be able to rent back for a month until our house is ready.

Anyway we signed the papers and our realtor will fax them over tomorrow.

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!! (Well nearly)

How about...

WE'RE ABOUT TO ACCEPT AN OFFER ON OUR HOUSE!!!

Thats a bit more accurate.

Here's hoping that everything goes well and it doesn't fall through.

Houses!

In the nearly 3 months that our house has been on the market, we have had exactly 5 people show interest in SEEING it.

3 of the 5 have actually seen it.

I'm doing ok, but the fact that its been at least 2 months since someone has looked at our house could start worrying me around the end of October.

Until then, I refuse to stress over it. If I do, I will totally lose it.

In the meantime the new house is doing great. We have windows! We have electrical! We have bathtubs! We have the SOAKER TUB of my dreams!

This week and last they have been working on inspections, electrical, and getting quotes on siding.

Things are going well. We are still happy about our builder.

We found out that the cabinets that we chose and everything with that came to just $100 more than our builder budgeted, and he's ok with the overage.

We're supposed to meet with our builder tomorrow to discuss the siding. I always look forward to those meetings because it feels like we're getting inside information!

I'm still in the primary presidency, and hubby is still ward clerk. These callings keep us busy, and I don't know if that's a bad thing or not. I think it keeps my mind off of the house not selling.

C is becoming much more responsible. She helps out a lot and doesn't make nearly as many messes as she once did. But A is making up for them with her own!

Grandpa

I was just looking at an old picture of you and I realized that I miss you.

You died when I was only 7 but I still remember your smile. Your gentleness. The dimple in your chin that I and even my children have.

I don't remember much else.

All my other memories are of your funeral, or were supplied to me through stories from my Dad and other family members.

I wish I had been able to get to know you. You look and sound like such an awesome man and grandpa.

Grandpa, just know that I can't wait to spend time with you again.

pictures of the new house

Did I mention that we have the best builder ever? My hubby and I were just admiring the gables and roof and just everything about our house and we realized that most of it was because our builder is so awesome. He designed our house for a great price. He took all of our suggestions and also led us away from things that would have looked bad, and made suggestions about what would look good.

In all, at this point, we are extremely pleased. If you need the name of an AWESOME builder in the Boise Idaho area, let me know. I have the best builder!!!

Oh, and here's a picture of the 2 cutest kids ever! My husband and I marvel that we could produce girls this cute!!!

Life

So lots of things happening... And lots of things not happening.

Our house is still on the market. In fact we are coming close to 2 months without one person even coming and looking. In a way thats good, because I think we might avoid having to move twice, but at this point I think I might wet my pants if someone called and wanted to actually see our house. (yes, we have been doing lots of advertising, and have lowered the price by 5k so far. We're the lowest priced in the neighborhood)

Our garden is doing ok. Its just starting to produce green peppers though. That is really annoying to me. Here it is, starting to get cold and we're just starting to have a harvest.

BYU's first game was on Saturday. They lost. My husband made he wonderful gameday homemade pizza. It was awesome. Why is it that homemade pizza is so much better than the stuff they deliver? He used 100% whole wheat flour for the crust also!

The home we are building is almost past the framing stage. You can actually walk through and see the rooms and windows and where things will be and how big the rooms are.

I'm really excited about the kitchen and the pantry. The bedrooms look awesome, the garage looks huge, I love the master!

The only thing I don't like right now is the fact that the framers seem to think that just because we're building on an acre, they can spread out that wide. We're finding nails and garbage nearly to the back of the property. That ticks me off. We're doing our own cleaning mostly because my husband and Dad (who lives at the ajoining property) wanted first dibs on the extra wood and supplies. Thats ok with me.

Dad goes around the property every day or so and picks up garbage and scraps and hauls them over to his house. The framers should be done today or tomorrow, so he's going to take the truck over there and really load up. Of course he's not taking anything that our builder may be returning for credit or anything.

Mom's happy with it because Dad built some shelves out of the scrap and she's been able to organize some food storage that really needed it. I'm happy because my husband will be able to do the same.

When they poured the cement for our foundation, something became clear. The house was on more than a slight incline. Its a slope! the back corner of the houes has a foundation of almost 5 feet! Makes me wish I'd realized it and then we could have talked about an unfinished daylight basement or something. But it was too late for that. So we've settled for a couple of crawl space access points that will make it possible for us to store a lot of food storage down there. This is where my husband will be building the shelves.

I'm starting to get nervous about living so close to my parents.

Nancy Drew : Danger By Design Walkthrough

Ok, you may remember from some of my earliest posts that one of my guilty pleasures is to play Nancy Drew computer games. Well, I just got another one in the mail a few days ago.

Well, I decided to try my hand at a walkthrough.

Here it is! If you find any errors, please let me know.

Also, No part of this or any post on my blog may be reproduced in any form. You may however link to it.

Rather than just giving answers, I’ll try and guide you to the answers. We’ll see how that goes.

We start out in Nancy’s room. I’m not sure why they chose to start here, but ok. Read the case file and if you would like the scrapbook and How to be a detective. When you are ready to start, click on the airline ticket.

I’m going to choose the Senior Detective level.

Once Heather sits down at her desk, talk to her and exhaust all topics of conversation (as always).

Before going to see Minette, search the room.

Read the notebook in your desk drawer carefully. There are solutions to at least 3 puzzles in there.

On the computer you’ll figure out that Sonny Joon from the Secret of the Scarlet hand is making a special guest appearance (sort of).

Read the e-mail, and make note of the things you need to do on the to do list.

Click on the game portal. You need a name and password. They are in Sonny’s notebook. I will give you one clue. Minette’s best friend of sorts is a dress form named Carol. That is your username. That is all. Oh, and don’t play the game yet.

OK, lets fix the plotter before we see Minette. On the last page of Sonny’s notebook there is a letter about the plotter. Read the letter, and the shapes on the bottom of the page will help you solve this puzzle. If you correctly fixed the plotter, it will no longer let you get a close up view of it.

Now that those things are done, lets go talk to Minette! But wait! Answer the phone!

Ok, Now go see Minette.

Talk to her and at the end, she will ask you to brew her some tea. Go over to the tea brewing area on the other side of Minette’s room.

Nancy will basically tell you how everything works. Click on the white recipe card looking thing on the table.

So Minette’s favorite color is red today and then she chooses the number 10. So read through all the conditions and add the called for herbs. I will say that the herb doesn’t have to meet all the conditions, just one of the conditions. What I did was figure out a condition (grow in marshy areas) and go through all the herb descriptions and write down those herbs. Then, I figured out another condition and did the same thing. You will find out that 2 herbs will appear twice on your list. I just added those once.

The total number of herbs is 11 (only counting the 2 herbs that appear on your list 2 times, once)

As soon as you finish with the tea, go to the outer office. Minette will let you know immediately if you got it right or if you have to try again.

Once you get it right, she’ll call you back and give you money and a bag and tell you to go to Pont Neuf to buy stuff that’s just like her old stuff.

Go back to your computer and make a note of all the other errands you could run while you’re out.

Talk to Heather.

Try to leave

Get the letter, take care of it, and then leave.

Lets go to Pont Neuf first. Look at the cross thingy in front of you. Read the inscription.

Next check out each of the venders in the park. Lets start with the one with the wrap on her head. She’s to the left.

One thing to note with Venders – you can haggle with them. You can try half price which they will accept most of the time, but if they don’t accept it, then the only choice you have is to pay full price.

Ok, back to the vender with the wrap on her head. She has one item of the four that Minette is looking for.

Now lets go to the vender with her back to you the whole time. She has 2 items that you will need for Minette.

Now for the vender in the middle of the park - he has only 1 item for Minette. But surprise! He also has a way for you to make money. You can paint reproductions for him. I always do the Mona Lisa painting because it’s much easier than the other one - although the other one is nice for a change now and again.

By the way, don’t forget to look at everything in the park.

Now on to Place Monge to talk to JJ Ling.

Talk to JJ, and don’t believe her! Get the envelope from her, and as always, exhaust all topics of conversation. Look at everything in the room, and also be sure to read the paper on the table now and every morning.

Now lets go to Rue Du Bac.

Dieter will say he doesn’t have the time to make the prints, so it’s up to you. The binder with instructions on it was hard for me to find. Click on the fish tank and to the right on the shelf is the binder. Read it and take notes. Dieter won’t let you take it into the dark room.

Don’t forget to search the room. You can borrow the digital camera right now if you want. You won’t need it until later, but it’s fun.

Now for the dark room. The hardest part here is the fact that you have to do this in complete darkness. And if you miss the tray and knock something over, you have a huge explosion. The easiest way to do this is to get a post-it and mark your screen where the switch and trays are. Be very careful not to do anything to harm your computer screen. Do this at your own risk!

Ok, the slides. You would think they would make things easy and you would develop 4 slides and voila! They would be 4 different slides. Well, it’s not that easy. I developed 3 and then kept developing the same ones I already had. Just try and look at the slide before you put it in the machine.

After you are done, talk to Dieter some more.

Now its time to go to Hotel De Ville

Talk to Jean Mi and give him the prints. Order something when urged to. I’ve had just about everything on the menu. It’s all chicken and hamburgers and ice cream.

Talk to Jean Mi some more and he will give you Hugo Butterly’s phone number. Fat lot of good it will do for you.

Ok, now back to the office.

Answer the phone for another blast from the past.

Ok, so we need to create some outfits. These outfits are weird. I’m not sure how to give hints for this. Just read the outfit guidelines on the white card on each page and try lots of combinations.

First outfit clue - The 3 items of one color aren’t the color green.

Second outfit clue - 2 items in this outfit are furry.

Third outfit clue - Both items on her head are yellow.

Talk to Heather some more and give her the envelope from JJ.

Go and try to give your items to Minette. You’ll find out she’s playing a game.

Go and talk to Heather. She’ll suggest you try and log in as Minette and get the high score so that Minette will quit playing and get back to work.

Login to the game portal using the username and password found in Sonny’s notebook. Keep playing until you top the high score of 1000. Yeah, this game is a pain. Everyone looks alike!

After you get the high score, go talk to Minette and give her your stuff.

Go to the outer office and now you are running home to see why JJ isn’t answering the phone.

Ok, once you get home talk to JJ.

Now we have 2 problems. We need to find mint and find out how to substitute for brown sugar.

First go to the kitchen cupboard and find the molasses. Get it and put it on the island with all the other ingredients.

Now we can solve both of our problems by going to the park.

Ok, we’re going to spend a lot of money on things you may think we don’t need. But we’ll need them later in the game.

First vendor – lady with a blanket on her head. You’ll need to pay full price for the mint. Buy the mint, the stake, the string, and the Ichi-Do book. Be sure to read the book carefully before you swim later in the game.

The second vender – the lady whose back is always to us. Buy the flashlight and the dictionary.

The 3rd vendor – the man in the middle of the park. Bring lots of money to this one. Buy the wetsuit, the pie tin, the cookbook and the book about codes. Try and buy the black box also.

When you leave the park, Nancy will make you go home because it’s getting dark. OK, I guess JJ can sleep outside Minette’s studio J

Next day:

Read the paper and then go over to the cookie ingredients.

Chop up the mint on the cutting board to the right. Be sure to read the recipe card and also the cook book to find out what the substitution for brown sugar is. Also don’t forget about the dictionary if you need help with figuring out what some of the ingredients are.

Mix the cookies up, click on the cookie sheet and when the cookies are done JJ will call.

Now to the office. As soon as you go inside, you will need to get the phone.

Get the note next to your computer.

So you need to go to the park and buy a stuffed parrot.

But what’s the hurry? Heather is gone so it’s time to check out her desk and get a closer look at the Dodo box.

At Heathers desk, the only thing to do really is look at her portfolio.

The Dodo box contains a great puzzle.

My hint here is that if you look in Sonny’s notebook, it will be much much much easier. I spent a lot of time on this puzzle before I realized that.

You have to solve the first puzzle on your own. OK, and the last one. But the middle one is very hard and it’s solution is in Sonny’s notebook I promise.

Read all the letters in the box.

OK now off to the park to buy a parrot!

After you talk to the lady with the hood, the game makes you go right. You see Dieter, and after he runs off you get an article and a clock gismo. Take them and continue shopping.

Buy the parrot from the man in the middle of the park.

Now lets go to Dieter’s and find out why he ran off?

He’s in the dark room. Knock on the door and talk to him.

He leads you to another puzzle on the wall over to the right of the fish. Put the clock gizmo on the wall.

This puzzle only gives you a certain period of time to solve. But it’s really easy. Just remember that the clock in the middle is the one you put in and maybe you should make the rest of the clocks look like that one.

Follow the passageway until the end and click on the leaves. You’ll find another puzzle. The answer is in the article about Noisette you got from Dieter.

Read the book.

Now back to the office to find something bugging Minette.

While searching for bugs, find a letter behind the first lady’s dress and a note on Minette’s desk.

This is a good time to search Minette’s room. Look at the first ladies desk and also those paint splattered round things.

You’ll have all the bugs when the box is full.

Now it’s time to use your calling card to call Lynn Manrique

Red Left… Green – as always, exhaust all conversation topics.

Now, lets go and talk to Dieter again and ask some more questions.

Alas! He is to busy and wants us to take some pictures for him.

Get the list off of his desk and use your dictionary to translate.

OK, so I can’t keep you from just looking down and seeing my list.

Stapler – Look in your office
Spider – Look around Dieter’s apartment/office
Candle – in the same place Zu tells you to leave a note.
Skull – in the same place Zu tells you to leave a note
Cross – look in the park
Teapot – where have we made tea lately?


OK, off to the park to release these bugs. Also to take a picture of the cross.

Now back to the office to take a picture of the teapot and stapler, and to make a few phone calls.

While you’re taking pictures in Minette’s area, why not ask her a few questions.

Also, click on the dress and she’ll tell you a bit more about it.

Next, talk to Heather and give her the parrot. She admits to sending the letter.

OK, now its time to call ZU. His number should appear when you pick up the phone.

Now lets go to see Jean Mi to ask about the photo in the magazine in Minette’s area.

Uh Oh, you have to help make parfaits before he’ll let you see the photo.

Be sure to use the parfait instruction book on the ledge in front of you. And ding the bell when it’s done.

OK, now we get to look at the photo. Notice that there is an arrow on each round thing and it is pointing to a particular roman numeral? Write down those numbers!

Next we go to talk Jing Jing into writing Zu a note.

Well, she won’t because she’s afraid that he will steal her identity.

The answer to this one lies in Hangman. I will tell you that there is no way to get her to agree to it, so you’ll have to trick her into it.

Now off to Denfert Rochereau or the Catacombs. Make sure you have 5 euro because that’s how much it costs.

Take pictures of the skull and candle. Then leave your message for Zu in the skull.

Well that’s all of the pictures. Lets head back to Dieter’s.

Talk to Dieter and give him the pictures. Ask about Noisette and he will give you a postcard type thing.

Combine the postcard with something in your inventory and then use the Red left….green clue.

It’s to late to do anything now.

Call Zu. He tells you how to get into the catacombs. Cool

First though lets look at that clue you got off of the post card. Open up that book that you got from Dieters place. On the last page of that letter is a symbol that is referred to as the cross of Lorraine. Have you seen it anywhere else? It’s the same cross you took a picture of in the park.

So we’re off to the park.

Click on the cross to get a close up view. You’ll notice that you can push the numbers now. Use the number that you got on the post card.

OK! Another puzzle. Make note of the clues here. They have something to do with each of the pieces of art in the park.

Go and do the mouths first.

Next do the windmill thingy. When you get it right and turn away, a squirrel will jump on the handle and make it move.

To solve this puzzle you will need a few of the things we bought from venders earlier. I will tell you no more however.

Now for the fish. That one is simple. Just push the red button!

Follow the path down, get the key. That is all there is to do here.

Can I just say that the next sequence made me a little dizzy. And can I also say that to make the tunnel that long was unnecessary and just a time waster. At least you don’t have to use it multiple times like the tunnel in Danger on Deception Island.

Just a little more criticizing. Can I just state how unlikely it would be that a secret tunnel would stay secret when it’s located in the middle of a city park. Thanks. OK, that’s all. Back to the walkthrough.

Lets go to the catacombs now. Hope you remembered your wetsuit. And to read that book. I bet the people at HERinteractive had a lot of fun putting that book together. The guy’s fro is awesome.

Click on the skull to reveal a red button. When pushed an entrance to the catacombs is revealed.

If the police approach, you can hide in the side rooms.

From the entrance you want to go across the board to the other side and then go to the very last entry on the right. You will see a pool of sorts just waiting for you to dive in!

OK, first lets go and get that bottle of whatever it was for the vender in the park.

Dive in, go into the large room with the three tunnels on the far wall. Choose the tunnel to the far right. Go through the tunnel, go right and then go straight towards the fan. The bottle is sitting right in front of it.

Now go back to the beginning for air. Also, because that’s where my next set of instructions start.

Ok, we’ll have to stop for air halfway or so. S = straight, L = left, R = right.

Go into the large room with the three tunnels on the far wall. Choose the tunnel on the lower left. Go through the tunnel and then go R, S, S, S, S, S, L, S, L, R, S, S, L, S, S, go up for air, then back down and go S, S, S, L, S, S, S, S, L, S, S, R, S. Then climb up the ladder. Check out the box and find that you have another puzzle to solve.

This one can be solved using a map of Paris, which coincidentally you see every time you go somewhere. It also talks about this a little in the letter in the book you got at Dieter’s place.

I really over thought this puzzle. I finally gave up and cheated by going to a forum. But it’s really easy if you look for those words that were in a different color on the plaque thingy, on your map of the city. I just finally got this to work for me. When I ‘saw’ it, I was feeling quite stupid.

Anyway, back to the underground plaque thingy. Swim to it, input your code, and if it’s right you get another thingy.

And after you get out of the water, you know why I wanted you to read that book.

OK, so lets go back to the office and check in.

Hey what is that thing on Minette’s door? Another puzzle to solve! Basically each fuse thingy needs to have either a color or shape in common with anything else that is connected to it.

If you fail, a yellow paint bomb goes off and ruins Minette’s entire collection.

OK, once that’s gone and you’ve thrown the bomb away, go into Minette’s area. Mysteriously, she’s gone. Anyway look at the center pole in the middle of the room. Click on the strange indentation in the metal. Look familiar? That’s right. Put the similar thing on it and a panel opens. Rotating color things. This puzzle, like the others, is impossible without the solution.

Lets go to the park and get the M380. There is a code in the book we got from Dieters that we might be able to decode with it.

Once you’ve traded for the M380, look at it in your inventory. Click on the lower portion. It opens a compartment with dials that look just like the things in Minette’s office.

Set the dials correctly and then type in the code from the book found at Dieters, under the picture of the M380.

Voila! The solution to the puzzle in Minette’s area. Use the dictionary if you need help with what color is what.

Lets go back to the office.

Solve the puzzle in Minette’s area by using the solution we just found.

Hey look a door in the floor!

Go down the stairs and see what’s there. Use your key in the door.

Read the letter in the box. Pay attention because Nancy only reads it out loud once and the darn thing is in French.

Make a note of the roman numerals on the bottom of the last page of the letter.

Uh oh, the door locked behind you.

Look at the lock.

Another puzzle.

This one you will need to decode before you can put it into the M380.

Cher ami, where have you seen that before?

Check out the letter in the book from Dieter’s. Both the picture and the letter have a clue for you.

Check out the codebook and read page 8, 9, and 10. If there are any letters in the number that is your Cher ami, just drop them.

Once you have the message decoded, grab your M380 and change the dials to match the numbers from the bottom of the letter in the case.

Type them in and voila! French numbers. That’s ok. Just use your dictionary to tell you what the solution is.

Ok, now that the bars are gone again, lets go upstairs.

You overhear a conversation.

Try to grab the dress.

I sure hope you read that book on Ichi-Do. Well, if you didn’t just take notes. She says a specific phrase just before she does a specific move.

Hope you had fun! I sure did!

for sale

Our house is now on the market. It's actually been on the market since about noon yesterday.

No calls yet. but keeping the house this clean is driving me insane. and it's driving the kids crazy (I'm cranky and keep after them to keep their toys picked up). On top of that I've got this nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach that I don't think will go away until at least one person looks at our house.

but at least I can say that for the most part I can get the house ready and leave in 15 minutes.

Of course this doesn't count mornings. Mornings, with getting the kids up and ready and also making beds, cleaning up after breakfast, I'd be comfortable with an hour to get all that done.

So here's hoping the house sells quickly. I'm still hoping for an investor so that we could rent back while the other house is being built. But at this point, I would take almost any full price offer. (give me a week, I'll change it to 'any offer') :)

We've got almost everything ready for the first hole to be dug. Our builder went down for the building permits on Wednesday and came out of the county building sounding about the same way I feel after going there for anything. Hopeless.

Anyway, he thought there was a ton of more unexpected things to do, but after sorting through what I had already done, we found that all we had to actually do is e-mail one guy for the new street address and apply for another permit at the fire department. The addresses I had in hand the next day, and hopefully the fire department thing will be resolved by early next week.

The worst part about the whole visit to the county is that while our builder was telling me about all these things we still needed, he said that we should be breaking ground within a month.

Um. no. Next week is more like it. Probably the week after (since we are still waiting on the fire department access permit) but I refuse to let him alter our July 1st starting date by THAT much.

I plan to keep pushing him until things start happening. He will find that I'm going to be checking on him a bunch. Not so much that he will hate us, but enough to help him realize that the best thing for him is to finish our house!

Anyway, I'm crossing my fingers that someone will come see our house!

Land owners!

We're land owners! Wahoo!

I filed all the paperwork to split the lot and give us ownership of the land.

We now have 1 acre of land!

Our house plans are nearly done. Our builder is awesome. I wish I knew how to put house plans online.

We've got a 4 bed, 2 1/2 bath, large kitchen with an island, huge pantry, storage room off the huge garage, covered back patio. A total of 2187 square feet.

I feel blessed that we were able to work with a builder who also was able to draw up plans for us. I'm sure we've payed for a it in our costs somewhere, but it feels good to work on plans with the same guy who will be building your house. I feel like he's really been able to concentrate on our house and our dreams for it. He's also been able to keep us on track as to what would look good and how to get what we want in our house along with what would look nice. I highly recommend our builder. If you're looking for a builder in the Boise/Meridian/Nampa/Kuna etc. area, I've got the guy for you.

I'm also the proud owner of a septic permit almost. That only cost $300 smackeroos. I just need to get them

Oh and the access permit. That was only $25, but don't forget that you have to buy a bid bond. Which basically means this... you get a bid for some asphalt work for x amount ($1,800 in our case) Then you go down to the highway district and pay them the $1800. Then the person does the work. Then the highway district comes and inspects it. If the company does a good job, then the highway district refunds your money. If they do a bad job, then the highway district takes your money and fixes it. So this could potentially cost $3,600. I'm not sure how picky the highway district is, but the company I've chosen seems very professional and I'm confident in my choice.

I can say right now that I'm frustrated what a pain this whole process has been.

I am also frustrated at this moment by hubbies family.

His sister has planned a family reunion.

Strike one - wants to have a family picture taken where the kids wear white shirts and the adults wear black shirts.

To elaborate. We don't own shirts these colors, and in the kids case, white shirts are very impracticle.

Strike two - The men go golfing while the women (and kids of course) do pedicures and manicures.

Not something I enjoy. I'd rather do something else.

Strike three - we have to go to Roaring Springs.

Don't look good in a bathing suit. The kids aren't old enough to enjoy the expensive experience. I can't enjoy myself because of course I'm with the kids while hubby is probably out playing. I'm sure he'll take his turn, but I'd rather have the kids not there and be able to enjoy myself with him on the rides.

We could talk about cost, we could talk about the fact that none of these things is something I especially want to do. We could talk about the driving back and forth - 45 minutes both ways - and cranky tired children who don't want to get in the car the 3rd day. We could talk about how I've sworn to my husband that I don't want to go.

Also, the whole thing will cost around $160 - $170. For that kind of money I want something besides cranky children to show for it thanks. A trip to a resort, something. Something besides black shirts we won't wear again, and white shirts that the kids will stain soon after (or before with my luck) the picture is taken.

Sorry for the negativity. I'll get over it. Just like I managed to get through Thanksgiving.

Have I told you about our street naming dilemma? :)

I'm about to have a nervous breakdown

We've been working on simply owning the land that our future home will be built on.

Can you say headache?

From not being able to split the lot, to easements, to surveys, to acknowledgement letters, to renaming the lane to putting up street signs, to quit claims.

This is the biggest headache. As of about 10 minutes ago I was ready to call the whole thing off.

I received the acknowledgement letter from the highway district. It said that we would have to pave the lane and put a stop sign in. My first thought was of some asphalt quotes for our home owners association. What we had quoted was much smaller than a lane, and was quoted at $16k.

We don't have that sort of money and I don't intend to go that much further into debt for this stupid thing.

I should also mention the the county planning and zoning people told us that since the lane already existed, we would not have to pave it.

Upon further review of the letter, it struck me that they were referring to to "one lot plus the new lot". Well there will be 3 lots on this after all is said and done. So I'm crossing my fingers that this is a big mistake!

I'm really crossing my fingers.

If we have to pave the lane, I'm pretty sure we can't afford this. I've already been worried about financial stuff and this would be the straw, you know "The last straw" or the "straw that broke the camels back"

Pray for us.