new house

After yesterday's post I feel I should list some things I love about the house we plan to buy:

• same neighborhood, bigger and newer house
• much larger living room (Steven will finally be able to get a recliner)
• larger deck
• it's not on the corner so we'll have a real backyard
• garage (The driveway's still too steep so I won't be able to pull my car into the driveway at this house either. I'll just use the garage as another place to put my junk!)
• all the bedrooms are on the same floor (very convenient for a newborn)
• the master bath has 2 sinks, a Jacuzzi tub and a stand-alone shower
• an extra 1/2 bath on the first floor
• real hardwood floors in the hallway, dining room and on the stairs
• the bathroom our future children will use has a tub (the one in our house now only has a shower with a glass door)
• bonus room I can use as an office
• washer/dryer hookups are in the bonus room so I don't have to carry the laundry up and down the stairs and I can do the laundry while I play on the computer
• dining room (we don't actually own a dining room table but I'm already planning other uses for the room, such as a playroom)
• kitchen appliances all match
• it's not surrounded by pine trees!

Yeah, new house! (if I could only move all our walk-in closets...)

selling our house

As I drove up to our house today and saw the newly placed "For Sale" sign outside, my heart panged a little. I'm excited over the prospect of a bigger, newer house but I'm saddened at the thought of leaving this one. It's been such a great house. I would buy it all over again in a heartbeat.

I love the dogwood trees. I love our mailbox post (a former neighbor painted it) and the flowers I've planted around the mailbox. I love the size of our bedroom, the beautiful bay window in it and the two walk-in closets. I love the size of our kitchen, the colors of our kitchen (although I hated painting all that wood white), the plant window in it and the corner shelf where I have a plant sitting. I love the gardenia bush next to our kitchen door and the glass in the front door. And certainly not least of all, I love the mortgage payment on our 15 year mortgage.

Hmmm...maybe I should have posted about the things I don't like about our house instead.

house

We're one step closer to moving. On Friday we signed our life away to put the house under contract and to list our house. I'm already tired of all this detailed cleaning and I have lots more ahead. I don't even want to think about actually packing and moving at this moment. At least it's just around the block...

cupid hits the library

Belgium Library Dating

Lib-dating sounds like just my thing...

candles, flowers and books (hold the red wine for me)...

an in depth discussion about Where the Wild Things Are and the significance it's played in my life...

"Do you think I'm cute? Check yes or no" notes stashed inside books...

but then again, I would never have met my husband that way.

insight from an unlikely place

"You can't do anything for a person who is stuck between being happy and being miserable. All you can do is get trapped in the middle, and anyone in the middle just gets squished."

from the children's book "What Would Joey Do?" by Jack Gantos

my head is spinning

Some reasons my head is spinning and I'm acting a little crazy:

1. We've put an offer on a bigger house. Same neighborhood. No forest of pine trees waiting to fall on it.
2. If they accept our offer we'll need to sell our house. Hours of painting and minor repairs await.
3. If they accept our offer we'll actually have to pack and move. The process of packing and moving is never fun. (I'm pretty sure I swore I was never doing it again when we moved into this house.)
4. We finished purchasing nursery furniture this weekend. The dressers will arrive in about 2 weeks and the glider-rocker in about 12 weeks.
5. Friends of ours are working towards adopting a Russian child (yeah, someone who understands!).
6. God already knows my path to become a mother.
7. New episode of Lost tonight!!!

power of the dark crystal

The stars have finally aligned for a sequel to The Dark Crystal! The current title is The Power of the Dark Crystal and is planned for a 2007 release.

Being one of my favorite movies, it was one of the first DVDs I purchased when we got a DVD player. Almost a quarter of a century after I first saw the movie, and the Skeksis and Garthim still creep me out.

For more information about The Power of the Dark Crystal:
Dark Horizons article
Muppet Central article

matisyahu

AMAZING

There is no other way to describe this cd.

I can remember laying in our hotel room this fall reading The Collegiate Times and wondering who Matisyahu was. He was scheduled to play at The Lyric and, I'm embarassed to say, I laughed at the thought of a Hasidic Reggae artist.

I just had no idea. I'm obsessed with this cd and the song "King Without a Crown" in particular. The sound is hypnotic and the lyrics powerful.


King Without A Crown

Chorus:
What's this feeling?
My love will rip a hole in the ceiling
Givin' myself to you from the essence of my being
Sing to my G-d all these songs of love and healing
Want Moshiach now so it's time we start revealing

You're all that I have and you're all that I need
Each and every day I pray to get to know you please
I want to be close to you, yes I'm so hungry
You're like water for my soul when it gets thirsty
Without you there's no me
You're the air that I breathe
Sometimes the world is dark and I just can't see
With these, demons surround all around to bring me down to negativity
But I believe, yes I believe, I said I believe
I'll stand on my own two feet
Won't be brought down on one knee
Fight with all of my might and get these demons to flee
Hashem's rays fire blaze burn bright and I believe
Out of darkness comes light, twilight unto the heights
Crown Heights burnin' up all through till midnight
Said, thank you to my G-d, now I finally got it right
And I'll fight with all of my heart, and all a' my soul, and all a' my might

Chorus

Bridge:
Me no want no sinsemilla.
That would only bring me down
Burn away my brain no way my brain is to compound
Torah food for my brain let it rain till I drown
Thunder!

Let the blessings come down
Strip away the layers and reveal your soul
Got to give yourself up and then you become whole
You're a slave to yourself and you don't even know
You want to live the fast life but your brain moves slow
If you're trying to stay high then you're bound to stay low
You want G-d but you can't deflate your ego
If you're already there then there's nowhere to go
If you're cup's already full then its bound to overflow
If you're drowning in the water's and you can't stay afloat
Ask Hashem for mercy and he'll throw you a rope
You're looking for help from G-d you say he couldn't be found
Looking up to the sky and searchin' beneath the ground
Like a King without his Crown
Yes, you keep fallin' down
You really want to live but can't get rid of your frown
Tried to reach unto the heights and wound bound down on the ground
Given up your pride and then you heard a sound
Out of night comes day and out of day comes light
Nullified to the One like sunlight in a ray,
Makin' room for his love and a fire gone blaze

Chorus

Reelin' him in
Where ya been
Where ya been
Where ya been for so long
It's hard to stay strong been livin' in galus (exile) for 2000 years strong
Where ya been for so long
Been livin in this exhile for too long


His passion for God and his ability to express it in a way that the mainstream embraces is inspiring. I think this statement from his website bio sums it up best, "It's in that fleeting moment when our skepticism melts and our souls open up, that Matisyahu enters with his booming sound of faith."

Note: I was already planning this post before I read Kathy's comment.