trawling real estate websites, traipsing across the city

some very modern homes are appealing

look at this long boondogle lanyard key chain.  he calls it the tomato tornado because it's red and orange. (his color choices)

we had high hopes for this Ballard craftsman, but not quite good enough.

the urban houses make good use out of small spaces.  i was inspired by this closet -so organized and clean.

my current favorite, but too expensive!

6 car garage with a hair cutting sink

the pine wood derby was fun!

i look silly with all my hair pulled back, but colleagues look good. out for a lunch time walk to celebrate ms. E's bday. 

big beans on an appetizer tray.  love that!  have to figure out what the recipe is, just minimal flavoring with herbs and oil, I think. what kind of beans?

E and i went back to visit Green Tree friends for the auction.  it was nice to visit :)

my blog book this year.  I had to use a new company. went with "into real pages".  overall pleased, but hopefully by next year i can find a company that will be able to slurp all my content, and allow me to modify each page.  time consuming, but my preference... 

happy R.  before the stress of the trawling and traipsing begins.

4 weeks, 40 homes

a stop at the market.

R loves a good hot apple cider.

Found this online:  According to a 2009 survey by the National Association of Realtors, the median buyer shopped for 12 weeks and looked at 12 homes.
For us it's more like this:  R looked for the past 3 years window shopping, the past 4 months seriously, and then the past 4 weeks in earnest.  As a family, we've walked through probably 40 homes, and with the agent or alone, he's probably seen 10-20 more than that.

this was was really cute, but it only had a postage stamp 5 feet of back yard, and that included a small car parking area.

this is your typical West Seattle house.

E is great. but does get bored.  we let him take some photos.

we went on a date!  walked a mile there and back to get ice cream after dinner.

important to mommy: view from kitchen sink while I'm washing dishes.  Bainbridge Island has much bigger and nicer and less expensive houses than the city.  there's just that tricky little time sink problem of the ferry commute.

this house was seriously considered.... it was nice! walking distance to the ferry.  but... orange peel texture walls. not a perfect layout.  i liked the view from kitchen sink: alpaca's!

this is typical of BI - quite remote and quiet.  we'll never need to go camping again.  instead on weekends, we'll want to head to Vancouver to get our urban fix.

we went back to look it over one more time before getting on the ferry back to mainland.

our friend Mr. E.  his mom N has been really supportive of my pursuing pregnancy in my advanced maternal age.

SOLD and search continues

Yay!!!!  we get to breathe a huge sigh of relief when the house sells and the process is good!  such a blessing.  we plant a little garden and cover it with "row cover" (thanks Ms. J for that idea!) so that the birds don't eat the little seedlings - as happened earlier this spring.  we get to stay in the house till the end of the school year.

a visit to friends via the ferry.

I miss Bike Month.  I will get that back into my life in the future.

Saturdays are family affairs.  we have boondogle lanyards to make, easy needlepoint, audio books, reading library books, crayons, and snacks.  e is a champ to go along on these house scoping trips.

modern options to craftsman style options.

some with views of water or Space Needle

recent eating adventures include spinach stuffed portabellas.

delicious cabbage salad with a bit of pork on a burrito.

Happy Mother's Day masks.  thank you to E for lots of wonderful Mother's Day artwork to hang at work.

pulled pork and house hunting

E's teacher told me that E is a great writer.  she even used his writing as an example for the rest of the class recently.  They read Charlotte's Web, a little every day, and he wrote about it each day.  he really enjoyed it.  here it says:  "I like The CRat.  I like wen they hidid. I like wen the thruc had nowun is sid it and it was rling dawn the hil."  [translation:  I like the crate.  i like when they hided.  i like wen the truck had no one inside it and it was roling down the hill]

Here it says: At the fare thar was a big pig. won was a ryle big pig.

E got promoted up to the next swim class level.  he is now an "eel". :)

pulled pork sandwich fundraiser for the youth at church.  YUM!  also a dessert auction.  see ely excited after choosing the plate of lemon bars.  for me though, was excitement when they auctioned off the leftover pulled pork! 

friends A & C with adorable little O.

my vteaching companion Sister Shawn.

the skilled smokemaster JW. 

e loves the lemon.  we bought a lemon tree to put in a pot in our new house.

youth dance performance.

the state of our life and garage.

let the family outings house hunting begin.  C & N were hilarious to show up at our seward park open houses :)