I'm making a quilt!

So I've decided to make a quilt. And I'm actually making it! I've always wanted to do something like this, but I've never really wanted to actually do the quilting. I love the piecing process, but I could easily pass on the quilting, especially if it needs to be done by hand. I'm thinking about having it machine quilted, but it depends on how it turns out.

Here are the colors:

The furthest right fabric is my favorite and kind of what all the colors are based on.  The browns are more of an accent color, as it will end up being mostly blue and white.

This is what I did yesterday:

This is going to be a diamond shape in the middle, which you can't really tell from this picture. I'll post more once I get the next section done. I had enough white muslin on hand to be able to complete the big square in the middle, and I'm about to finish the border around that. Then there will be a white border, then the outer blue border.

Each border will be strip pieced with a repeating pattern of the four colors, roughly 3 inches wide. It's exciting that I don't have too much left, but the strip piecing is rather daunting. It's a lot of ironing and trimming and sewing and cutting (not in that order though).

Oh... and I think I just heard 8 gun shots in my complex and Nat's in Canada. Anyone have a dog I can borrow for the night? I'm staying inside and not answering the door ever. It just went off again. Scary!

Problems with the Purchase

Ugh. Buying a house is nerve-racking. Especially on a schedule. Upon suggestion of a friend, we have now contacted a realtor. She said the first step would be to get pre-approved (which we knew and are in the process of doing). In order to do that, we have submitted an online application for a mortgage. Unfortunately, the online version of the application has several flaws.

Now we're just waiting on the mortgage advisors to give us a call, either tomorrow or Wednesday. I'm a lot nervous about what we qualify for, and a little worried that this might not be what we need to do. Since we've been praying about this decision, I'm not sure if God is telling us that we need to stay put, or if Satan is trying to keep us from where we need to be. It's rather frustrating. :(

I think I'm going to use this blog to chronicle our home purchasing experience, or at least some of it. I'll try to post pictures of showings and all that too!

Big (and expensive) Development

This might be a little premature, but I'm going to post it anyway. So that means keep it a secret (while it's posted on the internet for anyone to read)!

Nat and I went house hunting yesterday. It's a really scary thought that we're prepared to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars that we don't have to purchase a house. We are slowly getting over the sticker shock of home prices here, and becoming used to the idea of a town house rather than a free standing home.

Because this is the first time either of us have done something this drastic, we are completely lost. Let's just say that we've been doing a lot of researching on what steps need to be taken and when. In discussing this with one of my coworkers, I was given the name and contact information of what appears to be a top flight realtor. My coworker said that this realtor showed her two places, and she bought the second one. From their website, this team of realtors spend a great deal of time  getting to know you and what you are looking for before they actually show you houses. They also spend a lot of time with first time buyers (us) to help walk them through the process. I have an email in to her to set up a meeting time!

We also have a call in to the mortgage advisors at our credit union. From all that I've heard from members and employees who have worked with them, they are incredibly helpful and to the best possible job. There are a few products which I am particularly interested in: 100% financing so we don't have to have a down payment and 3.5% downpayment (if the first doesn't work out). We have lot of questions to ask them at our meeting.

The scariest part of this whole thing is that our apartment lease is up on September first. We pretty much have to have closed on a house by August and move in before September unless we want to sign another year long lease in our apartment. This complex doesn't do anything shorter than a year. Also, we will have to tell them we're moving out in July I believe. I'm not exactly sure when they try to get you to sign the next lease. It's a scary thought and we don't have much time at all!

So, that leads to the house hunting we did last night:

 This house was a no-go. It looks really nice, but it's in an area of town that is NOT where we want to be. I've been warned by several people to stay away from that part of town, so I'm glad we went to look before we did anything else with this house.

 This house is a cute one, but I believe it's way our of our price range. I think it's something like $230,000 or so? Anyway, we saw a house similar to this one but in a different neighborhood. It was billed at $339,900! It did have another story, but that's still outrageous!

 This is the same one from above.

 This house, I think, was my favorite. It needs a coat of paint, but we were going to have a showing. It's also less than $200,000, which is a big plus!

Here it is again. It's 3 beds and 2.5 baths. Unfortunately, we found out when we got home last night that it's pending already. :(

There were several other houses and duplexes that we looked at, but I didn't get pictures of. I will definitely post pictures of the ones where we have showings.

It's a little (okay, a lot) scary that we're going to own our own little piece of land!

Vacation, Texas Style

A few months ago, my manager came into my office and asked when I wanted to take my summer leave. Since I was new, I didn't realize that I would be able to take any time off, much less a week. I came to find out that every employee is required to take 5 consecutive business days off each year. After a huge hassle through which I discovered I wasn't actually supposed to have any time off and it's actually really bad to ask for leave without pay, I got a few days off so we could come to Texas.

First off, I just want to say that June in Texas is HOT! I had already forgotten just how hot it actually is here. At least it is a dry heat, where as with 60% humidity, 95˚ would be absolutely unbearable.

Second, life is better when I'm sitting in a saddle. A stubborn horse plodding along underneath me and a good friend riding next to me makes a hot evening positively delightful. I want enjoy Texas the way it was meant to be: from the back of a horse while getting completely and utterly covered in red dirt. Rebekah and I had a blast playing with the horses this evening. Poor Tigger had hives, so we decided not to ride him. JuneBug and Soldier were great though. It was great to know that those horses act just the same way after 6 months of not being ridden as they do week after week. It's also nice to know that I remember how to ride and each of the personalities of the horses. Anyway, after riding, Rebekah and I groomed all three of the ponies: brushing, combing, cleaning hooves, wiping down. That and holding a sleeping baby are my two main sources of mental therapy. :)

Third, I have missed the sky here. Tonight I saw a sunset behind the clouds and an orange moon rise and turn yellow then white. There's just nothing quite like the Texas sky. I tried to get a picture, but that didn't work out well. I guess you will just have to use your imagination.

Finally, children are sticky. That's just the way of things. And, anything they touch also becomes sticky, be it people, furniture, or toys.

It has been a great visit so far, and I'm looking forward to the rest. I'll do my best to update this post with any other exciting news.

Backyard BBQ the way it should be!

Yesterday, we were invited to a barbecue at some friends from church's house. It was so much fun! It started at 2, but we didn't get there until close to 3 because I had to work. Fortunately, that was just peachy. When we did finally get there, we walked up to the house and saw people in the back yard playing and were waved down the hill.

That's where the fun began, just like that and just that easy. It is very nice to be able to relax with friends for an afternoon of just being. Several of the wives were inside playing with the newborn baby (who is the son of the homeowners), and the guys were out on the back lawn playing a game called washers. We all spent a good deal of chatting and playing, then the host started grilling. Being similar to a pot luck, there was lots of food and we certainly ate well. The grilling was fantastic and the food was even better. Since it was only about 80, we all sat outside on the deck (with a shade for us fair-skinned type) to enjoy the food and friends.

After lunch/supper several people needed to leave for various reasons, but a few couples stayed. We played bocce ball (an Italian game) and the washer game some more. In the washer game, there were two boxes, each with a coffee can in the middle. The goal was to get a 2 in. diameter washer into the can or in the box or in front of the box, and score the points. I managed to get it in the box once, but Nat was able to get the washer into the can several times. Hopefully out children will get his athletic ability, not mine. As a group, we had a great deal of fun! I love making memories with friends and putting down roots here in Maryland.

Go Rangers... uh... I mean.... Orioles?

I discovered yesterday that there are a few people in my office who are die hard Oriole's fans. That's unfortunate because we went to a game to go see the Rangers last night. Work might be a bit uncomfortable today.

The game however, was awesome! Granted, I'm not a huge baseball fan, but when Josh Hamilton had 4 homeruns and the 1 HR hit by the O's was caught by someone in our group, it qualifies as exciting. We got on TV for the O's homer, but I'm betting that most people didn't see it because it was a shot from far away.

Let me just say that I love public transit. I never really understood the need for it while in Texas, but I do now! I was under the impression that public transit was just a bus system that was scary to ride. While there is a scary element on the trains here, they don't have the same problem that plagues Texas transit. Everyone uses public transit here. Yes, I will admit that there were several bullet holes in the windows of our train car on the way to Camden Yards, but they were all on the outside. Neither going or coming did we have any crazies on our cars.

The crazies came while we were at the game. We were sitting on the first level, in left field. Behind and to the right of our seats, a guy was constantly yelling in a deep, carrying voice. Constantly. It got old quickly. He tried heckling the Rangers in left field and in the bullpen, but to no avail. It was certainly annoying though. Finally, during the last few innings, he lost his voice. It was blissful when he couldn't yell anymore. There was another person who was even stranger. After Caleb caught the HR ball, this girl decided to come up and ask to "hold" the ball, which really meant she was going to take it and not give it back. Of course, she was not allowed to handle the ball. Caleb put it straight into his bag and left it there. That was smart because the girl had to be chased off a few times. I'm fairly sure she was highly intoxicated.

Having only been to Rangers games in Arlington, I didn't realize that every single MLB game was not sold out. I know better now. There were a grand total of 11,200 people at the game last night. And that was just how many tickets were sold, not an actual count of people. I liked this though, because when I needed to go to the bathroom, I was the only person in there. Unheard of for a women's bathroom at a major event such as a game. It was wonderful! No line and a cleaner bathroom than normal.

All in all, it was a great evening. We had a great time with friends, got to know them better and made memories! Oh, and the Rangers won!!

Outdoor Adventures

Apparently, starting in May, you do not have to stay indoors. This is news to me, as a Texan. I believe the forecast for today in Abilene is 100˚. In response to that, it is currently below 70˚ in Maryland.

Nat and I went last night and bought a tent and a frisbee. Random combination, I know, but there's a reason behind it. In a few weekends, we and a few friends are going to be traveling up to the northern border of Maryland (only an hour and a half away) to go camping at a state park. We bought the frisbee because we were at the sports equipment store and have been wanting one for a while now. This is the one we got.

 It glows in the dark and everything!

Anyway, we decided to take it out for a spin after church today in the 70˚ weather. (Spin pun intended.) I learned that through all the ultimate frisbee games I played in college, I never really used my left hand. But I should have. I have really good aim and distance, as well as level flight with my left hand. My right hand throws abysmally. I can't really catch with either hand, but that's a different problem entirely.

I'm looking forward to playing frisbee while we're camping in northern MD!

I'll include these comments in this post, since they're about outdoorsy stuff. One evening, we went out for a walk. There are some truly beautiful places around our apartment: lots of wooded areas, deer, and pretty little streams. Here's a picture of a little stream that's in the park behind our complex.

At the bottom, you can almost see the water running down. The yellow irises are really pretty, and bigger than I have seen them. I guess they may not actually be irises, but that's okay.

I also have never really known how pine trees actually grow. I've always known that they don't really shed their needles (hence the evergreen status), but they grow nonetheless. On our walk, I saw this! I know how pine trees grow now.

The bright green tufts were soft, new growth. It all makes sense now!

That's enough outdoorsy things for now. I'm sure I'll have more later, especially since we can actually be outside when the sun's out.