"where ever i lay my hat, that's my home"...courtesy of Mr Paul Young (cheesy, i know!)

please, forgive me dear readers for my extended leave of absence...it is quite unforgivable i know, but things in the real world sometimes take over and the cyber world doesn't get a look in...

we had a lovely trip away, considering the kids had been together for well over a month already. lots of outdoorsy stuff was done, mountain bike riding, waterfall swimming, trekking up hills and eating lots of saltwater taffy...oh yes, "where have you been all my life" saltwater taffy.

i dressed the part in my crocs and seafarer's hat...

we spied whales in the water (that's an incredible sight to see), while chewing the taffy...we canoed our little hearts out, apparently going down stream but with the wind against us it was an uphill struggle...at one point i lay down in my canoe with our #2 and screamed "just leave me to die and be pecked by wild birds, i can't go on any more" only to realize that over the top of the river bank was a golf course with several golfers having a good old chuckle at our distress...i am quite sure if i had discovered the saltwater taffy before my canoe trip, it would have helped me greatly...

anyhow, enough of the small talk, let's get on with why my 'prolonged state of absence' has been so 'prolonged'..."oooh yes Tif, that's what we want to know and it better be good, 'cause quite frankly we are a little fed up with you"..."ok, ok, i know i have neglected you but i have good reason" and here it is...

the house that is calling out to me day and night saying "Tif, come live in me, love me and make me better again....put chickens in my back yard and park your airstream trailer at the side"

so there it is dear readers, i am hoping to embark on a new chapter in our lives...we have a long way to go (packing up that is, the house is actually only down the hill from where we are now!) and a lot of hurdles to jump over but if it is meant to be, then this little old house will be come our home...

in the coming weeks my posts on my little blog will be sparse (you are used to that by now) but i will try my best to tell you the tale of packing up seven years of stuff from this house, four kids, one man, six pets and a small home business, down sizing it all and hopefully moving into a new home. (did i mention it has an outbuilding with a studio, sigh).

of course, it isn't concrete yet and could all fall apart, (not the house, the purchase, tee hee) but i have to believe in it to make it happen...

so my house is starting to look a little like this, and the studio will be packed up next week, dottie angel will be put to one side until the spring, so i can work on the new/old house...

'keeping her fingers crossed' and 'with so much more to say, just needing time, which she is very short on these days' ~ Tif

i spy with my little eye something beginning with 'F'...