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By Lonni Wilson, on August 28, 2009, at 9:30 am | Category: Family News | Wow, just looked at our blog and realized that we last posted on August 5. Whew! We seem to do little here and rely more on Facebook status updates. Of course, with those, we only get a few lines. Here on the blog, we can cover much more.
We’re still homeless, for a few days yet. Here’s the saga of what happened. We’d been under contract to buy a home (as shown in the previous posts) since July 10. We’d been waiting to close on it, and our seller had dragged their feet a bit. The seller had been trying to close on a short sale (I don’t think they realized that short sales aren’t going anywhere right now). They’d made an offer in May on this short sale, and were trying to stay in their home as long as possible before moving out.
On three different occasions, we asked them about doing a rent-back so that we could get into the house while we waited to close. Our apartment gave us the boot on July 31. They have a policy about leases and keep every tenant on 12-month leases instead of going month-to-month. So they wouldn’t let us stay for August, etc. Now, there are several ironies in the story as I tell it. Here’s one: our old apartment still sits vacant. So while we’ve been homeless, bouncing from house to house with friends, the apartment that we would have gladly stayed in until we closed is empty, with no one paying rent. That’s enough to make a person very bitter. Seriously, you’d rather have no rent than a tenant stay an extra couple of months off lease? Sometimes, I think that there are many people who don’t know how to run businesses.
So we had to be out of our apartment July 31 and knew we wouldn’t close until mid-August. As a result, we’d asked the seller for the rent-back. But they wanted to stay in their place. And as we had to get certain things done (like a test on the well/septic), they took their time scheduling everything so as to drag out the close (all the while hoping to close on their short sale).
On Thursday, August 20th, I received a call from my lawyer saying he’d received a fax from the mortgage company that looked like our mortgage fell through. Now, I’d been on the phone with my contact, the previous Friday, Monday and Wednesday and had heard nothing. So I called the mortgage company. I was told that it fell through last Friday, with one of those, “didn’t anyone here call you?” “Uh, no.”
So I drove to the mortgage company to get them face to face. As it happened, the V.P. came out to chat with me. When she realized why I was there, she ushered me into a conference room. (I later understood that she fully expected me to blow my top and start yelling).
In the conference room, I learned this: the company (which is a broker) had only one lender who did mobile/modular homes. Apparently, it is really tough to get financing on these types of homes right now. Very few companies are doing it, and many who were, have quit. Ironic, because, as you drive through the country out here, there’s a good number of mobiles on acres of land. And lots of them on the market. So it turns out, owning a mobile/modular right now is not good, if you wish to sell it.
At any rate, the lender they had brokered our loan to, that was giving us 5.0% at 15 years, quietly closed their doors the previous Friday. They just up and shut their doors. The V.P. said that she thinks Bank of America is negotiating to take them over now. But that meant that our loan was dead, because it hadn’t been issued. And it meant that our mortgage broker had no way of servicing any customers purchasing mobile/modulars. And they knew about this a week ago (I was sitting there on Thursday, and they’d known since Friday). And the woman liaisoning between me and the underwriters, didn’t have a clue this happened, because she had updated me Friday/Mon/Wed on issues. Talk about left-hand, right-hand confusion.
So as I sat calmly with the V.P., listening to all this and asking questions, she stopped me and said, “you’re so calm. Thank you for not yelling at me.” I laughed. I guess she’d expected a different response. I told her, “you know, that won’t help. I think you all did several things wrong here, and really demonstrated poor customer service, but yelling at you won’t resolve anything, except to maybe send you home in a bad mood, too. Let’s just have one of us go home in a bad mood today.”
I mean, really, I guess it might have been fun to be pissed and scream, and don’t get me wrong, the broker has been so inefficient at times, it’s ridiculous. But really, I was over being angry and further along in the stages of grief. Lol.
I did fill her in on some processes that bugged me, and I told her that if I ran a business like her office is run, we’d be out of business. In my day job, I teach the business of management at the college level. We spend a good deal of time on efficiency and on customer service.
Let me give you a classic example from this process, of which there are a few. One of the requirements the underwriters wanted fulfilled was a structural engineer’s certification of the foundation. Now, when I applied, I asked the person I was working with what other items I might need to do, so I could get them started, or collect the paperwork, do inspections, etc. to be ready to close quickly. He said, “oh, we’ll just see what the underwriter comes back with; everything looks good so far.” Yeah, ok.
So when the underwriter came back with their 16 different requirements (some were forms to sign, others papers to collect and turn in, and a couple were inspections), one was for a structural engineer to do 2 things: 1) certify that the foundation met all HUD requirements for mobile/modulars and 2) verify the basement floor was above the 100-year flood plain. We paid an inspector to come do this, and he submitted his report to the company.
Now each phase in this process (i.e., submitted stuff) takes about 2-3 days for the underwriter to review and respond. So a few days later, the underwriter says, 3) we need the business card from the engineer. So we did that. Another 2-3 days later, 4) we need a copy of his engineers certification. Another 2-3 days later, ok, we’re all set.
Listen, first, I sat with the loan officer in the beginning, and he gave me no idea of what we could do to hurry the process. When I asked him about this requirement from the underwriter, he said, “oh yes, the structural engineer certification of the foundation is standard on mobile/modulars.” I said, “oh, so when I asked you what else I could do, and this is standard, why didn’t you tell me so we could have it done. In the end, this process took longer than it should have; and I gave this example to the V.P. as I sat with her. Why didn’t the underwriter say, “we need these 4 things”? To come back after we’ve done the 2 they said we needed, and spend a week on minutia because they didn’t just say, “we need these four things” upfront was ridiculous.
Seriously, as I sat there, I thought 2 things: 1) how do any of these people have jobs, and 2) these people having these jobs is exactly why the industry crumbled. Seriously, if you’re this inefficient on the loan end, imagine all the other mistakes/errors that occur in the other departments (banking/financial/investing, etc.).
Bottom line here though, the property we wanted to buy was basically unmortgageable at this point. The V.P. made calls to several other institutions to see if they are loaning for mobiles/modulars and got us two banks we could talk to –which would require us to start the whole application/loan process from square one. That coupled with some other factors made us decide to not pursue this further. And thus, by the next afternoon, Friday, Aug. 21, we knew we were no longer under contract, not closing in 4-5 days as we’d expected, and still homeless.
So the weekend became a desperate rental search, because this journey has been hard enough for one month. We can’t live out of a suitcase, house-hopping for another month with 3 kids 4 and under, even if we went immediately under contract on a new property (which we’ve yet to find and we’ve seen 12 houses in the last 5 days!).
But back to this property, here’s the great irony. Had the sellers hurried OR had the mortgage company been more efficient, we would have had our closing prior to the lender going out of business (our original close was scheduled between the 10-15th of August). So now, this poor seller, has no sold home, probably greatly blames us for taking their house off the market for 40 days, and had they just not dragged their feet, or given us the rent-back, we’d have either closed before the lender dissolved or we’d have had the wherewithall to keep pursuing other options (because if we’d have been in the house, we’d have done everything to stay in the house). In the end, we walk away from the sale on a property that is apparently extremely hard to mortgage, and we look like the bad guys. Our only hope is that the seller learned something. If they knew what we now know, they’d probably take just about any offer that came in on the property, and they’d move out and do a rent-back asap!
Where does all this leave us? We found a townhouse that will let us rent month to month. That was a journey in itself. Everyone here wants a 12-month lease. And New York has a law that we didn’t know about that is now killing us. Most of the apartments around us (like 90%) are 2 bedroom. We have three kids. The law in NY on apartments is 2 persons per bedroom max. So as a family of 5, no one will rent us a 2 bedroom apartment. So we must either get a 3 bedroom, a townhouse, or go with a private renter.
That made for a stressful 4.5 days of apartment/townhouse searching. Rent for 2 bedrooms apts. here runs $650-800… townhouses and 3 bedrooms run $1000-1500. So we’re being penalized for not being the traditional two-kid family. Great. Yep, chalk the extra $300-500/month up to the cost of having the kid. We were so mad as we called around and got told no on the family of 5 in a two bedroom. Our kids all sleep in the same room, they’re toddlers. What a crazy little roadblock for a family with more than 2 kids. Annoying.
But when the world seems to conspire against you, it goes all out.
We’re now staying with another set of friends until the townhouse is ready (they’re trying to have it done by Sep. 1 – painting, carpet, etc.) And we’re house hunting all over again. Our new rent is $400 over what it once was, and $200 over what our mortgage would have been (taxes and insurance escrowed). Plus, we’re out about $700 in inspections and lawyer fees, etc. for all the paperwork done on the home that just fell through. The V.P. said they’d refund our appraisal fee though because of the inconvenience, etc. One $300-$350 bright spot in all this. But still, we’ve lost and our losing some money on the whole process.
Oh, and did I mention that we sold our previous home 15 months ago, so O’Bama’s little plan to help Americans like us completely missed. We don’t get $8k off any home we purchase because we have owned in the last 36 months. Ridiculous. In fact, we missed out on the $12k in government money we could have had. Before cash for clunkers, we donated our clunker to a high school’s automotive program and bought a new vehicle. Yeah, lost $4k there. And you know, we have debts, too. (student loans). We could have used a break somewhere.
My rant for the year will be how all of the politician plans to stimulate the economy, etc. have completely missed this middle class family who is continuing to “stimulate” the economy in spite of it. Thanks. But seriously, when’s our handout coming?!
That’s the story on what’s happened to us. No home purchase. Now back to looking. On the plus side, if we find something in the month, we’re already half completed in the underwriting process with our mortgage company (and yes we may stay with them despite it all) because all of our credit history, paperwork, documents, etc. are in their hands. Only the house needs to be appraised, inspected, approved by them. Of course, finding a house right now, isn’t as easy as it sounds. We don’t want just anything. If we’re going to miss out on $12k this year, and lose $1k or more on the failed purchase plus rent, darn it all, we want the dream! We don’t want to settle for the “next best house.”
Lord, guide us and help us as we move forward!
By Lonni Wilson, on August 5, 2009, at 5:51 pm | Category: Family News, Traveling Adventures | Well, we officially packed up our apartment on July 31, 2009, sticking all of our goods into 2 storage garages and left what had been our home for this past year behind.
Our scheduled close on the new house was August 10, 2009. Back in early July, when we decided to purchase a house, we approached our apartment complex (400+ units) management and asked to stay for the month of August. Unfortunately, they operate on leases, and wouldn’t accommodate us. Frustrating. Also funny, since there have been some other units vacant for a month or three at a time that they would turn away the cash. Just doesn’t seem like smart business to me. But then again, I think “smart” is dying out in the world – much like common sense not being all that common anymore.
 So Melodia and I have mentally prepared ourselves over the last month that we would be homeless and house-hopping for a while as we wait to close on our house. Another issue is that New York is a notoriously slow closing state. We learned this when we moved here 4 years ago and bought our first home. In some states, they close in a week or two. NY is a minimum of 30 days but more like 45 days.
In fact, we went under contract July 10 and set a 30 day close for August 10. About 10 days later, the brother of a friend went under contract in Colorado, they closed yesterday – two weeks later – and moved into their house. Oh to hear the sound of jingling keys right now!
At any rate, the update on us is that our closing date of August 10th will not be made. If you’ve read our Facebook status updates, you’ve seen that the mortgage company’s underwriting has added some obligations on our end. This is all stuff that we believe we could have been told about upfront, but weren’t. Had we been, we could have scheduled it and had it done by now. But it’s the type of thing that takes a week to get someone out to do. So we’re just waiting for them to visit the site, write their report, turn it into us, so we can submit it to the underwriters. All of which will likely really push our closing, and our homelessness off an additional 10 days, doubling the time we’d thought we’d be out of a home.
The whole process has been quite frustrating and reminded us many times how annoying it all can be. Add to that the fact that NY has some of the highest property taxes in the nation. My parents pay less than $500/year on a property assessed at two – three times ours. We pay $2500-3500 here. In other words, we rent from the government to “own” our land for $250-350 per month. Now, as someone who’d love to live off the grid, there’s just no way to escape it all (death and taxes, right?).
So, we’ve been trying to practice some patience and allow God to work it all out. At some point, that’s all we can do. It’s tough waiting for it all to come together because we really want to move into the new place and get settled. Our kids have been very adaptable and enjoying their time, but it’s still not their bed, their toys, etc.
For the last week, we’ve been with our friends the Padd’s in Bemus Point, NY on their 27-acre farm. They have a 6 year-old-son, Zechariah, whom the kids love playing with. They also love running around outside. Today we caught a baby corn snake (about 5-6 inches long, sorry, no pics) and a couple of frogs. There’s always fun stuff to do out in the country. Our plan for the next week is to spend Friday and Saturday night with the Otto’s in Cowlesville, NY (about 12 minutes from our new home) and then Sunday night through Thursday night with the Morgan’s in Chaffee, NY. Also just about 15 minutes from the new house. After that (i.e., after the 15th), we’re not sure what we’ll be doing. Mostly, we’re just counting the days, praying things will move faster with the mortgage company and that we’ll close sooner.
That’s the latest. As I sit writing, my little fruit eaters are munching away. McKinley is chowing down a peach, and will is sharing the chair with me, eating a banana. These kids love fruit. Wil has discovered a love for peaches. Today he ate the whole thing, then sucked the pit dry in his mouth. I looked down and the peach was gone, I said, “where’d it go? Where’s the pit?” And Wil said, “in ry routh” then spit it out to show me. Melodia says that how she used to eat peaches, too.
By Lonni Wilson, on July 16, 2009, at 5:01 pm | Category: Family News | This morning, we had our home inspection on the new house in the country that we’re buying. All went well.
We’re very excited about the new house. We’ve been longing to get out into the country, and can hardly wait to close. Our  closing date is set for August 10. This actually presents a bit of a conundrum for us, that we’re still trying to work out. See, we’re scheduled to be out of our apartment by noon on July 31st. That means for 10 days, we’re homeless.
Now, we’re hoping that something will happen that will allow us to close sooner, but at the same time, New York is one of the slowest closing states there is on home purchases. So we’ll see.
At any rate, we were on the property this morning and used the time to take a bunch more photos of it for our friends and family to see. We’ve just uploaded them to our flickr account. So for those who’ve been wanting to snoop… uh, see what the new place looks like, here you go.
 We just have to find a way to make it through the next 24 days without going nuts. We’re so eager to get out there. This morning, when we pulled in for the home inspection (at 8:30am), we turned off the engine and just sat, listening to the silence and the birds. So much better than the sounds of the city.
We’re also eager to get moved in so that we can start hosting our friends more, including those of you who need to make a trip in from out-of-state. It seems each of us in the family has our own reasons for eagerly wanting to be on the new property.
Wil wants us to have baby ducklings. McKinley wants us to have a “snow dog” (i.e., the big dog we’ve been talking about getting eventually – a Komondor or a Great Pyrenees). Melodia wants a schoolroom and a place to entertain the g uests (the courtyard we’ve started calling, the “grotto”). And I want the ability to have our animals (the Peacocks are on order) and to start working on the pond (building structure, improving sustainability, and stocking it). Izzabelle? Yeah, your guess is as good as mine. She’s most likely juslt eager to explore a new place.
At any rate, it’s hard to be patient when one’s excited. And so, we excitedly wait – trying to still enjoy each day without too much longing for tomorrow… otherwise, we’re missing life. Longing for tomorrow can be just as troublesome as worrying about tomorrow.
In both cases, we can miss the hear and now, the wonder of each day, and taking each moment as it comes.
We’ll have a new address soon (moving from West Seneca, NY to Sheldon, NY); if you need it, just send us a message using the contact form on the right.
By Lonni Wilson, on July 11, 2009, at 7:49 pm | Category: Family News, Philosophizing | Summer is in full swing, and as such, it seems we haven’t found time to blog. Such a challenge. I think we’re tired of living at a pace that keeps us from being able to sit and write, quietly reflecting on our thoughts, the day, our  challenges, our successes. We likely need more of that time, a true unwinding. But we’re hard-pressed to find it for ourselves right now.
The challenges is that we keep thinking it’ll come, eventually, we’ll have that time; we’ll work it into our lifestyle. But you know, lifestyle change is hard. It’s change. Last week Melodia and I sat down and individually wrote out our “principles for living.” From the general to the specific, we each jotted down what we want to work into a “revised” lifestyle. Items included general principles like “live slowly” and more specific items like “teach our kids to memorize scripture, and memorize it with them.” 
After making our own lists separately, we compared them and chatted about each of our principles. Now we’re in the process of refining a combined list, and in pondering what may have been left off. In the end, we’d like some written guidelines for our self to build on as philosophical practice in living. We don’t want them to become “rules” as rules have a way of failing or of trapping someone. No, rather, we’d like to keep them as “principles,” “guidelines” if you will.
I think we’ve just recognized for a long time now that we’re caught in the hustle, and haven’t yet escaped to a quieter, slower life practice… the kind we’ve often talked about; something different from the concrete jungle and its super speed.
 We’ve been chatting about all this while searching for a home in the country. In four years of desiring to live in the country, we’ve managed to stay in the city. So this summer, we committed to the idea that it’s time to enact our change. In so doing, tomorrow, the sellers should be signing the contract on our purchase of a home in the country on small parcel of 2 acres. It’s surrounded by 50+ acre farms, and was really cut out of a 100 acre parcel by one brother for his other brother. That other brother is now moving his family closer to work, and his house, surrounded by farmers and farmhouses is where we’re settling in for next few years (at least, until the Lord calls us to head somewhere else).
Much prayer went into this whole process, getting approved for the mortgage loan, finding the right property, etc. And more will likely come. That’s another of the changes we’ve been making. We’ve not prayed together nearly often enough about our steps. And that has to change, too.
I’ve long been the kind of guy who wanted to walk into the woods like Thoreau, live off the land, off the grid, away  from everything else. I could easily see myself doing that sort of thing. I know others think it strange or escapist, but it just sounds so appealing. I hate that those who came before us were so much more capable of self-supporting than we now are. It’s embarrassing really, and should (in my humble opinion) cause us all to stop and think.
In October of 2006, Buffalo and Western New York was hit with a surprise storm that dumped over two feet of snow, and caught everyone and everything off guard. The time of year made the snow wet, and the trees were yet still limber and not as stiff and prepared for winter. The ground was unfrozen and unprepared for what occurred. The result was massive power outages, lines down, trees down, roads blocked and homes dark and getting colder.
 I walked out onto our street the next morning. Not a car moved. Hardly any were moving anywhere. Looking up the street, it looked like some winter war zone. Trees and limbs down, snow flat from yard to yard with the street invisible. Cars just lumps of white. It was surreal.
Our house was without power for 5 days, as were most everyone we knew; others stretched as long as 9 days. Generators were sold out; shipments of 10 at a time saw lines 24-36 hours in advance of hundreds of people. No one knew what to do, or how to survive.
We used it as an opportunity for vacation (the college shutdown for 5 days as well, powerless). We packed up, locked up, and headed down to our friends’ farm an hour away. We spent a week living with them, and reflect fondly upon it from time to time.
That week reminded me how dependent we all are. Our society, on the whole, has become a series of  inter-dependencies… and yes, some might well argue these are necessary, but I question that. I think we’re called to be dependent on One. I think we’re called to be social. I think we were created for both that One dependency and to be social with others; and the two, I believe, were not supposed to be mutually exclusive, but rather work in conjunction; together we encourage each other on, as we remain dependent on the One Who.
I don’t believe it’s as practical or productive for us to have become so interdependent. It’s not the interdependency that is the err so much as it is the loss of our ability to be independent. When something breaks, we can no longer fix it. We must call someone else: the plumber, the electrician, the HVAC guy, the cable guy, etc. We no longer produce anything (for the most part) that we consume ourselves. Rare among us is even the smallest of foodstuff gardens. If we manage to plant anything, it’s likely only for color; it’s us painting our yards with flowers. Yet, while pretty, and perhaps soothing, they aren’t sustenance. On the whole, we lack the ability to be even remotely self-sufficient.
 And with the power outage in October of 2006, came that reminder. As businesses lacked power, grocery stores closed or lost inventory, etc. Our food that has been trucked in from 2000 miles away wasn’t as available. And everyone became aware of those “stuffs” in life that are luxuries versus necessities for living.
I guess it takes dramatic occurrences for us to think about these things. Most of the time, when we get in our car at 20 minutes til work with a 19-minute drive, it starts when we turn the key. But when it doesn’t, welcome the unwelcome crisis.
 Now I know that this world will never again become as self-sufficient as it used to be, and some might suggest that sort of thing was impractical and illogical for an “advanced” society such as ours. And in truth, I am no Pioneer. But I do long for a degree of self-sufficiency. Secretly, I’d like to be able to try my hand at that October storm again sometime, when I’m living by new principles, and most self-sufficient… when such a thing as no power wouldn’t rake havoc on my entire living existence. I don’t know, maybe I am crazy.
I know we’ll always remain dependent to a certain extent, but what I’m shooting for is some degree of self-sufficiency in lifestyle; in principles of living… something that hints at our heritage on this rock.
 And so it was that we began outlining a new philosophy for ourselves, one which we hope to begin implementing shortly. Even as I type this, I realize that I’m already not living up to one of the principles, “let tomorrow worry about itself.” We spend too much time thinking on the next moment, and not enough enjoying this one. Why is that?
Why is it our own children seem to remind us of such things? Someone once told us that we must become like little children. They seem to see the best in everything. They long for the good, if you will. And they are very adept at living in the moment, and not just “surviving” it, but thriving in it. It isn’t about tomorrow, but about right now. (In this blog posted, I’ve included some of the pictures in which my kids have reminded me of these things).
 Well, I suppose this blog title doesn’t reflect one bit what the writing became. In thinking about summer being well underway, I realized how little we’d actually written about what we’ve been doing. But before I could get into what that was, I thought first of my excuses for not blogging.
And see, that in itself exemplifies one of those things of which I am tired. Seriously, why make excuses? I’ll blog when I’ll blog, and I won’t when I won’t. Yet something in me feels more compelled to write more often.
 Maybe I need to, maybe I want to, maybe I shouldn’t be a slave to it, or maybe I should be returning to journaling my thoughts as I trek this planet. Maybe this is an example of how fast the pace is, and that I need to slow it down, smell the roses and write about them, too. Whatever the “maybe,” it is an indicator.
Of what? Of our longing, of our in-contentment, of our worries… of many things. But I’ve been wondering about all that lately. What would it look like to be “content in all circumstances”? I just wonder. And I wonder why I am not. And so maybe it is time for a lifestyle change, for the redefining of some principles to live by. Just maybe.
By Lonni Wilson, on June 17, 2009, at 9:22 am | Category: Family News, Traveling Adventures |  Well spring is almost completely sprung and summer is ushering in. June is the one month that the weather in Buffalo seems just right. 75-degree days, evening Jeep rides with the t-tops off, mornings on the porch in the adirondack chairs… now that’s living. Too bad we don’t get 365 days of this sort of thing.
In the weeks since our last posting, we’ve returned to Buffalo and settled back in. Melodia and the kids had enjoyed 6 full weeks in Tampa, FL with Lala and Lalo (Melodia’s parents), and so getting “settled” back into our Buffalo apartment best describes the transition. I have started a rather heavy (5 classes, MWR 1200-330/400p, T 800a-400p) summer school teaching schedule, but we figured, with the economy as it is, taking all the overtime/extra pay one can is probably a good thing. The weather in Buffalo has finally climbed to temperatures that allow us to keep the windows open all night without freezing (though it’s dipped into the 40s a few nights). The pool is open at the apartment complex, but somehow, 76 just isn’t warm enough when it’s water. I take 76-degree air all summer, but 76-degree water is just downright cold. I need about 86-degree water, but unfortunately, this apartment’s pool is not heated. I know, time to move.
 So we’re easing into summer and trying to enjoy it. I know that, like this last year, summer may just fly by, too. So we’re trying to soak up all the time we can, enjoying weekend trips and morning (pre-summer school afternoon classes) times together. The start of summer allows us to enjoy one other activity that we’re fond of as a family… looking for “selling toys,” that’s the kids’ lingo for garage saleing.
Every Friday morning we’re out by 8 or 9 with the GPS filled up with the weekend’s garage sales. In two years of doing this as a family activity, I think Melodia and I have each bought about 1 thing. But, the kids always come home with 2 or 3 toys to add to their coffers. And we’re ok with it, as the prices are so minimal. Last week, will scored a new tricycle (that’s motorcycle looking) and McKinely found a large, plastic dollhouse, each for $5 bucks. We also added to our kids’ book collection and scored about 20 coloring books (a good find).
The funny thing is, despite never really buying anything for myself at these, I love the stuff we find for the kids. And most of these sales are loaded with kid’s items. Of course, soon enough, we’ll probably have to have our own sale to sell it all back!
This last weekend we decided to head down to Allegheny State Park and rent a cabin for the night. We’ve been looking at pop-up campers and will likely buy a used one before summer’s out. I think we’ve settled on the pop-up as making more sense than a travel trailer for us right now. We’d even talked about tenting it a few times to see how that goes. In the end, it’s all about just getting the kids out camping. I’m so thankful that my parents did that with my sister and I when we were little. That, coupled with growing up in the country in Michigan, are the two biggest things that likely factored into my lifelong love for nature. I’d like to instill that same love in my kids’ hearts. And it’s not hard to do; the kids love camping… already. It’s almost like it’s innate. Then again, I might argue, we were originally born and raised in a garden, outdoors… I mean, weren’t Adam and Eve both campers?
 The cabin was an interesting experience. With Izzabelly at 10 months, any kind of camping with her is still a challenge… bottles, diapers, her crawling around, etc. But nonetheless, we’re braving it. Gotta start sometime, and there’s so many other things that we’ve not started early enough (e.g., swimming lessons).
Allegheny SP was beautiful. We took an evening drive to look for wildlife; the kids love looking for deer. We spotted many deer, a skunk, and a raccoon. I also discovered an Eastern Newt while walking and we enjoyed looking at it, holding it, and looking it up in our Audubon: First Field Guide to Amphibians. We bought the kids the First Field Guide set because they love creatures and learning, and the set helps us to teach them about different things in nature. The bright orange of the Eastern Newt made him especially fun to look at. We also discovered grasshoppers, caterpillars (which Wil enjoyed for the whole day in a makeshift empty waterbottle terrarium), and Osprey atop a telephone pole nest.
 We drove all throughout the park on Saturday morning, visiting areas we’d not seen before. I’d been in the park on 2 or 3 other occasions, but Melodia had only been there once. All in all, it was a wonderful trip. It made us eager for more, and we should be planning them; but we’ve also been taking the last week day by day.
We’re on the hunt for a new apartment, duplex or country house rental. That’s taking up some time right now. We’ve just outgrown our little 2 bedroom, one year experiment in under 800 square feet. So we’ll be moving stuff in the next month (a task I really dislike). Living in our old North Buffalo house for 3.5 years was nice in that I didn’t move stuff two summers in a row! But, this year, it’s moving, moving, moving…
 The thought of working 4 days a week all summer (remember, I have a teacher’s mentality, not a 40 hour, 50 weeks per year mentality) coupled with moving this summer is my gray cl0ud! Getting out on the weekends for adventures, Friday morning garage sales, and things along these lines are my sunshine.
I should also slip in here that I am amazed how much more beautiful my wife becomes with each new day. It’s so unfair. I’m just getting older, grayer, heavier, and she’s just getting prettier, wiser, wonderful-er. It’s really something to behold. I am such a lucky man. She is also my sunshine, and I love her deeply.
That’s a quick recap on us. It’s 65 on the porch this morning, and Wil is riding his scooter on the sidewalk in his pajamas. Behind me, inside the apartment, just past the open screen door, McKinley sits playing with her “new to her” dollhouse. All is as it should be. These moments are treasures.
To all reading, I hope you find these treasures today in your life.
By Lonni Wilson, on May 27, 2009, at 11:59 pm | Category: Family News, Traveling Adventures |  After staying an extra night in the Waterfront Place hotel in Morgantown, WV, we packed it up and headed home to Buffalo. I had actually packed the Jeep in the evening after the kids went to bed, anticipating our 530am (Transformers) roll out.
Because we’d stayed the extra night and were arriving home on Wednesday, there were no extra adventure stops to speak of. I had to be home by 1100am to get changed and head into class to teach from 1230p-330p that afternoon.
So we drove about the 4.5 hours with just two stops, gas and breakfast in Pittsburgh, PA and a bathroom break/snack stop at Krispy Kreme in Erie, PA. We made it home about 1030am.
It was nice to get home, but we did really enjoy our road trip with the kids. It was a blast, and in truth, once we got into the swing of the routine, a little driving, some stops, a hotel stay, etc., we really enjoyed ourselves. It’s got us thinking about some weekend adventures with the kids this summer. 
They certainly let us know that the trip was well worth it. As we drove each day, they’d talk about sights they’d seen the previous day, and how they’d like to return. That really let us that it was worth it.
And since turning 4, Wil has really loved the idea of being 4. “I can do this because I’m 4 now. I couldn’t do it when I was 3.” While it was a simple birthday in the hotel, it was wonderful. And Wil loved riding his scooter through the hotel whenever we’d go to the lounge or to the restaurant downstairs. I told him it was his birthday, so he could ride it indoors to all the places we went.
 My favorite 4 moment though, really came the night before, as I layed in bed with Wil. He wanted to stay awake instead of going to sleep. And I had the chance to “reflect” with Wil on something. I whispered to him as we lay there looking at each other and talking, “you know what, Wil? This is the last night you will ever spend as a 3-year-old. Tomorrow, when you wake up, it will be your birthday, and you will be 4. You will never go to sleep again as a 3-year-old after tonight. It’s your last time to be 3.”
That thought wasn’t lost on Wil. He was excited about turning 4, and leaving 3 behind, and soon closed his eyes and fell asleep. But the thought sure landed heavy on me, and I was glad that, as we lay there, we both had the chance to reflect on the fact that it was the last night ever that he would fall asleep as a 3-year-old. We sometimes forget to stop and recognize these things.
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