Contract-Check

Today we officially put in our first contract on a property in Crestwood. Hooray! (no details because we are only in the beginning stages of this process) Now we need to keep our fingers crossed that everything works out in the coming weeks (including a somewhat clean inspection, please).

Why, you might be asking, are we planning to move to this neighborhood of Birmingham? Well there are any number of reasons but here are a few...

1.

This place. (left, the church before the fire & right, the church after)

Matt's job at Woodlawn UMC. We feel that in order to really minister and serve a community (particularly one that is grieving the loss of such an important and sacred space) you must be living in and with the people of that community. Period.

2. This area of the city is experiencing a sense of revitalization. There is a lot of energy swirling around to continue revitalization of this very important historic (and magical, I might add) part of the city. This also means lots of fun, young couples and families who are ready and willing to do the hard work involved in such revitalization.

3. It's historic. Who doesn't love a good historic home/neighborhood? It has lovely charm and character.

4. We really want to live in Birmingham not in the suburbs. We aren't scared of the school systems or the other individuals who have stayed in Birmingham even when others fled elsewhere. In fact, we have given a lot of thought to schools (not that we are even close to that) and Cornerstone is a wonderful school that shares space with Woodlawn. We are fully supportive of their ministry and perhaps that might mean sending our kids there one day.

There are many other reasons but I won't put you to sleep by listing all of them (yet). Hopefully you will all have the chance to come and visit and you can see for yourselves why we love this community and want to join in the fun!

Fun Fact (for Friday)

Ok I'll stop with the alliteration...but be warned that I kinda like it....

Yesterday on one of our house hunting tours we learned a fun fact that I thought I'd share for any fellow Boston Terrier (and Helen Keller...yes, she was real all you Hacienda doubters....) lovers. Because our realtor just happens to be a huge fan of Boston Terriers (and happens to run this in case you need one), she pointed out the fun fact....

Helen Keller's first dog was actually a BT (named Phiz, I researched that info later).
See Here:


Glad we are in good company!!

Olympic Skating Relay Was Boring...

Time to mess with the dog.


The Koreans were disqualified by the way...the Chinese won. Don't push others while skating.

House Hunters

If only it was as easy as HGTV makes it out to be.

We are in the process of looking for our first home. There are a number of reasons for doing this now (although it was perhaps not in the plans a few months ago) but we can get into that on a different post.

For now, it's consuming me/us. We dream about houses (literally, Matt woke from a deep sleep the other night talking about property value and I know for a fact that I've dreamed about houses and home inspections the past two nights), we (ok really only me) look at houses all day online, we constantly ask Maggie if she wants a yard to play in, and we think about what life will be like when we have a place of our own....

now back to my day dreaming of home ownership

On being Vegetarians...

So last night Matt and I sat down to watch a movie. Unfortunately Inglorious Basterds had a slight crack in the disc which meant a change in plans. Rather than watch a strange and bloody film about Nazis we decided to go for a strange and informative (and still kind of bloody I'd like to say) film about food in the US.

Let me tell you, I have never been so happy to be a vegetarian. (yes, in case you didn't know, we are both living the full on veggie lifestyle and loving it...in fact after what I saw last night, I might even raise my children to be veggies...but that's a long way off so it doesn't matter now).

This documentary took us on a little journey to learn about our food systems here in the US. If you haven't seen it, you should. It demonstrates the ways that our food system is seriously messed up by revealing that only a handful of corporations actually run the system (despite what you may think b/c of the plethora of products and companies represented on grocery store shelves) and those corporations tend to put profit over people (and most definitely over animals for that matter). We learned that corn has taken over the food world (hello...cows are supposed to eat grass, not corn) as almost every product uses some altered version of corn. That is crazy. We also learned that chickens can't take but a couple of steps because the weight of their breasts (which we have altered to make bigger) cannot be sustained by their regularly paced bone growth. Ok one last thing, we learned that beef is often cleansed with AMMONIA. Now that is gross.

Alright...that's enough for my movie (and healthy food!) plug. I know that we aren't immune to bad food production just because we don't eat meat but I feel a lot better knowing that I am not contributing to those large corporations with some nasty practices. We deserve better...and now I'm off to research some local CSAs(Community Supported Agriculture) for us to join this spring/summer.

Is it Spring Yet?

This Friday is MUCH warmer than last Friday (but it's still not warm enough for the likes of this gal). Last week I figured everyone else blogged about the snow so I decided to give it a rest and come back around to this lovely phenomenon this week.

Now I know it was nothing compared to the blizzard that showed up in Texas but we had a lovely dusting of snow around here.

Maggie and I ventured out in it for a bit (yes, I did dress her in a doggie "parka"....it was cold, you would have wanted one too). She didn't like the snow much (Matt didn't like it at all, he wouldn't even go out and build a snowman/woman/person with me. loser) but she did attempt to chase a few snowballs I pitched her way. At least I got a good laugh out of that.

All of the snow melted the very next day but it was good while it lasted. I loved being able to cozy up next to the fire and snuggle in for a night of soup and cornbread. BUT I am really looking forward to spring..........

And So Lent Begins...

"Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return."

After a hearty helping of pancakes last night, Ash Wednesday has rolled around again. Last year Matt took a picture a day for 40 days. I thought it was a great project but this year we will embark on a Lenten discipline together.

Here are some facts (care of Bread for the World) that have inspired our 40 day journey:

-1.02 billion people across the world are hungry.

-Every day almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes (that is one child every 5 seconds if you do the math)

-947 million people in the developing world are undernourished consuming less than the minimum amount of calories essential for sound health and growth

For the next 40 days we plan to eat at least one meal a day of rice and beans only.

Along with our beans and rice we plan to read a book centered on theological and practical issues of poverty and injustice. Book #1 (at least for me but hopefully Matt will be willing to re-read and share in discussion with me) will be Howard Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited. I am also hoping to at least begin David Shiplar's The Working Poor.

Although we will never understand what it is like to live in such extreme poverty, this is our attempt to remember that we live in a world where people go hungry each and every day. It is our attempt to remember that in our unjust world we have been given much.