On top of that I've had to find new renters for our house. Kind of stressful to meet new people and show the house while others are living there. We ended up having lots of interest and two concurrent applications. Both would have been a great choice! It helps that our house is Eco-Friendly, and that is a major selling point. I just closed the deal with a couple from PDX who's moving out here. They're signing a two year lease too, so this means I wont have to worry about finding new renters next year. For two weekends I was showing the house and volleying emails. Next we're going to have to make some minor repairs and such, but hopefully Mari can take lead on that.
Another major development has been the birth of our baby quails. I plan to write a whole post dedicated to them, but haven't gotten to it yet. We're raising quails for eggs. We incubated two sets of eggs earlier this month. Six from the first batch hatched and seven from the second batch. They're living in Mari and my room, scurrying and growing super fast. Watching them provides therapy for me. Currently they live under a calming red heat lamp and I love to sit and see them foraging for food or interacting with each other. Their songs are so sweet to listen to. Full of dynamic random tones, like soft - squeaky jazz music.
My mom's been gone all month too. She takes trips to Florida to visit her brother and rental properties. This time she's taking two singles cruises. Not sure if I understand why, she has a boyfriend... She complains about men all the time but leaves her really nice boyfriend for two months to go on some singles cruises. I wonder if he'll still be around when she gets back. I hope so because I do like him. He's the least crazy guy she's dated since divorcing my dad.
I also learned that my best friend here got dumped by her boy friend of 7 years. Last weekend I spent all Sunday helping her move out of his house and into her mom's. They've been dating for about the same time as Mari and I have. I really can't imagine how hard it must be for her to adjust to single status again. Being around her, I literary felt like the world was going to end. Driving home from her house, I expected to see bombs exploding in the distance. My imagination ran down a road of Independence Day like sceneries. And I ended up worrying about whether we had enough flash lights, glow sticks, and gas in the car to survive until the sequel.
And finally, the one last big thing that's been eating my March 2011 away is that my brother's being deployed to Afghanistan. He's excited about the opportunity to make a major impact in the world. I feel pretty numb. Like I know he's going to be gone in a minute and I will feel scared and worried. I know that the news will be even harder to listen to than it already is. I know that I might never see him again. I know that when I do see him, he probably wont be the same person. So I'm trying to figure out how to say goodbye to that brother without dwelling. I'm trying to figure out how to support him and am thinking about volunteering with a veteran's assistance agency around DC. Although I haven't found anything yet. What keeps nagging at me, is this compulsion to join him. Not that I want to fight on the battle lines, but I would like to try to help the people be free from violence and empower women to develop the country. I just keep thinking I'm in the wrong line of work!
With all those things going on, we've still managed to get some quality family time in. Here are some of my favorite picture from the last few weeks.
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