This week

has been a trip. Wow! Seriously, what a week it has been. It started on Tuesday morning when our realtor emailed us to tell us he'd found a new place he wanted us to look at. We'd been looking at a lot of places for the last two weeks, and nothing had been quite right. So we were keeping open minds. Brant came home from work that night, and we met our realtor at the new house. I walked in and just knew it was what I'd been looking for. An hour or two later, we signed contracts to buy this charming beauty . . .



I'm already coming up with names for it.

Here's an up-close picture of the front:


and the back:
(I'm so excited about the balcony! We have a balcony in the place we live now, and I was going to be so sad to lose it! That was pretty much the only thing I was going to be sad to lose, and now I don't have to!)

Here's a picture taken from the side yard/porch area looking into the backyard:
The yard is spacious and cozy and has great grass! That's a new one for us, considering the places we've lived at since we've been married! The old couple that's been living in the house have really treasured the whole place and kept it clean and cared-for. It's lovely!

and in the back yard, there's this awesome outdoor grill, complete with chimney!

So. Pretty exciting! We're closing on it right before Thanksgiving! We have so much to be excited about at the end of November, with our trip to Utah, and Glen's wedding, too!!! Anyway, on Tuesday we signed the contracts, Wednesday the seller accepted our offer and made it final. Well, while all this happy fun-ness was progressing, so was some kind of virus Annie had contracted, and she was getting sicker. Well, really it was just a scarily high fever with no other symptoms. (other than the sad, pitiful behavior that having a scarily high fever causes in a thirteen-month-old) Annie was like a different baby. Making things harder was the fact that Brant is still in training for his job, so he was having to drive to and from Lititz everyday. That's about 50 minutes away. He was trying to take care of all the house-buying business (and there's SO MUCH of that) during his lunch breaks and any spare minutes he could grab during the day. So Annie and Memph and I were stuck inside with no car to get to the doctor's (or to just go for a drive so I could get out of this house), which made things kind of stressful! Plus, Tuesday also heralded in a cold snap, and since then it's been cooooold and rainy-dreary! I've felt so sad for poor little Annie. She mostly slept during the day, and meanwhile Memphis and I were like caged animals (well Memphis is an animal, I know, but still) without any way to get out our energy. And even with little tiny bits of sleep we were getting each night (Annie was sleeping like a two-month-old again), I still had energy and some SERIOUS need to go out and run. But we couldn't. Anyway! The week finally reached its lowest point on Thursday night when Annie's fever reached 104.1 and we took her to the ER on our doctor's request. I'd never been to the Penn State Hershey hospital, other than the on-campus housing, where all of our friends live, so this was a totally new experience! Everyone there that night was so nice and caring, and we didn't have to wait at all! Well, I should rephrase. We didn't have to wait to get into a room. We then proceeded to wait for 4 hours while they tried to get a urine sample from Annie and do a bunch more inconclusive tests. I won't go into all the details, but suffice it to say, our little baby was thoroughly traumatized. And just plain exhausted. As were her parents.
So we left (against doctor's recommendation) and told them we'd just go to her pediatrician in the morning. Friday Brant stayed home from work in the morning so I could have a way to get to the doctor's. Annie's fever had already gone down and she was starting to improve. My parents and grandmother came to visit us too, and that morning I took my mom on a tour (with the realtor) of our soon-to-be new house! I took some more pictures so I can send them to the people in our lives who aren't here to take tours. :) I hope they'll get an idea of the layout. Of course, things are going to look very different when we have our own stuff in the house! I cannot wait!

Today Annie is doing much better. It hasn't been a typical Saturday, where most weary mothers of sick children are refreshed and renewed, getting to have their husband home to help them all day. Nope. Brant had to be gone from 8:30-4:30 in Harrisburg for a class. But Annie is doing much better, and we've had a fun still-rainy-and-dreary day! I love seeing her playing again and being closer to her usual spunky and sprightly self!



(I taught her how to quack--that's what she's doing here)


And here's a video from a few weeks ago. We have this plastic slide that Brant brought in from the balcony and put in her bedroom. She has so much fun with it! and all the other fun toys in her room! :) Oh, and she does her high-pitched "roof roof!" in the video, too. She does that whenever she sees a dog (stuffed or real), hears a dog barking outside, or thinks about dogs. :)