Home on the Range

In our attempt to claw our way to a debt-free existence, Christy and I have resolved to not buy a house until all creditors are paid with the exception of the lovely people (American Education Services) that lent us the money to go to school. That leaves us in the sometimes scary realm of renting. When we first moved to Longview last July, we learned that the rental market in Longview is very competitive with houses being filled left and right. We are very grateful to say that we found a really great house that fit our immediate needs very well. Our landlords are a fantastic couple that have been a joy to work with. Of course, our immediate needs last July did not include the arrival of the last of our little clan. The house is 1500 square feet with a fairly small living space that gets crowded when more than two adults are present. We are also facing a main road in town that is pretty busy. Do not get me wrong, I very much enjoy getting the surround sound of every ambulance and fire engine that goes by at 2 a.m. but a quieter neighborhood would be slightly more comfortable. We are not going to move unless the house is at least 2,000 square feet, in our price range, and in a quieter neighborhood. We are okay with staying here because we can make it work.

Thus begins our search. The most recent little nugget of fun on this expedition was when we traveled 7 miles north on Gilmer road to look at a place in the "country". We took a couple of turns down increasingly bumpier roads and eventually found our way to the end of the street that our desitination was supposed to be on. The road was a dead end, or so we thought. We had turned around when Christy noticed an older woman on a riding mower trying to chase us down. The had to have been in her sixties but in light blue jeans, T-Shirt, gray hair up in a bun on the top of her head, and a very stylish black leather purse. Now, put yourself in our shoes. We are driving around and have no idea where we are with our children asleep in the car and our possible murderer is chasing us on a 15 year old Honda mower. Well, you can probably tell that since I am alive and making this blog entry, she was not a murderer. She was actually there to show us the house on behalf of her son who is in the army. The house, we found out, was hidden down an old gravel driveway at the end of the road we were on. The house was plenty big but that is about the only good thing I could say about it. I think I still have the funky smell in my skin somehow. The carpet was all sorts of different colors and the angry and old Fangorn forest from the Lord of the Rings was behind the house. Needless to say it was a "Negative, Ghost Rider" on that option.

The good part about all of it is that is the worst experience we have had, by far. I know that we are going to be fine but it is at least fun to report all of the crazy stuff that we see while we go on this adventure.

On a different note, I need to say that the Collins family is going to be very well traveled this summer and our legendary mini-van is going to be put to the test on a special trip in particular. I will go into detail soon but it is safe to say that we are going to be on the road for a long, long time. Until then...