Happy New Year from the Schrams!
Thanks to the prompting of my sister-in-law, Lisa, I was reminded it has been a while since my last post. I went back and looked...September 28th?! Yikes! I knew it had been a while, but I never intended to neglect this blog for over three months! I guess time got away from me and I just needed a blogging hiatus and not feel guilty about not giving updates as frequently as I'd like. As it turns out working full time, being a mom full time, tending to a vineyard, planning an addition, taking care of two big dogs, keeping up with housework, and throw the hullabaloo of the holidays on top of all of that and any "free time" to blog is almost nil.
So I didn't. This past week, my free time was spent finally getting around to making Axel's baby book, while Aaron took advantage of our unseasonably warm weather and pruned grapevines outside. I can't believe I took this picture on December 26th!
I realized that in one of my lasts posts, I left you hanging with a teaser about some potentially big news. We were, at the time, very seriously pursuing buying a house right in front of our property on the lake. It was a foreclosure and needed quite a bit of work and we figured, "Gosh, we don't have much of anything else going on, so why not find an extremely time consuming project."
If you can't tell, that last line is dripping with sarcasm.
We ended up in a multiple offer situation and, well, we didn't get it. But as all things usually do, we think it worked out for the best.
Instead, we're now working with an architect to do an addition and remodel on our existing house where we can design it perfectly tailored for us and our "vineyard lifestyle." A place to raise our family, to entertain, to host events, to run our business. We are very excited about what lies ahead and the plans we have seen so far. If we can get our plans finalized soon, our goal is to break ground this spring, which we realize will come fast! We are trying to set the expectation that this entire project will probably take years to complete and of course, will likely end up costing more than we initially budget. Isn't that how it always works?
Can you believe our little boy is going to be ONE in less than two weeks? People tell me all the time how fast the time goes and it is absolutely true. A year ago I was sitting around uncomfortable and impatient, waiting for his big debut and this year, that little guy was WALKING around at Christmas, full of personality.
And he LOVES the doggies. Even though we converted our entire dining room into a play room full of toys, all he wants to do is hang out on the dog bed with the dogs. He "pets" them, talks to them, crawls all over them, pulls their ears and pokes them in the eyes, and the dogs are extremely tolerant of him. Extremely. They just lie there and sometimes give me a look like, "Really? You're going to let him get away with this?"
We had a wonderful Christmas and all has been well with the Schrams. While we thought 2011 was an eventful year, I have a feeling 2012 will be no different. Cheers to another year full of challenges, surprises, excitement, and joy!
Happy New Year!