I'm flying home for a family emergency

My dad is in the hospital. He's been there for 11 days now, and we're pretty worried. He took a turn for the worse 2 nights ago, so I'm hopping a flight home. He has heart problems, kidney problems, and diabetes. I can only hope he recovers, but we just don't know. If you can find room to pray for him, I would very much appreciate it.

Michael is staying here in Nantucket without me. We have a big job that needs to be finished this week so that we can get paid. And we need that money to pay rent. I'm sorry I have to leave him to do it but I have to go home. If my dad isn't any better by next week, I want to fly Michael out too. We had planned on making a trip to my home in Idaho this summer anyway -- I've been wanting him to see how beautiful and expansive our place is -- I just wish it were under different circumstances. So...Michael could use your support now too.

I love you guys. Thanks for all your kind words.

Cheers,
Ernest

I FOUND STARBUCKS COFFEE!!!

Thank the Lord in Heaven! I found Starbucks coffee.

A small store called the "Trading Post" has 6 different types of Starbucks coffee, fresh donuts, and the owner is ordering our cigarettes. And the best part is that it's only 2 blocks from our apartment. How sweet it is!

I'm looking forward to the warm weather

More pics of our new place

I'm so stoked about this apartment. We have so much room! It's not the condo in Leavenworth (I LOVED the condo in Leavenworth), but it's a good second.

This is the bonus room. We think we'll put the TV up here with the surround sound, so we can turn it up as loud as we want! We may also put another bed up here or use it as a workspace.


And this is the spare bedroom and misc. other pics.

We got our apartment!!!

We met Mark today and signed the lease. Woohoo! Now, I can finally talk about it. ;-) I'm not usually a superstitious man, but we wanted this apartment so much that I wasn't taking any chances.

The apartment is a large 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment occupying the 2nd and third floors of this house. On the main floor is a large bedroom with lots of storage, a second bedroom, which we may use as an office, a full bath with that most glorious of inventions - the bathtub, a large kitchen with all new appliances, and a large front room. Upstairs is a bonus room that runs the length of the house. There is also a washer and dryer in the basement and a deck off our kitchen.

Here is the kitchen and front room:


We managed to negotiate a lower rent. He was previously getting $1850/month. But after we talked a while and we built some rapport, I was able to talk him down to $1500/month. Score! That's a fantastic price for such a big apartment. This is the first place we looked at and initially we walked away discouraged. He wanted first and last month's rent and a security deposit up front. Even with the lower rent, that was just too much for us to afford. Then, Michael had the brilliant idea of moving in on the 15th (effectively cutting our first month's rent in half) and spreading the security deposit over 4 months. Mark said yes, so here we are.

Here is the larger bedroom:


As you can see, the apartment is NOT furnished. We'll be sleeping on the floor for a while...! But Mark thinks he has a couple beds and couches from his other rental properties that we can use. And there are some large garage sales coming up!!

We now have plenty of room for you to visit, so please consider it.

Ma' Nature's Lyrical

....with her yearly miracle! Spring! Spring! Spring!

The flowers are blooming and the trees are flowering and the birds are chasing each other from branch to branch. It's a wonderful sight. There are so many different kinds of birds here, because much of the island is a bird and wildlife preserve. I may have to invest in a telephoto lens to try and capture the busy suckers on film.

The lighthouse in this picture is at the Sankaty Golf Course. It only costs a mere quarter of a million dollars to join the club and golf here! This place is so exclusive that they initially denied President Clinton access when he visited. Eventually they relented. But for those of you planning to visit (And we hope you are!!!) who like to golf, don't despair! There is another golf course open to the public.

Michael The Entertainer!!

It's amazing how much entertainment kids get out of the simplest things. Take a Cheerios cereal box for example! Michael entertained Lily for hours with his makeshift top hat. Lily made us some very tasty Crayola Crayon, Crocodile Puzzle Piece, Building Block soup, as you can see in the picture. We all had to taste it and say, "Yummy! Yummy! Yummy!" I'm not sure if she is going to be a clothing designer (she picks out her own clothes every day, and she's only 1 & 1/2 ) or a Top Chef!

I hope you don't mind all these pics of Lily. She's such a ham that there is plenty of opportunity for pictures! Plus, we've been cooped up inside for the last two weeks thanks to the weather.

We are already making money. Brian asked us to clean all the windows on his house, which is a beautiful 2-story home. We're making $30/hr for that. Everytime I clean windows I realize why so many cleaners put on their cards, "Don't Do Windows!"

One of Michael's all-time favorite clients, Mrs. Camp, is returning to the island and wants him back to do various jobs like detail the yacht and make party preparations for the numerous parties she holds over the summer.

And yesterday, we visited Linda Upton's house and spoke with her daughter Ashley. She wants us to repaint the master bath and the other 2 bathrooms on the 2nd floor of their beautiful (and enormous) home. In Ashley's bath we proposed a little detail painting -- we're going to do 2 bold vertical stripes with a pin strip in between in all differing shades of turquoise -- just to make her bathroom extra special, and she LOVED the idea. We start that on Tuesday at $25/hr. AND, Ashley said they really want Michael back as their house cleaner and are planning to let go of their current maid just so they can have Michael back. We will be cleaning their house every Thursday at $30/hr.

So, everything seems to be working out wonderfully. You can all stop worrying about us. We will keep you posted.

Oh, and for all you moms out there... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!!!

Well, yesterday was the first sunny day we've had since we got here. It's like that one time........ when Michael and I first moved to Leavenworth, we lived in a tent for 2 months and he assured me that in the summertime it never rains in Leavenworth and then we found ourselves racing to put up the rain fly at 2 in the morning!

But anyway! I managed to get these pics off.

We may have found an absolutely FABULOUS apartment. But, I'm not discussing it until we've signed the lease.