Miss Barbara, My word Gurl, I needed a fresh page just for you . . . temptre . . . enabl . . . Dear Friend. ♥ All jokes aside, The orchids and I faired well over the winter, and I will let them know you are thinking of them. You already know that your influence is scattered throughout my collection, and here you go again enabling me more !!! However, I’m not sure if you remember, last year when you baited me with White Elephant. It was right before I left to visit Hallson’s. As a result of your post, I ended up picking out one right then and there !!! It was haggard looking last year, what with a move across 5 states and then too much rain and shade. Here he is, in 2013. And again this year, looking much better. Pic taken today. Ooooo all that white sends my heart a flutter. :P But about this Lionheart business, I will reserve my comments to the actual post, so check back later. :) And Bless your heart for sharing your wind chimes. I ended up spending a half hour perusing that website, listening to all the different models. Your Earth Song is gorgeous !!! But I had to laugh when my ear settled on the $ 660.00, 8ft tall, Himalayan Echo . . . figures, I couldn’t swoon for one of the smaller more reasonably priced models. I would die to have one that big, though. Hang it somewhere high in a tree in the back yard and just let it resonate. I’m sure you could almost feel the vibrations if the wind picked up enough and really got it going. But I won’t be hearing it’s song for a long time at that price . . . good to set long term goals for yourself, right ? I was inspired by your link and ended up finding out more information on the one I just bought. I updated the original post if you want to go back check it out. This is actually my second one. The first, was a gift from my Mother almost 6 years ago after I graduated college. I had it hanging on my porch when I lived in Indiana, PA, but never made it out of the box once I moved to Philly. That is all changing this year as I have plans (or rather a grown adult with a big drill) to attach a huge hook to the roof of the front porch overhang. It is a 42 inch Arias. It does not have a theme or name like my Windsinger and definitely sounds more like cathedral bells. But still just as pleasing. Plus, I think of Mumma Bear when I hear it. ♥ Here is a link to a vendor that sells them, but it also includes an audio clip if you want to hear what it sounds like, as well. Arias 42 Inch Wind Chime Thank you for thinking of me, and I hope to be able to post again soon with more updates. Give hugs to the husband, birds, and little furry ones for me. ♥ Yours, Ludi

Thanks everyone, yes, yes yes, we are so thankful to our doctor and his entire staff. His whole facility is nothing short of amazing. They are each great at what they do and do everything they can to make this whole terrible experience more manageable. We both appreciate all the well wishes and continued prayer. --Lukki

I've been looking a little, but I think we're really gonna have to lower our price another $25K to move our house quickly, so that's $25K off a "new house" to keep our payments in budget. This house no longer fits our needs and would cost too much to change. It would be much less to sell, pay off all our debt, and start out with a house with "good bones" that fits our lifestyle with kids (current home was purchased pre-kids). Plus, our current home faces east/west, which we absolutely hate here in Phoenix. Our family room is always 10 degrees different than the rest of the house. It's awful. We just want a blank slate and start over. But we should still be able to find something very reasonable close by.

Kaismom--I've had plenty of meltdowns in the past 18 months of this, but I've been fine lately. We almost did this when I was pregnant with our second, but I convinced DH to wait until after she was born to start. Briana--I feel for you living with someone else. We've been so fortunate enough to have a decently sized house to live in for the past 8 months so we didn't have to squeeze down too much. Yes, I think we're realistically about a month behind. I'd like to say less, but I'm tired of under estimating! I would have said 3 weeks until today when I found out that drywall would take about 8-10 working days. For some reason I thought it would only take a week. Beagles--I hadn't thought about the stress of living with the kids in a kitchenless house with construction still ongoing. Maybe we'd better plan for a 3-month apartment lease and stay there until the house is further along. Celine--Yeah, some stuff is a bummer. The progress feels good though. I can't wait to see your kitchen done! Hurry! Patriot--I'm sure I'll be happy with it too. I appreciate your help in my path to buying it.