It's a GIRL!!!

We have a new addition!!!

Cheyenne Louise

11-08-96

She is a great kid!

She and Mariah ADORE each other!!!

We expect her to move in

permanently this weekend!

When I find that crazy cable that connects

the camera and computer

I can add photos...

More later!!!

We're here!

We are finally in our new house...

While Carol was signing the papers selling our old house

she got a phone call:

The mortgage company for our new house

was having technical difficulties and

we couldn't close that night after all!

After a day of loading trucks the LAST

thing you want to hear is that you have nowhere to go!

We had dinner and a lot of beer/wine

with good friends of Mom and Dad's here in Northfield then

we spent the night at Mom and Dad's.

Mom supplied jammies and washed our clothes.

The next morning we got up, went and closed...

Waited 3 hours for the LARGE, NATIONwide

Mortgage company to get their act together

and give us the final approval code

and we FINALLY had keys to our new house!

One of the smartest things we did was hiring

people to unload the trucks! They actually started

before the sale was legally final

and even had to buy a bolt cutter

to cut locks off of the trucks!

Mom and Dad brought Mariah HOME

after her nap, bought supper, and

Mom made our beds!

You can only IMAGINE how nice it was

to sleep in our own beds that night!

We have had visitors and even overnight guests!

SOOOO thankful to family who have helped

and for friends who have fed us!

Will post more later! Have boxes to unpack!

McCarty Family Reunion 2008

The "second cousins, once removed" had great fun swimming!

Front: Tucker and Gabriel

Middle: Conor, Mariah, Ellie

Baby Rowan is in the stroller.

The rest of the cousins didn't make it to the reunion.

Four-Wheeling with (Great-)Auntie Lori!

Tucker and Mariah:

Off to explore the farm

on the battery powered "Gator"!

Annie coaches Mariah in the art of watergun WARS!

PONY RIDES!!!

There is a pony cart for the kids

and a wagon and team of horses for the big people!

SOLD: 313 6th Street

This is it!

We move in August 8th!

Beautiful entry area with open stairs.
Huge rooms and beautiful pocket doors!

From livingroom looking into the diningroom.
The kitchen is huge...

We will do some work to it...

Cherry, Shaker-Style cupboards?

Peeking back at the entry from the

livingroom.

News!

We SOLD our house!

We accepted an offer late last week.

Today we "shopped" and fell in love with a house.

OK, I fell in love with it online...

But it was even better in person!

It's 4 blocks from Brian and Paula.

(And one block from Heidi's dream house!)

We can't make an offer until after our current house

passes inspection and the buyers lock in their offer.

We have started the paper work for an offer though!

Thanks to Mom, Dad, Paula, Brian, Heidi, and Gabriel

for the support, advice, and expertise!

I think this was the largest group ever to house shop in Northfield!

***

The bad part of this means that

our adoption is on hold.

We were looking into adopting a 13 year old girl

and her worker feels we need to wait.

It isn't fair to move her into this turmoil

and we couldn't give her the time we want to and that she deserves.

We pray that things work out and

she will join us in our new home.

Field Trip!

Mariah and her friend are excited to go to the ZOO!
Mommy was a chaperone.

This is my group.

Of all things...

Mariah liked the GOAT best!

Lunch time in the park!

Yeah, penguins...

Didn't mean to add this photo.

WNBA Here She Comes!

She shoots and SCORES!!!
Pretty good at stealing the ball!
Slam Dunk!
Very aggressive on the court!

Good speed and balance too!

Where did she get THAT?