96/365 a house update and words, lots of them

not much new

except the windows have made it

from the garage into their proper places.

in other home news we have started

to move small things over to the apartment

and the big move will be this weekend.

I am excited, ready for all the hard work to be done

but looking forward to the new adventure.

everyone in the family has now seen

our short term home

and I wouldn't say the kids are

thrilled or even ok with it but

if I have learned anything this week

is that a little change & stepping outside

their own little self involved world

may be hard but is such an important exercise for them.

I guess I was very simple in my thoughts when this

all began, my Jerry Maguire mission statement was this:

make things simple

take out the extra "stuff"

eliminate the waste of energy, time and resources

concentrate on being authentic individuals and a family

easy peasy right?

well, it has turned out to be an iceberg

but not in a taking down of the titanic way,

more of a there is so much more to it

under the surface then what you see.

one of the lessons I have learned,

is that my children need a little

more adversity in their lives,

the chance to develop tools

that will allow them to accept change

see the best in situations

and rise to the occasion in difficult times

I don't want my children to be sad, scared or angry

I want to protect them

make sure they are safe

and know they are loved...

however, I am doing them no favours

if I don't encourage them to do things they don't want to do,

make decisions that are good for the family

but with the realization that it will disrupt their routines

and to challenge their reactions and attitudes.

I am sure in the short term they don't give

a flying leap that this is an important learning experience

but it is my hope that if they read this in 20 years

they will recognize this experience as one that helped shape who they are.

89/365 we now have walls and a roof

not only did we find a temporary home for our 3 months of homelessness

our new home now has walls, roofs, stairs

and windows hanging out in the garage

for some reason, I don't think this comes with the house

even though Kaeden really hopes they leave it behind

83/365 - Operation Simplify starts to pay off

Just when I was about to rename this operation

to something like Operation Impossible Dream

(as it has been anything but simple lately)

it has started to yield some very positive dividends.

There are 3 very big pieces of news to share

on the Operation Simplify Homefront

1) we may have found the answer to our homelessness - just trying to finalize an apartment downtown. More on this once everything is settled. I have a whole post, could almost be a novel, on what we have learned during this process.

2) look at the picture below for a clue of where we have booked a spur of the moment family vacation...

did you guess DISNEYLAND,

then you would be right

it is a very quick 5 day trip

to thank the kids for being so patient

during this upheaval and to

reinforce the reasons we chose

to embrace simplicity.

more time together as a family

enjoying the moments of every day

and creating memories

which leads us to the news I am

so over the top excited about

this email:

if you can't read make heads or tails of the above email

then let me help:

for many years

I have followed the blog of photographer

Tara Whitney.

I love her style,

it is free, fresh and unscripted.

On my bucket list was to get great family photos

preferably by Tara Whitney.

We have never had professional photos done

and I can count on one hand the family snapshots

that I am in.

I never really thought the Tara Whitney part

would be possible

but until I found someone

that I found as inspiring locally,

I wasn't very motivated to arrange photos.

Well, fast forward to our spur of the moment trip

(we leave in May)

and a hail mary email to Tara asking,

ok, it was more like begging,

if she had any availability

while we were in town

not really expecting she would be available

but Shelby convinced me to email her

as she knew I would kick myself if I didn't

at least check.

To my absolute shock and

delight, Tara is available and

we are now working out the details.

Scott asked me,

just how much is this going to cost?

and my reply?

more than a breadbox,

less than a Pinto

apparently that was not reassuring for him

I just know how excited I am

and that hopefully I will finally

get the family photo I have been

wishing for

at such a perfect time as

we embark on this new

way of living

and with Shelby getting ready to

graduate, turn 18

and start out on her own

this may be one of the last family trips

for awhile

and it will be great to

document this time,

right now,

with photos by someone

I really admire

and respect

and who has shaped my style as

a photographer.

79/365 Operation Simplify creates an adventure

one of the perks of the overhaul of our life

is we knew that it was going to allow us

to experience new things as a family

and create memories that hopefully

will not emotionally scar anyone.

Adventure No. 1

the Chibry's go to the auction to buy a home...

we have come to the conclusion that the best

option for us for our 3 months of homelessness

is to buy a trailer and park it at a local campground.

however, as we are going to live in it 24/7 for 3 months

it needs to be bigger then we would have looked at if it

was just for weekends at the lake.

as we all know

space equals money

so it has been challenging

to find something that will suit

our needs (bunks and at least 1 slide)

for a price tag that fits into the

grand operation simplify plan.

This quandary led us to the auction house

where sometimes good deals can be found.

We were definitely newbies

and looked a little out of place

but the staff was very helpful

First up we got our bidding number:

checked out the inventory booklet

then went to check out the trailer we had our eyes on

all was going well until

we went into the trailer and

found more than a little evidence

that a mouse (or mice) had found

themselves a new home.

as soon as this was discovered

I was out the door

but after lots of discussion

and Scott's sister Nicole

coming up to help us

decide if this was just a matter of

mice clean up

or was this a sign of a bigger problem

we decided to go to the auction

and see what the low bid would be.

If it was under or on the pre - determined

number Scott and I had

then we would bid,

if not we would walk away from

what we called the "mouse house".

The auction part was very entertaining,

I can talk fast

but boy those auctioneers put my

blabber mouth to shame!

& the atmosphere was fascinating,

full of energy but also a whole lot of tension!

The mouse house went for way more

than our set budget and we were

ok with that,

it was going to be a huge

job cleaning up the mess,

never mind what other issues there

may have been as it was

an as is where is purchase.

It was still great to go

and experience it

but we are still back at

square one of

Operation find a place to live.