Sunday, February 15, 2009

Wherein Rob Gives Two Important Announcements

1. My wife was delivered of a beautiful little girl Thursday morning: Anne-Marie Wren. It was our fastest labor and delivery yet--two hours from check-in at the hospital to arrival. Mother and daughter are healthy; an outcome I had expected but was relieved to see realized. I truly am smitten with this little girl--a feeling I expected but was pleased to discover--and am humbled to occupy the position of father during her journey here and hereafter. A hat-tip to the Randles for the middle name.2. We are under contract to buy a house. We can't wait to move in! It's an attractive little home four miles outside of town on 12.4 acres, mostly wooded. The interior is VERY out of date, with bright shag carpeting, wood paneling and a 70's green dishwasher--probably an original. If we can get the well and septic tank to pass county inspection we will close in March. We've been searching for a home and property like this since before we moved here, so it seems too good to be true to have finally found a place that is close to town and some neighbors, but still has space for my homesteading interests. On top of that it has woods--which I had always hoped for but figured we wouldn't find in Kansas where most property is either cultivated or pasture--and is in the best school district in the area. Stupendous!

30 comments:

  1. Congratulations to the Holmes' on both counts. We look forward to Anne-Marie and our yet unnamed daughter hanging out when they're both a little older. I also look forward to purchasing some Holmes' Grown Produce and Victuals once you're up an running.

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  2. Congratulations, Rob. You've got a beautiful family.

    Good work on the house. 12 wooded acres sounds pretty cool. I'm pretty sure I saw a tree outside of Lubbock last week. It was awesome.

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  3. Congratulations!! While I am not jealous of labor, delivery, and newborn-hood (having just gone through that too recently), I am so happy for you and I AM jealous of the house with wooded land. How exciting!

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  4. Congrats and good wishes as well. I thought you already had a farm? What have I been purchasing all this time, have I been sending you money for nothing? And if so, where have these bell peppers been coming from?

    Maybe with a holmestead (get it? Get it?) of your own you can post more often (ooh, ZING!)

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  5. 12 acres sounds too good to be true. i've told jayne that's all i really want in a home: land. trouble is, there aren't any properties in provo left with a lot of land. i have to look in payson, and i've heard they're all contagious down there.

    congrats, holmes family.

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  6. Congratulations Holmes family! Now we can bond over getting absolutely zero sleep. Good times.

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  7. Thanks everbody!

    Mat-You can bring Chenae over for a farm date anytime.

    Tony--just keep the money coming. I've been investing it with this Madoff fellow until I get the farm up and running.

    Aaron--Think of the trade-offs though. Even if there are no trees in Lubbock there are lots of . . . help me out here.

    Carrie--congrats right back at you. Your little Peter is a cutie.

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  8. thanks for including me in your personalized responses.

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  9. I'll respond to Jed for Rob.

    Yeah, Payson is scary, I hear they drink beer there. Gladstan is nice though.

    I Rob.

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  10. Love the name! In fact it was one we've had on our list as well (so is Jane...hmmm. You guys have good taste).

    Congrats!

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  11. Oops. Jed you went under the "thanks everybody" category. Sheesh, these sensitive artists . . .

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  12. Congrats! who knew woodlands in Kansas...

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  13. That is wonderful Rob! We're so happy for you and Taliatha! And the home sounds perfect. We love ranch style homes with the age to actually have some personality to play with. Congrats on both accounts!

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  14. how's this for sensitive: i can't tell if it's worse to just be overlooked (as i'd imagined) or to be shunted into the "don't really have anything to say to you" category with carly.

    i'd like to offer my congrats to carrie for making a bigger impression than i could. her time on the periphery of our gang in high school pays out better than having known rob since childhood and being immortalized with him in the same cartoon portrait.

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  15. Rob responded to Jed, didn't he say something about drinking beer and such?

    Oh wait...

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  16. Jed, truthfully, you had fallen into the latter category. I agreed with your sentiments, but my muse didn't inspire me to write a response at the moment. Carrie made it in because she also just had a baby and I hadn't congratulated her over at her blog. Fear not, your ranking in my "network" remains high.

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  17. it's over, holmes.

    that's what you get for listening to your muse.

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  18. Thanks for the not-exactly-backdoor insult, Despot. I guess I'll take my comments elsewhere. I still congratulate Rob, though.

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  19. This is getting a bit out of hand. I wanted this to be a friendly little "Hooray for me" type of post but it's turning into some sort of complex, high school social status thread. I know Le Despot is being sarcastic, but I don't know if I appreciate it. That's the danger of blogs & e-mail--you can't see someone's face or hear their tone of voice.

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  20. And . . . I hope you will still feel free to comment Carly, but I understand if you choose not to.

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  21. wow, this has gotten out of hand. my appologies. i'd thought we were all joking around. sarcasm has always been how we rolled-- at least i thought so.

    no offense to rob and carly.

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  22. Sounds like this was a classic case of internet-induced misunderstanding. No harm done. Plus, I can't say I blame you: I don't love being in a category with myself, either. But the real point here is happy new baby and new house, Rob.

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  23. wow, yikes, not sure if I want to comment with all you scary sarcastics out there in internet land.
    Hah, just kidding. I like high school status contests, so I will comment.

    Congrats Rob!!! And new baby is fabulous, and a new baby with an AWESOME middle name is even better. I love my middle name, and so I'm sure she will too. And it couldn't be more appropriate when dad is a birder, right?
    And I'm going to be ordering veggies from the Holmes farm as soon as it's up and running...

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  24. I'm just glad Jed didn't direct his ire at me. I got a personalized response and I didn't even know Rob in high school. And I once stabbed him with a fork.

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  25. No hard feelings here! May peace and amity reign henceforth.

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  26. Benson stabbed me with a fork?! How did that happen?

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  27. I also have to admit to some trepidation about commenting after all that, but CONGRATULATIONS!!! Those are both very exciting announcements. Best of luck to you!

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  28. Yeah, Rob, don't you remember? When we lived in Heritage. You chased me into the kitchen for some (perceived, obviously) slight, and I grabbed a (dirty, obviously) fork off the table and turned around and held it up in some mock defense. I'm not sure what you were trying to do next, but you ended up bringing your hand down right on the business end of the fork. It went into your hand a little bit. Just enough to draw blood and to convince me that I probably had to throw that fork away. Which was a shame, 'cause I only had two forks, and that was the good one.

    I remember these things. It's all I have.

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  29. Happy day Robert, I have a condo on 12 acres myself with fields of unfinished buildings and ripening HOA fees.

    Babies babies everywhere
    Babies babies have no hair

    That poem is free to Carly's, Carrie's, and Taliatha's babies as well, only to be given on their five year anniversaries of life.

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  30. Congratulations on another daughter! I'm glad things went well. We look forward to meeting her next Stake Conference.

    As for the house, you may not need to remodel. We went and looked at an old farm house last week that had been completely overhauled and done up in the latest decorator colors. The kitchen was mustard orange, the dining room was baby poop brown, and the living room was the same color as that dishwasher of yours.

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