Still Here

Still on the planet. Still living in Colorado.

I've been wanting to write to you for months but my life has not seemed my own for quite awhile now. Let's see how short I can make this:

In mid September 2020 my mom was diagnosed with bladder cancer. Seemed it was going to be handled without chemo etc. This was the catalyst for moving back to NC but once we had the idea in our head, it made a lot of sense in so many ways.

By early October Brad, Michael, and I had made the decision to put the house on the market and started the process of getting it ready for listing. Weeks of workers here, painting the interior of the house, the exterior of the barns, laying a new floor in the kitchen, living, dining and new counters. Whew, it was a whirlwind!

The day after Thanksgiving our house went on the market and we had a few showings!

Then the holidays hit and nothing.

Then the new year hit and more showings!

Elevated covid cases, blah, blah, blah. Had to shut my neurofeedback business down yet again. Boo.

On Monday, January 4th, we received a full price, cash offer with a 3 week close and we accepted it! The buyer said he didn't want to mess with two money transfers and just decided to put ALL the money into the escrow account. We took this to mean he was very serious. The mad dash began: on Wednesday we flew to NC to look at a farm we had had our eye on. By Friday we were preparing an offer. By Friday afternoon we were told that the buyer had not put any money into the escrow account and that he had miswired it! OMG! Can you imagine the horror? I felt so bad for him. Turns out I didn't need to. On Monday we flew home and found out that the buyer had never wired any money anywhere and was offering up weak excuses as to what had happened.

Holy crap, he flaked. We never found out why. Thank God our CO realtor called us before we put the offer on the NC farm.

We came back from NC deflated and feeling scammed. Yuck.

It took 2 weeks to start feeling normal-ish.

I decide that I would be pretty happy going back to Apex, the town we moved to CO from back in 2003. We also started looking at possibly building.

Soon after, Dean, our NC realtor, calls and told us that she had spoken to another realtor about us and this other realtor had a possible farm for us–not yet on the market. Where? In Apex. Wow. That was some fast work God! And the owners were willing to give the right buyer a contingent offer–meaning they would wait for us to sell our house! What?? Turns out they had a beach house that they will move to so they could wait for us.

We started learning about it but weren't sure it was a good fit. We were also getting more serious about building–trying to keep all of our options open. The Apex farm was on a culdesac or sorts and it seemed kinda squished back there. It was only 7.5 acres. We have 15 here. The owners were looking for a special someone to fit into their little neighborhood of friends. They had a lot of questions for us and it felt funny, we decided to let that go.

February didn't bring good news. The cancer mom has moved up, week by week as the doctor's did more scans, to stage 4 (low 4 at least.) The same day we found out stage 4, we learned that our 14 year old Border Collie, Midgie, also had cancer. She needed to go to heaven fast as it was a large tumor that could burst any moment and it would be a painful death. She went to heaven on Saturday, February 20th.

Also, Duke, one of our livestock guardian dogs, hadn't been doing well. We've been trying this drug or that and this test and that for a couple of months now, all inconclusive. I was pretty certain it was cancer. After yet another inconclusive ultrasound, the vet ordered a BRAF urine test, which would tell us if it's cancer or a UTI.

The next week my mom started chemo and we found out that first day that she is an excellent candidate for immune therapy! Whooohoooo! Happy dance! The numbers go from 1-100 and doctors are excited when the patient is a 10–mom is a 95!

Ugh, after her first week of chemo my mom passed out at home, my dad couldn't wake her, called 911, and they took her to the hospital for about 6 hours. Severe dehydration. My brother Michael, my son Michael, and I made immediate plans to go visit.

Since I was going to be there anyway, I might as well see what was on the market while there. I sent our realtor a bunch of listings (17!), about giving her a heart attack. We narrowed it down to 9. One of them was the Apex house. I thought I should see it since they were willing to accept a contingent offer.

While in NC, the special test we ordered for Duke came back and confirmed my Inner Voice. Duke had bladder cancer. Seriously? (He has good days and not so good days. We are watching him and snuggling him close. He's lost a lot of weight, doesn't want to eat much, and struggles with pain, we know it will be soon.)

I went to see the Apex house and guess what? I fell in love. Who knew? I got to meet and talk to the owner while there and we both liked each other. He was excited to talk to his friends/fellow neighborhood homeowners about what I needed. He is currently writing an addendum to the covenants to allow us to have our goats! Our realtor is working on the offer. It's looking good!

While we were in NC, Brad was holding down the fort at the Colorado ranch and they got 2 feet of snow! Lord! Thank God for the tractor! He had to climb gates with hay for a few days but eventually plowed them free. Longmont just doesn't get weather like that very often. We've been here 17 years and there was only one other snowstorm like that.

Michael and I got home yesterday. Life has had a lot of ups and downs since September and we are trying our best to just flow with it.

Even with all the crazy stuff, we feel like we are on an upswing:

So much snow still on the ground but it's beautiful and sunny today and some of the snow has melted. Spring is in the air! Once this snow melts the little bits of green grass that we saw before will really get going. No one can resist this place in all of it's gorgeous, lush, green glory! :-)

Mom is handling the chemo pretty well and her doctor is AMAZING! He's constantly tweaking her treatment to make it as easy as possible. Prayers and energy sent her away are very much appreciated!

I feel like this Apex house is a gift from God. "Oh, you want to move to Apex? How about this one that will allow a contingency?" So happy I went to see it after all. It seems once that gets ironed out, our house here will sell quickly. It feels like it's all falling into place. I loved the Apex/Cary area when we lived there years ago and it has just gotten nicer and bigger since we've been gone.

In case you want to see the videos I've uploaded over the past couple of months:

Wild Horses!

Napping Sweetness the Donkey!

And now that I'm all caught up, I WILL do better keeping up with you all!

Much love from the Mother Ranch,

Julia

PS That cute pic is of my dad and Mikey playing chess together the other day. We are all looking forward to living close to each other again!