Little House in the Valley

  We technically live in San Fernando Valley, which covers a wide area. It makes a big "P" shape, going all the way down to Santa Monica, which is at least 45 minutes South- twice as far with traffic- so that was not helpful when we searched for jobs on Craigslist in February and March. Other search results took us to Pasedena, just as far but heading East. In North Hollywood, we are surrounded by beautiful mountains on all side, which sometimes caused the summer and fall days to be extra hot. We do not have the expensive luxury of living on the beach, being greeted by soft oceans breezes each time we step outside. But at least humidity feels like almost zero here and I do keep forgetting how heavy and overwhelming it can be back East.
  Anyway, here is a tour of our cozy Gentry house that we have enjoyed living in this year!

My car gets picked up and shipped off to Birmingham tomorrow.
They will take Michael's next Monday. A friend will drive us to the hotel by LAX.

  Above the entertainment center are four printed 18"x16" scripts that we got made
in Orlando at Office Max. Rob Zombie's Halloween, Star Wars: the Empire Strikes Back,
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and The Wizard of Oz. Can you tell that
Michael loves his fake trees? But having a fireplace was nice this year too.

To the left of the fireplace was Michael's quaint make up area.
To the left of that is the kitchen, as well as the small laundry area and back door.
(Not shown.)

  One thing I would love to have when we buy our own house, is a window in the bathroom. It was nice getting to save that bit of electricity when I took showers in the morning. I had no need for artificial lights. Our house got so wonderful and bright in the mornings when I came home from work at 7:20am. The back windows were perfectly placed for the sun to flood in.

Full circle back into the living room and front door. The wooden door is for the bedroom. (Also not shown because Michael was still sleeping when I took these pictures early in the morning & because we never make the bed!) The door way to the right is for my scrapbook room. It does have a door, but I usually keep it opened in the morning- again, because I love all the warm, pretty sunshine!

  Oh my goodness, FaithIt.com is not lying when they called Katie Davis the modern day Mother Theresa. I got her book in from Amazon last week. It will be my holiday read. Please watch her video HERE! Above my beloved scrapbooks, you will also see my current obsession book, "7".  I bolded one of my favorite parts from what I read while at work last night! That chapter was about giving up media for a month. TV shows, gaming systems, texting, and the Internet- especially Facebook and random blogs we look at just for fun. Sorry, LoveTaza. I will have lots of catching up to do with your family at some point, but for now I will continue to enjoy your beautiful New York City fall photos!

This is one of Sasha's favorite places to be- sitting on the top of the couch, gazing out to where she would rather be.. during the 30% of the time, when she isn't actually running around outside. She has to come in at some point, am I right? Plus, she's a barker.. And we can never forget Michael's prized bougainvillea plant. He is very sad to have to leave it behind.

 ♫ ♪ So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye. ♪ ♫
..Well, in 8 days! ;)