The saga continues

When we last left Blogging from the Barn, I was discussing how we ended up where we are.  Tim and I had moved back from Iowa, his practice was up and running, we had 2 lovely children, and were living in the house we built to be our "forever home."

Then Tim started to Google search land for sale in Collin County.  For those of you unaware, Tim can find anything on Google in a matter of moments.  Looking for a needle in a haystack?  Found in 3.5 seconds.  It's really quite an amazing skill!  So, when he started the search for the land we had always talked about having, it didn't really take him very long to find several options.  During this time, my guidance was always "Sure, I'd love to live on 5 or 7 acres."  "Let's get a LITTLE piece of land."  "Can you find a spot that's not too far out of town that's kind of small?"  This was to all be to no avail, of course.  Because once Tim starts Googling, there's no stopping him.

After a few months of looking and driving by various plots of land, Tim found a landlocked piece of property in Princeton.  We were already living near there (sort of) so he wasn't attempting to drag me too far in to the country.  It was close enough to civilization that I didn't have to travel an hour to get to the nearest grocery store.  These are the things he tells me first after he's found this piece of land but before he really gives me a lot of details.

One afternoon he drove me out to this property.  We had to find a neighboring corn field to drive through to get into the property.  We had to climb a barbed wire fence to get access to the property.  These things were not making a great first impression on me.  Then he tells me that this property that I'd just climbed a fence to see was a little larger than 5 or 7 acres.  Was it 10 acres?  No, not quite.  Was it 15?  Or 20?  No, no, a little bigger than that.  How much land was it that we were looking at exactly?  The property turned out to be 55 acres.  55 acres!!!!!  What in the world was I, a city girl my WHOLE life, going to do with 55 acres?!?!  Well, I would soon find out.

The first blog...

I'm new to this blogging thing.  We'll try it for a while and see how it goes...

Several of my friends have encouraged me to blog about my experiences in the barn.  To me, the things that happen in the Brister house seem to be normal, every day events.  I supposed that is not the case for those around me.  I honestly never imagined that the life I live now would be my path.  But, here I am and here I will stay.

To fully understand the barn experience, you have to know where the story began.  I'll start that story now and come back for more later. 

Tim and I got married in 1998.  We dated for about 10 minutes (OK, 5 months) before we got engaged.  Technically, we never went on a date during those 5 months.  But that is a story for another blog.  During our engagement and early marriage, we always talked about having some land when we "grew up."  At the time, my idea of "some" was 5 or 7 acres.  (This is an important point.  Remember it.)  

However, life got in the way for the Brister newlyweds.  Just after we got married Tim entered dental school.  He attended Baylor College of Dentistry.  I was working full time as a teacher and going to graduate school.  Two full time students do not generate large quantities of income, so the land would have to wait.  (The life and times of newlyweds and dental school are also another story for another time.)

Four years later, Tim graduated and got a job.  I was still in graduate school (this time for my Ph.D.) and Tim was trying hard to get into residency for pediatric dentistry.  That happened 1 year later, and we moved to Iowa.  Now we were 5 years into our marriage and diving deeper in debt.  The land was put on hold again.

We moved to Iowa, had a beautiful baby girl, and lived there for 3 years.  Iowa was a wonderful experience and made us a better couple.  We had a daughter and became a real family.  We grew up and had to figure out how to do a lot of things on our own.  We ate a lot of corn and corn-fed beef.  We made what would become life-long friends, and we saw places we would have never otherwise seen.  But our ability to buy some land and settle down was an elusive goal.

Tim graduated in 2006 and we left Iowa with fond memories and set off for McKinney, a new pediatric dental office, and life in Texas as a family of 3.  We eventually bought a real house of our own in a nice little neighborhood and had another baby, this time a little boy.

Then Tim started to Google land for sale in Collin County.  

That brings us close to today and is a lovely place to stop for tonight.  The Brister barn saga continues soon....