Merry Christmas

Here is our Christmas Picture that did NOT make it in our Christmas Cards (Our heads were cut off when I picked up the pictures from Wal-mart).







Our Christmas Tree (and Jonah). Jonah and his daddy picked this out. We are so glad that we get to leave it up until Christmas Day this year. In the past it always came down several days before so it wouldn't be huge mess when we returned from a 2 week visit to Illinois.









Look at the ice from our recent ice storm! (Its pretty but a lot of poeple lost a lot of trees due to this storm. We were fortunate.)

The Good, the Bad and the Incredibly Inconvenient

(of moving into our new house)

So after living in Illinois for over three months we have finally moved into our own house. We appreciated the generosity of my parents for letting us stay at their house while Jake job hunted and then house hunted, but are glad to be "on our own" again. Here is what is happening:
THE GOOD:
We live right across the street from a little park. We haven't got to play there too much due to the rain, snow and cold temps, but we're enjoying the idea of it at least.

We have really nice neighbors right next door. They have grown children our age and we don't mind at all that they are a little parental towards us!


We have this great bar/island in our kitchen. Its a great place for Jonah to keep busy. He'll sit and color, help me bake, play with play dough and do other various activities. I love the easy clean-up and we can "hang-out" in the kitchen together and both "get stuff done."

We have three bathrooms! Although that means I have 3 to clean its still nice after sharing one at my parent's house!

We live really close to a shopping center that has everything I need: Wal-mart, Walgreens, Aldi's, Deals, our bank and Jonah has even seen a doctor that I really like there!

THE BAD
Hmmmm...the bad. I think the bad is the basic stuff that comes with buying an almost thirty year old house: you keep finding things to fix! So far we need to think about fixing/replacing:
roof ( in five years?? We're not sure)

water heater and furnace (both are old but still in working order. They are however covered by the home warranty that our seller's purchased so we are praying that they break in the next 12 months!)

our shower- I found a crack in the floor when I was cleaning it. Unfortunalty, the home inspector missed it (It is NOT covered by our warranty)

our gutter needs to be reattached or something of the sort.

our front door is VERY drafty because the molding around it hasn't been finished

our doorbell (no DING)

The INCONVENIENT
Its COLD here! We visited Arkansas for the weekend and couldn't believe how warm it was! Jonah was so excited not to have to wear a coat (so were we).

Speaking of cold, due to the ice storm that we had we just yesterday got internet service and a home phone. They are still not working so well...

We haven't found a church yet and we're not have much fun anymore looking for one. Its very hard for Jonah to visit a new class each week.

And, the worse part is, we are still friendless (def.- without friends). I find myself talking to people in line at Aldi's a lot more than I used to!!!

Here's our new place:



Come and see us!