House Projects Weekend #1

Closing on our house went smoothly last weekend and the house is now ours!

Mom and Dad T. came up this weekend to help us get ready for painting weekend (next weekend). We pulled out lots of nails, filled nail holes, took off all the light switch and outlet covers, and took down all the old curtains and the curtain rods and hardware.



In addition, we tackled a few other projects. We removed two sets of cupboards opening up the kitchen and dining room.




We also pulled up the carpet in our bedroom to reveal beautiful hardwood floors (we think they had carpet over them since the house was built).


We'll have more updates to share after next weekend!

Christmas Vacation

We had a great Christmas break, spending two weeks away from home and work to be with family and friends. We left Saturday afternoon for Jameson's family, excited to see our new niece, Lydia.
Jameson w/ Lydia.
Playing catch w/ Arie. (He's in a cast b/c he had a spiral fracture on his right Femur bone).
Playing 'Playdough Pictionary' w/ the family.
Listening to the guys sing hymns in 3-part harmony (or singing with them)- what a wonderful time spent on most visits home.

Even more special is when Grandma R. is over to visit or we go over to her place on Sunday afternoons and she plays piano while the rest of us sing.


We also got to hang out with Adam & Kate (home from CO) and Scott & Lia for an evening.

Christmas Eve we headed to my parents. We decided to go to the Christmas Eve service at First Pres and especially enjoyed the music. We spent Christmas morning eating breakfast cassorale, orange julious, and opening presents w/ my parents (all traditions) and then went to my grandparent's and spent the remainder of the day w/ my relatives.

Friday I was able to get together w/ Darcy, Michelle, and Chelsea (high school friends I hadn't seen since our wedding two years ago). It was good to catch up.

Saturday morning we headed for Boulder, CO w/ my brother and parents. Matt moved out there for an internship w/ a youth group in August so we wanted to see where he was living and visit his church. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed Boulder.

We also spent a couple days by the ski slopes. I skied and Jameson's snowboarded Monday at Copper. Tuesday we explored the shops at Keystone while my dad and Matt skied a second day.



We spend New Year's Eve w/ the family Matt is living with and then headed back to Iowa on Thursday. Friday we headed back to Cedar Falls in time to have coffee w/ Justin & Cassy and lunch w/ Loren (all just passing through Cedar Falls).

We Bought a House!

HORRAY! We bought a house and we're both very excited! We've been going to open houses for several months to get a feel for the market and were planning to buy this spring. This Sunday we went to one that was just what we were looking for and much better than the others we'd looked at in the same price point. With interest rates below 5%, we decided there was no reason to wait (we locked in at 4.625%). Monday night we made an offer and they accepted. It's a 3 Bedroom, 1 1/2 bath ranch with a 2 car attached garage (1372 square foot). It needs some updates and the basement is unfinished (making it affordable for us) but it's been well cared for and we look forward to being able to make some updates and finish the basement. We had the inspection on Thursday and the apraisal will follow soon. We don't close until Feb. (our request as we're still under a lease at our apartment). We are certianly thankful for how easy and smoothly the process has gone. We are very excited to have found what we wanted and to be upgrading from our 1 bedroom apartment!

This is a video I made with pictures I took during the inspection.

Now we can have families over for supper and family and friends can come visit and sleep in a bedroom instead of on our living room floor!


It is also likely we will start updating our blog more often now.

Jameson's Going Back to School

Well, Jameson just loves school so much that he's decided to go back (make sure you sense the sarcasm)! Jameson decided that having an MBA may help open doors and job possibilites later so he's going back to get his MBA. We decided the best time for that was now, while we don't have kids so he can finish before our kids have memories of dad being gone at class several nights a week. He's getting his degree through St. Ambrose who has a connections with John Deere and offers some classes in Waterloo. This process will take about 3 years.