LuLu

I've pretty much decided to name the deer since they love to hang out with us so much. I'm calling this one LuLu. She (I guess it's a she) decided to just go ahead and plop down and hang out for the long haul tonight. She was enjoying a little snack of the flowers and weeds. She also hung out by the bedroom window last night around midnight. Magnus woke me and probably half the neighbors because of her.



The entryway
Our new barstools

Who knew finding barstools is so tough? We had to end up custom ordering ours. Every store we looked at only had the kind with backs on them.

Jason is in Oklahoma and St. Louis until tomorrow night. I head for Oklahoma on Sunday, but the good news is I'll be back in time for Jason's birthday after all. The bad part of that is then I have to drive back to Oklahoma the following Sunday for taking the actual test because we couldn't get them scheduled next week. We broke down and bought a Wii, so we've been staying in a lot. We checked out the twilight festival downtown last week. Jason called it the hippie hoedown. That about sums that experience up.

The deer

This has been a nightly occurence for us. The deer come out around 7ish and Magnus just sits by the back door and watches for them. Magnus just stands there and watches them. They keep an eye on him but they don't let him get in the way of eating in the backyard! They apparently like to come out on garbage night too, as I learned Friday morning. So no morning putting out the garbage until the morning of versus the night before.

More new pictures

Hello! Here are some more new pics for everyone. I am 2 days into my job as a Fire claim rep. So far so good. I'm in training with 5 other people who are all pretty cool. I go to Oklahoma in 2 weeks to get my Oklahoma adjuster's license. Then in October I'm back in Blm for 2 weeks for claims school. Today I started learning how to build a house from the ground up. Pretty interesting but I'm on information overload already! Getting to the office from our house is pretty easy, mostly highway so it doesn't take too long, about the same as it took us in Blm. First interesting experience of Missouri life was getting the cars registered. I had to make 3 stops. First stop was to an office to get a form saying property taxes weren't owed on the cars. You have to pay property taxes on cars here every year. 2nd step was to go get a mandatory state inspection to say the car is not falling apart. That was $12. Then finally to the DMV. And the most exciting part for me was the fact that the plates only costs $25 a year versus the $85 I was used to in Blm. And we can register for 2 years at a time. So that was a fun little savings. Although I'm sure it all equals out after we start paying tax in 2009.


Mags has come to expect daily walks around our neighboorhood and ignores us all night if he doesn't get it.

Jason enjoying an energy drink on the patio, the energy drink doesn't appear to be working huh?
Looking into the kitchen/entryway from the dining table/patio door area.

Jason's favorite part of the bedroom.
Woohoo, haven't killed the flowers yet!

Master bedroom, hopefully blinds to be added soon!
Got my bookcase put together in the scrapbook room. Now just need to get a desk!
Caylea's room
Caylea's room
My first project last week was organizing the closet!

Catching Up...

This post is a little long since it's been awhile. We're all finally getting settled in. I'll post more pics of the house as it comes together, but most rooms are still too messy to put a picture up. But we're getting there! In the meantime I've been brave and tried to plant flowers. Here is what I ended up with. Caylea was a big help. So now the trick is for me to keep them alive!

Caylea and the world's coolest P.E. teacher, Mr. Christian. (on wacky hat day)I think the hardest part of moving was leaving Bent and all the great friends and teachers after five years.

We will miss you Bent!

Caylea and Brandon
4th grade
Caylea's goodbye party at Kevin's.


Caylea and Kevin

The girls
Caylea and Addison Smith
Caylea and Duke, we were hanging out at the Scharton's during our time in the hotel
Shyla and Nicole
Last Friday night we went to see our realtor's son, Clay, who is a singer/songwriter in Nashville. We had a table up on the stage, and Caylea was starstruck. She bought a cd and had him sign it for her. He was very good, we were impressed.

4 more nights

Four more nights of hotel living before Caylea and I finally join Jason in Columbia on Friday. I'm ready to not live out of a suitcase any longer. Caylea and I went to Chicago yesterday for a little shopping. I learned a few things from yesterday....

1. Chicago on a Sunday in May is way better than Chicago any day of the week during November thru February.
2. Do not wear a short sleeve shirt in Chicago in May.
3. You save money on gas and parking by taking the train but you see some VERY interesting characters.
4. The walk from Union Station to Michigan Avenue is long. Even longer once you get to Michigan Ave. and realize the American Girl Store is on the very opposite end. Even longer when you're wearing a short sleeve shirt.

We got to see part of a movie being filmed which was cool. Of course Johnny Depp was nowhere to be found. I got a picture of the old cars they were driving around. Caylea's "boyfriend" threw her a goodbye party on Saturday night. He and his parents went all out and it was very sweet. She had a good time. Does it mean you're getting old when your child is at a party and you realize she has more social activities anymore than you do?

As promised...

My sweet mom's day gifts. A plate for my scrapbook room and a new watch!

Fridge

Ok give me some ideas here Dirk! My mom's day surprise, Caylea jumping out of a box to give me a present.

Living room
There were 5 deer in our backyard Friday night. The neighbor told us this family of 5 are always out. One of them was almost up by our back door just hanging out. Magnus doesn't know what to do. He wants to play with them and it drives him nuts that they are just standing there. He has plenty of windows to watch them out of.
Lisa's first of many visits was this weekend! We put her to work of course helping us mount our tv in the bedroom. : )
Jason's desk upstairs

And now we're heading back to Bloomington leaving Jason to unpack some boxes. We'll be coming down on May 23rd to finally join him permanently!

This weekend....

Caylea and I are headed down to Columbia this weekend. We're gonna drop off the dog and hopefully get some more unpacking done! I will post new pictures this weekend! We're currently doing the hotel living thing. It's not too bad, except there is no outlet in the bathroom. Who doesn't have an outlet in the bathroom!?