Sunday, December 24, 2006

Catching up...

Rather than rack my brain trying to remember what we did this past week, I will just give you highlights with a couple pictures.
I think that my photography addiction serves a good purpose. I have the most horrible memory of anyone I know, and when I look at my digital photos of the last week I can remember what we did...and since I take pictures of EVERYTHING I can even remember what we ATE! HA!

So here is our week...with pictures:

Last Sunday we drove around town and looked at a few houses for rent. Most looked like dumps on the outside. I was not impressed by ANY of them! The most outrageous one we looked at was a "cabin." Sounds great right? Well we drive out there...off the beaten path. Steep inclines with snow, and no snow tires...not a good mix. Well we arrive at what we believe is the address, and we see before us this TINY shack with walls of plywood! Not kidding! And if this was the correct location of the listing we were looking at, they wanted over $1,000/mo. rent! Ridiculous! Had to laugh at that!
Monday night was kind of a rough night for me. I was anxious about where we would live. After seeing the houses the day before I was very discouraged. See, the Army only allows you 20 days in temporary lodging. That's how many days they will pay for. After that you are on your own. So we had this deadline of January 2nd to find a place to live. The places we looked at didn't meet our standards, and the rent for some places were outrageous! People around here don't really advertise that their house is for sale in the form of signs in the yard etc. I guess with all the snow they don't bother. The listings in the paper weren't too promising. I was very down that night. On the brink of despair...shame on me... I tend to worry so much, and not really trust God to take care of us, like he has SO many times before! David was a little worried...he gave me a bi hug that night and told me to stay strong...and that he needed me...sane...We did build a gingerbread house that night. We found this all-in-one kit at the local grocery store. Very cool. Everything including the icing was in the box. Gwyneth just ate it up! Literally. They finished the last of it last night...

Tuesday evening we finally bundled Gwyneth up and took her out to the playground to play in the snow. The slides were really slick and fast! She loved it. When we first got out there David threw a snowball right in my face! The ONLY part of my skin exposed, and BOY did it burn! It was SO cold! I got pretty mad at him...I mean hit me anywhere else and I would have been fine. I didn't even have soft mittens or a cloth to wipe it off...so I had to go back inside and wipe it off. We've established some snow play rules since then. No throwing snow on exposed skin, especially the face! Here are a couple pictures before we went out. It was too dark to take pictures outside.
That night we finished up our Christmas cards. I'm sure they all arrived late, but we actually sent them out this year! And if you have received yours did you notice the postmark? It should have said "North Pole, Alaska 99705" and had a picture of Santa. Cool huh?

On Tuesday night I was browsing some rental listings online and came across this listing for housing on the post that you can rent. (It is like this secret section of housing...I'm not kidding. The housing office didn't even tell us about it! I called the number listed and the lady I spoke with told me that housing still manages that property, but in May it is being privatized. I told her that the housing office never told us about it...she said "They won't." Oh... sounds weird. It basically came down to walking into the housing office, saying we were there to talk to someone about that area of housing. Talked to the guy, he printed a list of available units, (tons on the list) he told us to go out and scope them out and pick two we were interested in, and come back and tell him. All the while we were in the waiting area, I heard counselors telling other people about housing out in town and about the preferred tenant program, and giving them the bad news that they will have to wait for family housing. They never mentioned the section of housing available for rent...it's just sounds so weird! They definitely do not broadcast that this section is available!
Anyways...we drove by all the listed units, and picked two. One we were really hoping was still available. It is connected to three other houses. In the middle kind of. Good thing in the winter as we won't lose heat from the sides of the house. The back yard is small but has trees that separate us from the other houses. The house is located really close to the ski lodge where we can ski and tube. It is also across the street from a pretty good sized playground.
We went back and told the guy at housing which two we were interested in and he said to come back the next day and he would issue us keys to see the inside of the units.
Wednesday we looked at the inside of the two houses we picked and really liked the one with the trees in the backyard. David went in after lunch and told the guy which one we wanted and started the paperwork for the lease and such.
Thursday both of us signed the lease and got a move in date of December 26th. Our household goods will be delivered the following day. YAY! We found a place to live in less that a week! I am so thankful! Now the stress of unpacking and setting up home will set in on Wednesday! yippee...
Thursday evening we went and checked out a gym for Gwyneth to continue her gymnastics with. She was evaluated (kind of like try-outs) by the owner of the gym and was invited to become a part of their "Hot Shots" team. It's sort of a pre-team...team. She will move from that team to level 3 gymnastics later on.
As long as she enjoys it and wants to continue. It's a little more of a financial and time (3 hours a week, 1.5 hours two days a week) commitment than we are used to, but it is worth it as long as she still finds it enjoyable. She was so excited to become a part of the team, and was disappointed that they don't start working out again until January 10th. :o) It's going to be great for her!

Friday we took our car over to the Honda dealer to get our radio fixed. When David took it to get it winterized the previous weekend they had to disconnect the battery, and doing so made our radio display an error message and it wouldn't let us listen to the radio or play CDs. It has an anti theft device and we didn't have the code to reset it. It's in our shipment of household goods. Ugh! They fixed it though! Yay! We got pizza (it was after all "Pizza Night.") from a local pizzeria. Really good pizza. Far better than Boston's from last week!

Saturday we had to pick up some more bottled water from Sam's club and picked up paper towels and toilet paper for the new house. Then it was off to Walmart to round out our shopping trip with new cleaning supplies to give our new house a good cleaning prior to us moving in, and picking up new bedding for Gwyneth's new room, and all the needed items for the full bathroom we have gained with this rental. It will be Gwyneth's bathroom, so we went with a flower theme. David isn't crazy about it...he would have rather outfitted it in the fishing theme! Complete with a soap dish that resembled a tackle box! HA!

Today we went and attended a church in town. It was nice. The service was a little different as it was Christmas Eve. Gwyneth stayed in the service with us. She was a little antsy, but all in all, she did pretty well. I think we'll go back and see how their normal worship services go. They offer AWANA there. Gwyneth can resume SPARKS! It's on Tuesday evenings which is really convenient since she will have gymnastics on Wednesday evenings (the night AWANA typically happens.)
In a few minutes we are going over to David's new boss' house for Christmas dinner. They have two children. A boy in middle school and a girl in elementary, I am hoping Gwyneth and her are close enough in age to enjoy one another's company.

That catches you all up! If you read that in one sitting you get a big pat on the back from me! Hopefully I can keep up now, and not fall behind on the goings ons here!
Have a great Christmas Eve!

2 comments:

  1. Well, I guess I get a pat on the back...I read the whole thing in one sitting! Ha, ha! I am so glad things worked out for you to get into a house and that worry be taken care of. The cleaning and moving in, though a big project, are things I'm sure you can handle with flying colors. You should be pros at it by now!!! Thank you so much for the pictures...keep them coming. This has certainly been the most unique Christmas your mom and I have had, ever. It's just the two of us. Certainly something we are not use to and hopefully something that won't be a repeat in the future. I love and miss you very much. Pass our love on to David and Gwenyth. You are always in my heart and prayers.

    Love,
    Dad

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  2. hey there! glad to hear you are getting all settled in! i'm sure that finding a house was a big relief!! you'll have to post some pictures of it when you're all set up. :) i think about you guys often. i'm looking forward to seeing some scenic and wildlife photos when you get more time. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

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