A few houses

Hi all.
Not too much happening these dog-days of Winter. Karl and I are busy working, like most folks. But only 8 weeks of winter left! That's good news. (Then we'll all be talking about the dog-days of summer...) :-)
I thought I might post a few pictures of some houses Karl and I have been looking at. We've been having fun looking and dreaming for quite some time but now that we've talked with a bank, we've finally settled on a loan amount. Likewise, a price range.


This one's cute and on a nice street in Grand Haven.


So cute! A bit small but very nice inside. Again, on a nice street but it's on the corner of a busy street. So...


This one has all hardwood floors throughout, a nice, open kitchen and original wood trim throughout. (I like this one.)


A cute one Karl and I haven't looked through yet.

Karl and I are going house-touring this Saturday. We'll see what we like.
For now, that's about all.

A new post

Every so often you come to the site hoping for a tid bit of new information and how disappointing it is when there hasn't been a new post. So, for those out there...here ya go.

After a VERY frigid cold streak, I think the worst is now over. Today's "balmy" 20 degrees was a relief compared to last week's single digits and below zero wind chills. It'll be nice this week with temps in the 20s and 30s to have the kids go outside for recess. Last week, with four days of indoor recess was near crazy. The kids just don't burn their energy inside like they do outside. Other teachers and I would gather in the lounge and comment on our "escape."

This weekend was a fun time. Karl and I needed to go up to his parents in Ludington and since they have much more snow than Holland, we thought it'd be fun to bring our snowshoes, just in case we had the chance to venture out. Thankfully, Karl and his dad fixed the car Friday night leaving all day Saturday for whatever we wanted to do. Karl's mom wanted to come so we all layered on the clothing, packed up the van and headed to Riverside Park in Scottville for our snowshoe outing. The snow had been falling all night and was continuing to fall throughout the day Saturday. I believe that area received about 1 foot of new snow. Big puffy flakes, too. Very pretty. About two hours later, Kathy, Karl and I made our way back to the van, which was fully covered in snow, with great relief because we were pooped. As the layers fell off, Kathy and I couldn't help but giggle as Karl steamed...literally. His temperature was so hot, steam was rolling off of him. :-)
We had our membership class at Church the next morning so we couldn't stay another night. The weather wasn't getting any better as the day rolled on so we decided to head out while it was still daylight. Good thing, too. It took us an additional 30 minutes to drive home; 2 hours total. The roads weren't great but they weren't awful either. *sigh* Ho hum, so is winter in Michigan. :-)
We did have a bit of sunshine today, though. That was a nice break.

Karl and I are intensifying our endeavor in the house searching process. We've been gingerly looking at houses, mostly just for the fun of looking. Now we're in the midst of talks with a broker. The biggest fact for us, and one that is on our side is that we're in no rush to purchase a house. What a burden to carry, on top of student loan payments. We're taking it slow and I believe that's only going to benefit us in the long run. We have a very sweet and knowledgeable realtor with years of experience. He's not pushy, he's interested in our best interest while offering advice when we seek for it.
We're looking in the Grand Haven area, perhaps even up to Spring Lake but not much further north or south. The choices South become expensive and few while Muskegon isn't the greatest place to live (to say the least). Besides, it would be 50/50 drive for Karl and I. As more develops, more will be shared.

We're heading into the "dog days of Winter" when it becomes frustrating to wear the bulky coats, hats, mittens and gloves. Whip out the board games, we only have about 2.5 months of coldness left (of course, considering we're in Holland).

So for now, have a good week at work.
Hugs.

A Smattering of Family Members

We hope you enjoy these slide shows and pictures of various parties we've gone to and the people we celebrated with. Plus a few miscellaneous. Nothing like a good smattering to update you of our Holiday adventures.
:-)

First, our winter blizzard where we got dumped on...10+ inches of fresh snow fell in one day, trapping us inside until we finally had to venture out.

Yes, that's up to Karl's knees and my poor car hidden in the snow in the background. I wasn't able to get my car out until the next day and even then, my bottom carriage was dragging on the snow.


Our pretty Poinsettia from Kathy.



Then Karl and I had our Cmas Christmas morning. (Pardon the "I just woke up 10 minutes ago" look.)


Later Christmas day, we hosted the Gessner party. Everyone arrived around 12pm, we mingled, ATE, opened presents, mingled, ATE SOME MORE, and around 830pm, people began to leave. I love hosting and it was too much fun to have everyone over. Uncle Dick and Aunt Linda came up, for the second time, from Arizona. THANK YOU SO MUCH for your travels. Grandma Gessner and Barb came. So did our kitty, Murphy and her baby, Cricket (whom mom has adopted).


Then, that Saturday, the 27th, Karl and I had his mother's side, the Breukers, Christmas party. Lots of fun and so much food! The babies are sure growing fast; Logan, Hunter, Baby Darling and Baby Johnston. We have two new babies to lavish with love this year, one due in April and the other late May-early June.


Finally, Karl and I were fortunate to travel safely to Mike and Sandy's for our belated Christmas and New Year's celebration New Year's Eve. Sandy has a new puppy! A Shi Tzu named Lilly. She's only 4 months and a cutie. Kodi didn't quite get into the festivities but managed to pose for a few pictures. :-) Thank you Mike and Sandy for hosting and the presents.


From Mike and Sandy's, Karl and I traveled Northward to Karl's parents in Scottville. Quite a trek as we had dinner with his family and continued home, back to Holland that night. Whew! We're home now, though and looking forward to Brian's side, the Buters, family Christmas party tomorrow. I'm excited because we get to visit with everyone but I also get to play with Aiden and Lara, Karl's second cousins who are the cutest.

So, for now, that's all.
Keep checking. You never know when we'll post next.
LOVE and HAPPY 2009!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy 2009! Today is the first day of 2009, January 1st, and it's hard to believe it's almost done as the clock rounds to 6pm.

Karl and I were fortunate enough to travel safely to Mike and Sandy's for New Year's Eve; watched the ball drop for the first time in quite a few years. For past years I've just gone to bed, unable to stay away that late. We had a wonderful dinner, plenty of *spirits* and games. Scrabble kind of wore my alcohol level down though as it went long. We played Scrabble and Pokeno, which I've never played but was a fun twist between Bingo and Poker.

I'm not home so I can't post holiday party pictures yet but I'll do that soon. Karl and I have traveled from Mike and Sandy's up to Karl's parents in Scottville. I've not experienced it before tonight but Karl's family always celebrates the New Year with a Fondue party. Oh boy! Pizza rolls, Mozzarella sticks, breaded mushrooms, chicken nuggets...all stabbed and then cooked in hot oil. YUMMO! I was a bit hesitant at first but man, it was good. (Thank goodness it's only once a year. I couldn't handle that much grease often.)

Three more days left of vacation...pros and cons. Pros: We'll be back to work soon to earn back holiday spending and back to the routines we've steadily set in place. Cons: We have to go back to work. :-) Where we've spent so many day-light hours together finding new things to do to pass the time now we'll have to find time in the evening (on nights I'm not working at TSC). A two week break is enjoyable, relaxing and refreshing but, in all honesty, it'll be nice to get back to work.

Karl and I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break/season. We hope God blessed you and kept you safe if you did much/any traveling. The weather was a bit hairy at times, not to mention icy roads but was also a bit relieving as it melted back a bit.
Keep coming back to the blog for soon-coming pictures.
~HUGS~