Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Fall Festivities

Tonight was our community group fall party & pumpkin carving contest.

We attended as a cowgirl, and a nerd. I hope you can guess who was which. I have to say that my hubby is a VERY convincing nerd! ;) It did seem a bit too natural! We joked that if he had arrived to pick me up at the airport in this getup when we first met, it would've been a very awkward evening!!! We actually won the costume contest....but I'm pretty sure that it was Truman that swayed the judges vote! (I had to add the up-close picture so ya'll could fully appreciate some of the little nerdy touches.) I'm pretty impressed that we (well, mostly me) cooked up costumes from our extremely limited suitcase collection of belongings! I was sad however that my cowgirl boots were in storage!!

(Be sure to note my crazy nephew in the background of the picture! Tomorrow night, we'll be passing out candy while he & his brother head out to collect their share!)

Monday, October 29, 2007

New Beginnings & The Quest for a Home

Sometimes the best of intentions never quite make it to reality. Like my blog, for example. After moving to Colorado, I decided to start blogging, and even set up a blog for myself. That was two years ago. There is something daunting about a first blog entry. That blog had exactly zero entries. Not a single one. I’ve decided that it’s time for a new blog. This time, I’m actually going to blog. Really. With friends and family spread across the U.S. and starting a new phase in life, in a new city, I think this really will be a great way to share updates about my life & ministry. I expect this page to be under construction in the weeks to come as I make every effort to make the design more interesting & more me.
Disclaimer: While I would love for you to check in regularly, remember, low expectations! Don’t expect my blog to be the most interesting, humorous, or even insightful blog you read. You’ll probably be disappointed! You can expect it to be real, random, genuine, creative and very Amber.

Many of our friends & family have been asking if we are all settled in. The answer is, not yet. Though I currently own a home, I can’t live in it. The little home that we now own (inherited by me when I married my sweet husband) currently has a lot of potential, but not a whole lot else….except for what we hope was a “formerly” healthy population of fleas, rats & probably a myriad of other pests that were a gift from the 4 guys who rented our house for the last year while Truman was living in New Orleans. They were living in my home instead. A few of them have been fighting eviction, but most have moved on after a visit from our neighborhood Terminix man. Our original plan to deal with the teal tile in the bathroom and the sink that is no longer attached to the wall, the scary “pantry” in the kitchen that has a hole to the outside, the 1946 cabinets that are without form or function, and a few other problem areas that I will refrain from listing, was an extensive renovation. However, after meeting with the contractor and weighing our options, we decided that our little home was going to require more investment than we have the time or ability to put in at this point in our lives. And so, we moved on to plan B…..the property search.

I am thrilled to say that within weeks, we had found “our” first home & were under contract, had accepted a full price offer on our current house (just a few days after we listed it!), and were well on our way to finally having a home to settle into! We are scheduled to close on our new house on Nov. 15th! It is pretty much move-in ready, and let me tell you, we are ready to move in! I’m going to save the interior pictures for after we move in when there are some furnishings inhabiting the large and very bare space. But until then, I will share a couple of the front and the big backyard I’m excited to relax & entertain in. The front could definitely use a little oomph in the curb appeal department, but we’ll work on that as a part of the list of changes to come! All that I will say, is that the inside is so much better than the outside hints at....