Sadness and a Snow Day

Please keep a friend of mine in your prayers. Becky, with whom I teach, lost her baby yesterday morning. Needless to say, this isn't going to be an easy time for her or her husband, Jimmy, and they will need all of our prayers to help them through this impossibly tough time.

We had our first snow day today. It started with a two-hour delay, and both Lisa and I reported to school to prepare for the kids' arrival two hours late. My drive to school is only ten minutes, but Lisa's is about twenty-five minutes, and she'd already driven out there, only to find out five minutes after she'd arrived that the county had closed school. We're hoping for another snow day tomorrow.

We got our Tennessee drivers' licenses today. Hey, it only took six months, right? We wanted to live in Williamson County before we got our licenses and registration changed over (we were in Maury County before...we're snobs, I guess). Both of our pictures look pretty good, I must say!

Everything's going well with our new home. Though moving day was two weeks ago, we didn't take everything, only the big items. We've been working hard to get everything else moved out, and finally got everything moved over to the house last night. I went over today and vacuumed (with our new Dyson...I love it!!!), and turned in our keys. It was our first home for our new life in Tennessee, but I can't say I'm going to miss it. I'm glad to be in our own house, which we absolutely love (slideshows coming)!

Lisa started her Masters courses tonight. It's going to be somewhat grueling for the next year, but she's strong and I know that she's going to do great. I drove out here tonight, and am relaxing in Lipscomb's library, reading, playing on the computer, and honestly enjoying myself. But now I'm getting hungry, so I'm going to stop now. To all of our friends and family in Michigan, please be careful out there, dress warmly, and be safe! We love you all!

Mouse Poop

The day after we took possession of the house, we came over and started doing some work on it. We pulled out the stove, and there were all sorts of little brown objects behind it. I had to look behind the stove all over for a hole, because though I'd never seen it before, Lisa said it looked exactly like mouse poop. I was getting ready to call the previous owner and ask him what he did about the mouse problem in the house, when I looked a little more closely. Mixed in with the mousey mess were little multi-colored beads, which were ice cream sprinkles. It turned out, the "mouse poop" was just chocolate jimmies. So...no mouse problems! Yay for us! :-)

Monopoly, Closing, and Other Stuff

Steve, Tanya, Steven, and Sarah (our brother-in-law, sister, nephew, and niece) got us the Monopoly Electronic Banking edition for Christmas and so far, Lisa and I have played two games...she beat me both times (quite handily, I should add). It's so much fun, and the debit cards are much easier to use than the money. I'm tired of losing, though. I may challenge her again really soon, probably only to be destroyed again. I'll let you know!

We got some great news on the house: we can close early! Our original closing date was January 24, but the previous owners moved to their new house last Saturday, so we're closing on Wednesday, January 16! We are so excited, and can't wait to get the paperwork done and move in. Although we're probably not going to begin living there until Saturday, we're going to get a pizza, take a game, and sit in front of the fire while we play and eat on Wednesday night. We need to hire someone to build a fence around the backyard, and then Grace will have what she's always wanted (well, what we've wanted for her, anyway): her very own soccer field in back! I know our friends and family outside of Nashville won't be able to come, but I hope to have a housewarming party in the near future. We're having a moving party on Saturday, and thank you to all of our friends who are going to be helping us out! It's going to be a blast!

We sold the rest of our CDs on eBay this past week, and now we have none in our home. We got an iPod a few months ago, so once we put all of our music on it, we weren't really using the CDs at all. Therefore, we started putting various lots online, hoping to make a little bit of money. The first two lots we put on made almost $300, so that paid for our iPod and more. This last lot that ended yesterday made $250!!! Just another blessing for us! That one paid for my Nano, is the way I'm looking at it.

If anyone wants to send any mail to us, you can start sending it to our new address! If you don't already have it, shoot me an e-mail and I'll shoot our address right back. Love you all!

Coolest Technology

Lisa got me the Apple Nike+ iPod Sport Package for Christmas, and it is so awesome! What you do is, you put a special chip in your shoe (in my case, in a little pouch that ties into my shoe), and plug the receiver into my iPod Nano. Then, as I'm running or walking, it keeps track of the distance I've gone, my speed, how many miles/hour I'm going, and how many calories I've burned. There's even a little voice that talks to me to motivate me and let me know all of this information.

When I first looked at it in the store, I thought it was just an expensive pedometer, but it's so not that. (It only costs around $30.) For those of you unfamiliar with it, it gives you exactly the same kind of information that a treadmill does, so I would say it's a very inexpensive treadmill. That's my technology plug for the day. Thanks, honey, for such an awesome gift!

(If you're wondering, during my first use last night, I walked 3.1 miles last night and burned 606 calories.)