Crazy Weather!

In the few weeks we've been here, we have had beautiful weather, sunny and in the 70's, for the most part....until yesterday....we had a blizzard! The news says we got 12 inches of snow, but we actually have close to 20 inches in some areas, like up against the house. This morning when I looked out my bathroom window, the snow was all the way up to the window sill! We played outside in it yesterday for about 30 min, but it was very cold and very windy, so we couldn't stand much more than that. Riley didn't like being out in the snow...between the wind blowing snow in her face and the snow coming up to at least her knees, she spent most of her time standing in the garage watching everyone else! Joslyn enjoyed it but she was cold (we didn't have any snow gear for her to wear). When she came inside, her hands were frozen and she couldn't even feel the heat of the fire on them for awhile. Ben and Taylor had a blast! I sent my time in the garage with Riley and Belle taking pictures :)

Our First Few Weeks

Things are going pretty well for all of us. Ben is enjoying his job. Taylor has made several friends on our road, at church, and at school. She had her first full day of school today. It started out rough with a few tears, but it ended up great. Everyone knows she's the new girl, and everyone is friendly to her. She likes most of her classes, especially Spanish! After being in gym class today, the coach invited her to be on the cross country track team, and they even want her to run with the high school students because she's faster than the kids at her school! She misses her friends from home of course, but she's doing very well here. God answered our prayers! Joslyn knows we live far away from our friends and family, and she says she likes it here, but she'll ask here and there if we can go to Nanny's house or if she can see her friends. She says we can just drive there to see them! Riley doesn't know anything's different :) We have visited several churches that we like so far and will continue to visit before picking one. My job situation is the main thing not going so well. I have a job in OB at the hospital and am set to start in one month working two nights a week. However, I found out that I will have eight weeks of Mon-Fri all day long orientation, which is not good due to the fact that there is no childcare here. I am looking for something else that doesn't require the long orientation, so in the meantime I can use your prayers!

My Birthday

I had a wonderful birthday! Thank you all for your cards, phone calls, and notes on facebook. This was my first year to spend my birthday without my family and friends, and also my first birthday in a long time to not have a Sweet-N-Sassy cake :) Ben and Taylor did their best to make sure I had a great day. They even ordered a cake from the one and only bakery here in town (besides the grocery stores), but it didn't turn out so good. As you can see them in the last picture eating the cake with smiles on their faces, they later told me that they were eating it and thinking about how bad it tasted, but trying to pretend it was good for my sake since I was so excited about it! Needless to say, Ben took it to work the next day.

The Land of Oz

Liberal, KS is the end of the yellow brick road from the movie The Wizard of Oz. The year the movie was made, they built this house to resemble Dorothy's house, and now they use it as a museum and tourist attraction. We toured it while my mother-in-law was in town, and it was pretty neat. In Oct of every year, Liberal has Ozfest, which is a big parade with food and games where the actors from the movie that are still alive all come together for a reunion.

Hand and foot prints of the dwarfs in the movie.

Dorothy's room

Welcome to Kansas!

What a long trip! Taylor, Joslyn, Riley, Belle, Claudia (Ben's mom), and myself headed out on a Friday evening for Liberal, KS. The entire trip, including stops, took 18 hours! Even though it was long, it went very well considering we had a brand new puppy and a 22 month old on board! We made quite a few stops for the puppy to potty (and Taylor, who has a baby's bladder), but she slept otherwise. We barely heard a word out of her or Riley (thank goodness we had plenty of Barney movies, which kept Riley happy)! The trip isn't bad the first time because of the different scenery, but you may not want to drive it a second time. Here's a few pictures of the flat bare land and a picture of the house we are renting. It's very plain, but it looks like most of the other houses in town. We keep reminding ourselves...it's only temporary!

Our New Addition!

This is Belle, the new member of our family. She is a lab mix. We got her at 6 weeks old the week we left for Kansas. Most of you know I'm not a dog person :) and that we've given the last two away, but we figured getting a puppy would be a good distraction for the kids during the transition of moving. The kids love her. Joslyn even enjoys using the pooper scooper in the backyard (Taylor was thrilled for Joslyn to take on this job, since it was origianlly Taylor's responsibility)! Riley initially liked feeding her until Belle realized that Riley's hand tastes as good as the food! Now Riley's favorite words are "No Belle"!

Our Last Days in Cookeville

Thank you to all of our family and friends who made our last days in TN special! We had many going-away gatherings, and we appreciate your thoughtfulness. We will miss you all!