House Hunting Complete!

We bought a house!!! We will actually be investing our money into something that will be ours free and clear someday. It feels good to be an investor. I highly recommend it. The only scary/sad element is that we are so far away from civilization and life as we knew it and loved it for almost 6 years (longer for me). I thought I would show off our new house in lou of my excitement... Here she is. It's hard to hold back the tears.

We'll have to spruce the back up a smidge...vines?

This is the view from our backyard, or sideyard. Not sure. Our realtor took these for us.

I think there is a Pampered Chef/Open House party in my house's future...for sure!!!

Grandma's Birthday!!!

A few weeks ago, my family got together to celebrate my Grandma's 78th birthday. Some family members were in town that we don't usually see much of and it was so nice to spend some time with them. As you can see, we have a large family, but as most of you don't know...there are 12 people missing from this photo. TWELVE! They were otherwise engaged...BUMS! So if you do the math, that means there are 43 of us all together: 1 grandma, 4 kids and their spouses, 16 grandchildren (9 of whom are married), and 9 great-grand children=43 + 1 on the way.

We had so much fun together. My grandma performed some of our family's best known poems, and we ate until "unbuttoning your pants" capacity. The best part: I managed to come away un-ill. The last 2 times a Willis or Blair family gathering occurred, I became deathly ill. WHAT!!!

The next photos are of me and my sister, my grandma and my mom. Do we look related, cuz I'm not sure? I think I look like my mom, but most people tell me I'm the spitting image of my dad.

This is my friend Storey. That's right...her parents named her after the simile for book. I would have gone with Haiku or Limerick...maybe even Prose, but it's not my kid. Isn't she cute though? Her parents say she loves to make faces. This is one of her more unique faces. Her future has Comedian written all over it...or Librarian. Get it...Storey. Hee-hee.