Our house... is a very very very fine house... with two cats in the yard... life used to be so hard.....

Big news: it's officially official! We got the mortgage so we have the house! I think I said last time that I would post pictures once we know for sure, so I am including a link here http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=90famtq.b2myhcqm&x=0&y=9zh75s However, it is important to note that John took these pictures during the inspection, and many of the pictures are not of the house itself but of the furniture of the people who currently live there. Bless. Once we move in I will take pictures of the rooms. The bare rooms with no furniture. Because we don't have furniture. We tried to sort that out this weekend and were quite pleased with how far we got. We got a nice sectional sofa with a chaise lounger as the extra piece if that makes any sense. Also we got a mattress. That was quite funny actually because we are sleeping in a full sized bed right now (also called a double, although I am at a loss as to what it is called in England. It's the size of the bed we had in our guest room in England if that helps), and it is much smaller than what we are used to and neither of us sleeps very well in it. So shopping for mattresses consisted of one of us laying there while the other bounced around to see how much you felt of the other person. Not that we are such inconsiderate sleepers as to bounce around while the other is sleeping, but in such close quarters as we currently have, when one of us turns in the night or heaven forbid gets in and out of bed in the night it is likely to wake the other. In addition to the couch and mattess we also got some bedroom furniture -- the frame for the bed and a matching wardrobe, dresser, and mirror.

For those of you who have been shopping with me, you know that I do not typically have loads of stamina for it. So I order you to be impressed with the fact that our shopping day on Saturday started at 10 am and didn't finish until after 4 pm. Be impressed. DO IT.

Friday night John and I went on a 'ghost walk' through Zionsville (the town we live in). We thought it would be a little tour through the town with scary stories of people who had gone crazy and caused terrible tragedy, resulting in their bodiless souls roaming streets and houses for eternity. But apparently Zionsville is a fairly happy place without tragedy, so instead the walk consisted of coming upon several little skits throughout the town where community actors played out true historical stories the museum had dug up in their archives. It was very sweet and very nicely done, but of course not the scary, ghostly stories I had my sights set on. If anyone has any ghost stories they would like to pass on, please send them my way. I always have time for a good ghost story.

Saturday night, after all the shopping I mentioned before, John and I met Dusty and Tami for dinner (my brother and sister-in-law). They had dropped the boys at my mom's so it was just the four of us. It was the first time I can remember us doing that, and it was really great to catch up with them. Afterwards we went to mom's to see them and the boys for a little while. They keep getting cuter, our nephews.

Sunday morning started with a web chat to Madeline and Michelle. It took some time to get working, but once we got it sorted out we could talk to them on the internet while seeing them as well. It was so great! Being able to see who you're talking to really adds a lot and makes them feel not so far away.

The only other thing we did yesterday was go to the Colts' game. It was really good, we had 50 yard line seats way at the top. The Colts' stomped the Redskins butts.

Oh yeah, and in addition to the mortgage going through there was another great thing that happened last week. It's kind of almost official now that I am going to get to go home on Thursdays now! Woo hoo! The contract still isn't signed that says the schedule can change, but apparently they are through with negotiating that part and it's a fairly done deal. So that should start next week and I am sooooooo happy about that. It really will make this job really good. I like the type of work a lot, and I feel really well placed in this role. It's just the travel which is the hardest part (as I knew it would be). So having more nights at home than on the road will get me back to what I originally signed up for when I accepted the job, and it will just make my personal life a lot more manageable.