Heart of the Home

It seems like almost a year ago that we picked out our wood burning stove for our home.  It has been placed on a "back burner" (pun intended) until we had taken care of the more necessary items in the household budget; i.e., toilet paper holders, closet shelves and clothes rods, etc, etc.  Mark ordered it weeks ago, and we finally got it installed last Friday (just in time for cold weather!).  We love it because it has a smaller footprint than many other the other stoves we looked at, as well as the glass door which is SUPPOSED to stay clean so we can watch the fire inside (I'll let you know how that works out...).  Mark was here for the installation, but he said he had to take the dogs for a walk when the guy started cutting the hole in the roof!  It makes our living room feel much more complete now that it is in place.  One more item taken care of!

New Member of the Family!!

Somehow I realized this week that I haven't even blogged about the biggest news...Austin and Megan have gotten married! They did the courthouse thing on Monday, September 13th. They did let us know ahead of time that this was their intention and their plan. While I would have rather been there, it is their choice, not mine, and I respect their wishes. I think Megan is wonderful and I'm excited for the both of them! Austin is still waiting on his discharge papers from the Army, but should begin leave just about any day now which will last until November, when he will be officially through with the Army. I can't express how happy I have been about that, this has not bee a fun phase of Austin's life. I am thankful he made it through a tour in Iraq with no physical or mental scars, but would much rather he had never had to do that type of thing at all.

Until Austin is free and clear from the Army they aren't making any long range plans.  Austin has a part time job with Fayetteville Tech helping to administer Paramedic certification testing, and Megan is working as a chef for Chili's. 

We wish them all the best and can't wait to see them again!  Here's a picture I took of the two of them in Disney World last December.  I definitely need some updated photos!

New Ride

Mark is sporting a new drive these days!  Once we finally got the mortgage finalized for the house, the new car was next on his agenda.  Driving the truck back and forth to St. Louis every day wasn't the cheapest way of travel.  Mark elected to get a basic model 2009 Toyota Corolla, shown below.  We figured out that the better gas mileage would pay for most of the car payment, and this new car wasn't going to cost him out of pocket very much each month.  We elected to keep the truck, since we'll need a "farm truck" for hauling things around.  It will have a long life around here, I'm sure!