House Hunting

Oh boy oh boy. Is this a headache or what?! We are doing the best we can looking for an apartment of some sort to live in after we get married. Travis will move in before JMU starts in January and I'll join him after our wedding. Originally we'd wanted to find a place in Staunton but we are finding Harrisonburg a little more successful. Staunton is between Harrisonburg and BV so the commute will be shorter for me to school for a month (than living in Harrisonburg) starting in March but will be a pain for Travis. It really doesn't make sense to live in Staunton and have both of us be "commuters" so it is looking like that will be my job... It won't be easy but it will be fun. This past weekend we looked around in Harrisonburg and we had a good time. Found a place we know we don't like, drove past a couple complexes that could work, and toured our dream house. The picture above is of a place that is three levels. Each level is set up to be a separate apartment. There is nothing wrong per se but... it was pretty dingy. That was interesting.

I got to see the hospital that I will most likely become very well acquainted with if I get into the JMU program (cross your fingers and pray for me!!)

Its brand new and beautiful inside. I could TOTALLY see myself working there- its gorgeous. We ate the lunch that I'd packed and made our way over to the mall. Travis picked out the wedding band he wants (it about 3 seconds, its so easy to please this guy)- it was nice to see him so excited. After that we got to go to this really nice house in Staunton. We could rent the basement at a fixed price but if we decided to rent the two upstairs levels we could be the ones to rent out the basement... yadda yadda. It sounds well and good but we decided no matter how much we like the granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances, and massive master bedroom we just don't want that much responsibility right now. We don't want to be in charge if the downstairs tenants are dummies and don't pay rent. So, although we are IN LOVE with the place we've decided its better to start small. We are looking on craigslist now for options but if anyone has ideas we are open to those.

We had a really fun time together. It is getting closer and closer to the start of our eternity and we couldn't be happier. Thanks to those of you who support and love us.
-Anna

Weekend with J&S

Lindsay and Kris went to New York for the weekend and they left the kiddos with me!! We had a great time going to Chuck E Cheese, McDonalds, Woodson's last football game of the season (just me and Josh), helping in the garden, making pancakes, going to church, dancing, and mostly hanging out. The kids were very well behaved the whole time. It was sad to have them go.

Sophie's Birthday Party

I can hardly believe it- little Soph turned two last month. She had a family birthday party and was so well behaved during the whole thing. She got more presents than most entire families give on Christmas but she was very thankful for such a little kid. Soph now has more dresses than she will ever be able to wear, baby dolls and accessories, books, dress up clothes.... if you think of it I bet she got it.

 Readin the cards with Dad

 This is not a drill- she put on as much as she could when she opened presents

 Sophie and Grandpa

In one of her new dresses kissing her baby- who got a matching dress

Singing Happy Birthday

Sophie seemed to have a good time and so did we. I'm glad I was able to come up from school to be there, that Travis didn't have to work, and that the rest of the family could make time. Lindsay made a lot of great food and put a good amount of work into the day- thanks Spivey family.