A new addition to the family

This is our newest addition. He is Jasper, a 2 month old black. He is a lap cat already, and if he even thinks you are going to pet him, he starts purrrrring!

We adopted this sweety from a friend - that is her little girl in the picture, pushing him around in the baby stroller. No doubt we will have funny stories about our 2 kitties to share!

Final moving update and some fun

First, we need to thank everyone for their prayers. The support of family and friends has helped us all enormously through this time which has been mixed with happiness, sorrow, sweat, anxiety, and finally enjoyment.

Closing went smoothly on both houses, and we were able to unload the truck and move boxes in on July 1 (note to self - new home anniversary date). I was/am still working 12-14 hour days so Mike has handled the lion's share of the unpacking and organizing, and entertaining Holley. He is simply amazing. We are far from settled, but have about 1/2 of what we brought organized now. The rest is mostly office/stamping and misc. things that require frequent dusting. That can wait!

Still have a full storage unit in KS that we need to bring down. I honestly do not know where it will all go. While this house is large, we lost a considerable amount of storage space (no basement) and my office. Better start thinking about another garage sale. I also don't know how we will get it down here - we need a large covered trailer... so please pray for that too.

Holley is adjusting well, though she is bored most of the time, waiting for school to start in 6 weeks. There is a great "solar heated" swimming pool 2 blocks away and she is becoming a frequent visitor. There are also a few kids nearby that she has met, mostly younger, and many more we still have not yet met.

We are still visitors at the church I mentioned previously and will visit a new SS class today. Then back to work. But we have had have some fun - joined the children's museum which is large and always has something new. On our last visit, we watched a magic show put on by one of the local High School kids. Everything about it said "Bryce" and it was really cute (although I think Bryce is a better magician!)

And finally, we went to the mall to explore and Holley got to bunjee!

Oh Deer!

Every day we discover something new about our surroundings. Friday it was deer. Our neighborhood is heavily wooded, so as you might expect, there are a variety of critters. Most are small and scamper away if they catch you watching, so in the interest of amusement, we put a sqirrel feeder on a tree in our front yard. (Yes, I actually said tree in the front yard, something which was nearly foreign in our previous home.)

The first time that treat dissappeared entirely, overnight. Wow, hungry squirrels. The second time I caught the culprit. A button-buck, maybe 2 years old with 3 of his friends. They ate the corn tight off the cob until it was loose enough to knock the whole thing off. The 4 of them were quite casual about being here and at least one of them is brave enough to venture closer to the house to see if we are growing any tasty flowers.

Well, we aren't, at least not yet, and maybe we won't now... but it was really fun to watch them. The pictures are not great - it was about 8 pm so I had to lighten them, and also have a shaky hand, but you get the idea.