Monday, November 26, 2007

Aly and Josh Visit the U.S.

Alyssa and Josh arrived from London on 11/16/07. Alyssa had his whole week planned before all the seriousness of school restarted. First on the list was going to see the Greenbay Packers kick butt on the 18th. Then off to the Kalahari for indoor water park relaxation! We had a wonderful time getting to know Josh and hope he comes back often for visits!




They returned in time to spend a day in Chicago - visit Alyssa's friends and have 2 Thanksgiving dinners. They left on Saturday 11/24/07 - a return to London. After a very stressful Sunday in London, Alyssa is returning home. We don't know yet if she will return to school in London - her transcripts are still being reviewed. It will be harder for her to interview with the Universities from this side of the pond. But that is how life is. I pick her up tonight. Personally, I think the University in Leiden is way cool - now to convince her to learn Dutch! We are packing and getting ready for the move to East Troy.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

New Beginnings

Wow, time has really passed since my last blog. I won't bore you all with the details of the trials and tribulations of what has gone on. I prefer to focus on all the positive things that have happened since September and there have been some. We are moving! Alan is happy. He is finally leaving Illinois and getting to go home to Wisconsin - his dream for the last 20 years. We didn't get to our Jimmy Buffet concert in Vegas and donated our Tickets to the armed forces in Las Vegas. Sometimes life just hands you lemons, but we are hopeful they were enjoyed by our hardworking soldiers. We'll just have to celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary in style! (The Golden Nugget was very gracious to us and we plan to go there next year!).

Now for the news and pics. Alan accepted his dream job in East Troy - just 43 miles from where we live now, but it still means a move. We were able to finally find a house. I didn't think it was possible, but we found a house even smaller than the one we live in now. I think when we finish the basement it will be okay, but I am still very worried. This is the house we made an offer on. It was built in 1997 and is a ranch. We actually looked for houses that could work well for the dog. Go Figure. I don't think he will make it through next year. His back end keeps collapsing. We are quite concerned. But I digress. Anyway: It has a large double deck: From the house it is wonderful. It has a very large yard. The side yard almost looks like another lot. We can add on to the house or just move in later years when his pension kicks in. Depends on what we want to do. There are still no trees in the neighborhood. We loved the houses in the center of town - they just needed too much work - and Alan is soooo not handy and neither am I, plus being on some restriction for moving things well, it just wasn't going to work. So we're going to move him in with maybe the basement furniture, move the basement furniture downstairs (even though it is unfinished) when we sell or rent the house in Illinois and go on from there.

The Kitchen is nice. There is plenty of room to add a breakfast bar and cabinets. In the future, I would probably add ceramic tile to the kitchen floor. The only downside - MOM - it has an electric stove. Another change for me - (can you say Take Out!). It has an open concept to the dining area and Living Room. The Realtor mentioned hanging overhead cabinets as the ceiling is really high there, so it would still be open, but I didn't like that idea. So I like the breakfast bar idea better. We'll see. Plenty of room for an island.

The Living Room runs together with the dining room (like we have now). Then down the hallway to the bedrooms - with the staircase going down to the basement.

I didn't get a good picture of the master bedroom, but they had 2 other bedrooms. One was painted a bright lime green with Winnie-The-Pooh Wall Paper Border and the other a very nice muted paint tone. The green room we will save for future grandbabies or repaint if Alyssa decides to move home. She is home this week with Josh from London. I am already dreading her leaving. Well, I will try to post more later. Happy Thanksgiving all. I am very Thankful for the many Blessings that have been given to me.