I'm signing up for remedial blogging classes

This past weekend I was thoroughly chastened for my lack of committment to my blog. I have been adequately humbled in my shortcomings, blah, blah, blah. I know, you've heard it all before. However, since my parents have decided to uproot yet again (aparently at the most mercurial phase in our lives, we, as their children, are expected to provide our own sense of stability), I am forced to turn to my witty literary skills to keep them updated.

So, updates:

William was offered a job with the Wheatland Police Department and will begin the second week of May. We are so excited about this opportunity, and we really like the community. Of course, we thought it was going to be absolutely perfect because it's only an hour away from here, where we believed my parents were still going to be located... Silly me, thinking they would like to keep things simple.

We have decided to buy a house in Wheatland... a BEAUTIFUL house! It's an old home, built in 1923, with a LOT of charm. We are going to do some work, but most everything we want done is cosmetic. We plan to refinish the floors, do lots of painting, and spruce up the kitchen. We also want to redo the bathroom (we're putting in a claw foot tub we got at a KILLER price, and a seperate shower since it doesn't have one), and we're going to finish the basement. The two rooms in the basement are finished, but the main area (which will be our family room) isn't. We also want to put up a fence around the front yard, since we are getting a dog as soon as I feel settled enough to take on that task! We'll definitely have a busy summer, but we're excited!

Front of our house. It's on a corner lot only 2 blocks from the PD!!!

My beautiful, sunny kitchen! The countertops are going to be replaced (we're doing it ourselves!), but I can't decide about the yellow. BTW- the wall is NOT lavendar as it appears here!

This is looking at the front door from the dining room. The kitchen is behind you. Again, the coloring is WAY off in the picture... the walls are actually light green, not pink!

The dining room, and looking into the kitchen (the front door is behind you). As you can see, there's LOTS of space. The house is HUGE (over 2900 sq. ft.)! The 2 upstairs bedrooms are located off to the right from here, as well as a bathroom. Downstairs has 2 more bedrooms, a 3/4 bath, a laundry room, and a large walk-in storage closet.

I will take "before" pics as well as "after" pics for each project that we do so you can see our vision coming to life! We will be in this house for at least 3 years (have to stay for 3 for the tax credit), at which point we will re-evaluate. We would like to be able to move out of town, so we'll see if it's reasonable to do at that time. We've looked at similar homes in the area that have been fixed up the way we plan to do, and I think we'll be able to make quite a proffit when we do decide to sell. Of course, I plan to be as frugal as possible in our updates, which will make our return even bigger!

Hopefully, that was enough of an update! Things are going to be hectic with the move and the job change, I know, but I will try to continue to post regularly, even through all of that. Of course, you, my adoring fans, deserve more posts, but my new found determination stems from a desire to keep my dad informed while he is in Afghanistan. It's been such a blessing to have my parents right here this past year. I was so confused about the way things turned out when we left the Air Force, why the job we wanted didn't work out. But this past year has been the greatest gift I could have been blessed with. It gave us a moment of cohesion and stability during a very difficult transition before we all split in different directions again. I am so proud of my dad for being willing to go when he feels the call, and I'm proud of my mom for being the strong, steadfast woman he needs. It will most definitely be rough, but we'll be alright.