This n' That

As promised, I said I would post some pictures of our house. I'm only going to post a few because I already added some to Facebook. It's actually Mason's Aunt's house, but she has graciously been letting us live here. For those of you who saw the house in the beginning stages of remodeling, it was definitely a scary sight. A large tree had fallen down in front of the house, so not only was the house a disaster, but so was the yard. Mason spent a lot of time cleaning up both the yard and the house (I helped a little), along with his dad and a few of his friends. Shockingly, there was enough junk left in the house to fill a 40-yard dumpster! To put it nicely, when Mason told me he planned to move into the house I smiled and gave words of encouragement, but secretly thought he was half crazy for even considering it. That's how bad it was. It has come a long way, and it actually feels quite cozy now. Even though I don't want to live in Edgar Springs forever, it's a good starting point.

This is our bedroom. There is also a VERY tiny closet to the right of the nightstand.

This is looking at the back of the living room from the kitchen. There is another full size couch to the left, and the front door is on the right side.

This is a view of our kitchen from the bathroom door. The living room is directly to the right, and our laundry room is that door straight ahead. It's kind of scary in there right now so I chose not to take pictures. It's purpose is laundry/Mason's closet/wedding storage/dog sleeping area so it's slightly messy at the moment! :)

This view is from the center of the kitchen looking toward the bathroom door (it's the one that's open). The door opening to the left goes to the living room, and the closed one directly ahead is our pantry.

And last but not least, here's our bathroom. The door and toilet are to the left, and you can see where the shower is from the reflection in the mirror. When the fire first happened, I had absolutely no desire to decorate anything because I had literally just finished decorating my apartment the weekend before it burnt down. But, I've picked up a few things here and there and have gotten a few things from people, and it's starting to look like a nice little home! :)

School started up again last week, and I have to say that it was the Longest. Week. Ever. The sad thing is, we only had four full days with the kids because we had a work day on Monday. Having the luxury of sitting around for two full weeks definitely made it challenging to go back, but it was nice to see the kids and all of my coworkers again! Speaking of school, Mason made the Dean's list last semester! He is very excited, and I'm very proud of him as well! He is taking the Para-Praxis test this Saturday so hopefully he will pass and be able to get a position as a paraprofessional in one of the schools nearby this fall. He will be a great teacher someday, so hopefully this will be a stepping stone in the right direction! Unfortunately, this means we will not be able to go to Illinois like we originally planned. :( My Aunt Sara (and her husband Eric) had baby number two, Parker Steffen Shook, at the end of December, and his baptism is scheduled for this weekend. Since I clearly didn't plan ahead very well, we had to back out because I didn't really plan on making the trip on my own.

This past weekend I spent some time with a couple of my girlfriends who I haven't seen in awhile. The day was complete with a lot of not-so-good food and a chick flick (The Backup Plan). It was very relaxing, and it was great to see them! After that, I met Mason down at the river where many of his family and friends congregate to go gigging, boating, fishing, and in general, just hang out. Since it's gigging season, we got all bundled up (I now own Carhartt bibs, a coat, hat, and a nice pair of Muck boots) and hopped in the boat. For those of you who don't know what gigging is, you take a jet boat that has lights on the front that look down into the water so you can see the fish. Up on the front of the boat is a rail where the people gigging stand with their gig. While the boat is moving you take the 16 foot gig that has a trident-like spear on the end, and attempt to stab the moving fish. As if that isn't difficult enough, you also have to take into consideration that it is extremely cold and your fingers are like ice the majority of the time. Having said all that, I finally gigged my very first fish! I've been gigging a couple of times, but was not very successful. It's definitely a sport that takes a lot of practice, but I'm hopeful that I'll get better! Poor fish..

Other than that, we haven't been up to too much. We have started meeting on a more regular basis with the deacon who will be performing our wedding ceremony. We both really like him a lot. Mason actually graduated with one of his sons, and since we have the opportunity to get to know him more, I think it'll make our ceremony a little more personal. Last week we met with him at a local micro-brewery that just opened in Rolla called the Public House. His daughter and son-in-law just opened it, and since Tom (our deacon) has been helping them out a lot, he asked if we would be okay about meeting there. It's a really classy place with a unique atmosphere. We are looking forward to meeting with him again this week. We have our readings all picked out, so it's nice to see that things are starting to come together. It's easier to imagine what our ceremony will be like now, and it makes it even more exciting! In fact, we just got our invitations today too! Nothing fancy, but they will do the job. Now I just have to figure out how in the world to tie the ribbon without it looking silly! Haha If anyone has any pointers let me know!

So far, 2011 has been pretty uneventful, which I'm happy about. Last year there was a little too much excitement, and not in a good way! Well, Mason is attempting to fix our Direct TV (he messed it up the other day..), so I'm going to go see if I can be anymore successful!