seven

Hello again :)

No. 1 comment to make....I LOVE that it is autumn now & that I can decorate for it! I love this time of year!

We've been busy the past couple weeks! Matthew had his 25th Birthday on the 20th. I took off work to spend time with him b/c I've been working Saturdays since August. I took them on at 1st to make sure I was getting enough hours at Dreams....but now I'm overloaded with hours and I need a bit of a break - like a real weekend! So I worked Sept. out with a co-worker and as of the end of this month, I will only rarely work Saturdays to help out here and there.

So, we relaxed all that weekend & just spent time being together. As part of Matthew's gift, we bought concert tickets for the Matt Nathanson show in Indy on the 28th. We had lunch and spent the day in the city with his mom, john, and nate - afterwards we went to our friend, jenny's, place and then to the show. It was good to hang out with some of the family & to see jenny. We got home laaaaate and Mattie took the whole day off Monday to re-coup and get some stuff done. I had to work, but not too early or anything.

We still haven't decided what to do about our half of a tree. Does anyone know anything about "treating" a tree to help it grow again? Is it even worth it with a bradford pear tree ?

We will be spending the next couple weeks visiting with out of town family & friends (harvest homecoming is coming up) who will be in and out of town. We will also be getting the house in shape for sort of an open house/family gathering here. Its going to be kind of different b/c of this having been my Nenaw's home before us...I haven't been really feeling the whole biiiig housewarming party thing...its just too, I dunno, strange feeling? Or maybe it feels like it would be too hard for my mom and uncles. Maybe I'm so uncomfortable with the idea b/c it would be too hard for me too? I guess her being gone still feels just so recent. The last time we were all here together...it was to clean out her things. blah. Anyway...So, we are doing the open house more like a "this is what we're doing with the place" for the Smith side of our family. All are welcome, of course, it just won't be like your traditional housewarming party.



Ok...so this is long enough. Once we get some decorating done, I'll post more photos!

Peace, Jess

six - "the wind"

Sunday began beautifully, with gusty winds and cool air. Matthew and I were enjoying the breezy weather...that is...until the wind turned on us all here in the Louisville area. The news anchors keep calling them "Sunday's storms" or "the storms"...but the truth is it never really stormed at all and it barely even rained. It was cool out, cloudy, and wind ripped through our area - can that be defined as a storm? A wind storm, I guess? ...moving on....
Matthew and I were EXTREMELY well taken care of through all the damaging winds. One of our trees fell squarely between our home and our neighbor's - with no harm done to either house. Our neighbors have been very, very kind. Sunday evening, once the winds had tapered off, our usually quiet neighborhood came to life with some of the older guys out helping each other cut up fallen trees and haul limbs to the curb. Our friend and neighbor, Larry, came along with his son & they helped us clear our yard of our own fallen tree. Our electricity was out from Sunday until Monday afternoon. It was kind of nice, actually. We sat outside together & had a couple beers that evening. We played dice games by candlelight & we decided that we could definitely have survived longer than a night like that. We also found that our water is heated by gas...meaning we had hot showers :) even with no power on.
The next day, Larry came with equipment and helped Matt put some shingles back in place on our roof. He is a good neighbor...we are blessed to have him across the street. God is truly taking care of us...we had almost no damage unlike many others & we had help right away to clean up.

The schools are all still out of service here....it could be next week before they get all the trees cleared. FC doesn't have power yet anyway. Matt has been working on the house and grading all week. My job was only delayed for 1 day. Humana was closed half the day Monday and so the person I job coach did not go in. Today, however, we were back on track! Now, if only all the traffic lights were working! ....it takes forever to get places right now.

Hope you are all doing well where you are!
Love, Jessie

five

Today i am 25 years old...yesterday, Matthew & I signed some papers....we "closed" on our house. Which, minus the lawyer jargon, means we are now in debt to the sum of some thousands of dollars...but at a very very low and fixed interest rate...with affordable house payments. We both feel blessed, but also overwhelmed.

Peace!

Like everything, it is a process...

This is my Nenaw's rose bush, still in bloom...I am going to keep it up b/c she loved it so much. We're also going to keep this birdbath b/c we like it.


















































this is the front & back of the house from the outside...this little ditch runs behind our yard & the little bridge is ours too.

four

Labor day weekend brought us a home full of visitors...it was nice having our guest-room full from Friday to Monday! Matthew's dad left for Peru, IN on Sunday and Christina & Jake came into town an hour later. We watched the Totoro movie, went out to La Que in Louisville, introduced our friends to the World Market store, and played Wii (they brought it with them) most of the morning on Monday. Later that day, our guests left & we headed to my mom's for a cookout. Madley showed up after dinner & we caught up for a little while. He was telling us about his grandma who is 99 years old and going strong....Crazy! I swear, that tiny little woman is going to outlive us all! ...Brianne came out too & later came back to our house to hang out & see what it looks like now and all that. It was good reconnecting with old friends.

This week is flying by...we haven't gotten much done around the house since Wayne left! But we have both been bombarded with work, so maybe its acceptable ;) We need to work on the yard and organizing the office and living room now...our garage is a mess too, but that will probably get done last b/c it has become storage for stuff we aren't going to use. Ah well, as the song goes "Steady as we Go".

Peace