Official Virginians

This is the city of Harrisonburg, population 40,000. You can see George Washington National Forest in the distance. This picture was taken a block away from our home. We live within 5 to 15 minutes from everything, Alexis school, James Madison University, grocery stores, Target, Kohl's, Wal-mart, etc. and a movie theatre.
We are official Virginians. I have a Virginia driver's license, license plates, registered to vote, and soon to be Notary Public of the Commonwealth of Virginia, yeah!
This is a really nice area, the people are really great here. We are definitely settling in. It seems more like home each day. Alexis is even Vice President in her class, way to go Alexis!
I spoke in sacrament meeting 2 weeks ago and now everyone in my ward knows me as "The Court Reporter". I know, it's not correct grammar to use quote to emphasis words, but we all do it. I finally get to be a court reporter. When I'm filling out paperwork, where it says occupation, I get to put down "Court Reporter". FINALLY.

No more air mattress!

Yahoo, Alexis finally has a bed too! Can you say Polka dots. She had to have that pillow and bedspread. Her dad and Amber gave her a gift card to Kohl's for her birthday, thank you, thank you. You can tell how much she loves her room. It's twice the size of her room in Utah. Yes, she has curtins too. She spent the weekend hanging up posters of Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Jonas Brothers and Demi L. and doing her homework, her favorite Math. Look at the closet space and that's only one side of it. I actually found her laying in her closet the other day listening to music on her iPod. Which she bought with her own money. We had a garage sale and sold all of the toys she didn't play with anymore and bought a new one that she uses all of the time. Great suggestion Kimberly.

No More Boxes!!!

This weekend we finally unpacked everything. We've been playing and working, okay mostly playing too much to finish unpacking. Our closets are huge. We both have walk in closets, no more squeezing clothes in. Can you believe I even have curtains? It's starting to feel more like home. My sweet, sister Cindy also gave me a quilt she made. Isn't it absolutely beautiful! Thank you so much Cindy, I know how much work you put into each quilt you make.

Washington DC Temple

This Temple our temple. It's a 2 1/2 hour drive from Harrisonburg. Alexis was able to do baptisms for the dead. You have make arrangements and go with a group. They schedule groups a year in advance. She went with a group from Redding, PA, which was a three hour drive to DC. It was such an amazing experience. She really enjoyed it. I can't believe this is the temple we will be attending.

When I first saw the DC temple, 5 years ago, I thought it was absolutely beautiul. I knew I was ready to receive my endowments. I immediately came home from that trip and bought a picture of the DC temple, and hung it on my wall to remind me where I was headed. I was planning on receiving my endowments in the DC temple, some of my friends and family were even going to join me. This is my favorite temple, I am so blessed to be able to attend this temple on a regular basis.

Baltimore, Maryland 9/13/08

9/13/08 We spent the day in Baltimore. The National Aquarium in Baltimore was huge. The had an entire display on frogs, ribbit, ribbit. We also went on the Torsak, a submarine, talk about claustrophobia. We went aboard the USS Constellation, an actual Civil War Ship. Yes, Alexis is having a nap in one of the crew's hammocks. She's almost a teenager, please don't wake her up. We spent the evening riding the water taxi's (second picture down on the left). They go all over Baltimore's Inner Harbor. During the evening they had fireworks, there was an Irish Festival going on. Another great weekend.

Pentagon Memorial for 9 11 '08

Kimberly took us on a VIP tour of the Pentagon. We walked right by Secretary Gates' office. Alexis' job was to direct us out of the Pentagon. It's looks like a maze on the inside, with all the coridors and different rings. It's giagantic, it's a good thing we had Kimberly with us.

Here are some interesting facts about the Pentagon:

Total length of corridors: 17.5 miles (28 km)

Stairways: 131
Escalators: 50
Elevators: 27
Windows: 8,999
Rest rooms: 500
Fixtures: 4,900
Drinking fountains: 691
Clocks installed: 4,200
Light fixtures: 16,250
Daily lamp replacements: 250
Total glass area: 309,276 sq ft (28,733 m2)
Telephone cable: 100,000 miles (160,000 km)
Telephone calls made daily: 200,000
Pieces of mail handled monthly by the Defense Post Office: 5,000,000

Home Sweet Home Continued

This is what our new home looks like. These are pictures of our view. If you'd like to check out Alexis' new school here is the link. http://www.harrisonburg.k12.va.us/skms/. Guess what her new school mascot is, yup, you guessed it, Falcons. What are the odds.

Home Sweet Home

This is our living room and kitchen. There are four electrical outlets in the kitchen. I could use all of my kitchen appliances at the same time and I actually have "counter space". No more using the kitchen table, which actually works out really well considering we have no kitchen table.

As you can see Alexis has lots of room to lounge around, jump around, or do whatever. Still working on the furniture, but hey who needs furniture when you have Central Air -- no more sweating in the house in the middle of the day, not even when using the oven -- a Garbage Disposal, and a Washer/Dryer. I feel like such a grown up.

Another great feature is two bathrooms. YEAH!!! Especially since the teenage years are right around the corner. Where does the time go.

The Sweetest Place on Earth

We went to Chocolate World in Hershey, PA this weekend. You could smell chocolate in the air. Alexis' favorite was obviously the Reeses Peanut Buttercups. She wanted to buy the World's Largest Reeces Peanut Buttercup. Much to her dissapointment, it stayed in Hershey. She also wanted the world's largest chocolate bar that also stayed in Hershey.

Play, Work, Swim

On Weekdays, this is where I've been editing transcripts. Isn't the view spectacular. This is what Alexis and her friend Alexis do after school. YEAH for friends!!!!