STUFF......

This week's been fun, now that we have family within walking distance! Pete & Kelly's apartment is two buildings behind us. Kelly & I have been hanging out a lot. I've been taking her to the bank, Walmart, etc. Today we are taking her to get her truck. She's been busy setting up house all week. Their place is looking great. They have camo furniture!!!

The apartment people did a crappy job with painting. She was planning on painting anyway. There's also several other minor issues that maintenance overlooked. I feel bad because I told them how great living here was, but I based this on our experience. See, their are two complexes mixed together here. Our apartments are nearly identical, but managed by different companies. I didn't know that their maintenance isn't as good. We considered them when we were looking for an apartment, but we never looked inside. What turned us off was the lack of Washer & Dryer connections. They have access to the boat storage and a private ramp into the reservoir, while our complex doesn't. They don't have washer/dryer connections in their place, while we do. I asked Pete a while back which one they valued more, the boat storage/ramp or the W/D connections. The problem is, if you don't have the boat storage, you have to park in the parking lot (with limited spaces). There is a public boat ramp nearby, so the access to the reservoir is not a problem. I think they had already secured their apartment. It would have been too much of a hassle. There may not have been anything available.

Early this morning, Kelly called me upset because someone tried to break into her front door. Wes went over there to get her. She spent the rest of the night with us. Someone must have been watching and noticed her being there alone and thought they could take advantage of that. It really scared her, as well as me. This is the first time since we've been here that we have heard of any type of crime. Our apartment is so secluded. There's only one way in or out. It's surrounded by the reservior on one side, the railroad tracks and woods on the other. There are large shopping centers just past the woods. There's also a large Elementary School in front of it. So the only reason you should go into the complex is if you live there. The only traffic we run into (besides the train) is school buses and a bunch of minivans at 7am and 2:30pm. When Kelly gets her truck down here, I hope that will cause people to think that there's a male living there now. She told me that she can start the engine remotely! That'll be fun to scare people with...

I hate that they are having to go through all of this. Pete is unable to do anything to help. I wish I could fix all this for them. I guess it's the older sister instinct kicking in. I'm so glad that we are nearby to help, especially since Kelly is going to be alone for the next month. I gave her our key last night so she could come over whenever she needed to.


We're going to try to do the Reindeer run on Dec. 1st. Wes & I are walking the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. We just have a one hour show that day. I will get off around 7:15 and the race starts at 9am, so it's going to work out great. The turkey trot goes through the nice parts of downtown. It's the biggest 5K around here as well. It'll be fun. Wes is off and I'll be off the rest of the day. So we bought a turkey breast and we're going to cook our first Thanksgiving dinner on our own.

I'm beginning to get a bit depressed now that it's getting colder. This is the first time I won't be at home for either Holiday. I know we're going home the week before Christmas, but it's only for a few days and we'll spend one of those days in Memphis. It's still not the same. We're going to miss the big Kowall Thanksgiving meal at my aunts house. I won't be able to eat my Grandmother's unique & delicious holiday dishes. (She's made Lasagna for Thanksgiving once. It was great!!) I won't be able to go shopping with Mom on Black Friday.
All we have is a small Christmas tree. It's only 4 feet tall. I used to put it on the table next to the sofa with a tree skirt and put the presents under the table. Now that we have more room, we need to get a larger tree so we can decorate the house to make it feel more like a home. I think that will make me feel better.

Maybe.......