Finally...

Sorry to have you all miss out on day 3 and the day of our arrival, but things didn't quite work out as we had thought...here's the update:

Day 3 - We had planned to stop in a very small town (basically not really a town, but there was a Super 8 there), and when we arrived, there were a TON of truckers there transporting the blades of those power-generating windmills (kinda cool). Anyway, because of the trucker convention, all the hotels in that area were full. Not a huge problems if you don't have pets, but not all hotels accept pets, so we were on the hunt.

We ended up having to drive about an hour and a half farther than expected, but finally found a hotel after crossing over the Missouri border (Yeeha! [insert old man drinking moonshine with a shotgun visual]). I'll have to post pictures later.

Day 4 - The final day! Since we had a longer day 3 than expected, day 4 was a short day, which was nice. We had plans to meet up with the Koeneman's for breakfast, but that fell through (which I now know was my fault and my misunderstanding of where we were meeting, sorry Scott!). Thankfully, we're close, so we'll be able to make that mistake up to them. Anyway, on to St. Louis! We pulled into home around 1 or so, which was nice.

On to our house and the neighborhood. When we first saw the house we realized that the pictures were a little nicer than the house itself, and it had sat for a while without any light cleaning. Thankfully, when we asked, the owners hired a cleaner to come and clean the entire house before we moved in (shocking!). Now that we've had a chance to make the house our own (e.g., hang pictures, etc.) we're really liking it. But it is an old house and therefore some things are a bit annoying (like absolutely no closet space!). Again, we'll have to post pictures when we actually have internet at home.

Our neighborhood and neighbors are AWESOME! Within the first two days, our neighbors (Jeff and Katie) had made us dinner, invited us over, bought me a 12-pack of the local microbrew, and had just made us feel absolutely welcome. Across the way from us is a couple (Amy and Ryan) who own a local pottery shop and are very fun. It's in a very convenient location, with local shops surrounding it, but it's tucked away from any major streets just enough to be very secluded and quiet. We're also less than a block away from a park that has not been used by anyone since we moved in (read: it's like our own private park).

I've started at the VA, and I am now finally done with orientation (BORING). I'm looking forward to starting doing what it is I actually should be doing!

Katie is well, but without TV or internet, she's getting incredibly bored! She's on the hunt for a part-time job, and I think she'll be able to find one easily. Kingsley and Duke are well too, and as screwy as ever :)

That's all for now. I'll post pics of the house as soon as we get internet. We miss you all!