February

1) The view out the back door toward the neighbor's yard...the trees were beautifully covered with frost when we woke up! 2) Kona after eating a snowball. 3) Kona snuggled up on mom's coat!

Sorry it has been so long since we have posted anything new. We have been keeping busy here! Kona goes to puppy class every Monday evening. She has fun with the other puppies, and has her eye on a cute golden retriever named Dexter. She seems to think he's something special! Dexter was in her first puppy class...we're in the second set of classes now. We're still trying to work on things like not jumping when company comes over. She's pretty good once people are here and get settled...it's just that she gets so excited when they come...she thinks she needs to give kisses to everyone! We've decided we should have more company so she can get used to people coming in! We've joked about just hiring the neighbor girl to come over every couple of days so Kona can get used to not jumping on company! The neighbor girl is about 9 or 10---and loves Kona!

John continues to keep busy with projects around the house. His dad is over right now, helping him take the wood trim off the windows so they can add some spray foam to better insulate the windows. Last month, John added insulation to the crawlspace under our sunroom. We have really noticed a difference on the ceramic tile floor in here! The room has become one of our favorite rooms in the house. We use it daily (it is also known as Kona's room as her crate is located in this room!)

In December we purchased a new couch and love seat for our living room. Last weekend, we ordered new furniture and a new mattress for our bedroom. We both dislike our current mattress, which is a full size, and wake up feeling sore from it. We are looking forward to a queen sized mattress, and hope it sleeps as good as it felt in the store! We ordered a platform bed with headboard...there are 3 drawers on each side of the bed offering much needed storage underneath. Our headboard also offers storage. We also ordered an armoire for the bedroom. Someday when we have a bigger bedroom (we have plans to do some demo work in the house, creating a bigger master bedroom) we plan to add to our bedroom set.

Kristi keeps busy at school...working too many evenings in John's opinion. We're working hard to make some much needed changes for the school, which has required Kristi to put in a lot of extra hours trying to seek additional funding for the school. She was excited to receive a phone call yesterday from one of the area pastors who let her know that one of the churches voted to increase funding for the school by $25,000 on top of what they currently give. Last Sunday, she gave a presentation to the 4 churches who support our school asking for an additional $100,000 per year...so we are 1/4 of the way there!!! It was a nice boost to know that they heard the need and recognized that what we were asking for was truly needed and not just to add some "frivolous" things.

Everything here is still covered in snow...we haven't seen our yard since the beginning of November! It will be nice for spring to arrive---the snow isn't so bad, it's the nasty film of muck left on the cars everyday!!!

So...while we are keeping busy, we are doing well, enjoying the life we are creating here together. Keep checking back...we'll try and post a bit more often!