Recent viewings

We've been watching movies again lately, and I realized that I have gotten out of the habit of posting about them. Sorry! The newest one is of course King Kong, which was very enjoyable, but still depressing. I was a little disappointed in Peter Jackson's directing -- he seemed to shoot it like it was another 3-part epic, but it's not. The special effects were very good however. I rate it a 6 overall. Not long before that, we finally watched The Notebook. This I also rate a 6, because although many scenes were enjoyable I found the story kind of predictable. The characters did not really draw me in to feel connected. Also, we saw Crash recently. Justin put it best -- it was an attempt to remake Magnolia that falls short. This one also gets a 6. Again, there were some scenes that I particularly enjoyed. But the various connecting stories don't really take you anywhere and you don't feel like there has been any arc in the end. Lastly, we've starting watching the TV series "Alias". We're in the middle of season 1 and enjoying it so far. It is so much better when you can sit down and watch all the episodes without commercials and waiting a week inbetween. So what if we have to start watching 4 or 5 years later?

Yes, the long-awaited "moved-in" pictures are here! You can see the dining room set up, with our temporary plant stands (they are actually speaker stands), and a couple pictures on the wall. We still like the modularity of the lifetime tables, because when we aren't planning to have people over we can move them around and create more open space here. Also, I think we are going to leave the windows pretty much bare, as we love the view too much to cover it up! We may just add a little bit of color with some simple drapes to go on the sides, but it will be some time before we'll have money for that anyway. 

This is the great room, which I now call the library. Our old bookcase wouldn't fit next to the fireplace, but luckily these intermetro shelves did go in just perfectly! This is the first Christmas tree we have put up in many years, and I can't even remember actually hanging stockings in the past. 

And what do we like best? Times like this, with the tree lights on and the sun setting through all the awesome windows. 

Here is a better view of that sunset from out on the deck. As you can probably guess, we are really excited about being able to actually use the deck once the weather gets warm! 

Silent Nights

Yes things are settling down as far as the house goes. Of course, now the rest of life has decided to pick up the slack and keep us busy. The holidays are a big part of that -- we still have one gift left to get to finish our shopping. Sooner or later I really will post some more pictures of the inside of the house with all our stuff in it. One of the things that Justin and I are enjoying most is the awesome view out of the library and dining rooms. Kansas Sunsets help keep each evening memorable. On those few nights that we are actually together at the right time, it's even romantic.

The first snow in our new house and it's a doozy!! Justin will be able to stay in shape just shoveling all that driveway. 

Here is a shot of our huge back yard from our awesome deck. You can see that there was quite a lot of accummulation and low winds by the height of the snow that stayed on the small deck rail. Yes, it does look pretty... but man is it cold!!