a new post!

Seems like I'm behind in the family blogging scene. I just looked through everyone's now old blogs and realize why people have been hounding me to write more. It's because all of you give such nice little updates on a very consistent basis. It's very nice to see the photos of the kids, Joie, they have grown so much! So I will attempt to be a better blogger... too bad my name isn't betty botter, i think I could could have a nice little ditty there. 

Today is Valentine's Day, and Ron is working :( but he will be back in the afternoon. I flipped out a little last night because Ron and I have not had a solid day together in about 3 weeks or so. I don't do well on very little Ron time. So I'm going to soak it up tonight and tomorrow. We missed each other while I was in Boston, though I had a wonderful time there! 

I really like Boston. I loved the quaint New England architecture, Paffy the tourguide, taking long unhurried walks, and soaking up all the fun historical things (although, Will, I still have yet to sit on an ancient stone elephant). Mostly, I loved seeing family. I loved meeting Claire. She's so beautiful and interactive. Since I had just seen pictures and few of her more quiet moments when we were skyping, it was exciting when she was right in front of me, giggling or smiling that big smile of hers. It was also a lot of fun to carry her around Boston while Mom took pictures of her. Look, heres Claire at Paul Revere's House. Look, here's Claire on the Freedom Trail. Look, here's Claire with Benjamin Franklin. We had a fun time with that and Mom and I were both reminded of the little lawn ornament that was stolen, followed by pictures in the mail of this same lawn ornament all over the world. Don't worry, Claire, you are way cuter than a lawn ornament :) And carting around a baby all afternoon made me think... I should get one sometime soon... This is not an announcement. 

Today Ron and I are going to take down our Christmas tree. I know. Sometimes we wonder if we have too many redneck instances, but I refuse to actually use that word to describe us. We are slow people sometimes. Taking our time, content with life almost to a fault. I need to get better at just getting things DONE. Next on the list of organizing our lives is to set up a nice filing system for all our papers. We just became adults, and we already have so much to file! (actually, I must be in denial, we've been adults a little bit now) But I love when we actually are organized, so I'm looking forward to finishing that project. Right now it's like this: 

Ron: Honey, where is all the stuff for our taxes? 

Jo: Oh, I made sure to put all of those envelopes on the piano so we know where they are. 

nice. Well, I'm off to get some cleaning done and work out and maybe get the grocery shopping in before Ron comes home. Tonight we're going to the Olive Garden to celebrate our love. I just thank God for blessing me with a wonderful husband that loves me and protects me and will care for me for the rest of my days. He is a treasure to my heart. 

the living room

This is just some before/after shots of our living room. These shots cannot possibly show you how awful it was before, and all the sin we covered up. Still working on decorating :)

painting painting painting. That's all we did FOREVER.

the "before" walls. Reminiscent of a 1970s fishermen's cabin...

minus the mess, look at the walls! Soooo much better!!

old photos :)

These photos are all pretty old, from Thanksgiving weekend and the Homestead Fest. Forgive me for not being up on things, but I thought that you might like to see some of what we enjoyed that weekend, anyway... :)

this little place had amazing apple cider donuts!

Ron loved the windmill display! 

Learning how to make our own soft cheese.

Watching a chair being made.

Ron's haircut.

I did it. It turned out a bit short, and stuck up funny. It has since gotten better, and even turned out to give Ron a bit of attitude :) He loves it now!!

a bit of Christmas

We were fortunate enough to catch A Tuba Christmas this season. Needless to say, I was thrilled! And we think we may have seen a certain Justin Marslender there... can you spot him?

Christmas break. Ron loves his cider.

I'm a spoiled wife. The most thoughtful gift was the 8 or so containers of Carmex that Ron filled my stocking with. I'm always losing them, or asking him to help me find them... not any more!

Christmas dinner. uncooked. Ron just couldn't wait, he thought it was so pretty :)

Our first Christmas tree!

me in my country garb. Please ignore messy living room :)

new haircut, etc.

This is just me showing off my new hair cut. I have bangs again. They're supposed be side bangs, so I'll work on taming them. With the layers and the awkward slight wave my hair has, it might all look a bit untamed, but I like the thought that it's "free spirited". In the bottom picture I think I look like my mom :)

Ron and I are coming to terms with the fact that our Christmas vacation is almost over. I got him chess this year (which can also be checkers, and if you flip it over, chinese checkers!) and scrabble, so we've been playing games like mad lately. I love it. I'm a bit of a game freak, and would play games all the time if I had my druthers. Eventually the husband tires of games and thinks of doing other things like eating or reading... Another reason I love visiting the Burchells :) Always a little kid to play with me!

Ron and I have been taking walks, and Ron decided he would start picking up cans. So we did that today and collected half a garbage bag. They litter like mad down here, and no one ever picks up our country roads. I'll be interested to see the small fortune of cans we will have by summertime. 

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and will have a good New Year's. To my family, it was wonderful seeing you on Skype, i felt like I was really there when the little Burchells opened their stockings :) I'm going to really enjoy being "in". 

Love to all, Jo

just to update :)

I realized I haven't written anything on here in quite some time... So, just for an update, I'll let you all in on what Ron and I have been up to. 

This past weekend we took in a festival! It's called Homestead Fest, and takes place at an actual Quaker homestead. That is, I think they're Quakers. I looked through their beliefs book, but it was very long and didn't come right out and say "we're a cult" or "we're Quakers" or "we're harmless pleasant Amish"... But I tend to think toward the last two :) It was a fun experience, though Ron whined about accompanying me at first. We got there toward the evening and it was a bit chillier than we'd anticipated. We had missed some of the demonstrations during the day, so Ron begged to come back Sunday,  which we did! We learned a bit about beekeeping, admired the way a windmill works (several times) and got to watch how to make a batch of mozzarella at home. We also sampled some tasty food and looked at a lot of great crafts and gadgets. Who knew something this cool was so close to Waco, Texas. They are open year round, though it's not a festival all year, of course. However, we could take cheesemaking classes if we wanted to! For only $260, we, too, could have 4 pounds of homemade mozzarella or feta to stick in our freezer or ship to distant relatives. (Sorry, but hard cheese making has a prerequisite). I'm hoping they might cut us a deal. But we did pay attention at the demonstration, so we may just try our hand at it after all. 

All through that festival, though, we were thinking that it would be great to have those little Burchell kids along :) 

We also got our living room/entry way painted this past weekend. It took, as all projects do, much longer than anticipated. We were up one night till 3pm, and another night till 5:30 the next morning! We Goodmans just go all out, I guess. Really, I just wanted it done, but Ron did have to help me through a couple of zombie moments. We did get plenty of rest, though. Having the long weekend helped tremendously. And the living room looks great!! We'll post before/after photos one of these days. Sorry, I'm a bit slow about the photos...   

Not too much else. My birthday went well. Thanks for all who called and sang. Ron, though he's grumbled good-naturedly before about the Burchell tradition of singing all day long to the Birthday person, did so without even being asked. Aw, what a husband. At karate we always sing to the birthday person and then everyone has to say something nice about the person. I learned that I am "a good bus driver", "awesome", "a good instructor", and I "rock the world".