Since Thanksgiving...

In case anyone was wondering why it took me six weeks to post another entry, it's because it took me six weeks to figure out how to. I'm a slow learner. Anyway, Christmas was great and P got a LOT of toys. I'm talking, we returned some and we still have no more room in our house for a single other thing. Next year we may try and convince our families that a college fund contribution would be more fun to unwrap.

D is making a lot of headway at Edward Jones. He so far has been invited to join the Rotary Club, Lion's Club, Kiwanis and Chamber of Commerce. He thinks he'll join Lion's and the Chamber. Everyone is very excited to have him there and he's really well liked.

I have started working for my father in law for four hours every week. Talk about slave labor! It's good for me to get out and have something that is my own.

The biggest thing happening in our circle is that Evanoff's Pawn Shop burned down to the ground. It was really sad to see. The building is done for but with great friends and great insurance, Nick is going to take over Pop's license and start a new shop a couple buildings down. He's really focused. The fire started in one of the upstairs apartments and it took over 50 firemen over three hours with six hoses to get it out. I'm pretty proud of Nick though for holding up. Dustin and I stayed the next couple of days and while I watched P, D helped Nick and Pop's meet with the insurance people and do a mass clean up project. I'm so proud!

It's good to see how true some of your friends are when a tragedy like this happens. We watched the fire from John Snyder's dealership which is across the street. So many people came to support Pops and Nick and even more people came to help with the clean up and to help start the new shop. When we had our fire Nick sat with us the whole time and Pops gave us Wal-Mart gift cards to get some clothes. (I was 9 months pregnant, no one was my size to borrow from...) Even though this has been a disaster, a lot of good will come from it.