last round

We decided to put a desk (thanks to Kathy and Curt) in our bedroom. This room also has a bay window/buffet thing--which is nice, I guess.
The spare room will be great for visitors, namely Andrea.
I also had Jules take a picture in the street facing east. That's the high school football stadium. Friday Night lights, baby.

Ben's room

We liked the way the previous owners painted the room, so we plan to keep it like this for a while. Ben loves playing in his room, but he really loves running from his room to the kitchen over and over and over. This is how he picked up his first full sentence: "Igetchu."


"see you later alligator, after a while crocodile."

more casa pics

Here's the print John and Kris bought us. Sorry for the glare, but if you click on it and look closely, you'll see that the cityscape is constructed out of words and phrases regarding Milwaukee life. It's awesome. Here are the yard pics. We have a big weeping willow tree (stage right).

I asked Jules to take a picture standing in front of our house facing west. The end of the street is Oklahoma.

The casa

We officially unpacked the last box today. Our car sits comfortably in the garage. The living room is our biggest space, so we had to get creative. Julia's mom (Kathy) helped with arrangement. Below is the tv section of the room and our cool gas log fireplace. The hallway at the left leads to the three bedrooms (more pics on those later). This is the computer/bookshelf section of the room. Most of my books will go to JBU, so we only have need for one bookshelf. It was important to us to have the computer in a central part of the house--we can't trust Ben's online surfing, yet. The photograph above the tv was taken by a friend of ours in Cedarburg--the tree sits in Lake Park in Milwaukee. Don't worry, John and Kris: your awesome Milwaukee print is prominently displayed next to the lamp on the right. We'll get a better picture of that later.
The kitchen: that's a new fridge hiding the range and more counter space. The door leads to the laundry room which leads to the garage.
The dining area connects with the kitchen. We love the little bay window/buffet area on the left.
We're exploring our little town everyday. Ben and I found one park while on a jog, and we just found another one while driving around town. Everyone is always welcome to visit.

Terra Pass

Although these pictures may just look like open Illinois fields, they're actually places of great progress. Click on the picture and look closely. Jules took these as we were driving 75 on an Illinois interstate. These are wind farms--great propellors creating energy from a renewable source. Now, go to terrapass.com and learn more about how you can support places like this.

Graduation Part Deux

Because I failed to take any pictures with my family during my graduation, we reenacted it when everyone gathered for my cousin Jen's wedding. But, of course, we didn't take any pictures during the wedding weekend. So, someone in the fam should send me some so I can post 'em here. Anyway, here are a few pics of the fam.

We are now officially in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Yep, we're Southerners. more pics of the new house to come.

Ben stayed at Kris and John's while we ran errands downtown. Kris let Ben play in the sprinkler, so we brought him home in his diaper. We surprised him with a few new toys we found at a second-hand kid's store in Milwaukee. We also got him a wheel barrow and a picnic table for Arkansas lunches.



Nuthin' left to do in an empty apartment 'cept play on boxes.

Fourth of July

Jules took this great picture of the Cedarburg 4th of July parade. It's a small town with a big fire department. Ben loved all the sirens.

It takes two nooks to take care of a hand injury. You can barely see the band-aid, but he sure noticed it.

random pics

Random June pictures. Yes, Ben is wearing a jacket and pants in late June, and, no, we're not weird parents--it was 57 that morning.
Ben can stack 6 blocks. Yep, signin' him up for Wings as soon as we get to Springfield.

all you need is a mirror

In seventh grade home ec I decided to puncture the thin layer of skin on my fingers with threading needles. Like Edward Scissorhands, I would poke the kids at my table. Obviously, Ms. Wright didn't take to kindly to that kind of behavior, so she put me in this back room all by myself for the rest of the class. The room was an old, empty storage closet that was used as a dressing/fitting room for her dressmaking class. Mirrors lined each wall, so I spent the entire class period making faces, flexing my muscles, and various other entertaining things to pass the time away. She was mad as hell when she realized my punishment was more fun than poking kids with my needle-hands. Boredom can always be cured with a mirror.

Jules took these pictures of Ben while he had fun with our bedroom mirror.

Farewell Party

John and Kris threw a wonderful farewell party for us Tuesday night. We just invited a few folks from the church that have encouraged, supported, and befriended us during our time in Milwaukee. Timm graciously took all the pictures, so you won't see him. Kris is convinced that Ben can say her name, although it comes out Aunt "Ta-Ta," which of course is very close to Kris.

Ben was very active throughout the evening . . . until he discovered the ice chest. He stood in front of the various coolers for over 30 minutes shoveling ice, or picking up ice cubes and dropping them in some of the flower pots on the deck. Whatever makes you happy, Big Guy.
A picture of the proud couple-to-be. My cousin Jenny and her fiance, Aaron. They're moving South, too--Racine.
The theme was "Wisconsin." John cooked brats and folks brought lots of cheese and custard. Our good friend Emmy brought Wisconsin shrimp.

It's been a great four years here and we really enjoyed talking about our move to Arkansas with all our Wisconsin friends. We'll certainly miss this place--the church, our little Cedarburg, the big city, and the winters. Oh yes, we'll miss the winters.

What Winter Will Do To You

Result #472 of living through Wisconsin winters:

Late in May Ben wanted to go outside. So, he did the natural thing--something we've done since last September. He grabbed his gloves and hat and gave them to Jules. As my mother said, "it's a hard life up here."

You snooze, you lose

Just an old favorite. It's a bit fuzzy, but it's too priceless to delete.

I know that the graduation pictures are incomplete. Even though there was much excitement, not many pictures were taken. We'll (I'll) do better next time. However, thanks to Aunt Linda, there were a few taken at the party. Here's my favorite.

Love you all: Jake, Jules, and Ben (especially Ben)

more fam pics

Our good friends, the Coster's, hosted a small graduation party for our family. The food was great and the rain held. Here are just a couple with Jules' parents . . . and the star of the event.