Happy Thanksgiving!

From the Northern representatives of the Jones family, Happy Thanksgiving to all! While we miss the opportunity to share this time with family and friends at home, we are so thankful for the people God has placed in our lives here who opened their home and let us share this day with them. I am learning in this journey that even when "family" is defined differently than we might have thought, when people love the same God, life can still be shared and enjoyed. God is good! We love you all!

My Office & The Ocean

As promised, here are a few pictures from my new office. This first picture is of my desk and so you can see the glorious window that I have. I am so excited to have that window because since it is pitch black by 4:30, I get to see the sun when it is out. AND I'll be able to see the snow fall! The second picture is a picture from the door, and you can see a window that is between my office and my friend Mark's office next door.


It's a little hard to tell the exact green color from these pictures, but this at least gives you a bit of an idea. It's very soothing, and I love it. This next picture is a close up of the window between my office and Mark's. People have taken to drawing pictures with erasable marker on the glass, which is hilarious. And just for the record, I didn't write my name - someone else did!

This is to show you the scarf my mom sent me in the mail. It's currently hanging on my window sill. Everyone loves it!

I do plan to put pictures up on the walls, so I'll take more pictures once it's actually finished, but this gives you at least an idea of my very own office!

I got to leave work early today for the Thanksgiving holiday, and there was a glorious sunset and big waves, so I took some pictures. As we are here on the eve of Thanksgiving, I am very thankful that I live in a place that is as beautiful as this. Love you guys!

I'm Cold

Hi everybody! Greetings from the frigid north, where temps have not risen out of the 30's for a week now. Windchills have been down to about 11 or so pretty consistently. But no worries - it's supposed to be in the 40's this week, which will be practically warm!!

Lots of interesting stuff happening here lately. To begin with, I now have my own office at work!! We have expanded into the offices next to us, so I am able to have an office now. It's lovely - it has a window, which is a huge blessing. Since it gets dark here at 4 and is pitch black by 4:30 or so, it'll be nice to see the sun while it's out AND I can watch the snow fall when it does! I painted my office over the weekend - a fabulous light sage green color that is very neutral but gives it some color. I'll take some pictures and post them soon for you to see. Tomorrow I have to set my desk up and then start thinking about what to put on my walls. I love having a space to make my own!

This week is Thanksgiving of course, and I hope that you all enjoy it very much. I will miss not being there with family and seeing friends. It's interesting how weird it is to spend holidays away from your family. But, we have some friends at church who have invited us to have Thanksgiving with them. There will be 12 of us, all who go to church together, and it should be really fun. I'm excited that we'll be able to enjoy the day with other people. Last year we didn't know anyone, and it was really sad to just be on our own. Even though I'll greatly miss spending the day with my family, these folks are my family here, and it will help make the day special.

I am very much looking forward to this week and having a few days off. I plan to get a few things done, enjoy resting and relaxing, and have some fun hanging out with some friends. I'll post stuff and hopefully get you more caught up on life here.

For now, I am going to go to bed, where my electric blanket has been warming my bed for me. When I get in bed at night, I am SOOOO thankful for the person who invented the electric blanket - I thank God for them often. :) And now I shall leave you with a picture of me and brother - maybe not the best picture ever, but this post needs a picture. Have a great week!

Winter Is Arriving

We've had a very mild fall for the most part so far this year. Maybe I'm just getting even more used to the cold, but there have only been a few days that were yucky cold. That all changes this week!! Our highs are supposed to be in the 30's, with lows in the 20's. I suppose that it is getting close to the end of November, and I live way up north, so this makes sense. But there's still a moment of having to decide that you can't really whine about it and just have to deal with the fact that it will be cold. I am even more thankful for heat and coats than ever! So now, the focus shifts to....WHEN WILL OUR FIRST SNOW BE???? I can't wait!! I remember scenes like this from last year and look forward to seeing what beauty God gives us this year.

If you feel like leaving a comment, put down a date for your prediction of when our first snow will be, and we'll see who gets the closest!

More stories and such to come soon! Hope you have a great week!

Catching Up

I apologize for the lack of blogging. I am fired. Make that tired, and it's pretty accurate. Things have been zany here lately. Work is extremely crazy, so when I get home at night, I don't have a ton of energy left. Sigh.... Being a grown-up is so overrated! In an attempt to continue to enjoy life with the heart of a child, I offer several stories of fun. For Halloween, Michael borrowed my Tigger costume. I was trying to get a picture of him holding Ellie, but I think she thought Tigger was trying to eat her and wasn't very cooperative. This is the best I could do.

As mentioned in a previous post, Uncle Bob came and visited us this past weekend. We had a great time hanging out and showing him around our part of the world. Here are a few pictures of him while he was here. It was a very foggy day that he had to experience the area, but he was a good sport. The last picture shows you how foggy it was - this was at about 2 in the afternoon!



Thanks for everything, Uncle Bob! We had fun and hope you did too!

My parents leave in the morning to drive to Baltimore. Prayer for safe travel would be much appreciated! More blogging to come soon....

Correction

So I was given bad information. Being a follower of my blog does NOT mean you will get emailed each time I post a new blog. Alas, you will still have to check in often to see if I have updated. You can still be a follower if you'd like though - it makes you (and me!) look cool. Hahahaha....

Have a great Friday, and I'll be in touch soon!

Be A Blog Follower!

Hi everyone! There is a new feature that blogger has added to blogs that is kind of cool. If you look on the top right side of my blog, you will see a "blog follower" area. Anyone who decides to follow my blog will automatically receive an email whenever I post a new entry. That way, you know when to check my blog to see new entries or updates. If you'd like to do this, simply click on the "follow this blog" link, and follow the instructions. Then you'll get emails to come check out the latest news. How fun! :)

Hope you are all well. This has been a LONG week, but the weekend will be here soon. We are excited because Uncle Bob is in Boston for a business trip and will be staying with us Friday night in Gloucester, where we'll get to spend some time with him and show him around where we live until he has to leave Sat. night. We'll be sure to take some pictures and post them!

Photo Shoot

I took family photos for one of my coworkers for his family's Christmas card. Here are a few samples. It was lots of fun!