Where I Live Now

It's been a while since I have blogged, but I am finally moved in and mostly unpacked. It is just the pesky little things like hanging photos and organizing my craft stuff in the second bedroom that still remains to be done. I don't want to take any pictures inside until I get rid of all the empty boxes and paper and the boxes of stuff for the Salvation Army. I'm so proud of myself for how much stuff I am giving away. I am a consummate pack rat and it's hard for me to give away or throw away things even if I haven't used them in years. I always feel like I'm going to give it away and then the day will come that I need whatever it was.

I love my new place. The kitchen and bathrooms are outdated, but lets face it- that's to be expected unless you're willing to pay a significant premium for a brand new or newly remodeled place. The location is great- really can't be beat. I'm in a little town that still has lots of stores close by, I'm close to the interstate for getting to work, and I am right on a lake.

Here's some pictures of the outside of the buildings:

Notice how the snow looks surprisingly shiny? We had an ice storm earlier this week. That was my first ice storm ever and it was pretty interesting. My car looked like a giant ice sculpture and it took me almost a half hour to chisel the ice off the windows so I could drive to work. The upside? All the schools were closed and there was much less traffic on the roads so I made it to work in about 20 minutes.

Here's the view from my balcony. It's hard to see the edge of the lake because it is frozen over and white like rest of the ground is:

You can kind of make out the foot bridge and trail (white strip) in the picture above. Here's a close up of the bridge (also taken from my balcony).

Here's a picture of the lake I took from a different spot along the shore this afternoon. The trail is still really icy, but I was able to get down to to the shore at this spot because it's by an open grassy area where more of the ice was melted.