Meet the Smiths!

Welcome to Iowa and your new home that you have only been in for 15 minutes prior to purchasing. Here are your keys, but wait...before you step foot into your new home that you don't even remember seeing and couldn't find via Mapquest, can I please take your picture first? I'll explain one you get inside.

Ummm...ok. Sure. Kids, smile for Mr. Wanamaker. Never mind that he's 6'8" tall and you have no idea why he's taking your pic. We don't know either.

And then we find out how it really goes down in our new hood. Just like this:

In post card form sent through out the neighborhood to let others know who we are.

Next thing we know, people from all over the neighborhood are showing up with welcome cards, plate after plate of cookies and even a gift card to a nearby grocery store. Come on people....are you serious? Because if so, we picked the right hood to move in to.

I'm not even kidding, we had another lady come by today, almost 3 weeks later! We've even taken to grading just how good each plate is and comparing it with the others. Shallow, I know. Each card has included a welcome, each family member's name, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. This place has to be the friendliest place in town. Not sure if they are like this all over the greater Des Moines area, but I highly recommend having your realtor send out a post card the next time you move. (j/k...but w sure have enjoyed it!)

So that's it for today's adventure. It is still colder than I could ever imagine. I made my way outside today to get the mail and froze my face off before I even made it to the corner of our lot. (I'd cut across the lawn, but we have about 2 ft of snow preventing me from doing that. And no, I'm not dressing appropriately just to clomp through snow. Maybe next time I'll send a kid.)

We have to go out tomorrow to take Lauren to preschool and run a few errands. They say the high should be around 17. So here's to driving slow, looking for "black ice" (ha!) and a much needed trip out of the house since Monday.

Here we come Super Target!!