Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore....

This is the fifth snow since we have arrived in the Cincinnati area. This one the deepest…though only about one or two inch accumulated on the ground. We headed out in Rodney’s car with the goal of looking at our future house before signing the papers to purchase. We got only about a block away down the snowy streets, however, when a red SUV coming from the other direction did a 360 right in front of us. I turned to Rodney and asked if we should just go back….this was not a good omen. He assured me that the more traveled streets would not be so icy. He was correct but there were some scary areas of snow drift on the way. I drove my husband crazy with “Watch out!”, “Slow down.”, “That looks icy!, punctuated by the quick sucking in of air whenever anyone got close to us. We did get our grocery shopping done, saw our future home, and made our way over to the model homes to sign the papers. Mission accomplished. Our house hunting is over…not a moment too soon. We were getting very discouraged. With house prices higher in this area than in our previous area, Jackson, GA, we were concerned that we would be getting much less house for much more money. As it ends, we ARE paying a lot more, but we are getting a lot more. One good outcome of the diving real estate market – we got a great deal on a brand new house. The builders are having to dump newly built houses for the same price as some 15 year old houses of the same square footage! The bad news – we are most likely going to have to sell our house for less than what we owe. *sigh* For a little while we will be the owners of two houses. Rodney said take a photo of him right now…this will be the only time he will be able to say he owns two houses… his new home and his “southern” home. So while we acclimate to our new surroundings, make plans for getting into our new home before the end of the year, and start meeting the locals, we will admire the new white powdery scenery adding new meaning to many of the Christmas songs on the radio…..”Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful, and since we’ve no place to go….let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!”