Birthday/Anniversary...Two weeks later

The last weekend in September Matt and I celebrated my Birthday (31) and our 1st Anniversary! We decided to spend our special weekend in Chicago. Matt had to be at a training for work in Wisconsin the week before, so we decided that we would meet in Chicago for the weekend, since he was already so close.

We had a lot of fun. I had never been there before and Matt went to school near Chicago, so he enjoyed seeing some of the places he visited while at school, and I loved seeing everything for the first time! On Saturday (my birthday) we toured around the city, we visited the Art Institute, did some window shopping, and spent the evening at a White Sox game (so fun!). On Sunday (our anniversary) we went up to Wheaton (where Matt went to school) for church, and visited with some friends that were in the area. That evening we went back into the city for our anniversary dinner. I had never been to "The Melting Pot", and had been wanting to try it out for many years now, so we did a little fondue dinner there. Well, I shouldn't say "little" dinner. It was definitely a lot of food. It was so good though, and a fun experience!

Things are good!

We have been pretty busy, but have had a good couple of weeks! This weekend we are finally enjoying some quality time at home, I have been cleaning and organizing, and Matt has had the chance to put in some good work on the cars, he is trying to fix some stuff on the Porsche, since we've found that there is no one in our area or within a reasonable drive of us that will work on it, he has been having to do a lot on his own. I think it's been fun for him though, and he is learning a lot!

Our last couple of weekends have been spent either away from home or doing lots of stuff. Last weekend Matt had a big couple of days with work. His unit had a bunch of special events going on. To include a formal dinner that Matt did lots of the planning and preparing for. It was good to see all of the hard work and long hours he put in for the dinner turn into a very successful, fun time, for everyone. I unfortunately was only able to attend the first couple hours of it. I had to be in St. Louis that same night to prepare for the half marathon the next day.

So yea, the half marathon. It actually didn't go as bad as I thought it was going to go. I had a cold the entire week before the race, I wasn't able to run, or do much at all that week. While that didn't deter me from actually running the race, I felt like it was really going to affect the whole race from beginning to end. In reality I felt pretty good for the first 7 miles, surprisingly good. Unfortunately at mile 7 my body started feeling the ramifications of battling a cold, and running 13 miles. Basically I just started feeling sick, and started slowing down. I didn't ever stop or anything like that, which was good, my pace just got significantly slower. I'm not disappointed though, the whole thing was fun, and getting the chance to run with my friend Katy was great (of course I only lasted with her for the first 6 miles of the race). I'm definitely looking forward to doing another one. I found that the training of this race was much more reasonable and less time consuming than training for a marathon. In the past I have done 2 marathons, I'm no longer interested in running that distance again now that I've found out how much I prefer the half!

The weekend before Matt's busy work weekend, and my race was labor day weekend. Matt and I took the opportunity to visit his family down in Tennessee. We had a lot of fun just spending time with them. Matt's Aunt and Uncle treated us to a great outdoor concert one of the nights we were there and we loved the special times that we spent with his Grandmother. It was a great trip! So wonderful that they are so close, it makes it so easy to visit. We are looking forward to the next opportunity to head down that way again!

I guess I should mention...

The new job I started! I've actually been at it for a week and a few days and just haven't had the opportunity to let people know.

I am working at one of the local elementary schools with special needs students. For the most part of the day I have one little guy that I work with, it has been awesome! This kid definitely makes me smile everyday!

I am really excited for this school year and excited to see him grow in learning and his social world. ALSO! I'm super excited that I will be involved in the activities that all of the special needs students participate in together. We've got some events coming up with The Special Olympics, and will begin planning the special trips and activities we will be doing with them. So fun! Not only is my guy great to work with, but so are the rest of the kids!

I'm excited to keep everyone updated with how this year goes and what I am learning along the way!

Congratulations Erica and Ray!!

The newly engaged couple!!I am so excited for my wonderful sister, and so happy to have Ray joining our family!

Back at it in Missouri

Matt and I were finally able to reunite after our little trips away from home. He was able to get a lot done and learn a lot during his trips for work stuff. And, well, I was able to play a lot and relax a lot on my trip to spend time with mom, and visit Canada with her.

I really had a lot of fun on my trip out to VA, not only was I able to visit with Mom, but my sister, and her family as well. Mom and I enjoyed some nice days out and about town, we also had some beach days with my sister and sweet little niece (Lizzie). One day we travelled down to Virginia Beach and were able to enjoy a fun filled day jumping waves, building sand castles, and the coolest of all was that a bunch of dolphins decided to "join us" and kept swimming back and forth, coming up and out of the water, entertaining and astonishing the entire beach. They were at it for a long time too, it was pretty special to see that and of course it delighted little Lizzie. I forgot my camera so I wasn't able to get pictures. BUT! I did get a shot from a second beach day where we visited on of the local bays.

Here is me and my little darling!

It was so fun have some special times with that little girl. The older kids were in summer programs, so I was only able to see them a little bit, I definitely missed them though, and cherished the times I did get to see them.

On one of the days I was there I had a really nice afternoon/evening with Jen, one of my friends who lives down in the area. We went on a really fun bike ride and then spent the evening at one of the towns' "dancing in the streets" event. So fun. The best part was catching up with Jen, she is so fun to be around and wonderful to talk to!

Here we are on the bikes going around a cornfield, and a shot of us with...hmmm...part of the James River in the background? I don't remember.

After a week of fun in the sun in VA, mom and I headed up to fun in the sun in Canada. I tell you, the days up there couldn't have been more perfect. It was warm, sunny, and blue skies for almost the entire time we were there. I was actually kind of sad that we didn't get a crazy thunderstorm and some colder days!

I know I've mentioned Canada on the blog before, so you may recall how special of a place it is to me and everyone in the family. I really wish Matt was with us, that part was a downer, but I am definitely hoping we will both be making it next year. This trip I actually took some pictures! So here is your pictorial introduction to Canada...

Nothing says "Welcome to Canada" like this shot does, I always get SO EXCITED when I see this first view of the cottage.

Here are some other angles of the cottage.

This is the view we get to enjoy each day!

And here is our swimming area, that would be Uncle Jeff having just dived off the board...

Mom and I on our evening swim...

Here is the dinner train coming around the bend, we usually see this train as it makes it way up and down the Gatineau river, and of course always wave at everyone as they ride by enjoying their meals.

A wave back from the conductor!

Lastly, this is a zoomed in shot from across the bay it shows the family's whole swimming area, though you need to subtract the dock on the right hand side.

Could Canada look like any more fun! It is definitely one of my favorite places in the world!

And we're off...

Matt and I go our seperate way's today. He is off to Florida and I'm off to Virginia. Our flights are only minutes apart, so we are making our way to the airport together shortly. We'll be back at it here in Missouri in a couple of weeks. I may try and post while in VA/Canada but I think I've said that before...so in all likelyhood we'll be back in the blog world at the end of the month!

The last couple of weeks

Well, we have had a whirlwind of activity here at the house these last weeks. Over the last month we have had 4 different shipments of our stuff come in, well, 5 if you include the car. And each of those shipments came once a week. I guess that is good for spreading out the work, BUT it also has made the unpacking process feel like it's been going on FOREVER. And we're still not all the way done, the office remains a mess and pictures still need to be hung. I've kind of mentally checked out of this process too, which is of no help in this situation.

In the midst of settling in though we have had some fun times. Last week Ray (my sister's boyfriend) was in town on TDY (for work) and we were able to have him over for dinner. We had fish taco's and I was beyond elated to get the chance to finally use my ceramic fish (the fish was fin-less though, they got lost somewhere in the move). I'd like to take this moment to publicly thank Christina for the fish taco/ceramic fish idea. My creativity is so limited that I never would have thought of an appropriate use for the fish!




We had the chance this past weekend to go up to "The Lake". Osage Beach to be more precise. It was a ton of fun and a gorgeous day! While we didn't participate in the water activities (other than driving across the dam), we did fully emerge ourselves in the outlet mall! We stopped along the side of the road to take a picture of the lake, and of the new car! We have had so much fun with this new car, and it has proven to be very useful!


Most importantly we celebrated Matt's birthday last Friday! Even though Matt was working we got to spend some fun time with each other throughout the day. I made him Cinnamon rolls at breakfast, brought in sushi and birthday cake to him at work during lunch, and we had dinner at a local restaurant called "Matt's Steakhouse" (I think the reason is obvious). Matt enjoyed hearing from his friends and family throughout the day, and this year he got a membership to the "German Beer of the Month Club" for is birthday gift. How fun is it to get a gift that just keeps on giving month after month!

We've got a couple of things coming up for us this month. Matt will be heading out of town for a couple of weeks to go to some different conferences/trainings. He'll be in Orlando, Minneapolis, and Richmond. I'm thinking about heading out to Virginia, to visit with my Mom, and sister, and the kiddo's, during the time he is away. If I head out there I'll also get the chance to drive up to Canada with Mom and spend about a week there, it's very tempting.

I'm also excited about training for and running in an upcoming 1/2 marathon! A college friend/teammate of mine lives fairly close (St. Louis) and we've decided to train for the race together, well, not really together-together since she is about two hours away, but we will be training together in spirit; plus try and meet up for a couple of the longer runs. I'm excited! Of course we only decided to do it this week (6 weeks out), but I think we will be fine with the training, we are both fairly regular runners so hopefully we will be on track to pick right up on a running schedule.