Lots of Family, Lots of Fun

I'll be sharing all the Holiday festivities over the last 2 months in this post, so prepare yourself for lots of pic's!

Thanksgiving

We had such a nice Thanksgiving this year! Matt's parents (Bill and Susanne) came out for a visit (our first visitor's in Missouri). It was wonderful to just enjoy our time together. For the actual Thanksgiving holiday, we made the drive down to Memphis, TN where Susanne's mother, and her sister (+ family) live. It was so fun to share the holiday at her sister's home, we spent the day cooking (of course), it ended up being quite the feast! With friends and family filling the house, everyone was well fed, enjoyed conversation and football!

Chopping some veggies for the salad!

The whole family

Between Holidays

Before Matt's parents left, Matt's Dad helped to set up the train set that they had given us when we moved out here. It had been a tradition in Matt's home to set up the train and Christmas village for the Holiday season. It was a 4 day project (mostly because they were fixing some things along the way). Even though it takes up half the living room, and we had to relocate the couch, chair, and two tables to different rooms, it is so charming and such a special set, it was well worth it!

Some views of our Christmas set up!

The months between Thanksgiving and Christmas were definitely busy with work, getting all the presents out, and all the holiday get togethers. We ended up hosting a Holiday Dessert one evening for the other teachers in the classroom I work in. They and their families came over and we enjoyed some tasty treats, watched the train go round and round, and played some rock band on the Wii. One of the most special things to me was that one kid from our class came (his mother works in our classroom as his aide). He LOVED the train! We layed him down in front of the set and he literally watched the train go around for 4 hours and enjoyed every minute! He is pretty limited in his ability to move (though totally quick and sharp as far as his mind and communication go!), he would lift his head up every time the train came by him, we were all thinking that was some excellent physical therapy for him! I also got the chance to play rockband and chat with his teenage sister. I totally felt like I was back in Germany talking with the teenagers that I was so close to while I was doing youth ministry!

Christmas

We drove out to Virginia for Christmas this year to visit my Mom and Sister (+ family). We were going to leave the Saturday the week before Christmas, but because of a huge snow storm in the area, we decided to wait a day. Good thing we did! It gave them the chance to clean everything up (especially going over the mountains). I counted about 15 vehicles left abandoned by their owners on the side of the road. They were buried in snow up to their windshields, I actually saw a few owners back out with a shovel, trying to dig their cars out! Glad we waited that extra day.

We had lots of fun the rest of the week leading up to Christmas, we were able to spend some time with my friend Jen, who walked us through Colonial Williamsburg (very charming) and brought us to a tavern for dinner, where we enjoyed an excellent meal accompanied by music and magic show preformed by people dressed as traditional Colonial folk!

One of the days we were there we brought my niece and nephew to Busch Gardens, while very few actual rides were open they were still celebrating Christmas in a special way. We saw some awesome shows, rode a couple rides (the open ones), and were in awe of the way they were able to light up the place and make such an awesome festive atmosphere!

Fun at Busch Gardens

A visit with Santa

Finally our last day in VA was Christmas itself, we really enjoyed watching the kiddo's open their gifts, and had a wonderful dinner. There was definite chaos with the four kid's playing with their presents all day, but we had a great time in the midst of it all!

The kid's opened one of the gifts we got them on Christmas Eve (pj's!)

Christmas Chaos, I guess this is what happens when you have 9 people opening gifts on Christmas morning!

We are back home now, Matt is back to work and I have still have a couple days off before school starts again next week. It's been good to have this week to plan some stuff out, clean and organized around the house, and get ready for 2010!

Here's to Happy Holiday's and a Wonderful New Year!

Before's and After's

Matt and I have been working to update some of our furniture around the house. Our hope is to slowly get rid of all the furniture that Matt found "on the side of the road" in college. I don't feel the need to get everything in one whole swoop, that is not a budget friendly plan. Instead we are basically just doing one thing at a time when we feel like it.

Recently I found a dining room chair that I liked at Bed, Bath and Beyond so we decided to replace our existing "side of the road" chairs. I was really happy with the price of the new chairs, especially after using all the 20% off coupons that I got from Matt's mom (thanks Susanne!).

Also. Once we got the chairs we realized that we were going to have to add some height to the table, so Matt got some "feet" from the hardware store and stained them to match the table. I think they turned out great! You can hardly tell they were added!

Here is the before and after of the dining room...

Before

After

The other project that was done is I re-upholstered the pillows on our couch. We decided that we didn't want to buy a whole new set of furniture for our family room. It would be hard to let go of our couch, it is super comfortable and really still in pretty good shape, amazing since I got the couch for free from a family in Germany who had owned it for about 12 years before it came my way (in 2003). Anyways, all it really needed was a good cleaning, restuffing of pillows, and a change in the color scheme. I thought it turned out pretty good!

Before

(taken in 2005, I forgot to get a before shot when I started on the pillows)

After

a close up of the pillows, I forgot to rotate the picture...

If you know me, you probably know that the pillow project was a HUGE undertaking for me and WAY OUT of my comfort zone. I am really not at all comfortable doing craft type projects, I have zero confidence in myself as far as that area is concerned. Basically though, I knew it had to be done, so I walked into the fabric store, told them I'd never sewn anything before, showed them the pillows I wanted to cover, and they basically took it from there. They showed me all the stuff I would need to buy, including a sewing machine. The lady helping me pretty much decided on the color scheme (remember, zero confidence...). I made all my purchases and left the store.

Next, I needed to learn to use the new sewing machine I'd just purchased...thanks to help from some of the ladies at school, I figured out the basics. I am proud to say that I did every pillow, by myself, from start to finish, and did not have to make any do overs! Yay!

Enjoying the fall!

In front of our home with the pretty red bush!

The view coming out of the post's west gate.

Hiking at Lake of the Ozarks.


More Hiking!

This fall has been pretty relaxing and enjoyable in our home. We were able to get out and do some hiking up in Lake of the Ozarks National Park one weekend, on another weekend we went up the Hermann, MO which is a cute little town on the river, it was a town settled by German's a while back, and some of the businesses, shops and homes, and churches are reminiscent of a German town. They were celebrating Oktoberfest and we thought it would be fun to check it out.

I really enjoyed visiting the town and some of the surrounding wineries. Though, I think if we head up that way again it will be during a different time of year...we basically felt like we were in the middle of a college party, which was fun to a degree but got old kind of quickly...I guess we are just getting boring in our old age!

Hmm, let's see...other stuff that has been going on...nothing much really. We are just enjoying life here. Both of us have just been enjoying our jobs and our schedules! I have been proud that we not only are working our full days, but also have been getting in our planned workouts before we head in to work. It kind of makes for early mornings (4:30am early, yikes!), but we also are both done at work by 4pm (give or take 30mins) and are home for a nice long evening!

I really am absolutely loving my job. The little guy I have been working with makes me smile everyday! I think both he and I are learning a ton! The other teachers I've been working with in our classroom are also wonderful to be around. We all seem to be pretty busy and often deal with challenging situations throughout the day, but everyone has such a positive and supportive attitude that it makes for a really pleasant working environment.

I've also been in the midst of some domestic projects on the home front, but I am waiting to take some pictures to show some fun before/after shots, I'll probably post that in the next couple of days!

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.

In our new home

This pic wasn't taken by us! It's fall and the date reads 2006, it was taken by the landlord, it looks exactly the same though, so I thought it would suffice!

It's a duplex (obviously) and we are on the left side of it. While it doesn't look like it from the front it is actually a pretty big home as a duplex, it goes a good distance out to the back and is situated on a hill, so it has two levels to it. It is perfect, a bigger single family home would have just meant more money for wasted space, which didn't make much sense with just the two of us.

We are about halfway settled, we had movers come with my stuff that was in a storage unit in Virgina. Some of my stuff had been in storage for the last three years, it was like Christmas when all the boxes came and I was able sort through everything! We also had movers come with some of Matt's stuff from California, his parents also had some things they were wanting to give us, so that was able to be moved with that shipment as well.

We are now waiting on everything from Germany, and that should arrive here at the end of the month. Which will be great, because our home is kind of humorous right now, we have a dining room table-but no chairs, we have a sitting room with end tables, sofa table, coffee table-but nothing to actually sit on, we are using my camping chairs downstairs in the family room, and I don't even want to talk about the office...our bedroom is set up though (as far as the big furniture pieces go). So that is nice.

We have had some beautiful days the last week, which has been much more reasonable than that crazy hot and humid weather we were greeted with! Matt's job is going well and he is enjoying it. I just recently turned in some resumes to a few positions opening up on post. Two openings are in fitness/recreation, and one is with youth services. Hopefully something comes up, otherwise I will just keep looking!

Made it!

Actually we made it here to MO last Friday it's just taken me a little while to sit and write about it! The drive went very well, and we didn't have to take the crazy long route that we originally planned. We found the car we were looking for in New Mexico! We ended up getting an Audi Allroad and we love it, it's a little older (2001), but it's in pretty good condition and we paid a fair price for it, so we are definitely happy.

Since we arrived we've basically been getting to know the new community we will be living in. We visited one of the local churches on Sunday, and have driven around trying to familiarize ourselves with the area. It's been crazy hot and humid out here!

Matt started work on Monday and is enjoying it. It's been weird sending him off to work in button up shirts and slacks instead of his uniform, but it is just something we are going to need to get used to!

We are looking forward to this weekend, on Saturday we get to have breakfast with some college friends of mine who are travelling close by, AND we get to move into our new place as well! We are excited about getting settled in!

Making our way...

Well, our time in Southern California is up and tomorrow morning we will be making our drive East to Missouri!

The time here has been wonderful we have loved hanging out with Matt's family and friends, there certainly are some special people in this part of the world, we love them!

We have been trying to acclimate back to life in the US. We did some very important shopping... shoes, clothes, cell phones, See's Candies. It was funny getting cell phones. We were just about ready to get some iPhones then the guy at Best Buy mentioned the 3G network..."What's a 3G network?" we asked (a long time spent in Germany will do that to you!). Once we found out what it was we took a look at the coverage for our area in MO, and there was none. I'm glad we checked! Our iPhone days will have to wait. We did get some phones with touch screens though I figured we could get our fingers in shape for the day that we do get them. I'm a planner that way...

Our drive out East is a very random route! Basically we are doing some car shopping along the way (Matt needs a car for daily driving) and stopping in some cities that have the type of car we are looking for, so basically we will be heading to MO, via Santa Fe, Denver, and Kansas City. Hopefully we find what we are looking for! We will definitely let you know!

Last but not least, I heard from my dad yesterday, he made it to Iraq safe and sound and is getting settled into work and his container (his room). So begins the year tour, please pray for his safety and job there as you think about him.

Hopefully next time you hear from us we will have made it safely to Missouri!

OH! I almost forgot! Today marks the last day of Matt's being full time active duty in the Army. He did some truly amazing work during his time in service. I am so proud of the way he served with dignity, honor, and integrity; and we are so thankful for the experiences and opportunites that the Army provided us.

A couple of updates

There were a few trips and events that ended our time in Germany and I wanted to give each of them the attention they were due, so if you scroll down the blog here, start at "The Black Forest" and go up from there, you'll get all the updates.

I guess I should mention also that we flew out of Germany Sunday. Very sad. We arrived in California though to the smiling faces of Matt's parents, and the next day woke up to the bright sunshine of Southern California, it was a good "welcome back".

We will be here in California for a couple of weeks before we start making our way out to Missouri near the end of the month.

A Final Goodbye

It was hard saying goodbye to our friends at the Hospitality House. We were definitely blessed by the friendships we formed there. Many memories were made with that group in just the short 8 months that we had with them.

On Friday night, Jim and Diane hosted a goodbye dinner. The food was amazing and it was just a really nice time to spend with friends. We are going to miss that group so much!

Sorry. No pictures. : (

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Another incredible trip! The weekend after the Black Forest (previous post) we went with a group of friends down to Switzerland for some camping. This camping trip was just my style! We set up a bunch of tents and of course did not forget our air mattresses (I am very particular when it comes to sleeping in comfort!), we ate as a group for breakfast and dinner, and we definitely ate well. Jim and Diane set up our menu and we had things like Flank Steak and Mashed Potato's, Fajitas, Pancakes, French Toast. All that to say...we weren't quite roughing it!

BUT what we were doing was having an incredible time sharing life and adventures with friends. We were rather active this trip and that was right up my alley. On the first day, I decided to wake up early and go for a long run, I went through the mountain valley passing about 10 truly spectacular waterfalls, again, a run where the view was just amazing. Another top ten (yep, that makes two top ten runs in the span of a week). When I got back to the camp some of the group was going to hike for the day. We were hoping to get a good hike in on this trip so Matt and I jumped at the chance.

We left the campsite and started on what we thought would be a decent but not incredibly intense hike. 7 3/4 hours and 1925 calories later we returned to camp absolutely wiped out, I felt particularly wiped with that run in the morning as well as the hike!

We ended up on quite the adventure on the mountain, we ascended pretty high on some fairly steep trails. We found a gorgeous glacier lake that the guys thought would be awesome to try and get in to (I didn't witness anyone getting in much over there knees). We had to cross some pretty terrifying areas of snow on steep inclines. We were met with thunderstorms, and on the decent were also met with steep/tiny trails which required some real thought and careful steps to get down them.

It was an adventure and absolutely a huge highlight of the weekend for everyone that experienced it.

The following day we were definitely up for more physical punishment and went on a bike ride down the valley. It only took us a little under an hour to get to the town we were aiming for, but that was because we pretty much glided downhill for a large part of it. We had lunch in town and made our way back to the campsite, the way back took more like 2 hours since we had to go up hill pretty much the whole way. Matt and I hadn't been on bikes in a while, so boy were our bottoms tired! Though that didn't stop us from riding further up the valley to check out some amazing waterfalls that we had heard about.

An exhausting, yet wonderful trip, I love the memories we made with friends, it will never be forgotten!

Some pics from the hike (unfortunately we forgot the camera during the second days' bike trips)...

Taking a break on the way up...

An incredible view...

Stopping for a snack...

Stopping for a "swim"...

Trekking across the snow, the fear of falling and sliding into the icy, rushing waters at the bottom of the hill had my heart pounding...

Almost there! Don't you love the snow, tank tops, and shorts!