Merry Christmas!

Matt and I have been having a wonderful time visting his family in California! There was a crazy amount of rain in the beginning days of our visit, but things have cleared up and we are enjoying some bright and sunny days! It's been great to warm up a bit!

It has been such a blessing being here and enjoying time together with family and friends. It has been such a joy to get the opportunity to visit with everyone.

Tomorrow is our last day here, then we take off on our train trip back home. So fun! We will definitely be sharing some pics from that trip, until then...enjoy the Christmas pics!

The Family Pic

My love and I

The Family Dinner

An awesome bracelet that Katie got Susanne and I, it's made out of two antique silver spoons!

Fun Christmas Gifts for the Family!

Susanne is loving her new Ugg's

I got Matt and Autobahn road sign. A nice reminder of our obsession with Germany!

Katie got the Kindle she was hoping for!

We had to include Baci!

This is the beautiful pearl ring that Matt got me, I have been looking for the perfect pearl ring for years! I actually found this one last summer while we were on the Cape, I saw it at the Jewelry store, then went home to "think about it". I actually showed up at the store the next day to purchase it, and was told that it had been sold. I was so sad, but it turned out that Matt was the one who had bought it and kept it as a surprise for me to find under the tree!

I obviously had to include this pic!

Some fun!

The week before Christmas break at school is always a lot of fun, with different events and activities, scheduled throughout. Some friends of mine and I decided to embrace the "Tacky Christmas Sweater" contest, and made our own creation. We totally won!

This Weekend

Matt and I were in St. Louis this weekend so that I could run a 1/2 Marathon with my friend Katy! We had a GREAT race, both of us did well, we stayed consistant with our planned splits until mile 4. Then somehow we were able to get faster and faster for each mile after that. The race absolutely flew by! I'm a little sore, and think I may have bruised the ball of my foot (ouch!), but nothing a few days rest can't handle, though I have to teach step class tomorrow. I think I'll be taking it easy on them for once!

At the start of the race!



Still smiling at the finish!

Our Anniversary

Matt and I had a great evening celebrating our 2nd anniversary, the actual day was last Monday, but we waited and celebrated it on Friday. We were going to be in St. Louis for the weekend so we decided to wait and have a fun dinner at Morton's Steakhouse. It was so yummy, and a fun night together!

Last Weekend

We had a great day celebrating my birthday last weekend. It was exactly what I hoped for, a totally relaxing day and going out for lunch/dinner. Matt also made some yummy waffles for me for breakfast. It was so nice to wake up to the smell of waffles cooking away!


Breakfast!



Reading the new Kindle that my parents got me, I pretty much spent the entire day reading!

Matt made me cupcakes, he brought one down to me while I was talking on the phone to his parents!

It was a great birthday!

Our new office

I know it would be nice to give you some before and after shots of our office, but I was so embarassed about the state of our previous office that I didn't want to document it!

On our way home from vacation, Matt and I had planned on stopping at an Ikea, and picking up some bookcases. We were definitely in need of them since we still had about 20 boxes of books in our storage room. Plus since Ikea has some resonable prices on their bookcases, and we didn't need anything too fancy...they were the way to go!

We planned out the trip pretty well, when we mapped out our route and compared it to Ikea store locations, we were able to find one that was right on the way! When we left the Cape our car was already pretty full. We had picked up a beautiful hope chest that my nana had been wanting to give me for years now, I just never had the space in a vehicle to move it! Anyways we decided we would need to rent a Uhaul trailer if we were picking up these bookcases, since there was no way they were going to fit!

We thought we knew exactly what we were planning on buying as far as color, style, and number of bookcases. We even spent some time walking through an Ikea when we were in Canada to solidify our decison! Of course when we got there (with our Uhaul in tow!) we were overwhelmed with many more options than we had seen at any other Ikea or online, so our planning began again from phase one! We found ourselves sitting in the Home Office section of the store at one of the desk and chair set ups and replanned everything! It was a good thing we brought all the measurements for the office! Also instead of just getting bookcases, we decided to get desks and tables too, basically, an entirely new office! Good thing we had the Uhaul. Our trip to Ikea took every bit of 5 hours, but we were happy with the results!

We were also excited that we can fit another few bookcases into the room, believe it or not, we still need more! So, one day we will make another trip!

Hummingbirds

These hummingbirds have been our morning entertainment each day! I like to sit on the front porch with my cup of tea in the morning before school and watch these guys go crazy over the bird feeder!

They are actually pretty much constant entertainment all day, the only time we have to sit and watch them though is early morning and evening. At one point we counted about 10 hummingbirds, fighting for their chance at the sugar water! Very fun!

I hope the video came out ok! If not you can link to it on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ow0eNEjQ2I

I know it's not a very long version but I hope you get the idea!

Our Vacation

Matt and I were incredibly lucky to be able to take 2 and 1/2 weeks of vacation this summer. We spent 1 week in Canada, and 1 week on Cape Cod (the rest of the days were driving days!) we had a completely relaxing and fun time with our family.

We started our trip with a drive up to Canada, we took it slow and spent about 2 1/2 days on the road. We spent a great day (Matt's Birthday) in Niagara Falls along our way. It was fun to be about to stop and break up some drive time!

Our time in Canada was pure relaxation. It was Matt's first time in Canada and I was so excited to introduce him to it! We spent our days lounging by the river, then lounging up at the cottage, then... lounging by the river again! We did make a couple little excursions. One day we drove into Ottawa and visited the market and Parliment buildings. Another day we spent some time driving around a nearby national park.

The next half of the trip was with Matt's family on Cape Cod, we got some quality time with my family too which was good! On the Cape we mostly enjoyed spending time at the beach, on the lake, or on the boat. Those days along with some fabulous meals and quality time with family made for a trip that couldn't have been better!

We came home so relaxed, it was great to get away! Our trip home deserves it's own post, so be looking for that over the next couple of days!

Canada Pics

Cape Cod Pics

A great night!

Matt and I spent the evening last night going to dinner and the theater in St. Louis! It was so much fun and the performance was AMAZING. I had been wanting to see this musical for a long time now and am so excited we got the opportunity!

My wonderful husband was perfectly happy and excited for the evening, even though it meant the long drive into St. Louis for the show and not getting home til 1:30am. It is the middle of his work week, and he needed to be at work early the next morning. Plus he doesn't get much time off this weekend since it is his units drill weekend. Thank you babes for such a fun night!

Welcome Home Dad!

About a week and a half ago my dad returned from his deployment. Mom, Matt, and I along with some friends decided to surprise him and meet him on his late night arrival into Springfield, MO (he thought only mom would be there). It ended up being an interesting night since our little welcome party was running around this small airport looking for my dad, who it turned out got stuck in Memphis and wasn't going to be arriving until the next morning. So we took our picture with all our welcome home items, emailed it to him and drove the hour and a half back home... mom went and picked up dad in the morning, the rest of us had to be at work.

The week that mom and dad were here was fantastic! We enjoyed some great time together, most notably was Fathers Day. We rented a boat and spent the day out on the lake, it was fun speeding around the water and finding quiet coves to anchor in for some swimming! So fun!

Matt and I are back to some quiet days now that mom and dad headed back to dad's new assignment in Maryland. Summer school is over for me, so I'm trying to fill my days with projects I've been meaning to get done!

Since it became a little easier...

I changed the look of the blog! I guess blogger added a "design" feature. It made it pretty easy to change up our background with the click of a button. Has this feature been here for a while? I'm embarassed if it has because I just noticed it!

Oh and... look forward to some more updates! My dad just got back from his deployment (yay!), mom came out here to welcome him back and we got to spend a fun week with the them. Once I organize pictures/thoughts, I'll post!

Another Before and After

Since we moved into to our place we have been wanting to get some new furniture for the upstairs living room. The couch that we had was really just a "placekeeper", Matt found it in college on the side of the road (again) and he's had it since. While it served him well during those college years and beyond it was definitely time for a new couch!

Before

I actually had to stuff the cushions of this couch with 9 folded up towels to fill it up just a little!

After

Yay! We love our new couch and chair!

Our Happy Home

Spring fever hit us this year. We recently planted flowers, bought patio furniture and decor for the front of the house. I think it turned out pretty good!

Our Weekend

If I don't post now, I know I will forget!

Matt and I had a fun weekend, we headed down to Nashville, TN to run in the Country Music Half Marathon. We were signed up to race with another friend of his, unfortunately we all got seperated before the race even started, so we each ran our own race. Mine went really well. I felt really strong and even got faster as I closed in on some of the final miles (usually I get passed by EVERYONE, except walkers, at the end, but this time I was doing the passing, yay!).

Here we are at the start:

Matt and I were wearing my old rowing gear since we were expecting some pretty severe stormy weather! Luckily the rain held off until we finished the race and hopped into the car!

The evening after the race we headed up to stay with some friends of ours from Germany. It was great to spend time with the Toth's, we had a nice time catching up them and another friend David, who lives close by. The Toth's kiddo's (who we'd only "met" in pictures) were truly adorable! I'm bummed we didn't catch a picture of all of us.

Thanks for having us Kristen and Kevin! It was great to have such yummy meals (I need that pancake recipe!), a comfy bed, and the opportunity to meet your darling children!

California!!

Last weekend I had a great trip out to California! I headed out there to celebrate my friend Julie's wedding. It was a wonderful day and Julie was a beautiful bride!

The days leading up to the wedding were also pretty fabulous. I was able to reunite with a wonderful group of friends, we were all on staff together, doing youth ministry throughout Europe. I hadn't seen some of them in 7 years! We had days full of girl stuff...talking, pedicures, lunches! Lots of fun.

I was also able to spend some fun time with Matt's parents. I spent about 2 days out at their place and it was a wonderful way to relax after all the events of the previous weekend. I was also able to go out on one of my favorite runs, it's about 10 miles long, so it fit in well with my 1/2 marathon training program. I love the scenery from that run, it goes pretty high up over their town and I was able to view the beautiful mountains and hills that are around their area, that along with running by beautiful homes. I stayed very visually entertained!

This is my first time doing the whole collage thing, I think it has made it that all of the text is centered, I'll try and figure out how to fix that one day! My understanding is that if you want to view a picture more closely on the collage, just click on it and you get a larger view!

Some Updates!

It's been Thanksgiving/Christmas for too long...hence my need to update the blog!

Update #1 Lots of work and trips

My hard working husband has a long month ahead of him. Due to some out of town trips he currently only has 2 days in March off... yikes. I hope he decides to take a day off this week, he needs some time just to himself to relax and do some projects with the Porsche that have been on his mind. February was a busy month for him as well, but he had the chance on one of his trips to spend a weekend with his parents in California, he really enjoyed a much needed relaxing couple of days with them!

Update #2 Some travel for me too

I'm not quite traveling for work like Matt has been, unless you count our monthly field trips at school! I am excited for a visit out to the LA area at the end of the month! My wonderful friend Julie is getting married and I am so excited to spend some time with her and other friends previous to the wedding and enjoying her special day as well! I will also be able to get a couple of days to spend with Matt's parents. Yippee!

Update #3 Don't be jealous

We were able to host some wonderful guests this past week. Our friends Nate and Lynn were near our area for a family event and they came out to stay a night with us. It was so fun to see them! We enjoyed reliving memories from the days we were in Schweinfurt, Germany. It was also awesome to hear about their upcoming ventures into the mission field. What an amazing couple to go out and share God's word and love to those who may never have the opportunity to hear it.

Update #4 Deployments

My dad was recently able to go home to Virginia for his 2 week R and R, he enjoyed spending time with Mom (of course), my sister + family, and other family in the Boston area. I was sad not to get the chance to see him, but am looking forward to seeing him on his return this summer.

My sister's fiance (Ray) deployed this past week, so they are beginning their year long separation.

Update #5 Off to the races!

Matt and I are excited about a half marathon we are racing in at the end of April. We will be heading down to Nashville, TN for the race, and can't wait! Training recently began and boy are my legs tired. I kind of attribute it to stuff other than running...

I recently received my group exercise certifications in step class and indoor cycling. I have added 3 step classes in my week. 2 of which I am leading and 1 that I am participating in. It's been a blast and I am loving it, but with those classes, the half marathon training, plus a new phase of weight training that started this month. I am definitely tired at the end of the week. Hopefully my body will get used to this extra work!

Update #6 Spring Break!

I am looking forward to Spring Break! It begins at the end of this upcoming week. My mom is coming out to visit for the time and I am so excited to have her here. Hopefully we will get some good golf days in!