Matt and Heather

The Hope Chest

2011-06-24T21:28:00.001+02:00

Last summer, right as we were coming back home from vacation, my Grandmother gave me this hope chest that had been in the family. I didn't have the chance when we first got back to do any work on it since school was starting, and I became pretty busy!Once summer started this year I decided I needed to get started on it. Here are the "before" and after pics...I don't have the best "before" pic, basically because I was so excited to get started on the project that I had forgotten to take a picture before doing anything. So I ended up remembering about halfway through the paint stripping process to get a pic.From the first picture you can at least get an idea of the color it had been painted it what it might have looked like.The second pic shows the completed project, basically I stripped the whole thing down, sanded it, stained it, and finished it with about 5 coats of polyurethane!The third pic shows the placement of the chest in our house! I'd been hoping to put it at the foot of our bed if it turned out nice, it's probably a little "too much" with all the other giant furniture we have in our bedroom. But at least it makes me smile when I see it every day!Finally, it is not actually all the way finished...there is a seat cushion and pillows that go with it as well, but I am having those reupholstered. So I will get you a final-final picture when that comes in!

Float Trip!

2011-06-22T15:37:00.008+02:00

This past weekend some friends from school and I went on a float trip! It was lots of fun. Basically you just get dropped off upriver and begin to float down. Our floating lasted about 7 hours, so it was a good long day! Though it did seem to fly by and nobody wanted it to end!

Starting off!

Preparing the raft

On a swim

The "boat" we made with our watermelon from lunch

Running Fun!

2011-05-02T02:39:00.002+02:00

We just got home from a trip down to Nashville, TN! This was our second year running in the Country Music 1/2 Marathon. It was a fun time!

This year I was able to talk some of the other ladies I work with into joining us, I was able to train with these ladies the last couple of month's and it was fun to race with them! The race went pretty well for all of us, at least we all finished that is, I always think that is the biggest accomplishment. I unexpectedly had a little asthma flare up at like mile 3 (I almost never have asthma issues, it's only been like 3 times in the last 4 years), it wasn't enough to make me stop, I basically had to slow down pretty dramatically though and just do an easy jog for a couple of miles, then it subsided enough to finish out the race with no real issues. I will make sure to have an inhaler on me for my runs here on out. I guess I learned my lesson.

Matt and I were able to stay with some friends Joey and Kristina, who we knew in Germany, it was fun to reconnect with them and spend some good quality time with them as well!

Snow Days in Abundance

2011-02-13T16:40:00.002+01:00

So in the last 2 weeks of school we have only actually been to school for 3 days. It's been pretty crazy, especially considering that we've had at least two snow days every week (except for one week) since we got back from Christmas break! I'm definitely feeling bad for the classroom teachers in the school since all the state testing stuff is quickly approaching and we've definitely been out of school far more than we have been in school over the last month and a half! I'm not even going to think about including the month of Dec in that equation with Christmas break and everything, it is too depressing!

We are excited around here for a big thaw this upcoming week! Weather looks to be great and I am excited for a full week of school, though I have a feeling all the kiddo's and staff will be exhausted by the end of the week (a whole week of school, what's that?).

I haven't had it so bad during this time off though. I am close enough with the little kiddo I work with, and his family, that I was able to spend some time over at their place doing some lessons with him and keeping him up on some of his work (I wasn't letting him get away with that many snow days!). I've also been able to get out a little with some friends close by, a couple of lunches out and a coffee or two!

Some of us even got together a few nights ago to celebrate what we were calling "Spring Break 2011, Baby" mainly because these snow days we are having aren't free, they need to be made up... we've already added a couple days to the end of school, we've lost all holidays between now and then, and this last round of snow days is supposed to cut into our spring break significantly.

Hence my disdain over snow days! It's going to be a long couple of months!

Bracing Ourselves!!

2011-02-01T03:11:00.002+01:00

We are awaiting a pretty big snow storm here, I know some folks wouldn't be too impressed with the 13-16 inches of snow forcasted, but I certainly am. I'm looking forward to fun in the snow over the next couple of days! Both of us already have the day off and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it turned into the rest of the week...at least for me anyways, Matt will likely be back to work in a day or two.

I'm actually kind of excited for some winter adventuring. We just recently cut off our cable (I hated paying for it, when I never found anything that great to watch); so I think we are going to be forced to play outside! I'll definitely stay in a read a lot too, plus work on a couple projects around the house.

I'm looking forward to sharing some fun pics over the next few days. I have to go now and blow up one of my pool rafts in preparation for flying down some snow covered hills tomorrow. Matt doesn't think the raft will last long...I'm much more optimistic!

The Train!

2011-01-16T01:34:00.001+01:00

We took our trip home from Christmas on the train! We departed from Fullerton, Ca and arrived in Kansas City. It was a great trip and even though the total trip time was about 35 hours, it didn't feel so long. We were able to get a sleeping compartment, so basically that meant we had a room to ourselves. We were able to read, work on computers, check out the beautiful scenery, and take naps whenever we wanted to! We also were able to visit the dining car for our meals, and if the train had a longer stop in a town, we would get off and do some walking to strech out our legs. We really enjoyed our train adventure and hope that you enjoy the pics!

Our room, the dining car, the shower, etc...

Some breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T22:50:00.003+01:00

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!

2010-12-25T22:11:00.008+01:00

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!

2010-12-16T14:16:00.003+01:00

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

2010-10-04T00:53:00.000+02:00

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

2010-10-04T00:44:00.001+02:00

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

2010-10-04T00:34:00.001+02:00

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

2010-09-06T16:20:00.005+02:00

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

2010-09-04T18:28:00.003+02:00

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

2010-08-23T02:59:00.002+02:00

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

2010-08-23T02:57:00.003+02:00

Cape Cod Pics

2010-08-23T02:55:00.006+02:00

A great night!

2010-07-08T17:24:00.005+02:00

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!

2010-06-25T23:30:00.003+02:00

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...

2010-06-24T16:53:00.002+02:00

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

2010-05-23T17:25:00.004+02:00

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

2010-05-08T00:40:00.004+02:00

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

2010-04-26T03:44:00.004+02:00

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!!

2010-04-02T16:55:00.001+02:00

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!

2010-03-08T00:06:00.004+01:00

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!

Lots of Family, Lots of Fun

2009-12-30T00:00:00.006+01:00

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

2009-11-22T05:05:00.004+01:00

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!

2009-11-15T21:48:00.006+01:00

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

2009-10-11T01:10:00.004+02:00

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!

2009-09-20T01:44:00.004+02:00

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...

2009-09-04T16:01:00.003+02:00

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!!

2009-08-31T04:04:00.003+02:00

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

2009-08-25T21:15:00.008+02:00

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...

2009-08-04T01:32:00.004+02:00

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

2009-07-29T20:42:00.004+02:00

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

2009-07-08T14:31:00.005+02:00

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!

2009-06-24T21:20:00.002+02:00

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...

2009-06-16T07:05:00.003+02:00

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

2009-06-02T00:09:00.003+02:00

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

2009-06-02T00:03:00.004+02:00

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

2009-06-01T23:31:00.007+02:00

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!

The Black Forest

2009-06-01T23:16:00.007+02:00

For a long time, we have been wanting to do a driving tour through the Black Forest. Matt has a book that routes out a bunch of different driving tours throughout Germany. Since the Black Forest was most interesting to us we headed out one weekend for a 2 1/2 day driving trip.

The Porsche, of course, was our mode of transportation. We had a ton of fun winding around throughout the forested highways. The scenery was incredible. Absolutely beautiful. We took time to do some hiking as well, we walked up to pretty cool waterfall and enjoyed exploring the area. On our second day we went out for a long run. We ran along small roads and trails and the view could not be beat. There were forests and fields all around us and in the distance you could see the river that marks the Swiss border and further in the distance were the beautiful snow-capped Swiss Alps. That run was definitely on my top ten list!

Here we are on the side of the road with one of the views we were able to enjoy.

Here we are at the waterfall

The view during our run, can you see the far off mountains? (It's weird that the picture came out so hazy, it was pretty clear that day...oh well)

Ft. Leonard Wood, here we come!

2009-05-03T17:16:00.003+02:00

For those of you who have been wondering where Matt and Heather are going to end up...

Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri is the spot for now! A couple of weeks ago Matt was offered a job as a civilian employee at the post. Yep that's right. A civilian. We were excited about the opportunity to enter the civilian world in the federal employment system, and decided to take the job! We have been trying to figure out how to take all the steps of getting out of the regular army and moving to the states in a month! It is kind of overwhelming, but I think we are handling it very well!

We are excited about the move. Unfortunately we are going to be missing my parents by about two weeks. They are currently stationed there, my dad's change of command though is a little later this month and we plan to arrive early to mid June. I'm sad to be missing them. They are hard at work right now trying to find us a place to live which has been such a blessing. On a prayer note... my dad's next duty assignment is a deployment. He will basically be dropping off my mom in VA (she will be close to my sister and her kiddo's); then preparing for a year long deployment down range. So as you think of and pray for our troops down range, please include "Heather's Dad" in those thoughts and prayers.

So, yea. Ft. Leonard Wood. Thinking about this move is kind of bittersweet. We are SO EXCITED about this job and the opportunities that await us, but this is not an easy place to leave either. I'm sure that you can tell from previous posts that we have been truly blessed and have absolutely loved living in Germany. Leaving our friends and this side of the world is hard to do. But we feel like after months and months of praying God has really opened the doors for us to take this position, and we are excited to find out what His plans entail!

We will definitely keep you posted as to how the move is going and how things end up stateside, so stay tuned!

Oh and a big thanks to all of those who have just been praying, and praying for us, we appreciate you so much, and are so glad to share an answer to prayer.

I love spring!

2009-04-26T15:26:00.004+02:00

It is just so beautiful out here. Spring is in full effect, the sky has been blue, the fields are bright green, and flowers are all over the place! Yesterday I was able to go out to one of the local flower fields and cut my own tulips. Very fun!

Italia!

2009-04-08T14:06:00.012+02:00

This past weekend was a "4 day" for us military folk, Matt and I made the most of it by travelling down to Italy! We went down with some friends of ours and just had a great weekend. We stayed in Vicenza and on the first day did some shopping in the local area, and on the second day, drove out to Venice. It was a great time with friends and seeing all the awesome sights.

We have been wanting to increase our pottery (dishware) collection, and there is a neat little town in Northern Italy that makes some of the dishes for names like Tiffany and Co., Williams Sonoma, and Lenox, along with lots of other Italian style pottery. It is very fun to shop there, and very inexpensive!

Here I am picking out a couple of fun pieces.

I was so excited that Robert and Christina decided to get this next piece of pottery. I actually got one a couple of years back and was SO EXCITED about it! It was fun that Christina shared my excitement for fish pottery!

After shopping we headed to Mariostica! Another local town. Since we couldn't find the pizza place we were looking for we decided to have lunch at the castle/fortress up on the hill. We had an amazing meal and a lot of fun exploring the area!

After lunch and exploring Marostica we headed back to Vicenza so we would have enough time to do some wine tasting and shopping! We made our way to the local winery, tasted some great wines, and bought bottles that cost about $2.50. Such awesome deals that we couldn't resist but overload on the amount of wine we bought! I'm pretty sure it will last us through the year. Very fun!

Venice came next on Sunday it was a beautiful day (again) we were so excited to just walk around and take it all in.

I don't think we could love living in Europe more! We are so blessed to be able to do these kinds of things and just enjoy life and each other!

Our trip to the states

2009-03-28T11:14:00.003+01:00

Matt and I recently returned from a nice long trip back to the states. We headed over there on a job search and spent just over 3 weeks making our way from Cape Cod to Southern California.

Along the way Matt had job interviews and we visited with quite a few of our friends and family. Big thanks go out to all our hosts throughout the trip: Linda and Bruce, Karen and Chris, Beth and Jeff, Erica and Ray, Mom and Dad Megnia, Beth, Allan and Emily, and Mom and Dad Angliss. We really appreciated being able to stay with each of you and just had a wonderful time catching up, thanks for all your help and encouragement during our travels.

As far as our next step in life goes. We are still trying to make decisions. Matt had some good interviews and good visits with potential employers. Each opportunity seems to have it's own long story attached to it, so rather than go over everything. I will just say that we are still trying to figure out what is best for us to do right now! We will definitely update you all when we know!

We had to travel pretty light so Matt didn't bring his big camera along we were able get two shots off though with a small little camera we brought.

Here we are in New Mexico on the last leg of our journey!

Valentine's Day!

2009-02-15T08:35:00.009+01:00

We had our first "married couple" Valentines Day yesterday and it was a good one! Some hiccup's and some sweet little memories were made.

The day before Valentine's Day, Matt, well, tried to sweetly surprise me with some flowers. He came home from a short day at work and walked into the house, I had just spent the morning cleaning the house so, when he got home I still hadn't really gotten ready for the day. After he arrived I jumped in to the shower, to start getting ready.

I guess he didn't realize this and he went back outside to grab the flowers and card he got for me. Something that needs to be mentioned here is that most front doors in Germany have an automatic lock when you close them. So basically he was locked out. He didn't see any problem, he had planned to ring the bell and when I opened the door he had flowers for me. Since he didn't realize I'd jumped into the shower, it didn't quite turn out the way he planned...

I was upstairs in my own little world and didn't hear the bell ring with the water running. When I finally did finish I heard the doorbell, grabbed my robe, and ran down to get it (I knew it must be him, since no one else would be ringing our bell). I opened the door to my sad, snow covered husband (it was really cold and snowy), and a beautiful arrangement of Gerber Daisies (my favorite). He had been locked out for a good 20 minutes. Poor guy.

On Valentine's morning I made some chocolate chip pancakes as a special little treat for us. I initially planned on just making the pancakes with a little whip cream heart on top of them to commemorate the occasion. I started getting a little more into as I went though. I remembered we had some chocolate syrup in the fridge, and then I noticed some red candles left over from christmas, along with our red placemats and napkin holders, which I forgot we had. So I ended up turning it into quite the spread. Flower arrangement center piece, lit candles, formally set table with all our good silver and glassware. I used the whip cream, chocolate sauce, and some powdered sugar to create a fancy little set up on the plate for the pancakes... it ended up being a lot of fun! Maybe we will do that again next year...it could turn in to a tradition, we will have to see.

We spent a couple hours at home, then headed out to Wurzburg (the city I used to live in when I was here doing ministry a couple of years back). It was fun to walk around and window shop. We walked up to the fortress and had a great time just exploring. We of course had planned to go to my favorite little restaurant, I lovingly call the place "Schuphnudlen" (I nicknamed it for my favorite side dish they serve there...); it is actually called "Till Eulenspiegel". Anyways, we sat down excited about indulging in all our favorites. We had planned on a big pretzel and camembert for our appetizer, the Altbierbowle (a beer filled with fruit, so very good), Bratwurst, and of course... Schuphnudlen. Unfortunately when the waitress arrived she said that the kitchen was going through remodeling and they only had a limited menu. When we looked at what they now were serving we found only the pretzel, since we were pretty hungry (I had been saving my calories most of the day for this dinner...) we decided to have the pretzel as a snack and head out to another restaurant we liked in the area.

When we arrived at the other spot, a greek restaurant which was another favorite, we were quickly reminded of attempting to go out to dinner on Valentine's Day in the States. It was a madhouse, and that is very weird for dining out in Germany. It was actually kind of humorous to watch the waiter's and waitress's running around, eye's wide in shock and surprise with how busy it was. After a wait (also very weird in Germany) we were led to our table, ordered some of our favorites, and proceeded to wait an hour for our food... very much like eating out in the states on Valentine's day. Luckily it continued to remain humorous watching all the activity around us, spilled drinks from the waiters running into each other were abundant, customers were being pushed and herded to tables before the former patrons were even up, causing major traffic jams...hilarious.

So that was our Valentine's Day! How was yours?

Porsche's Everywhere!

2009-02-09T19:43:00.003+01:00

Matt and I enjoyed a little day trip down to Stuttgart to visit the new Porsche Museum! It was awesome! We had been to the previous Porsche Museum a couple years back, that was pretty cool in itself, but THIS one was like 10 times bigger with a ton more cars! So fun.

A fun trip!

2009-01-23T16:00:00.007+01:00

Since Matt had a 4 day weekend this past weekend we decided to take advantage of it and get some skiing in! We took a great trip to Zermatt, Switzerland and definitely made some fun memories!

We ran into some closed mountain passes in Switzerland on our drive down. Rather than heading back up towards Germany then go around the whole country of Switzerland (quite a few hours out of the way), we found out about a train that we could drive the car onto, it would take us into a tunnel, go through the mountain, and would put us on a direct route to Zermatt. It cut off about 2 and a half hours from our trip and saved a ton of gas. It was something we had never experienced before, unfortunately it was dark by the time we got on the train and we couldn't really take pics, but it was definitely fun, and it felt so very weird to be sitting in the car while the train was moving.

When we got to Zermatt it was dark, so we couldn't really see any of the surrounding mountains. We checked in to the hostel we were staying in. When we woke up in the morning we were greeted with this sight...

Waking up to the beautiful scenery and such a beautiful day got us excited to get our ski stuff and get up on the mountain.

Matt had some difficulty finding good ski boots for his feet. Nothing seemed to be working for his flat feet and everything he tried on just wasn't going to work. Since the shoes were much more comfortable we came up the idea that he would make his first attempt at snowboarding...we had a lot of fun up on the mountain, and Matt really did great, he started picking it up pretty quickly, though he ended up falling quite a bit and definitely came down pretty hard on his tailbone quite a few times. I enjoyed the skiing, I wanted to stay with him, so it wasn't my usual "fast as I could go down the slopes." I had a nice gentle day of skiing, and was able to work on some technique stuff that I usually don't have the patience to work on! It ended up being great day! Here are some shots of us up the mountain!

Our next day Matt woke up pretty sore (understandably), and the winds up on the higher part of the mountain were getting pretty bad so all the slopes up there were closed. We decided to do some hiking instead of skiing, and we had a great time. We hiked up to one of the towns further up the mountain from Zermatt, it was called Z'Mutt (which I think is a great name for a dog!) there were hardly any people on the trails, it was so quiet and peaceful, though at one time I got freaked out when a bird ended up flying up behind me and glanced the side of my head...that part wasn't terribly peaceful! When we got to Z'Mutt we found that it really was just a little area with a Restaurant, a little Guesthouse, and a couple of barns, AND it was completely deserted, not one person in sight! It was just a really fun adventure. Here are some shots from our hike.

Our regular readers may notice that the first of our hiking shots is the same shot we took when we visited Zermatt in September on our Honeymoon! Very fun!

After hiking we did a couple of other things on the mountain and after a few hours I unfortunately started to not feel too good. I had woken up a little stuffy and had a sore throat earlier that morning, I started feeling pretty good once we got out moving, but that didn't last very long, I really started to feel like a cold was coming on. Also, since it was starting to snow quite a bit, we decided to leave that evening instead of the next morning. We had quite a drive trying to get out of the valley Zermatt was in and onto the Autobahn, the roads were really bad and our car just wasn't handling it too well. What was normally a 30min drive took about 2 hours, but we finally made it too the Autobahn and the rest of the way home was clear, smooth sailing. We got home kind of late, but it was nice that we had the day a home the next day, I really needed that day to rest, so it was good!

It was a fun trip and we are so thankful for the chances we get to travel around!

...and a happy New Year's!

2009-01-02T23:45:00.007+01:00

We had a fun New Year's in the Angliss home this year! A few of our friends came over to celebrate with us. I got the chance to put our fondue pots to use and made two cheese and one chocolate fondue, with all the bread, steak, fruit, and cake, plus the dishes that others brought; we had quite the feast!

We enjoyed great conversations throughout the evening. Matt and I gifted ourselves with Rockband 2 for Christmas, we had lots of fun playing that!

PLUS!! Since they are legal in Germany...FIREWORKS were definitely rather enjoyable! At one point before midnight I was in the kitchen and it got kind of quiet in the house, I went out to the dining room, saw the girls, and asked where all the guys went, after a loud BANG from outside we all knew exactly what our guys were getting into!

It was a late night and we are still trying to catch up on our sleep, but it was well worth it!

Here are some shots from the evening!

Playing Rockband!!

The newly engaged couple! It was fun to celebrate this special night with them!

Excited about the fireworks!

How many can you set off at once?

And they're off!

Is this safe?

Ok, I KNOW this is not safe...

I'm just glad that Matt was behind the camera and not the fireworks!

A very merry Christmas...

2008-12-28T23:16:00.005+01:00

Our Christmas holiday started in San Diego about 2 weeks prior to Christmas day. Matt was scheduled for a job conference and he was planning on getting the chance to interview with a couple of companies while we were there, unfortunately though, the companies he was scheduled to interview with ended up dropping out of the conference, so no luck there. That was a bummer, but on the bright side, my parents were visiting San Diego for my dad's work and we got the chance to spend some time, and share some meals with them. One especially notable meal was at Morton's Steakhouse (Matt's favorite), it was oh-so-good!

After a few days in San Diego we headed up to Redlands to spend the rest of our time with Matt's family. We had a few days at first with his mom and dad; a little later his sister flew out and the family was all together! We enjoyed last minute shopping, some awesome meals, HDTV, and just spending time with everyone!

On Christmas Eve we celebrated our Lord's birth at Matt's parents' church. Afterwards, Matt and I drove around town looking for local newspaper machines...our wedding announcement wound up in the paper that day and it surprisingly took some searching to find the 12 copies we were hoping to get! After our "tour of the town" we stopped off at Panera to pick up some bread and headed home to an awesome Christmas Eve dinner with the family!

After we finished dinner we moved to the living room to open some presents! It was so fun to watch everyone open their gifts, and we are so thankful for the gifts that we received. The next shot is me opening up a gift from Matt, he got me a teapot!

This was such a wonderful gift since I had been mentioning my desire to start a little teapot collection...everytime I talked about it though Matt would laugh and roll his eyes, so I figured it wasn't going to happen! I am afraid though that he will view my teapot collection as approval for him to start a Porsche collection, since everytime he mentions that, I laugh and roll my eyes!

We had a great breakfast on Christmas morning then spent the day gearing up for a little get together that Bill and Susanne were hosting. Friends stopped by all throughout the evening, we had such a nice time catching up with folks that we don't get to see often enough.

The day after Christmas was a long one! Both Matt and I woke up early to go on our runs, then we went out to breakfast with some of Matt's friends, after that it was off to a couple of stores and the post office. When we got back we had about two hours to pack, then it was off to LAX for our long trip home.

Our flights and drive home all went well and now we are trying to recover from jet lag and get back to life here in Germany. Our search for jobs still is not over, please keep us in your prayers as we continue to seek out a variety of opportunities.

A wonderful Thanksgiving!

2008-12-03T17:26:00.003+01:00

What an awesome week we had for Thanksgiving! It started on the Sunday before Thanksgiving with an very tasty Thanksgiving meal at the Hospitality House (one of the ministries going on here in Heidelberg). Then Tuesday of that week the Dining Facility at Matt's work had their formal Thanksgiving meal, which was also so very good! And finally for Thanksgiving Day itself we were off to.....

Switzerland!!

Yes, again. Can't get enough of that place! We actually went down with a group of folks who go to the Hospitality House, and had such a good time. This time we were in Interlaken, it was truly beautiful! The snowy mountains all around us were incredible!

We had a ton of fun touring around Interlaken and some of the surrounding area, and some of us had a great day sledding! We literally sled down a mountain, yes a mountain, really. It took two hours to go on one run...yes we had to stop some, and yes we got lost, and yes we ended up on a road dodging cars...very exciting. The second run was a little shorter (we only went halfway down the mountain) but still had the same adventurous feel, we took a wrong turn and decided the best way to get back was to go down the "closed" area, we had a humorous time going down steep slopes that at some points had snow hip deep. Our third run went off with out a hitch, that was until the ski patrol caught up with us and escorted off the mountain...(it was closing time and I'm pretty sure we were the only ones left!)

Here are some pics from our weekend!

The Hostel's Dog, couldn't resist this pic!

Comin' round the bend!

Stuck in the snow!

Group Picture!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

2008-11-22T19:51:00.003+01:00

This morning we woke up to a winter wonderland, and couldn't resist getting out to take some pictures!

First we walked down to the Schloss!

Then we headed out to the fields right by our house!

Here is a view of part of the town.

It's supposed to snow more this weekend too! So fun!

Enjoying our Wedding Gifts!

2008-11-02T21:10:00.003+01:00

Matt and I have been enjoying our wedding gifts SO MUCH! We have made some really yummy meals in all the different cookware we've been given and we've received lots of compliments on our serving dishes. Right now actually I'm enjoying a very tasty glass of red wine (wedding gift) in a beautiful piece of stemware (also a gift!). Using our gifts have just been so much fun! Thank you everyone!

Here is a pic of me making some stir fry in the awesome wok my coaching friends gave us!

Page Updates

2008-10-26T20:51:00.004+01:00

No, I haven't made our page all cute and colorful, that would require creativity, which would just serve to stress me out!!

BUT... There have been a few adjustments. I added a link to "Heather's Photo Gallery" on the right hand side, it is just under "Matt's Photo's". I have started putting my photo's into Picasa, and if you click on the link it will direct you to my photo albums; then if you click on the album, it will open up all the pic's having to do with that album! Basically you'll find my photos from the past and the present; and I will continue to add pics occasionally. If your interested take a look!

Oh and I should note...any pics you see that might be considered a good photo were not taken by me, I have zero photography skills, I am blessed though with a husband and some family/friends who do take great photos!

The Scientific Method

2008-10-25T11:42:00.002+02:00

Hypothesis: Some folks in the postal system get a kick out of mishandling packages marked "fragile"

Prediction: Yes. Most definitely yes.

Experiment: 4 separate items mailed to our address in 4 separate boxes. 3 boxes with no informative markings/1 box marked fragile.

Data: All boxes arrived together, no visible damage to the 3 boxes with no markings, box marked "fragile" had 2 corners crushed in and a large hole punched into one side.

Truth: Some folks in the postal system get a kick out of mishandling packages marked "fragile"

The Honeymoon!

2008-10-20T20:10:00.004+02:00

Matt set up a trip to Switzerland for the honeymoon! He found us a little chalet in the middle of the alps, it was perfect! The weather was beautiful and we had a great time touring around the mountains. We were able to get a look at the Matterhorn, which was amazing!

We took a drive around Lake Geneva one day, it ended up that we crossed the border into France at one point and Matt found this really cute historic town (thanks Google Earth!) that we stopped in for some lunch and crepes. We actually spent so much time walking around this town that we didn't have time to stop in Geneva like we originally planned, basically we just drove through it on our route around the lake (it was a pretty big lake!).

What a great way to spend our honeymoon! It was fun to be with each other and look forward to starting our lives together!

Here are some pics from the trip!

Standing on a bridge with the Matterhorn behind us!

Touring the little French town!

Hiking up to one of the local lakes!

The Big Wedding Post!!

2008-10-13T11:22:00.002+02:00

Brace yourselves my friends for information overload! I just updated the blog here with a wedding post and all the events leading up to the wedding! I hope you enjoy reading through and looking at all the pictures of this amazing time in Matt and I's life!

The Wedding

2008-10-13T11:12:00.004+02:00

The wedding was just fantastic! I was SO EXCITED to become Mrs. Angliss! Matt is so handsome and just the most wonderful groom! I love him!

Everything seemed to go off without a hitch and it looked like everyone was really enjoying themselves, which was wonderful to see! What a special time to enjoy with all our family and friends. Of course we didn't feel like we were able to spend enough time with our loved ones, but I guess that is how weddings go sometimes!

As for wedding pics... they are now available online to view. If you would like to see them just shoot me a quick email at heatherangliss@gmail.com and I'll send you the link along with the event key! Enjoy!

Rehearsal and Dinner

2008-10-13T10:41:00.003+02:00

The rehearsal the evening before the wedding went off just great; and we were all so excited to head over the the Lobster Claw to enjoy the Lobster and Steak feast Bill and Susanne (Matt's Parents) had organized for us!

What a great night to celebrate with Family and Friends! It was a great chance for both sides of our families to get together, Susanne mixed it up so well at the tables that everyone was able to have lively conversations and enjoy meeting each other.

Along with the rehearsal dinner we also celebrated my 30th Birthday! I know-great way to just let that one just slide by without much fuss! Check out the pic below of the fun bride birthday cake!

Here we are at the church practicing for the big day!

Enjoying the yummy Lobster!

Our friends Allan and Emily at the Dinner (Allan was one of Matt's Groomsmen!)

Me and Frank at the Rehearsal Dinner!

The fun "barbie" bride cake!

The Guy's Time

2008-10-13T10:31:00.004+02:00

Thanks to Hurricane Kyle churning around off the shores of New England the guy's plan to head to Pleasant Bay and do some sailing was changed to meeting up for lunch and bowling!

I think the most important thing was the time that they got to spend together! I was jealous when I found out they were getting to have lunch at the "Land Ho" in Orleans. The food there is so good and the atmosphere is just calm and relaxed. Afterwards I think some of the guys realized that candlestick bowling isn't as easy as it looks!

Lunch at the Land Ho!

At the Bowling Alley!

The Bridesmaid's Tea

2008-10-13T10:21:00.005+02:00

I was able to hold a Bridesmaid's Tea a few days before the wedding. The bridesmaid's, flower girl's, and I got the chance to get together at a really cute little inn in Chatham. We had tea and assorted treats in their cute little tea room then moved out to the lawn for some croquet!

Thank you so much ladies for helping to make this whole wedding experience just incredibly fun! I love that we can now share all these memories we made together!

Enjoying our tea!

Some truly authentic English treats!

Croquet Fun!

Massachusetts Bridal Shower

2008-10-13T10:08:00.003+02:00

Thank you Erica, Julie, Auntie Annie, Auntie Karen, and Nana for each helping to put together such a fun shower!!

This shower was held in a really cute little restaurant called the Irish Ale House, the food was incredible! The best part was getting the chance to see and catch up with many of the ladies in the family, we had a great time just visiting with each other! What a blessing.

Here are some pics!

Guess What!

2008-09-22T02:31:00.003+02:00

I'm sitting next to Matt right now! Yes, it is just absolutely wonderful!

He flew in to Boston yesterday and I was able to pick him up, we headed down to the cape and are now just enjoying our time together!

Wedding stuff is going well, only 6 more days!

The Cape and Canada

2008-09-02T19:17:00.002+02:00

Hey Friends!! I'm finally on the Cape finishing up wedding plans and getting excited for the big day. Less than a month away! AND I get to see Matt again in 18 days! I tell ya, those days can't go by fast enough.

I got to the Cape about a week ago after an incredible trip to Canada! I just had the best time up there. Our family is so blessed to have the cottage available to visit as a vacation spot. It is hard to describe how special that place is. I got to spend some time swimming and kayaking in the river, plus I was able to fish, didn't catch much, just a small bass one night, which was let go. I took walks along the railroad tracks (the train wasn't running this year, though I guess a bear was out and about somewhere, found that one out at the end of the week...), I went on some really great runs up in Gatineau Park, oh! and played some fun games of tennis with my Aunt! I love that the atmosphere up there lends itself to being able to do a lot of fun, active things, but also do a lot of restful things (reading, playing cards, and sunbathing were my favorites). Of all the places I've been able to visit in the world, that little place up in Canada is pretty high on my list of favorites!

After Canada was the drive down Boston, I stayed with my Nana and Papa, and took the test for my personal training certification. I'm happy to report that I passed with no problem and now am a NASM certified personal trainer! Yay! I now have a nationally recognized certification. Before I just had a certification for the facility I was training in. It feels good to be done with all the studying and anxiety of the big test.

After the test I drove down to the Cape and have been here for the past week. I have definitely gotten a lot of wedding related stuff done, and just have the small stuff to finish up. I've been been able to join the local gym for the month and have been having fun doing strength training, working on the cardio machines, and going to classes, plus I joined the women's tennis league. Today was my first day to play with the ladies, and man oh man was I nervous. I'm am not terribly skilled at the game, I've only just started to play and have had no formal lessons. I feel really bad because I actually look like I should be good... you know long arms, long legs, sort of athletic... then I play... and reality hits. Anyways, playing today was actually pretty fun, I played doubles and I was really afraid of making people mad, but the ladies I ended up with were so kind and patient, and I actually was able to make some pretty good shots. Of course I made some pretty terrible ones too (I'm still cringing about the ball that hit the lamp at the top of the dome, higher up than I care to elaborate on!). Alright, enough tennis antics, I am now inspired to go out and practice my serve.

Sorry for such a long update, hope I didn't bore you too much! Til next time!

I also meant...

2008-08-11T15:07:00.002+02:00

to mention the Olympics in the last post. I have had so much fun watching them so far, I'm becoming a little addicted, at least in that I like to have the TV tuned in to the games, even if I'm not sitting down watching them!

Last night's Men's 4 X 100m Freestyle Relay was pretty incredible, I feel priviledged to have been able to witness it! I feel like a dork because it put me in tears watching it. I don't really cry all that often over regular things, but when it invloves sports the tears seem to well up quite a bit! Even movies, I've seen some sad movies in my time that probably SHOULD have made me cry, one movie though I remember watching that really did make me cry a ton was the Prefontane movie...hmmm. A little odd I know.

Just been hanging out

2008-08-11T14:30:00.003+02:00

The time is winding down for me here in MO. I have had a wonderful time hanging out with my parents and getting to visit with my sister and the kiddo's often. I'm going to miss them a ton after I leave at the end of this week.

What's coming up over this next month and a half you might ask? Tomorrow I'm heading down to Arkansas to visit with Matt's Mom and Grandmother. I figured I was just a state away I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get down there, Matt will definitely be missed, but that is ok, our time apart is only another month and and two weeks, we can do it!

After Arkansas I'll be back here in MO for a day to celebrate my dad's birthday, then, off to Canada for a week! I'm SO EXCITED about spending some time there. My grandparents have a cottage up there and usually family comes up all summer long to visit the beautiful area. I will try to take some pictures so I can share about the trip, even though that is not my speciality, I will try.

Then...it's off to the Cape! I will spend four weeks there before the wedding, just getting ready. I don't have a ton to do. It's been nice that I've been able to do a lot of stuff online and on the phone, but there are just some things I do need to be there for. Besides it's a great excuse to spend some extended time on the Cape before the wedding! It brings me back to my college years when I spent every summer out there and had a fabulous time! I can't wait to see everyone when they come out for the wedding!

Matt has been doing pretty good, though it remains tough to be apart. I just miss him too much, sometimes it feels overwhelming how much I miss him! Anyways, he has been working (doing a great job I might add) on the house (painting and fixing things) and on the Porsche, he been keeping it maintained and in good working order... there have been a few hiccups, but that is all part of the learning process! I think he's also been enjoying the Wii he got for his birthday last month, so between that and work, he is keeping busy. I feel bad that I've been able to keep myself busy this summer planning trips and visiting people, and he has just been going to work day in and day out. The summer time has flown by for me, but I don't think it's gone as fast for him. I'm glad it's almost over though. Finally!

Alright, I've got quite a bit of stuff I have to get started on here for my day! Sorry about no pictures in this one! I'll try, to take some for the next post!

California Bridal Shower

2008-07-05T00:57:00.007+02:00

Yea, Yea, Yea, long time, no post. I know. Sorry. Things have been busy!

I am back in the states after the most wonderful trip to Germany. I absolutely can't wait to get back there!

Right after I got back from Germany I was off to Southern California (Redlands, to be exact) with my Mom and Sister. Some friends of Matt's mom were throwing a bridal shower for me. It was really a wonderful time and I was just so blown away and grateful for everything, it was amazing and my Mom, Sister, and I loved it! Here are some fun pics to share from the shower!

My sister (Erica) and sister to be (Katie)!!

Yummy food and drink!

My good friend Julie got to join us!!

Opening Gifts!!

Opening a very special gift from future Mom (Susanne), she put together a wedding chest that included everything a bride needs (something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a sixpence for my shoe!).

What a fun and special memory. Made even better with my Mom and Sister, it meant so much to me that they were able to be there!

A great visit!

2008-06-22T20:50:00.005+02:00

Well, Matt and I's time together is winding down, I'm flying back to the states tomorrow. We have had a wonderful time and I hate to be leaving, but it helps to know that the next time we see each other will be close to the wedding. Both of us are SO READY for that time to get here!

We've been able to get a lot of stuff done over the last couple of weeks. We did some work outside, bought a couple of things for the house, and basically organized stuff. I absolutely love the house! Matt did a wonderful job finding this place, we get to live in a nice spacious place, in an incredibly beautiful town and I am SO HAPPY with it!

The first day I got to Germany, we decided to take a picnic lunch out to the farm lands. It was great we just walked around the corner, down a walking path, and then we were at this cute little picnic spot, and the scenery was beautiful!

We were able to squeeze in a little getaway as well, we drove down to the Black Forest and stayed at a really sweet little hotel right on a beautiful lake, we really only spent one day away but boy did we fill up that day with fun stuff. After a yummy German breakfast we started the morning walking into town and rented a little row boat, then we walked around the town for a little bit, after that we walked back out to our hotel, grabbed our swim suits and spent a couple of hours sitting out in the sun and swimming (the lake was a little to cold for my taste, but there was a pool there as well).

After swimming we jumped into the Porsche and had an awesome drive all through the Black Forest, just imagine winding roads, not to many cars, and beautiful scenery. It was a blast.

Here are some pics from the trip!

Oh yeah!

2008-06-07T02:48:00.006+02:00

I meant to share some fun pics from the end of the year banquet for the rowers.

They decided to decorate my car for the trip to MO! Obviously they went with the "wedding" theme!

I had to laugh when they chose black and white to write with. Last year when they "decorated" my car they used blue and red, and you can still see little specks of blue and red on parts of my roof (if you look really hard)! I gave them a hard time about it a lot! But, it is a lovely reminder of my darling girls!

Can you believe it!!

2008-06-07T02:32:00.002+02:00

I get to go to Germany.... on Sunday!! Matt saw an opportunity yesterday, so we decided to take it! I CAN'T WAIT!! I honestly was not expecting to be able to see Matt until the week before the wedding, this is just an awesome treat. We will definitely check in with everyone while I'm there. It looks like I'll be there for just over two weeks.

In other news...

Everything went great getting out to Missouri. Total time was 17 hours, and I decided to push it and do it all in one day, I couldn't believe I was able to do it, I was completely awake the ENTIRE drive, no sleepiness at all. Which, if you ask Matt is nothing short of a miracle, since I tend to be a pretty sleepy person in general!

So far Missouri has been great! I've made it out to the golf course twice this week, I had a sleep over with my sister, nephew, and niece once (so much fun!), and I've been able to scope out some good runs in the area. There is one 2 mi loop, one 4.5 mi loop, and one 13 mi loop. I probably won't get to the 13 mi one for a couple more weeks (I still need to get a little more comfortable at higher mileage again); BUT my goal is to get in some of those long loops while I'm out here; I'll let you know how it goes when I run the first long one!

Now I'm off to pack and get ready to head over to beautiful Germany! So excited.

Another move

2008-06-01T15:06:00.004+02:00

I've just realized how long it's been since I last posted. Sorry about that friends! Things have been pretty hectic, since I am right smack in the middle of a move! Yep that's right, heading out of Northern Virginia and spending the summer in good ole Missouri! I'll get to be with my parents, and my sister and her kids are out there as well! I can't wait for a summer of spending time with family (and saving money!).

The last week has pretty much been devoted to packing up and moving out, yesterday was the actually moving day (my stuff is basically in storage until it gets shipped overseas after the wedding). Some of my rowers were able to take the time yesterday to come out and help, it made the moving just fly by. Seriously. It took about 3 hours, and all it cost was the price of the rental truck and a pizza party at the end... one of the cheapest and easiest moves ever! A HUGE thank you to everyone who came out and helped!

Today will be my last day in Va. I am planning to go for a last run on my favorite trail around the local lake, then I'll be going to the end of the year banquet for the rowing team, after that I'll spend the night at a friends and start the drive tomorrow morning out to MO!

I'll catch up with everyone again when I get out there!

I'd like to Introduce...

2008-05-04T17:31:00.024+02:00

I haven't had the chance yet this season to introduce you guys to the incredible group of athletes that I get to work with every day!

Many of you know that for the past couple of years I have been Head Women's Coach at Gar-Field High School in Northern Virginia. It has been an incredible experience and I have had the chance to work with a great group of coaches and a great group of kids!

Specifically I coach the Women's Varsity 8 (this is an 8 person boat, plus a coxswain). The other coaches on the Womens's side coach a Varsity 4 and a Novice 8.

I need to spend some time and brag about my athletes, they push themselves incredibly hard, have an unbelievable work ethic, and conduct themselves with a maturity that I hardly ever see among teenage girls this day. I personally think that I work with the best group of athletes in our area, and they make me proud every day!

I wanted to share some pics that have been taken of the team throughout the season, we have an alumni's parent that has been coming out to the races and taking pics of all the kids, so he put us together a CD and now I have some FANTASTIC pics to share of this incredible group of kids! There are lots of pics I hope you enjoy them!

Here is their boat...

And here is mine ('lil tinney' I like to call her)...

Discussing strategy...

Gearing up for the race {"push it, push it, to the limit, limit" ("louder!")}...

Heading down to the water (can't you just feel the focus!)...

Giving the "Blessing"...

Pushing them off the dock...

I have to explain their facial expressions in this next pic. After I push them off and they start on their way I usually yell (obnoxiously loud, for everyone to hear) "Have a good time out there. I LIKE YOU GUYS!!" They still think I'm a little wierd with that one (after three years), but it just wouldn't be the same without the line, it's tradition!

My job is done...now it's just time to wait for them to come down the course...

And they're ON THE COURSE!!

Some of the awesome coaches I work with!

And a beautiful shot of the water (you can see some weather coming in, we got pretty soaked that day!)...

Hope you enjoyed all the pics, I'm sure there will be some more. Not so many at one time again though! I just couldn't decide on which ones to share!

As promised...

2008-05-01T03:14:00.007+02:00

Here are some pics of the new place! I love, love, love it! It looks like it is so bright and sunny. I don't think Matt was able to get pics of the living room or master bedroom because they were to big to capture, here are the shots he got though...

The Porch leading out the the backyard (Matt has some yard work to do!)

Part of the Kitchen.

One of the guest bedrooms (plenty of room for family and friends!)

The Bathroom. Seriously...

Hope you enjoyed the shots I will add more when Matt gets the chance to take more pics!

Finally!

2008-04-30T02:46:00.002+02:00

Matt will no longer be "roughing it" at the BOQ's, he moves into the new place tomorrow. I love how he has described it and of course I can't wait to see it myself. I think he is going to try to get some pics tomorrow before the movers come, we shall see. If so I will definitely share them!

Things are going well for both of us. He is getting used to the new job and finding his way around Heidelberg really well. I have been busy with work, coaching, and trying to get some workouts in.

Unfortunately over the last couple of weeks Matt and I have not been able to talk too much, which makes me miss him. Our schedules have just been so opposite and with the time difference it hasn't helped much.

Oh well. I guess we will be sharing life together soon enough and this long distance thing will no longer be an issue.

I hope to be back updating you guys soon with pics of the new place.

. . . still waiting

2008-04-09T21:48:00.007+02:00

Well, this is another post from Matt. As some of you know I recently left Schweinfurt and started work in Heidelberg. The job is going well and I'm learning a lot. I think it's going to be a good fit, but may take some getting used to running into the "big wigs" every day. Right now I'm staying in the BOQ in Heidelberg (it's like a hotel without the TV and maid service), so I at least have a place to put my head every night.

I FINALLY found an apartment. After looking at about 15 places I started to come to the realization that my old place in Alitzheim was pretty hard to beat, and that it would be tough finding a place that was even close to the quality and location that I had before. Finally on Monday I looked at a place I'd been waiting to see for a couple of weeks and it turned out GREAT.

It's in the small municipality of Angelbachtal. I like it because its got the feel of an old German town with a park and even a schloss, plus it has all the amenities like a bakery just down the street, a grocery store, even a gas station. My apartment is pretty nice too. It even has a two car garage, which is pretty hard to find in Germany!

Sorry I couldn't have my own personal pictures of the town. That's really for two reasons. One is that it's been rainy here for the past week or so and the other is that my favorite subject isn't around to be in the pictures for me! I promise to take some though as soon as the sun comes out even though Heather is still far away.

Well, I signed the lease today, but unfortunately I won't be able to move in until later on this month! I'm a little disappointed because I wanted to start getting moved in, but it looks like I'll stay in my "moving" status for a few weeks longer. I'm really ready to LIVE somewhere!

Anyway, just wanted to give you all the update. I hope everyone's doing well. Drop us a line when you can!

Making the Move

2008-03-21T13:29:00.005+01:00

This is going to be a busy, busy two weeks for Matt. His orders to Heidelberg have come through and he basically has to be out of his place in Schweinfurt and in at Heidelberg in approximately 9 days! That is a LOT of work, especially since 4 of those days fall on the Easter holiday, I'm sad I'm not there to help him with the move and with the home hunt.

On that subject...Matt has already been able to go look at 5 places in Heidelberg, and on Monday he will be driving out there to look at 4 more. Both of us have been blown away by how helpful and professional the housing office has been in Heidelberg, they have been incredible at providing many options for us to look at, and have been especially helpful in trying to meet our needs. I am really hoping for a good sized kitchen with lots of storage and counter space, and Matt is really hoping to get a garage for the Porsche.

Ok, quick detour...I was really trying to figure out some kind of picture to add to this blog! Hence the Porsche pic. The last couple of entries have been so lame since I haven't had any pictures to share!

Back to moving and Heidelberg... I am so excited about how things are working out with this move, even though it seems a little rushed, it also seems to all be falling into place. I know Matt is going to do an amazing job in this new position too...since he is a pretty incredible guy and everything!

Wedding Weekend!!

2008-03-16T00:29:00.003+01:00

Last weekend was a pretty exciting weekend. I gave myself a 4 day and drove up to the Cape so I could get some major wedding planning done. It was a long drive (8 hours), but driving my Mini usually makes it a little more fun, and a little more fast (kind of too fast, according to authority type people, though I don't feel like talking about that one...).

I sat down with all the different vendors taking part in putting the Megnia/Angliss wedding together! The trip ended up going great, I had meeting after meeting and it was exhausting, the sense of accomplishment though was well worth it!

Seeing family up on the the Cape was also pretty fantastic, it was fun spending time with everyone!

Goodbye again...

2008-02-28T00:43:00.002+01:00

Well today I brought Matt to the airport for his flight back to Germany. Stinks! We did have a great visit though so I won't complain too much. You've probably already read Matt's post so you know what we've been up to.

I'll second that our trip out to Ca was pretty great. I really did enjoy spending time with Matt's family and friends and getting to see my good friend Julie! I could have stayed out there another week! It just went by too fast.

The last few days have been pretty good as well. Though I had a bit of a cold and am just now getting over it. Matt was a huge help to me and worked on my computer, he got it up and running much faster, I am so grateful that it no longer takes 25 minutes to start it up... While Matt was doing stuff around my place I had a couple of subbing jobs this last week, and those were fun, I do love working with high school kids, they always seem to keep me entertained!

We also started the Spring season for Crew this week, so Monday and Tuesday were spent out on the water, getting back into the swing of things. It was fun bringing Matt out to practice to meet the kiddo's and to see something that I LOVE putting my time and effort into. Also! As an added bonus he offered to drive the motorboat that I follow the kids in, so I was able to concentrate on just coaching and not worry about running into giant logs, or surrounding wildlife with my boat!

Anyways, that's it from here, I'm not looking forward to spending the rest of my evening Matt-less, but that is life I guess. Til next post.

Matt's Post!

2008-02-25T11:20:00.001+01:00

Yes! Heather's at school and Matt is left wandering the depths of the bloggosphere alone and unsupervised.

Well, it's been a great trip so far. I'm really glad that I took the opportunity (thanks Army!) to come home for a couple of weeks and see everyone. After a couple of days in DC last week Heather and I flew out to LA and arrived EARLY on Sunday the 17th. After church mom put together a little "get-together" where Heather and I visited with friends for a few hours. We were both VERY happy to see everyone and catch up. The next couple of days in Redlands were spent with friends and family and relaxing at home. It was a quick but long overdue visit!

Now Heather and I are back in DC. The weather hasn't been as good as the Southern California sunshine. On Friday it was cold and rainy so Heather and I decided to take a trip to the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazay Center. Heather was a little under the weather, but I had a GREAT time. The facility was so large and there was so many great aircraft to see that we took about three and a half hours making our way around.

Here is Heather in front of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird they have on display.

Saturday Heather and I went to the rowing boathouse and set up for the new season. Lots of dads and other coaches were there to help put boats in the water and mount outboard motors. I had a good time hangin out where Heather spends some of her time every week.

Well, only a couple of days left! What excitement will we fit in next? Find out and check back soon! (Maybe MATT will post again! WHO KNOWS?!)

Very excited!!

2008-02-14T04:32:00.002+01:00

Last week Matt realized that he had to take 16 days of his deployment leave by the end of this month, or he would lose it once he got to Heidelberg. What a great opportunity to come to the states for a visit right!

After a few days of travel planning, and with the help of an incredible friend, Matt is arriving here tomorrow! I get to spend the rest of February with him too! I am so excited.

We've got a couple of things on our list already. Saturday we are going to a friends wedding, yay! And we will need to cut out of the reception a little early (sorry Amy!) because we were able to schedule a flight out to California for that night! Redlands, Ca is Matt's home town, and we are both excited about visiting his family and friends, we are going to be there until Thursday, so I'm sure we will be able to see lots of people!

I'll make sure to update everyone with details of our trip and time together, AND it will be exciting for you guys to be able to get some new pictures again! You may have noticed that since I left Germany there haven't been any pics added to the blog (except one I found on the Internet), there is a reason for that....I am definitely not a camera guru!

Heidelberg, here we come!!

2008-02-07T23:48:00.000+01:00

Some good things have been happening in our lives with Matt's job! It may come as a surprise to most, but Matt has decided to stay in the Army. This wasn't our original intent, but an opportunity came up for a non-deployable job in Heidelberg, so we decided to go for it. It's funny how the last thing you'd expect to happen, just happens to be the perfect situation for you!

We are so excited to be staying in Europe, it seems we both get more and more excited every time we talk about it. Matt should be heading up there at the end of the month, so please pray for him this month as he transitions out of Schweinfurt and into Heidelberg, he has a LOT of stuff on his plate with this move.

Here is a pic I found online of the castle in Heidelberg, you can see it is a pretty cool area! I can't wait to get there!

Happy and Sad

2008-02-07T01:40:00.000+01:00

The Sad....

I had to come back to the states and leave wonderful Germany... very sad. Back to the real world though. It will be hard being apart from Matt over these next months. It sucks, I miss him terribly when I'm not with him. Now back to phone calls, IM'ing, and Web Cam'ing I guess.

The Happy....

I'm glad that with the sad there is some happy mixed in...

I got to spend a little over a week in Missouri with my family! That was SO MUCH fun! Plus, it was my nephew Jacob's birthday while I was there, and celebrating with him was a huge highlight! Both Jacob and Lizzie (my niece) are my little darlings, and it warmed my heart to be able to spend time with them.
The season for the crew team I coach is just about to begin! I was able to start back with the girls yesterday at winter conditioning practice. They always seem to be able to keep me entertained! I'm really looking forward to getting out on the water with them!
I got a wedding gown while in MO! It really was the only time that my mother, maid of honor (my sister), and myself were going to be together, so we figured why not look around...not expecting to find anything... I loved the second gown I tried on and that was it. Done.

And the big day is...drum roll please...

2008-01-22T13:39:00.000+01:00

September 27th!

and we will be getting married in....

We are very excited for a fall wedding on the Cape! The place was easy to decide since it is a common ground for Matt and I, it just took a little while nailing down that date. I guess September is a pretty popular month to get married on the Cape (i had no idea...)!

Go Pats!

2008-01-21T14:30:00.000+01:00

We enjoyed our evening last night! Especially when the Patriots won yet another! We watched the games at a friends house (thanks for having us Chris and Brandy!). Of course since we are 6 hours ahead of EST the games didn't start til 9pm and we ended up leaving around 4:30am. Yikes!

Matt was a great sport and wore the special "Gimme a P!" jersey I made for him, though it was quickly taken off after the Patriots game in deference to Chris' hopes for his Giants while they played the Packers.

Matt needs to understand that when he takes a dorky picture it will inevitably end up on the blog...

In answer to Joni's question....

2008-01-19T21:35:00.000+01:00

Matt not only takes great pic's, he ALSO does the framing himself! Yesterday we went to the local frame shop, and he made this one.

It's great that one of us is the "creative, crafty" one. With my huge aversion to anything crafty or that requires creativity we wouldn't have anything nice like this around our home without Matt's handy work! I'm one lucky gal!

Picasa

2008-01-14T21:22:00.000+01:00

Matt recently downloaded a bunch of his Pic's into Picasa. If you want to check them out look on the right hand side of our blog here, click on the "Matt's Photo Gallery" link, and you'll be directed to them. Enjoy!

Just Hanging Out

2008-01-13T23:29:00.000+01:00

I know I haven't posted in a while. Mostly, not much is going on, which is actually pretty nice!

Matt started back at work this week, though still had some shorter days, which was great; and I've entertained myself going to the gym, getting some studying done, and taking care of stuff at the apartment. See...pretty uneventful.

We did get out some today, it was pretty foggy outside this afternoon, and Matt wanted to get pictures of some local chapels...

I just think he takes the best pictures! I love how we have such great shots that capture how cool this place is! We love it in Germany!

Garmisch

2007-12-30T23:29:00.000+01:00

The day after Christmas we headed down to the German Alps for some winter fun! We spent a couple of days in Garmisch, eating some great food, skiing (yes!), shopping (double yes!), and visiting some of the local sights...

We ended the trip dropping the family off at a local airport hotel last night, everyone had a flight out this morning. It was a wonderful visit and we are looking forward to many years of holidays spent with our families!

Christmas!!

2007-12-30T22:33:00.000+01:00

Here is our Christmas tree! Basically it's "The tree of almost 1000 lights" Matt did a great job getting all the lights up, you can see that we only have 2 ornaments... our collection will increase as the years go by I'm sure!

We decided to do our big Christmas dinner before heading to church on Christmas Eve, it was yummy!

Christmas morning was spent sleeping in, eating a pancake breakfast, opening gifts, and just spending time with each other.

Let the Holiday's begin!

2007-12-24T12:39:00.000+01:00

Last night we welcomed Matt's sister Katie, and his Aunt and Uncle, Linda and Bruce, and you can see the feast we enjoyed! Poor Katie had ridiculous delays getting over here and basically was up for 48 hours before finally being able to go to bed last night! She sure was a trooper! We are excited everyone is finally here.

The day after Christmas we will be heading to Garmisch for a couple of days for some skiing and other winter type adventures, we will take lots of pics to share!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Engagement Gifts!!

2007-12-15T22:13:00.000+01:00

We opened some gifts tonight in celebration of our engagement. We got some collectibles that will be a great reminder of this special time in our lives. We are so thankful!

Welcome Bill, Susanne, and Baci!!!

2007-12-13T20:52:00.000+01:00

Matt's parents flew in today! We are looking forward to this holiday visit. It's only been their first day and we've already strolled through the Schweinfurt Christmas Market. We waste no time on the festivities, that's for sure! We are also looking forward to his sister, aunt, and uncle flying over in just about a week. It is going to be a GREAT family Christmas in Germany!

The first of many...

2007-12-09T16:50:00.000+01:00

We wanted to start this blog so we could update our friends and family on what is going on in our lives.

This first entry will start with the announcement of our ENGAGEMENT!!!

Yay!!!

Matt and I got engaged on Wednesday the 5th of Dec. at the Vienna State Opera House. So here's the events leading up to the big moment!

Pre Matt's return from Iraq...

Matt had a couple of things in the works before he returned from his deployment which are part of our engagement story. He began to hint to me that we would be going on a trip shortly after I welcomed him home, as much as I tried to coax trip details out of him he wouldn't budge and kept telling me it was a surprise (this was COMPLETELY frustrating!!).

About a week before I was leaving for Germany to welcome him home he told me that I was to go to a local Nordstrom's Department Store, and meet up with a lady there who had all the details on an outfit I needed for the trip. When I showed up at Nordstrom I spent the next couple of hours in a dressing room surrounded by formal dresses, shoes, jackets, furs, jewelry, and other accessories. My job was to pick out a dress and all the accompanying items for a "very formal event." I had a ton of fun sorting through everything and trying things on, I ended up finding a dress that I absolutely fell in love with, it was a completely amazing experience!

So basically that was it, that was all the info I had, I was going on a trip and there was a "very formal event" involved.

Our surprise trip!

We started off our trip in the Tirol region of Austria for some skiing! I absolutely LOVE skiing so this was the perfect way begin this adventure. The weather was amazing and the scenery was beautiful. We had the best day!

Our next stop was Vienna! Vienna was actually the location of the very first trip that Matt and I had taken together some 3 years ago, so it was wonderful to be back there. While in Vienna we spent the days and evenings walking around the city, visiting

palaces

museums

and, of course, the Christmas Markets!

Our last night in Vienna was a night at the Opera (yes, the night we got engaged!). Matt was able to get tickets for the best seats in the house, we had box seats and were front and center! He wore his tux (an looked incredible) and I wore the outfit I got at Nordstrom. He also surprised me with a pair of opera glasses which were really fun! After the show ended Matt waited for everyone in the house to leave then he surprised me with the best surprise of all and asked me to marry him! It was so romantic and perfect and the ring is incredible!

The final stop was Salzburg, Austria! This was a gorgeous city and we stayed at a beautiful little Schloss (castle) just outside of the city. Ok...our room in this place was unbelievable! It was a suite and had a music/game room w/grand piano, a bedroom/bathroom, and a salon. The picture below is panoramic of our music/game room so you have just an idea of what it was like.

We had a great time walking around the city visiting the fortress, churches, and again Christmas markets!!

So! That was our trip! It was wonderful, romantic, and fun!

Keep checking back every once and a while for our updates, we are excited for the life that God has in store for us!

P.S. I promise that future posts will not be this long!! There was just SO MUCH to cover!