Congratulations Erica and Ray!!

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

Back at it in Missouri

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

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

Here is me and my little darling!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are some other angles of the cottage.

This is the view we get to enjoy each day!

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

Mom and I on our evening swim...

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

A wave back from the conductor!

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

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

And we're off...

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

The last couple of weeks

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

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




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


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

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

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

In our new home

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

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

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

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

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

Made it!

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

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

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

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

Making our way...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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