Our Weekend

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

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

Here we are at the start:

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

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

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

California!!

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

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

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

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

Some Updates!

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

Update #1 Lots of work and trips

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

Update #2 Some travel for me too

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

Update #3 Don't be jealous

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

Update #4 Deployments

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

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

Update #5 Off to the races!

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

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

Update #6 Spring Break!

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

Lots of Family, Lots of Fun

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

Thanksgiving

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

Chopping some veggies for the salad!

The whole family

Between Holidays

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

Some views of our Christmas set up!

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

Christmas

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

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

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

Fun at Busch Gardens

A visit with Santa

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

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

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

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

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

Before's and After's

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

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

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

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

Before

After

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

Before

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

After

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

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

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

Enjoying the fall!

In front of our home with the pretty red bush!

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

Hiking at Lake of the Ozarks.


More Hiking!

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

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

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

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

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

Birthday/Anniversary...Two weeks later

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

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