Seattle here I come!

Just wanted to let you all know that its official, I'm going to Seattle in June and so is Aaron. I got some really good deals on Expedia. $288 roundtrip each. I fly in on Wednesday night (late) and Aaron flies in on Saturday night. Unfortunately he wasn't able to get the Saturday off cause one of his co-workers had already asked off. But he will be in on Saturday night till Monday. We are also traveling down to Portland afterwards to visit one of my friends from Spain.

Anyway... can't wait to see you all there! Approximately 3.5 months, 15 weeks, or 108 days!

sold!

Hey girls! How are you all doing? Things are good here, stressful, but good. We sold our house and will be moving around March 23rd. So now we're doing some final repairs on the house and are starting the daunting task of packing. I hate packing, with a passion. I enjoy unpacking because I think it's fun to be surprised by the contents of each box when you open it. And I also very much enjoy the opportunity to reorganize and clean everything in my house. I am also looking forward to redecorating a new house. But I am dreading having to actually do the work of painting and other home fixer-upper projects. I prefer someone else to do the work. I just like the creative part of it. So we've been house-hunting a little bit online. It's kind of overwhelming. Also, we've been figuring out our budget for residency and I really am going to need to get a job to help make some supplemental income. Like at least part time. The trick is finding something that pays ok and that works with the kids. Because if I have to put them in regular day care, I pretty much lose my income in child care expenses. So I'm pretty stressed about that. I would appreciate prayers while we look for a house, find a new church and friends, and find a job. Miss you all bunches!

2 years = Electronics

Hello all!

Things here have been slow and steady. We have finally had 2 weekends in a row without too much snow. We had a few inches last night, but they were melted by 4pm today. Yeah for that. We decided to do something a little different this year for Valentine's day...I think this is going to be our new "tradition."

We official have been together for 2 years, and that is the Electronic Gift right? We bought ourselves a surround sound system. Which has revitalized our movie watching experiences. We'll need to have you all over soon. ;)

We also finished our taxes today. I do have to say sometimes I view the government like my personal savings account. We had another year where are getting a nice refund and not having to pay. I have realized that God is faithful to those who tithe. :) Those "donations to charity" do help on the tax refund side. :)

School is going well. I'm thinking about applying for the Technology position for next year. We'll see about that.

My tips for the getting healthy club. We did a 21-day fast at church and Nick and I decided to do a "Daniel Fast" for lunch. That is where I ate raw fruit, vegetables and nuts for lunch. At night we ate Zone. (It's similar to South Beach). As I added in Tae-Bo workouts I found that the fat deposits began to shrink. Now sticking with it all...that's the hard part.

I love reading your posts! (Even the 'boring' ones. :)) I'm getting excited about seeing you girls in Seattle. Nick and I are planning on being there!!

Not So Wonderland

In spite of Phil's (the groundhog) prediction that spring would come early this year, winter seams to have finally arrived for the East Coast. I must say, Liz got out just in time. In our first major winter storm of the year, mother nature decided to be very cruel.

Highlights of the "Love Storm":

• We had approximately 36 hours of snow, sleet and freezing rain.
• What would have been 20" of snow has been compacted into 6-8" of snow and ice.
• It took Aaron more than an hour to shovel our 10' driveway (it usually takes him about 10-15 minutes)
• The nicely paved roads that we are used to, have been mutilated into ice roads. It's much like driving on stone/dirt road with multiple pot holes, except that they are much slipperier and dangerous. In some places its like driving an amusement park car on a track cause the tire have worn through the ice to the road, but a 6" thick slab of ice remains between your tires. I found this quite humorous.
• Accidents on the interstate highway 78 caused a 50 mile gridlock that for some lasted for more than 40 hours. Can you imagine being stuck on a highway, in your car for 40 hours. The National Guard took food and supplies to those left stranded.
• Highways are still closed in that area due to horrible road conditions that could not be remedied sooner.

It was a terrible storm and the aftermath is even worse cause of all the ice. I'll be glad when it warms up. Oh did I mention it hasn't been above 20 since like 2 weeks ago. It's very cold!

Anyone else ready for spring?!

We have arrived....

Well, it's official....Nathan and I both now reside in Michigan. As I said before, we're living with my parents until we find a purchase a house. Nathan likes his new job quite a lot, and I'm beginning to job hunt. It was quite a whirlwind getting here. Nathan was here for 2 weeks while I stayed in MA and finished work and packed up the apartment. Then my parents came out to help us move. It was hard to leave...harder than I thought it would be. We had definitely put down a lot of roots, so it was hard to leave the church, and especially our friends. When you hang out with the same people every weekend (several times), it's hard to get used to not being with them all the time. At least we know a few people here, so it's not like we have nothing and no one to hang out with on the weekends. Like I said, the move was a whirlwind, and I don't want to do it again for a very, very long time (except moving into a house soon). We had a 26ft. truck because the place didn't have a 22 footer, and that was an experience! But it's over now, and we're settling in as much as you can in your parents' house:) I'm definitely having more fun with the house hunt than the job hunt. I was thinking today that maybe I should look for a job half as hard as I look for a house:) Fortunately, the cost of living here is sooo much less than New England, so we'll get so much more for our money. So that's about it for us. Good luck Julie, with your own move and house selling/buying issues.

the match

Hey girls! Hope you all are doing well. We're fine. "The Match" came out today for Josh. This is the day we find out for sure where we will be living for the next 5 years. Josh put all of his residency choices into a computer system and all of the residency programs put their top student choices into the system and today all the choices were matched up in the order they were ranked. So we are absolutely for sure moving to Columbus, Ohio now. We still have the house on the market and we did get an offer yesterday. But it was low so we counter-offered... then they counter-offered... then we counter-offered again and said final offer. We're still waiting to hear back from them. I don't really care if they don't buy the house because we came down a lot for them and if they still can't afford our house, then they shouldn't be looking at houses in our price range. As it is, if they accept our last offer, we'll still lose like $200 on the total investment. We would really like to at least come close to breaking even. So anyways, that's that for us. Josh's sister, Vanessa, had her baby on Friday. She was 8 lb. 5 oz. and 20.5 inches long. She has lots of dark wavy hair and is really sturdy and strong. Her name is Victoria Elise. Vanessa had to have a C section, but she's recovering pretty well. Love you all!

They can find you anywhere

The ORU Alumni Association just called me. On the phone. Like, they actually tracked down my cell phone number. And they know I have a husband. What they don't know, though, is that I have no money to give them. So maybe they should do a little more research and figure that little tidbit out.

 

It appears that our dog is having some kind of back and/or liver trouble. We're getting back the full results tomorrow, so we'll know what to do. She may need to have a liver biopsy. She's been acting like she's in pain for a couple days, and is having some trouble getting around. Hopefully, we'll be able to get everything taken care of without having to take out a loan. But it's not looking good.

 

Ok, so some good news…let's see…it's sunny and 60 degrees here. That's pretty good. And…as Steph happily labeled it, it is Grey's Day.

 

So, I guess that's all for now. Much love to you all!

 

the deep south

If you've seen the weather reports for the Midwest lately, you know that it's been severely cold for the last week or so. Snowy weather I can handle just fine. Ice, we manage. But THIS cold is just unbearable. So this weekend, as we visit Kansas City, it feels like the deep south. We arrived yesterday and said "oh, it's like spring-time here!". Granted, it's 19 (feels like 9) degrees here. But when compared to 5 (feels like -11) back home, this is paradise!!!!
So, Chris is in a meeting on securities right now and I'm sitting in the hotel room watching TLC, which I don't get to do at home. Ah, this is the high life! We splurged on this trip and have requested valet service every chance we get :)
GO BEARS!!!!

house

Well girls, it's official. Our house is on the market for $133,000. We've done quite a bit to it and we are really hoping that it will sell quickly and for a good price. We don't want to come down on it too much. We absolutely have to sell for at least $130 in order to break even on our investment by the time you take out realtor fees and closing costs, etc. It costs a lot of money to sell a house! So, anyways, we would really really appreciate you girls' prayers for us right now that this selling process goes quickly and smoothly as well as the moving and house hunting process. Hope you all are well. Love you girls!

another one on the way!

yea, I just heard my brother and sister-in-law in Seattle are expecting. That's 10 neices and nephews with two on the way. this safely puts me far from the expectations of having children in the next year. whew!

Ice Queen

So, as Steph mentioned, it is icy and cold here in OK. I'm getting really sick of it. I have not left my house in like at least a week. I'm starting to get serious cabin fever. And I have PMS, so I'm in a lovely mood these days being cooped up with my kids by myself with nothing to look at but a frozen tundra. We have read all of Seth's books and I'm seriously considering hiding them all because I just don't think I can read them one more time. Seth has 2 or 3 favorites. And while I applaud his recent passion for reading (or listening to me read), I think I might start losing my mind the next time I read "9 Fruits Alive". I tried to go to the library today to get some new books to get us through the next big storm, but they were closed. I might try again tomorrow. Seth and Lilah are doing well. Lilah is getting really fat. It's pretty cute. And she's the smiliest baby I think I've ever seen. Seth was a laugher (still is), but Lilah just coos and smiles. Seth has started really noticing Lilah and is taking a serious interest in his role as big brother. Last night after we put Seth to bed, Lilah was crying. Seth hadn't fallen asleep yet and could hear her. So, then I could hear Seth on the baby monitor in his bed saying "is ok Lala, is ok Lala..." He loves to give her kisses and never enters or leaves a room without greeting her or bidding her farewell. I've also recently caught him trying to wipe her mouth with her burp cloth the way I do and covering her up with her blanket and giving her toys. This morning while I was changing Lilah's diaper, Seth went and got her teddy bear and one of his diapers and tried to change the teddy bear's diaper. It was a pretty rough attempt. Lilah loves Seth too and has started smiling whenever she sees him. They are definately developing a little bond just the two of them. Lilah is close to rolling over. I think she could do it by now if she wasn't kind of lazy. She's not the most motivated baby physically. But that's fine with me. I don't have the energy yet to chase after two of them. I 'll give you girls the tip on getting healthy. Have a baby, then have another one right away... and just try to survive, and you should burn off a pretty considerable amount of fat fairly quickly. Also, you'll probably stop eating because it's no fun to eat when you have a toddler. Everytime I get a snack or lunch or breakfast or even a freakin cup of coffee, Seth is right in front of me with his mouth open like a bird begging like a dog. By the time I share all of my food with him I have very little left. And what is left is always cold or soggy or melted. I often give up and just throw my food away or I don't eat in the first place simply to avoid the annoyance of having Seth draped all over me grabbing at my hands and mouth. Although I have to admit, I'm still working on my extra plumpness from Lilah. The weight is not coming off quite as easily this time. So, I have started trying to work out at least 4 times each week. Nothing super intense, but I've been doing pilates and a couple different aerobic workouts pretty consistently. My motivation is that I have to be in my brother's wedding on April 14 and all the other bridesmaids are like a size 2-4. I'll still look like a mammoth compared to them, but I'm hoping to at least not look like a flabby mammoth. I'm also trying to cut out regular soda, just diet now. But that's about it. I'm watching my portions and stuff but I'm not dieting. I can't live that way. But I figure at least working out regularly should help quite a bit. So, I guess I'm kind of joining Steph, Ang, and Jen on the healthier lifestyle thing. Yay for all of us! I don't know that I will be joining Jen in the bikini though, too much flabby baby skin. I'll just be happy if I'm not too jiggly everywhere in my swimsuit by this summer. Well girls, that's that for me. Miss you all! Oh yeah, congrats on the new job for Nathan and the move and all that Liz. We'll be praying for you guys during this big transition. Steph, let us know if you need any help moving when you can finally get into your new place. Happy puppy adopting Jen. =) Love you all!

23 days

23 days until we hear of our little puppy being born! I just heard from the breeder today and they performed an ultrasound yesterday on the mommy. The pregnancy seems to be going perfectly and she is carrying 8-9 little pups! We have a guaranteed spot for a puppy but we are hoping and praying for a chocolate male. Please join with us in prayer for that :) Actually, Chris told me he was praying about our little puppy just the other day, and asking God to help the pup to be healthy, happy, and show us how to better love each other and our friends unconditionally. How sweet is that!?
It's been a while since i've posted, even on our personal blog so fortunately (or unfortunately) there is much to say! Here are the highlights in short form... Chris started a second job as a financial consultant for Primerica. He's currenly in training but will be going strong sometime in February. Christmas choir went really well and we've started rehearsals already for 2007. It's our goal this year to be up to singing once a month, whether that be a special song, or just with the worship team. I'm really busy with that. I've been scrapping a lot lately, catching up on 2006 events. Actually, I'm way behind and just finished Angie's wedding! Here at my office, December was a record breaking month. And we hit 4.5 million in funding at one of our banks, so they gave us a rebate, which i got a little piece of as a bonus, yea! We're going to Kansas City in a couple of weeks for training on Chris' job and to get away from it all and relax. Anyone know anything exciting to do in KC? eh, what am i saying, i'll probably sleep most of the time anyway. I'm good at sleeping. This monday night I'm leading worship at our women's ministry ladies night out (happens every year in January). I'm a bit nervous. Please pray that the women will have a wonderful time and be refreshed and ministered to. Speaking of church, it looks like we will be in our new building middle of March. Check out www.harvestbettendorf.org for details :) We are averaging over 1000 per sunday now and are really packed in there in the high school auditorium. My sister is pregnant with her third and they just heard they are having another girl. They currently have a boy and girl. This is the sister in Texas, Hanneke. She makes really cute kids. I think that's all the main points, I'm getting really excited about Seattle. I'm anxious to see all the sights and visit with all my friends! love you all!
Oh, one more thing... about being healthy... Chris and I have started the South Beach "diet". Chris lost 9 pounds during week one. I've lost 5 pounds now as week 2 comes to a close. But most importantly, we feel great, don't have any cravings, and my pants fit better! I'm so proud of Chris though too. He's been playing raquet ball at lunch with friends from the office, and swimming after work half of the week too. He's really dedicated to getting healthy. So there's my recommendation for a healthy lifestyle - South Beach! oh yeah, and my gut is shrinking! I'm excited for bikini season!

Love It

So I love the new look! It's fun to see pictures of everyone and remember how beautiful you all are.

I'm joining Steph on the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. If anyone wants to join in, let either one of us know. OR, if you have pointers on how to do it, i.e. self control tips, etc..., please let us know.

Ummm... i know i don't ever write, but you see, i don't ever feel like i have anything good enough to write. Sometimes i lay in bed at night and have these wonderful ideas of what I'm going to write in the blog, but somehow, between the bed and my computer the next day, those thought are erased. So I suppose you will have to just deal with the boring, non-exciting news of all is well in PA.

Love you girls tons and miss you lots.

Yay for the new look! :-)

So this is exciting...pictures on the page!

Just a quick update from the land of ice and cold weather - yes, Oklahoma.
Things are going pretty well here. The only thing that's on our plates is that we need to move and we can't. Stupid cold crappy weather. So our original date of Jan. 19, will be moved to Jan. 26 pending any other weather related issues. It's really just to icey to chance driving a huge truck into little areas, and we're supposed to get some more snow this weekend, so that put a huge damper on things.

Other than that, STILL working on trying to get some Thank You's out in the mail. Work is going well, although there are some changes within the company that I am not fond of. Don't get me started on that. :-)

Ang and I are trying to do a healthy lifestyle change to lose some of our plumpness. Hopefully we'll have good results. That's about all, I think.
Love to you all!

Yay for fun time wasting activities

Or, at least, I thought it was fun trying to guess whose survey I was reading before I got to the names. J

 

So … it looks like everyone is okay with doing a three-day weekend instead of two? Because I think an extra day would give us just the right amount of time to see everything, and still have some downtime for relaxing. So if it's okay with everyone, let's plan on doing the Friday to Tuesday stint. Of course, if anyone does need to leave early, that's fine too.

 

And based on responses (don't I sound so official), it looks like we'll try to keep the whole weekend pretty conservative in the cost department. Cheap meals and inexpensive activities, and such. Once it gets closer, I'll let you know specific costs for the different activities I'm planning.

 

If all the husbands do come that are planning on coming at this point (four of them!), we may just give them the house, and us girls will find a hotel or cabin to stay in.

 

I tried to talk Adam into making some invitations for the guys, but for some reason, he didn't want to. Oh well.

 

Since you all are paying for plane tickets getting here, I'll take care of the accommodations if the need arises. I'll start doing some poking around, just in case we do need to reserve something, since that is a popular tourist time and things fill up pretty quickly. How fun would it be to stay on a houseboat? Sleepless in Seattle, anyone?

 

Ok, well, hope you all have a great weekend!

 

Love ya!

 

Big News

Hey all...it seems to be that everyone is posting about their holidays, so I'll give a quick synopsis of ours. Our Christmas was wonderful. Nathan and I went into Boston and spent the night before Christmas Eve there. We stayed in the old Police Headquarters, which is now a nice hotel. We also saw The Nutcracker on Christmas Eve. Christmas day was nice, and I accomplished cooking my first turkey! That was exciting for me.
In answer to the gift question, I'd have to say my favorite gift was also a diamond necklace from Nathan, which was also very unexpected. We were not supposed to really be getting anything for each other since we had agreed upon a joint gift of a camcorder.
Anyway, in addition to all this, Nathan and I have some big news. It turns out that we are moving in less than a month! A little bit ago, Nathan put his resume out there in Oregon and Michigan just to see what would happen, since we know we won't settle down here, and it could take him a while to find a job. Well, it turns out that there was a company in Ann Arbor, MI that was very interested in him, and who pursued him quite aggressively. To make a long story short, they flew him out for an interview this week, and made an offer the next day! The offer was awesome, and everything really just fell into our laps quite unexpectedly. Seems like God's always got the good stuff for your when you are least expecting it. Anyway, they want him to start in 2 weeks, so he'll be gone from here by then. I'll follow about 2 weeks later, since we'll need more time. So, we're a bit overwhelmed right now to say the least, but very excited.
We'll stay with my parents for a time due to the expense of buying out of our lease when we leave here. But we'll be shopping for a house as well as a job for me once I get out there. So life is more crazy than ever, but very exciting as well. So much to do, so little time! :)

Christmas went fast

Hey guys! I figured it's time for an update. Christmas went really quickly. It was a nice Christmas though. We just stayed in Tulsa. It was kind of fun trying to start our own family traditions and stuff, but it was a little mellow for my taste too. I'm used to being with so many people for the holidays. I kind of missed the chaos of my family. It confirmed my decision that we want more than 2 children though. Two kids is just too quiet. We need at least 3. It just adds that extra touch of drama to family get-togethers. =) But Josh's sister and dad came over Christmas day, so that helped spice things up a bit. Although, Josh only has one sister, so it was still pretty low-key. But Christmas was good and it was watching Seth open his presents. Unfortunately, Seth was sick Christmas day. He had a horrible virus with runny, stuffy nose and coughing and then he got an ear infection. He was sick all week and then Lilah got it the next week, as did me and Josh. I think everyone has it though. It's just going around. We did end up getting to see my family for the holidays though because my grandpa died the Friday following Christmas. So my whole family flew in for New Years. (The funeral was here in Tulsa) I wasn't super close to the grandpa that died. He had an aortic annurism (sp?). He had been in the hospital for Christmas with pneumonia, so we did get to visit a couple days before he died. I'm very thankful for that. We had a very nice visit with him and he was doing well and was released from the hospital on Thursday, and then died Friday. He was a Christian and was passionate about Christ and I'm grateful for that. So, we know where he is now and that certainly makes death easier to deal with. It was sad circumstances, but it was still nice having all the family come in. So, that's about it for us. The kids are well and I'm just catching up from the holidays. Josh takes his next round of Board exams on Jan. 18th. So, we'd appreciate prayer for that to go well. He's been pretty busy studying. Hope you all are well. Love ya!

Digging out just in time for the next one!

Hey girls!!

Things here have been, well, snowy. I haven't seen this much snow since I was about eight. There are the upsides to this snow, like SNOW DAYS!! We've had 6 so far this year. Whoever thought we'd have so many. Plus a longer Christmas break, we had almost 3 weeks off.

Christmas was great. We made it to Denver between the blizzards and fresh snow. Our backyard had no snow, while our driveway had a 4 1/2 foot drift. Nick did all the shoveling during the first blizzard. It was lovely having only one shovel. We did only do one side of the driveway and used his car solely during Christmas.

We heard there was a 12 foot drift of snow on I-25, but as we drove up to Denver we never saw it. The road crews did an incredible job getting the snow off the highways and a horrible job on our street. It took a long time to get our road cleared.

Christmas was fun at my parents house. Everyone made it home. My sister, Carolyn and husband Jason, who live in Canada, surprised my parents the Monday before Christmas. So....it was a FULL house. We broke the toilet, garbage disposal and my sister, Tori, wrecked my dad's car. To say the least, our Christmas was not boring.

My favorite present is a tie between a Nintendo DS from my mother-in-law and new pots and pan from my husband. I love to cook.

Kimmy I read your blog about cooking, and I just want to throw out that I would LOVE to cook during the Sapphire weekend.

I miss you all!! I hope you have a great January. If any one needs some snow...I can send it to you in a box. :)

New year, new hole in my head

January is such a sad, little month. Coming right after such an exciting holiday as Christmas, it doesn’t really have much to offer. Add to that the grey skies and rainy season, and I’m pretty much ready to move to Hawaii. Anyone else?

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years! Ours was spent doing a lot of traveling and visiting a lot of family. Miraculously, the bad weather everywhere didn’t affect any of our flights (although we were kind of hoping to be stranded in Philly so we could visit Angie and Aaron!), and we made it home yesterday morning safe and sound. Then we slept. Pretty much all day. Oh, how I missed our bed.

Now that the holidays are over, I can focus the part of my brain that likes to plan things on the Sapphires reunion. Because a tiny part of me is OCD, and also because sometimes I get bored at work, I’m going to send out a little survey for some ideas and suggestions for the weekend. I want to make sure everyone has a good time, or at least acts like they’re having a good time.

So I think my favorite Christmas present to get this year was … a diamond necklace from Adam. Not so much because it’s a diamond necklace, but because it was such a surprise.
Oh, and my new domain name: http://www.kimmysue.com/. Tee hee. Right now, it just points to my blog but maybe I’ll get creative and do something else eventually.

My favorite present to give was probably the little princess chair I bought for our Angel Tree girl – so cute.

How about you all? What were your favorite presents?


And here’s my delayed act of teenage rebellion in the form of teeny tiny, cubic zirconium. Not sure how long it’s going to last, but Adam is warming up to it.

Love you all mucho!

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to tell everyone that I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! Nathan and I are going into Boston today to spend the day and the night there. Our hotel used to be the old police headquarters, and now it's an Irish-owned hotel. It looks to be quite nice. For those of you that don't know, Boston (and all MA for that matter), is split between Irish and Italians. My town is still mostly that way, with the Italians living on one side of town and the Irish on the other. Anyway, tomorrow we're going to see the Nutcracker. I'm quite excited about it, as I've never been to see it before. I'm doing Christmas at my house this year, making the dinner and everything. I'm just a bit nervous about that, but it should be fun. It will be a good opportunity to try out our new video camera, which was our Christmas gift to each other this year.
The week after Christmas will find me in MI, helping my family move. We're both quite sad to see them go. Things definitely won't be the same without my family here. It will be good though too, to have an opportunity for Nathan and I to live away from family for a time.
Nathan and I wish you all a merry Christmas, and look forward to hearing about your holidays.