OMG

Oh My Gosh Liz! Congratulations! I had not even read your blog when I emailed you the other day or I would have congratulated you then. Sorry! I'm so happy for you and I hope you're feeling good. God Bless!

yea!

Congratulations Liz and Nathan!!! loved the pictures of the house too, looks like you have done a lot in a short time!

more news....

Well, you all should be very proud of me....blogging twice in the span of like a month or so. Things here continue to be busy. My new job is keeping me insanely busy, and grad school doesn't help matters. I can't wait until I'm done with my Master's. Only a few more months to go! The house is still coming along. I am uploading pics to Kodak as I type, so you will all have pics of the house shortly, along with some of Bella as well:) I couldn't resist. As much work as she is with everything else going on, it's so fun to come home from work and have her so excited to see me, and just want to play in my lap:) But many of you already relate to that.
Ah well, so we decided we apparantly did not have enough on our plates at the moment with continuous upgrades and work to be done to the house, the new dog, the new jobs, grad school, etc. This apparantly was not enough adventure for us at the moment, and we have officially embarked upon the new chapter of parenthood. Yes, we are pregnant! I am 9 weeks pregnant, and am due April 27th. We were going to wait till we were 3 months to spread the news, but our families couldn't make it that long. It's quite impressive we made it this far with them actually. Oh, and yes, it was planned. I figured I'd answer that now, as that seem to be the first question. So that's our newest news, and the most exciting by far in our minds. I wanted to make sure I shared it with my girls.

Mia Ann Ekle

I have a new niece! That makes 12 (i think) nieces and nephews. Mia Ann Ekle was born last night in Seattle, weighing 8 pounds 12 ounces and born with a full head of black hair. yea :)

Labor Day Weekend...

Hi all... I've really been meaning to post for quite some time. I still don't have Internet at home and feel bad taking more time to surf the net than I already do.

This summer was pretty busy for us. After Seattle, we sent 4th of July in Ohio. We decided to visit his Grandfather last minute cause he wasn't doing well. He's been dealing with prostate cancer for almost a year now and the doctors have pretty much done all they can. In spite of that, he has been doing much better lately. The last I heard he was getting up and around a lot more than he had and we are so thankful for this turn of events. He really didn't look well when we were up last.
Between now and then we had a couple of small trips and a nice week long vacation at the beach with my family. The summer went so fast, which brings me Labor Day weekend. The in-laws were in town, which mean lots of talking and entertaining for us. Overall I think it was a success and I'm pretty sure they had a good time, but let me tell you I'm very exhausted. I need a holiday to recoup from the holiday weekend. They stayed in town till yesterday, which extended the weekend a little longer than usual. Anyway... I survived.

Well I guess there isn't much else to say. Things are good. Sounds like you all are busy with changes in your lives - new puppies, new homes, new babies... What an exciting time for all of us. I just wish I could join in the fun. Soon enough I'm sure.

Talk to you all soon, until then keep it real.

Back again....

So i realize it's been far too long since I've blogged, so here I am. Things have actually been quite insane here with us since June when we closed on the house. The home we bought was a foreclosed house, and the previous owners took pretty much everything with them before they left (appliances, even the air conditioner!). So we had tons of work to do. We actually since have tons of work to do, but it's coming along. We had a lot to do before we could really even live here, and there was a rush to get it done because my parents had summer company, and we were taking up the guest room. Anyway, much of the inside is now done, which leaves us with some decorating, and the formidable task of the landscaping. I need to finish taking the "afters" of the before and after pics, but once I get those taken, I'll send them to everyone. We definitely are happy with the house, despite the work. The up-side to buying a house that needs work is that when it's done, it's exactly what you wanted, so that's nice. And the house is also only 7 years old, so it's like new now.

On other news, we also bought a puppy, as if a new home and all the work that comes with it wasn't enough for us. Her name is Bella and she's a Yorkie and she's just over 12 weeks old. I will also mention I think she's more work than many children sometimes. But she's starting to come along with her house training, so that helps matters quite a lot. I hate to leave her home while I'm at work:(

Which brings me to the topic of my employment status. After being unemployed for many months, I got a job as a preschool teacher, which I was more than happy to leave after a couple months of that. Not my calling. I just now started my first full week of school in my new job, which is great so far. I got a jobs as an elementary resource teacher in pretty much the best school district in southern Michigan. It's going to be an interesting year, as this city is one of the wealthiest in the country! I've even already had parents look me up online to check me out. But it should be fun. I'm happy to be back in elementary again and am looking forward to getting into the swing of things and finding my groove there. Also on the job front, Nathan is still enjoying his job. Things were very busy there for a while, adding to the stress of renovating and moving, but they've calmed down a lot now. So we're in the process of settling into our new life in our new home with our new jobs and our new little puppy. :) I wish it was really as idyllic as it sounds:) lol. I guess things like that never are. But we're enjoying the new adventures!

I've read the blog and kept up on everyone's life, even though I haven't posted, and it sounds like everyone is doing quite well. Kim, you'll also have to post pics of the new place. And let us know how the pregnancy is progressing! Jamie, congrats on the new position. It sounds right up your alley. How do you like having different kids all day? I love it. Julie, how's life in Ohio? You also need to post pics of the new house. Ok, I've gotta go work on a paper. I'm only 2 classes and comprehensive finals away from my Master's!! Whoo hoo!

Updates

So things went better than planned with Shawn's job - he's not hired on contract basis but on part time basis with a verbal agreement to work full time starting in December, which includes a renegotiation in salary at that time. Not bad at all. We're very happy with it. He's starting on Monday, so for the next week or so he'll be doing both jobs and school.





We went to MN over the weekend and had a great trip aside from the food poisoning from Taco Bell that put a damper on our first day there. Other than that, it was wonderful to see everyone...Shay is very pregnant and very ready to have little Madeline Loveday Rohde in this world. I can't wait to see what she looks like. We also went to dinner with bunch of my dad's side of the family after the shower - lots of cousins that I haven't seen in a long time. So, now I'm back at work and glad it's just a 4 day week! I have big plans of cleaning and organizing this weekend! I am actually very excited about it. I may even start on Friday night. :-)