Move Update

Well...it is now August and our first move is finally over so I thought I would update everyone on how things have been going. First of all, for those of you that haven't heard, we sold our house in Columbus, OH in 2 short days which was fantastic yet sad at the same time. It was definitely a relief to sell it so quickly, but created a gigantic whirlwind for us. We put the house on the market June 13th and accepted an offer on the 15th. We hurriedly packed all of our belongings into our PODS and closed on the house July 24th. We are now in IN living in Kris's parents basement...we sold the house so quickly and we didn't necessarily want to just rush into buying another house. So we are now just trying to get settled into our jobs, and then we will start to seriously look for a place to live. After we closed on the house, we did take our Baseball Tour trip to Philly, New York, and Boston. I will try and get a post up soon with some pictures of that.

May Update

Just a quick update for all of you that haven't heard our latest news...Kris got the teaching job in Indiana. He will be teaching 7th grade for Goshen. He is very excited that he finally got a "real" job. So now we have to get our house ready to sell, which I am very much dreading, and then moving all of our stuff. We are going to be getting rid of a lot of stuff. Our tentative plan will be to move to IN in early August...Kris's first day I think is Aug 11. We are hoping to have our house on the market in the next week or two. So keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the summer that all goes well. I haven't been so much concerned with finding a job for me yet. I am waiting to get the house on the market before I start applying...one thing at a time for me.

Chicago

I have been meaning to blog about our trip to Chicago a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to post pictures of the trip which I haven't had access to. We downloaded the pictures onto Kris's laptop which he keeps in IN, and I have been in OH for the past two weeks.

So anyway...we spent the weekend in Chicago a couple of weeks ago with two of Kris's best friends from high school and their wives (Keith & Courtney and John & Nicole). Keith works for the Marriott so of course we stayed right downtown in a Marriott for a very reasonable price. Here is a picture of the view from our room... On Friday, we didn't get in to town until late so we headed out to dinner right away and enjoyed some great Cajun food. The restaurant of the weekend was Redfish. If you have never eaten there, I would definitely recommend it, especially the jambalaya. On Saturday, the boys headed up to Wrigley early in the morning to get in line for the bleachers. Several hours later, we met up with the boys and enjoyed an awesome day at Wrigley Field! The weather ended up being perfect...I even got a little sunburnt. The Cubs won which only made the day that much better.

After the game, we met up with my best friend from high school, Janice, for a late lunch. We had a great time catching up, since we hadn't seen each other for such a long time. In the evening we headed out to find a fun place to watch the NCAA Final Four games...this turned out to be harder than we expected. Everywhere was packed or didn't have tv's to watch the game, so we actually ended up at Redfish again. There was a great bar area with plenty of sitting for all of us. After the game was over, there was live music at the bar. The music was great, and we ended up staying a lot later than planned, because we were enjoying it so much. The musician was Professor John. If you like jazz/rhythm & blues with a New Orleans twist you should check out his website at http://www.professorjohn.com/.

Here's Keith looking very glum after North Carolina lost to Kansas. Poor Keith!!! He looks a little happier in bottom picture with Courtney.

So we had a great weekend trip with Keith & Courtney and John & Nicole! We did a lot of laughing! Chicago is one of our favorite cities and recommend going if you have never been.

The Incredible Balloon!

So while I was out visiting Joel and Kendall in KS, I told them about the balloon that Kris had bought me for my birthday that was still floating in my kitchen. They really didn't seem to believe me, but I think they have reason since my birthday was on December 26...and now it is April. Well I am posting some pictures as proof. I don't know where he got this balloon, but it must be a floating record. Anyone want to take a guess on how much longer it will float??? I will keep you posted on how much longer it lasts.

March Update

So I am a bit behind blogging...I know I sound like a broken record, but you all know how it goes. Anyway, I will update you on our recent events.

1. I went to KS to visit my brother Joel and his family March 13-18. While I was there we celebrated Ollie's 1st birthday. It was a very relaxing trip, and I had a great time catching up with Joel and Kendall and playing with Ollie. Joel claims that Ollie is wild, but I think he is one of the best babies I've ever seen. Happy almost all of the time. Here are some pics from my trip:

I know that is a lot of pictures, but I couldn't choose. They are all so cute!

2. We paid off both of our cars this month!!! Here is a picture of one of our babies. Now we just need to keep them both in good shape and running well.

3. We enjoyed March Madness. After returning from KS, I worked just one night and then drove to IN to see Kris. We spent Thursday night and all day Friday and Saturday watching our brackets fall apart by all the upsets. We always have a great time during this every year!

Kris and I at BW's watching the games. Not really sure what the right picture of Kris is all about.

4. On Easter Sunday, we went to church in New Carlisle with my family. Abi did a puppet show and Roanna sang...both did an excellent job! Kris says that Abi need to join a theater group. Thanks to Roanna for hosting Easter dinner for everyone, and my mom for making most of the food. We had soooo much food, enough to feed 10 times as many people as were there. We had an Easter egg hunt for the kids and then watched some more basketball.

Mark and Jordan enjoying the Easter egg hunt!

5. Kris had his first baseball game this week. Well it was actually a varsity game. His JV game was cancelled due to how wet all the fields still are. I decided to be the devoted wife and head out to the game on Monday night in the cold weather. I froze my legs off. My upper body was just fine, but my legs were so cold. I only made it through the 5th inning and then enjoyed the rest of the game from my warm car! Kris is having a great time coaching, but he is so busy all the time. But I guess that's what comes with the territory.

Hope all is well with everyone else!

The Downfalls of the Single Woman

So I just would like to take a minute to complain about my day yesterday...After spending a few days in IN with Kris I had to return home so that I could go to work. Now usually when I go and see Kris, I leave a day before I have to go back to work so that I don't have to drive for 4-5 hours and then have to go to work all night. Well this time I really couldn't leave on Saturday to be back to work for Sunday night because Columbus was just getting hammered with snow on Saturday. So I decided to leave Sunday morning, even though I did have to work the same night.

Anyway, so I left IN by 10:30 Sunday morning thinking that would leave plenty of time to make it home and then get an hour or two of sleep before having to go into work all night. The drive went smoothly. The roads were great. No delays from traffic. I actually made it home by 2:45pm only to discover that I couldn't even get in my driveway from all the snow we had gotten! Our subdivision had been plowed a little bit...enough for maybe one and a half cars to fit down the road. So needless to say, I had to pull my car over far enough on the road, which meant into the snow, so that other cars could get by and park it. I waded up the driveway in snow up to my knees so that I could get a shovel from the garage. So by this time it is edging on 3:00pm, and I have a whole driveway to shovel before I can even get my car off the road. So I started to shovel and shovel and shovel! 3:30pm rolls around and I am thinking...

"I am going to be out here shoveling up until the time I have to go to work."

"I hate not having my husband around!"

"...So this is what it is like being a single woman without a man around to do CRAPPY jobs like this and this sucks!"


Finally help arrived! The two neighbor boys came over and offered to help me finish shoveling, and they were a lifesaver. I think in the hour that I shoveled on my own I finished maybe quarter of the drive, and once they arrived we finished the rest of the driveway in 30min. Even though they said they didn't want any money, I gave them each $10 (which I thought "hey where else can you make $10 for 30min of work as a kid" but Kris said I was being cheap). What does everyone else think???

So here is my day wrapped up in a timeline...
10:30am -2:45pm - Drive from IN to Columbus
2:45pm - 4:15pm - Shovel the driveway
4:15pm - 5:15pm - Get a little downtime before work
5:15pm - 6:00pm - Get ready for work
6:00pm -7:00pm - Get some dinner and drive to work
7:00pm -7:30am - Work all night long with my sore arms and back from shoveling
7:30am - 11:30am - Meeting after work
11:30am - 12:00pm - Drive home from work
12:00pm - Finally get to bed!!!

Needless to say I was exhausted by the time I got home today. My arms, chest, and back are killing me from shoveling! Hope everyone else's day was better than mine! If I could find our camera I would post some pictures...but the camera is MIA!

Update

Once again the delay in blogging has started. To my defense, this past month has been sort of a whirlwind for Kris and I. For those of you that don't know what has been happening in our lives lately, here goes...For the past 2 1/2 years, Kris has been diligently searching for a teaching job (mostly here in Ohio, but also a little in IN)...without any luck. So over Christmas, Goshen High School in IN calls him and offers him a position for the rest of the school year to cover for a maternity leave. So after much consideration, we decide that he will take the job, but I will stay here in Columbus because there really isn't any need for me to move and leave my job if his job isn't permanent. So for the past 6 weeks, we have been living in separate states. He has been back to OH once and I have been to IN twice. Needless to say, our lives have been in disarray!

On a positive note, Kris's job so far has been going very well. He loves finally being able to teach. And after only being there for a week, they asked him to coach the JV baseball team. So now he is keeping extra busy with after school activities and camps on Saturday. So good thing I have a job schedule that is pretty flexible so that I can go and see him, because he won't be able to come and see me much once the season starts!