Happy New Year!

With the new year upon us we pray that it brings everyone blessings and great joy. We also pray that it brings me a new job. The phone interview went well and I should hear back from them next week sometime. We had a lot of fun with everyone over Christmas and look forward to seeing everyone this weekend again! Love you all!

Merrry Christmas To All.........

Have a very Merry Christmas! Scott and I cannot wait to have everyone over for a nice cozy Christmas Eve and family fun Christmas Day!

Just a little update the management position has suddenly become available for the YMCA pool, and I have applied. I ask for your prayers that God give wisdom to the people making the decisions and they make the right choice! (hopefully they pick me!) That is all for now...

Happy Birthday Mom!

This weekend we spent some time with the family celebrating mom's birthday! Amazingly she is 29 again!

The whole family (with a few missing)

Caramal Apples and More Pumpkins!

This last week we spent some time with friends having a great fall night. We made hot apple cider, caramal apples, and carved pumpkins. These are the caramal apples before all the caramal and candy slipped off of them.

Before and after the carving took place!

Up North

Scott and I escaped to the great northwoods this last weekend to visit his Nana and Grandpa. We enjoyed the colorful view and went to pumpkinfest. We enjoyed good food and lots of relaxation, after a few stressful weeks of work.

October Up Date

As I was reading Krystin and Kyle's blog she made me feel guilty about not being a regular poster so here is what is happening lately...

Scott learned a new machine at work and will eventually have to teach he whole lab how to work it. He has also started attending Facilitator Excellence meetings. He is the only lab tech attending, everyone else is in management. I am very proud of him! He has also been keeping up with his training for the EMT work he does.

I have been keeping busy with the many different jobs I have. Swimming lessons are going well. The YMCA is getting a little stressful so please pray for me to have a great attitude about everything. There is a month left of swimming and the girls are starting to feel the effects of school and sports. The first weekend of October I made a trip down to Cincinnatti with Noelle to visit Stephanie. We played dominos, picked pumpkins at a pumpkin farm, carved them, went to Jungle Jims, a large grocery store with food from countries around the world, and saw a comedian at the comedy club.

At the pumpkin farm on the hay ride

Stephanie's, Mine, and Noelle's

The largest soup can ever! (In Jungle Jims)

Long Awaited Pictures

What we Have Learned in the First Year of Marriage

I have finally found some time when I have not been sleeping or working to update the bolg. There will be a select few pictures of the recent happenings in our lives. Scott is staying busy with the fire department and the blood center. I am lifeguarding at the YMCA, teaching swim lessons in West Bend, Volunteer coaching the Port girls swim team, and I will start to teach Drivers Ed at the end of October. With that to say...we learned that the laundry does not do itself, the dishes do not wash themselves, and the house gets messier faster than we thought!

We enjoyed our 1st year anniversary in Wisconsin Dells....There we learned that if we had money we would get massages everyday, we really like eating at Moosjaw (and the taste of their beer), picking out a magnet for our collection is not as easy as it looks, the sunset is much better on the water when eating steak and lobster, and Beth cannot golf.

Other things we have learned in the first year of our marriage is that it isn't as easy as we thought. Setting up a budget and sticking to it is one of the hardest things to do and to compromise about. There is not enough time in the day to spend time with each other after everything else gets in the way. We also learned that being married brings many joys to our lives, we lobe each other even more, but we are not ready for kids just yet (in the near future, Krystin get ready)!

And oh by the way I chopped 12 to 14 inches off my hair....we learned that I look good with short hair!

Because our computer is really stupid I cannot post pictures at this time I will have to do it later. I am sorry for not having any. Love you all!

Oh how the Summer has passed!

Since arriving home from Costa Rica two months ago Scott and I have found enough to keep ourselves busy. Here is what has been happening the past few months...pictures will come later.

We arrived home from Costa Rica in one piece on a Thursday afternoon. After playing some volleyball Thursday night, I headed to work the next day and Scott stayed home and continued vacation. Friday we were on the road again to visit Adam and Gina in Madison. There we spent a relaxing weekend hanging out by the pool and learning how to play blackjack.

After the weekend Scott and I headed off to work again, him to his lab and me to swim lessons and lifeguarding for West Bend. We then ventured off to the Northwoods for a weekend with Scott's grandparents where I held my first fish, and we saw three bear cubs and their mom climbing a tree, twenty yards from the cabin.

Work started again keeping us busy, putting in countless hours for the next few weeks, Scott has been on call for the Fire Department and the Blood Center, in addition to his normal job, I have been working keeping kids safe in the water. July came around and we celebrated the Fourth with family and friends, watched the fireworks, played some major kickball in the back yard, and Scott went golfing. We also managed to take a weekend and go camping with church, enjoying our time away from home.

Now that August is almost here we are going to the Dells to celebrate our anniversary with massages and a dinner cruise! But for now we are keeping busy with work and spending time with friends.

We are in Costa Rica!!

As many of you know Scott, Naomi and I made the trip from good 'ol Wisconsin down to Costa Rica! We are having lots of fun with Katy, Sara and Gerardo. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon without any difficulties, and headed straight to Sara's school to pick her up early. Since then we have been relaxing and getting to know Katy. Sorry there are no pictures right now but I promise to post some right when we get back to share our stories with you. this afternoon we are headed to the beach as soon as Sara gets back from work. We are spending the weekend there until Sunday, all day will be spent trying not to get sun burned, and relaxing pool side with Margaritas in hand! I hope the weather is as nice up there as it is down here. Until next time...

Easter Egg Decorating

Kyle and Krystin came over the Thursday before Easter and helped Scott and I decorate eggs. It was a lot of fun and we learned Kyle does not like it so much, Scott is creative, and Krystin is an egg making machine. We did two dozen eggs and I think she did half of them. Enjoy!

Getting to Know Each Other...

Scott and I were able to watch Caden this past weekend for a day. It was a great experience to learn more about her and see what she knows. We learned a lot about her. She likes to go outside and when she is inside she likes to wear her coat to go outside. She likes to bounce, read books, swing, take walks, watch cars, ride in the wagon and the list goes on. We had endless opportunities to learn about the things she likes and dislikes. It was amazing to have her in the house and get to know her personality and interact with her. This definately given me the baby bug, but still further in the future, sorry everyone. During the course of our day we finally heard her say my name which she pronounces "butt" and she even said hi to Uncle Scott. He really loved that she knew his name. Our love has grown for her even more while being able to watch her.

Bucks Game

Scott and I were fortunate enough to recieve tickets to a recent Bucks home game, in the fourth row right behind the basket! The seats were amazing to watch the game from. The players looked like giants from that close. Here are some pictures...

Scott and I entering the Bradley Center

Players running out onto the court

Opening tip

Scott slapping hands after the game

Happy Birthday to Sara!

Happy Birthday Sara! We hope you have a great day!

We miss you all lots!

Weekend in Chicago

The weekend after my birthday Scott's parents wanted to take everyone down to Chicago to see the Broadway show Jersey Boys. They had recently seen it in October and loved it so much they wanted to take everyone down there to see it. Off we went to the lovely city with no plans but to see the show. Saving money we took the train in from Libertyville, which I recommend, it was a lot of fun. We got to see some of the surrounding suburbs of Chicago and a great view of the city. After we arrived and got settled into the hotel we decided to walk around the city and one of our stops was the Sears Tower, I know it is not called that now but whatever. It was such an amazing view from the 99th floor, we spent a lot of time up there. We even saw the famous St. Patrick's Day parade, not realizing it was St. Patrick's Day weekend, the city was a little crazy. After a little site seeing from the Sears Tower we ventured a couple blocks to Millennium Park and saw THE BEAN! I was the only one that was excited about it. Every time Naomi has gone down to Chicago she always talked about the bean, and every time that I have been to Chicago I have not seen the bean. I was so excited beyond belief! No one else felt my excitement, which was a little disappointing. On our way through the park every couple that we passed was either making out or fighting, or making out one minute then fighting the next. It was kind of ridiculous because everyone was drunk and it was only noon. Later that night we met up with Scott's cousin who lives in the city and works in the Hancock building, he is the one that got us the tickets to the show. We enjoyed a few drinks in a little pub connected to our hotel and an Irish band came in and played some music for the place. That was really neat. We hung around the pub for a while then went on our way to The Grillroom, a fine dining restaurant across from the theatre. The food was amazing, I had crab stuffed shrimp and Scott had the London Broil, which is a steak and potatoes meal. For an appetizer Scott's dad ordered oysters...they love oysters. To say the least I tried one and it was not as bad as I thought it was. I would never order them by myself but if given the chance again I would probably eat them again. As in true fashion of the weekend we were running out of time to get to the show and luckily for us it was right across the street. After three hours in a stuffy hot theatre, we are now addicted to the Four Seasons and have been singing their songs ever since. The show was really good and I definitely recommend it to anyone who is thinking of going to see it. To end the night we were all exhausted and went right to bed. On Sunday we went out to eat at B&B, a local breakfast place and had even more amazing food. By that time it was getting late and we were all ready to head home, we hopped on the train and zoomed back to Libertyville to go back to our lives without the view of buildings every time we step outside.

Our New Car!

After a stressful week and a half we finally were able to take our new car home and keep it! The last couple of weeks have been stressful because Scott has been on call either for the Blood Center or for the Fire Department. On top of that we were in the process of purchasing a new used car, while trying to get it working. When we first purchased it they said they would fix the things wrong with it. When we went to pick it up it still was not fixed so we had to bring it back two more times before they finally fixed it. Meanwhile Scott was stressed out about the car working right and I was sitting at home not being able to go anywhere becuase we traded in my car, with the deal for this one. Anyway we were able to pick up the car on my birthday, good birthday present right! It has worked well ever since then, here are some pictures!

Jedi Scott

Since we purchased the Lego Star Wars game I have come to believe that Scott can use the Force on stop lights. Every time we are in the car going somewhere and the light is red he can turn it green without even looking at the other lights. Also a little while ago we recieved a snuggie, yes I said a snuggie, from his parents. If he puts it on just right he looks like he is wearing Jedi robes. I will let the pictures tell the story! From now on he would like you to acknowledge him as Jedi Scott!

Grandma's Birthday!

We spent the last weekend in February celebrating Scott's grandma's birthday and his dad's birthday. We enjoyed Saturday at her house with family and friends. When we arrived there she brought us around and introduced us to her many friends that decided to show up although the weather was dumping 10 inches of snow on us. It was a lot of fun seeing the family and hanging out. One of Scott's uncles is an avid fisherman and fried up some fish for us for the evening. I tried it and I still didn't like it as much. Here is a picture of her with her cake she turned 85.
Please pray for her because she has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. As for right now she is doing well, and gaining back weight she lost the last few months.

POLKA!!

Scott and I with Jackie, James (her boyfriend), and Larissa went to visit our friend Tom at the Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee. It was a Friday night in the freezing cold of February with a line as long as a giraffe's neck, much less to say outside. After about an hour we finally reached the indoors and was seated right in front of the Polka Bands speakers. We dined on fish and shrimp and listened to the loud music being shoved into our ears. Besides losing our hearing we enjoyed the night and even got in one polka! As you can see we inherited gradma and grandpas ability to match and we didn't even know it!

Scott and I dancing

Valentines Day!

I know it is a little late but for the next few days I will be updating our blog and letting you know that we are still alive!

For Valentines Day Scott and I went out to eat at Messina's, where we had our rehearsal dinner, it was really good and romantic. After that we came home and made Thin Mints! That is right I said Thin Mints like the Girl Scout cookies! We received this awesome cookbook from one of Scott's co-workers where it has the recipe for just about every claimed "secret recipe" by the fast food chains and all the stuff we love! Here are some pictures of the night.

Melting the chocolate for the cookie (above)

We didn't have the right mint flavoring it called for so we just used mint extract and they tasted pretty good. Definately not like the real thing but pretty close for just trying it at home!

The finished product!

Cincinnatti Here We Come!

Noelle, Scott and I weathered the trip down to visit the Perrine's to surprise Stephanie for her birthday. To say the least we succeeded in our surprise and she was not expecting that we would come down to visit. The three of us arrived at Chris and Ed's house on Friday night, Stephanie was at work so we decided to go and surprise her there. We got there just as she was getting off of work, we stayed and hung out with her at work for awhile. Saturday was the day of the party Aunt Chris planned. We slept in late and had a relaxing day until around noon when all hell broke loose. People were coming over at four and we had two apple pies to make, a taco dip, chicken carbonara. To say the least we were put to work to get this all done. The picture is the awesome taco dip I made! It was the taco seasoning dip, refried beans, guacamole, cheese, lettuce, cheese, tomatos, and olives. It was quite amazing. After dinner, which was awesome, we played the longest game of dominoes in my life. Eight people not paying attention, not good, we also played spoons, and other games late into the night. Graham ended up staying over and on Sunday he was fascinated by the cat. He is getting so big and is very cute. All in all it was a very good weekend. We had a lot of fun and it was a lot of driving. Scott was a trooper and drove the whole way. Things we learned: Scott and Noelle are both lovers of Arby's, where Turkey Run State Park is, Gary IN is the smelliest place on earth, driving through Chicago is about ten dollars in tolls...One way (we went around on the way home, much less expensive), and Stephanie does not work at a whole in the wall type of bar, it is very nice and upscale!