New House

Well, I finally made it back to the new house and dug out the camera cords, so here is a picture or two of our new house. We have the power turned on (makes taking loads over at night much easier), and the fence should start going in tomorrow. We have been packing stuff up at the old house and taking a carload or two over just about everyday since we closed. Truman is quite distressed because, well, cats just don't like change, and his whole house is in an uproar. He's just going to love it when we actually move! I can already see the creeping/slinking around he's gonna do. Isa will be WAY EXCITED because her yard will be much bigger! And, if the fencers aren't careful, her yard may come complete with a rabbit or two fenced in! I can't imagine that would happen, but it'd be pretty funny! Anyway, Josh and I are exhausted, but very excited. It's hard to believe that we're really ready to move!

On another note, my principal has released me to start telling people, so here goes... I got a new job!!! It's actually still awaiting approval from the Board, but if they approve the budget as it is, then the job is mine. I will be an "Instructional Technology Specialist." In broad terms, my job will be to help teachers use technology in their classrooms. In more specific terms, I have no idea what I'll actually be doing, but I love doing the work with the educational technology, so I'm excited. And a little nervous, since I don't really know what I'll be doing, and I'll be working with a lot of new people. But, I won't have sub plans (6 weeks of them was not looking good), p/t conferences, grade cards, discipline issues, etc. etc. So that part excites me a lot!! It'll be a new adventure... which I seem to be having a lot of all of a sudden!

One last cool thing... today is Josh and I's anniversary! We have been married 3 years today, which is very exciting! To celebrate, we're not doing much because we're having a baby, buying a house, and we just fixed our car, so we are not exactly rolling in it! But we are going out to dinner tonight, and taking a break from packing, which is quite possibly the best anniversary present EVER! It's so cool to be starting out on all these new adventures with my husband and best friend at my side!

Another Big Step

Well, as if having a baby wasn't enough, Josh and I have officially taken another huge step into adulthood! We are now officially homeowners!! We closed on our new house, which is also my old house, on Thursday afternoon. We are moving a little at a time, which is why I have a lovely welcome sign instead of pictres of our new house at the top of this blog. I actually thought ahead to take several different pictures as we've been in and out this weekend, but Josh (aka Psycho Packer) packed up all of my camera cords, so I can't get them onto the laptop! So pictures to come sometime soon...

Otherwise, we are really excited about moving. They are fencing the much bigger yard (that actually has GRASS) with a 6-ft privacy fence this week, so our dog will be much happier! And we've already had one neighbor tell us that a barking dog does not bother her one bit, and the other neighbors expressed total disbelief at our disturbing-the-peace-at-4pm story, so that's good! The house came with a washer and dryer, dishwasher, microwave, stove, fridge, etc. etc, and actually has a full guest bath (as opposed to a toilet shoved in the laundry room). We are really just excited to get out of our duplex. Not that it hasn't been a good house for us, but between the dog-hating neighbor, and the cramped feeling, we're ready to go! We started packing last night, and have taken 4 carloads of stuff over already. We've mostly finished the blue room and the bedroom (it was nice because I only have about 10 articles of clothing that fit, so most of my clothes are already packed and over there!). We are planning our big move next Monday, since the fence guy said that the fence will be done by then, and since it's the only day off we'll have in the next several weeks!

I've decided it's best to move when you're pregnant... I don't have to carry anything! :) And Dad can't lift anything over 10 lbs right now, so moving on Monday could be interesting! Oh well, it'll be exciting just the same. It's been a crazy week, and I feel like there should be a sign somewhere... "Welcome to Adulthood." Baby...house...mortgage payment... YIKES!

Birthday Party

Well, the exciting news is definitely on the Baby Blog today, but I thought someone might actually check this one as well, so I thought I'd take the chance to get caught up (a bit) on all of my blogging! So here goes...

We had my birthday party a couple of weekends ago, and we had a great time! It was typical Liz's birthday fare: barbecue and lemon cake. Traditionally, we always have bbq at my birthday because it's the first one warm enough. We did take a break from bbq during the house building years when there wasn't a stove at the new house, but there was a grill, so everyone ate more bbq then they could stand! But now we're ready again! It was great food, and we got to bring the Bella out to meet Ruth's sheeps. Which was QUITE entertaining! She really didn't even see them at first, but when she did, she was definitely interested! First she put all the hair on her ruff up, then she ran scared and hid behind Josh and I! What a ferocious animal she is! After that she got more interested in them, and spent awhile running in circles around their pen. She actually stuck her head through the fence and one of them head butted her, too! Eventually we had to tie her up because she wouldn't leave the sheep alone. But she still had a great time, we let her bark to her heart's content, and she still got lots of running and lots of attention! She was so tired she even slept on the way home!!

Well, besides the animals, the humans had a good time at the party, too. There was much ado because my belly had just started to show and seemed to surprise everyone. And we just always seem to have a good time hanging out together and telling stories. Thanks for the good time, everyone!

Cutest dog EVER!

Wouldn't be my birthday without a flaming lemon cake!

She sleeps!

Gone Fishin'

Well, Saturday was my birthday, but most of it was spent at the scavenger hunt. I didn't care, because I had a good time there. But, afterwards, I got to pick what we did, and since James and Charlie were going fishing, I thought that sounded fun. So we spent Saturday afternoon fishing at a lake owned by some friends. Because of all of the rain, the lake was very muddy, and full of trees, so the fishing wasn't great. But Josh still managed to catch the most fish (2), and I (between catching trees and random logs in the water) managed to catch the biggest! It was huge! Here are the pictures...

How did the boys do? Well, they didn't catch many fish... but they did manage to strand themselves in the middle of the lake in the rowboat! James threw the paddle down to see how deep the water was, but instead of popping back up to the surface, it just went "glug, glug" and disappeared from sight. Not wanting to admit that they were stuck, the two of them just sat there in the middle. So when Josh and I packed up to leave we said "see you tomorrow" and they said "maybe." Then they had to fess up, and Josh and I had to take the paddle boat out there to rescue them! It was pretty hilarious...

Even though we didn't keep the fish (we didn't catch enough to be worth the cleaning, not that I do the cleaning) we had fun just being outside and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Scavenger Hunt

Yesterday we had one of my favorite youth events- the Digital Camera Scavenger Hunt. This event is fun because it's very low-key, inexpensive, and doesn't require traveling! We start out by meeting at Shakespeare's Pizza for lunch, then we split up the kids and give them two hours, a digital camera, and a list of 50 things to take a picture of downtown. Some of them are just things or places downtown (a dogwood, an alligator, an indian, a bowling alley), some of them are actions (doing the chicken dance, the electric slide, blowing a bubble), and some require great skill and creativity (your group with a squirrel, a person with the same shirt, a person in uniform). Anyway, it always results in embarrassing, hilarious stories AND, since they have to take pictures of everything, it's all captured for public viewing! It's funny because youth kids are usually too cool to do something like the sprinkler on the Quad on campus. But, because it's a competition, they can't resist! So, because I want everyone to get the enjoyment I got... here are pictures from the two groups who had my cameras!

the aformentioned sprinkler...

a touchdown dance on Stankowski Field... the weakest touchdown dances ever, since all they did was spike the ball, throw their hands in the air and say "Woohoo"

A cowboy not in your group... this group actually stopped this guy driving down the road and asked if he'd get out and take a picture!

Moonwalking across a crosswalk

Pretend fishing in a fountain

Doing the Chicken Dance

Rolling down a hill

Enjoying some much needed ice cream after it was all over! :)

You'll notice I'm not in the pictures... I love being a leader! :)

Wedding Weekend

Well, Josh's best friend, Bob, got married last weekend, and Josh and I got to go to Texas for the wedding. It was kind of a funny situation, because Josh was in the wedding, so we were there for all of the wedding party stuff, and I was there, but I knew Bob, and not really Robyn, the bride, so I wanted to be with the boys, but wedding ettiquette doesn't really allow for it. But we worked it out, and I just kind of hung around and made myself useful when and were I could! I guess best to start from the beginning...

We went to the rehearsal on Friday night, and got to see the church for the first time. It was a really beautiful church. It was actually part of the Texas Christian University campus. It was almost completely white inside, except for the red carpet, and had beautiful light fixtures, great lighting, and awesome acoustics. I kind of decided to occupy myself by taking pictures, particularly of the moments the photographer wasn't there. Of course, there were a multitude of aunts, mothers, uncles, etc, thinking the same thing, so I tried to take the pictures no one else was taking. That means that my pictures are random, but I really took them for Bob and Robyn, not necessarily to remember the day for myself. Anyway... my favorite picture from the rehearsal was this one...


I tried several times before I got the two of them centered with the cross, if not with the frame of the picture! I just thought it was such a neat picture, to see the two of them ready to start this new adventure, and fitting to have them start it at the cross. I'm sure it looked much cooler when they were dressed up during the actual wedding, but I kind of liked this picture with the normal attitude and attire. Much more fitting for an actual marriage then the pomp that happens on the wedding day!

But that wedding day did arrive, and they had BEAUTIFUL weather for it! It was an evening wedding, so Josh and I got to start the day with lunch with his relatives that live in Ft. Worth. We had lunch with them, and just generally caught up, which was cool because we see them very rarely, typically only once a year. After that we headed to a mall, because Josh had to pick up his tux. Funny story about that...the guys actually went to try on tuxes the day before, and Josh had apparently measured himself wrong. When it asked for pant length, he measured his inseam when they wanted his outseam, so his pants were actually capris! Not quite the look Bob was going for at his wedding! Thankfully, the shop ordered a new pair of pants, we just couldn't pick them up until Saturday afternoon! But once the new pants were procured, we were off to the chapel! I mostly just hung out, helping where I could. My remedial sewing skills got put to good use, though, when five buttons popped off of groomsmens' vests! So I actually spent much of my downtime sewing buttons! Then I watched while they took pictures, and got a very important assignment from the bride. Robyn wanted a picture of Bob's face when she was walking down the aisle. The cool part was that I got a 2nd row seat, which was pretty sweet (though I felt like I had to explain why some random girl got to sit in front of half of Bob's family... but oh well!). It was actually a really neat experience. Everyone in a wedding turns around and looks at the bride. No one is watching the groom. But I had a job (and couldn't see the bride anyway) so I set my camera on its continuous setting, and snapped away. It was truly awesome to watch the parade of emotions on Bob's face. He went from teary to smiling to sticking his tongue out (apparently to keep her from crying) and back again. It was very cool. Not all of the pictures came out very well, but these are my favorite 3.

Nearly crying...


Almost smiling...


and truly Bob... always joking!

The wedding was very pretty, and fun to watch. The boys (Bob and his best man, his brother Brett) kept sticking their tongues out at the bride (Robyn) and her maid of honor, her sister, to keep them from crying. Meanwhile, they competely flustered the pastor, who tried to go through the vows twice, and asked Bob if he would take Robyn to be his husband... But everyone laughed, and the vows were said (always the mots important)!

After the wedding, we headed to the Ft. Worth Club in downtown Ft. Worth. We were on the 12th floor, with a beautiful view of the sunset and Ft. Worth. We ate, hung out with the other groomsmen and the one other wife-of-a-groomsman who was there. The boys even let Abigail and I tag along to decorate the car! Afterwards, we sent Bob and Robyn off to Florida with bells, which was really a pretty neat way to do it. The wedding and reception were both really neat, and I really enjoyed getting to see a friend get married. It was a very cool weekend, and I'm excited for Bob and Robyn!

Some of my favorite pictures... although they're random! :)

The first dance

Decorating the car

Josh, Elmo, and Abigail, sending them off with bells

Discarded flowers on a messy table after the party

Long Time, No Blog

Well, I realize it's been forever since my last blog... baby or otherwise. But I've been busy and tired. By the time I get home, I don't even have the energy to think enough to write a blog! But life here has been good... so it's been a good busy.

On the church front, we had Young Christian's Weekend, which is always one of the best weekends of the year. It's one of our favorite youth trips all year. I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures, which is a major bummer. But we did have a great time. Because of the whole baby thing, I couldn't ride any of the rides, so I mostly shopped and ate and walked around. Josh did ride a couple of rides, including Powder Keg. Apparently, he forgot to listen to the "Please remove all loose articles' speech, and he left his cell phone in his pocket. Well, as the man running the ride said (after Josh told him he'd lost his cell) "At 65 mph, EVERYTHING falls out." So, after taking his information and promising to "mail the pieces," we were pretty bummed for the rest of the day. BUT, God is awesome, and the next day when we went back just to check, they had not only found the phone, but it was still on and didn't have a scratch on it! So we were pretty excited, and Josh got to (loudly) tell how awesome God is to our youth in front of tons of people. So that was cool, and everyone made it home from the trip alive, so we count that as a victory. I am going to miss riding rides this year, though... I couldn't even go across the wobbly bridge!

Speaking of babies... on the baby front there have been several firsts... I bought (and wore) my first maternity clothes. I bought a couple pairs of capris to wear to YCW. They were pretty hot, since they come up to about my armpits. I bought underbelly ones, but since I don't have much of a belly, they ride a little high! Ruth was thrilled to be seen with me! Of course, since then, we've been breaking records for cold in April, so I can't wear my capris, and I'm running dangerously low on warm clothes that fit! So I also had my first wearing of Josh's clothes to school, AND my first day of leaving my pants unbuttoned and keeping them up with a belt and a rubber band! Isn't pregnancy grand?! :) Besides clothing issues, I am actually enjoying pregnancy right now. I wish I looked a little more pregnant, I want to be cute and pregnant, but I do get to eat almost anything I want, and I don't throw up (much). I'm not really sick anymore, but if I get gagged by something, it's no pretty. Josh and I are both enjoying the ride, though! :)

And, to add to the changes we're making, we have set a closing date for our house, and we are signing the contract on Sunday. We're buying the house from friends of our's from church, so it's been pretty easy. And we're getting a good deal. I love the house, I actually lived in it in college, so I'm very excited. Once we get a fence built for the dog, it'll be perfect! But it's such a huge change, and there are a lot of changes going on right about now!

Anyway, that's the update on our lives... I'll try to blog more frequently, and I'm sure I will next week, I have a doctors appointment and a trip to Texas!

Baking Success!

We had a bake-off at church last weekend, and I actually managed to win a category! :) I made dark chocolate Thin Mint cheesecake, and it did come out pretty spectacular, if I do say so myself! Mom won the cake category with Italian Cream Cake. We had a good time, and, hey, I got an apron out of the deal for winning! :)

My cheesecake is the dark one with the circle around the edge. The yummy looking strawberry cheesecake was Ruth's... and it was pretty darn good, too. :)

Birthday Present

Josh's birthday present from me was a trip to see Toby Mac, one of his favorite Christian singers, in Kansas City. Toby Mac sings mostly rap, and actually puts on a really good show. So we headed up to KC Friday as soon as Josh got out of work. We made it to the church just as the opening band was starting. We listened and shopped for awhile, and actually managed to find really good seats for the show (most of the actual seats were taken, and the aisles were even full!). The pictures don't do it justice, but the show was really good. He does one song called "Catch a Fire" and the whole stage has these fake fires all over it (see the picture on the left). Anyway, despite the fact that it wasn't my favorite kind of music, I really enjoyed the show. So, needless to say, I think Josh had a blast! :)



After the show, we decided that we didn't want to drive all the way back to Columbia, so we splurged on a nice hotel. We figured we won't be able to just spur-of-the-moment stay overnight somewhere anymore, once we have a baby to take care of! So we stayed up late, eating "breakfast" (at midnight) at IHOP and acting like we were in college again! :) Then we slept in a REALLY nice king-sized bed... we could both sleep in it and not even touch eah other, it was awesome.

Anyway, I think it was a fun trip for both of us, and I hope it was a good birthday present for Josh! :)

Triple Birthday

Well, so obviously I have been a terrible blogger the last couple of weeks! I just can't seem to find time and/or energy to do it. But I have some good pictures, and it's Spring Break, so I'm sitting down to catch up!


A couple weekends ago, Jess was in town, so we spent Sunday afternoon at Mom & Dad's house celebrating Jess, Josh, and Ellen's March birthdays. We had stromboli (the best) and, of course, 3 cakes. Or, 2 cakes and some cupcakes. With three birthdays to celebrate there were...

lots of candles...

therefore, lots of smoke...

and, since the whole family was there, LOTS of presents! :)

We had a great time telling stories and laughing. It's always fun when Jess is in town, even if the stories typically turn to nursing subjects (much to Josh and Dad's displeasure). We talked about dogs and babies and moving, and the boys played football outside! :) And, of course, Aunt Jess started off spoiling her new neice or nephew with a really soft blanket and adorable clothes. Anyway, we had a great time just hanging out with family!