Tidbits from my week...

- I colored my hair the other day and I'm not a fan of how it turned out. A lot of the ladies at work have been telling me it looks really good, but I am not convinced. I'm gonna wait a few days to see if it grows on me and if not change it again. I can't remember the last time I colored my hair and am not a fan of all those chemicals, so the fact that I colored it in the first place is out of the norm for me.

- Steve & I normally walk together early in the morning but we both slept through our alarms and didn't wake up until 6:00 am yesterday. Since I didn't get any exercise in I decided to do what I could for the day and took the stairs from the ground floor all the way up to the tenth floor and back down and up again 3 times over my lunch break yesterday. Today I am really feeling it in my legs!I did the calculations with the amount of steps and all together I walked up and then back down 540 steps.
What is even more crazy is that when I spent a summer in Thailand back in 99 (yes, I realize this was 10 years ago) we lived on the top floor of the *hotel and taking stairs was our only option. I don't remember exactly how many stairs it was but it was somewhere in the 900 range and we went up and down several times a day (with heavy backpacks on too) and they never seemed to bother me that much. What an eye opener to how out of shape I am now - and I even work out at least 3 or 4 times a week!

- I have been reminded of just how grateful I am for the job that I have. When we were in St. Louis last weekend I was hanging out with Sommer (my old boss) and she told me that the company that I had been working for before we moved had been laying off a bunch of people and the girl that replaced me was one of them. Had I still been working there I would be out of a job. All that Sommer had to say was "you wouldn't have really cared anyway since you absolutely hated your job!" She couldn't have said it better. Seriously, my job now is a lot more stressful and I have a lot more responsibility, but I am so much happier here than I was at my last job and for that I am so grateful.

- Steve has been cracking me up this week. He's been skyping a lot with a friend of ours back in St. Louis that is going through a rough divorce. He just moved into his own apartment last weekend and has been pretty lonesome. They've been skyping all week and our friend is now wanting to have "movie nights" so the guys can watch movies at the same time with Skype on and crack funny jokes and add their commentaries just so it will seem like they're actually together watching the movie. I'm still not sure if that should make me sad or amused.

- We're going to check out the beer garden at Capital Brewery tonight with Chris & Tina and I'm so looking forward to it. I can't believe that we've been here in Madison for over 6 months and still haven't been there.

I still can't believe that this week has seemed to drag on forever and it was even a day shorter than normal. I'm so ready for the weekend! We've been going like crazy these past few weeks and as a result are both exhausted. Maple Bluffs is having a neighborhood garage sale tomorrow and I promised one of my friends that lives there and is participating that I'd stop by, so there will unfortunately be no sleeping in tomorrow, can't wait until Sunday though!
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* The above mentioned "hotel" had cold showers, squattie potties, lots of cockroaches, and our neighbor had a pet rat in a cage outside their door in the hallway - thus explaining why our 5 star (yeah right!) accommodations had no elevators.

Weekend in St. Louis

We had such a great weekend in St. Louis. It was so much fun to reconnect with friends and have some much needed fun!Saturday was Erica's bachelorette party and we had a great time celebrating! We started the day out by going to a Cardinals game then headed on over to Art Hill in Forest Park for a picnic. It was so much fun for me to be able to celebrate Erica and hang out with some of my favorite girls. We had SO much fun together and Erica had a great time! Nadia and Missy did such a great job planning the day. I'm so excited to head back to the Lou for her wedding next month.
We also had a great time hanging out with my favorite kids in the world! I was so excited to get home and see Dale & Missy's kids and so sad to leave them. I hate that we're missing out on everything as they grow up! I couldn't believe how huge Caleb is getting and love how his little laid back personality has started to come out.

As much as I love Madison, the one thing that has been so hard for me here is missing our friends (and their kids) back in St. Louis. We've made some nice friends here, but I really miss having my close friends that know everything about me. There's something to be said about having history with people and that is definitely something that I miss here. I know that Madison is where we're supposed to be, but I can't help but get a little sad that all the friends we love are so far away now. I tried to soak up every minute that I could with my girl friends while we were home knowing that these moments have become a rarity in the last year. I know that Steve feels that same way about missing his friends as well, so it made me really happy that he was able to have a good time hanging out with the guys while we were home.
We had a great time, although it went by way to quick! I wish we could have had more time to see everyone that we wanted to, but we were just happy to be able to spend time with the friends that we did.
We also mad a pit-stop by Fast Eddie's on the way out of town yesterday and had lunch with Steve's folks. Steve's mom is crazy about the shrimp there and apparently Steve found a new love for them as well.
I'm not a fan of the shrimp, but I sure did enjoy sipping on my blue moon on such a beautiful day. It was a perfect end to a very refreshing visit home.

just a little update...

I haven’t had much time, energy or motivation to blog lately. It’s just been a busy season and a lot has been going on, I haven’t really had much time to sit back, relax and process it all.

Chris & Christina are finally here and it’s so nice and refreshing to have them in our lives again. I feel like we can actually plant a church now and not look like complete idiots because our pastor’s aren’t here. Just having some friends here that are familiar and know our ins and outs has also been really comforting.

The church planting is going well. We’re looking for a venue to meet at as we’re pretty much at the point of outgrowing our house. It’s a good problem to have, but also comes along with a new set of stresses.

Steve hasn’t had much news on the job front. He knows that he for sure will have work through June, but after that he’s not sure. The company that he’s working for as a temp really wants to hire him on full time, but since they’re a non-profit they don’t really have much of a budget. We’re praying that something in the situation will change as he really seems to like working there just as much as they enjoy having him.

This weekend we’re heading back to St. Louis and we are SO excited! The weekend will be full of Cardinal’s games, picnics in Forest Park, time with friends and a bachelorette party for Erica. I’m so looking forward to seeing friends and wish we could stay longer, but I’m just grateful that we get to go home at all. Friday can’t come soon enough!

I'm sorry blog...but I'm just not that into you. Haven't had time, motivation or even the desire to blog lately. We've had a good last few weeks.

Two weekends ago we went away for our anniversary. We spent that Saturday afternoon at !Wollhersheim Winery and were thoroughly disappointed. The winery grounds itself were beautiful but the wine was HORRIBLE! Out of all the wines we tasted we didn't like even one of them. Don't take anything I have to say about wine to seriously though because all of that's coming from the girl whose favorite wine is the "two buck chuck" from Trader Joes.
We also spent that Saturday evening at a B&B in Cross Plains - it was so nice to get out in the country and relax. The bed was so comfy that I even slept in until 8:15 am - something I haven't done in a longgg time. It was a great weekend and very much needed.

We've been doing a bit of yard work so that's what this past weekend was full of. Jacq's parents got us some bulbs to plant when they were here a few weeks ago and I've been meaning to plant them ever since. I'm not much of a green thumb, so we'll see how they turn out. The previous owners of our place had really tacky taste - not just in the house itself but in the landscaping itself. We're kind of lazy though, so we'll probably keep the ugly red lava rocks where they are for now rather then dig them all up and go buy something nicer.

Other than that the most exciting news of our life by far lately is that Chris & Christina will FINALLY be moving here....today! We are beyond excited for them to get here! I feel like we can finally start to get things rolling with this church plant (it helps that we finally have pastors here!) and I'm so excited to have them here for good!

On to other not so exciting news....our little powerbook finally bit the dust. It was a great computer while it lasted. We're waiting for our new refurbished Mac Book to come in the mail and hopefully we'll soon we'll be up and running again.

Other non-exciting news is that there's no new news on the job front with Steve. The company that he's working temporarily for loves him and really wants to offer him a position, but they don't think it's in the budget. They have another temp that's been working there for a year that they're getting rid of this week, so it looks like there's a bit of hope as originally Steve was the guy they were supposed to get rid of and they're choosing to keep him on longer rather than the other guy, but still he has no permanent job. It looks like he'll have work through the end of June, so for that we're thankful at least.

That's about all that's going on in our world. We're really looking forward to heading home to St. Louis for a few days over memorial day weekend and I can't wait to hang out with my girlfriends! It will be a great weekend of bachelorette parties, a cardinals game and lots of time with friends! Can't hardly wait!