Excitement!

I'm pretty excited because.....

the holidays are around the corner

Brandi and Joe visit tomorrow and will be here through Sunday - we spend Thanksgiving together!

It's finally getting colder outside

Planning for Christmas at work has been really fun

We get to go home for Christmas in a month and 2 days to visit families in KS

I had some great conversations with friends this past weekend

My friend Caroline is getting married in a little over 2 months!

I am going to start memorizing scripture, I have been going through a Bible study format, it takes a lot of discipline but it will be an adventure

I get to leave work at 1 tomorrow to go pick Brandi and Joe up from the airport

We are having a Thanksgiving potluck at work tomorrow

Christmas decorations are going up in about a week

Jen and I are having a slumber party next Friday!

John takes his CFA exam 1 week from Saturday!

Great pictures

Hello! I thought I'd include some pictures from the past few weeks...

Some wonderful people I got to visit in Kansas City a few weeks ago. It was a refreshing weekend.
I dressed up as a pumpkin to work on Halloween, this is the costume my grandma made for my mom when she was little. Still in great shape!


John and I went as a Roman Soldier and Queen Esther to our Church's trunk-or-treat event Halloween night. We had a blast passing out candy and helping with various games, including pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern, ring toss over the pumpkin, and darts.

We enjoyed hanging out with Jen and James last night. They had us over for dinner and a bday celebration, it was lots of fun!

Shopping and hot tea

Well...the Christmas shopping has officially began! It feels great to get an early start! We are excited to be able to go home to KS for the Holidays. It will be a nice time.

I head to KANSAS CITY this weekend to visit friends and am very much looking forward to it! It will be a memorable weekend.

I am getting ready to curl up in bed with a cup of hot tea and a book. Ahh...how I love tea!!!

God is good, I think back to a previous post about peace. I must remember that in the midst of stress, there is peace in Jesus! It still does give me some blessed assurance. Last night I thought of this song -
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
Oh what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long!

I think my hot water has cooled down now, must go heat it up so I can enjoy that cup of tea to its fullest!

A fall affair...

Our friends Bill and Anna from church invited us to go to a Country living fall fair today in Morrow, Ohio. It was LOTS of fun. They had a lot of neat stuff set up, various companies and vendors displayed their pottery, handmade baskets, purses, jewlery, lots of fall decor, I think we stopped by every single tent!

John and I bought a Christmas present for a relative and some handmade soap shaped like leaves. The scent is called 'Pumpkin Patch' it smells really good!

Bill and Anna bought a really neat antique trunk for their living room.

We had a great afternoon, got lots of exercise walking around for a few hours.

Last night, John enjoyed the Cincinnati Orchestra perform the Lord of the Rings music LIVE from all three soundtracks. James treated him to the event and they had a wonderful time!

Here's John and I next to a moose at the Fall fair

Showing off Bill and Anna's new trunk!

Has it been a while???

Hello friends and family!

Oh how glad I am that the Fall season is upon us...though here in Cincinnati the high is 94 degrees, not quite fall temperatures. :( Fall is definitely my favorite season...not too hot not too cold. Leaves changing colors, smells in the air...ahhhhh

Things here are going really well. My job is great, I think I stress out easily sometimes, but I realize that God is in control and really, everything is just fine. :) John has been super busy studying for the CFA exam - he takes it December 1st. He's studying at the library as I type this.

I wish I could say with 100% certainty that we will be able to make it home to KS for Christmas, however, I don't know yet for sure if work will allow. I will follow up this week, we hope to be able to be home with our families!

I am looking forward to going to Kansas City in October to see friends. Should be a wonderful time!

We've been enjoying teaching our Sunday school class and are planning on going through a new book in a couple weeks.

It's hard to believe that it's already been over a year...since we've been married, since I started my job, since we've first moved into our apartment. WOW...

Tip and Lindsay and my mom blessed us with their company over Labor Day weekend. We had a great time - here are some pics
On the purple people bridge in Newport
Tip and I

Labor Day fireworks

Mama and I

Miss you all!

Captured moments

I got my hair cut a fews days ago...

It's fun to have it short again! ;)

Below are some pictures of John and I from our 1 year anniversary. We had a great evening. I got him an electric razor, gum, and a "Memories of Us" journal. He gave me some really pretty diamond earrings. We also enjoyed a delicious dinner at a nice Italian restaurant - Pompilios.


Eating our year old wedding cake. Yes, a little stale though not as bad as we expected. The frosting was still really good!

My mom and Tip and Lindsay are coming 2 weeks from tomorrow!

Something fun that happened at work today - I've decided to implement a dress code for the Activity department. Khaki pants and solid color polos - they have 4 choices of colors. It will be consistent and look professional I think.

Updating...

Hello there!!!

Guess it's been a while since I've updated. Things are going well here in Kentucky.

My job continues to go well, we are up to 87 residents... 87!!! And I started with only 2. It's my year anniversary next Wednesday. We currently have 6 people in the Activity department and I am looking to hire two more people still. Supervising is challenging at times but I like it overall.
Harvest is starting soon for John. He will be working long days starting in the fall, I'll probably beat him home from work!
John and I have began teaching a Sunday school class at the Nazarene church that we've been attending. It's a young marrieds class, today was the first day of it. We weren't sure if we were right to teach it since we ourselves are young marrieds! But it's really more like a Bible study/discussion format. We are going through a book, called 'Making a Marriage'. There are 5 young married couples in the church. We'll keep you updated on it. It's been a great opportunity for us and we are excited about how God will use our time together!
This past month has been full of exciting news also - my friend Caroline is getting married AND John and I are having some visitors over Thanksgiving - our friends Brandi and Joe! They will be heading out here the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and stay through Sunday.
We also look forward to having my mom, Tip, and his wife Lindsay out here for Labor Day weekend!
John has began looking around at different grad school prospects and is currently working on his resume. He is studying hard for the CFA exam which he takes December 1st.

Oh and we also had a wonderful 1 year anniversary celebratioln - started out the weekend spending time with John's grandparents and ended it with a nice dinner at Pompilios, an Italian restaurant in Newport followed by homemade ice cream at Graeters.
I will post some more pictures soon.

Blessings to you all!

Herbie

Thought I would add some pictures of our little Herbie. We've had him now for over 4 months, I think he's like 6 or 7 months old. We are proud of our little hamster. He doesn't like to be held too much but he does let me on occasion. This picture to the left he is eating a piece of cracker I fed him. He loves his treats!

This past Saturday, John and I traveled to Brownstown, Indiana for a wedding! A couple that goes to our church got married. It was a really BRIGHT wedding which make it fun and unique. The colors were bright blue, bright orange, and bright green (now think gerber daisies in those colors and those were their flowers). We really enjoyed the trip there and back, it was fun to travel along some countryside. We then enjoyed a movie that evening with another couple from church - License to Wed.

Things are going well here in Kentucky. I'm currently thankful for good conversations with friends, road trips, talks at work, the book of Genesis and Psalms, and going to bed early.

John cooked dinner for me tonight. It was so wonderful. I had a rough day at work and the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was cook. Well to my surprise, I walked in and John had it all out on the table!

This weekend we plan to have our friends Jen and James over for a special breakfast dinner to celebrate James' birthday. It will be fun! John and I are also doing the bulletin again this weekend for our church so we will do that on Friday night.

Has anyone watched the show, Army Wives on Lifetime? I think it's excellent. It gives you a lot of perspective on military life, it's also realistic drama so it makes it more fun.

Blessings. :)

Senior Prom!

We had such a wonderful turnout for Glamorous at Glendale Place Senior Prom 2007! It was such a blessing. We received many praises from residents and family for the fabulous event. There are so many great pictures it's hard to find only a few to post
The room all decorated for prom! This is the food table - we had yummy deserts and punch to enjoy!


Enjoying the music


All the women looked beautiful in their gowns and the men looked handsome in their tuxedos!We had a 3 piece jazz band come to entertain, they did an AWESOME job!

And yes...there was dancing!

We got several pictures, I may find some more to post. We also had a trellis set up and took a picture of each resident under the trellis before going into the prom. Jones Florist gave us a great deal on corsages and boutineers for all the residents. This event taking place is just one of the many reasons why I LOVE this job! Such a great reward in planning this event too. We had lots of help and support! I am glad we have some time off before planning the 2nd Annual prom, however, I am looking forward to it!

Peace

That is what I am remembering in the midst of a busy and stressful week...is to maintain peace. Just as it says in the Bible, "peace I leave you, my peace I give you. I do not give as the word gives, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" John 14:27 also in Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you". I did find myself saying these verses to myself at work, it did help. Senior prom is this coming Thursday, I am just ready to be done with it! I think it will be fun, I should have some fun pictures to post.
Yesterday was wonderful, I was off of work for the first time in 12 days, and I got some errands done! I am almost done with John's birthday shopping. I also bought myself two pairs of shorts (I have not owned a pair of shorts in 4 years!) and a pair of capris at JCPenneys. They were having a big sale! I also bought a Bible dictionary and a new CD. Last night, John and I ordered pizza from Snappy Tomatoes and I watched 3 episodes of Law and Order: SVU. :)
My brother Brian has two job interviews coming up this weekend, I think its the second round for both of them.
It's crazy that this month already halfway over.
Anyway, hope you all have a great and PEACEful week. :)

Memorial Day and last weekend

The top two pics are from last weekend, when my friend Kelly came to visit! We had a blast watching movies and going to ride the roller coasters at Kings Island! We really enjoyed the movie, 'The Queen' with Helen Mirren. It was really interesting to learn about the turmoil going on within the Royal family at the time of Princess Di's death.

John and I had a great time visiting family and friends over Memorial Day weekend...got a lot of good pics, it was both relaxing and refreshing

Work is super busy- we are in the midst of planning a Senior prom for the residents! It's two weeks from tomorrow and the theme is "Glamorous at Glendale". I'm pretty excited, we are going to ask tux shops and various department stores aka Dillards or Macys to donate gowns (I didn't even know this was an option!)

Question for CW- how do you change it so you can type in between pictures? Everytime I post a pic it automatically goes on the top of the page, even if I change the layout. I can't get it go go beneath or between my typing?

Enjoy the rest of your day!

First Post

Hello friends and family --

I decided to do away with Xanga and create a new and improved blog.

Things are going well. It has already been a busy week and it is only the second day!

This past weekend, my friend Kelly and I went to Kings Island amusement park here in Cincinnati. We had a blast riding all the roller coasters though I must say, I was definitely sore yesterday morning. All worth it though. It was nice to see Kel a bell, she came up Friday night and stayed through Saturday evening.

Some exciting news from today - I hired a full time assistant to work in activities, wahooo! It has been a long process and I pray this will be a great working relationship! Also, Tip, Lindsay, AND my mom are all coming to visit John and I over Labor Day weekend. Should be tons of fun!

We finally got some rain here today in the tri-state area, we needed it too. Ah, how I love thunderstorms. Though John was disappointed because he was ready to go walk tonight. Tomorrow it should be dry and only a high of 73 degrees, sounds better than 89 for the high!

Pic = John and I at the baseball game.