Cruising...

Tomorrow we're off for our week long cruise! I'm finally feeling somewhat relaxed after a whole day of packing, cleaning and preparing! And now it's time for bed! :)

Jon and I drove Brian & Sarah to the airport this afternoon so they could fly down to Miami tonight. They'll be meeting us on the boat tomorrow. Nate & Shawna will be meeting us here around 7:30 tomorrow morning and then Jon's dad will be driving us to the airport. We have a non-stop flight to Miami and we're praying that everything goes smoothly with no delays! We have at least a 2 hour buffer so even if our plane gets delayed a little we'll still be ok - but it would make for a much more stressful morning.

We're so excited to be getting away for a whole week with each other and friends, plus visiting 3 new islands! We're stopping at Nassau, Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. Neither of us have been to St. Thomas or St. Maarten and only Jon has been to Bahamas. We've got some fun things planned for on the islands as well: snorkeling, para sailing, riding 4-wheelers and seeing lots of beautiful views!

I'm sure we'll have all kinds of fun pictures to show when we return! Here's one to hold you over... this is the ship we'll be on for the next 7 days:



Bon Voyage!

Simply Lasagna

I made this lasagna recipe the other night when we had a bunch of friends over and it was pretty yummy so I thought I'd share it. You make it with uncooked noodles which cook while it's baking - that was easy:

Ingredients:

~ 1 lb. ground beef (I used ground chicken)
~ 1 egg, beaten
~ 2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
~ 1 container (15 oz.) Ricotta Cheese
~ 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
~ 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped (I didn't have fresh so I just shook in some dried parsley)
~ 1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce
~ 1 cup water
~ 12 lasagna noodles, uncooked

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown meat in large skillet on medium-high heat. Meanwhile, mix egg, 1 1/4 cups of the mozzarella cheese, the ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese and the parsley until well blended; set aside.

2. Drain meat; return to skillet. Stir in spaghetti sauce. Add water to empty sauce jar; cover with lid and shake well. Add to meat mixture; stir until well blended.

3. Spread 1 cup of the sauce onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish; top with layers of 3 lasagna noodles, one-third of the ricotta cheese mixture and 1 cup of the sauce. Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining 3 noodles and the remaining meat sauce. Sprinkle with remaining 1 1/4 cups mozzarella cheese and remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Cover with greased foil.

4. Bake 45 min. Remove foil; bake an additional 15 min. or until heated through. Let stand 15 min. before cutting to serve.

Makes 12 servings, 1 piece each.

My adjustments:

~ I used at least 4 more noodles than they said - I'm not sure what kind of 13x9 pans they were talking about but 3 noodles just wasn't filling my pan and I like a lot of noodles.

~ When it was all done it seemed just a bit dry so I think next time I'll use more sauce and maybe a little more cheese.

Enjoy!

Birthday Surprises!

I can't believe I turn 23 today!! That is scarry - time goes by so fast! I'm getting old...LOL :)

Jon woke me up early this morning with kisses...he then sat me up in bed to see a bouquet of pretty pink roses on our dresser with gifts and a little, pink, handmade coupon book from him. We didn't have much time together since Jon had to get ready and leave for work, but I got to open my gifts and read all my coupons - they were really cute! After Jon left for work I walked into the bedroom to find a single rose on my pillow with a little note from Jon. On the bottom of the note it said "8/12" (meaning: 8 of 12). Throughout the morning I found 11 more little notes in various places - each with a single rose next to it. All the notes were very sweet and cute. Here are a few to give you an idea:

I found this one in one of our food cabinets: "Thanks for going grocery shopping and using coupons that save us money and get us lots of good food"

This one was in my bucket of cleaning supplies: "Thanks for all the cleaning you do in our house to keep it a wonderful place to live in"

This one was in the oven: "Thanks for all the baking you do in here, whether it's bread, cookies or stromboli its always yummy"

And in the chest freezer: "Thanks for keeping this stocked with food and for the yummy apple sauce that you made"

This one was in our medicine cabinet: "Thanks for the way you keep this stocked with everything I would need if I got sick"

And this one was in the linen closet: "Thanks for always keeping this full of neatly folded clean towels"

There were 6 more similar notes. I was smiling/crying all morning :). I have the most amazing, caring, sweet husband in the world! I always thank God for him when I pray and I am so blessed to have him!

Here's a picture of all my flowers, my coupon book and my little notes:

Tonight I think we're going out for dinner and then to a jewlery store in Philly for me to pick something out. That should be fun as well. :)

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In other news around here, I had a lot of fun on my scrapbooking retreat a few weeks ago. I was working on our Everyday Life album which holds pictures starting from right after our honeymoon. When I got to the retreat I was ready to start on pictures from January of last year and I got all the way through our vacation to Germany which was in March of last year. I know it doesn't seem like a lot but we took a TON of pictures in Germany so that took a while. Sarah and I also got some pretty good deals during the three trips we made to the outlets right next door :).

Our cruise is coming up in less than two weeks! We leave on February 24th and return March 2nd. Jon and I are both really looking forward to the time away - Jon especially is now that he's working full time :).

Speaking of Jon's job, things have been going really well for him. He started back on January 28th so he's now half-way through his third week there. His first few weeks have been a lot of learning and getting familiar with the company. He is in charge of all website design, maintenance and promotion - which is no small task considering the company has 5 different websites and they want all of them re-done! He will also be doing general graphic design and he's in charge of all e-mail marketing. I know there's other things he is responsible for too but I can't think of what they are right now. He even has his own office with a window - which I think is really cool! :) He is on salary pay so he was able to set his own hours of 8-4 Monday-Friday. He's sometimes there a little bit after 4:00 though. Sheffield seems like a really good company to work for and Jon is liking his new job.

As for me... I've been busy as usual, although if you ask me what I do all day I probably won't be able to give you a very good answer. The days just seem to fly by! I'm still very much enjoying being able cook nice meals almost every night and slowly catching up on my seemingly endless lists of things I want to or need to do. :)

On that note - I should get back to doing something. I have fresh fruit to cut up and laundry to do! :)

Scrapbooking

Well, tomorrow morning I'm off for a weekend scrapbooking retreat. I've sorted my pictures, printed them out and packed my bags. Last year was my first year to go to this retreat and I hope to make it an annual event. I'll be picking up my friend Sarah tomorrow morning, then we'll drive up to Gettysburg, PA to the hotel where we stay. We scrapbook in a big conference room at the hotel and conveniently, right in the same parking lot, is as an outlet mall! There's got to be at least 20 - 30 ladies that attend the retreat. I'm looking forward to spending time with Sarah, doing some shopping and getting a lot done in my albums. We come home Sunday afternoon.

In other news around here, we've book a cruise for the end of February. We'll be going with Nate & Shawna and Brian & Sarah. Jon and I are really looking forward to this cruise. It should be lots of fun being on vacation with a few friends. Jon's been spending a good amount of time researching everything there is to do at each of our stops. We're stopping at Nassau, Bahamas; St. Maarten and St. Thomas.

A Job for my Love

As of about an hour ago...Jon has a job in his field!!! He received a call this morning from the owner of the company he had his last interview with, who offered him a Job starting as soon as Jon can start. The company is Sheffield Furniture and is based in Phoenixville. Here's their website in case you want to check it out: www.sheffieldfurniture.com

From what Jon knows the company actually owns 5 other big furniture companies and is looking to buy a sixth. They advertise in all different magazines and are looking to start TV ads. Jon will be creating a lot of those advertisements as well as re-doing and up keeping the websites of all 5 companies. There is one other graphic designer that works there, who will be working with Jon.

We are very thankful to God for providing this job for Jon. I was just praying really hard this morning that Jon would find a job soon - and I know it was not just a coincidence that Jon received the call just a few hours later. Our God is an awesome God and He loves to answer our prayers when we come with a dependence and faith in Him and a desire for His will in our lives.

Thank you to all of you who have also been praying for Jon and I throughout Jon's job search. We're looking forward to the future.

Job Search Update

Not this past Thursday, but the one before that Jon had the opportunity to meet with a man who owns a big technology company. This man goes to the church that our church was planted out of - that's how Jon got connected with him. When he headed to the meeting Jon wasn't sure what to expect. He was thinking he would get some advice on his job search and ask some questions, possibly even leave with an internship. What he came away with was some of that and much more. He doesn't have an internship - that was a miss-communication, but he is much more clear about what he should be doing. The man was very kind but also very open and honest. He looked over Jon's resume & portfolio site and gave him some pointers and ideas on what to do different. He also went a little deeper and spoke into other areas of Jon's life. Jon said it was definatly God speaking through this man.

Just a few days after that meeting Jon got a call from a company that he applied at. He had an interview with them this past Thursday. The interview went extremely well according to Jon. The people seemed to be very personable and friendly and they liked Jon's portfolio a lot. He will know in about 2 weeks if he got the job or a second interview. We're not getting our hopes up but Jon said he would really like that Job, so we are praying. If he doesn't get the job though, then it wasn't God's will and we won't be upset.

So that's the latest news on Jon's job search.

New Year's Eve

For new years eve we had a group of 11 of our friends over to bring in the new year with us. One of the things Jon got for Christmas was a game called Rock Band. Up to 4 people can play the game: 1 singer, 1 drummer, and then two either bass or guitar players. We spent nearly the entire night playing this game and everyone was having fun the whole time! I can't believe we didn't get tired of it. We'd just take turns and it wasn't too bad. It was hillarious at some points when certain people (I won't mention any names haha) were singing. Here are a few pictures:





We turned off Rock Band in time to watch the last few minutes of the ball dropping, toast the new year and then go outside to light off fireworks. Some of the guys (including my fire loving husband) were outside lighting off fireworks till almost 1:00am!

It was a great night.

Christmas 2007

I know, I know, Christmas and New Year's have come and gone and I haven't posted anything - so much has been happening. Christmas Eve and Christmas day were completely packed for us. The morning of Christmas eve we continued our tradition of driving out to Shady Maple Smorgasboard in Lancaster, for breakfast with a group of our friends from church. Over the years the group has grown quite a bit - to the point where this year we had about 80 people there!

Of all the gifts I received, my favorite was one I received from my love. It's a big picture collage with 21 different 4x6 photo openings. But he didn't only buy me the frame (which I wanted to go over our big couch in the living room)...what made the gift so special is that he spent hours finding 21 pictures of us from throughout the years, then he touched each of them up and edited them to look good and printed them out and arranged them in the frame. I love it!!! Here's a picture of me with my gift:

Here are a few more pictures from Christmas:

Christmas Eve at my parents

At mom & dad Friedrich's on Christmas Day

Grandma Bea & pop-pop's on Christmas Day

That is all the cousins on my mom's side (minus Nate & Shawna who had to leave early) plus the girl with the curly hair is my cousin Luke's girlfriend.

To make things less confusing I'm gonna blog about New Year's in a seperate post.

Delicious Recipe

I made this recipe a while ago and Jon really liked it. It has a lot of flavor - which is how Jon likes his food. I liked it as well so I thought I'd share it.

Chicken with Bacon, Rosemary & Lemon

~ 5 slices of bacon, chopped
~ 1/4 cup flour
~ 4 chicken breasts
~ Salt & Pepper
~ 1 Tbsp. butter
~ 4 garlic cloves
~ 1 tsp. rosemary, ground
~ 1/8 tsp. ground red pepper
~ 1 cup chicken broth
~ 2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Fry bacon over med-high heat until crisp then transfer to a plate lined with paper towels. Spoon off all but 2 tablespoons of the grease.

Season chicken with salt and pepper, dredge in flour and shake to remove excess.

Add butter to bacon grease and melt.

Cook chicken on med-high heat until browned on both sides. Transfer chicken to plate and cover with foil.

Reduce heat to medium and add garlic, rosemary & ground red pepper. Cook about 2 minutes until garlic is browned and crisp. Add broth and lemon juice. Simmer until slightly thickened, about 4 minutes.

Return chicken and bacon to the pan and simmer, turning chicken a few times, until sauce is thick and glossy - 2 to 3 minutes.

Serve over white rice.

Sleeping on the Job...

Yesterday Jon and I brought Sydney Herr home with us after church to take a nap at our house, then hang out with us until the Christmas concert that our church held last night. Brian & Sarah were both either in the concert or running sound, so they needed to be there early. After Sydney woke up from her nap I was still in the kitchen making cookies - you'd think all I do these days is bake cookies - so Jon was helping out by keeping an eye on Sydney and playing with her. After a while I had a break where there was nothing I needed to be in the kitchen for, so I went into the living room to see what they were up to. Here's what I discovered:





Haha!!! I quietly got the camera and snapped the picture and then started laughing. :)Looks like Jon's the one that needed a nap.

Alright, I need to get wrapping gifts and baking MORE cookies!! So far this year I've made White Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Crinkles, Peanutbutter Blossoms, Chocolate-dipped Shortbread and sugar cookies. Tonight I'm making Snickerdoodles and rolling and cutting out the dough that's in the refrigerator to make Christmas cut-out cookies. My favorite are the Chocolate-dipped shortbread cookies. I'm not sure where the recepie originally came from, but I got it from my mom. Here it is incase you want to try them:

Cookies:

2 cups flour
1 cup margarine (soft) - margarine works better than butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips until well blended. Add chocolate chips and mix into dough. Roll into thin logs 3-4 inches long and bake 10-12 minutes at 350degrees.

Frosting:

3/4 cup chocolate chips
1 Tbsp. Crisco (vegetable oil works well too)

Melt ingredients over very hot water in double broiler. Dip one end of each cookie in the chocolate and lay on wax paper on a flat cookie sheet. Cool cookies in fridge for at least 1 hour to set chocolate before storing.

Enjoy!

The latest...

So, since last time I blogged what all has happened? November 30th was my mom's birthday so I had a little luncheon in her honor. It was just for family so I invited my sisters, Mom-mom, Grandma Bea, Jon's mom, and Shawna and her mom. Everything went well! Here are just a few pictures:




We are still praying and in search of a job for Jon - things are looking up though. In the past week he's been in contact with career services from his school frequently and they're looking for a Job for him. He also posted his resume and information on craigs list and got a call from a staffing agency that has a possible job opportunity for him - he met with a lady from there last Friday. And Wednesday he got a call from an independant company (we're not sure where they saw his info) saying they have a possible opening for him. So we're praying that one of these Job's is what God has planned - but who knows. In the meantime Jon's been working at the Inn again, expoditing for the holiday season. He works Monday - Friday for lunch and Monday & Wednesday for dinner.

With both of us working the schedule is crazy busy again. Not quite as busy as when I was working full time though.

Tuesday night Jon's mom took both Jon and I to this different kind of chiropractor that she goes to occationally. He's one who focuses specifically on your top two vertabre which he believes have an impact on the whole rest of your spine. We went because his mom and I thought that maybe chiropractic work could help with the mini siesure-like things he gets ocationally when he stands up from a sitting position. It basically causes him loose control of the entire right side of his body for a few seconds and his hand and face sorta clench up. This guy we went to thinks that its very possible that a nerve or something is pinched and that could be causing what happens to Jon. So he did some adjustments to Jon's neck the other night. Time will tell if what the chiropractor did helped because Jon doesn't get these siesures every day, but so far he hasn't gotten any. We're praying they are gone.

Last night we had Dwayne and Rachel over for dinner. It was nice catching up with them since we haven't seen them in a while. After dinner the 3 other couples from our "old" couples group came over - Nate & Shawna, Brian & Sarah and Ian & Ashley. We had a great time socializing and then we turned on the Wii and play some Wii sports and Monkeyball - both fun interactive games for groups.

Tonight we have our young marrieds discipleship group at Brian and Sarah's and then afterward we're going to see the movie "I am Legend" with a few other couples from church. I guess it'll be a late night :). At least we have nothing major to do tomorrow so we can sleep in and have a nice relaxing Saturday.

Well, I think that's the catch-up. I really need to get better at posting more regularly.

Update

Now that it's been almost a month since I got laid-off at THP I figured it was about time to update my blog! I haven't posted because nothing much interesting has been happening - up until this past week. Plus, I've been keeping busy and really enjoying all the time I have now to keep my house clean and organized and to make full homemade meals and get all kinds of things done that I didn't use to be able to do.

When I was working the days felt like they went on forever and I was so bored sitting at work with nothing to do. Now the days feel like they fly by. I can't believe how quickly they go by. I thought I would be all caught up with everything on my to-do list in no time but with most of my list still un-done, I was obviously wrong :). There are so many things to be done and so much to organize and making a full meal almost every day takes a lot longer than I was expecting. I started with a stack of recipes I had cut out of all different magazines and now I've almost made all of them. I've been making a new meal almost every night for dinner. If we like it then I write it onto a recipe card with notes about how much we liked it and what I should do differently next time - if anything.

Thanksgiving also came and went since the last time I posted. We went to my parents house for lunch with a big group of my family. Then we came back to Jon's parents for dessert later in the afternoon and stayed there most of the evening. It was a nice relaxing day.

The weekend after Thanksgiving - Friday afternoon to Monday night - Jon was up at the cabin for hunting - which started Monday. Unfortunatly it rained Monday so it wasn't great for hunting. Tuesday he went out again with Nate down near my parents house. He really wants to get a deer this year :).

Tuesday we went out and got a Christmas tree and Wednesday we decorated it. I like how it turned out this year a little better than last years tree. Here are some pictures.




Oh yes, and I now have somewhat of a job again, starting this past Wednesday. I'm coat checking for day-time banquets at the Inn Tuesday - Friday during the month of December (up until the Friday before Christmas). So far this past week I only worked 2 days because I wasn't expecting to start until next week. I worked only Wednesday and Thursday. Those two days there were not many coats so I'm not sure how things are going to continue...or if I will continue. We'll see.

Since I haven't been working I've been able to get out during the days often and I am just about done my christmas shopping and gift wrapping!! It feels good knowing I don't have to rush around at the last minute in all the craziness to get my gifts this year!

A New Season of Life

Well, I no longer am a full-time working girl!! Last Thursday (Nov. 1st) I was laid-off from THP because of lack of work and the company downsizing. At lunch time my Team leader had the rest of my team go out for lunch and as soon as they left he called me into his office to tell me the news. I was upset and crying during the meeting but mostly just because of shock and being in an emotional mood. I packed up my things and left right after the meeting and cried most of the way home. Jon came home from work for a little to comfort me and by the time he left I was fine - happy in fact :). I really don't know why I cried so much because I'm not really upset. It's quite exciting for me to finally be able to be at home and have time to take care of my house and cook full homemade meals and on and on - oh the plans I have for the next few weeks :). The only thing that's not good is that Jon is still in search of a Job and hasn't gotten any calls yet. But I know God allowed me to get laid-off for a reason and I'm sure we'll be fine. I think this is why God taught us the lesson he did last week in trusting Him because if He is faithful even in the small things like loosing a ring and a wallet, surely He is faithful in the big things like Jon getting a job and making enough money to support us. I just don't know how it's all going to work out. We're praying and we'll see what God does. Jon's been working full-time putting lights on the trees over at the Inn the last few weeks and he has a couple weeks left of doing that.

I have meant to blog every day since last Thursday, and you'd think with all the extra time I have now that would have been no problem, but I've been keeping busy catching up on all sorts of things and cooking and cleaning.

Today I was able to go visit an old friend, Alicia, who I've been wanting to get together with for a while. We had a nice time talking and eating lunch at her house.

Now I'm off to take the meat off a chicken that's been boiling for the last hour. I'm making Chicken pot-pie tomorrow for a care group dinner.

How great is our God!

One week ago yesterday I left for work in a hurry and in the process, forgot to put on my wedding & engagement rings – which are soldered together. When I got home they were gone. Jon and I looked everywhere. We picked through the trash piece by piece, we searched the walkway and driveway outside and also inside my car. I was to the point where I was looking in the same places two or three times. The next few days at work I’d stare all around the ground as I was walking in to see if maybe I lost them there.

Three days later - Friday night - we left to go to the cabin for the weekend. By Saturday night Jon was looking for his wallet and couldn’t find it. Sunday we did a more thorough search of the cabin and car – Jon’s wallet was also gone! When we got home his wallet wasn’t in the house either. The last time we could remember him using it was to get gas at Bergey’s so we called there – no one had turned in a wallet.

After both of these things we were praying hard. God was certainly trying to teach us something but we did not know what.

This past Tuesday (1 day less than a week after I lost my ring) Jon called me at around 9:30 in the morning to say that his wallet was found. Apparently he set it on top of the car while filling the gas tank Friday night, then forgot it there and we drove off. It stayed on the car (probably because of the bike racks) through the pouring rain and high speeds, till we were almost up to the cabin, where it must have flown off and landed on the side of the road. Then some kind man found it and turned it in to the municipal office up there. A lady at the office found Jon’s number on his gun carry permit (which he had just gotten the day he lost his wallet); she left Jon and urgent message saying they had his wallet and he could pick it up anytime. Amazing!

Then, not even two hours later, I went out to my car to take my morning break and noticed a parking space open right near where I usually park. So, like I’d been doing often since I lost the ring, I was looking around on the ground to see if my ring was there. I looked kinda quickly because I had looked a bunch of times already, as I was turning away something caught my eye and I turned back and walked over to it…IT WAS MY RING! Unbelievable! Amazing! God is soo so good!

So, the moral of the story: God is in control of even the smallest little details of our lives, and he cares! He gets all the praise for that amazing day! So many things could have happened to either my ring or Jon’s wallet, but God protected both and worked through the whole situation to teach us to trust Him even more.

Hopefully this story encourages you today as much as it has and continues to encourage Jon and I.

Jons Graduation

Here are just a couple pictures from Jon's Graduation Ceremony.

This is Jon and a few of his friends from school:

And of course, a picture of Jon and I :)

Job Search Status

The week before we left for Cayman Jon finished his online portfolio web site. It looks really great!

Take a look around his site if you’re curious about what Jon went to school for and what he’s looking to do at a future job: www.jpfportfolio.com.

He’s now in the process of searching through job listings and applying for numerous job opportunities. Please continue praying for wisdom and direction for us during this time - and thanks for all the people who have, and are already praying! We really appreciate your prayers.

Cayman Islands

Jon and I just returned from Grand Cayman Sunday night. We had a great time although the trip seemed short. David was sick the day were were supposed to leave so he and Jon's mom stayed home an extra day. Thankfully it only took one day and Dave felt up to flying. Here are some pictures of where we were and what we did.





This is the Friedrich's house:

Jon has a smaller boat down in Cayman that we used often to go out fishing or snorkeling.

Speaking of fishing, we did a good amount of fishing around the reefs and one day we fished off the dock. Out around the reefs was pretty good fishing but we got our lines caught on the reef often. I did more fishing than Jon just because he was always busy putting new bait on my hook or a new line on my rod, or taking a fish I caught off the hook. I just cast the line out and reeled the fish in :). He's such a sweet guy!

Here's two big fish I caught the first day we went reef fishing. Jon also caught one the same size another day.


Sting Ray City is always a fun thing to do in Cayman. The one day we got out there and ours was the only boat there - the sting rays swarmed us! This year I wasn't as afraid of them as I was last year. Jon feeds them squid to keep them near us. I'm really afraid of their tails but I like to touch them. Jon will actually pick them up when he's feeding them.

This kayak that we're on has a glass bottom so Jon and I went out to the reef with it. That was pretty cool but a little scary. I kept thinking we were going to hit the reef because it looked much closer than it was.

Myrtle Beach

Alright, finally getting around to posting some pictures from Myrtle Beach. This is just a few.

Here's our car all packed up on the way down. We got horrible gas mileage with that bag on top, but we fit everything of ours and Nate & Shawna's in our car - except our beach chairs which we gave to Kemmerer's to take down.

Nate and Jon bought fishing rods before we headed down. They went fishing a few days out on the beach and at the spot where we always go crabbing. Nate caught a little shark the one day.



Throughout the week a bunch of people were getting stung by Man of War jelly fish. Neither Jon or I got stung but only for Jon was that surprising. He was in the water a lot. Below is the one time I went in the ocean the whole week - and I made sure I stayed on my Kyack the entire time. There was no way I was chancing a jelly fish sting!

Dave & Ben brought an air mattress down to use as a raft. This is some of the guys playing "king of the mattress" :) Jon actually got on top just a few seconds after I took this picture:



And that's all. I was disapointed with the amount of pictures we took while down in Myrtle Beach. I have to get some pictures from others down there.

I'm Back!

WOW! I'm so embarassed about how long it's been since my last post. Everyone has probably long since stopped checking my blog. But I'm back! It's been a crazy month and a half. We just got back from Myrtle beach last Sunday - I'll write more about that later when I have some pictures ready.

Jon finished school at the end of August!! It's amazing that it's been 2 years since he started at ITT Tech. He worked hard throughout his classes and graduated with honors and a 3.6 GPA. I'm proud of him :). Last night was his graduation ceremony. My parents, Jon's family and I all went to celebrate with him; then we all went out for dinner & dessert afterward. I'll post some pictures later. We used my parents camera to take the pictures so I don't have any right now.

Jon had a week free inbetween finishing school and Myrtle Beach, so he took it upon himself to re-paint our front porch - a project we've been putting off for a while. It turned out really well!! Here are a few afterward pictures:




Some of you may or may not have known Jon & I were considering going on a 2-3 week mission trip to Japan later this year. Right before leaving for Myrtle Beach we found out that the dates we could go were the two weeks right before Christmas - that was the latest possible time we were thinking it could be. I was already feeling like maybe it wasn't a good idea, but finding that out made me really nervous about going and the stress that would have put on our entire Christmas season. Ultimatly though, the reason Jon decided not to go was because he was not comfortable with how that left his job situation - he really wouldn't have been able to get a job until the beginning of next year.

Speaking of Jon's job situation, since coming home from Myrtle Beach he's begun a full-time search for a Job. He's spent the last few days working the whole day on perfecting his resume and working to create an online portfolio of all his work - he's creating a website specifically for his portfolio. We've both spent time searching monster.com and a few other job-search sites looking for possible job opportunities. It looks like it's not going to be easy to find a job just starting out in the graphics design field. We could use prayer - especially Jon - for wisdom, direction and guidance. It's somewhat overwhelming and stressful.

Equinox Visual has been put on the back burner for now while Jon is looking for a job, he's not sure what will eventually happen with the company.

So anyway, a lot of that was about Jon. Nothing much has been going on with me latley. I really enjoyed Myrtle Beach and getting away for a week from work and busy life. In a little over a week we'll be going away again - this time to Cayman with Jon's family for a week. That will be fun too. All this vacationing though is really making me not want to go back to work :).

Hopefully it won't be too long before I have a chance to post pictures from Myrtle Beach and Jon's graduation.

Quakecon 2007

Here are just a few pictures from Quakecon...There aren't many since most of Jon's pictures were of computer cases, cars, or other things that mostlikely wouldn't interest a lot of people.

This is at Stephen and Matt's house - They're playing Guitar Hero:

Sorry for the disturbing picture - this is Jon with a huge hot dog they got over there: :)

Jon drinking a Bawls energy drink - they were giving them out free the whole time:

Here's the line they stood in to get into the conference Wed. night:

This is in the BYOC (Bring-Your-Own-Computer) area:

These are two pictures of the inner atrium of the hotel where Jon was staying:

Hopefully that was enough for you to get some idea of where Jon was this past week. He's got plenty more pictures if you ever want to see them.

I'm so glad he's back!!! :)