The New Job

So the new job is going great! For the first time in far too long I like going to work everyday. I spend my day working with a classroom full of kids getting ready to head into first grade. They are so eager and energetic that it just makes the day fly. I come home everyday just exhausted, but a good exhausted.

The way the program works the kids have field trips four days a week so it gets to be quite busy. This week we went to the pool on Monday (where I got completely burned) and our onsite day was today. Tomorrow we head to living history farms, mini-golf on Thursday, and the Des Moines Zoo on Friday. As you can tell, we keep ourselves very busy! It is great though.

I feel behind on getting things ready for school so I need to start that soon. I need to get my loans defered, fafsa filled out, health papers in, just a lot of stuff. I need to definately get on top of all that.

Jim's dad is coming to town this weekend. Him and his wife have some things to do in Des Moines so it will be nice to get to spend some time with them. I think we may head to a baseball game and I am sure they will come by and see the house. Other than that I am not too sure what is happening.

And since I won't get to be home, Happy Father's Day Dad!

More Puppy Pictures

Good Ol' Odie

Our New Addition

This is Odie. Welcome him to our clan! A girl at work offered him to us and we took him in a heartbeat! Very well behaved and quite a lover, once the cats get used to him it will be perfect.

This is him right after his bath when we first got him.

This is a bad picture but a good picture of him.

Taking a break from playing.

Grandma's Doing Well

It has been a rough week and a half for my Grandma but I am proud to report she has pulled through remarkably well. For those who don't know, last Tuesday my grandma was taken to the hospital after suddenly getting sick at dinner that night. On Wednesday they finally figured out where the pain was coming from, spparantly she had a tear in her esophagus. They rushed her into emergency surgery which was an extremely scary 7 1/2 hours. They just kept saying it was very serious and very grave.

When she got out of surgery things looked pretty grim (the doctor said grim and IF she makes it a lot I guess). Her esophagus had almost completely separated from her stomach and her stomach acid had leaked out into her blood stream cousing a very serious infection to spread throughout her body. When she made it through the first night we were all cautiously happy. Lucky for everyone every day has been a significant improvement. When we last saw her on Sunday she was talking and looking a lot more like my grandma.

We got more good news on Tuesday when we found out her biopsy of the area around her esophagus and stomach came back negative for cancer. They still don't know what caused the separation and she is still in the ICU but she did get moved to a room with a window which she is very happy about. She has a very long road ahead of her yet, but she is the hospital's miracle right now and I will keep everyone posted on her progress.

Long Time No Blog

Well, it certainly has been awhile since our last blog, and a lot has happened during that time, and that's for sure!

On Saturday the 13th, Jim and I planted our tree from the adopt-a-tree program here in West Des Moines. We thought it would make a nice addition to the front of the house, and somehting that will always be here from us, even when we move on. We selected the Autumn Brillance Service Berry. It will have small white petals in the spring, small green leaves and little berries in the summer, and it will get red in the fall. It should be really pretty and it is quite perfect for our house.

That afternoon I headed home for a couple days of vacation. My friend from high school, Ariana, was going to be in town with her family as well as Mother's Day on Sunday and my Mom's birthday on Monday. That night, my Mom, Frank, Chelsea, Josh, Jayke and I headed to dinner together. I gave my Mom a digital camera for her birthday and mothers day at dinner and she really liked it. It was a nice way to begin the weekend.

Trying to take our own picture together....too funny!

Sunday I didn't do too much in all. Rested and relaxed which is what vacation days are for. Monday was the girls big day out (plus Jayke) to celebrate my Mom's birthday. My Mom, Chelsea and I had decided to spend the day together. First we started with lunch at the Olive Garden (love that soup, salad, and breadstick meal). We wanted to do something different and fun so we headed to this drive through wilderness place. It was a great place to test out the new digitals and Jayke had a blast as well. After a very full afternoon I spent most of the evening at my mom's chit-chatting and having a good time.

On Tuesday I didn't do much of anything. I was looking forward to spending the day with Jayke but that didn't happen. I did get a chance to see Ariana, her husband Jonathon, and their daughter Addison as well as much of the rest of the Wright family. It was so nice to talk for a little bit before I headed back to Des Moines.

The rest of the week was filled with catching up at work, training the new person for my job, and getting ready for my new job to start. For those of you who don't know, I took a summer position as a 1st grade lead teacher with Kids West, a program I had worked with before and I am so excited to have a nice fun summer before school starts again.

Well....that's about it for the moment. I will keep more updated from now on, going home must have thrown me off. Have a good Memorial Day Weekend.

Tulip Time!

Going to college in Pella meant always having to deal with Tulip Time. At the time it was a bit of a nuisance since we all knew we needed to participate but were also trying to study for finals and finish the semester. Last year, living off campus, I didn't really get a chance to go so I was actually really looking forward to going this year.

I worked on Friday and we needed to clean the house and what not on Saturday so I debated going for quite awhile, but Jim and I decided to go Saturday evening in time to enjoy the festivities and catch the lighted parade that night. We had a pretty good time too!

The tulips were beautiful as usual. There were tons of people as usual. And lots of food as usual. This time, however, it was different not being a student, in fact, it was more enjoyable just to be a spactator. Jim had a good time too. We enjoyed dinner and siteseeing, and then we found a good spot to watch and enjoy the parade. The floats are always big and fun, impressive for a town of Pella's size. It got a little chilly by the end, but we both still had a great time!

Prayers came through...

First of all, I have good news to report. Jim's dad came through his surgery very well. This weekend Jim and I went to Dubuque for his friend's wedding and we were lucky enough to be able to help his dad home from the hospital on Sunday and spend some time with him before heading home. With some rest and recovery time, Harry will be doing great, I can't tell you how thankful we are.

The wedding we went to was nice as well. Jim's friend Brad and his fiance Kelly were married. Other than it being a rainy day it went well. The wedding and reception were in Farley and I was lucky enough to experience the famous Farley Hall....Afer all, I had heard so much about it at the last wedding that it became a little joke between Jim and I this weekend.

Aside from that, not much to report, below is a picture of our bikes though, we wanted a couple people to see them and here they are....and we are still loving riding them!

In your prayers...

Please keep Jim's Dad Harry in your prayers. He found out last Thursday that he will be going in tomorrow (Tuesday) for a triple bypass. It was a surprise to everyone, he has always been a healthy man so we are all thankful they caught it now. Jim and Barb are in Dubuque tonight until Wednesday night. Let him be in your prayers tomorrow so that the operation goes well, and after that so that the recovery goes smoothly as well.

Thank you all, we appreciate it.

A Weekend Outdoors

Friday was a pretty good day for me. It started by receiving my tax return money, which was certainly a nice surprise. Later in the day I received an email from my graduate school program director letting me know that I had received an assistantship. That was amazing news. Although it is only a quarter time and not a half time I am honored to have been offered one. I will be a research assistant with Dr. Chad Harms whose interest area is computer-human interaction. Basically, I will work 10 hours per week assistanting him in his research. What is the best though is the benefits the assistantship provides. It will not only provide a monthly stipend but it will also pay 1/4 of my tuition and provide health insurance as well as some other benefits. When I got home from work on Friday I got a return check in the mail from my old apartment. They finally had gotten my apartment rented and actually had to cut me a check in the end. The biggest relief was just not having to worry about it any more.

Jim and I had been talking for awhile because I had decided that part of my income tax return would go to something we bought for ourselves and the majority would go to something responsible. In the end, Jim and I decided to get bikes. We spent the majority of friday night hunting down the perfect ones and eventually decided on the Schwinn Skyliner. I think we both feel we made the perfect decision. We weren't planning on getting matching bikes, but I wanted something with an older look, and Jim wanted something with a lot of speeds and this bike was the best of both.

Saturday we went ahead and tested out our new bikes....a lot! We rode around and had lots of fun. We rode up to the bike shop and I got a cool comfy seat for my bike....more comfortable it is to ride the more we'll ride them!

Sunday our main project was the yard. We rented a tiller and tilled up the area for the garden which was lots of hard work (especially for Jim!). I thought it wouldn't be too bad, but we had the mightest of all tillers because its all that was avaliable. So I start out thinking I am going to till up the first row with no problem...bing bang done right? I think not. I start the tiller rolling and that thing just takes off. Here I am running after this massive tiller straight toward the fence. Luckily enough, I got it under control and dropped the handle so it stopped spinning, but basically that's how the tilling went. The thing was so powerful, Jim was tilling and keeping it under control, but I know he is sore today from it.

After returning the tiller we made a walmart run. Then we came home for a bit more gardening. Jim started pruning the hedges up front, he really did good at trimming the one by the driveway back so that you don't brush it when you pull in and out. I had rooted some sunflowers so I got those planted in the front of the house. Once we came to a stopping point we rode our bikes up to true value so I could get a bigger watering can. Lucky enough for us, when we were at walmart I had invested in a basket for my bike. Sounds dorky I know, but it looks nice and I love it! Any how.....that was our weekend.

Grilling on the new grill

This past weekend when Jim and I were home my Dad offered to get me my birthday present early so that we could get more use out of it. I had asked for a grill. So we went and picked out an awesome grill and I just love it.

I had decided after getting it that the first thing we should do is have some people over for a barbque so we invited everyone over for Thursday night. Jim's sister Barb came, and so did his friend Dude. My friends Jodi and Erica came as well so there were 6 of us there in all. We had a very good time.

We grilled out porkchops and Jim made potatoes and I made a salad. Everyone ate, talked, and seemed to enjoy themselves, most didn't leave until around 9:30 so we had a full good night. In fact, we have decided that every other Thursday would become barbque night, especially since Thursdays are when they have the Farmers Market and Music in the Junciton on the next block over, so we can really make it a fun time! I think I might be way too excited about this!