My birthday

It seems that we always do something big for my birthday instead of our anniversary. The timing has just worked out better. Last year we were still in CO for my bday and on our annivesary we had just moved to Scranton. This year, we knew that NOvember would be a terrible time to try to do something because its close to the end of the semester for Richard, we will probably be moving into a different apartment, and I will be a lot larger (bellly wise).

So we planned a little gettaway, and tried to do it as inexpensively as possible but it was really fun. Friday night after work we got everything packed up and drove to a state park not too far from here and camped. Of course the weather here has been so AMAZING for like 2 weeks prior and the whole weekend/week after our camping trip. But the one night we decide to camp there is rain predicted, and yes it did rain. But it was just a steady drizzle and didn't really make it miserable. We got there and set up camp, then took a walk, (we had rain ponchos) and then when it got dark we went inside the tent and just read for a while. We were both pretty tired from the whole week, (and I seem to be constantly exhausted lately) so that wasn't bad for us, and we really had a relaxing time. By morning the rain had stopped and it was a beautiful camping morning. We lounged around a little and then went for a hike. Of course if I was my normal self this hike would've been a breeze, but by the end of it I was pretty tired, but very glad that we did the hike. We had lunch by the lake front at the park, then started our drive down to Doug and Steph's house.( Richard's brother and sister in law).

There we chatted for a while, then went for supper with some old friends from college. Its so fun to reconnect and spend some time together. Its fun to chat about how our lives have changed now. I think I will forever be friends with the people I went to school with. There is just a funny connection.

We woke up early Sunday morning and started our drive to NYC. I had never spent very much time there, but it was so cool. Doug and Steph helped us a lot with knowing where to park, and explaining a little about the subway/train system. We didn't have much planned but just wanted to see the city. First we went to Battery Park where we were going to get in line for the ferry ride, but we would've had to wait for a very long time and it was more expensive that we originally thought. (and we were trying to do this as cheap as possible). Richard had done it before and I was fine with seeing the Statue from far away, and so we were both content with that. (we both are pretty layed back about things like this). Then we went up to Times Square and walked around a lot. There is so much to see and all of it is so interesting. WE took a walk up to Central park. But come to find out, that park is huge with so much to do in it. We only saw a little part on the southern end of it. But it was still cool. By that time I was pretty tired. So we rested and just people-watched. NYC is the best place to do that. After that we walked back down to 34th Street and saw the Empire State Building, walked through the famous macy's, which by the way is so big. It was so incredible how big it was. By about 3pm we started heading back to our car.

We had made reservations at a restaurant called the Melting Pot that was located on the Jersey side on the water front facing the city. It was pretty easy to find and was such a great experience. It is a little pricey(the only thing we splurged on:-)) but you don't regret it. I could go on and explain all he food we tasted but it really wouldn't mean that much to you guys. But needless to say, the atmospher, the food, the experience was all so much fun.

WE finished pretty early about 8pm and walked around the waterfront which was so cool. Then drove the 2 hour ride home. It was such a fun weekend. We enjoyed ourselves so much. And one of the best parts of the weekend, is we still had labor day off (my actual birthday) so we could rest and get ready for the busy week ahead. It was so great. We will remember it forever. :-)

Then on Monday night, Melissa (richard sister that lives here in the area with us) came over with a beautiful cake that she made for me and a very very cute purse that she made. Perfect way to end my birthday. (Although I did miss being with my twin, and the rest of my family)

Prego my eggo!!!

Well I waited long enough to let the cat out of the bag!!!
It actually hasn't been very long at all, it has just seemed like a long time for me.
We found a couple weeks ago that yes, I indeed am Pregnant. I am 7 weeks along today!!! I know not very far, but I would rather people praying for me this whole time. Its just my personality to let people know about me. :-)
WE are very excited about this news. My due date is March 31st. Most of the time it doesn't really seem real to either of us. It just seems like something that would never happen to you. But we are so thankful and anxious to enter this new stage of life.
I think that it makes me love Richard more. I have been pretty sick (not throwing up yet at all but very nauseous, and very very fatigued). So Richard has stepped right up and helped out so much. I know he won't be able to much once he starts school but I'm thankful for it right now.
So I need to update about the job situation too. I didn't want to until I made the announcement because they are very intertwined. :-) So I had 2 interviews with the elementary school. The week I had the second interview there was suspicions about pregnancy but not sure yet. At the end of the week I took a test and found out the suspicions were right. Now the situation is very difficult. During that same week, I had let my managers know about the possiblity of me leaving. Of course they were very sad, but understand and were thankful that I had let them know instead of surprising them. But they did offer me a position at the office very close to my house if that would make me stay. (Right now I travel about 40 min one way every day) At that time, i was pretty set on taking the job offer. It was a crazy week of wondering if I was pregnant, making the difficult conversation with my current managers and interviewing for the new job. God was very clear to us what we should do. Once I found out I was pregnant for sure, it was pretty obvious what I would do. So I regrettfully had to turn down the job that I would love and thrive at mostly because they did not offer any insurance and I wouldn't even be able to stay for the entire school year. Of course my present managers were very happy, and I am moving to Scranton office. (yay) The administrator of the school was very understanding, but I still felt bad. I told him the same day he offered me the contract. But God was working everything out. I hope they find a secretary soon!
There is a great support group here at our church. The young married Sunday school class that we attend all have kids, and are so helpful and giving about anything. So I'm glad about that.
Please stay in prayer for me and the baby, and for safety. A whole new wave of worries start to overcome me, and I just need to trust God and his plan. But so far so good.

Parties

Last weekend we were so busy. Lots of stuff to do with all our new friends here in Scranton PA. Satruday morning we went to our friends Ben and Cathy to help them out some. They have a huge project in their yard to do, so the guys went out and worked hard on that. Me and cathy stayed inside and got all the food ready for her Daughter's 2nd bday party. I was so glad that we could help them and we always have a fun time when we are together. Saturday night we went with our young married class to a Triple A baseball game. We had a tailgate party in the parking lot before the game. That was fun. I'm not a big fan of baseball but it was fun to talk with everyone there. WE got home pretty late but it was nice.

Then Sunday evening was the big 2 year old bday party. I didn't take my camera so I don't have pictures. I've been waiting for Cathy to put pics up on facebook to steal them for my blog but she is a busy mother. And I wanted to post this before another weekend goes by. She made cakes out of cupcakes shaped like Bob and Larry from Veggie Tales. They turned out so cute. There was so many people there and you know me, I love all the social activity. :-) There were two new couples there too so it was fun getting to know them. All the people there had tons of kids, so it was so fun to see them interacting together.

Monday night, we went to a surprise bday party for another new friend of mine, Caren. She is the mother of a 2 year old and twins about 10 months old I think. She was turning 30. That was a fun night, and I do have some pics of that night that I stole off of her facebook. :-) Again another night filled with socializing with all our new contacts.

We are so thankful for the friendships that have started to grow since we moved here. It is very encouraging to us.

Grandparents come to town

This weekend Richard's parents and one set of grandparents came to NE PA. We had a great time and it was so nice to see them. His parents stayed with us and grandparents stayed with Melissa and Jon and Chase. They got here thurs night and RIchard and I took Friday off of work. I love taking days off of work. So we planned a picnic at a state park but first Richard and his father went for a round of golf. We took subway there and then we went paddle boating and enjoyed the nice warm weather. I had everyone over to my house and cooked them all stromboli and salad with the produce from the Farmer's market. It all turned out great. I am so happy to be able to host people. I think everyone liked it too. Then after that we went mini golfing, which turned out to be very fun. Then back to my house for brownies and ice cream thanks to melissa.

Sat we took our time waking up and then I made waffles for the Gardners. Then the ladies went out shopping and the boys accompanied us for a little bit, mostly until they had eaten lunch with us. Sat night we had a cook out at Melissa's. Then we just enjoyed eachother company and played a funny game of Apples to Apples.

Sunday we went to Jon and Melissa's church because they had their baby's dedication that day. Jon's parents were also there. It was so nice that all of us could be there for that event. WE went out for lunch after that. Then we all crashed at Melissa's house for the afternoon. In the evening we went to a very nice park in Scranton called Nay Aug (I have no idea what that means). I was a beautiful little place. i was glad we went there. WE had fun, and saw a little bit more of scranton and its potential to be cool. :-)

They left on Monday morning so I worked at getting my house back in order. I love having the company though.

Tonight I have a more formal interview for the secretary position. So I will have to update you later on how that goes. I'm kinda nervous but mostly because I don't know what is going to happen or how to plan. I need to trust that God is in control. But I am still going along the process of getting hired. :-)

Random

Hi, It's been a few weeks. It seems like a lot has been going on, but nothing overly exciting to write about. So here is just a little about what has been happening.

One thing that has happened and been a big part of our lives lately is Richard's work. Its been frustrating at times and i have to learn to be very flexible with it. He works for a company that is a 24 hour response to water and fire damages. So he has to be very flexible. Without going into too much detail, they are very unorganized and I feel like they take advantage of Richard a lot. Things could be run a lot better. But in the midst of this complaining about them, I will make sure you know that we are thankful for the job for these reasons. The last semester they had been very flexible with his school hours, and he was still able to get close 40 hours almost every week without having to work every evening like a lot of seminary husbands do. So even though he would be gone late some nights and sometimes it was unexpected, there was still some nights where he was home with me. So even though its frustrating, for now it is working out. They did tell him that he would get a raise after 3 months. It was coming up on 7 and he hadn't gotten one yet. Also he has had to drive like 3 hours one way sometimes to jobs, and he has been driving his old truck a lot for that. He does get paid for drive time, and they cover his gas though. This summer too he has been getting a ton of overtime hours. (which is nice for the paycheck, but not so nice with him being gone so long) But two things have happened recently that have made me thankful for it. He did get a $2 raise which we were so thankful for and it was long overdue. But it is so nice. And he has a pretty old truck that we bought in Grand Junction, CO. He has been driving it a ton. Recently he had to compelety fix the rotters (sp?) and break pads. Then the other day he was driving it and the wheel on the other side almost completely fell off. WE thought it was going to be very time consuming and expensive to fix. But his boss took care of fixing it and paying the bill and it was ready by the time he was done work that day!!! Praise the Lord. So even though there is a lot of negative things about the job, I can still be thankful for it.

Fourth of July have come and gone. Jerelyn was going to come visit for the weekend but ended up not coming becuase of car trouble. I was sad, but we were with Melissa and Jon (My sister in law and husband) and had a nice cook out. WE found a great place for fireworks too. Sat we went to some outlets I had wanted to go to since we got here. So that was fun cause Richard and I spent the whole day away and together. It was nice and relaxing. I just have a couple pictures from that weekend. Chase (Melissa's boy) is the baby I"m holding. ( I babysit him quite often so Melissa can work. I love the time I can spend with my nephews and niece) The pic of the two of us is at the fireworks. You can't tell by the picture but it was by a beatiful lake.

My brother is still living with us, and it has been working out very well.

Please pray for me on Tues, I have a meeting with the school administrator for the highschool our church has, he has asked if I would be interested in being the school secretary and I think he thinks he could use me for the Spanish aspect too. I know I would love it, but there are a few things to consider and talk about with him. I will know more after I talk with him. But we do have some decisions to make soon about that area. I am ready to be done the job am doing now, especially if something like that arose. So please pray we follow God's leading in it.

Also, we are trying to buy plane tickets right now for Ecuador over Christmas time. We plan on all the kids going back for this Christmas. We are praying that God leads us to the right tickets for good prices and good dates and everything.

Overall our summer has been busy with a lot of little things but very fun. Richard is ready to start classes since that is what we are here for, and I am enjoying the time he has off. :-)

Gardner's and a set of Grandparents are coming this weekend, so i hope to have a few more interesting things to write about. Enjoy the update. :-)

We also have gone down about an hour and half South to Richard's brother's house (Doug) a few times lately. Stephanie just had their 3rd and I had a great time holding him and meeting him.

Family events

My side of the family always seems to have big events and lots of things to work out. Last weekend was one of those weekends. Of course with people living out of the country that always puts a twist on things.

So last weekend we all traveled out to Boston. My brother was graduating from a highschool out there. So we had his party to plan and attend his graduation. And May was the month of my parent's 25th anniversary. So with my aunts and sisters, we planned a party for them. Of course none of us planning any of this actually live in Boston. But we do have great family friends that live there and helped out so much.

So my whole family, even Juli and Scott this time, were together. It had been a year since we had all gotten together. Someone from the church there let us all stay at their house so we could all be together. That had to have been the best part of the whole weekend.

So Friday night we had a party for my parents. Not as many people as we were planning for came, but it was still nice and I think my parents still enjoyed it. Of course we had tons of food left over too.

Then Sat, was Jeff's graduation party. And once again, we ad so much food left over. WE were eating party food the rest of the weekend. (Richard was really sick of little sandwhiches, and we even had to bring some home. :-)) He got a lot of good gifts.

Sunday was his actual graduation at night. There were 11 in his class. Its so fun that he has graduated. Good Job, Jeff!

And of course we had to take pictures of the family, and the new baby. I bet there won't be this many pics of any of the other grandchildren. Besides the fact that he is perfect, and now all of our kids will always been compared to him, "Daniel never cried like that, Daniel always smiled at me, Daniel never cried when I held him, Why can't he be more like Daniel was. " I can just hear all the comments now. :-) But we love him to death!!!

Memorial Day Weekend.

Memorial Day weekend was so much fun. I was looking forward to it so much. My parents flew to the states on that Friday night. The Kurty Family (a.k.a. the baby family) was coming up too. So Jerelyn and her family got here about 10 P.M. that Friday night. My parents were supposed to fly into Newark NJ (about 2 hours from us) at midnight but their flight got delayed until 2A.M!!! So Richard and I hopped in the car at midnight and drove to Newark to pick them up. All their luggage came which was so nice. By the time we picked them up and drove home, it was 5 A.M. the sun was rising!!! (by the way, here in NEPA the sun starts rising at 4:30 A.M. ) So we kinda missed that night. But the clincher to this whole story is that my dad didn't know that the Kurtys were going to be here. So he was so surprised and happy that he was going to get to see his first grandson a whole week earlier than he thought. We kept it a secret too. So of course we got home really early in the morning, but when the baby got up at 7, we all had to too, because we love that baby so much and had to see my dad's reaction to seeing him. It was so nice to surprise him.

I had meals planned for that weekend and it was so much fun planning and cooking. Richard helped me a ton. I made one of our favorite meals (Cajun chicken pasta), Roasted chicken, and a french toast cassarole. . . Oh man, it was so much fun finding all these recipes and planning for a group of people.

There were a couple people that live close that knew my parents, but hadn't seen them in a long time that wanted to visit with them. So we had even more people in our tiny apartment. But it worked. Its a good thing my family isn't picky.

Sunday night we all went and played mini golf, which was really fun. But I must say the highlight of the whole weekend was being with the baby of the family. He is so cute. A perfect baby, happy, easy to put to sleep, easy to feed, always content no matter what. When babies are like that, it makes it so fun to be with them. It was very stressless with the baby here.

Monday we had a cook out for Memorial Day. Richard made hamburgers, I made a very good macaroni and cheese. It was just very fun.

I love entertaining and cooking, so that was just a very enjoyable weekend for me. Besides the fact that we had a day off of work, and we were with family. (minus Juli and Scott :-( )