Hello all-
This is Amber. I am at work right now on the day before Thanksgiving, bored out of my mind. The phones are pretty much silent. I have worked ahead to cover next week. Now I just have to wait for that 5 o'clock "bell" to tell me its time to take a four day holiday.
Well we are surviving. Life has been very hectic lately. Most of it is due to the fact that we close on our house in a week and move in two. Packing is essentially not happening, school is coming to a head with the module only having 3 weeks left, and then toss the holidays in there to boot and its a big steaming pile. It is always interesting to see how everything will fall when it is all said and done. I have a to-do list about a mile long and I usually add about 3 things when I cross one off. Ok...enough complaining.
I am VERY excited to get into our new home. I can't wait to put up our Christmas tree and paint the rooms the way we want them and rearrange furniture. I love new beginnings, no matter how stressful they are at the time. I am also so very excited about the holiday season. Despite the traveling to and from and squeezing too much family into too little space, I love getting to see people that I see so seldom. I also love being with my family, both on my side and Ben's.
This past weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving with Ben's parents in Manhattan. We drove out Thursday night and then on Friday, while Ben and Pat went hunting, I had the opportunity to spend the day with my very good friend, my best friend, Mindy Scott. (and of course her beautiful son, Luke) We literally spent the day talking. We went to the mall...and talked. We went to lunch...and talked. We got coffee...and talked. Then we went back to her house...and talked. It was the best day. The best day because I am all too aware of how few I have had and how few I will have in the upcoming future. Mindy and her family are moving to Georgia for her husband to go to Captain school for the Army. They will be there for about 5 or 6 months and then after that....who knows. It was so sad to say goodbye to her on Sunday, but I am so happy for them in this new adventure and the next step in their lives. AND, now I have a reason to go visit Georgia. I am already making plans and checking out flights.
The rest of the weekend was spent with Pat and Judy (Ben's parents) and Emily (Ben's sister). On Saturday Judy, Emily and I went to see the Santa Clause 3. It was cute and put me in the holiday mood. Then Judy and I went to meet up with our husbands to watch the K-State/KU game. It wasn't a pretty sight. We can only hope that next year K-State comes out swinging!!! Plus, we still have the bowl game.
On Sunday we got to see all of our old "gang" at church. It is always so nice to see them, yet so sad too. We have made wonderful friends since we moved to Lenexa, but somehow it just isn't the same. I miss you all, Mindy and Chris, Bobby and Lindsey, Annie and Josh, Cherry, Corey and Holly (or Horey and Colly). You guys were a wonderful group of friends and we were so lucky to have to guys as our "group" while we were there. I guess the holidays are good for making you think about the old days too! That afternoon we had a delicious Thanksgiving meal with all the fixin's. It was wonderful and we were STUFFED.
Well it is time for me to sign off. This may come across as rambling and a little scattered, but just know that is how my brain is operating right now. Have a GREAT THANKSGIVING!
11.22.2006
11.12.2006
Holiday Blues
Hey everyone. Well we are starting to make plans for our first holiday season as a married couple. It is HARD. There are so many places and so many people that we would love to see and spend time with, but we have only a few days. AND with the new house, we are having to get creative to find ways to afford gifts and gas money to make our many Christmas's happen. We did figure out Thanksgiving...or rather Ben's work schedule figured it out for us. We are leaving this coming Thursday evening to head to Ben's parents in Manhattan. Friday Ben will be hunting with his dad (which he is REALLY looking forward to) and then we will celebrate an early Thanksgiving with them on Saturday or Sunday. We will then spend Thanksgiving day in Olathe with Amber's parents and family since Ben doesn't have the day off after Thanksgiving (bummer). At least this means we get in spending time with both of our families though!
The house stuff is moving right along. We met with our loan officer on Saturday morning to give him all of our financial documents and to sign a TON of papers. It was about as fun as having a tooth pulled, but that step is done. We are in the process of getting our homeowners insurance taken care of AND planning with our electric and gas companies to have our utilities turned on...YAY! In case anyone is wondering, we have yet to start packing. BUT we technically don't have to be out of our apartment until the 31st of December, so it is really urgent.
Amber's school is coming right along too. She is halfway through her second module and is loving the classes she is taking right now...Lifespan I and II (Childhood and Adolesence). It keeps her pretty busy. Speaking of busy, she just started her work towards getting her internship set up. All of her classmates have to apply to the available internships just like a job and then interview for them. She will hopefully know by February or March where her internship will be and then she will start in May. At that time she will go down to one night of class a week BUT she will be putting in between 15 and 20 hours of time for her intership...on top of full time work and studying for her classes. It will be hectic, but worth it all in the end.
Friday night we helped sponsor a youth activity for our church. It was a district event called Breakaway and it goes from 6 pm to 6 am ...YIKES!!! We had a ton of fun with the kids. We posted some pictures below to check out all the fun we had...lol
The whole gang at College Church of the Nazarene in Olathe waiting for the service to start (we got there about 2 hours early...so it was a long wait).
Brad...too cool for school. This is kid is NOT camera shy...haha.
There was a group from the KC Urban Youth Center there. They had a gospel choir and then these girls were doing an interpretive dance. It was pretty amazing. The youth at this event raised over $1000 for the KCUYC that night...I was so proud of them!
Worship was very good. For the second half they used their acoustic guitars and bongos!
Brad again...definitely not shy.
Breanna and Kaitlin..taking a time out from the arcade games at PowerPlay for some TCBY.
Becki Privett, another sponsor, taking a nap on the skeeball game at PowerPlay...we were ALL so tired!
Ben and Adam Schwer, our youth pastor, playing Dance, Dance Revolution...Check out their faces...lol
Ben playing some boxing game...he wasn't very good ;)
Ok ya'll thats all for now. We love you and will post again soon!
The house stuff is moving right along. We met with our loan officer on Saturday morning to give him all of our financial documents and to sign a TON of papers. It was about as fun as having a tooth pulled, but that step is done. We are in the process of getting our homeowners insurance taken care of AND planning with our electric and gas companies to have our utilities turned on...YAY! In case anyone is wondering, we have yet to start packing. BUT we technically don't have to be out of our apartment until the 31st of December, so it is really urgent.
Amber's school is coming right along too. She is halfway through her second module and is loving the classes she is taking right now...Lifespan I and II (Childhood and Adolesence). It keeps her pretty busy. Speaking of busy, she just started her work towards getting her internship set up. All of her classmates have to apply to the available internships just like a job and then interview for them. She will hopefully know by February or March where her internship will be and then she will start in May. At that time she will go down to one night of class a week BUT she will be putting in between 15 and 20 hours of time for her intership...on top of full time work and studying for her classes. It will be hectic, but worth it all in the end.
Friday night we helped sponsor a youth activity for our church. It was a district event called Breakaway and it goes from 6 pm to 6 am ...YIKES!!! We had a ton of fun with the kids. We posted some pictures below to check out all the fun we had...lol
The whole gang at College Church of the Nazarene in Olathe waiting for the service to start (we got there about 2 hours early...so it was a long wait).
Brad...too cool for school. This is kid is NOT camera shy...haha.
There was a group from the KC Urban Youth Center there. They had a gospel choir and then these girls were doing an interpretive dance. It was pretty amazing. The youth at this event raised over $1000 for the KCUYC that night...I was so proud of them!
Worship was very good. For the second half they used their acoustic guitars and bongos!
Brad again...definitely not shy.
Breanna and Kaitlin..taking a time out from the arcade games at PowerPlay for some TCBY.
Becki Privett, another sponsor, taking a nap on the skeeball game at PowerPlay...we were ALL so tired!
Ben and Adam Schwer, our youth pastor, playing Dance, Dance Revolution...Check out their faces...lol
Ben playing some boxing game...he wasn't very good ;)
Ok ya'll thats all for now. We love you and will post again soon!
11.01.2006
House Update
Hey! This is Amber... I am at work right now on my break. Ok guys...well so far so good with the house. We have been holding our breaths for the past few days waiting for something to hit the fan or for the whole deal to bottom out (not to be negative), but so far we are still on track to have a home and move in on November 30th. ACK! That seems so close. That is exactly 4 weeks from tomorrow. There is still so much to be done...packing, buying appliances, signing papers, etc. However, we can cross one BIG thing off. We had our FHA inspection yesterday. We had to go out to the house for two hours while the inspector looked the house up and down. It was nice to get to be there though so we could get another REALLY good look at the house without the current owners there. Here are a few things we found that we either didn't know before or we didn't notice the first time we were in the house.
1. There is a lazy susan in the kitchen in ADDITION to the two pantries. Though to some this is nothing, I am REALLY excited about having a bigger kitchen with more space.
2. The whirlpool tup works GREAT! We also hadn't noticed that it is a corner tub...so its really big **wink wink**.
3. The whole front room is already wired for a pretty extensive surround sound. Ben was pretty excited about this being that he owns a system that is currently at his parents house because we can't really use it where we are at now. Sorry Pat and Judy...I think Ben is going to want it back now :(
4. The garage is already wired with electricity. This is good for the date in the distant future when we put a driveway up to the garage and use it on a regular basis. We can install an opener and even put electricity out there for Ben to work on the cars!
5. The two second bedrooms are actually quite large...we hadn't remembered them being that big. We are going to use the front room for our office (the smaller of the two) and then the back room for our guest room (Eventually when we buy a new bed for us).
6. In addition to the bathroom walls being recently redone with tiling, all the fixtures in the bathrooms are new too!
7. There is a TON of cabinet space in the master bath. I am so excited to have room for all the bathroom STUFF so it doesn't just sit out on the counter.
Well, these are just some of the observations that we made last night while waiting for the inspection to get done. I have off work next Friday for Veterans day (which is Saturday...don't ask me, I don't complain) and my mom and I are going to go back to the house to get measurements of the windows and stuff! Exciting! Ok...continue to pray that all goes well as we move along with the house stuff. Thanks guys!
1. There is a lazy susan in the kitchen in ADDITION to the two pantries. Though to some this is nothing, I am REALLY excited about having a bigger kitchen with more space.
2. The whirlpool tup works GREAT! We also hadn't noticed that it is a corner tub...so its really big **wink wink**.
3. The whole front room is already wired for a pretty extensive surround sound. Ben was pretty excited about this being that he owns a system that is currently at his parents house because we can't really use it where we are at now. Sorry Pat and Judy...I think Ben is going to want it back now :(
4. The garage is already wired with electricity. This is good for the date in the distant future when we put a driveway up to the garage and use it on a regular basis. We can install an opener and even put electricity out there for Ben to work on the cars!
5. The two second bedrooms are actually quite large...we hadn't remembered them being that big. We are going to use the front room for our office (the smaller of the two) and then the back room for our guest room (Eventually when we buy a new bed for us).
6. In addition to the bathroom walls being recently redone with tiling, all the fixtures in the bathrooms are new too!
7. There is a TON of cabinet space in the master bath. I am so excited to have room for all the bathroom STUFF so it doesn't just sit out on the counter.
Well, these are just some of the observations that we made last night while waiting for the inspection to get done. I have off work next Friday for Veterans day (which is Saturday...don't ask me, I don't complain) and my mom and I are going to go back to the house to get measurements of the windows and stuff! Exciting! Ok...continue to pray that all goes well as we move along with the house stuff. Thanks guys!
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