Organize...Schmorganize

Well, just finished re-filing our filing cabinets. Wow. Fun job. But it looks awesome and we cleaned out a ton of paper filled boxes!

We are really excited for our DC trip!! Coming right up! Barricklow-Tucker vacation! :)

Now I'm going to make a craft. I'll show you pictures if I can get it done.

Before

After

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Josh and I would like to offer a loud and hardy Congratulations to my brother Cale and his fiance Megan. YUP! He's engaged!! What a guy, What a gal! We are all really excited! Aren't they cute?!!

Bon Bon

The annual Fam Bonfire was in full swing yesterday at this time. Sorry I don't have any pictures but it was great! I will hopefully get some from Megan and post them soon! Highlights include:

A strange version of softball
Lots of food
Hitting bad tomatoes with a baseball bat
Getting really dirty
Dancing
Eating a lot
Burning things
Rolling around in the cattle tank
Driving the H and the John Deere around
Hanging out with Grandpa
Eating even more
Frisbee
A mangy dog
Bugs
And good conversation!

I'm pretty sure I slept better than I have in months last night. Josh and I both were completely exhausted. Everyone brought food up to the farm. Cale and Megan brought macaroni salad and water, Evan brought buns and bananas, Kristy brought fruit salad, Dallas brought homemade salsa and chips and I think a gluten free desert but I didn't get any of that, Dad brought three grocery bags full of buns, brats, burgers, hot dogs, baked beans, and condiments. Grandpa brought tomatoes, an onion, raisin cookies he made himself!!, buns, steak burgers, hot dogs, and pickles and tortilla chips. Josh and I brought puppy chow, carrots, and apples. Yeah we had a TON of food. It was really good! Hopefully pictures to come!

I've never seen so many buns in one place. ha ha ha

Love and Perseverance

2 Thessalonians 3:5
"May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance."

Can you think of any two greater things for your heart to be full of? I know I'm not apt to have either left to my own abilities. I'm a hater and a quitter. At least when things get hard...or when I let myself have a very limited or selfish perspective. Or if I'm in a bad mood or someone has hurt my feelings. ((Side note: when looking back on your actions are you sometimes awed at how childish you can be? I know I am))

I think it's interesting that the two go together. It's not easy to love people deeply. It's not easy to see people as God does. To treat them with the extreme grace, mercy and the tenderness that He does, day after day after day. Yup. Awesome.

When we put a microscope to our own lives and magnify every little thing God has forgiven in our hearts and put up with in our lives....thoughts, actions, attitudes, JUST TODAY! How can we not return that same grace and love to those around us and to those who have committed offenses towards us.

This is my prayer for all of you!

Life on the Weekends

You know, it's very strange to have the life I have right now. Oh sure I'm busy during the day. Getting ready to move, packing, sorting, organizing, shopping, unpacking from our latest weekend adventure, it's very quiet and relaxed. I wouldn't say boring, because it's not - I don't mind quiet and being productive - but I would say it's not good. We have so much going on Fri-Sun that it's all I think about. I guess during the week I dream about what job I will have when we move (dream is a weird word for me...I guess "think" would be less emotional and strange sounding), try to plan things that are unplanable, but generally speaking, I'm hoping that those middle 4 1/2 days go faster than they have before. So we can move on to a weekend!

Speaking of.... Nate and Heather Eigsti were the highlight of our last weekend! Because Martha's strategy for listing jam packed events worked so well, I think I will follow suite.

Thursday night:
Josh works till 7ish
Eat supper
Call Marth and Ryan and see where they are on their drive
Work out
Shower
watch football
Talk to Marth intermittently till 2am to help keep her awake
with help from Cale and Evan

Friday:
7am wake up.
Pack
Clean up
Gas/Bank/Snacks
Drive to Nebraska in pouring rain. Listen to Andy Stanley!
Walmart run
Samurai Sam's for lunch with Evan and Cale and Mom and the Thomas'
Evan's dorm room fun
Dallas's work visit
Cale's house fun (beat Josh at darts)
Off to the Megrue's for an extremely yummy supper and night o' fun!
Watch football and hang out - the boys went to Walmart to get a few things and then to Dairy Queen. Meredith and I watched football and then ate the Dairy Queen. It was wonderful!

Saturday:
7:30 wake up
Eat breakfast/shower/get ready
Head to the Hohlen's to watch football and play with babies!
Cale and Megan come over
lunch (Todd's amazing grilling skills)
watch more football
Get ready for the WEDDING!
watch Wii
WEDDING! --the music was great, Heather was so beautiful, seeing them smile at each other so big was the sweetest thing
Pack up Thomas' car-packed up the twins-put air in the tires
RECEPTION! --very fun! Friends, food, dancing.... very fun
Josh got 18 text messages during the reception from a friend who was at the game. ha ha ha
Drive to Elkhorn...get there l.a.t.e because of Husker traffic


Sunday:
wake up at 7:30
hang out with babies
eat breakfast with Dad and Beth and Grandpa and Dannan and the Thomas'
kitchen turns into a dentist office
boys watch football
Steph and Briana and Deb come over to visit the boys
order pizza for lunch
leave for KC....see Thomas's tire still low, stop to check it out, go to fill it up, go to Starbucks with Marth
get to PC...go to the Rancho for supper.... watch football
get home...watch football
talk to Martha and Ryan whilest they drive home.
Go to bed
Get a call from the Thomas's that I80 is closed due to flooding
Utilize google maps to direct them a different way.
chat for a very long time **check out Marth's side of the experience on her blog
go to bed really l.a.t.e....
Josh sleeps in and goes to work late. ha ha ha


So there you have it! Then I just wait through these days in between till I get to the next weekend! It's awesome to be able to see family and friends so often. It makes me wonder what kind of adjustment it will be when we move. Don't worry, we're going to make the most of living this close these last few weeks!
It was such a wonderful weekend! Rainy weather an all...And since today is sunny- I think I'll attempt a run. Well more than likely a wog. We'll see how that goes. (I'll let you know!)


ALSO: our milk is sour...very expired... Guess who told me to keep it so he can use it up for cereal? I think he's taking after my dad. My mission today...Operation throw away the milk so Josh doesn't make himself sick.

Ciao :)

What a Weekend.

Friday night Josh and I reestablished our BookIt dominance. Though really the fun part of the night was hanging out with Ashley and Mike. Yeah, really wish they didn't live 45-50 minutes away from us. Kansas City is too big. Josh and I are getting exceedingly bad at remembering our camera. So sorry for no pictures from our adventures, take my word on it, it was fun.

Saturday was BUSY! Josh went for a long run with a buddy in the Army. They ran 13.6 miles. They got lost, too. But they were intending to run between 12 and 15 so they were all right. It's kind of interesting thought, the pattern of male thinking sometimes...the last time Josh and Michael went running they edited their route mid-run and ended up running on Highway 92 for a couple miles. When they got back and told me about it, I appropriately 'scolded' (what a terrible word) them for running on a highway with major traffic and NO SHOULDER! Come on guys, not safe at all. So Michael's wife agreed with me and the men said they understood. So when they got lost, they ended up finding two roads they knew would take them back home...one was a gravel road that would have been about a mile longer trip back...and the other INTERSTATE 435. What did they choose... you guess. Yeah it was illegal. Josh told me what he would have told the police officer had they seen one. Yeah traffic goes 70+ on that road. Great. I wasn't there when they finished....Michael told Josh he's better not tell me. BUT he did. And I laughed/shook my head in amazement. You'd think after safely returning from Iraq I wouldn't have to wonder about his daily safety. Maybe I should have been a little more worried while he was gone!

So after that fiasco we cleaned up and went to Minsky's to watch the Huskers Game with Liz. We had a good time, and we ran into Kirk and Sarah! We've lived in the same area for 2 years and just now we run into each other. They game was alright, at least we won! We've now officially played 3 quarters of decent football (out of 8)...lets hope some magic happens soon.

Then we hopped in the car and drove up to Maryville, MO to watch our favorite Stepper dance at the Northwest Missouri State football game. That was a bunch of fun. It rained the whole time, but the game was really fun.

Sunday included a brand new event for Josh and I. Shopping. After some relaxing, a good sermon, and some football we hit the Mall. Josh raked it in. He will be looking HOT for the wedding next weekend! So that took quite a few hours but we had never gone before. It was surprisingly fun! Both of us are moderately not good with fashion so thankfully Evan and Martha were available for answering questions like "What goes with charcoal gray"...."what kind of tie do you wear with...." and "what can you wear with Navy pants"....stuff like that. Thank you guys! Then we relaxed with more football, some 3 pepper chicken, and scrabble!

And now it's Monday. :)

Labour Day

We had such a great time in Michigan for Labor Day. A fun crammed weekend to be sure! Josh and I decided that it was one of our most favorite trips back so far. Josh and Ryan's 10 year HS reunion was really fun and I enjoyed meeting lots of new people. Martha was already way ahead of me having lived in the area for over a year so I got introduced to other classmates by 3 people. It was really fun. Here are my favorite pictures of the weekend...you know we took way too many!We went to get our teeth cleaned on Friday. I was spoiled and Ryan did mine. Another perfect cleaning. Seriously. My teeth feel amazing! :) The boys went with us to the office cause the ladies there love them (of course!) and this pic was taken on our way out by Marth. It feels like a beach/airport/vacation picture to me. Love it!
This picture is awesome! We went to a Michigan football watch party all sporting Husker stuff...for obvious reasons, and got a group shot. Notice Ethan can't help but cheer. Also notice that Marth and I are extra excited and attempting to pull off looking as alike as possible.
We had so much fun. We got to play Book It...the Thomas' slammed us. It wasn't even close. Lots of great conversation and of course lots of fun and goofiness.


Just want to shout out to Scipp and Nate- two weeks left!!