Hello, we had a very busy July and August (like every year I suppose). Here are some highlights.

Karin's Visit

From July 10

Karin flew into Minneapolis on July 7 (at 2:30 am...) and spent a week and a half with us. Unfortunately, a few minutes after the picture above she flew off the bike and broke her arm... ouch! Also, Jenny was working nights most of the time she was here, we managed to have some fun and eat some delicious food. Karin did a good job of making the horrible tasting vegetables (kale for example) that we get from a CSA taste decent. Except for the beets... wow, grilled beets are awful, and I eat about anything.

My Birthday

From July 10

I turned 29 this year.. uffda.. I got a few new games for birthday! Through the Ages, At the Gates of Loyang, Bohnanza, and Wizard. Through the Ages is a really good game, but long, so I've only played it four or five times so far. Bohnanza is a great big group game. Jenny and Karin also baked me a pie... mmm... look at the cherry sugary goodness oozing out of the crust.

Colorado Visit - Chris and Britta's Wedding

From July 10

On July 16, Jenny, Karin and I drove overnight to Colorado (including a crazy downpour in Nebraska) to visit Jenny' parents and to attend Chris and Britta's (a HO in the HOJOWEMOs) wedding. Karin also had a baby shower for Jenny; we had a trunk FULL of baby junk on our drive back to Colorado... and we have a HUGE trunk. We also did some hiking at Garden of the Gods and Helen Hunt Falls with some Australians staying with Jenny' parents, and played mucho Agricola with Ben and Karin. It was a normal hectic visit to CO.

From July 10

Chris and Britta

Sisseton

From Aug 10

We went on the Sisseton, SD mission trip again this year, which was the first week of August. Sisseton is a town in South Dakota near an Indian Reservation. We go and partner with the Native American and White CMA churches there. We spent most of our time at the Native church building the shelter above, planting trees, some painting, and most importantly, we did a VBS for ~30 children in the area. Those kids really need some strong male examples, so hopefully we were able to give that to them and they were able to learn more about Jesus, etc.

Anniversary

From Aug 10

We celebrated 4 years of marriage on August 6! Jenny had to work a night shift, so we went out for an early dinner at Michael's. The food was excellent! Proof that I have the best wife in the world: she agreed to pre-order Agricola: The Goodies as our anniversary present. I did buy her some pretty flowers also. Jenny tried on her wedding dress again, which was pretty entertaining this year.

BWCAW

From Aug 10

James and Lea joined us for our annual Boundary Waters trip this year. This time we drove to the end of the Gunflint Trail (after stopping at Betty's Pies, Gooseberry Falls, and Cascade River State Park), and did a loop from Sea Gull Lake -> Alpine Lake -> Red Rock Lake -> Lake Saganaga -> Gull Lake - > Seagull Lake. It was a great trip for the most part - warm weather, pretty lakes (except for some dying trees), lots of good food, no bears, no capsizing, and no fire bans! However, the last day it was crazy windy, so it was tough paddling back in the largest, deepest lake in the Boundary Waters (Saganaga). Also, we had to pay a not so fun canoe repair bill. We didn't tie the canoes down, so one canoe blew into the water during the last night and rubbed against the rocks, wearing down the kevlar... But, besides the last day, it was a very fun trip. James and Lea did very well, despite having little camping experience. And Jenny did very well despite being 23/24 weeks pregnant. And I did well too.

Jenny's Birthday

From Aug 10

Jenny had to work nights around her birthday, so she was awake and not working for only 2 hours on her actual birthday. We quickly went to Dunn Bros and Caribou to get free coffee, ate dinner, and then she left for work. The next week we ate at Noodles and Coldstone to celebrate (basically wherever you can eat free). She wanted a new light fixture in the bathroom downstairs, so I put that up for her, but it took 4 more days than planned due to some weird electrical failures. Daniel helped me with it, but neither of us have any idea what we did to make it work... there must have been an open connection somewhere. Also, Jenny looks bigger in pictures than in real life.

Katie & Ben's wedding

From Aug 10

This weekend, we went to Jenny's college roommate's (Katie) wedding in Chicago. Jenny had the privilege of reading a verse during the ceremony, and she did very well. Jenny enjoyed seeing many of her college friends including a lunch with Anna at Panera. On the way to Illinois, we stopped in Madison to eat at a Red Robin (yes, another free birthday meal) and Jenny convinced me to go shopping at Kohl's because "According to the Red Robin coupon my birthday doesn't expire until September 2." . We stayed at a nice hotel and watched cable TV since we don't have it at home. Do we know how to party or what?

Other Happenings

• We're still studying a book on prayer in our small group. We went on a short hike at Quarry Hill this week as a social.

From Aug 10

• We finished up a study of the life of Jonathon today in Sunday School
• Jenny hosted a baby shower for Sarah in our small group
• Kristy had Jenny and me over for a birthday lunch and helped Jenny weed our neglected garden.
• I went to two game nights hosted by Daniel.

Only a few more days

Another Obligatory Pregnant Woman Picture

From Aug 10

Well, after writing all that we did I need a nap. I don't think we plan to leave the city limits in September.

My parents and brother came to visit for 6 days in June, though it only seemed like 3 days. We did many fun activities including the biking you see above. We borrowed three bikes for free in Pine Island, and rode 6.5 miles on the Douglas Trail. My Mom had a little trouble getting going at first, but riding a bike... is just like riding a bike... We also played disc golf, went to a Honker's game (pretty fun for baseball), watched the little league games in our back yard, ate out at Outback and the Olive Garden, watched teenagers act out A Mid Summer Night's Dream, did a tour of Assisi Heights, did a tour of the Mayowood Mansion, went to church and Sunday school, and played a few games of Sequence: An Exciting Game of Strategy Luck.

While my parents and brother were here, Jenny's parents and sister were spending most of their time in the hospital... Jenny's Dad had a heart attack and needed quintuple (?) bypass open heart surgery! Thankfully, the surgery went well and he is now recovering at home. It was pretty scary though - one minute he was riding his bike, the next minute he was in the E.R. On the bright side, it helped my prayer life.

From June 10

In June, we also went camping at Carley State Park with a few couples (Dan & Aimee, Jeff & Sarah, and Dave & Jess) in our small group. We sat around the camp fire for most of the time and cooked pizza sandwiches (I don't know the correct term) and pies for dinner. Yum! We also hiked around most of the park (only 4 miles) and played some Spades.

From June 10

Jenny picked A LOT of strawberries in June. We ate many of them, but made freezer jam and froze most of them.

Our Small Group is slowly making progress in a book on Prayer. We've had to cancel study a couple times, but I think the book is really good. It definitely makes me feel like a slacker and inspires me to pray more and better. Duane & Heidi brought their adopted baby boy (Jackson) home last weekend, Jenny and I went over to see him - very little, he didn't open his eyes. At Church we're now attending a new Sunday school class on the life of Jonathan. It goes over a book called Chasing Daylight.

Our web site went down over the weekend. I am not sure what happened, but upgrading WordPress (the program that runs the blog) fixed it. I figured it was time for a new theme.

From June 10

Here is Jenny in Week #17!

With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. 12We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
-2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

This is a card from my favorite board game, Agricola (Latin for farmer). This card lets you grow your family (have a baby). Having another person in your family gives you more opportunities to build a better and bigger farm. However, the extra person costs you more food each harvest. Jenny and I played this game last weekend on our camping trip with Dan & Aimee. We went to Myre Big Island State Park and set up our tents for Saturday night and Sunday night. We played games (Agricola, Dutch Blitz, Hearts, horseshoes, and get the balls tied together to wrap around the pipe game. We did some hiking, eating, geocaching, hiding in Dan & Aimee's tent during a thunderstorm, and some people watching. We saw a girl wreck her bike, some people sitting in the back of a truck while geocaching, and someone drop their McDonald's food out the back of their SUV.

From May 10

The four of us camping.

From May 10

Monday, after camping we went to a house warming party at Russ and Sarah's new house. We ate some good burgers and played horseshoes.

The weekend before last we went to Daniel & Heather's house to watch the Lost Series Finale with them and Dave & Jess. I thought the Finale was good, but not great. I liked how things wrapped up on the Island, even if many questions/mysteries were unanswered. But, I was not a big fan of what sideways world ended up being. I guess they needed a happy ending somehow. Overall, great show!

Our Small Group began studying a book by D.A. Carson on Prayer a couple weeks ago. I hope it inspires us to have better, persistent, and biblical prayer lives. This weekend, we will wrap up the Truth Project in Sunday School. It has been a a good DVD series explaining what a Christian worldview should look like.

Tonight, Jenny and I went for a 9.5 mile bike ride. We stopped by the Java Detour and did our marriage meeting for May. We've been to Java Detour 3 or 4 times and have only spent 43 cents.

Well, I started this post with Family Growth, and I will end it with Family Growth. Jenny is knocked up - baby due December 8th.

In April we enjoyed everything becoming green again!  We went on a few bike rides around Rochester.  The Frugal Club had a coupon exchange and are planning on going garage saling this weekend.  Joe went to 2 guys game nights and 1 game day on a Saturday.  On Jenny's last weekend "oncall" for work she finished working just in time to make it to our friends wedding.  We tried a new recipe called Mexican lasagna for the new couple in our Bible study, tasty!  We also had our first "freezer cooking day" - we made many meals to put in our new freezer so we can pull them out when we're busy.  We had house guests for a week and a half - unfortunately to visit Mayo Clinic.  Hopefully Doug is feeling better!  We enjoyed a date night to see comedian Brian Regan - pretty funny

From April 10

Doug and his mom (and us)

May 1st we had a triple stop marriage meeting / date.  Fazolis, McDonalds ice cream, and then Dunn Brothers for coffee.  We enjoy going over goals & how marriage is going in general and trying to improve things!  The day after we took a bike ride with 2 couples from our Bible study.  Dan & Aimee just purchased bikes so we were really excited to have more biking friends!  They were awesome - rode 25 miles on their second ride!  The next weekend Jenny went garage saling, we went to our friends NP graduation party, and then we planted 2 apple trees in the new McClure orchard   Hopefully we will get fruit in 3-4 years.  On May 12th, Jenny started her "new" job at the place she worked 2.5 years ago.  Everyone is welcoming so it was nice to go back.  Just relearning all the things for post surgical thoracic patients now!  After 4+ years of wearing royal blue, now I get to wear navy.  We watched the Blind Side on Friday - good movie we thought.  This last weekend we sold some of our stuff at our neighbors garage sale - made $19.  While Joe and Dave were gaming, Jenny and Jess did cleaning - 3 hours at Jess' house and 3 hours at our house.  We finally through away the capers that have been in the fridge for a year...oops.  On Sunday we planted our garden: zucchini, carrots, beets, mint, basil, cilantro, radishes, onions, lettuce, and peas!  We'll see how it goes.  This week is exciting for Jenny's sister - 4 year wedding anniversary with Ben and her last day of school on Friday!  Teachers are smart - summer vacation sounds nice!!  Jenny is going to baby sit for the first time in a long time for some friends this weekend and we'll watch the 2 hour LOST finale on Sunday.  The end of that confusion!  We're looking forward to our first camping trip over Memorial Day weekend.  We have fun summer plans but are trying to enjoy each day as it comes.  Hope everyone is enjoying the refreshing atmosphere of spring!  And wow Joe refreshed the website colors, he chose an awesome purple!

Almost springtime, so thought we should update the blog with our winter details.

In January, we spent the first few days in Minneapolis & Wisconsin - watched the Rose Bowl at Majors with Lauren and many other OSU fans!  We also saw a girl and her mom who used to babysit Jenny and be neighbors in CO in WI before we went to a wedding.  Brian and Val were married and it was quite cold!  They braved the freezing temps and even took outdoor pictures!  We also saw Ben & Katie for breakfast on Sunday - they will be getting married next summer!  It was nice to see some people and spend time just the two of us in the hotel, shopping, eating out, and playing board games.  Jenny worked 2 weekends in January so those where quiet days. 

Our friend Lea came from TN to visit Kristy and Jenny so that was great girl time!  We "snow" shoed (walked in the snow because we were advised not to actually rent the snow shoes since it was icy.  We ate at a Mongolian BBQ place and did consignment shopping.  We had a rainbow dinner, went to Caribou, and had a spa time.  Lea even was a guest at the Jan Frugal Club meeting where we made cards, ate Beth's amazing cookies, watched the Vikings loose, and made coffee pepperment body scrub which looked like dirt but smelled good!  We also praised God because we were in a car accident with a DUIer but Kristy's car was fixed by his insurance comapny and no one was hurt.  Frightening though! The last week of Jan Jenny organized 3 dinner parties at our house in one week, so that was a little stressful prepping but all our friendtime was worth it

In February we went skiing at Welch from 10AM-8PM.  Jenny was going to ski longer but was too tired & cold even with her 2 pairs of gloves and Joe's on top!  We started watching LOST this month too.  We are still waiting for it to make sense...  Jenny got a $5 haircut that took 2 hours at the student salon but she met a nice girl that was learning and she did a great job.  Jenny also visited her grandma in Wisconsin and reorganized her whole kitchen!  We also ate out at Red Lobster and visited Uncle Nels in Strum.  Our Sunday school class started the TRUTH project on the 28th so we'll hopefully learn more from that!

From Feb 10

March can be summed up as: COLORADO!  We actually had 2 full weeks there!  Joe did work the first week M-F for 40 hours but he could have fun in the evenings.  We did a lot with my parents and Ben & Karin:

• re organized my parents bedroom
• semi organized my dad's work bench
• went through boxes of memories from South Korea and Jenny's k-3rd grade school work
• thrift store shopping and donating
• sushi, homeade pizza, PizzaHut, Red Robin, balloon buns, burritos
• 6-7? games of Agricola, 10 games of Ticket to Ride, 2 games of California, a few of Bananagrams, and Dominios
  Coffee and free pastries at Starbucks
• hiking at Section 16, Waldo's canyon, Garden of the Gods, Palmer Park
• Chai with Amy and Karin and Pikes Perk
• dinner with Britta and Michelle
• walking around Leadville and skiing at Cooper
• croquet
• making cards with Mom, Karin, & Ellen
• watching March Maddness
• Going to the Rock and Worship Road Tour - David Crowder, Mercy Me, Fee, Remedy Drive, Family Force 5, & Francesca Battistelli with Sarah and Tegan and Jane and Karin
• grocery shopping with Karin spent $20, saved $40 in coupons!  also went to Sunflower
• The Thorn with Mom and Dad and dinner with their Sunday school class afterwards
• church twice
• yoga at Karin's school and talked to her class about being a RN

From March 10

Happy Easter!
"Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him! So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed."
John 20:1-8

Aug

Jenny visited Anna & Becca in Decorah, IA for a day

Jenny hosted a baby shower for a friend

We went to the Boundary Waters with Dave & Jess

We went to a Greek Festival for gyros with Dan & Aimee

Sept

We biked 30 miles from Preston to Lanesboro and back

Jenny's parents visited for apple picking & celebrating Grandma's 90th birthday!

Jenny celebrated the 5 months she mentored a girl from church

Oct

Date night at Nupa - a new Mediterranean place

went to our only wedding for 2009 - David & Melissa!

Jenny worked her first weekend oncall

We enjoyed hearing about missions at church

Jenny & some girlfriends started the "Frugal Club"

Played pumpkin bowling in Northfield with friends on the 31st

Nov.

We had a 9 day staycation!

Jenny went to CO to be with family as the family doggy Cookie was put to sleep

Had a feast on Thanksgiving with friends from church

Dec.

We rang bells for Salvation Army

Went to Ohio to celebrate Joe's 10 year reunion from high school basketball

Baked cookies

Jenny ran and finished a marathon in Hurley, Wisconsin last Saturday. She finished in 4 hours and 7 minutes, which was good for 10th out of 54 women. So, pretty good! I drove around and watched her run at six or seven different spots.

From August

It was a weird marathon. They moved the starting line 2 miles west of where it was on the map they mailed us and check-in was in this white van... It also sold ice cream (if you don't live in Rochester, you won't get this). Also, Hotels.com messed up our reservation at the Super 8 the night before, so we got to stay at a "nice "place that was $41. We got our money's worth... ick. We also had to stay the night in Michigan...

From August

Two weekends ago, we went with ~30 other people from our church on a missions trip to Sisseton, SD. We were there from Friday to Monday. We mostly partnered with a Native American Church, but also worked with a White Church (both CMA). We did a free car wash for the community, redid a bathroom and bedroom for a woman, put a new roof on a shed, attended both church services, did a VBS for kids in the community, ate homemade donuts, and other many other activities. It was a good time, and we would like to go back again. Above is myself, Sherman, and Joel after scraping plaster off a ceiling.

From August

Jenny and I also celebrated our 3 year anniversary. We kept it low key and went on a bike ride to Quarry Hill. We had a nice picnic. I'm one lucky guy.

Other Items
- After the marathon we drove to Ben and Jaime's new house and had dinner and Wii with them.
- We've been playing a lot of Agricola - a great game if you like strategy board games (i.e. Puerto Rico)
- We our 75% through the Minor Prophets in our small group. Next up is Zechariah, which is interesting.

Hello all! I feel like this is my first post in a really long time...

We are having a great July, especially after Jenny gets back from the grocery store with food.

As you can guess from above, we went to Colorful Colorado! We flew into Colorado Springs on July 9th and didn't leave until July 19th (boo). We stayed in the Springs with Jenny's family a couple days. Then we picked up my family in Denver and all stayed in a cabin at the YMCA in Estes Park for 6 days of fun! I spent my birthday with my (twin) brother for the first time since 2001 - crazy! Then we spent a couple more days down in Colorado Springs before flying home. More pictures below.

From July 2009 - Itasca & CO

On July 10th, we had a HoJoWeMo get together. We ate food, talked, and played Scattergories. I didn't win, but they let me use catheter as a school supply.

From July 2009 - Itasca & CO

On July 11, we picked up my parents and brother from the Denver airport and headed up to Estes Park. We didn't get into our cabin until around 5PM, so we ate a picnic lunch and played a lot of Blokus. Jenny's parents and sister joined us later in the day.

From July 2009 - Itasca & CO

On Sunday, July 12, I spent my birthday with my parents and brother for the first time in a long time. Jenny got my Ticket to Ride: Europe, my parents got me Agricola, and John got me a Carcassonne expansion. I can never think of anything I want, so this year I went with board games. It was a good day - we played 32 holes of golf (14 disc, 18 mini), went swimming, played Blokus, and Carcassonne.

From July 2009 - Itasca & CO

Monday, we went up the Tramway and fed peanuts to chipmunks and hiked around. Then we walked around downtown for awhile. Above is a picture of Jenny's dad in the wild...

From July 2009 - Itasca & CO

On Tuesday, Jenny, John, Karin, Johanna and I went on a hike. We wanted to do Long's Peak, but the way was shut (unless you have an ice pick and know what you're doing with it), so we settled for a 9.2 mile hike to Fern Lake. We had to climb over two treacherous snow fields of death, but we made it fine. We saw some cool waterfalls.

From July 2009 - Itasca & CO

Wednesday, we all went on a hike to Moraine Park. In the afternoon Jenny, John, John, Karin, and I did some archery. The instructor put a dollar bill on the target and said whoever hits it gets to keep it. I missed it by a couple inches... Also, Ben (Karin's husband) was able to drive up for the next few days. We went swimming, played disc golf, and 16.5 holes of mini-golf before it closed.

From July 2009 - Itasca & CO

Thursday, we went up Trail Ridge Road and saw lots of Elk (see picture at top). Jenny and Karin made a silk screen painting, and for dinner we went to The Dunn Raven Inn and had some really good Italian Food.

From July 2009 - Itasca & CO

On Friday, Jenny and I drove my parents back to the Denver airport, sadly. Then we met Jenny's parents and Karin at Water World for a day of water rides. Jenny's parents were pretty excited that they got in for $5 (>60).

On Saturday, we went to a million garage sales, I ate at Red Robin with my birthday coupon with Jenny, and we went to another HOJOWEMO get together - a graduation party.

On Sunday, we went to Church, saw Amy and Matt for a small bit, and then we flew home. We got home about 11 PM, so work was a little rough on Monday, err... the whole week.

Other things in July

From July 2009 - Itasca & CO

On the fourth of July weekend Jenny and I went camping at Itasca State Park (5 hours+ north). Itasca State Park is probably the nicest State Park I have ever visited. There is a 17 mile bike trail loop, lots of hiking trails, over 100 lakes a beach, many interesting things to see, and you can walk across the Mississippi River (pictured above)! Our camp site was a backpack site, and it was over a mile away from where we parked. We weren't exactly prepared for this, so we went spent a lot of time "hiking" back and forth to our car... But, our site was very remote. and we could hear the Official Minnesota state bird (the loon) and the unofficial state bird (mosquito - 100 lakes=LOTS of mosquitoes). Good thing we have bug nets for our heads. We also saw Jenny's friend, Amy (mentioned above in Colorado), and her boyfriend in St Paul for brunch. They were visiting her boyfriend's parents.

From July 2009 - Itasca & CO

Mark flew to Brazil where he will get married to Melissa next week!

We also had a going away party for Ben and Jaime as they moved to Northfield this month.

OK the food is here, Bye!

Feb - we went to our neighbors house for dinner - tacos and played with their one year old girl, we ate at a Mongolian BBQ place with our Bible study friends, and bought a new blender.

From Feb 09

Some of our group at HuHot.

March - said good bye via phone to my parents who went to Ethiopia, my college friends Anna & Becca came to visit, I had a baby shower for a friend, I house sat for my neighbor and feed her cats, I went to Chicago to meet up with my sister Karin - fun!, I had girls over for a craft night, Joe watched lots of basketball, finished meeting with his mentor from church (after a year of doing so), we had a nice warm marriage meeting at Caribou!

From March 09

Karin and Jenny in Chicago

April - we went to our first cycling/spinning class together, we drove to Ohio to see Joe's family for 10 days and celebrated Easter with them, I went to a cleaning party and made her own cheap cleaning solution, we went to a teen MOPS fundraising dinner, I went to a women's conference put on my a few churches in Rochester, I also studied lots of ECGs for a competancy test I had to take, Joe went to Laugh for Life a fundraiser for a pregnancy center (I was at the women's conference), we also went to our friends' boys first birthday party - Caiden is so cute!

From April 09

Joe's family in Ohio!

May - we planted a garden - lettuce, corn, zuccini, and carrots, Joe power washed the house, I washed the windows, we put up shutters and Joe painted the front door, I started mentoring a gal from church, we went to WI to visit my uncle who had a stroke - he's doing pretty good, we had quite a few date nights in May, we celebrated with Jaime - she graduated from PT school!, I ran a half marathon and Joe cheered for me a long the way, we had a garage sale with friends and sold $20 worth of junk..., my parents returned to the US!

From May 09

Jenny finishing her first half-marathon.

June - we had a date at Chesterwoods and went hiking, went on a bike ride with a new couple in our Bible study - Kara and David, we played bocce and disc golf with Bible study friends, our friend Mark came from Turkey to raise support for the next year and is staying with us till July 10, I shopped at the farmers market, we went to Forrestville State park to camp for a weekend with friends, Aimee and I picked strawberries and I made pie and jam, we served the community during Carefest and landscaped a school yard, we went to the Rochesterfest parade and Noodles for a date night, had a picnic at the IBM park today

From June 09

The group in Historic Forrestville.

So we've kept busy!  Surprise!  We have enjoyed the nice warm weather and many evenings together.  God has blessed us so much and we love being married and living here   How are you doing blog friends?

Our 2009 has started off well, can't complain!  We brought in the new year with our friends, Dan & Aimee, eating pizza and watching Vantage Point.  

We took a mini vacation to Minneapolis Jan 2-4 to have some couple time.  We went cross country skiing, had a marriage meeting at Caribou, saw my two cousins, went swimming, watched an OSU basketball game, went to an art museum, ate out, and went to John Piper's church. 

From Jan 09

Our friends from Turkey were in the US and came over that Sunday afternoon for their party we hosted so they could see many of their friends in MN.  We are thankful for them and their willingness to serve overseas. 

From Jan 09

The evening they left, my mom came to visit for 10 days!!!  We had so much fun together, except for the food poisoning ~ but I learned my husband is so nice & caring since I haven't been that sick living with him before.  Mom and I visited Grandma, saw my uncle and cleaned his house, sewed curtains (mostly her), watched my Big Fat Greek wedding, pedicures, games, cooking and baking, and talking all the time. 

From Jan 09

Sometime in January I pulled my Achilles tendon and limped around for a week.  After I went to sports med at Mayo they gave me a boot which has really helped.  It still hurts but I think it is getting better.  So I haven't been running lately...  Two Friday nights in January I watched parts of the 7 hour Pride and Prejudice with my friend Aimee.  We have also played 20+ games of Carcassone, my new favorite game that I got for Christmas from Joe's parents!  I shadowed another area of Mayo so might try and get a different nursing job, we'll see.  Joe has a new job now at IBM which is nice since some people were laid off. 

Last weekend we went to the Wisconsin Dells and enjoyed the indoor water parks!  Bible study has been going well.  We had each couple over for a meal to spend a little extra social time with them.  We are still studying Romans and trying to apply God's word to our lives.  They are some of our greatest friends! 

From Feb 09

From Feb 09

We also went tubing with Daniel and Heather's Bible study and our Bible study a few weekends ago.

From Jan 09

Yesterday for Valentines Day Joe and I went out for breakfast together at a place called Grandma's. 

From Feb 09

Then for my friend Kristy's birthday I picked her up and took her to the Harley Davidson store because they had advertised a chili cook off.  Three other girls and a guy that we know came too!  So we were definitely differently dressed than the Harley folks, but they were really nice and the chili was good!  We tried 22 different kinds!  That evening Joe and I went to some friends house for a fondue party.  We especially enjoyed the bread, veggies, & apples dipped in cheddar and fruit & brownies dipped in chocolate peanut butter!

The highlight of this week: we started our young couples Sunday school class today and there were 19 people there!  We are so glad that some new people came and really hope this is a group that will really build community.  We started studying Ephesians today.

We also had a good sermon on the woman that put perfume on Jesus feet and wiped them with her hair.  She was able to humble herself and really loved Jesus because she had a lot of sin to forgive.  Simon on the other hand thought Jesus didn't have to forgive much for him so was more prideful.  I am reminded to be thankful for forgiveness that Jesus gives!

We'll maybe Joe will put some pictures up for me   Hope everyone is doing well!