Stacey's Wedding

We made the trip to Joplin last weekend for Stacey Veazey's wedding, in which I was a bridesmaid. It was a simple yet very sweet wedding. It was also a lot of fun. Here are a few pix.

Late April

The weather has been warmer as each week in April progresses. This weekend Chris and I took advantage of our Saturday afternoon, after the overnight and morning rain, by putting in an electric fence for Maggie. No she can run around in the front or backyard (not both at the same time) at her liking. She's still getting used to it, but we're already enjoying it. Hopefully that will mean no more potty walks right before bed.

Chris and I have also been going to Southside Church in Lafayette recently. I believe we've been a total of 4 times since we've moved to Indiana. Southside is a new church (probably about 50 to 60 official members) forming in Lafayette and it's so new that they don't own a building yet. They just celebrated their first anniversary this March. The church currently meets at a hotel downtown, which actually works pretty well for now. We've found this church to be the "best fit" for us in the area and most of the people there are 20's to 30's. I for one am excited at the growth they've seen in just one year and the niche that this church will hopefully fill in Lafayette/West Lafayette. Chris and I found that there wasn't a really good non-denominational church in the area, or at least one that we connected with. I think this is where we're going to call our new church home. We're also excited because we'll be playing on a co-ed softball team this summer with some others from church. I'll be glad to start playing again.

Chris and I ask that you be praying for Chris' mom's parents, as they're going through some rough times right now. Chris' grandma found out a couple of weeks ago that she has breast cancer. She had surgery yesterday and has hopefully been able to go home from the hospital today. Meanwhile Chris' grandpa has been going through chemo. They are surrounded by friends and family which helps tremendously, but we know that prayer can be powerful.

Inside our new house

Here's a virtual tour of our new house in Indiana.

Walking in the front door...

Turn to the right and you run into the office, spare bathroom, and spare bedroom. Chris has his Xbox in the office and my scrapbook table has found a home in the spare bedroom.

Walk straight ahead from the front door and you'll run into the living room.

To the right from the living room is our eat-in portion of the kitchen on the other side of the half wall.

And our kitchen...

Turn to the left from the living room and you'll find the master bedroom - complete with bathroom and a nice size closet. Maggie was happy to help me take pictures!

If you turn to the left off of the hallway between the front door and the living room, you'll find the laundry room which leads into the garage.



You can see the peg boards and workbench that Chris has been working on. He's done well at organizing the garage.

Here's a view down the street to the end of the cul-de-sac. There's a total of 5 new houses that don't even have sod yet - one of which was just moved into the other week.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Two Months in Indiana

So we've officially been in our new house for two months now and everything is going well! We were able to get every unpacked in less than a week (thanks to Chris' encouragement). Everything is pretty much in its place except for all of our books that we don't have bookshelves for. We even have curtains or some kind of window treatment on every window except for the one small window in the kitchen. Chris was finally able to park his truck in the garage this past weekend. We have a pretty small garage and no shed, so it's made for some creative organizing on his part.

Our jobs are both going very well. Chris really likes his new job working on quality issues for the engine castings. He's already been able to solve a few problems they had been having. He will be going to Germany the first week of April to visit a supplier. Chris has been busy and there's been days that he's hardly had time to sit down, but he's enjoying it a lot. I'm also enjoying working in the CAT environment for the first time. I've already worked on a variety of projects from a new office building to cranes. I love not sitting in front of a computer the entire day. We can also ride to and from work together on most days. I feel like I see Chris a whole lot more now! And it's been great to save on gas too. It's takes us about 20 minutes to get to work, which isn't bad.

Maggie has been adjusting just fine. She has had to learn that she goes out on a leash anytime she goes to the bathroom since we don't have a fence in our backyard yet. An electric fence is in the plan for one of our spring projects.

No church home yet for us. We've gone to a variety of churches, but none have really hit the spot. I'm convinced we're so spoiled coming from a church as good as Richwoods! Please continue to pray for us on this. We did get to have dinner with a minister and his wife, which was really nice. They were very helpful in suggesting a few more churches.

To some people's amazement, we have not joined a gym yet. Chris and I take turns running and walking the dog, switching off in the morning and at night. Our neighborhood has a nice system of sidewalks and roads that we are able to walk and run on - it's definitely one reason we liked the neighborhood so much. There are also 3 ponds with surrounding sidewalks that we can really enjoy on a nice day like today!

And despite our hardest efforts, we're still doing our grocery shopping at Walmart! Walmart is the closest to our house and it is still the cheapest, unfortunately. There is a Meijer, but it's all the way across town. We're hoping that they will soon build the Meijer that there have been rumors of very close to our house. The mall and most of the other stores to shop are on the other side of town and not on the way home from work. But the Super Target is right across the street from work, and I love it! I hadn't shopped at one before and we've been there a few times since we've been here.

We're looking forward to the warmer weather that seems to be sneaking up on us. And I will try to post to our blog more than quarterly! (I know Chris won't post because he told me he didn't even know how to get to this!)

Moving in less than a month!

In one month we'll be settled into our brand new house in West Lafayette, IN! (Hopefully by then we'll also be mostly unpacked.) Here's our current schedule for moving:
Jan. 2nd-3rd - moving company is packing boxes in Peoria
Jan. 4th - loading the moving truck in Peoria
Jan. 7th - closing on house in IN
Jan. 8th - unloading the moving truck in West Lafayette



















Right now it's surreal to me that we're not going to be here in a month. Sure our house has been up for sale and we've found a house in IN, but it hasn't hit me yet...It probably won't until the moving company starts packing the boxes.

A week and a half of work left here in Peoria...Crazy. I can't believe my job here is almost finished. My new job will be challenging. I'll be working at the CAT plant (but still be working for Mactec) in the facilities engineering department. I'll be working on projects to restructure and expand the current facility there in Lafayette. This will involve work with structures and foundations, which I've hardly touched since college. I'll have to dive back into it in January when I start over there. All I have to say right now is that it'll be different. But I'll also be working in the same place as Chris, which will present even more new things.

Summer 2007

This is our new Ford Escape that we bought at the beginning of the summer. We went to Lake of the Ozarks in MO for basically a 10-day vacation over the 4th of July. We got to spend the time with Chris' parents and sister at the Stevens' lake house.

Maggie had quite the experience since it was her first time in the water. She found the rafts to be a haven, even though she had a life vest!















After a while, if she was on the dock we couldn't keep her out of the water!

Chris and his dad caught some good catfish on the lake. So we got to have pan-fried catfish for dinner one night. Yummm!















I finally learned how to ski! I believe I'm skiing "blind" in this picture, with no contacts or glasses since I lost a contact while learning how to ski! But it was so much fun once I learned. I'm convinced the reason I got up was because of the expert help I had from the three Barnes' skiiers, and Chris' mom even got in the water with me to teach me.


















Chris showing off on the slalom.

Welcome

Welcome to our blog! I thought it be fun to start this to keep all of our friends and family up-to-date and to post fun pictures too about us two engineers and our crazy dog, Maggie.