Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend and 6 days off work! It will be hard to head back tonight. Thursday we were in Fort Wayne and I had lunch with some old co-workers. It was great to see them and catch up! Kirstin came down for a visit for a few days! :) I can't say enough about how much my sisters mean to me. I don't know what I would do without them! Of course I didn't whip out my camera till the end of the weekend, but here a few shots!

Miss Marley came for a visit too.......

Joe and his garden he's been working hard on! :) ...............

Joe power-washing the house in my pink Parkview poncho :)...............

Such A Rough Life

I think he wanted us to turn the lights out!

Six Month Anniversary

Friday was Joe and I's six month wedding anniversary (I know, it's not a real anniversary). What a crazy, exciting, busy six month's it has been. It started with an amazing wedding that we would change nothing about. When I think back to that day it brings a huge smile to my face. It was so much fun, and so great to get to spend it with so many family and friends.

December's highlight was our trip to Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica. Ahhh.... talk about relaxation and pampering. If only we could make that trip every year.

January was full of house hunting, packing, and saying good-bye to our friends in Fort Wayne.

February brought us our first home! I can't believe how happy we are here. I love our home and I realize how lucky we are. February brought new jobs and a months full of orientation for both of us!

But I wonder where March and April went!!..... oh yes, working on that new home! :) But that's also when I started working night shift and I've tended to be little forgetful since then! :) The months have flown by! Marrying Joe has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. How lucky am I to have gotten to spend the last six months just such an amazing person?

We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory to celebrate... and we forced ourselves to for once have room for cheesecake and boy was it worth it!!!

I can't wait to see what the next six month's brings us! :)

National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day

National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day on May 7th, 2009 is a day to promote positive youth development, resilience, recovery, and the transformation of mental health services delivery for children and youth with serious mental health needs and their families. Awareness Day raises awareness of effective programs for children's mental health needs; demonstrates how children's mental health initiatives promote positive youth development, recovery, and resilience; and shows how children with mental health needs thrive in their communities.
The theme for this year's national event is Thriving in the Community, with a special emphasis on how high school youth who receive the services they need are more likely to have positive outcomes, such as better grades, and less likely to have negative outcomes, such as involvement with the juvenile and criminal justice systems.

Front bathroom

Before

I'd thought I'd share some before and after pics of the bathroom. We replaced the floor, mirror, and painted. Although it isn't a huge change, hopefully it was an improvement!

Tonight I was cancelled from work, by request, due to how slow we are right now. It was nice to have the night off. I was glad for the acuity and business when I started so hopefully it will pick back up, although I really can't complain about getting the night off every once and while. This is Joe's busy week, but we both have the weekend off. We are heading to Fort Wayne for Grace's birthday.

What a beautiful weekend

What a beautiful weekend!!! We could not have asked for better weather! On Saturday Steve and Sue came down with the kids and we all went to the zoo. We all had fun and enjoyed being out in the sunny 80 degree weather, and it was great to see them again. They have some great animals and exhibits, but I think Fort Wayne still has a better zoo.



Joe and his Dippin Dots! :)

After that Joe and I spent Sat evening and Sunday working on the yard and deck and things around the house. I, of course, managed to get a pretty bad sunburn on my back after pulling weeds for a few hours. Ouchie!!

We found out more homes in our neighborhood have been broken into and it has been mentioned on the news and on the radio. Our neighbor stopped over on Sunday concerned because she was worried about me being home alone sleeping during the day. She said she heard they are going around with a clipboard like they are selling stuff, then when no one answers they break in. A girl at work also heard about it and heard they were breaking into home with easy access. It makes me feel better knowing there are a few neighbors around who are retired and keeping an eye out on things, but nevertheless, I'm nervous about going home and sleeping all day tomorrow.

Worried

So I'm a little worried... Tuesday morning after work I went to bed and slept most of the day. When Joe got home that evening I got up and we were eating dinner together and watching a movie when a police officer knocked on the door. He told us the neighbors a few houses down was broken into and wondered if we had seen anything suspicious or strange vehicles that day. There have been lots of days I'm home alone sleeping. How would any burgler know I'm back in the bedroom sleeping, and what would happen if they broke in and then discovered me there? It would be very easy for someone to get into the house if they wanted to. Joe put the poker to the fire-pit next to the bed... although I'm not convinced it could do much harm to them no matter how hard I tried... It just has me a little worried and shook up... I never would have thought in our neighborhood we'd have to worry. :(

Fort Wayne

Thursday Joe and I made a quick day trip to Fort Wayne. We needed to get the lawn-mower Steve and Sue had been so kindly storing for us! Joe was able to get in a visit to Parkview to see a few old co-workers while I got my hair cut, then we visited Parkview North to see more old co-workers. It was so great to see their familiar faces and get a quick update on how everything is going up there. It makes me sad to be missing out on some of the exciting things going on in their lives, or being there when they going through some rough times. As much as we both miss all of them, and would do anything to just move the hospital and some of our old co-workers down here with us, we are a lot happier here than we would have been in Fort Wayne.

We fit in a quick visit with Dad, which wasn't very long but it was nice to sit for a bit with just us three. I try and quiz him every chance I can on questions about the house and repairing things! Hopefully he isn't too tired of it yet.... I've got lots of questions!! :)

Then we headed off for dinner with Ayren, Josh, and Hailey. They are closing on their first home in Greenwood at the end of the month (yay!), after a nice trip to Disneyland... or world... I don't know, I always mix those up! :) It will be nice to have Ayren close again. As hard as it probably was for her to be back in Fort Wayne for the last year without her husband, I was spoiled having her there to help with wedding plans and de-stressing all those times I needed it! I am very lucky to have had all her help and advice over the last year. Thank you!!!!

We also made a quick stop at the Gin Mill for an after work get together with some of Joe's old RT co-workers. It was great to visit and catch up, and the guys got to start plans for this years white-water rafting trip. I'm already nervous about this one and it's months away!

Saturday's plans were for Grandma's birthday party and having a little cook-out at Mark and Cindi's to celebrate. Unfortunately Grandma ended up having to spend a couple days in the hospital to rule-out pneumonia, but we decided to still get together. Dad came down and Ash and Keaton joined us over at Mark and Cindi's. It was fun to see them and the twin's again. She is getting a cute little belly... I'm excited to see if it's a boy or a girl!

The next month should be fun. Steve and Sue are coming down with the kids for a visit, and hopefully Kirstin will be here next month!!! Yay! I still have yet to get details, but last week she had to defend her thesis and did an awesome job (which we all knew she would do! :) Good job Kirstin!!! :)

Too cute not to share

You would think they actually like eachother from this pictures... Tommy decided he wanted to sleep where Parkers head was at the time, so Parker took the opportunity to use Tommy's butt as his pillow :)

Weekend Fun

Joe and I both had the weekend off. It always seems to go too fast when that happens. Friday night we tried out a new sushi restaurant, and were able to cross it off the list of places we'll probably go back to! :) We also finally picked out some patio furniture and a fire pit, which we were able to put together Saturday and get a little use out of. We had some fun making s'mores with Ash and Keaton Saturday night over the fire. It was still a little too cold to be comfortable, but it's nice to finally have our own backyard space.

Today we spent the day doing a little yard work. We hadn't thought our yard looked too bad, other than a few patches, until a couple days ago when a dandilion field took over! Seeing all the neighbors doing yard work last weekend made us feel guilty so we got out to spray weeds and put some mulch down. Now I just have to do some research on flowers and which I should plant where. It definitely reminds us of the perks of apartment living, but I still wouldn't trade it for that tiny little balcony we used to call our "backyard".