Happy 2015!

Wow, it has been far too long since our last post. There are still a few things from last year that we never got around to posting on here, so we'll be catching up for the next several posts. As usual! We weren't very good about posting on here last year. I need to finish the final post about my trip to Poland. I also need to post some photos I took during trips to Washington, DC and Denver, CO.

December was pretty eventful for us. We joined a local church, where we have been getting involved in some ministries. We finally traded in the car I bought in college and drove for 13 years. We got a used VW Passat, and it's really nice. I think I got so used to the other car falling apart cosmetically that I wasn't prepared for a car so nice. It feels too nice for me. We also celebrated our tenth anniversary by going on a cruise to the Caribbean for a week, so we'll post some photos from that, too. And, of course, there were Christmas celebrations.

Speaking of Christmas, I knitted a toy monkey for our nephew's gift, to go with the ones we gave him for his birthday.

This month, we've been getting back into our usual routine. And now it's almost February!

P.S.--Did you notice the new Travel tab up at the top of the page? Check it out!

We've moved!

Life for us has been pretty hectic since our last post. We moved to the Charlotte, NC area!

Charlotte skyline (photo credit)

Ed got a new job, so we relocated and are still getting settled. It's nice to be closer to family again, and Ed is enjoying his job. We have some friends who live in the area that we haven't seen in a while (including my BFF, Alexis), so that's exciting for us, too! We will miss the many brothers and sisters in Christ in northern Illinois whom we count as friends, but we know that we will see them again, one way or another. What wonderful hope we have in Christ!

In other news, I went on a couple of trips to Europe in April and May. I'm working on those posts right now, so they are coming soon! We have a lot of catching up to do on here!

Progress Report

Ed is doing so well at his new job that he was promoted after six months! He now gets to interact regularly with people in the Southeast, and occasionally will get to go down that way for work trips.

In other news, we've been taking a ballroom dance class at the local college. Our teacher is 70 years old (but doesn't look it!), so she's been doing this for quite some time! So far, we've learned the basic steps for the foxtrot, waltz, and swing. So, we think that counts as doing something fun together (and exercise!).

Speaking of which, to date, I have exercised every weekday this calendar year, exceeding my goal to exercise at least four times a week! Ed has been exercising pretty regularly, too.

For some reason, I recently got the itch to stitch. I've been trying to figure out how to crochet and/or knit and failing at trying to teach myself, so I've decided to take a class at a local craft store. I'll update you when I finally make something somewhat recognizable. I'm also about to take up some sewing projects to ease my way back into that. I'll be posting on those as well.

Goals for 2011

I make lists for almost everything. Prepare to see a lot more lists on this blog (technically, the year-in-review post was also a list). This list is mainly for accountability purposes. These are goals we need or want to reach this calendar year, in no particular order.

1. Start a blog and actually use it…and let people read it. I’ve started at least 8 blogs since blogging began and have never stuck with it for the long haul. My first blog was part of a grad school course, and once it was over, I deleted it, which was really dumb in hindsight, because I had the blog name “On the Fritz” (with the URL and everything!), and then some random person (whose name does not include Fritz, by the way) came along and took it, so I can’t use the name anymore. I figured now that we’re farther away from friends and family, it’s a good time to officially re-enter the blogosphere. So, I’ve already met the first half of this goal, but the challenge is to actually post stuff…and tell people that it exists.
2. Sell our house in NC. Well, we don’t have a lot of control over this one, but all I have to say is that if it doesn’t sell by the end of 2011...um...something is going to happen. It’s been on the market and has had a few showings since September, so we’ll see if things pick up soon. (Now it's time for the shameless plug: Anyone know someone who's looking to buy?)
3. Get a new job in IL (Jennifer). I mean, I like my current job, but it’s in NC. This can’t go on indefinitely. It would also be nice to meet some new people.
4. Send our tax forms in before April. We always say we’re going to send them in as early as possible, but we usually end up putting it off until the last minute. Although, last year, I think we sent them out in February or March.
5. Join a local church. We’re working on this, but it’s taking a while.
6. Save more money. We plan to put what we would have been spending on our mortgage in savings every month once the house sells. This will help us to save up for buying a house here (and keep us from getting in too big of a hurry to buy).
7. Exercise an average of at least 4 times a week. It’s good for your health, and we both have sedentary jobs.
8. Do something fun together. We hear the Wisconsin Dells are fun, and we’re only about a two-hour drive from there. They have amusement parks, water parks, boat rides, and zipline tours. We’re totally trying the zipline tour.
9. “Do” Chicago. Now that we’re only an hour and a half-ish from Chicago, we need to go see and do some Chicago stuff…and eat some pizza and hot dogs.
10. Pressure-can something. We've been a little hesitant to pressure-can, but after more than a year of using our pressure canner as a boiling-water canner only, it's time to put it to its intended use.

We'll let you know if/when we meet these goals throughout the year--with photos, when applicable. Then again, you probably don't want to see photos of us exercising, sending in our tax forms, or saving money (although, we can show you the results of those things in the future).

2010: Year in Review

Since we weren’t blogging in 2010, here’s a quick run-down of what we were up to last year:

January: Jennifer went on a work trip to Washington, DC, with a side work trip to Annapolis, MD. She can recommend a few good restaurants if you're interested. Ed and his dad went to re-fight WWII at MMP's annual Winter Offensive in Bowie, MD.

February: Jennifer didn’t get the flu (up until this point, she would get the flu just before Valentine’s Day, like clockwork)! We went to the Wisdom for the Heart banquet on Valentine's Day--always a good time.

March:  Ed and his dad again went to a WWII ASL tournament, the Bitter Ender, in Raleigh, NC. Jennifer, her mom, and her grandmother went to Myrtle Beach, SC for a women's retreat and had fun together.

April: We went to Charlotte, NC to see Bill Cosby live. We did a lot of little projects around the house: more canning (pineapple jam), making two rain barrels, starting a garden, and some more baking (bread, pizza, and pretzel rolls).

May: We finished up the BSF year and stepped down as leaders. We went to the Biltmore Estate and finally got to see the flowers in bloom (until then, we’d only been there at Christmas time, which is nice, but we really wanted to see the flowers). 

June: Jennifer finished her first (and, so far, only) year of Chinese lessons at work. We went to colonial Williamsburg for the third time in a year, the first time in hot weather (we had to get our money's worth out of our year-long passes!).

Parade in Williamsburg, VA in June



July: Jennifer went on a work trip to the Dominican Republic. She'll talk a little more about this in the future. Stay tuned. Oh, and we canned some fresh cherries in a light syrup and saw Erwin Lutzer guest-preach at Colonial Baptist Church.

August: Ed got a new job (yay!) at Aqua-Aerobic Systems, Inc. in Illinois. Before starting his job at the end of the month, he went to Florida to help with some work at his grandmother’s house. We and Alexis also went to a Tears for Fears (TFF) concert (which was super fun) in Charlotte.

September: The movers packed us up (which feels really weird but is nice when you’re moving that far away) and Jennifer prepped the house to go on the market. Lots of painting and cleaning. Jennifer and Alexis went to another TFF concert over Labor Day weekend in Richmond, VA and got to be in the front-ish row (the “rows” were sort of fluid—standing room only). The next weekend, the girls (Jennifer, her mom, Ed’s mom, and Alexis) went to a theatrical performance of Mary Poppins in Charlotte. The performance was good and we had a good time together. Later in the month, Jennifer flew to visit Ed and unpacked a lot of our stuff (we didn’t know Jennifer would be moving in October back when we bought the non-refundable plane tickets).

October: Jennifer moved to IL to be with Ed and work her NC job remotely. We went to Ed's cousin's wedding in MI. Jennifer went on another work trip to Miami, FL and met a child star. Ed joined a community band because they had a bassoon he could use.

November: We got a water softener for our apartment (due to a chunky brewed tea incident...yeah). We canned some kiwi preserves because kiwi were 8/$1; it's really good, by the way. For Thanksgiving, we went to Minneapolis-St. Paul to visit with some friends from our church in NC who had relocated there. We also discovered that Jennifer apparently can handle the drum part on Rock Band.

December: We went to FL to visit with Ed’s grandmother and her side of the family for Christmas. While we were there, we went to The National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum. After that, we spent way too much time watching movies and shows on Netflix, but we needed some down-time as we recovered from colds (again).



At the beach in Ft. Pierce, FL

So, those are last year's highlights for us. We are so thankful that God provided for our needs, especially a job for Ed, and that He still is providing.