Our Busy Semester Continues

As you can see there hasn't been much time to update family and friends about what is going on in our lives. We continue to be just as busy as the last time we posted, but our Marriage Course on Saturday nights is coming to an end this Saturday. We gained a lot of insight from that class and have a lot to apply to our own marriage. We are on lesson 7 out of 12 for the Truth Project. John has four more weeks left after this week and then goes right into teaching a minimester during the break before he starts again next year. John was at Barn Happy earlier this month entertaining people with his magic and handing out brochures. (The few magic shows he has had since spring have primarily been because of the Barn Happy open house back in March.) We are getting ready to see and spend time with Elizabeth's family for Thanksgiving weekend, a holiday that John has never yet experienced in California, along with cutting down the family Christmas tree that Saturday with Elizabeth's parents and several of her siblings and their families. And then John's sister's family comes to town and we will be doing Christmas with John's family on Christmas Eve and have our own quiet Christmas here at home Christmas day.

A Stay at Home Saturday

We actually get to stay at home today being productive, but it is relaxing all at the same time instead of hoping from one thing to the next like it seems we do during the rest of the week.
We have become very busy people since the new semester started. John teaches until 9 every Monday night and then we practically have something else happening every other night. Elizabeth is back in Bible Study Fellowship on Tuesday nights studying the Gospel of John. The class is almost an hour away from us, but John's mom is going too so the drive isn't bad at all. (John stays home working on school work or one of his hobbies or projects.) Wednesday nights we meet with our church family and currently are going through Pilgrim's Progress. Thursday nights we are attending the Truth Project. Friday nights we are usually home,which is nice after a busy week. And starting in October we will be attending the Marriage Course on Saturday nights. Sunday nights Elizabeth does instant messaging with friends in California going through a book of Puritan prayers called the Valley of Vision, while John looks over his lesson plans for the coming week. During the day while John is teaching Elizabeth continues with her her part-time filing job definitely on Mondays and Fridays (it would be good if she could get in there at least once more during the week, but she hasn't figured out what works best for her yet, so this week she will try out Wednesday). Tuesdays and Thursdays she babysits for a local church during their women's Bible study and MOPs meetings and then on Wednesdays she attends a morning women's Bible study at another local church going through Idols of the Heart. Now all of you who are reading this can get a better glimpse at what is happening at our house. :)

A Busy Summer and a New Semester

(Elizabeth can't figure out the picture thing. Do you add the pictures before you write? Or is there a way to move them around to be in the order you want even after you write? At least there are some pictures so our blog won't be so boring.) :)
The Amish don't like their pictures taken, so one morning John took pictures of their shadows while they were working on our roof.

This is one picture of our room at the bed and breakfast we stayed at for our 3rd anniversary.

Another picture of the place we took our first picture together, while we were up at the cabin where we first met.

Making smore's at the cabin with the friends, Pete and Donna, who own the cabin while waiting for John's parents to arrive.

With John teaching 2 classes this summer and traveling on the weekends we had a very full and busy summer. Teaching summer semester was definitely more relaxing than teaching during the normal semester or a minimester, especially when you had morning classes and then could be home for the rest of the day. :)

Then our traveling began...

John took a couple of days off at the end of June so that we could go back to the place where we first met in person 4 years ago in Minnesota and took our first picture together.

We got home and John taught all week and then we went to a bed and breakfast to celebrate our 3rd anniversary a few days early over the 4th of July weekend.

Back home for 2 weeks and then off to Kansas for a family reunion with Elizabeth's relatives (grandma, great-aunt, 1st cousins twice removed, 2nd cousins twice removed, and a 4th cousin and another cousin somehow). John was able to scan things on the computer and send them to whoever wanted them and entertain everyone with his magic tricks.

Back home for another 2 weeks and to finish up the semester before heading to the Chicago area to spend time with Elizabeth's roommate from college and her husband.

Then to finish off the summer the Amish came to re shingle our roof and John went to a magic convention with a friend from magic club before coming home and jumping right into the new semester. (This was the first time Elizabeth had ever been left by herself since we have been married. Thankfully she had several quilting projects to work on and the library to check out some movies and phone calls from John to keep her from getting too lonely.)

After a week full of meetings and preparation John started teaching 4 classes today and on Mondays he has a night class. Keep praying for John's job because during the meetings last week there was talk of more possible cuts before this 2009-2010 school year is over.

Minimester Completed and Moving On to Summer School

John finished teaching his minimester class today! Monday he starts teaching 2 sections of Statistics for the next 8 weeks. So we will have to do our summer traveling on the weekends and they are starting to fill up.

John Still Has A Job And Other Things

It has been awhile since we last updated everyone on what has been happening in our lives. Hawkeye has had some budget cuts and several of John's coworkers were laid off. John is sad to see his coworkers without a jobs, but we are very thankful that John still has a job.
John has been busy finishing up his semester, getting ready for his minimester and summer classes, and even advertising his magic show one weekend in March and even doing several shows.
Elizabeth went to a women's conference at the beginning of April where the speaker, Becky Tirabassi, challenged everyone to spend an hour in prayer and Bible reading each day for the rest of their lives and Elizabeth took on that challenge.
Spring is slowly arriving in Iowa. The grass is turning green, flowers are are starting to bloom, trees are starting to blossom and get leaves and the robins are back and on some mornings you can even see a pair of ducks wandering around in our yard or the neighbors.

Spring Break Trip 2009

Yes, the camera was packed! Was it ever used? NO!
We left a day later than originally planned because our friends got sick, but thankfully God saw the big picture and knew that our computer was coming that day instead.
We had beautiful weather the whole time. It was never too hot or cold. We got out of town by 11am Saturday and made it to Bellevue, NE around 3:30pm. Gwen, Josh, and Jewels their dog were there to greet us, Mandi and Kim were busy and Brian was out of the country. Gwen gave us a tour of the house and John helped Josh with his science project of building a balloon popper with so many gears and levers. It was working when we left on Sunday evening at 5pm. Sunday we went to church with everyone and then Gwen drove us around for a tour of Bellevue and the Air force Base including the chapel where she is the wedding coordinator. We made it to North Platte, NE that night and stayed at a Super 8 before getting on the road around 10:30am to finish our trip to Castle Rock, CO. It was so much fun to see mountains again (that is one thing Elizabeth misses in California). We arrived before supper time and rush hour. Nick, Alyce, and Jackson were all there to greet us Abby came home a little later from school and showed us the Wii and Wii fit. We couldn't believe how much the kids had grown since we were last there on our trip home from California as newly weds back in 2006 and just like before they immediately attached themselves to John. :) Just like us, Nick and Alyce like to play games so we spent a lot of our time there doing just that while we were there. On St. Patrick's day we wore our matching kelly green Old Navy t-shirts and visited a game store which also contained a little magic corner much to John's delight and walked through a Whole Foods to reminisce when Elizabeth grocery shopped there at least once a week back in California when she nannied (we don't have one in Iowa) and best of all they had a See's Candies in town and we were able to use a gift card Elizabeth's sister Tammy and husband Jesse gave us for Christmas. YUMMY! (Thank you Tammy and Jesse!) We dropped the kids off with an aunt and uncle so they could eat and go to AWANAS and then the rest of us went out to eat a Baja Fresh (something else we don't have in Iowa) and back to Nick and Alyce's for more game playing. Wednesday Nick took the whole day off so we went to Focus On the Family and Garden of the Gods, both attractions were free except for the gas it took to get there and back and any thing you might want to buy in their gift shops or cafes. Thursday we left around 7:30am for the 8-10 hour drive back to Omaha, NE to stay with John's sister's family and celebrate Uncle Bill's birthday. Friday Elizabeth and Jane took the kids to the zoo while Stephen worked and John hung out in Old town Omaha. Saturday we stopped at good friends Peter and Donna's for a visit and a delicious lunch. We also included a walk to see a neat looking tree that had fallen down before heading the rest of the way home. We made it safely home a little before 9pm.
We have done pretty good getting back into the swing of things and even though we had a very fun trip and wish we could have stayed longer to visit with friends and family it is so nice to be back in our own home and bed at night.

We Got Our Tax Refund Back and Bought a New Computer!

We are finally back on the Internet from our own basement! And out computer came just in time because we leave tomorrow for our Spring Break trip to visit friends and family in Bellevue, Nebraska, Castle Rock, Colorado, Omaha, Nebraska, and Carbon, Iowa. It was sure fun to catch up on emails and blogs. We better go pack the camera so that we can put some pictures on this blog for a change and then get to bed so that Elizabeth can be a safe driver tomorrow.

Happy Valentine's Day A Little Early For Most But Not For Us

Since we met 4 years ago on this day and were engaged 3 years ago on this day we have been celebrating this day as our own personal Valentine's ever since. We celebrated by giving each other cards and John got Elizabeth some beautiful white, pink, and red carnations. For breakfast we ate at McDonald's and Elizabeth took John into work and tonight we are going to Panera for supper and for John's magic club meeting. It is rather nice to beat the crowds.

Our Computer Died

Hello everyone. Right after Christmas our computer really started having problems and then it really died even after talking to the Geek Squad at Best Buy we were not able to revive it. So now we are waiting to see what are tax return will give us before we purchase another one. It has been hard learning how to live without Word and the Internet. Elizabeth has been picking John up at least once a week so that she can use the internet at his work and catch up on blogs and family emails.