A Christmas House!

That magical time of year has come again! Since we spent last Christmas in the Dominican Republic, we were a little short on evergreen trees, snow, Christmas cookies, and lights. We are doing our best to make up for it this year! Steven was very little help, since he left all his ornaments behind in Minnesota... Between my decorations, a couple thrift store runs, and the generosity of a couple at our church I think we have done quite well for our first Christmas! Here are a few of my favorite Christmas things:

The first batch of Christmas cookies!

A little bear tin adds some Christmas to the kitchen counter.

This was so fun! I put the centerpiece together for our Advent by Candlelight.

We finally have pictures on our walls! Just in time for the holidays.

This is a combination of thrift store finds (bowl and garland), a rummage sale purchase(green ornaments), and small ornaments given by a couple at church.

A few other things setting around. :)

Our tree is taller than Steve, even though it doesn't look it here. Christmas tree pictures always end up so disappointing. They never capture the real life beauty.

My stocking... guess Steve doesn't get one this year since it's still in Minnesota...

More pretty things.

Would you believe this candle is actually a smoky green color?

A cute little thrift store buy.

We are also very busy with school and church things. Steve is doing most of the work for the kid's Christmas program. Steve plays for a funeral this Saturday and we will both play for a memorial service at the beginning of the new year (two elderly members of the congregation). We will be singing in church with the choir and by ourselves. This Friday evening is ALA's Christmas program. Somehow we need to fit in a little shopping, too! The excitement of the birthday celebration of our Lord keeps us going, though we are eager for our break- a trip to the Midwest!

Weekend Visitor!

Grandma Sue, Steve's dad's mom, came over the weekend. She arrived Friday after an exciting flight. She is a retired nurse and there had been a medical emergency on the plane. They asked for a doctor or nurse to help. In the absence of the doctor she did a quick assessment. The elderly man did alright so she sat with him on the flight and was cheered at the end. I got off early due to extra hours early in the week (Steve and I did our CPR/AED/First Aid class) and so I was able to meet her at about 2:00. We caught up for a bit and then picked Steve up.

It was a nice relaxing weekend. We sat out and enjoyed our patio. We ate out at Macayos (a delicious Mexican restaurant) and Firebird (a steak place where we had amazing prime rib). We got to show off our house, school, church, and life.

We went to ALA (Arizona Lutheran Academy, the WELS high school in Phoenix) for the Reformation Service. We checked out the thrift store that gives all its proceeds to ALA. No finds but a few ideas. We also went to Kohls and got curtains for our bedroom! We don't have them up yet...

We had off yesterday and today for teachers conferences. Since conferences are in Northern California only the principal went this year. We are using the time to get things done! Hopefully pictures will be on walls by the end of this weekend. We're getting there!

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A Relaxing and Productive Week

 Cross of Glory had a nice short week. We had Monday off for Columbus Day. Steve and I went to the chiropractor in the morning and Olive Garden at lunch, then just got things done around home. It is hot again so plans for a nice walk in the neighborhood came to naught. The next time we walk we want to take pictures and write about the flora of Arizona.

Parent/teacher conferences started Thursday after school and continued through the day on Friday. I had off and sorted important papers at home and got some of the never-ending little tasks done. Steve and I got re-fingerprinted since the last time they used the wrong ink... Steve rented Despicable Me on his way home from a Red Box so we watched that.

Saturday we went to the chiropractor again. For those who aren't aware, our chiropractor does the Blair Technique which aligns the top vertebrae in the neck so that your body works at its best. He adjusted me in a different direction and I've been feeling really good since. On the way home we stopped at a rummage sale. Check out our great finds!

We got a paper towel holder, a coat hanger for our entry, and a little bookshelf that will hold books and our TV!

Much of the rest of Saturday we spent finally getting our den set up now that we finally have an "entertainment center." It feels so cozy and relaxing! The only problem is the empty walls... We are planning to get things on the walls the first week in November. There is no school the Wednesday-Friday for the district teachers conference. Only our principal will be attending since it is in Northern California this year. Enjoy the pictures and don't forget to plan a vacation to sunny Arizona.

This is the view of the den through the double door that open into it from the living room.

The view from sitting on the loveseat.

The view from standing by the TV- this is our seating.

Culinary Adventures

As you may have noticed, I enjoy taking pictures of food. Cooking is one form of art that I seem to have a pretty good handle on, probably because it is not difficult to do well if you can find a good recipe. Lately I haven't been feeling up to doing too much (for reasons you read about in Steve's last post) but I'm doing much better and gaining back my energy. After making oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins for breakfast and a nice easy frozen pizza for lunch, I still had energy to make Pad Thai for dinner.

Here's a little background: Steven and I went to an Asian restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico on our extended honeymoon (aka. drive to Arizona).  This idea was inspired a bit by our excellent experience with Thai food at Justine (Steve's sister) and Billy's rehearsal dinner this summer. As usual, the two of us were drawn to the same two dishes- one that we knew we'd both like and another that sounded exciting. Steve always orders the exciting dish, I order the good one, and we switch half way. His was a delicious tofu soup with coconut milk and mine was Pad Thai (which easily won). We followed our dinner with a sweet plum wine.

Steve has mentioned the Pad Thai several times since so I noticed it right away as I looked through our "Light and Healthy Cookbook." I had never thought much about making Asian food, but I though it looked very doable. It is made with rice noodles, shrimp (though we used chicken), lime, fish sauce, eggs, bean sprouts, green onions, and peanuts. It is seasoned with garlic and red pepper and garnished with cilantro. It tasted as good as we remembered! Just another reason for you to visit...

Welcome Back!

Sorry for the leave of absence, Amy really wanted to write a post about the rest of the house (including the new piano) but that would require taking pictures of the house, which would require cleaning the house, which is way too many steps for us, so it hasn't happened.  We did manage to clean the house last week, but then we had a friend over all weekend, so blogging didn't happen.  But hopefully we will have time for all of that today!  We have a Saturday with nothing scheduled, so look out Blogger, here comes some postin'!

I have a few items of news to share.

First, Amy and I have had a full week of adjustment from our local Blaire technician.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you haven't heard that the Blaire technique is what saved my mother.  She suddenly developed inexplicable symptoms including weakness, fatigue, and "spells" where she couldn't do anything at all.  After having every medical test under the sun at the famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and being consistently told she had nothing wrong, she turned to alternative treatments.  She found out about the Blaire technique, a special chiropractic method that only gives attention to the top vertebrae of the spine.  If those are in alignment, the brain communicates effectively with the rest of the body, and the body heals itself of almost anything that is wrong with it.  My mom got adjusted and has seen remarkable results.

Amy and I found a chiropractor that practices the Blaire technique in Phoenix.  Amy's developed some symptoms of fatigue, headaches, and digestive problems (maybe acid or something like that) that we didn't know what to do about.  Urgent Care recommended an ultrasound to check out her gall bladder, but the ultrasound showed no problems with her gall bladder, or any of her abdominal organs.  So we turned to Dr. Tony.  We got adjusted last week and we think we are seeing results.  My neck looked pretty good in the x-ray.  My spine had a nice curve, but the top vertebrae were a little unbalanced.  Amy's neck was not so good.  She looked like the picture on the wall, a perfectly straight neck with the top vertebrae well out of place.  We noticed increased energy the week following the adjustment, and Amy's stomach was doing much better.  Thursday was a bad day.  Amy had all of the bad stomach pain back again.  We went in for our third check-up that week, and lo and behold, Amy was out of alignment.  Dr. Tony popped her back into place, and the past 2 days of been great again!  We're hoping this treatment will also help her with her arch problems and carpal tunnel in the future.  Praise God for making us such wonderful bodies that are so efficient at healing themselves!

I'm sure many of you are also wondering about my classroom.  I'm am starting to feel like a real teacher, where I can plan ahead and have well-thought-out lessons.  My classroom is starting to run well, and the students are responding really well to me.  I've heard from multiple parents how much their children love my class, so I must be doing something right, even though I don't always feel that way.  I am very excited that I am getting a new 2nd grader on Monday.  He was attending a charter school and was having a miserable time there that was affecting his attitudes and behaviors.  His mom is beside her self, and came to look at our school.  He shadowed in our classroom one day (basically he got to try it out for a day) and loved it.  We are very excited about this family since they are unchurched but hungry for the Word.  Amy also got phone call just yesterday from a father looking for a school for his 1st grade daughter.  So maybe I'll be moving up to a class of 16! 

Thanks for your patience in waiting for this update.  I'm going to see if I can get Amy to put something up about the house/piano later today... like I said, we first need to clean the house, so maybe not today, but hopefully sometime this weekend.

Thank You For Your Concern

I am so thankful and appreciative of all of the concern you showed after the post entitled "Survey Says."  It means a lot to know that there are so many people out there who care so much.  It's important for us when we are so far away to be able to feel all of your love.

First of all, let me say that my finger is doing much better.

It is only in a Band-Aid now, not the scary-looking gauze you saw in the post.

For those insensitive or unobservant readers who didn't ask me about the injury, I'll explain what happened.  Let me begin by saying thank you to Patty for the wonderful knife. Just a little gravity is all it takes to make a beautiful cut.  Don't worry, I just dropped it while I was washing it and it cut my knuckle.  It wasn't that bad, even though it made a bit of a mess (a bit of a squirter).  We quickly realized that we had no first aid materials anywhere in our house, so a night-time Walgreens run was in order.  I hope we didn't worry the cashier too much as Amy bought a first aid kit while I clutched a paper towel around my finger.  We got home and gauzed it and wrapped it in tape to keep me from bending my finger and reopening the cut.  Piano playing was a bit hampered, but I just needed to find creative ways around what I wanted to do.  It's doing great now, no infections, and I'm trying to bend it a little more.  I should be fully healed and digitally mobile soon.

Barbecue Bonanza!

Seeing as almost every store was advertising a Labor Day Weekend Sale, we decided to spend Saturday traveling all around the city in search of the only important furniture that we were still missing- our bedroom set. We looked on Craigslist and found a couple of possibilities but nothing we were too excited about. We found a couple of store ads in the paper that looked promising and decided to check them out.

The first stop was at SPF (not the sunscreen- it stands for "Special Purchase Furniture"). They were having a "Barbecue Bonanza" with free hot dogs and chips and so we figured we couldn't go wrong. First we went in to check out the furniture. A very helpful salesman- as they all are at these kinds of places- bent over backwards to find us a deal.

We told him our budget and that were were hoping to get a queen bed, mirror and dresser, 2 nightstands, and a chest dresser. We were kind of dreaming big, but he found us a clearance set with a king bed, 1 nightstand, and the mirror with dresser. He also found another clearance set with a queen bed that matched but it was paired with a chest dresser that did not match our other items. He said we could swap the queen bed for the king, get the mirror and dresser, and the 1 nightstand. He also checked and found a second matching nightstand in "the back." We would not have a chest dresser, but including tax and delivery everything else was still under budget.

The guy about died when we passed up the deal in order to check out a few other places. He told us, "You have one hour to go across the street and check out the two other furniture stores. If you aren't back in an hour this deal is going to be sold to someone else."

We went to another place that we had seen in the paper where we knew there was a beautiful set that we could afford to get all the pieces. We took one look and knew it was not anywhere near the quality of the other store's offer. Steve assured me that with our big closet he won't need a whole chest dresser and I even promised him a drawer or two of mine.We went back to SPF, finalized our purchase, and ate hot dogs.

The movers arrived today, set everything up, and were on their way out. As they were leaving we walked in the bedroom to see our little queen sized mattress sitting on a giant king sized frame!!! Steve ran out and stopped the truck. Thankfully it was their mistake and so they took it back and brought the other out a couple hours later. We are now settled in with our bedroom just as it should be! We have been so blessed and as soon as the piano arrives our furniture will be all set!

Getting the old frame out

One new nightstand

The new bed and nightstands! I love the curvy headboard.

Mirror and dresser :)

Here's a close-up. There aren't as many drawers as there seem to be-some are combined.

These windows are lovely but they really heat up the room...

Survey Says:

We already bought a car.
We don't need to buy a house.
Amy's already got the ring, but this purchase was about the same value.
We've been checking for Murris statues on craigslist, but they are either way out of our price range or way out of our geographical range.

WE BOUGHT A PIANO!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not in our house yet, I still need to figure things out with the piano movers, but I wrote out the check today.  It's a 5'6" Kimball grand.  The previous owner's father bought it new in 1938 and passed it on to his son.  They are a family of musicians, so it's been pretty well taken care of.  It's in great shape.  The exterior is beautiful, the soundboard is in good shape (so the piano tech told me), it has a real sostenuto pedal (not that I have a song in my repertoire that requires one), and although they are cracked and worn, it still has the original ivory keys.  We went to his house to write the check, and tried to figure out a way to strap it to the top of the LeSabre so we could have it home today, but I'll be happy to wait and let the professionals handle it.

Next item on the shopping list:  bookshelves.  I'll have to start unpacking all those piano books...

A Red and Turquoise Kitchen

Just a few photos of our lovely kitchen after it was all set up. Well, mostly... We are still missing a few things that we will need but we are getting them slowly but surely. Everything has a place but it may not be where we keep it forever. We are so blessed with this beautiful space to cook. We are so pleased with our color choices- the red and turquoise are classic but nice and bright. Steven is even tolerant of the few pink pieces that sneaked their way in... :) Our pantry is well stocked after a nice welcoming Sunday which included a pantry shower! Now I just have to get the hang of working with an electric stove and nice stainless steel pots and pans- luxuries we never had in the DR.

The flowers were a welcome gift that the Ladies Group at church presented us with.

Here you can see some of our favorite appliances including a dishwasher!

Here we are cooking our first real homemade dinner- Spaghetti, courtesy of a wonderful congregation!

You can see the pantry door back in the right corner.

Dinner is ready!

HOME

Everyone asks, "Are you settled in yet?" We always answer, "We're getting there," or "We're working on it." But the simple answer is no, we are not. We have gotten a lot done since we first got here (or rather Steve's dad got a lot done when they arrived with our moving van). Here are a few pictures to show our progress.

After unpacking the boxes that came in our car. The floor was just covered in packing materials.

Our first dinner at home- from the Target deli.

Our bedroom, complete with air mattress and tv trays.

The kitchen. Fairly empty but as organized as possible.

The other kitchen counter.

Our new mattress! We still have no other furniture in our bedroom but the bed is so comfy!

After Steve's parents arrived with the moving truck. It was like starting over only with a LOT more stuff than last time when we unpacked just our little car.

The guest bedroom furniture is old and it is a very small room but it is already pretty cozy. Come visit and you will stay here!

Our bedroom- filled once more with boxes.

Things have gotten better since these last pictures. As we get the house set up, I'll post pictures of the different rooms so you can get a good idea of what our house really looks like. We'll also want to fill you in soon on the new jobs and our excitement over calling a new pastor. As always, we love your comments. They inspire us to keep writing.

A Whole New World

God has blessed us so greatly! I cannot say that enough. Last June we returned from Santiago, Dominican Republic where we taught in a bilingual school. If you missed the stories of all those adventures, you should really go back and check out the previous blogs. Some crazy stuff happens when you spend a year overseas.

On July 23, not so long after getting home to the Midwest, Steven and I got married- finally! The wedding was the happiest and most beautiful of days! My brother, Seth, shared an excellent message from God's Word based on the text we chose- Ephesians 3:16-19. Everything was perfect and our fantastic photographer captured it all brilliantly. Here is just a taste of her excellent work!
The wedding was followed by a short but sweet honeymoon. We stayed at a bed and breakfast in Whitewater, but the highlights were wine tasting, a sunset lake tour cruise in Lake Geneva, and dinner at a 20's themed house-turned-restaurant with jazzed-up broadway tunes playing on the piano.
We went back to my parents' house, got a good night's sleep, filled up the car, and started the drive to Arizona. The scenery was beautiful! It took us 4 days, with stops in Omaha, Denver, and Albuquerque before finally reaching HOME. Life has been a whirlwind since- as if all that wasn't enough! We will continue to post pictures of our home and school and write about all the exciting things happening here. Welcome back!