I will get to Mike and Melissa in a second, but first to update you on us!

Well, sorry for the long delay on posting. Joel and I are doing well! Birthdays are next weekend. It’s crazy how fast March has approached us. I’m loving this weather though! Our pond has finally thawed itself of ice, and the sad thing is, I don’t think I’ll get in it. There is so much algae around the edges! The middle is fine, but the sides are just green. I wish somehow I could get in and out in the middle lol. Maybe by the end of the month the algae will make it’s way to the far end of the pond and then by the “dock” it wont be so bad. That is my wish haha. We have torn down the moving boxes that are in our screened in porch. They are still there, but we are going to use them for fires. Our new patio furniture is out in our porch as well. I would like to get out there and take a broom to it. The previous owners left a lot of wood/saw dust on the floor. So that is my next task as it gets warmer.
I start my new job on Monday. Say What? lol I got a new job. It’s full time at the Day Care here in Huntington. I will be a float teacher (which I think is better than being in one room all day). I will still do my photography job on Saturdays, and I will continue to do my Children’s Ministry job at the church we go to. I’m excited to get into a routine again. It has been awhile.
This past weekend, we went to Chicago for Copeland’s farewell tour and to take in the city. Copeland is my favorite band. It was a great concert, but I was sad to see them go. I didn’t take any pictures at the concert because my little digital camera has bit the dust, and most venues wont let you take in an SLR camera in unless you a photographers pass. I did take some pictures from the top of the Hancock building, and will post those next post. But to get to Mike and Melissa…
We met Mike and Melissa at church, and they are expecting their first child in April…daughter, name Adalynn Elizabeth. Melissa’s due date is April 2nd (I believe). So a week and a half ago, I went to their house and took some maternity pictures for them. They were great and very excited! Without further ado, here are some of my favorites that I took.

We asked Mike to get some ribbon and tie a bow. This is what we got haha

Thanks so much Mike and Melissa! Can’t wait to meet baby Adalynn (:

I am so over winter. Although I don’t think it’s finished. I am very eager for the sun and warmth. I will continue to be patient even though I don’t want to.
This February, Joel and I not only celebrated being married for 7 months, but also 5 years of being together. We started dating on the 10th 5 years ago. We don’t do Valentines day. 1. Neither of us really see a point (my opinion, why have a card company tell you when to tell someone you love and care about them) 2. We would rather celebrate when we started dating! Anyway, done with my Valentines rant haha.
I am officially a photographer at the studio. Well, not at the studio but at high schools and middle schools. I am no longer in training! I took my photographers test and have started going on shoots by myself. The only bad thing about the other trainee and I (there were 2 of us) becoming photographers, is now they don’t have anyone to go on shoots as a paperwork person. You have to be more on your toes when no one is there with you to help set up and keep track on frame numbers; but I am glad to be learning it this way first!
There has not been much going on but the usually work, eat, and sleep. We are all unpacked in our new house and will be celebrating both our birthdays next month! I think that’s it! Sorry, no picture for this post.

We had some SUNSHINE on Saturday, so I went out and took some photos of our house and yard and fun stuff. So here is our new House!

Here is the side yard

Here is more of the side with part of the pond

More of the pond…

more pond…

Here is the Garage

Gas tank…not sure if it actually work haha

Our screened in porch! It looks a little weird now, because we still have boxes and there’s snow in it!

The back

Outdoor fire place

Can’t wait till it stops snowing and gets warm!

P.S. GO COLTS!!

I’m starting to feel as gloomy as the weather outside. I need sun and warmth fast! Hopefully soon we will have a peak of sun and I can take some pictures of the new house. I could now, but it’s so gloomy that it doesn’t make taking pictures fun!

We start moving today. Both our parents and Jon and Cadie are coming over tomorrow to help with the big stuff! Not too excited about the cold….

I “stole” this idea from a friend. Of course the object of Wordless Wednesday is to just post a picture and no words, but I wanted to just say that I didn’t come up with the idea. Next Wordless Wednesday will have no words (:

It feels like we haven’t posted anything on here in a while. I am one of those people that constantly check other peoples blogs and am disappointed when they don’t have an update, and here I am not even updating ours!

Not a whole lot of things have been going on. We are in the wonderful process of packing. I’ll tell ya, you never realize how much stuff you have until you start packing it. We currently don’t have the second half of our living room (which I suppose could be a dining room) because it is full of boxes. The cat actually loves it! She likes to play in the boxes that we have put together, but don’t have anything in yet; and she loves to hid behind the ones stacked up and run out from behind them when you walk by and attack your feet. We did take some things over to the new garage to get them out of the way, but it was mostly teaching materials that were never out anyway! But it is slowly but surly coming along. We haven’t done much packing this week, because we both have work (which is a nice change for me). Next week I’ll be back to hit or miss, so I can do a majority of the packing then!

We’ll I need to go get ready for my half day of subbing and then tutoring. I’ll leave you with some pictures of our New Years!

The 4 ladies of the night: Julia, Me, Cadie, Lauren

Cadie, Lauren, and I

Joel’s not huge into getting his picture taken, so here is Cadie and I toasting at Midnight!

Joel and I are moving at the beginning of Februray!! We are staying in Huntington, and are glad to find a place with extra storage and few extra exciting things! Once we get all situated in next month, I’ll post some pictures of our new place!

Seeing as 2009 is coming to an end, it seems only fitting to do a recap of the things that have happened in our lives in 2009…

January – At the very beginning of the year, Joel and I headed to Miami, FL with his family for a 3 night 4 day cruise! It was my first cruise, and I loved it! For one, it was nice to take a break from Indiana weather and swap it for the warm air of the Bahamas. Joel and I also we snorkeling while we were there…that by far was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced! Joel got to feed some fish and one fish kissed my mask…it was so cool to see the coral reef that up close!
Also in January, I found my Wedding dress! I went shopping with my mom, sister, and aunt; the 2nd store we went to…there it was!
February – On the 10th, Joel and I celebrated 4 years together as a couple. We had started dating our Freshman year at Anderson. I still remember how it happened, how excited I was, and what was on the TV in the background..haha
March – On the 27th, we celebrated Joel’s 24th birthday; which was followed (on the 28th) with my 23rd birthday! It’s nice to have birthdays a day apart. Joel likes to say it’s a year and day, as he gets older he might change his mind (:
April – Nothing too exciting went on in April. We enjoyed a lovely Easter weekend in Ohio with my family. We picked out our flowers for the wedding, and the guys got fitted for our wedding. haha so exciting.
May – On the 9th I officially graduated from Anderson. I technically graduated in Dec. of 08, but the ceremony and receiving of my diploma was in May. I didn’t really care to go, since I had been done since December, but I did and am somewhat glad I did. Also in May, I went on a field trip with the 5th grade class I student taught for in the Fall. It was so nice to see all “my kids” again. Also to see how much they have matured since the fall was nice to see!
June – This month was busy, and being busy continued throughout the rest of the year. In June, I had my Bachelorette party. My Bridal party, Mom, and Aunts, went to the Reds game on the 19th. They made me wear this veil, which I complained about but gave in. I’m glad I did! Sugar Ray Leonard was at the game and the Reds staff were picking 20 or 30 random people to go down to the dugout and watch the fireworks after the game with Sugar. Since they made me wear the veil, the Reds staff picked us to go down to the dugout and watch the fireworks and meet Sugar Ray! It was also an awesome experience! I love the Reds, for those of you who may not know, and to be down on the field and in the dugout was just Amazing! It was also really cool to meet Sugar!
We also attended 2 weddings of friends from AU. Both weddings were at the same park with in the same week! I thought that was pretty interesting..of all places to get married they picked the same park. It was a nice park and the weddings were both beautiful!
At the end of June, my Mom and Sister threw me a bridal shower. Family and friends came and enjoyed food, games, and company! It was a wonderful time. Joel also had his Bachelor party.
July – MMM what happened in July…(: OUR WEDDING! We got married on the 18th on a cool July day in Churubusco, in front of family and friends. I was nervous and excited and it went so FAST! We ended the night dancing and eating at our reception. It was wonderful and I couldn’t ask for a better family or a better family to marry into! I’m so happy to be married to Joel! (haha he will have a comment for this I am sure) After the reception we headed to Indy for a few hours sleep before we enjoyed an gorgeous week in Cancun! Just thinking about it makes me want to go back! It was sooo nice (: When we returned, both our parents came and shared in us opening our wedding gifts and honeymoon pictures!
August – August came and started school and started Cross Country! We enjoyed a weekend in Cincinnati, dog sitting and going to a depressing Reds game…they will do better this year though!
September – I was sought out in September, and started my photography job! I love this job, and hope to improve and take photography to a more professional level in 2010! September also brought on Cross Country meets to take pictures at and cheer on the MIB. I love these boys, and I was so glad to be there to capture their season in photographs. I also enjoyed photoshopping pictures for the guys!
October -At the beginning of the month, we spent a weekend in Chicago with our friends Jon and Kristina. We went to a concert and took in the city. I wouldn’t like to live in a big city, but it’s nice to visit and take in the sites.
Joel’s Cross Country team raced in Michigan, which I took the weekend to visit my parents in Ohio. While there, my Aunt and her Fiance had a fishing tournement at their house. I did horrible fishing, but had a great time non the less.
Joel’s team also went to State at the end of October, where they came in 9th!
November - Joel was busy most weekends with end of Cross Country “things” (I put this in quotes because I didn’t want to belittle the importance of the things.) I met my Mom one weekend in Noblesiville, where we started our Christmas shopping and had lunch. For Thanksgiving we went to my Grandma’s house. (We switch Thanksgiving and Easter every year between our families…how both ended up in the same year with the same family, we don’t know…but so far our system works!) While at my parents, I helped decorate the Christmas Tree, and we helped my Aunt with her Tree and outside lights since John had hurt his back, and she had just had her appendix taken out. All trees turned out beautiful!
December – December brought work Christmas parties, wrapping presents, remembering the true meaning of Christmas, and lots of family time…and we could not have asked for more! Happy New Year!

*Pictures to come…

Christmas came early in our house, like it does every year. Joel and I have always done our Christmas early. When we first started dating we weren’t together on Christmas, so we would exchange gifts before we left school. The last few years, we have just continued to do our Christmas early since we are going to Ohio and Indiana. This Friday (the 18th) we had our Christmas. We were going to wait until Saturday, but my gift to Joel required going and getting it and I saw that snow was on the way, so I wanted to make sure he got his present when he gave me mine. Joel’s present from me was a new TV! He has wanted one for years, but has never gone out and bought one. So I thought what a great idea to get him one for Christmas! Now, Joel is pretty picky when it comes to electronics and things to that nature. Can’t blame him, it’s what he knows. Instead of going out and buying him one and getting something he didn’t want, I told him what he was getting and then we went and got it. I had this whole idea to put a bow on the old TV and see if he could guess why there was a bow on the TV we already had…the only problem was, we didn’t have a bow! How we didn’t have a bow after all those wedding presents, I will never know! So that idea was ruined. I just had to flat out tell him, which wasn’t as exciting as I wanted it to be…but he didn’t care. He was just excited to be getting a TV. In fact, I had told him the reason we were doing this a day early was because it was suppose to snow, and he said “oh we would have still gone out in the snow!” After opening my present (which I’ll get to in a second) we went to Best Buy and he picked out a TV. Instead of eating dinner right away when we got home, he set up the new TV! I was glad he was excited about it, cause some times he’s hard to buy for (:
My present from Joel was really cool! A few months ago he had asked me to pick out my favorite picture I have ever taken. There are tons of pictures that I’ve taken, but I was able to narrow it down to just one. It was actually pretty simple! The picture I chose was a picture I had taken on our trip to Chicago at the beginning of October. In Chicago, they had a huge statue type thing of American Gothic. I thought it was really neat to be surrounded by buildings, so I had taken a few different shots of it. One in particular I took of it is just the top half of the statue with the sun rays shinning perfectly on it with the buildings around. (I’ll show below). Joel took this picture and had it put on a canvas for me. Not only is it on a canvas, but he chose to have them make it look like a painting. It is really cool! I am so excited to show it off! (picture below also.) He also got me a new lap top. I don’t have a lot to say about this because it is not here yet. It is not suppose to come in until after Christmas…but he told me that it was coming. The lap top we have now is not doing so well. It no longer holds wireless connection, so we have to have it hooked up to the internet through an Ethernet cable….AND the keys 6,7,y,u,h,j,n,m, no longer work. Luckily he had an extra keyboard that we hooked to it, but it is no longer an easy to carry around the house lap top…you have to stay put with extra room for the extra keyboard! I am excited to get it, and get photoshop on it!
The kitty got a little stuff mouse and a light up ball that she chases around the house! She finds anything laying around the house to become her toy. Her favorite are suckers!

This is the original picture

Here is the present hanging on the wall!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!