Sunday, June 29, 2008

Catching Up...

I know have been horrible at updating our blog, but I have been inspired by my friends Sara and Jon who update theirs continuously and with such enthusiasm!

So, let's catch up since the last blog (this is in no particular order):
In May we were in California for my sister's wedding to Seth Haak! The wedding was a huge success and so beautifully orchestrated! We are excited to have Seth in the family! He is fantastic, but I must say he is a lucky, lucky guy to have Mandy! You can go to their blog to see more pictures!




After the wedding, John returned home to NC to get back to work (see next section) and I stayed in CA for another week to attend another wedding and see more friends. I got to spend some time with my extended family in Fresno which was such a blessing.

In April, John achieved the highly coveted Coffee Master status with Starbucks and now wears "the black apron". After our trip to CA, John began his new position as Assistant Store Manager (ASM) in the store in Aberdeen, NC. It's a slightly longer drive, but in these parts ya gotta take the opportunities when they arise. He is enjoying the new store and his new title. We're anticipating the opening of a new store opening here in Sanford in 2009 which will be a much shorter commute.


In June, I resigned from Youth Villages due to the extended hours affecting how much I was able to see John or have a life for that matter. So now I work for Harnett County Department of Social Services as an Investigative, Assessment, and Treatment Social Worker for Child Protective Services. I'm currently in training for 4 more weeks, but so far I believe I am going to enjoy the job. It is still a "Family Preservation" program which aims to keep children in their homes and provide treatment/parenting skills IN the home, rather than removing kids at the drop of a hat.

In March, we went to the Goody's Cool Orange 500 at the Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. It is just over a 2 hour drive from where we live so it was a great day trip. We had a blast even though it was 37 degrees and raining. We've learned to dress in layers here so we made it through the entire race!


We have a state park 20 minutes from our house so we went hiking one weekend. The trails lead to a section of the Cape Fear River...it was a fun (and FREE) weekend activity!




About 6 months ago we decided to settle at Crossroads Ministries Church in Broadway, NC However, with my on-call work schedule every evening and weekend for the last 6 months, I was unable to attend any outings, activities, or small groups. So now that I am a life-work balanced person again, we finally met up with the 30-40 year old group (ahhh! are we really in that group already??). This weekend we spent a day at Jordan Lake with the group and had a blast! And although I am very sore from tubing, I am excited about making new friends close to home.


Gunner and Gauge are doing well also. They spend their days chasing squirrels and have cornered 2 snakes so far! They play hard and sleep hard.






So that's about all the updates here! We'd love to have some visitors!!

4 comments:

The Crew! said...

Yay! Glad to see you update and now I have to go and update ours after that glowing review. Hehe!

I'm so happy for your job change. I hope that it becomes something you find so much satisfaction in.

Love ya!

Anonymous said...

huzzah! you updated the blog! it's cool to see your life in pictures. keep em coming! thanks for the updates.

inthewb said...

thanks for the updates. i love all the pictures. miss you! ~ireneekins

Angie said...

I enjoyed reading the update! You're so organized to be blogging at all:) I'm glad to hear life is more "balanced" I never knew the color of the apron meant something. Now I'm going to paying more attention. The boys look handsome as ever.

Then

During the last few weeks of pregnancy, Kate listened to Brad Paisley's new song "Then". She didn't just listen to it a few times, she obsessively played the song on repeat, learned every word, and sung it at the top of her lungs while driving. Then one day a few weeks after Kaylee was born, Kate was driving with Kaylee by themselves. Kaylee began to cry...then scream. It didn't matter how much Kate reassured her, pulled over to make sure something wasn't wrong, or attempted to hold the pacifier in place with one arm backwards while driving. It finally occurred to Kate that maybe Kaylee wants mommy to sing to her (although no one else would want this!). So Kate put track #4 on and began to sing. Kaylee immediately calmed down. Low and behold, it's not even mommy's singing that Kaylee likes! It's Brad's!