The past two months

Blogging has been the least of my concerns as of late, however, if you still like to know what goes on in our life, here is the update.

In May, Hubs and I only had one weekend where we were in the same town together. So, life was a bit crazy. He traveled for school and presented at the AAO convention. Then I traveled for fun and went to my youngest brother's graduation. Then he traveled for fun to the Grand Canyon. And also, HE PASSED HIS BOARDS!

In June, Hubs and I visited two orthodontic practices, celebrated my brother's wedding to my fantastic new sister-in-law and were able to see lots of family, including my adorable niece, who I just can't get enough of. All, of this going on while Hubs works on his thesis, I helped get a summer camp organized and we both try to determine what we should do when graduation comes in December. And of course, other little things pop up throughout all of this to keep life exciting.

One small, fun thing Hubs and I have been doing is going outside for 10 minutes or so and throwing the frisbee. It is a fun after-work/school activity to take a break before dinner and have some fun together.

Now it is July. My parents came to visit [for a whole 4 days!!!], and we had so much fun. Our SEVENTH anniversary is in two weeks, Hubs is still working on his thesis in every spare moment and in the extra moments we are deciding our future plans, and Hubs' family is coming for a visit, too!

Since our time in St. Louis may be coming to an end, we have been taking opportunities to do and see everything that we I had on my list when we first moved here:

We went to the Whitaker Music Festival at the Botanical Gardens. This was fun because we went with friends and had a picnic with a live band. We, and what seemed to be at least half of the population of St. Louis [note: get there early]! We enjoyed it more for the experience, the time with our friends, and the free admittance to the Botanical Gardens.

We toured the Anheuser-Busch brewery, which is their largest brewery. It was a very interesting tour and FREE!

And in a few weeks, we are going to the St. Louis Art Museum's Film Series. They are showing classic movies outside with live music and food trucks beforehand. I am really excited about this event!

We went to some fun restaurants, too.  Fitz's is a fun experience. Tropical Moose is our favorite shave ice and the closest to the shave ice in Hawai'i that we can find. The Cup is a fun cupcake place in the Central West End [if only I liked cupcakes more]. Crushed Red might be my favorite place to eat right now, and Ted Drewes is a St. Louis icon for custard. And I finally went to Union Station to see what that was all about.

So, we are still around and we are doing lots of things.

Lately

I realize I haven't updated anyone on our lives in quite a while. So, if you don't communicate regularly with me, you could think that all I do is look back at old pictures and blog very irregularly.

I have been working a lot. That, and maintaining our home to the bare minimum, takes up most of my time. I am trying very hard to stay within our budget and so menu planning and strategic shopping are key. I am also running again and training for a 10k in June. After moving here, working out became non-existent and I will admit to weighing more than ever in my entire life. Doing this 10k with a friend is helping me get back into the habits that I need to have.

Hubs and I are going to a small group each week from our church. Both our church and small group meet quite a ways away from us, but it is worth it to be with fellow believers. We both are very happy with our home. A year ago, we really had no idea where our house was located in means of convenience to school/work/shopping/etc. We live in a quiet little neighborhood of very friendly faces and are close to downtown St Louis as well as the suburbs. God was directing our lives last year at this time and looking back we can give Him the praise for where we are now.

Hubs is busy at school seeing patients, studying for classes, preparing for presentations and readying his research. He gets a few breaks this year, which we are thankful for, but we both count down the months until it is all over. I have leaned on Hubs more than ever in the past 9 months and he has proved to be the godly man and leader that I knew he was. More than once he has directed my wayward mind back to Christ and the scriptures. And I have no doubts he will have to continue to do so.

We are adjusting to our new life, which looks like a mixture of our Kansas life with our Nebraska life. We have all the demands of full-time school and work mixed with the leisurely life we had come to love. I still know that we both want to be more involved in our church and we want to be able to entertain people in our home more, but we both also know that other factors come to play right now restricting us at times to do all that we want.

If you ever pray for us or think of us, thank you. We are amazed at all that has happened in the past 6 years and have no clue what is in store for the next. And I'm very thankful that people continue to read this haphazard blog of mine!

Home again, for a week.

We made it home.

We boarded our plane at 10:00pm Tuesday (Hawaii time). About 2 hours later, the seat belt light came on, the flight attendants came around to tell us to sit down, and the ride became pretty bumpy.

I saw a flash of light outside, freaked, and woke Hubs up.

Me: We're in a storm! There's lightning outside!

Hubs: Really? He turns to look out one of the windows.

Me: See that flash of light?

Hubs: Um, Feath, that's just the blinking light on the wing of the airplane.

He fell back asleep, but I was not able to sleep for the remander of the flight.

Now, we are home; well, our home for 7 more days. We are busy packing starting to pack and make arrangements for our move. I can't wait to share more pictures and stories soon!

The past week.

I plan to extensively blog on the events of last week, but until then I did want to pass along fun pictures to remind you that I will be back...someday soon.

Hubs gradumated (no, that is not a typo but just me being silly)! It was a wonderful feeling seeing my Hubs up there getting hooded as they read off his long list of awards and achievements. Too bad I didn't get a picture of my shoes...

I was up early setting up for the big shin-dig, which went well. We were able to see lots of friends and family - the entire point of the night. We did have a little fun, too!

I fell into bed, exhausted, only to wake up and have another two full days of activities until I found myself here on Tuesday morning.

Now we are forcing each other to relax and enjoy doing whatever we want until Tuesday. Life will be waiting for us back home.