Christmas is Coming....

The goose is getting fat! Heh...I love that song.

So after trying to go christmas shopping then the Service Engine Soon light comes on and puts a damper on the shopping trip, I take the car in and $200 later...my car is mostly better. I guess there is still a small problem with the mass air intake. The guy said that its on the low end of the range that ford says it should be but that it shouldn't be a problem. I was worried that it would cost me more like $800 before I took it in. I am under the impression that cars just break bad and cost a ton. So I was a bit relieved.

During my day at home while the escort was getting fixed I finished a baby blanket. I am so proud of it I am putting a picture of it up here too. The blanket is pink, white, and brown. My sister said it sort of looked black on her screen. This pattern came from the book Happy Hooker. This book has lots of great information in it. Its great for a begining crocheter.



Here's a close up of the detail work of the edge.

5 Days to Christmas!

Wow time flew. The 10 or so inches of snow have all melted and its raining tonight. Ick...I've got a lot to do on my day off. Which sucks cuz I wanted to sleep. And wouldn't it figure that right as I was going to finish up Christmas shopping the "Service Engine Soon" light comes on in my car. So tomorow I also have to take the car in. I hope that it doesn't cost too much. I don't know whats wrong with it. It hasn't been running weird or anything. Everything seems to hit all at once. I just hope I can make it through to the New year

Picture Time!

We had a pretty bad snow storm the other day. We got like 10 inches. It drifted though. This is the front of our house. Our front stairs are burried still.

Here is a picture of this year's Christmas tree. We didn't put the garland on it this year. Its looking good.

This is a weird night thing I tried to do...it looks kind of bad but thats ok. It still looks sort of neat.

Happy Exactly One Month Til Christmas!!

Yeah I'm excited.
So Thanksgiving was great for Nick and I. This year we went to The Cellar's (a restaurant in Geneseo) and had their Thanksgiving Dinner. It was decent. Not the best but good enough. Even better that I didn't have to cook the whole thing my self. We sat around all day watching tv, went out for dinner, and watched a movie that we had rented. Good times had by us. This was a picture of the sunset on Thanksgiving night. It was super cool. I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving.

My Old Locker Buddy

Congratulations Sarah and Justin. Sarah and I were locker buddies freshman year of high school. This is one of the greatest proposals ever. This is the Men's Glee Concert at the U of I in Champange.

Attention all you crafty people out there!

The Orphan Foundation of America is sponsoring or whatever their Red Scarf Project. What they do is around Valentine's Day they send out care packages to their scholarship recipents (I am an OFA Alum if you will) and they include a red scarf in with it. Its supposed to be handmade and because these college kids don't have families (in many cases) they get something that shows that they are loved. I loved receiving the OFA packages. It was really cool to get them so Crocheters and Knitters...the challenge is to create a red scarf (or more depending on how ambitious you are) and send it to the OFA for their care packages. If the link up top didn't work for you then here are the rules and info from the OFA website.

Love to knit, crochet or know someone who does? Send warmth and encouragement to America’s college-bound foster youth. OFA needs thousands of handmade scarves to put in our Valentine Care Packages to these parentless youth attending college on their own. Your handiwork will truly be the personal touch in these packages and bring students the encouragement they need to move forward and graduate to a brighter future. For over 25 years, OFA has provided funding and family-like support to foster youth in transition. www.orphan.org Scarf guidelines: Size: approximately 60” long and 5” to 8” wide. Scarves should be long enough to be wrapped around the neck with tails long enough to be tied in the front.
Style: Think unisex collegiate. Fringe optional. Should drape, tie easily and be soft.
Color: Red! This could mean burgundy, cherry, russet, red stripes with other colors, multicolor hues including red. Other unisex colors, including black, navy, gray, teal, olive or gold, are also welcome.
Finished & tagged: Yarn ends securely sewn in. For the personal touch, attach a tag saying “Handmade for You” with your first name, city, and group affiliation, if any. Donors have also included washing instructions, messages of encouragement, and gift cards/burger bucks/book of stamps. Thank you! Your scarf may be the first handmade gift a young man or woman has ever received. Your efforts will truly be appreciated! Mail to (January Only): Orphan Foundation of America Red Scarf Project
21351 Gentry Drive, Unit 130
Sterling, VA 20166 Scarves are accepted throughout the month of January ONLY due to limited/temporary storage capacity.

Please don't call PETA

This is how Savannah's Halloween went. It was fun. Nick and I sat on the porch and passed out candy until it was all gone. We ran out by 6:30! There are alot of kids by us. Nick and I didn't dress up (although we wanted to...just never got costumes together) but Savannah was Frankenkitty. She didn't like her little costume. She even had little braclet type things that went around her legs but it was hard enough to get the hat on her. We only left it on her for like 15 min. She seemed pretty miserable. Just enough time for me to get a couple of pictures. Maybe at Christmas she'll let me put reindeer antlers on her! I doubt it.

Sometimes All You Need Is A Hug

This is a cute little video. Everyone needs free hugs!

They Keep Me Caffinated

Well, since the last post I've finally got and stuck with a job that I really like. I am working at Starbucks. I know its not a glamorus job but I do enjoy it so far. The benefits are GREAT too. The people I work with are awesome. I've been there for about two weeks now. I'm not the best barista yet...well I'm not even a barista but I will be soon. Its not hard work just fast paced and you can't freak out when it gets busy. So thats been nice. And what is awesome is that I can transfer to St. Louis if I would like to. So work is going great! I don't have too much else to say so I'll just get running.

It sure has been a while...

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with the page. Things got a little nutty here. Well I worked at that temp job for about a week. We were having trouble working out the only having one car issue. If I would have continued to work there Nick would have had to drop me off in the morning drive back to church (do his visits) then drive back to moline to pick me up. We would have put 88 miles on the car each day. That wasn't a good idea to me. So I had to quit. We are getting a second car soon (Thanks to Mom, Dad, and Grandma Fern!!) So I've filled out tons of applications and finally places are calling for interviews. I did get hired somewhere. They aren't paying very well and I'm trying to find something else that will pay a little better and that isn't seasonal with a possiblility of being permanent. I'd rather not say where just yet. But I do start orientation tomorow. I've had a few interviews since I got hired. I have another interview tomorow after orientation. I have two places that I'm really hoping for. So yeah, we'll see.

Nick is good. We've offically been here for two months now. Its kinda crazy that two months have gone by so quickly. And at the same time it feels a lot longer than two months. I guess thats what happens when you don't work for two months...So thats pretty much it here. I hope everyone is well.

Sam

Its better than nothing...

Well everyone...I'm going to work tomorow! I talked to a temp agency and they had a position for me doing data entry and filing. It only lasts until march but its better than nothing. I've applied at kohls and target so perhaps I'll hear something from them. I would like something that wouldn't end so early. So I might pick up something part time just so that in March I can still be working after the temp position ends. So we'll see how that works out. Thank you for all your prayers and support.

The Job Hunt Goes On

I've filled out many applications, sent resumes out, and answered many classified ads. So far only two interviews. I am still waiting to hear back from one of the places I interviewed with but this waiting is just no fun. I really need your prayers right now! Its hard to be patient and each day feels like weeks. Its been five weeks with out work and I am starting to get frustrated. So as I wait for something to come my way I'm waiting here.

Nick is doing well at church. His monday night bible study started and with all the other stuff going on he is now in the full swing of things here. He is really enjoying what he's doing.

The weather here has been kinda icky. Its been overcast, rainy, and cold the last week or so. It went from crazy hot to kinda wet and cold overnight. The leaves are starting to change so that means fall is here soon!! I love fall. So that's all thats going on here. I hope everyone is doing well!

Weird

Hello everyone. So I don't know what the deal is with Blogger but I was having problems with the photoblog and decided that it was too much work to fix it. So if you would like to see my pictures go to this link. I've deleted the photoblog cuz its just now working. Sorry!

Hello Again

So blogger was having difficulties uploading pictures. So if you would like to see the pictures of our big gianormous house you'll have to check them out on my flickr site. Things are going well. I've filled out like 800 applications and now I sit and wait by the phone. We have internet in the house now so if you are bored and would like to drop me a line that would be greatly appreciated. I have a lot of free time. Nick preached his first sermon as the vicar this last sunday. It should be up on the church's website if you would like to see it. I am leaving this a little short cuz I have to go pick up Nick from church. I hope everyone is doing well.

Sam

The New Begining

Well, it’s Wednesday of my first week as vicar. I have finished my first sermon which I will be giving in Church on Sunday. I have met our members at the local nursing home, and this afternoon I will be going with pastor to the County Jail for a visit there. I have also started working on devising a Bible Study to start the week after Labor Day, set up a time to talk with the guy in charge of the youth group, and have started working on my evangelism module for this year. I have my own office with a desk and computer; I use my laptop though when possible to allow myself to bring things home if I need it at hand. I wouldn’t say I’m stressed, just that I’ve been hit with an overwhelming sense of responsibility. I don’t know that I feel completely comfortable yet, but I know that will come with a little more time here. Please keep Sam and me in your prayers, as we start this new chapter in our lives.

Nick

Its Getting Down To The Wire!

Well things are shaping up quite nicely. We are mostly packed and almost ready to go. I am very impressed at how quickly I got things packed up. Today I didn't do any packing because I had to run around and get other things taken care of. I would put up pictures of our kitchen with all the boxes in it but We packed up all the computer stuff and I can't get the pictures off of my camera and on to a computer yet. So our next post will be when we've moved to the new house and I have pictures ready. I would like to say thanks to everyone for being so supportive and helpful through this whole year and process. I am starting to get less nervous and more excited. I am ready to so something new and different.


See ya later,

Sam

Storm Update

We have power again. Our power came back on Saturday morning. Nick and I left St. Louis and went to my sister's in Chicago. It was too hot and gross to not have even a fan running. So we got out of here. We are fine and everything is ok. Power seems to be back up for most of the city, there are only (yeah its still alot) like 150,000 still with out power but its a big improvement. I do think that St. Louis as a city handled the crisis pretty well. Businesses with out power were open and able to just do cash transactions. Walgreens helped people get perscriptions and escorted them through the dark stores with flash lights. The only major problems we had were with the refridgerator. We did loose some groceries but nothing too important. We have a bit of a mess to clean up in the kitchen. I'll be including pictures of the damage in our area a bit later. It seems that blogger is having problems.

It was a dark and stormy night...

Just in case anyone may have heard about the storm last night in St. Louis, we are ok. We don't have power yet, well us and 450,000 others currently are with out electricity. It was a bit hot and sticky last night trying to sleep but we are ok. The storm was really bad. The winds blew down a part of our tree on to our dumpster. We do have some down powerlines by our apartment. I don't know how long we'll be with out electricty but today the temperature is supposed to be 103 (with a heat index of 115). I am including some pictures I found on www.ksdk.com from the storm.

The view of the storm coming from Busch Stadium.

This storm produced some really neat lightning....well neat as long as it wasn't hitting close to you.

Here's a sign that fell down in the city.

A down tree in South City.

It's already July?!

Wow, its been one LOOOONG weekend. We were up in WI for a friend's graduation party and another friend's wedding (Pictures will be up soon). It was a lot of fun visiting with old friends and catching up. But boy am I tired. I am glad we got to visit but one night we were all up until 4:30 am talking. I used to do that sort of thing in College...but now I need my sleep.

So anyway, I do miss Wisconsin. I miss school too. They are changing a bunch of stuff at school. They are fixing the bluff so that you could actually walk down by the lake. It should be beautiful when its done but right now everything is torn up and you can't go and see any of it. It was also awesome to visit with the Schmidt family. I love spending time with them. They are my second family. Amy's wedding was beautiful. We didn't stay the whole time mostly because we didn't know many people and Amy was pretty busy. But that was very good. We also stayed by my sister's house and got to spend some time there.

So now we are back and things are getting down to the wire! Nick talked to the supervising pastor about moving in and all that important stuff. He also talked to his parents who are helping with the big move and now we have an official move out (and in) date. August 10th! We will then be in IL that day. Things are becoming more bittersweet. I've just gotten used to my job and St. Louis. I've made some friends and I've been involved in things here BUT I am excited to do something different and have things be kind of how they will be when Nick graduates. Its sad to leave but exciting to be somewhere new. So now on to packing...the ever tedious task. I don't know where to start or what boxes to pack things in. I need to obtain more boxes because I know we don't have enough. I might have to hit up the grocery store. I'd also like some more rubbermaid containers. So thats job #1 for this weekend...with a little bit of pool time.

This may be it until we get to IL. I'm sure that time will come faster than I know. This summer has already flown by!

First Update

Welcome to the new blog. Nick and I thought it would be a good idea to start up a blog so that we can keep everyone updated during vicarage. So this is the first offical "update".

Right now Nick is taking summer classes. It seems to be going well for him. Its almost halfway over. Its scary to think how close July is. Work is going well. My last day is July 28th. I am taking that last week to tie up any loose ends before we move. I'm a little excited to go somewhere new but sad to be leaving LHM. I haven't started packing and I think I am going to start that this weekend. I just don't know where to start. Its a bit overwhelming right now.

This summer has been weird so far. We had some very HOT days in May and then just this last week it was only in the 70's. Not that I am complaining but it just seems strange.

Well thats whats going on now. Stay tuned for more info!

Sam

My new interest

I would like to thank Dan Rubin for designing this template. I suppose I should do that since I've edited it. I'm not a computer programmer or really all that tech savy, but I thought it would make more sense for the ticker Sam found to be evident when a person comes to the website, rather than only if you look to the initial post. I thought I'd leave the ticker in her first post, she can get rid of it if she wants to, but I thought I should post letting you all know that this is modified and that from time to time if i learn something new or whatever that the blog may change. Thanks, and God Bless.
Nick