Been a while...

Ok, so it has been a week or two since my last post. Sorry! The same as everyone else, I have been busy with the holidays and then busy trying to get back into the work and daily life routine and so blogging is one of those things that gets put aside. I will try to do better, but no guarantees. So where to begin. I guess I will start by saying we had a very wonderful Christmas. My wife's parents were able to be here from Houston, TX. Yes they wanted to spend the Christmas here with us, all we had to do was provide some snow, and believe me, they got their fill of it.

This first pic is of my father-in-law shoveling some snow. He had not shoveled snow before, or at least this amount. He grew up in Mississippi and lived in New Orleans and now in Houston. He seemed to enjoy it, but I don't think he really would like to do much more than what he had done.

Here is also a picture of Tigger and Eeyore. They were, not too excited to be on the same package, that close together. They had a great time playing in the paper and ribbons, and the boxes. Eeyore loves boxes and thinks if his head is one, then he is completely hidden and no one can see him. It is quite comical. Tigger sniffs around them and thinks, why bother...unless Eeyore is around.
My Grandma was able to join us for Christmas lunch/dinner. She came up around 11:30 and then we ate about 1:30, I think. We had a pretty traditional meal. Turkey and mashed potatoes, green been casserole, sweet potatoes, homemade bread, cranberries, cranberry salad. Just wonderful fixings. It was great. Then we visited for a while. Then around 4:00 that afternoon, we got on the web cam with Amy, Greg and Willa Kate and visited with them for a few minutes. Then Grandma left, so she could be home before dark. It was a good day!

Bill & Carol left on Saturday morning. It took them 2 days to get home, but thankfully, they did not run into any weather problems. That was a relief. Bill did a good job of calculating his departure times and dates.

For New Years Eve, Angela and I went downtown to People's to see the Nada's perform. We were there with Andy and Lisa and Kim. Ed got sick earlier in the day and could not make it out with us and Maryanne was taking care of him and Rachel. So the five of us had a really good time, but honestly, I think we would have had a better time at Trostel's. There is always next year!

Finals are OVER-Inlaws are HERE

Finals are finally over. I had one class left but I did not have to go, because I was able to finish my final project and was able to upload to the internet. The professor said if we had the project done and turned in, we did not have to go to class. YEAH, I finished my project on Monday and so did not have to go to class on Thursday. Good thing because Angela's parents arrived from Houston, TX last night.
They got in about 4-4:30 pm. They started their journey on Wednesday. They stayed in Joplin, MO on Wednesday and drove the rest of the day on Thursday. We are glad to have them and glad that they did not have any weather problems and glad they are here to spend the holidays with us. They were pretty excited to see snow and if the weather holds true, they will get to see it snow on Saturday as they are calling for some rain, freezing rain and snow for Saturday.
Now back to my classes, I know for sure that I got 2 A's and 1 B+. I think in my last class I will have an A also. I am hoping anyway. I am taking only 10 cr next semester (3 classes). After next semester, I will have 43 credits left to go. I think it will take me a year and a half or 2 years. Seems like a long time. We will see, I hope I can complete it sooner than that. That would be great. But I am working full time during all of this as well, at least 40 hours a week and usually more and trying to be a good husband and do chores around the house. It is a lot to manage, but I am getting through it. My wife has been so supportive and so wonderful, I can't thank her enough! I LOVE you, honey!

Here is Dad and Angela during Thanksgiving, oh and Buddy, Mom and Dad's sort of new addition to the household. For being a mostly outside cat, he sure behaved well inside the house. Even when no one was holding him, he did not stray too far from Dad or the living room. It might be because it was the warmest room, but who knows for sure. He was a pretty good little kitty. Dad really seems to enjoy him a lot.
We were able to visit my Mom and Dad over Thanksgiving. We actually got to see both families for the holiday and that was a treat for everyone. We got up at 5:00 am on Thanksgiving morning to catch our flight leaving Des Moines at 7:00 am and arriving in Memphis a little after 9:00 am. Then we drove down to Angela's grandma's home in Water Valley, Mississippi. We arrived there around 10:30. From there we went to have dinner at Tim and Andrea's new home in rural Water Valley. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and good time with Angela's family. Her parents were also there. They came from Houston a day or two before and stayed until Monday or Tuesday. They drove from Houston. I think if we were to drive, it would have taken us probably 13+ hours to get to Water Valley. So we opted for flying to Memphis, plus it gave us the opportunity to see how it me be to see both sides of the family since my folks live in Moody, MO. Just outside of West Plains, MO and a few miles N of the Arkansas border.

We stayed in Water Valley until Saturday at lunch and then drove to my folks in Moody. It took us about 4 hours from Water Valley, so it was not all that bad. We were unsure what it was going to be like, that was the main reason we tried it, plus we did not want to drive all that much and this gave us the best chance to see both families. It really was a nice time. I definitely think we will do this again.
We were also able to give Mom and Dad part of their Christmas. Morgan, Andrew, Jeff, Tina, Angela and I all chipped in and bought them a digital camera with a printer. We wanted to give it to them early so that I could be around to help them figure it all out. I hope it worked. I have not seen any pictures yet, but she seemed to have a pretty good idea of what she was doing when we left. I hope they enjoy it and I hope they enjoyed having us there as we enjoyed being with them.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of watching one of my god-daughters for a few hours. It was fun. That is the first time I had watched her by myself. We had a blast. Mostly she was interested in the cats, Tigger and Eyeore, and for the most part they were pretty friendly for not being around little ones very often. I know it help having me there with them. Claire was great with them. She pet them very gently and just loved them. The cats would get up in their stand and feel safe because Claire could not get to them. So she watched them up there and they watched her.

Then we played and watched Barney and "Bingo". It was a pretty good afternoon. I hope Claire had a blast and would like to come back again. I was supposed to watch her this past weekend, but with the lovely Iowa weather we had, her parents decided to not go out and therefore I did not end up watching her. Oh well, there will be another time.


Thanks Claire for the fun afternoon and be good for mommy and daddy!

Wedding Bliss

Ok, I am back. I got married 2 weeks ago and had the honeymoon and trying to get myself all caught up and now I have a free moment to blog a bit. For everyone that was at my wedding, thank you! It was a wonderfully special day and really was one of the most beautiful weddings I can remember ever seeing. And to think it was mine. I owe that all to my wife. She had a great vision and made sure it was seen through. Thanks honey!
We went to Seattle and to Victoria, BC for the honeymoon. It was fabulous. The weather was outstanding and really there could not have been anything better. We took our time and did what we wanted when we wanted. She had no idea where we were going until Saturday night after the wedding. Her sister, whom did know, helped her pack for the trip. It was so much fun and she said that she could not have planned it any better herself. She thought everything was absolutely perfect. I thought so too!!!
One of the neatest things that we did was a whale watching tour. We actually got to see Killer Whales in their natural habitat. We were on a Zodiac boat and got to within a 100 yards or so of these whales. We saw probably a total of 5 whales. We followed them for about a 1/2 an hour or so and then headed back to shore. It was wonderful. Angela, my wife and another person on the boat, along with the driver got to see a humpback whale. They just happened to be looking in the right place at the right time. I was pretty jealous of that, but glad that she got to see it and experience it. I can only imagine how cool that would have been to see. Maybe next time.
I think her favorite part was probably afternoon tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria. I must admit it was quite a neat thing. We had tea and all the little finger foods that go with it. I have never drank that much tea at one time, I don't think. It was really good. Some sort of Orange and Pineapple flavored tea. Really good. It was pretty fun to get dressed up a little and surprise her with that. She had a blast and it really reminded her of when she lived in England. Since I have never been to England, I will just have to live vicariously through her, for now.

Well, I hope to, at some point in the near future, upload a few pictures of the wedding and some of our adventures on the honeymoon. Everything was just so wonderful. I had a great time meeting the rest of her family and friends. She has a great group of people that love and support her and I really would expect nothing different. She is truly wonderful.

Thanks for your time and I hope to be blogging again in the near future.

Joel

Not much time left

So, there is not much time left before the wedding on Saturday. Things have really kicked into overdrive and we are running around like crazy trying to get all the details done. I would like to say, this experience has been a learning one and has helped Angela and I to lean on each other and trust one another. It has taught us alot. I still can not believe how many details go into a wedding. I know everything is going to be just fine and I can't wait for the wedding to be over and the marriage to begin.

Her sister and brother-in-law come in late tonight. We pick them up from the airport around 10:30. I am looking forward to them being here. They have been a tremendous blessing to us. My sister lives here in town and we have used her extensively to help us out. She and her husband have been tremendous to us also. Both parents are in town. Of course we could not have made it this far with out them. We took them out to dinner the other night and had a wonderful evening. People are really going to start clamoring to the Des Moines area starting tonight with her sister. Then it is non stop. Looking forward to meeting everyone and seeing by family and friends again as well. This is such a joyous occasion and we are so looking forward to being together and starting our new lives together.

I will be lucky if I get back on the blog before we get back from the Honeymoon. So this is probably my last blog as a single man, but I welcome that change.

God Bless!

Joel

Meeting of the Families

This weekend, I got all moved into my fiance's house. I do not have a lot of stuff, but her house is still pretty small and so it seemed to get just a little bit smaller. She has some friends that I will be staying with all this week. I think that is great. I really appreciate that. Things with the wedding are really kicking into gear now.
Both her parents and my parents also arrived into town this weekend. My folks made it in on Saturday evening to Osceola and are staying with my grandparents. Her folks got in on Sunday afternoon. They drove all the way up from Houston, Texas. They left Saturday morning, stayed the night in Joplin, MO and then finished the drive Sunday morning.
Yesterday was also my grandfather's birthday, so we all went down to his house for a little BBQ and birthday party for him. My future in laws were also able to come along with us, so it was a nice time for everyone to meet each other. It was a really nice time. Great food, great company and unfortunately, they found some old pictures and were having a blast going through all of them. Oh well, I guess that is what a lot of this is all about. Getting to know one another. It is a fun process mostly, except when they pull out the really bad pictures, but hopefully there weren't too many of them.
I am thankful for all of my family, my current family and my family to be. It is a wonderful feeling having more people around that care for you. I welcome them all to our new family and cherish the time that we will all be spending together from here on out.
Everyone have a blessed day!
Joel

Quick Note

Just a quick note for right now. I had a blog, Jasmus Jams, and I had to delete it, so this is going to replace that blog. I am going to continue to keep writing different things, but will probably be out of commission for a while as I get ready for my wedding next weekend and then journey on to our honeymoon, which I am not going to mention the location. My fiance still does not know where we are going and that is kind of fun. I think we are going to have a great time.

I wish my friends at Jordan Creek Family Church well. I do apologize for not being able to be available to help the next several weeks. God Bless you and everything that all of you do!