Wrapping up 2009...

I can't believe that 2009 is already over! The last several months have just been speeding by. James and I have been busy with home projects, baby showers, vacations, etc...I have nothing but good things to say about 2009. We have been blessed beyond belief with goodness...good friends, family, and health

I am so looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us in 2010, because I genuinely believe the best is yet to be!

James and I visited some of our best friends from college (Jeremy and Kim) out in Grand Junction, Colorado. The weather was awesome and we just did a little bit of hiking and touring the wineries they have. We had a great time with them and hope we can go visit again soon!

Kim and I sitting on the ledge of Cold Shivers Point. It took me awhile to work up the courage to sit on the ledge like that!

I ran the Tulsa Marathon in November with some of my clients. This was my first race since my surgery, so I was just ecstatic to get back out there and feel good running again.

James and I are nearly finished with our home projects!! James is the handiest little jack of all trades. He put down our new bamboo floors, and I must admit, they look great! I am not ready to rip apart our house again anytime soon, but we will probably paint and put down new flooring in our two guest bedrooms sometime this year. UGH. I hate chaos!! But James does such a great job, I just can't say no to him!

We were able to go back home to Omaha for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. We had a great time for both holidays. We were able to stay for nearly a week and half over Christmas. I really enjoyed being able to hang out with my family for an extended period of time. We got over a foot and a half of snow, so we had a white Christmas!

James and I threw an ugly Christmas sweater party for our life group. This was our 2nd annual party, and the sweaters just got uglier and uglier. I love it!

Sarah and I threw our 5th annual Christmas open house. Every year we have an open house for our clients at the fitness center. We tried to cut back this year with the baking...but I just cannot help myself. I HEART BAKED GOODS!

So I'm pretty sure this is gonna classify me as an old lady for doing this...but I am so proud of all of our baked goods, I am gonna have to put a picture of it up! The triple chocolate banana foster cake that Sarah made was to DIE for. This is what we call JOB SECURITY ;)

My family and I went to the Manheim Steamroller concert while up in Omaha. Here is James and me feeling festive!!

We couldn't help ourselves...Lil sis and me being creepy asians in the blizzard on Christmas Day! It was so fun hanging out with Michelle for the week. I miss her already!

Yay for a great 2009! Thanks to God for everything He has coming for us in the upcoming year!

I'm BACK!

So I started this blog while I was at home recovering from my appendectomy when I had oodles of time on my hands. Now that I am back to normalcy I have neglected this little side project all together...I'm resolving to get back on top of it. So here's been what's going on with us!

Guatemala

James and I led a trip to Guatemala in early September. It was awesome! We went with our friends Calvin and Sarah Reed, Susanna Stewart, my little sister Michelle, and our friend Juli Edwards. It was a small team and a short trip, but we were uber busy and productive! We built a house in a day, distributed 60 wheelchairs, and worked in a medical clinic doing lice treatments and building beds for the village people. It was neat to see God work through us to help out a lot of precious people.

This is the home we built for this dear family!

Doing lice treatments for 40+ kids

Our day of "Camping"

Our life group went out to Lost Springs one weekend to camp and fish and just hang out! I don't know if I am starting to turn into an old lady or what...but I just couldn't stomach the idea of sleeping in a tent on the hard ground and having to pee in an outhouse. So we just went for the day. It was a lot of fun! The guys fished and played bag-o and the girls read magazines and played mini-Uno. The game didn't last long. The cards would have been the perfect size for a barbie doll. It was funny though.

Our teeny tiny mini-Uno cards!

But we still played a few games!

Football Season

Football season is in full swing and we are loving every minute of it! I know, I know...James is pretty much the luckiest man alive because I like football just as much (if not even more than!) he does!!! We have lived in Arkansas for over 8 years, but have never really gotten into the Razorbacks. But we decided this year would be our year to try...So first home game in Fayetteville we loaded up to tailgate for the day! There were only 5 couples involved, but it seemed like we were packing up for a small army! We brought our smoker and James smoked amazing ribs. We brought our tv, the boys hooked up the Playstation 3 (although they never got it to work out there...), bag-o, and a plethera of other snack foods. It was fun, but wow was it a lot of work!

Watching tv and stuffing our faces :)

We look like we're Hogs fans! I have to admit...we're posers...our blood runs TRUE BIG RED!!

GO BIG RED!!!

Home Projects

James and I have been working like little worker bees at remodeling our house. We are hoping to have most of it done by the holidays. I have an annual Christmas open house for my clients each year and so we are trying to get everything done by then! We have been going through each room and scraping off the "popcorn texture" on the ceiling and then painting the room. James is going to put down bamboo flooring in our living room/hallway area and then we are replacing carpets in the bedrooms. It's a lot of work, but our wonderful friends from life group have been helping out so much! We are SO GRATEFUL! Me especially :) I hate painting fiercely. I wish I had taken before and after pictures of each room, but oh well. Here is our bedroom "after pic."

PF Changs, Vampires, and Garage Sales...

So week #2 of recovery has gone by pretty well. I am moving around a lot, but I get tired rather quickly. I haven't been able to work very much this week since personal training does unfortunately require a bit of energy. But I have been busy doing lots of other things besides training! This last Monday night we went out to celebrate our good friend Chris' birthday at PF Changs. It seemed like forever since we had been out with friends. Eating fried rice and sea bass isn't great for inflamed intestines, but I had a great time catching up with everyone.

Eating out with our friends Mike and Amber

Now that I have all this new found time on my hands, I have been reading the Twilight series. I figured I would get with the times and see what all this vampire fuss is about. And to be honest, I am addicted. I'm reading the last book now and I can pretty much guarantee you, I will stay up all night to finish this stupid book. I've been staying up late every night finishing them. I hope that all these late nights don't slow down my recovery time because honestly, the books are pretty dumb. How can a human girl be in love with a vampire and a werewolf at the same time? The plot is so ridiculous, yet I cannot seem to put it down. As ridiculous as they are, I am not ashamed to say... I HEART EDWARD CULLEN.

This Saturday we had our first, and hopefully final garage sale. Not that it didn't go well...it did! We made over $900--all of which will be sent to Guatemala to help distribute wheelchairs to those who cannot afford them. The garage sale was a huge success...but for someone who is slightly OCD, garage sale-ing can be a nightmare. We had so much stuff. So many people were so generous to donate to our cause... but we just had so much stuff we couldn't price anything. It would have taken days. I have never had a garage sale, and it's honestly been at least a decade since I've been to one, so I had no clue what to tell people when they asked how much stuff cost. Thankfully I had several "experts" helping me who would come to my rescue whenever I needed a price quote (which was often). When I wasn't freaking out over how disorganized the whole process was, I actually had a good time. The weather was perfect and we had many entertaining moments to laugh over. Three very furry bathrobes with horses embroidered on them was the cause for much laughter...

James, Mike, and Calvin posing proudly in these new found treasures

Even funnier, James and Mike would actually wheel and deal with customers IN THE ROBES, as if though they were wearing perfectly normal outfits. Here is a good action shot of James!

James selling a car stereo in the crazy bathrobe.

Over all, the garage sale was a huge success. Pretty crazy, but pretty fun too.

How I Lost My Appendix...

So the last week has been quite eventful at our house. It all started last week on Thursday, July 30th. I had gotten done teaching a Pilates mat class and my stomach started to feel really weird. It was a bizarre pain I had never really experienced before. I ignored it, thinking I had just really worked my abs hard or something...stupid, I know...I kept waking up through the night with stomach pains, but I had company coming in the next morning and just ignored it. My good friends Tiffany and Sarah drove all the way from Colorado to come visit and I just wanted to have a good weekend with them! They got in Friday and we hung out, but I just felt weird all day. Again, I ignored it because I didn't want to take away from our time together. Saturday morning we got up and did a car wash to raise money for our Guatemala trip. After the car wash I knew I couldn't ignore the stomach pains any longer! We went to the emergency room and they ran some tests. They ran a cat scan and saw that my appendix was really infected and needed to come out. So Sunday, August 1st I had an emergency appendectomy to get that nasty appendix out! I had waited so long, my poor lil intestines were infected and inflamed so surgery wasn't as smooth as they had hoped. I unfortunately got an extra incision because my belly was so distended. But they got it out and I am on the mend! I have been spending the last week and a half at home recovering. James took all last week off of work to take care of me. My mom came down and and helped us out around the house; doing laundry, cooking, taking care of the pups. Everyone has been so awesome! Makes me wish I got sick more often! Just kidding, not really...Complete recovery usually takes 3-4 weeks, so pray that I get better quick and am ready to go to Guatemala the beginning of September!

Tripped up on morphine! Creepy asian goes to the hospital!

Our Inaugural Post!!

Hello all! We decided to get with the times and start a blog! As James and I travel more and start more projects we thought it would be fun for y'all to see what we're up to! This summer has been super busy, but really fun! A quick recap on what we've been up to...

*James*

James has been busy as ever with work at Wal-Mart. This August is his SEVEN year anniversary with the company! Yikes! We are getting old! He is doing great as a pricing manager in their apparel division.

This spring he laid down a patio in our backyard. It looks awesome. He got some of his buddies to help dig up the yard and lay down the stones. But really, it looks like some professionals came over and laid it!

We heart our patio!

*Steph*

The last few months have been a whirlwhind for me! I ran my first ultra-marathon (32 miles!) in March to help raise support and awareness for what the Josiah Foundation was doing in Kenya. Five days after my race I went to Kenya with my dad, sister, and good friend Harmony Bischof for ten days. This trip was awesome. It was life changing. I have never seen and experienced so much in such a short time. I would love to go back soon.

With good friends after finishing my 32 miler!

Playing with some kids in the slums.

In May I ran the Lincoln Marathon with my good friends from running club. I love this race. It was my third year in a row to do it, and this year was my favorite! Two weeks later I went to Guatemala for ten days with a small team with the Josiah Foundation. We spent a lot of time in different villages ministering to those who needed medical assistance and helping provide physical needs.

This July we took a week long vacation to Cozumel with my family. James and Michelle and her boyfriend, Richard went scuba diving a few times. I like being lazy on vacation, so I spent most of my time snoozing on the beach. It was too short! We wanted to stay another week. It was so much fun.