Christmas weekend...

Hello, everyone! I hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was great, it was so nice to be home with family! We got to leave late Friday night after I got off work, so we got to my parent's house around 2:30 Indiana time. Saturday, we had Jesse's dad's family Christmas in the afternoon, which was a blast! His grandma had rented out part of the commons at Indiana Tech, and so there was air hockey, foosball, pool tables, and even a 6-lane bowling alley! Saturday night, my parents had my uncle Josh and aunt Bonnie and my cousins Caleb, Kallie, and brand-new little baby Corban over! He is so cute and so precious...it had been a long time since I held such a tiny baby!

Sunday, we went to my dad's family Christmas at my aunt and uncle's house. We possibly started a new tradition by doing a white elephant gift exchange instead of a traditional gift exchange. All kinds of stuff was in it, like a fish scaler and a paper-mache penguin...it was really funny to see who ended up with what! We went to a birthday party that night for a little girl whose parents (Joey and Karla) are good friends with my parents. (Karla is my mentor and was also in our wedding.) My grandparents came into town that night, so my parents house was just full of out-of-town guests!

Monday, we spent most of the afternoon and evening over at Kevin and Julie's, just relaxing with everyone, having a yummy dinner, and opening our gifts. All of the kids drew names and did a gift exchange this year, which was fun! Lucy didn't want to go to bed, she kept coming back downstairs, and eventually decided she wanted to sleep down there! Her parents told her Santa wouldn't come unless she was in bed, and she just said "I don't care!" She's so funny and cute, it's hard to believe that she will be 5 years old in just a few months!

Christmas day, we spent the day at my parent's house. My mom made an awesome breakfast and we opened presents that morning. It was so nice to have my grandparents there, and my grandma Kanoshia even came down for a little bit! My aunt Monica and uncle Kevin came over in the afternoon with my cousins Erica and Logan, and then Josh and Bonnie came over later for a little bit. It was so nice to see everyone...all the kids are growing up so fast and are all just so stinkin cute!!! Jesse and I finally left around 7:40 our time, and so we got home around 11.

I know this has been long already, but I also wanted to share a prayer request with everyone! I know some of you already know about how we almost didn't get to come home as planned last week, because of a mix-up with our new District Leader, Clareese. She has only been our DL for a few months now, and has been extremely difficult to work with! She's very intimidating and difficult and is making everyone in the salon stressed out with everything that she's trying to change. Even my co-workers who have hardly had to deal with her dread her coming in! You feel like you're walking on eggshells when she's there, trying to do and say everything perfectly, and it is very stressful! I just don't know what to do about this all, I feel like maybe I am at the salon "for such a time as this" to witness to her and be an example to her, but it's just so hard! I feel like she doesn't like me anymore because of the whole Christmas situation, and I feel like she's just going to be watching me like a hawk, waiting for me to "mess up" so that she can get me in trouble or something. I've considered giving up my position and going back to just being a stylist, thinking that I won't have to deal with her as much, but I don't know if that's a good idea or not, and I for sure don't want to just jump to that solution and then regret it later. I know she is new in her position, so she is getting used to this all, and I also know that ultimately, she wants what is best for each salon in her district, but she is going about this whole thing the wrong way! Our company calls people district "leaders" and salon "leaders" and assistant salon "leaders", NOT "managers" because we are supposed to be LEADING people to excellence by encouraging and supporting them, not managing them, and I feel like she is being more of a dictatorial manager right now. I would just really appreciate it if everyone could pray for this whole situation...for patience for everyone involved in the situation and also for wisdom, discernment, and kindness for me in dealing with her and that I can be a light to her and my whole salon. Please also just pray for her, that if there are any situations in her life that need healing, that she would find healing through Christ. Thank you all so much, and I will keep everyone updated!!!

A brush with fame...

So the other day, it was kinda busy at the salon, and I was doing a color, so I wasn't really paying attention to the lobby. I got done with applying the color and while it was processing, I went back to the back room to fold towels and I propped the door open. I glanced up and there was this lady sitting there behind her son who was getting his hair cut, and I thought "she looks familiar". But no makeup, hair pulled back in a clip, and athletic clothes on...just some lady, right? WRONG!!! I kept stealing glances at her, and then I heard her talking to the lady who was cutting her little boy's hair and I was like "I DEFINITELY know that voice"...but I still couldn't talk myself into the fact that it was truly her! Then, the girl who was cutting her little boy's hair finished and went to ring them up and was having trouble with the credit card machine (it's old, and you have to swipe it just right), so I went up to help, knowing that this would be my opportunity to find out FOR SURE. I glanced at the credit card, and what did it say??? JOAN CUSACK!!! It was hyphenated with her married name, of course, but it was definitely her! I felt like such an idiot, and I didn't say anything, just made small talk while I finished ringing them out. I didn't know what to say without looking like the idiot that I felt like...I mean, Joan Cusack was sitting in my salon and no one noticed!!! Now, I'm sure that had she come in dressed like she was in a US Cellular commercial, we would have recognized her. But sometimes, people look completely different with no makeup and their hair done differently...which is probably what she was trying to achieve, ya know? So anyway...

The only other exciting thing to report is that in one of Jesse's most challenging classes, his professor read his paper aloud in class because he was so impressed with it! Jesse was so excited when he told me yesterday, because it is such a challenging class!!! I'm so happy for him and proud of him! :)

We painted our living room and got a new couch a few weeks ago! It looks really good, and it just makes it feel more personalized. I'll have to post pictures after we finish getting pictures and stuff on the walls.

My family is coming into town next weekend! I was randomly able to get next Saturday off because my boss needed me to cover for her that Thursday, so what a perfect opportunity! They had been saying they wanted to come up again, so it works out great. Hopefully, we'll have decent weather...last time they were here, it was SO miserably hot!!! I know we don't have to worry about that this time, but I at least hope that it's sunny and not freezing!!! As of right now, it's looking like low 50s, but no rain, so I won't complain.

I think that's all for now, I'll post pictures from my family's visit next weekend, and hopefully some pictures of our renovated living room! Have a great weekend, and we will see some of you over Thanksgiving!

Wedding Weekend

Here's a link to some pictures from this weekend, and a short update! We left early Thursday morning and stopped in Middlebury to pick up my grandma Carolyn, then went down to Fort Wayne. We spent most of the day at the church, then went to my aunt and uncle's house to practice with my cousin Heidi for the wedding. We stayed there for dinner, then went back to my parent's. Friday, we were at the church pretty much all day, getting everything ready and then having the rehearsal dinner. I went with the bridesmaids and we spent the night at Lisa's house (one of the bridesmaids) and all the guys went to Dustin's. Saturday was WEDDING DAY! The wedding was BEAUTIFUL!!! We all had fun at the reception, I finally learned the Cotton Eyed Joe and attempted to learn the Electric Slide. We tried to watch a movie at my parent's house that night, but we were all so exhausted, we were out within the first 20 minutes! Sunday, we had a quick lunch at Jesse's parent's, then Julie, Aubrey, Mary and I went to a bridal shower for two of Jesse's cousins! Jesse then went to a shootout/reunion with some of the people he used to hang out with in youth group, and I just spent some time with my parents, relaxing and watching a movie. We finally got back to Chicago right around midnight our time! Here's the link, it's to my facebook album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54960&id=758115416

Sorry!

I can't believe we haven't posted in over a month! This summer absolutely flew by, and now Jesse's back in school! The last few weeks before school started, he was working like 50+ hours a week because it was just him and his friend Erik working! He started school again on August 27th. I'll let him tell you about his classes and especially about his PCM for this year...a lot more interesting than the YMCA was last year!!!

On August 26th, we helped our friends Craig and Danielle pack up a moving truck and sent them off to Maine! Over their anniversary (July 22), they started talking about moving away, and in about a month, they were gone! He decided that he doesn't want to be a pastor, and that's obviously something that your heart has to be in, and so instead of wasting the time and money here, they moved back to Danielle's family in Maine! God really opened doors for them there, just like He did for us when we moved here! It's so weird going to work without her!!! Funny story...when we were helping them move, I noticed their goldfish on their counter and asked "how are you going to move your fish?" and they said "we weren't going to"!!! They were going to flush it!!! So we rescued it, and now we have a pet, Craig and Danielle named her Shaniqua! It's so funny, the thing begs for food whenever you look at it!

We also made some new friends! Our friends Erik and Sarah introduced us to a new couple, Tim and Sheli. Every Sunday night, they guys have been having game night, so us girls get together and have girl's night! We watch movies, we've made jewelry, I cut Sheli's hair...it's just so fun!

Things have been REALLY good at the salon for the last two weeks, and this week, I actually broke $1000 in services, which is a first for me! A good, steady week is usually around $700, just to give you an idea! I am going to Salon Leader training for 4 days next week, which I have mixed feelings about. I know I am nowhere near ready to be Salon Leader yet, but the idea of it is just to give me the training and knowledge, as I can use it in my current position. However, the last two weeks have just been so good that I don't want to miss out on another good week at the salon, not to mention, losing Danielle a few weeks ago means that we are understaffed when someone is gone! Hopefully, we will hire one or two people soon. Also, we just had the annual ice cream social for SWF, which kicks off the school year! I am on activities this year, which basically just means that me, Leeanne, and our friend Tonya are going to be the brains behind all the fun activities that we do at SWF this year! I'm excited!

Well, Jesse will be home next weekend for Dustin's bachelor party and to practice with the other instrumentalists for the wedding while all the girls are here for Krista's bachelorette party...so it will be a fun, busy weekend! The 22nd is Dustin and Krista's wedding (and Mary's birthday!), so we will be home that weekend, and I'll try to post some pictures from the wedding when we get home! I'll tell Jesse to post sometime this week and tell you all about his classes and PCM for this semester...have a good weekend!!!

Our trip home...

Last week, Jesse and I took some much needed vacation time and went home for a few days! We left on Wednesday as soon as I was out of a work meeting at 4:00 and didn't get back to Chicago until Monday night at 10:30! My birthday was on the 26th and Jesse's was on the 27th, then we celebrated our second anniversary on the 30th, so we thought it would be a good time to take a vacation!

On Thursday, I got together with my mom, Krista, Karla, and Karly for lunch at Bandido's (because I got a free meal there for my birthday). Jesse went with my dad in the semi and then that afternoon, I helped my mom get the house ready for having my dad's entire family over that night. We hadn't seen everyone together since like Christmas, and we hadn't seen Dave and Emily since they moved to New Mexico, which was over a year ago! We got to see their baby, too, and she is a doll! :)

Friday, we went with Jesse's family to his brother Jacob's baseball game and then out with them for lunch. I then met my mom to go shopping for my sister's bridal shower gift and then we met Shelli to go shopping for the rest of the supplies for her shower. Friday night, Jesse and I went out for dinner with Eric and then met up with Wahli and his girlfriend for coffee.

Saturday, we went over to Jesse's grandparent's house to spend some time with them and Jesse's parents and siblings. We were there all afternoon and into the evening, and it was great to just relax, go swimming for a little bit, and just enjoy our time together! That evening, we went out with Aaron, Aubrey, and Rachel to a coffeehouse where a friend of Aubrey and Aaron's was playing and then hung out with Aubrey and Aaron for a little while.

Sunday, we went to church and then Monica, Bonnie, Shelli, and I hosted a bridal shower for my sister! There were so many people there and I'd have to say it was a success! That evening, Jesse and I went out to dinner with Paul and Tamber and then hung out at their house for a little while.

Monday, I just relaxed with Evan in the morning and watched a movie while Jesse went with my dad in the semi again, then I got to go over to Kurtis and Aimee's house and relax with Aimee on their hammocks in the front yard and just chat for a little bit while Jesse met Jono for coffee. We had dinner with my family, then we finally left around 7:00 for Chicago.

It was hard for us to leave, and it's even harder for me to think that we still have 3 more years here! I am totally having fun here making new friends and everything, but we miss everyone SO much! I just wish we were even an hour closer so we could come home more, but you know what they say...absence makes the heart grow fonder, and that is totally true! I've been so tired the past two evenings after two decently busy days at work, because until I went back to work on Wednesday, I hadn't worked since last Tuesday...I've just been trying to get back in to the swing of things and get used to being busy...with the back-to-school season coming up, we're going to be really busy! Jesse is going to be getting 50 hours a week starting next week until school starts again, so needless to say, we will definitely be appreciative of all of your prayers!!! Thanks for reading all of this, I know it was really long!!!

Update...

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer! I know I have personally been enjoying the weather here...and enjoying having an air-conditioner on some of these days! I hope you all had a great July 4th...we had a barbecue at our house with two other couples, then enjoyed watching fireworks go off literally ALL OVER the city...here, you don't need to go see the fireworks downtown, you can stand on your back porch and see like five shows at once! Of course, none of them are probably nearly as good as the actual show downtown (I assume, anyway, I've never seen the city's fireworks), but it's still fun!

The weekend of July 6,7, and 8, my family came up to visit! They got into town late Friday night and picked Jesse up at the apartment, then came to pick me up at work. We came back to our apartment and decided that ice cream sounded good, so we went down the street to the Tastee Freez. Saturday morning, Jesse and I got up and cooked a massive breakfast so that we would all have energy to go sightseeing for the day and we all left the apartment to catch the bus to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We walked around the conservatory there and then checked out the zoo, which was pretty neat. We then decided to head downtown. After eating lunch in the massive, two-story McDonald's downtown (seriously, it has an escalator AND and an elevator...crazy), we headed to Millennium Park in search of the famous bean. We watched all the little kids running around in the fountains down there and took a few pictures at the bean before realizing that we were already completely wiped out...because it was in the mid-90's outside!!! We decided to go back to our apartment and chill and recharge for a few hours, then we went out for some famous Chicago-style pizza for dinner that night. We just hung out at our apartment most of the day on Sunday because it was even hotter outside than it had been on Saturday, then we decided we all wanted to go to the beach. We drove to Montrose Harbor and there was a cop car blocking off the entrance to the beach, so we drove to the next beach...same story. We had no idea what was going on, but we were disappointed that we didn't get to go to the beach, so we just turned around and came home. My family ended up leaving around 5:30 that afternoon. I felt kinda bad because I felt like we didn't do much, but it was just WAY too hot outside to really, thoroughly enjoy the city...plus, we have three more years here, that's PLENTY of time for people to come and visit! I found out the next day at work that some of the beaches had been closed due to e-coli in the water...boy, am I glad that they test that water often!!!

We will be home next week for a much-needed vacation...we will be leaving Wednesday as soon as I am done with a meeting for work, and will probably be coming back either Sunday night or Monday morning. We're excited to be home, and especially to be able to celebrate both of our birthdays with our family and friends! Here are a few pictures from our weekend with my family...enjoy! There are more on my facebook account, and my sister has some on there as well.

All of us at the bean

Jesse and I at the zoo

My mom and dad on the subway

The famous bean

A momma gorilla and her baby at the zoo

Cool fish, huh?


I made this monkey really mad when I used my flash to take this picture...

my brush with greatness for the day

After achieving less than favorable (or no) results from riding my bike to work, I decided to hit the weights and get a little more strict on the diet (not that I really have a diet). So, yesterday was my "maiden voyage," if you will, to Solheim athletic complex for the summer. I went to the weight room, and much to my surprise, it was quite full. Some of the people there were Moody employees, and some were probably students on campus for the summer, but there were some other people there too. There was a group of women who were very tall, very athletic and were making me feel really bad when I saw their workout. They had a trainer with them, and a couple of times I heard one of them let loose with a mild expletive. I knew these were not Moody athletes.

After I was finished, I went back to the locker room and saw another Moody employee there. We got to chatting, and he told me that those women were no ordinary women. They were WNBA players from the local team. I had heard that NBA teams sometimes use our athletic complex when they are in town to play the Bulls, but I had never seen it myself - until today. I have now decided that I have no reason to feel bad after seeing those women work out.

Sorry!!!

I'm sorry it has been so long since we posted! Jesse has been working about 25 hours a week at the help desk and I have also been working, so there's not much new to report. I'm not moving to a new salon after all! I am a lot like my dad and I worry about things until I find out what's going on, so when I flipped our calendar to June and realized that I would probably be moving in a few weeks, I started freaking out! I hadn't heard anything from my DL since the last time I wrote and I had no idea what was supposed to be going on. I finally decided to leave her a voicemail and she called me back a few days later. She said that she was never intending to for sure move me, she was just brainstorming and that she would never move someone without giving them six weeks' notice! I was completely under the impression that she was for sure moving me and that I was going to be in charge of that salon for a month while that Salon Leader was gone...so I am SO relieved! What makes it even better is that my friend Leeanne started at my salon today! So now, Danielle, Leeanne, and I all work together...how awesome is that?!?!

Well, our landlord just left after helping Jesse put a window air conditioner in...HALLELUJAH!!! I got pretty grumpy a few times because it was just entirely too hot in this apartment...you'd take a lukewarm shower and the minute you get out, you'd be drenched in sweat again! I never wanted to cook or anything because it just created so much more heat! So anyway...now I can get back to being a good wife ;)

My family is coming up to visit in a few weeks, and we are really excited to show them around the city and see how they all will fit in our apartment for the weekend...hey, at least we have air conditioning now! Other than that, Jesse may be home some weekends here and there, and I may try to come home for the day over my day off, but we won't for sure be home together until my Dustin and Krista's wedding in September. It seems like a long time away, but I'm sure it will go quickly. As far as my vacation goes, I'll only be taking five days instead of seven so that I can come home earlier and help with the wedding! We may try to come home over the weekend of my vacation, so we'll keep you posted! Thanks for reading and keep posting comments!!!

It's been almost a month since we posted already?!?!? Time flies!!!

Jesse is officially done with classes, and I think most of his finals as well. On Sunday night, his professor of his research writing class had that whole class over to her house to celebrate the end of the semester. I was reluctant to go along because I didn't know anyone and would be the only spouse there, but it ended up being a pretty good time! His professor, Dr. deRosset, is a really awesome lady, I could tell that after only spending one evening with her! Jesse is going to continue working at the help desk this summer. We thought he was going to be able to work full time, but it turns out that more of the staff are staying for the summer than they orginally thought, so Jesse's only going to be able to get about 20 hours a week. He wants to get a second job so that he's working full time, so please keep him in your prayers as he's looking for another job!

I received news from my DL last week that in about a month, she is going to be transferring me to another salon. She told me when I got the promotion that this would probably happen, but I guess I was still hoping that it wouldn't! She's always felt like when you promote someone within a salon, it's harder for them to gain the respect that their new position brings, that it's easier for them to go into a new salon with their new position already, and I see what she means. I never want to confront the girls because I don't want them to hate me or think I'm on some kind of power trip when I was one of them for a while and almost all of them have been there longer than me. My DL also feels like the Salon Leader at the new salon will train and develop me better, and she wants to see that happen because she eventually wants to make me an SL!!! While I think it will be a good change for me, I don't want to leave my clients behind and being able to work with Danielle has been just awesome! Also, we were planning on taking a vacation for a week at the end of July/beginning of August to celebrate our 22nd birthdays and second anniversary, but my new SL will be gone in Buglaria (where she's from) for the entire month of July, which might mess our plans up. So please just keep me in your prayers as all of this happens!!!

We will be home in about a week for Tyler's wedding, and after that, we aren't 100% sure of when we'll be home this summer, so we will try to keep you posted!

Easter, etc...

We haven't written in a while! I guess we've just kinda fallen into a routine around here...not much new to report!

We weren't able to go home for Easter this year, so we got together with two other couples that we are good friends with, and it was a blast! We went over to Craig and Danielle's house with Michael and Leeanne. All of us ladies planned the menu and pitched in, and it was so good! We hung out there most of the afternoon, and the guys fixed Craig's computer and then we all watched Napoleon Dynamite...we hadn't seen that movie in so long and it was just hilarious! That evening, the guys all had homework to do, so Danielle and I went over to Leeanne's and just spent some girl time together.

Work has been going well for me, I'm still getting used to being the new ASL! Business has been decent...busy one day, slow the next, but overall, things are going pretty good. Jesse is back into the swing of things after spring break, and it is so hard to believe he only has a little over a month left of school!!! He's trying to figure out what his work schedule will be like for the summer and is thinking about getting a second job.

So overall, things are still going great for us! We are planning on coming home the weekend of May 19th, so we will see you all then! Here are a few pictures from our Easter...

Me, Danielle, and Leeanne

Craig and Danielle

Michael and Leeanne

And us!

pictures from downtown chicago and montrose harbor

Montrose Harbor

Downtown Chicago

Our trip home...

Finally, after almost 3 months, we got to go home together this weekend! I was able to get Friday and Saturday off of work, so we left Thursday evening and got to spend all weekend at home. It was awesome! I spent most of the day on Friday with my mom and Jesse got to go with my dad to Archbold, OH in the semi to deliver some pallets. My mom and I picked up my cousins Caleb and Kallie and watch them for a little bit on Friday afternoon, and I was SO excited to see them! Kallie is talking now and has gotten so big, and Caleb was just his normal adorable and crazy self! Friday night, we went to the auction at church for the Christian school, so we got to see a few people there that we hadn't seen in a while. Jesse hung out with Wahli, Eric, and Dustin later that night and I watched Caleb and Kallie with Cortney and Krista. Saturday, we got to spend all afternoon with Jesse's parents and some of his siblings, just hanging out at their house and relaxing and catching up! Lucy is four now and just as cute as ever! Saturday evening, we went to the spring musical at Leo because Evan was Pharaoh in it...I love musicals, and it was so fun to see my brother in it! Sunday, we went to church and then to my dad's surprise 50th birthday party...it was so great to see so many people there who just love my dad to pieces! :) We then got to go to Chuck E Cheese for Lucy's birthday party that night...she was SO excited to be there and most of us were giving her all of the tickets we won playing games...you should have seen all the prizes she was able to get! She had so much fun dancing in front of the camera and playing games...she's so cute! I was dreading having to come back...I love it here, but I was having so much fun at home!

Jesse started school again on Monday after a two-week spring break, and I have been working like normal...we aren't sure when we'll be home again, but we definitely won't let it be 3 months again! Keep in touch!

Good news...

Wednesday night, I came home early from work because my eye was starting to get really irritated. I took my contacts out as soon as I got home, but it only seemed to get worse, and by morning, my eye was completely red, irritated, and watering like crazy. I called in sick to work and was miserable pretty much all day. I went to the doctor in the afternoon and he said I had pink eye...and that I'd have to miss another day of work. Friday night, our friends invited us over, but I was reluctant to go because the doctor had told me to cover my eye and try to keep it shut as much as possible (which I have never heard of with pink eye, but I think he was just covering all of his bases incase there was a scratch, also), so I had been wearing gauze patches over my eye. But they were like "don't worry about it, we'll just have a pirate party!" And sure enough, we got there and they were both all dressed up, they had old cigar boxes with jewelry hanging out of them like treasure chests, and they had pirate signs on their door! They even printed out a picture of a parrot and put a straw on the back of it to make it stand up and taped it to Jesse's arm...we didn't think they were THAT serious, but it was really fun!!!

So when I finally went back to work on Saturday, I got in and there were balloons and streamers all over the mirror at my station, and I thought "Awww, they put get well signs on my station", but when I went over, they had written on my mirror in dry erase markerr "Congratulations on your promotion"!!! I was really confused because I was under the impression that I still had to get my numbers up and I also thought I had to go in for an official interview with our DL. My boss called a little while later and confirmed that I had gotten the promotion, and she wanted to surprise me with the balloons and everything! Jesse and I are really excited about it, thank you all for your prayers!!!

adventure of a lifetime

On Saturday, February 24, 2007, two young men set out on an expedition in search of ... some amazing guitar music. And that is exactly what they found.

Michael and I took the T-Bird out to Trinity Seminary on Saturday to see my instructor and one of his former students, who now teaches guitar at University level, put on guitar concert. It was a grand time; Norm (my instructor) is an amazing guitarist. He talked about being in Spain at Pepe Romero's house (Romero is one of the most famous classical guitarists alive), and being invited to visit Joaquin Rodrigo, probably the best composer of the 20th century, at least as far as the guitar is concerned. The music that they played ranged from Bach to Rodrigo to Castelnuevo-Tedesco, and on, and it was all spectacular.

Michael had the privilege of holding Norm's guitar for him while he made a trip in between pieces to the restroom (he is getting to the age when he has to do that quite often). I made sure to nudge Michael and let him know that he was holding a $6,000 guitar. He seemed to hold it a little more cautiously after that. I only know that it is worth that because Norm told me that when he let me play it last semester. ;-)

They played a Sonata at the end that was a Canon, and it was incredible. One would play a melody, then the other would play it, or a variation of it, back while the other moved on to the next phrase. You would just have to hear it.

The roads were starting to get nasty on the way out (it's about a 45 minute drive north of here), and on the way back, I am amazed that we made it in one piece; well, two pieces, actually. It was quite treacherous, but due to my impressive driving-in-blizzard-like-though-more-like-heavy-ice-flake-conditions skills, we barreled down the highway unscathed. Well, we might not have been barreling (I don't think we got above 25 mph), but at least we didn't get stuck! If we had known what it would be like, we probably wouldn't have gone ... wait a minute, yes we would have! It's guitar, for crying out loud! It would have been better if it wasn't so nasty out, though. My hands have, however, regained their normal shape and color. No more white knuckles.

By the way, Stephanie and I are on Facebook now (we have succumbed to social pressure), so look us up if you're on there. That is all, and don't worry, we'll keep sending you our weather as soon as we're done with it! Have fun, until next time.

Jesse

My district leader came in today to go over a few things, and while I haven't officially been promoted yet, I am well on my way! I needed to get my request rate up to an average of 15 per week (basically, having people who liked how I cut their hair come back and request me), and I was averaging 6-point something a week in January when she came in and now I am averaging almost 10 a week! She was really impressed with how much that number had gone up! She is also having me attend a meeting for Assistant Salon Leaders (ASLs) next Tuesday at her house and wants me to go on some retreat later next month for new salon leaders and assistant salon leaders, so...pretty much as soon as I get my request rate up to an average of 15 per week, I am promoted! One of my concerns was that she would move me to another salon, but she told me today that for now, I am going to stay where I am because her plans kinda fell through...I am just hoping that after my promotion, I can motivate the other girls to work hard and get the numbers up for the salon as a whole and she'll let me just stay there...thank you all so much for your prayers, and please continue to pray!

Sorry it has been so long since we last posted...I was waiting for Jesse to write something about his friends coming to town, but I guess he's been too busy with school and work, so I will!

The weekend after Andy and Laura came, we had the privelege of hosting four of our guy friends at our house! Wahli, Eric, Jono, and Steve all came for the weekend! They got in on Saturday at some point (I was working) and pretty much left right away and were gone all day, literally ALL OVER town! When they finally got home close to 10:00, I asked them where all they had gone, and they were like "where DIDN'T we go is the question!" Needless to say, they were all worn out and just hung out and watched some crazy kung fu movie...I went to bed about halfway through! They went to church with us the next morning and they decided that pizza sounded good for lunch, so we took them downtown to Giordano's and then to Ghirardelli for dessert. We hung out in town for a little longer and then came back to our apartment, where they packed up and left. I had a meeting at work that evening, and while that didn't sound like much fun, the prospect of being around some more estrogen sounded heavenly...don't get me wrong, these are all awesome guys, but I was to the point where if I had heard one more joke about farting or pooping, I would have about gone crazy! I guess Jesse would have felt the same way if I would have had four of my girl friends up to visit, so...I know they all had fun, and that's what counts!

We had a Super Bowl party at our house last Sunday, it was so much fun! GO COLTS!!! We had two other couples over (Craig and Danielle, Michael and Leeanne) and we all just hung out and watched the game and ate lots of food! We enjoyed most of the commercials, but I have to say that we laughed hardest at the one with Kevin Federline...It was so funny to watch the news here after the game was over because they were at all these Bears parties and everyone's just like "there's always next year!" and "we'll win next year!"...

This past Monday, our company held a regional awards banquet out in the suburbs. It was a fancy dinner (everyone was wearing fancy dresses and had their hair all done up) along with the presenting of some awards for the best salons in the area. Danielle and I were just excited to get all dressed up! It was a really fun evening, there were over 1,200 people at the event, all employees of Hair Cuttery in the Chicagoland area, so the energy in the place was awesome! My DL still hasn't come for a follow-up, so I will definitely post when she does!

Kurtis and Aimee will be in town next weekend and my grandparents possibly the next, so our weekends have been pretty full lately! We're having fun having people at our house, though, so we aren't complaining at all! Have a great weekend, everyone!

A little update...

We had some guests in town this weekend! Andy and Laura were in town to see a friend, so they came over and spent the night last night and came to church with us this morning. After church, we went out to eat at a Thai restaurant over by Moody and drove around a little bit and came home. They left soon after we got home, but it was so fun to have guests overnight! We just relaxed this afternoon and watched most of both football games that were on (how ironic that the Bears and the Colts are going to the Super Bowl?!?) and I baked some incredible chocolate chip cookies...yum!!! :) Next weekend, Eric, Wahli, and Jono are going to come for the weekend, so we have more guests to look forward to, and we are really excited!

Things are still going well at work...last week was pretty slow, as I guess January usually is in the salon, but yesterday more than made up for it...we were SO busy and I was SO tired by the time the night was over! As an assignment from my district leader, I am supposed to challenge the girls in the salon to surpass our goal for retail sales this week, so hopefully, that goes well! She should be back at the beginning of February for a follow-up to see how my numbers are. Thank you all so much for your prayers and I will do my best to keep you all updated! My friend, Danielle, is going to start at my salon tomorrow, so I am really excited about that, she is such a sweetheart! Well, that's all I have for now, have a great week!

my commute

new year

Well, Christmas Break will soon be over, and we will once again settle into a routine. It has been great to visit home over break, and we will be returning to Fort Wayne once again this weekend.

Stephanie has been doing a wonderful job at work. This week her area manager came in to talk to her about getting her on an "action plan." She is planning on promoting Stephanie to Assistant Manager as soon as some of Stephanie's numbers increase! I don't think we expected that to happen so soon, but Stephanie is very good at her job.

I don't have too much else to say, I just wanted to let everyone know about that and say that we're very excited to come home this weekend.