December

It's been a while since I've written here's a list of what we've been up to...

• For Thanksgiving we went to Andy's parents and had a good time sharing a meal together





• I have been substituting when I can and have been preparing to apply for the up coming job rush by revamping my cover letter, resume, and portfolio, hopefully making myself look more appealing to school districts. I'm definitely ready and anxiously waiting to have my own classroom. I don't know how much more subbing I can do.





• Andy is almost at the end of his semester, only has until this Tuesday so right now he's in the midst of finals. So he's been studying up a storm and obviously can't wait to finish.
(Buckley sleeping on a bean bag at the McG's)




• The first weekend of December, so last weekend, Buckley and I ventured up to Schaumburg to visit with my parents. Buck had a blast squeeking toys, tearing them up, and "playing" with Maisy and Skippy. Maisy tolerated him after a while and Skip found him fascinating.





• We subleased our apartment for January and February (Yea!), but still have not found housing for all 3 of us for Idaho. So we are still working on that and hoping for the best. Otherwise Buck will have to spend two months at Gma and Gpa Schu's.

(Our attempt at a family photo)

That's about it though. Hasn't been too eventful, but still somewhat busy none the less. Buckley Jones has been keeping us busy. (As I write this he is sitting on my lap and crawling up onto the desk...)

You have to admit... He's pretty cute.

Sleeping on the bed, between the pillows.

Buckley has become my shadow. He's a great dog. Very smart. A hit at the dog park. Stubborn. Will do "tricks" without being told if you're holding a treat. (Was teaching him "sit" and "down", bring out a treat he'll sit and lie down without being told... ask him later without a treat, he's uninterested.) He's pretty cute.

Post bath picture. =)

Sleeping, but all ears.Playing with Rabbit.

Buckley and Halloween

Well the day has finally arrived! We have our new addition to our little family: Buckley. He is quite a joy too. (He is on my lap as I type) He really is a great dog so far, unless he is just buttering us up only to change into a horrible terror. Buckley is a beagle mix. We adopted him from Belleville Humane Society on Thursday the 28th. They predict he's either 2 or 3, but he totally plays like a puppy. He is so loveable and cuddly and very eagar to please. He is housetrained and will sometimes sit on comand, but most of the time I think its just a coincidence. But he really is a very well behaved dog, despite not knowing sit, down, stay, etc. He loves to sleep in bed with us and hates being put into his "home" (kennel) at night and when we're gone during the day. He did have a three hour "Out of his home" experience when Andy didn't shut it well enough. Surprisingly, all little Buckley did was jump up on our bed and take a nap! What a great dog!

Halloween Costumes

I was a Math-lete Championship Participant... my name tag belowAndy was a "tacks" collector. He has thumb tacks on his shirt in case you can't tell.

Happy 23rd Birthday

This past weekend was my 23rd birthday and my parents came to help us celebrate. My parents arrived Friday at about 3 and we went to the zoo for a few hours. When we got home, Andy was done with school so we made a cake and opened some presents. Andy got me NeedToBreathe concert tickets and a purse I've wanted forever and a dog toy... for the dog we're getting!!! We then went to a restaurant on The Hill then came home and ate some cake! Saturday we went to a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins! Then we went to an animal shelter and found our future dog! (More on him to come) We then spent the night playing Scrabble....

Unfortunately our night didn't end too well. My dad went down to get something out of their car and found that someone busted their back window and stole some things out of their car. Nothing too valuable was stolen, but my mom's glasses, phone charger, camera charger and my dad's brand new Green Bay Packer sweatshirt was taken.. (The window is now fixed) We're just glad that no one was hurt and nothing too big was stolen.

Sunday we went to church and my parents left shortly after lunch. It was great seeing them and was a great addition to celebrating my birthday.

Oh! Last weekend we ran a 10K! And ran the whole thing without stopping to walk or rest. We were pretty proud of ourselves, especially because we didn't train, we ran only 3 times before hand. I caught a running high and am planning on running a half marathon in April. Andy will probably join me.

On the next Andy and Allysha Blog: Our Dog.

In Case You Were Wondering

So it's been a little while since the last post and much or not so much has happened... So I'll fill you in...

Andy is continuing to study and put in a lot of hours at school, while I am toning my crossword skills and becoming very literate. Yes, I've become quite the substitute teacher, spending my 'proctoring' time doing crosswords and my 'planning' periods reading. I'm quite proud of my accomplishments. When I'm not working I usually spend my time reading (the books right now are Crazy Love by Francis Chan and Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina) and cleaning and catching up on the latest hit shows... Who knew Glee is actually an addicting show... Together we are still going to our community group and actually hosted a dinner while our group leaders were out of town for our last group. It's been great getting to know them and actually having some fellowship in our lives.
Last weekend was Andy's fall break, so he had Monday and Tuesday off. We went to a marriage conference that our church sponsored on Friday night and Saturday morning. On Sunday we took off south to the Ozarks to do a one day backpacking trip (hence the cool gear). It was beautiful and a great getaway. I didn't have as much fun as Andy did, but we all know how much I love going to the bathroom outside and we definitely know how much I adore daddy long legs... But it was really nice and COLD. Our tent was nice and warm though and we slept REALLY well, like almost 11 hours...

This weekend, Andy dedicated to studying and finishing up projects, so he's at school right now as I'm writing this. Last night we took my cousin Kealan out to Pi (pizza place) because he was in town on a field trip for the weekend. It was fun to see him and we even talked to Grandma together on the phone! Today (Saturday) Andy hit the books once again and I headed to Charleston to have lunch with a friend (Augie) and a baby shower (Sarah). It was really good day.

As I was trying to finish this up right then I kept feeling as I was leaving something out...

WE'RE MOVING TO IDAHO!?! Andy had his clinical lottery on Wednesday where they had to choose their next three clinical sites. His 3rd and 4th clinical sites are in the area within 30 minutes of us. When it came to choosing his 2nd clinical site, Idaho was his best pick. So for January and February 2011, we'll be living in Pocatello (?) Idaho.

My Dad!

Sorry I forgot to add this. I love this picture and I love my dad.

Surprise!

Well! It's been a long time since I've written so quite an update is necessary...

This past weekend Andy and I headed up to Schaumburg. We stopped by O'Hare to pick up a special someone, MY SISTER! And together we headed to our parent's house and arrived at oh about 1 am. My dad lay in anticipation of our arrival, but my mother fast asleep was soon awaken by Skippy announcing there were not one but three intruders! My mom's birthday was September 21st and so for her big 50th birthday we decided to surprise her with our presence and a surprise party on Saturday. Surprisingly and Successfully we pulled it off!

We went down to Chicago on Saturday. Ate lunch at The Grill on the Alley (I think) which was super good. Mom and I shared a pot pie (this was her half...!) We then walked around town and finally saw the infamous "eye" of the city. It was a great time minus Andy being sick with a bit of the stomach flu and me being sick with a head cold... So after lolly-gagging downtown passing the time it was finally time to head home and cross our fingers that our mother would be surprised... And SURPRISE! she nearly fell over when the lights went on. It was a great party with most of our friends and family and our wonderful neighbors and family who helped put it all together while we were gone! Sunday we went to church and out to Wildberry for a delicious breakfast. Sadly Andy and I had to make the long journey back shortly after.

That was our fun weekend... To update you on our lives a little...

Andy is still in school (hasn't dropped out =D ). He is beginning to feel the pressures more than ever and has definitely realized how hard it is to study when his beautiful and wonderful wife is at home... =D But all in all I think he is doing pretty good with it. He did get a little sick this past weekend, but I think is all healed now.

I am still subbing. I enjoy it, I don't enjoy not knowing my schedule ahead of time so this can be quite a nightmare for me. But I do enjoy it when I'm actually doing it. I have finished a book and have started doing crosswords during my periods off... In other words becoming a real sub. I have also started working with 1 and 2 year olds at church during the second service and I think I enjoy that. I wish I was working with older kids, but they had a need so I'll work with it. I finally got over my head cold from this past weekend, praying I don't fall ill for at least another month... ugh.

Together we just joined a community group with church that met for the first time this past Tuesday. It was great to finally have fellowship and meet new people with similar beliefs. We are really looking forward to this. We are excited to finally have people to talk to and to learn more and discuss more about God. We are praying for depth with our relationships with these people and a depth in conversations.

Things to pray for us about...

Andy with school, dealing with stress and picking clinical sites next Wednesday (pray for St. Louis sites)

Me just with my health and just that I am able to stay positive and flexible

Our relationship that it continues to grow and stay healthy

Thanks for reading!

Labor Day Weekend

Hey All!
Sadly I have no new pictures to post... But I thought I'd let everyone what we've been up to since the last post... I (Allysha) got terribly sick on Thursday August 26th with the flu, became dehydrated, etc.. So for about a week the only things I did were watch movies, lie on the couch, and sleep. I think I'm finally getting back to normal so as you can imagine it was quite the sickness. My great husband took care of me and went to class and was really great at going to the store and getting me what I needed.
After feeling better and for the holiday weekend my parents and dogs came for a visit! So we all crammed into our little one bedroom apartment for a fun weekend. On Saturday we took the dogs to Forest Park to show the parents around and to really wear out the dogs! We then went to a steak place in St. Louis, Tuckers. It was really good.
Sunday we went to church and Andy left for work. My parents and I went to lunch, Trader Joe's, and DSW. We then decided to try out the Greek Festival that happens here. We decided to walk and well it's about 2 miles from my apartment so we were already hot when we got there and the tents were all put together really close with no breeze. But it was pretty cool they had Greek dancers and music and of course Greek foods. We came back and made dinner and had an early night, as my stomach was not happy with all the excitment...
Monday morning we took it easy and just hung out while Andy spent our money at yet another REI garage sale. We went out for lunch and said our goodbyes and my parents and puppies left on their long journey home. I then took a two hour nap.

Job! Sort of!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I got a substitute teaching position in the Mehlville School District and am VERY excited that I will at least be able to get into a classroom a couple of times this year (or MANY, hopefully). It's definitely a step in the right direction and definitely a blessing from God. I met a girl from church who just got a teaching job there and she requested me and poof! I got a job! So it's wonderful news. Hopefully I can get in a few more schools and hopefully work 5 days a week for those sick or worn out teachers! Pray I can sub for a maternity leave or illness (not that I wish illness on anyone...)!

Friends and Fam

This Lovely thing was a visitor we had for a day who decided to spend a day in our flowers outside!

So we have been visited and have been visiting people this past weekend and last! Last Friday we were visited by Andy's parents for a couple of hours. We got to visit, eat lunch, and share some of our wedding photos with them before they had to head out to get Cait and travel west. It was a great visit and they brought us beautiful roses from their garden to make a great bright addition to our coffee table!

This very Wednesday we headed up to Schaumburg to visit with my parents and see Megan off before she leaves to Mexico on the 17th. So Thursday I went out to breakfast with her and Andy went and saw Dan. It was great to see them. I especially enjoyed seeing Megan and it was a bittersweet meeting because I haven't seen her in a while and now I won't see her for a long time, but I'm so happy we came up and saw her. (I've known Megan for almost 20 years now)

Friday I got to spend some good quality time with my Mom which was great and felt like old times. Andy and I played Nertz (a card game) with my mom and dad and had a great time cracking up about how slow my dad can be at fast pace games. Unfortunatly our stay was not very long.

On Saturday we headed down to New Lenox for Kyle and Lisa's wedding! (Andy lived with Kyle the same year I lived with Lisa!) It was a beautiful ceremony and just a fun time. I got to see my other old roommate, Emily, so it was good to see her and spend some time catching up! After the wedding we headed back to Saint Louis where Andy's friend Brandon was eagarly waiting to watch fighting with Andy. We had some great times and only more to come this week with our friends Augie and Naomi coming for the weekend!

Some things to pray for us about would be: for me and hives and everything else that seems to be wrong with me! I think stress is really having a feast on my body.

A job! I got a call about another opening and with school starting this next week, just that something would happen and fast or that it would be clear as to what we should do.

For Andy with starting school the 16th, mentally preparing him for classes and studying.

Also for Andy as he is working on memory and attention problems.

Thanks for reading!

Honeymoon

Hey! So Andy and I just got back from our honeymoon this past Friday. We went to Cozumel, Mexico and had an amazing time. It really was glorious (which was my word phrase of the week to describe anything). So I won't spend too much time in detail but I'll give you an overview of our "glorious" week...

Friday the 9th- We left our apartment about 4a.m. for our 6a.m. flight from Saint Louis to Houston, TX. From there we left around 12 to arrive into Cozumel about 2p.m. We were then taken in a van to our resort, the Iberostar. This was the farthest south resort and located in a nature reserve which means we had a ton of animals. We spent this night relaxing, swimming, and having a drink by the pool.

Saturday the 10th- We also decided to take it easy... We explored the beach a little bit and layed out by the pool reading and sleep (my favorite). We went swimming and tried out the swim up bar. Due to excessive sun exposure... spent a lot of the late afternoon and night watching tv in the room.

Sunday the 11th- We took a Jeep tour around the island! On the tour, we went snorkelling, ate at a "good" restaurant, saw crocodiles, climbed up a lighthouse, went to a tequila factory, saw Mayan ruins and drove by a ton of BEAUTIFUL beaches. When we got back we relaxed in the pool (of course) and had some dinner.

Monday the 12th- We spent the day at the resort. We went snorkelling at our beach and just kind of hung out. (Sounds boring, but was a good day)

Tuesday the 13th- We spent another day just doing our own thing. We went snorkelling in our beach again, went kayaking in the ocean, and did some salsa dancing.

Wednesday the 14th- We decided to rent a car and explore the island for ourselves. We drove the only road there is on the island to find the best beach. We found a beach that had no one there, except the lifeguard with clear blue water and huge waves (there was a danger sign that noted the strong tide). Perfect for wave jumping and body surfing. After a while our private beach became not so private anymore... A little ways down there were a lot of people in the water and in a quick second the lifeguard rose from his spot and ran towards them shouting to come in closer to the shore, but the tide had pulled a girl and a guy out far from the beach. So we got to see a rescue in action. The guy I think was fine and was trying to help the girl, but the girl was absolutely histerical and burned out. But in the end they were okay. We sat out of the water for a while but then got back in and did some more wave jumping and headed on our way. We went back and ate dinner and then headed out to the market, but was really frustrating with all the people.

Thursday the 15th- It rained almost all morning so we stayed in and watched tv and played Boggle and Scrabble. We then went on a glassbottom boat snorkelling ride. We went to three different reefs. The first reef was filled with Starfish of all different sizes and colors. The second reef we saw all different types of cool fish and a sea turtle. The third reef was cool, but I don't really remember too much about it because I was freaking out about the stupid jelly fish who kept stinging me, which resulted getting on the boat earlier than most. We spent that night going to eat at a restaurant and hanging out on the pier.

Friday the 16th- This was our journey home which lasted the entire day. We left the resort at 10 a.m. and because of flight times and lay-overs we arrived at our apartment at about 10 p.m.

All in all it was a wonderful trip.

Happy 4th!

This past weekend was a somewhat busy one! We headed back up North to Schaumburg on Friday morning to spend some time with my parents and dogs before Saturday. Saturday was my grandma's 80th birthday party at my Aunt Cathy's place of work which was huge and amazing. A TON of people showed up for it and it was a great way to celebrate the best grandma ever.

We then headed over to my Aunt Cathy's and Uncle Pat's place for a smaller celebration with family only. It was a lot of fun. Good food, good conversation, and a not so good game of bags for Kate and me. Andy and I headed out about 930, arriving back in Saint Louis at about 3 am...

We still made it to 9 o'clock service however! Andy went to work for a couple of hours and then we began our fourth of July celebration. We went downtown downtown, near the arch. We walked through this cool park with a ton of sculptures and water fountains. We then went to stake out our spot for the fireworks. We found a lovely spot that wasn't too crowded but enough people to think it was a good spot. We listened to the B52's who were playing for the fest, who were absolutely awful sounding and played Andy's most favorite song, Love Shack...

Then the fire works started... And the tree we though the fireworks would go higher than covered our entire view of them. So we quickly ran from our "perfect" spot and found a good standing spot. Our first 4th of July in Saint Louis was a pretty cool and exciting experience.

This Weekend and Last

This is a super long post (I apologize) you totally don't have to read it.

Andy and I have had two exciting weekends in a row and it's been a nice change. It was great to be able to hang out with family and friends. Last weekend we headed up north first to Peoria for Andy's friend, Tim's wedding. We then continued our journey to Oswego for my cousin Shane's high school graduation party. It was a lot of fun and the first time to see the family after we had gotten married. There was a ton of food (including a roasting pig) and hot weather. I even got called a creep by someone. =) So all in all it was a completely successful day, apparently.

The rest of Saturday we spent watching 24. Sunday we went to church with my family and celebrated Father's Day with grilling out and playing bags. In which me and Andy got obliterated...

Tuesday was our one month anniversary and when Andy got home from work, we got dressed up and headed to the hill. The Hill in Saint Louis is where there are a TON of Italian restaurants all with the names of Mama and Papa and all those Italianish words. We went to a place called Zia's which was PACKED. Especially for a Tuesday night. It was pretty good.

Thursday was our first experience to find and go to a medical facility... I was up most of the night on Wednesday for a pain in my side and other symptoms... Which we knew wasn't my appendix because that's long gone. So we frantically checked if I still had insurance (oops) and went to a local urgent care. All in all I got some meds and am finally feeling better. But being in a new place where you don't know anyone or places around like that can be frustrating and annoying especially when you're in pain.

Friday about mid afternoon two good friends showed up... Megan and Augie! They came for the weekend to hang out and explore. Friday night we took it easy (because I wasn't feeling well) and made BLTs and watched the final episodes of LOST. Saturday, Megan and I got up and made Monkey Bread for breakfast while the boys put new tires on Andy's bike, which looks brand new now. We then all headed to the Science Museum in Forest Park. It was really a neat museum, not a whole lot to do if you don't want to pay money, but fun none the less. We even contracted DNA from wheat germ! Haha. We all (22-25) were surrounded in a lab with 4 and 5 year olds and their parents doing experiments with lab coats and goggles. We then ate lunch, took a nap, watched two more episodes of LOST and then went to the zoo to see the penguins, prairie dogs, and the river walk trail. After those short exhibits we were all drenched with sweat.

We took another swing by the originial PI restaurant and I was greatly disappointed at their lack of mathematical proofs involving PI on their bathroom doors. But the pizza was delicious as well as the garlic bread. When we got back we did a photo shoot, obviously and watched the most antipated episode of LOST, the series finale. And we were all greatly disappointed. Sunday we slept through our alarm and had to go to later church while Andy went to work. Came home made veggie pizza and played some games. And finally had to say goodbye to our dear friends. The rest of Sunday I felt exhausted and took a super long nap, I just can't hang out like I used to being an old married lady.

Happenings

So not too much is new in our household...

We did however get a pet. He is a male Betta. Our new addition to the family is NAP (Not a Pup) named in the hopes that one day we will get a puppy. NAP is not too friendly and doesn't seem to like us very much. He is also kind of boring and doesn't like going on walks. My big incentive in finding a job is so that we can get a puppy. Both of us being from families with dogs, we feel there is an absence in our home. I think I'm most affected from this change and miss Maisy and Skippy very much...

As you can also see we finally got our kitchen cart and put it together, together. It is very nice and fits well in the space provided. It doesn't exactly match the rest of our kitchen but does the job of hiding things well. We do like it a lot better than the wire shelving unit we had up before

it. It also is nice because it provides extra counter space to work on.

In the post before we mentioned our Dyson vacuum. I love it and it vacuums very well.

Outside of just the items in our house... Andy is still doing his clinicals Monday through Thursday and I think is still for the most part enjoying them. He is working on Sundays for a couple of hours also. I started nannying this week which is a great break from being at home working on things around the house, thank you notes (yes they're coming...), and job stuff. Speaking of jobs, I did have my second interview with a school district for both a high school position or a middle school position as I interviewed with both principals. So I will know by the end of this week, early next week if they will ask me back for the final interview. Cross your fingers and pray that the verdict is a good one. God will definitely provide but it would be nice to be assured that I have a job and we will have a cash flow. Other than that nothing much is new!

Welcoming New Members to Family

Hi. This is Andy and I will try my best to narrate this post. Meet the newest (and largest) member of our family. He goes by the name of Gigantor and he makes coffee tables (which appear larger in previous pictures) look tiny. We got him last Friday and we are very excited. We also got a Dyson Vacuum (Allysha is thrilled) and new bed sheets and comforter! All in all we have done a lot of shopping and we feel very blessed to have all of these things. In my opinion, we have quite an apartment (I have to admit that Allysha should get almost entirely (98%) all of the credit for the design and arrangement; she has done an amazing job).






In other news, we set out on Saturday morning to do a little more hiking with our friend Irene. This time we went to Babler State Park. We did see a large crawly thing and some pretty flowers, but the bugs were terrible. The highlight of the trip: Allysha finding two tics on her arms! Hopefully she's not scarred for life...



We are finally getting settled in and life feels like it is starting to become normal. We have been going to great church called The Journey and are looking for ways to get involved. I'm still working at my clinical and Allysha starts her nannying job this week. Thanks for reading.