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.