Go Big Red

Did you know there is a limit to how many pictures you can upload to a blog?? Well there is... and apparently I am at that limit. So if any of you have suggestions about what to do about this, pleaseeee enlighten me. So now you know why I have been silent for the past 2 months. 

I managed to get 3 little pictures uploaded.. after trying multiple times over the past few weeks, for some reason it decided it would let me this time. psh who know's. Again... I am open to suggestions, advice or any little tid bits of info you'd like to give me. 

In other news...For my birthday, Andrew took me to my first husker home game! I'm a big football fan, so it was a perfect way to celebrate my birthday.

A fun time was had by all. I mean, how could you not have fun?? I don't even remember the score, but the huskers won... a whole lot, to very little. It was such a fun birthday surprise!

Life has been so very busy-- irrigation season has gone later than planned because of this unusually warm November and December weather we've been having. So Andrew's schedule has been very full, and I have been working a couple days a week as well. We are looking forward to heading south in a couple weeks for Christmas. I hope you are all having a wonderfully, blessed Christmas season! :)

Fall Fun

One of my favorite fall memories as a child was doing pumpkin carvings. Carving pumpkins is always looked at as a way of celebrating halloween by putting scary faces and such on it. But it doesn't HAVE to be that way. You can carve whatever you want onto a pumpkins! And in my opinion... they look much better without the faces. :) It came to my attention that my husband had never carved a pumpkin before, since it has always a favorite memory of mine, I wanted to share it with my favorite person! :)

Our first pumpkin we made said "Huskers."

Finished Husker pumpkins! 

We had so much fun doing the first pumpkin... we decided to do 2 more! :)

All ready to be traced! 

Andrew was a pro by the time we got to the last pumpkin! 

Tracing the design

Our handy dandy carving tools! 

After Andrew traced it, I cut it out...

...while he moved on to the next pumpkin! Since we did a husker pumpkin, we thought it was only appropriate to do a Gator one as well. :)

We did this one a little differently, because it it was so detailed, and it would be hard to get it to stay together cut out.

We traced it completely with a knife so that we could take off the top layer.

Finished! :)

That night we put a candle in it. Turned out pretty sweet, huh??! :)

Happy Fall Y'all! :)

Work vacation

We took off driving Friday night with the car pointed west-- our destination? Bridgeport, Nebraska. A tiny little town, at the foot of the Nebraska Sand hills. :)

 Andrew and I started work first thing Saturday morning. The boys were headed out with all of the supplies needed to complete the job, but they would not arrive until 2 or 3 pm. So Andrew (and I helped! :)) started getting the field ready for the irrigation system to be put in. There are so many little things that have to be done before anything can even begin! ...it's amazing.. my husband is amazing. :)

Once the boys arrived, things went into full swing, and even more so than usual as we were trying to beat the rain that was predicted for later that evening. Around 5:00 pm... this was the scene...

These two pictures
were taken at the same time. One I took out the passenger window, and the other out the driver. It was SO cool to see the storm growing, and getting darker and moving towards us. It was a very bad storm, it had hail, tornado's and 60+mph winds with it. But the Lord was gracious and the storm split down the middle, and basically went around us. (We saw that happen too. Instead of being east and west of us, it was north and south.. and we could SEE it moving around us. So cool. God is good!) We were able to get everything done we needed to that day. :)

Sunday we took the day off... and after devotions and watching my awesome Church online, we set out for some adventure. :) Our original plan was to go somewhere in Wyoming or northern Colorado, but These two rocks were about a mile from us, so we decided to climb them instead, and we are SO glad we did. It was totally amazing.

 

 The Big one is Courthouse Rock and the smaller on is Jail Rock... we climbed both.

We took on Courthouse rock first.

 Half way up... Jail Rock.

 Stopped for a pictures with my man half way up. :)

 Annddd then we made it to the top.. which had the most incredible view!

 The boys I got to hang out with all weekend. They were such good sports... even when I held them up from being able to scale the rock in 5 minutes. I tried my best to keep up but when I couldn't, they were nothing but supportive... such gentlemen. :)

 This guy makes me feel like I'm on top of that rock every.single.day. Being his wife makes me smile. :)

 There were lots of bumble bee's at the top... but don't worry, they were the friendliest little things. This one just hung out on Matthias' arm for a good 5 minutes. :) (notice the bee of his forearm)

After climbing Courthouse, we climbed Jail rock.. but I didn't bring my phone with me for that one... It was much steeper (If you can't tell from the picture above) and required a lot more actual climbing, but it was loads of fun!

Monday Tuesday and Wednesday were full work days. The girls came out to help Monday and Tuesday, and everything was finished by Wednesday evening... Andrew and I were the last to leave on Thursday Afternoon after doing a few last minute things and making sure everything was finished. :)

 Tuesday evening, Andrew, Josiah and I went and climbed Courthouse rock again because Josiah wasn't there to do it with us Sunday. Climbing it at sunset was even more amazing that climbing it the first time.

 You can hardly see it in the pictures, but Chimney Rock is to the very right of the bluffs. It was much bigger in real life.

 

My God is AWESOME! 

 

I took so many pictures of the sunsets while we were out there. They were incredible and SO vibrant every night! This was the sunset Wednesday night. I have never seen the sky those colors before. It was so beautiful and lasted for so long. I was reminded of the verses that I shared below. There were so many times over the week that I just stood in awe of my God and His creation. It is truly beautiful.  :)

 "Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world 

stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it 

stood fast."

 Psalms 33:6-9

Signs of Spring

"He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. 

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host

 by the breath of his mouth."

 Psalm 33:5-6

And we're back...

After an incredible almost 3 months in Florida, we are back in Nebraska. We are so grateful for the time we had in Florida, spending time with family and friends and the consistency of work schedules allowing us both to stay busy, but also spend more time together than ever. I personally, loved the work I was doing, teaching and coaching volleyball, and I already miss my girls! I know they are going to do great the rest of the season. And I know Andrew really enjoyed his job down there. We were both very sad to leave. 

After my volleyball tournament Sunday afternoon, Andrew and I hopped in the car and drove straight to Nebraska, making it in a record 21 and a half hours! We arrived in Nebraska around 11 am Monday Morning.

So now we are back, and Andrew's busy season is in full swing. With the strangely warm winter Nebraska had {and are still having} irrigation installations have already begun.  Andrew headed to work Monday right after lunch. That amazing man of mine went to work on less than 2 hours of sleep. AND fun fact: after only working half the day on Monday, he has still put in approximately 69 hours this week.  Seriously, he is amazing. And like I said, busy season is in fullll swing!

 I've enjoyed the opportunity to go with him 2 days this week, so I haven't had to be away from him all 69 hours he's been at work. Plus, I get to work alongside my fabulous brother's and sister's in law as well as see my handsome husband all day long and get a crazy workout all the same time. 

Side note-Before our anniversary, I made this super cute little number 1, in anticipation of taking One year anniversary pictures with our awesome photographer and friend, Michele Moreman. So stay tuned for more pictures to come. :)

"For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
   his faithfulness continues through all generations."

Psalm 100:5

Champions!

This past weekend, we played in our 2nd tournament of the season and WON! :) 

I am so proud of these girls and I am having so much fun coaching them! 

Florida Update

The past few weeks have been busy. Andrew and I have both had very full schedules and so I have had little time to sit down and blog. Andrew's job working for a large commercial construction company has been an absolute blessing. He is really enjoying the consistent hours, and experience he is getting working for such a big company. I have been working, usually, 4 days a week as a teacher at The First Academy, and I have really enjoyed that as well.

This past weekend we had our first tournament out at Disney. It is one of the biggest we will play in this season, and out of 32 teams, my girls came in 4th! ...not bad for their first time ever playing together. :) I am looking forward to the rest of the season. It has been such a privilege being able to coach these girls. :)

Yesterday's weather report. 70 degrees in Seward, NE and 68 degrees where we are in Windermere, FL. 

One thing we are not very certain about, is how much longer we are going to be able to be down here. Like honestly, what is going on with the weather up north!? I'm beginning to wonder if Al gore was right about global warming! (...just kidding, but seriously.) 70 degrees in Nebraska in January!? What is up with that?!  If this weather keeps up, we are going to have to go back sooner than planned...and neither one of us want that. So, sorry to my friends and family who are loving this strange weather, but Andrew and I are both down here praying that winter hits soon. It's not that we aren't happy for you, but to quote my husband "that is just not right!" :)

Isaiah 45:6-7

Sunrise over Lake Butler. 1.17.2012

6:57 A.M.

"That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. 

I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, 

I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord do all these things."

Isaiah 45:6-7

Capital One Bowl

This year Nebraska was selected to play in the Capital One Bowl, which coincidentally is played at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. Once we found out they were playing there, we started looking for tickets. The tickets were sold out, but 4 days before the game, someone graciously gave 4 tickets to my dad. So we were able to go watch the huskers play! 

It was an absolutely beautiful day for football. We were sitting on the South carolina side, so we had a perfect view of the "sea of red"

Nebraska scored the first touchdown. :)

 My best friend, Allison is a diver at the University of South Carolina. She and Andrew did a lot of smack talking leading up to the game. 

Even though Nebraska didn't come out with the win, we still had fun. And it was so wonderful to be together! :)