Partly Cloudy with a chance of Showers

We were treated to a lovely shower from our Red Bridge family.  Thank you for all the wonderful gifts.  They will be a great help as we continue to get things ready.  Stefanie is now 32 weeks along and we are getting closer to arrival day.  We are getting anxious and trying to make sure we have everything prepared for when he arrives. 

Summer Happenings

It seems like once a season is about as frequent as this blog gets updated these days. Stefanie and I have had a busy, but enjoyable summer, so far. At the beginning of the summer we sat down and started talking about all the things we wanted to do. Even though most of the items on the list were only weekend long excursions, dates filled up fast. We started out the summer by heading to Piedras Negras, Mexico with a group from Joplin. This was one of several times for me to go with the church I grew up in. However, this was Stefanie's first trip and we were very excited for her to get to experience it. Vida Nueva (New Life) Ministries is the organization we have always gone down to help. It is amazing to see how this area has changed since the first trip I made in high school. One of the special things about this trip was the decision that Stefanie and I made to sponsor a child so they can attend preschool. The cool thing was that we got to meet Maria, the child we are sponsoring before we left (Thanks for the picture, Bethany). If you are interested in sponsoring a child I would encourage you to get in contact with Lorena (lorenavidanueva AT hotmail.com) and see how you can make a difference in a child's life.

After Mexico, we've spent about every weekend traveling to see our family and friends across the midwest. We've purchased tickets from scalpers, danced in the car, and watched fireworks with captivated preschool boys.

For the most part things have been positive. However, there is always the good that comes with the bad. I lost my last living grandparent in May and Stefanie's dad has been in and out of the hospital a couple of times for surgery to repair some of the ailments that are a result of the cancer that recurred two years ago. He is home now and has started recovering, but we would still solicit your prayers.

In all things, we know that God is good and that we are Safe in His arms.

It's been awhile

August 29, 2009. That's the date of our last post. It seems like we have been going almost non-stop since then. Stefanie has been busy with her new 4th grade class and I've been staying busy at work. In our free time we've been on the road quite a bit. We've been to Rogers, St. Louis and Joplin all in the last several weeks. We've visited family and friends and enjoyed spending time with everyone. We finally had a weekend at home to relax a couple of weeks ago, and I did a pretty good job of making it less fun by being sick all weekend. Now that there is a little bit of a lull before holiday season starts, we hope to do some relaxing again.

Cardinals/Royals Game

On Saturday afternoon we got to enjoy some afternoon baseball with friends at Kauffman Stadium. We had a great time tailgating beforehand, even in the middle of a few sprinkles. After about an hour and a half rain delay the game got started. Here are a few highlights. You can see all of our pictures on facebook.

We had great seats thanks to Josh winning tickets from his office.

you can't help but relish the condiment race

the sea of red

Stef is sporting her Royals give-a-way hat.

Summer's heating up

Temperatures are rising, bugs are biting and the smell of BBQ is in the air.  Summer time is here (although not officially until June 21st).   This will be our best summer yet as a married couple.  Yes, that's right it's our first summer as a married couple.  Anyway, we have a lot of fun already planned and I know that just as much enjoyment will come from the unplanned events.  Baseball games, relaxing by the pool, family/friend visits, cookouts, church activities and float trips are all ready planned.  Who knows, we might even make a trip to Branson.  If you are going to be in the KC area, please let us know so we can try to meet up.

Who Said You Can't Go Home?!

This weekend will mark our first visit back home since our move. I cannot wait!!! I really do like the Kansas City area, but the thought of returning to a place with our family and friends brings such warmth to my heart. We have some wonderful people in our lives here. Scott has several friends who live in the area, and we have enjoyed getting together with them over the past few weeks. We've found a church home where we feel welcomed and loved... already! Such great people!! Still, I am very excited about seeing some familiar faces and places. Pretty sure that I won't be ready to come back when it's time to leave... but maybe I will. Like I said, KC is starting to grow on me. :)

Stefanie

One week and counting

Well, it's officially been one full week since we made our move to the Kansas City area. It's been pretty busy around here but a good first week. We went to church on Sunday and were able to meet up with a family that Scott used to go to church with in Joplin. They have a daughter that is my age who got married last summer (We had the SAME wedding dress! I think we're just made to be friends.) They already knew that we were moving to Overland Park, so we weren't too nervous about going to a new church since we already knew some people there. EVERYONE was so friendly & nice! We had a wonderful time at church & then went to lunch with our new (Scott's old) friends.

Scott began his first day of work at KDOT on Monday. It was a little overwhelming because of all the information he had to take in the first day, but for a first day of work it went well. He found out that he will be in charge of 7 projects in the area. He is now a supervisor of 4 people, so he'll have to take a class in April dealing with all of the fun stuff that goes along with that responsibility. And he now has his own office! YAY!!  (I'm more impressed with this fact than he is. haha) He also found out on Monday that he would be going to Topeka for a class the next day. He had to report to work on Tuesday & Wednesday at 6:30 in the morning. Needless to say, not having to be at work until 8 o'clock now seems wonderful! :) The rest of his week went really well, and he thinks that he's going to like it.

My week consisted of cleaning, unpacking, and putting away everything in our boxes. I will not complain because we were fortunate enough to have movers who packed, loaded, & unloaded EVERYTHING that we had. It was wonderful!! However, I do not like clutter, so once the movers left I was ready to start unpacking. I finished unpacking & putting away everything by Tuesday. I couldn't have been happier, but we had 36 boxes full of packing paper that needed to be broken down & taken away. WE HAD A LOT OF PACKING PAPER!!! One small box of packing paper took up 4 large trash bags. I've spent the remainder of my time trying to get all of that paper & boxes to our local recycling center. I've got about 4 more boxes left. I will probably do a somersault when all of those are gone. :)

Wednesday night we went to church and met more wonderful people. I feel very fortunate to have found a place where I feel so welcomed so early on. :) Thursday night we went to dinner at Josh & Holly's. We had a wonderful time together with a delicious meal (thanks Holly).  Now we look forward to a nice, quiet weekend at home....hopefully with as little snow as possible. Stay tuned.

House for Sale

Last Saturday Stefanie and I went to KC to go apartment hunting.  We got to stay with Josh & Holly on Friday night and set out on Saturday to find a place to live.  After looking at six places, we settled on AMLI Clear Creek apartments in Overland Park, Kansas. 

We now have our house in Pea Ridge up for sale.  It was built in 2007, approximately 1340 square feet, 3 bed/2 bath, all brick and only minutes from Bentonville.  If you, or someone you know is looking you can send them to www.tinyurl.com/204Oakley or have them search for MLS #568760 on their favorite site for more info.

A New Leaf

As spring approaches, most of us eagerly anticipate the end of winter.  Warmer temperatures surprise us more frequently, the green color slowly returns to the horizion and the familiar chirping of birds and crickets graces our ears.  Seasons are changing for us as well.  As most of you know, I was laid off from my job with Crafton Tull Sparks on January 9.  Since then I have been looking for work and pondering all of the questions that invade your mind after a life altering event.  We have had such great support from all of those around us.  Our family, friends and church family have shown us an immessurable amount of love and we are truly greatful for that.  On Wednesday I was in Olathe, KS for an interview with the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT).  I have since been offered the position and have accepted.  Details are still trickling in, but I will likely start sometime in the middle of March.  Stefanie and I believe that God has answered our prayers by providing this opportunity for us.  This is a very exciting/nerve racking/sad time for us.  Change is never easy, but is often beneficial.  We will leaving an area that we both have grown to love.  We have made so many friends and we hate to create a further physical distance betweeen us, but know that you will always be in our hearts.  We plan to come back and visit when possible and will do our best to stay in touch.  We have several friends in the KC area and we look forward to being near them.  Again, we can not thank you enough for all of your prayers.  We know that without them things would have been much worse.  Please know that this is not goodbye, simply a new leaf.

New Hobby

I have picked up the new hobby of geocaching. I think I might have Stef hooked, as well. What is geocaching you might ask. Here's what the website has to say:

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.

Stef went with me today and helped me find my 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th caches and I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it. Check it out, you might just enjoy it.

Here's our first find of the day. (it's the little green thing next to my gps. it has a small log book inside to sign)
I've also been keeping up with my finds with a google map.

View Larger Map

Weekend Getaway

We had a great time last weekend relaxing at the lake with a bunch of my old college buddies. I can't really summarize the whole weekend, so I'll let the pictures (thanks Holly) do the talking.

Would you believe that we were playing baseball?

Steve and Nate fight over the disc

Yummy.

hanging out

Puzzling

beware of the spoons

it's amazing someone didn't lose a limb

the gang

a little more goofiness

FPU, Weekend Getaway, & Misc. Wedding stuff

Hello, world. How about an update? Here goes.

Wednesday night was our first FPU class. It went quite well (Stefanie loves workbooks). I have no doubt that this will be a huge help in getting our marriage started in the right direction. If you are unfamiliar with the program you can see the first lesson here (free).

We are very excited about the events of the upcoming weekend. We are getting together with many of my friends from college (they are Stefanie's friends now, too) for a weekend at the lake. It will be a great time to catch up and reminisce.

In a wedding plans update, we have tuxes picked out, invitations ordered, and are trying to figure out what the next big item will be.

That's all for now.

Scott