A little late...

As I was trying to delete pictures off my phone to make room for more photos, I realized that I never made a post that I promised MONTHS ago. Months ago might be giving myself more credit than I deserve even.

The last few years on the day after Thanksgiving and the following weekend, my mom and my sister have come to spend time at my house. We spend a whole day making all sorts if Christmas goodies. It's kind of like our test run of the things we want to make for Christmas. 

So little sister, here are the pics that I promised back in November.

My medium size crockpot had gone to work with my Husband this day for an employee potluck, so we used the football pot to melt our Almond Bark for our delicious, dipped goodness. 

The Statue of Liberty... Or something like that..

Dad and the Dog, our taste testers/quality control.

Couch to 5K

Last October we attended the first annual "Huxman Run 2 Sweat" benefiting the National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias (http://huxmanrun2sweat.com/ & http://www.nfed.org/ ). The event is organized by some family  members of mine, so, we made it priority to be there even though we knew we couldn't run the race (we were far too out of shape). At the Huxman Run 2 Sweat, there is a 1 mile run/walk, a 5k, and a 10k. We collectively (me, my husband, my sister and my mom) decided we would walk the 5k race (we were glad that others made the same decision). So, we walked the 3.1 miles. We had fun and supported family members and a great cause. After the race we (me, my husband, and my sister) said, "maybe we'll run it next year". And then.... we did nothing about it.


At the beginning of summer, I decided it was time for me to do something about getting in shape. I started by going on walks. I recruited my sister to walk with me. On one of our first walks we talked about how we were going to walk the 5k this year, but we were going to train and improve our times. Next, on my mission to getting in shape, I recruited my husband. We started taking nightly bike rides. Many nights I would go ride bikes with him and then go on a walk with my sister. I was determined to keep myself going, and wanted to keep them going, so I would do whichever kind of workout they wanted. During this time, I also decided that I wanted to run some. So, when they weren't available to workout with me, I started working out with the Couch to 5k workout. It's a workout I've started several times, but never stuck with very long. Somewhere during this time period I got myself an accountability partner. (My cousin Cathy has been great! I'm sure she has no idea how much she has helped me!) Then, summer came into full swing, and it was still over 100* when it was time for us to workout in the evenings. So, instead of getting heatstroke, we joined a gym!

About the time we joined the gym, we all decided that we weren't satisfied walking the race this October. We would train so that we would be able to run at least half of the race.


That race was this past Saturday. We went to Moundridge at stayed the night at Grandma's the night before so we were awake and ready on the chilly (or as my dad would say, invigorating) Saturday morning. My brother-in-law and his wife came to run it with us, too. We all finished the 5k and didn't even have to walk! My brother-in-law came in 2nd overall and my sister-in-law got a medal in our age group, too!

Anyway,  I just wanted to share an updated and about our experience. I'm so proud everyone!


My sister, Kendra, and me

Sister-in-Law Megan, Brother-in-Law Casey, Me, Cory

The Next Becky?

A few weeks ago my family took a trip together. My mom and I decided we were making a stop at Hobby Lobby, the boys (my dad and my husband) decided they were going to take that time to check out the golf equipment at the sporting goods store. That left my little sister to decide which store she was going along to. She decided to stick it out with the ladies and head to Hobby Lobby. She's not usually ecited about a trip to Hobby Lobby, and I don't think this trip was really much different. I made it my goal to help her find some goods to work on a project. Like a lot of other people, we've joined the website www.pinterest.com. She picked something that she had pinned, a bullitin board for her bedroom. The orignal pin had a bullitin board covered in scrapbook paper. When we dicussed how we wanted to complete her project, we decided that fabric would be a better option to cover the board because on paper each time you push in a pin, there would be a premenant hole showing. After we decided how we were going to go about the project, the next step was to pick the fabric. With the fabric chosen and other supplies purchased it was time to get started.

We took pictures along the way to show mom. Here they are:


Cutting fabric is hard work. (She's going to kill me)

Sewing all the pieces together.
"We're not taking this to the 4-H fair, right?"

Ironing the seams open.

Showing Mom and Kyzer what she did.

The finished product. At least for now.
We may add some ribbons to it.

Becoming Becky Homecky

I've had this blog for years. Every year I resolve that I am going to do better at keeping it updated. And every year, I fail.

I thought this would be a good time to talk about my journey to becoming Becky Homecky. For those of you who have known me, you know I've had no business being in the kitchen, and creative wasn't a word I would use to describe myself.

Within the last year or so some of these things have begun to change. I remember one day I told my mom, "I want to bake a cake. But not just a normal cake in a rectangle pan." The next time I went home I borrowed my mom's round cake dishes. I went home and baked my first 2-layer cake, and that was the start of it.



Bow for my niece

My next inspiration were my beautiful nieces. I thought it would be fun to make hair bows for them. So, whether or not they (or their moms) like it, they've gotten several different bows.



MCC Heath Kit Bag

My next desire was a sewing machine. I used to sew when I was in 4-H, until I ruined an outfit I was preparing for the fair. After that experience I swore off sewing for the rest of my life (at least that's what I thought at the time). By my last year in 4-H, I had decided that I would make one more sewing entry for my last fair. I expected that to be the last of my sewing.  Years later.. I found myself wanting to sew something. Nothing specific, just wanted to sew. Mom wasn't willing to give up her sewing machine like she did her cake pans. I got very excited when I looked in the Black Friday ads. Mom, my sister, and I always attend the Black Friday "festivities". So, in the middle of the night we headed out to Wal-Mart with our store map in hand and strategy planned out. I stationed myself at the sewing machine pile waiting for the go-ahead to load my new prize into my cart! My first project was making bags to fill with health kits for MCC. Filling these bags at Christmas is a family tradition, and I was glad to help Grandma in the construction of the bags. My next project was an insulated dish carrier for my Grandma for Christmas. My computer desk has now been changed into a home for my sewing machine (the computer has been exiled to the basement). I probably got a little too excited the day that happened.

It's been fun finding my inner Becky Homecky. My poor mom gets phone calls of silly questions all the time, while I'm brainstorming new ideas. And pictures of projects sent to her phone at all hours of the day (and night). I was a child that could not stand a trip to Hobby Lobby, now I find myself dragging my husband into Hobby Lobby every time we drive past one. It's funny how things change.

In the future I'll update on my projects. Thanks for reading. :)

Been a while

Well, when I started thinking about what I was going to write in this blog, I thought that there wasn't much to update, then I looked back to realize I haven't updated since Apirl, oops. Sorry I don't do a better job keeping this upated. It's always my intention, it just doesn't happen. So, since the last post...
Cory has accepted the position as Store Manager at Hastings in Hays. So, we are commited to Hays for the forseeable future. He just found out this past week that he will be gone to Texas for a week in October for their company meetings.
I started my new job at Sunflower Bank. I spent the first few days at training in Salina, then began may days workin in the branch. Since then I've spent another week in Salina for addtional training. While I was there, my mom came to visit one evening. We got to do a little shopping, and had dinner with my aunt.
In the last post, I had gone to a baby shower for Cory's brother's Fiance' Ashley. Since then, Baby Brooke has joined our family. We adore her! We love being Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Cory to our nieces!
Also since the last update, we've purchased a new car. Unfortunately, it wasn't because we decided that it was time for a new car. On his way back to work from his lunch break one day, Cory was hit by another car. This has turned into another fiasco all it's own. We were making great strides at paying down our debt. We had Cory's car paid off and had intentions of driving it until the wheels fell off, which I guess pretty much did, considering tires popped and wheel mechanics were part of the repairs needed for the car.

Upcoming: On October 1st we plan to attend the Huxman Run 2 Sweat in Moundridge. It is an event with intentions of raising awareness and money for the National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias (NFED). I have a couple of relatives affected by Ectrodactyly, Ectodermal Dysplasias Clefting Syndrome (EEC Syndrome). (www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/deannhuxman/huxmanrun2sweat )We're looking forward to the event.
Just this evening, we booked our stay for a January vacation to Mexico. We are looking forward to that trip, and will have more details in future posts (providing I get it updated).
I think for now that gets you pretty much updated on our lives.
Hope this finds you doing well!

Changes

Spring has arrived, and I hope it’s here to stay! We have enjoyed being able to take Kyzer out for walks in the evening after work the past 3 days, and hope that it is something we can continue to do. If we could just get the wind to stop the weather would be almost perfect (in my opinion!). I’m ready for BBQing, evenings in the back yard, and my best attempt at the flower garden in the front yard. Along with the seasons changing, there are changes coming for us as well! Cory’s training is continuing. After being gone to Texas for a week and a half or two weeks out of each of the past 3 months, with any luck, in the next week or so, he will travel to another store to take his boards to be eligible for his promotion to store manager. It is looking more and more like we will be staying in Hays! Assuming that that this the case, Lindsey has accepted a new job. After working at Simply Charmed for five and half years, this coming Saturday (April 16) will be my last day. I started as a Sales Associate and worked my way up to Store Manager. The last couple of weeks have been crazy. Just before turning in my two weeks notice, my boss made the decision to change some of the inventory of the store. Simply Charmed will no longer be carrying beads. Thursday will be the last day that customers are able to bead in the store, and Friday morning, all the beads will go on sale, starting at 50% off. Last week, and the week before we spent plotting our strategy for the sale and how to market the sale. Then we had to make our marketing materials (e-mails, postcards, in-store posters, and Facebook posts). Then this week so far, we have been busy with customers rushing in to make their last projects in the store. I am supposed to be showing my boss all of the things I do in a typical day, and where all of the files I use on the computer are, but we haven’t had time for that yet. Yesterday I had to help write the job description for my position so that someone new could have the duties laid out in front of them…that was a little weird. Saturday my boss said that we will have refreshments in honor of my “going away”. But, Enough about Simply Charmed, and moving on to the work I will be doing, beginning Monday, April 18th. I will begin at Sunflower Bank as a Teller/Customer Service Representative. I am excited about the possibilities that now lie ahead of me and the new career potential I will have in the future! I don’t really have a lot to say about the new job yet. I guess I’ll save that for the next post. In the last few weeks we’ve been making a lot of trips back and forth between Great Bend and Hays, etc. About 3 weeks ago, I drove to Lyons to attend my best friend from high school, Ashley’s, Baby Shower. We both went home to enjoy a BBQ and the Basketball championship at Chris and Claudia’s house, that Sunday we attended the Spring Expo in Great Bend. We also enjoyed spending some time playing with our niece, Sohpia. This past weekend I went back to Albert for another Baby Shower, this time for Cory’s brother’s fiancé’ Ashley. This week, I will go back to Great Bend again to help with the Eagle Radio Auction on Friday. I think for now, this gets you pretty much up to date. Thanks for checking in!

Finally sitting down to write a new post. It's been so long since an update, we'll see if we can't can't you up-to-date on our lives. Since our last post, we celebrated Chirstmas. We had a great Christmas. We were able to spend time with our families and celebrate the season. We had a nice Christmas dinner out for the two of us, a couple of weeks before Christmas (yes, this isn't very traditional, but it's the best we could do). We were given "Christmas Dinner Out" by a friend, which was very nice. And then we spent the remainder of our evening together, and opening our gifts. With our schedules, both working retail, we didn't have a lot of time left to do our Christmas, that's why we did it early, or a lot of energy, which is why we decided to have dinner out, rather than making it at home. We spent Christmas Eve with Cory's family, and then spent Christmas day with Lindsey's family (breakfast at Grandma's {Dad's side} and lunch at AuntKrys' {Mom's side}). In the next week or so, we went back to Great Bend to have Christmas with Lindsey's parents and sister. We brought in the New Year with Chris & Claudia (Cory's brother & Sister-In-Law) and some friends at the Stadium Club, with a live band. Also, on January 2nd, Cory celebrated his 26th Birthday.
At the last post, Cory had just started a new job at Hastings as "Manager-In-Training". Since the last post, some things hve changed. The manager who hired him, and was to train him, accepted a new job outside of the company. A new temperary manager was brought in for a time, to help continue his training, but she has since left to take over her own store. This has left Cory to take over many of the Manager's duties, while still trying to learn what all the duties of the manager are as well as how to perform those duties. As one of these Store-Manager duties, he was required to put together a full financial annalysis of the store for last year, and present that to the President and Vice-President of the company (no pressure...haha). He spent 4 days in Amarillo, Texas during the week he made that presentation. During those days, he also met some store managers from the Amarillo area, and was able to meet with them, and learn some things from them. That was the first week of Febuary. Currently, he is in Amarillo again (for a week this time) participating in the Hastings Leadership Academy. During this time, we will learn to read all the financial documents he had to use to compile the financial analysis, along with other activities that are required of him to become a store manager. After this week is over, he will return home to continue his training, until he trained to do the job as store manager, at which point we will find out if we stay in Hays, or relocate.
As for Lindsey's work, she is still at Simply Charmed. It's been a busy year already. The first business day of the year, is always spent doing inventory. For those of you who have never been in the store before, Simply Charmed has a bead studio, and part of inventory is counting thousands, upon thousands of beads by hand, as well as hand counting all of the additional inventory in the store. After all the employees help count everything, it is Lindsey's job to add everything up and come up witha total inventory number. Things at the store have been so busy, that that has become the project for Lindsey's days "off" the last couple of weeks. After inventory was done, the store was reorganized to sell prom dresses. For the last 2 prom seasons, prom dresses were sold in a seperate building, but this year, will be sold out of the main Simply Charmed building. On Febuaray 5th we had 4 designer fashion shows held in the store throughout the day, with 14 high school models. Last week, we rearranged the entire store, including large fixtures that had been in the same place for 7 years. At the store we keep saying that we have been sprinting, just trying to keep up. Hopefully things will get caught up soon.
During a weekend in February, we traveled with Lindsey's parents and sister to Oklahoma City to see Dave Ramsey Live at the Cox Center in Bricktown. We left Great Bend early Friday morning, made a quick stop at Grandma's house to say hello, then Headed ot OKC. While we were there we toured the Oklahoma City Bombing memorial (an aweing experience). We got there shortly before ticket sales ended and were the last ones to leave the museum for the day. After the memoial, we headed to Bricktown to spend our evening and ate some delicious steaks at Toby Keith's I Love this Bar & Grill. We spent the remainder of the evening plaing games at the hotel. We got up in the morning, and spent a little more time at Bricktown, then went to the show, and then headed home to Great Bend afterwards, arriving home at about 11:30 p.m.
For now, I think this should bring you up to date. Hopefully, it won't be as long before the next update! {I am sorry for any typos or misspellings, the spell check isn't working...}

Didn't realize how long it's been since our last post. Hopefully we will have an update soon!

Oh, wow. It's been almost 2 months since our last update. Since then we have made our way to San Diego and back. The weather was beautiful, and Casey and Megan's beach wedding was amazing. We were so glad we could be there. We also went to Sea World, spent time at the beach, walked through a swap meet, went deep sea fishing, and spent time on the USS Midway museum ship.














USS Midway ^














^ Us on the Beach at Casey & Megan's Wedding



















^Deep Sea Fishing collage


When we returned home, Cory worked his last day at Wal-Mart and then began working as a Manager-In-Training at Hastings. The store is just completing a new remodel that he was able to be a part of, requiring some extra hours at the store. He has also be working on Calculus, his last class required to earn his BBA.
A little over a week ago we purchased a new vehicle. We traded in Lindsey's car (Sally the Sebring), and purchased a crossover SUV (Lexi the Lexus). The Sebring was having a few problems (Cory hasn't liked it since the day Lindsey brought it back to Hays, but since it was before marriage, he didn't have a lot of say in the purchase) and after some number crunching with Randy, we determined it was feasible to purchase a different vehicle.



















^Sally the Sebring on the lot to be sold



















^Lexi the Lexus in our Driveway

We hope this update finds you doing well! For those of you who don't know, on Monday, July 26th we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. We went to Wichita and spent some time with Cory's brother and fiance' and did a little shopping. On the way home we stopped to visit with Lindsey's grandma and were able to see both of our parents before heading back to Hays. It was a good day to celebrate the quick past 2 years. Guess time does really fly when you're having fun!
We are excited to have Kenra back in Kansas. She arrived home (to the Crosspoint Church in Hays) Saturday evening. We were there, along with Mom and Dad to meet her upon arrival after the 20 hour car ride home along with other members of her group. We had a good evening spending time together as a family (everyone stayed at our house). Sunday morning we got up and with a team effort, made a huge breakfast to start off our Sunday morning. The day was leisurely with them leaving in the late afternoon.
We are getting ready to head off on another trip! Cory's brother, Casey, will be married this weekend (August 7th) in San Diego, California. We will board a plane early Friday morning at the Wichita airport. While in San Diego, in addition to the wedding festivities, we plan to go to Sea World and to Universal Studios, see the ocean, and do other various activities. We will arrive back in Kansas Tuesday evening.
After we come back from San Diego, Cory will be preparing to start a new job. He will have one day left at Wal-Mart to finish out his 2 weeks, then he will begin at Hastings in Hays as a Manager-In-Training. This position is approximately a year long position that trains him to come a Hastings Store Manager. After completing the program, he will be assigned a store of his own. We are excited about this upcoming change! For the time-being, Lindsey plans to stay working at Simply Charmed.
That is what is going on in our lives right now! A new update coming soon (hopefully!).

Well, we have made it back from Vegas and worked ourselves back into our normal routines. Back to work and real life. Cory has begun his summer class (college algebra). It has been a long time since either of us have worked those kinds of math problems! This weekend we have made our way towards home. We've been driving back and forth between our parents houses spending time with our families. The time on the road is both the beauty and the pain of having our parents live so close. Pain, because it's "wasted time" we could spend with family, and beauty because we are able to see everyone during a weekend at home. More beauty than pain, for us it's worth the sacrifice. We popped a few firecrackers at Cory's house yesterday (July 3rd) and plan to do more with Lindsey's parent's and neighbors and at Cory's brothers today on July 4th. We will be driving back to Hays this evening as well, as we both have to work Monday morning.
Upcoming events for us: *A boys/family weekend for Cory and some of his family. *Sidewalk sale in Hays (this means work for Lindsey). *Our 2 year anniversary (hard to believe it's been 2 years!). *Trip to San Diego (first full weekend of August Cory's brother gets married in California).
Think this updates you! Hope this finds you doing well!

A lot of things have happened since the last post, mostly because a lot of time has past since then. Probably the biggest even since the last post was Graduation. That day has come and gone. Cory and Lindsey, along with 1,000 other people filled the floor of Gross Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, May 15 to walk across the stage and receive their diploma's (or empty diploma holder). We spent the afternoon Barbecuing in our back yard with our parents, siblings, and friends. We are grateful for the people who spent the day with us, stopped by, and sent us cards and thoughts. Hopefully soon we will post pictures from the day. Now I guess real job hunting begins...
The next thing we have planned is our trip Las Vegas. We will be flying out June 2nd and will return about a week later. We have several show lined up and a long list of sights we want to see while we are there. We will be traveling to Vegas with Cory's brother Chadd and a friend, and will be joined by another brother, Casey, and his fiance' Megan and another friend. It should be a really great experience!
Hopefully we will update soon after our trip.
Thanks for checking in with us!

Well into the New Year

Hello, this is a necessary update, as we haven't posted since New Years.

A few of our goals for this year are to keep our house cleaner, workout, and update our blog more often. So far, two of those three are going pretty well. We've done a really good job of keeping our house a lot cleaner than it used to be. With our schedules, we found it hard, as we would get up in the mornings, go to school and work, and by the time we were both home in the evenings, we only had a few hours to spend making dinner and eating, watching our TV shows we follow and sports, doing any running around, and other things we wanted to get done in the evening (which did not include cleaning). So, now our fridge 'proudly' displays a chore list, which we've done a good job of sticking to. Also helping allow us to get all the chores done is our new schedule that we have begun to accommodate working out. We used to sleep in until we needed to get up for work and school, usually 8 for Lindsey, and varying times for Cory. Now our typical morning schedule is up at 6, at the gym by 6:30, home at 7:45 to begin getting ready for the day, work on chores, and eat breakfast together. It also allows for some extra time for us together, which is nice. The third one, however, well that's still a work in progress. We will continue to try and update our blog more often, to keep everyone informed of the things that are going on in our lives.

Since the last post, we have attended our first KU Jayhawk basketball game in Allen Fieldhouse. We went with Cory's parents and one of his brothers. Following the game, we all began getting phone calls and text messages that people had seen us on TV. We didn't believe it until someone sent us a picture, via text message showing us on ESPN! It was a great experience, and we hope to go back.

Cory started his last semester of being a full-time student. Classes resumed on January 13th. Cory is taking 4 classes, only one is on campus and 3 are online classes, allowing him more flexibility in when he can work on them, and gives him more time to work at Wal-Mart. Cory has completed almost all of the required courses to earn his Bachelors in Management, so he filled his schedule with classes from a new major on campus, Tourism and Hospitality. Hopefully the classes will be interesting.

Lindsey has finally settled back into a routine at work, after having all the college students working more hours over Christmas, and working around every one's holiday schedules. Then completing inventory at the store (counting beads is SO much fun...I hope you can sense the sarcasm). Now the big task at hand is the Glitz and Glam Prom Fashion Show that is coming up this Saturday. Lindsey, along with a co-worker and boss, has coordinated a show of 83 high school girls modeling 83 dresses. That means in the last month and a half, 83 fittings in addition to normal sales have been completed. Now all the dresses have been picked, as of yesterday the order has been determined, and now only the final details (a lot of final details) have to be taken care of. It should make for an exciting event.

Well, this is the update we have for now. We hope this finds you all doing well.

Our Christmas/New Years Letter

Our Christmas season was wonderful as we reflect on our time with family and friends. We were busy with travel, but were able to see almost all of our family. As Christmas approached we were not even sure we would be able to do much traveling, so seeing all that we did was such a blessing. Tuesday evening is when they expected the winter storm to hit our area, so, Lindsey’s boss did some shuffling which allowed Lindsey to head home that evening with Cory (a day early). We spent the day Wednesday at Cory’s family’s house, as his brothers began coming home for the holiday. Christmas Eve is family gathering day at the Elsen house, and also Pam’s birthday. All the brothers and spouses were able to be there; along with Sophie and two dogs… it made for a busy house, but was great for Christmas. Christmas morning we woke up at Cory’s parents house with no electricity, heavy winds must have blown down a line. Nevertheless, we got up and around and left for Lindsey’s Grandmother’s house by about 7am. We spent the morning there, including activities of opening gifts, putting together health kits, and playing cards. The afternoon was then spent at Lindsey’s aunt and uncle’s house for Christmas with Annette’s family. That evening Cory and Kendra headed back to Great Bend and Albert, respectively. Lindsey and Annette went shopping the morning after Christmas with Aunt Krys, Cathy, and baby Colbie. The afternoon of the 26th was spent with more family time. Lindsey at the Ben B.J. Goering family reunion and Cory at home with the brothers. Sunday afternoon was the final Christmas gathering we had, which was at Lindsey’s parent’s house.

As we reflect on the year past:
We are grateful that we both still are employed. With the economy in the state that it is, this truly is something to be happy about. Lindsey is still working at Simply Charmed where she is working about 35 to 40 hours a week (sometimes more). Cory is still working in the Tire and Lube Express in the Hays Wal-Mart. He also is employed fulltime.

This past summer we traveled again to Mexico. We spent a week in Cancun. It was once again a great experience. We took advantage of lazy time by the pool, but also took in some shopping time in Cancun as well as swimming with the Dolphins and visiting ZelHa environmental park, where we did cliff jumping, rope climbing, and snorkeling.

A big achievement for this past year is Lindsey earning her Bachelor or Business Administration degree. She took her final class over the summer. It was Calculus online…it was tough. Her diploma and tassel are proudly displayed in our living room.

November proved to be a trying month as we lost loved ones from both of our families. We rely on our memories of the past as we remember Lindsey' Grandfather and Cory's cousin.


Looking towards the next year:
Graduation! We will both walk in May for our graduation. Cory will be almost done after this coming Spring semester. He will also have his last class (also calculus) to take over the summer, but he has made arrangements so that he can walk in May, allowing us to walk together.

Job hunting. While job hunting itself may not be a lot of fun, we are excited about the next phase of our lives. (If you know of anyone who may need one or two people with a BBA degree, put in a good word for us and let us know!)

Turning 25- Again, nothing too major, just seems like a "mile-marker" in our lives. We are proud of what we have accomplished in our first 25 years -High school graduation, College, Cory playing college football, Lindsey working on Magazine staff, College graduation, marriage, etc. - are are excited about what our future will bring!

Vegas – after graduation we are planning a trip to Las Vegas. We will fly out the beginning of June and return about a week later. We will be accompanied by Cory’s brother Chadd and a friend.


We reflect on the past year having good memories and we look to the next year with excitement. We know that there will be changes ahead as we look to start careers and face the possibility of a move, and we are excited about that. We are hopeful and look for guidance from all different aspects, and are confident that with the guidance we receive, and decisions that we make, we will be on the path laid out for us.

We hope that the past year has been a good one for you, and that your next year is blessed in many ways!

Love,

Lindsey and Cory

Update

OK, so we aren't very good at keeping this updated...we will try to get better. Fall semester at FHSU is well on it's way. Cory has been keeping busy with group projects, case analyses, and tests. Lindsey is happy to not be attending classes, it is a nice change of pace. However, just because she is not in class, does not mean that she is not busy. She is working 40 hours, some weeks a few more at work. The stores are closed on Sundays, and her other regular day off is Thursday. She typically works 2 or 3 Saturdays a month.
Our house has been full of visitors over the last couple of months. A wedding of a friend of Cory's family gave us a full house one weekend -People in the guest bed, people on the air-up mattress, one on the couch, one on the recliner, and someone on the hammock in the back yard as well as other guests in and out of the house that weekend. We've also had other visits from Cory's brothers, and had another friend stay this past weekend. We also Kendra on a regular basis. We enjoy having a house were we can entertain company. It's so nice to have our own space!
Up coming we are planning a trip scheduled to go see a KU game the weekend of October 10th. While we are there for the weekend, we will stay with Cory's brother Chadd. We plan on visiting some of the Halloween haunted houses in Kansas City (and Lindsey is hoping to do some shopping) also while we are there.
Other than these few things, there hasn't been too much going on here in Hays. We hope this finds everyone doing well!

Home from Vacation

We are home from Mexico and trying to get back into our routine. Saturday, June 13th we left Hays when Lindsey got off work. We stayed with Cory's brother, Chadd, until we flew out on Tuesday, June 16th. While staying with Chadd, we saw a movie, went to a Royals game (well, part of a Royals game), spent time in the College Basketball Experience in the new Sprint Center, tried to visit the Zoo (unfortunately we only saw the parking lot since the zoo was closed), and went to Harrah's casino, where we ended down about $3.00. Tuesday started out at 2:15 am as our flight left at 6:00 am. Some of the activities we participated in while we were in Mexico besides hanging out at the pool at the resort were swimming with the dolphins and going to a park called Xel-Ha, where we snorkeled, climbed on a rope bridge, and jumped off a couple of cliffs. We were very fortunate with the weather while we were there. While we were booking our tours one afternoon, it rained for about 10 minutes, and it rained while we were on our way to an activity. Other than being hot, the weather was great. We left the resort Monday at 10am and flew out of Canucun at 12:40 arriving back in Kansas City a little after 6:30 Monday, June 22nd. Tuesday we drove back to Great Bend and Albert and drove back to Hays Wednesday morning. We were both back to work Thursday.

Hope this finds you doing well.

Summer

Summer is officially here, which for us just means we don't have classes {and that isn't even true for Lindsey this summer}. The first big event of the summer is our move. We had some trouble getting into our new rental house on time, but, a week and a half later, with water and a new bathroom, we were able to move in. Luckily, we had allowed ourselves two weeks of overlapping with the lease from our apartment. The landlords completely re-did our bathroom, so we had no water to the house for about the first week of our lease. This made for an interesting living situation since we had arranged for family to come help us move on the 15th (the day our lease was supposed to start) and for our cable and Internet to be switched to the new house that day. We spent a week spending the evening at the house watching TV, and then returning to the apartment to sleep on an air mattress and use the restroom and shower. But that is all over with now, and we are moved in and getting settled. We have turned in the keys and left our apartment "the cleanest an apartment has ever been left" according to our old landlords. Hopefully we will be posting pictures of the new house soon. It is so nice to have our own space and not have people constantly walking above us, or slamming doors and drawers in the neighboring kitchen. Also, Kyzer has come home and is adjusting very well to city life. At first, he barked at the door a lot because of the traffic, but that is getting less and less. I think he is glad to be here.
Lindsey is taking one class online this summer. She is taking Calculus thought Hutchinson Community College. Fort Hays decided to do only online courses this summer, to cut costs on campus. And the choices of online classes are limited. Calculus is the only class standing in the way of Lindsey's Bachelor's of Business Administration. So, it will be a challenge this summer, but the reward will be worth it!
We will be taking our trip to Mexico as we had originally planned, well, kind of. Originally we were going to return to the same resort we visited for our honeymoon, but we decided to go to a new resort this summer instead. Rather than being 45 miles south of Cancun, we will only be about 25 (or so they tell me, directions are not my forte). We will be leaving for Kansas City after Lindsey gets off work Saturday, June 13. We plan to attend a KC Royals game on Sunday, which unfortunately means we have to miss Lindsey's grandmother's birthday party. Monday will be a lazy day, since we have to be at the airport Tuesday morning at approximately 3:00 am, to prepare for our 6:00am international flight. We will be staying with Cory's brother and he will be taking us to the airport (thanks Chadd!). We will return to Kansas City June 22nd.
I think this novel pretty much covers what has happened and what will be happening coming up! Thanks for checking in!
Love, Lindsey and Cory

Upcoming Vacation

As you may or may not have known, we were planning a vacation back to Mexico this summer to the same resort we went last summer on our honeymoon. We booked our trip back in December or January. Since booking our trip, we have been watching the developments in Mexico. First was the drug cartels, but after researching, we were confident that we would be okay in the area in which were were going and the activities in which we would be participating. The newest development is obviously the swine flu (the the h1n1 virus to be politically correct). We now are questioning the safety of a trip to Mexico. We have been looking at our options, and as of right now we are planning on changing our reservations to a resort in Jamaica. We have not yet made the change, as we are waiting to see how everything plays out (and saving for the additional expense we will incur). We just wanted to the the chance to update everyone on our vacation plans.

We hope this finds everyone doing well!

A much needed update

I realized this weekend how long it had been since we did an update, so here is a much needed up date!

Really, not a lot has changed since the last post. Cory is still working at Wal-Mart and Lindsey is still working at Simply Charmed and Simply Elegant.

Recently, Cory took a trip to Denver, Colorado with two of his brothers and a friend. They went to a Nuggets vs. Clippers game and did some other sight seeing while they were there.

In other news, our lease on our two bedroom apartment will end at the end of May. After much time put into checking the classifieds, making classifieds, driving by addresses, and looking at places, we found a new place to rent. May 15th we will move into a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, with a nice front porch, a fenced in backyard, and a 1 1/2 car garage. Quite the change from our little apartment. We are really excited. Also, we will be able to have Kyzer, our dog, who has been at Cory's parent's house, since we cannot have pets in our apartment.

Thanks for checkng in, hopefully it will not be as long before we update again!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year. We hope that the new year brings all God's blessings and the best life has to offer.
We are enjoying our last week or so before we return to classes for the Spring semester. It will be busy as all of our semesters are. Lindsey will be working on finishing up the requirements for her Management degree and working nearly full time. On January 10th, Lindsey job will expand, as her boss opens a second store in downtown Hays. She has been working on all aspects of opening a new business and is getting a lot of great experience! The new store will be a Prom dress store, opening on a trial basis from January to May, then the plan is to re-open in October on a permenant basis. Lindsey will also travel to Dallas mid-January with her boss to experience her first market.
Cory will also have a full schedule of classes, as well as working nearly full time. He continues to work in the Tire & Lube Express (TLE) as a technician in the Hays Wal-Mart.