Matt and Jessica

TWINS!

2011-03-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

When God answers prayers sometimes it is with double blessings :) We are super excited to announce that we are having twins! Our due date is the 9th of October but we will mostly likely have babies in September sometime.

I'm feeling well just having some trouble sleeping. Okay so Matt is probably having more problems sleeping then I am but he is being a really good sport about it. I already have a little baby bump that is getting bigger each week.

Having twins will be a huge adjustment for Matt and I but I think Henry will probably have the hardest time with everything. For the last 3 years he has been our "baby" and is very spoiled! Henry is great with kids though so we know that he will be a great big brother.

I will try to be better about updating this the next few months :)

Quick update

2011-03-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

Life is good! Matt is almost done with his second year of residency and has done really well. I have been blessed with amazing friends and great families to work with. We are still enjoying our home and loving our garden in the backyard. Matt has a real green thumb :) Henry still keeps our lives very interesting. His three favorite things are laying on the couch, eating anything and being loved on by Matt.

We have enjoyed our time traveling the last few years and playing tour guide when our friends and family visit. We have enjoyed all of our visitors!

Texas has been full of many adventures and blessings!

Germany Part 2 - a little late :)

2011-03-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

The second part of Germany was amazing and it was a trip that Matt and I will never forget. We hope to take our kids back someday!

Germany Part 1

2009-07-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

Matt and I have always talked about going to Germany and were super excited when we started planning our trip. We left on April 21st and got to stay until May 7th. Our adventure started in Denver and then we flew to Chicago and then an overnight flight to Frankfurt, Germany. I was so excited I think that I only slept a few hours on the plane or maybe it was because you could watch all the free movies you wanted it was great :) It was a long trip and we were excited to be there. Matt's grandma (Oma) and uncle were at the airport to pick us up. It was very nice of them to drive the four hours to get us. Oma had a very pretty bouquet of flowers for me when I got off the plane.

My first impression of Germany was it was beautiful. It was so green and the landscape went on forever. We made it Polle, the small village that Oma lives in. Polle was a village straight from the movies. It is probably the most peaceful, relaxing place that we have ever been to. Matt's german was great. He communicated very well with everyone and was able to translate for me. Towards the end of the trip I was able to understand some but never did very well speaking it. Oma was very excited to cook for us and we were very excited to eat her cooking. She made us a feast at every meal.

Our first adventure was to Berlin. We rented a car from another town near by and hit the autobahn for Berlin. Our rental cars and the driving were probably Matt's favorite part of our trip. He was able to drive the mercedes 130 mph on the autobahn. He loved it! Berlin was a very neat old city full of history. We had lunch at a great thai place and walked down a street full of huge named shopping stores. All over my price range :) We then got back in the car and tried to find a hotel. We should have booked something at the internet cafe but I thought it wouldn't be a big deal...I was wrong. I thought we were never going to find a place, but it is great how everything always works out. We found a place and when we pulled up and walked in I thought we were in the ghetto of Berlin (not really but it wasn't the nicest looking area). It turned out to be a quaint little one floor hotel with a nice room and a great breakfast.

We then went to look at the Brandemburg Arch. The road was blocked and the traffic was very congested. We parked and headed towards the Arch as we got closer we noticed all the police and police dogs. There was a protest going on and the police were everywhere. It was a little scarey becuase we really didn't know what they were protesting but there were other tourist so we just kept going. The Arch was very impressive. We walked all around and enjoyed exploring. There was a hallicaust memorial that we were able to see as well. We then went to the top of a tower in Berlin. It wasn't the best tower we ever experienced but fun to see all of the city lights at night. We then went to Checkpoint Charley. It closed just a few minutes before we got there but we were still able to see the actual checkpoint. Matt did a great job navigating the subway in Berlin and go us all around without any problems. It was really late and we hadn't had dinner so Matt had us jump on the subway to head to the "newer" part of town. We get off and a few blocks away we found this great Italian place. We had yummy pizza, salad and great beer. It was a great end to a fun day.

We only had a short time in Berlin but we had a great time! We headed back towards Polle for Matt's uncle's daughters confirmation in the church. This was a very big deal there. It actually meant celebrating all weekend with food and family. Oma made all the cakes for the parties. She made I think it was 11 cakes and they were gourmet cakes! We had a very fun weekend and we have never ate so much food in our whole lives...we loved it!

A busy April

2009-07-11T13:54:00.000-07:00

Matt finished his rotations the beginning of April and we had packed the next few months full of fun times. We spent the first week he was done working on house stuff and spending time with his family. We then headed to San Antonio to find a home. We drove from Colorado and did the whole 16 hours straight. I don't think that it is something we will try again if I have a say but Matt thought it wasn't a big deal. We got to Texas and started the next morning looking at homes. We looked at about 7 and we had found a few we liked but nothing that we were super excited about. So our realtor had one more stop for the day and it was at a new subdivision. We looked at a home that was still under construction and loved the yard and layout. The best part was we were able to go to the deco center and choose the colors, the tile and the carpet. We headed back to Colorado and started to pack for our trip to Europe.

Shupe Update!

2009-03-27T11:58:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe that it is March already. March has went fast. Matt is doing his last rotation in the ER. I can't believe that he is almost done..YEAH!! When we first moved here I thought that I would go crazy not working, but you know I have adapted very well :) Don't get me wrong I have tried to get a job. Being that we were only going to be here for a few months I didn't want to apply for a permanent job. I applied with the temp agencies in town and not a lot of luck. I did have a little job in March for a week so the extra money was nice. Another crazy job that I tried was delivering Dex phone books. It was an awful job and a lot of work for not much money. I would have never been able to finish without Matts help. I do have a few photos of this craziness but they aren't downloaded yet. Amongst these little jobs this month Matt and I have been doing a lot of yard work at his dad's house and was able to go skiing. It was a gorgeous, sunny Colorado day. We had a blast!
We have also been working on our move to Texas. We are in the process of all the financial stuff of buying a home and aren't a hundred percent sure what we are going to do. The options arebe qualified on only Matt's salary or wait until I get a job and qualify on both salaries?? We do know though that we are headed to San Antonio the third week of April to find a place to call home. We have been working with a great realtor whose wife is a second year resident at the base where Matt will be doing his residency. With all of our other moves everything has worked out and I'm sure this will too.
Matt has worked really hard the last four years and has done a great job! Matt and I love to travel so we thought what a better way to celebrate making it through this part of the journey then to travel. We are super excited about our upcoming vacations. We will be going to Germany and surrounding areas for two and half weeks before graduation and then the week after graduation we are going with my family to Orlando for a week. It seems funny to think that all of these plans are really close. Well I think that brings everything up to date. I will try to be better at keeping our blog updated. We have big events ahead of us and I will be better at taking pictures to post here.

January and February 2009

2009-03-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

January and February kind of seem like a blur. Grandma Mollie passed away in January and Matt's Mom came for a week for the funeral and planning. I enjoyed being able to spend time with her and get her around Greeley. Matt's brother Neil was the C team girls team basketball coach at the high school he teaches at and Matt and I really enjoyed going to his games. He did a great job and the team did really well! I was able to go back to Kirksville and go to Lauren's baby shower. Thanks to the Schuermann's for being great host. I had a great time. It was like I had never been gone. I assumed my place on the couch and it was great! The shower was very nice and it was fun celebrating the new little Schuermann on the way.
Matt and I were able to go to a few Bronco games. Matt is a huge fan and it is fun to go with him to see how passionate he is about the team and the experience of being at the game. We had a lot of fun! We have all really enjoyed our time in Colorado but Henry probably most of all. Henry and Matt's Dad's dog are best buddies. Well they have a love hate relationship. Henry also really loves his Grandpa. It could be that he gives him ice cream everynight or lets him sit in his chair with him. Henry sometimes forgets that he is a 70lb. dog and thinks that he is a lap dog. Henry loves to have a fenced yard to run in and most of all to have a pal to run with.

In February Matt and I went to Glennwood Springs for Valentine's weekend and had a great time. It was a really neat feeling to be in the hot springs while it was snowing. Matt has had great experiences while here in Colorado. He has worked with great Doctors and has learned a lot!

December 2008

2009-03-27T10:46:00.001-07:00

December was a great month! Matt was able to schedule a rotation in Wenatchee, WA for the month and it was perfect because that is where all my family live. We stayed with my parents and it was so much fun being able to be a part of all the holiday traditions. Highlights for me where being able to be a part of my moms daily routines, picking up my sister from school and going to her holiday lunch, daily lattes with my mom, spending time with my aunt and her family, having dinner and watching tv each night with my parents, being able to go to Seattle and visit Jake and Tulla, the Laytons, my roommate from college and Matt's brother and his family.
I could go on forever but overall Matt and I had a great time with my family and spending the holiday with everyone.

Also, in December we found out that we matched to San Antonio for residency. We are both really excited about our match!

November 2008

2009-03-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

We made it to Colorado! We moved in with Matt's Dad in Greeley,Colorado. Matt has two brothers and his Grandma here as well. Matt's Grandma was not doing well and that is one of the main reasons we moved back is so that we could spend time with her. Mollie was a great lady! She kept everyone on their toes. With me not working I was able to go and have lunch with Mollie a few times a week. I'm very thankful for the time I was able to spend with her. She was so proud of Matt. She was a little foggy about things but she was very sharp when it came to Matt. She remembered that he was in the Air Force and that he was going to be a doctor. Matt was able to be with his Grandma in the last months of her life and that was worth all that it took to make our move. Grandma Mollie was 94 when she passed away.
Matt and I were able to go to San Francisco and visit his Mom in the middle of the month. We had a great long weekend exploring the area and spending time with his Mom.

Matt and I had Thanksgiving with his Dad, Brother and his wife. We had a nice dinner and time together. Neither couple has kids yet but we wanted to get a photo of all of us and our "kids" so far :)
The husky is Matt's dad's dog and she has been very gracious to share her yard with Henry.

September and October 2008

2009-03-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

Once we got back from the wedding Matt left a few days after for Dayton, Ohio to do an out rotation at the military base there. He was gone for the month but he was able to come home one weekend and I went down for another. Henry and I made it through the month and I was very grateful to have him. I worked a lot and I have to admit it was nice coming home and just being
able to pick at food rather than having to cook dinner :)

Also in September it was Henry's first birthday. He wasn't that into it but he was a good sport.
That summer Matt and I also planted a garden and had fun having all the fresh veggies. We really had no idea how many plants to plant so we went a little over board and had tomatoes coming out of our ears. We gave a lot away but then we also learned how to can tomato sauce. We are still enjoying it! Matt was home for two days at the end of September and then he left again for San Antonio, Texas for another out rotation. He really liked the program and had fun exploring the city. October was a wild month. I was working a lot and trying to wrap up all the small projects I had going on as well as teaching some of the gals my responsibilities because I would be done with my job at the end of October. Matt and I decided to move to Colorado to finish his out rotations and be able to be near his family. Matt was getting back at the end of October and we were moving that next week so I started the packing process while he was gone. Between the packing and working the ladies at my job made my birthday very special as well as my going away dinner really fun. So Matt got home we packed everything and loaded the moving truck. We decided to try a new way of moving and used ABF. ABF is great because they drive all of your belongings for you. Well you can have a trailer dropped off at your house to load or you can take your things to their center. You do save money if you go to the center so we thought well we can do that. Bad Idea!! It happen to be the first snow the day we wanted to move and I was sick. We got it all done with a lot of help from the St. Clair's...Thank you! It was sad to leave our little home and my job but looking back now I'm thankful we made the move.

August 2008

2009-03-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

August was a long time ago but I can't update what has been going on without talking about my little brothers wedding. Jake and Tulla were married in Spokane, Washington and both Matt and I were in the wedding. The wedding was gorgeous and we all had a very good time. After the wedding Jake and Tulla left for Rome and Matt and I were able to go back home with my family and spend a week at a lake near their home. We had a great time and made many memories!

Oh Henry

2008-06-21T18:37:00.000-07:00

What can I say about Henry. He is huge he now weights 67 pounds and is 9 months old. He is full of energy and loves to be the center of our world. Some of Henry's favorite things right now are playing fetch with his ball, going in his swimming pool, taking walks, eating, and going to Bow Wow Beach. Bow Wow Beach is a large dog park that has a lake in the middle and is completely fenced in. Henry loves try to run with the big dogs. The funny thing is I think he thinks he can really keep up with them. It is pretty cute to watch. Henry thought that this little weiner dog was his girlfriend but she didn't want to have anything to do with him :)

Since the weather has been nice we go on walks in the evening and people that Matt and I don't even know will say hi to Henry. We sometimes feel like we are walking with a celebrity :) He is very friendly and loves to play. He does have his moments (drive me crazy moments) but for the most part Henry is good. He is for sure a part of our little family and I can't imagine life without him.

The last few months in nut shell

2008-06-21T18:18:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the last time we posted something was in April and it is now June. The last few months have flown by. A few highlights have been being able to go back to Kirksville and seeing our old stomping grounds and hanging out with all of our friends there. Thanks Erick and Lauren for being such great host. From there we traveled to Seattle and spent time with Matt's family and mine. It was great to see everyone and go back home! Matt is officially done with his third year of med school and only has one year to go Yea! We have enjoyed having a yard to work in and being able to plant a garden. I'm still working a lot and enjoying my patients and their families. For some reason I don't have any pictures of our time in Kirksville but I do have a few from Seattle.

Snow galore!

2008-04-02T17:10:00.000-07:00

This topic is about a month old but we thought it would be fun to add to our blog. Back in early March we got a huge snowstorm. In fact, it was the 8th largest snowfall in the Cleveland-Akron area. It started snowing late Friday afternoon and didn't stop until late Saturday night! We got 20" of snow here in Akron.
Henry was well up to his belly in snow! He loved it though. We spent most of Saturday playing in the snow. We thought you might enjoy some of the photos.

Cleveland Auto Show

2008-03-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago Jess and I went to the 2008 Cleveland Auto Show. It was more fun than we were expecting. Matt's favorite new car made its rare appearance - the new Chevy Camaro. Jess found her favorite - Range Rover. It was a mere $85,000! We also got to ride in the Jeep Challenge course. The incline was an 18 foot, 30 degree hill, then down the other side. The course also traversed water, logs and a side embankment. We also got to see a Ford Shelby Mustang and the new Dodge Challenger.

Future Tony Hawk

2008-02-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

2008-02-09T20:19:00.000-08:00

Henry loves to play. We like to take him to the dog park near our house and let him run with the other dogs. He also loves to play with the Layton kids. He is really good with the kids and loves it when they visit. One weekend they went with us to the dog park. It was fun at first but it was really cold out and it didn't last long. We are excited for when it warms up so we can go again with them.

Inventors National Hall of Fame

2008-02-09T20:12:00.001-08:00

Matt and I have really enjoyed living in Cuyahoga Falls. We love all the choices of places to eat and shop! We also have been doing a little more sight seeing. One Saturday we decided to check out the Inventors National Hall of Fame. I was a little skeptical but it turned out to be really neat. Matt loves history and this was a lot of fun for him. His new goal in life is to hold a patent.

Life

2008-02-09T19:36:00.000-08:00

With the holidays over it is back to our daily routines. Matt is on OB/Gyn rotation right now and enjoying it. It is early mornings but he gets home at a good time. He is on call one night a week and next weekend he will be on call. He gets to come home when he is on call and they page him if he needs to come in.
My work is going well. The last few months I have met so many patients with amazing stories. The courage and love that some people have even when they are so sick is so motivating. Our little Henry isn't so little anymore :) He is now almost 5 months old and weighs almost 40 pounds! He keeps us busy. He still likes to chew and be a pain but we are excited that he has the potty training down. Henry doesn't know yet but we are enrolling him in obedience school. He is pretty bull headed so we will see how it goes. Here are a few recent pictures of us and Henry.

Christmas Break

2008-01-06T14:03:00.000-08:00

We drove to Colorado for Christmas! Our first stop was back to Kirksville to spend some time with Erick and Lauren. Brad was also able to be there too. We spent Saturday with them. The girls went to see 'P.S. I Love You' and the boys took a nap and watched football. That night we had Mexican together and then hung out. Thanks for opening your home to us and being such great friends! Then it was off to Colorado. Matt caught Jess and Henry sleeping during the drive. Henry did really well during the trip. He never had an accident in the car and slept most of the time.
Christmas Eve we had dinner and opened presents with Matt's dad and Grandma. Everyone was craving KFC, so that's what we had. It was great! The Bronco game was on so we opened gifts while watching the game. Henry opened his Bronco jersey so we had to take a photo. Christmas day we had a fantastic dinner with Matt's oldest brother Mike and his family. Sue made the best prime rib we have had in a long time. Thanks for having us over! It was great to see you guys again.
This trip also allowed us to spend an entire day with our good friends and Andy, Kristen, and their new boy Ayden! Andy and Matt shoveled snow at their church for a few hours and then we all met up at Cherry Creek Mall. What a blessing it was to catch up with such great friends.
Henry had a great play buddy while at Bill's house - Cheyenne. Surprisingly they got along better than everyone expected. Henry mostly got buried in the snow by Cheyenne, but when she was not looking Henry got her tail.

Our time ended on a great note with a Bronco game. Bill treated us with his Bronco season tickets to the final game vs. the Minnesota Vikings. What a game it was. The Broncos were up 19-3 with 8 minutes left. Well, the Broncos let them tie the game and go into overtime. We lost the coin toss but on the second play we sacked Jackson, caused a fumball, and recovered the ball. The Elam kicked a field goal to win the game. It was one of the best games we have been to. What a great way to close out 2007 and start 2008!

Thanksgiving

2007-12-01T17:31:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving. Mom, Dad, Jake and Jaimie came to Ohio. We had been looking forward to it since the summer. They only had a little set back in Chicago on their way to Cleveland but they made it. It was such a blessing to have them here for the holiday. Mom and I cooked a huge meal on Thursday and we all just enjoyed hanging out. It was fun being able to show them Cuyahoga Falls and the surrounding areas. Everyone but Jaimie seemed to get along well with Henry. Jaimie did not like him at all in the beginning but on the last night she seemed to be warming up to him. The funny thing was that Henry really listened to my Mom. He would be doing something bad and she would pick him up and talk to him and for the most part he would stop or move on to something else :) We are so thankful that they were able to come and spend the holiday with us. We can't wait to see them soon.

Henry

2007-12-01T17:13:00.000-08:00

Here is our newest little family member. Henry is now 9 weeks old and weights 13.2 pounds. When we got him he was 6 weeks and weighted 7.6 pounds. He loves to eat! Henry has a great personality and likes to play. He is still learning where he is suppose to go to the bathroom but he is getting better. He also loves to bite and pull on things. This a bad habit that we hope he grows out of :) Matt and Henry are best buddies. When Henry hears Matt start to open the door he runs to the door. Matt has been really good with him. He gets up with him in the middle of the night when he needs to go out, no matter the time or weather. Henry also knows that he can pretty much get away with anything when Matt is watching him. I have become the "bad cop" and Matt is the fun guy. Makes me a little worried about when we have kids :)Henry has been a great addition to our little family. We are excited about all the fun memories we are going to make with Henry. We will keep you posted on the adventures of Henry.

Long overdue update

2007-12-01T17:02:00.000-08:00

Wow, it has been a long time since we have updated everyone. Where to start...well Matt finished his Internal Medicine and Psychiatry rotation and he is now on his Surgery rotation. He has had a lot of really neat opportunities. I was able to find a job. I'm working at a Hospital in Akron as a Guest Services Associate, which means that I am working on raising the patient satisfaction scores on the Oncology floor. I'm really liking the patient interaction and I'm learning how to work with all of the nurses :) Another exciting thing that has happen in our lives is that we got a puppy. He is an english bulldog and his name is Henry. He is really cute! Everything is going really well and we can't believe how fast time is flying.

Meeting Matt's fellow student doctors

2007-10-13T19:44:00.001-07:00

Today we met the other students doing rotations with Matt and their significant others. We went to a Mexican place near our house. Everyone told stories about the rotation that they are on and gave opinions of the doctors. It was fun to hear what everyone was getting to do. I don't think any of us will be best buddies but it will nice to have a group of people to get together with.

Matt is on call this weekend which means he has to go in at 7 a.m. and he got home about 1:30 this afternoon. I really think that this is a great place for Matt to be learning. The Doctors really challenge him to think and know why and what things are. I'm really proud of Matt and how well he is doing. He is going to be a great doctor!

A Fun Night!

2007-10-13T19:28:00.000-07:00

Matt and I have been so thankful to have the Laytons here in Cuyahoga. We have really enjoyed being able to spend time with all of them. Last night Matt and I watched Emi, Paige and Evan while Missy and Miles went out. We had a great time. We painted pumpkins, made ghosts and had dinner. It was fun to see the girls get so excited about painting. Matt was helping the girls and he said to Paige "lets make eyes on your pumpkin" so he is making perfect circles and then Paige takes her brush and swirls all the colors together. Matt's face was priceless and Paige was so proud of her work :) We had a really fun night!

Halloween

2007-10-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

It has been really fun having a house that we have been able to decorate for Halloween. I thought that I would be crafty and make ghosts to set outside. It went pretty well but I think in the future I will let someone else be crafty and I will purchase their work :) Matt and I are excited to have trick o treaters. We have always bought candy and never really have had anyone come but we live in a great neighborhood that I'm sure we will have a lot of kids.

Flowers

2007-10-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

In our yard we have a rose bush and this other tree that has pretty little flowers on it. Matt has been really sweet and has kept the vase full. I'm excited that we have been able to use the neat vase that Neil made me. If you would like to purchase one let me know and I'm sure Neil would love to make one for you :)

What to do?

2007-10-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

If anyone would have asked if I thought I would be unemployed in October I would have said no way! But in fact I am. In the last two months I have become a professional interviewer. So what do I do with all that free time? Well I have my schedule of tv shows starting at 10 a.m to noon and then taking a break until 3 p.m. I have enjoyed having time to cook dinner and being able to bake. Unfortunately, Matt and I cannot keep up with everything I'm making. A few things I have made is an apple pie, different kinds of scones and breads. Here are some scones in these neat Martha Stewart gift bags.

The Outdoors

2007-09-16T13:17:00.001-07:00

On this rotation Matt has a great schedule. He works for a few days and then has a few days off. On one of those days off we took a drive to look at the ski hills and falls near us. The water fall was very pretty. It was a short walk on a path to get to it. The ski hills were really funny to look at. They are hills not mountains. I'm pretty excited about them because they are about at my ski level but for Matt it may be a little boring. We are excited about them being so close. It only took us about 15 minutes to get there.

GO BRONCOS!!

2007-09-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

Matt and I had a great time at the Bills/Broncos game. We drove to Buffalo, NY, which is about
3 1/2 hours from our house. The day was full of excitement. First started with a really rainy drive there. Matt had worked the night before so I was driving and there were a few times that I thought we were going to hydro plane into the car next to us. Don't worry Matt slept through it all :) It really wasn't that bad. So we get there and find a great, cheap parking spot and start walking to the stadium, of course in all our Bronco gear. Little did we know that we had to walk by the tailgating area. We only got razed a little there. We get to the gate to go in and I ask Matt where the tickets were? He starts to unzip his jacket pocket and it will not unzip. We fought with it for probably five minutes. Matt finally had to use his keys and tear the inside of his coat to get into the pocket to get the tickets. We can laugh now but it was pretty intense for awhile. We find our seats and thankfully there were other Bronco fans in front of us and behind us. But ALL around us was a crowd of rude, thuggy Bill fans. Matt and I have been to a few different stadiums to watch the Broncos and for the most part other fans are okay but Bill fans win for being the worst. For all the razing and hasseling that Bills fans gave us it was all worth it to see their faces when Elam kicked that last second field goal to win the game!! GO BRONCOS! We actually didn't take any pictures in the stadium but on the way home we documented our day. Oh and Matt ate 1/2 a dozen of Krispy Kreme donuts on the way home (we had just ate dinner too). Overall we had another fun adventure.

Real Life

2007-09-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

Life has started to get back to the feel of "real life." Well kind of....Matt started his Pediatric ER rotation yesterday. It is at a Cleveland Clinic Hospital. He is really enjoying everything so far and learning a lot! It is so nice because so far when Matt gets home he gets to just hang out. I forgot how much I liked to watch t.v. with him :)

My days are consumed with sending out my resume and hoping someone will respond. I have had one interview for an insurance place but it was a 100% commission based and I don't think that is me. On Monday I go to a University near here and take a two hour skills test for a position there. We'll see how that goes. I'm sure there is something out there I just have to work on being patient.

Matt and I are really excited about this weekend. We get to go to the Buffalo Bills opening game and guess who they are playing (drum roll please) The Broncos!! Hopefully we will find some fellow Bronco fans.

East Coast Road Trip

2007-09-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

Matt and I had an experience of a life time. We were able to take a 10 day road trip of the east coast. Our first stop was Niagra Falls. The Falls were very pretty. We were able to ride the Maid of the Mist right to the base of the Falls. This was amazing! Our next stop was Boston. While we were in Boston we walked the Freedom Trail. It was a 2.5 mile journey touring different historical sites in Boston. Towards the end of the walk was the Bunker Hill Monument . We were able to go to the top of the tower and it only took 294 stairs to the top! It was a hike but well worth it. After two days in Boston it was onto New York! We were able to stay on Staten Island at the Navy Base. It was a lot of fun to be able to ride the ferry back and fourth. We had great views of the city and the Statue of Liberty. We were so excited the first night we got there we found Bubba Gumps. This was our favorite resturant on our honeymoon. We did a lot of site seeing. We saw Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, 5th Avenue, Central Park and I'm sure that I am forgetting some. I think the neatest thing that we did was at Ground Zero you could take tours that were given by victims, love ones who lost someone or rescue workers. Our tour was led by a lady who lost her cousin on 9/11 and also by a man who did rescue work right after it had happened. While on our tour a fire started in one of the buildings that had been damaged after 9/11. Unfortunately, two New Yorker firefighters lost their lives that day. One of the men had survived the 9/11 blast.

New York is an amazing city. I think that we could have stayed weeks and still would have not seen everything. The night life was really neat. There were so many people at all hours. I don't think we got home any night we were there until around 2 a.m. I thought for sure I would be scared but out of all the cities we visited I felt most safe in New York. Matt became a great navigator of the subway. We were pros by the end of our stay :) There is so much more to say about New York but this post would be a book we still have several more stops on our trip.

The next stop on our trip was Philly. We saw the Liberty Bell and got to have the best philly cheese steak sandwich. After Philly it was onto Washington D.C. While in D.C. we toured the Holocaust museum, we saw the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the White House, Arlington Cemetery and the Washington Monument. We actually got to go to the top of the Monument. That was a lot of fun. D.C. is another city that we could have spent much more time exploring. About 5 minutes from where we stayed was Alexandria, VA. We ate dinner over there every night. We had this amazing seafood dinner and yummy Thai food. It was a quaint little town with a main street full of great places to eat and fun shops.

The second to last stop was Gettysburg. We watched a electronic map presentation of the battle and then we bought a CD tour for our car. It was a 3 hour tour that drove you through the battle field and told you a little about each place. We celebrated our 4 year anniversary at Gettysburg. Probably not the most romantic place but we felt like we had been celebrating our whole trip. I'm so thankful that we had the time to travel and spend so much time together. Our last stop on our trip was Hershey, PA. Wow, this was an experience. If you love chocolate you have to visit Hershey! As soon as you step out of your car you can smell chocolate. We took the tour and each had a yummy hershey treat. I had the best hot chocolate.

Matt and I had an amazing time on our road trip where we made so many memories and are excited to take our kids back someday to experience all that we did.

Ohio or Bust!

2007-08-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

We made it! Matt did a great job driving the big rig and getting us unloaded. We love our new little house. It is slowly becoming our home. We have enjoyed taking our time unpacking and spending time exploring and being together. Once we download our pictures I will post some of our house.

Tomorrow is a big day for us we get our first washer and dryer delivered! We are officially adults :)

Another great thing about Cuyahoga is that the Laytons are here! We have really enjoyed being with the girls and getting to know Evan.

Matt and I are planning on taking a little road trip to the East coast and we are super excited about it!

We are starting a whole new chapter in our lives and are excited to share our adventures on our blog. I will try to embrace Matt's love of taking pictures so that we make sure that you all get to see what we see.

Third year...

2007-07-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finally finished my second year of school. I am officially a 3rd year! We will be staying in Kirksville for a few more weeks and then we move to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio where I will complete two years of rotations. My first rotation is Pediatrics. We can't wait to head East.

-Matt

The Start

2007-07-08T14:30:00.000-07:00

So this is the beginning of our new blog! Last weekend Matt's younger brother, Neil, got married. It was the first time all five brothers have been together in 9 years. We had a blast. Here are some photos.