Thanksgiving

Well it's a little later than Thanksgiving but I wanted to wait until I had some pictures to show you.  So how did Thanksgiving go?

I was blessed enough to have Wednesday of last week off of school.  This meant that Emily and I were able to leave Kansas after Tuesday afternoon's basketball practice.  We were on the road by 6:04 with plans to stop once we became too tired.  Emily drove the first stretch with me taking over at 9:00.  Not knowing where we'd finish the night yet knowing of the existence of a hotel in the area, I was hoping to make it to Dixon, IL where we stayed on the way down after the wedding.  Once we made it there, however, I started to realize how close we were.  I had said at the beginning I wasn't going to push anything if I felt the least bit tired and I don't feel we did once.  Instead of Dixon, we pulled into her parents driveway at about 2:30 am. 

Wednesday was spent baking pies and ended up going to Thanksgiving church that evening at Immanuel.  BBQ Burgers from Pistol Pete's are recommended by me by the way.

Thanksgiving Day was spent at the Theine house with Emily's siblings and parents.  It was a fun time had by all which included a Packer victory (of which I missed an impressive amount of the second half while trying to smile for the many takes before the 'perfect' picture was captured), good food, good dessert, and no one can forget Band Hero.

The day after Thanksgiving gave us another Thanksgiving celebration to be thankful for.  It was very nice to be able to spend a whole day at both places.  Thanks mom!  We missed out on seeing all of our nieces but were pleased to see half of the Racine Lorenz's.  We missed you guys Sarah and Emma!  The food was again amazing.  It was great to see as much of the Lorenz side as we could.  Thanks for hanging out everyone!

Believe it or not my Saturday, the last Saturday in November in fact, was spent on the golf course.  My dad and brother were able to take advantage of some amazing November weather and hit the links for what I'm sure will be my last round of the year.

We got a late start on Sunday but nonetheless we were able to leave after 9:30 church at Immanuel.  It was a long drive of course but for the most part it was rather uneventful.

Here's a (short) list of things I am thankful for (in no particular order):
1) My faith God has given me.
2) Emily
3) My family that is full of parents, siblings, nugens, etc... on multiple sides now.
4) Safe travels
5) Good eating
6) Brewers baseball
7) Wisconsin
8) Kansas
9) Brats
10) Math
11) Cars
12) Sothwest Airlines which now services Milwaukee
13) Friends
14) Dr. Pepper
15) Guitars
16) The chance to teach
17) Rock Band
18) Snooze button
19) Vacations
20) The Red Box
21) Our house
22) Sports
23) Trivial Pursuit
24) Books
25) Music

Again I know that it has been a while since my last post.  Please accept my apologies as it has been a rather busy few weeks.

Nonetheless the wedding day has come! It came and it went and it brought us back to Kansas.  It's so nice to finally have someone else from home in Kansas.

For those that were unable to be there I'll tell you a little bit about the weekend:

For myself it started after school on Thursday when I flew home.  Emily picked me up from the airport and we drove to my sister's house where we had the pleasure of meeting Grandpa and his lovely bride Peggy for the first time.  We also got the opportunity to see my parents, Matt, Elise, Madeline and Carly. 

Friday was busier than I had thought it was going to be.  It began with several errands to prepare the groomsmen/ushers gifts.  I also spent some time at the reception hall trying to help to be sure everything was ready.  From there we went to the church for the rehearsal.  Many thanks to Dean and Cathy for hosting the rehearsal dinner.  Everyone enjoyed a wonderful meal and time to relax.  This still made for a long night before the big day. 

As I went to bed that night, forecast: High of 59, Partly Cloudy

Though there were some kinks in the plan right off the bat nothing major happened to cause any problems.  Right from the get-go I woke up and relaxed a bit in the morning.  The TV was on and I was waiting for the weather.  Today's forecast: High of 68, Sunny.  Looks like everything is going to work out after all. Rumor has it that the temperature actually got up to the mid 70s.  I don't have any confirmation of this. 

Emily was stunning.  The service was beautiful.  I could not have asked for anything better than what we got.  The reception hall was gorgeous.  Emily did a great job of paying attention to the details.  From the cake to the tables to the favors to the dance floor.  It was all amazing.  We were very pleased with our photographer, our hall, the church, the DJ.  It was all amazing. 

The other amazing piece was all the guests that made it to town for the wedding.  We both want to thank our guests for making the long journeys from Kansas, Oregon, Washingtin, Georgia, Costa Rica, Brazil, or the many other places you came from.  It was flattering that you chose to devote your time to be a part of our special day.

Here are just some pictures for those that maybe interested:

Day One Again

Today marks the first Brewer-less day for the next 6 months.  Exactly 6 months today the Brewers play the Rockies at Miller Park to open the 2010 season.  That's 182 days. 4,368 hours. 262,080 minutes. 15,724,800 seconds.  What is there to do during that time? Just makes you wonder why they don't make it a year round sport.

On the brighter side of things, I am excited that the Crew was able to finish off the year strong with a sweep of the playoff bound Cardinals.  Also I'm excited to hear the ringing in my ears that Trevor Time will be returning for 2010.

I apologize for my lack of pictures again this week, but I assure you of plenty next week.  I'll be traveling home this weekend for the final time before the wedding to take care of things.  I have no plans set in stone and I know that Emily will be busy all day on Saturday.  If you are in town next weekend feel free to give me a call to let me know what's going on. 

As for tonight, I'm watching as the Packers are playing the Vikings and hope that they are able to get back into it.  Only the fourth quarter will tell.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

So maybe it wasn't basketball but I made it to KU territory for the first time this last weekend.  Even better I got to see Uncle Dave, Aunt Melinda, and cousins Sandi and Angie.  We were all there to cheer on Angie as she competed in her cross country meet.  I decided to bring my camera along but I was unaware of the dying batteries that were in it. I was however able to get the following pictures before it died.  Angie, I'm not sure how you do it.  It takes a lot of dedication to participate in a sport like cross country.  Keep it up!

Cross country aside, I always enjoy seeing family.  Thanks to all four of you for including me in your weekend.  It really made  my weekend.

As Promised...

As I previously promised I'm going to do my best to add a post at least every week that contains some photos of what I've been up to.

I'm fortunate enough to say that I've had a good deal of visitors in my time here in Kansas. Emily and her sister came down this weekend. Arriving Thursday afternoon we enjoyed a delicious IHOP dinner and trip to Walmart. Once at home we tried our hands at tie-dying. My hand remained blue throughout all of Friday at school.

I wasn't the greatest host on Friday as I was at school from 7 in the morning until about 10:30 at night due to girls volleyball games, but I had fun there as well. It's been very clear so far this year that the girls eat, sleep, and breathe volleyball, so having the opportunity to see them play and succeed was pretty cool.

When I got home it was time to untie the shirts and pillowcases that we dyed. Margaret's heart design shirt turned out great. My guitar design turned out alright. Somebody else got upset about another design.

Saturday was the first day we were able to sport our new shirts. Well, only 2/3 of us were really excited for that. We enjoyed lunch at the Kansas City's famous Arthur Bryant's Barbecue. Here's a picture of the groovy shirts that got shown around the town.

Below is Emily and myself in front of the famous barbecue pit.

After lunch we went down to The Plaza to see a movie that was so bad I don't even want to admit to seeing it on the internet. (Finally) the movie was over and we walked around The Plaza a bit. After enjoying a bit of Cold Stone I have to say that Wisconsin Cold Stone employees sing much better tip songs than KC employees. Here are some Plaza pics.

It's been a fun and enjoyable weekend and as always I thank my guests. Like I always like to say, guests are always welcome. If you haven't been here yet let me know when you want to make the trip.

Weekend Update

All of a sudden it seems as though it's been a while again. I think perhaps I get excited to post pictures on here whenever I take some but there's a problem with that: I never take any pictures. For this reason I've decided to try to take my camera home every weekend and try to find something interesting enough to take a picture of. So starting next weekend be ready to look for some recent photos.

This weekend has been rather fast already even though there is still another day in it. Friday night I was excited to be the dinner guest of one of my fellow teachers. It was a very fun evening and just great to hang out with people down here outside of school. I'm in the process of planning a "Taste of Wisconsin" night in which I will invite the faculty over to my place for some beer brats and perhaps some other Wisconsin dishes. If anyone has any ideas let me know what screams WI.

That's all I have for now but like I said, keep your eyes open for some more posts and more pictures very soon. Though it's not a new one, I'll leave you with this picture anyway.

The Prodigal Son

One Week Down

One week down... A whole lot more to go!

School started on Monday which means ur first week of school is over. I must say it's nice to have so many more faces with the names.

All in all the week went well. I definately felt a few bumps here and there but really no more than I ever would expect for the first week of school.

The week ended with a surprise trip to Kauffman Stadium for my second Royals game. Though the Royals who fell to the Twins 8-7 didn't turn out to be as victorious as my first trip, the game was still very entertaining. I also got there a bit early so that I could explore a little around the stadium. This time I also brought my camera. Here's some pictures of what I found.

Walking in.

I believe the largest screen in Major League Baseball.

George Brett Statue behind the outfield.

A look through the fountains in the outfield.

I love that KC can find humor in it as well.

A little taste of home.


Always keeping track.

Another look at the fountains.

On the way out.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 7th birthday to my oldest niece!

Although I'm a little bummed that I wasn't able to actually be there I'm thankful for the technology that let me be there virtually. It was nice to see my family as well.

I remembered to bring my camera to the party.

Alyssa opening her gift from us.

Madeline was playing very intensely with the shape sorter.

Five out of seven jokers in one picture was the best that I could do.

Happy Birthday!

It's been a while...

I know that I haven't blogged at all since the weekend I moved in but I don't know how exciting it would be to read about. I will tell you a little bit about this weekend though, but not until after I say that I had quite the adventures in obtaining a Kansas driver's license and a Kansas license plate. Long story short, I tore the house apart in order to find my passport which I finally found out was already in my car since I moved down here. I also loved the three different places I needed to go in order to obtain those two items.

Also I should mention how much I enjoyed all the company I had a couple weeks ago. I'm embarassed to say that my camera was not used once during that period. First thanks to the Krugs as they were "on their way" to South Dakota. Thanks for making Kansas on the way. It was an absolute thrill to hang out with you.

The weekend after that was the first installation. Thanks to my parents, Emily, and her parents for coming to visit and help out around the house.

On to this weekend!

Friday I spent watching a movie and later wanting to get out of the house. I decided it might be fun to go see downtown Kansas City at night. Driving in the city looked pretty cool but I'll have to search for a place that one can sit back and appreciate the view for a few seconds. The interstate is not too friendly for that. I ended up at the plaza and tried to take a few night photos. They didn't really turn out well but here you go anyway.

This one is for Emily.

This one is for Margaret.

Saturday was spent at the lake with a few families from Bethany. As if that wasn't exciting enough it only got more crazy. I got home to hear a chirping. My smoke detector was going off. I went to check my carbon monoxide detector and it too was going off (though I'm not convinced I didn't trip that one). Low and behold, at this point a second smoke detector was going off. I decided at this point to call the fire department and ask them what they suggest. I'm not really sure what was going on with the smoke detectors, but they detected no levels of carbon monoxide with their testers. I'm really unsure of what happened but I am ok and I thank God for that.

Now it's finally time for bed before the second installation at the South church.

Kansas City, Here I Come!

I know I've said it before, but there is no turning back now.

On Wednesday I had lot of help from family and friends to pack up the truck. Though I had been dreading the day I actually had to leave I was doing alright until the shortest helpers came. It's easy to say that the most difficult part of this whole process has been leaving behind my family and friends. To all of you, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the fun times that I've had with you and all the help you've been this last week and the 26 years preceeding that as well.

Oh yeah! Don't forget to take good care of a certain zebra plant that might still be in Wisconsin!

Driving down in three vehicles was the activities on Thursday afternoon. Again, I was very thankful to see family, short and tall, for lunch before we left. Driving was thankfully uneventful.

Friday afternoon we finished the trip into Kansas and closed on the house. This was a rather surreal moment during the move. I don't know that it really hit me until I was actually in the house.

Thanks in great part to help from my new neighboring state I was shocked to say that the truck was completely unloaded by dinner time on Friday. Needless to say I was excited that I'd then be ready to get rid of the big yellow truck on Saturday instead of Sunday.

Thank you also to the help that showed up Saturday to move the piano and all the other boxes that surprised me the day before.

Now it is time to unpack boxes and so far I haven't found any newly broken items. Thank God for that.

To all in Wisconsin, my heart is still there. I've been alone in Kansas for approximately 35 minutes and already I miss you. If you are ever looking for somewhere to go, consider driving down here. My door will always be open to visitors.

God bless you all and please pray for me during this transition.

Moving Week

Monday morning. It is officially moving week. It's getting to be closer and closer yet ironically even more difficult to believe. As I am looking around my apartment I'm starting to realize a couple things. I am getting closer and closer to having everything that needs to be packed in a box in a box. I'm also realizing that I think I have too many boxes. I think that's alright. I appreciate all the help from everybody getting me boxes. I'd rather have too many than not enough. It's also getting to be a little surreal to think that in a couple of days, these walls that have been my home for the last three years are really going to mean nothing to me at all. I've been feeling as though this day wasn't ever going to make it here and now here it is. Just hoping that all goes smoothly and that all that are traveling due to this move do so safely.

Tick Tock

So I suppose that it has been a while since the last time I posted something on here. By show of hands, how many of you out there thought that I was done with this and I wasn't going to blog anymore? Well I hate to break it to you but I'm back!

So what do I have to report to you this time? Well... umm... Not a whole lot I suppose. I guess right now it is time that I am really having to get down to business with packing. It kind of is amazing to me how much stuff I can acquire in just 3 years. I just can't wait until the move is all over. One moment it seems like it is coming up so quickly; the next moment feels as though it still is ages away. I suppose that patience is what it is all about.

Well I'd love to keep updating you on what is going on but I got stuff to pack.

Did I Say "No Turning Back Now" Before?

My educational housing journey down to Kansas was quite a bit more than that. How crazy is it that I have been searching for a house in Waterford for three years with nothing to reap from it? Can you blame me for not thinking that I'd find a house I'd like in attempt #1?
I stand corrected. I laughed at how many houses down in KS had "eyes." I was at first hesitant to even consider this one because it appeared to have "angry eyes." I soon realized that the house is designed to resemble Sesame Street's Bert which needless to say was rather exciting.Anyways, though it still seems as though there is a long way to go before it's ours, it seems as though it will be. In the words of my father, "Bring in Trevor Hoffman."

No Turning Back Now

For the sake of saying that I haven't given up yet I sit here to write another post. I understand that these posts are probably not all that exciting to read as nothing is really going on, but it seems as though things are about to happen. Next week Emily, my parents, and I will be in Overland Park looking for a place for me to stay once I get down there.

Aside from Kansas, the wedding plans seem to be going well. We think the big stuff is out of the way and now it's all about the details. It's always about the details.

I can promise this blog will be a little more exciting when I can tell you about things that happened instead of what is about to happen.

Go Brewers!

Proton Decay 5

So this post is strictly to say that I haven't given up after one post. As long asI am here I will update you a little bit even though I am ironically the only person that knows about this blog so far.

School is done in Waterford and it's time to look to the next step. Emily and I are going to try to go down to Kansas sometime in the middle of this month to look at houses and apartments. We're hoping my parents can make it for the ride too. The idea is to have some place that I can move into around the middle or end of July. The last goal is just to be able to enjoy this summer a little bit. Go Brewers!

Day One

The heading could just as easily be "Day 165" as it is currently the 165th and final day of the school year. But as I look ahead I realize that it is also the first day of whatever else God has in store for me. In the past I have been unsuccessful at following through with the blogs but I hope that keeping in touch with Wisconsin will be the incentive I need to keep this one going.

In case you have not heard, I will be taking a teaching position next year at a school in Overland Park, Kansas and I will also be getting married on November 7. I first want to answer the questions that resonate with everyone I've spoken with since the announcement was made:

1) WHEN ARE YOU MOVING? I don't know. I've realized that there are many obstacles ahead of me this summer and I've wanted to take them one at a time. The first, finish this school year, is done and I'll soon be looking into answering this question further.

2) ARE YOU STILL GOING TO BE A BREWER FAN? That's a ridiculous question! I'm stunned and almost insulted that people ask me this one. Of course I'll still be a Brewer fan. The number one fan in fact. I've tried to keep them out of this decision realizing that with the blessings of computers and the MLB Extra Innings package I can be a Brewer fan anywhere in this country.

I'll stop there for now, but please check up on this blog and make sure that I keep it up.