Taking humility for granted

Right now I am amazed at some of the girls' lack of knowledge about simple things. Like... not knowing that the United States is not a continent.  Or being unable to list even one country in Asia. I think the worse was not knowing what "humble" means... not even a clue. Sigh... oh my. Maybe devotion tonight should be a lesson on what humility is and is not. 

I do not have a very extensive knowledge of the Bible-- I forget names and exact sequences of events. I'm more of an overall concept kind of girl. Even so, the word "humble" and "humility" and "pride" were used in our household frequently enough that I knew what they meant--even if I couldn't give you Webster's definition of the word or understand the depth of the word. 

It's so difficult to know where to start with our girls. Bible stories, biblical concepts, God's view of sin... there is so much that they have never heard that it is really just easier to read a short devotion at dinner. When I think about trying to teach the girls these concepts I realize that I don't really understand them myself. I understand them in that I know that being humble is not being proud, thinking of others, recognizing our inability to save ourselves, etc... however, I do not understand them in a way that I can convey it effectively to others. Plus... the "where do you start?!" question is somewhat overwhelming. 

Hhhhmmm... Oh to start training your children in truth before they are teenagers. Better late than never! :)

poor little neglected blog

No posts since November 4th of last year? Oh My Word. I've been trying to think of a name for a new blog that doesn't have my name in it... so when my name is googled my whole entire life doesn't show up. Anyways... Because of that I have been not posting for a while. And because I'm lazy.

We're still alive.... Life is going really well but only because God is so great. As soon as I come up with a better blog name I'll post all about our life. :)

working girl

I started work this week. I liked running a cash register again... but was really cranky when I came home the first day after only four hours of work. I need to be better about working. I was very blessed (and spoiled) to not have to work all summer long. I really can't complain. I only work 10 hours next week. It's technically a seasonal position, so I may only work there a couple of months. I sound like a negative nancy today don't I? I have a cold... maybe that's why.

Jaz and Steve came out to visit Grandma and Grandpa. We did the usual stuff-- visited the Malt shop, ate lots and lots of Grandpa's homemade bread, and went up North for the day. Photo below it compliments of Jaz/Steve.

I turned 22 last week! John had six days off so we were able to do lots of things together. It was probably the best part of my birthday. John let me listen to Christmas music, we were able to go to church together and stay all day, I got so many things chocolate to eat, and John rubbed my feet so many times. It was perfect.

John and I got skype. Now we can talk to Mom and Dad Klotzle sort of face-to-face! It's pretty cool.

We still haven't turned our heat on. It's super awful cold. That is one of the good things about living in an apartment. We may hate that on lawn day the leaf blowers are so loud John can hardly sleep, and that the lady above us gets very active around midnight, but the low heating bill is going to make it so much better.

i don't like blogging.

It's September now and I don't think I've blogged in many months. I'm not really sure why I blog. I share most of my pictures on facebook... we don't have kids that are super cute and changing... we don't really DO anything... it's not really an inspirational blog... it's not really a funny blog... oh well. With as much as I read other people's blogs and LOVE when they update even if it's a post about nothing, I should do it too.

This is John and I at Jon and Brooke's carving pumpkins!

John was kind of protective of the pumpkin. He did all the scooping of the insides out, he did all the marking of the pattern, and he was pretty sure that no one was allowed to touch the pumpkin but him. And then I got that look on my face, and told him it was "OUR" pumpkin not "HIS" pumpkin. He felt bad and gave the pumpkin to me. By this time though, I didn't want the pumpkin given to me out of pity. I wanted him to WANT me to help him with the pumpkin (yes, we're still at that phase of our marriage). By the end of the pumpkin we were both happy, I got to touch it a little bit, and I let him enjoy the carving without trying to make him feel bad for not wanting me to help. He did an amazing job by the way. This is his pumpkin all lit up. We call it "the howling wolf".

By now it's a little mushy, but we still proudly display it on our front porch!

I love fall :)

We are Hoosiers now!

We're living in Indiana now. Yeah. We've been here about 3 weeks. Here's my excuse for not blogging-- I don't like blogging without pictures. MY computer is the only one that we keep pictures on. However, my computer also does not like Gmail which is how I sign into Blogger. Combine that with no internet, and you get very little to no posts. Here's the last month in bullets. Our life isn't THAT much different than before. We don't have to mow the grass anymore because someone does it for us. The cell reception in our apartment is kind of bad... we can't talk on the phone in the kitchen or bathroom. Not that we really need to talk on the phone in those places.

Adjusting is going okay. I'm not sure how much of it is me just pushing all thoughts of anything sad out of my mind, or if I'm really doing okay with the move. A few people have really made the effort to make me feel welcome here, and I'm so thankful for them. I can stand by them in church when I feel awkward and alone and they don't mind (whitney, that's you! :)). I know it's only been 3 weeks. I can't expect to be friends with everyone in the entire church/area already, but I wish I could be. In the meantime, I'm getting my scrapbook started/finished! :)

moving...

We are moving! I know I'm about a week and a half late with this post, but it's finally here!

I have tons of time to tell the story since the baby I'm babysitting for is sleeping and I'm here all alone with nothing to do... so prepare for a loooooonnnnggg boring read! :) Last October John received a job offer for a Maintenance Quality Assurance Inspector position in South Bend, IN. Neither of us were excited about it for some reason (in spite of the fact that John has an awesome cousin living there... who is moving away from there now... funny huh?) and didn't feel good about it so John turned it down. Fast forward to February of this year, and John applied for the same position with the same airline but in Fort Wayne IN. He figured he either had a really good chance because the interview was with the same guy that offered John the job in October, or basically no chance because John had already turned him down once. Turns out, the guy offered John the job on the spot and he starts on the 21st. Oh by the way-- the airline is shutting down the South Bend base soon. I love that God knows the future and what happens when we trust HIM to direct our life. :)

Whew. We are very happy about moving to the Leo area. We have an apartment for now, and I'm just looking forward to getting established this summer. No work for a while for me... my wonderful cousin Kaitlyn is going to be in Leo for the summer (SO excited Kaits :)) and I've heard that Leo is amazing in the summer. I don't really know that much about John's job other than that he's very excited about the things the company is going to certify and train him in. It will benefit him greatly when/should he decide to leave this company.

All in all it will be a good move for us, however, I am sad to be leaving behind all of the friends I've made here.... living next door to Laura has been a blessing words cannot describe. I am incredibly thankful to have been a part of so many children's (and their mom's) lives while we've lived here.

We are looking forward to what God has planned for this next season of our lives! :)

candy crazy

Happy February!
John woke up after only 5 hours of sleep today so he's napping on the couch before he has to leave for work again. He's rarely complains but I know it has to be so hard to try to sleep during the day. He's my hero :)

For Valentines day John and I went to a marriage conference with my parents in Frankenmuth Michigan. It was a Love and Respect Video conference. If you have never read the book I would highly reccomend it. The book is basically everything in the conference... I have it if you would like to borrow it :)

We got to eat lunch at the Bavarian Inn. Apparently Frankenmuth is known as "The Little Bavaria of Michigan" and they do everything they can to be Bavarian in every way. Across the street from our hotel was a Coffee Haus.

We got back from the conference on Tuesday (we stayed a little longer at my parents house) and we leave for Florida this Sunday! SOOO excited. Poor John is trying to fit homework in between our trips and working full time which is probably why he couldn't sleep today. It stresses him out pretty badly.

Oh. My wonderful neighbor and friend Laura convinced me to try to give up extra sweets with her until she goes on HER family vacation to Florida. I've gone one and a half days, and that's only because I'm calling Junior Mints MINTS instead of candy. It's pretty much just giving up candy, cookies, brownies, etc... which I eat WAY too much of. Not sure I can make it until April :)

Christmas 09

We're back from vacation! It was absolutely beautiful-- only one day was super nice weather, but there was no work, no dishes, no worrying or thinking and lots of family!
Below is the day we spent in Cozumel MX (the super nice day)

John and I at dinner one night

The entire family (minus Grandma and Baby Cosette) all strapped in for the zipline in Honduras.

Suzy, Kristen and Me waiting for the comedy act.

Christmas with my family the day after we came home from the cruise. I think each of those stockings were stuffed almost entirely with candy of some form. Our freezer is now full of chocolate.

It was such a nice vacation. It's such a blessing to get along with and enjoy John's family so much. It helps so much that I knew all of them as friends beforehand.

Now it's back to real boring life. FYI John hasn't heard anything back from that job in Texas.

Happy New Year everyone! :)

countdown to vacation time!

I've been sick for about a week with an energy-sucking head cold. The laundry hasn't been done. John has made dinner the past two nights. Good luck finding whatever you're looking for if you left it on the floor because it's a popular place for everything from tootsie roll wrappers to coupons that fell off the table to cranberries from stringing cranberries and popcorn the other night. Working six days this week may also have contributed to me wanting to just sit on the couch and sleep. John has been a trooper though and has run errands for me, not complained about wearing the same clothes to work days in a row, and gotten me medicine when I don't feel like moving. And now he's coming down with it. It'll be my turn to take care of him next :)

We leave for vacation in 13 days. SOOOOOO excited. We're so busy until then, I think it's going to fly by.

John has an interview this upcoming Wednesday morning, and we would appreciate any prayers people would be willing to give on our behalf. It would be such a great career move, but as with last time, leaving our friends, family and home would be difficult.

I think that's all. Just for fun I counted the pairs of shoes that are on the floor in our living room and NOT in the clost-- 5 pairs of shoes. Think we're lazy?? :)

changes

Lots of changes in 3 months... or at least there should be.
First of all, I turned 21 woo-hoo!


And John's birthday is next week but it's Thanksgiving so we celebrated together early. I made him pose with his candles... I think he hates it.




The picture below is his birthday LAST year. I thought I would post it to show how pathetic I am... not much has changed since then at all. I used the same pan to make him brownies two years in a row... I really need something new.


Other than lots of birthdays we've just been working, visiting family, John has been hunting and killed a deer, I've been shopping and killed the bank account-- the usual.

Oh-- I love Christmas even more than I love back-to-school shopping in case you can't tell.

I have been learning to be proficient in driving a stick shift lately. My car has some gas pressure problem, and so until John fixes it, on days that is is feasible I drive his car. It started out very jerky and tense, but I think it's going well... I am going appreciate my automatic car so very much once I get it back.

Our next door neighbor/friends had a baby this past month, and he is so so so cute. We get to see him through the window sometimes.

I signed up for a mini-marathon with my cousin Kaitlyn. Now, before you get impressed and think I'm some fantastic runner I should let you know that I can barely run 3 miles right now. And that's a big barely. It included a lie-down-on-this-bench-to-cure-my-side-ache break, and some stops at traffic lights (Kaitlyn if you read this don't worry, I'll keep training!).

Other than that... John is constantly looking at and applying for jobs so if one day I post that we're moving to Puerto Rico, or Texas or Alaska don't be surprised. I married an adventurer to be sure.

And to end this post... Some pictures of John and my sister Taryn... I think they get along in their craziness very well...

Kettle Corn

John and I were going to have a movie and popcorn night Wednesday night, and John decided that MAKING kettle corn would just make the whole experience more memorable. Someone gave us real popcorn kernels as a wedding present, and we had everything else so I didn't object too much (I believe "but it takes sooooooo long" came out of my mouth several times). John started heating the oil and sugar and all was going well-- I was getting just a tiny bit excited for the homemade popcorn that I was waiting so patiently for. Then I heard a pop and John screaming. Like a serious scream of pain. I went over to him and the oil had popped and a big chunk of sugary-oil had landed on his toe. Layers of skin instantly came off his toe. It was gross.

End of the story-- I went to Target while John sat on the couch nursing his toe to get burn cream, gauze, and microwave kettle corn.

And to think he says he would try it again...

Back to School Shopping

It's that time of year again. The seasonal section of Target is filled with bins of markers, crayons, pencils, and highlighters; Hannah Montana and Hello Kitty notebooks fill the aisle also. Ahhh I used to love looking at it all. Being homeschooled I never needed much... maybe 2 folders that I only needed because I said I needed them for cuteness purposes. John is going back to college this fall, and I thought maybe, just maybe he would need some supplies (think really big scheming smile on my face). My dreams of filling a cart with notebooks, highlighters, pens in every color, post-its, paperclips and on and on were on the brink of coming true!! I turned to John and asked him if we could go back to school supply shopping and he said "oh, I probably only need one notebook."

.........

We HAVE one notebook sitting somewhere in our desk. So much for back to school shopping. Our kids are going to have school supplies coming out of their ears and noses someday.


Aside from that not too much is new. We've been traveling a lot, our dryer is broken, we're addicted to watching Gilmore Girls, and John and I are having a race to see who can lose 5 pounds first. Not sure what the prize for winning will be...

Boston Day Trip

John has been wanting to take advantage of the free standby ticket air travel offered to employees for a while, so this week when our days off coincided for the first time ever (it seemed that way at least) we took a day trip to Boston! This was us at the start of the Freedom Trail (above).



This is the Bunker Hill Monument. It has 294 steps, and for some reason I wanted to climb it. John wasn't super excited about it, but he went along with it... and got to the top twice as fast as I did.


SOOO not worth it :)
John and his yummy clam chowder.


It started raining around 1pm and since we were getting around the city almost entirely on foot, we decided to head home rather than be miserable, wet and grouchy. However, the storm delayed all flights in and out of Boston... with a 2 hour delay on flights, all of the people on the later flights were going standby for the earlier flights that were leaving when theirs were supposed to. This is a line of people waiting for rebooking for connecting flights.


So John and I sat at the airport from about 2:30 to 8:30. We had a good time though. buying Starbucks always makes the time go faster. Next time we're going to check the weather first guaranteed :)

sunburns in april

It's finally spring! John and I have been out walking this week enjoying the weather. It was absolutely GORGEOUS!


John planted some flowers a couple of weeks ago when it was nice.

John went fishing with my Dad, Gramps, and Uncle today. It was the opening day of walleye fishing. My mom and I went to the Freeland area garage sales, but after about five stops, and the sight of a traffic jam of fellow garage salers in a one stop-light town we gave up and went to Applebee's where Christi works.

John is doing two more weeks of training, but in Detroit this time rather than Minneapolis. He gets out every day by two, so it's like two whole weeks of vacation. One more week of the day training schedule and then it's back to nights for him!

The end.

hurray for the library!

John and I went for a drive today. Not really to do anything or go anywhere... just out for a drive, looking at houses, seeing what there is to see in Canton. I remember when my parents would do that with us and it would drive me crazy... :-O We ended up at the library where they have internet!!!!

John and I both have this entire weekend off, so today we're trying to get some stuff done around the house. We're trimming an insanely ugly and thorny bush, rehanging a mirror, planting some flowers, moving a big comfy chair out of our kitchen and back upstairs where it belongs... lots of little stuff. We'll probably move out of this house before we have everything painted and hung. OH! Completely unrelated -- John bought me wii fit :) :) :) SOOOO happy.

We're going on a family vacation with John's ENTIRE family next month. It was a blast last year without Suzy, Jim, 0r Krissa, so it can only be better this year.

John is going to be working third shift for another six months for sure. He's slowly (I think) getting more used to the schedule and able to get better sleep during the day. He's even stopped taking pop to work to drink on his lunch! I still love working at Panera only for the people I work with. I am SO not cut out to be in a service industry of any sort, other than serving children. I get way too irritated when people behave in a way that I don't think they should. I really do like going to work though.

--Amy

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year... and everything else I missed

So... it's been a while. It's really a bummer not having the internet, and Panera's wireless is kind of iffy so this is the one thing that has fallen through the cracks. In the past two months John and I celebrated our first anniversary (with a trip to Florida... picture below) and that's about all. See! No one missed much.

I also make John babysit with me sometimes. The kids kind of liked him and wouldn't let anyone else hold him. And I can't figure out how to make this NOT underlined.


We babysat FOUR kids and I don't think John freaked out once. He's actually really good at it.

I'm still working at Panera Bread and actually really like it. It's not very cool, but I love the people I work with. Last week some of us girls from work went out for dinner and ice cream. The employees at this Panera actually become friends :)

John and I are figuring out how to make the night working thing work a little bit better for us. I stop making him feel guilty for sleeping and leaving me all alone and he sleeps easier, better and longer. He spends a couple minutes talking to me, and then I'm okay to be without him for the rest of the day. Too bad it took us almost four months to figure it out.

John has an official title at church now. He's the sound system man twice a month. Now, he already missed his one Sunday because we were in Florida, and the Wednesday night because he had to work... but I'm sure he'll actually run the sound system one of these days. I think MY objective for the lunch hour at church is to snatch as many babies as I can. Am I right Caitlin? Detroit has an abudance of children under the age of 5 who are super cute and have mothers who are willing to give them up for a little while.

We leave for California Saturday to visit the family.

That's all. I'll post again in June :)

Country Inn & Suites

John has been in Minneapolis MN for the past week and a half for more training, and I was able to fly out last Wednesday after work to be with him, and enjoy the company paid for hotel room :)

John's bro and sister-in-law also live in MN, so we were able to spend some time with them, and get to know Krissa better. They took us to lots of neat places in St. Paul, and let us crash their Christmas party. I think John wants to move to MN now... except for the fact that it's been under 0 degrees many of the days we've been here.

That's the only picture we've taken the whole week. It was an amazing week though. John and I love eating out, but don't do it that often as it gets kind of expensive. So this week of HAVING to eat out and having his work pay for most of it has been a dream come true :)

time to take the garbage out

My pictures showed up backwards, so this post is going to be the same. The first few pictures are of Thanksgiving! Here is the shoe pile by the stove.


The huge bowl of mashed potatoes.

John's 23rd Birthday!
Sam, John and Kyle! Our first company at our new house.

JOHN AND HIS DEER!



Nothing much is going on here still. John is in Minneapolis this week and next for some training, so I'm flying out to be with him (at a hotel with a pool!!! :)) for a long weekend. I forgot to take the trash out today, and I'm going to be gone NEXT Tuesday so... John is coming home to a smelly, overflowing trash can. Good thing we have a shed to stash it.

I started working at Panera in Canton and it's going well. The people are very cool and I am working my ideal amount of hours. :)

I'll have access to the internet all day when I'm in MN so there will definitely be some more posts in the next few days!

nothing eventful to report

Not having the internet has really been a change. I feel disconnected from my facebook acquaintances because I no longer see all of the status changes. If I want to know where something is, I have to guess. Or realize it really isn't that important and I shouldn't go. Overall I think it's going to be good. AND it's saving us money. Speaking of saving money, John was on a money saving roll yesterday. He called our car insurance provider to let them know we moved, and because of our new location, we save over $100 a year. Apartment complexes must really be dangerous for vehicles :) We also switched to a lower minute cell phone plan. Maybe our Crown study is paying off... Speaking of Crown, this Saturday is our final class. It's kind of sad :(

John and I went to Chicago this weekend to see my cousin Kaitlyn, and I would post pictures, but I left my camera at home. Next time. It was SO much fun. She lives above a little flower shop, and we walked or took the el everywhere. Thanks Kaits for a great weekend and yummy food!

Nothing too much is happening. We're s....l....o....w...l....y putting our house together. John put the light in the upstairs bathroom in today. For the past two weeks we've had a lamp on the counter.

That's all. Really. Except for a picture of John sleeping with Taryn's kitty. I think it's cute.

WE MOVED!! (... and have no internet)

YAY! Saturday was our official moving day, and we spent our first night there. John has been sleeping there during the day every now and then, but that doesn't count. Our place looks great. And I just finished my interview at the Canton Panera (the only reason I'm able to blog, because we don't have internet at our house yet)... it was SOO not worth stressing over. The very word "interview" makes my heart beat faster and my stomach feel sick. Turns out all I had to do was write down my name and address and tell him my availability. Super easy. And I got a free coffee out of it, so now as I sit and take use of the free internet, I can drink free coffee too!! I'm being good to the budget today!! :)

Other than moving not too much is going on. We have the downstairs totally put together, and I'm pretending the upstairs doesn't exist.

I had a great birthday with John. He took me out for dinner, and even walked around Bed Bath and Beyond with me (this was a big deal. He had worked the night before and hadn't slept all day either. I told him he could sleep in the car while I walked around the store, and he STILL came in. He loves me :)).

That's all. I think we're going to Bay City this weekend so John can kill us a deer. I'll let you know how that goes :)