The most detailed entry we've posted to date.

Tammy, this one's for you...

These passed two weeks have been pretty good. We were house-sitting for a family from Immanuel starting on the 13th and did that until we left for my parents last Wednesday (before Thanksgiving). They had the sweetest dogs, and it was fun to pretend like we had dogs and a fancy house for a while.

Their dogs names are Daisey and Maggie and their personalities are so different but both are so lovable. Daisey earned the name Crazy Daisey from us (and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that her family calls her that). She is part Whippet part Lab and has an endless supply of energy. She seems to love everyone and is not afraid to get in your face to tell you so. She doesn't lick, though; instead she sniffs you and, if you can avoid the soaking wet nose, this is a much more enjoyable experience than being licked.

Maggie is completely the opposite of her sister. She is part German Shepherd par Lab and is very mellow. She takes a while to warm up to people, but once she does she is so sweet. She will lay at your feet when your on the couch (where Daisey will just jump right on top of you) and only sometimes asks you to pet her (by wedging her nose under your arm and then giving it a hardy thrust upward). She does give "kisses," but not severely and it was actually pretty endurable.

We loved hanging out with these canines, as we would really like to have one of our own. Silly landlords...

This weekend was fun and relaxing, which is what we needed. As mentioned above, we left for my parents' on Wednesday. We stayed the night there and headed up to my grandparents the next morning. We had the traditional Thanksgiving meal, and traditionally stuffed ourselves to overfull. We stayed the night there on Thursday and headed back to Council Bluffs on Friday afternoon. On our trip back to CB, we began making plans with Shelby and Steve to hang out that night. Right when we got into town we stopped at Best Buy to pick up some stuff for my parents and who do we run into by Tammy and Shelby... and their male counterparts. :) That was a funny coincidence.

So, later we hung out with them and watched what turned out to be a horrible movie... G.I. Joe... good special effects and stuff, but bad writing and thus bad acting. It was fun hanging out with them though, and we don't get to do it that often so... yeah... :)

The next day (Saturday) we spent time with Chris's family. It was really fun! We really don't get to seem them enough and it was nice to spend a whole day together without any really scheduled things to do (I feel like I schedule my life away sometimes!). After lunch with Chris's dad and siblings, we stopped to pick up his grandpa and then we all went for a walk. It was so beautiful outside; the walk was very nice. After that, we played badmitten in the yard for about an hour or so and then went inside for some hot chocolate/apple cider. All in all, it was a pretty darn enjoyable day.

Later that evening, we went to dinner with my parents and then decided to stay the night and leave early this morning to get me to work on time. We seem to make this decision a lot, but I'm not so sure it's a good one. Ha! We just end up being really tired. But we get to spend a little more time with the family that way, and with the added bonus that a nice relaxing evening isn't interrupted by a 2 hour trip in the car.

So, today we got up at 5:30 and headed home. I dropped Chris off at home and went straight to church, where I stayed until noon. Came home and we watched the game (SKOL Vikings! 10-1!) and then I headed back to church at 5:00 to help decorate for the advent season. The church looks so pretty now with all the lights and decorations up :) I'll have to try to get a picture and put it up... Anyway, I stayed at the church until 9:00 because youth group started at 7:00 (Chris showed up then).

And that pretty much brings us up to this moment. And there you have it. Any questions or comments you can direct to me, any complaints you can keep to yourselves ;)

Hey, look at that! Another post! Really I would like to post more often but every time I think about posting it is while I'm at work and my work computer doesn't like this website for some reason.

Anyway, we are currently house sitting for a family from church. They have two dogs, so it's a pretty fun gig. Plus, they're letting me drive their car since mine is busted, so that's really nice.

These next two weeks are going to fly by, I think. We have plans for several evenings, which always seems to speed things up, and next week is Thanksgiving! I am really excited for that particular holiday because a) I love food, and b) we will be putting the Christmas tree up at my parents' house and that's always a fun time. There won't be any presents under that tree this year because we are going to D.C. for Christmas! My parents are flying us all out there and we will be staying for a week, with the exception of Chris who has to come home early for work :(. But, while we are out there we will be attending a Redskins game, which should be really fun.

Other than all this, we're still just getting our jobs done. Chris's job actually just got changed. He is no longer in the accounting department, but is working on budgets in the "Homes" department. (I think that's right...) He just started this new position on Friday so it's still pretty new. I think he is enjoying it so far, so that's nice :)

We hope this post finds you all well and excited for the holiday season to come.

We're still blogging!

Long time no post...

We have been keeping pretty busy lately with work and travel. Last weekend we were in MN for the Vikings game and to spend some time with family. A couple weekends in a row before that we were in Omaha to work on my old room at my parent's house (trying to get it fixed up a little...). And this weekend we are going to St. Louis to visit the Grulkes. We had plenty of fun on those trips, and we are pretty excited for this weekend!

In other news, there's not much other news. We're still just hangin' in Waukee and working. We are still on the Awaken team in support staff roles. We love the community that provides for us and have a lot of good friends still involved with it, so it's pretty fun.

Really, there's not a lot else to report. If you are curious about anything, let us know and we'll fill you in!

Welp...

So, it's been a long time. Really, though, there's not much to report. We've both been keeping busy at work. We've done a little traveling (to Kansas for Chris's b-day, most recently), but other than that life is pretty much quiet.

On another note, anyone want to hire me/us to take pictures of their family/kids/wedding/engagement? And by "hire" I of course mean we could do it for free so we can maybe get some kind of a portfolio going incase, some day, we actually do decide we want to be in the photography business.

:)

Mas palabras...

Sitting at my aunts house, spending some time with family, watching my two young female cousins run around doing the chicken dance... glad for some time off and for a little down time. Went for a walk with my mom earlier. She tried roller blading for the first time and does not prefer it to roller skating. My two-year-old cousin is now talking in almost complete sentences and it is amazing to me. He is very happy go lucky and adorable.



Oh, ok. So during his sermon on Sunday, Pastor referenced some protest led by that great man Phelps.... apparently he and his group were protesting a Jewish center in Des Moines. According to their fliers, "Jews killed Jesus. Jewry will soon be dead. God hates Jews." So much hate. It was really frustrating to me because, not only is this guy and his group making a mockery of Christianity (and humanity in general), but this disgusting display of hate occurred at the same exact time as our mission trip, during which we did our best to share God's love. It starts to make you feel like Love is futile. Fortunately I am naive enough to ignore that feeling, and I pray for the strength to continue ignoring it the rest of my life.

My dad and his unity celebrated their "100 days out." Which means he will be home (hopefully) in 100 days. That's exciting. We are going with my parents to Washington D.C. for Christmas so that is exciting. We will go to a Redskin's game, which my dad has always wanted to do. AND they are playing Dallas so it should be a great game. I am getting excited.

Chris is plugging away at his job. He has so many jobs to do within his one job. We are excited for him to get started chasing after his CPA. The tests are supposed to be hard, and the study stuff is ridiculously expensive, but it is still exciting! :)

Ok. So that's more of an update than last time. Maybe next I'll put pictures up.

Ciao.

It's time...

...for an update.

It's been so long I don't even know what all has happened since the last post. Probably a lot but not much of note.

I just got back from a mission trip with my youth to St. Louis. It was a pretty good time. It renewed my hope of long term missions some day, which is hard because I am not sure when that day will come.

Chris was a home alone all week and got quite a few hours of over time in. He has decided to get his CPA and hopes to have that accomplished by next year. This will entail a few more classes to achieve the credit requirements, as well as passing each section of the CPA exam (which is quite tough). It's all pretty exciting :)

I just got back today from the mission trip so I am tired and can't think of much else. Hope that appeases you :)

Ode to the West Des Moines Library

I step out of my non-air conditioned car into the sticky humid heat of a late spring day in Iowa. I make my way through the thick air into the reprieve of shade provided by the building. As I relish the coolness the shadow provides, I notice the little square labyrinth of long benches and flower beds to the left, and the large pond not too far behind it. Cute, I think, and continue my walk toward the building. As I approach, the automatic doors slide open (Star Trek was so before its time), and I am greeted by a blast of blessed cold air. When it hits me, I feel as though the heat from outside is peeled from my skin and lies waiting there, just outside the door; it is not welcome here.

Mixed with the processed air is the scent. The scent any booklover would recognize, blind folded, as the scent of a used bookstore or library. The scent of paper that has been mixed with ink to become beautiful pros, masterpiece novels, classic reprints, and children’s books we will never forget. The scent that would make me feel at home anywhere.

I notice the spaciousness, the two floors, which is relevant only for one reason: it means lots of books. After obtaining my new library card from the very friendly librarian, I immediately search for my desired books. It takes me 5 minutes or less to find them, check them out, and be standing back outside the building with my heat suit on, pondering on which bench to sit.

I decide on the far bench, the one facing the pond, and take my seat. I now notice a fountain about 50 yards away at the end of the pond. I begin to read. When the wind blows, and it’s always blowing in Iowa, the spray of the fountain leaps the 50 yard gap and I can feel tiny pricks of coolness on my exposed skin. When the coolness fades I am reminded of my non-air conditioned car and the trip home I must make. I stand, make a path through the shade, and leave.

But I’ll be back soon. That smell and that pond will call me back

KENTUCKY!

                 

Last weekend, we took a little trip to visit our friends in Kentucky (that's them, up there... Brent and Amanda Sorenson).  Because they live in KY, we don't see them very often, so it was nice to spend some time with them.  It took 10.5 hours to get there and 10.5 hours to get back.  We left on Thursday around 5:30, after picking up the rental car (so nice to rent a car and not have to worry about your own!), and we left for home Sunday morning.  I drove most of the way there, which was nice for Chris because normally he's the one doing that.  He drove all the way home, though, so he got his share of driving done, too.

While in KY, we did a little hiking.  We went to a place called The Natural Bridge, which was exactly what it sounds like; a bridge formed from eroded rock.  It was quite large and very neat.  As I've said before, blogger sucks when it comes to pictures, so I'll do my best with a couple.  

All in all we had a great weekend!  We got to do some relaxing, some exercising, some visiting... pretty good vacation.  We decided we like Kentucky, too... me mostly for the sweet tea ;).  Alright... here comes my attempt at pictures (click them to enlarge):

Natural Bridge:

Amanda and Brent's dog Tate, whom we love:  

 

Oh!  And when we got home, I snagged my first successful pictures of lightning!:

Cool... I think it worked.  Ok, time for work.  Hope you are all enjoying the beautiful weather!  

Our weekend in a nutshell... a really big nutshell.

So, my dad was home from Iraq for 2 weeks, which was great! Chris and I wanted to spend as much time with him as we could, so this is what our lives looked like from last Tuesday to today:

Tuesday night: drive to Council Bluffs to visit
Wednesday morning (early): Drive back to DSM for work
Thursday night: Drive to Council bluffs
Saturday afternoon: Drive back to DSM
Monday morning/early afternoon: Drive to Omaha to visit the Victors, then to CB to visit the Rinaldi's
This morning: Drive back to DSM for work
(for a more detailed look at our weekend, skip to the bottom part in square brackets)

That's a lot of driving... but it was worth it :) And after all that you'd think, "Man, they probably won't want to drive at all for a month!" But... we're actually driving to Kentucky on Thursday night to visit our friend Brent, from college.

We are pretty excited about our little mini vacation this weekend to Kentucky. We've only been there once, for Brent's wedding, and we didn't get to spend much time there. Brent said there are some waterfalls near where they live, so we are planning on checking those out. Not sure what else we'll do, but I'm sure it will be fun! Plus, we really enjoy road tripping together, and we're renting a car so we don't have to worry about the miles building up on our own :)

Other things of note: We're keeping busy with youth events and road trips this summer. Between June 5 and August 7, we have virtually no free weekends. I take that back, I get back from a mission trip July 24 and we have nothing scheduled for that weekend. Unfortunately, the youth events I have planned depend on youth signing up for them, and I haven't had anyone sign up yet :( Hopefully that starts to happen soon so I can get some plans finalized.

Chris is still hard at work doing his two-jobs-for-the-price-of-one. Sometimes he gets pretty stressed, but I think he deals with it pretty well. We're just thankful he has a job. Went to lunch with one of my high schoolers (except she graduated so now she's not a high schooler!) and the waitress divulged that she was being laid off from her night job. No one is immune, and we are so grateful to have the jobs we do.

Welp, thanks for reading. Keep in touch and stuff.




[The last post talked a bit about the first two days (Thursday and Friday). Saturday morning we went with my parents to have breakfast at my favorite cafe ever (Mia Latte in downtown Omaha). We arrived to a sign which read "Closed until further notice." Sad!! I loved that place. There food was delicious, they had a billion kinds of tea, and the people were really nice. :( Stupid economy. Anyway, we skipped the breakfast thing since it was actually about 11:00 by that point and headed down to the Old Market for the Farmer's Market. Omaha's is really good, and there is always a ton of people there. We bought a couple pastries for "brunch," and then mosied on through the different tents of produce. After the market we went to a Mediterranean and an Indian food market shop thing (two separate stores, same strip mall), to get some stuff for my next book club meeting. We're reading "The Bookseller of Kabul." It's pretty interesting. Next we went to have a delicious lunch and then we headed home. My parents came out to DSM too, to visit my aunt.

That evening we went to a dance recital in which one of my 8th graders was performing, and it was pretty fun. Lots of neat dances. We left there around 9 and headed to my aunts for a bit of visiting before bed. Sunday was church/work as usual, followed by 3 grad parties. Then we went to my aunt's again and walked with her, my cousins and my parents around Saylorville Lake. Got in the pool after that (Chris did, I did not), and roasted hot dogs for dinner. Then we left my aunt's for youth group, after which we returned to my aunts for a bit more visiting. Monday morning my parents took us to breakfast/lunch at the Machine Shed (mmmm), and then we all headed back toward Omaha, at which point Chris and I went to his dad's for a little cookout. We were happy to see his family, as we hadn't in a while, and were happily surprised to find his grandpa there when we pulled up.

Later that evening we went to Chris's grandparents' house to retreive a disc his granpa had made for us. The disc contains some pictures and info for a family tree which Chris has been wondering about for a while. We haven't gotten to look at it yet, but we are excited to. We've already learned some interesting things about his family... Turns out, Chris's great grandpa invented the first road sander (truck that throws sand in winter)!

Spent last night at my parents, said goodbye to my dad who is heading back to Iraq tomorrow, and then went to bed. Headed home early this morning and now here we are...]

Another Update... Whoo!

And here we are, with a little time on our hands, so we thought we'd give you an update :)


A couple weekends ago we went to Cedar Falls for Shelby's graduation. It was pretty fun. We got to see the newly renovated Village Inn, which freaked us all out, and Chris and I skipped out on commencement to go visit another good friend we have in CF. We enjoy hanging out with Shelby and her bf Steve, and it was nice to see Shelby's family. Also, there was Brooklyn, Steve's basset hound, and she's really sweet :)


Early the following week my dad got home for R&R, so we have been spending as much time as we can with him and it's been really nice. It felt like Christmas yesterday when we were at my grandparents, because both my dad's siblings were there with their families and nearly the only time that happens is during Christmas (everyone is always so busy!). There were plenty of card games and snacks to be had, and my dad brought home several souvenirs for us all to choose from.
----------------------------------------------------

So, we started that post and then went to bed... and now it's Friday. I don't even remember what day we started that other one. Anyway...

I went with my parents to see Star Trek and that movie was awesome! Then last night Chris and I came to visit my parents and he and I went to see it since he hadnt seen it yet. Still an awesome movie. Now we are just hanging out at my parents house after helping them with some yard work (ok, Chris helped. I did some of my own stuff for work).

Not a lot has been happening in our own lives; not anything new, at least. Several of our friends have had exciting changes, or will have. Congrats to Jessz, Brittany and Elle on their engagements! We're really excited for our friends to experience married life, as we enjoy it greatly :). Also, Christy, Aimee, and Valerie are all very close to having babies. How exciting for them to be starting their families! Congrats to them as well :)

We have been really busy these last couple weekends, and it looks like our summer will be a whirlwind of busy weekends. It should all be pretty fun, though. I (Stephanie) have joined/co-started a book club and it's going well so far :).

Alright. I feel as though I'm draggin on and am really distracted at the moment so I will leave you with this: Kites rise highest against the wind.

My Planner

Welp, it's been a while... let's see if I can figure out what's happened since the last post (really, I lose track of time and don't remember what happened when... oops).

Gimeny!  What the heck has happened since April?  Ok, this is sad.  I literally had to go get my planner to figure this out...  Ok, here we go:

April 25:  My planner says "ISU."  This is in reference to Awaken's last performance of the season, which took place on the campus of Iowa State.  It was awesome, there were tons of people there, and in that tons of people was my youth group from Pella.  I loved seeing them all again and was glad they got to experience Awaken.  

April 26:  The next day, my planner tells me, was First Communion for both my cousin and Chris's.  Chris's cousin and her parents live in Minnesota, so right after Awaken (at 11:30pm), Chris headed north... or he was supposed to... I called him about half an hour after he left telling him to turn around.  He had left with my purse in his backseat, and in my purse were my keys.  In the end he didn't end up getting to MN until 3:30.  It was nice for him to be at the Communion, though, because it was his God daughter receiving it.  I got to see my mom at my cousin's First Communion, as well as all my other family members on my dad's side, so that was awesome too.

 

May 1:  Happy May Day!  This day says "Katie's B-day Party," but it was also the day I went to Pella to visit my friends.  I ended up staying there until around 10:30 because I wanted to see my friend in her last college theater performance.  It was really fun.  Chris went to Katie's party in Ames to represent the Starrs.  I was sad to miss that, but I can only be one place at a time. 

May 2:  "Jeannie's Bridal (lingerie) Shower"!  I got to visit with some friends again in Ames.  Before the shower, Chris met with a bunch of our guy friends from the Ames area and played a couple games of football.  He loved that.  His shoulder is healing well and he has pretty much no pain in it anymore.

May 4: "To Mom's."  After work Chris and I headed to my mom's house in Council Bluffs.  She is actually in California right now visiting her sister, but as her Mother's Day gift we decided to clean up her house a little bit.  It was pretty fun, and we always enjoy a nice road trip.

May 5: "Staff mtg Awaken."  Happy Cinco De Mayo!  We went to Ames again for our final staff meeting for Awaken.  It was nice to see all those folks again, and after taking care of some business we played a pretty fun game. :)

Now we're up to date, and here are some things that will be happening soon.  

May 8: "Tulip Time!"

May 9: "Shelby's Grad Party"

Yep... so now that our lives are centered around a silly little planner, we seem to keep pretty busy.  But at least the business is organized... I guess... Haha.  

SUMMARY: I'm not doing one this time... sorry folks.  ;)

All the latest...

Oh my goodness, what an exhausting weekend! Didn't get home from Awaken until 4:00 this morning. Woof. Woke up a couple times, starting at about 7:30, before actually getting out of bed. Went with Chris to the walk in clinic because he's been having a lot of pain in his shoulder since Friday. Turns out he has tendinitis. We're glad to know what the problem actually is, and are hopeful that the prescription Chris got will keep the pain to a minimum.

As exhausting as it was, this weekend was great. We had a "family picnic" with Awaken-ites on Saturday, which was a lot of fun, and Saturday night we got to stay in host homes. That is always such a great experience, and I really enjoyed my host family :) The drama went well, from what I could tell backstage, and there were tons of people there, so that was amazing. Even though we didn't get home until 4, we always have so much fun that it's worth it. Plus it makes for a good story/complaining point ;) Next weekend is our last performance for the season, and that is sad to me.

Chris has recently e-mailed the Waukee wrestling coach to see if he can help out at all. He really misses wrestling, and it's just not the same putting your 110lb wife in a cradle... Haha. He is quite excited, though, at the opportunity to work out with and help some of the high schoolers. He was so worried that he really messed up his shoulder and wouldn't get to do it, so I think tendinitis was an acceptable diagnosis. Hopefully Chris will be meeting with the coach some time this week to talk about what options there may be.

What else has happened? We had a great Easter... decided it's one of our favorite holidays. Then we decided we don't have to have a favorite because we like them all. Haha. I am going to be getting more hours at work, so that's exciting. And Chris got a promotion! I guess we hadn't posted that here yet. It's sort of bitter sweet because others got laid off and he got their responsibilities, but it is a blessing to us none the less. It does mean, however, that he is incredibly busy at work and has to work late some nights. Sacrifices have to be made sometimes, though, and it hasn't been excessive at all, so that's good.

My dad is coming home soon on leave for two weeks, so that will be cool. It so happens that he will be home at the same time that his sister and her family from MN will be around, so we might get the whole family together for a zoo trip or something! I love the Omaha zoo :). Anyway, by the time he goes back it will be half way through his total time over there, I think, so we'll turn the corner there.

My mom got us a new Thomas Mangelsen picture! It is called Winter Woodpile and matches the first one my parents got us, which is called Ermine in Trees. My mom works at the gallery in Omaha, so she gets a discount and Winter Woodpile was on sale, too! We love Mangelsen's work, and it's great to have some actual artwork to hang on our walls. Makes us feel all grown up ;). Actually, it made me feel all grown up when my aunt asked us to be emergency contacts for her children! Haha... such a simple thing, but I suppose it signifies that I am now responsible enough to take care of things if a situation were to arrise... it also signifies that I am the closest family to them. Hehe. :)

Let see.... oh! We made dinner for the Grulkes and Ericksons on Friday. I made gnocchi (potato pasta), and Chris made an Italian sausage, parmesean cream sauce to go with it. It turned out to be delicious! Gnocchi is pretty labor intensive, but not difficult, and it was really fun to make. So filling, too!

Worked at Pizza Ranch tonight to raise money for our summer mission trips.  We made almost $500 in tips alone, plus we get 15% of whatever the profit was for the night!  That's exciting :)

Well, that's about all I can think of for now. Oh yeah, I said I would do summaries of my continuously lengthy posts...

SUMMARY: Awaken is fun, Chris has tendinitis, we're both working more, new Mangelsen picture, we're all grown up, and Gnocchi is delicious.

Here is a video we made of a Bocce game we played with some of my high schoolers. Please enjoy it... we do. ;)

Photo Blog

You can tell a lot about someone by what's on their memory card.  I wanted to make a photo blog to share our memory card with you, but it turns out that Blogger is not the best option for this.  I decided the easiest remedy was to make a slideshow elsewhere and past it here. :)  Enjoy!

Midweek Madness

Whew!  Wednesdays are always so long...  Breakfast club at 7 AM, housework until lunch time, work at 1 or 2... during Lent, I don't leave the church until almost 9:00 on Wednesdays because there is a lenten meal before Wednesday night worship and right after Wednesday night worship is Jr. Lutherans.  It's all pretty fun though, and in all honesty I wouldn't want to trade my job for a 9-5.  Does that even exist? 9-5?  Chris goes into work at 8 and gets off at 5...  hmm... 

Anyway, tonight was interesting.  During Advent and Lent, Pastor writes skits to replace his sermons.  Tonight I was a part of the skit.  I got to be Bathsheba.  Haha.  People kept telling me "good job" afterwards and I kept saying "Good job at being Bathsheba... thanks?"  Haha, I'm so funny.... .... yeah.  Chris gets to have Wednesday evenings all to himself in our apartment which is nice for him.  I'm alone here for half of all my workdays, so it's not so exciting for me anymore.  Chris uses his time to catch up on some reading or Awaken stuff.  I'm sure it's nice to have a break from his crazy wife ;).

Scheduled for this weekend: Movie night with 7th graders on Friday, followed by random games with high schoolers til all hours of the night... literally... they stay up all night and play games at Pastor's (he has a son who has 2 Xboxes...).  Saturday morning, bright and early, leave for Awaken in Minnesota.  Saturday evening head back home.  Sunday morning work.  Sunday afternoon into evening and night= Awaken.  Deep breath...

Time seems to fly by now that I have a job.  It's incredible to me that we have been married over 6 months already, and yet it seems like we have been married for years... time is a very tricky thing.  

I get my car out of the shop tomorrow.  That'll be nice.  I miss Lil Blu.  Chris is still insistent that I continue to drive the Jetta, he says I can drive a stick just fine.  Which is mostly true, but it still stresses me out so much that it just isn't enjoyable.  True, I'd probably get better the more I drove it... I really have no counter argument, except that I get stressed.  Haha. 

Ok... these keep turning out to be long.  How about if I do a summary at the end of all my posts and then you could just skip the rest if you are in a hurry.  Haha... let's try it:

SUMMARY: Wednesdays are busy.  This weekend is busy.  Time is weird.  My car is fixed.  I can drive a stick mostly.

Happy hump day!

--The Starrs

Long Weekend

Whew!  What a long weekend that was...  On Wednesday or Thursday, Chris's uncle called and reminded us that Chris's grandma's 65th birthday would be that following Saturday.  "Oh!" we thought, "... too bad we didn't know sooner..."  But the longer we thought about it, the more we decided it would be plausible to make the trip to St. Cloud to celebrate Grandma Rosie's birthday; plus we would be able to visit my aunt and her family as well.  We decided we would leave Friday after Chris got off work, and we did!

At 4:00 we left Des Moines and at 8:30 we arrived in Maple Grove.  Sophia (my 5 year old cousin) was so excited to see us.  Her mom had decided to let it be a surprise, so when we rang the doorbell she literally started screaming.  Haha.  It was cute.  Especially because she was screaming "Stephanie! Stephanie! Stephanie!" and when I said "And look who I brought with me" as I motioned to Chris, she got all shy and just didn't say anything.  Haha... she's so silly. 

We had a good time with Sophia and her family.  We went for a nice long walk with them Saturday morning, after which we headed for St. Cloud.  We stopped at a grocery store in Maple Grove to get some flowers for Grandma.  I had a great/interesting time arranging them while we drove and ended up with pollen all over me... and some on the interior of the car as well.  Oops!  The flowers were lovely, though, and it was nice to have something in hand when we surprised Grandma with our visit.  We stayed for a few hours and visited with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins who were present.  We had to leave around 5:30, though, as I had to work Sunday morning.

Our trip home was nice.  As on the trip up, I read aloud from Lord of the Rings which kept us pretty entertained.  It's so different than the movie, which I love because it's like the plot isn't ruined for me :).  We got home at about 10:30, just in time to go to bed.

Sunday morning was the usual.  I went to early service and Sunday school and Chris joined me for second service.  Then we came home and cleaned our hearts out until we left for the Hasenwinkel's.  The Hasenwinkels go to our church and they offered us a very nice desk that they are replacing.  We were very excited to get it, but it was quite the ordeal moving it from their place to ours.  We're so glad it's here, though, and are really excited that we can finally finish settling down in our new apartment (we'd been waiting to unpack the office).  Now that we can do that, I will be able to get pictures of all our apartment and post them here.  I know you're all excited. ;)

After we got the desk set up we had to grab McDonald's for dinner because we had no time before youth group began.  So 7:00-9:00 was spent on youth group as usual, and that was a blast (as usual).  We got home and decided we wanted to move the new desk to another spot in the office, which took us about an hour because it is so big.  It was definitely time for bed after that, and as I laid there rethinking the day I realized how very long this weekend was.  Very productive though!  We enjoyed every bit of it.

In other news, I have been told that you may not be able to post comments for some reason.  One person tried and let us know she couldn't.  If you are having the same problem, please email me: stephanie.starr10@gmail.com  Thanks!

Well, that was quite the lengthy post.  I wish I had pictures to share, but I forgot my camera at home all weekend :(  I'll try to do better next time!  Hope you are all having a lovely day!

--The Starrs

 

Summer/Fall trips

Despite a slow offseason thus far, Stephanie and I are still planning on using the Purple as an excuse to frequent the Twin Cities this fall. Additionally, we are hoping to see some offseason workouts and get some autographs! 

Along with that, we are going to see the Twins play the Cubs at Wrigley in June! Stephanie will finally get to see Wrigley field and will quit making me feel guilty for all the times I have gone without her ;) I am going without her to the watch the Cubs host the Indians later in the summer. I am excited because an old college chum who rarely leaves Kentucky has been enticed by the prospect of seeing his favorite club, and will be in attendance. 

**Tangent**

This brings me to an interesting thought. What is the role of sports in a person's faith life? Football, baseball, hockey, they are all just a form of entertainment. So, thoughts? 

My thoughts:

1-(Don't worry, I only have two) Its a huge waste of time. Acts 2:42 says the apostles devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and prayer. Chili and cursing at the TV hardly qualifies.

2-Perhaps the following of sports is a good excuse to get together with friends. Is God down with that? 1 Coninthians 10 talks about ostracizing of other believers because of their piousnessissity. I may be stretching here, but he seems to say that the relationship is more important than the food or activity. "So, whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Maybe an adjustment of how I follow sports in in order. 

Thoughts?

Our Lives Thus Far

Well, we've been married a little over 6 months now and we finally decided it was time to start a blog so we can share our limitless knowledge on being married... OK, maybe just so we can share our experiences with you and keep you updated on our lives.

Let's play catchup --- We were wed on September 5 of last year.  We had a short little honeymoon in Park City, Utah, which was great fun because there were no tourists and we got to stay in a condo for free (thanks Carol)!  We did a little window shopping on Main Street, and then decided to climb a mountain.  It was no Everest, but Mount Olympus was quite the challenge; at least for me (Stephanie).  Chris was kind enough to slow his pace for his out of shape wife. 

At the time of our wedding, I was between jobs.  I stayed "between jobs" for four months, until I finally decided to act on a tip from a friend... a tip I had gotten in September... I had ignored the tip at the time because I wasn't entirely sure I still wanted to work in a church, but God kept shutting doors everywhere else so I figured he probably knew what he was doing.  If only I would have trusted him in September...  Anyway, I now work part time as a Youth Director at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Waukee, IA ( www.ilcwaukee.org ).

I really enjoy what I do, which is basically just hanging out with kids and talking to them about God.  :)  

Since last May, Chris has been working in the Accounting department at Hubbell Realty Company in West Des Moines ( http://hubbellrealty.com/ ).  He's found it a little ho-hum at times, but he is starting to gain more responsibility and we're excited for that!  

We began our married days in an efficiency apartment in Ames, but since we both now work in the West Des Moines area, we have moved into a two bedroom apartment in Waukee.  It's much bigger than our first apartment, and the rent isn't as high!  It is quite a bit older than our previous home, though, so we take the good with the bad.  We are enjoying Waukee, as it has a small town feel but is right outside the "big city" (or the biggest city in Iowa anyway).  We'll maybe get some pictures up here soon...

Both of us have continued our connection with Awaken Ministries, but in a different capacity this year.  We are both on support staff, so many of our free weekends and hours are taken up with that.  We really enjoy it, most of the time. 

Other than all that, we fill our time with trips to Omaha or dinner dates with friends.  We get to see our family more now because my aunt lives only about 15 minutes away!  It's fun to spend time with the kids and I'm glad for the opportunity to get to know them all better.  

Well, that's all I can think of for now.  If I've left anything out I'm sure Chris will let me know and we can make some edits.  We hope you are all doing very well and enjoying this nice spring weather!

--The Starrs

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog!  And thanks for taking an interest in our lives.  We hope this blog will be informative and interesting, and we hope also that you get a little laugh in here and there.  Please feel free to leave comments and let us know what you like, don't like, and what you'd like to hear more about.