Engagement pictures

Well, it has been a while since I have written. Time has flown by with wedding plans and working. But this past weekend Marc and I took some time to go do engagement pictures with a friend of mine. Here are some of the pictures from the time. Enjoy!

All photos are by Dan Pacurar. To see more of his work, please visit his website at http://www.fstopphotography.us/

Big news!!

I know it has been a while again since I wrote, but I figured now is a great time to write again.

I'M GETTING MARRIED!

This past Friday, Marc planned to take me out for dinner to celebrate 11 wonderful months together. He likes to take me out each month to a nice place and spoil me a little. He asked me to bring my camera with so we could take some pictures after dinner at the beach. So we went to Bistro 110, a nice French restaurant. We had a nice time and ate some wonderful food. After dinner we walked down to Oak Street beach and found a nice sandy spot to stop at. While at the beach Marc wrapped his arms around me and told me lots of sweet things that, well, I just can't remember. After saying all those wonderful things, he tells me he has something for me. So he bends down to get said gift out of his bag. Next thing I know he is pulling a ring box out of his bag and he is down on one knee asking me to marry him! I of course said yes and was completely surprised and speechless. We took a few pictures on the beach afterwards and will get more later. Until then, enjoy the few pictures we have!

Busy times!

Time has just flown by! I can't believe it is almost July already. May and June passed quickly with lots of things going on. Sadly I have not been very good about taking pictures lately and so I don't have many pictures to show what I have been up to. But here is a brief summary of what I have been doing the past 2 months.

During May the students at Moody finished school and left You would think with all the students leaving campus would be empty, but not true. The week after the students left was Moody's annual Pastors' Conference. It was a busy week for my department with helping the pastors figure out where they were going both on campus and off campus. One of the fun parts of my job is finding directions for people. I have gotten to know my way around the city more just by finding directions for other people. By the end of May the campus was quiet again and the summer slowness started. Without students here my desk is a lot slower. But there are more campus tours during the summer which help make things more interesting. I was also able to start doing my inspection of the guest rooms to figure out what needs to be fixed or replaced. I also was given permission to improve the decor of the guest rooms and will be starting with replacing the current pictures with some of my own pictures of the city.

The end of May Marc and I celebrated his dad's birthday and also went to my boss, Stacey's wedding. It was a fun wedding and it was nice to be able to go and celebrate with her and her new husband. The first weekend of June we celebrated my mom's birthday. The next weekend found Marc and me out late to attend his brother's last improv show for the summer. It was a midnight show and so with the time for the show and traveling we didn't get home until about 3:30am. Definitely crazy times, but fun! The next weekend found us at my cousin Mark's wedding. It was great to see family again and catch up with them. Father's day was spend with my family. Wednesday the 23rd was Marc's birthday and so I took a long lunch in order to take him out for lunch. It was a fun time and always nice to see him during the week. Then this past weekend was spent celebrating his birthday even more. I took him to Bob Chinn's Crabhouse for some much desired lobster. He was very excited to have fresh lobster and totally enjoyed it! We then spent a few hours watching some of season 1 of 24, which was a birthday gift. Dessert was ice cream cake. Sunday was church and then lunch at Piece (a pizza place) with his parents. In all it has been a busy 2 months, but lots of fun.

July starts off with a week of vacation for me! I am looking forward to that. And after that we will see what we come up with. I will try to update more often, but there is no promise.

Minor adjustments

New month, new things. This weekend I spent Saturday and Sunday with Marc and his family. We spent the whole weekend packing, sorting, moving and cleaning. Marc has moved out of his apartment here in the city and moved back to his parents' in the suburbs. There are a few reasons for this move, but the main one is the benefit of saving money! So for the next few months he will be commuting into the city for work, just like me! It will definitely be a change for both of us. We will have to adjust our time to talk at night a little, but I am sure we will find a good routine soon. One thing that will help a lot during this transition time, is now having the same phone provider. Neither of us will have to worry about going over on minutes or texts any more. For those who are curious, I switched to Verizon but still have the number I got with AT&T last summer. It is nice to be able to keep the same number. I just finally got my number changed on all my random bills and other things. So it would have been a pain to have to change everything again.

With the month of May, summer is quickly approaching. The students here at Moody finish with classes this week and have finals next week. It will be strange to have them all gone during the summer. But I am sure I will have plenty to keep me busy here at work. Plus there will be a plenty to do on the weekends with Marc. We have plans to do some bike riding, some walking along the lakeshore, some sitting in the sun and lots of good times together. It will be a great summer!

Spring time!

Again I have been slacking on the updating of my blog. Life is just kind of in a routine and while it is interesting to me, I don't always think it will be interesting to y'all. But let me see what has been happening this month. The weeks are always the same, here is a normal day for me.

4:30am - leave home
5:30am - sleep or read at work
6:30am - go talk to Nancy at Crowell desk
6:50am - unlock and set up desk
7:00am - start work
10:00am - break time/errand hour/chapel/department devotions
11:00am - back to desk
12:00pm - lunch
1:00pm - back to work
3:30pm - go home
5:00pm - arrive home
5:10pm - shower/get ready for next day
6:00pm - make dinner
7:00pm - watch tv and wait for Marc to get off work
9:00pm - talk with Marc
10:00pm - go to bed

Not a very interesting day, but I enjoy it. It is nice to have a routine, but nice to have it change every once in a while too. There are a few days where things change a little in the evenings. But my weekends are where I have all the fun. That is when I get to hang out with Marc and go explore the city or sit and watch a movie.

Here is a brief overview of our weekends for the month of April. April 3rd watched a movie, went to church, made dinner, went to an Improv show (if you don't know what that is check it out at chicago.ioimprov.com, Marc's brother is in one of the groups) and then out for dessert with Marc's parents. April 9th - 11th Marc came down to my house for the weekend. So I met up with him after work and we went out for dinner before driving down. My friend Rose and her husband, T.J., were in town and we met up with them at church on Sunday. Saturday we did a little shopping, went to the movies and then out for dinner and ice cream afterwards. April 16th - 18th I went out to Marc's parents for the weekend. I again met up with Marc after work and we did dinner before heading out to Naperville. Saturday we went mini-golfing, watched Star Wars, had dinner with the family and played Yahtzee afterwards. Sunday was church and lunch with the family again. This past weekend, the 24th, we took our friends Seth and Celia out for lunch to Taste of Peru. It was wonderful to have good peruvian food again and just spend some time with good friends. We then went to Molly's Cupcakes for delicious cupcakes and some games. We played a round of Apples to Apples and a couple rounds of Jenga. Then it was off to do a little shopping for work and then back to watch a movie on the couch.

It has been a great month full of good times, fun, friends and even some changes that might be hard now, but will be good in the end. I am thankful for a great month and looking forward to a wonderful spring as the weather gets warmer and the grass turns green, the trees fill out and the flowers bloom.

Happy Spring!

Highlights

I know, you are all thinking two posts in one day? It is true! I just thought I would list a few of the highlights (not necessarily all good, but some interesting) of my week.

- Going to church and dinner with Marc on Sunday.
- The students coming back to school after spring break.
- Going to Yolk for lunch with Nancy.
- Marc getting out of his 3 day class early and speed walking down to Moody in order to see me for 2 minutes before I headed home.
- Good discussions at mini church.
- Watching a ceiling tile almost collapse from the leak around the sprinkler.
- Being done with work for the week!

Those are just some of the highlights from my week. They might not sound super exciting to you, but they were exciting/entertaining to me. Have a great weekend!

Another month gone

It is hard to believe another month is almost gone. This year has really seemed to fly right by. March was actually kind of a slow month for me. The students were gone for two weeks on Spring break, so the campus was pretty empty. Things did pick up a little last week as Moody had their annual SHARE program, but even with that going it was still pretty quiet.

I have realized I have gotten really bad at posting since coming back from Peru. I think things just aren't as crazy and don't seem as adventurous here. But they are still good. Last weekend Marc and I took a road trip up to Milwaukee to visit my friend Beth and her husband, Mark. Yes, her husband's name is Mark. It was a little confusing at first, but it isn't too bad now. What will be really confusing is when Beth & Mark, Marc & I, and my other friends Angie & Mark all get together. Two Mark(c)s are ok, but three just might be too much! It was great to visit Beth and Mark, and it is so wonderful that they are only 2 hours away. It is an easy trip up to Milwaukee for us or down to Chicago for them. We went out for lunch together and then played 90s Trivial Pursuit. It was a great time and we are already looking forward to the next time we get to hang out.

Other than work and hanging out with Marc, I haven't had much time for anything. Most days I go to work, come home, get ready for the next day, talk to Marc and go to bed. Only to do it all again the next day. But I have been reading through Romans and my church is going through the book Crazy Love right now, so I have been reading that as well. I have also been working on my cross stitching again and I am slowly making progress on that front. I am looking forward to spring and summer coming soon. I am excited to get out in the city and walk around exploring as well as doing some bike riding along the lakeshore with Marc.

6 months

I can't believe it has been 6 months already! God is so good and I am very thankful to Him for bringing Marc into my life. We are having a blast getting to know each other more and getting to know each other's families as well.

Last weekend was finally warm enough to go out and enjoy some of the city again! So we decided to go back to the zoo! We went and saw some animals from Africa. It was very exciting to see hippos and giraffes and monkeys and some other cool animals. We also go to see the penguins, some seabirds and polar bears as well. We had a great time and the weather was beautiful!

Work is going well. Right now the students are gone for spring break and campus is pretty quiet. But next week things will pick up as we will have Moody's annual SHARE and there will be lots of people here to volunteer to answer phones. Once SHARE is done, the students will be back and things will be busy again. It is amazing to think the end of the school year is quickly approaching. Soon summer will be here with the wonderful warm weather that I miss. But I have come to realize that my body has adjusted to the cold. It is currently around 54 outside and I think it is beautiful! I guess it is all perspective too. Coming from below freezing, 54 is beautiful. ;-) I am very thankful for the warmer weather and looking forward to summer!

Birthday and Valentine's Day

I am now 28...it seems weird. But I had a great time celebrating my birthday this weekend and will be celebrating more this next weekend with my family.
Friday night I made dinner for Marc and we had a candlelight picnic as part of my Valentine's gift. Then Saturday Marc had the whole day planned for my birthday. He took me to Maggiano's for dinner. Then he took me to see the Blue Man Group! It was so much fun! Very entertaining and great music. After the show we went back to Marc's and he surprised me with a cake and a 2 liter bottle of Inca Cola! Sunday was a nice relaxing day. We went to church, out for lunch, sat and watched the Olympics and then his parents took us out for my birthday. It was a great weekend and I will definitely remember it for a long time.

Year of weddings

This weekend was the first of at least 3 weddings I will be going to this year. My cousin Faith got married this weekend in Iowa. My parents, my aunts Emilie and Carole, Marc and I all flew out for the wedding Saturday morning. It was a beautiful wedding and I am so thankful I was able to go and see Faith start her new life with Bryan. The next wedding I will be attending isn't until May, so I have some time. Thankfuly the next one is in Chicago so I won't have to travel far for it.

It has been a crazy month! I can't believe it is almost over and onto February. The first week of February will be a little busy for me at work. That is the week of Moody's Founder's week, so we will have lots of guests on campus and I am sure I will be answering plenty of questions. If you happen to coming to campus for Founder's week...make sure to stop by and see me at the Welcome Center desk!

Other than Founder's week, February will be busy with birthday celebrations and attending a women's retreat in Wisconsin with my old church up there. I am excited to see some of my great friends from Appleton and get to hang out with them for the weekend. I haven't seen most of them in over a year!

Here is a picture of Marc and me from earlier this month. Not much has changed, but it is fun to post pictures from each month. ;-)

2010

I can't believe it is already 2010! I feel like 2009 just flew by, especially these past few months. It totally does not feel like it should be January or another year. I look ahead to things that are happening in February and I think they are far away, but then realize...they really aren't. February will be here before I know it! As I look back at the past year, there is much I have to be thankful for. God has been so good and faithful to me through everything that has happened.

He carried me through the lonely, difficult and sometimes stressful times in Peru. He brought a time of refreshment during the summer, where I could focus on His plans for me. He allowed me to celebrate my sister's wedding and gave me the strength to make the hard decison to leave Peru. He provided a wonderful job that I enjoy and brought an amazing man into my life. 2009 was a great year, even with the difficult times, it was still great because God was in control. I know that no matter what 2010 brings in my life, it will be great as long as I let God be in control. I am looking forward to what amazing things God brings this next year and another year of learning to trust and rely on God completely!

Thank you to everyone who supported me in 2009. Whether it was financially, through prayers, or through your friendship, God has greatly blessed me with each and everyone of you! I am so thankful for you!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Merry Christmas!

It is hard to believe that Christmas has already come and gone. I feel like the month of December has just flown by. How can it possibly be the 29th already? Christmas was wonderful this year. I was able to spend it with my family as well as with Marc and his family.

Christmas Eve I went to church with my parents and then my mom and I made lefse and meatballs. For those who don't know what lefse is...it is a potato tortilla. It was fun to help my mom make the lefse and meatballs, however we got a little crazy by the end. I started writing names on the lefse with a fork. ;-) Then Christmas morning Julie and TJ came over and we had yummy chocolate chip coffee cake. We opened presents and had a good time as a family. Julie and TJ had to leave for Christmas with his family and I left for Christmas with Marc's family. I had a wonderful time celebrating with Marc and his family and watching the beautiful snow fall outside.

Saturday Marc came back with me to my house and we had the Leber side of the family over. It was good to see family and have Marc meet them. The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and enjoying my last bit of time off before going back to work on Monday. It was a great Christmas and I am so thankful that I was able to celebrate with my family. It is hard to believe that 2010 will be here in just a few short days, but I am looking forward to the things God has instore for me this next year. Things that are sure to grow me and draw me closer to Him! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

3 months

So, it is crazy to think, but I have been dating Marc for 3 months already. This past weekend we celebrated and had a ton of fun! I spent the weekend downtown so we got to do things all weekend. Friday night we went to see Disney's A Christmas Carol. It was good and of course always entertaining when with Marc. Then Saturday we got up nice and early and headed down to Moody Church to help with the Angel Tree. We had a great time carrying presents upstairs, sorting them, running to the store for butter and then helping in the kitchen until we had to leave. We left around 11:30am and went and got changed into our dress clothes. Marc then took me to the Goodman Theater to see A Christmas Carol. It was so very good! The actors did a wonderful job and we had a seats with a great view of the stage. Definitely a great time and I am looking forward to going back again next year. After the play he took me to this cute italian restaurant up in Lincoln Park. It had great food and the people were very nice. Sunday I finally got to go to Marc's church with him. It was a great service and I really like the church. Then we headed out to his parents' house in Naperville to watch the Bears/Packers game. I of course was cheering for the Packers and almost got kicked out by his dad for wearing my Packers shirt. But I redeemed myself by being a Cubs fan, so they let me stay. It was a great game (because the Packers won) and of course always a good time with Marc's family. Here is one picture, but this is from the weekend before when we went to Candlelight Carols.

Have a very Merry Christmas!!

December?

WOW! I can't believe it is already December. I feel like the past three months have flown by. I have been working at Moody for almost a month now and I am loving my job. I have been able to learn most things quickly and feel comfortable answering most questions that come my way. The cold weather has officially set in and we even had some snow yesterday. I am very thankful for a space heater at my desk since I sit right by an outside door. It gets pretty chilly at the desk sometimes. Yesterday I went to turn on the heater and well since it hasn't been used since last winter...it was kind of smelly. But this morning I had it running before I started work and the smell is gone and I am toasty warm!

This month is going to be a busy one, but I am looking forward to it. This weekend Marc and I are going to Candlelight Carols here at Moody. I am looking forward to this since I haven't been to a Candlelight Carols since graduating from Moody. Next weekend we are going to see "A Christmas Carol" at the Goodman Theater downtown. I am super excited for this too, I hear it is supposed to be really good. On top of all of that, there is Christmas shopping to finish (yes I have already started) and of course work. It will be a great month! I pray you all are having a great December already and enjoying getting ready to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior.

Happy Thanksgiving

I know it has been a while, once again, since I have written. Life has been busy but really good. I have found an job! My official title is Welcome Center Guest Liaison at Moody, but basically I greet people when they come in, check for IDs and book the guest rooms on campus. I have been there for 3 weeks now, and I am loving it. It is a good job and it is nice to be back at Moody.

The weekend before Thanksgiving I went downtown to the Festival of Lights (the lighting of Michigan Ave) with Marc and his family. It was a nice night out, not too cold, and a good time with Marc's family. After the parade we went out for dessert and had a good time celebrating his mom's birthday. Here are a few pictures from the parade and dessert.

Thanksgiving was fun. We had my grandparents, my aunt Emilie, Julie and TJ, and Marc over for lunch on Thursday. Then I went with Marc to his parents' house to celebrate with his family. It was a great long weekend and I had a ton of fun with my family and with Marc's.

It is hard to believe that December is almost here. It will be a busy month of shopping, going to Christmas things and of course spending time with friends and family. I am looking forward to spending Christmas here this year, even if I am not very excited about the snow! =)

Fall

Well, this weekend I was able to get out and see some of the beautiful fall colors God paints on all the trees. It was beautiful! Here are some pictures from my trip to the Morton Arboretum with Marc.

Long time...

Well, I have really been slacking in the updating area. Sorry about the long silence from me. Let's see if I can bring you all up to speed on the past two months in a semi-short post. =)

Well, the end of August I headed back to Pucallpa for a week to pack up all my things and say goodbye to everyone there. It was a sudden change in my plans, but I know that God was leading me. I miss my life in Pucallpa, but I am also happy to be back in Chicago with my friends, family and following God's plans for me.

I am currently still looking for a job in the Chicago area. It has been hard to find something as jobs are limited. But I know that God has a plan for me and He didn't bring me back to the States to leave me jobless. While looking for a job I have also been able to spend more time with my family. It is nice to spend time with them after being gone for 2 years.

The past 2 months have been full of changes for me. Along with the big change of leaving the mission field, God has brought a wonderful man into my life. At a time when I was totally not expecting God to bring someone into my life, He did. I met Marc a month ago and it has been great! I am excited to see what God has instore for Marc and me.

Wedding

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time. Things have been crazy for me and I have hardly had time to sit and think let alone write a post. But now that things are slightly calmer, I thought I should write a brief update. My sister, Julie, got married over the weekend. It was crazy busy with everyone in town and making sure everything was just right. But in the end she is married and that is all that really matters. =) I have been trying to work on my online class as I find the time...it is so hard to get back into the school work mindset after 5 years of being out of it. I also had the chance to see my friends Seth and Celia and meet their beautiful daugther, Cosette. It was nice to spend two days with them catching up and relaxing a bit after the wedding. Here are a few pictures from the wedding...enjoy!

California pictures

Heather my wonderful friend.

These wagons are cabins for the elementary camp.

Hume Lake

Heather and the Jeep

A giant sequoia

The General Grant

Heather and Brendan

Buck Rock Lookout