Sunday, February 25, 2007

Zach in Maryland


We dropped Zach off with Gretchen's parents this afternoon. :( We're so sad. We miss Zach already. The only reason we let him go to Maryland is because it's his cousin Kara's 4th birthday. We wanted him to be there for her for her birthday. Zach was so excited to see Nana and Pop-pop. We told him we were going to be so sad and he said, "It's okay. I'll come back." Isn't that so sweet?? :(

On the way home from dropping him off with Gretchen's parents (we met them a little less than half way for us), we were talking about how much we already missed him. Of course, we do realize that we need to take advantage of this opportunity for it to be the two of us. Especially since we haven't really gotten a lot of that from the time we even met.

Gretchen is kind of looking forward to this week alone. She can sleep in. She doesn't have to worry about fixing meals for anyone except for Corey. She can go to the gym without worrying about Zach crying because she leaves him in child watch. She's planning on really watching her diet and going to the gym and cleaning the house this week. Oh yeah... and lots of R&R. :)

We decided to join Blockbuster online since we could exchange movies at the store with our online account. We haven't received any movies yet because we just signed up yesterday. So, we'll see how long it takes to get the movies and how their services are. If we don't like them, then we'll be joining Netflix.

Corey starts his normal hours tomorrow. We're pretty excited. Corey's hoping to get up around 4:30 AM so he can go to the gym before he actually starts work. They have a gym at his work for everyone to promote exercise and healthy living. Corey likes it a lot. We'll see how he feels in the morning, though. lol Before Zach was born, Gretchen used to get up and be at the gym by 5:30 AM. That got old quick!! However, it was very energizing and she did see lots of results from it.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

It's time!


It's that time.... to shed the weight. Ever since we went on that cruise, we haven't been eating as healthy as we should. In fact... we've been eating ALL junk food for the last month. Gretchen started her "Fat Smash" diet today. She also starting going to the gym again.... FINALLY! She has tried over the past month but has been sick twice! Hopefully it will stay away this time.

We haven't been doing a whole lot. We sent our taxes off to Corey's Dad. Hopefully we'll be getting that next week. It will definitely help us to pay off our bills. We'll be down to just a house payment and truck payment along with all the utility bills. lol Our goal is to try to pay off the truck next year. Then, we'll start working on paying the house off. That will probably seem like forever. lol :)

We've rented about 4 movies in the last 5 days. So, we figured it's time to join an online movie subscription.

This is Corey's last week of working night shift. It's a bitter sweet thing. He starts working straight days Monday-Friday next week. It will be an adjustment. We know... most people don't understand HOW it could be an adjustment when we're the ones going back to the "Norm". It is though. Technically, we won't get as much time together but at least he'll be home every night with us. :) Plus, it helps Gretchen because now she doesn't have to worry about bringing Zach to worship team practice. Although, he is such an angel while at practice. The Pastor even commented on how good he was. :)

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Gretchen's Birthday!


Thursday was Gretchen's birthday. She turned the big 27!! She doesn't like it at all because it means she's closer to 30. She had a pretty nice birthday. We took Zach to school in the morning. She was sick but wanted to go look at furniture while Zach was in school and while we could do it together. We didn't get anything but we were looking at what we wanted.

We picked Zach up from school and went out to eat. Then, we went to Walmart and got some paint to paint the kitchen. When we came home, Zach took a nap and Gretchen wanted to start painting. We started painting around 3:30 p.m. and didn't finish until 11:30 p.m. Plus, we had to clean up our mess for the next morning because Corey had Bible Study the next morning. We did get all the painting done except for touch-up stuff. It looks soooo much better! We took a picture during the day but it didn't turn out real good because the sun was shining in pretty bright.

Some bad news to report is that Corey is being forced to start working days starting the beginning of March. We're really going to miss having his whole 4 days off. He'll have to work Monday-Friday, 8 hours a day. He has to do this for 6 months and if he doesn't like it then he can go back to his shift work. This affects mostly our vacation. We were able to go to Maryland during his 4 days off. Now, we don't know when we'll be able to go. Plus, we had to cancel our trip to Missouri in March. It's a difficult time but we did pray that if it was God's will that they would make Corey go to all days. So, it must be God's will. Everything will work out. It's just a matter of adjusting. I guess in some ways it could be good news because now Corey can get involved with church. We will see!

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

The Cruise


We had a lot of fun on the cruise. It was nice to spend some time with Gretchen's parents. We didn't see them a whole lot. They took Zach the entire week. We ate dinner and lunch with them several times. We also had a competition game of cards going on between us. lol We played 500 Rummy all week. Most of the time, we would play it by ourselves almost every night but then Gretchen's parents joined in the last 2 days. We did get Zach one time for naptime because Gretchen's parents had a rough night with Zach and needed some sleep. We didn't mind the cuddle time with Zach, though.

We were suppose to go to Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Key West but we lost one port. A guy got deathly sick and they needed to get him medical attention right away. So, we went to Cozumel for 2 days instead and ended up saving the guy's life. We didn't like that we had to miss a port but if it saved someone's life then it was totally worth it. The ship was really good about changing our shore excursions and things like that. Corey ended up going scuba diving while Gretchen went with her parents and Zach to the beach for a couple of hours. The next day, we went kayaking and snorkeling by ourselves. It was a lot of fun. We saw a baracuta, a stingray and lots of tropical fish. It was really nice.


Key West was our last stop. It was nice to be in a clean place like that, compared to Cozumel which seemed kind of dirty. The water was a little bit colder in Key West than in Cozumel. We went parasailing together. It was Corey's first time and Gretchen's 3rd. We asked for them to dip us in the ocean. They certainly did. It was FREEZING!! It felt like they were dragging us through the water. It was so fun, though! After that, we walked around, got something to eat and then went to this place that was right on the water to see the sunset. There were people performing, which was quite entertaining and other people who had stands set up. It was really nice. After the sun went down, we went back to the boat. We were exhausted from all the walking that we did.

It was a nice trip. When we got back, both Corey and Gretchen got sick. Corey got a little stomach virus and Gretchen has a head cold. Oh well.... at least we didn't get sick on the cruise.