Thursday, April 24, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Ok.... so it turns out Zach and Gretchen BOTH got the flu. Zach seems to be doing MUCH better. Gretchen is too but is still battling a very "juicy" cough. Looks like we'll be back at school tomorrow. FINALLY!
We just got news that Gretchen's mom did well in the surgery. However, while they were originally going to do laproscopic surgery, they ended up having to cut her open (bikini cut) totally. While the Doctor was removing the ovary AND the cyst he found stones that had been dropped in her when she had her gall bladder out years and years ago. They have been sitting next to her Ovary this whole time. They found another stone that was connected to her colon. The surgeon decided not to take that one b/c he didn't want to damage her colon. So now she will have to recover for 3 weeks instead of 1. Please continue to pray for her.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Zach had a fever last Tuesday of 103.6. His fever came down by 1 degree everyday. Gretchen started feeling ill Thursday evening. Friday, it got worse, but her and Corey went out on a date anyway. They went out to dinner and a movie. Then on Saturday, Gretchen woke up with a fever of 103.7. It hurt for her to get up and walk. Fortunately, Corey was off work and was able to take good care of her and of Zach. She is starting to feel somewhat better, at least the fever is gone, but her throat really hurts from coughing so much and from having to breathe out of her mouth. She wishes she had some chocolate to soothe her throat. :)
Friday, February 29, 2008
There have been many people in our lives that need so much prayer b/c of hard times.
The first is Gretchen's mom. She called us yesterday telling us that the doctor's found an ovarian cyst the size of a tangerine in her sonogram. She has to have laproscopic surgery on March 12th to have it removed. She is very worried about it being cancerous. Please pray that it will be benign. Also, please pray for comfort for her mom.
One of Gretchen's friends, Alissa, is 29 1/2 weeks pregnant and her water broke Wednesday night. As of yesterday morning, she was having contractions. Please pray that the baby will be okay. They tried for 2 years to have a baby.
One of Gretchen's piano students' great grandmother is in the hospital on a ventilator and they are going to pull her off of it this week. It's very hard on the grandmother. Please pray for Terrie for comfort. She's really upset about it.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Corey took me and Zach out to dinner last night. I got my favorite cheesecake from one of my favorite restaurants along with some peel and eat shrimp. Then, we came home and watched an animated movie with Zach called, "The Ten Commandments". It was a pretty good movie (very biblical).
Friday, February 08, 2008
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Monday, February 04, 2008
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Gretchen stayed up late last night doing our taxes. She loves doing that sort of stuff. She finished them pretty quickly, tho. We printed them out today. We're going to just review them over the weekend and send them off on Monday! We like to have our taxes done early so we don't have to worry about it.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
Both Corey and Gretchen are sick. Corey started feeling bad at the beginning of the week and now just has a cough. Gretchen started with a slight stomach virus last night. Corey told her NOT to clean today and to just relax. She has only picked up around the house, did some laundry, did dishes and made the bed. She has a piano lesson this afternoon and she just wanted to make sure the house looked "decent". She feels a little bit better after taking a shower but her head hurts.
Many of you know that Gretchen was trying to lose weight. When we went to Maryland last year she was 138 or 139 lbs. Her goal was 135 lbs. Well, she surpassed it and with being sick last night she's now down to 131 lbs. Corey and her both want to see what she looks like at 130 lbs but she's pretty happy where she's at. She'll probably gain some of that weight back on the trip, tho. :)
Gretchen has given Zach 4 piano lessons since the beginning of the year. She has to hold him back from learning so much at one time because he likes to keep going. He's now finished his whole first book of piano lessons (47 pages). He's moving on to the next book. Amazingly, he loves taking piano lessons. Gretchen's taking advantage of it while she can. :)
Saturday, January 05, 2008
From the day after Christmas, Gretchen has been doing a lot of cleaning. Although, don't let her fool you because she loves cleaning. She took down all the decorations (except the trees), the day after Christmas. Both her and Corey were starting to feel like their house was "cluttered". Then, she cleaned out the "Guest Bedroom" and moved our book shelf out in the family room upstairs. She went through all the books and organized them according to category. Then, she took down the Christmas trees on New Year's Eve.
Now, she has a big pile of "stuff" that needs to be sold and/or given away. She still needs to take pictures of everything to put it on ebay or craigslist.
Last weekend she went through Zach's summer clothes and got his clothes ready for Hawaii. Then, she went through both Corey's and her own summer clothes and washed the ones that needed to be washed. She's got our clothes all layed out and ready to be packed. She's afraid to put them in a suit case yet, tho, because she doesn't want them getting wrinkled. There's some stuff that can't be packed until the last minute. You probably know what those are tho, huh? :)
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
So, how many of you actually stayed up to watch the ball drop? I know we did. This is the first New Year's that we have been together for. The past 2 years, Corey has had to work on New Year's Eve. This year, since it was our first, we decided to stay up and watch the ball drop. It was nice but we were very tired this morning.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone! We love and miss you all!! Thank you all for the gifts. We love them! :)
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Corey and Zach went shopping the other day to get one more gift. When they came home, Corey put what he bought in a box and went upstairs where Gretchen was. He asked for the wrapping paper, scissors and tape. Gretchen said, "Well, since you have another gift that I can open on Christmas morning, are you sure you just don't want to give it to me now?". It didn't take much thought for Corey to say, "Yes". He is always anxious to give his gifts to Gretchen. Plus, it saved him from wrapping it (Corey isn't the BEST wrapper, lol).
He gave Gretchen a Garmin StreetPilot (GPS) for the car. Now, some of you may be laughing thinking that a "woman needs it" but Corey really likes this gift too. You can plug in addresses to save and it can tell you h0w to get there (directing you each step of the way), how fast you're going, how many miles to your destination, averages of almost everything (speed, miles per hour, etc) AND you can look up things in the area like restaurants, lodging, entertainment, intersections, etc. Gretchen wasn't expecting him to get that for her but she and him are both glad that he did. Wasn't that so sweet? :)
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Sunday, October 07, 2007

Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Gretchen's parents came down to see us last Thursday. They had a chance to look at some houses that they were interested in. They are "thinking" about moving down here in 2 to 5 years, after Gretchen's mom is able to retire. Then on Friday, Corey and Gretchen's Dad left to go to Promise Keepers.
As soon as the guys left for PK, Gretchen, her mom and Zach went shopping. They stopped and got milkshakes and rented a movie. They ordered in pizza while they watched a movie. Then, they all got in Gretchen's bed and went to sleep early. The next morning they went to Walmart to do some more shopping and get some donuts for breakfast.
The guys had a good time being by themselves, too. They had some really good talks to and from the Center. They had to drive 2 hours to where PK was. They went to the conference Friday evening and then back to the hotel where they stayed. They went back to the conference the following morning and then came home. They both had a REALLY good time together. Corey definitely wants to go back to PK with Gretchen's Dad again. We think Gretchen's Dad loves being called "Dad" by Corey.
It's always good to see Gretchen's parents but it's definitely especially good that they spoil us by taking us out to eat. Of course, we'll probably do that to Zach when he gets married too. :)
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
For the fourth of July, we sat in the back of the truck on our "beach chairs" in a parking lot and watched them. We had so much fun just sitting there as a family watching them together. It was our first year together as a family b/c last year Zach was with Gretchen's parents. So, it was pretty special.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
Corey & Gretchen, together called his mom & step-mom, and Gretchen's mom to wish them a Happy Mother's Day and to let them all know that we love & appreciate them.
Our heart goes out to those who lost their Mother, which I'm sure made the day hard for them. Our heart also goes out to those Mother's who have lost their children and to those Mother's who didn't hear from their children on this special day. We hope you all still had a Happy Mother's Day!
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
We also are enjoying our online subscription to Blockbuster. It's VERY nice. We especially like the fact that we can go into Blockbuster and exchange the movies. That way, we don't have to wait for them to receive it. Plus, we get a free coupon every month to rent either a game or another movie for free. We've found that we've been watching more movies lately. That's probably the only downfall of these types of things. You want to make sure you get your money's worth but you don't want to spend all your time in front of the TV.
This week has been so nice outside. Gretchen picked Zach up from school, came home and took him on a nice long bike ride. He has 2 bikes to ride. One is for kids just learning how to ride and he has another that is a regular bike with training wheels. We've been really trying to get him to ride the bigger bike. The more he rides it, the less scared of it he will be. He did it. He was on the bigger bike a good bit around the neighborhood. Then, Gretchen fixed him a sandwich and chocolate milk so he could have something to eat and drink while she took him on a wagon ride. He LOVED that. It's so nice to be home during the day while all the kids are at school and while there isn't as much traffic going through the neighborhood. Now, we just can't wait to get a fence. :)
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Sunday, February 25, 2007
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
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
So... to celebrate, we're going on a cruise.... with Gretchen's parents and Zach. lol Well.... it'll be nice. Gretchen's parents are taking Zach for Saturday night through Monday (at the very least). That way, we can still see them if we want or we can just be by ourselves. Corey is looking forward to EATING! lol He has no idea what's coming to him. He has never been on a cruise before. We feel so fortunate that God has blessed us to be able to do something luxurious as this. If it wasn't for God's blessings that He's given us.... it wouldn't be possible.
Gretchen just started reading a book called, "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp. It's very good. It definitely gives a better perspective on how to parent. We focus on what God wants for him now, instead of what we want for him. That way he understands that it's about glorifying God and not just obeying us b/c we're his parents. We're God's messengers to him. We especially like how he talks about parents being disobedient to God if they don't spank their children. Proverbs 13:24 says, "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." The world wonders why we are living in such a corrupt society yet psychologists are telling parents to do the exact opposite of what the Bible says to do like put children in time out instead of spanking them. They took prayer out of schools, they want to take out "UNDER GOD" out of the pledge of allegience and NOW they want to make it illegal to spank your children. Our society is the way it is b/c it's going AWAY from what the Bible is teaching. A child learns to receive correction, not b/c parents are always right, but b/c God says the rod of correction imparts wisdom, and whoever heeds correction shows prudence (Proverbs 15:5, 29:15; "Shepherding a Child's Heart"). Parents only muddy the waters when the bottom line in discipline is their displeasure over their behavior rather than God's displeasure with rebellion against His ordained authority. We tell Zach, when he disobeys us, that God says that we have to spank him when he disobeys us. So, if we don't spank him then we're disobeying God. He really listens when we tell him that. It really seems to make a difference. God definitely knows what He's doing better than any psychologist. If you are a parent with children living at home and haven't read it, we recommend that you do.
Okay... we're getting off our soap box. No posts for the next week. We will definitely let you know how the trip went. Have a good week, everyone! :)
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Monday, November 20, 2006
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Gretchen's parents flew in last night. We picked them up at the airport and then stayed up until midnight. Then, we had to get up early so we could show Gretchen's parents this house that is for sale. They are looking at possibly moving down here in the future. So, we were all tired today.
We took Gretchen's parents out to McAlister's for lunch. While we were out we went to "Ross" and Gretchen did some more Christmas shopping. She's almost done all our Christmas shopping! Then, we had to pick up Zach's birthday cake and balloons. We came home and Gretchen had to finish making the crab dip for the party. Corey had to marinate the baby back ribs and get those ready to put in the oven for the afternoon. Gretchen's mom had to do the goody bags for the kids for the party and Gretchen's Dad just kept Zach occupied. We got everything done and Zach had a good birthday party. We think he really enjoyed all the attention.
After everyone left, Gretchen cleaned everything up and finished cooking dinner for her parents and then we just relaxed the rest of the evening. It was a VERY busy day! Corey has to work tomorrow so hopefully the day will go a little slower. :)


























