Update!

So here's the update. I know I don't blog often enough, and really there are no excuses, but the best one I can think of is we are really busy.

We had a fabulous Christmas. Steve was off for a whole month! It was great to spend so much time together. We spent a few days in New Castle, a week in Marshall, and a lot of time down here on the river while I (megan) was working.

Only 4 1/2 months until the wedding! We worked our tail off to get the guest list ready for the wedding.....ahhhh...nobody told me how they grow when you recieve Christmas cards! Woodz's aunt, Margaret, picked up the CUTEST flower girl dress for our girl, Syd. It's precious!

We also registered at Bed Bath and Beyond. Steve complained a bit, but got a little "zapper happy" and registered for some goodies for himself (Michigan State stuff and BUBBLE TAPE). We still have to register at Target.

Steve has had 4 interviews. He has received two job offers. One is in Indy and the other is in Battle Creek. He's hoping to hear good news back from a firm in Kalamazoo. We're both hoping he'll know where he will be working in March so we can start a house search and I can start a job search.

I think that's about it. We have a lot to look forward to:
Feb 2-Betsy's bridal shower and a weekend w/ my girls
March 8-a shower for me :) thanks Aunts! :)
Mid March-cruise w/ the Woods fam!
April-baby Retherford due
May-last month teaching in Kentucky!
June-WEDDING!, moving, etc. :)
5 months of FUN!

Of course, I forgot something.

After reviewing yesterday's post, we realized we forgot two big things.

Patty took me to the Colt's game a week ago. The Colts played the Jaguars in Indy. It was a blast! Thanks Patty! Sorry...no pictures.

Steve and I have a couple of beta fish. Mine's name is Bruce and his fish is TF (really, it's not a nice name so I am shortening it). Unfortunately, TF is in his last days. He has a large clear bubble over his eye. After googling it, we found that it's "popeye." If we treated it, it could go away, but we refuse to pay more for the treatment than we did for the fish.....inhumane? probably? If you know any cheap home remedies for popeye let us know....until then....he will be known as Popeye.

pathetic monthly post

When Steve and I were thinking about all the things we needed to put in the blog, it kind of sickened me to think about what we needed to tell you. I just know it's going to sound like one of those disgusting Christmas card letters...only this is only going to be about the past month. If this bores you...sorry....maybe the pictures will help.


Where do we start????

My parents started building a garage for the river house about a month ago. We're hoping it will be the party site for the rehearsal dinner. It's two stories...you know big Mike...gotta have some place to put all your toys. Everyone down in KY asks me who is building a house next to ours...pretty sad. It should be finished by January.


A few weeks ago Steve was out of school for a week. It's like Fall Break and Thanksgiving break combined. I put him to WEDDING WORK! He designed our save the dates (expect them in January or February), designed the invitations (soooo awesome), and made the table numbers (each of them has a different black and white picture of things we love in Madison and KY). We also got to taste cakes for our wedding cakes. Our baker make 9 cupcakes for us to taste. We were so excited we quickly ate 4 and felt sooooo sick from large amounts of sugar. We finally decided on caramel chocolate (Megan's favorite), strawberry (Steve's favorite), and french vanilla (for all those boring plain people).

After I got out of school on Tuesday we headed up to New Castle on Wednesday. Steve agreed to take dad's four wheeler to New Castle, but was a little upset when he had to stop suddenly and it went through his back window. NOT GOOD! Luckily, we were able to get it fixed a few days later, but it was funny driving around with the "hillbilly replacement window."

Once we got the window taped up, we ran some wedding errands with Patty and then took my cousin, Noah, to Wal-Mart so he could make his Christmas wish list. That was a pretty silly idea because he wanted EVERYTHING. It was still fun watching Noah and Woodz both look at the toys with amazement. Afterwards, we met up with aunt Robin for pizza. Thursday afternoon was the McClure family Thankgiving. It was sad on the way there knowing that Grandma Kate wouldn't be with us, but we were all soon reminded that she was with us and life will go on. It was a hilarious and great time.

We had to leave a little early to head up to Michigan. Steve was really excited to get up there to go hunting. He went out Friday morning with no luck, but got a buck on Friday night. He was super excited and made me take picutres....ewwww!

Unfortunately, when he shot it, the buck took a little fall and broke an antler. ouch!

Sorry it's sideways! Check out the boots and the thermal shirt....my soon to be husband is a HILLBILLY!

Good thing Steve had his buck because he couldn't go hunting on Saturday night. We had his grandma's 80th birthday party to go to. It was sooo nice. It was great to see all his crazy little cousins, but the best part was how "unique" the party was. First of all, there was a KEG!...for an 80th birthday party...haha. Also, there were AMISH people there...a whole family! It was really neat to see them...the kids were so cute...no pictures...gotta respect the amish. :)

While we were on "vacation" Steve mailed out his resumes to architecture firms. He already has 4 interviews. He'll be interviewing in Michigan during Christmas break.

As for our plans for Christmas break, it goes like this:

Dec 15th-Steve's last final

Dec 16th-Steve heads to KY

Dec 20th-Megan's last day before break

Dec 21st-dinner with the Burgers and Retherfords

Dec 22nd-dinner with SAEs

Dec 23rd-dinner with Robin and Noah

Dec 24th-Christmas with Megan's family

Dec 25th-head up to Michigan for Christmas with Steve's family

We'll be up there probably until I have to go back to school on the 4th.

I am sure I missed something. I'll post later whatever I missed. I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays! Only 6 months until the wedding and we get to see everyone!

Podfittness.com

If you know me, you know I am not a big fan of exercise, but since I will be walking down the aisle in a BIG white dress in 7 months, I figure I better do something.

I have subscribed to www.podfittness.com and I really like it. Basically, it's like a workout video on your ipod. The difference is you get to listen to your own music instead of watch the annoying skinny girls on tv. It's 60 dollars every 13 weeks. You can download up to 3 workouts every day (who wants to do three workouts every day?).

What happens when you log on is you answer some questions about yourself (health, fitness, equipment, goals, etc.). Then, the program recommends some workouts. You pick out a workout that you want, and make some playlists for the workout using your itunes. Then, you can download your workout.

I have been able to download some workouts for my elliptical. I have also downloaded a stretching workout, combined workout, and weight training workouts. It's really cool to have so many workouts at your fingertips.

Hopefully, after the new year I will be heading to the gym for some more intensive workouts to prepare for our big day, but until then, this definitely works (if I do it).

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...so I don't blog much!

It's been almost a month since I posted something on our blog. I am going to attempt to summarize our semi-boring lives:

• Steve finished his webpage that will (hopefully) help him get a job. https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/woods5/www/INDEX.html
• Megan went on 2 more field trips. We went to see a play in Jeffersonville. Then, we went hiking....I am not much of an "outdoorsey" person.
• Megan and her mom participated in Amy Hewitt's disability awareness week walk. It wasn't a long walk, but since we had to walk back to the car, it was long.
• Big Mike Broyles took some engagement pictures. We decided to go the cheap route with the engagement pictures since Steve enjoys getting his picture taken soooooo much.
• The bridesmaids dresses have been ordered.
• We met with the photographer and florist. (we=Megan and Patty)
• We reserved the church sound guy.
• Kate and Jeff's wedding was sooooooo much fun thanks to Kyle, Betsy, Cletus, Karla, and Justin. (We miss you guys.)
• Woodz did well on his finals....getting the best score in the whole class on one of them!
• Megan dressed as Charlotte's web for Halloween.
• We visited Steve's family in Michigan where we picked about 100 gourds for my classroom. (thanks Wendee for growing them)

I think that's about it....in no particular order.

This weekend we're hanging out. Megan is off Monday and Tuesday. We're pumped for the Colts game tomorrow and I (megan..duh) am going to attempt to make enchilada's and tortilla soup for the big game.

We're looking forward to Thanksgiving in a couple weeks where we will get some more wedding work done (save the date and invite layout as well as a final guest list (is it ever final?)). We will be going to Megan's mom's Thanksgiving for lunch on Thanksgiving day then off to Michigan for hunting (megan will be sleeping) and celebrating Woodz's grandma's birthday.

There's the church behind us! 7 more months and we'll be walking out of those doors....married!

I refuse to take the time for proofreading...so here it is! :)

St. Louis

We just got back from Saint Louis! Last week we decided we needed a little getaway. School is getting super busy for both of us, and we hadn't seen each other for a couple weeks. Steve decided he'd take me to Saint Louis!

Saturday morning, we got up real early and headed for Saint Louis. It was just a 3 hour drive (not bad considering how much we drive). When we got into the city, we headed straight to the zoo. Good news! Entry to the zoo is free...however, the parking and food isn't! It was so much fun walking around such a HUGE zoo.

This one's for Karwa! We knew you'd love this sleepy camel.

The monkies were pretty well behaved....except for this one who was picking his nose.

This is Alex. He was in the sea lion show. He was super talented.....did more tricks than we can do!

Look at the baby! He's only 6 months old.....I feel bad for that mom!

When we had almost seen everything, we saw a huge line by the penguins. We're so smart that we decided to get in the long line. Thank goodness we did! It was a 90+ degree day and the line was to get into the 45 degree penguin house. Ahhh, that was nice!

After we saw the entire zoo, we headed to our hotel. It was downtown near Union Station. It was super old and really neat. Unfortunately, it was a mile walk to the river and the arch. Of course, our cheap butts walked all the way there. We weren't able to go up to the top of the arch, but it was neat to be at the bottom. Steve got some really cool pictures!

After walking a mile to the arch, we decided it would be better, and worth the money, to take a carriage ride to see the rest of the riverfront. It was our first carriage ride together! We were sooo tired that I think we both enjoyed the rest more than we enjoyed the sights!
Now, we're home. Steve will be heading back to classes all week and I head back to the zoo that is my classroom. I have a new student this week that does not speak english...and I don't speak spanish.

In a week, I start fall break for a week. Thank goodness! Look for more posts then...when I have more time!

Party!

Last weekend, I got to meet some of Steve's grad school friends. He invited them over for wings and drinks. It was really a lot of fun, and they are all really nice people.

Here's the "host gift" Steven got from a couple of his friends. Isn't it pretty?!?!?!

For the party, I made a dessert. Since Steve already had brownie mix, I found this recipe on allrecipes.com to "spruce up" the brownies.

Ingredients:

brownie mix (and whatever it takes to make them)

1 bag mini marshmallows (the smaller bag)

1bag chocolate chips (the smaller bag)

1 T butter

1 1/2 cups rice krispies

1 cup peanut butter (I left this out because Steve doesn't like it.)

Bake the brownies just like you always would in a 9x13 pan. Then, pour the marshmallows over the top of the brownies and cook them for three more minutes. Marshmallows will still be "lumpy." Let the brownies sit for a bit while you melt the chocolate and the butter together (30 seconds in microwave, stir, repeat....). You would add the peanut butter at this time, too, if you want it. Stir the rice krispies into the melted mixture, then pour it over the top of the brownies. Use a knife to "marble" the chocolate mixture and marshmallows together.

This is a WONDERFUL, EASY dessert. :) Just they way I like it.