MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas

I've gotten really bad at updating this site. I'm sorry!

The house is really feeling like home these days. I LOVE that we were able to decorate for the first time ever as a married couple. The house looks great and I realized I can actually buy more decorations because I have more space to decorate, but I will have to do that slowly, don't want to drain the bank account on Christmas decorations. We could still use some more every day decorations.

Today we bought and put up two decorative shelves for our large, bare kitchen wall. It looks great, now I just have to decorate them. We also replaced a light in our living room over the new book self Jon made for us while I was away. We did a lot of other hanging of pictures and such today. There are still many rooms left to decorate and hang pictures, but that will have to wait until after Christmas.

Julianna has begun to show interest in sleeping in a "big" bed, so after the holidays we hope to set one up for her. I can't wait to set up her room with her new bedding. So girly! She's getting so big these days.

Looking forward to celebrating Christmas at our house. Hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

MUCH LOVE!

We Move Tomorrow!!!

Tomorrow we will be spending our first night in our new home! We are very excited and sort of in disbelief that the day has finally arrived. These last 3 years really did go fast over all, even though at times, I think all of us thought our "transition" period was never going to end. We are very excited to be our own family again. It's going to be awesome!

This evening we went grocery shopping for everything we need, and we needed everything! It was just like old times when we lived on our own. It was fun and Julz had a blast trying to put things in our cart we didn't need. She did end up with grape jello, chocolate pudding, and a microwavable mini rav meal. Silly girl!

So, with that said, Jon and I will not have internet access for a little while, so if you need us, call my cell! We should have a home phone and internet after the holidays (maybe sooner if we are lucky).

MUCH LOVE for now! Pictures to come when I get a chance!

Update

Since its been awhile since I last posted and because this is the second time I am writing this, I'm just going to give the highlights of what has been going on.

We closed on our house October 3rd and have been busy making it our own. Two weeks ago we moved almost all of our stuff to the house and have been finishing up the last of the projects before we move in on Saturday.

Jon has been studying for the CPA exam, he takes a part on the 15th. It will be nice for him to have a break from studying and have him be able to work on some projects with me.

I am now a full time stay at home mom and I've been loving every minute of it!

That's all for now. I realize this is a horrible post, but as soon as we get settled again, I will make a better post that includes pictures!

We Got A House!

Most of you know our BIG NEWS, but for those of you who haven't seen us lately, Jon and I have bought a house!  We close October 3rd, three years to the day that we signed the papers on our house in Indiana and moved to Pittsburgh.  Some how this seems to be an appropriate ending to our "transition" period.

The house is located in Gibsonia, PA.  It's roughly 7 minutes from my parents and not far from where Jon now works.  For those of you who are wondering, we did not pick this house because of how close it is to my parents, trust me when I say that was the LAST thing on our minds when looking for a house.  The house is 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and 2 stories!  It also has a great yard.  The house is on the older side, so there is some updating we have to do, but the house is in great shape otherwise.  We are very excited to close.

In the mean time, my parents and I have begun collecting up our stuff in their house, organizing, repacking, and pitching stuff so it's ready to go when we get the house.  We also began pulling stuff out of our storage unit in order to clean it up and decide whether we want the item in the new house.  It's almost like Christmas!  I've found things I completely forgot we owned, like our blender!!!  Needless to say, its a tiring process, but it will be worth it in the end.

Julianna is doing well.  She is definitely two!  Potty training is going great!  She has learned to tell us when she has to go and has had very few accidents.  The biggest issue we have now is hitting.  Luckily, she only hits us and not other children, but we still have to tackle the problem.  She spends a lot of time on her "time out" step.  I just hope she gets less stubborn as she gets older, but she probably won't.  =)

Well that's our update!  Hope you all are doing well.  MUCH LOVE!

Houses and Visits

Jon and I finally found a house that we really like! Hopefully this evening we are going to walk thru it again with my parents and then write up an offer. Praying it all works out because we REALLY like this house. It's 3 bedrooms 2.5 baths and it's two stories! It also has a great basement and an amazing yard! So keeping our fingers crossed!

Jon took his first section of the CPA exam. He said it went "okay"...typical Jon response. I'm sure he did well and passed, but we won't know until mid-September. Don't ask, they grade weird which is surprising since it's all on the computer! He takes another section on the 31st so he is still busy studying on a daily basis.

Next week we are headed to Michigan for Jon's cousin's wedding. We are looking forward to getting away and seeing family, and I lucked out because my best friend is having a Tupperware party the night we arrive!! Usually I have to catalogue order from parties she has since we live so far away, but not this time! Very excited! We also get to meet our newest nephew which is very exciting!

The weekend after our trip to Michigan, my brother and sister-in-law are coming to Pittsburgh for wedding festivities for a friend of theirs, but they are staying with us and my mother is having a Welcome Home/Congratulations party for my brother. (My brother was promoted to Captain after his year long deployment in Afghanistan.) I'm so excited to see them! It's been about 2 years since I had any quality time with my bro. The last time we saw him was at his wedding, which we didn't get to spend much time with him really. So it will be great to see him and Kelly.

In Julianna news, we are still potty training. It's going pretty well. She is also talking a lot more. She has learned so many new words lately. She surprises me daily with the words she has learned. I also learned that she can swim on her own with her life vest. She will get in the pool with us and just step off the step and start kicking her little legs and paddling with her arms. It's so cute! But she's growing up so fast! Before we know it she will be off to school!! I also realized last night that I haven't taken any pictures of her in the last 2 months. I think I need to remedy that problem in the weeks to come!

Well that's all that's going on in Pittsburgh right now. We will try to keep you all updated on our adventures! MUCH LOVE!

A much needed update!

Hello Blog!

Based on the date of my last blog, I have forgotten about you! I'm sorry! We have been very busy! Thanks for checking in Brian P, you made me realize I need to post something for you all.

Jon and I have begun house hunting in the Pittsburgh area. We are having a lot of trouble finding the right house. Its a rather frustrating situation, but the right house will come along eventually. We are just very anxious to move out and move on.

Jon takes his first part of the CPA exam tomorrow afternoon. He is really well prepared so we know he will pass. He also starts his new job Sept. 1st. That day can not come fast enough.

I'm still working 40hrs a week. I hope when Jon starts working to go down to 32 hrs until we close on a house. I'm looking forward to knocking off 8 hrs from my work week.

We have started potty training with Julianna and she is doing really well. We have had no poopy diapers in a few weeks and only a few accidents. We just bought her her first pair of underwear. I'm glad we are making great progress on this subject as we want her out of diapers before we even consider having another baby.

Otherwise, that's about all that's going on with us. Hope all is well with you! MUCH LOVE!

I haven't forgotten!

Don't worry friends, I have not forgotten you! Things have been busy and I haven't had a chance to sit down and write about what's been going on in "The Burgh" lately. I will write soon though! MUCH LOVE!

Jon's Job

This past week, Jon had a meeting with one of the principles at Hill, Barth, and King(HBK) to discuss a position with their company. He returned home with a written and signed offer for a full time position!!! He will start with them on September 1st. Until then, he will be studying for the CPA exam and working some where. We are VERY excited!!

Now that Jon has a job, we have begun discussions of moving out of my parents house. We have looked online for some houses that fit our budget and our criteria of what we want. However, we are finding, though, its tough finding a decent house in the Pittsburgh area. A lot of the houses we like on the outside, are so dated on the inside that we just have to move on. We just don't have the money right now to do major updating. But we keep looking and will get a realtor shortly to help us with our search. Houses are put on the market every day, so we will find something eventually!

Well that's all for now! MUCH LOVE!

My Husband is pretty smart!!!

On Saturday, May 7, 2011, Jon became an official graduate of RMU. He graduated magna cum laude, making him the first college graduate on both sides of our immediately family to graduate with that status! I would say I have a pretty smart hubby, don't ya think?!

And for those of you who didn't know, he was also inducted in to the Beta Gamma Simga honors society for business students in the top 10 percent of their class and also the Alpha Chi honors society for students who have a QPA of 3.7 or higher and are in the top 10 percent of their class. Again, I have a pretty smart husband!

Jon already has his diploma in hand, as he was finished with classes in December, and now we are just waiting to hear about an offer from HBK, where he interned this tax season. We are thrilled that we can finally see the end of this long "transition" period and that Jon was successful in his studies.

Overall, we have learned a lot during this time, and some day I hope to sit and reflect on all we have learned and been through these past 2+ years and maybe I'll even write about it so some day we can look back on this experience and remember what we accomplished together with God's guidance. But our story isn't over just yet. We still need to move out of my parents house!! We won't know when we will be able to do this until we know more details about work for Jon, so until then, we just keep on keeping on.

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day and is enjoying spring! Until later, Much Love!

Jobs and Visitors

Now that things have finally slowed down and all details have been figured out, I can finally sit down and write a post of all that has happened in the past couple of weeks.

Towards the end of March, at work, I was pulled to another house within the company I was working for. This happens once in a while when houses are short staffed and typically it’s not big deal. Well the house I happened to be pulled to was an hour from my house. Now that’s a problem. To top it off, this was not going to be a one-day pull; I was been pulled for 3 shifts a week! When I received the call from my supervisor about going to that house, I told him no. I explained that financially that was not feasible for me. I lost an hour of work because I could not get there until 4pm, I had to take part of the turnpike to get there, and I had to drive the truck, so now I’m putting a tank of gas in the truck every week instead of every 3 weeks. My supervisor didn’t care. He told me that they were desperate because they only had 2 full time staff at the house because everyone else had been suspended. GREAT!

So I went, but not quietly. The next day I called the unit director to speak with him about reimbursing me my hour of lost work, my turnpike tolls and my mileage, ya know, since I was “helping them out.” Figured they could help me out. Well wouldn’t you know, his answer was no. Why? Because that would be like paying me to come to work. Okay, mister unit director, let’s think about this: if I add up that what I lose in tolls, gas, and work hours…IM PAYING YOU TO GO TO WORK! Nope, no way! Not happening!

That day I applied for multiple jobs with different companies in the area. The jobs were still in the direct care field, but at nursing and assisted living facilities since taking care of seniors is really where my heart is, not with the MR/MH population.

That Sunday, I had an interview with Sunrise Senior Living at their memory loss facility. I was so excited! It sounded like the perfect job for me. On the day of interview, I was so incredibly calm. I wasn’t nervous at all, unlike other interviews I’ve had in the past. At the end of my interview, I had the job! Talk about a God thing! We had prayed for a change to come a long so I could leave the crazy company I was working for and a great job came along, along with another interview with another company. Between the two companies, I decided to take the Sunrise job. I just had a better feeling about the job and the facility and I hope it’s a great fit. Tomorrow is my first day of training, so we shall see.

I gave my employer my one week notice, and whatdaya know, not one person in management asked my why I was leaving or where I was going! That’s okay though, they wouldn’t want to hear what I had to say to them.

So tomorrow starts a new chapter of my life. Hopefully something great job wise will happen for Jon pretty soon!

So that’s the job side of things, but during all this, we had some visitors. Jon’s parents came to visit the Sunday I had my interview actually. They came for the night to see Julianna and play some cards with Jon and I. It was a short trip, but it was nice seeing them. We also managed to get some Goodwill shopping in and a trip to Five Guys.

The weekend after, Jill, Kevin, and Bryce came to visit. It was great hanging out with them and seeing Bryce and Julianna interact. On Friday, we went and visited the Carnegie Science Center. Bryce really seemed to enjoy it and Julianna enjoyed the exhibits that had water. On Saturday we went to the zoo. That was a lot of fun! Both kids seemed to really enjoy the animals and I know the adults had a good time too. That night we got pizza for dinner and hung out. It was great seeing them! Hopefully they can come and visit again some time!

Well I think that catches everyone up on our lives right now. Looking forward to seeing what the rest of this year holds for our family. We continue to pray that Jon will get a job soon and that my brother will return safely from Afghanistan. Until then, MUCH LOVE!

Fun Outside

Wow! What beautiful weather we have had the last couple of days! Spring is on it's way!!

Julianna and I have taken full advantage of the nice weather and have spent a lot of time outside. Julz loves to just walk around and explore. The other day we had our "baby" outside with us in her stroller and Julianna took her for a walk around the driveway. It was cute to watch. We also took a wagon ride with "baby" and Tob Tob. This year it's a lot harder to pull that wagon with her seeing as she's about 10 lbs heavier! I avoid the big hills in our neighborhood with the wagon or else Julz might get a wild ride! :) Grandpa put the swing back in the tree this year since Julianna loved it so much last year, but this year, that's another story. She wants NOTHING to do with her swing. She is so scared of it. Not sure what's up with that, but okay, no swing! I think I will try and take her to the playground at the park sometime and see if she likes those swings. Her swing in the tree isn't very level and that might be why she doesn't like it this year. Who knows?! She's a character!

Coming Home

Well the snow is gone and the sun is shinning! Warmer weather is on it's way!

So a week ago, my sister-in-law Kelly, told me about this show on Lifetime called Coming Home. It's a show that is dedicated to sharing stories of our troops coming home from their deployments. Seeing as we are approaching the one year mark when a huge amount of troops were sent to Afghanistan, most of the soldiers are returning from there. So far in these two weeks, there have been a number of stories of families from Clarksville, TN where Dave and Kelly live. The first episode had two of Kelly's friends on in and Kelly's very best friend Steph and her family will be on the show later in the season. I'm so excited to see them! This show is so heart warming and makes me so excited for Dave to come home! I've missed my little bro and I can't wait to see him in person!! So, if you have a chance, Sunday nights at 10pm on Lifetime, watch Coming Home!!

Speaking of my little bro, he has a birthday this week on the 17th! He's turning 26! So, Happy Birthday Dave!! Hope you have a relatively relaxing day!!

That's all for now! MUCH LOVE!

Oh No! Snow!

So much for Spring arriving! This is what we woke up to this morning.

Riverdance and Sickness

Wow! What a couple of weeks it has been!

Last week, I came down with a cold/flu/something or other. I was out of work for 3 days and came home early last Monday with a fever. I was miserable and because I couldn't figure out just what it was, drugs were not helping. Friday I finally felt well enough to go to work, but not before I headed to the doctor for a sore ear. Turns out I had the beginning of a double ear infection and all the congestion I had in my head and chest needed some prescription attention before it turned in to pneumonia. I'm glad I listened to that nagging voice in my head saying I needed to get checked out! So they put me on a z-pack, gave me an over the counter med to take and a special cough med and sent me on my way! I finished the z-pack today and I must say, I'm feeling much better! Still have some congestion and a cough, but those things seem to linger no matter what you might take for them.

On the flip side, now Julianna has a horrible cold. I think this is her worst one yet. I think tomorrow I might run her to the doctor to get her ears checked out and to see if there is anything to give her. Poor little peanut is miserable!

Even Jon wasn't spared this time around. Mr "I never get sick" is sick. He's got the cough and stuffiness. Nothing to the extent of myself or Julianna, but he's still sick and I like to point that out to him!

Despite all the sickness, Jon and I were able to attend Riverdance. It was AWESOME! The show was way to short in my opinion, but I think we were just so wrapped up in it that the time just flew by! The dancing was really cool and the music was outstanding. I totally recommend seeing Riverdance if it happens to be in our town.

In other news, there isn't much. Glancing at the calender for this month, we don't have anything major planned. Mostly work. Jon is getting very busy at work and I'm just socking away my vacation days for June and a few other things here and there coming up.

Well I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy!
MUCH LOVE!

February Already?!

Wow! I can't believe we are about half way through February already! I'm so glad! Lately the weather has been pretty cold. It's been in the low single digits most nights, and the wind chill makes the day time temperature feel even colder than it is. I'm so not a fan of being cold and having it hurt when you breath! But for us Pittsburghers, good news is on it's way. We could possibly see 50 degree weather come Thursday!! Good Bye Cold and Snow!! My joy may be short lived seeing as it is still February, but I'll take it for now!

So what's going on with the Feyen Family, you ask?

Well, five weeks ago, my mom and I started attending this Bible study at Christ Church. It's a Beth Moore Bible study on the book of Revelation. I'm not sure how I feel about Beth Moore just yet. She is definitely enthusiastic, and she is extremely southern, but at 9am in the morning, after having worked until 11pm the night before, she can be a little much. I'm not sure if I will do another Beth Moore study, but I might. Probably doing Revelation as my first Beth Moore study was probably not the best idea seeing as Revelation is a pretty heavy book in the Bible. It is interesting though. I will let you know my thoughts when our study is over in April.

Jon is busy with work at his internship. All is going well with that. He is getting a lot of experience, which is good. After this internship is over, he will have a much better idea whether he wants to do taxes or auditing and what size company he might like to work for. It would be nice if this company would offer him a job, but there is no way of knowing what will occur in April so we aren't even thinking about it.

On Februrary 26th, Jon and I are going to Riverdance with some friends of ours. We are really excited to have a date night and to be seeing something cool! If you don't know what Riverdance is, google it and I'm sure you will get a lot of video's of the group. We still haven't decided if we are going out to dinner before hand, but I think we should make it a full blown date!

Julianna is doing well. She is growing up so fast! She is saying more and more words and she understands so much. Julianna has even learned to run. If you've never seen a toddler run, you should. It's the CUTEST thing ever! She is also into playing with her "babies" and she loves ducks at the moment. (Yellow ducks only) We just can't get enough of her these days!

Well, you are now updated on the Feyen Family! Hope you are all doing well! Until Later!

MUCH LOVE!

Boo Steelers!

Even though I'm not so happy that the Steelers lost, here's a pic of the family from last night!

Not Much

There really is not much to report at this time.

We are all anxiously awaiting for Sunday to arrive so we can watch the Steelers shred the Packers! My grandparents are coming over to watch the game with us and enjoy some Superbowl food.

Otherwise, we are just waiting for the temperature to rise and for all the ice to melt. At work, the driveway to the house is a solid sheet of ice. I literally ice skate to the ramp! Dangerous!!

I hope you all are staying warm!

SUPERBOWL

PITTSBURGH'S GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!

Hello Again!

Where to begin. I guess I will just begin with January. Most of you know what has occurred in our lives since my November post, and if you don't, just ask and I will fill you in on the details.

New Year's day my grandparents came over to our house and we had a surf and turf celebration for Jon's graduation from RMU. He doesn't walk until May, but felt that since school was done, we needed to celebrate. We will celebrate again in May after the ceremony. We enjoyed a wonderful meal of lobster tail, little steaks, shrimp cocktail and clams casino. It was all very good. We finished up the meal with homemade tiramisu.

The weekend after that, Jon and I did an over night trip to Erie, PA. Jon booked us in this awesome hotel with a nice kitchen in our room. Its the perfect hotel if you plan on staying in Erie for longer than a night. Jon looked up a number of Goodwill's in the area and hunted down some hobby shops he wanted to stop at. We did very well at the first GW we visited. We found this really nice kids table and two chairs for Julianna. It's made of wood which is cool. We didn't do so hot at the rest of the GW and made it to no hobby shops. We had a nice time though and we got to see a lot of Erie since we were on this wild goose chase for these hobby shops. Needless to say, parts of Erie are really run down!

Last Monday, the 10th, Jon started his internship with Hill, Barth, and King. They do a week of training before you begin in your respective offices. Jon's training was held in Boardman, Ohio which is just outside of Youngstown. Monday morning he drove the hour there and home, Tuesday, due to bad weather here and in Youngstown, he opted to stay in a hotel for the remainder of the training. Jon learned a lot and really seemed to enjoy himself.

Jon went to the office here in town yesterday. He didn't have much to say, but he had a good day. They even took him out to lunch. I think he is really going to enjoy working for HBK for the next couple of months.

Julianna is now 19 months old. She is really growing up. She is using more words and some words are becoming much more clear. It's fun watching her play every day and see how she will play with her toys. She's becoming such a big girl. Julianna is also teething right now, so she is rather cranky, but who can blame her. Teeth hurt!

So that's all that is going on with our family. I hope all is going well with all of you!

MUCH LOVE

Update

So I realized, I'm horrible at updating my Shutterfly site and was much better at updating my blogger. So I'm going to try to do both. I will fill every one in on what is going on with our lives tomorrow as I need to leave for work since I'm picking up a coworker. Until tomorrow!

Much Love!