Thursday, June 25, 2009

We are the champions!!!

So last night Cassandra and I as well as some friends decided to go to the Loggers' game. For those if you who don't know about the Loggers, they are an amateur baseball team that plays with all college aged players to help the adjust to wooden bats, just in case they make the big leagues. Anyway this was the first time that Cassandra and I had ever been to the "Lumberyard" (creative name if you ask me, although maybe not as creative as the Madison Mallards' "Duck Pond" but still very creative.), this was really a great time, and I had forgotten how much I enjoy watching baseball. We had gotten tickets for the party deck, so it was much more of a relaxed atmosphere, and the whole night was full of some game watching, some heckling of the Mallards' bullpen, and lots of just overall fun joking around and conversations.

Now you might be wondering how we were champions, well for starters the Loggers won (final score 5-3), but also we had two people from our group "drawn" (it may have been setup a little)from a pool of all those in attendance to partake in the 8th inning dizzy bat race (which we also won), another friend came in second in the Wii hula-hoop contest (second is still winning especially when you win a Best Buy gift card), another friend (actually one of the same that was in the dizzy bat race) won a drawing from a local radio station and received a station t-shirt and a cd (I had never heard of the band though), lastly another person in our group won tickets to the Northwoods All-Star game.

Overall it was a great time, and I can't wait to go back to a Loggers' game sometime soon.

Also, since we never really figured out how to set things up correctly if you are ever wondering you is writing each post, just look at our sign off lines. Mine is Stay Class! and Cassandra's is Cheers.

Stay Classy!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Wife's Turn

I made a deal with Steven that I would write a post as soon as he updated his Facebook Account. Hence the reason it took so long for me to add to our newly created blog. Even as I sit here typing I really don't know what to write about. I'm proud of Steven for wanting to start something new and creating a blog. We have been so caught up in our own personal lives lately, that it is nice to share our lives with friends (and the whole world).

Lately we have been living our lives based on inspirations. Steven was inspired to start a blog after reading blogs created by our friends (See links below). I started training for a half-marathon because my old roommate recently competed in her first marathon. And we're currently looking for a house because of the market, Steven's job, and friends who have just recently bought their first homes.

Steven and I are really happy. We've been married for almost 1 1/2 years (on July 5th). Married life is amazing (at least I think so) and we really feel like we're on the right path in life. Steven has a job with the YMCA (which he can tell you more about in his own words). He has been really busy, but he says he really enjoys his job. I'm currently a substitute teacher enjoying my summer vacation. The La Crosse area is a tough place to find teaching jobs, but I'm willing to sub for as long as it takes. I'm getting my name out there and I get lots of requests to sub. Like I mentioned before, we have entered the housing race. I call it a race because the houses in our area are selling fast. We know that God has a house that is perfect for us and whatever is meant to be will happen. We're just really antsy. Rudy, our dog, is doing well. He currently is my running partner while I'm training and he just turned 3 years old last Monday. We are excited for what the future brings.

Stay tuned for more updates, random thoughts, and other stories "From the River."

Cheers!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

First Post

After telling people for many years about how great the city that we live in is (ok, so technically we don't live in La Crosse, but we might be soon (that'll be another post for another day)), someone else finally took notice. That's right folks you read correctly, La Crosse is the 6th Best City to live in the country. Cassandra and I thought how would everyone else celebrate this fact. The question is rhetorical, and I'll answer it...we decided to start our own blog!!


Actually, we have been talking about starting our own blog for about a month now, and decided there was no better timing the the great news of how great a small city in western Wisconsin is. We were actually inspired by a few of our friends who write weekly blogs ranging in a wide variety of topics.


Our biggest obstacle was finding the right titles for us to use. We have friends who live all over the country and we started to use their titles as an inspiration. Some friends who live in the Pacific Northwest (Congrats AJ and Sarah on your house by the way) had already capitalized on describing both the location that they live and a portion of their last name to title their blog, West Coast Steins, so that was out for us. Another friend has a great nickname (and will also be joining us as a resident of the 6th best city in the nation this fall) and thoroughly enjoys his sports, and came up with the name Spa's Sports. While we have good nicknames, we enjoy way too many things to narrow it down to just one topic, so this idea was out. Some more friends just enjoy life and came up with with a cleaver way to show their unlimited optimism and Life is Good was born (as well as little Andrew, we still can't wait to meet him). Some friends spend all their time growing mustaches and when it comes time to naming their blog, they are just creatively exhausted and have a simple, but well known blog titled A Blog. It is still is up there as my most favorite title. Lastly, the blog that really got us started reading blogs, and has led us to find these other great masterpieces, put tons of time (I think, I don't really know)into its title, but you can read the back story behind the title of A Cage of Words on your own.


So with that tour of the blogs that we read, (and we are always looking for other ones to read, so if you have one please send it to us) and the creativity that went behind the names, we have decided on From the River, for lots of reasons. The biggest reason is that we live in a great city (have I mentioned yet that it is #6 in the nation yet) and it is nestled between the mighty Mississippi River and some bluffs (really who would read a blog titled from the bluff) and the river has been part of some big moments in our lives. Those stories are for another day though.


Stay Classy!