Life recap

I know, I know, I know...this whole keeping up and typing this blog on a regular basis isn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. That's alright, sorry to all those who had been checking on a regular basis, hopefully with the weather getting cooler and it starting to get dark at 4 pm will also help.

I just wanted to recap things that have happen with us since my last post. Things are finally settled in our house, the roof, the roof (is not on fire) is done. The house was done enough to host a surprise birthday party for my good buddy Pat (or SPA for short) who had just moved to this great city. It was great to see so many people make the trip, especially those that I hadn't seen since Cassandra and I got married (closing in on two years now, crazy how the time flies). We were able to finally break in our fire pit and just have great conversations into the wee hours of the morning.

Cassandra completed a 1/2 marathon and finished in a time of 2:20ish. That was awesome, I was able to see her at the halfway point and she was feeling pretty good then. I wish I could have been there for the finish line.

We wrapped up our wedding tour of Wisconsin '09 (congrats to Ashley and Jeff, Leif and Kristen, Tony and Holly, Adam and Lisa, Bernie and Phil, & Megan and Jason). We had a blast at all of your weddings, and a great time at your receptions. I would also like to add that I was able to play the air piano at all six weddings to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing". Probably my #1 favorite song to hear at weddings.

I had to get a new car this past weekend, my old one decided to stop working this past week, in the middle of the rainest week we have had in a few years. The plus side was I was able to bike to work, which is something I had wanted to do for the longest time, but always found reasons to not. Plus it was time for Cassandra and I to have a good, reliable car and not over 14 years old.

Lastly, now that it is fall, and the weather is getting colder, (we've already had our first snowfall, nothing measurable, but it was falling at least) that means we are ONE DAY CLOSER TO SNOWSHOE SEASON!!!! Last winter Cassandra and I had recieved some money at Christmas and were unsure of what we were going to use it on, but we thought that we should treat ourselves to something. After doing some research we decided on purchasing some snowshoes because we both know how to walk and there isn't a whole lot of skills that need to be learned prior to starting (unlike another option cross country skiing), plus we live in an area that is full of trails and hiking opportunities, so that provided us a way to enjoy these trails all year round. As an added bonus, Rudy, our dog, is able to with us and get some excerise as well.

Well, that was somewhat of a recap (and also a preview), I am sure I forgot a bunch of things, but this was what came to mind when I sat down to write this. Thanks for stopping by and Stay Classy!

No excuses!

After giving a friend a hard time for not updating his blog for awhile (all I am saying is if you say you will have a new post on a certain date, you should have a new post by that date), I remembered that I haven't updated this one in over a month. Not good, not a good way to treat your fans. I will do a better job of updating From the River from now on.

Now you might be asking yourself what has been going on up in La Crosse that you can't update your blog on a regular basis, and I've always liked to say, you have to make plays and not excuses. Meaning that you just have to do things and not make reasons about why something hasn't happened. So while, I have been busy unpacking, roofing, and working, I really haven't been so busy that I could take time to write. I just didn't blog.

To make up for this here are some pictures from our house. I won't put all of them here, just because this will make you come and visit.

This is the view from the house to the backyard.

This is from the end of the back yard looking at the house.

The kitchen before everything was put away.

From the kitchen to the living room (we have more things in it now).

I'll save more pictures for another day. I just realized that all of these are from when we moved in and I haven't taken any since we put everything away. They will come don't worry.

Stay Classy!

New House!!!

Things have been fairly quiet for the last few weeks at From the River, and that was some what intentional. We were in the process of buying a house!!! We had an accepted offer at the beginning of the month, and then through an inspection we found some damage that we thought could have cost us the house. But with some negotiating, we were able to lower the cost of the house so that we would be able to afford to do the repairs as well. Things almost fell through a few times this month which is why things weren't posted here, but we literally just returned from the closing, picked up some keys and are waiting for our parents to arrive so that we will be able to clean and start moving things. Now you might be saying to yourself, "self they better have some pictures to show us", and we will. But this is us outside holding the sold sign, just to hold you over...

In a little bit we are going to be taking Rudy over to show him around (poor little guy he doesn't know why all these boxes are here), and we will be taking pictures of it empty, and then also when we have it filled. So next time you are in the 6th best city in the nation, feel free to stop by we'd be glad to see you.

Stay Classy!

HOMES Sweet Home

What better way to spend the 4th of July then to travel to...Canada! Well, we were close. The road trip idea began as a joke that stemmed from a mass email from my friend Allison. She had big plans for the summer and wanted to hang out during the 4th. Another friend jokingly suggested going to Canada which developed into a road trip to Niagara Falls. 12 married/engaged/single friends, 2 mini-vans, 2 coolers, 12 pillows, 4 blankets, 3 GPS systems, and no leg room equaled Fun Fun Fun! 7 of us left on Thursday night, drove to Chicago to pick up the other 6 and then we were off to New York. We drove through the night and arrived at our campsite on Friday at noon. First things first, a dip in Lake Ontario to wake us up and prepare us for getting wet. (Did you catch the HOMES reference? Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior, get it?) We went to the Cave of the Winds, the Maid of the Mist, some went to Canada, we watched fireworks over the falls, roasted marshmallows and had a great time. Even the 15 hour drive back was enjoyable. Now my list of states I've visited passes my countries I've visited. You read right, previously I had been to more countries than states, but that's for a later post. We hope all of you had an enjoyable 4th of July.



Stay tuned for more "From the River"

Cheers!

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!

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!

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!