Rob's 1st Day of School!

Rob has started school and is looking forward to finishing! He started on the 31st of August, He has classes in Chemistry, D&C, Intro to Sizemec, Structural Geology, Statistics, and Geology seminar. He has two more semesters to graduate. He is now looking into graduate schools and internships. Rob will be going to Laramie, WY on the 4th and 5th to apply/interview for this AMAZING internship! He will be able to do his two favorite things, Computers and Geology! We are praying that he gets accepted! Once Rob is all done with his classes at the beginning of the summer he will be going on a 6 week study with BYU studying... ROCKS! I am soooo PROUD of ROB! Everything is going well so far!

From the West Texas Town of El Paso

Hey ya'll!
It's football season and James and David are ready!
It's just pre-season but what would football be like
without a pre-season??
We all know what team they support sooo..
I'll just post the most recent football antics here.
Saturday night David and the Dallas Cowboys played.
David in full gear,and David after roughing the passer!

Jen’s August Update

August has flown by SO fast, and the older I get, the faster time seems to go. Work was pretty slow during the first part of the month, so I was working on the projects that I had been avoiding all year – not so fun. Things have been picking up though, and I put on an event this last week, which is my favorite part of my job.

It was probably a good thing that work was slow, because the whole first part of the month I was completely preoccupied with figuring out what masters degree I want to get. I seemed to have a different plan for my life every day! I love international relations, but I feel like it would kind of limit me, because most of the jobs available in the field are here in DC. I love it out here and wouldn’t mind living out here permanently, but since I don’t know what the future holds and have a few other things I would like to happen in my life besides just getting an M.A. and having a career, I want to look for something more flexible. Right now we have a masters in International Relations, German Teaching, or Communications on the table. I could also pair the latter two with the certificate in International Studies I have been working on or the Communications master with an MBA. Whew! I’m tired just thinking about it!! If any of you have a strong preference here, let me know! :)

Uncle Phil was in DC this last week, so we got together for dinner and were able to catch up. It was great to hear from him about how you all are doing! Thanks again, Phil!

Finally, I found out this weekend that my babysitting job is coming to an end. For those of you who don’t know, for the past year I have been babysitting two kids, Sterling (girl, 8) and Jace (boy, 6). Their dad passed away about 4 or 5 years ago and their mom works night shifts every other weekend since she is a nurse and has to keep her hours up. So every other weekend I go to their house after work on Friday and stay with them until Sunday morning, when I drop them off at their grandparents’ house. This has been such a fulfilling part of my life since I pretty much NEVER see kids otherwise. There are so many singles and MWOKs (married couples without kids :) ) here in DC, that you hardly ever see children. (more about this on my public blog) Babysitting them helps me to stay grounded and remember that real life is about families and sacrifice – single life is nice, but it is pretty much always about me, me, me.

At any rate, their mom has found a great guy with four kids of his own and they are getting married on September 19th. Their mom said she would definitely be calling me to babysit all the kids when they needed someone, but it won’t be the same – I can’t fit all of them in my car like I can with just the two, so no more trips to DC, no weekend adventures. I can’t really complain though, I can already see how good it is for them to have a father figure and more siblings, and they all really love each other, so I couldn’t ask for more.

On the bright side we had a great weekend and I have one more weekend with just the two kids, so we are trying to make the most of it! Here are some pictures of them playing at a fountain at one of the outdoor malls:

To Grandmother's House We Go!

Dad and I just spent a little over 2 weeks with Grandma Windell while John and Nancy went on vacation. Grandma and I kept busy every day! We put together puzzles, went to the commissary, took a trip to Las Cruces and a long drive thru the pecan groves and the countryside. We went to the Outlet Mall and shopped at my two favorite stores! Le Gourmet and Kitchen Collections. We shopped almost every day but didn't spend too much money! I bought a new purse! I've needed one for a long time!

Grandma introduced us to the Game Show channel. I like Deal or no Deal and Who wants to be a Millionaire. Grandma and I played a lot of games on my "Sequence/Yahtzee" board. She just loves that game! I am in the process of her making a board for a Birthday Gift. Of course, she will get it way before her Birthday (Oct. 31st)!

I took a few pictures of Grandma and the dogs while we stayed with her so I'm posting them here.

Grandma bought a dog.
The dog liked Julie so much that Grandma gave the dog to Julie!
Her name is Goldie.

Dad is getting ready for Halloween already!! He loves this holiday! I couldn't help posting this picture of his costume!

Detasseling

Does anyone else remember the good 'ole days of datasseling?

This is Nicolas TenHulzen, on the left, trudging through muck to get to the other side.

Good work Nic!

IM BACK!

Well hello Windells!

    Well, Windells and other extended family members! I hope all is well with all of you. Not much is going on here in Idaho. The weather is beautiful and the views are great as always.  I have been helping out at the county fair for the past couple of days. Larry and Regina are running the photo section and I was helping them enter photos into the fair and hang them once they were judged. I spent 13 hours there yesterday and it was CRAZY! I will go back for all the festivites on Friday and I'll take some pictures for all of you! Miss you and hope to see you all soon!

Hey

Cat,
This is so cool. Thanks for the invite. How is your day going?
Kelsey is trying out for volleyball they will decide A or B she'll know friday.
Carley starts soccer after labor day, she is excited.
Marty is going to be in York, NE. until Friday or Sat.
He is bringing up an engine for Nathans car.
Missed Rob at mom and dads, we would have loved to see them:(.
Take care,
Love you,
Pat

Holly Hobby

I bought some new stamps this week and I am so excited to show them to you!! One is a little jungle animals set, and the other one is Halloween/Thanksgiving/New Years. I tried out the jungle ones and below is a card I made. This is the first time I have tried the whole stamp and water color thing - I think it turned out pretty good for my first try! Nicole, what do you think? Any tips?

WOOHOO!!

Only 9 MORE DAYS!!! Can you tell im EXCITED?!

Babysitting

Hey! I was babysitting this weekend and we took some pictures that I thought you might enjoy. This way you can put names to faces. We went to Ikea and they had free face painting - the lady was AMAZING! Sterling had her face painted, but Jace didn't want to. He doesn't need face paint - he can make funny faces all by himself!

DC Update

I am so glad that we are starting to use this update page!! I'm going to try to give an update at least once a month. I feel like on my other blog, I don't want to put stuff that is too personal, but since this one is private, I can tell you all about everything that's going on in my life!

So here it is: I am SUPER busy. I am working 9 to 5:30, taking a class Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30 in the evening, and babysitting every other weekend from Friday at 6 PM to Sunday at 9 AM!! Add on to that about 2 hours a day in the metro, studying, my calling, etc. and I am struggling to find any spare time!

Things are going really well with my class - Introduction to International Law. I like the topic a lot, but I get frustrated with the lectures because we have a few people who just like to hear themselves talk and so they go on and on about things that are totally irrelevant to the class. So I went into the midterm feeling like I wasn't going to do that well since I was so out of touch with the lectures. Turns out that actually trying to understand the material, rather than show off how smart you are, is the way to go because I am the only person in the class who got a 100 on the midterm!! Yay!! I have 1 more week of classes and then a review session and the final on the 23rd and then I am free to enjoy the rest of the summer!

I have set a goal to go to the beach twice and to camp at least once this summer. I got one beach trip in while mom was here, so I want to try to go again in August. Then I am thinking camping in September and New York in October. I also want to see if I can catch an Orioles game before the season is over. (Are you jealous, Dad?) We'll see what happens.

Getting Lucky in Kentucky!

Well, Rob and I are doing REALLY good! We are just trucking along! Robs working almost EVERY day. He has Sundays off and that's when we go out and try to sight see a little! We haven't been to alot but we've seen some fun places! On out anniversary we went to downtown Louisville. We got to see the Slugger Museum, the Galt House and the huge river! We haven't been to a baseball game yet. But we have seanson passes to Six Flags! Thats only 15 minutes away!

T-Minus 50 DAYS till we LEAVE!!

We just put our deposit down on our next apartment! Only two more semesters and then we will be out of Utah! We sure will miss it!!

Some days you never know what you are going to come home to!

Have you ever had one of those days when you don't know if you are really on planet earth?
This is what she does when we are not at home! Surfs the net and watches TV. See the remote conveniently next to the computer??

Testing my cell phone Blog ability

Picasa Web Album Link

For those of you who would like to see more of my pictures, here is the link.

I hope this works!

http://picasaweb.google.com/061961/DCTripPics?authkey=Gv1sRgCO_q5Lj2h9nGnwE&feat=directlink

Please let me know if this doesn't work for you!

Family Blog Links

Jenny, Beckie and Rob, and Nikki and Joe all have blogs

that I'm sure all of you would love to see and read so here are the links.

Jenny

http://jennyquatsch.blogspot.com/

Beckie and Rob http://thewindells.blogspot.com/ Nikkie and Joe http://joeandnikkicoles.blogspot.com/

Keep in touch!! Love Ya!

Picasa Web Album

I have all of my pictures from my Trip to 

Virginia/DC on my web album.  

If you can't log in let me know!

In the not too distant future, 

I hope to have a travel log of all the things

 we saw and did for those of you who are interested.  :)

Mom's trip to Jenny's

Just got back from my visit with Jenny and I have a 

bunch of pictures to share with you. 

I'm not sure what I am doing so it may take a while 

to get them uploaded! 

My friend Karina Kreiner went with me on this trip 

and we had a blast! 

Washington DC has lots of great places to visit. 

We also spent 3 days in Virginia Beach. 

The ocean was not kind to Karina. I'll tell that story later.

 

Our Family's Page

I hope this blog becomes a perfect place for us all to "meet" in one place.

A place for us to share our thoughts, our successes, our challenges and recipes too! 

I just recently saw a friend's blog and it was amazing!!   

Each family member posted videos, personal challenges to each other, weight loss goals, tips, pictures, monthly family challenges, vacation ideas and suggestions, heads up on coupons, grocery saving ideas, schedules, and the list of possibilities goes on!

I'm looking forward to posting all about my trip to see Jenny 

and to post pics of all the things we do and places we go!

Love to all!