Been a long time....

Sorry its been forever since I have updated my blog. Things have been crazy busy as we prepare for our wedding. Joe moved to Kalona in June and started working for Goodwill of the Heartland as a Retail manager. The job keeps him very busy and he does a lot of traveling between the 5 different stores in Iowa City, Coralville, and Cedar Rapids. We have enjoyed being together more and he has enjoyed getting to know my family a little better. He is staying in Mom and Dad's basement until the wedding so its a good way to get to know them and spend time of them. Things have been a little slower in the NICU for me at work and there has been a lot of vacation time given out. I'm saving my vacation for the wedding so I have been working my normal 100% all summer. I'm definitely ready for a break. Wedding stuff is coming a long pretty well. We had a few bumps in the road but things always seem to work out. We are very excited to finally be married and start our lives together....5 more weeks! We also have several bridal showers over the next few weeks so that is something to look forward to and also something to keep us busy! There is a quick update for now....hopefully some new pictures soon!

The end of March

Today was such a nice day and we were able to go for a long walk with Tucker, even though it snowed last night. We are all definitely ready for warmer weather. Tucker often sits by the door and whines to go outside but its just too cold sometimes. Today was the first time trying out his blue coat for our walk and I think he liked it. He looks pretty cute in it! It was still a little chilly out and we needed our stocking hats and gloves but it was so nice to get out and go for a walk.

My birthday

Joe came down to Kalona to help celebrate my birthday. We started the day out by heading to the church for a quick driving lesson. Some of you may be wondering what I mean by this......I have always driven an automatic car and Joe has a stick shift and I wanted to learn to drive it. So he was brave enough to teach me but there is only so much you can do in the church parking lot. I think we got it into 2nd gear once and I only stalled it 4 times :)
After that we headed to Iowa City to spend the day together. We ate at one of my favorite restaurants, Old Chicago, then headed to Renee's Ceramic Cafe to paint some pottery. I was first introduced to this while visiting Ryan and Sarah a couple of years ago with my cousin Ilona. We all went there one afternoon not sure what to expect but had a lot of fun and I was very excited to see there were a couple of shops in Iowa City. Here's what you do: you go and pick out your piece of pottery and pick out your glaze. They have all kinds of colors and stensils to use to make different designs or you can free hand it if you want. Then you sit and paint. Then they will fire it for you and they are ready in a week. They are all dishwasher and microwave safe. Joe wasn't so sure about it at first but he found his creative side and we had a great time together. I can't wait to go pick them up in a few days! After pottery we headed back to mom and dad's for my birthday dinner: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and snickers ice cream cake.

I picked a large serving bowl and painted it red with white flowers.

Joe chose a cereal bowl and painted it black and blue with several items that reminded him of us including a baseball, football, a rose and baby footprints with our names on the outside. He did a great job!

The almost finished projects.

Late January/February

Hey everyone, I know its been a long time but I have not fallen off the face of the earth, I promise! Things have been really busy with work and wedding planning. Joe and I continue to travel back and forth every weekend to see each other. It get harder and harder to leave on Sunday nights and we are so ready to just be living in the same area. We have our countdown going for the wedding and can't wait for the day to come. Wedding plans are coming along very well. We have the major things done and over the next couple of months we will be working on doing the invitations ourselves and getting them sent out. Our colors are red, black and white so we are coming up with some fun ideas to incorporate those colors into the day!

Here are a few pictures from January and February. Hope you enjoy them!

Me and Joe at the Airliner for our first Valentines celebration. We are having our rehersal dinner at the Airliner and we are very excited about it!

On Valentines day we met Joe's mom and dad, Marie and Matt, and Joe's sister Michelle with her 3 kids, Megan, Emma, and Tye at Coral Ridge Mall and had some fun shopping. Joe and I finished the day by taking Megan and Emma ice skating.

As part of my Christmas gift Joe got tickets for the Chris Tomlin concert in Cedar Rapids. We had a great time together and enjoyed the music!

Tori was entertaining us on night at dinner....she looked a lot like little red riding hood and couldn't stop saying CHEESE for the camera! In the middle of January, Joe and I headed to Dubuque for the Special Olympics winter games. This picture was taken at the banquet the last night. I had a lot of fun watching Joe while he was working and volunteering with the snow shoeing event.

The love of my life

After our small family christmas, Joe decided to surprise me with one more gift. He pulled a small box wrapped in christmas paper out of his coat pocket. My family was busy cleaning up the remaining paper when he announced another gift. Right away mom grabbed her camera and April grabbed the video camera. Joe came and sat by me on the couch and told me I could unwrap the box. I started unwrapping the gift as we told our first date story. By the time we got to the end of our story I unwrapped the box 4 times. It was a ring box from Helzberg Jewelers. I opened the box and it was empty. Joe had a huge smile on his face and I was a little shocked the ring wasn't in the box. Right at that time Joe got on one knee, pulled the ring out of his jeans pocket and asked me to marry him. I said yes! We will be married October 24, 2009 and we are very excited, happy and in love!

Go Hawks!

On January 1, 2009, the Iowa Hawkeyes played South Carolina in the Outback Bowl. The Big Schrock family christmas was that afternoon at my parents house and they invited the whole family to watch the game. Almost everyone wore Hawkeye gear for the day and we had a lot of fun watching the game together and again, eating some great food!


The Norman Schrock kids.

Joe and me

Ryan and Sarah

Joe and I have matching Hawkeye slippers

We had our own personal cheerleader

Ryan and Tori

Go Hawks!

The Schrock crew!

Me and Ilona~

Home for the Holidays

Ryan and Sarah came to Iowa for the week of New years this year. We had a great time together and did a lot of stuff throughout the week. Not only did we have our small family Christmas but we also had the big Schrock family Christmas and the big Leichty family Christmas. We also played a lot of Wii, watched some movies, and did a lot of eating Mom's good food!
Spending time with Tori was one of the highlights for everyone this year. She had so much fun opening gifts and liked to help everyone open theirs. She got lots of new toys this year and some very cute clothes and jammies!
With the Schrock and Leichty families we do a grab bag gift and this year we did men and women. The women bring a gift for a woman and the men bring one for the men and we put them in a pile in the middle of the room and draw numbers or go in order of our birthdays and pick a gift. Then the next person can pick a new gift or steal from the other person. Its a fun time and people really get into it.