Christmas Time

4 1/2 days until Christmas and the packages are wrapped, the tree is decorated, the plans are made for the day. Our schedule and life is so hectic. It was nice to sit and watch my father-in-law in his church's christmas play on Saturday.It was a time to look at the Christmas story in a whole different way. It let you see the story from different perspectives. Like how did Josephs parents react to hearing that the women their son was about to marry was pregnant and the baby wasnt their sons. How did Marys parents view her? I am sure it wasnt as the Saviour of the worlds mother. Joseph and Mary might have faced hardships from family and friends by following God's plan and not what everyone thought should happen. I encourage everyone this season to take a chance and really read and focus on the story of Jesus birth. Dont read it lightly and really think about everything that went on. Think about how Mary felt and Joseph, their parents, and family.

Heartfelt

So its late and I cant sleep and I know I am going to regret it in the morning. It has been a few weeks since I have updated this. I am laying bed with chronicles of narnia playing in the background and my husband sleeping peacefully besides me. We have been talking about so many dreams and hopes that we want to see happen and yet sometimes I am scared for fear that it would be hoped for in vain. Its a growing experience in my faith right now. I am still amazed at this man that God blessed me with for a husband and our life together so far. I am also blessed so much with our church family. I love Liberty and I feel at home every time I walk through the doors. I have been working in the nursery and love it it helps a little with curbing the baby fever burning right now knowing that God will bless us with our bundle of joy when He knows we are ready for it and yet I wish it was now.

My Favorite time of the year

I love October, November, and December every year. These three months bring the fall and the cold weather. Being a yankee girl I love the cooler weather. I already have had 2 fires in our fireplaces and if my sweetie was still up I would build another one tonight and cuddle with him on the couch. I am so excited to for the holidays to come. The cooler weather makes me want to cook, and not just meals but I want to bake goodies. My mother in law and I already started planning our holiday cooking. We made kitty cookies for our next door neighbors and their children. I got in the mood and when I went shopping somehow the chocolate chips, the peanut butter chips, and dark chocolate and mint chips jumped into my cart. So I will have to make cookies, right? I am pulling out my moms soup recipes as well. I have made chilli and chicken noodle soup wiht blueberry muffins. (why the blueberry muffins, I am not sure its just how my mom did it) I think this week I am going to make sausage corn chowder. I have also cake mixes to make cupcakes and maybe just make a regular cake. I will let the spirit move me.

It is so nice to be back home and to be back at Liberty all be it we have been late the two sundays we have been back. It is amazing how at home I feel there. Our schedule is going back to normal tomorrow. Jeremy will start back to work with Liberty doing all the websites. I get to start a new routine for me tomorrow by going to the gym for the first time in awhile. I joined a couple of weeks ago and because of all the car problems we have had I havent been able to go back.

Car problems, air problems, holidays, and birthdays. There is always something pulling for your money and it usually always happens at the same time. Like in the next two months we have 6 birthdays and of course thanksgiving and Christmas. We also have been having van issues still, that is so frustrating. At the same time we are still having issues with our air condtioner. We got the major problem fixed now its just a cleaning problem even simply a matter of putting more refrigerant in it.

Oh well, I feel like we should be getting to the end of the craziness. I will be so happy when things calm down just a little bit. I am so thankful for this year and all the busyness of the year and all that has happened and how much my life has changed for the better.

Married Life is an adventure!

This is my first blog as Mrs. Empie. I am so excited to be married finally. It has been a interesting road up to the wedding. Three weeks before the wedding we found ourselves stuck in Hannibal Mo because our van broke down. So we kinda took a honeymoon that week with it just being us we spent a lot of time together waiting for our van to be fixed. Well they "fixed" it by replacing the water pump. We got 7 hours down the road on Friday and the van breaks down again. We manage to make it to Grenada Ms and stop for the night. We get up in the morning and make it to Pearl Ms to meet up with my dad before it dies again. We than tow it home on the back of a uhaul truck with a car tow. We make it finally back to Pensacola 2 weeks before our wedding. At least we were back home with another car we could drive. We finally get the van up to a car repair shop and after spending close to a 1000.00 dollars to get the van and us back home we found out it was just a sensor that wasnt plugged in right and cost a little over a 100.00 dollars to fix. We get everything finished for the wedding get married on the 9th. On our wedding night I come home to change out of my dress and I am in our bedroom and am looking in the closet looking for clothes get what I needed and no sooner than I walk out of the closet than the closet shelf comes crashing down in the closet and spills everything everywhere. I was like well it can be fixed in the morning. Than on Sunday we were sitting in the living room and I hear water dripping somewhere and so I check out the bathrooms and both our kitchens and cant find the water dripping so I look in our downstairs closet and find out that our air conditioner is backed up and leaking all over our downstairs closet. So another problem to be fixed. So we get the air conditioner repair shop called and my father in law comes and fixes our closet shelf. We make it thru one week of marriage and decide that we are going to go to Olive Garden saturday the 16th to celebrate one week of marriage and we decide to take my car to dinner and our roommate Angela is going to go with us. So we get going and get on the interstate when my back tire blows and causes the front tire to blow as well and sends us across both lanes of the interstate right into the gaurdrail at mile marker 9. So needless to say we totaled my car and couldnt belive what a week we were having. It has been a rough couple of weeks of marriage. Things are starting to look up. We settled the car and decided not ro replace my car so that we wont have to be making a car payment or a second insurance payment as we havent switched my insurance to Jeremys. We decided that we have tested pretty well for right now the "for worse" part of the vows and we are ready for the "for better" part. We are happy and in love and are so glad that we are married. Our wedding was beautiful but it went by so fast for as many months of planning we put into it.

Stuck!

So Jeremy and I immensly enjoyed out time in Iowa. We were sad to leave on Monday but not as sad as we would be about 3 hours into our trip. So we left about 12 that day and around 3:00 the van dies I am like great we will be stuck for at least an hour. Well to my surprise the van cranked after 30 minutes of waiting by the side of the van. I was like okay this is good, we should be able to get back on the road and get going down the road. Well to my frustration it died again thirty minutes down the road. I was like "Great" well I get it cranked about thirty minutes later and about 20 minutes down the road it dies again. I was beyond frustration and I called my dad and was like what do we do. So we ended stopping in the little town we were at (Hannibal, MO) and checked into a hotel and get the car towed to a local car garage. The first thing they found (they thought) was the spark plugs and I was like no that makes no sense. Well long story short they hadnt told the mechanic exactly what was going on with the car and when I explained it to him he was like yeah that definitely is not the problem so back to the drawing board. The second thing they found (they thought) was the catalytic convertor which made more sense but I just had a feeling that that was the problem. So I talked to the manager and I was like I want to make absolute sure that is the problem before we spend this much money and we get thirty minutes down the road and it dies again. So they do some more testing and low and behold they found out it is not the catalytic convertor but was actually the water pump. So now we are set to get home on Friday instead of tuesday night.

Iowa Trip

I am much rested since my post early early this morning. So I brought Jeremy to Iowa to meet my grandparents and to attend my family reunions. Although I am a little nervous since this is my first family reunion I will ever be attending. Hopefully this will be a yearly occurence for Jeremy and I. Well our first outing for the first family reunion is still coming up this weekend; we (my granny and I) have been showing Jeremy how to have some real Iowa fun. Last Friday we drove down to Eddyville to pick my cousin up from school and also to stop by a family cemetary (yes I know weird but a normal occurence for granny and I). We have many more to show him. We also went to the local weekly auction. Jeremy had a blast and wants to go to the one they are having Monday and the one they are having Tuesday. I got a lot of good things for a very little price. And yes angela a couple of them are dishes. LOL. Anyways today was the day... I introduced Jeremy to Gone With the Wind... and the verdict is in the middle of the movie he rolled away and didnt finish. My granny and I also watched Daniel O'Donnell today and he was a good this time as he was when I saw him for the first time a few years ago. Tonight we will be watching old family slides which is also a fun past time, even though I have seen them several times I love hearing the stories behind them again and again. We also took off Tuesday to Kalona Ia a little amish town about an hour away from here and went to the cheese house where they make all there cheese and cheese curds. We tried to go to Stringtown market while there but it was closed that day. We drove into the town of Kalona and at at the little family restaraunt and Jeremy and I wondered through the general store there and found many little goodies. Well I am going to post some pictures of our trip so far here below and try to make sure they get labled right.

Jeremy and I in Grannys Kitchen





kalona cheese house

Life

Been over a month since I updated and I had promised Jeremy I would keep this updated at least a few times a week. Oh Well! I just wont mention it to him until to tomorrow. We have spent the last few days in Fremont Iowa with my granny and papa charlie. It is so nice to have a break from all our hustle and bustle of the busieness that was going on back home. It is so laid back here at my granny's you really lose touch with the outside world. The only reason I am even able to update this right now is because we pay for a remote wireless internet thingy that allows us to get online anywhere we are. I love it because my family roots are here, Jeremy loves it because it so peaceful here. Well I officially moved all of my belongings into the house Jeremy and I will be living in once we get married, although really all I did was dunp all of my stuff onto the back porch because I had to be out of the apartment by sept. 1rst and the inlaws house was not quite finished and we were also leaving the 31rst of Aug to head north for family reunions and a much needed break from the craziness back home. So now when I get home I am going to have to hurry and unpack and rearrange everything so our house is set up finish last minute shopping for the wedding and honeymoon and than get married and leave for our honeymoon all within a matter of 2 weeks. Jeremy and I received an early wedding present from my Aunt and Uncle. We got a black purebred lab little girl and we named her molly. We really hate being away from her so much right now and cant wait for november to roll around so we will be home and able to stay for a little while. I cant believe we only have 30 days until we get married. That is so unreal to me. Well I am happy to say that my inlaws did get their house finished and are glad to be over there and settling right in. I am going to cut this short as it is almost 1 in the morning and our big plan tomorrow include watching Gone With the Wind (all time favorite movie) and looking thru old family slides. I will be uploading pics soon and more stories from our time here in God's country of Iowa.

Nesting

I have heard of this happening to women when the are pregnant right before they go into labor, but never any other time. And yet I find myself trying to nest into my new house and its not working. While my mother-in-law totally understands how I feel because she is having a hard time nesting right now as well since all of our houses are in a upheaval. We are all patiently awaiting the completion of their house and once that happens we can move the rest of our furniture on jeremys side of the house to its rightful place over there and I can pack my apartment and move it over at least all the things that I am not going to be using for the next couple of months until we get married. There in lies a challange as well since if I pack the apartment my living room will become filled with boxes and less room for living I can also stack boxes in my bedroom now thanks to my amazing roommate I now have the room to place packed boxes. This move however I am determined to be organized so that each box will be labled and already have a place going into the house and I wont have to have any more boxes sitting around for 3 years unpacked as I do now.

Chaos of Life!!!!

Everything here is crazy. Jeremy and I are redoing his house which I will move into when we get married so right now needless to say everything is out of place like the fact that I have a couch in our kitchen a table in our makeshift living room and piles of lost clothes somewhere. LOL! However we were able to accomplish the fact that the office is now moved to the old living room, our bedroom is now finished painting, pictures hung and new furniture moved in. Jeremy and I absolutely love it. We were able to purchase a new bed and a headboard. Which look awesome in our new room. I will have to post pictures. It has been a lot of work but so much fun. I have never had a house that I could decorate this way and express so much creativity in. We have a lot more work to do. Hopefully tonight though I will have the couch at least out of the kitchen and be able to cook for the first time in there in a week. It will be so nice when we have the other side of the house to be able and put our living in the living room and the kitchen table in the kitchen and the dining room will be able to be put together. Another thing will be now organizing and finding our missing clothes. My problem is I have clothes at our house and still at my apartment until we get married and than his clothes I am not really sure what happened to them all I know is that I just had to go buy some more because we cant find the missing ones. Ha! most of his could very easily somehow ended up at my house. Who really knows. Well I can't spend much time on here the coffee is calling my name and so is the mess in the house.

In a hurry at 90 miles an hour...

So I feel so rushed lately trying to get everything accomplished so our house will be ready when we get married and then I have to remember wait you are going to be a housewife so if it isnt accomplished now you can do it after you get married. But I am getting frustrated with not being able to put anything away so everything is sitting in the middle of all the floors in the house until we can get the other side to put stuff away. Hopefully though I will be able to get my apartment packed and put in the approriate places before I have to move out. Thankfully Jeremy and I finished our premarital counseling today. It was so good though to spend that time with Pastor Richard Crisco. It was like a breath of fresh air to me. We are slowly getting everything done that needs to it just isnt going fast enough in a way for me at least time wise I am wishing away the days of my engagement just to be done with the craziness of wedding planning and to know that once I am married the house will be arranged and decorated the way I (we, although Jeremy keeps telling me its my department) want it. We finally got my wedding ring ordered. Heres what it looks like. We also order our new bed and it should be delivered next week. YAY thats exciting. Well this was just basically a yellow light in my day back to running 90 miles an hour.

Mary Kay

Calling all Ladies... I just placed my first Mary Kay Inventory order so I will be getting this in around July 5th so if you have recently moved to the area and arent in touch with your previous mary kay consultant let me know and you can order from me or if you want to order for the first time you can let me know and I will get you The Look book so you can find what you want. I am excited about this new endeavor in my life. So I look forward to being your Mary Kay Consultant.

Long Time No Blog

I know its been awhile since I have been on here and i promise to do better in the future. We have been busy with planning our wedding and getting everything in line and thankfully it is coming together. My furture mother in law has been so helpful and has actually found several things at goodwill all practically brand new, or very gently used. My inlaws new house is coming along fast and it is very exciting for them and us. I got to pick out the paint for our dining room and when I get back from georgia I will start painting once I get back home. Speaking of Georgia Angela and I went up to surpise Michelle with a weekend visit. It was so awesome seeing her reaction. She had no clue so today Angela and I are going to go ride the savannah ferry today and do some exploring, we are also meeting up wih michelle for lunch and than going to fatz tonight for dinner. YAY!!!! The only downside is my lovey is at home this weekend and I wont get to see him until monday evening. Well until we meet again here in blogland be safe on your adventure.

Catching Up

So today I have finally accomplished a task that set out to do like a month ago and that was hang up a shelf and move someo pictures. Now, now there were road blocks that got in my way and a busy schedule to compete with. Road Block number one wall were I went to hang the shelf had no studs in it so I had to go buy some drywall anchors. So I accomplished road block one and bought the drywall anchors. Well shortly after buying those but before I hung the shelf I got the urge to rearrange which actually led to road block 2 I now had placed the couch and end table in front of the wall were the shelf was going so I now had to find another place, but to make a long story short I finally got it hung today with pictures on it and I also hung the stars that I bought in February. These arent just any stars these were the very first items I bought for our house as decorations before Jeremy and I were even engaged. I also finally organized the breakfast bar and rearranged the bedroom for jeremy hopefully it will make things easoer for him until we can get our bigger bed and move it into what we will use as the master bedroom once we are married.

On other news my in-laws new house is moving along quickly they have the roof, electrical, plumbing, of course foundation, and walls up. Hopefully now the next move will be insulation, and drywall than it wont be long after that that they move in and we get the rest of the house to decorate (at least I can decorate Jeremy says his job is to just nod his head and say yes mam! LOL!!!!) and I can start moving in the non-essential items until we get married; but hopefully that will give me time to paint and decorate our house and we can move our furniture around and get everything where we want it. Other than that life here in the empie/callow households has been relatively quiet and peaceful.

JK Designs Inc.

Jeremy and I started a new business this past week. I know, I know, a lot of you are probably thinking "WHAT!?!? planning a wedding and a marriage and a business all within in a year?" Yeah I know its crazy but thankfully for me I am just doing billing for the business for now and handling the office. He has been working all day with my lil bro networking his parents new house. Its been crazy but we are both excited about where this could go. Hopefully within the next couple of years though I can finish my business degree and start my own flower shop as well. We are going to be one busy couple over the next couple of years, but it is all exciting what is going on for us. By the way our new business is JK Designs Inc. It stands for Jeremy and Katie Designs (not just kidding) as michelle pointed it could be, although our slogan is "JK Designs the best in town and we are not just kidding. " So if you hear of anyone who is looking for someone to come and wire their house or office building for networking let us know. Our office number is 850-232-0426, and our website is http://www.jkdesigns.us/ bear with us because it is still under construction. It has been interesting process so far as I have never done anything like this before. Jeremy has been in business before so he has more of an understanding of all of this than I and he also has a leg up on me with all this computer technological stuff, that totally frustrates me to the point of almost no return. LOL!!!!!!! So thankfully I am glad that all my part is in the business is to do billing and answer the phone no hands on in the field. Well I am signing off for the night. Its been long day and dinner is yet to be haved.

15 minutes to late

So have you ever had days where no matter what you do you are running 15, 20 or more minutes late. That has been my day today. It started all this morning when my sweetie realized that after switching our fax line over to vonage it wasnt working right. So of course he asks me the most tech illerate person on the planet to help with trying to figure out what cords/wires go where and if they are plugged into the right jack? or something like that. Anyways we call tech support and I think this should be an easy fix... well lets just say that was almost 12 hours ago and now we have no phone, no fax, and no internet at the house. I am thankful we have internet with the laptop. So anyways that started my late run this morning as I am the hands and voice for my honey thankfully my roommate was at the house with us and was able to take over so I could go meet someone real quick, of course I was 15 minutes late there and so getting back made lunch real quick for Jeremy, feed him and of course because of running late earlier I was than late to meet Michelle(yay best friend lunch) and that never happened and so I ended up meeting her for her mom's mary kay party which I happened to be late to... yep you guessed it by 15 minutes. I than left on time from there to get back to pick jeremy up to go to do our cake tasting for the wedding and wheni get in the car realized there is no way that I was even going to make it back without stopping for gas. So I finally make it back to Jeremy's pick him up and get to the bakery of course 15 minutes late. So we get done there and thankfully we have no other appointments or things to do except come home and try to fix the before mentioned internet/phone issue. Well it looks like the internet just came back on. YAY!!!! go bubs and jeremy. Now to figure out the phone issue. So heres to great adventures big and small here and far far away.

local mini-adventure

the bubs and my honey talking


getting darker and the moon light on the water is beatutiful

Jeremy with his feet in the sand he said it had been 15 years

finally an actual good pic of the bubs and I

check out the moon not even 8 o'clock yet

yep this is us loving it at the beach

15 years waiting for this

sunset at the beach

Jeremy riding in my car to the beach

So Jeremy and I made our first trip this summer to the beach tonight. We went with my little brother and he was able to help pull Jeremy out on the beach in his non-motorized wheelchair. Jeremy was able to put his barefeet in the sand it was the first time he tells me it was the first time in 15 years. Makes me even more thankful for all the stuff I can do that I dont even think about like getting sand in between my toes being able to go in the gulf and not even give it a second thought. Here are some pictures from our trip...

Magic Trick?

So I just wondered how I use to be able to go like an entire month without laundry and only have like a basket maybe a basket and a half of clothes and now that I am engaged I have to do laundry like every week its makes me wonder because my laundry is like doubled. LOL its another adventure. By the way Jeremy and I are so excited to start the biggest adventure of our life and that is marriage starting October 9th we will become one and enjoy many little adventures along the way. Of course there is no way to necessarly pack a physical suitcase for marriage but we definitely have been preparing for this trip such as forgiveness, patientience, also we have been studying the bible for God's unfailing advice on marriage. Well I was just taking a short break from my piles of laundry so back to it. Have a great day y'all!!!!

The First

Hi guys,

So this first one will be short and sweet. I found this page by accident and thought it would be an awesome way to keep all our friends and family updated with us and everything we are doing and everywhere we are going. So keep a look out for more blogs to come.