The past couple weeks

Well, since last I wrote....not much has happened. Mike and I got to go out to eat with his parents for each of our 26th birthdays. It was a fun time and a much needed visit! Even though his parents live only about 25 minutes away, we still hardly are able to find enough time to see each other! They are so generous to take us out. Mike and I have been trying to stick to a budget, which means trying not to eat out as much. So it was a fun treat to get to go out with his parents. Other than that, I have been working very little, and trying to find my calling in life. I hope it's nursing and just a different area of nursing. If not, I'm in trouble. Mike has been working lots and has been very satisfied with his job right now. I'm so happy for him. He kinda got a good deal at work this past week because his project manager trainer guy got sick and has been in the hospital for almost a week. It's not a good thing that he was in the hospital, don't get me wrong, but he is all right, and Mike got a chance to prove himself by taking over his jobs for a couple days. Mike said they have been going well so hopefully this will show his bosses that he is ready to take on a bigger work load.
Mike and I also have been making a lot of progress on the house. I has to work this past weekend, which left Mike with a lot of free time. I came home to a freshly painted living room one day, and a new dining room light the next day. And he still had time to get in the football game. The next day, while Mike was at work, I got a lot done cleaning up after Mike from the weekend (haha) and then got started painting the dining room. Today I put the third coat of paint on the dining room wall (never pick red for a paint color) and realized that our cheap rollers have left bumpy fuzzes all over the wall. Guess we will need one more coat of paint, with a quality roller. While I painted, Mike worked on moving and putting a new kitchen fan up. We were so excited that he was able to get it wired correctly (without going through trying to figure out why it turns on only when the switch is off, or why when you turn the switch on the whole 1st floor power goes out---that was what he dealt with when he replaced our dining room light!) but then realized the fan we picked out puts our very little light in the kitchen. :(....not sure what we're going to do about that yet.
We are looking forward to time with family this coming week for Thanksgiving. We are lucky in that we will get to have TWO Thanksgiving meals and get to see BOTH sides of our family for the Holidays!

One more picture from the weekend : )

We have definitely had an exciting last week and a half! Last weekend, Mike, my cousin Melissa, and I drove down to VA to see my parents, my sister and brother in law, and our 1 1/2 week old niece Wendy! It was a fun, relaxing day.






We spent the afternoon watching the FL/GA Tech game and then my mom had prepared a lunch and cake to celebrate Wendy and Mike's late birthdays and me and Zach's early birthdays! Mike and Wendy are 2 days apart and Zach and I have the same birthday!
It was great to see my family for the day!




So then our week got even more exciting because I woke up on my birthday to find out that my sister in law, Victoria, had her baby! So now, Tova, Zach, and I all can celebrate together. We are so thankful that her delivery went well as she had to be induced! Tova Liren Cox is our beautiful newest niece. To see pictures, see the link to Chris and Victoria's page on the right.

The afternoon of my birthday, Mike brought me flowers and soap! The flowers are self explanatory (they are beautiful, and I got to use my vase that Victoria got me for my me for my bridal shower). And the soap is because Mike had run out of bar soap and decided he liked using the hand foam pump soap better than using my body wash. This lasted a couple days and it was getting to the point of frustration for me because every time I went to wash my hands I had to reach into the shower to find the hand soap. So, he bought himself 8 bars of soap and bought me a new hand soap for the bathroom. It was the perfect birthday gift for me.
That evening, I was excited to get to hang out with two of my girlfriends from college for a little bit. Then I came home to Mike making dinner for me!
The next day, we decided to go away for another birthday weekend. We found a last minute discounted bed and breakfast for Friday night in Charles Town, WV and spent the day on Saturday in Harpers Ferry. Our plan was to ride some of the C&O canal trail on our bikes, but the trail turned out to be dirt with small rocks. Since we didn't feel like repairing flat tires all day, we secured our bikes and just walked the trail. We got to have lunch overlooking the cliffs and then headed to a campground for the night. We originally wanted to stay in one of the "tree cottages" which was a little insulated cabin that would keep us out of the possible rain, however they were all taken. So instead, we got a "tree house" which would give us shelter in case it did rain. It sounded great, but once we got there and I took a look inside the tree house, I decided I would rather sleep in a tent than the dark, cavernous tree house with who knows what bugs lurking in the corners. Here are some pictures of the weekend, they are all out of order, but you get the idea : ):

No new fun pictures yet...but I still thought I would write a bit about what's been going on. We are anxiously anxiously anxiously awaiting our newest niece on Mike's side to arrive....and I know Victoria, our newest niece's mother, is waiting anxiously as well. We pray for them every day! We are also very excited that we will be getting to see our second newest niece, Wendy, her parents, and her grandparents (my parents) this weekend!! It will just be a short day trip most likely, but it should be a good relaxing day. We will see. We may even get to see my cousin Melissa and her husband Matthew if they end up coming down to VA this weekend with us. Then it's back to work on Sunday for me : (....and on Monday for Mike. I have off Friday though so I need to take advantage of that! I have been having trouble getting up at a decent time on days I am off....I have so much to do...which of course just makes me want to stay in bed longer. It also doesn't help that Mike and I are addicted to the show 24 right now (Mike has season 5 on DVD) and I usually don't like to get up before the sun comes up if I am home alone because I get so freaked out!! I haven't been having the most pleasant dreams lately either....my imagination is really getting the best of me! But just two more episodes and the story will (hopefully) be resolved and I can finally rest : ). This past Tuesday (my other day off this week) I was initally pretty motivated to be productive, but the night before I had jammed my finger against the wall....partly, I claim, due to Mike's taunting that I was going to hurt myself if I continued to throw the toy hammer up in the air while lying in bed. He said, in the nicest way possible, while still laughing a little, that I exceeded his expectations in the extremity of my injury! At one point we were both considering the possiblity that I had broken it! Thank goodness it was just a bad jam. Which did, however, cause enough pain that I was unable to get anything done that involved writing on Tuesday...(my Thank you notes!!!) Friday is a new day though...I am determined to do them that day (by the way, if any of you are reading this, I am SO thankful for every single bridal shower/wedding gift....in advance...just in case I'm not as productive as I plan to be on Friday! : ).

So the question I've been asked most this past month is, "How's married life?" I usually respond with, I love it! And I most definitely do! But lately the question has got me thinking. Even after only being married 2 months, I've already realized that marriage takes work! I know those of you who have been married 25 years, 5 years, even 2 years are probably laughing right now. Haha....but I guess I was just under the impression that Mike and I are perfect for each other and we would just live together and have fun. Which we do....but it's even better if we are continually conscious of our relationship and how we can make it better than it already is....learn to love each other better, put each other before ourselves, and put God before each other. Not just hang out and have fun. Even though that's part of it. Last night Mike showed me just how much he loves me. I woke up in the middle of the night (around130am) in a lot of pain....Mike heard me rummaging through the medicine cabinet looking for medicine. He got up, and without me even asking him to, walked out in the freezing cold in shorts and a Tshirt, nearly blind (without his contacts or glasses on), and half asleep, to get me Ibuprofen that I had left in the car. And to top it off....after coming back in and getting back in the warm bed....he went back out in the freezing cold to get my heating pack that was out there! I'm so thankful for my husband! So lately....that's been my answer to the continual question of "How's married life?" That I love it, but that it takes work and I'm just realizing that....and it's worth it. I've been on the family life website recently reading a lot of their articles on marriage and I love them...well most of them. Some of them I have differing opinions on. But anyways, they've gotten me interested in hopefully within the next year going to one of their marriage conferences. I'm not sure if Mike is quite on the same page as me, but I think he's willing to think about it. So we will see!
Amazingly I'm at work today but have gotten to work on my blog in my few spare moments between my many tasks. But it's been a nice escape!

Wendy June Whalen

Yesterday, my sister Stacy had a scheduled c-section and I was so thankful to be able to be there for her and to meet our new niece! This was not at all the way Stacy had ever thought of having her first baby....but since she was breech, it was the safest option. Stacy did so well and was so courageous during the whole experience. She had planned well and was so ready to meet their new little girl. Here are just a few pictures of the day and of our new niece, Wendy June Whalen. She was born at 10:51 on October 22, 2008. She weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.







Happy Birthday Wendy and congratulations Stacy and Zach!

Birthday Camping Weekend

This weekend is Mike's birthday weekend. Tomorrow is his 26th birthday and we just got back from our camping, biking trip that we decided to take in pre-celebration of his birthday. Friday after Mike got home from work we headed down to Burke, VA, which is right outside of DC. We barely made it there in time to rent a camping spot (about 15 minutes to spare before the store closed). Once we got to our site, we realized we had two flashlights, and no firewood. We ran back to the store which had already closed by the time we got back to it. So while I worked on setting up the tent with flashlights, Mike gathered sticks and wood in the barren forest. Luckily, Mike is determined, and he came back with a whole bunch of sticks and logs! By the end of the night, we had a cosy fire to sit by and hot italian sausages off the grill. It was a fun night! The next morning, we got up fairly early and headed off the the bath houses for showers. Mike kept teasing that we were really roughing it...but after showering with 3 daddy long legs IN the shower, I am convinced that was roughing it enough for me! We then packed up and headed off in search of the Mt Vernon Trail where we planned to take our first long distance bike ride on our birthday bikes! It took us a little longer than we expected to actually find access to the trail, but once we did, we unpacked and got in our gear to head off on our bike ride.

We got to see a lot of pretty scenery while on our bikes, the path ran along the Potomac river and went all the way from Reagan National Airport to Mt Vernon.
This is a picture of the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge crossing the Potomac River.
We road 15 miles down, stopped to eat lunch at George Washington's House, and then 15 miles back. We're pretty proud of ourselves for making it the whole way with just a few stops to stretch our legs or drink some water.

On our way back, we got to stop in Springfield, VA which is where I lived from 1st-4th grades. With the help of my sister and our GPS, we were able to go by my old house. It brought back a lot of memories to get to see it again! We also made a starbucks run and walmart run to buy an air mattress for the night and some burgers for dinner. We spent the evening cooking on the gril and sitting by the warm fire. We were so thankful to get to sleep on an air mattress the second night since the first night we spent it on just a couple comforters for padding on the hard, cold ground. Although our air mattress was comfortable, it was still quite cold out. I woke up in the middle of the night so cold, Mike thought I was having a bad dream. I spent the rest of the night in my sweatpants and hoodie trying to keep out the cold. I checked the weather for that area tonight and it's supposed to get as low as 33 degrees, I have no doubt it got that cold last night. We slept in this morning and headed back to MD for the afternoon. Mike wanted to catch the Raven's game (we're ahead 27-13 right now, yay!) and I was happy to come home and rest my sore biking body on the couch.

This next week is an exciting week! Tomorrow is Mike's birthday and we're excited to get to go out to dinner with his parents for his birthday. Wednesday, my sister Stacy is having a C-section and our new little niece will be arriving. Also this week, hopefully Mike's brother's wife, Victoria, will be having her new little baby girl. We have been praying every night for both little girls' safe arrival. That's all for now, we plan to spend the evening cleaning up from our camping trip and we might watch the Indiana Jones movie tonight that we gave in and bought at walmart : ).

I meant new niece AND niece-in-law in the previous blog. Both my sister and sister in law are due in the next couple of weeks!

Amy's new baby, Ethan

Well, I have lots to catch up on for our blog....but I have been waiting to find my camera card!! Just when I was getting on a role in updating my blog (haha), I lose my camera card. So, until then, I will just have to describe what's been going on. Last week we bought a tent and set it up in our living room. No, we didn't sleep in it, we just wanted to see how big it was. Let's just say it was a little bigger than expected. It pretty much filled our whole living room and of course was set up in the middle of our house for two days. We bought the tent in preparation for our camping trip this weekend. Mike and I bought each other early birthday presents....BIKES! We plan to go on two weekend camping and road biking trips for our birthdays! We've gotten to ride our bikes twice in preparation for our trip so far, and Mike has already gotten a flat on his. He is currently trying to repair it. Let's just say we better not get flats on our bike rides this weekend because they are quite a project to fix. Today I went to the hospital to visit my girlfriend who just had her baby. She is actually about 2 weeks early but everything went great and she was more than happy to have the baby early. She actually named him Ethan, which is my nephew's name...so that was pretty exciting. It also got me VERY excited for the arrival of my new niece -in-law here in the next couple of weeks. I can't wait. Well, looks like we may be headed out on a quick bike ride before my bible study. Mike was successful in fixing the tire : ). More later!

Apparently the remodel is back in progress. Back to microwaveable meals and plasticwear!
Our dining room table in our living room. Nice : )


The rest of our dining room set covered in plastic...thankfully. And paper floors!


Our kitchen. The spackle (I have no idea what that is or how to spell it) guy comes tomorrow.
Yay for our house back to being on it's way to being done!

So it's catch up time...so we can actually start using our site as a daily/weekly blog site! Yes we are married now and are officially the Coxs! On our way to our own wedding, we went to 5 throughout the summer:The Parlettes
The Zittles
The Barkleys
The Fryes
And I guess no pictures at the Shaw wedding.

Then came our own!!!!! First came our rehearsal luncheon. We are so thankful for Mike's parents hosting our rehearsal cookout at their home! It was a beautiful day and was tons of fun to get to hangout with close family and friends before the big day. Mike's cousin and brother decided to honor Mike...and me by giving him a ball and chain. Real nice : )


Then the actual day came. Everything went better than we could have ever imagined! It never would have worked out so well without all of our family and friends. We are so thankful for them and all their hard work they put into our day to make it even more special.

Our Flower Girls

Our ring bearers

The guys decorating the truck.

Megan's new family

Mike's new family

What a wonderful day...worth all the planning and hard work....we never could have asked for anything different.

Then off to Cabo Mexico for the honeymoon!



PINK GOOSES!!!!Andddd....now we're back to reality.
It hasn't been so bad....we love married life. Love love love it. Except all the laundry : ).
Everything else seems to be going well, we are getting used to living together and making our home function together. We haven't quite started back up on the remodel, but word is it will be starting up this week! So look forward to some more picture updates. Mike is getting back into the swing of things with his job....but I'm not. I WANT A NEW JOB! I really need a change and I think both of us are feeling it. Please pray for endurance for me when I go to work and can't imagine how I'm going to get through my 12 hour shift, and pray for guidance and motivation to find something I DO want to do.

This past weekend we were so excited to go visit my sister and her husband....only TWO HOURS AWAY! This is the closest I have had any family live to me in 8 years, so I am very excited. We got to see their apartment, visit with Teddy, Stacy, Zach, and baby Whalen girl, and we got to see their new home!! It is beautiful and we can't wait to come visit in their new home. We're so excited to meet baby Whalen girl too.