We have a new house!

We close on Nov 19th. Here are some pictures for you to look at.



















It has some smaller rooms but the upstairs is unfinished and will be the future master bedroom. We love it and are excited to get into it and make it our own.

The Proposal

Jill's turn......

Hi Everyone! For those of you who want to know the details of the proposal, I thought I'd tell you myself (since Josh may not give himself the credit he deserves for making it such an amazing experience for me.)

First off, I have to premise the story by saying that I LOVE the show "The Amazing Race" on CBS. It's my favorite show of all time. I even applied to be on it, but didn't make the cut. I know some of you are familiar with the show (and may even be in an "Amazing Race" work pool). For those of you who don't know, it's about a bunch of teams of two who travel around the world, receiving clues and completing awesome missions along the away, competing to be the first team to the finish line.

A few days before my Birthday (which was on May 8th), Josh presented me with a "clue" that said my mission was to either play a round of golf with him or take him on in a tennis match to receive my next clue. I chose golf (didn't want him to feel bad if I beat him in tennis) and completed my mission. In the next few days/weeks, I received more clues and completed more missions. The missions were fun but the anticipation was a little nerve wracking for me. I'm a planner by trade and always need to know exactly what's going on. Since this was happening close to my Birthday, I thought that the finale would be a nice Birthday present. I actually thought that in the end, Josh was going to give me a cat. Not kidding! I even said to him, "Did you get a cat? I don't know if I want a cat." But he held his ground and reminded me "Jill...this is a RACE! You can't ask questions and you can't try to guess what will come next." So I tried to patiently wait it out until I completed my next mission, which wasn't supposed to be until June 2nd.

On May 25th, I had been in Toronto on business and flew back into Milwaukee that night. I got home just minutes before Josh and was running around packing, and trying to fit everything into the car for a camping trip we were heading out for that night. I came into the living room and Josh was standing there with another clue. He said that even though I hadn't completed my mission yet, I could open the clue. The clue said that I had finally arrived at the pit stop (finish line for those of you not familiar with "Race" lingo) and to put all the clues I had received together. I did this, and decoded the message: "I love you. Together. Forever." Josh then got down on his knee and said "I was wondering if you wanted to marry me" and opened up a box to reveal a beautiful ring. At this point in the story, details get a little blurry. I remember saying YES! several times, and I remember a lot of tears (mine), and laughing (me and Josh...with and at me), and hugging. Actually the hugging was more like Josh holding me up....I was a little shaky :). The whole thing was perfect! I couldn't have imagined anything better. He knows how important my family is to me so he had decided to ask me a week early so I could celebrate with my brothers and their families on the camping trip. And celebrate we did!

I found out later that Josh had even called my Dad and asked for his blessing. My Dad not only gave his blessing but also told Josh that if I said no, to let him know so that he could talk me into it. My family loves Josh.

Above is a picture of my ring. It's even prettier in person. I absolutely love it! I usually don't wear rings so Josh made sure to get me something that wouldn't stick out and get caught on things but that is still gorgeous. It's so sparkly I can't stop looking at it. Josh even made sure that it had an even number of diamonds because I don't like odd numbers (weird, I know). He thought of everything!

I'm truly honored to become a part of Josh's family. Everyone has welcomed me with open arms from the beginning. Josh and I are so lucky to share our lives with such incredible people and we're excited that we now get to unite two amazing families together.

Love to all.

Back by Popular Demand

I would just like to let everyone know that Jill and I got engaged this past weekend. I tried to be kind of creative with everything from the way I asked to the ring. I hope everyone is doing good where ever you may be. Sorry I havent een able to tell everyone in person.

Hello everyone

It was beautiful here in Milwaukee with two record high temperatures in a row. Jill and I had our first day of grilling of the year. It tasted so good.

Our thoughts today are with Uncle Tom who had a rough couple days. But from what I hear is doing quite well. I have a card to send but not sure where I should send it. If someone wants to give me the address that would be great.

I got my pictures back from my weekdend with Finley. There were some pretty nice ones but I still need practice with the old manual camera. I will get those up as soon as I can get them scanned to a computer.

And if anyone wants to give good wishes fro my NCAA teams that would be greatly appreciated. WE want Ohio St and UCLA in the Championship game with OSU winning it all. That will make me $1200 richer if not it was fun to be in the running all the way to the end. (For once)

Hope to see everyone soon.
Take care
Josh

That time of year!

We set the clocks ahead a little earlier this year bringing more sunlight in the time you want it. This also coincided with the best weather of the year. It hit 72 in Milwaukee yesterday taking away the rest of the snow.

So March is upon us and my favorite time of the year. March Madness is kicking off this weekend. Baseball will be starting( Jill got us the 20 pack season tickets again this year) Woo Hoo! Golf season should be opening at at least a couple courses around the city. I may even have to get a part time gig at one to get more time outside.

Well hope everyone is doing well where ever you may be.

Happy Valentines Day!

I just want to wish every one out there reading this a wonderful day.

Jill and I celebrated this past weekend by getting out of town and checking out Lake Geneva. This is a summer hot spot about an hour southwest of Milwaukee. The town was small with some shopping. The place we stayed was called the Grand Geneva Resort. It was pretty impressive in size. It has a golf course, its own ski hill, a spa and recreation building, three restaurants, and another hotel with indoor waterpark. It is just outside of town and really its own community. It was a nice stay that included a Valentine package. Jill got a basket with a teddy bear, chocolates, a candle and wine. Once we got to the resort we stayed. We ate a nice dinner and went to one of the bars after. In the morning they had a pretty good breakfast buffet that was also included. Needless to say it was a very nice weekend with my love.

I hope everyone else can celebrate in some way with someone.

Love to everyone.

A few of my fav pics

You have seen them all before but I wanted to post some of my pictures from South Korea
And Luke here are a couple you might like.
The second is the guy making your bros gift. You can send it to him if you like.

Thank You Canada!

So this past week we have felt a touch of the Northwest Territories. AS Annie tells of new spring days Milwaukee has had a blast of Arctic air. I think we are on our 6th day of below zero weather. When Mom talks about every day all day being -30 and people are walking around in unappropriate clothing, then it hits Milwaukee -20 for two days and the entire city was shut down. No school for the kids and no activities that would warrant them to go outside. It was just too cold. On Monday it was nice, the day after the Super Bowl(I was going for the Bears but really didnt care either way), I just cleaned the house up. On Tuesday when we were called off I was already bored by the time I woke up. I drove around that morning hoping to get some good pictures to show the cold to everyone. I was disappointed when the "sea smoke" was not going that morning. That is the steam rising off Lake Michigan, they showed it on the news the night before and I was hoping to capture it but it was cloudy so I think the surface of the water was not getting the heat it needed. I did find these other pictures.



The first picture is of an ice fishing house on our pond in the park. I thought it was very funny at first thought.
The second pictuer is Lake Michigan as the clouds come in from the west but the sun is peeking through somewhere from here to MI.
The third is the light house on the edge of the Milwaukee River going out to the lake with the house showing the entrance to the bay in the background.

The Three Hairy Faces of Josh

So it has been awhile since I have written anything. Sorry about that to all that actually do check this every once in a while. So I have some old stuff that I will start with. Jill and I had a Holiday party we went to. It is a different party. This party is ran by some crazy friends of ours and is dubbed the Turtleneck Party. This give goers a couple options to work with. A lot of the people dress up in some over the top Christmas sweaters with very extravagant decorations. Others go the 70's route and break out the tight turtleneck and platform shoes the whole works. I figured the most outrageous thing that I could come up with was a nice two week growth moustache. Jills brother Joe also went in on this and the pictures show the way there as well as the final product. What do you like the best?