Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The Big Ultrasound Appointment

Today was our big ultrasound appointment. It was great. We got to see the baby and all the parts. The stinker is currently breach and curled up so it was hard for the tech to get some of the pictures and measurements they needed. In fact, she couldn't get a real good picture of the heart, so I'll have to have another one in a month. They didn't detect anything wrong, they just want a better look. Everything is going well, and HE is growing right one schedule. :)

Yep, Ohlen is going to have a little brother. We are excited! (We would have been either way.) No pink and purple shopping spree for me, but that is ok. We can just save a little money. :)

Now starts the long wait until May, and the gargantuan task of naming this little guy.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Merry Christmas!


Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! Our get togethers this year were nicely spread over a little over a week, so it's been great in that respect. We got to spend a lazy Christmas morning at home opening presents and playing with new toys. Ohlen and Jonathan were both sick over Christmas week, but it didn't last too long for either. I, luckily, was spared any sickness, maybe due to my flu shot??

Because of some insurance changes, my ultrasound appointment has been pushed up to December 31st!! So in 3 days we will hopefully find out if we are having a boy or a girl. I can't wait. :) I will be sure to post soon after we get home, it should be around afternoon.

I also have a rather lengthy post planned about this past year, hopefully it will be finished sometime Wednesday or Thursday.

Everyone have a great Sunday!

Friday, December 5, 2008

Parent's say the darndest things

Things that I have uttered this week:

We don't make towers out of Applesauce.

You can't draw with a screwdriver.

(When Ohlen was hesitating in front of a puddle outside) Walk through the puddles, that's what boots are for.

Boots are allowed to get dirty.

Don't try to wipe the mud off your boots...with your gloves. :)

We don't eat play dough.

Please don't cuddle with screwdrivers in your hands. (Nothing ruins a great cuddle like a screwdriver in the ribs. :))



As I was reading over these, I realized how many are don'ts. I promise he hears lots of positive things throughout the day too. :) But I think you can see the humor in what lead to these particular don'ts. :)

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thankful

I think sometimes we forget in the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving to actually think about being thankful. Well, at least I know I have done that in the past. So today I'm going to list some of the things I'm thankful for, feel free to add what you are thankful for in the comments section. :)

1. My God - for his ever present plan for our lives, for giving us life, for so many more things

Could we with ink the oceans fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above
Would drain the oceans dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
- From the song The Love of God

2. My husband - We've been married 6 and 1/2 years now, wow has time flown by. I'm thankful for his support, his companionship, his wit, his humor, his way with Ohlen, and his love. Oh and all the money he saves us by doing all sorts of things around the house himself, like car maintenance.

3. My Ohlen - He is 2 already! I'm thankful for his laughs, his tickles, the way he kept looking at me and giggling when I came home from Texas, the way he constantly gets me to work on my patience :), his inventiveness, his humor, and his love.

4. My Little One - I'm thankful for seeing his or her heartbeat, for the every so often flutter that may be from the baby, for the promise of a new life in our home, for the morning sickness stopping :), and for someday knowing that I will feel this baby's love. :)

5. My Family - All of them - they make me happy :)

6. My Friends - You know who you are - and I love you!

7. My Weiner Dogs - I'm thankful for the nice warm heaters when I want to take a nice cozy nap on the couch, or when I want to sit and read. I'm thankful for all the entertainment they provide, and how absolutely wonderful they are with Ohlen.

8. Maternal Fetal Medicine and Dr. Schmotzer (hemotologist) at Aultman - MFM is filled with very effecient and extremely nice people. I have found that usually if you are fast, it takes out of the friendliness, but not so here. I love being there for all my baby appointments and so glad they will be taking care of everything again. And I'm especially thankful for the 1 minute wait I usually have there to get in the room and to see a doctor, I don't even know why they put magazines around. Dr. Schmotzer - without him, I don't know if any of my pregnancies would end well. He takes care to make sure my blood is nice and able to unclot so I don't get a blood clot. He is a wondeful, caring doctor (although his wait time is much much longer, but I forgive him.) and I am very thankful for his care.

9. The less important things - snow, hot tea, honey, Christmas trees, Christmas shopping, short waits at Dr.'s office, The Muppet Movie (the only thing Ohlen actually likes to watch), Robert Jordan and his Wheel of Time series, cheap plane tickets that allow us to visit far off family :), clean water, Christmas music, having the mechanical skills to put desks together :), the zoo

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Time in Texas, New Car, Today's Appointment

I had such a great time in Texas with Nate and Aubyn. We went out to eat, saw Bolt in 3D, went to the zoo, went to the beach, and played Blockus. I got to see their place and where they hang out, I got to meet some of Nate's coworkers, and I got to go with them to their church. It was a really great time. I was ready to be home, but at the same time it felt like my time there was way too short. It was pretty warm there too. Probably in the 60s most of the time, but I was happy to come home to the snow. :)

While I was away we got our new car. Well it's not new, but just new for us. I never thought we would ever own an SUV, but here we are. I drove it today, and I like it. It will mostly be Jonathan's work car, or at least that is the plan for now. It has a sweet lumbar control, which is pretty much awesome. It makes me think I could drive it for long periods of time.

Today I had a doctor's appointment. To be honest, I was really nervous about this one. I just had this awful feeling. I didn't have any reason to have that feeling, at all, but nonetheless, it was there. So I did the normal routine stuff, found out I've gained only 1 pound so far, yay. Then the Dr. came in to listen to the heartbeat. He tried for about 15-30 seconds with the doppler. I don't know if I looked really nervous or he was just in a hurry, but he was like, well let's just do this the quick and dirty way. So he fired up this little sonogram machine they have right there, and I got to SEE the baby again. He pointed and said, see right there, that's the heart beating - I didn't see anything moving at all, but he's the Dr. he knows. :) I could make out a body and a head. It was very cool and now I'm feeling so much better. The heart rate was at about 130 so you can use that information to try and guess the gender if you would like. I can't remember if it is a faster one for a boy or a girl... I just know that scientific, it isn't. :)

Oh and then I got my flu shot. I never had one before. It really didn't hurt going in, but MY GOODNESS. About 15 minutes later it felt like someone ran a truck into my arm. Crazy. Now it doesn't hurt all that much again. So that's good.

Today was just a really good day, besides the appointment, I had lunch with Heidi, got to listen to Christmas music in the car with heated seats and lumbar control, got to go Christmas shopping, and got a letter from Laura!!! Oh and also got a short visit from Jeremy and Lacey tonight, which is a nice bonus. :) The only bad spot of the day is that my throat is hurting. :( Hopefully it doesn't escalate into anything.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Texas

I'm in Texas!! Yay! At the moment Nate and Aubyn are off teaching so I'm hanging out here at their place with Mr. Murphy. (their dog) It's been the laziest day I've had in a long time. It's kind of weird not having anyone to take care of. I miss my boys, but I am having a great time.

I would advise everyone to fly out of Akron Canton. It was amazing. There was no line to check in, only 3 people in front of me in line at security. It not at all stressful. My flights were both very uneventful and they had these great little cinnamon cookie things. Overall, it was a great travel experience.

I'm looking forward to a great time hanging out with Nate and Aubyn. I'm sure the time will go all too fast. :)


Only 5 days until I get to hear baby Troyer's heartbeat!!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Numbering the Days

As I sit here with a cup of hot tea and a handful of chocolate chips, I can't help but think of all the wonderful things we have to look forward to in the coming months...

9 days until I leave for Texas to Nate and Aubyn!!

15 days until my next baby appointment where I will get to hear a heartbeat!

16 days until Thanksgiving and yummy turkey!

17 days until I put up my Christmas tree! :)

44 days until Christmas!

50 days until New Years!

55 days until we find out if we are having a boy or girl!

I can't believe how quick everything is approaching. Especially my trip to Texas! I really have been looking forward to seeing where they live and having a few days to myself.

Also, please be praying for us over the next couple of days. We actually got a call about the house and someone is supposed to come and look at it tonight or tomorrow. We have really mixed feelings about it all. Our plans are still to sell and move, but we thought we had the timing figured out. And this wasn't a part of our plan. (We can't take the house off the market, without penalty, because of the contract we signed.) We have put together a plan of sorts of what we would do if it does sell, but I'm so conflicted. I was so looking forward to another Christmas here. BUT I decided I'm not thinking or worrying about it until something happens. We're in good hands, we just wish we knew what was going on. :)

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

History in the Making

Well today's the day. Well or maybe tomorrow. No matter who gets elected history will be made. Personally I'm just glad I will be able to watch TV with out the attack ads, read the paper without all the election predictions, and get online with out seeing a map of the country colored red and blue. Sure I like a political discussion every now and again, but I'm ready for it to be over. I'm ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. :)

Pregnancy has been going good. I'm feeling much better than I was a couple of weeks ago. It's amazing to me how different two pregnancies can be. With Ohlen I was rarely sick, felt sure we were having a boy, and really wasn't that nervous about anything. I expected to have a healthy baby.

This time I've been alot more sick, not horribly so, but enough to make me want to sleep away the day a few days. This time I'm feeling girl, but who knows if that will be right. We will find out Jan. 5th! A great way to start the new year. :) And this time, I'm nervous. I think I know more about what could go wrong. I'm really trying to stay postivie, and I think I am for the most part. And I have no reason to worry. All appointments have been good. I love all my doctors which is nice. And thank you to all the gas stations for lowering the gas prices so that the drive to Canton for appointments doesn't seem so bad. :)

Seriously though, who ever thought that gas would get below 2 dollars again. I sure didn't.

I'll try to post more often. There just isn't too much news to report. Unless everyone wants to hear story after story about Ohlen. :) That's all the news I've got lately.

Enjoy your election day.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

The Newest Troyer

Well, I think we have announced our news in person to quite a few people, so I thought I would spread it online. :) Jonathan and I are expecting! He or she should arrive around May 23rd, which makes me about 9 weeks along right now.

I've been feeling pretty nauseous and exhausted, but so far everything looks good. I'm so excited and somewhat nervous too. There are just so many things that can go wrong, that if you start to think about them, it can be really overwhelming. I'm trying to NOT think about all that stuff, and just enjoy being pregnant as much as I can. :)

Timing. What perfect timing. I just can't get over how all of this is really falling into place. I knew there might be a possibility that I would be pregnant when we moved. I really wasn't looking forward to having to change doctors, send over prescriptions, juggling insurances, and all that jazz. I know we would have gotten through it all fine, but it was pretty daunting to think about. The way it is, technically we could still move in the middle of this, but it is looking highly unlikely. My guess is that it will probably be at least summer of next year until something happens, although the economists are saying that the housing market will continue to go down until sometime late next year. We'll see if they are right.


Also, Ohlen has just been exploding with his vocabulary. It's been pretty fun around here. He is absorbing new words like a sponge. It cracks me up. It won't be long before he will be able to talk to us in sentences. Then I'm sure I'll plenty of hilarity to share. Tonight he was having fun just saying Up, down, up, down. He was grinning big the whole time, like he knows he's doing something new. :) What a goober.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Back Home

Well, as of tonight we are officially back home. There is so much room, I'm not sure what to do with myself. :) But I am exhausted. I babysat today and then we packed and moved stuff most of the night. Had some great help and are mostly moved in. There are a few more things I need to get, but we really don't have that much stuff anymore. It's also really quiet, we don't have any TV here.

Only frustrating thing so far is that I tried to call Jonathan using Vonage, and I could hear him fine, but I was breaking up. So we will probably have to get rid of that again. Also I can already tell that the internet is just going to be slower than we are used to at Mom and Dad's. Oh well, I suppose we will survive. :)

Ohlen is already asleep. He is such a trooper. :) He's only 2 and he's already moved 3 times. He was having fun jumping on his new mattress tonight. All we need is a box spring for him and he will have his very own big boy bed. :)

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Slowing Down

Well, finally we have some moving news. The past couple months I've been feeling like we are running a race. And we've been sprinting. Giving it our all, no looking back. And then a few weeks ago we hit the wall, we stumbled, crashed and burned. It just all seemed to be falling apart. We weren't sure what was going on. Surely if we were supposed to be doing this, it would be easier. Surely our faith, our giving it all, selling so much, would be rewarded with the house selling quickly, and for a good price. But we both just learned a lesson about God and about ourselves and about timing. Sometimes we have an idea, that matches God's idea/plan for us, but He has a different time frame than we do. To us a year would seem a long time to wait for something, But really what's a year to God?

So now we are jogging. :) We're still pressing toward the same goal. We're just approaching it differently. We were all set to auction the house at the end of the month. Jonathan talked to the auctioneer and they were kind of put off by the reserve we wanted to put on the place. So today Jonathan went to an auction with a relatively similar property. It didn't go so good. So as of next weekend, we are moving back in. We're going to keep the house on the market until our current contract runs out, then we'll gauge the market and go from there. Don't get me wrong, I love being here with mom and dad. And Ohlen loves it too. But it will be nice to be back in our own place again. Yay for windows!! :)

We are still going to Ireland, it just won't probably be for a while. Maybe in a year, maybe less, maybe longer. It isn't up to us, and that's fine. For the time being we're just glad we know how we are going to be approaching everything.

Thanks to everyone who's been praying for us and thinking about us through all of this. So this blog will probably morph more into just an update about our lives, as exciting as that is.... :) But eventually it will tell about our travels, just not quite yet.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Fixed?


"I'm not Baroque, so why did you fix me?"

I've often wondered why spaying and neutering animals is called being "fixed." Is being reproductively able considered broken? Food for thought.

Anyways... Sophie had surgery on Monday to end her reproductive abilities. She is doing well. She has some nasty looking stitches that will have to come out in a little over a week. So does anyone know exactly how you keep a dog from jumping on couches (when they are normally allowed to) and going up steps (when they are normally allowed to.). I've just given up. So far, she is fine. Did you know they now give you pain meds to give them. Kaiser and Amy never got to have pain meds. Some poor dog must have complained. :)

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

My First Post

I have always hated blogs. They always seemed to bring out the selfishness in people. For some people, the world revolves around them. A blog was just a digital reinforcement of this mindset. I'm coming around though. Surely, anything used for wrong can be used for right! God proves that with every catastrophe that occurs. That and I have a tendency to be cynical of fads...ahem.

So, my seminal blog. A couple caveats: I don't know my audience (and don't care). I usually only will post when I really have something to say; Nicole will probably handle the updates.

A couple items: we are auctioning the house. In many places, a real state auction is a signal that a person is desperate and must sell. An auction in our area doesn't necessarily mean that. It is more the norm with some people. Really, I am impatient to get on with God's mission for us. The transition has been hard and will continue to be hard. Any steps we take are a real good feeling. Such as selling the truck or tractor. I am an extremely inpatient person who when wants something, does as much as morally possible to make it happen. I feel I tried to stem this part of me by selling the house privately (in hopes of controlling the price of the house). Essentially trading greed for impatience. I should have just auctioned the house to begin with.

I would also like to take this blog to thank people that are really going out of their way to help us with our mission. My current company. They have been nothing but understanding and supportive. I'm not just talking about since I told them I'm leaving either. They have helped me grow in every aspect of my life from day one. It is refreshing to work somewhere that the president can open a company wide meeting with prayer. It is refreshing to hear business men talk about how every day they have interactions with people who might not know the Word and use their lot in life to connect with these people. To have the courage that they won't be persecuted/prosecuted in the process is motivating.
I would also like to thank my wonderful in-laws who have put up with the cellar dwellers for a very long time over the last couple years. They support us in every way they can.
Lastly, I'd like to thank Ryan and Lana. Surely, there is NO greater joy than seeing people come to Christ and growing in their faith. Not a sunset, no childbirth compares. After seeing the depths of Mans sin, seeing a person transformed and suddenly conscious of the real struggle of humanity, then gaining wisdom that can't be found on earth, then using that wisdom to challenge me and using love to encourage me to follow God. Putting their own time and effort to make this happen.
All three of these category of people could have put a roadblock up that very well could have stopped us. And for that, I am eternally thankful!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Weiner Dog Update



Well, we have finally made a decision about the wiener dogs.

We aren't taking them with us.

I did some numbers crunching and really looked into shipping costs and all the other costs involved, and it ends up it would still cost several THOUSAND dollars to take them over. It's so discouraging, but we know going to Ireland is the right thing to do.

So the wieners will keep on being American wieners and they will be very well taken care of. They even get to stay together.

I can't tell you what a huge load off our shoulders this is. To know exactly what we are going to do with them and where they will be staying. We will miss them so much; we will just have to cherish every doggie snuggle and lick while we can still get them.

Take a Hike, Ike

Well, apparently Ike had a vendetta against the Miller family. He slammed Nate and Aubyn's place on Sat. morning and then gave us a little kick on his way out. We lost power around 7pm Sunday night and got it back today (Tuesday) at around 4pm. I never realized just how dependent we are on electricity. Especially when you aren't in town, because that means no running water, no flushing toilets, etc. It was nice to enjoy the quiet though, nothing humming or running.

Nate and Aubyn are both fine. Their apartment building didn't take much damage and no flooding from what they hear. They were heading back today. They may not have power for a while, but they have a generator.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Some Prayer Requests



My brother and his beautiful wife just moved near Houston in August. Nate called this morning and told us that they have to evacuate because of Hurricane Ike. They are currently making their way to San Antonio to wait out the storm. Please pray for their safety as they travel and that their apartment will remain in tact. Also, please keep the whole region in your prayers. Hopefully Ike will die down and go home.




Secondly, my best friend Laura just left Monday for a year in India. She arrived safely. Please pray for her as she adjusts to the culture and gets into the swing of things there. Her blog is linked on the side if you would like to read her updates. :)

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Fun with Animals

For Ohlen's birthday I decided to take him to see some animals. First we went to Hershberger's Truck Patch. They have alot of animals that we could walk up to and pet, or just watch. Ohlen really liked it there, although at first he was a little scared of the goats that would stick their noses out. He especially liked the chickens that were running around. Sadly they didn't have the pony rides going, but hopefully the next time we go out there it will be up and running.

Then we headed to Rolling Ridge Ranch. I would definitely recommend that place to anyone with kids. I was a little concerned because the sky was looking dark, but everything turned out fine. We payed and looked around at their petting zoo and other animals until the wagon was ready. There were only 3 other people on the wagon besides us. Another lady and her 2 year old daughter and the driver. It was so cool. We got buckets of feed to feed the animals we saw. They would come right up to the wagon. Ohlen's favorite to feed, I think, were the ostriches. They would peck the feed out quite ferociously. Feed would fly everywhere and he thought it was hilarious. There is nothing better than seeing your child experience something new and thoroughly enjoying it.

When we were on the last leg of the wagon ride it started pouring! The other lady and I hugged the kids tight, trying to keep them dry. Ohlen was pretty dry, but I was soaked! It was crazy. I'm glad it did though, because we really do need it. So we all ran to the gift shop to look around a bit. We picked out a little rhino to take home. Then we headed back to Berlin and got some lunch. He got this cute little fuzzy Neopets toy in his meal and some stickers. Definitely a better kids meal toy than usual. Right up there with the Transformer he got a while back. It was a really nice day with my little guy. I can't wait to get out to a petting zoo again soon.

Below are some pictures of the day. The first picture is before we left, sporting his new sunglasses from Aunt Laura. The 2nd is from Hershbergers. The rest, except for the last, are from Rolling Ridge. The last picture is after we got back and Ohlen was showing off his booty from the day. :)

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Happy Birthday Ohlen!




More on birthday festivities later today after some sleep. :)

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Someone's Turning 2

Ohlen is going to be 2 on Saturday so I figured it was soon enough to take his 2 year pictures. So I cut his hair and then we spent some time taking his pictures. He wasn't in a real smiley mood, but I think I got some good ones. :)

Friday, August 29, 2008

Quick Praise

I just got my passport in the mail!

I was sort of expecting it to come back fairly quick - it was just getting renewed. But to be back 5 days after they received it is just amazing. Thank the Lord for all the small steps that are taking place.

Now with Pictures

Here are some things Ohlen has been up to since we have moved into Mom and Dad's.

We went to the park almost every day the first couple weeks. This was on the Ark.



Another day at the park. Here he is playing on the same slide and swing that were there when Nate and I were little. :) In the picture on the swings he was probably telling me to get on the swing next to him.



My little helper sweeping the floor. Actually he was more interested in terrorizing the wiener dogs. :)


Helping Papa fix the car. Ohlen is currently obsessed with Papa. Every morning he asks, "Where Papa?" *edit* I have always thought that Ohlen looks more like me(Nate and dad), but when I looked at the large version of this picture I couldn't help but think that he looks so much like Jonathan. :)

The first week was a little rough for Ohlen. He would wake up in the middle of the night and need some comforting, which has not happened in a really long time. Then we moved him to a different room and that got him out of sorts again. But now he is used to it. The only issue is that some mornings he is sleeping on the floor because he likes to get out of bed. I have a bunch of comforters on the floor (it's linoleum) in case he falls off, so sometimes he just climbs down and crashes there. Overall, he has been a real trooper. And he of course loves that he gets to see his grandparents all the time. :)

Saturday, August 23, 2008

One Step Closer

Today Ohlen's passport came in the mail!! I couldn't believe it, we just applied for it maybe a week and a half ago. Crazy! We were all worried because we had heard stories about some people having to wait months.

I haven't got mine back yet; I needed to get mine renewed, but it had to be mailed in and they got it Monday, so hopefully I will get that back soon.

Also, the truck is officially gone. :( The tractor is very close to being gone. The bike might be gone. And we have put the house up through Help-U-Sell. So things are moving along.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Small Steps

Well we have made a few steps towards moving.

- The truck is sold.

- We have a potential buyer for the tractor!! We should find for sure by the end of the weekend. And if that doesn't go through we got a call from someone else today, so there is a back up.

- We applied for Ohlen's passport and also sent in mine to be renewed.

We haven't had much interest in the house, but we are started to form plans to get things moving along. We really feel that this is where we are supposed to go right now, and we feel like we just need to take a leap of faith and dive in. The only reason we would keep waiting is to hold out for more profit, and we just don't feel that is what we are supposed to do. So, as we see it, we will be in Ireland before the end of the year. Crazy, but exciting too. And of course, it really matters on how quickly Jonathan can get a job too. For whatever reason, neither of us is really worried about that part of the process.

Well, that's all the news for today. I hope to get some pictures up in some posts soon. I've got some good ones of Ohlen adapting to living at Mom and Dad's, and some of the things we've been doing now that I'm not babysitting anymore.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Monday, August 11, 2008

The Waiting Game

Well, not much has been going on in the moving business. We are settled into Mom and Dad's basement again. Nothing much has been going on.

We had one family come and look at the house. Hopefully they will give us a call, but we haven't heard anything yet. He also haven't heard much from anyone on the bike or tractor which is a little frustrating, but we are just trying to be patient. (You all probably know how hard that can be for us.)

And still trying to convince Jonathan to blog... :)

Monday, August 4, 2008

What about the Wieners?

Before I answer the question about the dogs, another question that has come up alot has to do with the time frame for everything. We really have no idea. It all depends on when we sell the house. And then how soon Jonathan can find a job. So simply speaking, about a month after we sell the house, we will probably be off. It's really uncertain as far as specifics.

The dogs have been quite the topic of discussion between Jonathan and I. We are horribly attached to them and can't imagine being without them. On the other hand, it would be so much easier to move and live over there without them. We haven't come to a concrete decision yet. If we leave them, we would want to leave them with someone who wouldn't mind giving them back up when we are back. Also, we would want to keep them together, so that makes it even harder to find someone who would want BOTH wieners. So we have started the process to get them over there. There is a long list of things and lots of paper work that has to be done before they can go over. OR you can just take them, but then they have to be quarantined for 6 months, which would cost about 2,500 Euros per dog. So, probably about $7,000, plus 6 months separation. Not ideal in any sense of the word. So we are looking at OptionB.

The other options involves:
Getting them microchipped - check
Rabies vaccines - check
Blood test a month later to check for rabies antibodies
PAPERWORK
Wait 6 months
24-48 hours before lift off - tapeworm, tick, flea prevention

And there are many different regulations about what, when, where they can fly in. Crate size, Temperature of take off city. When they get over they have to go directly to a vet in Dublin to get checked out before they are finally released and then are happy Irish wieners.

Such a crazy set of stuff to go through. But Ireland - well all of the UK - have been rabies free for 100 years, and they aren't crazy about bringing it back. I just wish they would let you count the rabies vaccinations that they got before being microchipped, but that's not how it works. Oh well. This route should still be tons cheaper than the quarantine route.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Ireland Blog Take 1

Welcome to the new shiny blog. :) I hope to keep everyone updated on our plans and then later, news from Ireland. The plan is to load the blog up with pictures and videos. Maybe I'll even be able to convince Jonathan to do some posting as well... Ryan, you might have to do some convincing too.

So, I figure the most appropriate start to this blog would be to explain a little about this adventure we are about to take part in. I'll try to make it a short story, but it really isn't a quick tale, but I'll try.

Basically ever since Jonathan and I started dating we talked about so many different places that would be cool to live. We even talked seriously about moving to some different places. Some of them were Canada, Montana, Florida, Germany, Scotland, North Ohio, and now Ireland. Some of those weren't very serious discussions, well most weren't, obviously, since we didn't move. So I guess the idea of moving out of the area hasn't been far from our mind. Not that we don't like it here, we really do, but we just have a pull/call to go elsewhere. Which leads to this particular idea which culminated into a plan.

In June we went to Florida. While we were there Jonathan had zero allergies, which he has been battling pretty bad up here in Ohio. So he started thinking about moving. He was so miserable when we got back. The first thing he mentioned to me was a link about moving to Germany. I was against that, simply because I am afraid of the language barrier. I speak close to no German. So we started talking about some English speaking countries and we decided on Ireland. At this point I was pretty sure that this was just like all the other times and after a few days the talk would fizzle and we would just keep going in our little comfort bubble that we have formed. But that wasn't to be. Jonathan really started praying about it all. He fasted. And after several days, was more excited about it than before, which is a huge sign. Usually his excitement fizzles in a few days. He very much felt that God was leading us to Ireland. We don't know why, but He is. It's really hard sometimes to tell people that, especially since we aren't going for missions; it feels like we should have more of an explanation. But really the biggest reason we are going is that we have discerned that this is God's will for us right now.

I am excited. The first couple days I was pretty overwhelmed, now I'm excited. I think it has been opposite for Jonathan; he's still excited, but I think it is starting to get a little overwhelming for him. I'm glad we don't feel too overwhelmed at the same time, that would be rough. :)

So where are we in our plans?

This weekend we had a huge garage sale. We didn't have too much business, but we sold alot of our bigger items, which is great.

We sold our refrigerator, so we are now living at my parent's house again.

The house has been on the market for a week. We have had a little interest, but not a whole lot.

All our plans hinge on the sale of the house. After that, we can move forward full force. I actually hope it will be a couple months, because Ohlen still needs a passport, and I need to renew mine. Who knows how long that will take.

Well this post is already too long, so I will go. I will post soon about other pressing questions, like, What about the wieners??? :) Also, we still have the older couch/chair/ottomon, piano, and stove for sale if anyone is interested. :) Oh and the truck, van, bike, and tractor. Feel free to leave questions to answer. :)