We are in NC!!!

Well here we are, in NC. Leaving Chicago was bitter sweet, but we are
trying to move on with the next steps of our lives together. Whatever
that may be ;). For the time being we are living in Lumberton with my
parents so that we can get properly settled and find a place to live,
a place that we really like. Rachel has found a job in the surgical
unit of Cape Fear Valley Medical Center and she is enjoying it so far.
From what she tells me she is really going to like working there, and
she is working day shifts so I'm really going to like her working
there too. I, on the other hand, am still looking for a job, but I did
finally get accepted North Carolina State University. Considering it
was my first choice/the only school I applied to I am really excited
about that. One step closer to vet school. Cloye and Sheila are doing
well. My parents watched Sheila for us during the move and they loved
her so much they went out and adopted their own Great Dane (Gracie)!!
So here is a little video of Sheila and Gracie playing together.

No more Seadog

Well I'm officially done working at Seadog, today was my last day. We didn't even cruise today b/c the weather was crappy and there was nobody down at the pier, so it was a pretty uneventful day. I really had a great summer despite this anticlimactic ending. Rachel and I still have plenty of packing to do, seeing as how we leave in 2 days we should probably get a jump on that. Tomorrow night we are going out with some friends one last time to say good bye...again. I mean we did just leave Chicago "for good" last summer. Who knows maybe we will actually stay gone this time. Don't worry we do plan on visiting as often as possible. I guess I'll just leave you with a little video I took at work using my fancy new phone.  

The Big Day!!!!

Our big day was finnally here. The girls started our day off at 730am. We all met at the hair salon to get hair and make-up done. It was a nice spending the morning with my girls, then off to the church we went. 2pm the ceramony started. Everyone was there and everything went as planned. The whole ceramony was relaxed but went very quickly. Before we knew it, it was time to start the reception. Kendall, one of the bridesmaids had a really good idea. Each couple picked a song that they wanted to dance into the reception hall to. Everyone was very creative and had alot of fun. The night lasted untill midnight, when Nathan and I headed off to our room. The next day, we were very excited to head off to our honeymoon, the Bahama's!!!

Wedding Day Prep... Hair and Make-up here we come!!!

Our wedding day started quite early for us women. We all met at Xeno Hair Salon at 730am to get our hair and make-up done. It couldn't have been better being greated at the door with Mamosoes and the invite to get pampered. I had my 6 bridsmaids and Teresa with me. We were able to get all hair and make-up done with in 2 hours.Then we were off to the church with a couple of hours to spare.

The Rehearsal...

The day before the wedding, August 7, 2009, we all met at Rockford Fist Assembly of God to set up the church and run through the rehearsal for the next day. We went out to dinner after the rehearsal and heard 3 great speeches. Pardue, James and Nathan all did a great job. We were very excited to see how many people showed up at the reception hall to decorate for the next days events. It was great seeing everyone chip in and help with the seat covers, tieing bows and arranging the favors. Unexpectedly, it turned into a party, but we loved it:):)Before we knew it, it was 2AM, time for bed.

Nathan's NC friends in town, Bachelor Party and 7 days of partying non-stop!!

One week before the wedding Nathan had 4 of his friends come into town from NC. Pardue and McIntyre were standing up in the wedding and Courtney and Justin came along for the ride. Nathan had his bachelor party that started with 2 cops banging on the door at 8 am. To Nathan's surprise he was being arrested with furry red handcuffs.Now that look on his face was priceless.....After some tense moments, we all had some laughs after Nathan figured it out that it was all a joke. About 11 guys all met up to take Nathan paintballing in Joliet, IL. I was thankful to know that no one was hurt in the day's activities. Now the rest of the night has really not explained to me in detail. I don't know if I want to know what they did the rest of the night. All I know there are VERY FEW pictures taken. ( no proof of what really went on):):)Needless to say I am glad that Nathan had a good time and was home safe to me the next morning. It was a crazy week after many long nights that ended in the morning, many pitchers of beer and short days of site seeing we all had to get ready for the wedding.

The Bachelorette Party!!

Another night of fun for me, July 18,2009. My bridesmaids and I all met at my apartment for drinks before dinner and a night out on the town. Again I received many interesting and fun gifts, to say the least. I was very happy to have my bridesmaids with me as we headed out. We went to many different bars and ended up at "Viagra triangle". We called it a night around 2am. I think the pictures will tell the rest of the story. he he!!

The First of the Wedding Celebrations: The Bridal Shower!!

June 6, 2009, JK and the bridesmaids threw me a bridal shower. It was a great turnout, Nathan's aunts and grandma were there and a lot of my family and friends also came. I was very excited about all the presents we received. We played some games and has a lot of giveaways. Nathan's Aunt had made the best shower favors for everyone. It was great day!!!

Back to Chi-town!!!

We are back! Yes, we all have survived our trip back to the mainland. Busy couple of weeks just getting into the swing of living downtown again. It is really good so see all of our friends and family again. We have a really awesome apartment, which is right downtown, and we are both back to working full-time. The wedding planning is coming along pretty well, there are only a few more details to get wrapped up and everything should be in place. We are still waiting on ALOT of people to RSVP so if you are reading this and you haven't RSVP'd please do so immediately. The deadline was set at July 1st and that is just around the corner. Which also means that the big day is only 6 weeks away!! The webcam is back in business, but it won't be up as often is was before so check back regularly. That't all for now. BYE!!

Our last days in Hawaii:(

Well all good things must come to an end. Nathan and I are packing up the last couple of itens to move back to Chicago. We both feel very blessed and fortunate to have been able to live in Hawaii for about a year. We have done most everything that we wanted to do. We spent long days in the sun, swam with sharks, parasailed, surfed and just lived the Hawaiian life style. We have met so many new people that we really become close friends with. We will always have great memories when we look back on our life in Hawaii. But now we have decided to close this chapter in our lives as we open many more. The wedding is coming up on 2 months, we are very excited about starting new. The best thing about that is that Nathan and I are doing to together. By the grace of God we have found each other at just the right time in our lives. I have made my career and Nathan is just starting his long journey of college. His dreams of becoming a vet will take a while to achieve but without a doubt he will get there. My dreams are coming true everyday, I am marring the man of my dreams and moveing forward to starting a family. I never could have imagined that I would be living in Hawaii with Nathan but we have. I wonder what is in store for us next. As our lives evolve we will keep you updated. The next time we update we will be liveing back in Chicago and staying in our new apartment right downtown again. We plan on staying in Chicago for 6 months then moveing to NC. We will keep you todated on our lives. Please keep in touch with us, see you soon:)P.S. Nathan will have the web came back up and running when we get to Chicago, it wont be sheila cam but family cam...Maybe....

Just a quick update:)

Well not much as changed since I last blogged. Nathan and I are finding out everyday how truly blessed we are. Our lives are only getting better. As you know we are planning on moving back to the mainland. That means everything that does not fit into a box must go. Craigslist has been our new best friend. We or should I say Nathan has been able to sell mostly everything that needed to go. We are holding off on selling the bed and couch until the last min. We have sold the Harley!!!!We are sad and happy at the same time. Sad to see it go, it was passed down from Nathan's dad to Nathan, we would have loved to have kept it in the family. We were very fortunate to be able to get a good price for it. We can now ship the Jeep and pay off some other things, this is a blessing. The latest excitement for us, we had our engagement photos done! Let me tell you, we love photo shop!! Nikki our friend and photographer is just starting her business up and she did an amazing job. We took about 700 photos but kept 106 of them. We are very happy to have these done, we wanted something to remember Hawaii from. Now my favorite, the wedding! 3 MONTHS away, can you believe it, I will soon be Mrs. Rachel Riddell:):):):):) The invites are done and sent, they turned out really good dispite the glass or glasses of wine I had. I typed everything out for the second time, spell check saved me. Now we just wait for my parents to get bombarded with RSVP's. Well as usual I am blogging your ear off. We have 4 weeks until we arrive back in Chicago. Our newest stress is getting Sheila home. She is too big for the cage that we bought to ship her in and to fit into the plane. We don't really know what we are going to do yet, I trust that it will all work out. We will keep you updated, and I called it, I found the web cam in the living room!!!!!

Hi Guys, This is Rachel, I haven't blogged in such a long time because Nathan doesn't let me,lolololo. No really, life here on paradise island is back to normal. We had many visitor for about 3 weeks straight. We loved them all and had such a good time while they were here. Life now includes work, school and wedding planning, the usual. Nathan as many of you know, loves his new webcam. Sheila has been famous on the internet. If your wondering why sheila always seems to be in that room is because she is in heat. Let me tell you, a Great Dane in heat is not fun nor pretty. We hope that she will be done soon so she can join the rest of the family. I dont know what Nathan has up his sleeve next, I mean if Sheila is not in the room for the webcam, I might find the webcam in my living room. We will have to talk about that. Nathan is doing good in school as always. He is always studying and getting A's, I am so proud and happy to be marrying that man. Hopefully our babies get his brains and not his ears,even though I love them also. haha :)My favorite is the wedding planning. We are about 4 months out now, and still we have not killed each other. Nathan has agreed to have poppy in the wedding, I am super excited about that. I just can not put her into a dress, bummer, but she will be there. Invites will be going out this month. My mom, Terry and JK are planning our wedding shower, I am super excited about that. I am seeing alot of planning going into it and it will be just amazing. We have about 6 weeks left here on our island. I have many mixed feelings about that. I love it here and just can't imagine leaving, but then again, I am excited to be able to see friends and family. We feel very secluded here. We are ready to get back into the real world. Well I bet I have blogged your ear off, not really, but I must say good bye. I started my invitations tonight and lost everything, it did not save. I must redue everything, I will need a glass of wine for this second attempt at making them perfect. Thanks to all who have been following the blog and the webcam. Nathan and I are excited that people are actually interested in our lives and dogs. Thanks again and we love you all, see you soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

Visit from the foreigners

As promised I have been working on the the video and pics from when our foreign friends visited. As far as the blog entry itself, our friend Helene from France keeps her own blog that she has in French and translated to English, so I will just copy and paste that. Her English is very good, but a few things get lost in translation, but I'm sure you will enjoy it. Jen and her friend Sarah left last week and my friend Dan left yesterday We have lots of pictures to share, but not much video. It will be up soon.



Here are Helene's blog posts:

Aloha Hawaii

Leah dropped me at the airport early in the morning. After a 3 hour flight from Tampa to Dallas, and then a 8h30 flight from Dallas to Honolulu, I finally arrived on the main Island called Oahu. The weather is cloudy, with showers, but it is warm 75°F. It is the humid season here. Honolulu looks like a big american city with high buildings. The mountains looked wonderful from the plane.
Rachel and Nathan welcomed me at the airport and we went back to home. They live in a little house on the hills of Honolulu. Later in the evening we went to pick up Nathalie ( my ex roomate from Germany when I was in Chicago). She arrived from Germany with a stop over in San francisco and 11 hour time difference from Europe!!!!!!


Day at Waikiki

Today, Rachel, Nathalie and I took the Jeep and went to see Waikiki .
A lot of shops, famous brands, lots of boutiques, beautiful hotels and a very nice beach called Waikiki Beach. Waikiki is the most touristic place on the island. Nathalie and I were crazy about the shops !!!!!! We had a drink at Margaritaville ( Jimmy buffet's Chain Restaurant), on the terrasse. So nice.
Then, in the afternoon, we went to visit Pearl Harbor Memorial Historic Site. We saw the USS Arizona battleship which was sink on Dec, 7th 1941 and still reminds under the water. Very emotional


Another Day at Waikiki

Today, we went to the south east of the Island, south from Waikiki. Wild landscape, rocks, and steep coast. We spent the day walking on rocks, taking photos, and enjoying the wonderful/ magic/ incredible landscape. We spent most of the afternoon on the "Hidden Beach", because very hard to notice it from the road. Back home, Rachel cooked a vey nice Brown Pie for my birthday. Delicious! We will all go to party friday night in Waikiki for my birthday! Cannot wait!


Northshore

Today, Nathalie, Rachel and I took the Jeep and went to the north of the Island, called “North Shore”, very famous for surf tournaments and wonderful wild coasts. The weather was very windy and the waves were huge. We stopped at “Turtle Beach”, where we saw big turtles swimming in the waves. Very nice! Then we went to Waimea Bay, famous for the nice beach and a big rock where you can jump from. Then, we visited Waimea Valley, which is a botanical garden. After a quarter a mile of walking on the paths, we discovered a very nice waterfall. Rachel and I decided to swim in the very cold water. So much fun to go under the waterfall. Then we went to the “sunset beach”, huge sandy beach, and we watched surfers and Kitesurfers having so much fun on the huge waves! We ended our trip to Hahuku, very famous for its shrimp cabins.


Helene's 25th Birthday!!

On the evening, we went to party for my birthday. First, we went to a house party ( Rachel’s friend) in the military area of Honolulu, and then we went to a club in Waikiki called ‘Senior frogs’. We had so much fun!


Whale Watching

Today Nathan, Rach and I woke up at 7am and went to the harbor to get on the Starlett boat to go watch for whales. After one hour of concentration to find some whales, we finally saw a tale !!! The boat cannot get closer than 100 yards from whales. But the whales can come closer to us if they want. A little bit later we saw a group of 3/4 whales jumping out the water,but very far from our boat. It is really the good time here to see whales ( from December to March). We had a wonderful view of Honolulu and Waikiki skylines as well! For dinner, Rachel cooked a some pastas and a very nice homemade apple pie! A very good surprise to see Miss Rachel cooking !


Shopping Day

Today we spent the day in the biggest shopping Mall in Honolulu: Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Guess, Old Navy... favorite american brands that we do not have in Europe!!!


Maui Trip Part 1

Nathan drove us to the aiport at 7am, and then we took a plane to go to Maui. After a 30min- flight, we arrived on the island where the weather was very cloudy.We rent a car and directly went on the very touristic '' Road of Hana". 40 miles road from Nord East to South East of the island. Many scenic points, waterfalls, black sandy beaches, volcanic landscapes... Then, instead of coming back by the same road, we decided to cross the island , by a road which was recently closed because of an earthquake in 2006. We thus accrossed the island from North to South: volcanic rocks, cattle in the middle of the roads, huge cliffs... Pictures won't show the real beauty of the island! On the evening we went to eat some shrimps in a restaurant and then back to our hotel in Kihei, on the east side of the island ( many resorts are located in this area). Leah ( also named " Flat -Leah", was with us in Maui ! In our hearts...)


Maui Trip Part 2

Today we decided to explore the Nort West of the Island. First, we stopped to a craft market , where Rachel and I found many Maui made souvenirs. We drove by beautiful sandy beaches, with palm trees ( as you can imagine in Heaven). After a little while tanning on the beach, we drove and stopped in a little town called Lahaina. The main street was very cute. First we had some 'tropical drinks' and then we spent the rest of the afternoon, walking and shopping in the town. Rachel found her engagement dress picture! After dinner, we drove back to the airport and flu back to Honolulu, where Nathan picked up us. Wonderful trip!


Germaine's Lu'au

Today, we went to Waikiki and enjoy to enjoy the beach and the sun. On the evening we went to see the famous show '' Germaine's Luau" which is a rich cultural heritage of the Pacific Islands show. We watched how they cooked the "Kalua Pua's" ( roasted pig) under the ground, different danses, typical hawaiian songs... Very entertaining !


Hanauma Bay

Today we went to Hanaumay Bay, the best area on the island to do some snorkling. Hanaumay Bay is a wildlife preservation. Fishes have amazing colors. Beautiful bay!


Last Days in Hawaii

We spent our last days enjoying the relaxing hawaian life. We went to the beach, doing some shopping. The weather was windy and a little bit chilly these last days. Nathalie and I arrived two weeks ago exactly: time run so fast . It is the end of our trip. We had such a good time with Nathan and Rachel who welcomed us so well! Thank you so much guys and cannot wait to see you in Europe next time! ;)

OK people I need some feedback

Wow, I am really addicted to all the newest features to add to the blog. The most recent addition to the blog is a webcam. It is live streaming video of our front room where we keep Sheila when we're not home. This is basically just a trial run, the camera we are using is the webcam on my laptop. So it will be hit or miss if I have it set up or if I'm using my computer for something else. If you get a chance to see it when it is set up thats great and I would like EVERYONE's opinion if possible. Right now I have the feed from the streaming video in two places. The first place is front and center above the most recent post. The socond place is all the way down at the bottom of the page under the posts. I tried putting it off to the left in a smaller format, but it wouldn't stay small so it just blocked the posts. I want to know where you guys like it better, or if I should just keep them both. Just post your replies in the guestbook. Mahalo!!

p.s. if the feed isn't broadcasting live, here is a sample video of what it will basically look like.

Streaming .TV shows by Ustream

Good Bye Hawaii

I totally forgot some big news. Rachel and I are moving back to the mainland this June. As everyone knows we are getting married in about 5 months (OMG!!). We both want to start a family pretty soon after that, but we don't want to be 4000 miles away from our families when we do so. Also we want to start thinking about buying a house and that is just not an option if we stay out here. So here's the plan as of right now. Basically when I'm done with this semester of school we are going to move to Chicago where we can both work and get things ready for the wedding. When we get back from our honeymoon we will then move down to North Carlina. Where exactly we move to in NC depends on which school I transfer to, but it will most likely be either Raleigh or Wilmington. I know it's hard to believe that we are leaving paradise, and Rachel and I are both sad we are leaving, but we both realize there are more important things that we want. Thanks for your support. Aloha!!

Jen is here!!

Hi everyone. I've added yet another little feature to the blog called "twitter". It is a nice feature that allows Rachel and I to send small messages to the blog from our cell phones and they are automatically added to the blog. It only shows the most recent one but there are arrows at the bottom of the box for you to scroll through the twitter messages. Also Rachel's Maid of Honor Jen just arrived, she is here visiting with one of her friends. They flew into Oahu and went to a wedding on Maui. Rachel has been really busy with work, working mostly night shifts, so she has been really tired lately. I am on my last week of school before spring break starts, I am looking forward catching up on some sleep and not doing any homework!! One thing I promise to do this spring break is finish putting together video and pics from when our foreign friends visited. Tonight we are going to a LUA'U!! Aloha.

Updates on Our Life and Blog

Aloha everyone. For those of you who haven't heard our dryer has been out of commission for a little over a month and we have been going to the laundromat to do our laundry (15 min drive $2.75/wash) and that was getting annoying. Well my neighbor Damien, who we share a washer and dryer with, found one the other day for only 50 bucks and I installed it over the weekend. So now we have an almost new dryer!! As most of you know we are coming back to the mainland for the summer before we get married and we have been looking into shipping Sheila, who now weighs around 80 pounds. The estimates we have been given were around $1600 dollars ONE-WAY! That was obviously way more than we could afford, but not to worry. Rachel found out yesterday that Continental Airlines will ship Sheila for $850 ROUNDTRIP!! Thats awesome. We were getting really worried because we did not want to leave Sheila here for 2 whole months without us, nor did we want to have to ask any of our friends to take on such a huge task. Nothing has been finalized yet, but its looking a little better than before. Now for the blog itself. I have added 2 new features to the blog which I mentioned in the Updates list. The first feature is the blog Archive, which is a little navigating tool you can use to go to any blog post in the past by clicking on the year and month. The second feature is a Guestbook which is located at the top of the blog, right above the latest blog post. I decided to put in a Guestbook because it was getting hard for me to keep up with new comments, and I thought it would be a easier for everyone to leave and respond to messages.

Random collection of stuff

Here is another collection of videos of Rachel, Cloye, Sheila, and I all made into one. Rachel and I bringing our huge couch home with Rachel's jeep, Cloye getting a mohawk, all of us going on a hike, and a couple of other things.

Today is the last full day our visitors are here. Nathalie leaves first thing tomorrow morning and Helene leaves tomorrow night. The video will be done soon and we have lots of pictures to put up too. Enjoy!

Christmas in March?????

We're baaaack!! Well I finally finished the Christmas video. I had to edit about 2 hours worth of video so it's down to about 20 min. As far as updates are concerned...where do I begin? Sheila is now 78 pounds, and is getting so big. We just took her to the vet a couple of days ago for a rabies booster and the vet said she is going through a growth spurt right now. Cloye is doing well, she was throwing up for a couple of days so we took her to the vet as well. The vet said it might have been because of an obstruction, but after taking some antibiotics and spending some time in the vet she's all better. We never found out exactly what the problem was, but she's happy and healthy now. For me school is keeping me busy as usual, although I seem to have alot more homework this semester than I did last semester. The good news is my grades are all good so far. Rachel is keeping busy with work and continuing on planning the wedding. She has also made some improvements around the house. She sanded down and painted our shower floor, made a nice cover for our couch, and made curtains for the office and a matching cushion for my computer chair.
Right now we have 2 visitors here staying with us. Helene and Nathalie are two of our very good friends. Helene is from France and Nathalie is from Germany. Helene was there when Rachel and I met for the first time. And we met Nathalie a few weeks later and we've all been close ever since. Helene has a blog of her own so in keeping with tradition I am going to copy and paste what she writes on her blog onto our blog so you can have a perspective from our visitors. Now, speaking of visitors we have Rachel's Maid of Honor, Jenn, and one of Jenn's friends coming to visit about 2 weeks after our foreign friends leave. Then one of my friends Dan aka broom is visiting March 23-29th which is also my spring break. I will be adding a video to the blog post from Helene, which I am working on now, and I'll get some more updated pictures up ASAP. Sorry for neglecting the blog. I am going to try giving more frequent updates. ALOOOOOOHA!!

Sheila beating up everyone

Wow, it has been a long time since we have updated out blog. I am working on our christmas video, but until then here is a little something that made us laugh, and we hope it will make you laugh too. :)

...no animals were harmed in the making of this video.