Trip Home to Pennsylvania!

Matt and I just got back from a trip to Pennsylvania...my home state! It was a great trip and my only complaint is that it was too short.


Here we are in the Colorado Springs airport getting ready to head out. I was SO proud of myself (and Matt) for packing for a week long trip in just carry-ons! No checked baggage=No extra fees. Woo-hoo! Plus...I loved the simplicity.. This is an accomplishment for me because I like to be prepared for everything!




As you can tell...my beautiful golden retriever, Chance, is so happy to have me home. Look how well he is listening to me! I was trying to get him to sit here for a picture. Ha ha.




Matt found these great sunglasses in the mall. What do you think?










Matt and I went to my 3 year old nephew, Colin's, gymnastics class. He was SO cute. He kept looking over to make sure we were watching! He is getting limber early for his football career! Not really...he just loves to run around and it uses up about a tenth of his energy supply for the day.










After gymnastics, we went to my parent's for dinner and Matt & Colin decided to play in Colin's "fort" under the table.














A few shots with our adorable nephew who we love like crazy!

The Melhorn Family: My brother, David, sister 'n law, Adrienne, and Colin- Love them!
We went to their house on Friday night for our family Christmas since we won't be out there over Christmas day.

Matt throwing Colin around on the left.

And the 3 of us doing Colin's impression of "Pappy's Hair"! Ha ha. Pappy taught him this. We bought him the Eagles sweatshirt for Christmas. He LOVES it. He put it on immediately and marched back to the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror! He approved!

Saturday night we visited my Grandpa and Grandma Melhorn's house. We pulled out the old photo albums and looked at pictures of my dad and my aunts and uncles when they were little tykes like Colin. My Grandma has an amazing memory and can recall so many stories and facts from the past!













Of course, Colin came with us! Here are some shots of Colin with his Pappy and Grandma. Isn't his face hilarious in this picture of him and my dad?

Family picture after church on Sunday.

We had our Berry's Family Christmas on Sunday afternoon. These are all of the great grandchildren: Colin, Daniel, Halie, Alexia & Khylee! They were adorable playing together...but difficult to get a picture of all at once!

Here they are hula hooping on the Wii Fit on the right. Check out this video of Colin's turn! It makes me laugh so hard! :)

They piled on me! There were three of them at once...Alexia must be on her way!

My beautiful cousin, Jessica, and me. If you look closely you can see a picture of my Pap and Grandma over my shoulder. Can you beleive I didn't get a picture of them together that day? There 5oth wedding anniversary is coming up in June! Isn't that awesome? They have poured so much love into all of their grandchildren through the years. We are all crazy about them...the great grandchildren are as well!

The girl cousins!
Minus Jessica and Jennifer.

Age and I on the right...I love this girl! She is awesome. Amazing wife, mom & sister 'n law.


I don't mind the guy on the left either. :)










Matt, Colin and I ready for the big Eagles game on Monday night!














But not before a little book reading from Uncle Matt and some Guitar Hero!












My brother, David and I after the Eagle's win!

Matt and David at the car wash on Tuesday just before we left to fly out. It was hard to leave! Thank you, Lord, for the blessings of family. You are all
dearly loved!!!

If you want to view all of my pictures from the week home (trust me there are A LOT more!) just let me know and I can invite you to view them on Snapfish!

Colonial Column's Christmas Party

Last weekend Matt and I enjoyed the holiday festivities by attending Scrooge with friends at Woodmen Valley Chapel on Friday night and going to our work Christmas party Saturday night. No pictures from Scrooge...but I do have a couple of shots to post from Colonial Column's Christmas party! Enjoy!








This is Ulysses, one of the most amazing nurses Matt and I have ever met. He has such a kind spirit, compassionate nature and the has an incredible love and respect for every one of his patients. He is loved by all at our facility. He makes each person feel special and valuable. He MCed our Christmas party. This man is also incredibly brillant. He is sharing one of the many poems he has writtten in this picture to the left.






After games and door prizes a hula group came in to entertain us with a few of their cultural dances that tell stories that have been passed a long from generation to generation. These kids were very talented!







Mary, in the middle, is our human resources director and planned the whole party. She put a lot of hard work in to it! Thanks, Mary!

Kristen, on the right, is our Director of Rehab and Matt's boss. She is a lot of fun..full of energy and always exhibits a positive attitude. She is every marketer's dream as she runs and promotes an amazing therapy team.





We sat with Sheri, our speech therapist, and her husband, Steve. Sheri grew up in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania and lived there for 30 years! Isn't that crazy? Small world. Matt tried to sell University Car Wash's quality to her so her parents would visit but then found out her parents moved from Lewisburg four years ago! My parents appreciate the effort :)










From left to right : Felicia, our Business Office manager, Edwina, our Nurse Liason, and Teresa, our Administrator-having fun!

Yes...I am a very lucky woman!

We had a fun night!

Thanksgiving in Illinois

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Illinois at Grandpa & Grandma Johnsons last weekend.
Dad & Mom Wittleder and the girls came up from Indiana and Mark & Rosie made the trip from Florida.
We had a great time! Beth, Rosie's sister, also joined us for the holiday! Here are the girls getting ready to dig in.Rosie, Nicole and I sporting old school Eagles sweatshirts for the big game.
These were Matt's when he was young...proof he is a true Eagles' fan...even well before he met me!

And here's Grandma and Mom having a good time.
I love this picture of them. Matt gets all of
the credit for taking it!

Friday, we went to the Dahl's home for a family reunion. We played football, ate pizza, watched some family slideshows and took a walk! This is Jeremy Gaul with Matt and Mark on the walk around David & Joyce's new property.

Here's the whole walking crew!

All four of us on the walk.

Rosie & Beth teaching us the Cotton Eye Joe!

On Saturday morning before Mark & Rosie headed south, we took some family pics at the park. Enjoy!

FAMILY!

We hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving as well!

Christmas Spirit...Before Thanksgiving

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Matt and I decided to put our tree up!
Originally,we were going to go cut one down in the woods with Uncle Jerry & Aunt Kathy. But time became an issue because we were going to Illinois to visit Matt's family for Thanksgiving, and a week and half later, flying to PA to see my family! We like to enjoy our tree, so we decided to put it up early! This is my first year without a real tree. (The few places that were selling real Christmas trees had outrageous prices...so we bought a fake one at Wal-mart for much less! Plus we would be gone a whole week and a real tree would have gotten too dry) It isn't so bad! This tree is pre-lit so we didn't even have to string the lights! We cranked the Christmas music and got all of our decorations up. We were definitely in the Christmas mood before heading out for our Thanksgiving trip!

Here are some more pictures of the apartment. I even pulled out the red pillows from our first apartment set-up in Indiana.

Filling up this hurricane vase with Christmas bulbs made a nice centerpiece!





Do you like how I captured the reflection of the Christmas tree in the mirror above the fireplace? I knew you would be impressed! :)

The little tree by the fireplace doesn't actually belong there...I took this guy to my office at work!












We had our gifts for Matt's family all wrapped and ready to go weeks before we headed to Illinois. They sat here for awhile! This is not normal for me, but it was to fun to be ready ahead of time this year.

And here are our Christmas cards...ready to be mailed out! Look for yours in them mail!

Movies, Eagles & Hair

Last Friday night, Matt and I went to a Warren Miller show. It was a two hour movie of extreme skiing and snowboarding that pumped us up for a snowboarding trip! We went to it because we received free lift tickets just by purchasing these movie tickets. It was a really good deal for us. Check out this clip from YouTube for just a snippet of the movie.






We did go watch Fireproof (the movie) on Saturday! I won't speak for Matt, but let me just tell you...I was bawling by the end of it. It was a happy cry though! Not to spoil it for anyone...but there are three things I love in a movie 1) A love story 2) A PG rating and 3) A happy ending! This movie delivered all components! Plus so much more including TRUTH-from a biblical perspective. It was an enjoyable date night night (actually afternoon) movie! I strongly recommend it. Check out the preview here.

Sunday Night football featured the Eagles and the Giants this past week.
Not a happy ending...but I will post a few pics anyway because I don't have much else to document!

Matt relaxed and I worked on getting our Christmas cards ready to mail during the game!
















Definitely not the best night for the Eagles...but we remain fans just the same! Especially "Cunningham" here on the right. :)













On a side note, I got a new do! Not necessarily on purpose, but I had a very nice neighbor who is in beauty school highlight my hair. It didn't quite work out as planned and I ended up with orange hair! So I bit the bullet (as my good friend and amazing hairstylist in Indiana, Jessica, advised) and paid for a professional to fix my hair. While she worked to fix my color she decided to give me a bit of a chop as well. Here is the end result.

Brief Update

Sorry it has been so long. This post isn't going to be great...but least you will have heard from us! As you saw in the last post...I am working now. So our lives have drastically changed! We are very busy as I am getting settled in my job and am learning a lot of new things. Don't get me wrong. I am thankful for my position at Colonial Columns and I love working at the same place Matt does. I love overhearing someone talking about what a great PT Matt is. Or how much the little old ladies like him :)

I actually brought in my first admission yesterday and Matt was doing an eval on the patient while I had the patient's spouse fill out the paperwork in the patient's room. I loved watching him at work...he was so good with a somewhat resistant and confused patient. But he won her over and she cooperated. This particular situation was a difficult one as the husband had to leave her over night for the first time in 55 years because he can longer care for her on his own. It literally broke my heart. They are so in love with each other. The night before I was a mess because I thought we weren't going to be able to take the patient because I was having difficulty with the insurance company. Matt and I prayed earnestly for this couple and God answered our prayers! While this job is very challenging at times...it also offers great fulfillment in situations such as this.

Last weekend Matt and I went to a marriage simulcast at a local church with Josh & Amber. It was great. It was called "Fireproof Your Marriage" and was hosted at the church that produced the movie Fireproof. We have not yet seen this movie, but are planning on going. It has an outstanding message for husbands and wives. As a culture, we abandon our marriage vows way too easily. This movie stresses the importance of fighting for your marriage and setting aside your selfish desires to meet your spouses desires. Excellent message.

That's all I have for now. I'm exhausted. I was in Denver today for an all day meeting with all of the facilities in our region. Not to make it sound too terrible...I was the winner of laser tag...and bowling! :) We had fun after the meetings! It was a good opportunity to get to know everyone.

I hope to get some pics up here soon...I know they are more fun. :) We love you all!!