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!!

Sonya is Employed!

That's right! Well almost, anyway. Colonial Columns Nursing Center, owned by Sava Senior Care, offered me the position of Director of Admissions & Marketing today! I just called to accept the job a few minutes ago. I probably will start on Monday. This is also the facility that Matt works at as a Physical Therapist. We get to go to work together! :)

We are excited and feel blessed at how God has provided for us.
A special thanks to my wonderful references! I heard you did a good job :)

Estes Park

Matt and I left Saturday morning for a day trip to Estes Park. Our plan was to check out the views and go hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. We left with our car loaded with snacks, water, extra clothes and sleeping bag just in case we were too tired to drive the 3 hours home and would want to sleep in the car! We've never tried it before, but we figured the seats fold down...it has to be safer than sleeping in a tent!

It was a beautiful drive all of the way there with great views of the snow capped mountains and the city of Denver.




As we were nearing our destination, we had to stop because we saw this "BUFFALO JERKY 99 cents" sign. Matt wouldn't miss that! The jerky didn't disappoint!



Once we arrived in Estes Park (the name of the town) we stopped at the visitor's center for information because we really had no idea what we were doing. We thought we would just figure it out as we went! Anyway, we got some good information and were pointed in the right direction of some great hiking trails.

But...before getting back in the car at the visitor center we notice all of these elk just traipsing around a golf course. So we figured we would check it out! Apparently, I found it kind of funny.





It was kind of crazy how close we could get to them! They didn't even seem bothered by us. They certainly weren't penned in. This one here just kept staring at me as I crept up on her. She gave us great pictures because she looked right at the camera!

Look how close Matt is to this this guy! He could go after him two flat seconds with his antlers! But instead he just sits there, seemingly
unaffected.

Here we are together with the male elk and the amazing mountains that we love in the background!

Our first hike in Rocky Mountain National Park led to Bear Lake. It was beautiful with sunshine glistening on the water...our pictures never capture the incredible beauty of God's creation. Yet, we continue to try anyway!

This couple sitting by the lake was so cute! I hope we are like that at their age...just enjoying life together, still active but taking the time to enjoy God's nature together!







Here we are by Bear Lake!







The love of my life checking out the view on our way to another lake.

Here it is! Dream Lake! Also, very beautiful.

Matt playing in the water at Dream Lake. He wanted to know how cold it was. He thinks we should come back next summer and go swimming! I'm not sure if that is allowed or not.















Matt and I at Dream Lake before heading to the next lake on our hike!











Emerald Lake! The third and final lake on our hike. It was also pretty but the sun was beginning to go down and the sun was not shining on the water as much. It was definitely getting more chilly so I grabbed another layer and got closer to my husband!









It was a very fun hike and we were looking forward to our downhill descent. It is SO much faster going down than up. It's not just that it's so much easier going downhill, but we weren't stopping as often going down. I was getting cold and it was beginning to get dark!

Once we arrived at the beginning of the hike, we jumped in our car to head out of Rocky Mountain National Park. On the way out, we see more elk! So we drive over to check them out. Even these elk, out in the wild, seem unaffected by the cameras and tourists! A coyote even walked up among them and while all of the onlookers were enthralled,
neither the coyote or the elks bothered with each other. It was crazy.

When we went back into Estes Park that night, looking for a place to eat, we saw a herd of elk prancing through town! I am not kidding. There were probably about 7-10 of them walking right by people on the streets. We followed them...it was too dark to get a good picture, but we watched them go into another field like they knew exactly where they were heading. Maybe this is all normal out here. We are just amazed by it because it is not normal to us!I know this is not a good shot because the mountains are completely blacked out, but the sky was gorgeous as we were leaving the park at sunset. So I tried to capture what I new my photography skills could not handle. ha ha. But trust me, it was beautiful!

We were not all that tired after we had finished our dinner at a local pizzeria (I had Mt. Dew so I was REALLY good to go!) so we decided to head on home...especially as it was getting quite cold outside. So the camping out in our car will have to wait for another excursion. Maybe we can just wait until next summer and really camp out!