1.5 year anniversary

Yesterday, was our 1.5 year anniversary. It seems crazy that we have been married that long! I guess time flies when you're having fun!

Thanksgiving fun and more!

Joe and his momma (Debi) and Andrea with her momma-in-law

So, we had a great Thanksgiving! We traveled to Joe's hometown to spend time with his family. It was wonderful, since we have not spent time with them in awhile. We went to Joe's aunt's house for Thanksgiving dinner, which was delicious. We had a great time hanging out with his cousins, parents, and aunt and uncle! This year consisted of eating too much, playing games (ping pong, darts, pool), and giving tutorials on our Garmin GPS (Joe's parents and aunt and uncle really wanted to get a GPS on Black Friday and we had won one awhile back).

We also really enjoyed spending extended time with Joe's parents and helping them put up their Christmas decorations. Joe's parents had never had a artificial tree before so wanted our help putting it up. Andrea has become a pro at this endeavour (and filling in the holes) because her family has always had an artificial Christmas tree. Here is the final product!

Joe's parent's Christmas tree that we decorated!

Another pivotal time of our stay in Lewisburg, Ohio was playing Joe's mom's favorite game - Aggravation. We played probably ten times before Joe won. Here is a picture of when he won! He was so excited and kept jumping up and down. His mom was laughing so hard she was crying!

Joe is pumped about winning! Not only did he win, but he schooled us!

Fall Retreat

We were so excited to go to Springfield, Illinois for Illinois Catalytic's Campus Crusade for Christ's Fall Getaway. Not only did we get to hang out with the staff (whom we already love and are excited to work with), but the amazing students of central Illinois! The theme of the weekend was "authentic" - challenging students to be authentic in their relationship with God and others. It was so refreshing spending time with the students and hearing their hearts for the Lord and their campuses! We appreciated the opportunity to rub shoulders with students through bunk bed living and community showers! The only thing that was a drawback to the weekend was Andrea got sick right when we got there, but luckily with God's strength she was able to plug and chug through the weekend and had a great time! We thought we would share some snapshots from our wonderful weekend! Joe helping students as they arrive at the retreat. He was in charge of passing out schedules and name tags!

Andrea hanging out with girls from Illinois State University at the lodge. Students would gather every night to hang out, play games, and talk. Andrea learned about the ISU women's tradition of playing a Barbie game at every getaway and retreat!

Students sharing with other students about summer mission's trips. Campus Crusade for Christ offers "summer projects" to various locations throughout the US and overseas. Many students had amazing summers on summer projects and were sharing their experiences and challenging their peers to trust God to "GO".

Another highlight from the weekend was attending "campus time". Seven campuses were represented at the retreat. Campus time was a great way for students to connect with others from their campus. We enjoyed visiting each college's campus time!

Oh.. now how we long to work these wonderful students and report to campus!