Dr Gingerbread Baby

Gingerbread Baby at Texas Chiropractic College with Josh.
Gingerbread Baby buckled in for the long car ride to school (40 miles each way).

"Land!!!!! I'm here!"

Getting an xray

Laying on the exam table for a full work-up

Spinal manipulation time.

Ahhhh!!!! That's the spot!

"I'm feeling much better now ~ Thanks Dr. Josh!"

Happy Birthday to Me!

On Sunday, March 7th, I turned 24 years old... or in Terry's words "You are almost a quarter of a century old!" Gee, thanks for pointing that out!

The day was very relaxing. I woke up, opened my gift from Josh (step extensions for my Wii fit board), watched some shows I had taped from earlier in the week and then took a shower to get ready for the day. I had a brief webcam date with Makayla before Terry and Net arrived. They treated us to lunch at The Cracker Barrel and then we came back to the apartment to watch the remainder of the NASCAR race. After Terry and Net left, Josh and I lounged around the house for the rest of the night, watched the Oscars and went to bed.

Habitat for Humanity

A group of volunteers from work got together on Saturnday to work with Habitat for Humanity. This was not my first experience working with HFH, but it was my first working time with the Montgomery County group. The majority of us painted primer on the outside of the house, while a few men helped put up sheet rock inside.

The house we worked on was sponsored by First Baptist Church Conroe and they were very welcoming and friendly.

Surprise!

On Friday, March 5th I received a surprise at work. Josh had sent flowers to celebrate my birthday. I had a box on my desk after returning from the copy room, I noticed it was flowers and read the card, it said "Happy Birthday, I love you and I hope you have a great day! love always, Joshua. P.S. The vase is in your trunk, I thought it would look good on your desk!" -- He was referring to the vase Karl bought us for the wedding. He had snuck it into the trunk of my car that morning before he left for school. I could not leave those beautiful flowers at work so I transported them home in a homemade contraption... they made it home safely.

The flowers are beautiful! Thank you sweetie!

New Living Room Furniture

Our plans for Saturday did not turn out like we had planned. Originally, we planned on heading to the mall for the day to use up some gift cards we had received from the wedding. When we left the apartment Josh went to get his sunglasses out of his car, while doing that he also picked up an advertisement off of his windshield. We then get in my car and proceed to the mall. Josh mentioned that their was a wholesale furniture sale going on and we should drop by there on the way to the mall... so we did. We found a leather sectional and matching rocker/recliner that we both liked, so we negotiated a deal with the salesman. We got all four pieces for $1475 after tax, SOLD!

The only downside was we needed to find a way to pick up the furniture the same day and decide what we are going to do with our current furniture. So we called Josh's dad, Terry, who lives in Houston and is an owner of a Ford F-150! We called U-Haul to reserve a trailer, went and picked up Terry's truck, picked up the trailer and then proceeded to the warehouse to pick up our new furniture. Luckily we got all four pieces in one trip and headed to the apartment to unload. Since it was a last minute decision to get the furniture we could not scrounge up any helpers; therefore it was all up to me and Josh... We can do it!!!! Unloading the new furniture was a piece of cake. All the tops of the sofas and recliner came off so it was much easier to lift the bottom portion of the sofas. To our surprise a neighbor came walking out and offered to help (If you have seen where we live you would be surprised too). We definitely took him up on his offer and we were very appreciative of his help! He came just in time too... we had to move the loveseat and sleeper sofa we currently had out of the apartment (THAT THING IS HEAVY). I have not doubt Josh and I could have done it by ourselves, but it sure would have taken a lot longer than it did. THANK YOU BRANDON! Once Brandon arrived to help we finished very quickly, seems like it was only 10 minutes or so.

After we got a couple things settled in the apartment we were off to Grapeland to deliver our old furniture to Josh's mom and grandma. It was a 2 hour drive there, we unloaded the furniture in the dark and chit chatted for a few minutes and then turned around and drove another 2 hours home. On the way home Josh got pulled over by a Sheriff... he looked at me and says "I swear I was NOT speeding". Turns out he didn't pull us over for speeding, but our trailer lights were not lit as we were traveling down the road. The break lights and hazard lights worked, but not the normal lights. Anyways, he wrote a warning and told us to turn on our hazards. Oh Joy! Click, Click, Click, Click, Click, Click, Click, all the way home! The whole thing was pretty annoying, seeming as how we checked it before we left. Oh well, at least we didn't get a ticket! We dropped off the trailer and headed home for some much needed rest.

There you have it! Our fun day at the mall turned into an expensive, heavy lifting and car traveling day! Despite all that it was still fun and we are so pleased to have new furniture that we both enjoy!

Long time, no blog!

Well, I warned you at the very beginning of this thing I would not be a constant blogger! I don't want to make excuses... but I have been EXTREMELY busy at work! The HR Manager (who began not too long ago in July) resigned over the Christmas break, and her last day was in the middle of January. Since then I have been the only HR contact for the Distribution Center... resulting in long hours and more stress! YAY! I have attended two all day job fairs in the past few weeks, and I spent a whole week on the nightshift trying to get our annual employee opinion surveys completed. The survey is approximately 20 minutes long and it must be completed with only two accessible computers... that was a fun week!

Re-cap over the past few weeks:

1. January 23-24, 2010: Mom and Dad Kuklenz visit. Mom and Dad came down to spend the night before they departed the port of Galveston for their week long cruise. Jackie and Karl also came down Saturday afternoon with Mom and Dad, we enjoyed some family time and a delicious meal. The next morning Josh and I made breakfast and then they were on their way. It was a quick visit, but they were our first over-night guests. Very Exciting!


2. January 28, 2010: We finally received our Wedding album and CD with our pictures on it. It is beautiful! If you would like a copy of the CD to print off some pictures, send me an e-mail and we can make that happen!


3. February 10, 2010: Jackie's visit. Jackie came down and spent the night at our place on Wednesday evening before she had to get up early on Thursday and drive to San Antonio for a music conference. We didn't get to see her much, but it was fun and she was very productive with her Crocheting... oh excuse me knitting!


4. February 14, 2010: Our first Valentines Day as Husband and Wife. Josh made us breakfast and we exchanged gifts and cards. Note: there were no flowers. (Which is okay because I have always told Josh it is a waste of money because they will just die anyways)


5. February 14, 2010: Nascar - Daytona 500... the never-ending race is what I like to call it and let's just leave it at that!


6. February 15, 2010: The day after Valentines Day, funny story! I came home from work and there were a dozen pink roses (my favorite color) on the dining room table... awwww, how sweet! (Even if you think flowers are a waste of money, it is still a nice treat every now and again) A few minutes later, we are sitting down for dinner and I got closer look at the flowers (they are a little brown around the edges I thought to myself). So, with the open and honest communication Josh and I have together I decided to open my big fat mouth, I said, "Oh, these are a little brown... I hope you didn't pay much for these." Josh says, "Why, how much would you have paid?" and I quickly replied very sarcastically, "No more than $5.00". Well, we continued to eat our supper. And then I curiously prompted him again... "So how much did you pay for them?" He hesitated, smirked, and then he said, "$4.00", we both chuckled. Oh brother... this is only the first year of marriage!


7. February 19, 2010: Marriage License. We have yet to receive our official Marriage License. I have called the County Clerk three times and visited them twice to check on the status of the License. Apparently it is either lost in the mail or someone else has received it and does not want to return it. So I went to their office Friday after work (Got there at 5:00 on the dot and almost turned me away... that would have been a whole other story) to purchase a certified copy, $6.00. I quickly ran to the bank and got my name changed there. Now Josh and i can finally deposit checks from the wedding that were made out to Mr and Mrs. Joshua Elliott.

I am sure we have done more than that in the past month, but that is all I can think of and that is all my little fingers can type for now! Hopefully there will be some more exciting updates coming in the near future.

Apartment Pictures

The apartment pictures are finally here! We still have a few things to hang on the wall, but other than that everything is in its place. Mom and Dad are coming to visit this next weekend, so hopefully the wall hangings will be up by then.

Click here to view pictures of our apartment. The first few pictures are from the day we moved in... a bunch of empty rooms, and then all the boxes, and finally our furniture is all in place.

Wedding Pictures

Josh and I drove to Conroe this morning to meet with our photographer. We reviewed all of our pictures from the wedding and then proceeded to pick out our favorites to go in an album. In addition to a 30 page album we will also receive rights to our pictures as part of our wedding package.

Here is the link to view the pictures from the wedding. Click on "12/19/2009 Kuklenz wedding" (why he put Kuklenz I have no idea????) and then enter the password: josh. You can order any of these photos online, however keep in mind we will have a disk with all of these pictures on it in just a few short weeks. Enjoy the pictures!!!

Happy Belated New Year

Josh and I had a great holiday! We went to Terry and Net’s (Josh’s dad and step-mom) house in Houston, Texas. We enjoyed the weekend full of family, food, and games, oh and almost forgot to mention the hot tub. It was so relaxing!

Since we spent three days at Josh’s dads, we haven’t made as much progress as I anticipated in the new apartment. It seems like everyday we get something finally put in its place, we move something else into the apartment or we buy something new to set up and put away. Josh has had the lovely task of getting the electricity, cable and internet set up… let’s just say I thought it would be really easy and not very time consuming. If you didn't get the sarcasm, that was not the case at all!!!

I have been back to work since Monday, December 28th and Josh began school today. So now it will be even harder to get things done around the house with both of us coming and going all the time. We are expecting our first guests (my mom and dad) in a couple weeks. They will be going on a cruise leaving from the Galveston port on Sunday the 24th and since our new place is only 60 miles from the shoreline they decided to stay with us the night before. The only downside to their visit is… I now have a time budget for the apartment to look PERFECT!!!

On a side note, I have set an appointment for this Saturday morning to meet with our photographer from the wedding. He said he would post the pictures online immediately following our meeting. So stay tuned for an update this weekend with the link to see pictures.

Also, Thank-you to everyone who was at the wedding, we enjoyed your company. Thank you for sending gifts and cards, we are so very appreciative! I am giving you a generic Thank-you in advance since the personal ones have yet to be completed. It’s on my list… I PROMISE! Love to all!

Welcome to The Elliott's Blog

Ta-dah, look at me! I am now a blogger!

I figured since I am not "technically" a Kuklenz anymore I should create our own blog. I know what you're thinking... oh great yet another thing for me to check while online, Yipee! My response... You're welcome!

I can't promise many posts, or as detailed posts or as humerous posts as others may have... but I will do my best. The blog will be a great way for us to share with friends and family our progression through the first year of marriage. Anyone who knows me very well can tell you my memory is not so good, so the blog is also helpful for people like me who tend to forget what they have or have not done over the years. No excuses now!

Anyways, that is the grand opening.... hopefully it is grand enough for you to come back and visit the site every once and awhile. You will definately have to stay tuned for wedding and new apartment pictures.

For a history of Josh and Jill check out our wedding website at www.jillandjoshua.com.