Florida Trip

Hi Everyone ~

Just wanted to give everyone an update on how things are going with me and Michael. We just returned for a short vacation down in Florida, which was a lot of fun. We went up to my mom's house Tuesday night (Feb. 5th) and spent the night, so we could leave early Wednesday morning. We had a little excitement since my mom forgot some things and we had to turn around, but at least we weren't very far from the house. After picking up my brother from work, we hit the road and began an adventure that the four of us would never forget. Michael drove the first lag of the trip from Minneapolis into southern Wisconsin when we hit one of the worst snowstorms we have ever seen. It started snowing in the Wisconsin Dells and by the time we reached Madison, we couldn't see more than a quarter mile and our windshield wipers were frozen solid. Traffic had completely stopped moving on the freeway and we sat there for a good hour before discovering the reason for the delay. There was a huge accident that went on for about 3 miles and included at least 10 semi-trucks as well as several cars. It was the most horrific accidents that any of us have ever seen. My brother took a lot of pictures and we hope to have them on the website in the next few days. It took us over 12 hours to get out of Wisconsin and it was the longest 12 hours of our lives. After crossing the boarder into Illinois, I took over the driving and the roads were very clear, but the ice was a problem for most of my shift. It was amazing to us because semi-trucks and cars were passing us by like crazy and then about 1/2 an hour later, we would see them in the ditch. We had to have seen from 30 to 50 semi-trucks that had jacked-knifed or were in the ditch. It was insane! I drove until we reached Indiana and then my brother took over for several hours while Michael and I got some sleep. We woke up in Tennessee and Michael took over driving for over 6 hours. He drove us all the way through Georgia and it's a long state to say the least. It was beautiful though. The sun was shining bright and it was a little warmer than home. About 50 degrees! We saw the stadium where the Braves play and Atlanta was beautiful! We had fun playing games and keeping each other occupied. When we got into Florida, I took over the driving and it was a lot warmer. We hit some heavy rains and that slowed us down some more, but thankfully it didn't last too long. We made it to the campground about 11pm and got all settled into our home away from home. Cabin #23. Everyone was pretty tired, so we called it a night. We got up Friday morning and had some breakfast before heading to the beach. Florida is so beautiful!!! There were palm trees everywhere and all of the buildings were designed in a tropical theme. We took a lot of pictures, so check back for those later. We took a long drive through Naples and Fort Myers, which was so beautiful. We ended up at Sanbel Island and spent several hours playing around in the Gulf of Mexico. It was Michael's first time in the ocean and he was blown away by how salty the ocean is, but he had a good time. I love playing in the ocean, so I had a blast. After a little while, we decided to grab some food and headed for the cabin to clean up before taking a trip over to Miami and Fort Lauderdale. It was dark outside by then, so we really didn't get to see the Atlantic ocean. But, we did get to see a ton of yachts that were unbelievable. A few of them were bigger than my mom's house. It was crazy! We also saw some of the most beautiful hotels that I have ever seen. I have to say that Miami was a lot like what we have seen on TV, but we definitely have to go back in the daylight. After picking up some pizza from Papa John's, we started back for Naples and crashed when we made it back to the cabin. We got up Saturday morning and had some breakfast before heading to the beach. We gathered some sea shells and sand to remember the occasion before stopping in at a cute little shop to buy some larger shells. I can't wait to go back next year to check out more of the little shops and visit some different beaches. We also want to go see the Twins play in Fort Myers. Anyway, we decided to find a Sonic Drive-Inn Restaurant for lunch before hitting the road for home. The ride home was pretty uneventful other than it was cold and windy. They were still cleaning up the mess in Wisconsin, which was amazing to me. It just goes to show how bad the storm really was. We got to my mom's place about 8:30 pm and back to Glenwood about 11:00. Anyway, that was our trip. Otherwise, Michael and I are doing really well. We just celebrated our first Valentine's Day as husband and wife. It was very nice! My birthday is coming up next weekend and I am not ashamed to admit that I will be 28 years old.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip and we'll talk to you guys soon!

God bless,
Carey :-)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone from Michael and Carey. It is that time of year, the snow is falling, wood is being cut, store are a busseling and credit cards are in full affect. Carey and I have finished our Christmas shopping for the year and are doing quite well. She will be finishing her schooling on Wednesday the 12th, YAY!!!!! We are both very excited about that. Then she can put her full focus on work and me... :) I have been busy cutting wood for the stove on the weekends and working on computers during the week. It is also basketball season now and that means Glenwood City Hilltoppers basketball is in full swing. I try to get to all the home games and support the teams. At this point the Boys are 4-0 and the girls are 2-2. The past few months have been busy with typical day to day items, with the occasion unplanned items falling in. One big item that came about was Momma P's (Carey's Mom) health. She has been struggling with her fibro and headaches and had to see a doctor. The doctor changed her meds which also meant she needed someone to be with her at all times due to the unknown of how she would react to the meds. So after much discussion it was determined that the best plan was for Carey to be with her mom until the doctor said it was safe for mom to be alone. So Carey was with her mom for a week... and boy a long week that was. We got thru it fine, had to break out the webcams a few times so we could see each other, but we made it thru and we are not any worse for wear. We both ask that you would keep mom aka Lynne in your prayers as she still has a while before the meds really start working. We would also like to ask for prayer regarding some house issues. I won't go into details but with the age of the house things begin to fail or so the county seems to think anyway. So please just keep us in your prayers as we search for direction and finances in this matter.

I did go our deer hunting this year a little. Chad, my brother in law, and his neighbor Nick came down and did some hunting with me over thanksgiving weekend. We didn't see anything but it was good to be out in the field to see and hear all that God has created.

Both of us are doing fine health-wise, well other than a small blood clot I had in early October that has since cleared up. I am doing just fine so please don't worry. The doctors say I have a rare antibody in my blood, but they don't know how I got it. I have started taking an aspirin daily and am scheduled to go back for a followup in January.

That is all I can think of for now... if anything comes up we will be sure to keep you informed.

Have a Very Merry Christmas and remember that JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!!!!
God Bless
Michael and Carey

One Month

Hi Everyone ~

Well, Michael and I just celebrated our one month anniversary last week! It has been an amazing month to say the least. We are very happy together and truly enjoying the married life. It took us a little while to get the sleeping thing down, but we figured that out after a few nights. :-) Right now, we are living in Michael's old farm house and we hope to put the house on the market in the Spring, so we can build a new home with room for our future family. Michael is still working at Connecting Point in Amery, Wisconsin and plans to stay there for awhile. I am finishing up my marketing degree at Baker College Online and plan to graduate in December. I am also working for my mom's bookkeeping and accounting business, which has been pretty sweet. I just remote into the databases at my mom's house and complete the work, so I can work without going home everyday. We are also working to fix up the old farm house a little bit, which is going to take longer than I thought. I was hoping to get more done since I have a lighter class load, but the two classes I've had are very time-consuming. Oh well. I will get to finish my projects when things calm down a little more.

Well, that's all I have for now. Hope you are all doing well!

Hugs,
Carey :)

Wedding & Honeymoon

Well, the wedding and honeymoon are over! As my brother said, the wedding was a huge success and a day that we will cherish for the rest of our lives! With that said, Michael and I would like to thank everyone that helped out with the wedding. We wouldn't have pulled it off without you! We would also like to thank everyone for coming out and sharing in our special day! It was beautiful & we had a blast! We just about filled the tent during the reception and most of the food was gone by the end of the affair. There was a dance that followed, but most of our guests left beforehand. It was okay because we got to relax and have some fun! By 9:30, Michael and I were pretty tired, so we headed to the local hotel for the night. Chad & Melissa decorated our honeymoon suite, which was beautiful! There were rose petals all over the room & candles were lit. It was so pretty. After relaxing, Michael and I crashed in the nicest bed that I have ever slept in. It was a king and so comfy that I wanted to take it home with me! In the morning, we went over to my mom's house for breakfast & opening gifts! We were so blessed by everyone! We left my mom's house about 11:30 and started making our way to our honeymoon location, which was a complete surprise to me! When we got off the freeway at the Dells, I asked Michael if that was where we were going & he shook his head yes! I was SO excited & Michael says he wishes he could have had a camera going because the look on my face was priceless, but I still didn't know where we were staying & he refused to tell me. We passed all of the hotels & I couldn't figure out where we were going! Finally, we come up to this huge resort & Michael starts heading into the driveway! I screamed, "we are staying in a resort?" & Michael shook his head yes again! I went crazy! I was so happy! It was beautiful! The resort had a little surprise for us too as they upgraded our room to a condominum suite, which usually cost $1,200 a night! I was on cloud nine! The resort had several indoor & outdoor water parks along with mini-golf, which was all included in our package. We had such a good time! Anyway, I need to go eat dinner, so I will close for now!

Talk to you all soon!
Love,
Carey

Bachelorette Party

Hi Everyone! Hope you are all doing well! I know that this post is a little late, but better late than never! On September 2nd, 9 of my closest family and friends checked into the Embassy Suites in St. Paul for a night of fun and we had a blast! After getting settled into the hotel, we went downstairs for the happy hour, which was really nice because everyone got to catch up with each other. About 7 o'clock, we decided to head over to one of the hotel's restaurants to have some dinner, which was fun and really yummy. We had fun flirting with the waiters and joking around. The girls thought it would be fun to make me wear a veil and a flashing button that said, "Kiss the bride-to-be". Thankfully, no one made an attempt to kiss me, but I did get a lot of looks and some congrats too! After dinner, we decided to head back up to the room to play some games, have some drinks and share some laughs. Sadie & Becky started making drinks while Ramona setup several foot massagers, so that we could take turns soaking our feet and then she would scrub our feet down and give us a foot massage. It felt SO good! I was in Heaven! We played games and shared laughs until about midnight when some of the girls decided to go to bed. A few of us stayed up for awhile and watched License to Wed, which was fitting since I was about a week out from my big day. The bachelorette party ending Monday afternoon after we ate breakfast at the hotel and Ramona finished taking all of her pictures of everyone! We all had a really good time & we're talking about doing it again in the future, but for a whole weekend!