Another Everyday Update...

To follow up on a few things last posted:

Max got his last puppy shot this week and officially weighs in at 30.5 pounds!! He's more than doubled his weight in 6 weeks. I talked with a friend who studied animal medicine in college and she thinks he'll easily be 90 pounds. Whoa! That's a lotta dog! That's like having 3 Maxes! We gave Max his first bath this week. He really hates the hose...it could be because I doused him when he pooped in the rockbed once. J had the hose, and I had the leash. Max tried hiding behind me and dodging the water. Then J held the leash while I lathered him up with Head & Shoulders shampoo (of all things! it's the only thing we could find that we didn't use!) We tried to take a few pictures, but Max just kept shaking trying to get the water off. We rinsed him off and let him run around the yard (and roll in the dirt!) to dry off while J and I had a water fight.









I actually talked to Kari this week...still nothing too exciting to report. :o) She misses Jake and she misses St. Louis. blah, blah, blah

Jamie made it home safely from the Yakima, WA mission trip! She and Mom attended an intercessory prayer meeting with J & I on Wednesday, and Jamie prayed out a number of time with passion! Praise God for working in the youth!

I remembered the name of the Superhero I enjoy playing on the video game...it's Deadpool. I'd never heard of him before the game, but he's got a really funny smart mouth!

Barry (our wedding photographer) and his family have invited us to go to Florida with them in October. It would be great for him to shoot us on beach (with his camera, of course!) and for us to celebrate our anniversary. However, after crunching some conservative numbers, a trip like that would cost us around $2,000! So we're contemplating what else we could do on our meager budget to celebrate our anniversary. Praise God that we both have jobs! We're not complaining, just trying to be resourceful. Anyone have any great anniversary ideas? We're currently considering returning to the cabin in the Smoky Mountains that we stayed in for our honeymoon and Dallas. We have a number of friends and family that it would be great to see, but it is our anniversary. The Smoky Mountains would be more expensive, but oh, so romantic.

We've been trying to get the house in order for J's family's arrival. However, last weekend I had a brilliant idea that our filing system needed a major overhaul and it's currently spread over 10 feet of tables in our living room! Jeremy's only goal for me tonight while he's working is to get that done. Yikes! And my amazing husband said he'd take care of cleaning the rest of the house tomorrow and finish the grocery shopping. While I hate being apart working opposite schedules, it does lend itself to accomplishing more. :o) Guess I should dive into the piles of paperwork.

Just an everyday update

Here are a few things that are going on in the Shindel household as of late...

Max is up to 27 pounds at 5 1/2 months.

Jack and Jill still don't enjoy being his chew toys.

Jeremy's softball team played a double-header last night and won both games.

Annie helped shoot her first bridal session (just the bride in her dress a week before the wedding...kinda like a trial run) last Friday.

Jeremy's working full-time at Starbucks and taking as many shifts as possible (he's on-call) at Gateway Ambulance.

Annie's got her first photography client (a good friend who's pregnant and wants some pics with her husband).

Jeremy got a new video game (Marvel Ultimate Alliance - with all the Marvel Comic Super Heroes) a few weeks ago and we play it a lot together! Jeremy's favorite character to play is definitely The Hulk. I like to play Ms. Marvel and oh, what's his name...he teleports and is super sarcastic. Any help with his name?

Annie's sister Jamie is on her way back (driving 32 hours) from Yakima, WA for a youth mission trip to an Indian reservation where they did some home construction and taught VBS.

Annie's sister Donna is getting her new apartment in Dallas next weekend. She's coming to STL in two weeks to get all of her things from our house and Mom & Dad's house. Mom is going to ride in the truck down to Dallas with her and then fly back.

Annie's sister Kari...well, we haven't talked much lately...could be because she's crazy about her boyfriend, Jake! Oh yeah...Kari's also moving the weekend that Donna is. She's moving from an apartment to a townhouse...both are on campus. Jake is going down to help.

Jeremy's family (mom, sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew, and maybe mom's boyfriend Ben) are coming to STL from Bloomington next weekend!! We haven't seen them since the end of April. We're so excited that they're coming!!! We miss them like crazy. We're probably going to take the kids to Grant's Farm on Saturday. Tara (sis) is going to give us much needed haircuts! Tara and Rich (bro-in-law) are renewing their vows with a big wedding over Labor Day weekend. J and A are both in the wedding. It'll be a blast!

We had Mom's and Dad's families (the STL gang) over on the 4th of July to celebrate Mom's birthday (7/3). It was so memorable! I can still see everyone huddled under big golf umbrellas trying to keep the grills and the fryer dry! We had about 5 torrential downpours while the sun was out! One every hour or so. Uncle Gary had the fryer outside for some fried corn and chicken wings. We had two charcoal grills going with the meat and the rest of the corn. It was a riot!! Fortunately, we have several big trees covering our backyard that kept a good portion of the rain off of the food. Everytime, we'd get the chairs and tables dried off, it'd rain again! But everyone had a great time, even with the weather.

Well, that's about the extent of what's been going on in the Shindel household recently.

A Dream Come True!

Our wedding photographer is taking me under his wing and teaching me the art of photography! He's given me one of his "old" cameras to play and practice with. I'm so excited, because this is one of those things that I have always wanted to do, but honestly never thought could happen. I've never pursued it, because of it seemed impossible...yet here I am with a phenomenal instructor and mentor! Check back often, because I'll be posting some of my better pics! :o)