Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Cheers to Love and Marriage

This past weekend Noah's parents came to visit us and celebrate their 39th Wedding Anniversary!! We were lucky enough to be able to celebrate this very special day with them, so we of course had to make sure we had a good Anniversary cake and some champagne on hand! I decided to tackle a recipe out of the Bon appe'tit magazine called Chocolate-Raspbery Layer Cake .  The cake seemed a little intimidating when I read the recipe, but I decided to go all out for them and give it a try! Not to toot my own horn, but the cake actually turned out really good...I was so excited! :) If any of you love chocolate...this cake is full of it and the raspberries add a nice sweetness to the cake as well as make it look really fancy. :)
The cake!


My Masterpiece!


Cheers to 39 Wonderful years!
Cheers Mom & Dad
A little slice of heaven!

It was really great to see two people so in love after 39 years together! And they admit they have experienced alot over the years, but they have done it together! This past year has been really difficult with Bill battling cnacer, and I think one thing I learned after visitng with them, is that through thick and thin they both are able to look at the bright side of things or when one isn't able to see the bright side, the other has been there to bring the bright side to light. :) They have always looked to God and trusted in his guidance when things are not easy...even through this past year they continue to learn more about God and each other every day and they have never given up on faith. I praise God for the time we spent with them and the great visit that we had together because it was one of my favorites!

After their visit I remembered something that I got from my friend Allison a while back, and I think now more than ever it really makes sense so I wanted to share it with you:
                                                                                                      What Cancer Cannot Do              
Cancer is so limited...
It cannot cripple love.
It cannot shatter hope.
It cannot corrode faith.
It cannot eat away peace.
It cannot destroy confidence.
It cannot kill friendship.
It cannot shut out memories.
It cannot silence courage.
It cannot reduce eternal life.
It cannot quench the Spirit.
                       Author: Unknown

Until we meet again my friends, cheers! :)


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

The Vennes new MN Residence...

Noah and I moved into our Minnesota rental property on May 21, 2012! It was a great sunny day, and the temperature was in the mid 70's so it was a perfect day for moving! My parents helped us with the move in too, so it was nice to have the extra hands! We started the day with breakfast at Keys Cafe, a neat MN staple and there is a location right by our house..perfect! The move went really well, and we had everything in and somewhat organized by room around 2:00!
Removing all the moving blankets from the furniture.
Dad took a nap with Bailey while we worked on some dishes and Noah went to get the Cable hooked up.


Cleaning all the dishes as we unpacked...a big job that Mom & Dad helped with.

Cheers to the BIG move! ALL Done...for now!

It was time for mom's scratch off session from the $38 winnings the last week...Noah got her 3 kinds!

She started with the 4's Galore...

And they were really lucky...she won another $38!!!! Next time...Noah's turn...we will keep you posted!

So, Lets take a look at the place now that we are all settled:  

View from our patio.

Front view of the townhouse.

Our patio!!

Welcome Friends...come on in! :)

The view from the front door, our kitchen/dining.

View of the front door and the little "reading space" we created.

Lovely kitchen...

View of the living space from the kitchen...we like the open floor plan. I can watch TV and cook...perfect! :)

Off the kitchen is a small bathroom...

The bathroom just happens to be my favorite color!!

Going up the stairs...


Going up...

Upstairs we have a loft where we put our desk, and then there are 2 bedrooms and a bathroom

Master Bedroom


Bathroom


GUEST BEDROOM...comes free with a flight to MN!! :)

We have really gotten used to the place, and we like it a lot! We are both amazed that we found it online, and rented it without even looking inside...God was looking out for us because it is the perfect place to get re-acquainted with life in Minnesota! There are a ton of bike trails and running paths right by our house! Now we just need bikes! We also found a small lake Carver Lake that is within running distance to our place!! We walked to it with Bailey and she absolutely loved fetching sticks and playing in it, so that will be a fun place for all of us to enjoy! When we first moved I was sad that we would no longer have a pool to chill at, but now we will have a quaint little lake to hang out at!

We also have a cute little park on the association property, so it is perfect when we have little visitors to entertain. So far, Stanley has come to play on it:


Bailey helping him dig a hole in the sand! :)


Can you tell in that face he loves to get pushed and go really high! :)

That's all for now...thanks for visitng! Until we post again...have a great day!

Monday, June 4, 2012

The move North to Minnesota...

Greetings from Minnesota to all of our Texas friends! Well we made it to Minnesota  3 weeks ago now...(I know...I promise to make this blog more up to date than I'm starting it out at today!) :) The move back to Minnesota went very smoothly! My parents came down to help us with the big move. It was really nice to have them there to help because Noah was training in Savannah, GA the week leading up to our move, so he was not home, and I was having emotional craziness hit me every so often, so it was nice to have my parents there to listen to my fears and tears! :)

As far as packing went, we definitely had a lot more stuff than I realized, so packing took a little bit longer than we thought! Before my parents arrived I had most of the house packed except our clothes, and who knew that packing up your clothes could take so much time, but it does!! And, thank goodness for wardrobe boxes...they made unpacking SOOOO much easier! I definitely recommend anyone moving to put their clothes in those to keep them in nice order!
I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to fit all of the boxes and furniture in the trailer...
slowly, but surely, each piece did fit!
As I packed up boxes, mom and dad were so kind to clean our apartment! Even the windows, the fans, the blinds...they did a lot of work and it was really fun to have them there to help!
Cheers to packing and moving closer to the rent's! :)

On Friday night Noah got home so then we could begin packing all the big stuff in our apartment. Dad brought all of his moving blankets, so it was really easy to just tape up the furniture and move it into the truck!


 Saturday afternoon our friends Brad & Jen had a Crawfish Boil, so we were so blessed to be able to go to the crawfish boil and hang out with our Texas family all at once to say our goodbyes! We miss our friends so much already, but thank goodness for cell phones and facebook, so we can stay connected until we visit Texas this fall! My parents had never been to a crawfish boil, so it was definitely a fun experience for them too!

The crawfish begin in these kiddie pools...
                                  
And then end on the table for us to Enjoy!

 The master Chef himself and Noah enjoy! Yum!
                                 
Yum!

We got to see the Eichenbergers and Sweet Emma Grace before we left! :)
                
And Molly and Sweet Baby Quinn!! We love them to pieces!

Thank you Brad and Jen for the great time!! We love y'all!! And, so glad to have this TX family photo!
Saturday night we went out to dinner with our friends Dustin, Tenley, Josh, Lonnie, Chris and Kimberly one last time at Uncle Billy's by the Oasis! We had a great visit there, and left shedding only a few tears and one BIG GROUP HUG! After that The Gristy's were kind enough to let us stay at their house since ours was all packed up! It was nice to be able to hang out with them one last time! Bailey got to play with her BFF Raider, their German Shorthair. Her loves to stay at the Gristy Resort, so she was in heaven playing with Raider in their yard! Little did she know it was her last time! :(

Sunday morning, Happy Mother's day MOM! :) We stopped at Rudy's to get breakfast tacos, before we went back to the apartment one last time to clean everything and pack up all the miscellaneous stuff we had floating around! Molly was right, you always have that one box at the end that is full of stuff that you just throw in it! I was sure to use her trick of labeling the outside with one item I would remember I put in the box, that way I could remember that was the last MISC Box! It worked! My coffee pot was last item that did the trick in remembering! :)
We opened up my mom's mother's day gift on our patio. This was the first Mother's Day I have gotten to spend with my mom in 5 years, so I really enjoyed being able to celebrate with her! And, thank you Jennie and Gina for letting me take mom away from y'all for the weekend! :)

Mom and I enjoying the sun!
Mom wrapped us in her bows as we were her present too! :)
Once we got all packed up, the sad part of saying "goodbye" for real began! Texas was where Noah and I started our lives together! It was such a wonderful place to call "home!" and we had so many great friends that really became like family! We loved our church and the community of friends that developed because of it! God sure blessed us with a wonderful Texas family that we are so thankful for! And, even though distance separates us now, we know we will always be close to all of them!

Thom, Anita and Sascha were able to stop by to say goodbye to us too! We will miss you guys!

The Gristy's stopped by to help take some of our extra stuff to Goodwill for us and say our official "goodbye!" I like to think of it only as "See ya later!" We love you guys!



The place we started our married life together, good ol' Alexan Rebilin Ranch!
 It's crazy to think we won't even be able to drive by it when we want to say, "hey remember when we lived there after we first got married?!" It was a great place to call home for sure! 

Goodbye Apt#11102!
Lot's of great memories in this place!

We stopped at HEB one last time to get gas so I took a pic of the caravan!

And, then of course we had to get some Hey Cupcakes for mom for Mother's Day!

The drive back went great! We stopped in Oklahoma City for the night, so we could take Mom out to dinner, and get a good nights rest before heading out on the road Monday morning to Minnesota!
We stayed at a LaQuinta Inn which was nice because they are pet friendly.
Miss Bailey loved it!
Her is a natural now at staying in hotels! :)
                                             
Dinner with Mom and Dad
                                                   
Happy Mothers Day mom!

Monday morning we got up early, and headed North to Minnesota! Mom and I drove together the whole way back!

Thank you Allison for the snack pack that helped to keep us energized and awake!! :)
We gave a shout out to Kansas City for Allison as we drove by...

  and then as we drove through Ames, Iowa, we gave another shout out to it for my Heather! The Barilla Factory!

Heather missed home so I took a picture of the grassy fields for her as I drove through Ames! :)
The snacks sure did keep me going and I'm addicted to sweet tarts! :)

WE ARRIVED TO MINNESOTA!
Once we arrived home to Minnesota, Jennie had a sign and goodies waiting for us at my parents house! She baked us a plate of cookies and blueberry muffins for breakfast! Thank you Jennie!

And she gave us some of our favorite treats!
                                             
Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies!!

Side note: Noah and my mom both love scratch off lottery tickets! So, in Missouri, Noah got about 8 scratch offs and won $10 so he bought 10 more tickets with his winnings and gave them to my mom to scratch off in the car! Well my mom scratched them off and won $2! So, when we got to MN my mom wanted to stop to get more scratch offs with her winnings to give to Noah! They ended up winning $38 that night we got home! Below are some pics of their excitement! It's pretty funny how much they get into it! And, I will say that they did it again once we moved in to our townhome, my mom won another $38 so the saga continues!! I will keep you posted if they "hit it big!" haha!

The Winning Ticket!! Bass were biting that night~!


Monday, May 21 we got to move into our new place! We are renting a townhome in Maplewood, MN. I will post pictures of the new place soon, but for now I will just post the picture of us before we moved in that Monday! So far we love our place and we can't wait to have Texas Visitors! :) Thanks again to everyone for all the support and help with our move! We couldn't have done it without all of our TX family, and we love you guys so much! We miss you already, and can't wait to see you again soon! Until then, enjoy the summer and stay in touch!! BIG HUGS!