The Smell of November

Ahh yes November is here- a lot of exciting things have been happening... first of all to start off November Mike and I were able to take a trip to Chicago for one of our classes. Yes can you believe it we are in college and we still get to take field trips! I love it. since the field trip was cordinated by our teacher Dr. Daake we were able to skip all of our other classes for the day without getting in trouble. Dr. Daake even gave us money to ride the Metra up to down town Chicago. so Me Annalisa and Mike headed up to the train station at University Park just 20 minutes from Olivet and then we headed to downtown Chicago. It was a beautiful day to be in Chicago, it was sunny, not too windy and not too cold either. we headed to Quiznos for a quick lunch and then met the rest of our group at the World Trade Center of Illinois. which i might add is a very large building. We were instructed to enter at the south east lower entrance with none of us knew where that was. so we decided to walk all the way around the building, (our exercise for the day) until we found the entrance. we had to hand in our ID's so that they knew it was us, and gave us some cards with our names on them. We headed up to the 22nd floor, really high up and went into a small room where the speakers would give their presentations. It was really neat that they made this whole day just for our class. we were the only people their. well we listened to four different people talk about globalization and green marketing and also the best way to market globally. it was interesting especially the lady who spoke last. after she was done Anna looked at me and said "that's who I am going to be when i grow up!" or when I become a "real person" me and Anna always joke about how since we are in college and we don't have real jobs we aren't real people yet. we had a good laugh about that one. since the presentation got over relatively early we headed out in search of the mall, once inside the 4 story mall anna went looking for some make up and mike and I wondered around. i picked up a small pink purse with a large bow on it. I looked at the price and I almost fell over. 1,295 dollars!!!!!!!! My wedding ring double that didn't cost that much!!!!!! All mike said to me was put the purse down and walk away. after looking around for a while we headed out across the street to enjoy some PFchangs ! after some good food , good company , and the great atmosphere of Chicago we headed back to the Merta which we barely made the 5:17 train we came back our apt at 265 Mohawk.


Well the Warm Weather has finally left I think for good, and the Leaves have finally fallen the cold has crept into our house, so we finally decided it was time to turn the heat on, one because I was freezing and two because all of our plants died because its too cold in our house, and three because at night Mike steals the covers. This picture was taken at 6:45 am when i finally decided to get up and capture the evidence of Mike stealing the covers. he was really sleeping here, and the flash woke him up, when he said "what are you doing?" and i said "collecting Evidence!" The following night we turned on the heat tucked the covers into the bed really good and enjoyed a warm good night of sleep!
It seems as though November is really flying by and people all around town already have their Christmas trees, lights, and light up reindeer all ready to go. Wait Hold on a second! we haven't even enjoyed the Turkey yet, or the sweet potatoes along with the cranberries, stuffing and the PUMPKIN PIE! I told Mike we will put our Christmas tree after Thanksgiving but never before we sit down enjoy dinner and praise God for our Families, our Friends, food and warm houses! First we have to thank God for what he did for us, then we can celebrate Christmas with his birth, or at least that's how it should be done.
One last note: last year we experienced a new jewel in town, and yesterday we experienced a new Kroger which is only a block away from our house. so last night at 10:30 Mike and I headed over to Kroger to check out the new store. The lay out was hard to follow, but we had a good time shopping, while listening to Christmas music being played, the lady at the cashier was rather nice, and asked if we were able to find everything okay. but i think everyone in sales asks that kind of question. with some cereal bread milk, and cheese. The everyday essentials we headed out into the clean crisp November air where we found that mike was already catching frost on top of his car. one thing that I highly recommend for any married couple, go grocery together its a lot of fun! Well today turned out to be like any other friday, sleeping in late, working on hmwk and heading off to work in a couple of hours. November is here for sure, but for some reason it feels like its already over! Happy Birthday to Aaron today! and happy birthday to Joe on sunday! Enjoy November while its here, because December seems likes its already taking over.

Finally a breath of fresh air

Well lets see, before the mess in our apartment happened. Annie came to visit on a Thursday and stayed for the weekend. I drove up to Chicago to pick up Annie from Midway airport. I would just like to state that people from Chicago who work in airports are not very nice people. after pulling up for a fraction of a second a lady told me i had to move because my party wasn't waiting for me, while little did i know Annie was running over to the car, in my frustration with this lady who wouldn't leave me alone i drove off, right as Annie came up. Annie also explained to the lady that she was here and ready to enter the car. I'm not sure, but i think there is some opportunity cost in the case of driving around the airport once again and only to make Annie wait longer. all in all, we made it to Eureka IL and only to enjoy a fun and exciting couple of days full of showers and girl time! On Thursday night the Nelsons were able to join us, for a home cook feast cooked by Momma Chally and then we spent time watching Annie open a plethora of presents. And of course later enjoyed stories shared between both families. A good time had by all. Friday Mom Annie and I spent the day doing wedding things along with taking a trip out to the much coveted Tanners orchard. It was really packed, and quite hot that day so we didn't stay long. Got the goods, and left Saturday we took a trip up to Gevena IL, where we had a wonderful lunch hosted by Aunt MB, Emily, and Aunt Cindy the afternoon was a blast. Abigail became the center of our comic relief, and then grandma didn't remember how long her and grandpa were married which made everyone laugh. It was a great day had by all. Well after a fun filled day in Geneva we headed home. Although for me the traveling of the night was just beginning. my car was left on 17, which is about 20 miles from Lacon, where Mikes parents live. i got into my car and headed back to bourbonnais to pick up mike, and then we got back on 17, and drove the hour and 30 minutes to lacon. all in all that day i think i drove a good 7 hours and 30 minutes or so. we spent the night Saturday at dale and Betty's only to get up at about 6 am and drive to carlock IL where mikes aunt and uncle live. we then drove to Turkey Run and spent the day hiking. The Heinold Hike, a tradition held every year by the Heinold family. it was pretty hot out that day, but we had a good time. mostly taking pictures on every rock we passed . after a long weekend we headed back home only to learn from our landlord that instead of starting the construction for our apartment on Thursday they were going to start on Wednesday. (it being Monday night we had a lot of work to do). we moved everything out of the living room, and then worked on the kitchen as well. Our guest bedroom became so full you couldn't even walk into it, and our bedroom also became our kitchen. Our microwave and coffee maker were plugged in right outside of the bathroom in the hallway between all three rooms. It was a tight space for a couple of days. When it was all said and done, everything looked really nice. While Mike and I have been trying to put our house back together, go to school and work a lot. our computer decided to die on us. With mine being "in the shop" right now, and now our only working computer won't turn on, things are not looking good. with midterms last week, we both had a lot of hmwk to accomplish. i was able to have a few days off work, so we went home for a day to Mikes parents house where dale was able to fix mikes computer. and we also just got word that mine is going to be saved as well. one of the memory sticks went bad, so we are ordering some new parts and she should be as good as new. With October flying by and probably being the busiest month since the wedding we had a lot going on. I cant believe there are only 5 days left in October. The weather is finally starting to feel like fall! although i would like to say as a conclusion to this busy month loaded with laughs, tears, and some great memories! God will never give us anything beyond what we can handle. Praise God for our new renovated apartment, praise God for all the great weather we've had to enjoy fall this year, praise God for great friends and family to enjoy life and also praise God that October 2007 is almost over! finally time to take a breath of fresh air!

Ode to the Hills

As some of you know, and some of you who don't know yet, I've been talking about these bumps that are appearing in our apartment. we first noticed the one right in front of our door because we can only open our door about a foot. then soon enough we noticed one in the kitchen, then the half bath, and now there is even one in the living room. needless to say, we have mini hills growing in the carpet. none of these hills really bothered me until i had to kick the door open one day because I couldn't get through with the groceries.
well after about a week of these mysterious hills showing up , and us in wonder if our apartment was going to burst from below us, we got a phone call.
Our landlord who moved to south Carolina right about the time we were flying home from the honeymoon, called us and said he was making the drive back to ILLINOIS, he then explained the story
Our apartment is really a town house, therefore we have no one under or above us, only people to next to us. four all together, the guy who is at the end, just a side note, his door mat says "go away". his water heater broke, and according to Larry (our landlord) he didn't know his water heater broke for a week, maybe longer. which in turn Larry loudly expressed I think in frustration, "How can you not know your water heater broke? You wouldn't have any hot water!" so needless to say, all this water filled into the bottom of our apartments and because of so much moisture, hence the hills.
So there is the problem, now the solution.
Larry has been around the past couple days, he hired some professionals to look at all of our apartments. in the meantime, these other guys who have a green van, almost like scooby doo, are going underneath the apartments, and installing these loud fans, which i haven't heard yet, but Larry stated they will probably be very loud. These fans will be on for a week, maybe longer. Then the guy who has to come into our apartment and look at the floors will determine what needs to be replaced. which the worst are the front door and the kitchen.
Our Landlord has been really nice to us throughout this whole ordeal, although we secretly believe he is very mad at the guy on the end. Larry has offered to put us in a hotel on him, if the noise is too loud.
in conclusion to everything, our apartment will probably be undergoing a lot of construction over the next month. we may be getting new carpet totally throughout the down stairs, which means we have to move everything out and so on, which will be hard for us because of school everyday and work. its an interesting story, with maybe a good ending, New Carpet!!!!

A few stories.....

Well Married life has been going great, school is way underway, and work is well, selling the pizza's mostly Fiesta's all in all God has been good. His love and Providence is really showing through while we balance our schedule of work, school, and just spending time together. learning to cook has become my new passion. i love trying new things, and well as far as i know mike is rather excited about it as well. being in my small and sometimes very warm kitchen has been a joy to be in, a time for me to think and watch as i put together a few small ingredients to make a rather delicious something.
a few rather, funny, and interesting stories to begin, well mike works at a country club with a lot of rich old men, and one guy left behind to mike a rather good cigar after mike looked it up online and found out some information about it. so then mike bought me a cigar so that we could enjoy them together, after i got off work that night i popped some popcorn and mike and i headed to our small back porch to smoke our cigars. because we live on a street with a lot of apartment buildings, we do not have much of a back yard, maybe 10 feet before you are next to the lady who lives behind us with about a million cats. one, i might add that does not have a tail, who mostly sleeps on our front porch or under our cars. well, this lady leaves food out 24/7 for her "cats" but really to any animal who is hungry enough to eat cat food. so while we are smoking our cigars enjoying some popcorn and talking about anything going on in life, we see a raccoon approaching, he was moving rather slow, and sort of limping, he was defiantly heading for the cat food. well i said to mike "Hey look ! that raccoon is limping really bad" and mike said ya it is, "but i think that its missing a leg" me - "NO way its limping" as we see it in the light- Sure enough he didn't have a front right leg, it was just a nub! a raccoon with three legs, eating cat food, that made my night-
ahhh yes, and another odd thing going on in the Heinold household, we find that our apartment is coming up with random bumps in the floor, the first bump we noticed is right in front of our front door, because one day is noticed that i could only open the door enough to barley squeeze through, which is all we can do right now, the other day i had to kick the door open and in doing so to open it all the way i scraped the bottom of the floor,,, oopppss. and also i noticed a bump in the kitchen as well. rather strange I'm not sure what is going on but i think mike is calling our apt fixer guy Fred this week. i don't understand what could cause a bump in the floor, its like a mini hill grew or something.
All in all, life is busy right now with so much going on, but we still have time to enjoy the simple joys in life, and see the blessings that God has been giving to us. We've been able to have friends over for dinner many times, and even Mom came over, (Momma chally) "With God all things are possible"

First day of school

Well, The first day of school ! Mike and I finally got settled into our apartment, Mom said that we had to take a picture on the first day of school so here it is, Day 1 of the next 180 days or so of a lot of reading studying and stressing over getting a good grade. It seems like only a few years ago, school was all about meeting new friends, having the coolest clothes or the latest school supplies, and of course being apart of everything going on at school, science club, math club, football team, Volleyball all that good stuff. Now that your old, married and have to pay off all your school loans in a couple years, all you really care about is getting your college degree and getting a really good job, so that you can pay off loans, buy a house, and probably a dog. or well at least that's what i want to do. a picture can say a lot of words, so here's to the first day of school! what a hot one!















another thing that makes olivet so fun! is that the first week of school they don't want anyone new to be left out, and so they invented Ollies Follies!!!! A week of fun class competitions, where you bond with the people in your class, and find the most talented to of course win every event. This year, I took part with the Juniors in some good old Sand Volleyball! which we did beat the Seniors! one event that i will never understand is the egg and fish game, two people, are a pair, which each class has about 10 pairs or so, so four classes of 10 pairs, do the math this would make for a about 80 people in a confined space, a boy on bottom with an egg taped to his face, a girl on top, with a real dead fish in hand, running around trying to crack other people's eggs, This I will never understand. Well during the day we do crazy things like this! while at night we enjoy a large outside screen movie, pirates of the Caribbean 3. afterwords, 11 of us, went to stake n shake, not really to enjoy the food or service, but really to enjoy the company of friends, which i think is what i enjoy about school the most. All in all , starting a new year at school may seem like a lot of stress and hard work, but with great godly friends, and father who loves us, makes the school year almost more enjoyable than summer break!

A new beginning

About a year and a half ago, i met mike, and sad to say i almost didn't. I almost went to see King Kong instead of going out to eat. We met at Buffalo Wild Wings, from then on, we were always together. I do have to say, I owe it all to my best friend Ray, she was the one who told me to go out with mike. well a year and a half later Me, Mike, and all of our family and friends showed up for the most beautiful wedding. it turned out to be a lot of fun as well. two weeks before the wedding i couldn't wait for our wedding day to be here, and once the last week started everything flew so fast. The day went by so fast i only wish i could have spent more time with all my brothers and sisters who i feel like i never get to see enough of :( But in just a couple months we will all be together again and this time Mike and I wont be leaving everyone behind, It will be Annie and Pete. Well to conclude the most perfect wedding day, I'll Just throw out a special thanks to both of our parents for all the planning, and support on both sides. and also to God, because in the middle of a major heat wave all over the united states we got a day that was 80 degrees and overcast, along with no rain! AMAZING! Well, the honeymoon was a lot of fun, except for the Monday at the airport. I was unaware of the new rule that you can't have liquids in your carry on, to make the story short i cried, and a lot of my things were thrown away. But then we got to Myrtle Beach, and it was so hot, we were covered in sweat walking from registration to our room, but being in the wonderful air conditioned made it all worth while. The beach was so much fun! we collected tons of shells and even brought home some sand.!
Well after a week of relaxing and sunbathing, we decided to make our journey home, with all of our flights on time, and no trouble :) we drove our car into our driveway and parked our car at 265 Mohawk Dr, and began to empty out our suitcases. when what to our wondering eyes , i said "Why is our Door Green? " as we looked closer, someone (Rebekah & Joel) had put up a cute little sign on our door with very detailed directions as to how to enter into our apartment.



Well after a week of being home, we finally were able to put the place together, along with getting a new license, olivet ID, and a joint bank account I really feel like a Heinold now. well i guess you could say Mrs. Heinold I guess thats all for now, Nothing too exciting has happened yet. so for now, we are truly blessed with a great family, great friends, and a great place to live.
Keep Looking to Him. Come and see US!