He's done, and we're off!!!

I can't believe that I'm writing this, but Zach is DONE med school today! It has been a long road and there is an even longer road ahead of us, but for now, we are revelling in it! We are headed to the airport in a few hours, going to see my sister and her family:) Zach and I love England(and the Jansen fam.) and can't wait to get there! So excited!

I'm using a lot of these--->!!!, but that's how I feel right now(among the usual feelings of travel panic!). I'll try and keep posting while I'm gone, but I'm not making promises, I'm crap at it. Oh, and after England we are headed back to Vancouver to see more family there. It's going to be a crazy six weeks, but it's well deserved time off for us. I hope everyone is having a fantastic day and rest of the weekend!!

Kristin, these shots are for you! I can't believe that Aubrey is two already?!? Where did time go??

Such a poser!

Went to Connecticut to help Donny and Lisa move

This was our last coffee together for the next little while:(

I'm pretty sure this is the only couple shot we've ever had together and Aubrey snuck in!

Change is on the horizon....

Today was officially the first day of the last week(did you get that?!?) of med school for Zach! I can not believe that this is the end?!?!? How did four years go by so fast? In that time we've...

1. lived in Grenada, WI

2. lived in New Jersey

3. had Aubrey

4. traveled back and forth to Canada more times then I can count

5. I've been to England twice(to visit sister and her fam)

6. FINISHED MED SCHOOL!!!!!!

And the list goes on and on! A LOT happens in four years!

I am so proud of Zach, he has worked so hard to get where he is. He's done extremely well and it makes it so much easier to move to random places and be away from family to see him love what he does:)

This next year is a year of waiting for us. Zach's a doctor, but we've decided that it's best to have a year to transition, be able to get the visa's we want in place, and have everything he needs to get the specialty he wants, before he goes into the "match". Zach's got a job doing research at the hospital he did all his core rotations at and that has been such a blessing! As much as I'm ready for a change and to get this whole residency thing going, I'm not ready for a BIG move(totally thought I was, but after a week/weekend of helping friends move, I was reminded of how hard it is!) . We get to stay in NJ longer and that'll be nice, we really like it here, so close to NYC and to everything on the Left Coast:). We've found out that other Canadian's are taking the same road as us and it just affirms our decision.

The hard thing is watching all our friends, and people we know, find out where they're going and, well, taking the next steps in the "doctor" journey. No matter how much I know what we are doing is the right decision, it's still a little hard to watch. But God has opened and closed doors enough for us in our lives that we've started to just wait for the signs (and can recognize it a lot easier these days) when He does!

Well enough of that babbling.... it's just been on my mind(obviously!):)

Another exciting thing is that we are leaving to England on Friday night ~grad present to our selves (we've been saving up for ages!). I can't wait to see my sister and her family. We ALL get along so great, kids play together great, husbands play(!!) together great too, and of course Astrid and I get along SO well. I miss her so much some times, it hurts. Now if I could move this second and be closer to her(and in England!!! I LOVE England), I would go through that hassle without hesitation!

Oh and it's Aubrey's second birthday tomorrow! BIG week for the Klaassen's:)

You know...

...she's been hearing it a lot when she says to me, "Come, mama. Have a BIG time out. Go inna room." How do you not laugh?!?

It's here!

So I may have bought the cart before the horse, but I finally got my horse.... or sewing machine....the cart being the fabric (guess I should have said that in the first place and I would not have had to explain it all). I'm so excited to have it, but I'm waiting on my thread, etc. to get started. Zach's been working crazy hours and not getting home before 9pm so I haven't been able to get all I need. I've ordered a bunch more fabric on line and I'm so excited to get started sewing this weekend!

I picked the Singer Esteem II because it got the best reviews for the price range I was looking in and I'm hoping it doesn't let me down...

This is the fabric that I ordered before I got the sewing machine. I've been staring at it for over a week now and have a million ideas in my head of how to use it. But I'm torn because it's so pretty, I don't want to use/waste it! Maybe I'll become a fabric collector...

On another, unrelated, topic, this last Sunday I went into Manhattan with Lisa and we had an absolute blast! She suggested, last minute, that we try and get tickets to a show and we ended up getting half price tix to.....

Mamma Mia!!! It was an amazing show and we both loved it. It was my first Broadway show and I have to say, it didn't disappoint!

Afterward we spent a bunch of time wandering around trying to find this fabric/trimmings store I had once seen on my way back to Penn Station (it's massive and wonderful!) and I ended up leading us on a wild goose-chase and we never found it. I looked it up the next day and we were literally circling the store hitting every surrounding street but the right one. Not cool. Not to worry though, Zach and I are heading in this Saturday to spend the day for my birthday(without Aubrey, thank you Lisa!!) and I'll drag him there!

We also went to see Central Park in all it's spring glory, but we were a little late in the season(not to mention, the day)and most of the blossoms were gone...and so was the good lighting to take pictures.

I thought that Central Park in fall was my fav. but I'm pretty sure it's the spring now! It was beautiful!

Random poster that we saw and made us laugh! Can't believe that they are making a comeback....again...

Well I'll leave you with a cute picture of the Aub-meist. She finally let me put pigtails in her hair without ripping them out and I could not get enough of her with them! And check out her pose, so cute putting her hands in her pockets:) Love that kid!

So I changed the name of my blog and it's pretty much because I was bored with the old one and lately I've been trying to summon my old crafty side and get back into my old hobbies, one of them being sewing. The only problem is I don't have a sewing machine. Hmmm, minor detail. I'll have to do some begging(to Zach), but actually, mostly saving, to try and get one in the next little bit. I have all these potential projects floating around in my head and I need an outlet! I'm going to blame this resurfacing of my passion on some of the random crafty/artsy blogs I found recently, they've got me thinking and thinking tends to lead to pricey, out of our budget, things....hmmmm, another minor detail. Nothing that a month of scrimping and saving can't fix! Who needs to eat, and I can get Aubrey down to a diaper a day right?!? Done.

I do have a confession though~I may not have a sewing machine{yet!}, but I ordered some fabric online the other day. Now to try and find a way to explain that to Zach.... not so minor detail, and not really helpful in the saving department either. Ooops:)

Loosing Square Footage...

So these days the office/sunroom is officially off limits. Every time I go in there I hold my breath and spray unheard of amounts of lysol to make sure there is no mold. Next will be the bleach wash down of the century. But I'm going to wait on that for a bit so I know there will be no more rain for the next little while. All the contents of the sunroom have now been crammed into our dining room. This gives me heart palpitations because I'm a bit of a neat freak and I've always loved that I could close the door on Zach's office mess. Now it's in the open and well, I got to say, he's keeping pretty neat.... so far:) The new space has now become (not so) affectionately known as Command Center, or as Lisa calls it Mega Desk!

Aubrey is liking Mega Desk though and she's always asking to "email" Gammie! What other 23month old asks to do that?!? Too cute!

Anyway, here are a few random shots of her and all her cuteness! She's all about making faces these days, the "monkey" one being her favorite!

I came home with groceries one night and she always insists on helping me with them. But every time she complains that the bags are "too heby", so this particular night she gave up and decided that this would be a great place to hang out instead!

Aubrey's fell asleep again after a nap the other day. She never does this and I had to get a shot of it!

Well Aubrey is going to wake up from her nap soon so I better stop now bacause I'm pretty sure she's not going to fall asleep again:) She is feeling a little under the weather today so I guess anything is possible...