Ready for vacation!!

As our next vacation approaches, to say that T.J. & I are excited would be a bit of an understatement. The picture above is from the hotel we will be staying at when we head to southern Florida in just a few days.

Just a few weeks ago, we were really struggling on where to go on vacation, and all of the details associated with planning a trip. But then T.J. learned that he had to attend a conference for work, so DARN, I get to tag along! It's amazing how quickly prayers are answered in such unusual ways.

Although T.J. will need to be working the first few days, we extended the trip by staying longer than needed to ensure a nice getaway is reached.

More updates will come upon our return, but until then, the Berndsen Family is eagerly awaiting our next little getaway. :)

Beazer is Back!

During the building of our new home, our dog Beazer stayed with my in-laws while we lived with my parents. Although we have been in our new home for almost a month, we were waiting to get Beazer back until the majority of our boxes were unpacked since he is such a nervous dog. So...on Thursday, we were more than excited to bring our little puppy to his new home.

As you can tell in the photo, Beazer had no problem finding his dad's lap and relaxing in his new home. It seemed as if Beazer had no trouble remembering our routines, and is adjusting very well. As I type this, he is snoring loudly and cuddled up on his favorite chair. I had almost forgotten how much I missed this little guy, so it sure is great to have him back in our daily lives again!

Welcome Home Beazer!

Happy Birthday Ashley!

It is Monday, the day after a major weekend event; Ashley's birthday! We had a great weekend celebrating Ashley's big day. I guess since Ashley has been maintaining the site, she failed to put her big day into our news section, so instead, I will write about it to give her day the attention it deserves.

No, we didn't go on a cruise, but I just liked this picture and thought I would use it. Ashley's birthday was Saturday, but we got an early start on Friday. We went on a little mini shopping spree for the house where Ashley picked out a bunch of new items to start the decorating and organizing process she has been looking forward to for the last 7 months while we awaited our home. This is definitely the way Ashley would start her birthday weekend and I enjoyed seeing her smile as we went from store to store.

Saturday, we spent some time early in the day at our home getting the new things together. This was just a prelude to our evening. We had a great dinner at Brio and then went to see the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at Music Hall.

Sunday, we did a little more shopping for the house during the midday then spent the late afternoon and early evening with Ashley's parents at Dave & Busters. Then, we finished off the night at with a quite filling dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.

I hope Ashley will have fond memories of this birthday weekend. I think I can speak for everyone, in saying we all had a great time, and the best part was we were able to spending it celebrating a great person in our lives whom we all love so much.

So again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY!!

Moving Day

After 7 months of preparing for our new home, moving day had finally arrived! On February 26th, the weather forecasters were calling for rain and snow showers, but we were determined to move forward with our moving date. At 7:00 am, T.J. left for our storage unit in Western Hills, while I ventured toward our new home to await our appliance delivery and installation. The appliance delivery people arrived a little after 9:00 only to discover a dented fridge has been delivered. So, I decided to accept the range and wait a few days for a new, undented fridge to arrive. Around 10:00 the movers arrived, and the true work began. Since we hadn't seen the majority of our belongings in such a long time, I found myself getting excited when a mover was carrying a piece of furniture I had forgotten that we had, and therefore forgotten how much I liked! Luckily, the weather held off and we were moved from our storage unit to our new home in a little under 4 hours. We were very blessed to have amazing movers to assist us during the moving process, making what could be a very stressful day, relatively stressless.

I think it is safe to say that the first week in our new home went by in a blur of boxes and chaos. Especially the first few days, which entailed several visits from installers of all sorts (cable, phone, security, garage door openers, etc.) just to name a few. Thankfully, my wonderful in-laws brought dinner and help the day after moving, which was just what we needed! They were able to offer advice and recommendations that we hadn't thought of, not to mention they had a lot of energy that we simply no longer had at that point.

A week ago today, our brother-in-law Jason, graciously offered to help us move the remaining items out of my mom's house (where we have been staying during the building process, thanks Mom!). Although the U-Haul rental was almost 2 hours behind our reservation time, Jason & T.J. were able to move the majority of our stuff onto the driveway while I picked up the U-Haul truck and brought it back. This moving day was quite different than just a few days prior, as the weather was almost 65 degrees, rather than the snow we had experienced on Tuesday. Thank you Jason for all of your help!

And so, for about a week now, we have been completely moved into our new home. And, we have been settled for about four days...but, we are well on our way, and are loving every minute of it!

Connecting the Past and Present

I recently realized with our new site and blog, that if you click around enough, you can get to something I started working on "way back" in 2006.

I've found that something I enjoying when I get some free time is writing. Whether talking about recent events, talking about our life, or just making up something creative I enjoy the art of taking thoughts and words together in writing. In 2006, I started my own little blog that is still out there to look at. It is called "Written Play Dough". What this represents is a place for me to take my thoughts from different sources and put them together in bits and pieces. It doesn't have to be significant or even complete, and sometimes it is just a matter of putting together writings from the past. It just gives me a place to do something I enjoy. It is kind of like play dough; but written. :-)

Now that I've remembered it, I hope to use it more often. If you'd like to check it out, feel free. I won't make you point and click to find it, so here it is http://writtenplaydough.blogspot.com.

Let me know if you enjoy it! I hope you find it is worth your time.