Bought it my sophomore year in high school for $2000 - Put on 309,000 miles sold it for $350. Couldn't have asked for a better car. I'm sad to see it go. One of the only vans most people have seen with a manual transmission and so full of memories. It still fired up and and I was able to drive it onto the tow trailer as my last time behind the wheel. Rest in Peace my Friend.
Since our last post we took a vacation to Florida and spent a few days in Miami. Then we went on a short two day cruise to the Bahamas and spent some time snorkeling over there and on the beach in the Bahamas. Then we returned to Miami for a few more days. While over there we met with My Aunt Sharron and Uncle Mike and took a tour of the Everglades and then just spent some time with them. It was a lot of fun to be with them for awhile. I survived without getting sunburned too. That was great!
Upon our return Allie went back to work at Liberty doing adjunct professor work for them there and I went back to my work again. It was sad to have to leave Florida because we enjoyed it so much, but at least we both like our Jobs. That is one great Blessing we have. Speaking of blessings, my van is still going strong at 306 thousand miles. Also we are on track to hopefully have our house paid off in August. So yeah, great things all around at the Dillinger household. Wish I could write more often, but things are just so busy. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this update.
I know we haven't updated this is a really long time. But the system we use to write blogs is making some changes and I had to write one to make sure everything was working ok with the new setup.
A lot has happened since our last post. But unfortunately I can't really write about all that. I don't have much time. But I will say we have been getting a lot of snow lately and its starting to get kind of annoying. So far we have been safe driving though. We are supposed to get some more again this weekend. We were planning on going to a friends house to watch the Superbowl. I hope the snow doesn't keep us locked in so we can't do that. Anyway, that all for now. This should be a good enough test post. =). Write more again sometime..
We finally have our new floors done. We have our house back again! We spent the weekend getting everything back in place from the ordeal. We have picture of the new floor and the process up to it here: New Floors. We are pretty happy with how it turned out.
Allie also got the pictures from our New York trip all edited and organized. So I'll try to get those up on the photo website here shortly. I guess thats all for now though.
I thought I would post again since it has been a really long time since our last one.
A couple things have happend around here since our last post. One big one is our kitchen hardwood floors started to pop up due to water damage (from a sink pipe breaking). So we have to compleatley replace our kitchen floors. I had some freinds from church come help me prep the kitchen for the guy to come in and install the new floors. We found out that the subfloor was starting to rot from the damage as well so we had to rip up three layers of floor to get to the main support joists and then re-lay 2 layers of plywood down to get it back up to the level of the rest of the floors. We finally got all the subfloor done but our house has been a huge mess because of it. Almost everythign that was in the kitchen had to be moved to the living room and then there has been dust everywhere from pulling up wood and replacing the floor. The guy comes in on Wednesday or Thursday to put the final hardwood down. Then we'll have our house back again. It has sure been a big ordeal though. Luckily the insurance helped pay for most of it.
We also went camping this past weekend with Scott and Angela. They are a couple our age from church. We really enjoy hanging out with them. The weather held out ok for us for the weekend as far as the rain is concerned, but it was really really cold. We had to layer up and stay by the fire a lot. We had a good time though. They also came with us to the Apple festival on Sunday with Allie's parents. It was over all a pretty fun weekend.
I'm sure a ton of other stuff has happend since our last post but those are the two big things that have taken up our energy the past few weeks. I'll be ready to have our house back again once our floors are fully finished. Allie has been enjoying her new Job and I still enjoy mine. Both of our cars are in working order. And we have good friends to hang out with. Even though it has been a busy and rough couple of weeks. We still have a lot to thank God for. All is well at the Dillinger house!
Hey everyone - it seems like its been a really long time since our last update. I have a few things worth updating about though. This weekend Allie's brother Sam is going to come up and stay with us. We are going to go to Kings Dominion on saturday too so that should be a lot of fun. It will be nice to just hang out with him for a few days. Allie is pretty excited about it too. Another exciting peice of news is that Allie may have a new Job. We are still waiting for everything to finalize but it looks really promising. Allie actually put in her two weeks notice at her current job already in anticipation of starting the week after next. The job is Adjunct Proffessor at Liberty working in the English Language Institue teaching the Foregin students English. Allie is really exited about that. She will finally be able to work a job that corresponds to what she studied in College. I'm really happy for her - I hope everything falls into place and that it works out.
As for me, I will be leaving to Seattle next week on Wednesday to attend Danny's Wedding. I'll be gone for about a week. I'm looking forward to seeing him and my family. So yeah - all kind of exciting things happening around the Dillinger Household this month. And then next Month Allie and I are going to New York for vacation too so thats one more thing to look forward to. So, anyway I think that covers just about everything. I'll try to update again after all this stuff happens and let you know how it went! Bye for now!
On Tuesday I found out that a local radio station was having a family night at Natural Bridge, VA. Natural Bridge is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World, and Jeremy had never seen. So we had a completely spontaneous date that was really fun. We got free hotdogs and drinks, and then for less than 2 dollars total, we were able to see the Bridge, the wax museum, and the toy museum. There was also a light show on the bridge after dark. The wax museum was pretty cool. The toy museum was kind of lame, but still fun. The light show was super corny and we had so much fun just trying not to laugh at it. But the bridge is beautiful, and we had such a good time doing that together, especially spontaneously on a Tuesday night!
Shoes
Yesterday I went to K-Mart to look at dining room furniture, and ended up looking at all the clearance clothes and shoes. K-Mart is not somewhere I shop for either of those things, but I did discover that they have a really cool new line of shoes, and they were all on clearance. I bought a cute pair of blue frilly flats, and then also a pair of eighties-style black and rainbow shoes. I really liked them, even though they weren't something I would normally wear, but I bought them anyways. Now I love them! Jeremy does not, however. He really liked the two simple polo shirts I bought. It kind of speaks of our personalities - I love change, fashion, and seeing what's new. He likes consistency, comfort, and simplicity. Both of those are reasons why we love each other. He is consistent, comforting, and down-to-earth, and that's why I love coming home to him every night. And he says I am beautiful "shoes and all". :-)
On the Darker Side . . .
Charlie
A couple of days ago, my parents' next-door neighbor and dear friend was in a serious car accident while driving a semi-truck. He is 79 years old and as sweet and generous as you can be. He has been like a surrogate father to my Poppa. The accident was very severe, and this morning at 8:00am Charlie passed away. His wife called to tell my mom. Charlie was at peace, and she is as well, but it is just so sad. What a horrible way to lose your husband. He was older, but very healthy. He did know the Lord, and I know that brings comfort. I do believe that God does not allow anything to happen that he will not use for greater good in the end. I also believe that oftentimes we don't see those results on earth. And I know his ways are higher than ours, and sometimes we just can't understand them. We should find comfort in this, but instead I find myself thinking of a widow going home to an empty bed. I am not angry at God (even though he could handle it), and I know Sue is at peace with the Lord as well. I am just reminded that every day is precious - you are never guaranteed how long you will be able to hold on to those you love. But I know that this day, I am going to go home and hold on very tightly to Jeremy.
Hello everyone! I know it's been a while since we've updated the blog. Jeremy wrote a quick not to tell you about the pictures but that was all. While we were at the beach we really had a great time. I grew up going to the beach for a week every summer and it's been about 5 years since I've been. It was so, so great to go. We took a half-day off on Friday. The drive was ok. We were just so excited. We drove through this town in the middle of nowhere called "Crewe" and it was cool because every fire hydrant on their main street was painted in some sort of artistic fashion. When we got there we checked in to our hotel, which was really nice. Then we went out to eat at this place called "Tautog's". It was really, really good seafood, although I liked Jeremy's better than mine. Well, while we were there it started pouring. Like, seriously pouring. We got soaked just walking to our car. So we went back to the hotel room and discovered our roof was leaking all over the anniversary gift and card I got Jeremy, so he got to open that early. The rain started letting up so we decided to walk to 7-Eleven to get a couple of things that we needed. Turns out, the 7-Eleven wasn't where we thought it was, and while we were out it started pouring again, so we took a completely soaking walk in the rain. It was fun though. The next day we wanted to walk down the boardwalk. There was a huge beach sports tournament going on, which was kind of crazy. We ended up walking the entire boardwalk and back, which was six miles. It was fun!!! It was cold when we left but by the time we were halfway through it got hot, so when I took off my sweatshirt I got some really bad sunburn on my shoulders. Oh well. Later that day we went to the Cape Henry Lighthouse, which was really cool because Jeremy had never been in a lighthouse before. That was a lot of fun. Then we drove through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, which is this really awesome underwater tunnel that I used to love driving through when I was little. In the middle there was a pier for deep sea fishing and we watched people catch sharks and sting rays, which was really cool. We then came back and went out for a really nice dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, which was amazing! The next day we spent the day on the beach reading and walking and playing frisbee. Jeremy DID have sunscreen on, but I think it washed off and also just wasn't strong enough for how pale he was. But I didn't let him out without sunscreen, so don't worry. Not that it helped - he got second degree burns on his feet. They didn't start hurting until we got home that night though. We did take him to the doctor but she didn't really do anything for him. He's been off his feet since then, which has been kind of rough, but he is getting better now. Other than that, we really had a great anniversary!
My brother Dan is coming to spend the weekend with us today, and I am so excited! We're taking him to a baseball game and maybe to Putt Putt or something. It will be fun.
There's more I could say, but that's all I'm gonna write for now. Talk to you later!
Hey Everyone - Just wanted to write a quick note to say I have new pictures online now of Allie and my trip to Virginia Beach for our one year Anniversary. We had a great time! Its been really busy around here lately though. I got second degree sunburn on my feet while in VA beach so after getting back I couldn't do much and Allie and to take over a lot of the responsibilities around here. So she has been really busy. She has done a great job doing what needs to be done though. I really appreciate her! So yeah, if you want to see those pictures you can view them here: VA Beach Photos - be sure to check out the pictures of my awsome sunburn! Bye for now!
Hey everyone - It turned out to be a pretty nice day today so Allie and her mom are outside doing some gardening along our driveway. They are going to plant some flowers and mulch along there too. It should look pretty good. I was able to mow the lawn today too so the yard work is coming along well. Im looking forward to Having the monday off work too. Allie and I don't really have any plans for it yet but just the thought of it is nice. I had another softball game on Thursday and our team had to play two games. We ended up winning the first game but the second game we tied. We even went extra innings but it ended up getting dark and late so we just left it as a tie. I had fun though! Anyway just thought I would write again since it has been awhile. Not sure what else to update on though. For the most part things have been pretty routine around here. Its been good though! Thats it for now!
Well - Its been over a month now since our last blog. Sorry about that. Its been so long now I don't even know what to report on. I am on a softball team now. I play Thursday nights on a team with my work. Its been pretty fun. Last weekend Allie and I went down to North Carolina to spend sometime with Allie's family down there. It was both her dad's and her brother Sam's birthday. That was pretty fun. Last night I had a freind from church come over and help me work on a problem with my van. It wasn't registering the oil pressure right so my Engine light would keep coming on. Turns out it was just a small $12 part that we replaced and it fixed it so that was pretty nice. I made plans to go home to Seattle for a few days in Around Aug 15th. Because my best friend Danny is getting married that weekend. I'll be going by myself though since it will be so short and it would be too much time off work for Allie this year if she came. Its sad that she can't go but I am looking forward to spending some time with Danny again. I guess for the most part things around the Dillinger household are pretty routine though. Both of us are still just working and then we manage to find ways to stay busy in the evenings too. Over all things are well. I guess thats all I really have for now. Hope to write again soon!
Hello everyone! Jeremy wanted me to write a blog again. The past couple of weeks have been a lot of fun. We went down to visit my dad and family two weekends ago and to celebrate Maureen's and my birthday (they are two days apart). My present was to get to go see Fiddler on the Roof at the Durham Perfoming Arts center. This play starred Topol, the man who originally played Tevya in the film. It was his farewell tour, and it was amazing! Such a cool thing to see. My mom and pop have been out of town for about a week, so Jeremy and I had last weekend to ourselves. We watched some movies and just had a lot of fun. He had a long meeting at the church, and during that time I deep-cleaned the house and took Maggie for a spa day. Really, I took her to Petsmart and had them thoroughly groom her, which is nice every once in a while. She seemed to enjoy herself. :-) This past weekend we bought a deep freezer! We had a tiny freezer in our fridge, and you can save so much money by buying meat in bulk, so we did. We went to Sam's and bought enough meat to last us at least a month, maybe more. Very exciting. Yesterday we went to lunch, went to some open houses just for fun, and then went to ice cream, all with mom and pop, and that was fun. Now we are both at work lamenting the cold front that came through on the heals of a beautiful weekend. Oh well.
Allie's birthday is tomorrow!!! =) Its always fun to celebrate Allie. We had a party for her over at the Donnebergs on Monday and a few of her friends and the family were there. It was a nice little party for her. Then yesterday evening I took her out to dinner for her birthday dinner. We tried a new restaraunt called benjamins cows and crabs. It was a pretty decent little place. We both got a platter of thier cows and crabs. Tomorrow is her actual birthday but she has a womens bible study tomorrow night so we weren't able to really do anything on her actual B-day. But then this weekend we are going down to her Dad's house in NC so they can also celebrate her birthday so she will get three parties for herself. She deserves it though.. =) Anyway it had been a really long time since I posted something so I thought I would make an update. Hopefully we'll write more later!
Hey look! It finally let me log in so I could write a blog.
So as Jeremy said, two weeks ago we were both really sick with the flu. No stomach issues, just fever, weakness, and horrible cold symptoms. It was miserable both being really sick, because we were pretty much helpless. We lived on crackers and water for three days. Lol. Anyways, we were both still kind of stuffy and had coughs last week but felt better. And this week Jeremy feels fine. But on Saturday night my throat started hurting and Sunday I felt awful. I ended up with a fever again, and I have so much congestion and/or drainage that I am literally having a hard time talking because I can't get sound past the junk in my sinuses. So yeah, real fun. At least the fever is gone now.
Over the weekend we went to a 2-year-old's birthday party. That was a lot of fun and we enjoyed watching all the little kids run around and play in the homemade cardboard fort that Mindy and Thomas (the parents) had made. Saturday we drove down to my dad's because my brother Sam is going to Greece on a Pilgrimage with their church, and they were raising money through a silent auction. We got a few things, but the stuff I wanted the most I didn't end up winning. That was sad. But we still had a lot of fun (until I got sick). Sunday morning we left really early and drove back to VA to make it back in time for church. Jeremy is leading small group this week so we had to be there. After church was a missions lunch, and that was fun but I felt horrible so I was ready to go home and take a nap. So we did. Then we got back up and enjoyed a party for a friend. Then sleep.
Basically we are both working this week and keeping busy with other stuff too. I had a fun date-night with my Poppa last night. We went to dinner and to see the movie "7 Pounds." It was a really good movie, but definitaly not what I was expecting. You have to prepare yourself before you go see it (but do go see it!)
I've been really sick since Sunday Afternoon. Monday and Tuesday were the worst days and my tempurature was up to 102.4 most of the day. I wasn't able to go to work at all this week yet. I'm going to try to make it tomorrow though. I slept most of the day for my birthday so that just blew right by. Allie had some plans all setup for a party for me but we had to post pone that. I got allie sick too so we were both having a rough time. Our dog feels left out too. Neither of us have felt well enough to take her for a walk in the past three days. She is excersise deprived and she's been pretty anxious too. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to get her out for a walk. Anyway just wanted to update you all. I'll try to write more later once I'm feeling better. Bye for now!
Hello everyone! Hope you all had a great Christmas. We had a good time at my Dad's house for Christmas. It was fun to spend time with everyone there. On the 26th we went down to Atlanta with Becca and visited Jeremy's grandparents, some of his family, and his mom. It was good for me to be able to meet more of his family and we had a fun time. We went to the Coke factory, and that was fun. I tried all the sodas. The Beverly was the worst, the European gingerale was the best foreign soda, and it was so good to drink a Fresca again (whatever happened to Fresca anyways?) We came home for two days. We celebrated New Year's with some friends of ours who had just gotten married. We played board games and had homemade pizza for dinner - that was fun. Then the next day we celebrated Christmas with my mom and pop, and that was a lot of fun too. It was weird to leave Christmas and "go home" though. The next day we went back to my dad's to watch my brothers while my Dad and stepmom went to Hawaii. They had a great time and it was their first vacation just the two of them in 17 years! We had fun with the boys too. We're finally back home for a while now. I am finishing up painting our living room. It's a really pretty cappuccino color with green trim. I rearranged the furniture too. I really like it, but Jeremy isn't sold - he doesn't like change much. Maybe he'll come around eventually. That would be nice. Our big plans for the night are to finish the living room and watch American Idol. We'll keep you posted!
Hey All! I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope everyone will be able to reflect on what this time really represents. This time is about the birth of Christ and not about santa clause or getting "stuff". Use this season to spread the joy of the true meaning of Christmas!
Allie and I have plans to head down to North Carolina for Christmas to spend a few days with Allie's Dad down there. After Christmas my sister is going to meet us down there and we'll drive a little further south to Atlanta. My mom is going to be coming to the east coast to visit with her parents down there so We'll make the trip down there to visit them also. It should be fun. I never was into long car rides though so I'm not really looking forward to that part of it. But it should be worth it. This will be Allie and my first Christmas together as a family so that is pretty exciting also.
Yesterday evening Allie went and spend some time with the "ladies" at her moms house. Becca and Brittany where there also. I'm not sure all what they did but it sounds like they had fun. While they were doing that Chuck and RJ and I went to the movies to see "Eagle Eye". I thought it was a pretty good movie. There was a lot more language then I expected though and it was kind of distracting in some parts but the storyline was a good concept. Anyway thats all for now from me. Merry Christmas everyone!
Hello everyone! This is Allie again - Jeremy doesn't have much time to write blogs so I decided I'd write another.
This past weekend, my mom and I went to Connecticut for a friend's wedding. We left early on Saturday morning and stopped in Hershey, PA. I've decided I really like Pennsylvania. It's pretty and there are a lot of decent sized cities (versus Virginia, where it's pretty, but all the good cities are in the north). Hershey was fun - I finished my Christmas shopping and bought myself some clothes. Mom and I ate at a Red Robin, which I've decided I don't like. It's the second time I went and my burger was pink - gross.
When we got into New York we realized that I had made a mistake with directions, and our route was about to take us through New York City. THAT was crazy! Of course we got there at 6:30 p.m. on a Saturday, so everyone and their mom was coming in to the city. All those movies you see with New York drivers honking their horns and cutting you off and driving completely illegally - all true. I have a whole new appreciation for mom's ability to drive. At one point we were in a tunnel and a car crashed into a truck directly in front of us. So then three lanes of traffic had to reduce to one, and mom had to push her way into oncoming traffic when no one wanted to let her in. That was scary, but God got us through it all.
Jackie's wedding was beautiful and I'm so glad that we went. I'll put some pictures up soon. We sat with some people I knew and had some good conversation and that was fun. On the way back we stayed in Scranton, PA, which is where my favorite TV show, The Office, is set, so that was cool. It's a nice city and we did more shopping there. We got back about 8 last night.
While I was gone, Jeremy hung Christmas lights on the porch, fixed someone's computer, did the dishes, slept, played with Maggie, watched movies, and slept some more. That was the longest we've been apart since we've been married. **sniff**
In other news I'm getting a wisdom tooth removed on Thursday. And that's all. Adios!
So, how do you like the new website? We decided we would turn Jeremy’s old personal website into a new family website. Jeremy did all the hard, technical work of switching it over, and I did all the fun, artsy work of designing it. Pretty cool, huh?
Life is good. We are still enjoying Maggie (whom I like to call Maggie-Noodle-Puppy-Doodle-Fuzz-Butt). She has definitely chosen Jeremy as her favorite person. I guess we have the same taste in men.
Our most recent house “project” has been killing the mice who have eaten 5 loaves of bread, a whole bag of chips, much candy, and other assorted mouse delicacies since they decided to move in. We finally trapped them. Yay!
We had a fun Thanksgiving – we spent it at my parent’s house, and there were about 16 of us total. We’ll be traveling a lot around Christmas-time: North Carolina, Georgia, and my mom and I are going to Connecticut next weekend for a friend’s wedding.
Well, that’s really it for now. Hopefully we can keep you updated a little more often now.
Hey Everyone - since my last post Allie and I ended up finding a Dog. Allie was looking at some of the animal shelters online and she found one she liked in Roanoke. So we ended up driving down there a couple weekends ago and met her. We both really liked her so we brought her home with us. They say she is part Collie and part boxer. I have pictures up on my website now at www.jerdill.com/photos. She is sitting here next to me right now as I type this post. Her name is Maggie, that was the name she came with from the shelter but it was one of the names we really liked anyway while we were decided on a name for the dog that just ran away. So that worked out really nicely. Anyway Maggie wore herself out today. We brought her to a nearby park and let her off the leash to run around and play. She is really good at coming when we call her so she was able to run and play all over the place. She drank like her whole bowl of water after she was done though. She had a good time though. She has been really good so far. We had a few issues with her chewing stuff though. We decided we probably shouldn't leave her unattended in the house for too long. So we got her a little crate that she can stay in if we leave her in the house. The dog run I have setup for her outside works really well for her too. I think she likes us back too. It is fun having a dog around the house.
Anyway last night for halloween Allie and I stayed at home to pass out candy for kids that might come around and trick-or-treak. We bought a whole bunch of candy. Turns out we only had 6 kids show up. But they came in packs of three so only counted as two knocks on the door. It was a little disappointing. It was a pretty relaxing evening though so that was nice.
Well theres not really too much else going on around her recently so I guess I'll be done for now. But I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures of Maggie!
Hey all - almost another month has past since my last update. Life has been really busy recently though. Allie and I both go to bed really tired when its time for bed. I can't really think of anything specific that we have going on, but it just seems like there is always a lot to do. We have been looking for a new dog for the last few weeks. I don't think I ever blogged about it but we had one for about a day but then it ended up running away. We chased it for about 2 hours but it would never come. We lost track of it crossing a road and we haven't seen it since. It was really sad. Now we have been looking around for one that we like again. Also I ended up getting transferred to the other building at work. I'm getting used to the whole parking thing and I'm starting to settle in now I think. Over all life is doing well - we've just been staying busy doing all kinds of "life" stuff. We are having fun though. This weekend Allie and I are going to an apple festival with her parents and a few other friends. The weather is looking like it will be a clear day for that so that should be a good time. Anyway, thats all I'll write for now. I need to start getting ready for bed. Night!
I can't beleive it has been a month now since my last post. Sorry I haven't kept this thing updated like I would like. A lot has happend over the past month. For one I was able to get the Deck completed with the railing. We even ended up getting patio furnature to put on it and had an deck initiation party a couple weeks ago by having some people over for a cook out. We also have a little fire pit on the deck too so we sat out there and roasted marshmallows one night also. It was pretty fun. I have pictures of the deck online on my website now you can seem them here: jerdill.com/photos I was even able to get the steps built on the back part of the deck that the pictures don't show yet.
My next project to work on now is on side of the house I am going to try and build a dog run of some kind. It will just be a little fenced area where we can put a dog. Allie and I are planning on getting one of those pretty soon. I'm looking forward to doing that. I already have a 36ft span of fence up. Now I just have to get both ends of the fence built but I plan on putting a gate on the ends so we can walk though and not have to go around all the time. I have to figure out the best way to do that.
The past two weeks Becca has been out of town back in Seattle visiting family. This weekend Allie and I are down in North Carolina with her family so we can go and pick Becca up from the airport again. She should be getting back into town around 7:00 tonight.
I also found out that at my work they are going to need to transfer me to work at the other building downtown to fill in for someone that is changing departments. I really liked working at the building I am at right now so I am sad I'll have to move. At the new building the parking isn't all that great so I'll have to park like three blocks away. So I'm not really looking forward to that move. At least I love my job in General so I can't really complain too much. I'll actuall be making the move on Oct. 6th.
Also I want to say Happy Birthday to my Grandma! It was her birthday on Wednesday. So Happy B-Day Grandma! Love you!
Ok - well thats all I think I'll write for now. Hope I remember to write again soon!
A couple weeks has passed now since my last post. A couple of things have happend since then. I was able to get the floor of the deck completed. All that is left now for it is the railing. We might be able to get it completed sometime this Saturday I hope. We also got a new TV for our living room. We upgraded from a really tiny 19incher to a 32. It fills the entertainment center a little better now. I like it. Thing at work have been pretty normal for both Allie and I. There really isn't all that much to report on from that. This week Allie is working the early shift though so she has to wake up at 5am every day this week. I think she likes that better in a way though because she gets to be off by 2 and have most of the afternoon left to do stuff. This past weekend Allie and I went down to Durham, NC to visit Allie's dad and family down there. It was the first time we had seen them since the wedding. We had a pretty good time and it was fairly relaxing. Then last week Allie, Becca, Alison and I went swimming at a local pool here in Lynchuburg. Its the first time Allie and I have been swimming it quite some time. It was actually pretty fun. the water was kind of cold though. It wasn't quite hot enough outside to make it comfortable. We had a good time anyway. Over all not much has really happend around here though. Pretty typical for the most part. We just got back this evening from haning out with some friends of our (Pete and Julie) we went out to dinner at Jazz Street Grill. That was a pretty good time. Anyway, I guess that is all I can think to write about now. Bye for now.
Hey It's me again. I'm sure most of you have forgotten about me its been so long since my last post. Sorry about that. Things at the Dillinger household have been going pretty well though. We have a new project we are working on at the house now. We are trying to get a new deck built out the back of the house. Thats taken quite a bit of work so far. Allie and Becca have also painted the kitchen and that took about a week for them to get that done. It really looks good now though, they did a nice job.
We also got our professional wedding pictures back now. I've put them up on the website now www.jerdill.com/photos Take a look!
This weekend Allie and I are going up to Harrisonburg, VA for my friend Jonathan's wedding. I'm a groomsman in his wedding. That should be pretty fun. Sorry I haven't written anything in so long but I guess we've just been pretty busy around here and I haven't had a chance.
Anyway I still have some more stuff I need to do so this is all I can write for now. But in the meantime enjoy our new pictures!
Well, yesterday marked Allie and my one month anniversary. So far so good with the marriage thing. I'm really enjoying it, both of us are having a great time. We are both working full time now and have established a pretty good routine. It took us awhile at first to get that working. After getting back from our Honeymoon it seems like everybody has a computer problem recently. I've been working on people's computers a lot since I got back. So that has taken up a lot of time and stuff. But Allie and I are still able to hang out in the evenings and just relax a lot also. But it has been great so far. The Month has flown right by.
Over the Independence Day Allie had to work in the morning and I went over to the church for awhile that day to help work on a project they were doing there. After Allie got off work we went shopping for a BBQ Grill. We ended up finding one at Home Depot that was a good price and seems like it will fit our needs pretty well. That evening Becca came over and we watched a movie and then set off a few fireworks that I had bought. We didn't really do anything big on the 4th itself because we planned on going to the Lake for the Independence Day celebration that was on Saturday.
So Saturday morning Allie and I slept in for awhile and just had a leisurely morning. I used some of that time to put together the BBQ Grill. I didn't get it quite finished though by the time we had to leave for the lake. But the day at the lake was pretty fun. We got there around 6:00 that evening and met up with Becca and her friend there. There was a band that was there playing music (that was pretty bad) and a car show and stuff. Mostly we just sat around and watched people until the fireworks show started at 9:30. There were some guys out on one boat that were flirting with some girls on the shore and eventually they swam to shore to talk them into coming over to the boat with them. After some back and forthing stuff they finally agreed to go over to a dock where they could get on the boat without having to get wet. That was a rather entertaining thing to watch. Anyway the fireworks were very good and we had a great spot to sit to watch them. We had a good time. We didn't get back home until pretty late that evening though and I still had to get up early for church that morning.
Sunday was Jo's Birthday and after church we went over to Thier house for awhile and celebrated that. We then went to Lunch at Ledo's Pizza and returned to thier house for dessert. We just played some games and things though the day and just spent some time together. I think Jo had a great time doing that. I had to leave around 9:00 that evening though to meet someone so I could do some work with thier computer. After he left Allie and I pretty much went to bed right away.
Monday was a pretty typical day for us. Both of us had to work and then we just came home that evening and worked on a few things around the house and watched some stuff on my laptop. We were going to try to make dinner on the new Grill but it was raining pretty bad so we didn't end up doing that. If it stays nice outside tonight though we may actually be able to cook on it. We'll see what happens.
Ok well thats all I'm going to write for now. I know it has been awhile since I updated so I just wanted to write a quick one. Knowing how its been going recenly it will probably be another couple weeks before I write another one. But you never know.. I might remember sooner this time. I guess we'll see. Anyway, Bye for now!
I finally had a chance to organize some of my pictures and video from the Wedding and the Honeymoon. I am still waiting to receive some more wedding pictures so only part of those are in the collection currently. I'll update my website with new ones as I get them.
I'll try to write a blog about the trip and stuff a little later. Still trying to get caught up with stuff around here. Hopefully won't be too long before I get around to that. Have fun with the pictures!
Tomorrow is my big day! The last few weeks have been busy and my family and friends have arrived into town to celebrate with me. So far so good and the plans are coming along well. I can hear the wedding bells ringing already. I'm ready for it!
Just wanted to write a quick blog because I probably won't have a chance to write one while on the Honeymoon. I'm pretty excited though, hope I can still get a good nights sleep. Night!
This week things at work have been pretty crazy. Monday through Wednesday were pretty crazy days. I was rushing around all over the place to get stuff done. By thursday things calmed down a little better though. That was nice too because I was able to get off work a little early that day to head down to North Carolina to watch Allie's Brothers play baseball games. Both of them had games that night. Also during that day Allie and I went to the aviary where our wedding will take place and brought some of the people helping us out with the wedding so they could see what it was like and get an idea of what to do. Anyway, the trip down to NC went pretty smoothly but Allie's wheel alignment got really off about half way down. It was pulling to the right a lot. Her alignment has been off for awhile and she just hasn't had a chance to get it looked into yet. Anyway I was driving the trip down and we made it there safely in time to watch the boy's games. Both of them lost thier games but it was still fun to watch them be able to play. We ended up leaving the ball fields around 9:00 and headed back home. I was going to let Allie drive the way back because I was already pretty sleepy and afraid I would doze off driving. So on home we went. About 15 minutes into driving the car shutters and shakes and makes a really loud noise near the front drivers side. I was just telling Allie about how if the alignment was off that bad it could also be a bent axle or something and we wouldn't want to wait any longer to have it looked into and needed to do that the next day. So when this happend Allie thought her axle had broke or something and kind of froze at the wheel. I had to grab the wheel and kind of direct the car over to the shoulder to get off the road. Turns out that the front driver side wheel had blown out. It wasn't just flat either.. it was shredded. It also took the wheel well plastic off some too and it was all torn up also. I tried to check to see if she had all the stuff required to change her tire but it was 10:00 at night and it was really dark. I wasn't sure where to look either. I tried under the car and in the trunk but couldn't find it. So we actually were just going to call Triple A and have them tow us. But since it was so late at night on a weekend AAA wasn't able to find any drivers that could take us back to Lynchburg. The lady told us she would look around to see if she could find someone outside of the normal network that could take us. Meanwhile we waited for her to call back I decided to make another attempt at looking. After sitting in the dark for awhile my eye may have adjusted a little better and I ended up finding a little string coming from the floor of her car's trunk. So I pulled on it and the floor came up and there was a spare tire under it. I dug around a little more and found a jack and the lug nut wrench also. So Here it was now around 10:30 at night by now and I'm out on the side of the road trying to change a tire in the dark. I also had to try to rip off the torn up wheel well plastic because it was hanging around and would fall on the tire and stuff. I was able to get the top peice off so it wasn't on the tire at least but the edge peices I wasn't able to get off right there in the dark. But anyway, It was a pretty rough chore but we finally got it done and were on our way back. The spare tire was really low on air though so we had to find a gas station with an air pump available at it. It was like 10 minutes of driving before we actually came to one though. It felt like forever though. At the gas station I was able to pull into the lighted area and check otu the wheel well part. Turns out there were two bolts holding the remainder parts on and I didn't have any tools to take it off with. But Turns out there was a couple there getting gas and I asked if he happend to have any plyers I could try to work the bolts off with. He actually had a socket wrench with the right size socket so I was able to get the bots off in just a minute or two with that. It was great to come across those people. They were really nice too. We also pumped up the tire to a good level and headed the rest of the way home. I had to drive somewhere between 45-50ish the whole way back though because it was just a spare tire and we weren't sure if there was a problem with her axle still. By the time we finally got home it was around 2:30 in the morning. I still had to be at work the next day also. So friday was a little bit of a rough day for me. We also had to get Allie's car looked at that day also. She was going to need a new tire for sure but we ended up trying to just replace all four. I called my regular car maintence place to get a quote on everything. Chuck also called around to try and find some used tires we could get her for cheaper. That guy is one good shopper too, I'll tell you what. He was able to find four almost new tires for her at about 1/3 the price of what they would have been new. And then he offered to buy all four tires for her as well! What a great future father in law! It was really great to be able to save some money with that. I was still at work while all that was going on but by the time my lunch break came they were finished with the tires and we still had to take her car to the shop to get the alignment fixed and have them check the axle also. So I left for lunch and met up with Allie at the Car shop so we could drop off her car. We then grabbed some food and I took her home and I went back to work for the rest of the day. It was good that it was a pretty slow day on friday because I was so tired that day. After work I picked up Allie again and we went back to pick up her car again. Turns out the axle was fine but both the front and rear alignment was off. Hopefully her car will be happy now and run great for us for awhile. So anyway the end of the week last week turned out be be pretty crazy for us.
On Saturday Allie and I went to work some more on the house. The chore for me that day was to get the office setup and arranged how I wanted it. That was no easy task though as we had a lot of desk stuff and furnature to get in that room. I was finally able to get it setup how I liked it and start bringing stuff into it. That turned out to be a full day project. On Sunday I went ot chruch in the morning as usual but then we were back at the house again that afternoon to continue the setup of the house. That afternoon we setup a new hutch in the dinning room and brought the peice that it replaced over to my apartment because it was something Becca was going to want to use. That went pretty smoothly for the most part. And opened up the kitchen at the house with some more space so we could finally move around again in there. I also spent part of the day getting the shed all cleaned up as well. I was again over at the house that day until late getting everythign organized best I could.
I am really glad that Today was a holiday for me. We really got a lot of stuff done today at the house. Things are starting to come together now really well. I move almost everything of mine now out of the apartment and was able to get various shelves setup around the house. I setup a shelf for my books in the office and one in the laundry room. I worked on getting everything int he office a place for itself and that is just about done now too. Allie spent her day getting the living room and kitchen cleaned up and in order also. I had also picked up a window fan unit for the office because that room has started to get really hot during the day. I got that installed as well and it seemed to be helping a good bit. I also organized all the bins in the shed and everything is now labeled and stacked by category. By 6:00 or so it was cool enough outside to try to get some outside work done also. I got the lawn mowed and weed whipped some areas around the house. I also trimmed the bushes and some of the brush along the side of our yard. Becca was a huge help today in that area also as she pulled weeds and did some general yard cleanup. She also came behind and cleaned up all the brush I was cutting back. It was really nice to have her around to help today. I was going to try to get my car washed today but that didn't actually happen. Too much other stuff was going on. But man we got sooo much accomplished today. The house is looking like a home again now and there won't be too much more left to do now other then small little things. I might be able to finally get my car washed sometime this week.
Anyway it is really late now and I should really get ready for bed now. It has been a really long day and I'm pretty sore now. I was tired all day Friday at work and I will probalby still be tired at work tomorrow again. I hope things are still a little on the slow side so I can recoupe some. Ok, well thats it for now. Night!
Man a lot has happened around here since my last post. Allie had her graduation and was able to make the walk to get her diploma. Her family came up from NC for that day also to be there for her. After the graduation that day we had a private graduation party for Allie at our Mosaic Church. We had invited a decent number of people but not very many people were able to make it in the end. It was pretty sad. I think there were only about 15 people. I think she still managed to have a good time though. It was nice to just celebrate her and her accomplishments. I gave her a message in a bottle gift with a note inside of it for her she really seemed to like it. After her graduation the next big project was to help Becca find a place to stay when she moved out of the house. After a lot of looking on her part she just decided that she would go ahead and move in with me until the wedding and take over my lease afterwards. So the past couple of weeks have been filled with all the stuff related to her moving out. The girls had to spend a good long time cleaning the apartment after my roommate moved out so they could get it to feel like a home again. There was quite a bit of stuff that needed to be cleaned up, that’s for sure. So most of the first week was cleaning up the place. Then, Becca spent pretty much every evening last week packing and getting stuff moved over to my apartment. My apartment right now has boxes and random things all over the place. Its going to be a hard two weeks trying to figure out how to kind of move my stuff out but still having to live at the apartment until we get married. I’m not sure what I will need and what I should get rid of. Also during that time Becca can’t really unpack much of her stuff either because she will want to move everything and officially set up in the room I am in now. So its going to be a chore to get all this stuff worked out. Meanwhile things at work have picked up quite a bit. It seems like every single day last week was a full throttle day. I had so much stuff to get done and not enough day to do it in. This week is starting to look like its going to happen again. Allie also has a busy couple of weeks coming up. She has all of the final wedding plans to work out over these weeks as well as get the house setup like we want it to be. She want to be able to paint the bedroom, kitchen and living room as well so that will be done before we start organizing furniture and stuff. There is just a lot of stuff going on right now. It was kind of difficult to even find time to write this blog, I’ve been so far behind on it because of everything that has been going on I decided I really needed to make some time to do it. So anyway that is my quick update… I’m out of time though and need to get back to working on stuff. I’ll write more later!
This week has all kinds of excitement stuff in it. Over the weekend I was down in NC visiting Allie's family down there. It was her dad and brothers birthday so we made the trip down to celebrate with them. We had a pretty good time. We were going to try to get back in time for Allie to go to play with a friend sunday evening but that didn't end up working out and she was really disappointed about that. But there is another showing of it Tomorrow (Thursday) so I offered to take her then. I think she is excited about that. Monday night we had our second to last Pre-marital counceling session. We pretty much just went over logistic type stuff for the wedding as far as how the ceremony will flow and where to put what and stuff. It was pretty good. I think we got it Pinned down for the most part. Last night we met with our Wedding DJ and got all the songs organized and the when and wheres of everything as far as the music was concerned. That went pretty smoothly also. Allie also made some really great brownies {:o). Tonight I was on my own for the most part I had a bunch of errands to run and then went to a play that some girls in my church were a part of. That was fun, I had to leave a little early though to finish running the errands and stuff. This week at work has been really crazy too. I've been running around a lot with little projects and stuff this week. It is kind of nice to be busy though. Friday and Saturday we will be doing the Graduation celebration for Allie. That will be fun and I know she is glad to be done! Saturday after her cermony at the school we will have our own little private party for her with some of her freinds and family also. That should be a good time. So this is defanantly a pretty big week for her. Also today marks the One Month mark until our wedding. Now its pretty much countdown time. I can finally feel it a little bit closer. Thats it for now.. Its Me signing off.
