Whats New With The Okies?

Howdy from Oklahoma!

So, once again I have been a slacker and it has been a very long time since I have blogged. Well, better late than never I guess! :-)

Well, I guess the biggest thing that has been going on with us is the new business. We have now changed our name to "Pets N' Pads". We are a pet sitting and house cleaning business serving Norman, OK and surrounding areas. Our website is petsnpads.com, take a look :-) We are trading house cleaning and pet sitting with a wonderful man who is branding our company. He owns a marketing business called BraveMatters, and we are so blessed to have him on our team! We have also hired an employee because we are getting busier and busier! We have seen God work in so many ways through this business. We know that every new client we get, is not because of our efforts alone, God is a the reason for the success of our business.

We are still not sure what the future hold for us past May of 2010. Dan will be done with his Masters, and hopefully starting a new job in May. We have not a clue as to where we will be moving, but we are trusting in the Lord and not stressing out about it. We would like to move back to the North East, and would LOVE to move back to either NH or ME, but we will see what God has in store for us! When we move, I am planning on re establishing my business wherever we may go. Hopefully we will move to a populated place, where this business will flourish.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving next week! This will be our second Thanksgiving with just the two of us. We are trying to think of more traditions to start this year. We already know that every year, the day after Thanksgiving is the day we will pick out our Christmas tree and decorate the house. Besides that, we have nothing. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Here are a few pictures from our portrait session with a great photographer here in Norman:

Here are some pictures we promised :-)

This is our backyard:
Our home :-)
Our bathroom:
Washer/Dryer area:

Our Kitchen:

There will be more to come! We have redone the bedroom, living room, and office :-)

Dan and Duke:

Dan and Daisy:

Life In Oklahoma

Hey all!

It has been WAY too long since we have updated this thing...So Sorry :-( Anyways, we have a lot to tell, so I hope you have some time!

I guess the first thing that we did after the last blog is our Valentine's Day celebration. We went to a Bed and Breakfast called "The Cutting Garden". It was great and Dan ordered the "romance" package :-) We had the only room with an outdoor jacuzzi and we had sparkling cider, chocolates, flowers, as well as a great breakfast in our room consisting of Belgian waffles, eggs, bacon, fruit and juice. We had a great time and would recommend anyone going there!

Soon after that, we bought a new car. We purchased a 2008 Hyundai Accent. We got ripped off and ended up paying WAY more than we should of, but we still love it :-) It has no A/C so we have to deal with a summer of torture, but we will have someone put one in for next summer for sure!

Something else that we did was try to purchase a house. With the new stimulus package for first time home buyers we thought "what better time than now?!". We ended up finding a house we loved, here in Norman and our offer was accepted. We were ready to close and a bunch of things happened that forced us to give it up. Meanwhile, we already had a closing date, so we filed for the stimulus money, not knowing we wouldn't get the house. Well, after it was all said and done we figured out just why all of this happened the way it had. I ended up getting let go ON MY BIRTHDAY from the nanny job that I had in OKC. My employers were not able to afford me anymore due the stinky economy. So I came home all sad, but that didn't last long! The same week, we received our tax rebates and the money we filed for the house came also! We really had no idea what we were going to do about our lack of money coming in, but now we knew! God knew exactly what was going to happen, so we believe that us putting an offer on the house and then not getting it, but receiving the money was God's way of providing for us. We were able to survive until I got a new nanny job and we will be paying the money back in Sept. :-) God is GOOD!

Between me getting let go, and getting a new job, a lot happened. Dan finished his first year of his Masters with a 4.0! Like that's a shocker haha. I also started a new business which consists of many services such as Pet sitting, House Sitting, House cleaning, Concierge services etc. It rocketed right away! We slowly started getting less and less business, and now we are in a lull. I had to get a job on top of the business in order to support us, so I applied for a nanny position here in Norman. I am now a nanny for a Doctor (mother) and a programmer (father). I watch the sweetest baby in the whole world and love it. His name is Nick and he was only 4 weeks old when I started. I enjoy it, but at the same time it makes my want for a baby grow more and more. It was tough on me at first, but I had to remind myself that God's timing is perfect and that when it happens, it happens :-) As of this moment, my business is getting better! We have acquired 3 new house cleaning clients! My employee and best girlfriend Sheila is taking the brunt of the work as or right now. The plan is to get the business busy enough so that both Sheila and I can be supported. God will provide.

This summer has been full of storm chasing with no luck :-(. We have been everywhere! We have been over almost all of Oklahoma (including the pan handle) as well as northern Texas and pan handle with no such luck. We saw plenty of storms with crazy wind, hail, and wall clouds, but that's about it. We did enjoy the ride most of the time, so it was not a waist :-) We have also been to the Wichita Mountains a couple of times. They are def. not mountains like New England, but they are mountains haha. They have an animal reserve there where they have free range longs horn, buffalo, prairie dogs, elk, and deer (probably more), It is a great place!

We also have moved out of our old apartment into a house. We live on a dead end( we're the last house) and 25 ft from the rail road tracks! You may think we are crazy, but you really get used to the trains and they almost become soothing!! We now have a backyard for the pups, and the cats love going outside! We are all around much happier here and are very blessed :-)

I guess the only thing recently is we had our 2 year anniversary and it was GREAT! Dan made me a WONDERFUL dinner and dessert. He is the best husband in the whole world :-) We had a great day/night and can't wait to have many more anniversaries!

Sorry about the lack of pictures, but we promise to post them soon! I hope everyone is doing well and we miss you all!

It's been forever!

Hello all!

Sorry, it has been SO long since we updated this! We have had a lot going on. So here is the update:

Well we now have 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 guinea pigs, and 4 fish :-). Daisy and Duke are best friends now and we love watching them play! Daisy is a year old now and is keeping Duke young. She is quite the watch dog, thinking she is just as big as Duke(maybe bigger!).



We now have Zoe, Smokey and a new addition named Tigger. Zoe is still the same queen of the house, making sure everything is in order. Smokey is bigger than Zoe now, but still acts like a kitten. He is very loud and needy, but it's okay...it keeps things fun. Well, Tigger is a different story:-). The story is that we kind of found each other. I was walking out of the church after one of our monthly women's ministry meetings and I heard a VERY loud noise that sounded like a baby crying. I followed the noise and found Tigger stuck in a tree. Tigger was/is a small kitten scared and cold, calling for help. I had no choice but to feel compelled to bring him home for the night, seeing as it was a very cold night. So I tried to find the owner, but obviously no one claimed him and he has become a great part of our family:-)! Tigger gets along with everyone except Daisy (he wants to eat her haha). Him and Smokey are best friends now and keep each other company.

Dan is finished with his first semester of his Masters degree. He ended with a bang with another 4.0! We are trying to plan for the future, but its kind of hard when we still have another year and a half of his masters and we arent even sure yet if he will go for his doctorite. We want to do what God's will is for our lives, so we just have to sit back and hang on, because God knows exactly what will happen. We feel confident having our life being in His hands:-).

I am now a nanny for a wonderful family in Oklahoma City, OK. I nanny 3 kids: Victoria age 8, Billy age 5 and Alexandria (Alex) age 22 months. I absolutely love my job and that is a blessing! My bosses are amazing, and I am glad to be a part of their lives.We recently went home to NH for Christmas and had a great time! We have finally realized that yes, we miss home, but we have a home in Oklahoma now and love it! We are planning on going home again in June, YAY!:-) So everyone...keep the whole month free...just in case we pup up! Haha just kidding, we will let you know.

We will try to update this more often:-)