Anniversary Trip - Aug. 8-10, 2008

Well hey there...It's been a while so I thought I'd update all of you on what's going on down here in the so-called "south". (It's NOT the "south" - I just like to humor all of you with an occasional "ya'll" and referring to our home as "southern". haha!)

By the way, I've figured out that no one has been receiving updates from our blog for some reason. I apologize for that! I thought everyone was getting an email with the updates. I am still trying to figure out why it's not working. In the mean time I will send out a link every time I update the blog to let everyone know to take a look. Feel free to click on any past postings for updates too!

What's new?
Well we just enjoyed our 5th Anniversary together this past Saturday (8/9) and had a wonderful time down in Sainte Genevieve/Farmington, MO! We visited several wineries, the Tiger Sanctuary and also went hiking at a local state park a few times. The weather was a beautiful 80-85 degrees and sunny - just perfect! Here is a link to some pictures from our weekend retreat! (If you're on Facebook, I have a bunch more pics posted on there too.)

Other than our weekend, we're doing well. We have been doing some minor yardwork, and Noah's brother Paul is coming to visit us this coming weekend.

Another Test
Noah's getting ready to take the GRE, which is an engineering version of the "ACT" or "SAT" that is needed to enter into a formal engineering master's program. Noah's been taking some engineering masters classes, but to enter the core of the program he will need to pass the GRE. He is taking it next month in September.

Upcoming Trips
We will be traveling up to Wisconsin for Labor Day weekend to visit with family up there and are looking forward to that. We'll be driving up that Friday after work, and leaving the following Monday (Labor Day) afternoon. A little bird told me that my mom is trying to organize a family BBQ - hope all of our WI family can make it! :)

Work
Work for both of us is still going well. Not much new with either of our jobs. Noah might go somewhere in September, but we aren't sure when or where yet. You know Boeing... always last minute! That's okay though. I am going to continue taking courses through American Family to learn more about our products and how they work, so maybe someday I can temporarily help some of our agents in their offices if they are short staffed.

Our summer has been very nice weather-wise. We have only had a few days in the 90's, with most of the days in the 80's - unheard of for August in St. Louis!!! It's also been pretty busy as usual. We hope your summertime has been great too, and hope to see all of you very soon!

Love,
Noah & Krista.

July 18, 2008

PUPPY!!!!

Ok, so my brother Eric and his wife Melissa got a puppy a little while ago, and I am really excited and had to post pictures!!! Heeeeeeere's Mable!!! :)

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x219/nkbrown81/Mable/

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th of July, everyone!!!

It's that time of year again. The time of year that we let the kids play with fire, and light deadly flaming objects for our enjoyment. Oh, and the noise too... can't forget that. Who could forget the 4th of July? haha

Kids on our street have been playing with fireworks since early last week, and it's interesting to go out the next morning and see the "war zone" by which you can tell whose kids were making all that racket the night before. The huge trail of used explosive wrapping leads right back to their driveway!

Flight Pictures

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! Here are the pictures I took from my flight with Noah. Unfortunately I got so wrapped up in the fun that I forgot to take pictures that included US! Next time... guess we'll just have to go fly again!

Click on the link to view the pictures from our first flight together...

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x219/nkbrown81/First%20Flight%206-30-08/?albumview=slideshow

Here is a map to get a better idea of where we flew:

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x219/nkbrown81/First%20Flight%206-30-08/?action=view&current=FlightMap6-30-08.jpg

Noah did a great job, and even checked my seat belt. So if my door opened I wouldn't fall out of the plane. :) haha! Just kidding. He was a great pilot and I hope we can fly together again soon.

Well, there you have it guys 'n gals!

I need to scoot... we have 3 parties to go to this weekend, and one starts in 20 minutes. Gotta go!!!

Lots of love,

Krista & Noah

June 27, 2008

Hi Everyone,

I thought it was about time to update our blog again. Until now there hasn't been too much out of the norm.

Midwest Flooding
Maybe you have heard about the flooding that's occuring down here. It's not affecting us or our house, thankfully. Our house is on high ground in St. Peters, more than 6.5 miles away from any river. If the flood ever got to our house I think the whole entire city would have to be underwater!

The weather service keeps having to update the crests for the rivers because we keep getting more rain to the north, which is obviously not helping.

Here's a map of our area, north of St. Louis City...
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=11+Santa+Fe+Trail+Ct,+St+Peters,+MO+63376&sll=38.78242,-90.48204&sspn=0.120166,0.211487&ie=UTF8&ll=38.964748,-90.482025&spn=0.479429,0.845947&t=h&z=10

The red dot is where our house is. You may have heard about Winfield, which has been in the news a lot. It's pretty far north of us. We have some friends from church who live up there, but fortunately they are in the western part of the town on high ground. They are affected though - they can no longer take Hwy 79 anywhere, which is a major road up there. They're forced to drive on side roads to get back to the city, which warrants a longer trip. Winfield just had a second levee break early this morning and most of the town along the river has gone underwater.

Here are the flood levels for the map north of St. Louis:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=lsx&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1&toggles=10,7,8,2,9,15,6

You can find local info about the flooding at any of these websites. They've been pretty good about keeping up with information:
http://myfoxstl.com/
http://www.ksdk.com/
http://www.kmov.com/


There's a Pilot in the family now!!!
Yep, Noah has gotten his pilot's license! Congrats to him!!! I'm pretty excited myself because he is planning to take me up for a flight in the next few days. I'm his first official passenger! We're going to get some pictures and I'll post them soon.


The ol' Hum Drum...
Nothing else really that exciting going on down here in the "south", which incidentally is actually the central midwest.

Noah will begin studying for his GRE exam so he can continue grad school. The GRE is required for engineers to get into the meaty portion of their grad school, sort of like the SAT or ACT is required to get into undergrad. So he will be taking the GRE in a few months so he can continue taking classes for his Master's degree. He is REALLY excited about that, let me tell ya... haha!

I'm continuing to play tennis on Wednesdays (every other or sometimes 2 weeks in a row). It's fun, a chance to get outside and get to know more people. I'm actually going to play tomorrow with a friend I met through the league and then we're going to go shopping and do lunch. Fun!

Work is going well for both of us. I just had my 2 year anniversary yesterday, and plan to stay a lot longer! :) Noah has been busy with some local wind tunnel testing and the usual stuff (whatever that is!).

I hope all of you are doing great! Hope to hear from you soon.

Love,
Noah & Krista