Year Two Begins

Mr. & Mrs. Matthew Schulz are now well established in their marriage after celebrating their first wedding anniversary on October 20th.

Thus begins year two of husband and wife, under the loving care of our Heavenly Lord. We may not be long-established, but are certainly well established when Christ is our foundation. It has been a blessing to grow in love and understanding for one another in the past year. In the midst of my lack of age and wisdom, I will venture to say that the key to marriage seems to be humility. When we both seek to please each other before ourselves, and God most of all, things seem to fall into place.

For our anniversary, we went on an overnight getaway to a cabin in Pella a couple hours away. Matt found out about these cabins at Horn's Ferry Hideaway when he was staking power lines last year and staked the lines right next to the cabin. We had a nice time and enjoyed reminiscing on the year before! 

We spent the morning walking around on trails and enjoying the beautiful fall scenery!

We did not end up getting over to Lake Red Rock (the largest lake in Iowa), but it is on the other side of the dam behind us! 

Our cabin - The Nest

The finished product of some of Matt's design work last summer. (For the uninformed, we are looking at the power lines here-not the road, ditch, cornfield, sky, clothing, outfit, haircut, or yoga pose)

In the afternoon, we walked around to all the little shops in the Pella town square. This picture is Klokkenspel. Pella is a cute little town, but we forgot to keep our cameras out! 

That evening, I got my first (EVER) combine ride with Uncle Kenny! (This is a picture of corn...)

IN OTHER NEWS...

Matt came home from working on his truck one night looking like this (his pants, that is). For some reason he was afraid for me to see them. 

After several soaks and washing machine runs, the grease started to come out! This wasn't even the final product - you can hardly tell now! I was pretty excited, especially since they are his only jeans without holes. :) 

We've got ducks! Philip's family was raising ten mallards, but no longer wanted them and brought them to our pond. The eight remaining ducks have been hanging around for about a month now, so maybe they are here to stay! They sure do bring some life to the pond.

Fall is here (and almost done)! Jesse designed this sign for me. 

We went to Mom and Dad's for Schulz family night in October. Laurie and her kids came, and we were able to talk to the Connecticut crew over webcam!

Little Garret is growing! He is a little over six months old now.

Talking to the Lanz family.

The aunties take their jobs quite seriously!

Justin marches (tuba) in the homecoming parade.

Jonathan is somewhere in the football crowd. 

Mom celebrated her birthday at our place in September! 

Brandon turned 2 a few days later...

Tristan the Turtle 

One evening while Matt was working late in the shop, my brothers and I went up to Iowa City to visit Alice. We ate at HuHot and then walked around campus a little bit. 

Visiting Herky! It was good to see Alice again. 

Lanz Nauvoo in October 

The old Oakville church building was torn down last month. It was sad to see it go, but we are thankful that the church is not a physical building of bricks and wood, but a spiritual family of believers. 

The single sisters came over for supper one evening when Abby came to visit. We made caramel apples for our snack! 

All kinds of toppings! 

Matt had to be my guinea pig a few days before. (No pictures of any of the end products - but they were loaded with toppings and very delicious!) 

The boys think the new turf football field in Mediapolis is pretty exciting! We went to watch Justin's band rehearse before their contest in Muscatine one afternoon.

Phil and Kelli's boys came over and helped Matt cut firewood. Some hard workers! 

Brandon and Kyra look on...

The activity for Jonathan's birthday party was dissecting Justin's old iPod that drowned in our pond. This kept them all enthralled for at least an hour! 

As if making me breakfast didn't show it enough... :)

We finally figured out the most practical way for a two-person household to eat supper. 

My happy first anniversary!!!

Alice came to visit the first weekend in November and we exposed her to all kinds of "American" experiences! 

We took Jesse trick-or-treating Friday evening.

She was pretty impressed with how much candy he brought home and thought we should help him eat it. He wasn't thrilled with that idea until we reminded him that he wouldn't have any unless we had brought him out. I got an M&M out of that deal. 

We enjoyed a nice walk out behind our house on Saturday! 

Abby stayed with us Friday evening on her way to Illinois for the weekend. It was fun to have her here too! 

Alice got her first experience on the farm as well. She rode in the combine with Ryan for awhile.  

Our families came over Saturday evening for a weiner roast and hay rack ride. It was a little chilly, but an enjoyable time! 

These two silly boys rode in the "high" swing. AKA we haven't gotten around to finding a longer chain for the swing, but hung it up anyway. Didn't take long for the kids to find that safety hazard! 

Bundled up for the ride! 

HOT CHOCOLATE :)

Two more of her photo-worthy moments were the Mississippi River and Bridge, as well as good ole' homemade casserole. :)

I am out of pictures to tell our stories now, but aside from the Kodak moments (or shall I say Canon moments?), life has been moving along as usual. Matt goes to work at 7, I go to work from 8 to noon, come home and find other projects to keep me busy, he gets home at 5:30, and we tend to eat supper around that time. Now that the weather is cooling down, most of the outdoor work has come to a close and we seem to have forgotten what to do with ourselves indoors in the evenings. We have found more time to go out visiting family and friends in the evenings now that our to-do list is not a mile long, so that has been good.

The upcoming holidays are already sneaking up on us, as two of our family Christmases will be over Thanksgiving this year. We are very thankful for our families and look forward to seeing everyone soon!

God bless each of you! (Hoping to write a few more times again before 2015...) :)