Friday Night Football!

Matt and I attended our first Newton High School football game on Friday night. It was the team's first game on their new field (astroturf). Unfortunately, the game was against Valley High School and so it was very unfairly matched. We left at half time with a score of 49 to 0... We still had a good time, regardless of the score.

PizzaPizza!

Growing up, Matt and I both loved the pizza chain, Little Caesar's. At some point, all of the restaurants disappeared from the Des Moines area. While we were at college in Dubuque, we frequented the local Little Caesar's and took advantage of their $5 large pizzas. We also were excited to enjoy the fantastic (and cheap) pizza while on the GSM missions trip to Colorado last summer.

We were obviously very excited when we received a call from our friends, the Hoovies to attend their "Little Caesar's Grand Opening" party on Tuesday night. A Little Caesar's opened not too far from their South Side house and they had some friends over to enjoy the pizza. Apparently, the entire city of Des Moines had the same idea!!!
We waited in line about 20 minutes for our pizza and when we got to the door, we were told that they were accepting cash only as their debit/credit machine had gone down. In Olympic-like fashion, Ashley sprinted to the Kum&Go on the corner and came back with cash for our pizzas (breaking the world record in this event).

Thanks for a great night, Hoovies!

Jake & Sarah Hering

This weekend was Matt's sister's wedding. It was perfect. Here are some pictures to enjoy!

Long time, no post

It's been way too long since I posted last! Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures uploaded right now to post pictures, but I can update you a little on what's been going on with Matt & I lately.

May

We're so happy to say that Matt graduated from Faith Baptist Bible College on May 9th (the day after his 22nd birthday)! Matt has earned his Bachelor of Science as an Assistant Pastor with a Youth emphasis.

We also were able to celebrate by brother's graduation from East High School on the 24th!

June

June 1st was the first day of our new adventure. Matt is the new Youth Director at Grace Church in Newton, Iowa. Grace in Newton is a church that was planted by Grace in Des Moines. It's a little over two years old, has an attendance of roughly 150 each week and has a youth group of about 12-15 students. Since the church is so young, they can't afford to pay a youth pastor at the present time, so Matt has a full time job as well. We're really excited to get to know the kids and form relationships with them.

June 2nd was Matt's first day at his new (paying) job. He's working night stock at HyVee in Newton. He works 11:00PM-7:00AM most nights, but some nights (truck nights) he works 9:00PM-7:00AM. He really enjoys the people he works with, but the hours are exhausting!

Since we are going to be serving in Newton, we thought it only appropriate that we live in Newton. June 6th was moving day. The plan was for me to work half a day and we would start moving at 1:00. I woke up at 4:00 AM to use the restroom and stepped into a couple inches of water in our basement apartment! We were so fortunate that we had moved the majority of our boxes the night before (containing all of Matt's books) and so the only things we lost were two boxes of pasta and a poker set! Our wonderful parents (and my brother) came over at 4:30 AM and helped us move. We were completely done by 2:00 that afternoon!

We've been settling into our new townhome in Newton and love it! Matt has always been one to wave at strangers he sees on the street and in Newton, they actually wave back! :) There is an ice cream truck that comes in front of our house twice a week- a real ice cream truck, not the Schwans man. :)

I am still working on the south side of Des Moines, but am hoping to get a job a little closer to home soon. It's about a 45 minute commute one way and I'm going through a tank of gas in my little Corolla in about 5 days! We'd appreciate your prayers for me to find a job closer to Newton very soon.

I'll try to post some pictures soon!

March Madness

It's been quite a while since my last post! Life has just been busy! Here are some of our highlights from March.

During the first weekend of Matt's spring break, we went to White Bear Lake, MN to visit our friends Brandon and Anna Kohler. We really enjoyed speding time with Brandon and Anna!During the trip, Matt had his first coffee! It was a turtle latte with 3 shots of espresso! We also visited the Minnesota Zoo. We had a great time.

As Matron of Honor for my sister-in-law, Sarah's upcoming wedding, I have been spending a lot of time helping her with wedding-related things. I absolutely loved planning my wedding and I am enjoying helping Sarah out (I have a lot fewer decisions to make this way :) )! We've gotten quite a few things checked off of the list this week! Below is a picture of Sarah with her partially-made centerpieces and my pew bow on her head...we were having a great time.

Enjoy the pictures!

Chicago Take Two and Birthday

We went to Chicago this weekend with Joe and Ashley Hoover for Moody Founders Week(end). It also happened to be my 21st birthday on Sunday. Here are pictures from our trip.

This is Ashley being "gangster" while I was playing with my colors on my camera.

Snow Day!

Matt and I were lucky enough to both get a snow day today! We spent it by doing laundry at Matt's parent's house. Annnnnnd we played in the snow!