I'm sure you have heard by now, but I have started a bakery! It's called Brittersweet Bakery and I am really excited about it! I started a website for it at www.brittersweetbakery.blogspot.com. I am making a cookie a day this week, so the website will be full of great recipes and pictures. Please check it out, and if you need a cake, let me know! :)
Our beautiful and finished tree!
I had seen these ornaments that depict families and thought it would be a really fun tradition for Dan and I to have, and it also helps us fill our tree with ornaments! We decided to go with snowmen, so every year we will get an ornament that shows what our family looked like that year. I look forward to the tradition growing!
Our stockings are hung!
The advent calendar I made
A BIG thank you to my dad! Dan and I really had not thought about how we would get this tree up to our third floor apartment, but thankfully my dad not only had thought about it, but also bought us a tarp to get the tree up here, and a stand to put the tree in. Thank you, Thank you Thank you Dad! I shutter to think of what this tree would look like without your help :)
We bought a car this weekend! When we got married, it was a goal of ours to have a car by Thanksgiving and we bought our new car on Saturday - not bad! Here are some pictures of our new baby:
I'm up and full of thoughts, so bear with me :)
I have always been facinated by these early morning hours. Maybe that's why I'm such a night owl - so I can stay up and enjoy these times. I was sitting in our room looking out the window trying to figure out what keeps me up until the dawn breaks. I think it's because I get the feeling that the world is as uncomfortable as I am. It doesn't know whether it is morning or the middle of the night. As I watch the sky change colors, I feel like it is okay to be uncomfortable with myself because the world is uncomfortable, too. Does that make sense to anyone but me? Who knows. Maybe it's just that I need some sort of justification for being 23 and not having more figured out. There are certain truths I know: God made me and everything around me, and someday He'll take me home to be with Him, and Dan is the one He created for me and I am never meant to be with another. But there is so much I am unsure of, like what am I supposed to do with my life? I don't want all the answers. Honestly, I don't. But I want to figure out enough about myself to be comfortable with me. That sounds odd even as I write it. I'm sure some would be suprised to know I am so uncomfortable, and I wonder, how can that be? Can I be someone who is unsure of themself and someone who people think has it together? Do I have parts of both in me and just don't realize it? Maybe I just think too much. Ha. Now I'm thinking about thinking too much. Ah, the life on an introvert.
For now I think I'll go back to staring out the window with nothing to listen to except the soundtrack in my head and the snoring of a handsome man. I can't think of anything that sounds better.
I have been working hard over the past few months to get Dan and my Christmas stockings done. I found these really great felt kits that are kind of like "sew by number" kits. I finally finished them this week and I am so excited with how they turned out! I love them so much that my darling husband also allowed me to order an advent calendar from the same company, so I'm looking forward to working on that soon. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it by Christmas. I'll let you know how it goes!
My stocking
It's not very often that I as their child get to have moments of being completly proud of my folks, but this week is definitly the exception. First, my dad. He worked at a company in the cities for over 15 years, but a little over two years ago, the company shut down. My dad being the guy that he is was offered a job at one of their competetors the very next day and has worked there since. Within the last week, the new company that he works at merged with another company. He wasn't too worried about his job, but there have been quite a few layoffs with the merger. So why am I proud of him? The new company put out a newsletter the first day of the merge and here is an article from it:
Mitch Greunke,
Customer Service
Representative,
Shakopee, MN:
When Mitch Greunke begins the 48-mile drive from his home in Hudson, Wisconsin each day, he has one thing on his mind: his customers. One of these customers is a grocery account Mitch has served for more than 12 years, the relationship beginning even before he came to work for Shakopee and before the client became a Shakopee customer. This company’s Production Manager says they consider Mitch to be part of their own team. “We don’t even
think of him as a supplier,” the Production Manager explains. “His knowledge of our program and his dedication to our success is extremely unique. Mitch not only ensures that the Shakopee folks do things correctly; he makes sure that we do things correctly as well.” Mitch is a hands-on CSR and personally monitors the quality of each press run. He also helps his customers come up with cost-effective and innovative ways to stand out in the marketplace … to date, he’s been involved with more than 60 new product configurations. Not only that, he personally delivers office copies to the company’s headquarters each Tuesday, and sometimes, on his way home from work, additional store copies when area stores are running low. “Mitch does a fantastic job of explaining the customer’s expectations to me. His communication is crystal-clear and he pays attention to the quality I produce for them. Mitch makes it very easy for me to do my job,”
notes Press Operator Hal Brothers. Mitch sees it this way, “I am just the front man for this whole process. I have a great team that stands behind me and we have a very enabling environment that allows me to coordinate an important service for a very important customer.” Customer service is clearly more than just a job for this CSR; it’s something he loves doing. For that reason, working with Mitch is a pleasure for customers and his fellow employees, alike.
How great is that?! His boss wrote it about him, and for anyone who has ever met my dad, you know that this is exactly who he is. I am so proud of him, and so thrilled that he is getting the recognition that he deserves after all his years of hard work!
Now onto my mom. For the first time since Kris was born, she was back at work today! She had decided a few months ago that it was time for her to start looking because the three of us were older and her plan had always been to go back to work. Within a week of looking, she had an interview and now is in charge of managing social work cases for the elderly in our neighboring counties. I am so proud of her that after 21 years of being a stay at home mom she was able to jump back in and get such a great job (especially in this market as Dan and I well know...)! It helps that she kept her resume current with things like speaking at national health conferences and serving on hospital ethics committies, but it is a big deal for her and I am really, really proud!
How great are my parents?! Now I just have to work on making them as proud of me as I am of them :)
We have been living in Oakdale long enough that I figured I should put up some pictures of our place! It finally feels like we are settled and that this is home. I also put out our fall decorations today. Give us a call if you ever want to see our place in person!
Master Bath
Guest Bath
Dan and I spent yet another night at the Metrodome on Wednesday to watch the Twins take on the White Soxs. It was a great couples date, and was even better because they won! We had a great time and hope they continue this run to the playoffs!
It was a "Twingo" night (Twins Bingo with baseball plays) and although I didn't get it in time to get a prize, Katrina and I both won Twingo! Here's me with the winning ticket:
(Above) The Ritter's and Rob and Amanda
(Above) The Ritter's and the Rhett'sA few months back, Dan suggested we have a "Date Night" once a month so that we always had time together doing new and fun things. I quickly asked for the month of September and he agreed. Dan lived in Charlotte, NC when he was younger, and has therefore always been a Carolina Panther fan. They played the Vikings at the Dome yesterday, so I surprised Dan with tickets. We had a blast! We started the morning at church, and then met up with one of his co-workers to tailgate before the game. I had never been tailgating before - it's so much fun! We went in and found our seats, and although they were nosebleeds, we had a great view of the field. We were both in our Panther gear, so I was a little worried about the reception we would get from other fans (I've heard stories that Vikings fans aren't so nice...) Luckily, the guy in front of us shook Dan's hand and wished us luck and no injuries. He and Dan had fun giving each other crap all game. Although the Panther's lost, we had a really great time. It is so fun to be able to completely pull one over on Dan!
We also started something called "The Marriage Course" this weekend. It is a seven week course of time together to talk about our marriage and how we want to make it work for us. The night starts off with dessert (can't go wrong there!) and then we watch a video and have time to go off just the two of us and talk. We had a great time last night and met a ton of other great couples. We are taking the course at a church in Woodbury and we were really impressed with it. We are looking for a new church home close to where we live, so we are hopeful that this church might be the place for us. All around it was a great evening and we are looking forward to going back next week!
It's hard to believe that only a week ago we were enjoying the beautiful labor day weather and here we are thrown into fall. I love fall and the change of colors, and I never turn down the chance to turn the heat on :)
The change of seasons is making things feel more real around the Ritter household. We were talking at dinner tonight about how odd it feels for Dan to be going to work and not school. It also feels odd that we come home to each other at the end of a long day and we no longer have to worry about those 9:00pm phone calls to each other after the minutes were free. We've been married for over three months already, but this change of season and temperature is a wonderful reminder that these changes are real and here to stay. After a wonderfully quiet summer it feels good to be settling into a routine and figuring out life as husband and wife. We are really enjoying all the stupid things you enjoy as a family, like figuring out finances (now that we have an income :) ) and routine trips to the grocery store. The time we had together this summer was great, but I am really thankful for this time of feeling more settled and comfortable in this new life together. I look forward to the comfort growing and getting better each day.
Just a quick update on life: Dan LOVES his new job. We are so incredibly thankful for it, and it makes it even better that he likes it so much. Praise God! School for me is just school. I am praying that I can continue to find more ways to enjoy it while it lasts, even while I am so ready to be done. It seems far away, but I know it will fly by and maybe some day I'll even miss being in college! It seems unlikely, but I can hope, right?!
Okay, so I know some of you are probably completely sick of all the wedding pictures I've been showing you all, but a good chunk of our families haven't had a chance to see them. Here are some of our favorites from the day:
The handsome men!
Dan and I are getting settled enough in married life that we thought it might be a good idea to start blogging!
This next week is a big week for us: Dan starts his first job! Dan recently took a position at Medtronic here in the cities in neuro regulation. My understanding of what he'll do is that he is in charge of making sure that new products that go out are different enough to not interfere with other patents and to make sure they will be acceptable to the FDA. The department he is working in is in the process of moving to a new building because they are growing so much. He is really excited about it and cannot wait to get strated. It was a long and difficult process for both of us, but God really provided and we are thrilled with this position!
This week marks another milestone for us in that I start my last year of school! I have been working with professors to get more transfer credits accepted because originally they were really strict about what they accepted. One class they didn't give me credit for had the same name and everything, so I am glad they reconsidered so I didn't have to take it again! It feel so good to see the light at the end of the tunnel and be able to dream about teaching in the near future.
We have had a great summer together and are so thankful for all the time we have had together. I will miss some of these lazy days we have had, but I am looking forward to life starting and getting into a routine!