Merry Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas to our wonderful family and friends!  We hope you had a year full of new adventures and wonderful blessings that outshines any stress or difficulties that have occurred.  We were both very busy this year, but I know we enjoyed wonderful moments with family, friends and time for just the two of us. 

Josh has continued to work hard in classes and during clinicals for his Doctorate program in Physical Therapy. He has spent many days and nights studying, writing papers, working on projects and analyzing his own limbs or mine to better understand what he was studying:) He had his pediatrics and inpatient clinicals this year.  The hospital setting brought some interesting experiences for him, including being able to sit in and watch a back surgery. I admire Josh for his discipline and determination. His fellow PT students look up to him a lot for his knowledge and understanding of the assignments and the field itself. I’m extremely proud of him! He is very glad to be completely done with his classes for this program.  He has a three week break before beginning his final two clinicals before graduation in May 2013. 

I am still working in the front office at a counseling clinic close by.  This year I have taken on a role that is very much that of an office manager without the title.  The office has been ever changing since I started working there in spring of 2011. I am very grateful for the job and I truly enjoy those I work with, however, it has been a very stressful and draining job. It has helped to have wonderful women that I work with at the front office who have become great friends:) I have also had the opportunity to begin earning clinical hours towards my counseling license.  Those hours are accumulating very slowly, but forward progress is being made. I now have two patients and I am making plans to lead a women’s group in the spring.  In September, I took on another great endeavor and became a Thirty-One Gifts consultant under my sister-in-law Tara. I have loved and purchased Thirty-One for about two years before realizing that it would be a great job for me that I would enjoy. I have LOVED it! I’m only doing it part-time of course, but it gives me moments of accomplishment and encouragement along with time to meet new people and socialize that break up the stress of my other job. 

This year we enjoyed a handful of trips.  In the spring we had our traditional 5 year trip to Disney with the Pickard side of the family.  That is always a packed yet fun trip:) It was the first year that every family member went on a couple rides together now that the kids are older. Josh and I took a camping trip to the UP to celebrate our 5 year anniversary.  We stayed at several different locations.  Did a lot of hiking and driving through beautiful areas of nature and visited Pictured Rocks.  We got to take the boat tour of Pictured Rocks at sunset and it was incredible! It was a nice trip to get away just the two of us. We were able to visit Traverse City to celebrate my brother Jon’s wedding and we spent one of the days at the Sleeping Bear Dunes! Late in the summer Josh was able to spend some time visiting Mike in Chicago.  Then for Thanksgiving we both visited Mike and joined him and some friends for turkey dinner.  Mike gave us a tour of Loyola’s campus and Roger’s Park.  We also took the train into the city and walked around on Black Friday (not for shopping) but there were a lot of people and it was pretty cold. We drove down to see Josh’s sister and family several times for Easter, the arrival of our sweet niece Lucy, for an all family get together in the summer and we joined them in cutting down their Christmas tree a couple weeks ago.

With Christmas approaching we are now looking forward to a trip to Dallas to visit my brother Justin and his family for four days.  It will be a quick trip due to my work schedule.  Josh has never been to Dallas so he’ll get a chance to see that everything really is bigger in Texas:) We also look forward to visiting Josh’s parents in Ohio a few days after Christmas.  We saw them briefly a couple times while they were visiting Melissa’s family this year, but it will be wonderful to see them for a few days and celebrate the New Year. 

In the New Year we look forward to Josh’s graduation and the transitions that will follow.  We don’t yet know where we will end up. But we are trusting in God’s guidance for Josh to find a great job and for me to consider other options for work as well. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May The Lord be ever present to you during the holiday season and thru the next year.  Follow us here on our blog through the year.  I’m going to work harder and posting more often. Plus 2013 is bound to bring a lot of new experiences and changes for us:)

Blessings,

Josh & Jenean Moore

Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day weekend we were glad to be able to make it up to Traverse City for my brother Jon's wedding. The wedding ceremony took place at one of Tara's family members house on Lake Ann and it was a gorgeous day for a wedding with the lake in the background. The ceremony was very nice and Jon and Tara were so happy to have that day arrive:) The reception was a lot of fun. They created some great Pinterest ideas that really added a special touch to the atmosphere. Jon painted awesome signs to direct guests. Tara had a couple sections of the reception tent decorated with antique furniture and accessories for welcoming the guests, leaving cards and for displaying the cake. My favorite part was the giant frame Jon made and hung between a couple of trees to set up a photo guest book. They had little paper mustaches, hats, glasses, lips and ties on sticks that guest could use to had some fun to their picture. The guests could also write a message for Jon & Tara on small chalkboards that they held up when the picture was taken. I was glad to help take the pictures for this guest book. Many of the guests got into the fun spirit of the activity that I'm sure Jon & Tara will look many times over the years to come:) Here are some pictures of the shining couple and wonderful day.

Congratulations Jon & Tara!

While we were visiting we enjoyed time with family and spent a day out at the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes (one of my favorite places:) A handful of us made the trek to the top. Braden made it up and down the big hill a handful of times on his own, ha. I'm sure we didn't that once upon a time too! It was a perfect day out for climbing the dunes and then stopping at the beach to see Lake Michigan. These are some pictures from this awesome day at the dunes.

Camping Trip Day 1

Camping Trip: Day 1 Journal Entry 

Shadow Pic #1 A kiss by Little Bay

Yesterday was out first time further north than Port Washington on the E side of WI and it was also Josh's first time to the UP. It took us about 4 hours to get to our campsite for the night. We stayed at Little Bay park of the National Forest area. 

We set up our tent for the first time together as well. The tent is huge! We got a good deal for it online and hope to grow into it with our family in the future. But for now it seemed like a suite just for us:) We took a drive around the campground to find water to put out our fire later. Then we roasted hot dogs over the grill for our first meal. We were really grateful for grill grates on the bonfire pits and there was firewood on the side of the campsite road and also left at the campsite next to us so it was easy to find:)

We took a walk down a short path from our campsite to the water. It was a beautiful and very sunny day.   We followed the water along the shoreline to a park and a small hiking trail that went to the end of the campgrounds. It was a nice walk. We took shadow pictures at a small boat dock area we ended up at. (That was when I decided it would be fun to take a shadow picture each day...something different:) We made another fire before dark, I carved some sticks while Josh got the fire going. We made s'mores with a twist...we used fudge stripe cookies instead of graham crackers. 

We caught the sun just as it was setting down the short path to the water and saw our first wildlife...a frog:) We sat by the smoky fire until it was out and then called it an early night. Unfortunately I started getting a migraine that lasted thru the night, but thankfully it was gone by morning. Praise the Lord. I did not want to be stuck in the tent with a migraine during what is starting out to be a gorgeous day. This is he day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Camping Trip Day 2

Camping Trip: Day 2 Journal Entry

Shadow Pic #2 - Hiking the bike trail at Seney Wildlife Refuge

Woke up to sun shining and mostly quiet other than the train we heard through the night. Earplugs were essential:) Enjoyed some homemade granola and banana muffins for breakfast. Took down camp and headed out. On our way back to the highway we saw a family of deer. Buck with antlers, momma and twin fawns!

We headed to Germfask, MI to enjoy the Seney National Wildlife Refuge. On our way we stopped at the beach on Lake Michigan where there was a big red lighthouse. We walked out to the lighthouse and Josh was daring and walked across the crumbling ledge to the back side of the lighthouse. The sky was blue and the water was beautiful. Then we walked back to the car along the beach. 

We got back on the road and then stopped for lunch at a roadside park just before Seney. It was a peaceful lunch in the woods with egg salad sandwiches to eat. We went to the visitors center at the refuge and then took the marshland drive before setting up camp. We saw an osprey in it's nest and then some chipmunks and birds.

We set up camp at National Outfitters just amount a mile from the refuge. We had a spot back in on our own with no neighbors. We ended up next to the highway bit it was not bad for sleeping. We went for a hike down one of the county roads that are for biking. We hiked a little over 2 miles. We saw a swan and a muskrat and also 2 Sandhill cranes that began making a very loud call.  When we got back to camp we got a coal fire and wood fire burning for BBQ chicken and toasted potatoes. It was a yummy and filling meal.

Before dark we drove the route thru the refuge again. We saw a deer at the very entrance to the park. Much more active animals at this time of day. We first saw two otter swimming and playing together. We saw a lot of muskrats after that. The best was when we spotted the bald eagle perched on top of a

small tree in one of the pools! That was awesome.

The Bald Eagle is on the top of a tree to the right side of the little island above, we could see his white head and then of course confirmed it with the binoculars:)