Weekend Plans....

WOW- the last eight weekends have been a blur! This Father's Day weekend is the first weekend we don't have 'plans' since before Palm Sunday. With that said, we have seen a lot of people and enjoyed a lot of celebrations along the way.

Congratulations to Mike and Kelli on their wedding Memorial Day weekend! There was a small mini-reunion for the folks of the UNI-LSC. It was great to see many old friends (some of whom were enjoying 'Old Friends'), meet some new people, and enjoy the people watching. Mami, from Guatemala, was even in attendance, and it was really neat to see Carlos and her speak in Spanish! Best wishes to Mike and Kelli and all the exciting things they have coming up!

Congratulations to our niece Samantha, who graduated from high school over Memorial Day weekend! We enjoyed a fine celebration in Dubuque, and a fine after party at my sister Robin's house.

In June, both of us attended the Northeast Iowa Synod Assembly at Luther College. This was my first experience at an assembly, and it was really neat to see the democratic process work and in triangulation with the Holy Spirit and God's people! Luther College was beautiful, it was great to see our nephew Ben representing First Lutheran and the youth of the synod, and time away from Waterloo was enjoyable. We saw many friends, and Melissa was overjoyed to get to hang out with her friend Dan (and I was ecstatic as well)!

Congratulations to our cousin Chris and his new wife Linda, as they wed on Saturday, June 11 near Quaski! Melissa officiated the wedding, and the company, food, and drinks were excellent! We stayed until dark and really enjoyed catching up with family and even a hay-ride through town!

Carlos has now moved on from his Junior year and prepares for his senior year. This summer he is working on staying in shape, preparing for college stuff (never too early to start), and working at 4 Queens in Waterloo!

Melissa is enjoying the summer and itching to get that camper out and about! We hope to camp at least 4 times this summer, and we might actually have enough free weekends to do so! Her back has been sore and she is currently in therapy to relieve some of the pain.

The dogs are both doing well and full of energy. Dallas has slowed down a bit and is showing his age, and Chester continues to keep one step behind anyone doing anything exciting, and really likes fetching the tennis ball.

Work at UNI is busy as orientation is in full swing! Welcome to UNI all you future panthers and parents. We are currently mowing 7 properties, and that is a good way to spend a few hours outside each week. Also, the modified garden is in and things are still green. I have already harvested 6 green beans! YUM!

Things we are looking forward to this summer include (but are not limited to):
*Traveling to Peoria for birthdays, a baptism, and family time
*Camping
*Working on the deck at Mom and Dad's house (and cleaning out my old room at home)
*Going on a 'bike ride' with Kurt and Meg to Cedar Rapids
*Going to Lost Island with friends
*Golfing
*Trips to 4 Queens for Ice Cream!

Whirlwind Tour- 2011- Edition 1

WOW- it has been a while since we have been on! It doesn't seem like that long, but time is flying by. We are less than 2 weeks from June 1! Yikes! As a family, we have been quite busy. Here is the month of May by numbers, and this has only been the first 20 days:

2 Graduation Parties- Congratulations Austin and Casey Freiburger (our nephews), who have graduated from high school and will be attending college next year!

6 high school soccer games. Carlos, Austin, Casey, Matt, Derek, and Ben are all in soccer, and we have been lucky enough to see them all play!

1 Mystery Trip- Pastor Melissa and myself took 8 members of Zion on a mystery trip (Thursday, May 19). Our stops included Grandview University, the State of Iowa Historical Building, and the Iowa State Capital! It was a neat trip, I got to walk the winding staircase to the gold dome, and learned a lot about higher education and the building of the state of Iowa!

500 Miles- Melissa and I took a quick vacation to the Chicago on Friday and Saturday, May 13 and 14. We drove to Cumberland, rode the Blue Line in and stayed at the Swissotel for an evening. We had a certificate for the executive suite (which had 4 TVs), and free breakfast Saturday morning. The view was great, the price was right, and the morning buffet was fantastic! We rounded out our trip with a Saturday trip to Shedd Aquarium and really enjoyed ourselves. If you get the chance to head to Shedd- GO!

WE hope you are all doing well. Keep us update on what is happening with you! We are safe, healthy, and happy, so life is good. Have a great weekend! -The Watermans

Baby Waterman at 12 weeks

Had a doctor's appointments yesterday for Baby Waterman.  Everything is going well and baby is healthy.  Melissa had a lot of blood work done so hoping all of that comes back good.  We won't have another sonogram until June!!  That will be our 20 week appointment and get to see everything in detial.  At this time, we are not finding out what it is.  We want to be surprised.  For some reason, I can't upload our ultrasound from this month, but you can see the baby's right hand and foot.  It's so cute.  It was confirmed again yesterday that we are only having one baby. 

It's been raining a lot here and Paul is anxious to get outside and work in the yards and begin his garden.  He started wtih seeds about 4 weeks ago and we have plants every where in the house.  It would be good to have some nicer weather to get some yard work done.

Carlos is still playing soccer.  They have a game tonight against Thomas Jefferson in Cedar Rapids.  They had 2 games last Saturday in Cedar Rapids and lost both games 2-1 in overtime.  It was a rough day for soccer.  He informs us that he's the manager on the soccer team now so he's got a lot of responsibility.  I'm guessing he just wants something to do so he doesn't get bored sitting on the bench.

Have a great final week of April!!

Lots of Blessings...

As you can tell, it has been some time since we have last updated. Sorry! We are all doing well and enjoying the Iowa spring (which consists of winter spring and summer)! There have been a lot of things going on, so we will update you on a few of them.

Lent is almost over, and always ends with celebration and the joy of Easter! Melissa has been busy with worship, meetings, and confirmation, but she has stayed healthy and continues to be a blessing to many! To our knowledge, the baby is healthy and growing, and we go back for another set of pictures next week!

Melissa recently spent some time in Chicago, visiting with her family and helping her dad recover from surgery! The good news is he has healed wonderfully and even got out of the hospital a day early! Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with him as he grows stronger and gets better!

My parents are also spending some extra time with the doctors and nurses as Mom undergoes some medical tests. We hope that the doctors can figure out what is going on in her body and have some sort of remedy! Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with her.

In the next six weeks we will get to see lots of family as we celebrate three graduations! Samantha, Casey, and Austin are all graduating this year, and we look forward to watching them grow into responsible, mature college students!

We hope you are all doing well, staying healthy, and enjoying life! Call, email, Facebook, or better yet, come visit!

It's a BABY!!!!!!!

It's official news!!!!  Here's the first sonogram of baby Waterman who is due November 5th.  We are very excited to be parents of a little baby and are happy for our families.  This will be the 11th grandchild on the Waterman side and 6th grandchild on the Lane side.  We will try to keep the blog update to date with all the latest news of our new addition.  Baby is very healthy and our next appointment is April 25th.  Paul has been a big help around the house.  I'm so thankful that I'm not sick, but I'm really tired and like to EAT!  We enjoy hearing from you.  Have a fantastic week!

Spring break

Well, last week was spring break for UNI and West high where Carlos goes to school.  Carlos was busy with soccerr (of course!) and we both worked.  Friday we all three had the day off which hasn't happened in a long time so we made the best of it.  We hung around Waterloo and our house to get a few things done and took the dogs for a walk.  Then we had a nice lunch and headed to Cedar Rapids to do some shopping.  We hung at Planet X for a couple of hours and the boys had a good time taking in all the events.  Even if little kids did cheat while they were playing laser tag.  Paul was called "old" by one of the cheating kids!!!  Saturday we spent more time at home and running errands and then headed to Edgewood to see Paul's grandparents.  Had super with the Hamlett's for Grandma's birthday!!!  Sunday was the usual routine around the Waterman house and I got my 2 1/2 hour nap in as well.  There was some outstanding basketball on as well.  We didn't get everything done on our list, but it was good to spend some time as a family.  It was a rough weekend with Carlos so if anyone has tips on raising a teenager that expects to get everything he wants and has no $$$  please let us know.  My dad is currently in Chicago having some pre-op tests done the next two days as he prepares for hip surgery at Northwestern!  We are excited for him and a better life he will have after the surgery. 

We love to hear from you so leave comments, give us a call, or stop by our house in Waterloo!

Welcome to the blog!

Greetings! For those of you who have just joined the blog- welcome! We have taken a bit of time off as life has been pretty hectic. We will be better about more regular updates and I am nudging Melissa to give an entry a try! With that said- here are a few updates on what is going on with our family.

We just recently returned from a quick trip to Peoria. Our time was spent hanging out with family and especially spending some quality time with Melissa’s grandparents. We had fun going to the beauty shop, the bank, and out to eat. A soon-to-be congratulations goes out to Melissa’s brother and sister-in-law, as they will be having another baby in the next seven days! Thanks to Dave and Wanda for their hospitality!

Sunday, Carlos and myself (along with the Smothers family) had the opportunity to celebrate the Hartman Reserve Maple Syrup Festival! During a Volunteer Tuesday event at UNI, I got to work closely with my boss and co-worker to help the nature reserve prepare for this annual event. After hiking through the woods and checking buckets for sap, learning from the syrup-maker how the process works, and standing in line for 45 minutes, we made it to the front of the line. Chris Cakes brought a big rig and made 4 dozen pancakes at one time! I was amazed by both the efficiency and the speed of the one made who make the cakes! After 7 pancakes (along with butter and milk from Hansen’s Dairy), topped with real, homemade, Hartman-Reserve maple syrup. I was stuffed, but the food was great and was a great reminder to buy fresh- buy local!

Wedding bells are in the air. No Carlos is not getting married, but we do have many friends who are at various stages in the process. Kelli and Mike are getting hitched Memorial Day weekend, Kyle and Alisha as well as Deanna and Jonathan tie the knot in August, and Kim and Dusty are to be wed in September! Janessa and her now fiancé just got engaged within the last week!

Since it is Ash Wednesday- it would also be appropriate to wish you a humble and insightful Lenten journey (for those of you involved with Lent). I will be trying a variety of new things for this journey and will hopefully have many success stories to post. This year I am giving up all pop and coffee! I will also be adding a few things, including but not limited to watching less TV and updating the blog on a more regular basis! We are interested in knowing what you are changing in your life for Lent. Feel free to post and let us know what you are doing, and hopefully we can provide some support. If you post and keep us updated- I will post your updates on our blog as well!