A future?

Do you know who Jillian Michaels is? She is the hardcore trainer most notably recognized as the trainer on the show The Biggest loser (Alexa's favorite show). She has developed this attitude of wanting to be the next Jillian, with the ability to yell at her trainees, whipping them into shape literally by making them fearful of her.

She took a personal training weekend course at ISU this past semester and is working on becoming a registered personal trainer. She has one client that she started training towards the end of the semester and if you could only see the simle on her face when I would ask her how it went. She would always respong with something like, "She was a baby" or "She complained about doing pushups." I always just laughed, but knew inside that I also was fearful of the wrath of Alexa when it comes to fitness.

Well this could be looked at in two ways...

First off, I have access at virtually all times to my future wife, the hardcore trainer to push me to my limits and keep me off the couch. Although I found many excuses over the past semester to miss her cycling workouts, I plan to get back into a routine over break which started the second day I was home. I'm sure if the wind wasn't blowing the snow 20-30mph over the past couple days we would be outside going for a run.

Secondly, on those days when it is cold outisde and you just want to curl up on the couch and watch football all day with a blanket over you and maybe enven take a nap, doing a workout isn't necessarily at the top of your list of things to do. Although I was in this mood yesterday I may have found a new favorite way to work out. Watching the football game, while riding my bike on my indoor trainer as you can see below.

Even though I may not enjoy it at the time and would rather be relaxing than working out, wouldn't we all? I know after last year the importance of winter training in preparation for the upcoming summer, which I will have to fill you in about later. So if you are looking for a tough workout in preparation for anything, or just to lose weight, guarantee you know you don't need to look any further than Alexa, who is willing to push you harder than you've probably ever been pushed.

One more to go

And it is finally over. I finished my last final for the semester and am getting ready to head home for a couple weeks. Can't say I'm too sad to see it end, but there's always next semester. The end wasn't as climactic as I had hoped, but I'll just keep telling myself one more to go, one more to go, as long as I passed all of my classes but I'm not too worried about that.

I'm excited to head home though, and i'm ready to start getting this list of things that Alexa and I need to get done started. We should have an exciting break, and although our posts may be a little sporadic we will try to keep everyone updated as much as possible!

Oh and if you haven't read and commented on Alexa's post below about her future plans, please do! We're counting on your input! Thanks.

Career Plans (or lack there of)

As I finish up my last final of the semester and realize that I don't have much schooling left, I feel that it is time to seriously start deciding what I desire as a career. This is and has been the number one question in my life for a while and I have decided it is time to tackle it!
I have many options after I graduate, these are just a few that I am considering right now:

Do the required internship (being that I get accepted) and become a Registered Dietitian
I could go onto Graduate School for things such as, health education, physical therapy, ect
I could find a job with the degree that I have in nutrition
I could go on and get a degree in clinical laboratory science
Or I could start my own business of combining nutrition and exercise

As you can see by the number of options, I have literally no idea what would best suit me, which is a bit of a problem in making this decision. I have asked many people in my life and they haven't been much help in this decision. As I recall my sister saying, "Really, I have no idea what you would be good at." I hope she was meaning that I would potentially be good at all of these options so she couldn't decide, not that I am horrible at everything and there is no hope for me. Some days I do feel that there is no hope in making this decision. But anyways, back to the point

Therefore I am writing this blog in hopes that the rest of my family and friends who know me can help in narrowing down my decision. What do you picture me (Alexa) doing?
I am honestly open to anything, I just hope someone else may have a different perspective than I have.

Here are a few of the things I enjoy greatly or my passions and hobbies:
1. Nutrition
2. Exercise and Fitness
3. Art
4. Education and surprisingly Public Speaking (about things I enjoy of course)
5. Cooking and baking (healthy things)

Well I probably should get back to studying! Since that is the basis of my career plans!
I look forward to hearing your perspective on this situation!

Esmerelda

This past Friday Payton and I got to spend the evening with family and friends at Cornerstone Church's Christmas Production Esmerelda (and I was lucky enough to go again Saturday). This was one of the most compelling Christmas plays that I have ever seen. Here is a short description from Cornerstone's website of what the play was about:

"Once upon a time, in a world very much like our own, there lived a young girl. Lik all children, there was a time of year that she cherished above all. That time, of course, was Christmas. And so it was, that one Christmas she received a gift. Inside this gift lurked something dangerous, something that would change her life forever."

I would continue... but I know some people who still haven't seen the play so I wouldn't want to ruin it for them! But in this play, I saw a picture of Jesus that I had never seen before. Even though this is who I know He is, I never pictured it in the way that "Esmerelda" showed. He was compassionate, willing to give up anything to capture the heart of Esmerelda, just like he is willing to capture our hearts above all other things. He is waiting for us, he hears our cries, he knows our deepest desperation's and he rejoices in our joys. He is our king, a serving, gentle king who came and walked this Earth for the sake of us. To save us for the sin that we walk in daily. He took our sin upon himself, and was crucified on the cross, the most horrendous death, just to save us. This is something that is hard for me to image. Why would anyone die for me? But I know that it is out of love, unfailing love! And because of this I am forever grateful! I am set free from the sin that used to control my life so that I can live eternally in God's presence! And there is nothing that I can ever do to repay the Lord who saved me and you but to be grateful and to show his compassionate love to others.

And so it is my prayer that in everything I do may all glory be given to our Savior forever! I also pray this Christmas season, that it would not be about the gifts or anything else that distracts us from the true meaning of this season, but I pray that we will all remember why we celebrate this holiday and that is for the birth our our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who was taken from His glorious throne in Heaven to walk in this world to save us. He has come to save you, will you accept? If you do it will be the greatest decision that you will ever make! Please take time to thank Him and give glory to Him for this!

May you be filled with joy and peace this Christmas Season!

With all of our Love!
Payton and Alexa

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20

P.S. If you want to know more about Esmerelda or buy a DVD of the play let us know and we can pick one up for you.

Finals

With finals week looming next week it has been a crazy busy time for both of us to take some time to blog. Funny how professors wait till 2 weeks before the end of the semester to assign design projects and such. We are making it through though and are excited to take a couple weeks off for Christmas break. We have a lot of things to get done over break and I hope we will be able to find time to sit down and do them.

Finals week for both of us looks a lot different. I am currently finishing up a 17 credit semester with 14 of those credits being Engineering courses. I have four finals and a project next week all spread out.

Monday: Hydraulic Systems

Wednesday: Final Design report for Hydraulics

Thursday: Engineering Measurements

Friday: Fluid Mechanics and our Control Systems take home final is due

So I will be here in Ames until Friday late morning finishing up my finals. I'm sure it will be a busy week since I have spent most of this week just finishing up other projects and homework assignments due. (Deep Breath)!

Alexa on the other hand...

She is finished with her finals on Wednesday so her mom is driving down to pick her up and take her home early. It's so lame! She definitely has a tough schedule and is going to have to put some work into the next few days, but going home Wednesday? That's not fair, maybe i'm just a little bitter. I totally would have stayed until Friday with her had my finals been done before her. Oh well, just as long as she spends part of that time continuing to experiment with cooking (especially cookies).

Life goes on. I can see the finish line from where I am now and I really wish I could sprint the rest of the way, but I feel like it is going to be a marathon semester in the spring. Especially at the end with planning the wedding, closing on our house, finishing finals and getting married all within a month I am going to be glad when it is all over and we can relax a little. I hope your life is as busy as mine because even though it can be hard at times, it sure keeps things interesting.

Alexa caught me studying, watching a video lecture so she thought it was a perfect opportunity for a picture.

Hope...

With the Christmas season upcoming and the masses of people continuing to buy presents it's time to take a step back and see what other things we could be doing with our time, or more importantly our money. Take a look at this organization's video and the things they are doing to spread the love of Jesus during this time of celebrating his birth.

Challenging? What can you do to help? By saving a mere 2% of the money you spend and giving it away, America alone could solve the water problem for the ENTIRE WORLD! Think of the change that could bring. Why stop at 2% though? Spread the word, help the world! I invite you to visit their website here to learn more about the message they are spreading and how we can help out.

Thanksgiving Break

From the last post, you can tell that Payton and I had a very busy Thanksgiving break. Although it was still very relaxing. Besides for buying the house, which surprisingly didn't take up too much of our break, we were still able to celebrate Thanksgiving. For as long as I can remember, we have always gone to Dwight and Bonnie's house where many of our other family members meet to eat dinner together and celebrate the day of Thanksgiving. But not only do we get to eat a delicious meal, but we also have the joy of putting up Christmas lights on their farm (more pictures on that to come). Luckily it was fairly pleasant outside which made the decorating easier.

Besides for thanksgiving, Payton and I along with my sister Whitney, her fiance TJ and my mom embarked on our very first "Black Friday" adventure. And it was an adventure. We initially were planning on leaving at 4:00 am, however when Thursday night rolled around we all decided that we didn't need anything that bad so we changed our minds and decided to leave at 6:00 am. And sure enough when 6:00 am rolled around we were headed out the door on our way to Cedar Rapids. It turned out to be a very fun day, a must do again for sure! Even though I bought more than I had planned (which I'm sure most did, hey I'm just trying to help the economy right?) and we had along two young guys who went for one reason only, to go to Best Buy and once that was done, they were done! So besides for the constant complaining (which we ignored) we had a fabulous first "Black Friday".

That same night, we attended our first Christmas celebration of the year. Payton's Grandparents take the family out to the Amanas to celebrate the Holidays. It was delicious as usual (especially the cranberry sauce), as well as a pleasure to see the family that we have missed while at school.
And that wraps up the major events of the week. I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving and look forward to the Christmas season!

Home is...

WOW! This past week has been a rollercoaster for Alexa and I both. We came back for Thanksgiving break last Friday with no idea what we were going to spend our week doing. We had been talking about looking for housing for next year after I graduate so we went in to Johnson Real Estate in Vinton and talked to them about what we could afford and what was in our price range in town currently. After talking to them and the bank we felt we might want to start looking through some houses. Alexa and I had one house we really liked after looking at the few in our range and so we decided to go through 2 houses, the one we both really liked and another pretty similar.

What happened next was not to be expected. After going through both houses we were completely speechless and shocked. It was a very weird experience going through other people's house to look at possibly purchasing it. After talking later that night we decided that the house we had been wanting to look at would be a great fit for us, where the other house was just too big. With 4 bedrooms and 2 stories, we wouldn't begin to have the stuff to fill the house. So we decided to go back through the first house again the next night. After going through, now knowing what to look for we started to feel more and more comfortable with the place and the possibility of calling it home. So we talked about the possiblity of making an offer and the things we would ask for.

We ended up making an offer on Wednesday for the house. The seller had until 4PM on Saturday to let us know and that was a crazy couple days waiting for the call. We got the call on Saturday morning that she liked the offer except for the closing date which we asked to be May 30th so it would be after I start my job. She wanted to close on April 30th and after discussing it for 30 seconds we were excited to go in on Saturday afternoon and sign the final papers to buy our first home! Alexa and I are sooooo excited that we will have a great place to live that we can call our home. The house is located at 813 1st Ave in Vinton which will be great for me to drive to Cedar Rapids to work and for Alexa to drive back to Ames a couple times a week to finish school. I will be able to move in before our wedding and enjoy our new place right away.

We are both really excited about this opportunity. It all happened so fast and we can't wait till April 30th to start moving in and getting it ready for after our wedding. Now we are going to have to go back and add a bunch of things to our registries now that we have a better idea of what we will need so stay tuned for updates as we continue this journey. Check out the picture below of our new home (in 5 months).