Abi & Andy

We’ve been busy settling in to our new home, learning how to live together and manage everything, having fun cooking and exploring NC, and working hard lately.  Andy is still enjoying working at the American Red Cross on Bragg, but it has been harder lately since several of the other Red Cross staff have moved/left the Red Cross, so he is having to take on more of their projects and work a few weekends.  I started working as a bank teller at a local bank.  I was fortunate to be able to interview and was offered the position the week before the wedding – I accepted and started a week after we returned from the honeymoon.  It’s been a fun job and I’ve enjoyed getting to know more about the town and meeting customers.  We’re still working on finding a good church and getting to know more people here.  We’re praying that we’re able to find a church and Bible study group that is a good fit for both of us soon.

Here are a few recent pictures:

Abi and Andy – dressed as a Friar and a Wench
We were leading/chaperoning an American Red Cross Youth Halloween Party

Andy took me to visit his college – We walked around and saw a lot of changes since he had been there.

We have spent several weekends visiting with Andy’s Dad and Stepmom, and just this past weekend, we were able to visit with all of his siblings/step-siblings and their spouses.

We’re now happily married!

September 1, 2008 was an absolutely beautiful, amazing day!  We had great weather and everything was perfect.  Andy and I are now husband and wife and enjoying married life.  We switched our domain name (www.abiandandy.com) from the wedding site to this blog site so that it will be easy for all our family and friends to keep up with us as we start our new life together in North Carolina.  We’re going to post a link to more wedding pictures soon….but for now, here’s some pictures from our honeymoon in Orlando, Florida.  We stayed at a gorgeous resort, and we went to Disney World – my first time ever!

Honeymoon Pictures

I have been wanting to share more about my (Andy) job for a while now.  I came across this YouTube video and thought that it would shed light into some of what i am doing with the Red Cross these days.  I normally wear regular clothes and only have to work 8am-5pm.  But i will at some point in my career be deployed.

The other portion of my job deals with coordinating all of the volunteers at the hospital on base at Ft. Bragg.  This next video is an example of what the volunteers might do.

Can’t wait to see everyone at the wedding in only 11 days!  -andy

We’re getting married in less than a month!  Where has this summer gone?  It’s now August!  July was a fun and hectic month.  It was a lot of fun to get everyone’s RSVP’s in the mail.  My parents would give me daily and weekly updates on the mail they had received and the notes people sent.  Thank you so much to everyone who responded and for your kind thoughts and messages.  We’re both excited that so many people are going to be joining us to celebrate our wedding on Sept. 1.  And although we wish you could be there, we completely understand that it is too long of a trip for a lot of Andy’s family.  We will have a lot of pictures to share with you and hope to be able to make some visits down south in the next year or so.

August is going to be a VERY busy month for both Andy and I as we get everything ready for me moving down to North Carolina and finalize all the details for our wedding.  I will be finishing up my job in Maryland in a few weeks and will make a last trip down to NC to visit and get some things set up.  And before you know it, the wedding weekend will be here!  My friends and family are planning some fun things for that weekend and we’re looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family from out of town.  Please feel free to email or call either Andy or I if you have any questions about anything.

Below are a few pictures from a high school mission trip I recently (July 27-Aug. 1) led.  We had a great (but exhausting) time!  We went to Cincinnati, Ohio and served in different groups at various sites – some of the different types of projects were: helping to stock a food bank/serve meals to hungry people; volunteering at a special needs camp for kids of all ages/all disabilities; cleaning up/fixing up a church whose congregation is 50% homeless people – the church wanted to put in bedrooms for the homeless people to sleep in when needed; packing care boxes to send out through an international relief center; playing with underprivileged kids at a Boys and Girls center; fixing up a nature trail;  hanging out with senior citizens at an adult day care center; and working at a church program with inner city kids.  I was working on a with some teens on a team serving inner city kids from rough neighborhoods.  We had a great time and I felt very privileged to be able to bless the kids and help those adults who are doing an awesome work there in Cincinnati.

Mt. Hebron Pres. Mission Trip ‘08

only 27 more days! -abi

I can’t believe it’s already June! Time is flying by….only a few short months until our wedding! Summer is going to be pretty crazy for me. My brother is getting married on the 4th of July in Boston, MA and my family is getting a house up there for week before the wedding to vacation and celebrate with him. At the end of July, I am organizing and leading a mission trip for a group of high schoolers from my church to do community service-type projects in Cincinnati, OH. And in between those two big things, I have to be packing up and moving things down to NC. It’s all keeping me plenty busy.

This past weekend though, I got to relax a little and sleep in on Saturday morning. Then I visited with my sister, Emily and a good friend of mine on Saturday afternoon/evening. On Sunday I went to the church where my brother is a music minister with his fiance’, Jen. That afternoon I was able to help them move my brother’s things to a house that they are going to be living in after they get married that is near his church. I was happy to help and to be able to spend time with my future sister in law….and happy that since I helped him out, my brother is going to help me pack up and maybe even move some of my things down to NC in August (side note – of the many, many times I’ve moved in my life, without fail, my brother has “happened” to be out of town for each and every move – so this time I’m coordinating moving with his schedule!). Oh and I had my first ice cream cone of the season on Sunday. I have this weird thing where I only like and eat ice cream during the summer months – June, July, or August. It just never even sounds good to me any other time of the year, so I’ve made that my rule for years. But after helping move a little on Sunday and with the hot humid day – I was reminded that it was June 1 and we all (my dad, brother, and his fiance’) got ice cream cones at a little local store in the Hampden area of Baltimore city (where we were picking up their new furniture). Fun times. Good ice cream.

Andy was busy this weekend too – he had to give his first Saturday presentation for the summer youth program – training students to be American Red Cross volunteers for the summer. He said it went really well and everyone said he did a great job. He said he did get a chance to relax Saturday afternoon and Sunday and he even tried out the pool at his apartment complex.

only 91 days until we celebrate the end of summer with our family and friends at our wedding!…-abi

Since I still hadn’t met much of Andy’s family – we decided it was time for a visit to Georgia. Andy flew out of Fayetteville, and I flew out of Baltimore, and we met in the Atlanta airport last Friday evening. Andy’s mom, Cathy, and his grandmother, and his sister, Emily were really nice and all came to pick us up. We went to the Varsity restaurant for a taste of Atlanta, then drove around a little. I had never been to Atlanta or anywhere in Georgia (except for the airport!) before, so I got to be the tourist all weekend. It was good to finally meet more of Andy’s family and see where he grew up. We had a good time relaxing, walking the family dog, shopping, and exploring downtown Marietta, GA. We went to Stone Mountain on Saturday night and I talked Andy into climbing the mountain with me. It was a bit steeper than I originally thought and I was exhausted by the time we got up there, so we decided to ride the cable car back down the mountain. On Sunday, Andy’s aunt and uncle (Janice and Rip) came to visit and it was great to meet them. Andy asked his uncle Rip to be one of his groomsmen since he was such an influential part of his life as he grew up. Monday came too quickly and we were back at the airport. We were both glad we had the opportunity to take the quick trip to Georgia and were very thankful to Andy’s family for their generous hospitality all weekend.

Emily, Cathy, Andy’s Grandmother, Abi, & Andy’s Aunt

only 96 days until we are married! -abi