November Catch Up

November was crazy busy for Guy.

November was all about job interviews for Guy and time with family. The second weekend of November he went to Denver, Iowa (10 miles north of Waterloo) and interviewed with Schumacher Elevator. The company is a smaller family owned company that makes and designs speciality passenger elevators. He met with several different engineers, the CFO, VP of operations, VP of field operations and HR rep. The company is a little smaller but they were really friendly. Guy really enjoyed visiting the area and said the company was great and that he could see himself working there. They seemed really impressed by him and he enjoyed and got along with a lot of the older engineers as well. This is the first time the company has hired anybody straight from college and Guy said he felt comfortable with the company as well as he thought they felt comfortable with him.

It snowed while Guy was in LA. Tree with leaves and 8 in of snow!

The following Wednesday Schumacher called to let Guy know that he was on their short list of perspective hires. They would let him know after Thanksgiving is he was offered the position. The next day (Thursday) Guy flew down to Shreveport, Louisiana for an interview with a company called International Paper (IP). IP is a paper mill company. They make a variety of different paper type products. Two of the products that they make are the Starbucks coffee cups and the boxes that Amazon uses to ship products to you. Their interview process was a little different. They flew about 70 people in for the interviews. During their interview process they had team building exercises, and dinner with people who work at the different paper mills. There are about 20 mills throughout the south, one in Washington and 1 in Cedar Rapids. While he was finishing the interview process there were 2 different mills that really wanted him to work for them (Texarkana and Valliant, OK).  Guy was gone Thursday-Saturday with the interview.

Two days later (the Monday before Thanksgiving), we found out that Guy had been offered a position with IP working at the Valliant, OK mill. We had 3 weeks to decide.

We spent Thanksgiving in Chilicothe with the Lasley clan. Guy and his brothers worked on cleaning out the garage. As well as doing several odds and ends around the house. All of the close family members were able to come down with their families. The food was delicious and the company was excellent. On black Friday most of the women went shopping. It wasn't too crazy of a shopping trip but it was pretty nice to get out and spend some time chatting with family. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we left to spend time with my sister Katie and brother in law Brian at my Oma's house in West Des Moines. It was fun to spend time with them and socialize and get to know Brian a little better.

The Monday after Thanksgiving we found out that Guy had been offered a position with Schumacher and that he was their top pick. We weren't given a set time frame for when we needed to let the company know, but they did ask us to let them know as soon as possible so that they could notify the other choices as well.

December Update

To summarize December up until this point:

The first weekend of December we went to Texas so that Guy could tour the mill in the Oklahoma. That will be a separate blog post so I'll come back to that later.

After our trip to Texas we had the Pro Commercial (Guy's company) Christmas party. Dinner was pretty good, we had prime rib and salad and rolls and french silk pie for dessert. There was also a white elephant gift exchange. We left with some pretty interesting gifts.

The following night was our ward's Christmas party. The theme was Polar Express. The last few years we haven't had the best experience at the Christmas party so this year we opted to instead go out to dinner with Barry Sines. We took him to our favorite restaurant in Ankeny...Jethro's.

Our little Christmas Tree

After that was finals at the university. Guy spent a lot of time studying, and his studying has paid off. We've seen the grades for all but 1 of his classes. So far he's smoked all of them and has gotten A's on each exam. He's really grateful since all of his classes this semester were pretty hard and he's wanted to bump his GPA a few more points. As far as we know he ended with B's or better in all of his classes.

With December being so crazy we were a little late decorating our Christmas tree, but we did finally tackle putting new lights on it today! So here is our cute little tree with the mini nativity set.


We're looking forward to heading to Colorado Springs this week to celebrate Christmas with my family and then we'll come back to do New Year's in Chillicothe with some of Guy's family.

Trip to Paris....

Texas that is.

2nd largest Paris in the world. 

As part of the job offer we got from International Paper they offered to fly both Guy and I down to the area so that we could get to know the community a little better. Most of the salaried employees live in Paris as opposed to Valliant, OK. Valliant is a town with about 700 people in it. Paris is one of the largest towns in Northeastern Texas (25,000). We flew into Dallas and made the drive north. The drive was a little less than 2 hours. Even though it was night, it was a pretty easy drive and not too bad at all. Guy thought it was easier than the drive down to his parents (1.5 hrs).

We got there on Thursday and that night we met with the local bishop to ask him about the area. The bishop and his wife had nothing but praises for Paris. They said it was a great area with all of the people being really friendly. The bishop and his family had lived in Northern Missouri for a few years so they thought it was a similar Midwest kind of nice.

3rd Largest Eiffel Tower

We checked into our hotel and pretty much crashed for the night. On Friday, Guy left early to go tour the mill (~45 min away). I stayed in the hotel and met up with one of the female engineers who started at the company a few months earlier. She took me around and gave me the grand tour of Paris. It was a lot of fun! We went to the Chamber of Commerce and got a HUGE sack of information about the area. She also took me to several of the different shops and stores so that I could get a better picture about living there. We also saw where several of the engineers and their spouses live. We ate lunch at Perry's off the square, which is pretty much a French café. The food was phenomenal.

Guy enjoyed touring the plant and seeing the area. He said the team was all friendly there and that he would be a reliability engineer. When he got home from the tour we went and drove around Paris to look at some of the houses and neighborhoods. We plan on buying a house wherever we move to so we wanted to get a look at the neighborhoods and what was in our price range.

That night we went and ate dinner with several of the employees. The company tries to get together and do something every month or do dinner or breakfast pretty often. We ate at this hamburger restaurant that was pretty good. Everything's bigger in Texas though, so the portions were large. We also went and looked at all the Christmas lights in the park. They also had Santa, the Grinch and a reindeer petting area so it was fun to get to see all of that while we were there.

Saturday morning we went and had breakfast at the local bread/pastry shop. It's a cute store and all of the breakfast dishes were delicious. We learned as well that they make a pizza every Saturday night that is brick oven style and they use the ingredients from the Farmer's market, so the flavor of pizza changes weekly.


Paris has a lot to do for a smaller town. It's about 1.5 hours south of the Ozark Mountains so there's a lot of mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking, road bike racing, kayaking, fishing and pretty much any outdoor activity that you can think of. It's also not far from Dallas, so about once a month the engineers do a group activity down there.

We fasted and prayed after our trip as well as during our trip and we both received confirmation and feel like Texas is the new place for us! We're excited for the new adventure to Paris but sad to be leaving everyone here. I'm especially sad to be leaving my job with the USDA. I have a great boss and have loved working for him as well as my group. We're excited for the new adventure though!

Paris....here we come!

October Catchup

Time got away from me so now I will be playing catch up and summarizing what happened the last quarter of the year.

October-

October 17th was my 24th birthday. The day before I ran 6.5 miles as part of my training for my half marathon. I was pretty tired after that so we kept it a little low key. My birthday was one of the first cooler days of the year. Guy and I went trail bike riding in the morning then came back and I rested and then we went to meet Paul Fenton and family and Kristen and Scott Radke for Jeff's pizza and a little tailgating before the Iowa State football game. They played TCU and lost 45-21. Guy helped me make my birthday cake. I had a butterfinger ice cream cake.  We watched the game on TV and then just relaxed at home. We went a few weeks later to Biaggi's in DSM to celebrate.

Later that month I was still feeling pretty tired and lethargic.  My lymph nodes in my neck were also pretty swollen. I went to the doctor a few days after my birthday and she thought it was just a viral infection. So I went home but I still wasn't feeling any better and pretty tired. I went back to the doctor the Wednesday before Halloween. We found out what was making me sick....mononucleosis. Not so fun to have. I can still feel some of the effects of the mono. I've found I get sick easier and it hits me harder when I do have it.

The last Wednesday of October we went to our ward's trunk or treat. We didn't dress up since it was pretty cold out. Guy helped pass out candy with Matt Burnham while I walked around with Veronica Burnham and their 2 boys, Jackson and Mavrick. Jackson was dressed as Baymax from Big Hero 6. Mavrick was Fredzilla also from the movie.

Halloween was pretty low speed. We stayed in and watched a movie, we didn't see too many trick or treaters out and I was still pretty tired and wiped.

Center Grove Orchard

Fall is our favorite season. This year I thought we should go to one of the local apple orchards. We went to Center Gove which is about 20 minutes away from our house. The orchard is family owned and they had a lot of different activities that adults could also participate in. The admission wasn't to bad and there was a lot of different activities that you could participate in. They had a storybook area with the classics. I really enjoyed seeing the 3 little pigs houses. In the stick and hay house there was a little fox painted on the window. I appreciate the attention to details. They also had a one room school house that you could walk through.

The old women who lived in a shoe

Peter Piper Pumpkin eater

At the one room school house

Guy being a cowboy and roping a calf

Bouncing on the pillow

There were little bouncy horses that you could also play with, but we skipped those. Guy's favorite part were the tractors that you could peddle around on the dirt track. One thing we both enjoyed was the giant inflatable bouncing pillow. There were a few younger kids on the pillow we bounced on, so we tried to not bounce too high and bounce them off.

There was also a slide that you could go on. So naturally we had to play on it. The orchard had apple trees and a pumpkin patch where you could pick your own pumpkin. In order to get out there you needed to take a hay ride. On the hay ride they had little sights along the way. I enjoyed seeing some of the animals they had decorating the route up to the trees and pumpkin patch. Next to the pumpkin patch was a corn maze.

Neither of us realized that you were suppose to pick up a map that had clues and markers on it when you first entered the park. So we had the map of what the overall corn maze looked like on it, but no idea on where to go. Guy loved that this created a fun and different challenge. He took the map and led us through the course in about 30 minutes. Not bad considering the corn maze was over 4 acres.

Allison riding the pedal tractor

After the large corn maze, he had me lead us through the kiddie maze. I can successfully say we didn't get lost and I navigated us through.

We then walked over to the pumpkin patch and started looking around. We weren't planning on getting a pumpkin but we found some sweet looking pumpkins. Guy really liked this big green one, but we decided on the perfectly orange round pumpkin. However, we saw another couple with this awesome white pumpkin.

Guy with our pumpkin

We rode the hay ride back to the main area. We toured and looked around the gift shop/store. We tried apple salsa, peanut butter and apple butter. It was all good but a little interesting. Center Grove makes their own cider doughnuts and cider slushies. We decided that we should try it and we split one of each. I loved the slushie! The doughnut wasn't bad either...just to much sugar for me. We ended up not picking any apples this year since we already have a ton left over from woodbadge at home.

In the corn maze

Center Grove Orchard 2015

Later that night we came back and watched the second movie in the divergent series; Insurgent. Guy was a little lost since it's been a while since he's seen Divergent and he didn't read the book. We both enjoyed the movie though.

Woodbadge Pt 2

We went back for Woodbadge the first weekend of October. The weather was cooler but I wasn't sick so it was much more enjoyable. When we all got back to Gilwell field we presented the flags that we made while we were on our 2 week break. Guy designed the totem (the drawing) on his flag and a different member of his patrol put it together. Someone else in my patrol designed and put ours together.

Guy's Patrol Flag

During the second weekend each patrol was responsible for cooking their own food. I was responsible for cooking the purchasing the food for my patrol. To be honest, I was worried about having enough food. Turns out we had more than enough and Guy and I have been working on finishing some of the left overs. Both of our patrols ate well. I now have a reuben dutch oven recipe as well as cornbread and did I mention...ribs!

Buffalo Patrol

Friday night we had an outdoor fire. Each patrol preformed either a skit or a song. Guy's patrol sang and led the camp in the closing song. My patrol did a skit. Our skit is known as "pick pocketer." Basically the audience is observing a pick pocket in person. The last attempt of pick pocketing, the pickpocket is caught and flipped over by the person they are trying to pick pocket from. Since I was the smallest person in my patrol, I was the one flipped over. After the campfire my patrol was trying to finalize our presentation for the next day and the SPL and our troop guide came to get us so that we could work on writing our ticket. The ticket is 5 goals you go home to work on to finish and complete the course. We spent most of the night writing them but then at least we were done!

Fox Patrol

Saturday when Guy and I were both Patrol Leaders (we're on the far side)

Saturday was one of my favorite days of the entire course. Guy and I found out that ironically we were both the patrol leaders that day for camp. (Wasn't planned just fate). In the morning all of the patrols presented their group projects. The projects were interesting. One patrol presented about 7 of the original merit badges that are still in use today. Another patrol talked about the Maytag Scout Center ( I learned a lot ), another presented about the various awards you can learn. The antelopes presented and walked through all of the scouting programs from cubs to venture. Another patrol presented about woodbadge courses in other parts of the world. Guy's patrol presented about uniform changes through scouting. My patrol presented about some of the major changes to merit badges through out the history of scouting.

That afternoon we participated in the leadership/team building games. My patrol did great! We completed all but one of the activities. Guy's patrol had a little tougher time. One of the activities was trying to get your team through a rope barricade. His group struggled with it because the holes were smaller and some of his bigger patrol members wouldn't fit through at all. I really enjoyed the activities!

Trying to flip the island without touching the water

Directing my patrol in how we move in the game

Balancing the ball on a ring by using ropes

Buffalos trying to figure out

My patrol on the island

Saturday night was patrol night. So we spent the rest of the evening with our patrols doing our own thing.

Troop Guides having finished their skit

It was hard to believe that it was already Sunday. Sunday went by pretty quick. My patrol had everything torn down and cleaned up before flag ceremony at 8. The troop guides had a great skit. They had choreographed this chair/drill routine.  We also did the scout own service on Sunday. Afterwards we had the final presentation and the hanging of our patrols in the lodge where they will stay from now on. We had potluck style lunch with each patrol bringing a different dish to share. It was delicious!

Now Guy and I are working on our ticket trying to finish by the end of May.

Getting our "ticket" punched

The staff of C5-177-15

 We had a lot of fun at Woodbadge and we both learned a lot! I would highly encourage anyone to attend regardless of your position in scouting. 

C5-177-15 aka WOODBADGE!! Part 1

Guy and I at woodbadge (I really like this picture of us)

Woodbadge for those of you who do not know, is adult leadership training for BSA leaders. Think of it like the top most leadership training and experience you can get. It's one of the best leadership courses you can attend. Woodbadge doesn't just apply to your life in scouting you can use the same tools for all areas of your life. You learn different communication styles, teaching styles, how to plan and organize a project, what goes in to having the best bonfire/campfire, mentoring others and much more. Every activity you participate in is designed to teach you something. For years, I have been dying to go and this year I finally got my chance! My family is a huge scouting family and I've been waiting for this (4th generation to attend). When I found out the information for when they were offering the course I talked to Guy about it, and that he might also be interested in attending. He agreed to go since it was an ideal time for both of us to attend.

Some of the courses are a week long, others are 2- 3 day weekends, or you can have 3-2 day weekends. Our course was 2-3 day weekends.

When we arrived at camp they split us into dens (like cub scouts). Each den had 6-7 people in it. The morning of the first day of camp you simulate being in a cub scout den.

My den was den 7

Guy was in Den 5

After lunch we participated in the Arrow of Light ceremony and "bridged" into Troop 1. Each den then became a patrol; and each patrol was assigned a different animal. So the big deal with the animals is that at any scouting event you go to, if someone sees you with the woodbadge beads they ask about it. The animals are: beaver, bobwhite, eagle, fox, owl, bear, buffalo and antelope. In my family, we have the bobwhite, beaver and bear covered. I was excited to become a fox, and Guy became a buffalo. (Yay!)

Moving into Troop 1, getting our neckerchiefs 

My patrol (Fox)

Guy's patrol (Buff

The first day was kind of miserable. It rained pretty much all day and I had a cold so I felt like crud the whole time, and with no voice. Our cook is the head cook for Valley High School in DSM so our food was fantastic. It was also on time which was important because we only got 45 minutes to eat. (They kept us on a pretty tight schedule the entire course). That first day we ended with an indoor campfire where we learned what goes into planning a campfire and how to make a stellar one. We also played different getting to know you games, to help you better interact with your patrol. By the end of the day we were suppose to come up with a group cheer and a group name. Guy's patrol name was the "Noble Buffalo" with their cheer being "TATONKA!" My patrol is the "Fantastically, Feisty, Funky, Friendly, Fun, Fast Foxes! Yip, yip, yip!" (our name was our cheer).

The rest of the weekend procedure in similar fashion. We had different presentations about various topics, games that taught a different leadership aspect, activities and etc. Saturday we had 20 minutes to design and build a bottle rocket.

The Troop Guides blasting their bottle rocket

Playing memory

Learning to tie the famous "woggle"

Attempting to tie the woggle

Guy's real focused on the lesson....

I'm focused too...

And the next assignment...

 On Sunday we did participate in a scouts own service, where we learned what all goes in to planning a service for those of different religions. It was interesting seeing how one is done, since most of the ones either of us have been to have typically been LDS specific.

At the Scout's own service on Sunday

At the end of the 1st weekend you leave with a few different projects to accomplish. Each patrol had: to make a flag representing their patrol, design their totem, complete the outline for the conservation project assigned to them, and complete a patrol project that covered some aspect of scouting. We were given 2 weeks to complete these activities. We also had to come up with what meals we wanted to eat because the second weekend each patrol was responsible for making their own food (so you got the camping aspect of it as well).

Lunch on Sunday was dutch oven style. Each dutch oven was a different dish