Blizzard!

Well if you live in Minnesota you have experienced the lovely snow blizzard that we experienced over Christmas. If you do not live in Minnesota, but rather in a nice and warm place you did not get to see this lovely snowfall that the Lord blessed us with! It is official, I have a snowbank taller than me at the end of Mike and my driveway. On Christmas Day we were able to drive down from Hutchinson to Maplewood. It really only took us 30 minutes longer. Maybe because Mike was driving and so we weren't too hindered by the weather (except for the silly other drivers). We spent the weekend with Mike's family down there and it was a great time! I pray that each of you also had a wonderful Christmas season filled with joy, family, and friends!

Love!

Amy and Mike

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas all!

Wow can you believe how fast time flies, it seems like only yesterday that Mike and I were running around with chickens with our heads cut off trying to get all the final arrangements on the wedding. Or that we were getting ready to move to Hutchinson in the first place. Which was about 9 months ago. That's right, I got hired at my current job on St. Patrick's day, so a little over 9 months. It was about 9 months ago today that Mike got hired at Menards and now we are about to celebrate Christmas for the first

time as a married couple/family! I am in awe of how fast time flies and how we cannot take those little things that get in our way for granted.

As I look to this week of celebration with family and friends, and hear what the meteorologists are saying about how terrible the storm is that is coming I am reminded of the little things once more. This morning while helping with Release Time (a program we have in Hutchinson that allows Elementary kids to leave school for 1 hour per week for religious study) I noticed how the kids reacted to our service project. We went Christmas Caroling and the kids just seemed so excited not about toys or anything

(which I am sure they are a little too) but to sing to the elderly members of our church. They were excited to see where they lived and fought over who got to give the elderly members the gift we had made for them. It was amazing to see these kids started to not only know, but express the true meaning of Christmas. While driving the kids back to school one of the girls stated that she was going to tell her parents and older sisters that they were going to go Caroling on Christmas Eve. I just was in awe, that during this time of joy that the media has changed and corrupted into something of materials there is still hope for our generation as well as the next generation that we and they will see the true meaning of Christmas and be able to bask in the glory that is the birth of Jesus our Saviour.

Spending time with family and friends to share with them love and be present where we are. So as I prepare for Mike, Thiessen, and my drive into the cities in these "Blizzard-Conditions" I am open to the pace we will have to take. We don't need to be there in 1.14 hours, we can take our time, be content, and enjoy even that drive to Mike's Folk's house.

As you prepare for this amazing season the DuFrene family (newest DuFrene Family) wishes you the very best. May you be filled with a joy that cannot be measured and that you may have safe travels and can truly see/feel the real meaning of Christmas.

Following HIM,

Amy

p.s. the picture below is from our wedding. We went bowling!

1 month down...lifetime to go

Well we made it, we have completed month 1! It has been a great journey. We celebrated together and our families the Thanksgiving holiday. We had a lot to be thankful for. We had a fantastic wedding, we had safe travels to and from our honeymoon, we have a wonderful home together, we both have jobs (Mike at Menards, Amy at Oak Heights), we have a little puppy who is getting better and better behaved.....(jury is still out on that one), and most importantly we have a God that watches over our daily activities, dreams, joys and sorrows.

Now that we have month number 1 down, we have started to learn how to show each other love. And how to really embrace who each other is. As we are preparing for this lovely season we are super excited to head to the cities for the Christmas weekend. We will spend the Eve, early Christmas morning with Amy's family; her tradition is Anderson (mom's side) is Christmas Eve, then Christmas day only with immediate family. Mike's family is being very welcoming to us whenever we can get there. So we'll head out to Maplewood late morning on Christmas Day and spend our time there until the 27th! I know we are both very, very excited to see friends, enjoying the weather in this cold season.

We pray for you as you embrace what this holiday really means!

Blessings,

Mike and Amy

Thanksgiving weekend

Wow November flew by for us, as you can imagine with all we had going on. But we ended it with a bang! On November 26 I hosted most of my mom's side for Thanksgiving dinner. That's right, Mike and I had family over for the holiday for the first holiday we spent together as a married couple. It was fantastic and now we can sit back and enjoy other holidays for a while until it is our turn again. But the weekend of family didn't end on Thanksgiving. Rather, our brother-in-law, Andy, sat out at Best Buy for us to help us get a nice new television. Mike had to work on black friday, making it difficult if not impossible to sit out the night before. And I have been fighting a cold since October, so trying to avoid getting get worse. But we got the tv thanks to Andy's awesome effort, and I went shopping on Black Friday to complete our Christmas shopping list! We are mostly, if not all done for this year! I am so proud of my first married Christmas season and being done, so I can actually enjoy it.

But again, Black Friday is not where our weekend ends with family. On Saturday, as is my family's tradition, we all get together and bake Christmas cookies. Well starting last year we decided to make it a bit more fun, add Ugly Christmas Sweaters. And so for the second year in a row Mike and I have donned Ugly Christmas Sweaters while I bake cookies with the girls and he watches sports or plays video games with the boys. After the cookies are completed we head down to the lovely Hutch Bowl and bowl a couple of games in our awesome sweaters! Then head back to Mama Gelsch and Papa Jon's place for some dinner and cards. The weekend ends on a time of games and cards and laughter on Saturday afternoon, because everyone needs the Sunday to recover from our weekend of chaos, but loving family!

Please continue to pray for us as we continue on this new journey together. We are learning a lot about each other. We too, are praying for you as you enter this season of joy and thanksgiving.

Peace and Blessing,

Amy and Mike

Back

Well we went through with it! Mike and I are officially married and back from our honeymoon in Mexico. You would never guess if you looked at me that I had just been on a nice warm vacation (I am still as pale as everyone else here). But it was a good trip and we are back getting ready for Thanksgiving. Which as some of you may know is at our new house. AWE a house full of people again, and only a few days after returning. But, thank you seriously from the bottoms of our hearts to those of you who were able to make it out to Hutch. It was greatly appreciated and we loved seeing you all there. Many blessings and happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Mike and Amy!

8 Days

Oh my word, time flies so fast! I cannot believe that the wedding is nearly a week away. I feel like there is so much that still needs to be done. We have most of it taken care of but it is just the little things that I am not sure I remembered that's all. But no matter what at the end of the day we will be married and life will be new!

Things that are "taken care of": DVD done, MC talked to, music talked to, decor taken care of

Things to do: drop off DVDs, get final numbers on food, finish gifts, etc.

Pray for sanity!

~Amy

T-minus 17 days

Hey to all who read this lovely blog.

Well Mike and I have been in our house (or Mike has been in the house...with most of my stuff) for about 2 weeks now. We have finally gotten most of the stuff organized and put away. Which is a feat considering how much stuff we had (who knew 2 people could have so much stuff). We are now having to focus on the house and the wedding. Only a few weeks left. Pray that it all gets done! AWE!

~Amy

Day 5

HEY ALL!!!!

Well we are in the house as of last Wednesday. All the i's were dotted, all the t's crossed. It was great to get the keys in our hands. And we have been working hard on the house since this big day. Amy painted the dining room completely, and the 2 walls of the kitchen. Mike hauled all their furniture around (both the cities and Hutchinson). We got all of Amy's stuff (minus her clothes) to the house. She will be staying in her brother's room till the wedding. But Thiessen is loving having a home, he gets to be inside and he is slowly learning what the rules are. He has officially made it 2.5 days without an accident in the house! That is a miracle if I ever saw one. Once everything is put away then he will have more room to be a nomad around. It is a slow process but we are making great progress. We'll put pictures up once things start to settle down a bit. But so pumped!

Thanks for all your prayers!

Mike and Amy

1 week

WOW we have just over 1 week until we are officially in the house. We have been appliance shopping but that step is just as scary sometimes as buying the house. It is a lot of money for one item that will eventually breakdown. So we are trying to shop around as best as possible but we are in a minor time constraint. So figures crossed that we have everything when we move!

~Amy

October 14 @ 10am

Hey All!

Well first and foremost Mike and I know that we are blessed beyond all belief. On Monday afternoon we received a phone call from the mortgage company. Our file has been going through all the processes very quickly and smoothly. We have officially set our closing date to October 14, at 10am! I am beyond pumped. So after that fun phone call on Monday we went insurance hunting yesterday (or Tuesday). We haven't officially decided what company we are going to be going with, but we are leaning towards 1 over the others as of now. But so we are running around trying to get wedding stuff organized and trying to get house stuff organized. It is crazy and I love it. Mike is also excited to get out on his own. It will be nice to have a place to call his. So closing is Oct. 14 and we will start cleaning/painting right away and hauling all our stuff from the cities then that weekend! Boo-to-the-yah!

Thanks for prayers they are much appreciated!

Amy

The Inspection....

We had our inspection last week on Thursday. So far so good, we didn't find anything that we should go back and cancel our offer. There are a few things that we'll need to get started on but that is with any house. So we are well under way. The mortgage company has everything that they need from us so it is just them and the bank coming back with all the signed paperwork. Keep praying this will happen fast so that Mike can get out of living with a couple of newly weds.

~Amy

1575 McDonald

Good Tuesday all!

Well Mike and myself have had very eventful weekend, or I guess week. Last week on Tuesday with our frustration towards the house we had an offer on for the past 12 weeks we decided to once again look at more houses. Little to us then we would find other house that we liked just as much if not a little more! So Wednesday morning or afternoon I ran over to the realtor and cancelled our old offer so that on Thursday I could put in a new offer on this "tuesday" house. Well so Thursday comes and I go down to the realtor again and we do all the paperwork, we are done close to 2p.m. Just as I get to my office at church I get a call saying that the earnest money isn't enough (due to the nature of the sale there has to be a certain amount of earnest put down). So I rush to the back to get a cashier's check and rush down to the realtor again and we put that in. I am back to my office before 3p.m. so all this happened within an hour or so. But we weren't expecting much, as the last one sat for 12 weeks with little to no movement. So we went about our day; walking the dog about 7:30-8pm we get a phonecall from our agent, the bank has verbally accepted our offer!

So currently we are in the process of signing everything, getting the mortgage company moving, and trying to see if this will actually fly. But to top it all off this weekend we added to our family (well I guess Mike and I aren't married yet so my family). My sister got married to Andrew Merkins, so I have a new brother and Mike (as he lives with Andrew) got a new roommate!

A lot of things are happening and moving quickly please continue to be in prayer as the process gets underway!

~Amy

So It is September

Well there has been a lot happening in our lives lately. If you have read the recent post we got a puppy, named Thiessen. He is certainly a handful. He is only 9 weeks old and in the biting stage. He is teething pretty badly and so we are trying to help him through that with as few cuts and bites as possible. We also have learned that the neighbor kids have been feeding him human food while we were gone one afternoon. We talked to them and since have not let him outside if they are around (we don't want him to get sick and it just plain isn't good for him).

It was labor day weekend this past week (if you didn't notice that) and on Sunday we got a lovely text from Justin and Johanna Reed, they were wanting to come down to Hutch and visit us! And they brought Matt Karel with them and their dog Killebrew. This would be the first meeting of Killebrew and Thiessen. Thiessen really enjoyed Killebrew's tail (as it looked like his toys). But the visit was a great surprise and we loved seeing them all!

Then on Monday, Mike had to work so I worked diligently at assisting Mike's new roommate move in. Mike is currently living at Andrew Merkin's house (Andy is marrying my sister on the 19th of Sept.). My sister has started move in to the house and so my mom, sister and I worked hard to get the house in ship shape before their hectic week of school and work began. So all the stuff is ready for my sister and Mike is getting a roommate as of the 19th. Unless of course we get a house by then, we still don't have any news from the bank on the house we really like. Please continue praying for that. And please pray that Thiessen's teeth will be less painful for him, because the more pain he is the more pain caused to us :)

Thanks!

Amy

Thiessen

Well I couldn't put this up before in case Michael decided to check this page or add anything. You know, the norm. But yesterday was puppy day! Yep, I surprised Mike with a puppy, with the phenomenal help of Matt and Rachel Karel. Who without this would not have been a success at all. They are amazing friends to us. But we have a little puppy, his name is Thiessen and is a mix between Yellow/Golden Lab and Golden Retriever. Below is a picture of him!

We Love him already very much!

~Amy

Week 7

Okay so if you are keeping up on our fun little adventure with our house we are on week 7 on waiting to hear back from the bank. The realtor for the sellers has been contacting the bank weekly. Last week the bank told her she didn't have to keep calling, her response to me/my mom was "we don't listen too good, so we'll call again tomorrow :)" I thought that was very nice of her to say. But alas we are still at a standstill with it, the previous owners have officially moved out of the house so it is really waiting solely on the bank! But because of the wait Mike and I are starting to look again at some houses. We looked last week and found some we liked, but not completely loved. We are looking again tonight so please continue to hold us in prayer! We would love the support from the Big-Guy upstairs. Thanks!!

~Amy

Softball

Well our softball season is done. We played in the semi-finals for B-league. Which was an awesome game to play in considering we started off the season in D-league and slowly moved up the pole. The team we lost to in the semi-finals was a team that played on B-league regularly and their team they beat to get into the semi-finals was beaten by over 10 runs (so we played very well).

Now Mike and myself are looking for new activities to participate in. During the fall there is really only 2 options (bowling or volleyball). Considering I don't like volleyball we might go out on a bowling team. But it would strictly be for fun, I'm not the best bowler and we have a lot of things going on this fall.

As for the update on the house, we have given the bank an extension to look things over until September 1. After that we will start looking at houses again in full-steam (we are currently looking here and there online as we have time). But prayers for that would be greatly appreciated and prayers that we get involved in a group for the fall, it was nice to have something that was weekly that we got to do together.

~Amy

Housing Situation

To all those concerned about or praying for us in our house situation it is still in progress. Due to the fact that it is a short sale we have to wait for the bank. The sellers have approved the offer, they approved it within the 2 days! But since June we have been waiting to hear from the bank. As of right now we are 5 weeks into what could be a 12 week waiting period. So if the bank would take the entire 12 weeks it would land us mid-October with a closing date no later than the beginning of November. Although that is crazy and would make our November insane! We are eager to hear back from the bank. Please keep the bank's process department in your prayers that the decision would be made swiftly and that no matter what the answer we would be able to use our new living place for the glory of God.

Also a praise that our realtor is working so well and closely with the realtor that is selling the house. The selling realtor has done a lot of these "short-sales" and all of the paperwork was done to par and done in advance, hoping this will decrease the time that the bank will take. Through this the bank has given word that they have everything they need currently.

Our Month of July

Well the month of July has been a crazy one for the 2 of us. It has tested us greatly! First on July 7th Amy headed up north for an adventure with church (aka work) and was out of cellphone reach. And this is the first time that the two did not talk daily since meeting! But I returned on the 10th only to turn around and leave again on the 11th for CHiC, a youth conference down in Tennessee. And I will turn around again and leave for Sweden on the 24th! Man-oh-man.

While I have been away Mike has gotten to learn more about Hutchinson. He has used his bike thoroughly and biked all around town. And he has hung out a lot with Andy (his soon-to-be brother-in-law). The two are currently living together and getting to know each other.

Softball

For anyone who is friends with Mike on facebook you may have already seen this, but Mike got his first homerun yesterday! We are playing on our church's team this year. We are playing in C-league and against some very interesting teams. **Our first game we played against a bar that told us that we were deceiving and Jesus could see us lying and our pitcher almost got punched from the other team for making a play....INTENSE!

Well we haven't played anyone that intense since that point yet, but last night we played a team that used to be an A-league team (sadly now playing C??questionable). But Mike smoked a ball out to Right-Center and dominated the outfielders and got his homerun.

~Amy

House Hunt cont.

Well today I met with our realtor. We have decided to put down an offer on the house! I am so excited. I think it will be a great house, but it is totally in God's hands on whether we get it or not. We won't know right away, it is a short sale so the bank that owns the house (or that the current owners have their mortgage with) has to okay the offer before we can fully proceed. Please pray that the process goes smoothly and if this is not our house that we are able to keep the search going and that we can keep a positive outlook on the whole situation.

~Amy

House Search

Well we have officially started the house search. We have found it to be a struggle as what I find nice, Mike doesn't want. We are starting to narrow the search by pointing out what we like most about houses rather than what we don't like about the house (it keeps a positive edge to it). 

Please pray that as this search continues that we are able to find where God really wants us to be. We have found that the doors to moving to Hutchinson have opened fairly easily thus far and know that this is where we are to start our lives together. 

~Amy