Oops...

I posted my most recent blog to my old blog site, so instead of retyping it, here is the link:

http://meganmonty.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

1 week in, 1 week to go

So we have been in Indiana for 1 week now. We each drove our vehicle out here, James pulling the trailer and me with the cat. The "relaxer" the vet gave the cat made him crazy and the first 6 hours of the trip were constant meowing and trying to claw his way out of the crate. Since James was pulling the trailer it took us 14 hours to get here! I'm so glad we don't have to make that trip again.

The temporary house leaves a lot to be desired. Thank goodness we close a week from tomorrow or we might both go crazy!!! Somewhere between the house's smell and the fullsize bed it just isn't meeting expectations. I guess this will ensure that we appreciate everything about our new home.

James is enjoying his job so far, getting to know people and figuring out what his role will be within the team. My days consist of lots of time spent with Emma and Lisa to avoid the temp house. It is great to live near family again! We will be open for visitors starting with mom and dad in September, so we'd love to have you visit!

Taking Indiana by Storm

We are so excited that James has accepted a position as a Senior Engineer 1 at Zimmer. It is an orthopedic design company where he will be working in the post market department. His start date is August 16 and we will be moving into temporary housing on August 13.

Yesterday we went house hunting and made an offer on a great property. The family was camping so we were left hanging until right before our offer expired. They countered and we came to an agreement we are very happy with. So we bought our first home!! We will be closing on August 27 and can't wait to get moved in. Here are some pictures of it.

It is 3 bed/ 3.5 bath with a finished basement. It has 3 storage sheds and a great shop out back. It sits across from a cornfield on 2.4 acres. We are REAL country people now!!

The living room into the dining area.

The beginning of James' dream shop.

Happenings in the Phipps Household

We recently took a quick trip to Indiana to visit with Matt & Lisa and to meet Emma. It was a great trip and little Emma has Uncle James wrapped around her little finger already. It was so much fun to hang out with Matt and Lisa and we visited the GermanFest in Fort Wayne. The best part had to be somewhere between the weiner dog races and the giant cannon they shot off. I must admit, both Lisa and I screamed and jumped the first time it was fired.

We are still job hunting, trying to figure out what God has in store for us. James has had 6 interviews so far and 2 offers. We are trying to figure out what will be best for us as a family. Keep praying and hopefully we will have news soon!

We are currently both working and trying to survive the heat of the summer. As of Monday, we will break a 16 year record of most days in a row in the 90's and the 10-day forecast shows no relief. This makes working summer shootout at the race track every Monday and Tuesday a very hot and sweaty challenge. We also just got my seat fitted and in the race car so I'm officially ready to go, although we probably won't race until we are good and settled in somewhere.

I hope everyone is enjoying there summer so far!

Dr. Phipps

As many of you know, James had his dissertation defense last Wednesday and did amazing! I was so proud of him while I was sitting there listening to him present on all the things he had done. He passed and has a little over a week to get his dissertation signed off on and he will be DONE! I'm so proud of all his hard work. The job hunt is on full force now! He has had 1 interview and 1 phone interview already. He has another interviewing coming up later in the month and an "in person" interview for the one he had the phone interview with. We ned lots of prayers as we try to discern what God has in store for us. Pretty much all of our attention has been focused on James finishing up school and finding a job, so there isn't too much to report on.

It has been a crazy cold winter for us and we even played in the snow!

My first racing experience

We finally got James' back up car together, which is now officially my car!! Since we both have the week off of work, we have been spending a lot of time getting the car together. I was skeptical it would run, as the motor has only been used 1 time in the last 10 years, but James assured me it would be just fine. After several issues we had to solve, we got he motor running last night. Then today, we got everything finalized and ran the car.

We took it to the flat road by the model homes in our subdivision and I got my first taste of being behind the wheel. Was I fast, no. Heck, I never even made it out of second gear, but I learned how to start and stop, which is more complicated than it sounds, and how to shift. I don't even know how to drive a manuel street car, so this was an experience for me.

How to upshift and how not to downshift

I'm excited to say both the car and I survived the day and are looking forward to another excursion soon!

Christmas

So Christmas was stretched over an entire week for us this year! We started the celebration on Monday December 21 with us opening our gifts from each other. James did great with his gifts, giving me a Fossil watch that I really wanted, a beautiful cream colored coat for work and a coach purse. I could really tell he put a lot of thought into what he got me. James got several gifts, including a Steelers Jersey which he had been wanting for over a year. It was so nice to celebrate our first Christmas together as a married couple.

Rocking the new Jersey

The festivities continued on Tuesday evening by opening the presents mom and dad sent us. We opened them via skype, so it was as close to being together as we could get. It was hard for me to not be home for Christmas, but really nice to be able to see mom and dad on skype. I must do that more often. James got Super Mario Bros. for Wii, which I am now addicted to!! I'm not very good and stuck in the second world, but it is tons of fun.

Rockin the Super Mario Bros

Then on Wednesday after I got off work, we headed up to Virginia to see the Phipps'. Janet and I spent all day Christmas eve baking 3 kinds of chocolate chip cookies, 2 packages of sugar cookies, 2 kinds of brownies and lemon bars. It was cookie madness but reminded me of all the fun we had growing up baking cookies for the neighbors. A little last minute shopping also took place on Christmas Eve : )

Janet cutting the fruitcake, I tried it but it's not for me!!

Christmas day was entirely different than a Montgomery family Christmas. We rolled out of bed about 8, and ate breakfast like normal. Once breakfast was over and the dishes done, we headed to the living room to open presents. I was completely overwhelmed as everyone opened presents at one time and I was trying to watch everyone! haha. Christmas afternoon was lots of fun surrounding the Wii. We got James' parents to play Wii, including golf, bowling and Mario Kart. Finally I had a chance to win ; )