So Far, So Good

We made it.  Everything with the move went semi-eventless.  I'll start from the beginning.

For the past 2 weeks, we've been packing up everything when we've had the time.  After finals we kicked it into gear and started working hard.  Fast forward to Tuesday.  The temperature -15 (for a high!).  The windchill -40.  What better day to load the Uhaul?  We wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of Trevor and Amber.  If you're reading this, THANK YOU!  Trevor is a human tetris machine.  Anyways, the next day we go to leave, and the Uhaul has a flat tire on the rear passenger side.  It wasn't completely flat, but it was getting there.  So we take it down to Aberdeen and it hadn't lost anymore air, so I thought we'd be all right.

We weren't.

As I was filling up on gas (which would be a usual occurrence) I saw a guy looking at his tires.  Just out of the blue, I asked him if he could look at our tire as well.  Long story short, he's a tire salesman and he was shocked we hadn't already shredded the tire.  So we took the truck to the Uhaul place, got it filled up, and an hour later, hit the road.

I miss cruise control and being able to go over hills at more than 60 MPH.

The truck sucked gas like nothing I've ever seen.  in 550 miles, we had to stop 4 times to fill it up.  That's crazy!  Granted, we had the back completely full and it was towing our car.  I'm just extremely happy gas is 1.59 instead of 3.59!  What a difference!

So we make it to Crete, and I'm figuring with a handful of people, we can unload everything in a couple hours.  Boy, I was wrong.  We had 11 people show up and it took us 45 minutes from start to finish.  And the icing on the cake is that only a couple of our breakables got broken.  They weren't anything special, so that is good.

The next day (Thursday) we go to a couple of interviews that were pretty much guaranteed jobs.  Long story short, the earliest the first job starts is February, and the other job starts in March!  Uh oh.  After we found that out, we went to almost every business in town, picked up applications, and are turning them in today (Friday).

So, please pray that these jobs work out because we know that this is the right place for us.

If you are wondering about the house, we are unpacking our last boxes today and I will give the grand tour.  I'll post it on here once I get it finished.

Well, this is a long post so I should stop it before it gets any longer.

Our Trip to Crete

Over Thanksgiving break, we went to Crete.  While we were there, we looked for jobs and houses.  Long story short, we found a house, but still no jobs.

The house is nice and small.  I would classify it as 1 bedroom with an kitchen, living room, basement, and a tiny bedroom that would be more like an office.  We might be able to fit a bed in there, but more than likely it will become an office.  The floors are all hardwood and the kitchen is linoleum.  The basement has hookups for a washer and dryer.  It also has a room below the basement to use as either a pantry or storm cellar.  I think we should use it as a sweat shop and make some money on the side.  We have a garage, but we won't ever use it because we bottom out every time we pull into the driveway...

The landlord is still working on the house so just ignore all the construction stuff.

Sorry It's Been A While

Life has been pretty crazy.  I'm writing this in a class that is just rehashing everything I've already learned.  Not that it's not important, I just think that the content could be a little better...

Anyways, nothing new has really happened lately.  Tomorrow I go in for my second epidural.  This time it's in Aberdeen (30 min away) instead of Fargo (2 hours and 30 min away).  

Speaking of this topic.  I went through all the medical bills I have had just in the last year.  All of these are just from the problem with my back.  The total was $4,300.  Praise God because not only did the epidural work, but I've only had to pay $145!  This is without insurance as well and no medicaid/medicare.  God has really taken care of me and I believe that God is providing the way to be healed.

Graduation is right around the corner.  I kind of feel at peace with the whole process.  We're both really excited about Crete.  Next week (after Thanksgiving) we are going to check out some houses.  I called the landlord that Brent (the Sr. Pastor) recommended and he has a small house (1 1/2 bedrooms) which is just in our price range...which is next to nothing.  

I've started working out.  Every morning (either before or after my morning classes) I head to the fitness room, jump on the treadmill and get fit.  In the past week, I haven't lost any weight, but I have noticed that I am able to run a little longer every day.  I started running for 20 min, with breaks almost every 7 minutes.  Now I can run for about 20 min straight.  Every day I try to add a minute or so.  I just want to be healthy.  I'm not looking at losing 40 pounds.  That would be nice, but I just don't want to be out of breath from walking up a set of stairs.  Plus I don't want to buy a new set of clothes in the next size up...that's not going to happen!

I quit my job flipping burgers in the coffee closet because I got offered a job doing what I love.  I humbly accepted the position of making promo videos for TBC.  I hesitated saying this on here, because I didn't want to boast about it, but this is a huge step for me.  I say this in a non-boasting way-The administration saw the work that I had done with the promo videos for the missions trips people went on this summer and liked them.  They called a meeting with me and asked if I could do the same thing for the school.  So far, I'm working on the midnight worship we just recently had.  It's time consuming piecing together an hours worth of film!

Well that's about it for now.  Class is almost over so I'd better wrap up or I'll never get back to posting.  

Ryan and Nicole are now Employed

Well, we made the call last night to accept the position in Crete, NE.

For those of you who didn't know, we candidated at Radiant Springs Church in Crete, NE last weekend.  As we left, they offered the position to us and we took a couple of days to think and pray about it.  As the pastors there, we would be in charge of the Children's Ministry, help out with worship, and be general associate pastors.  This is a very exciting time because we feel that the Senior Pastor will gel well with us.

Crete is a smaller town just 20 miles outside of Lincoln.  They have a college of about 1,000 there-Doane College.  They offer some Master's level programs so that could be an option later on.  The town has a BK, Subway, Pizza Hut, Wal-Mart (YES!!!!), and just other places like these.  The town population is around 7,000-so it is on the smaller side of things.

We would have to find a full-time job while we're there.  I'm looking at being a bus driver for the school district (I never, ever thought I would be saying that), and Nicole is trying to become what's called a "para".  It's basically a teacher's aid in the Elementary School.

So yeah, those are our plans.  We hope that this will be an exciting time in our life.  If you happen to think of us, shoot off a little prayer.

Apps I Use

As many of you know, I use a mac (Macbook Pro). A lot of us out in blogland use macs and I wanted to list some of my top apps, so here they are:

Microsoft Office 2008-I would be useless without this.

Adobe Photoshop-This is where I get to express my creativity. There's not a lot there, but I try.

Plaxo-This is the best app I have. It automatically syncs my Address Book and iCal to plaxo's site. This way I can have my calendar and contacts wherever I go (because it has a cell friendly website).

The Missing Sync-This app is awesome. It syncs everything on my Q to everything on my mac. My calenday, contacts, notes, call log, texts, etc. Then Plaxo syncs it all online. Pretty awesome system.

iCal, iTunes, and Mail-I love all these apps and use them pretty much every day.

Newsfire-This is the best RSS news reader I've found. This is how I keep up with everyone's blogs because it automatically downloads them when the cmputer is online and I can read them whenever I have time (with or without internet!)

That's about it. Hit up the comments and recommend some apps to me. I always love a fresh new app!

New York

Well, I'm sorry this is a little over due, but I finally had time to catch up on the blogsphere.

New York was incredible.  Nicole and I went to NY for Nicole's Grandma's 80th birthday/family reunion. I met a ton of people there.  There was close to 50 people at the reunion/birthday party!  Surprisingly, I can still remember most of them!  Woot!  Anyways, we had a great time.  90% of our time was spent with family.  We actually had the opportunity of staying with Nicole's Aunt (Eileen) and boyfriend (Jon).  We had such a great time there.  It turns out that Jon is an IT supervisor for a library supply company (plug-www.gaylord.com ) Anyways, he is seriously hooking me up with his old stuff that would sit in his drawers, closets, etc.  What a blessing!!

In the 10% of our time there that was not spent with family, it was spent eating pizza (9%) and apple picking.  I think I ate 6 apples in the 20 minutes of picking.  Then drank an apple cider on the drive home.  I had way too many apples that day...

Here are some pictures of the fam plus other randomness.

A OK

Well my epidural yesterday went pretty good. When I get nervous I start cracking jokes...so the jokes were endless and only got worse. it started with "Wow, this is the first time I've paid someone to see my crack!" We'll stop there...

But really, it went really well. Although I must say that I felt a lot more than they said I would. That aside, I have significantly less pain than yesterday (even with the soreness...) All in all I'm praying that this will be a permanent fix.

My side note for today...the show "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" is by far, my favorite show of all time. It's not meant for kiddies...but the humor is so creative and...humorous! So if you have the courage to watch it, do it!

Epidural

Well, the time has come.  Tonight we leave for Wahpeton so the drive to Fargo is a little shorter.  My epidural is scheduled for 11:00 AM.  I'd appreciate all the prayers I can get because this is a totally new experience for me and I gotta say, a having a giant needle forced into my spine doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

Leavin'

Tomorrow morning, Nicole and I are taking off for Utica, NY (upstate).  We'll get back Tuesday of next week.  I'll post pictures either while we're there or when we get back!

MRI

Hello world.

I finally was able to scan my MRI pictures into my computer.  On the first picture, the bulge is in my lower back.  You can see that it's not white like the others...it's black and yucky.  The second picture is taken from the top down.  It's like I am a loaf of bread and they cut me in half.  Pretty cool.  They added a nice pointer to help show where it's at.

So with this, I have to have an epidural.  I'm not sure if I put this up yet or not.  It's Sep. 26th in Fargo.  Nicole's going to drive me back so I can crash in the bed!

Anyways, that's really all for now.

Boring/Busy

 Ok, so I have to admit that it is hard to be both bored and busy at the same time, but

It's Been A While

Hey, sorry it's been so long on updating this.  Life has been pretty crazy and not having internet at our apartment doesn't help...

Here's a rundown of the past couple of weeks:

1.  I visited a Neurologist about my disc in my back.  He said that he doesn't think I should have the surgery because in 10 years, it will go back to the way it is now...so with that, I have 3 epidural appointments.  My first one is on Sept. 26.  Not looking forward to that...

2.  School starts on Wednesday.  I'm not too worried about this semester.  I have 10 credits (4 classes) and two of them are Freshmen level.  Really, this semester is going to be prepping to leave and find jobs.  So if anyone out there in blogland has any ideas, let me know.  Priority number one when we graduate is to pay off our debt.  In order to go into the profession we want to, our school loans have to be paid off.  We have no specifics on where, we just know the when-December 6th (that's approx. when we graduate).  Really, we just want to live as cheaply as we can with decent jobs and put all the money on our loans.

Side note-It's incredibly hard to make it through any college without any loans!  Props to the people who do it!

3.  My computer died.  That's another reason I haven't been religiously updating this.  Apple has incredible support though.  I don't have to pay for a thing (even the tape to tape the box!!)

4.  I'm thinking of joining Twitter.  I've heard so much buzz about it.  Any thoughts?

5.  Myspace is officially dead.

6.  I've recently been on a rampage of giving stuff away/selling stuff that we don't need.  We just have too much "stuff" that we really don't need.  If you saw anything of mine that you liked, ask for it and more than likely I'll give it to you.  Exceptions, my computer, my phone, my car, and my wife.

7.  If you have any suggestions of what you want to know about me, post a comment and I'll write a post on that stuff.  As Will Ferrel put it, "I'm a human onion."

That's all for now.

People Who Have Impacted My Life the Most

The title pretty much describes it.  I'm going to list the people who have impacted my life the most.  These are in no specific order.  These people helped shaped me into the person I am today.  Whether that's good or bad I'll leave to you.  By no means have I "arrived"-I hope I never do.  But these people have had a significant impact on my life.

-Mom & Dad
-Mr. Manja
-Mr. Millen
-My Mentors from Morocco

Brief break...apparently I like "M"'s

-Kelly McCormick
-Mr. Nugent & Mrs. Lehman
-Brandon & Colyn
-Nicole

Life

Hey, sorry it's been so long for an update.  Things in Ellendale are going pretty good.  Nicole and I work in the Coffee Shop on campus...so if you're ever happen to "swing by" Ellendale...  haha.

Anyways, there isn't too much happening lately.  In a couple of days I go to the doctor in Fargo to discuss some treatment options for my back.  For those of you who don't know I have a bulged/borderline herniated disc in my lower back (L4-L5).  It's been getting progressively worse lately.  So that will be good.  I'll make sure to post the results on here as soon as I find out.

It's a weird feeling knowing that we'll be leaving Ellendale in about 6 months (God willing...).  We started cleaning out everything that we want to give away to TBC's Salvation Army-type store (only it's free).

Well, that's it for now.  The posts (for the meantime) are going to be a little off because we don't have internet at our house, so we have to go to the school to do it.  We don't feel like signing a year long contract at 95 bucks a month just for internet!!!  It's ridiculous.

Big Surprise!!!!!

Well I just had a HUGE surprise today.  At the welcome back party that Nicole's mom threw for us, my dad showed up!  He drove 7 hours just to say welcome back.  Dad, that meant a lot to me.  Thank you so much for coming up here and visiting us.  It really, really means a lot.  You haven't left yet (but by the time you read this you have) but thank you for coming and hanging out with me!!

We're Back

Well, after an extremely long day of traveling, we finally made it back to ND.  There weren't too many problems while traveling...but a couple of really close calls.  On the flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis, Nicole didn't have a seat until someone didn't show up...so that was really close.  Then on the flight from Minneapolis to Fargo, we had about 45 minutes to get from one side of the airport, through customs, and to the other side of the airport (after going to the wrong gate).  We finally get there and there were 2 seats left. Wow...just barely made it back, but we're here, safe, and trying to catch up to the time change.  Anyways, that's all for now, just letting you know that we made it back safely!

It's Official

Well, we're all packed up and ready to go.  We are leaving today for Casablanca at noon.  We're staying at a hotel tonight then leaving tomorrow morning at 4:40 for the airport.

It's crazy how fast time flew by.  It seems like yesterday we just arrived in Fes and now we have to leave.  It is definitely a sad goodbye.  It's like we're leaving our family.  This goodbye isn't permenant though. 

This could be the last post before we get to the States.  Thank you to all of you who have been faithful to me and Nicole.  And even those who haven't been, thank you as well.  You are all a part of our family.

One Week

Our time here has come and gone.  In just one week we'll be on the plane back to the states.  We are due to arrive on July 16th at about 7:40, but who knows how traveling internationally will go. 

Yesterday we went to the Medina.  It was a ton of fun.  We went with our mentors and both Nicole and I had a blast.  We looked at (and bought) tons of stuff.  This was our fourth trip into the medina, so that means the fourth time into the same shops.  We did not buy a thing the first three times because we wanted to be able to eat.  It's like going to your favorite mall and not buying anything until 2 months and 3 trips later.  Needless to say, we bought unique things to remember Morocco by.  When we get back, I'll post pictures of what we got so you can see them!  (They're packed,  or I'd do it now.)

Ifran/Azrou

I'm sorry that it has been a while since I have put up some pictures, but I think this post will make up for it.  I'll add some captions to the pictures to help explain.

Moroccan Fruit Loops.  Less colorful and less sugary.  It reminds me of the colored pasta noodles...but only as Fruit Loops.

Ifran is a city located about an hour outside of Fes.  It looks like a slice of Sweden landed in Morocco.  There's the Swedish architecture, flowers, ponds, ...and this lion.

Just outside of Ifran and Azrou there's a mountain that has monkeys that run wild.  As you can see from these next couple of pictures, there are no cages, no leashes, and no rabies shots.  Thank God Michael Scott had the Rabies Fun Run.  If you didn't get that joke...watch The Office Season 4 on www.hulu.com.

For some reason, baby monkeys are awesome.

The stare-down.

Pretty cool picture.

My favorite shot.  Just so you know, Nicole took all of these pictures.  She does an incredible job with a camera!

This is a cool shop in Azrou with fun curvy lamps.  We ended up buying the cool candle holders in front of the lamps.



As you can see, Morocco is pretty awesome.  It's weird to think that in 11 days we'll be back home.  It's like we just came here...and now we're leaving.  There's one thing for sure though, we will come back with a plethora of stories!

Personal Record

Every once in a while I find joy in beating my own personal records.  One of my favorites was in High School where I played guitar for 7 hours straight.  For some reason, I don't have the time to beat that one...

Anyways, last night I beat one of my personal records.  7 cockroaches in one night.  Take that Orkin-Man!  No pesticides here.  Just Ryan and his size 11 shoe!

Turkey Pics

Nicole and me at the banquet

Fun with shadows

The sand at the beach

Mountains

A cave tunnel at the pool

Friends?

Me, Nicole, and our good friend Rachel at "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"

The cast (see previous post of what I thought about it).

Heat

It's hot.  There's no way around it.  The high for the past couple of days has been around 108 with about 50% humidity.  There's no dry heat here.  Last night it cooled off to an amazing 76.  

Here's an example of how hot it is.  This morning when I took a shower, I went to grap my soap (liquid kind) which is normally a gel...when it's not boiling.  I'm not kidding here, when I poured it out, it was just like thick water.  The soap was warmer than I was.  I didn't even touch the hot water nozzle.  Nothin' but cold water for this guy!  

The heat is worth it though.  I would live through the heat just for the food.  Then you add in the friends, the hospitality, and the culture and it's an added bonus.  Anyways, that's all for now.  Just expressing my love and affection of heat.

Flailing Arm Man

While in Turkey, we had the opportunity to see a French version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". It was definitely lip-synced by people who don't speak French...therefore they just moved their mouth up and down, up and down. As if that wasn't funny enough...they brought out some male dancers and it seemed like they lost their choreographer just before they got to this song, so they told the dancers to go out there and start spastically flailing your arms. This is the result.

It doesn't help that they are wearing nothing but black boxer briefs. At the performance it looked like the black sensor bars they have on TV to cover up the inappropriately dressed people. If you need an example...just watch an episode of COPS.



Clean Shoes

This has got to be one of the best stories of how Nicole and I ended up with clean shoes (without even doing anything!)

We have a friend who works for us cleaning, doing dishes, etc. kind of like a maid, but so much more.  She is incredibly friendly, even though I can't really communicate with her as much as I'd like.  She comes to our place every Wednesday morning.  When we come home, we are continually surprised by her ingenuity.  It is amazing what she thinks of to help us out. It's in the little things like, using a cup as a toothbrush holder, reorganizing our fridge, and putting our shoes in the washer the day before we leave for Turkey.  Yep, you read that right.  She did this out of the kindness of her heart and we really do appreciate it, but our shoes were still drying as we were wearing them on the plane ride to Turkey.  

So here's how it happened.  Nicole and I were upstairs at our mentor's house playing with their children, having a good time.  Our mentor asked if I wanted to go somewhere with him.  So I went downstairs to put my shoes on.  I couldn't find them.  Usually when she cleans the floors, she puts them in the window threshold, a random basket, etc. so they're not in the same spot all the time.  After looking for them for about 5-10 min, our mentor asks F*****h (no, it's not a swear word, I just want to respect her privacy) where she put our shoes.  She replied, "Well, they were upstairs playing with the children, so I put them in the washing machine.  I didn't think they'd need them for a coulple of hours."  After that she apoligized profusely.

I am really happy that she thought of cleaning our shoes, but unfortunately they take a little longer than a couple of hours to air dry...

So now you know the story of how we have clean shoes.

Turkey Wrap (Up)

Get it?  Turkey Wrap + Wrap Up = Turkey Wrap (Up), right?  For the record, I thought of that a week ago and kept reminding myself so I wouldn't forget my prescious cheap joke.  

Anyways, Turkey was absolutely incredible.  As you can see from the pictures, we stayed at an incredible resort called Maritime Pine Beach Resort.  The spelling could be wrong, but it doesn't matter.  It was in Antalya, Turkey.  It's on the Southern Coast of Turkey right along the Mediteranean Sea (sp?).  

We had some of the best food we've had in a while.  Turkish spices are absolutely incredible.  They have a great mixture of spicy and sweet.  However, their desserts were not as great as the main courses, which is a very good thing.  

Without spilling my guts too much, I have to say that this time in Turkey helped direct me even more into what to do, where to go, how to get there, etc.  I was encouraged by more than one person in leadership to go onto get my Masters in Counseling.  The only problem I have with that is I don't want to stay in school.  I'm getting a little taste of what's out there and I don't want to spent any more time in school.  There's pros and cons both ways.  

Ok, that's enough ranting for now.  I'm writing this on the plane ride back to Casa (about 4 hours) then we have a train ride to Fez (about 4 hours) then a taxi ride to our place (about 5 min).  We really are taking Planes, trains, and automobiles...in that order.  Pretty neat.  Anyways, that's all for now.

Resort

Hello from Turkey!  Sorry it took a while to put up some pictures...we've been on the beach too much.  haha...but seriously.  The beach here is amazing, the food is amazing, the room is amazing, everything is amazing!  So, here are the pictures (so far)...

A view of the beach

Being weird.  I like this one because you can see Nicole in my sunglasses

The view from our balcony.

Nicole playing in the sand on the beach.  That's the Mediterranean Sea.

Having fun in the pool.  The next three pictures are taken in a row.

A garden in front of our room.

The beach

Nicole in the pool.

I'll try to put up some more pictures later!

We Made It

After traveling for what seems like a while, but in reality is about 12 hours total, we have arrived at our resort in Turkey.  More to come on that later (with pictures, and trust me...you won't want to miss them.)

I want to dedicate this part of my blog to my cousin Shawn and her baby, Micah.  Micah, you have people all over the world thinking of you.  So if you're reading this, keep Micah in your mind please!

Quick Update

Hey, we're about to leave Fes (in about an hour.)  I'm not sure if we'll have internet for the next week or so.  If we do, I will update with pictures of the resort, writing about what it's like, etc.  So check back to see if we have internet!

Leaving/Randomness

Hello.  I would just like to say that on Tuesday the 17th, we leave for Turkey!  I am not sure if they'll have internet, so this site may not be updated until we get back on the 25th or so.  

Anyways, things here are going really well.  It's getting hotter and hotter each day.  Yesterday it got up to 97!  My North Dakotan blood was about to boil.  Haha.  

On a completely random note, the Cubs are doing so good right now!  They have the best record in the majors (as of Monday morning/Sunday night.)  I don't want to jinx them though.

Well, that's just a quick update for now.  I'll try to post more picures and stuff later!

Pictures

Here are some pictures.  I photoshopped them to make them look nicer (hopefully).  Some just make the colors brighter and some give us a second head.  Haha.  Just kidding...but that would be funny.  Anyways, enjoy!

At Volubulis

Moulay Idris

My mentor surprised me on my birthday with some figs.  It's an acquired taste that I haven't acquired yet, but still trying!

Ancient ruins overlooking Fes.

Horse stables in Meknes.  Yeah, it's long.

A view of the Medina of Fes.

Cool, huh?

Fountains on the walk from our mentor's house to our place