Congrats Jonathan!

As of yesterday, Jon is officially finished with his first semester of graduate school! He gave a wonderful presentation in front of all his peers and the faculty and did an excellent job (I got to watch). Then we went out with two other couples to celebrate the end of the semester. We went to a local brewery here in Pitt, sat around drinking and talking while it snowed outside. It was a great night. Now Jon can relax for a month! We get to spend the whole weekend together as well, before I go back to work. Yay Jonathan!!!

January Travel Plans

Here is our travel information for January.

Thursday 1/1

Pittsburgh to Chicago 9:50-10:34am United 439

Chicago to Austin 12:27-3:12pm United 6079

Saturday 1/10

Austin to Chicago 5:25-8:05pm United 7661

Chicago to Pittsburgh 9:00-11:25pm United 314

Hope to see everyone while we're there!

Christmas Tree!

I am very proud of myself...I'll explain. I was told by Jonathan that he had no time to go with me to get a Christmas tree, until after next week. Well, this was unacceptable, I just couldn't wait that long. So I decided, being all alone today, that I would venture to Home Depot down the street and see what I could find. Jon suggested a FAKE tree, since I would probably be able to handle that easier, being alone and all. I wasn't havin'  that either. All the trees outside were wrapped up, so you couldn't tell what they looked like. That worried me a little, so I went inside (too warm up, it's about 22 degrees) and see what they could offer in the "artificial" variety. Not much. Not only were they all at least 7 ft. (we need a mini tree) but they were all at least $150. Yikes. I had noticed that the noble fir's outside were only $37. So, determined not to spend over $50, I walked my happy butt back out into the arctic temperature to get a REAL tree. I very nice older couple helped me cut the rope off a 5 ft. tree so I could see it. It looked great and they agreed that I should get it. I had the "tree man" cut the end off and re-wrap it. What I'm really proud of, was not only did I do all that on my own, but I also loaded and unloaded that bad boy into our car and got it up to our apartment, all by myself. I then decided Jon couldn't come home to a half-ass effort, so I loaded it into the tree stand and stood it up and decorated it all before he came home. Here is the finished product!

Hockey Game

Saturday afternoon we were able to experience THE sport of the north: professional hockey. People are crazy about it. Although, our team isn't too great... We saw the Pittsburgh Penguins take on the Vancouver Canucks. It was lots of fun. We went with two couples, fellow students of Jon's. It was the boys first day of having NO homework, so they took advantage. We went to dinner downtown after the game and then saw the new James Bond movie after that. I guess we were trying to squeeze in all the fun to one day! But it was great. There are some really nice people up here. Here are some pictures and the rest are in our photo album section. Enjoy!

More Snow!

Ashley's Visit to PA

Ashley came to visit us this weekend! It was a lot of fun, although it was only a day and a half. We ran around the city, went shopping, out to a nice dinner and just sat around catching up. We were so glad to see a familiar face! Plus, she got to see snow before she left to go visit our Meme in West Virginia. We met her about 30 miles from Pittsburgh and had lunch.

 

This morning it started snowing and it hasn't stopped. It even started accumulating on the ground! We're supposed to have 3 inches by Tuesday morning. 

Winter Vacation

I received my December/January schedule today and it's perfect! It looks like Jon and I will be coming home after Christmas. We'll be leaving for Austin either December 31st or January 1st and returning to PA January 10th. A nice long visit to Austin. We will probably be buying our tickets sometime soon, so I will post the exact dates along with the flight info once we have it. We're both really excited about being home for such a long time! We hope to see you all. 

Happy 1st Anniversary!

Well today is our 1 Year Anniversary. It seems like the year has gone by so quickly. Our life has changed in so many ways. We had an amazing trip to Belize, bought our first car together, became an aunt/uncle, Jon was admitted to an amazing university, we moved across the country all alone, I started a new job and Jon is experiencing being a student again. That's a lot in one year! Even though this transition has been trying at times, and being away from home is really hard, Jon and I have become even closer since we moved here. It seems that since we're on our own, we have to really cherish our friendship and marriage. There's no friends or families house to run to when things get tough. We've been working very hard to keep our relationship strong, especially through this stressful time. We keep reminding each other that we're almost at the end of Jon's first semester, which means only one more year before graduation.  We can do anything for a year! With how quickly this semester has gone by, we'll be through this chapter in no time. 

Although we didn't do anything dramatic or expensive, we had a nice dinner out over the weekend and went to a comedy show. It was lots of fun. Today is Jon's long day of school, so I'll cook dinner and we'll relax once he gets home. And that will be how the Hartje's celebrate their 1 year anniversary!

Our First Snow Day!

That's not rain kids, it's our first snow! It has been snowing all morning, even as I'm typing this post. It's beautiful... and really cold. The ground is still warm enough that unfortunately the snow isn't sticking. But I'm sure that day will be coming soon. I couldn't snap any pictures since the snow just melts and it's falling so fast. I tried to do a quick video instead.

It's freezing!

So I had to work the night shift last night. When I walked outside, it was obviously REALLY cold. I had no idea it was actually 30 degrees, literally. And my car looked like this. 

This Texas girl is not used to this weather! Needless to say, it took me a little longer to leave work. I guess I'll need to figure out how to park in the garage over night. Or else I'll be scraping ice pretty soon!

Flight Itinerary

Here's our flight information for Thanksgiving. 

Wednesday 11/26 

Pittsburgh to Dallas 11:45-1:45pm American Airlines 3696

Dallas to Austin 2:45-3:45pm American Airlines 1096

(Jonathan) Sunday 11/30 

Austin to Charlotte 5:00-8:33pm US Airways 2614

Charlotte to Pittsburgh 9:15-10:30pm US Airways 982

(Amber) Monday 12/1 

Austin to Dallas 3:40-4:40pm American Airlines 1128

Dallas to Pittsburgh 5:30-9:05pm American Airlines 3851

Thanksgiving Plans...

The recent question in our little world has been whether we can go back to Austin for Thanksgiving. I finally received my work schedule yesterday and they DID give me time off! That was exciting news. So Jonathan and I are both "off" from Wednesday through Sunday, the week of Thanksgiving. We made the decision to fly home for the holiday. Of course, this close to it, flights are not the cheapest and we're struggling with when we can leave and when we have to come home. There are several little issues like that, but thinking about seeing everyone makes it worth the work and cost. We plan on buying our tickets today or tomorrow. As soon as we have our flights scheduled, I'll post them. We hope to see as many people as possible, although we won't be there near as long as we'd like to. We will be very thankful though, to be home. 

Amber's Visit Home

I recently went home to Austin for my good friend Alicia's wedding. It was wonderful to be home. Unfortunately, Jon could not join me, since he was swamped with school work and meetings. It was really hard leaving him here to go home. When I arrived in Austin I was able to go straight to Jan's house to see her, Juan and baby Caleb! It was a great visit. 

A large part of my trip was devoted to Alicia's wedding. It was beautiful. It was so nice to get a chance to visit with her. As well as seeing my family, some of which were at the wedding.

 

It was great to meet Kim for dinner, and then Richard and "the gang" for drinks at Trudy's.

I also went to breakfast with my friend Tara and was able to spend time at my dad's house. I was able to sqeeze a lot into this trip! It didn't feel like a vacation though, since there was so much to do, and so many people to see. It was so worth it though. I had a great time, except I wish Jon could have been there to see everyone. 

Texas, Texas Yee-Haw!

Well today is Tx vs. OU. We had a little issue about 20 minutes before the game started... We discovered that ABC, which is broadcasting the game, decided to show a different game up here in the north. I guess Pittsburghers don't care so much about Tx vs. OU. So we sat here stunned, until we discovered it was being broadcast on pay-per-view. And the charge? $129. So we cursed and thought... "that's not gonna happen." We're a little too poor for that! But being the dutiful wife that I am, I called our cable company to see if there were any other options for us. They ended up having an option where we could have the game for $21.99. Thank goodness. We took it and are now sitting comfortably on our couch watching OU lead us 21/10 . But it's OK, I have Jonathan home with me, NOT working on school work. So I'm happy.