On the road again!

We're moving again!

Dave was recently offered a great job in South Florida and it was too good to pass up. Therefore, we'll be packing up our stuff again and moving to Florida. Hopefully this is our last long distance move for awhile.

We love North Carolina and are sad to be leaving. It is a beautiful place to live & we've met some wonderful people. But we are looking forward to relocating to FL. First of all we'll be near my mom, which is especially nice since we have a baby on the way. Also, I don't like winter much and after a few weeks of temps in the 20s & 30s I'm ready for warmer weather again. I'm still a Florida girl at heart!

Dave will be working with Heritage Investment Group (http://www.heritageinvestment.com/index.asp). It is located in Pompano Beach, FL which is only about 20 minutes from my mom. We'll probably end up living near Coral Springs, which is the town that I grew up in. We've decided to rent for another year before looking to buy. We have enough going on with the move, a baby on the way, and Dave's new job that house hunting sounds like too much to take on right now. We plan on renting a townhome or apartment with 2-3 bedrooms, so feel free to come visit sunny South Florida. We'll be about 20-30 minutes from the ocean!

As for me, I will continue to teach Pure Barre classes at the location in Boca Raton, FL. (http://www.facebook.com/PureBarreBoca) I'll likely teach some ballet here & there, but mostly I'll be preparing to become a mom.

Life sure is crazy! God's plans for our lives never seem to match our own plans perfectly, but they do usually turn out much better than I could have ever expected.

Have a very Merry Christmas & wishing you many blessings in 2011!

-Courtney

Baby's Heartbeat

I bought a Fetal Heart Detector that allows us to hear the baby's heartbeat at home. It works amazing! Dave & I both sat listening to our little one's heart beating today.

We'll be bringing it on our trips to FL & IA so that our family can hear the heartbeat too.

My Belly's Growing

The baby is growing! I feel like I'm getting bigger daily. Many of my pants are now too tight. Pretty soon I'll actually look pregnant. I still look like I've just enjoyed too many Christmas cookies. :)

Baby on the way!

As many of you probably already know, we are excited to announce that we're expecting our first baby in June. Our baby website seems to only work occasionally, therefore we've decided to do our baby updating on this site instead.

Courtney is now 14 weeks pregnant & feeling much better. She has little to no nauseousness & her belly is starting to show slightly. Our next doctor's appointment is on January 10th, at which time we'll learn the sex of the baby.

On this site Courtney will update the Baby Development & Photo tabs weekly.

2011 is going to be a big year filled with even more exciting changes. We're looking forward to welcoming our little miracle into the world in June!

Wow... September already?!

It has been a month since my last post, so I thought it was about time for an update.

I (Courtney) am excited about my new job opportunity as a teacher for Pure Barre. Pure Barre is a new fitness class that uses a ballet barre and combines pilates, yoga, dance, & aerobics. The workout focuses on doing small isometric movements to tone the muscles. I was in Colorado 2 weeks ago for training & I had the opportunity to take some classes. It is an awesome 1 hour workout & hard! I still have a lot of work to do before the studio opens on September 20th, but I am ready & excited for the challenge. Check out if a location is near you or opening soon. Or come take my class!
www.purebarre.com
Some training photos:

I also am looking forward to being a teacher in the 3-4 yr old class at church. This week I'll be teaching about when Paul & Silas were in prison but still continued singing praises to God (Acts 16:16-34). I'll be making a jail cell out of cardboard boxes today so that we can act out the story. I'm a dork, I know, but I do have fun preparing crafts and stories with the kids.


News about Dave...

HE PASSED THE CFA!!! He has put a lot of hard work and time into completing this exam & I am so proud of him for achieving it! He is already beginning to study for the CFP (he just can't get enough studying). At least this is only 1 exam level which is offered a few times a year. He plans to take it in the Spring.

Lastly, we are taking a trip to San Francisco next week. We're really looking forward to seeing friends & family.

We hope y'all are doing well.
Let us know what's going on in your life.

-Courtney

New Opportunites & Friends

Hi Friends,

Its been awhile since I've posted anything, so I thought it was time for another quick update.

I (Courtney) have been working at All Starz Children's Academy for a few months. I float between the infant & toddler rooms. Getting up at 5:45am every morning is not so fun, but overall I am enjoying the job & have some really sweet co-workers. I have learned a lot about children & the babies are so adorable!
Although working at the daycare has been good, I think that this is my last week. A new opportunities has come up to be a part of the staff at The Pure Barre. It is a new fitness class that uses a ballet barre. Locations are opening up all over the US & there will be locations opening in Chapel Hill & Raleigh this Fall. I met with the owner on Friday & it went really well. She'll extend a formal offer to me on Tuesday, but has already offered me a position. Therefore, I'll likely be headed to Denver, CO on August 18th to receive training in the Pure Barre technique. The nice thing about this new opportunity is that I'll still get to work in the morning & afternoon hours, but I'll get double the pay per hour & work fewer hours each day. There is also potential for growth as they'll be looking for managers & hope to open more locations in the Raleigh area. I'll also still have my evenings free to teach ballet class. I'm excited about this new job & will post again after the training intensive in CO.We also have found a great church & have made some new friends. We're attending Southbridge Fellowship. The church has only been around for 3 years & the services are currently held in a movie theater. The goal is to eventually find a permanent home for the church, but the movie theater actually works really well. Some theaters are used for Sunday School classes, one has the main service, and another has a video stream of the speaker from the main auditorium. The music & the pastor are great. We've joined a community group that meets every Sunday night with a total of 7 couples. We feel really blessed to have found this church and met some new friends.

Well, that's it for now. Let us know whats going on in your lives. We hope you're well.

Another update on life in NC

So far we are loving life in North Carolina. It sure is hot, but right now we are both really enjoying the heat. We are settled in at our new apartment and starting to get to know the area better.

Court (me) is going to be working at All Starz Children's Academy beginning next week. I'll be working with a range of kids from infants to 5 years old. I am really looking forward to having a busy schedule. I'm not the type of person that can sit around during the day, so the 7am - 4pm schedule will certainly keep me from being bored. I also have some teaching opportunities in the evenings. Right now I'm teaching Mondays & Wednesdays at North Carolina Dance Institute. I've really enjoyed working with the students & the director, Kirstie Spadie (an NCSA grad) is awesome! In August & on some Saturdays I'll be teaching ballet at Raleigh School of Ballet. This studio has some beautiful ballerinas & I am looking forward to working with them.

Dave took the dreaded level III of the CFA on June 5th. We have to wait until late August for the results. He has been making contacts in the area and feels confident that the right job will come at the right time. We trust that God has a plan and therefore aren't worried about finding a job too quickly. In the meantime he is enjoying not studying. He is reading books other than textbooks, working out, and hanging out with me. :)

We are also enjoying spending more time with my brother TJ. I had the opportunity to visit his school, The Citadel, in Charleston, SC. Charleston is a beautiful place to visit! He is playing baseball with the Hi-Toms in nearby Thomasville, NC for the summer, so we have the opportunity to watch him play & hang out more often. In fact we met him halfway for dinner last night.

We've found a few great churches as well. We've been attending Hope Community Church. Its a huge church, with a contemporary feel, good music, and a solid message. Last week we were invited to attend Southbridge Fellowship Church. Their service is held in a movie theater, which was pretty neat. They are looking to find or build a more permanent location. This church was also contemporary and the pastor gave a good message. I like the more personal feel at Southbridge. We are going to listen to the entire message series at Southbridge & then decide which church to call home. We're looking forward to joining a community group and meeting some people in the area.

Okay, I know this post is getting long. I need to start updating more often & not all at once.

We hope y'all are doing well.
You're always welcome to come visit us. We have a comfy pull-out couch & an air mattress. We'll even serve you some southern biscuits and sweet tea!

Update on life in NC

Well, we are finally feeling settled in NC. We are very happy with our new apartment. Our pool feels like we're at a resort & we are appreciating the extra space in our apartment. Not to mention we have a washer & dryer inside our unit. One thing that is bothering me though is that they don't have recycling for the community. There are a few recycle buckets in the common areas, but not out by the trash cans. Being from CA I cannot throw my recycling into the trash, so I have found a local dump that recycles & will be driving to drop off our recycling every week or two. It is a bit of a pain, but I feel like I'm helping to save the planet. :)

As far as work, I have reached out to a couple of ballet schools. I taught a ballet class for the advanced level at the Raleigh School of Ballet. The dancers were beautiful & I would love to be a part of their faculty. The owner knows Ms.Magda, my fabulous ballet teacher & coach in FL, and remembered me from when I danced at the Regional Dance America (SERBA) as a teenager. I will be teaching some Saturday advanced level classes & adult ballet classes. There may also be some summer teaching opportunities.
I will also be teaching this summer at North Carolina Dance Institute. I'll be a guest teacher for a few ballet classes during their summer program.

Things are going well & we feel so blessed to be here. Dave's level III CFA exam in on June 5th. Please pray that it goes well.

I'm now off to the pool to get some sun. Come visit us whenever you can. We have a new pull-out couch that is comfy & we love having guests. We'll be having a small house (apt) warming party on June 12th. If you're in or near the area, stop on by.

Best, Courtney

Moving Day

After a week at Tracy's lovely home, we moved into our new apartment.

The ReloCube arrived & we learned that we indeed overstuffed it, causing it to be over the 2500 lb weight limit.


Dave's 2nd cousin, Jeff, was a huge help with the unloading process.

The guys did the heavy lifting, while I (Court) took photos. :)

Some of our furniture didn't fare the 3,000 mile journey very well.

With a little furniture stain, we think that we can get our stuff looking nice again.

It only took about an hour to empty the cube.

The task of emptying the boxes and organizing our stuff proved to be the real challenge.

Dave HATED putting our complicated bed together.

After nearly an hour of bed assembly, Dave said, "we should just chop it up as firewood".
He managed to finish, but this bed is likely not going to our next home.

It has been an exhausting couple of days, but our apartment is coming together. We still need to get some living room furniture. Once we do, I'll post some pictures of our new place.

Our New Address

We have a new address:

1210 Winding Arbor Trail
Apt. 107
Raleigh, NC 27606

Our complex is The Villas at Centerview:
http://www.thevillasatcenterview-apts.com/thevillasatcenterviewNC/Index.aspx

Last Leg of Our Journey

We drove 9.5 hours from Union, KY to Cary, NC.

It was a beautiful drive. The forecast called for rain, but we had warm sunny weather for the entire drive.

The fog was creeping over the mountains.

After 10 days on the road, we finally reached North Carolina.

About 1.5 hours later we were in Raleigh, NC. :)

The sunset was beautiful. It was a great end to our cross-country journey.

The cross-country drive was a success! We made it safely & our marriage is still intact. :) Thanks again to all our friends and family for your encouragement & support. And sincere thanks to Dave's cousin, Tracy, for giving us a place to live.
We'll keep you posted on the job hunt & our new address.

Our Visit with the Clarksons

We have had a great time visiting the Clarkson family in Union, KY. We're disappointed that we have to get back on the road so soon.

We visited Cincinnati. This is overlooking the Ohio River.

There was a deer watching us. Kinda creepy! :)

Dave taught the boys how to play poker.

The trip to KY ended too soon & of course we forgot to get a group photo. We definitely plan to come visit again soon. They are a great family!

Today we are driving 9 hours to North Carolina. It will be our longest day of driving yet, but we are excited to finally reach our new home state.

Stay tuned...

We're in KY

Here are some pictures of the drive from IL to KY.

We passed the town that Pete grew up.
We approached our first thunderstorm of the trip.

We entered Kentucky. The scenery became more lush... no more miles of empty corn fields.

We crossed the Ohio River.

We thought this was funny. Florence is the town next to Union, KY where the Clarkson family lives.

Only one more day of driving before we reach NC!
Stay tuned...