Back in the Classroom

Starting tomorrow, Amanda will be returning to the classroom! She will be the long-term substitute for a teacher who will out for the rest of the year and will be working with PRESCHOOLERS again. For her first substituting job, this is a great way to start...a 4 week assignment with an age-group that she is very familiar with. God definitely has a wonderful way of making things happen. The BEST part of this upcoming experience is that I get to work with these "little sweethearts" during the holiday season!

Keep your fingers crossed that I do things as similiar to their teacher as possible. Otherwise, they might call me out for "doing it wrong".

Steaks and Babies

So we started off the weekend with watching our close friends', Brett and Julie "Gambo", daughter, Petyon. After a full night of playing, eating, playing, watching Nemo, playing, bathtime, playing, and then finally bedtime, we were a little tired. Keeping a one-year old entertained is fun, but can definitely wear you out if you're not use to it. But nonetheless, we loved hanging out with our little friend and she had a great time at Aunt Panda and Uncle "O"'s.

Saturday was pretty eventful! We started the morning with a 5K road race around Ft. Knox in support of the American Red Cross. The Turkey Trot definitely did a number on Amanda's knees as she is NOT a runner and was "jogging" in the rain. Joe, as always, produced a great time, since he is a runner, while Amanda took almost twice as long. Oh well, it was for a good cause. We bee-lined for the Waffle House with two of Joe's classmates, Sean and Jason, afterwards. Nothing like a waffle to make you feel better and hopefully less wet. That afternoon we headed over to the Nuckols' for the GA/Auburn game which was a nail-biter, but thankfully our Bulldawgs pulled it off.

That evening was spent at a nice steak dinner at Morton's Steakhouse in Louisville. If you've never heard or been to Morton's, it's definitely a place you've got to go to at least once in your life. While we didn't initally have a reason for going to such a nice place, we soon created one...Joe had gotten through his first month of CCC (Captain's Career Course) and I had officially gotten a long-term substitute position (more about that later). The waitstaff was AMAZING, but the food was out-of-this-world. We started our dinner with a fresh loaf of onion bread and drinks...Amanda had a glass of Riesling while Joe had a Heavenly Pomegranate. They do this lavish presentation of their menu items before handing you their menu, so that you can see the steaks you could possibly order. We decided on the Shrimp Alexander for starters while Amanda had a single-cut filet with layonnaise potatoes and Joe had a bone-in filet with garlic green beans. We shared a freshly made chocolate lava cake for dessert. Now, you must know that this meal was unusal in price, but ABSOLUTELY worth it in taste. Our main waiter, James, was such a great guy in that he thanked Joe for his military service. We sparked up a small conversation with him and found out that he was newly married and was attending seminary school so that he could become a chaplain in the Army. We left Morton's with full bellies and an excellent preception of the establishment.
The remainder of the night was spent with some of Joe's classmates, including Jason and Sean, at a nightclub, The Hotel, at 4th Street Live!. They had reserved a VIP table so we joined them for a couple of hours and had a blast. Unfortunately, the throbbing in Amanda's knees were getting the best of her, so we left earlier than the others.

This weekend held two totally different days for us....one gave us perspective of how life with children may be while the other reminded us of how sporadic our life without children can be. Um, I think we'll take advantage of our time alone now and be thankful when our day to be parents comes.

Packing It All In!

The past several days have been busy, busy, busy to say the very least. This weekend was spent enjoying the company of Amanda's dad and aunt who were visiting from Georgia. Friday night was low-key as they had just completed a 6-hour drive and we didn't expect them to be in too much of a hurry to get back in the car. We feasted on hamburgers, gourmet fries, Amanda's pasta salad, and her Aunt Liz's homemade potato salad. Our stomachs were bursting by the time we settled downstairs for some Scene It! trivia which Joe continues to reign as the ultimate champion.

Our Saturday was hopping with sightseeing as we toured Ft. Knox's Patton Museum, watched the beginning of the GA/KY game, and got the on the road to Louisville. Once we arrived downtown, we made our only requested stop (from Amanda's dad, Glenn, of course) at the Louisville Slugger Museum. We got a guided tour through the bat production plant and personalized bats were ordered. We're pretty sure Glenn was in baseball heaven the entire time! Afterwards, we headed to 4th Street Live! which is an entertainment district in Louisville; we ate dinner at Sully's Irish Pub & Restaurant where Joe and Amanda both ordered Pumpkin Spice beer...doesn't sound that tasty, but it was delicious. Once dinner was done, we had made reservations to see comedian, Norm McDonald (famous from SNL's Weekend Update in the 90s). The host and the opening comedian were both funny and got several laughs from our group while Norm was somewhat of a disappointment. He was difficult to understand due to mumbling and his content was a bit on the morbid side. Needless to say, we all left feeling a little let down, but the coffees from Seattle's Best helped chipper us up. And of course, Aunt Liz got a picture with Col. Sanders himself, so this Kentucky trip was considered fulfilled!

Once Dad & Aunt Liz got on the road Sunday morning, we hung around the house before hitting the gym and then preparing for our next adventure. Our neighbors, Grant & Tammy, had won a night and dinner at a casino in southern Indiana and weren't able to get away, so they passed the prize off to us. We gladly accepted and took the hour drive north for a buffet dinner and luxury accomodations. We spent a little time in the casino, but after our run in Vegas earlier this year, we knew when to call it quits. $60 blown, we headed out of the casino after an hour and took safe haven in the hotel!

Monday was a day of DO AS WE PLEASE when we at The Cracker Barrel for lunch and then hit TJ Maxx for new bed linens, Best Buy for an external hard drive, and Barnes & Noble for nothing. We ran into Brett & Julie at Cracker Barrel where Julie & Amanda had on the same jacket which is what happens when you shop together. Their cutie, Peyton, was flirting with almost everyone in the place, but being as adorable as she is, it's welcomed. Our Barnes & Noble stop was marked by a nice surprise when we ran into Col. Nuckols and his wife, Julie. Joe use to work for Col. Nuckols when Joe was a 2LT and served as the B Troop XO of 5/15 CAV while Nuckols was a Major and was the squadron XO. They had a great working relationship and Joe continues to view Col. Nuckols as a mentor both in CAV and the ARMY. We used the bookstore entrance as a reunion space for approximately 20 minutes before making plans to meet up soon for some football. The remainder of the day was spent hanging around the house and doing laundry...dun, dun, done.

This Veteran's Day was rainy and cold! A little to close to Seattle weather for us. We hung out all day inside and enjoyed keeping warm under fleece blankets. Joe is officially a VETERAN and we're so thankful for his service as well as the service of countless others! This day will forever be an extremely important day for us as we now know the sacrifice that so many given in order to ensure our nation's freedom. We thank our family members who have served prior to us and we thank the fellow military colleagues who continue to serve with us. Sometimes you don't realize what a day like this means until you have a personal experience that is recognized by a federal holiday like this one. If you are utilizing your constitutional rights, thank a vet!

Biting the Bullet!

Joe stepped up in his small group and briefed his Op order first on Wednesday. After several days of working on it, he felt the need to get it over with and offered to present first to his group of 13 guys. Although there are approximately 40-50 guys in his class, they are divided into 4 small groups of 13-15 guys. So thankfully Joe and his small group only have to present to each other, otherwise it might take several days to get through all of them. In the long run, Joe felt that his presentation went well and got good feedback from his instructor and small group classmates. Over the next couple of months, he'll have more Op orders to produce and present, but the first is over with and that's always a relief.

I'm starting to get a little stir-crazy with the repetitive nature of being unemployed. Clean the house, do the grocery shopping, run the daily errands, and then start it all again. I'm starting to look for options outside of my normal schedule and have begun meeting new people in and around Ft. Knox. I've done some shopping with Nicole Madsen (her husband is in Joe's large class), Julie Gambacorta (a familiar face to most), and Adrienne Biel (her husband is in Brett Gambacorta's large class; they started the Career Course in September). On Tuesday night, I attended the coffee group for Joe's class; I met several ladies from other units at Ft. Lewis and other bases. I was pretty surprised that half of the women in our coffee group were last stationed at Ft. Lewis, but wasn't too surprised that I didn't know many of them since the base is so large.
On Thursday, I went to watch Joe's class play Brett's class in Gator Ball which is a cross between soccer and rugby/football. Afterwards, we went to dinner with Stoney and Alison Portis. Stoney is in Joe's small group and they came to Knox from Ft. Hood in Texas.

As Joe is putting himself out there in his class, I'm starting to put myself out there to experiencing new things and meeting new people. I couldn't imagine 6 months of sitting in the house reminscing on the past, so watch out Ft. Knox, Amanda Byerly is ready to socialize.

To elect or not to elect...the decision was yours!

With the results finalized, we must admit that this election has been monumental in our lives. We have been so energized by the enthusiasm that so many people have shown and the anticipation of what would happen. Regardless of who you voted for, you had a choice. If you chose to vote, you exercised your right to have your voice heard. If you didn't, then you have no reason to complain. At this point, we must come together and put our individual choices aside. We are a nation that NEEDS "togetherness"; as a nation at war, we must show unity. With the economic crisis, we must pull together to overcome. It is our hope that now that the presidency is decided, we will see forward motion in the right direction and that all elected officials will put issues aside and focus on the best interest of our nation.

Our thanks to both Barack Obama and John McCain for making this election one of the most historical events in our nation's history. They both showed enduring strength and empowered the American people to stand up for their beliefs. Hopefully this election year will be the beginning of something great in all elections to come!

Welcome to the Byerlys' blog...it should be interesting.

Giving into my overwhelming urge to let EVERYONE know what we're up to, I joined the blogging evolution. We're going to try to keep our blog as up to date as possible, because we know "our fans" will let us hear about it if we don't. If you've been reading my blogs on MySpace, then you know that I'm pretty "real" in my writing, so this blog should give you a pretty true insight to our daily lives.

Currently, we don't have much to report; therefore we'll just post our new address. We'll be here in Ft. Knox, KY until April, so it would be smart to use pencil.
Das Haus von Byerly (German for Byerly's House)
453-B 8th Ave.
Ft. Knox, KY 40121

Sidenote: we're currently on this German kick due to our German-bred dog, Ft. Knox is known for it's German culture, and coming out of Oktoberfest.