Here's a picture of our dog Cocoa when we got her last spring.  She's slimmed down since then (maybe you can't tell how hefty she was)!

Here's a fun picture from our "friends reunion" in June!  We all went to Greenville except Dusti, but she visited a lot!  It's Cara, Amy, Jessie, Jessi, Dusti, Amber, and Charity!  Husbands/boyfriends and kids were all there too.  Eight little boys running around and no little girls!  Craziness.  And a lot of cuteness!

Man, I'm really bad at writing here!  I doubt anybody reads it anyway, so I'll just ramble for awhile...

I'm pregnant!  I'm just about 4 months along and am due in March!  We're super excited!!!  All my friends here have kids, so we've been behind for a few years now!    Just kidding!  It's kind of nice because I can borrow all sorts of maternity clothes and baby stuff (especially if it's a boy; all my friends have boys!)!!

I went on a walk this morning with our dog Cocoa and we ended up getting chased by these three stray dogs that always hang out together down our road.  I've never seen them before when I go on walks, so it surprised me.  Cocoa saved me though and chased them off.  Kind of.  She'd chase them a little way and then she'd come back to me and the other dogs would start to come back and that just kept happening until we got back to our driveway.  I might have to start carrying a gun on my morning walks.   I love living in the country, but it does have it's downfalls...

So Chip's going to Los Angeles for work next week and I'm trying my hardest not to be insanely jealous.  He keeps saying I wouldn't want to be there anyway, since he's going to be in aerosol plants all day, but that doesn't matter to me!  Just getting on a plane and flying to California would make me happy.  I could get off the plane, walk around outside the airport looking at the palm trees and feeling the warm, non-humid weather, and then get back on the plane and fly home and I'd be happy!  Not that that's my ideal trip by any means, but still!  So anyway, I'm trying to be happy for him and not so bummed for me.

That's about all my news!  Maybe I'll write again soon!  Maybe not for another 6 months... oops!

We got a dog!  There was an ad in the paper for a free chocolate lab and we got her!  However, has anyone ever heard of a chocolate lab having a big white patch on its chest?  We think the man lied to us about her being purebred.  She doesn't have any papers or anything and he said the vet told him she was purebred.  She doesn't look it though.  Maybe that's just because she's kind of fat.  Oh well, we love muts anyway!   Right now her name is Cocoa, but we're thinking about changing it.  If anybody has a suggestion for a good girl chocolate lab name, let me know!!

Also, I need a haircut SO bad.  It's hard to schedule a haircut when your schedule varies day to day.  There's a random side note for ya!   Everybody have a good week!!  Bye!

I guess it's been awhile since I updated, huh?  I can't believe it's March already!  I'm glad it is; it's that much closer to spring!  I'm tired of blizzards and ice and flood warnings from the melting snow and ice....I'm definitely ready for warm weather.  I've even been planning my garden!  I've never lived in a place where I could have a garden, but I've always wanted one.  We'll see how I do...I'm sure I'll be calling my mom or grandma every day for advice!

Not much has changed here in the Mattis household.  I've been doing a lot of subbing.  This week I did Kindergarten, h.s. english, h.s. history, computers, and 8th grade.  I definitely had some variety this week!  I've also been working part time at MetriTech again, scoring educational essay tests.  But I discovered there's another company in Champaign that does the same thing as MetriTech, but pays WAAAAY better.  So I'll be doing that full time, temporarily during April.  That will be nice to feel like I'm contributing more to our finances.

What else....I'm excited to be going to Iowa next weekend with one of my best friends (Jessie N) and her two little boys to visit our friend Amy and her new baby!  Pretty much everyone in my life is having baby after baby after baby......I'm very happy for them.   Maybe someday.........

Welp, I love living in the country but I hate paying for propane.  It's pretty rediculous.  We've been turning the heat way down and using space heaters as much as possible.  It actually helps cut the bill down quite a bit!  Okay, now I'm just rambling, as I tend to do on here.

I'm not sure what our plans our for this weekend, but a certain person's xanga site has inspired me to go visit my grandma.  She's really into the game Scrabble so my sister and I got her Super Scrabble for Christmas (the same as scrabble with more spaces), so we should really go play that with her!  It's pretty pathetic that we haven't yet...

I so wish I was in California right now.  Those were definitely some of the best times of my life.  Not only was it beautiful, warm, not humid, and close to the beach, but working at the Oaks made me feel needed and useful.  I know I'm needed by my family and friends, but these days I'm struggling to feel useful....I need to find something to get involved in I guess.  I don't want to just exist every day; I want to make a difference.

On that note, I'm going to go and figure out what we're doing tonight!  Bye!!

Well, we're almost completely settled in to our new house! Yay!  It's great to be out in the country again surrounded by fields.

I think I'm going to look into substitue teaching today.  I hear they're in desparate need of subs around here and I've been told I'd keep pretty busy if I did it.  So that sounds good for now.  I left NY&Co since we moved and the drive there and back would barely be worth the pay.  But it's kind of fun to be unemployed around the holidays.   There are some people shifting around into different positions where Chip works, so he may have an opportunity for a better position soon.  I'm praying for that because he'd be great at it and also because then we might be more financially able to start a family sooner....

We started going to the Vineyard church in Urbana and we love it!  We joined a small group and get along great with everybody.  I have to bake a bunch of cookies tomorrow because we're having our holiday party/cookie exchange/goodbye party for a couple who are moving.

So that's my update.  Have a good week everybody, if anybody reads this!!!