Feeling a bit lighter ...

Sorry for not updating in awhile. It's been pretty busy for both of us with work back in full force. As a fund accountant, everything is busy at year-end. We don't have any new pictures as we keep forgetting to grab the camera. However, last night, we had dinner and played games with our next door neighbors at the apartment. We hit it off right away with the young newlyweds. We ended up staying until about midnight. We also discovered that both of them are devout Christians. It was a blessing from God. They might be moving soon which is sad, but it's going to take a bit of time. They are hoping to go to Cairo, Egypt for a year or two. Jay's goal is to work for the state department, so he feels he needs to be fluent in Arabic in order to be qualified. He studied in Egypt and his wife, Katherine, in Senegal during college. We hope they can get there soon, but hopefully we have a few more months to hang out with them. These are our first friends that we've made as a couple. All our other outings have been with couples that are friends of Erin or I. Praise the Lord for new friends! On a "lighter note", I have already lost 7 pounds since Christmas. My jeans are a little tight, but they are comfortable to wear again. I will be out of my "fat" pants in a couple weeks if I keep up my exercise and diet. It's amazing how much food you can eat for only 2000 calories when you eat fruits and vegetables. Packing my own lunch has been a money saver too. Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that I am fulfilling my pre-Christmas goal to lose weight ;-) New Year's was well ... a new year. We didn't do much. I had to work and was pretty exhausted by midnite. Erin, Kevin and Sonya played "Rock Band II" but I was too tired. Erin had to wake me up when the ball dropped ... oops! The best part of the new year is that it's now the year of our wedding. We are only 209 days away! (I have a "days until" application on my iTouch). Things will start picking up on the planning again. We have one of our musicians and think we have our singer as well. One of Erin's cousins will be in town this summer for an internship. I trust Erin with picking our singer, as she is the most beautiful singer I know. She took voice lessons throughout college and minored in music. It's not set in stone yet. Erin would like to hear some tapes of her cousin's performances. We hope all of you liked the "Save-The-Date" cards. ~Joe