What a week!

Wow! This week was a tough one for the Arnold's! There were so many things, I don't know where to start. The week started off with Brian finally returning back to Illinois from his trip out west. He and the judging team left the week before to practice on their way out to the National Western in Denver, Co. He returned on sunday afternoon and basically passed out till morning. Unfortunately he had a mess when he woke up (this was Martin Luther King Jr. Day). Apparently our pipes froze in the short amount of time he was asleep. He woke up to find water dripping from the kitchen ceiling onto our floor which by then was covered with two inches of ice. After further examination he found the culprit to be our upstairs bathroom (which was flooded!) Luckily, Brian didn't have school that day so he was able to thaw the pipes and turn off the water upstairs. We are soooo lucky the pipes didn't burst.

On monday night (after brian told me about his day) I go to bed as usual only to be awaken by a tow truck trying to take my car! I still don't know quite what to think of this whole ordeal but it was two in the morning.....what are you gonna do? I ran frantically outside to find a random man with a random black truck (with no company logo) lifting my car into the air! I parked on a street that had NO signs that said "no parking". Not real sure what was going on. I had to pay him $50 to get my car off the tow or it would have been $90 if impounded. Needless to say, I paid the $50 and tried to get back to sleep before I had to be at the hospital at 6am. That was all I could really handle in less than 24hrs.

Tuesday was uneventful for both of us. Wednesday, on the other hand, was not! I woke up to find a voice mail on my phone of Brian telling me that one of our dear friends' younger brother (Adam Denzer) had passed away in a farming accident. I can't speak for Brian but it really made me take a step back and realize that our last two days were rough, but not as rough as it was going to be for Lee (our dear friend and brian's colleague). I was able to go back to Illinois this weekend and join Brian and his judging team at the viewing. We stood in line for over 3 hours. I was so amazed at how many people had been touched by Adam's life. We really need to keep this family in our prayers. Adam left behind a wife, brothers, and his parents.

As for Brian and I- we are starting off our 4th week of our 16 week journey. I will go home to Illinois again this weekend but, after that I will not be able to see Brian again until the 1st week of March (possibly the second- I can't keep up with our schedules!) We are so glad that you are all able to read this. It seems nearly impossible to make contact with everyone at least once a week to let them know how our life is going so, we hope you will check in with us a couple of times a week! We love you all and thank each of you for the support you give us!

-Molly

Our First Blog

Brian and I (Molly) were talking about a way to keep everyone informed with what is going on with our lives. We decided the best way to go about it is to create a blog for all of our family and friends. As many of you know, Brian really hates technology (ironically he teaches computer classes!) therefore I will be posting most of the blogs. We hope this will help all of connect or reconnect a little more offten. Tomorrow I will give a brief blog about what is going on in our lives. The goal is to have Brian or myself post a blog about 3 times a week. We hope you are all having a wonderful week and we can't wait to see all of you!

Molly