Our New Home

Since our last "baby news" post in May we have had a lot more happen in the Okray household.  During our house hunt the past few months we found a floor plan that we really loved.  There were two of these houses available in the neighborhood that we wanted, but one was sold to someone else :( and the other was very over-priced so on the recommendation of our realtor we decided to talk to the builder of those houses to see how much it would be to build a new house with that floor plan.  We were very excited to find out that it would be much less expensive to build this particular house with all the features that we wanted than to try and negotiate with the over-priced house on the market.

So on May 30th we signed a contract with Preferred Builders in Janesville, WI to start construction on our new 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom home in the neighborhood in Janesville that we've been wanting to locate to.  On Thursday June 7th they officially put up the sold sign and on Thursday June 14th they began to dig the basement.  It is guaranteed to be ready by November 30th, but will hopefully be done ahead of schedule (we're keeping our fingers crossed!)  Once the outside shell is built we will have a better idea of when our closing date will be because at that point the build will not depend on the weather.

Us by our Sold Sign on June 9th, 2012

Digging out our basement on June 14th, 2012

During the past month we had our last appointment with our wonderful doctor of three years :( She will  finish her residency here in Janesville and will be leaving at the end of June to practice medicine in Australia!  We are really going to miss her, but we wish her well!  Don't worry we are in good hands with another doctor for the rest of pregnancy.  

Speaking of Baby Okray he or she is about 16 weeks along and doing very well.  Strong heartbeat and during this past week Amber has started to feel the flutter of baby movement every now and then!  Amber's clothes are starting to get a bit small, but she's still in the in-between-regular-and-maternity-wear right now.  Here are some pictures of Baby Okray's progress.

 We don't want Lambeau to feel left out!

Other than house building and baby news we've managed to have some other fun events during these last few weeks.  The weekend of May 27th, 2012 was spent in Milwaukee celebrating our good friends Amie and Brian become husband and wife.  We both took part in the wedding with Amber being a Matron of Honor and singing during the sand ceremony and with John reading a passage during the service.  We had a great time during the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner as well as the wedding, party bus and reception.  It was great to catch up with our college friends as it gets harder to do with all of our busy lives.

Us at the rehearsal dinner on May 26th, 2012

Amie and Brian during the sand ceremony on their wedding day:  May 27th, 2012

Us at the reception on May 27th, 2012

The day after Amie and Brian's wedding we met up with Amber's grandparents (Betty and Norb) and Amber's brother Adam and his girlfriend Becky for lunch and to let balloons go at the cemetery as May 27th, 2012 was the 12th anniversary of Amber's Dad's (Vern) death.  And as Amber types this on June 16th, 2012 it would have been her brother Kyle's 26th Birthday.  Some bittersweet moments along with all the excitement in our lives.  

Sending ballons to heaven in honor of Vern on May 28th, 2012

So with those events came the end of May and during the next two weeks Amber wrapped up the 2011-2012 School Year.  She is now getting ready for the start of the six week summer school session which starts on Monday.  John is going on an eight day stretch of working (sometimes 12 to 14 hour days!) and we're both trying to beat the heat of the already hot spring and summer that we're having.

Well until next time!  Go Pack Go!

Baby Makes Four

John and I have had a crazy two months since our last blogpost.  At the very end of March we found out that Amber was pregnant with our first child.

Positive pregnancy test on March 31st, 2012

Two days later we confirmed the pregnancy at the doctor's office and then a week later we got to see the first picture of our little one.

Baby Okray's first photo on April 9th, 2012 (6 weeks and 1 day)

Baby Okray is due on December 2nd, 2012 and we couldn't be happier to be parents in a little over 6 months!  A few weeks later we got to hear the baby's heartbeat and that was pretty amazing!

Baby Okray's heartbeat on May 9th, 2012 (10 weeks and 3 days)

As of today we have made the announcement "Facebook Official" and are very excited with all the congratulations and well wishes as we embark on this new phase of our lives.

"Facebook Official" Announcement on May 19th, 2012 (11 weeks and 6 days)

Baby Okray is starting to "sprout" on May 19th, 2012 (11 weeks and 6 days)

In addition to the awesome baby news we received some other wonderful news.  Amber's school district (the School District of Beloit) passed a $70 Million referendum and will be building a new school within the district and adding onto eight other schools within the district.  Since this referendum passed Amber will be getting a music room and most likely not have to travel from school to school or room to room to teach music!  Because of this referendum passing we have decided to stay in Janesville and have begun house hunting.  We are very excited to make Janesville our permanent home where we will raise our first child and can't wait to find a home to call our own.

In the past two months we've also gotten to celebrate our friend Avery's 30th Birthday (it was a surprise and we definitely pulled off the surprise!)  We also went to see "Avenue Q" with some friends in Janesville and if you ever get a chance to see that musical it is awesome!

At the end of March Amber helped plan an awesome bridal shower for one of our best friends, Amie, and had a wonderful time the next month at Amie's bachelorette party.

John's trivia team "Festivus for the Rest of Us" won the world's largest trivia contest which is hosted every year by WWSP Radio Station!  They have been working on winning this contest for 11 years and are very excited to be champions!

My that's a lot of stuff!  We'll leave you with that for now!  Until next time!  Go Pack Go!

Fighting the Winter Blahs

Well it's been almost two months since our last post so I thought that I would let you know what we've been up to since then.  The rest of the month of January was relatively quite for us.  We stayed home in Janesville every weekend and enjoyed the NFL playoffs (except for the Packers losing of course!) and had some fun at the Glen Erin Holiday Party on January 21st.

On February 4th we drove up to Mauston, WI to see Cristina and Mark Becker's new bundle of joy, Canaan, who was born on January 10th.  It was so wonderful to catch up with the Becker's and to meet Canaan.  Amber was also very excited to hold him!  Babies (especially babies as cute as Canaan) are so wonderful!

Amber and Canaan

The next weekend we journeyed to Milwaukee/Chicago to see The Darkness in concert at The Metro in Chicago.  We headed to Milwaukee first to pick up our friends Briton and Maureen and then headed to Chicago for the day.  We walked around Wrigleyville and Downtown and then took in the concert at night.  The concert was amazing!  The Darkness is back in full force and we can't wait to see them in concert again.

 Us infront of Wrigley Field

 John and Briton infront of "The Lodge"

 Us infront of Gibsons Bar (made famous in the TV Show "The League")

 Us waiting for The Darkness Concert to start.

The Darkness

The weekend of February 24-26th we went to Milwaukee to spend the weekend with Adam and Becky.  We took in an Admirals Hockey Game on Friday night (they won!) and then offered a free concert from the Dropkick Murphy's.  Their music isn't something that we've listened a lot to, but we really enjoyed the concert and the game.  On Saturday we took a Miller Brewery Tour and then went to A.J. Bombers for dinner.  The restaurant lived up to the hype as it was very good!  After dinner we headed to Mr. and Mrs. Carroll's for snacks and game night.  We played girls verses boys and although the girls put up a good fight the boys ended up winning two out of three games of Pictionary and Trivial Pursuit.  Although Trivial Pursuit was very close at the end!  We had a great time in Milwaukee and need to plan another "Siblings Weekend" again soon.

 Us at the Admirals Game

 Adam and Becky at the Admirals Game

 Dropkick Murphy's

 Finishing the Miller Brewery Tour with a taste test :)

 Us drinking our 2nd Beer (Miller High Life) 

 Amber and Adam drinking Miller High Life

Adam and Becky outside of the Miller Inn

Well that's if for now.  Hope you enjoyed catching up with us!  Until next time!

-Amber and John

Holi-Daze

Well folks it has been far too long since our last post so as it is the evening after the Packers lost their first playoff game to the New York Giants I write about our fun adventures during the past two months to try and put a smile on my face.  Sad to see the Packers season come to such an abrupt and bitter end, but the good thing is that we made it to the playoffs this year, had a wonderful 15-1 regular season and that there will always be next year!

Since our last post we have done a lot of stuff.  On Sunday November 20th we headed off to Lambeau Field to see the Packers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Amber's Brother Adam and his girlfriend Becky along with Amber's cousin Emily and her husband Harry.  It was a bright and sunny day with temperatures in the middle 30's so it wasn't too cold but just cold enough for awesome autumn football weather.  A great time was had by all!

Becky, Adam, Harry, Emily, Amber and John outside of Lambeau Field after the game.

After a short two day work week we headed back north, this time to Stevens Point, for Thanksgiving.  We had a wonderful time out with friends on Wednesday and Friday nights.  We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner prepared for us by Mary Okray (John's mom).  We got to see the Packers win against the rival Detroit Lions.  Amber and Michelle (John's sister) were up at 11:30pm on Thursday to hit up the after Thanksgiving Day sales and scored some wonderful gifts and John headed to Rusty's Backwater Saloon for a night of drinking with friends.  A typical and wonderful Thanksgiving weekend it was!

The next weekend Adam (Amber's Brother) and his girlfriend Becky came out to Janesville for some Christmas movie watching.  During the course of the weekend we watched Home Alone, Home Alone 2:  Lost in New York and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.  Home Alone and Home Alone 2 are movies that Amber, Adam and Kyle (Amber's late brother) watched growing up and it's been tradition to watch them every December since.  National Lampoons Christmas Vacation has been added to the mix because it is John's favorite Christmas movie and very funny as well.  During that weekend we also finished our Christmas shopping!

The next week Amber had her 5th Grade Concert at Cunningham School on December 8th; which went very well.  That weekend Adam, Becky and their friends Sean and P-Ham came to visit and to celebrate Becky's 21st Birthday which also took place on December 8th.  Now Becky can come out drinking with us!  We showed her some fun places in Janesville on Friday night and then they went on to party it up in Madison on Saturday.  On Saturday December 10th Amber headed to Wauwatosa to spend a girls night with Amie and Megan and discuss Amie and Brian's upcoming wedding.

On December 15th Amber had her 1st Grade and 3rd Grade Concerts; which went really well!  The next day was the Todd School Staff Party where we had a little too much fun :) and then we headed up to Appleton for December 17th and 18th to have Amber's family Christmas.  It was fun to be with family, but also sad to know that one very important member is no longer physically here to celebrate with us.  Holidays are some of the toughest times one has to face after losing a loved one and after losing Kyle (Amber's brother) early this year it makes celebrating harder.  But we all tried to be as light hearted as possible because that's how Kyle was and how he would want it to be.  We even wrapped up a baking potato and had Riley (Amber's 3-Year-Old Cousin) open it up as a Christmas gift.  He laughed about how that wasn't a REAL present, but then had to take it home so that his mom could make him some french fries later with it!  Crazy kid!

This brings us to Christmas Vacation.  This year was an Okray Christmas year so we headed up to Stevens Point to celebrate Festivus on Friday December 23rd.  In case you don't know what Festivus is here is the definition:  

Festivus is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as a way to commemorate the holiday season without participating in its pressures and commercialism.^[1] Festivus became part of worldwide^[2] popular culture after being featured on an episode of the American TV showSeinfeld in 1997.^[1][3]

Every year since 1999 John and his high school friends, now many of them members on his Trivia Team, have celebrated Festivus with cocktails (non-alcoholic before they were of age), dinner and then more drinks out in Stevens Point (this was also not part of the beginning years).  Good thing we've all moved on and are of legal drinking age!  This year we headed to Gratzies! Restaurant and had some wonderful cocktails along with yummy Italian food followed by some tunes at The Cabin Bar.  It was as it always is a great time!

John and Amber heading out for Festivus.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was spent in Stevens Point as well.  We went to Woodlands Church (John's dad's Church) for Christmas Eve service.  It was a very different service for us because with Amber growing up and raised Lutheran and John growing up and raised Catholic we have had very structured church experiences all out lives.  Woodlands Church is a non-denominational church with a much more liberal take on religion.  It was a very large space where the service took place and they had a large band and many vocalists playing and singing upbeat versions of traditional Christmas songs.  They also had all the words on large projector screens.  It was a very unique experience.  We also took family photos at the church before the service started.

The original Okray Family:  Melissa, Michelle, Mary, Mike, Mikey and John on Christmas Eve.

 The Long Family:  Andy, Melissa, Jared, Justin and A.J. on Christmas Eve.

The Extended Okray Family:  Andy, Melissa, Mary, Mike, Mikey, Michelle, John, Amber

Justin, Jared and A.J.

After church we had a wonderful steak dinner and a few drinks, watched the nephews open a few gifts, played cards and settled in for the night.  Christmas Day was also very nice with everyone opening gifts, eating leftovers and loafing around for most of the day.  Christmas night we got to watch the Packers win against the Bears and all was good :)

The next day we headed to Appleton to meet up with Adam and Becky and then head to Crivitz, WI to visit Amber's paternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins for the afternoon.  Grandma Georgene made some wonderful homemade pizzas (which she is known for) and we had a great time catching up with everyone.

We finally headed home to Janesville the next day and while home we deep cleaned the whole house, watched a lot of DVR'd TV and headed to the gym multiple times a day trying to undo the icky eating that had taken place during the past few weeks.

We headed to De Pere for New Years Eve.  We meet our friend E and her Grandfather, who works for the Packers, at Lambeau Field for lunch at Curly's Pub and to celebrate our Engagaversary (the day we got engaged) where we got engaged.  We then headed over to Megan and Avery's house for some  cocktails, dinner at A Bravo Restaurant and ringing in 2012 at the Keweenaw Bar with good friends and many drinks!  On New Years Day we headed back to Appleton for Brunch and to watch the Packer game.  We had to go home because the next day Amber had to go back to work :(  

 Celebrating our Engagaversary at Lambeau Field.  

The same spot John asked Amber to marry him on December 31st, 2007.

Ringing in 2012 with a kiss at the Keweenaw Bar in De Pere.

On January 2nd we headed to our friends Amy and Drew's house to watch the Rose Bowl and although the Badgers lost it was still a nice end to Christmas vacation (even though Amber had to work that day)  Boo!

That takes us to about right now where when I read through all of the awesome things that we have done these two months I realize that our life is pretty great and although I'd love to be saying that the Packers won today too; I can't and that's okay.

Until next time!

Rocktober!

The month of October is always called Rocktober in our household.  This is mainly because both of our birthdays are in the month of October and in the past few years we've gone on vacation during the last weekend of the month.  This year Rocktober did not disappoint!

Amber's birthday came first.  October 12th marked 28 years of age.  Amber taught in the morning and was serenaded "Happy Birthday" by some of her students and then had a great lunch with a co-worker and in the afternoon had an in-service with all the elementary music teachers in the district.  That evening we went to Texas Roadhouse for steak and margaritas (for Amber) and beer (for John).  We did not let them know that it was Amber's birthday because there is no way Amber is riding that saddle thing!  All in all it was a very enjoyable day.

John wasn't able to laugh about Amber being old for too long because on October 18th he turned 28 as well.  Unfortunately John had to work late on his birthday so we celebrated a day early with dinner at one of our favorite Janesville restaurants The Speakeasy.  We had some great brick oven pizza and great martini's!

Even though our birthdays were great the most exciting thing about Rocktober was our trip to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  Instead of buying each other birthday gifts we like to plan a trip during our birthday month and this year we decided to venture back to the Dominican Republic.  We spent our honeymoon in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic in October 2009 and had a great time so we decided to go back to the Dominican this year.

We left on Thursday October 26th for a five day and four night stay at the Barcelo Capella Resort in Santo Dominigo with our friends Megan and Avery.  We enjoyed every minute of 85 degree weather, sunshine, island breezes, great food and fun with friends.  It's wonderful when the decisions that you have to make are "Do we sit at the beach or do we sit by the pool?" and "Do I have a pina colada or do I have a margarita?" The only hang up we had on the trip was that we nearly missed our connecting flight in Fort Lauderdale back to Chicago because it took us over 2 hours in customs!  They held the plane and we made it back just fine.  It was a great trip and I think we made Megan and Avery Dominican Republic lovers as well!

Thursday after we got back home from vacation we had our first volleyball game in our league.  We're not the best volleyball players, but we do like to play so when a co-worker of Amber's asked us if we'd be interested in joining we were thrilled.  The games didn't go so well for our team and we lost all three games, but during the third game John fell on his ankle funny and when he went to urgent care the next day we found out that he severely sprained his ankle.  He was put in a brace for two weeks and although the ankle is feeling better now it's still not fully healed.

Last weekend Amber traveled to Appleton to spend some time with her grandparents and to go to her friend Cristina's baby shower.  It was nice to spend some time with all the "Music Girls" and to meet the newest addition to our group, Mallory and Mike's son Jacob!

Well until next time!  Go Pack Go!

 The beach at our resort.

 John and Amber having dinner at our resort.

 Amber's Lobster Thermidor (amazing!)

 The mini-golf hole where Amber got a hole-in-one!

 A walk along the beach at sunset.

 Amber, John, Megan and Avery on the beach at sunset.

 Our "Music Girls" group.  Amie, Mallory (and Jacob), Cristina, Justine and Amber.

Amber and baby Jacob.

Football, Baseball and Weddings Oh My!

Well it's been over a month since our last post so I thought I'd update you all on the lives of the Okray's during the last month.  Football season in Wisconsin started out wonderfully with the Packers taking care of the Saints at Lambeau Field!  Which has given us Packer fans a preview of how we expect the year to look.  And my the Packers continue to look good!

During the weekend of September 9th through 11th John and Amber went their separate ways John off to Madison for the Badger Football Game and a Golf Tournament with friends and Amber off to Milwaukee in search of a bridesmaids dress for Amie's wedding.  We were each successful with John seeing Bucky win over Oregon State (a shut-out of 35 to 0) and having a great time at the Golf Tournament (although not winning) and Amber finding a sexy and elegant dress for Amie's wedding as well as having some very valuable girl's only time with friends.

The very next weekend (September 16th through 18th) John stood up in Jeremy and Jenna's wedding in Stevens Point, WI.  We both had an awesome time hanging out with friends and family in Stevens Point as well as giving our hard earned money to some local drinking and eating venues in downtown Stevens Point :)  The wedding was outside in a very pretty and elegant garden in Mosinee, WI and the reception was held at the Ramada Inn in Stevens Point.  This weekend was capped off by the Packers winning against the Panthers.  We had the pleasure of watching this game with Mike and Mary Okray as well as Tom, Sharon and Brandon Flugaur.  A great end to a very fun weekend!

I'm not sure if you all know this but the Brewers are still playing baseball!  (It's October!)  And since John's friend Brandon won the opportunity to buy tickets to the game on Sunday October 2nd we were able to be a part of Brewers history.  The Brewers won their second game out of five on that Sunday evening and we have never been at Miller Park when the crowd has been that electric!  It was an outstanding game to watch!  Although Adam and Becky didn't have tickets to the game, sad day :(, they did come to tailgate with us and it was fun to see them even if it was just for a little while.

Today Amber went to cheer on a co-worker who was running her very first marathon.  She ran it in 4 hours and 36 minutes!  Amazing job!  We've discussed if either of us would ever want to run a marathon and I think that the consensus is no...we did discuss running the Green Bay Cellcom Half Marathon again or possibly the Green Bay Cellcom Marathon Relay (both take place in May) but we'll just have to see how we feel about it in a few months.  It is exciting to have a goal, but it's very time consuming to put in all the training runs.

Well I guess that's all I have for this month!  Stay tuned for next months edition!  Rocktober is just getting underway!  We're looking forward to more Packer wins, both our birthdays (28 this year...) and our trip to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic!

 Jeremy and Jenna Fritsch and their wedding party

 John escorting Mary Beth up the asile

 John and Mary Beth heading back down the asile (notice John's Super Bowl ring)

 John and I out in Stevens Point after the wedding

 Brandon, Nate and John at the Brewer Game

John and I at the Brewer Game