Recent Adventures

This was a castle we hiked around and through. It was built in the 30's by a professor at Oklahoma State University. He used it as his summer home. I could handle having something like that as my summer home :)

This was the dining room. It was entirely outside, however there was another room they ate in if it was raining.

This is part of the staircase, this guy must have been super tiny because I had a hard time fitting in there.

Kurt checking out the falls.

Sooo pretty.

The soon to be Mr. and Mrs. in front of the falls...I wanted to go swimming, but Kurt said it wouldn't be warm enough for that...too bad it was 82 and not a cloud in the sky!!

Kurt didn't notice what was crawling around inside this cave...so he sat down and had his picture taken.

I wanted my picture taken in the wagon wheel cave, but when I got close I saw that it was FILLED with spiders, so I stood on front of the cave for my picture instead.

Turner Falls...isn't it beautiful?!? I want to go back.

Kurt liked the cactus too! He wanted to know if it was sharp.

This is for Kate...a real cactus with flowers and everything!

This is in Turner Falls in front of the Blue Pool.

Life has been as usual lately. Kurt gets up early and heads to work, I wake up and pick up the mess he made in the morning, then I watch some soaps, workout, and then get some chores done. :)

Last weekend we registered for gifts on Saturday - a project that took about 5 hours...sick. But, it's done, so that's good. Sunday we drove up to Oklahoma and went hiking at Turner Falls. It was beautiful. The pictures above are of our recent adventures.

As promised

This was at Taste of Addison...Foreigner played and they were FANTASTIC! It was in the park right across the street from our apartment, which was great, we didn't have to worry about parking, we just walked right over there! There was great food, lots of beer, and fantastic music. Made for 2 very good nights.
This is us on the Ferris Wheel. I also managed to get Kurt to go on a very intense version of the Tilt-A-Whirl with me, but he did NOT like that at all.
The view of Taste of Addison from the Ferris Wheel.
So much fun on a hot spring day!!
Not sure why this ended up sideways...but this is us at Kurt's cousin Rachelle's wedding. Nice face, Kurt.

Those Bodes, such fabulous dancers...that's Kurt and his oldest brother Brent bustin a move at Rachelle's wedding.
Happy birthday Kurt!! I made him a cake, he was pretty impressed.
We went to Ikea and bought pillow covers and lamps (among other things...having an Ikea only 10 minutes from our apartment is not a good thing...)



This was a storm we had a few weeks ago...it was intense!! 70mph winds, rain, hail, and tornadoes, oh my!!

Well...that's all for now...see, I do post pictures occasionally!! Enjoy...see you in June when I'm home for 3 weeks!!!

I'm so bad at this

Well, for those of you who do check this in order to keep up on our lives, I apologize. I'm terrible at remembering to update this. So...here goes...

Lisa came to visit over Easter weekend and we had a great time catching up, I just love that girl. On Tuesday of that week it was Kurty's birthday and I think he enjoyed the fact that I made him dinner and baked him a fantastic cake! The next day I flew home and was at home for 2 full weeks. I worked to make some money and I got quite a bit done for the wedding...everything's falling into place so nicely. The weekend of the 25th Kurt flew back to Michigan too and we had our engagement pictures and then Rachelle and Tony's wedding! The pictures were so much fun and despite the high winds, they turned out great. If you want to see them go to: www.deimage.dphoto.com the password for our album is 100909. Rachelle and Tony's wedding was beautiful and so much fun. I flew back to Texas on Wednesday the 29th, a few days after Kurt. The following day Katie flew down here with her sister and neice. We had a great time! Kate and I drove Crystal and Olivia to Wichita Falls so they could spend the weekend with Joe at the Airforce base. Katie and I had so much fun going to Ikea, Bass Pro Shop, Cabellas (the last 2 were Kurt's idea :)) among other things. We completed the weekend watching a movie and drinking margaritas...it was great.

Sunday was like back to normal. We went grocery shopping and just hung out. Monday night Kurt had his last softball game and once again I was their only fan. All the guys are great, just not great softball players :) This weekend will be a blast...I can't wait...we're going to go to Taste of Addison, which is literally outside our door...a bunch of restaurants from around town have booths set up with food samples, there's a beer tent, music, and carnival rides...we can't wait! The other part of this weekend that I am very much looking forward to is RENT!! There are only a few performances left in Dallas and we are going to go!! I'm so excited. :)

That's all for now. I promise I'll update after this weekend and I'll even post pictures! For those of you who have been pestering me to get pictures up on our wedding website, I'm doing that right now...so check that soon!
(http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/NicoleLauniere&KurtBode)

Love you all!

It's been a while

Well, I'm not so good at keeping this up to date. And, all of our pictures are on my computer and Kurt's is the only one that is capable of an internet connection, so, no pictures for a while. We haven't been doing too much since the girls left. Just starting to settle into a nice routine. Every Monday Kurt plays on a softball team and I am their only fan!! So, I do my best to cheer loudly and raise their spirits...because they are just terrible :) On Tuesdays all of the guys from Mass go bowling and I have been invited to join them the last couple of weeks which has been a lot of fun! I feel like I'm starting to make friends, unfortunately they're all guys, which is ok, but I miss hanging out with girls and having girl talk and watching girly movies, but oh well...at least I have friends! Kurt and I seem to have found our niche which is really comforting. I will be heading home in a couple of weeks to work and get some more wedding stuff done and then Kurt will be heading back the last weekend in April for his cousin's wedding. We hope everyone back in Michigan is doing well and we can't wait to get back and see everyone!

Also...once I'm back in Michigan and I can get my computer online I will post some pictures of the things we've been up to lately.

We've been busy!

As most of you know, I went home in the end of February/beginning of March to work and get some things done for the wedding. Then, the day after I got home Abbie and Katie flew in! We had a great time. We went to the Fort Worth Stockyards, sang kareoke (poorly), went to the Galleria Dallas, attended a crazy St. Patrick's Day parade, and went to the Fort Worth zoo. The weekend was jam-packed and flew by, but it was great to see my girls :) I'm pretty sure Kurt even had a good time while they were here.

After the girls left, it was back to life as usual - Kurt working all day while Nicki sat around at home doing nothing, thinking about how bored she is all the time. Ha. Monday night Kurt had a softball game with the guys from work and I was their only fan. They're really bad though, so I can see why they don't have much of a following :) Then, Tuesdsay night we went bowling, they were short for some of their teams, so they asked me to play. I'm a terrible bowler, but I had a blast. I really like the guys he works with - they're a lot of fun. Now, if I could meet some girls to hang out with, that would be fantastic because I can only handle being the only girl for so long - I need some girl time, I don't have anyone to shop with! :)

I will be heading home in April for 2 weeks again to work and get more done for the wedding. Since I haven't been able to find a job here and we were planning to come home in April anyway, we decided it made more sense for me to just fly home early and make some money to pay my bills! So, I'm flying home April 15, Kurt's flying home April 23, and then Kurt's flying back April 26, and I'm flying back April 29.

Oh!! We're having our engagement pictures taken April 25 and I'm really excited, I don't know that the same can be said for Kurt, but oh well, he'll just have to put on a good face (literally) :)

See you all soon, hopefully!!!

Busy, busy...

Where to begin? It's been a while...let's see... Tuesday night Kurt went bowling with some of the guys from work and had a great time, he seems to really fit in well in the Dallas office which is great for him. After he got home from bowling we got hit with a nasty storm...2 tornadoes touched down in and around Dallas, Addison was just missed, so we got lucky. Kurt and I stood on the balcony and watched the whole thing, it was amazing. The pictures don't do the ominous sky justice, but here's one anyway.

So, after surviving the storm Tuesday night we layed low Wednesday night. Mostly we did laundry and packed for the district meeting. We left bright and early Thursday morning and headed into downtown Dallas. While Kurt was in meetings and workshops all day I went to the Sixth Floor Museum (the JFK assasination site) which was absolutly amazing. After there we went to Wolfgang Puck's new restaurant which was on the 57th floor in this crazy lighted ball thing that turned. The food was incredible, a lot of seafood. One thing I've realized about myself since being in Texas is that if I don't learn to branch out in my eating habits, I won't be eating. So, I'm taking baby steps, but I'm trying EVERYTHING, at least once. Here's a view from the 57th floor.

So, after lunch we went to the King Tut exhibit - if you get a chance to go, don't pass it up, it was SO cool!! I met a lot of great women on our day out, it was nice to hear from their perspectives what it's like to move so often. It almost felt like we were army wives, getting moved around all the time and relying on the other women for advice - it's really a great group. We headed back to the hotel after this and met up with all of the guys. After dinner Kurt's company put on Casino Night which was a blast! We learned to play Craps and won $8,000 - too bad it was all fake money! After Casino Night a bunch of the guys from Kurt's office took us out in Uptown and showed us around, we had a GREAT time. I really like the guys he works with, they remind me of our friends back home. Friday night Kurt's boss took to whole office to this amazing restaurant called Texas de Brazil, it's a Brazilian steakhouse. The food was indescribable. This should sum it up - it cost $100 per person, for dinner! That doesn't include drinks or dessert!! Saturday we took it easy and went grocery shopping and hit up the sales at Circuit City. We don't have cable and aren't planning on getting it so when we find movies or seasons of shows we like on sale, we snatch them up! Kurt made me dinner for Valentine's Day and we both went to bed really early after watching a romantic comedy ;) A great Valentine's Day, in my book. Sunday one of the guys Kurt works with took us to his church and we really, really liked it. We're going to go again this week and we can't wait! The worship was awesome and the message was really relavent and applicable. Finally, after church we went to the mall across the street - which is all outlets!!! I fell in love with that mall. I made a gourmet dinner Sunday night - marinated pork tenderloin, home made mashed potatoes, corn, bread, and salad, and then last night I made chicken chili. I decided that I'm a really great housewife...but the novelty is wearing off quickly and I'm starting to get stir crazy...I'm hoping to find a job soon, but it's turning out to be harder than I thought. Well, I think that gets everyone up to date! We miss and love you all!!

Our first conference!

Kurt found out yesterday that he has to attend a conference in Dallas on Thursday and Friday and I get to go along! Mass. is going to put us up in a great hotel and while Kurt is in meetings and workshops all day I get to go to the site where JFK was assasinated (I guess there's a mini museum there) and then we're going to lunch at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant and then after that I am going to the Dallas Art Museum to the King Tut exhibit! I think I'm going to enjoy this conference way more than Kurt! Thursday night they're having a formal dinner and then Casino Night. I'm excited because I'll get to meet the girlfriends and wives of the guys that Kurt will be working with and it will give us both a chance to meet some new people and maybe make some of our first friends in Texas!

Yesterday was Kurt's first day at work and he said that it went well, but was "boring". He had to do the typical first day administrative stuff. He's going to be working on a project with 2 other guys and has to be to work every day at 6. He seems excited about it all though. So, while he was at work I cleaned the apartment from top to bottom and then had dinner on the table when he walked in the door. He was SHOCKED!! Ha. I told him not to get his hopes up for the future and his response was that I was setting his expectations pretty high. :)

We don't know how long we'll be in Dallas before we go to Houston (if we go to Houston) but we want everyone to come visit!! So, start saving that change for a vacation fund!!

More pictures of our apartment

Well, that's our humble little home. We're going to go out exploring tonight and tomorrow, so maybe tomorrow's post will be more interesting. Love you and miss you all.

Settling in to life in Addison

Well, we found an apartment that we love. We're all moved in and starting to settle in to life in Addison. Our apartment has a loft, cathederal ceilings, a fireplace, and a balcony...it's fantastic. We're right across the street from the park and pretty much everything we need is within walking distance. We're really starting to get used life down here - the weather is great. Of course, it's not home and it never will be, but we do like it. Next week Kurt starts his job and I will start looking for work for myself, I don't think it will be too bad, Texas is doing much better than Michigan. We miss everyone back home and this is an open invitation for anyone to come visit! I still haven't figured out how to post pictures, but as soon as I do I'll post some of our trip down here and our apartment/community.

We made it!

We've officially made it to Dallas. We're at a great hotel in Addison and we're getting ready to go out and drive around town. This is the area we'll be living in for a while...either Addison or Carrollton. It's a lot busier and more built up than either Kurt or I expected. We were expecting a bit more country - instead, Addison is bigger than Grand Rapids! Well, that's all for now...I came down with a nasty cold yesterday, so I'm going to go "steam". We'll post some pictures of our road trip later.