Say Thanks

Posted by: jHj

Please take a few minutes of your time to let a soldier know you are thankful for their sacrifices for our country. All you do is pick a post card design, write a message (or select a prewritten message), and click "send." This is such a simple way to impact someone's life and let them know you care and have not forgotten. Just copy and paste the link below:

http://www.letssaythanks.com/ThankYou.aspx

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Chicago

Posted by: jHj

This American Girl Doll display was in the lobby of our hotel. The little girl I babysit, Taylor, collects American Girl Dolls, so Josiah thought it was appropriate to pose next to this doll so we could show Taylor when we got home. Doesn't he look super excited?

This was the mime that preformed on a daily basis outside of our hotel. In order to "activate" him out of his pose, you had to put money in the bucket.

For Thanksgiving dinner, we ate at a local pub...it was so delicious! We had turkey, beef brisket, ham, green beens, carrots, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn bread, and pumpkin cheese cake. The plates they gave you to go through the buffet were seriously like 12x12....HUGE!

The view from our hotel room, we stayed at the Marriott right on the Magnificent Mile!

The view from the top of the Sears tower...it was so cool!

Scary-- we were so high up!

Beautiful

Millennium Park watching the ice skaters

Josiah was trying to touch Trump Tower

He's so strong!

Mom&Dad in front of "the Bean"

the bean was so cool-- we had so much fun taking pictures

we're pretty sure this is the Trump tower-- but we weren't positive

Mom&Dad at breakfast

This was our favorite breakfast place-- they made omelets right in front of your face!

Just outside of our hotel

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we went to Chicago with my parents and had such a wonderful time. We flew in to Midway airport and got to ride the L-train...it was so much cleaner than the subway in NYC. On Thanksgiving day, most places were closed so we walked around the city and did some sight seeing. Then that evening we went to see The Blindside-- I highly recommend it! On Friday we literally shopped till we dropped. We hit up the Magnificent Mile, Nordstrom, Macy's, Bloomingdales, H&M, Wicker Park, and Bucktown. Our favorite part of the day was eating at this little spot called Feast in Bucktown-- they had the BEST coffee. It is called Intelligencia coffee and it was soooo incredible that we had to buy a bag to enjoy when we returned home. We got home to Louisville late Saturday evening. Overall, it was an amazing trip that made us want to move to Chicago-- it's such a great city and we can't wait to move back!

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Our Lives Lately...

Posted by: jHj

I know, I know, no pictures are no fun, but we haven't taken any in a while-- nevertheless, I still have some updating to do. Here are some things that have been going on with the New Hellekson's lately:

1. Grandma Audrey (Jenna's dad's mother) has been in the hospital for the past month so if you remember, please say a prayer for her as she has had a very rough time. She is 78 years old and originally went in for an appendectomy, but after a week in recovery she was still getting worse. They ran some more tests and realized she had an abscess near her bowel that they needed to drain surgically. When they got in there, they also discovered she had a perforated colon and some nasty infection going on. It was so bad that they could not even reattach her colon so now she has to wear a colostomy bag for 6 months until they can reattach her colon. The poor gal has been through so much and is still in a lot of pain--battling an infected incision now. So the more prayers the better! Also pray for my parents as now they are dealing with two sick mothers (mom's mother is in a nursing facility after a stroke this past summer).

2. On a lighter note, I (Jenna) applied for grad school this past week and if all goes well I will be starting the program in summer or fall of 2010, depending on whether I go part-time or full-time. It is only a 30 hour program, so it is very tempting to just go full-time and graduate in May 2011-- but, then I wouldn't be able to work full-time.

3. Speaking of graduation...I (Jenna again...haha) have one more semester left and then graduate in May 2010! It's so crazy that the time is finally here and Josiah and I are pumped for me to finally get out in the "real" workforce. Two full-time incomes will be great for us!

4. Josiah and I are heading to Chicago with my parents for Thanksgiving (as long as grandma Audrey keeps improving)....we are so pumped! I've never been before so this is such a treat. We have wedding money in hand and are ready to spend some of it! Pictures to come...

5. Josiah is now getting into his core classes for his major, which is finance-- he is really thrilled about that because he is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's been difficult having to take a slower route in school since he works full-time at Humana...but now he only has a few semesters left so he is meeting with an advisor at UofL in a few weeks to see exactly how many hours he needs to graduate. Yippie!

I think that's pretty much all the new stuff that's been happening lately with us. Stay tuned!

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Congrats to Mr. & Mrs. Brian Roeding

Posted by: jHj

The Bride and Groom

the Newlyweds

Mom & Dad

at the entrance to the reception they had this cute little table set up with baby pictures

the ENORMOUS cake

at the rehearsal dinner with Ashley

Ashley lived in FL all her life, so she's a Gator at heart...but now she's a Wildcat by marriage

Cincinnati skyline

Last weekend, I (Jenna) was in my cousin Ashley's wedding, so Josiah and I headed up to Northern Kentucky on Friday night for the rehearsal. We had a lovely dinner at the Marriot by the river and then on Saturday we roamed around town, did some shopping, and ate at Josiah's favorite spot-- Chipotle! That night was the wedding and it was gorgeous! There were about 400 people there so I was really nervous about my part-- which was the Scripture reading. But, all went well and we had a great time socializing at the reception afterwards. Congratulations to my beautiful cousin and her new hubby!

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North Dakota

Posted by: jHj

Welcome to East Grand Forks, the part that's in Minnesota

Funky little water tower-- at least I'm assuming that's what it is...

The landscape: cold, flat, gray, and abundant with agriculture

another little tower in Fargo

outside of Kroll's diner-- I literally had heartburn all day after eating at this place, but it was SO yummy!

So weird that they would name a gas station the "Kum & Go"-- don't ask for details people...just laugh and move on

The Fighting Sioux

at a hockey game-- it was so fun!

We didn't really dress appropriately (in green), but the people behind us sure did!

Last weekend Josiah and I packed up and headed to the far parts of the world (North Dakota) for our second wedding reception in Grand Forks. It was great to meet ALL of his extended family and spend time with his immediate family as well. Thanks to Jessica (Josiah's sister) for all the special effort you put in to that weekend and to Ryan and Krista (cousins)-- the food was incredible. And we also appreciate Josiah's parents for letting us stay with them. I wish we would have taken more pictures for everyone to see-- I'll try to get more from my mom.

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Louisville Wedding Reception 9-4-09

Posted by: jHj

The reception was held at Wildwood Country Club-- where our family basically lived every summer since I was 2. We would literally be there from open to close swimming our little hearts out, while my dad golfed and my mom sun-bathed.

The beautiful cake from Tinkers Cake Shop-- they are giving us a fresh cake on our anniversary for free, instead of having to eat frozen leftovers :)

My sweet friend, Julie Shirley, made these delicious and gorgeous strawberries. Thanks, Julie! We can't wait to meet your sweet new baby in December!

lovely centerpieces done by another friend, Amy Basbagill of A Touch of Elegance Florist

These cupcakes were from Sam's Club-- can you believe it? Cheap and delicious!!

Granny Ruth (grandma on Josiah's mother's side) and Grandma Audrey (grandma on Jenna's dad's side)

in-laws (Josiah's parents)

in-laws (Jenna's parents)

lovely picture of us

watching my dad introduce us and bless the evening

my friend Julie (who did the strawberries) and her husband Jeremy

waiting to be announced

cake cutting-- we were nice to each other

we had sushi!! our absolute favorite next to Mexican!

working the room-- these our my parents' precious friends, the Golightlys

First dance to "Love of A Lifetime"-- our favorite classic

We hope you enjoy these photos of our wedding reception in Louisville. If you would like copies of any of these pictures please contact us, as our photographer gave us the high resolution digital negatives. Most of these photos and more have been uploaded to Walgreens.com and can be shared easily. Enjoy!

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Yeah, We're Dorky Like That...

Posted by: jHj

Last weekend Josiah and I went to the annual Gaslight Festival. We bought these adorable little bracelets from this handmade leather goods booth. Mine has hearts on the sides and Josiah's has little cacti on each side. The middle part has our family monogram engraved on them. We know, it's a little dorky-- but at least we didn't put "BFFL" on them...haha.