Johnny D. Visit to Nebraska!!!!

On Friday, Feb. 1, Jon had the pleasure to drive to Omaha to pick up best friend, John D. from the airport!  This was Johnny's first visit to Nebraska since we've been here and it was a great time.

It was a busy weekend, with a Lincoln Stars Hockey Game, Lutheran Hour Ministries Sunday at church, our church league volleyball game and the Super Bowl!

John and Jon after getting back from the airport.

Ace immediately had a new buddy.

Can't tell who is enjoying this more...

Immediately after arriving in Lincoln, we set up our go to
board game, Stone Age!

On Saturday, John relaxed at our home in the morning while Jon went to teach Cardio Tennis and Chelsea got a haircut.  Then, Saturday afternoon, Valerie came over to play some games with us.  Johnny had the idea to come up with a game tournament.  Games included were: Euchre, Pitch, Stone Age, Carcassone and Samurai.  After playing games all afternoon, around 5 p.m., some friends came over before we headed downtown Lincoln for Chipotle and the going to the amateur hockey team, Lincoln Stars, game.  The Stars ended up winning and because they scored 5 goals, we all got a free half gallon of milk.  "WE WANT MILK!" was the common chant in the third period.  Johnny was getting super into the game and often screamed quite loudly at the opposing team.  :)

Benjy, Chelsea, Valerie and Johnny downtown Lincoln.

Aaron, Johnny, Valerie, Chelsea and Jon at the Stars game.

Benjy taking in the view.

Johnny makes anyone look shorter than they really are... :)

Val and Chels and their scarves. 

On Sunday, it was Lutheran Hour Ministries Sunday in the LCMS.  Jon played a large roll at Christ Lutheran Church by speaking before all three services started.  Below is the booth Jon set up with the LHM Ambassador, LaVerl, from our church.  Following all the services, Christ had its annual Chili CookOff.  It was great to be able to eat a lot of very good and different chili combinations from various members with some friends from Bible study.

www.lhm.org  :)

After the chili cookoff, we had to head home quickly to change and get over to Lincoln Lutheran High School's gym for our church league volleyball game.  Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the game, but Johnny suited up and played for Young Roads as well.  It was pretty awesome having a 6'7" lefty on the team.  :)  We ended up winning 2-1 against Messiah Lutheran and Johnny played well.  We lost the first set (Johnny didn't play that set) but once Johnny got in the game, our momentum changed.  The first ball that was set to Johnny he put down in the middle of the court.  We had a blast playing together again and wish he could play for us in the tournament the first weekend in March!

Then, after our volleyball game, we hurried back home, showered and got the house ready for our Super Bowl party.  We ended up having a few friends over and the party was great!  

Ace and his beverages.  ;) 

Johnny brought snow up from the back yard to the deck to
create the chilled beverages area.  Can you see the SUPER
word Johnny created using the pop cans?

Here is part of the food we had to eat... :)  We also had a chip
and dip bar with four different types of dips.  Thanks to every
who brought food for us to enjoy!

Of course, the beverage bar was popular as well.
Chelsea said that if someone came over to our house and
opened our fridge or looked on our counter, they would
think we drink A LOT!  I promise, this isn't the norm.

Here is the group.  From L to R: Val, Jen, Dustin, Jeremy,
Aaron, Johnny, Chels, Bre and Benjy.

At some point on Monday, Johnny put Ace in the dryer.  Pretty cute that little fur-ball.

Also on Monday, Jon took Johnny to visit Seward to see Concordia.  After checking out campus, they headed out to lunch and then headed back to Lincoln.  Kyle came over and the guys played Stone Age.  Following Stone Age with Kyle, Val came over for our typical Monday schedule and we all played Pitch again and Carcassone before watching Castle.  Johnny thought the show was great but said he can't become addicted to a TV show during med school...

Johnny by the Concordia sign.

We stopped in the music building and Johnny found a
practice room.  20 minutes later we headed to the science hall. 

Johnny loved the Bartels Museum in the library basement.

Johnny even wrote in the museum's guest book his name
and "It rocked!"  :)  Pretty funny because its a rock museum.

John also LOVED that the old and outdated colors used in
the library were Hope College colors.

After checking out Concordia, John took Jon
out for lunch at Cafe on the Square.

After poppyseed chicken dinner (John's favorite),
Chelsea hung out with Ace while...

John and Val did all the dishes.  Thanks guys!

Before Castle playing some Carcassone.

We all felt we needed to be classy and drink
some wine during Castle.
Great photo bomb Johnny!  :)

John and Jon bought matching tennis shirts from the bookstore.

Great photo.

Johnny flew back to Michigan on Tuesday afternoon but before that, Kyle came over for another two games of Stone Age.  Each one of us won a game and then Kyle was ahead in the fourth game before Jon had to take John back to Omaha.

Thanks again for an awesome visit Johnny!  We loved having you be here with us and thanks for making the trip.  We wished we lived closer and we hope to see you this summer in Ann Arbor!

Cheddars and Aaron's Procedure

The first weekend of February, we went out to dinner with some friends at Cheddars.  Cheddars is a relatively new restaurant in Lincoln and we still had not gone so we were excited when Dustin and Jen Will called to see what our plans were for Friday.  :)

Dustin and Aaron.  Dustin was helping Aaron with his burger.

This one is hilarious.  Aaron's face is great!

Chelsea, Valerie and Jen

Jon went with Aaron later that week to a doctors appointment.  Here is the survivor after his stomach procedure.

Minnesota Visit

One of the benefits of Jon working with donors and congregations in Minnesota is the ability to go back home to SE Minnesota.  At the end of January, Jon went up to visit some donors and was able to spend some time with most of the Zahhos family, Grandma Schleicher and the Maragos family.

First up, Jon met up with John Zahhos and daughter Maria for dinner, but also to see other daughter, Nicki, practice with her club volleyball team.

Nicki's club team warming up.  We are excited to be able to
watch her this weekend when they come to Omaha!

After seeing Nicki, JZ, Maria and Jon headed
to Burger Jones, which apparently has the
Best Burger in the Twin Cities.

In typical Greek fashion, Maria ordered the Gyro (yee-row)
burger which happened to be the special for that day.

The next morning, Jon drove down to see Grandma Schleicher in Austin.  They had a good visit and Jon enjoyed looking through a photo album he had never seen before with photos of Grandma and her siblings growing up.

Never noticed how much taller Jon was
than Grandma.  :)

 After leaving Austin, Jon had a few visits near Rochester in the afternoon.  Where did Jon choose to get lunch in Rochester?  Nelson Cheese!  This little deli was a frequent stop for Jon during high school at Century.  Every Friday during Junior year, Jon and several buddies would go out to eat to Nelson Cheese.  The City Chicken was even better than Jon remembers.  They added guacamole!  (or maybe they always had guac on it but Jon didn't like it in high school... :) )

 After the afternoon visits, Jon met up with good buddy, John Maragos and they went to go see Papou (grandpa in Greek) Zahhos at St. Mary's Hospital where Papou was recovering from heart surgery.

Yia Yia (grandma) and John eating in the cafeteria.
The food was really good!

Mariya's idea for a photo op in the elevator.
John was not having any of it but Mariya
loved the camera!  :)

Mariya, John and Jon took a walk with the nurse and Papou
around the wing.  Papou walked around six times a day!

Not the best photo ever but still a good one.
Mariya and Jon.

Thanks for a great visit everyone and we are looking forward to hosting some of you this weekend!

New TV Project

The second week of January, Nebraska Furniture Mart in Omaha had a special after Christmas sale.  The sale was for technology that had been purchased after Thanksgiving and around Christmas.  Many items people bought, they took out of the box and used before returning them to the Mart.  NFM couldn't sell these already opened and used items for even cost so some of their items were less than what NFM purchased them for!  There were about 40 TVs, many laptops, iPads and iPods, Blu-ray players and many more tech toys.

Jon went up to Omaha the Tuesday morning that the store opened and waited in line outside the store. When the store opened at 10 a.m., Jon ran to the TV section.  We ended up purchasing a Vizio 42" smart TV (has a wifi receiver in it) for only $219!  Then Jon purchased a mounting kit for the TV for $79.  It was great to get a TV at a price that was way better than what Black Friday would have offered.

We had talked about getting a TV this thanksgiving and then mounting it on the wall in the basement and to buy a sectional couch to create a great family room/den area.

Once the weekend came, our close friends, Benjy and Aaron, helped Jon put the TV up in the basement.

First Jon needed to put the mounting braces on the back of the TV.

While Jon was working on the brackets, Benjy found the
correct tools we needed to put the TV up.

Also, we were able to give the TV stand seen above to our
good friends Kyle and Anglea as they were looking for a
bigger entertainment center.  We were glad we didn't have
to throw away the stand but that someone else could use it!

Jon beginning to drill into the stud.

Benjy double checking Jon's work.  :) 

Feeling like a real homeowner by getting to use the drill!

Benjy making sure the brace was centered on the wall. 

Almost done!

One thing that we also worked on was Benjy put in an outlet behind the wall.  Even though he isn't a "licensed" electrician, he did a great job pulling power from the back of our washer and dryer box (the white thing tucked behind Benjy's face in the picture below).  The reason why we wanted an outlet behind the wall was we were planning on having a clean and flush TV on the wall without seeing any cords.

Benjy putting in an outlet. 

Ace was usually in the way but Aaron did a
good keeping him entertained.  This photo
is great.  Ace stayed on Aaron's feet for a good
5 minutes.  Ace thought he was helping....

Here is the finished project.  The Blu-ray player we bought
also had its cords through the wall and then into the TV
and the outlet.  It looks great Benjy!  Thanks for your
supervision and expertise!

Picture looks great and the TV sits at the optimal viewing
height off the ground of 30" as concluded by the reviews on
Yahoo.com.  :)

Thanks again Benjy and Aaron!  This is the second of many projects where Jon ended up doing most of the work but Benjy was active in his assistance.  Thanks Benjy for MAKING Jon do all the work!  :)