Update since the Christmas Letter

Please don't die of shock!  I haven't posted in FOREVER... then two posts in an hour?!?!?!  I KNOW!!!

Since the Christmas letter:

We have SO enjoyed our church services with our new pastor.  We love Bro. Lonnie, but there's just some differences in the way a mid-60 year old man does things, and the way a 28 year old man does things!  :-)  Pastor Dave has made quite a few changes, and we are loving them!  Our church feels more alive and vibrant now... though many times I wonder if a lot of it isn't my own heart becoming more alive and vibrant!  Last night, we started the Master Clubs for the kids on Wednesday nights.  I am really excited about this... even though we don't have kids of our own.   I think it will be a great discipleship tool for our children, and will be such a tremendous benefit to our church as a whole!

My job situation has changed, once again, and I no longer have work again.  We are praying that I will be able to find something more stable, soon, and closer to home.  I miss the little one  {I think he was possibly the sweetest baby EVER}, but I sure don't miss the hour one way commute.  We'll see what God does!

Thankfully, the dealership business has picked up some, so that is a blessing.  There is nothing new as far as we're concerned with the full-time ministry position.  We were told this week that our name had been recommended to someone, but we personally have not heard anything from them, so we're just waiting on the Lord. 

The situation with the Jeep (that was in the accident) is a huge mess, too.  Thankfully we got a lawyer right away to help deal with the situation.  Chris was rear-ended, and the other person's insurance agent is only claiming less than 50% liability, which is a joke... and not a very funny one at that!  :-(  I know that God will take care of all of that, but sometimes things are just downright ridiculous!  On the blessing side of things as far as that is concerned... Chris' boss has been kind enough to let him drive a vehicle from the dealership for a while until we get this all settled.  We had a rental car until 12/30, and since then Chris has been driving one of their vehicles.  Also, Chris was not seriously hurt (as in nothing was broken, etc.,) though his back and neck have been bothering him pretty consistently since then.  He is being treated by a chiropractor, and also gets massage therapy there, so he doesn't complain too much!  Those massages are AWESOME!

We are still also contemplating the vehicle situation, since my lease is up in April, and the whole thing with the Jeep.  We are trying to be good stewards and decrease our outgoing bills in preparation to go back into full-time ministry.  The LAST thing we want is to hinder God's will for our lives because a car payment was too much!  Please keep us in prayer in that regard!

We have been busy with other things, as well... youth activities {Laser Tag}, stamping parties & a Pampered Chef party for me, football parties {SEC Championship & BCS Championship... ROLLLLLL TIDE!!!}, having friends over for homemade pizza and RAGE, fellowshipping in general {since our Sunday evening service was moved to 6pm from 7pm, it makes it a lot easier to get together with people after church Sunday night}, and this past weekend we babysat Dakota from Friday night through Sunday.  It's been busy, but very enjoyable!

We were thrilled last night to have a visitor in church with us.  Our massage therapist at our chiropractor's office had told us that she was looking for a church, and lo and behold, we know of an EXCELLENT one!  :-)  We pray that she felt welcome, and will be integrated in our church soon!  :-)

In family news... we are thrilled to be having a new niece or nephew due August 1st, Lord willing.  My brother, Steve & his wife, Kathryn, are expecting baby #2!  It was funny as I was writing the Christmas letter, I was thinking that this was the 1st year in a while that no one on either side of our family was expecting a baby or had a baby this year.  Well, about a week after the letter was written and printed, we found out about Steve's baby!  :-)  We are also looking forward to a family reunion of my mom's side of the family the 1st weekend of August for my grandparent's 50th Anniversary, Lord willing.  My grandma will be 82 the end of March, and my grandpa will be 92 in September.  We are also waiting for the news of an engagement of one of Chris' family members...  ;-)  I hope it will be coming soon! 

Well, I think that's about it for us!  I know I don't update this often... it's because I am now addicted to Facebook!  So if you want to know what's really going on with us... look us up on FB or we both have Twitter accounts now, too!

Since it is now 2:14am, I think I might be able to sleep.  Good morning, everyone!  :-)

Can it possibly be...?!?!?!

That I haven't blogged since MAY FIRST! 3& 1/2 months later... wow, this summer sure has FLOWN by. And, of course, like many of you, I am totally addicted to Facebook, so that has taken my time from blogging.
Well, here's the rundown of the past 3&1/2 months...
May 2-3, down to Atlanta to "get out of Dodge" for Kentucky Derby weekend. Scratched another baseball stadium off the list, saw my Uncle Dave, whom I haven't seen in YEARS, and caught up with some friends there for church. Rachel, my friend, was actually my roommate at Northland Camp the summer that Chris and I met. It was nice to catch up! :-)

The following weekend, Mother's Day weekend, we flew to Maryland for a long weekend. Ever since our in vitro fertilization/miscarriage, Chris has bought me tickets to go see my best friend in Maryland as a Mother's Day gift. This year, he came along. We had a wonderful time with Kevin and Jos, and got to catch up with a lot of friends from our church there. It made Mother's Day a bit easier for me! I'm so thankful for a wonderful, thoughtful husband!

After 3 trips for me in 3 weekends, we settled down to work, work and more work... with our ministry responsibilities at church added in. We were able to have some fun in there, too!

June was a pretty quiet month for us, though I had a fun opportunity to do a "photo shoot" with my friends, JR & Abbi. They got married in December, and didn't really care for their engagement pictures. I went out with them one weekend while Chris was gone for some work training, and took a bunch of pictures of them. I am by no means a photographer, but I was pretty pleased with the way some of them turned out.

June 12 our church had a "Sister's Supper." It was a ladies' banquet for all females ages 4 and up. It was a wonderful time of fellowship, and God used one of the devotionals in particular to really speak to my heart about something I had been struggling with that week especially. I may have to post about that later.

June 23rd, my dear friend, Shanna had her baby, Mason, at 23 weeks, 5 days along... about 3 months early! It was pretty rough on me, but today he is doing FANTASTIC, and is really a tiny miracle!

On June 30th, my grandparents came down to the Creation Museum in Cincinnati (about an hour & 1/2 from us). I had not seen them in 2 years... to the day! (It was my baby brother's wedding anniversary, and the last time I had seen them was at Nathan's wedding!) I was able to take the day off and spend it with them, which was a huge blessing!

We celebrated July 4th at Indian Creek Baptist Camp (the camp run by our church) on Freedom Friday (which happened to be July 3rd.) Chris had the opportunity to preach in the service... only the second time he's actually had that opportunity since we left Maryland 3 years before. He did an awesome job (I know, I'm a little prejudiced!) I was very proud of him. We took Zack and Dakota with us (Dakota is the little boy I took care of for over 2 years). It was a wonderful night, and we enjoyed it!

July 16th, I was able to head up to Indianapolis for the day to visit with 2 college friends that liver there, Jess and Kelly (and their families.) I so enjoyed seeing them and catching up a little better! I don't live that far away, but it seems like there is never a really good time to go more often. :-(

July 22 was our 9th anniversary. We both had to work that day, but ended up having Friday the 24th off together. We slept in, worked out, then headed out for the day... visited Louisville Mega Cavern, ate at J. Gumbos, went to the Louisville Slugger museum, walked around downtown Louisville (and took pictures), then went to Morton's steakhouse for dinner. It was FABULOUS! We so enjoyed having the day together to celebrate our marriage and our life together.

July 31st, we went to a Louisville Bats game with our friends, April & Scott Mohler. We enjoy the fellowship with them, and wish we could get together with them more often, as well.

The first full week of August brings YOUTH CONFERENCE to Shawnee Baptist Church. This year was the 25th Anniversary of Youth Conference. It was AWESOME!!! We had 1,200+ teens here for 4 days to hear the preaching of God's Word for 3 days, then the last day they spend at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. They usually go to a waterpark on that Tuesday morning, but this year the waterpark came to them... We had a HUGE flood; actually a Flood Emergency was declared for Louisville... basically, if you didn't have to go anywhere, DON'T! It sure made it memorable! :-)

That same week was very busy for me... I worked all week, then was trying to visit with a couple people that were just in town for the week, plus get ready for vacation! I was blessed to be able to see a good friend from MN, Dawn, who was down here meeting her newest grandbaby... and her first granddaughter. I also got to spend some time with a little boy that I took care of in Maryland, Nathen, and his family, who were here visiting as well.

August 8th, after work, we left on VACATION! It was AWESOME, and I didn't want to come home! We visited Chris' sister, Sandy, and her family. We hadn't seen her boys (ages almost 8 and almost 5) for almost 3 years, and her husband in 5 years! It was great to visit with them! They live in West Palm Beach, FL... I was lovin' me some Florida (as my BIL would say!) :-) We went to the beach a couple of times, including going to Miami for the day (and saw South Beach).
On Tuesday, Aug. 11th (Chris' 34th Birthday), we attended a Florida Marlins game. For the first time, in ALL the games we've attended, we FINALLY made it on the Jumbotron at the stadium! We've discovered that it helps to have adorable nephews with you! :-) We ate at Shorty's Barbecue in Miami - one of the top 10 places to eat there. Chris and Tyson played golf two mornings, and played softball one night. Sandy and I got manicures/pedicures (a first for me!), and then I framed some cross-stitches for her, and arranged the pictures for a family photo wall in her house. We attended a home decorating class on Thursday night. Friday we went to Tampa... actually St. Petersburg for a Tampa Bay Rays game. We "tailgated" before the game, which was pretty fun. Finished up the vacation on Saturday by having a GORGEOUS day at the beach, in spite of the rain before we went, and after we went. Also had a joint birthday party (homemade pizza and DQ Thin Mints blizzard cake) for Chris', Tron's and my birthdays. Chris' b-day was the 11th, and Tron and I share a b-day on the 18th. Like I said before, it was a wonderful vacation, and we were so thrilled to be able to go.

Now, it's back to life, back to reality. I've had a little "hiccup" in my job situation, so am working a few less hours for now, and am really praying about the possibility of another job. I'm praying that if God wants me somewhere else, that He will drop the opportunity in my lap.

Anyway, that's the summation of our summer! I'm sure I've left out some things, but that's basically it! Hopefully I'll get some pics posted of different events on here soon. If I don't, you can look on my Facebook page... they are ALL on there! :-)

Have a wonderful night, and hope you all had a great summer! :-)

A month later...

Wow - this month has been really busy, even though I didn't know it was going to be this way! I'm all for surprises, and I got a great surprise this month.

On April 10, I went with our teens on a laser tag activity. It was VERY fun; I'd never played laser tag before. I didn't do well, but I didn't come in last, either, so I was pretty good with that!

My great surprise came on April 14. That night, Chris texted me to ask me what I was making for supper. Now, mind you, I don't ENJOY cooking... I don't even LIKE cooking, so I try not to think about it until I absolutely have to. Part of the problem is that Chris and I don't often eat together, b/c he doesn't usually get home until around 9pm. I am still TRYING to lose weight, and try not to eat after 8pm. I hate cooking for just me, and having him eat leftovers when he gets home, so I usually just cook for him when he's on his way home, and then I eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. ANYWAY, I told him that I hadn't planned anything, and left it at that. Well, he called me at around 9:15pm, and told me that he was on his way home, and that he was REALLY hungry, so I needed to make sure that I made enough dinner. As I was finishing up dinner, he walked into the house and said, "Hey, Babe, I'm home." My back was to the door when he walked in, and as I turned around, I saw that he was holding a blonde little girl...
SURPRISE!!! Many thoughts were reeling through my head in that moment until I recognized who it was... our niece, Korissa! I said her name, and her mom and sister stepped out from behind Chris! They live in Vegas, and we hadn't seen Korissa for 9 months, and hadn't had a chance to meet Raegan, since she's only 4 months old now! I was totally surprised... I had no idea! They had planned this for over a month. Kim's husband is overseas on business for 4 months, so they broke up his absence by coming here for a week in the middle of the four months! It was SO FUN having them here. Korissa just LOVES Uncle Chris, and I loved holding Raegan. Chris and I both still had to work while they were here, but I got off about every other day, so it worked out OK.
That weekend, the 18th, was Thunder Over Louisville... the big kick-off to the 2 week long Derby Festival before the Kentucky Derby. We all went down to the riverfront for that. Chris had a friend from college that lives in Nashville come up for Thunder, and he and his wife joined us, as well as a couple that are friends of ours from here. We had a great time! Even the girls loved the fireworks; Raegan fell asleep half way through them, in spite of the fact that one of her earplugs had fallen out.
We SO enjoyed having kids in our house, and it was very lonely when they left!
I packed in several days of work after they left, then last Thurs. headed down to Murfreesboro, TN, for the Sword of the Lord Ladies' Jubilee (conference.) I took two of my friends with me, and joined a few more mature ladies from the church to caravan down there. We had a wonderful time. It's so amazing how God always gives you JUST what you need, when you need it! I have recently been struggling a lot with the fact that God has chosen not to give us a baby right now, along with some other things in my life. There were 3 different sessions at the conference about God working through the trials in our lives. One of them was entitled, "God Works the Night Shift." The speaker was talking about how some of God's greatest work is done in the dark... a baby being formed in the darkness of his mother's womb, the rest and recovery our bodies do while we're asleep, etc. It was so encouraging to me! (I'll post the notes on another post here in a minute!) It was an encouraging, fun, but emotional weekend for me.
This week, I worked a lot to make up for the time I will be gone this weekend.
We're leaving later today to head to Atlanta, GA. The Kentucky Derby is this weekend here in Louisville, and we get Saturday off (because most everything around here closes for the Derby.) The kids in KY actually have today off school because it's Oakes Day (the "local's" Derby). Anyway, we don't really want to be a part of all that, so we've been leaving town for this weekend ever since we moved here. The past two years we went to St. Louis to watch the Cardinals play baseball, but they didn't have a home game this year. So, we decided to cross another baseball park off the list of parks we need to see, and so we're going to Atlanta. My uncle lives near Atlanta, so he'll be meeting us for lunch tomorrow. On Sunday, we are going to church with some long ago friends that we haven't seen in a while, and then doing lunch with them, and heading home.
Whew! Life has been busy! God is good, and we are thanking him for DAILY loading us with benefits... even our salvation! :-) (Psalms)
My baby brother is graduating from Maranatha next weekend, though we won't be able to be there. He and his wife are moving this weekend, so pray for them, and please pray that Nathan can find a job in Madison. Also, my brother Greg is graduating with his Master's Degree this weekend. (Not from Maranatha... can't remember the name of the school.) I have lots of cards to make! :-)
Well, I better get going... too much time on here already! I'm going to try to post some pictures, but if I can't get them on here, you can check my Facebook page if you are interested.
Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Drama, drama, drama...

Here's a little update on my life...

This past week has been something else. Chris started to get sick on Wed. night. That is never fun, because I always feel so bad that there's nothing I can do to make him feel better. :-(

Last Thurs. morning, I'm putting my stuff in my car to go to work, and I get a phone call from Maxim (my work) saying I don't have to work that day. Jake (from work) says that it's nothing against me, that the parents and doctors decided that they only want 2 nurses working the case to cut down on risk of infection. Fine, I understand that (if that's REALLY the case)... but you can't tell me that they called you at 0600 this morning to tell you that! Work should have called me the night before when they found out about it so that I didn't have to get up and get ready! Besides, they called me a 5 min. til 0800... if I would have actually left on time for work, I would have actually been at the house when they called and that would have been extremely awkward for the other nurse and the family. So (if you couldn't tell) I was pretty mad, and in tears. I'm SO sick of dealing with this stuff from work. Chris tells me not to worry about it, that God will take care of everything, but that I have to call Nick (the office manager) so that he will get work for me (otherwise nothing gets done.) The guys always tell me that I'm one of their best nurses (blah, blah, blah) so they're doing what they can to get work for me... yeah, right! ANYWAY, Nick calls me back and tells me that the parents don't WANT ME there anymore (which is totally different than just saying they only want 2 nurses in the house!) Apparently Mom said that I "discipline" the other child and they didn't like it. The Thurs. prior to that, she told me that I was her favorite nurse, and that she only felt safe with me. How does that work? I was really hurt by that, and mad that she didn't say anything to me (about the "discipline" thing, if that was a concern. If she would have just told me that she didn't like it, I would have stopped. (Not that I disciplined the other child, I just told her a couple of times not to touch something.) Although, if a 2 year old is touching my stuff, I'm going to tell her not to touch it! (By the way, that mom told me she is bipolar, so I'm wondering if I just said something on the wrong day and set her off.) So - now I'm mad that Jake didn't tell me the truth when he called me that morning, too... then Nick proceeds to tell me that he's frustrated with me that there is now THREE families that don't want me to work for them. Two I knew about, but THREE?!?!?

Well, there was another mom that I oriented on her case, and she was mad the minute I got there b/c Maxim was trying to switch nurses on her, and she didn't like it (I don't blame her.) She totally ignored me the whole time I was there until she left for work, and only talked to the other nurse. (This was back in November). They called her (Thurs.) and asked if she wanted me to work there, and she said, "I just don't think that I would get along with her." She didn't even give me a chance! (Not that I really wanted to work for her, anyway, but still!) Then Nick tells me that the mom that "fired" me back in November told him that all I did was sit around all day, and that I didn't take care of her daughter. That is absolutely NOT true, and anybody that knows me knows that I work hard at my job! (The occupational therapist that works with J also works with that little girl, and says the mom is just trying to get a nurse in that will watch both of her kids - not just the one - while she runs around, which we are NOT supposed to do. She'll say whatever she wants to get rid of them if she can.) By this point, I was VERY hurt and angry, but didn't even try to defend myself b/c it's just not even worth it. Obviously, anyone who knows me knows that I don't just sit around and not do my job! I was also upset, too, b/c I kind of feel if they think that about me, that now I have a bad testimony of what a Christian is supposed to be. I don't want them to think - "Well, that nurse claims to be a Christian, and she was a horrible nurse!" - which makes God look bad! As a Christian, I feel that I should be the best nurse they ever have!

Well, that was all on Thursday. I was still pretty torn up about it, but J's mom (the other mom I work for now) assured me that she trusts me and that she's not going to fire me! :-)

Chris continued to get more and more sick over the weekend... lots of drainage down the back of his throat that would gag him and make him throw up. Not so bad during the day, but keeping him up coughing, gagging, throwing up all night. On Friday he started getting dizzy anytime he changed positions from lying down to sitting, sitting to standing, etc, and I KNOW he was running a fever, even though he wouldn't let me check his temp. Finally, Saturday morning, he tried to call in to work, he was feeling so awful. Well, they told him that they needed him, but he didn't have to come in til 4pm, since Todd (the other finance manager) was leaving for Indy that night. I told Chris to go to the urgent care, which he ended up doing. When he was on the way there, his boss called and asked him to come to work as soon as possible; Todd was really backed up. Chris was really feeling dizzy, so I was really concerned about him driving, but macho man thought he could do it himself, and I couldn't do anything about it, since I was at work! He did manage to get to urgent care, and (as we diagnosed before he went) he had a sinus/ear infection. The doc said his sinus cavities were so swollen it was amazing that he could even breathe through his nose! Chris got some good drugs... antibiotic, strong decongestant, and narcotic cough syrup! :-) He then went to work, but was so dizzy that he couldn't hold his head up without supporting his head with his hand! They had him do the paperwork side of things, since he was looking so bad they didn't want him having to deal with customers! He stayed home from church all day Sunday, which was our 86th Anniversary Sunday, and is feeling much better, but is still getting dizzy at times (mostly from meds, I think, and the fact that he didn't really have ANY real food for a week, since every time he ate he would gag and throw it all back up.) He was pretty lightheaded and sick to his stomach for a while yesterday, too. So - I'm praying that he gets back to his old self SOON! I feel so bad since I can't really do anything for him, and he hasn't been much fun to be around! :-( Some of you would be surprised that he hasn't hardly talked to me in a week b/c he's felt so bad (not b/c he's mad at me!) That's pretty amazing considering his affinity to talking! :-)

I mentioned our Anniversary Sunday... we had over 200 kids in teen church, 12 saved and 8 baptized! I think they said that we had over 100 people saved overall that week (they did outreaches in the community and had people saved there, so they are included in the count). We also had our 20/20 Vision service... the plan for our church to be COMPLETELY debt free by the year 2020. We had a special one-time offering, and then commitment cards for giving. The one-time offering was over $22,000, and the total with offering and commitments was over $118,000 - almost $119,000, and they are extending the time for 30 days to give people that were on vacation, etc, the chance to participate. Pretty awesome! Praise the LORD!

Lil D's mom, Tonya, called me on Monday night, and I think God knew that I needed that phone call. I was still really discouraged over the whole work thing, and thinking that maybe those people were right and I'm not a good nurse. Tonya called to ask me if I would be willing to babysit Lil D this weekend (I don't work for her anymore b/c Lil D doesn't need nursing care anymore!) She hasn't been able to go out for a long time now, and just needed to get away for a night. She wanted me to keep Lil D Saturday night and until she gets off work Sunday afternoon. She told me I was her #1 choice for babysitter (even over family) b/c she knows that I love Lil D, that he'll be safe with me, and that she won't have to worry if I take care of him. I told her what had happened at work the week before, and she told me that those moms will be wishing they had kept me when they get the horrible nurses that don't care and don't know what they are doing! That made me feel much better! :-) Tonya even said that her dad, who is an alcoholic and don't know squat about people (in her words, not mine!), told her that he could tell I was a good nurse. (I saw them at Lil D's b-day party back in Nov.) So - God knew that I needed that encouragement AND I am babysitting Lil D this weekend... overnight... here at my house... should be interesting! :-) Chris asked me if D will actually go to sleep, and I told him that D will do anything I MAKE him do! Then Chris reminded me that I'll have to get up early to get both of us ready in time... and I told him I know! I'm a little leary, but at the same time, rather excited to spend time with D again. I MISS HIM!

So - now I have a case that I'm going to be working for this month ONLY, since it is in Palmyra (which is 26 miles away). It's a job, I guess. I'm really not looking forward to the commute again, but like I said, it's work. Please pray that they can find something closer for me to do starting in May. Since my car is leased, we really can't afford to put tons of miles on it right now.

I have been consistently working out 4 times a week for almost 6 months now! That is a major accomplishment for me! I met a girl, Stacey at the gym, and we've worked out together a couple of times now. It's really hard to get our schedules together! I have been really discouraged at the whole thing, though, since I've only lost 15 lbs. I KNOW that muscle weighs more than fat, and when you gain muscle you don't necessarily lose weight right away. However, it's really nice to see the numbers going DOWN on the scale! Well, I wore a dress on Sunday that I wore a few weeks ago. It fit fine last time, but was still a little tighter across my stomach than I would have liked. Well, I noticed on Sunday that it fit more loosely than the last time I wore it. I have 2 more identical dresses in a size smaller that I bought at the same time (different patterns, of course!) They didn't fit then (the zippers wouldn't zip all the way up), but Chris told me to keep them as incentive to lose weight! Well, I dared to try them on Sunday afternoon... and would you believe it?!?!? THEY FIT! OK... they didn't exactly FIT well, but I could actually zip the zipper, and I could wear them. They are still a little tight across my stomach, but I would wear a sweater with them anyway, so maybe I could pull it off. I was so excited, though... now I have TWO new dresses to wear, and they are really cute! We're getting church directory pics done on Sunday, so maybe I'll be brave enough to wear one for that!

My workout partner, Stacey, referred me to her chiropractor (I've been looking for a new one - a GOOD one!), so I went this week. I LOVE him! I think it will really help my back. Found out that my lower spine has a curvature in it because my hips were not level, and that my neck does not have the curvature that it is supposed to have in it (it's off by 22 mm!) With the adjustments, my muscles have been really sore, but I know that it will be better soon! No pain, no gain, right?!?! Also, there is massage therapy/acupuncture available through this clinic, and my chiro suggested acupuncture to treat infertility. He said the acupuncture doc is 6 for 6 with women who were infertile having babies since they've been treated. Hmmm... another MUCH less expensive option to consider! We'll see what happens! I don't know if we'll do it or not, but it's another option.

Other than that, not too much is going on here (isn't that enough?!??!) Drama, drama, drama! :-) Thanks to all of you who are still reading! :-) I know I haven't been very consistent with my blogging, but I've really been struggling with some things over the past couple of months... not having a baby mostly... and I try to not always be complaining! :-) Actually, life is pretty good for the most part, but I have a tendency to focus on the negative, so I seem to complain much more than I should! (Anyone else have that problem?!?) I'm enjoying the time with Chris, and we've just been keeping busy with church, work, working out, and trying to get some sleep. We're also enjoying the warmer weather... would you believe that we actually laid out in the sun 3 weeks ago?!?! Yeah, for those of you who live up north, we laid out in the middle of March! Makes me SO thankful to live further south than we used to! :-) We've also been enjoying Wednesdays off together, and our dinner dates on Wed. night before church! Life is good, and God is good! I'll end this with a few more of my fav pictures from the last month!

First post of 2009...

...and it's February 9th already! I can't believe I'm such a slacker! Well, I do have an excuse; several of them, actually! First of all, I've been trying to spend a little more time with Chris, and a little less time on the computer in general. Secondly, I've been working 10 hour days, then working out at the gym 4 days a week. That cuts down on computer time, too. Thirdly, I'm totally addicted to Facebook, so the majority of computer time is spent there, not here!

So - this is what we've been up to this year so far:
New Year's Eve: We went to Don&Brenda Choate's house for a party. There was plenty of good food, fellowship, and fun. We played the TV version of Mad Gab, which was fun... I LOVE that game anyway. Chris and most of the men were downstairs watching a ball game on TV, I think. Very manly thing to do. Just before midnight, we all went outside in the backyard to bang pots and pans to welcome in the new year. Well, I videotaped it on my new camera, and Don ran upstairs, got his gun, and fired a couple of shots into the air, much to our surprise. Then we watched some guy ride his motorcycle to the top of a building in Vegas, to free fall off onto a ramp on the way down. Crazy, but pretty cool.

On January 9th, we joined the youth group on an ice skating activity. I took a LOT of pictures, and had fun trying to figure out my new camera that Chris bought me for Christmas. I'm still not all that great, but I get lots of practicing in! I did ice skate for a while, but the ice was REALLY rough, so it was difficult.

January 27-28th brought a huge snow/ice/sleet/"wintery mix" storm. It didn't look like a lot of snow to us (since we both grew up "up north.") However, it knocked out a lot of people's power for several days, and the roads were treacherous for a while. It was absolutely beautiful, though, to see the ice on the trees glimmer like dazzling diamonds when the sun came out. Of course, I took MANY pictures of that, too! :-) Because of the power outages, we had a couple come and stay at our house for a few days until their power was restored.

We had a Super Bowl "party" at our house after church on Feb. 1st. We got home in time to watch the 4th quarter, and had two other couples enjoy the game with us. I was really hoping the Cardinals would win, but the two other men were Steelers fans, so they were happy with the outcome of the game.

February 7th was a SS activity for the couple's class that we used to be in until we started working with the teens. We did Wii bowling... it was very fun, and the first time that I have used a Wii.

This week I missed a couple days of work. Little D that I've worked with for the past 2&1/2 years no longer needs home health care nursing, since he is doing so well. Good for him, hard on me! :-) I'm picking up another case on Thurs., Lord willing, to fill the gaps in my schedule that D left. On a brighter note, D's mom wants me to take D and his 9 yr. old brother to church with me every other weekend when they're not at their dad's house. Two good things about that... I get my "D fix," and they get to come to a good church, learn about God, and hopefully get saved! Works for me!

Other ongoing events included a LOT of work getting my family photo calendars finished, printed and out to family members... they were only about a week late (thanks to my procrastination and the storm that knocked out the power!) Also, we had a Dec. college grad from our college living with us for the month of January since her arrangements for an apartment fell through at the last minute. We've had several game nights at our house with our newly married friends, JR&Abby. They don't live far from us, and are usually ready to drop anything else for a good game of RAGE! :-) We enjoy their company.

Other than that, it's basically been the usual... work, church, try to sleep... :-) I've lost 16.5 pounds and 8&3/8 inches off my body since the end of October. I'm pretty excited about that! I'm also doing some things to try to make my body healthier for a couple of reasons... better sleep, fertility, and just overall health. I'm tired of feeling so OLD! :-)

Oh, yeah, we are refinancing our house... Lord willing closing on Wed. That is a huge blessing as our interest rate will drop 1.5 points, saving us a lot of $$ in the long run. We also were able to see our former pastor from MD at a music conference our church hosted the last week of January... Bible Truth Music. It was one of the most enjoyable conferences that I've attended in a LONG time, and it was a wonderful visit with our former pastor, too.

Please pray with us for wisdom, as we have been presented with an opportunity for ministry. We are not sure of all the details yet, nor if it will work out, but we would appreciate your prayers that the Lord will make His will clear either way. Thank you! :-)

Well, I'll close for now. I think you're pretty much up to speed on life at the Mitchells! I'll post some pictures on a different post... maybe a slide show or something.

Hurricanes, golf, and no sleep

Quite a bit has happened in the past 10 days or so. First of all, we had the remnants of Hurricane Ike visit us... yes, right here in southern IN/ Louisville, KY. We didn't get any rain... just a whole lot of wind. Gusts were officially measured up to 75 mph. Over 400,000 people in the area were without power for up to 7 days, and there are still a few people that don't have power yet. Thankfully, we didn't lose power or have any damage to our property. It makes me VERY thankful that I don't live in Houston where the storm hit! Here are couple pictures of some of the damage.
This WAS a metal shed
Part of the awning down... it looks like pick-up sticks
A HUGE tree fell over... fortunately there is NOT a house underneath it!

The following Wednesday, Chris and I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity GIVEN to us for FREE: tickets to the Ryder Cup international golf tournament practice. If you don't know, the Ryder Cup is 12 of the best players from USA vs. the 12 best European players. It is only held every 2 years, and alternates being hosted in the USA and Europe. This year it was held at the Valhalla Country Club right here in Louisville! Here is a picture of us in front of a Ryder Cup statue:

We were privileged to see all 24 players up close, and Chris got 10 autographs while we were there. I'm not really into golf much, but it was fun to spend the day together outside in the beautiful weather. Of course, it's also cool to say that we got to go! :-)

On a quite different note, if you are reading this Tuesday night, please pray for me! I'm going in for a sleep study at 7:30pm. I have had sleep issues for as long as I can remember... having trouble falling asleep, waking up multiple times during the night, and nightmares. The last few months things have been getting worse... struggling to stay awake while driving to/from work, struggling to stay awake AT work, being incredibly tired all the time, etc. I finally broke down and went to the doctor, and she went ahead and scheduled the sleep study. SO - all that to say, please pray that the doctors will be able to figure out what is wrong (besides the fact that I'm messed up in the head... we already knew that!):-) and that they will be able to fix it WITHOUT putting me on sleep medication! I appreciate it!

That's about all the new and exciting stuff for right now, except that my SIL is due for my nephew to join us in this world any day now! :-) Can't wait to meet him!

So much has happened...

Wow - so much has happened since I last REALLY posted (other than our anniversary post, that is!) Here is the (hopefully) short and sweet run-down of what we've been doing since our vacation in June!
But first, I just want to say HAPPY 33rd BIRTHDAY, CHRIS!!! I am so thankful that God brought Chris into my life, and I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful husband! :-) God knew I needed Chris in my life!

OK - here's the history to go with the pics: 06-20-08
Our pastor and his wife (who are THE BEST!) attended a Bat's game with us! They are such fun "old people!" We love them to death and are so glad that God brought us here to our church and that we can be so close to a pastor of such a large church! (sorry, the pic is a little dark!) They had fireworks after the game, which was pretty cool, too.

06-22-08 - Between Sunday morning and evening services, we had a 9th & 10th grade SS activity. We had pizza and brownies, then the girls went swimming at one house, and the boys played video games then went swimming at a different house (no mixed swimming here!)
:-)
The guys playing video games...
Some of the girls in the van... (I didn't take pics while we were swimming!) :-)

07-12-08 Chris played in our church's softball league. Not really too competitive, but it was nice to get out and fellowship outside of the church and play some ball. Here's a pic of Chris at the plate (and I think he's pretty good, too!) :-)

07-13~16-08 We had our Kids Krusade at church (our version of VBS.) There were over 200 salvation decisions made during the Krusade, and 82 baptisms, PRAISE THE LORD! 3 or 4 of our bus kids got saved during the week... it's so awesome to see elementary aged kids respond to the gospel. The pic is of the drawing for a PS2 for the best behaved child from every bus route. Our little boy is the 3rd one from the left... and HE WON! We were so excited! (as was he!) I love that our church loves the kids and teens!
07-16-08 CHRIS GOT PROMOTED!!! (Sorry, no pic of that - I KNOW... it's a SHOCK!) I am SO PROUD of him! After only 19&1/2 months in the auto industry as a car salesman, Chris got promoted to Business/Sales manager! It's not totally unheard of to be promoted so quickly, but it is VERY rare, especially when your degree is not in business or business management AT ALL! I just thought it was so cool that the guys that work with him on a daily basis, including his boss, really pushed the upper management to promote Chris. What a great testimony! He is doing very well at the new job. Also, this job allows his paycheck to be a lot more stable (as opposed to comission only!), and also allows him to actually TAKE his days off. I'm so excited to be able to spend more time together with him! YEAH!!

07-17-08 I took a day trip to Indianapolis to visit some college friends of mine. I hadn't seen them in over 8 years, I think, and had totally lost track of them until Jess found me on Facebook (LOVE IT!) about 2 weeks before that! I went up and spent the day visiting with Jess, then we met Kelly and her kiddos at the pool, then spent the evening at Kelly's house visiting together. It was great to see them again, and I am always so amazed when friendships pick up right where they left off! It was like I had seen them the day before, and we just picked up the conversation again! God is so good to give friends like that!Kelly, me, and Jess

Jess' daughter, Abby

Kelly's daughter, Jenna

Kelly's daughter, Olivia

07-27-08 Good friends of ours, the George's, came down to go to Sunday AM services with us. They are missionaries to Romania on deputation. They live about an hour from us, so we have been able to visit with them I think 3 times in the past year. We love getting together with them. Here's a pic of their family:

Noah, Sara, David, Bethany, Brent, and Danae

Oh, a side note here... everyone thinks that Brent and Chris look so much alike, they are always asking if they are related. Sara and I don't think they look that much alike at all! :-)

I have to run now... Chris is on his way home, and it is his birthday, so I should probably make dinner for him! :-) I'll post more on Youth Conference and other goings on later. Thanks for "listening" to what's going on in our lives! :-)

Bat's Game

OK - I'm a little behind in my blogging again, so I'll post each event separately (so you don't have to read FOREVER!) Fri, May 16, Chris got us tickets to the Louisville Bats Game. This is the minor league team for the Cincinatti Reds, and the mascot is Bats - like the animal - not like the Louisville Slugger bats (which is what I originally thought!) :-) Just wanted to clarify that for you! The game ended up being a double header that night, due to another game being rained out earlier in the week. The Bats played the Scranton Yankees (NY Yankees minor league team.) Chris' boss has season tickets, and we can just sign up for them and get them free. It's a cheap weekend date for us! (You may be seeing a few posts about games in July... we have tickets for 4 games!)

Anyway, our friend (and bus captain) J.R. came with us, bringing his girlfriend, Abby (now fiancee as of Sunday May 25th!) We are enjoying getting to know this couple better, and are super excited about their engagement and upcoming marriage. Here's some pics:

Louisville Slugger Field
Chris&I and the field
Chris, Heather, Abby & JR Chris and I
Chris and I in the cool glove chairs in the lobby!

By the way, the Bats won the first game, and then they had fireworks between the games. Abby was still living in our college dorm, so she had a curfew, so we left before the second game ended. :-) It was a good night of fun with good friends!

So, here's what's been happening...

ST. LOUIS TRIP


On Saturday, May 3, Chris and I, along with Curt Nicholson and Justin Lockhart, headed out for a day trip to St. Louis, Missouri. Curt kept us entertained the whole time with stories and discussion. :-) We stopped at a Waffle House for breakfast about an hour into the trip. Chris got me a Waffle House coffee mug there. (We collect coffee mugs from the places we travel, since my kitchen is decorated with a coffee/gingerbread man theme). When we arrived in St. Louis, we went to the St. Louis Gateway Arch. We watched a film on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In watching that, we learned something that we hadn't known before. Did you know that Sacogowea - the Shoshone Indian woman that helped Lewis and Clark - was actually a captured slave? And did you know that when Lewis and Clark's expedition met up with the Shoshone Indians, Sacogowea learned that the chief of the Shoshone tribe was her BROTHER? I didn't know that, but I thought it was really cool that God had that all worked out for them!


ANYWAY, we also went to the top of the arch this time... not something you want to do if you are claustrophobic or scared of heights! (But really cool if you AREN'T!) Here are some pics:

Chris and I at the top of the arch - 630 feet in the air!
The windows that you can look out of... we were actually LYING down to look out the windows

Chris is now a CONEHEAD (and I think he's CRAZY!) :-P
Our second annual self-portrait (timed) at the Arch

From the Arch, we walked over to Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cards were playing the Chicago Cubs that day, and Curt is a Cards fan; Justin is a Cubs fan... good times! The weather was a little chilly at 60 degrees with a cool wind blowing through. Eventually the sun came out, and it was a much nicer day!

Here we are at the Stadium

UNWANTED GUEST
Sunday night, May 4, we came home from church and saw this big black spider dangling on it's web between some boxes/bags of tools in the front of the garage. When we pulled my car in, the headlights spotlighted the nasty thing. As we were walking in, I stopped to look more closely at the spider. The spider was hanging upside down on its web, and much to my dismay, I noticed a VERY VIVID red hourglass marking on its abdomen! YIKES! It's a black widow spider! I told Chris to come and look, but by the time I moved out of the way, and he got to where he could see it, the spider had crawled under the bag, and we couldn't find it. (That makes for a GREAT night's sleep for one who has crazy nightmares anyway!)

The next night, I decided to clean and spray the garage with a pesticide before we left at midnight for our trip to FL. Chris was catching a little shut-eye before driving the almost 9 hours. I proceeded to pull out all of the tools, and saw the spider on the floor with its legs all curled up like it was dead. I was relieved to know that it had not adventured into my house, and that it was already dead. I took a broom and swept all the dead bugs, spiders and dirt into a pile in the center of the floor, and then sprayed the area with bug spray. When I went to sweep the pile outside, I touched the what-I-thought-was-dead spider with the broom, and the spider's legs flew out to the sides! YIKES again... It was NOT DEAD! I ran inside and grabbed a glass jar and captured the spider. Now, I'm sure many of you are wondering WHY IN THE WORLD I DIDN'T JUST KILL THE THING! Well, I wanted to see for sure if it was a Black Widow spider, and I wanted Chris to see it. When I got it in the jar, I discovered that I was right the first time... it definitely is a Black Widow!:

I didn't know that we had Black Widow Spiders around here, but apparently we do! I think that I've sucked up two more of them (before this) in the vacuum cleaner in the house, but I didn't see their bellies because they were up against the ceiling in our living room. (** shudder**) Time to call TERMINEX!

PENSACOLA TRIP
At midnight on Mon night/Tues morning, Chris and I left for Pensacola, FL, for PCC's graduation. Chris' youngest sister, Tiffany, graduated with her Master's Degree in Bible Exposition from Pensacola Theological Seminary... with a 4.0 GPA! She is SO smart, but so humble about it... she's amazing! Chris' youngest brother, Jon, graduated from PCC with his Bachelor's in Business Management. He actually graduated in December, but walked in May. My youngest brother's wife, Caroline, also graduated with her Bachelor's Degree in Mathmatics. Caroline also graduated with honors! We are so proud of all of them.

On Tuesday morning, we met my bro&SIL, Nathan & Caroline at IHOP for breakfast. We spent almost 2 hours catching up with them.From there, we headed over to Chris' brother's house, and hung out with his family for the rest of the day. 8 family members weren't able to make it, but we enjoyed the time with the other 13! We also got to meet our newest niece, Jacquline, who is 9 months old. I know that we're biased, but our nieces and nephews are ADORABLE! Here are some pics of the day:

Jacquline with me
Chris & Jacquline

Nathan, Kailey, & Kimberly

The gang at Logan's Steakhouse for dinner

That night we stayed at the home of our friends, Rob & Emily Hazewinkel. No pics of them, since they were so tired and dressed for bed, but here are their kiddos, Stephen & Katie. They are expecting #3.

The next morning we got up and make a VERY quick, 15 minute visit with our friends, BJ and Adrian Escamilla and their brand new baby girl, Peyton. The visit was so quick, I didn't get a pic of them, either.

From there we headed to graduation. Here are some pics of the graduates. Congratulations, you guys! :-)

My bro&SIL, Nathan & Caroline
Nathan, Caroline, me & Chris
(Nathan, Chris and I are slouching down so that Caroline looks taller!)

Tiffany & Jon
Chris' family that was at graduation
(his SIL stayed home with the younger kids)

MY FIRST MOTHER'S DAY
I was not looking forward to my first Mother's Day. In spite of the fact that we, as Christians, believe that life begins at conception, unfortunately we often do not recognize ladies that have been pregnant and miscarried, or even expecting moms as "MOTHERS" on Mother's Day. However, as soon as a lady is pregnant, she truly is a mother, whether or not she gets to hold that baby in her arms!

That said, I was struggling with that thought some the week prior to Mother's Day. On Monday, the 5th, I was at work. The little boy I work with was really sick, and very cuddly. As I was holding him on my shoulder, all of the sudden it hit me and I had an emotional meltdown! I started sobbing uncontrollably, and cried out, "God, I want a baby to hold SO BAD!" Poor D raised his head and looked at me like I had two heads! I only cried for a few minutes, and I was over it, but it was kind of crazy! I just kept thinking that I know that I'm a mom, but who else is actually going to recognize that?

Well, I have some very thoughtful friends/family members... and THEY recognized it! First of all, I got a Mother's Day card in the mail from my best friend on Thurs. Then, on Sunday morning, we were getting ready to walk out the door to go to church, and there is a card sitting on my purse. Chris told me I had to open it right away, so I did. It was a SUPER sweet (and funny) card, and inside he included a gift... he bought me plane tickets to go see my best friend over Memorial Day weekend! Not only that, but he had already called the guys at my work to rearrange my work schedule so that I didn't have to worry about it! Of course, I cried! :-) But I also couldn't stop smiling at the card... it was perfect for us! Here are the cards:

Then, I was scheduled to be in the nursery for the AM service (for which I was kind of glad - I don't know that I could have sat through a sermon about mothers without crying!) Anyway, as soon as I walked in, one of my closest friends here walked up to me and gave me a huge hug and told me "Happy Mother's Day." She told me that she had been thinking of me and praying for me all morning. It's so great to have compassionate friends! Several other women said, "Happy Mother's Day" to me as well, including both my mom & MIL. It just soothed my heart to know that even though all of my babies are in Heaven, I still am a mom... whether I get to hold my own babies here on earth or not! They definitely have it made, being in Heaven with Jesus!

I also got this rose on our bus route... all the moms riding the buses received roses.

Monday, I received this card that my mom made for me.
All in all, it was a wonderful Mother's Day, in spite of the circumstances! God is SO GOOD, and I have an AWESOME husband!

Well, that's about it for now! Thanks for bearing with me through this LOOOOONG post! Have a GREAT weekend!

More pics from April 2008

04/02/08
Sunset 04/26/08 (Chris took this one!)
04/26/08 (I took this one!)
Self-portrait! We LOVE these! :-)
Chris goofing around... I took several shots, but didn't want to put you through having to look at ALL of them! So - this one reminds me of Barney Fife when he breathes through his nose as he hikes up his pants... :-)

Busy, busy, busy...

Wow - our lives have been busy the past couple weeks. So - here's the rundown of what has been happening here, and I have just linked words to pics so I don't have to download them...

The first week of April, D (the little one I take care of) was in Cincinnati, OH, for pre-surgical testing. Thanks to all of you who prayed for him. Thankfully, he does not require throat reconstruction surgery. He only needs his tonsils/adenoids removed, and some minor eye surgery to correct a muscle condition resulting from prematurity. This condition causes his left eye to drift in toward his nose when looking at things close to him. Other than that, things are going pretty well for him. His mom is hoping to get her doctor to authorize him for nursing at least through the surgeries, and hopefully for another 4 months until he can get his feeding tube out and recover from surgery. We'll see...

Anyway, in the few days that he was gone, I was able to visit 2 of my good friends here. I spent over 5 hours at my friend, Beth's house. She is such a blessing to me. Her hubby, Luke, was teasing me when he came home... asking me if I was working on another calendar. I printed out the date pages for the family photo calendars at their house since we didn't have ink in our printer. (We now have ink for our printer... we've gone without it since we lived in MD)! I worked on it for several hours I think 3 or 4 different days, so now it's a standing joke that I only visit when I have to work on the computer. It was nice change to be able to spend a few hours visiting and not having anything else to do.

Tuesday of that week, I stayed home all day waiting for an overnight package that was supposed to arrive at 10:30am. Apparently all the FedEx planes coming here from Memphis were grounded due to severe thunder storms. Chris called them around noon, and the person he spoke to assured him that the packages were being trucked here, and would get there sometime in the afternoon. When the package STILL wasn't here by 6pm, Chris called again, only to be informed that the earlier person had misinformed him, and the package would be here 10:30 am the NEXT day! I did get a bunch of stamping done, though! It's just difficult to be waiting all day, and thinking of all these things that you could do if you could just run down to the ___!!

Wednesday, the package showed up at 10:15 am! YEAH! I then went and visited another friend who had been having a difficult time the past few months. I was glad to be a blessing, and amazed at how I could share with her what God has been doing in my heart & life through IVF, even though her circumstances are completely different - God's word still applies! :-) (DUH!)

I then got to take Chris' package to him and we ate lunch together. That's always a nice surprise. He got a new watch... it's REALLY nice! He was going to resell it on Ebay, but he liked it so much that I told him that he really should keep it. It's not very often that Chris finds something that he REALLY likes/wants, so I was glad that he found that and I believe he is keeping it. Now, if only he could have waited until his birthday... :-)

I also joined the gym again! My chiropractor finally OK'd me to do cardio workouts again, as long as I don't over do it! I'm excited to be able to be active again!

The Friday night of that week, I was at the gym just getting ready to work out when Chris called me. After he asked me about 20 questions, he asked me if I could get changed back into my normal clothes so that we could meet Jeremy, Misha, Tommy & Corey Frazor for dinner! They are close friends of ours that travel in evangelism, and we don't get to see them very often. However, they manage to travel through Louisville every once in a while, so they usually call and we meet up for a meal or something. Anyway, we were able to meet them for supper and then they came over to see our house for a little bit. Although the time was WAY too SHORT, we enjoyed seeing them again. Last time we saw them they came through on Chris' birthday last August. They are great "iron-sharpeneth-iron" type friends, and they are also the type of friends that no matter how long it's been since you've seen them, you pick up the friendship like you saw them yesterday! What a blessing to have friends like that!

The following week (the 7th - 10th) our church hosted the Revival Fires conference. With that, the choir sang every night for the services, so it was a busy week! I was busting my tail just to get home from work and then rush off to church in order to sing and attend the services. It was a blessing, though.

Early that Friday morning (the 11th) Chris and I headed north. We stopped in Indianapolis to visit some friends of ours... Jeff & Colleen McQueary (and kids, Cole & Sage). We were able to enjoy breakfast with them before our friends, Steve & Joy Francis met up with us. They came over from Cincinnati, and we left one of our vehicles at the McQueary's house. Steve, Joy, Chris and I then drove up to Chicago for an overnight "double date." Steve is a big Chicago Bulls fan, so for his birthday, Joy bought him tickets to a Bulls game (vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers). Well, they bought the tickets in October... and put them in a safe place. So safe, in fact, that they couldn't find them for that weekend! We all decided to go ahead and go up there anyway.

For lunch, we went to a Brazilian steakhouse called Brazazz. It's all you can eat - meat! It was SO DELICIOUS! They had little discs sitting beside each plate. One side is orange and says, "Yes, Please." The other side is black and says, "No, thank you." The waiters, all dressed in authentic Brazilian outfits, come around with these long skewers of all different kinds of meat (and roasted pineapple). If you want some, they cut you a slice and lay it over toward you. You then take a little pair of tongs, and put it on your plate. Joy is a missionary kid and she grew up in Brazil, so she was talking to the waiters in Portugese and stuff. It was pretty cool. I felt like I didn't have to eat for about 3 days after that! We enjoyed it immensely!

From there, we went to the John Hancock Building, and went up to the Observatory. We had fun with some of the photo ops (Window washers, & construction workers)! Of course, Chris and Steve were being silly. It was pretty cool. When we got on the elevators to go down, Chris and I were by the doors that would open when we got to the bottom. Just before the doors opened, we stood really close to the doors and made funny faces. The doors opened, and there was a man and his family sitting on the floor facing us, waiting for the rest of the family. He cracked up laughing when he saw us, and we were laughing hysterically! I wish we could have gotten a picture of his face when he saw us... Priceless!

From there, we wandered down Michigan Ave. for a little bit. I was extremely tired and not wearing the best shoes for walking, so I'm afraid I wasn't super good company! I tried not to complain, though! It was really cold and windy, too, so not a GREAT day to be wandering outside in the city. Chris had a little fun in the Disney Store... I think he'd make a GREAT Pirate! On the way back to the car, we had to stop and take some more silly pictures with a statue of a man with an umbrella hailing a cab in front of the Four Seasons Hotel. The placard on the statue said, "Allow Me!" Chris took a little too much liberty with that statement, see the pics here and here! Joy figured she could get up close, too, but not that close! :-)

We left after that and headed down to the United Center to see if we could get tickets to the game... again! We did, and got pretty good seats! It ended up being a good game... the Bulls actually WON! The highlight of the game, though, **insert sarcasm**was the Swinging Seniors!
Actually, Chris and Steve both got free T-shirts, and since the Bulls scored 100 points and won, we all got free Big Macs! Chris also got a free coffee at Dunkin' Donuts since his character won the race on the JumboTron! All in all, it was a good game (even though I was so tired, I almost fell asleep!) We even got to see a BUNCH of dunks, and Joy even managed to get a great picture of one of them!

The next morning we got up and went to Navy Pier. It was rainy, so we stayed indoors. We left around noon and headed back to Indianapolis to go our separate ways. Jeff & Colleen had an all-nighter youth activity Friday night, so we didn't get to see them. However, we did stop at the Edinburg outlets on the way home, and Chris let me get two pairs of shoes. I really needed them... the only real shoes I had were a pair of black, ankle high boots, and brown clogs. I got these two pairs of shoes for a really good deal:

I love them! I wear skirts or skorts most of the time, and they look really cute with them. Chris found some really nice basketball shorts, too, that he needed. It was a profitable stop! :-)

Oh, yeah...I mentioned here that I got new sunglasses... here's a pic of my new shades!

That Saturday night, we arrived home, bundled up, and headed out again to enjoy Thunder over Louisville. Thunder is the 5th largest fireworks display in the world, according to the travel channel. We missed most of the air show, since we didn't get home until after 7pm, but the planes were flying right over our house! We joined a bunch of our college kids and friends of ours to watch the fireworks. It was very cold out, but we were pretty well dressed for the weather. The only thing that we didn't like is that we were so far away, we could see the fireworks alright, but we didn't get the full affect with the sounds and vibrations of the fireworks as well. We enjoy that part, too! The other thing is that we had 4 or 5 rude kids that put their chairs up in front of us... so we moved to see around them. They then moved again, partially blocking our view. I was highly frustrated at this point. Then, on top of all of that, right in the middle of the show, 2 of the girls stood up right in front of us so we couldn't see at all. I had had enough, so I loudly said, "There are people behind you who would like to SEE the fireworks!" They turned around and gave me nasty looks, but I didn't care! People should be more considerate of those around them! You can see my pics of Thunder here.

Since then, it has pretty much been life back to normal for us. Chris let me buy these vases for our living room (I've been waiting to buy them since we bought our house last July, and they went on sale this week, so Chris let me get them):

It's hard to tell in the picture, but our paint color is beige, and the vases are red, but not as dark as they appear in the picture. I LOVE them, and they fit perfectly in those niches. I'm finally almost ready with the family photo wall, too, just waiting for pictures from a couple of family members still. I'll post pics when I get them up, too.

We got our lawn treated by company called Weed Man. The weather has been mostly beautiful lately, so I've been able to take D to the park, and the sunshine has also helped our grass to grow like crazy. Chris hasn't been able to mow it yet, so it's almost a jungle out there! Seriously, some of the grass is almost 2 feet tall! He was going to mow Sunday afternoon, but couldn't get the mower started. :-( He was rather frustrated, to say the least! Here's some pics:

Well, my hubby is home, and I think I've pretty much filled you in on everything recent that I can think of, so I gotta go! Hope you all are doing well!

Oh, wait, one more thing... another niece or nephew is on the way in our family... this makes the 3rd one that is expected this year! Two of my brothers & their wives are expecting babies, and we just found out that one of Chris' sisters is expecting a baby, too!