FRIDAY!

It is finally Friday, but is it 5 yet!?! This week has just gone really slowly for some reason! I do think that I may be coming down with something though because I have been so tired and just not myself this week. I know there is a flu bug going around our area and I really hope we can keep it away from our house! I have a date tonight with a can of Lysol :)

Maybe this week has gone slow for us because we have fun plans this weekend that we have been looking forward to! We will be rising when it is still dark outside on Saturday morning and headed to Michigan for a fun day of skiing (husband) and snow tubing (me). Granted, I am not so much looking forward to getting up so early-but with some coffee I think I will manage just fine!

Speaking of skiing and snow-we got more snow! The Mr. actually had a snow day from work today (lucky!) due to weather. Luckily, that meant he got to drive me to work because the drifted snow was not something this girl was excited about driving in! Aside from our ski trip this weekend I think I am about over the snow. I am dreaming about spring and cute sandals, dresses, pedicures, beaches, lakes, flowers, and...just warmer weather! My Mom actually texted me a picture yesterday of the thermometer in her car and it read 80 degrees(!!!)-while it was blowing snow here! So, what did I do when I got home last night? Went straight to our honeymoon album and soaked up all the sun I could through our honeymoon pictures in Hawaii. If you missed the post about Kauai, you can get caught up here. Can we go back there soon? K, thanks!

Can you hear it too? Kauai is calling my name!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for little Anna Grace! Anna is making strides and becoming stronger each day. Her growth in such a short period of time is really astonishing and all thanks to God. She is fighting and so cute doing it! They were able to remove her from the ventilator and place her on a CPAP-which has been working well. Her Mom is updating a CaringBridge journal for her daily to keep us all updated. Please continue to pray for her and her family!

How precious is this little girl with her Gold & Black bow supporting Purdue? Too cute for words, and look bog big she is getting already. Keep on growing Anna!

Another prayer request is for a fellow blogger who lost her precious daughter Maddie in the past week. She has been updating her blog regularly and using it as an outlet for her emotions. It always leaves me teary as I cannot imagine what she is going through right now. My heart and prayers goes out to you! You can see her blog here. Please lift her and her husband up in prayers this week and in the coming days!

Well, that is about all for today...hope everyone has a great weekend and soak up the sunshine if you are in a state that has any! I shall return on Monday with pictures of The Mr. hitting the slopes! :)

Children are a blessing from the Lord....
Psalm 127:3

a look back...

I was browsing through old posts from back in the day, like circa 2009. I found some interesting ones and some really inspiring ones too. One thing that I wanted to touch base on again was my bucket list. I figured now would be a good time to stop and take account of the things I have accomplished on the list and determine what needs to be worked on. Do you have a bucket list? 

1. skydive

2. travel to as many foreign countries as possible

3. adopt a child from a foreign country

4. move out of Florida, even if only temporarily This was accomplished September 2010 when I moved from Florida to Warsaw, IN after accepting a wonderful job and scouting out an apartment with the then soon to be Mr.

5. drive across country on no specific timeline

6. ride in a hot air balloon

7. cruise to Alaska

8. finish college (maybe) I did finish the degree I was striving for at the time this list was composed, but I would still like to further my education at some point. I guess this is a task that could never completely be done, who wants to shut and lock the door to education in their life? Not me.

9. buy a home

10. break 200 in bowling (HA) I have broken 200 once! The Mr. has too, he usually beats me every time. We both require one game to warm up though :)

11. go on African Safari

12. fall in love and marry my best friend Done and could not be happier! October 2, 2010!

13. take a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon

14. learn how to play the guitar (working on this)

15. change my own oil in my car I accomplished this once in Florida with the help of my good friend, Curtis. I thought it would be economical, but honestly it cost just about the same as having it done...so I pay someone to do it instead of getting dirty myself!

16. go to Hawaii Done, October 2010 on the most amazing honeymoon. Can we go back? NOW!? You can see pictures and highlights of our Hawaiian honeymoon here if you missed it!

17. eat Matsumotos shaved ice in North Shore, Hawaii Does it count if I had shave ice in Hawaii, but not Matsumotos? Let's not even talk about how many times we had it the week we are there. It is delicious!

18. see the cherry blossoms in DC

19. zip line in the jungle (Costa Rica, Jamaica, etc.)

20. run a 10k race through the mud When I composed this list I was training for this race and we did run it to the end. So many good memories were made at that race and The Mr. could not believe I did it when he returned from a month in Nigeria. I felt SO hard core! You can read about the race and see pictures here.

I know that my list was pretty short at the time, but I wanted to start out small and not be overwhelmed. I am happy about how much I have accomplished so far and might start thinking and talking to the Mr. about things we can add to the list. Do you have a bucket list, and if so what kind of things are on yours?

Have a great day! :)

{hodge podge}

Happy Thursday y'all! I have so many random thoughts floating around in my head that the only way this blog post will ever happen is if I break down and do bullets, so here goes!

• Most of my department at work is at a annual convention in San Diego this week. That means I have not been overwhelmed with work, but been able to start and complete things without interruptions or additional requests. It has been a great help in allowing me to get some things done that were just piling up on my desk!
• The Mr. and I are very excited (me moreso than him) to be planning our Chicago vacation this summer. We are only going for a long weekend, but it will be great. On the agenda: going to the White Sox game that I got him tickets to for Valentine's Day!
• Please continue to be in prayer for precious Anna Grace. She needs all the prayers, love and support she can get. Her tiny little body needs strength!
• Indiana has had some warm weather this week, like in the 50's! It has inspired me to get a pedicure...but I have been wanting one for weeks so I don't really think I needed much inspiration!
• I am getting my hair cut on Saturday and I.CANNOT.WAIT. I love getting my hair done and the new lady that I am going to also give you a shoulder massage at the end. Agh, perfection!
• I feel incredibly blessed and I love my husband so much. We have fun together all the time; even when we can't go to bed because T1D (Type 1 Diabetes if you are a newbie to my blog) is giving me low blood sugar after low blood sugar. I just start acting silly and he gets the juice. I love him!
• Speaking of the above bullet point-that was last night in a nut shell. I am really hoping for a good nights sleep tonight! Did you hear that insulin pump of mine? K, thanks!
• I am not sure what to do once I take down our Valentine's house decor...is it too early to decorate for Easter?
• This week I implemented a meal plan at home and it is going very well. I like that I know what to cook every night without even really having to think about it. It also makes shopping easier because I know what I am going to need! I have already planned for the entire month of March :)
• Speaking of March's meal plan, I am trying out several new recipes that I am super excited about. I hope they are delicious!

That is about all I have right now, but trust me-that randomness could just keep flowing! I hope you all have a great evening and enjoy the warm weather if you have it. I think we are planning to go for a nice walk again tonight :) Oh yeah, and do a happy dance because...tomorrow is FRIDAY! Hoot!

"Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God." Philippians 1:27-28 NIV

Prayer Request!

Sunday morning we woke up to some awaiting text messages with important news. The Mr's boss and his wife had their baby; their third baby girl early Sunday morning. Their newest little girl- Anna Grace was born very early (28 weeks gestation) and needs all our prayers for her strength and development. You can read her story and see pictures here.

Please lift this little girl and her family up in prayers with me! God is good!

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:14

 

And the award goes to...

Some of you may know about blog awards. They can be fun. They can be cute. They can also be cheesy. No matter what though, it is always fun to get an award; and I feel so blessed to know that people read my blog AND enjoy it! Thanks so much to Joy at Our Lives for God's Glory  for giving me this award! *If you don't already read and follow her blog; you should because she loves the Lord and has the most adorable little baby girl!

Okay, so here is how this award works:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award other bloggers.

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

1. I have recently contracted "puppy fever" and can't do anything about it. The apartment we live in allows pets, but there is an additional security deposit required that is not returned at the end of your lease AND your rent goes up. They may allow pets, but it seems to me like they discourage it at the same time!

2. I have not seen my family in Florida since Christmas and that is just too long for me. Growing up close to everyone-I am pretty sure we never went more than a week without seeing each other. Also on this note, flights are ridiculously expensive so it does not look like a trip to Florida is in our too near future. :(

3. I LOVE scrapbooking and cannot wait to finish our wedding scrapbook. I have several pages done and a vision of what the final product will look like, but you just can't be sure until it is done and you can see it all put together!

4. Friends is my favorite television show ever. I also like Gray's, but Friends tops it 100 times!

5. After a rough start at my job in September/October; now I love it! I feel so blessed to enjoy coming to work everyday for such a great company!

6. I am just like my mother in lots of ways, one being my obsessive need to clean. Luckily our apartment is small and when The Mr. helps we can get it done really quickly. I love that he will follow me around and vacuum as I dust. We make a great team!

7. A co-worker of mine is pregnant and I have been keeping the secret for weeks and it is killing me. Seriously, it might just jump out of my mouth accidentally at any time! I can't wait for her to tell the rest of our department and our bosses so we can stop whispering about it!

I am giving this blog to:

Brooke at Brooke's Happenings

Ria at Life as a Wife!

Ashley at Life After the Isle

Cherish at Southern Soulmates

Jamie at This Kind of Love

Maybe tomorrow will be the day I finally post about our weekend and Valentine's Day. I think you will have to wait and see! Thanks again for the blog award Joy!

Brrrrr!

Our mornings are usually all the same. We have a routine, and it works well for us. Typically The Mr. leaves after waking me up and making me check my BS before telling me goodbye, then I go back to sleep for an hour before getting up to start my day. He also sends me a text and lets me know how the cars are and if he took care of it or if I need to plan on leaving early so I have time to scrape the ice or brush the snow. This morning his text said "there is lots of ice, I scraped but did not get it all. It is frigid out here!"...boy was he right!

I got up when my alarm sounded and got ready in record speed. When I headed down to my car (about 15 minutes earlier that I normally do) I was greeted by frozen sidewalks with ice, and a sheet of ice over every inch of my car. Usually I put my purse and lunch bag in the car, start it and start scraping while it warms up. Good plan, yes? Well, it is a great plan when your car wants to start! That's right, my little silver rice rocket would not start this morning! Perhaps it was too cold for its Florida roots?

Eventually, my loved car decided to start. I am not sure the reasoning for the delay or stubbornness, but I am blaming the bitter cold. I was curious as to how cold it was and what my thermometer in my car would say. Once the car started, I got my answer! You are reading that right, it was-6 outside. Actually, weather.com said it was -8...anyways! I know I will be staying bundled up and warm today, that's for sure!

Oh, and next week? It is going to be in the high 40's-close to 50. How crazy is that!?!

Weekend Wrap Up

[This post contains LOTS and LOTS of pictures. I am just warning you!]

Sometimes weekends can surprise you. This weekend did that for us. We really did not have any plans on Friday other than dinner on Saturday with family, but this weekend ended up being a fun packed and snow filled one for sure! Our town does this event called "First Friday's" downtown. It happens on the first Friday of every month, and we have heard it can be a lot of fun. The Mr. and I had talked about going and had even seen the beginning of the preparation early Friday while out running errands. Long story short; we stayed home. Our Friday night consisted of pajamas, homemade pancakes with banana and cinnamon, and of course my favorite show: Friends. We went to bed pretty early and still had no set plans for Saturday other than the dinner with family.

So, Saturday morning comes. The Mr. woke me up at 9 just like I had asked him to. Although at the time, getting up was not what I wanted to do at all! As I rolled over and was getting some more sleep he came back into our bedroom and said it was snowing big flakes. I got up and out of the bed so quickly I almost feel down. It really was a comical moment!

This is what we woke up to on Saturday, so pretty!

I am slightly obsessed with snow on Christmas trees...don't judge!

Finally-snow in my hair for a picture! I remember going to WDW in high school with Mom, Hunter, Aunt Barb and Naomi and being so excited that it was going to snow on Main Street at night only to be disappointed that it was bubbles and did not stay in your hair or the ground because they popped!



Snowy Honda...it handles it well!

Leaving the apartment in search of sleds...these are what the roads looked like!

After seeing the abundance of snow and containing my childlike excitement we had a plan. We were going out into the cold determined to find some sleds and a good hill to use them on! After striking out at Kmart and the Big R in town, we hit up a sporting good store that I thought would have them, but be expensive. Boy was I wrong, they did have them and they were only $7.95. Score for us! Now we just had to find a public hill! Thanks to our friends Kyle and Tina we were there within the hour and had the entire hill to ourselves. It was bliss...well, for me at least!

We claimed our space on the hill behind Grace College's dining hall and spent a couple hours there. Fresh snow was still falling and that only added to my idea of perfection. We sledded for a couple hours after getting our path made and perfected our runs on our new oh.so.cheap flexible flyer sleds! We had SO much fun!

I love my Flexible Flyer!

Can you tell I was excited? Yes?

Ready...Set...Go!

Snowy Kisses :) xoxo

Allow me to teach you the proper snow angel making form...

How beautiful is this!?

After a collision...snow everywhere but still so happy and having TONS of fun!



After some hours on the hill we headed home to shower and change out of our wet snow clothes and head to Fort Wayne for dinner with family celebrating my SIL's birthday (that was last week)...the roads getting there were pretty bad. We drove past a couple cars that had slid off the road into the ditch and passed several semi trucks who were going super slow. I was glad I had my book to read so I was not focused on the mess that was the road, and our 45 minute commute that took much longer! We met and had dinner at Flat Top Grill, which is a Mongolian BBQ type of place. It was delicious! After dinner we went to Charming Charlies with the girls...they were so funny! Hadley came to life in that store and I had a hard time keeping up with her. I think she had difficulty deciding while glittery/sparkly thing to go look at next!  Emma and Ainsley were also mesmerized by the colors and sparkle. It was just fun to be there with them! :)

Hadley-little Miss Fashionista!

Strike a pose!

After Charlie's, The Mr. and I headed to Michael's for some scrapbooking necessities and then we were headed home...after a stop at Burlington Coat Factory and Target. We got home kind of late, but thankfully the roads were much better going home! Whew!

Sunday we were up and headed to church while snow was falling again :) After church we went to our favorite Mexican place in North Manchester with the girls and their parents. After lunch and starting another load of laundry we geared up to play in the snow again. We had a great time in their backyard on their snow slides and then packed into the van and headed to a park for sledding on a big hill. Turns out the girls had friends at the park who were sledding so they had a blast!

Pretty in Pink!

The Mr. and Had getting ready to go down the hill by the barn!

All of us girls, and Reggie!

The girls and some friends at the park on a massive sled! They all went down the hill like that!

Could we cheese any harder? I think not!

Warming up after a wipeout with Aunt E's dry hat and some Root Beer, which fixes everything when Mommy and paci are not available!

Sound asleep on the drive home, only minutes after leaving the park!

After sledding and the drive home we all came inside with a pot full of clean snow. While Hadley took a warm bubble bath and the older girls changed into warm, dry clothes I made snow ice cream. I used a recipe I found online and just poured milk, sugar and vanilla in to taste. It was actually pretty good, a little watery/milky but cold and creamy at the same time. We all had a bowl full with colorful sprinkles on top! We had just finished eating and getting warmed up with their Mom and Dad came home from their youth group activity at church and the Superbowl started :) Perfect timing!

We ordered pizza and watched the football game-cheering on the Packers the whole time. The Mr. and I left a little after half time and headed home with our clean laundry! While we were driving it was sleeting, but soon turned to snow flakes. The perfect ending to a great weekend with snow, family and great food!

After such a fun weekend, I think sledding is on our agenda for next weekend too! Hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week too!



Blizzard Post #2

At first I was going to title this post "Blizzard #2", but did not want to cause any confusion and have you thinking we got two blizzards here. Thus, the current title :) We only had one blizzard here, if it can even be called that. I think the wind that came with the wind and caused all the drifting snow is really what deemed this a blizzard because we only received a fraction of the snow we all anticipated. Really, I think people were prepared to not leave their house for weeks on end! I had to run to the grocery store (Aldi's-my fave) on Monday night to get some milk and orange juice because we ran out-you would have thought the world was ending based on how many people were there and how empty the shelves were. Canned good? Forget about getting any of those unless you were ready to fight or get trampled! Yikes!

So yesterday I told you that all of the counties around ours were in a State of Emergency, but not our county-so I was at work. Well, around lunchtime a mass employee email was sent out stating that due to weather and driving conditions, attendance would not count against you-thus, I did not have to be here! So, I did what anyone who wanted to go enjoy a snow day with her husband would do. I finished up what I had to get done (quickly) and asked my boss if it was okay that I left early. My boss was fine with my plan and I was outta there around 3. FREEDOM and lots of snow = perfect!

The Mr. picked me up and we went driving around downtown to look at all the pretty buildings and snow. The courthouse was beautiful and snow covered. I like courthouses anyways, cover one with clean, glittery snow and I am so there! :)

SO much snow-YAY! :)

That would be over a foot of snow!

Snow Plows worked hard in our county all day long!

There are so many beautiful houses on Winona Lake, we had fun driving around and looking at them! Several pictures were taken!

This one is my absolute favorite, isn't it beautiful!?



Finishing up our impromptu date with some delicious Starbucks!



Back at our apartment we spent some time outside shoveling around Stephen's car so he could get in it to leave in the morning. Also scraped ice and snow off the windows...

While he was getting his car ready for an early morning departure I had my own little photo shoot :)

Love these boots! They are a must have here in the winter!

Serious pictures are overrated, right?

View from our balcony looking at snowy rooftops. Am I the only person who this this is beautiful?

While we were out yesterday we scooped out some possible sledding places for this weekend. We are hoping to get out and have some fun in the snow on Saturday. If you are familiar with the Warsaw, IN area-let me know where the best place to sled is :) Hope everyone has a great Thursday and stays warm!