Week of Warmth!

Ok, so I am a little late on posting on our trip to AZ a couple weeks ago for Mike and Carrie's wedding. I have been a little busy with school since I started my English class. First, I must tell you that the one thing I have always dreaded hearing in a class was "you will have a paper due at the end of the semester". Yuck! I can handle homework, tests, group projects and even finals, but not a paper. Since last week I have written 3 papers and I am working on my 4th paper today. This is an English composition class that is 3 credits and only 8 weeks long. My worst nightmare! LOL :-) Nothing like ripping off the band aid. Ha Ha On a positive note, I probably won't have that fear in the rest of my classes. I do love school though, especially my biology class.

As for Phoenix, we had such a wonderful time. It started with Jaclyn picking us up and taking Randy to Jack in the Box to get tacos. This was a big deal considering Randy had never had Jack in the Box tacos. LOL Then on Wednesday morning Randy, Mike, Tom, Mike's father-n-law Bob and Dick went shooting in the dessert, had lunch and a 'guys' day. Sounds like they had lost of fun. I was able to have lunch with Eve at Z Tejas and then tempted to get a spray tan until she came out black (literally). Needless to say, I didn't go in and she showered right away. Thursday night Uncle Mack and Aunt Sue had the family over for a nice dinner which enabled us to see all the family. Friday Odie, Jac, Randy and I went to Ponchos. YUMMY!

Friday night, the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner and onto the wedding on Saturday. The wedding was absolutely perfect! Carrie was so stunning and one of the calmest brides I have ever seen. Randy's speech was the best! Seeing how Mike and Carrie's family and friends pulled together to make their day so special was amazing. They are surrounded with so much love, that their day couldn't have been any more perfect. They are both so special and we were lucky to be there with them during that pivotal moment in their lives. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the bride and groom, but will post one when I do.

Sunday we were able to attend Mike and Carrie's church and got to witness a bunch of baptisms. Then we had a party for our friend Tom who turned a young 59. Monday we hung out with dad and Jaclyn. Took the red eye Monday night and got home Tuesday morning. Randy took the day off and I went to class. Unfortunately the tank tops, shorts and flip flops were put away. :-(

You're leaving me?

How on earth can we leave our little Precious? These are my clothes that I had laid out to pack in the suitcase for our trip to Phoenix TOMORROW! We can't wait! :-)

But seriously, isn't she cute? When we do open the suitcase and start putting the clothes in it, she will lay in it too.

Cutest Cartoon Ever!

I laughed, I cried and I want to adopt the little girls!

Learning Forgiveness

In growing my relationship with God, I am learning how God loves us and forgives each and every one of us. Unfortunately, forgiving has been very challenging for me, so I have made a conscious effort these past 6 months to work on learning to forgive, understand and let go. In doing this, I have realized just how powerful, liberating and amazing forgiveness can be! I have been able to work on a couple relationships of mine that have otherwise had a dark cloud hanging over them (due to my unwillingness to forgive). Why is forgiving so hard? Is it because we have too much pride? Are we too busy to seek to understand the whole picture? I am not sure what it is, but I thank God for this gift that he has given me in realizing how great forgiveness can be!

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" Matthew 5:44

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
(Ephesians 4:32)

March Greatness

We are so excited for March considering it is filled with lots of awesome events!

Here are just a few (in no particular order):

Our friends, Mike and Carrie, are getting married!!!!

We get to go to AZ for 1 week for their wedding and see our family & friends as well

Tom's birthday and we are having a party for him while in AZ

Our church, Waters Edge Church, is opening their 2nd campus in Hampton on March 6th

Bowling outing with our Community Group friends

Newer, nicer, cleaner gym membership starts

Spring Break for me

St. Patrick's Day

Another Woman!

Can you believe that this is what I came home to the other day! The two of them were taking a nap together! Ha Ha

This is not uncommon at all. Precious loves to sleep on top of us, between our legs, above our heads on our pillows and curled up next to us, so long as she is touching us. She is the best cuddle buddy in the world. :-)

The Comeback Season!

Randy's cousin, Ricardo, is in a band named The Comeback Season. They just released a new cd and it is AWESOME! They live in Harrisonburg, VA but hopefully they will be touring in a town near you!

Take a listen and let me know if you are interested in buying a cd(s).

http://www.youtube.com/tcbsmusic

Step 1: Go to youtube.com/tcbsmusic (link above)
Step 2: Play the videos for each song (they are along the left side when you scroll down)

Post Valentine's

Last night my hubby took me out to dinner for Valentine's Day since we decided to forgo the crowds on the actual day of. He took me to a rhythm & blues/jazz bar in Williamsburg since he knows that I love to listen to live music. We had a wonderful dinner that ended with a fried, root beer battered chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich (fantastic!). We had a very nice evening together just him & I, music, bar trivia and food!

I know this picture is hard to see but there was the cutest older couple that was also enjoying date night. The husband was all dressed up in a brown suit and his wife in her fancy, red suit with jewels and all. They were so cute dancing to the live music especially since they were the only ones with enough courage to dance. I hope and pray that Randy and I are blessed enough to be dancing together at that age. :-)

Please pray

My cousin Heidi's friend, Michelle, was just diagnosed with breast cancer. Please keep her, her family and friends in your prayers. She is only 33 years old with two young children and a husband that she loves very much. Her blog link is http://mommamueller.blogspot.com/ if you would like to follow along on her journey through recovery. She is a fighter with God on her side but she could use some extra prayer warriors.

Please squeeze your loved ones a little tighter, spend more quality time with them, tell them how much you love & care for them and never take them for granted! Life is precious!

An Amazing Book

A couple of months ago when I was back home I mentioned to my Aunt Judy that part of the wellness challenge that I am doing requires me to read something spiritual for 15 minutes a day. As soon as I said that she disappeared and came back with a book called The Shack and said that I have to read it. I asked her what it was about and she said "Just read it". I am so glad that she gave it to me and I can't wait to buy and share with others as well. I am not even finished reading the book but so far it has made me cry with sadness and amazement. It is one of those books that you can't wait to see what happens in the end but then you will be sad when it is over. Trust me, get this book!

http://www.theshackbook.com/

Visit to JMU

This past weekend Randy and I took a trip to Harrisonburg, VA to visit his college, James Madison University. He took me for a tour of the campus which included eating at one of the dining halls. I was shocked to see that it was just like the food court in a mall (5 different places to pick from). I told Randy that I for sure would have gained the 'freshman 15' going to school there. LOL

The whole campus was so beautiful and the buildings were incredible. Especially the recreation building (gym). It had a huge lap pool, rock wall, basketball courts, racquetball courts, volleyball courts, weights, cardio machines, track, studios, etc.. I should probably mention that it is 3 floors and included in the tuition!

This is at the recreation building where Randy had worked for 2 years. He got employee of the year in maintenance for 2002-2003 (see below) and has his name on a plaque on the wall (see above). What can I say, I am a proud wife.

We were able to meet up with Randy's cousin, Ricardo, for lunch on Sunday where he works. It was the cutest little artsy coffee shop, restaurant and bar. Ricardo also graduated from JMU.

In conversation, Ricardo mentioned a place that serves fried oreos. Considering oreos are Randy's favorite cookies, we had to go. OH MY GOSH they were SO good and only $1 each! It was like a pancake/funnel cake/donut batter with a soft warm oreo in the middle. Amazing is all I can say and I want more!

Cynthia's visit

A few weeks ago we were so blessed to have Cynthia come visit us for a long weekend. The first thing I wanted her to be able to do was play in the snow so look what we found!

We spent one of the days in Colonial Williamsburg just her and I. We had lunch at the Cheese Shop near William and Mary College, got a coffee at Aromas and then walked around for a bit. It was a wonderful day together, just sisters.

She met a new friend

That evening she wanted to cook for us so we made a stop at Trader Joe's

She made an amazing meal and I was the sous chef. The following night Randy, Mike and I took her down to Norfolk for dinner at my favorite place and then a bar to listen to some music. On Saturday we hung out at home and then went to a restaurant in Virginia Beach for old bay steamed shrimp and she crab soup. We had such a great time and look forward to her visiting us again!

Precious's favorite spot

Whenever Randy lays on his stomach on the bed, Precious is sure to lay just like this. It is very cute!

Dancing in the New Year!

This year for New Year's Eve Randy and I went over to our wonderful friends, Troy and Angie's house. There were about 7 of us couples bringing in the new year together. We played Catch Phrase, which was a super fun game, but the most exciting part of the night was the 'Dance Off'. We played one of the Wii dance games and had SO much fun! Randy went out in the first round (on his defense he was dancing against the winner) and I made it to the 3rd round (not due to rhythm, trust me). Oh my gosh, if you have the chance to play any of the Wii dance games you have got to do it! What a way to start 2011 with awesome friends, delicious food and burning calories while dancing!

Grateful for CG!

Every Tuesday night Randy and I meet with a group called our "community group". This is a group of 14 individuals that all go Waters Edge Church and strive to build a relationship with The Lord. We have been meeting with the same group since early spring 2010 and I am so glad that Randy and I decided to join the group. God certainly blessed our lives by bringing these 12 amazing people into our lives. I thank Him for the relationships that we have built with each of them and I look forward to these relationships growing even stronger. I also thank them for helping us to build a relationship with Him!

Such a Proud Wife

Today Randy was promoted to an IT Change and Configuration Manager! This is his first promotion to a manager (as I am sure there will be many)! I am SUPER proud of him for all his hard work, long hours and all that he does for us. It surely paid off! Congratulations Babe, I am so proud of you!

New Year Challenge

They are starting up a new wellness challenge on January 3rd if you would like to join. See link for more info and instructions http://youcanbethebestyou.blogspot.com/p/blog.html . I am going to join again because I noticed that it held me accountable and without it I have eaten everything and anything, slacked on the exercise for the whole month of December, didn't set any goals and wasn't reading anything uplifting or spiritual. This is not about losing weight, it is about eating healthy, exercising and living a well balanced life. I loved it and felt MUCH better while doing it.

Let me know if you join, I would love to have company!

Post White Christmas!

We had such a nice Christmas this year here in VA. I was able to make 35-40 dozen cookies for a cookie exchange, Randy's co-workers, friends, family and Christmas Eve (I love to bake so this was a treat for me). Randy was able to take off a couple days to relax at home. We had a nice Christmas party with our friends from church, an amazing Christmas Eve dinner at Barney and Deb's, Christmas dinner at a really nice restaurant and snow on Christmas night and all day the day after Christmas. We got about 9-10 inches of beautiful fluffy white snow. Precious loves running through it but hates walking on ice. :-) We were also showered with such incredible gifts this year and are so grateful for them all. I also got some good news, my sister Cynthia is coming to visit us in January. That is a gift in itself! We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year as much as we are!

Back to School!

I am super excited! Yesterday I went to a community college and enrolled in an English and Biology class for spring 2011! It was funny though because I did have to take a writing class in order to enroll in these classes. The gentleman told me it should take 1/2 hour and if I finish quicker than that, I am probably not doing well. Welp, it took me 1 hour! LOL I got 94 out of 99 which is awesome considering I haven't taken English in a very long time. Surprisingly I ended up testing right into college English. I am going towards an associates, in what I am not sure yet, but I am going to go ahead and work on my general eds. It should take a while to complete my associates degree but when I do we can decide from there if I will move on to complete my bachelor's degree. Randy has always been super supportive and encouraged me to go back to school and get a degree because he knows how badly I have always wanted one but I haven't been able to figure out what to get a degree in. I don't want that to hold me back anymore. Does a college kid fresh out of high school know what they want to do as a career? Don't college kids change their majors while in school? So I finally decided to at least get started! I do know that it will be something in the health field and right now I am working towards a Dietetic Technician but that could change. :-) Maybe my blogs will make a little more sense once I start English too. Ha Ha

Thanksgiving in AZ

This year for Thanksgiving I was given the gift of a trip home to Phoenix, AZ for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately Randy was not able to take any time off work so he didn't get to go and I did miss him (especially during the actual holiday) but I was kept pretty busy. I got in Saturday night and stayed until Friday at midnight. I didn't blog anything about this trip because I wanted to surprise my sisters. It worked! Dad asked Jac if she would stop by his house, I opened the door and she cried because she was so excited (I hope that is what the crying was for...LOL j/k). For Cynthia I was already at Uncle Robb and Aunt Connie's house for Thanksgiving and I met her in the kitchen. She was pretty shocked considering she just spoke to me on the phone in VA. Ha Ha I spent the week baking with Aunt Judy, spent time with Eve and her awesome boyfriend Nathan, hiked my favorite mountain with Eve, saw 4 rainbows on Sunday, went shopping and to lunch with Tom, went to the movies with Jaclyn, got to see Uncle Mack and Aunt Sue before they left to Reno, went to my 2 VERY favorite restaurants, spent lots of quality time with dad and Jaclyn, had 2 Thanksgiving dinners, spent an evening and night with BOTH of my sisters, woke up at 3:30am and did the whole 'Black Friday' with my sisters and family, had an amazing dinner the night I left at Ponchos with Doug, Jac, CJ, dad, Nathan and Eve and just had an amazing, heartfelt time with all our family and friends. We are SO incredibly blessed to have all the friends and family that we do.

And then, as if my week wasn't already so great, my husband picked me up Saturday morning with flowers and Precious. He took care of me all weekend (because I was SO tired) cooking, cleaning, keeping quiet while I was sleeping and pretty much taking care of my every need!

If you would like to see more pictures see link: http://picasaweb.google.com/rally.mars/HappyThanksgiving?authkey=Gv1sRgCMin3rzm5qPmoAE&feat=directlink