Yeah!

Congratulations to Tammy and Ryan on the birth of their little girl earlier this morning! I'll let them share all the details but jump over to tell them congratulations!

Time to Change Things Up

Right now, I am sitting on the couch with Hubs while he watches Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers for the eleventy-hundreth time. Not that I mind - I got to see my favorite scene. I get chills every time I see the elves march up to Helm's Deep - there is something about the solidarity, the hope in that moment that I just love. Now he just flipped to David Blaine doing some street magic. He loves to flip!

I have so many things I want to blog about, a huge list of ideas and hopes and hurts, but when I am not sure who is reading my blog, I don't know how honest I can be. Which honestly just stinks. Because this is my blog. And I started it to talk about my life and my thoughts. And now I'm censoring my thoughts because of who might be reading. Augh!

Some of the things I want to blog about are happy things, some sad, others troublesome, and even other things I'd like advice on. But I feel very censored on here. So I am in the midst of developing a new blog, somewhere where I can share my thoughts and feelings and joys and hurts without certain people getting ahold of them. If you're out there and still reading, and would like to know about the new site (when it's ready), drop me an e-mail or comment here and I'll get you the new info.

Thanks for reading thus far.

My Absolute Favoritest Song in the World

Everlasting God
Lincoln Brewster
From the album Let The Praises Ring - Best Of Lincoln Brewster

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
Wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
Wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord

Our God You reign forever
Our Hope our strong Deliverer
You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God

You do not faint You won't grow weary
You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles

You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
The everlasting God
The everlasting

Do I Have Time For a Nap?

According to the calendar in our home office, April was supposed to be a fairly uneventful month. That's only because I didn't have the time to update it in March! We have managed to sail over halfway through the month without stopping to catch our breaths.

Hubs' parents came down for a few days to help us celebrate his birthday - it was so good to have them here. With us here and them in Michigan, we definitely don't get to spend enough time with them. On the Saturdaybefore they came down, we hosted a little cook-out/birthday party. We ended up with 8 adults and 7 kids (4 of them under the age of 2)- wild! Despite the cold, rainy weather, we all had a great time and were able to celebrate the birthdays of 6 of those present.

Easter was nice too. We have a huge potluck breakfast at our church between the early and late services which was fantastic. Hubs and I then head to Des Moines. We had a visitation to attend late that afternoon and decided to make a day out of it. We had a late lunch and saw a movie. I was too enthused about seeing Meet the Robinson's but it was so precious. Hubs and I both cried. We don't buy many DVDs but will definitely be adding this one to our collection.

Hubs spent the past weekend in Michigan doing his fighting in the woods thing. He had fun and I was able to spend some time with friends around here. And now Hubs is sick. The poor guy had a 102 temp this morning. He is still not doing great and is crashed on the couch.

And now almost another month has passed us by. Kind of amazing when I stop to think about it.

Oh yeah, a huge shout out to the Big Guy - LOVE the weather! This week is one of those that I seriously LOVE my job more than I can ever imagine. Tomorrow I am heading up a group of 26 high school students and 11 adults and we're going to do a snapshot on the watershed. (Our event is not listed on the upcoming events since it's not open to the public.) It's supposed to be in the high 60s and sunny and I'm getting paid to spend the day outside! Can life get any better!

Hope you all have a great week!

A Tuesday Funny

Thanks to Catherine for sharing this:

go to google.com
click on maps
click on get directions
from new york,new york to (end address)paris,france
read line #23

A Wedding, Philly and Friends

Hubs and I just returned from a long weekend in the City of Brotherly Love. Our friends Amy and Ross got married on Sunday and we flew in for the big day.

I really want to write about the whole experience but I don't know, I just feel weird writing it all down. It was a really strange trip and I am much more exhausted than I ever dreamt I'd be. Hubs is beat too. So I thought I'd share the highlights with you, along with a few pictures (our camera broke on Friday afternoon so no wedding pics yet, those are coming).

Highlights include:

• Having a blast with Todd and Stacie in the Happy Van (Oy vey - we spent HOURS in the Happy Van - and not always happy, but we tried)


• Dancing to Siman Tov and Hava Nagila


• Hanging out with some of the other awesome bridesmaids


• Spending a little alone time with Hubs in the Independence National Historic Park (the big center across the street from where the Liberty Bell is housed)


• Eating the most fabulous chocolate bread pudding at Moonstruck - amazing!


• Catching up with some old friends during the various activities
• Finding a little Irish pub with Todd & Stacie


• Lots and lots of laughter with old and new friends

And now the pictures -

Todd with Amy's mom, Roz

Todd & Stacie at our little Irish pub Me, Amy & Stacie at the hotel

Ross and his awesome mom, Susan
Stacie, Amy and me

Orly, Amy and Dana Dana and Dean (aren't they adorable!?)

Amy K and me
And my favorite picture so far, me and Hubs

(not the most flattering of us but he's so darn cute!)

Day 2

Do you remember the sound that you here when you hold a shell to your ear? The wooshing and howling - that is the constant background noise in our house. And the weatherman says I may continue to hear it through tomorrow.

Hubs and I woke up to that howling early this morning. We both thought that the plows would have come through already and we'd be on our way to work shortly. Right. Hubs walked out and checked out the situation and I jumped online to see what the World Wide Web could tell me. By the time he got back, I figured we weren't going anywhere. I called my boss to let her know I probably wouldn't be in - she understood totally. She's the only one from our office who lives in town - and she couldn't even get to the office. So thank God for good, smart bosses who know when to close the office. Hubs got an e-mail from work telling everyone to work from home as there was no way they could get to the office. And even if they got there, there was no way they could get in the building. His boss included photos of drifts covering the doors.

So here we are. It's been another good day. Watched a little TLC, made a yummy lunch, joined Hubs outside for a bit - it wasn't bad as long as you kept everything covered and turned away from the wind. Hubs is intent on building a snow fort. I took a bunch of photos - will post some in a bit. We were relieved to hear that the blizzard warning for our area expired at noon. But just found out that it's back on again - until 5 in the morning. Plus it started snowing again - they say probably just another couple of inches - hey what's a few more inches when you already have 16?

Gah - my goofy husband is getting his stuff on to go back out. He is so excited about his snow fort; it really is neat but I would so prefer that he stay in. At least he's only about 10 feet from the house so I can watch him. He even found the gardening tools so he can use them to help dig it out and shape it from the inside. I just opened the door and got a couple of really cool now-you-see-it/now-you-don't photos - the wind is unbelievable.

OK, more wintery photos - and then I'm off to bake peanut butter cookies. I've been so good eating healthy snacks and watching my calorie and fat intake but this weather just begs for baking and yummy treats. And I'll have warm cookies for Hubs to eat when he brings his frozen self in. Here's more pictures -

Hubs climbing up one of the drifts in our yard

Crawling out of his snowfort

See the little pine tree beside the big hardwood tree - and the corner of my garage?

Can you see them now?

Random photo of the blowing snow

Hope you're all staying warm and comfy - especially those of you northeast of here!

Snow Day

Whoops, strike out snow day - it's more like Blizzard Day!

We had been hearing that we were supposed to get a huge blizzard. When Hubs and I woke up this morning, there was nothing - no snow, no wind, nothing - big bummer. So we both got ready for work and I headed out. Between the time I looked out the window, then turned around to put on my coat and grab my bag, it went from nothing to pelting snowy, ice rain. On my way to my car, I called the office to let them know I was coming in and to look for me if I wasn't there in 1/2 hour (my office is in a town about 15 miles southwest of our house and it usually takes 12-15 minutes to get there). I hopped in my vehichle and backed out onto our road when my co-worker called. She recommended not coming in at all and told me to tell Hubs to stay home (he works 10 miles south of the town I work in - and his office is located in the country - seriously it is surrounded by corn fields!). That was at 7:05 - our office officially opens at 7:30. Today it also closed at 7:30. Hubs is able to work remotely from home so he called in. By 10:00 they had closed his office completely (most people didn't even come in or turned around and left shortly after arriving). They decided to shut down when they closed the state highway that everyone uses to access the company. One of Hubs' co-workers lives less than 1/4 mile up the road - he couldn't even make it home so one of the owners drove him there on a tractor! Another couple of co-workers got stuck at the office until tomorrow. Good thing for them that the office is attached to the other owner's house and they have food and other accomodations for them.

So we are at home and snug. It has been a very nice day. I'm getting caught up on laundry and even pulled out some cod to marinate and bake for dinner. Got a few crafting projects completed and read several chapters of a book I just got off of Amazon. Hubs even brought his laptop in the family room so we could snuggle while he fixed computer issues. Since most of his client's businesses are closed, he's had a pretty light day too.

The wind is absolutely roaring right now. We live in a wonderful, old farmhouse that's been built onto many times - lots of places to hear the wind! The wind is so bad that we can't tell if it is done snowing and just blowing now or if it's still snowing and blowing. Originally we heard 8-12 inches - now they've upgraded it to 15-20. I'd say we have at least 14-16 here. I opened the front door and took a few photos so you can experience this with us - I'm sure you're all jealous of our weather! Cori - I especially thought of you when taking these - no chance you'll see this in your current location!

First shot from our front porch - doesn't seem so bad but those drifts by the garage are about 4 feet high. Here you can see the wind a little better.
Looks so peaceful, doesn't it?
More blowing
Check out the drifts near the swing set.

Hope you're all staying warm!