Andrew's Birthday

Andrew celebrated his 26th birthday on Tuesday. Unfortunately, between school and work there was not much time to celebrate! But we did manage to sneak in breakfast, lunch, & dinner together - which never happens, so that was a special treat!

Being a good southern boy, his favorite is peeee-can pie, so that was his birthday cake.

Unbeknownst to me, the candles I had grabbed from the drawer were magic re-light candles. the dumb things would absolutely not go out. They were sparking all over the place, I thought we were going to set the house on fire! But it was funny, because I had no idea either!
this was after trying to blow them out for 5 minutes!

This was the first gift I made for Andrew back when we were dating (for the 1st time:) in '03.
It obviously is past its prime.

One of his gifts was a replacement! I even got the stripes straight amazingly!

Have you heard about this?

Money back for your bling!

If you purchased a diamond between Jan. 1, 1994 and March 31, 2006, you may be eligible to receive part of the purchase price back due to a lawsuit against a large diamond company. 6% of the purchase price is the minimum and diamond jewelry that cost under $5,499 is eligible for a rebate of 32%! I am just putting the word out there, I don't know how well it works. My ring is a family heirloom, so I don't qualify. But it was in our local paper, so I assume it is legit. It's worth looking into at least!

https://diamondsclassaction.com/index.htm

PANIC at the sign of a snowflake

It was an interesting weather weekend. On Friday the weatherpeople began nonstop coverage of snow heading our way. The prediction - 2 inches. They would break in to TV programs every 30 minutes to give an update, it was crazy. By Saturday the expected temperature drop (to the 20's) did not happen so instead it rained most of the day. The weatherman's comment on Saturday was "beware of dangerously low temps" - the prediction - 18 degrees. Apparently they have never been to a northern state where it stays in these "dangerously low temps" for months! On Sunday, though we did not get the projected snow, there was concern of all the rain turning to ice. So our church ended up canceling their services just to be on the safe side that people didn't get stuck out on icy roads. So the whole weekend was a bit humorous. The sad thing? I really wanted snow and we didn't get it! We did get some flurries, but nothing that stuck on the ground. Our car shows all the snow that came for us!

Vacation

We had a wonderful trip to Minneapolis. It was so good to see my family and some of our friends. We loved the beautiful snow and the winter activities we got to do!
My computer is not letting me load very many pictures on to this site, so I'm just putting a few highlights and you can view the rest of the pics through this link -

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85684&l=1a63b&id=628020649

Beautiful Snow!

a definite highlight was snowmobiling!

downtown with some of our friends!

My nephew Jack - definite chick magnet!

family pic - unfortunately we were missing my brother Andy who was catering for a wedding
brother Sean & wife, Charis, with their 3 kids, my parents, brother David, sister Katie

We're off...

For those of you tracking, yes, I am having a slight identity crisis over my blog look. I can't decide exactly what I want after the Christmas look, if I want something fancy or plain...bright or muted...blah, blah... :) so I have been changing all sorts of little things, eventually I'll leave it alone! changes may or may not be coming!

Saturday is the big day! We leave for Minneapolis to see my family and our friends. There are no snowstorms predicted so far, so hopefully our flights will be uneventful. We have lunch and dinner dates booked most of the week, so it is going to be a crazy week. I think we will need a vacation when we get back! We are excited to go and so thankful that Andrew was able to get his vacation time in before school starts again. And he gave up taking a very easy block course that was being offered this same week - so thank you babe! I know that was a sacrifice.

We are not 100%, but we are back to work and pretty much being able to function normally. I finally finished the laundry - it only took me 5 days to complete!

This is a song that I have learned recently and has been such an encouragement to my heart. Our God is so good in how He orchestrates everything in our lives. Our God is so much bigger than what we often see as big trials in our lives. Nothing is greater than the peace of resting in God's sovereignty.

We are a moment, You are forever.
Lord of the ages, God before time.
We are a vapor, You are eternal,
Love everlasting, reigning on high.
----------------------------
Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.
Highest praises honor and glory,
be unto Your name.
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We are the broken, You are the healer.
Jesus Redeemer mighty to save.
You are the love song, we'll sing forever,
bowing before You, blessing Your name.
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Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.

Highest praises honor and glory,

be unto Your name.

Done for the count...

Christmas weekend we seemed to have picked up some sort of virus. Christmas night I came down with it hard and Andrew followed about 24 hours later. 7 days later we are still fighting it! we have missed work, church, new years party, and are very tired of being sick! This morning we went to the dr. and the diagnosis was that Andrew's was viral, can't do much for it. I have a sinus infection and was also given cough medicine w/ codeine. :) I have had to sleep sitting on the couch the last few nights because I have terrible coughing spells if I try to lay down. So...I am ready to sleep (bring on the codeine!) and since antibiotics seems to be wonder pills, we are hoping to be 100% very soon! We leave for Mpls. this Saturday, so drugs, please work quickly!





We have started a small pharmacy in our bathroom!