Ordinary to Extraordinary!!!

This week was an interesting week. We did have some extraordinary moments this week, but it was mixed in with the ordinary. I got a little down about the Michigan weather this week. A wind shield wiper blade on the Civic broke on Wednesday while the snow was coming down after I had to walk through all the slushy snow. It's also kinda depressing that the sun rarely comes out, but when it does... I can't get enough of it.

Maglee is a little chilly and is going crazy with the lack of time she is getting to spend outside. I think she looks cozy in the scarf. (She is not demon-possessed. It was the flash from the camera!)

Tuesday night we met my Aunt Cheryl in Kalmazoo. She treated us to BD's Mongolian Grill. It was neat that we got to spend some time with her. She lives in Washington state and was in town on business. Thanks for the fun night and the yummy food, Aunt Cheryl!!!

You got it... Thursday is date night. Matt treated me to homemade pizza. Don't get jealous as you look at all the delicious pictures!!!

Yes, it tasted as good as it looked. Yes, I ate all four pieces and enjoyed every bite!

I apologize this is the only picture I got of our wonderful dinner at the Bennett's for cell group on Friday night. We had corn cakes, rice, black beans, homemade salsa, guacamole, cheese (that's what we contributed) and tomatoes. This was followed with some fantastic juice and homemade oatmeal, coconut, raisin cookies. 

Our cell group meets every Friday night. We have dinner and then a Bible study. We just finished the book of Nehemiah. What a blessing!! Who knew all that good stuff was packed in those 13 chapters?

This morning we went to church. I never get pictures while we're dressed up. So I thought today would be the day, and we had a few extra minutes that doesn't ever happen. Probably the highlight this morning was the little girl behind us belting out "To God be the Glory". Awesome!! Nothing like children praising the Lord!

Today we wanted to truly rest and spend some time with our family. We read this afternoon. Matt actually started and finished a book. We also took a little snooze.

Then we headed out on a walk and decided to build an igloo. 

It was starting to get dark. So we stopped at three layers. 

The pup had a blast because she got to spend an hour and a half outside.

This is how we left it. But plan to return tomorrow with some extra hands. You can't build an igloo in the south!

Highs and lows this turned out to be a pretty good week. I even got some good running in too. Tuesday 3miles, Wednesday 2.68 miles, and Friday a 30 minute bike ride on the trainer and a 2 mile run. Tomorrow I'm doing 6 miles. Kind of exciting!!! 

The Lord has blessed us so much. I need to take the time to enjoy the small things in life that may seem ordinary but are really super extraordinary!!!!

1 Thessalonians 1:11 The Message

Because we know that this extraordinary day is just ahead, we pray for you all the time -- pray that our God will make you fit for what he's called you to be, pray that he'll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something. 

Let the Good Times Roll!

 I don't have a lot to report, but I did have a really fun weekend!

Saturday night we went with some friends to a church in St. Joseph, MI to hear Bryan "Head" Welch. He was in the band Korn. I never listened to Korn. But he has a really awesome testimony. Check out his book, Save Me from Myself: How I found God, Quit Korn, Kicked Drugs, and Live to Tell my Story.

Saturday night we also had a game night at our house. Lots of good friends and lots of fun!

Here are the guys, Josh, Nick, and Matt (minus Tiago) hanging out with Maglee after the games.

Here are the girls, Brittany and Taryn (minus Carolyn and me) hanging out eating some yummy snacks!

Sunday, I did my "long" run. I ran 5 miles. I started out at Nick and Taryn's house with Matt and Nick in front of me and ran to my buddy, Joshua's house. It's about 1.5 miles from Nick's house to Joshua's house. Then I ran about 2 miles with Joshua and ran back toward Nick's house.

This is before the run begin. The weather with cold, 16 degrees, but the sun was shining!

Sunday, we also made a trip to Home Depot to use the gift card my dad gave us for Christmas. We bought fluorcent compact light bulbs and a humidifier.

Today, Monday, was a pretty busy day. I had an interview for a dental hygiene job. I'll keep you posted on that. I also worked and did 6 hours of data entry.

I also made some "no bake cookies". I've got a sweet tooth!

Proverbs 25:27a The Message

It's not smart to stuff yourself with sweets...

I'll ration the cookies and not stuff myself!

Frosty the Slow Woman!!!!

This was a pretty exciting week. One of my New Year's resolutions is to run a half marathon. Matt and I had already decided which one we were going to run, but it is sure sneaking up on us. This week marked 12 weeks from the Holy Half Marathon in South Bend, IN on the campus of Notre Dame. So let the training begin. Matt and I ran a half marathon on Thanksgiving day in 2009. After beginning my training this week, I realized we had it much better training in the fall in TN than training in the winter in MI. 

Monday was a pretty chill day, as you can see from the puppy sleeping on the bed. Sundays are the days I do my longer runs, and Monday will usually be a rest day.

Tuesday was the first of many frigid (34 degrees, the high for this week) runs. It was a lot more fun with good company. Nick and Taryn ran too and are planning on doing the half marathon with us. 

Wednesday, we made it to the cornfield for Maglee's walk. But all the snow has a layer of ice on it from the warmer temperatures.

Poor Maglee, got scratched up by all the ice, but she still thoroughly enjoyed her walk (actually more like run for her).

Thursday, is usually date day/night. This week we decided to do something a little different.

Matt picked up a delicious sub from Baguette de France, probably one of our favorite restaurants here, and we just ate it at home.

Thursday night we also made it to Petsmart. This was Maglee's first time there, and she did so great! She even came out with a sweater. Just so you know I'm not one of those people that dresses my dog up. This was strictly for warmth. My dog is from the south, just like me, and she is freezing in this Michigan winter. She will be much warmer now!

This morning (Friday), I did the coldest run I have ever done. When we started it was 16 degrees. When we finished it was 12 and snowing a pretty good bit.

Here's Matt covered in snow with icicles from his goatee. He is looking very chipper!

I am also cover in snow with icicles all over my face. We both had on lots of layer: 3 on top and 2 on bottom. I did run in gloves too. At this point I wasn't really cold just wet from sweat and melted snow. Matt and I are strongly considering getting gym memberships soon.

This is kind of off the wall, but I was very proud of myself. This is our shower. I scrubbed our shower clean for about an hour this afternoon. Originally the entire shower was the orange color around the handle in the picture on the left. But now the whole shower is white like the picture on the right. This is one the many things I've experienced in Michigan, lots of iron in our water. It doesn't taste as good as the water in GA or TN either. Yay.... Now I can get clean in a clean shower!

Psalms 51:10 The New Living Translation

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.

I'm having a blast in Berrien Springs, MI!!!!!

Recently I have been having a lot of fun in Berrien Springs. It's a really fun phase of life. It's like going back to college, but I'm married this time and so are most my friends. Matt and I are so blessed. It's pretty cold up here, a lot of snow, but all the friends totally make up for it. So here is all the fun we had the last couple of days!

Thursday, we finally made it to the corn field for a walk. Maglee was so excited to get out of the house. She was so tuckered out after hopping through the two and half feet of snow. She slept for the rest of the day.

Maglee wasn't the only one that got to play in the snow. This is pretty deep snow.

Since getting this new job, I've been hanging out with my computer a lot. This is view that I've had the past week. It's actually is a really nice office. It is in the corner of the building, and there are two huge windows.

One of my favorite traditions is having cell group on Friday night. We get together with 9 of our good friends every Friday night, eat dinner, usually sing some praise songs, and have a bible study. 

These pictures were taken this week at our house. As you can see, it's a tight squeeze.

Saturday, we hung out with some other friends of ours Nick and Taryn and Carolyn and Tiago. We also got to do a little celebrating too.

Taryn had a birthday this past week. So Matt made a chocolate cake for the celebration.

Yep, it was as good as it looks.

Maglee is having a blast with all our friend. She doesn't hide under the bed any more when people come over. This is a huge improvement!

Saturday night, we went over to Josh and Brittany's house to watch the Falcons game. Unfortunately it didn't end the way we were hoping. Poor Falcons...

Kessia and I are matching. Both in our navy cardigans, scarves, and khakis.

Today was a great day too. This morning I had brunch with some friends. I didn't get any pictures. But it was a lot of fun! I also got a lot of things done around the house and even worked a few hours.

These are the same icicles from Wednesday. They are really growing. Eventually we won't even be able to see out our living room window.

Proverbs 18:24 The Message
Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family.

Where Ya' Been???

This week has been an unusually busier week. For the past five and half months, I haven't had a consistent job. I have been doing fill in work at dental offices when they need a sub. Some months were busy and some were extremely slow. But the Lord has blessed us, and we never came up short on the budget. Most months we actually had a surplus. I really love dental hygiene and cleaning teeth and didn't want to give up any chance to work as a dental hygienist. I had an opportunity come up recently for "job". It's not a dental hygiene job, but it brings in some extra money. I'm working with a retired professor from Andrews University doing data entry for a German English Religion and Theological Online dictionary. Pretty cool! The best part about this job is it is very flexible, and I can continue filling in as a hygienist. I can work up to 25 hours a week. So far this week I've been going in around 9am and leaving around 2pm or 3pm. Also eventually I'll be able to do it from home. I'm excited about this opportunity, and hopefully it will continue being as good as it seems

Matt came home from D.C on Monday afternoon. Yay!! I picked him up at the South Bend, IN airport. While in South Bend, we decided to go on a "date". We went to Steak N' Shake. Definitely not the healthiest meal, but oh so good.

We splurged and got a Mint Cookies and Cream Milkshake.

We really did share!

One of my favorite past times is road biking. Michigan doesn't make for very good winter road biking. So we have bike trainer that we ride in our basement. It's really a lot of fun and a lot warmer than outside. Matt and I are counting down the days until it's warm enough and cleared of snow. I rode on Monday night, which reminds me, I better get on the bike tonight too.

 Tuesday night we took a drive in very snowy conditions to Griffith, IN. We came home with this...

We are now proud owners of a snowblower. It will be very helpful and will even bring in some extra money too. Matt and our friend, Josh, are doing a snow blowing business together. It's pretty rad, good money for usually not that much time.

We got it on CraigsList. Recently we have become very avid buyers and sellers on CraigsList. We sold our PC desktop on Tuesday too before we bought the snowblower.

Today (Wednesday) I was very impressed with the icicles. There is one that is almost 3 feet long right in front of the living room window.

It has really been snowing here the last few days. This is a picture of the sidewalk in front of our house about 3 hours after Matt blew all the snow off. 

So maybe the next couple days, I'll have some more fun and exciting events and pictures.

Psalms 51:7 The Message

Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.