Ladies Night Out...

So it's really early Saturday morning. I have a meeting (mandatory, of course) that I have to attend at the hospital this morning at 10:00. Believe me, I'm not up in anticipation of the meeting or anything. It's these bones of mine. I hate getting old :) My arms and wrists are both aching and hurting so bad I just can't get back to sleep. Thankfully, a rice bag (that Mary helped me fix about a year ago) heats up nicely and is at least somewhat helpful.

Anyway, last night (Friday) I met with a few of the ladies from church. It was what they called 'ladies night out'. The 'few' ended up being 25 or so and the wait for the table was kind of long, but the time together was great. I really like hanging out with them and getting to know them. sidenote:I think I'm going to go to a horse riding competition next Saturday, which I'm kind of excited about. I've never been to one before.

Andy and I are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our passports. I run to the mailbox (which is mounted to our house, right outside the front door -so it's not much of a run) everyday to see if they've come. Anyway, life continues on at it's usual pace while I feel that I'm still contemplating things that happened days ago. Maybe someday I'll keep up.

Love and Anticipation

So, Andy's now 25. Half-way to 50. Wow. He worked on his birthday and came home totally exhausted. I tried to convince him there was no time for that because we had to eat (IHOP was the restaurant of choice) and then come home for cake and ice cream...and yes, I put 25 candles on the cake, lit them all, and he blew them all out! So, it was fun. My favorite part was buying him a birthday card because it was the first time I got to buy a card that said "husband" :)

Anyway, we both worked on Friday and knew that Misti was planning to come in late Friday night. I ended up working a little late, and when I was walking out the door there was Andy WITH Misti just waiting on me. She spent the night and we got up early the next morning for a 3 (or so) hour trip to Sikeston, Missouri. We were intent on reaching Lambert's -home of the throwed rolls. We all ate, and we were pretty happy. The trip home was slightly less exciting, but good none the less. Saturday night we met with some of the "youngins" from church at Barnes&Noble...I had an italian ice drink (without the cream) and it wasn't as good as I remembered. Starbucks has yet to win me over. Anyway, Sunday Misti left and Andy and I went to church...the usual. We skipped lunch, but we ate great at Los Bravos that night. All this time though, Andy's been very VERY excited about our upcoming trip to Bolivia. He says he's trying to not get too excited, but I think he's having a hard time. You can see it in his eyes.
That was mostly the end of our weekend except for last night where we stayed up until 4am just talking because it's great to have that really wonderful friend that loves you and wants to talk to you -about everything. It reminded me of the phone conversations we used to have when I was in college. Lotsa fun, lotsa love. :) Marriage isn't anything like I thought it would be, and better than I ever expected.

Back into the Routine

Well, the holidays have come and gone. It was great getting to see everyone even though it was a lot of traveling. After we got home Andy had to go back to work, and then so did I. After being off for 2 weeks, going back to the crazy hospital didn't sound like fun. But, it's been okay. Back to the routine of things. I think that the Justisons are coming to visit sometime this weekend because of Andy's birthday -he will be half-way to 50 this year :) In the mean time, I've been playing several games of Yatzee with Andy...he's won all but one of the games.
Our Christmas tree is still up -I suppose we want to enjoy it for as long as possible...it still smells great. I've also been working on a creative party for the awana girls that I'm working with. Oh, and speaking of the girls...Andy and I were able to go to one of Lauren's basketball games -she's in Upwards. It was fun, and she did really well :)
<---one of the cards that I made to mail to the awana girls

Anyway, we're keeping busy...and it's been fun. Oh, and David -I'm very excited for your upcoming move, it will be awesome to see all the different ways that God will use you.

Back Home Again

Well, after what seemed like forever in the car -legs wanting to move, and eyes wanting to see something besides the inside of the car- we made it home. We traveled to Arkansas to see my family -and they all seem to be doing great. It was good to see them, but it was a very quick trip. (Quicker still for my dad who had to fly part of the way.) Anyway, all have made it home safely...and for that I'm very thankful. I'm excited to see what this new year will bring, and even more excited that I get to share in whole with my husband. I'm sure I could type much more, but I'm kind of tired.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend, enjoy :)

Justison Christmas :)

So, Andy is at work today and I'm busy finding that one last item...and wrapping lots of stuff. We decided to have "our Christmas" last night. Tonight we're traveling to Anderson so we can see each of our families for the holiday -the Justisons on Saturday and the Woodrings on Sunday. So, we're keeping busy....but it's been fun. I decided that I wanted to have a party last night...so, I made "party" food and waited for my husband to arrive. He was excited (and surprised) when he came home...after looking at the food, he was convinced I'd invited other people and had them hiding in the basement. But no, it was just us. And we had fun. Here are just a few pictures of our first Christmas together :)

Busy....but Happy :)

So, it's been nearly a week since I posted last. That's probably got a lot to do with the fact that I've been working a lot more recently. I tried to fit in most of my hours at the beginning of the schedule so that I could have a nice break for Christmas. So, I've seen a lot of Deaconess lately.

If you've kept up with Andy's blog at all you probably know what I've been up to. Friday night we stayed up for a little while trying to work on some of the video stuff for the kid's Christmas play at church (and by "we" I mean, andy worked while I watched). Then we got up the next morning to try and take cookies to our neighbors -unsuccessful. We then headed on a 1 1/2 hour road trip to watch a basketball game -a family from church (that we love) invited us. It was an awesome game, went into overtime. Unfortunately, our team lost.

Then, we headed back to Evansville to do the Christmas play practice...it went okay, just a little long. Then Sunday morning services went fine....Sunday night was the big play though :) The kids did wonderful...but I doubt that anyone was able to record the entire play....because it lasted TWO HOURS LONG!!!

So, in essence that's what I've been doing for the past few days....we did finally mail some Christmas cards and Christmas presents. I'm finally done with work until 2006....and I'm quite happy with everything right now. I'm excited to see family (and friends) and slightly sad that I know it's going to pass by so incredibly quickly.

Christmas Cookies...

So, I worked last night and my legs aren't letting me forget it. I came home...very cold rain, but no snow or freezing rain. I slept for a little bit, until Andy woke me up to tell me he was leaving for work- just a little early today because they called him in. So, I got up waved good-bye and ate some cereal. Since then I've been trying to create Christmas cookies...and I thought maybe I'd share some pictures of the end results...it was fun and I feel good about making them because I can see that I've done something (not just sleeping the day away) and I don't feel too tired. All in all, that's very happy.