Last day of March

Ah March, my favorite month. The birth of springtime and the beginning of new growth. This windy month has breezed by and floated softly into April.
Today started out pretty rough! I woke up with a stomach ache and still felt bad even after I took some medicine! So I called in to work and told them that I was going to be a few hours late and then just curled up in a ball on the couch. Lucky for me, I have a wonderful husband who happened to be working from home today! He snuggled up right next to me and just held me for about an hour, until I felt better :) I told him that he has the "chest of healing". Thats a term I made up because I learned in college that really premature babies, ones so little that they can't be held, are sometimes laid on their mothers chest to promote healing. Here is a quote from everything2.com that I just found about it
"Premature babies thrive when placed skin to skin on their mother or father's chest long before they are stable enough to feed. Often, they are still on a respirator when such "Kangaroo Care" is initiated. They settle down quickly into deeper REM sleep and use fewer calories crying and wiggling thus allowing for better growth."
Pretty cool huh? Well there is your random piece of knowledge for today! I just feel so blessed to have Neil. It meant so much to me that he took time from his really busy day to just hold me and help me feel better :)We finally got our house all put together! We have started hosting some leadership training meetings at our house so it gave us a deadline to finially get the last boxes unpacked. Here's a pic of our new bookshelves!

a quarter of a century

I told you I was excited, and for good reason too!  My day of turning 25 started with Neil waking me up and asking if I wanted to come eat breakfast that he had made for me :)  He also had me open a card and my first present which was a devotional book called "pure praise" for us to read through together!  I thought it was the perfect book for a worship pastor and his wife *smile* Then I headed off to work and had a good day of describing roosters and then I expected to come home and go to church. Originally I thought I had work till 5, a meeting at 5:30, set up at 6 and church at 7. Well on tuesday night one of the ladies I was going to meet with called and canceled, which I was glad about so that I wouldn't be so rushed getting from work to church.  Then I was able to leave work early on my birthday and when I got home, Neil was waiting for me with 25 pink roses!  Then he said, "here is the plan for tonight, I'm going to cook you dinner while you go get ready, then ... we'll open presents, I'm taking you to a movie and then out for dessert!" I was in shock that we weren't going to church!  Then I started piecing together the canceled meeting and realized he had masterminded that as well! Sneaky sneaky!

My favorite restaurant is Johnny Carino's, but they don't have that in Springfield, so Neil made me my favorite dish from there, baked cheese tortellini! 

 Yum it was so good!  He even set the table like an Italian restaurant would with a bread tray and olive oil with balsamic vinegar! 

 I tell you that boy is thoughtful! down to the smallest detail!  Like all of my presents were wrapped with pink, my roses were pink, my card was pink and my drink at dinner was pink!  He puts so much effort into making things special for me and it shows me so much that he loves me.  So then I opened the presents from his parents, which were this beautiful jade green Tahari shirt and 6 ocean themed Eddie Bauer charms! 

 I could hardly wait to wear them!  

They also got me a Parallel Bible which has two versions (NASB and The Message) side by side.  

I've been wanting one of those bc I really enjoy reading from the Message, but I want to be sure that it is accurate and that I am getting the correct interpretation of the text.  So this Bible is the perfect compromise!  

My parents got me some Bare Minerals make-up and some lotion I had been wanting!  I will celebrate with them when I visit in April. 

 I also got some beautiful cards from Mimi and Papa and my family and friends and oh my so many facebook messages!  I just really felt loved and blessed!  

Neil took me to see Bolt, the new Disney movie, it was cute :) he knows I love cartoons!

  Then we went to Cheddars for a Cookie Monster which was so delicious!

When we got home I opened my other present from him, a Bamboo!  No, not the plant, its a "notepad" for your computer.  It comes with a pen and an electronic tablet that you can draw or write on and it is directly connected to your computer!  I'm excited to use it to embellish photos and make all kinds of creative things that I couldn't do with a mouse :) 

 

Wow this was such a wonderful birthday!  The only was it could have been any better is if my family were with me too, I really missed them on this day in particular, but Neil and I had an amazing date and It was an incredible first married birthday!

St. Patty's Day

I love St. Patrick's Day!  Not only is it a friendly greeting the day before my birthday, but it is a welcome sign of spring and in my younger days, springbreak *sigh*  And it celebrates the color green, which in my opinion is far superior to other colors *grin* (my husband would tell you otherwise, but thats beside the point...)  Today I wore my "You Sham-rock my world" shirt and green socks and green eyes and Neil and I both put on a St. Patricks Day tattoo!  Thats one of my favorite things about Neil, he is so much fun and never too cool to join me in little things that make me happy *smile* Mine says Happy St. Patty's Day and Neil's is a little leprechaun.  He bought them for me for my birthday last year, and I was anticipating getting to wear them this year!  

Are you ready for my St. Patrick's Day joke?  What do you call an Irishman who stays out all night?

.....Patty O' Furniture! Hahaha! I love it.  An old man who was wearing an outfit that coordinated perfectly with his wife's told me that when I complimented them on their attire :)  and it wasn't even St. Patrick's day when he shared it with me, but I knew right then that he was my kind of people! lol  I'm excited for tomorrow, or whenever we celebrate my birthday because Neil keeps saying little things and dropping clues that he really has something neat planned!  He is always so thoughtful and makes me feel like a princess everyday, but especially on my birthday. What a man what a man what a mighty mighty good man *wink* 

Fish and Chips

The fish turned out GREAT!  Oh my it was the best fish I've ever had!  Neil is such a good cook; my own gourmet chef!

We had quite a time trying to fillet the fish, and I think we only salvaged about half the meat, but the part that was saved was so good!  Neil blackened it in the skillet.  We took it to out small group so that they could try it out too. Everyone liked it and we didn't have any leftovers :)

This is our beautiful small group (except for Justin... he is beautiful too, just absent haha)

Starting on the left, thats Jon and Amanda, then Neil and me, Kimberly (and Justin in spirit, look real close!), Keith and Nicole, and Scott and Christine.  Oh and thats Rory there in front of me *grin*  

We have such a fun time together!!  We have become fast friends and they have been a lifesaver during this time of transition, moving to Springfield.  I love them :)  

Catch of the Day

He made it back with a cooler full of fish, 9 to be exact! Neil caught 2, and he didn't want to throw them back, not when he had taken all the effort to wake up at the crack of dawn and stand out in the cold and rain to catch those two fish!  

So when he told the other guys that he was going to cook his fish, they decided that he could cook theirs too!

After watching several youtube videos on how to best clean and filet a rainbow trout, we decided we were ready.  

I started out strong; with my pepper apron I at least looked the part! *smile*  I cleaned half of one, and Neil did 8.5!  But I lended some moral support. 

Cleaning and Fish Cleaning

Well, here is our first blog post!  I was inspired to start a blog because of my sister Karen, who is constantly adding posts about her exciting everyday life!  I love to read them, so I decided that I could start one too, and let everyone who doesn't live in Missouri see a little bit more about our day to day adventures :)   

Neil woke up at O'dark thirty to go fishing with the guys!  He left at 5:30 and its 12:30 now, so 

I hope he is catching some good fish!  He asked me yesterday if I knew how to clean a fish! Haha, I got a good laugh from that one *grin*  Neil is the gourmet chef at our house, so he spent the evening looking up fish recipes.  I'll let you know how how it goes...

In the meantime I'm trying to get the house cleaned up before he gets home.  We had our small group over on Sunday evening and the house was PRISTINE.  I mean perfect!!  So it stayed that way on Monday and Tuesday morning, and then I got to thinking, how nice it would be to have the whole house so wonderfully clean! And that meant tackling our office which is actually a craft room, sewing room, music recording room and office!  So when Neil got home on tuesday the office had exploded and the living room was the main recipient of the damage :/  But it was well worth the week of wading through paper, feathers and glitter to get from the hall to the kitchen because now everything is (almost) organized!  It feels so nice!