29!

we celebrated the day of my birth by....going to church!  john taught at family fusion (the service for families geared toward their kids) and steph and sarah allison came!

john and i went to a sushi restaurant for lunch.  i took a nap that afternoon, then we went to dinner with the allison's at a chinese restaurant.

john bought me these rockin winter boots for my bday!  (thanks for the website, bec!)

i came down from my nap that afternoon, and jill had made me a cake!  so sweet!

it was an all around great birthday weekend!

surprise trip today

well, first, i thought i'd recap the last few days before i get to the "good stuff."

wednesday, i went to joann's fabrics with bonnie (i had coffee & pop overs with her one morning not long ago) and i finally found the perfect fabric to line the inside of my knitted laptop case.  bonnie knows how to sew and has a sewing machine, so i'm pumped about getting this thing finished.

that night, the student ministry at calvary videoed an interview with john answering questions about what he loves about me.  aww, right?  :-)  they are putting on a conference in november for girls ages 14 - 24, and it's all about de-emphasizing what the world's standards are for being beautiful.  so they are putting together a video of married men talking about what attracted them to their wives.  after that, we went to the midweek worship service for the first time.  john will be on the teaching rotation and i will be on the worship team rotation for that service.

thursday, we looked at another rental house. uck.

friday night, we went over to the parmer's house (i had lunch with sarah on monday) and had pizza with them and the dougherty's.  jim taught us how to play monopoly deal (monopoly card game) and then learned how to play settlers of katan, which is apparently pretty popular.  we had lots of fun.

SO, today...we sleep in til 10, i throw on a tshirt and gym shorts, eat breakfast, start knitting, and john suggests that we take a trip. so i throw on some tennis shoes and grab my knitting (thank the Lord - it was a long drive) and we get on the road.  an hour later, we pass this sign...

on this stretch, john got flipped the bird by someone for the first time.  hahaha.  we responded like anyone would...we prayed for him.  hahahahaahahaha.  i love my husband!

the nj turnpike has really neat service areas every once in a while that are just like rest stops but have a gas station and some food places, so we stopped and got lunch...

nathan's is the hot dog place that puts on the eating competition every year in coney island.  it was delicious (and EXPENSIVE).

we continued on our way...me still having no idea where we're going...

i noticed how close we were getting to the airport and then my mind starts running like - o my gosh, did john fly a family member in or something?!  he didn't, but that's okay.  :-)

that would be the statue of liberty, ladies and gentlemen.  i was freaking out.  all i could think was - I CANNOT BELIEVE WE LIVE UP HERE!

view from a bridge we were crossing.  i was still freaking out.  and really did when we passed a sign welcoming us to hoboken (i couldn't get my camera ready in time - i was so mad).  the only reason i've ever heard of hoboken is because i watch cake boss on tlc and their bakery is located there.

 this is us driving by - looking for somewhere to park.

this is us standing in line to get in the doors.  we were there in line for about 20 minutes.  wasn't nearly as long as i expected.  once inside, it was sooo crowded.  we only recognized 1 person from the tv show.  madeline, buddy's sister, who is married to mauro and has the terribly irritating son also named buddy.  so, we got our order and walked 3 blocks down to the hudson river to find a bench on which to eat our goodies.

i got a cupcake, and john got a vanilla and a chocolate cannoli. delicious!

the view across the hudson of new york city from left to right...

 tomorrow's my 29th birthday!!!

2010 Dinner Tour comes to an end

Tour dates and locations
Tuesday, Sept. 14 - The Krikory's (young adult couple in charge of the young adult abf)
Wednesday, Sept. 15 - The Peazzoni's (John's admin. asst.)
Thursday, Sept. 16 - The Bauer's (Stan helped with the young adult Sunday night service)
Friday, Sept. 17 -  The Lorusso's (along with their young adult small group)
Saturday, Sept. 18 - Pig Roast @ Quakertown Memorial Park (put on by our young adults)
Sunday, Sept. 19 - Brian Schmoyer & friends (John's co-worker in charge of campus services)
Monday, Sept. 20 - The Ashby's (Jamie is Brian's asst. & Tom teaches the young adult abf)

it really was great fun, but there were so many nights that it was so hard to make ourselves leave the tarr's house because all we wanted to do was lay around and relax and not have to be sociable.

i had a pretty eventful week during the days too.  wednesday morning, i went over to the fink's house and drank coffee and ate pop overs (i think it's a PA thing) with bonnie and we talked til noon.  thursday morning, i helped a friend organize her closet, then john and i looked at a rental house, then i babysat judson again.  friday morning, i talked to becca on skype for 3 hours. 

saturday, john and i went shopping for 80s outfits for the concert that we were going to that night.  we met up with ted (for those of you who don't know him - he lived in covington for 3 years working with habitat for humanity, and the week we found out that we got the job at calvary, he told us he was going to grad school in philly!).  we went to the pig roast where john ate pig brains...

yes, this pig that was obviously crying as it was slaughtered...and john had a fork full of his brains.  excuse me while i barf.

that evening, we met up with 8 more people and went into the city to the trocadero to see the legwarmers play, an 80s tribute band.  john, ted, and i were the only ones in our group to dress up (although majority of the crowd was indeed dressed up), but we really only dressed up the upper halves of our bodies.

i didn't have the guts to wear my high waist pleated acid wash shorts with my black stirrup pants and scrunch down socks.  i'm kinda mad at myself for not doing it. john's undershirt was sleeveless, and ted's jacket was umbro.  pretty 80s sweetness.

they were really good.  john made a friend next to him named john who had to be almost 7 feet tall.  he was enormous, drunk, and a very emphatic dancer.  his long arms were like a wrecking ball being swung around.

before friends

after friends

we got in bed at 3 am.  sunday, we had lunch at the hange's house then went to see another rental house.

yesterday, we peeked in the windows of another rental house (we are going today at 4:30 to actually see it).  i had lunch with my new friend, sarah parmer.  she's adorable and awesome.  then i went grocery shopping and then jill helped me make a chocolate chip bundt cake (thanks for the recipe, julie trauth) & took it over to the ashby's, who we were having dinner with last night.  we came home and caught the saints game just before halftime, and i stayed up all by myself watching it til the end.   that's what you call a true fan.  :-)

slow couple of days...sorta

i'll tell you what...in the month we've been up here, we've had more nice weather days (70s with low low humidity) than louisiana has all year long. loving it!

yesterday from 11 -1, i watched judson for erica while she went to have an ultrasound.  i shocked myself with how well i played with him.  i don't make believe very well and don't have much of an imagination when it comes to playing with kids, but with him, all i had to do was push a truck around and make noises as i ran it into his truck and he just laughed and laughed.  then i chased him with his toy vacuum cleaner, and he was laughing so hard he could barely breathe.  it was so cute.  i, then, went to michael's and bought some yarn and a big button to go on this one scarf that i just finished knitting.  i'll have to post a pic of it if i can remember to do so.  i got stuck behind a big rig carrying pigs on the way home.  it literally smelled like the inside of my car was smeared with feces.  never in my life...o my.  anyway, had dinner with the tarr's then watched the season finale of 'the closer' and 'rizzoli and isles'.  i have a feeling we'll be making a habit of staying up later being the eastern time zone with shows we like coming on at 10 at night.  the news comes on at 11!  insanity.

today, i stayed home all day working on the computer and doing laundry.  we had dinner at a young adult couples' home tonight along with another couple.  we actually have dinner plans for every night through monday.  pretty crazy!  i'm telling you...the people up here are amazing!

i'm working on taking pictures to make a picture post about "things that you don't see in louisiana."  it should be interesting, as long as i can get pics of everything that i want.

in a nutshell...

wednesday - i hung out with becka (the one from dallas).  we went shopping for paint and cabinet hardware.  it was fun, of course, for me because i love that stuff.  i also hung up the remainder of john's office art pieces. 

thursday - i hung around the house during the day and did a little reading.  that night i had worship practice for 2 and a half hours then came home and caught the 2nd half of the saints game.  go saints! 

friday - i went into the office with john, and we wrote letters to the ukrainian kids who had given us their addresses and printed out pictures of us and them (mostly john and them).  that night, we went to the young adult bible study.

saturday - we were originally planning on going with some people from the young adult abf up to the pocono's to go rafting, but when we realized that it was literally going to be an ALL day thing, we decided we'd rather take it easy instead.  so, i got up and went to the peach festival in harleysville with erica and her 2 yr old, judson.  we stayed for about 2 hours.  it felt great in the shade but was hot in the sun.  the only thing "peach" there were peach pies that were for sale for $10.  kinda anti-climactic.  ha.  anyway, we tried to get judson to jump in a spacewalk for kids 5 yrs and under, but he wouldn't budge an inch once he was in there.  he was so stinkin cute (i think his blazing red hair has something to do with it - the cuteness, i mean...not the being scared to jump in the spacewalk).  then as erica was going to climb in with him (let me remind you that she's 8 months pregnant), a little girl jumped and fell over on him which in turn knocked him out of the spacewalk and into erica's arms.  THEN, at the petting zoo area, an enormous turkey tried to take his fingers off.  haha, poor guy couldn't catch a break.  we took a hayride, got some chick-fil-a, and left.  john and i relaxed for the rest of the evening.

today - john preached in the main service and did a fantastic job.  i got to play and sing with the worship band, and i had a blast!!  seriously, they're some of the most fun people i've ever met.  i love it.  after the service, we had a little reception thingy for young adults to come and meet john and eat pizza.  can i just say that i am so tired of meeting people?!  i mean, i'll keep doing it cuz that's what i gotta do, but man, i'm worn out!  we were invited by 3 different groups of people to go watch the eagles football game with this afternoon, but we were way too exhausted to even think about going so we declined.  however, we did go with the tarr's just down the road to eat dinner with some people from the church who cooked burgers, so that was nice but came straight home afterwards and relaxed.

there ya go.

john's office pics

before

after

some closer-ups...

back at the tarr's

we've had a busy past few days.

forgot to say that thursday night after our frustrating visit to the realtor's office, we had dinner with brent (the main guy who interviewed john for the job - he's the guy over all the student ministries) and his family.  it was actually great that we did that because it got our minds off of all that junk that made us late getting over there.

sunday morning, for whatever reason (hormones, i think), i was on the verge of tears all stinkin morning.  i was pretty down about the attempting-to-buy-a-house situation, and man, i just couldn't shake it or hide it very well, which was frustrating because i didn't feel like talking about it or crying in front of anyone that morning.  so, the first person we run into at church that morning was donna
     (sidenote about donna:  her office shares a wall with john's - she's tiny and italian - she's taken on the role as "mom" for us - her requirement for john's office couch was for it to be long enough for her to lay down on, in which i said that a loveseat should suffice for that :-) - last week i was in john's office telling someone that i wanted to go to michael's to buy some canvases to make art for john's wall, and in walks donna who hands me a michael's gift card and lets me know that she really doesn't make a habit of eavesdropping - anyway, you get the point, she's adorable and awesome).
     SO, she was very tough running into that morning because i know how much she cares about us, and she totally saw straight through my fake smile and greeting.  i did a good job keeping myself composed while telling her what was weighing on me.  so, anyway, we went to church then swung by a soft pretzel shop and picked up 2 dozen mini-pretzels with cheese sauce and hot mustard sides and went to our ABF's picnic down the road.  i talked to becka and her husband justin the whole time.  becka is from dallas (grapevine), so we were immediate friends.  we're actually hanging out tomorrow.  john pointed it out, and he's so right - becka reminds us so much of anna fadell.  <3  they're both little and have long, voluminous dirty blonde hair, and have lots of personality.  those two have to meet.

john had fantasy football draft with the other guys on staff that afternoon, so i came back to the tarr's and reunpacked all my stuff and relaxed all evening.

labor day, we went to ikea to look for a couch for john's office and didn't have any luck because everything was too expensive (imagine that!).  our budget for it was severely low to be able to purchase a brand new black leather couch, so i'd been looking on craigslist.  i found one for a fantastic price located in central city philly, so john and i borrowed a friend's truck and drove down there last night at 8pm, liked it, paid for it, loaded it, drove it, unloaded it, cleaned it out, put throw pillows on it, returned the truck, and went home and went to bed.  before all that, though, we had dinner with the supp's (jeff is john's direct supervisor or whatever you call it) and the reed's (matt is the pastor/director/whatever over all adult ministries and what not - his office is directly across from john's).

i'm doing laundry this morning and will eventually make it up to john's office to hang the art over the couch and take my "after" pictures!  woo hoo!  john's office - DONE.

house update

ok, so, we ended up NOT putting in an offer on the awesome house that i really want.  it was the first time we saw actual numbers as far as financing goes, and we were uncomfortable with what we saw.  so, we don't know what we're gonna do but are completely trusting that God is in control.  i am totally willing to set aside what i want in order to get what God has for us.  it's hard, but that's how i prefer to live life.

we got bumped from the tarr's house this weekend because they have family in for the weekend.  we are staying with the brown's, and they are just as wonderful as the tarr's.  yesterday, i helped the tarr's decorate for their newly wed son and daughter-in-law's east coast reception at the church.  i then got lunch from mr. b's, which is the coffee shop/lunch/play place in calvary.  i sat out on the patio, ate, updated the contacts in my phone, and filed my nails and enjoyed it so much.  it felt great outside and was so peaceful.  that night, we went to the friday night bible study again like we do every week.

today, we went tubing on the delaware river.

we went with some young adults, and it was pretty fun.  we hooked together, so it was nice not having to paddle the whole time.  the weather is incredible today but not incredible for tubing.  it's sunny with some cooler winds (from the hurricane, maybe?), so i was pretty darn chilly.  john was fascinated that on one side of the river was new jersey and pennsylvania on the other.

the brown's cooked dinner for us tonight.  so sweet.  we are exhausted.

i forgot to say in the last post - monday evening, we went by an at&t store to look at phones (john's having to switch carriers to be on the same network as everyone else on staff), then he walked next door to get a haircut at supercuts.  i decided to go to the car & knit.  on my way there i saw a big truck backing into a parking space with an LSU front license plate and immediately i knew i had to talk to him.  he did indeed graduate from lsu and had moved up here 2 and a half years ago, blah, blah, blah, talked for like 5 minutes when i finally got around to telling him john's name and it turns out that john graduated from mandeville high with him!  what in the world are the chances of that!  seriously.  about that time john walked out of supercuts, and we had a little mini-highschool reunion.  it was great.  AND he & his wife go to calvary.  weird!

tuesday, john made a trip into philly to pick up 2 ikea stools for his office that we bought from a girl on craigslist.  they will serve as a "coffee table" and can also be dragged over to the opposite side of john's desk to be used for seating.  while he was doing that, i went out with the realtor & looked at houses & vetoed all of them.  i then made a trip to homegoods & found the PERFECT artwork for john's office walls.  i was SO pumped and then was totally deflated when i got back to the office and found out that some of the guys on the staff were making fun of john's office for being "girly."  Ugh!  haha.  turns out they were just picking on him, so i reassured john that they were just jealous that their offices weren't as stylish as his.  :-)

tuesday evening, we had another little mini-reunion at mcdonalds with kevin watterson.  for those of you who don't know him, he's lived in pennsylvania for forever but moved down to covington to work with disaster response for katrina a few years ago.  we talked for a long time - it was great!

update on house hunting:  we have zeroed in one in particular.  steve robert and david fuller will be glad to know that it's the one they voted for!  woo hoo!  it's the one i voted for too!  yesterday, we saw it for a second time and brought a builder, who goes to calvary, with us (who, by the way, has been down to covington and done tons of work with katrina relief and totally knows all the EFCA people - crazy!!!).  we wanted to just make sure that he didn't see any red flags (the house is over 100 years old), and we also wanted an idea of how much certain improvements would cost (i.e. central air installation).  anyway, the walkthrough went great, and we're going to make an offer today after lunch! woo hoo!

ok, now for the serious part...we need to sell the thorn in our side (condo).  prayers are appreciated!  thank you!