Weekend at the Cabin

Jon and I spent this past Friday night and Saturday at my Pop-pop’s cabin in the Poconos, with 3 other couples: Nate & Shawna, Brian & Sarah and Ian & Ashley. We had a lot of fun hanging out, relaxing, playing games and more. Friday, I left work an hour early to go home, finish packing, and leave - you would have thought we were going for a whole week with the amount of stuff we had piled into my car. When we got to the cabin Nate & Shawna were already there and had started a fire outside for dinner.

Back when all of us girls planned the meals and decided we would cook hotdogs over the fire for dinner Friday night, we completely forgot that it would be freezing cold, dark and most likely snowy outside. There was at least 1½ to 2 feet of snow everywhere and it was bitter cold! While we were roasting our hotdogs, our fire - which was built on top of the snow - kept shifting as the snow melted underneath it.

Needless to say, with how cold it was, none of the girls stayed out very long. We came in right after eating and spent most of the night huddled around the wood stove inside the cabin. The guys, on the other hand, were outside around the fire talking for a few hours after we came in. When they finally did come in they realized that one of the doors had been left open, explaining why it wasn’t getting warm inside and the girls and I were still around the wood stove and still chilled :). We all stayed up talking till after midnight that night. I got some scrapbooking done too, while we were talking.

Saturday we all slept in and had a late breakfast of pancakes and sausage. We spent the rest of the morning into the afternoon playing card games and I got in some more scrapbooking. By mid-afternoon Jon, Ian and Nate got antsy from being inside all day and headed out to shoot a few guns. It was a while later that they called saying they had taken Ian’s truck and it was stuck in the snow! It took them the rest of the night – with a break for dinner – till 10 something to get it out. They didn't think they were going to get it out.

We got home Saturday night a little after midnight. It was so nice to be in my warmer house :).

Yesterday (Sunday) Jon and I went on a mini shopping spree with the intention of finding clothes for our trip to Germany next week. We found a few things but not all that we were hoping to find. We might have to go again.

We're leaving next Sunday for Germany with Jon's parents and will be gone until the following Monday (the 12th). I'm really looking forward to the time away and to touring Germany. I've never been to Europe before and we're going to Germany, Austira and Bulgaria (i think... :)). We'll also be visiting some of Jon's extended family that live over there. Normally I would be half way packed by now for a week long trip... I haven't even started! haha

Alright, I think we're leaving to go on a date to Starbucks in a few minutes so I need to post this and get going.

Here is a picture of everyone:

New Layout

Sarah Changed her post layout and inspired me to change mine as well :). It's still under construction a bit but I'm liking it more already.

I'm 22!

I'm finally getting a chance to write about my birthday, valentines day, and the rest of last week's adventures and discoveries :). Jon's extremely busy with school projects for his finals coming up, so he's been upstairs all day working on one of his projects and that's where he is right now. The week or so before finals I don't see him very much usually :(. We just ate dinner - egg sandwiches and pork roll - about 30 minutes ago and it's 9:00 pm now! ha

So anyway, about my birthday - last Tuesday I turned 22, yikes! I was at work all day and when I came home I was surprised with a cake, balloons, flowers and gifts on the kitchen table waiting for me. Jon made the cake all by himself and had just finished icing it while I was on my way home - talking his ear off over the phone - I had no idea he was trying to ice a cake while I was talking to him :)

Here's what I saw when I got home:

I was so surprised Jon had actually baked a cake! Isn't that so cute!!! :) He's so sweet. And it tasted good too!The flowers and balloons were from Jon's parents. First I got to open my gifts - a PINK DS Lite with a PINK case and Diddy Kong Racing to go with it. That's one of my all-time favorite video games since when I was little :).

After I opened my gifts we drove to Jim's Buffet to get take-out Chinese food... YUMMY! :) Then we came back and hung out at home the rest of the night. We played Diddy Kong Racing together, watched a CSI episode and just had fun enjoying each others company. It was a nice relaxing night.

Our first married Valentine's Day was perfect! We got snowed-in together all day! Jon's school got canceled and he had found out the day before that he didn't have to work. I was originally going to try and go in to work around 10:00 but the weather didn't get too much better and about half the other people I work with weren't going in so I stayed home too. We had another really relaxing day at home and for dinner I decorated with cute candles and hearts and we had a nice candle-lit dinner. After dinner we watched a few of the videos from our wedding and reception. That was really neat! We hadn't watched them since we got married so Valentine's Day was a great day to remember and re-live our wedding day :). We both had written each other letters which we exchanged too. Jon's made me cry - it was so sweet!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention... On my birthday I also found out I am anemic! I'm actually sorta excited to learn that I have a medical condition that is curable and that's symptoms include always being tired and cold. Those are two things I defiantly am, and I'm hoping that once my doctor figures out the root cause of my anemia, and tells me how to treat it, that I won't be as cold and tired all the time! But for now, it's a good excuse to get Jon to turn the heat up! ;) He's already caught on though. hehe!

Thursday when I came home there was another bouquet of flowers on the table for me! This time they were from my love... 12 light pink roses!!! They're sooo cute and they're still alive and looking well today. He knew I wanted to be able to have my flowers at work so I could enjoy them more (since most of the time I'm at work anyway). So he got me the roses to take to work. Which I did on Friday, but then brought them back home to enjoy over the weekend.

Friday afternoon I left work and took Kelsey to the doctors office and then to Grand View's Outpatient center to get x-rays. She had fallen while snowboarding on my birthday and her wrist was still hurting her, so I said I'd take her to the doctors to get it looked at. My parents were on a cruise - I'm jealous after all this cold weather :) - so they weren't around to take Kels. In the end she didn't have anything broken but we were both glad that we knew nothing was wrong instead of wondering and not knowing.

Saturday I spent most of my day cleaning and organizing around the house and cooking, while Jon worked on his final projects. We had Scott & Joann Heebner over for lunch on Sunday so I made spaghetti sauce on Saturday and we had spaghetti when they came over. Jon enjoyed adding his special ingredients to the sauce while I was cooking. He likes to make me nervous when he starts adding all kinds of things to whatever I'm making. This time it came out good! :)

RESULTS

The Rebelution just launched the results of their massive Modesty Survey! Over 1,600 Christian guys answered questions on everything from glitter lotion and lip gloss to swimsuits and skirt slits! For you girls, it's everything you've ever wanted to ask guys about modesty, but were afraid to ask! For you guys, it's really interesting to see what other Christian guys think!

Most importantly, the survey is presented as a resource to help Christian girls (and guys), not a list of legalistic rules, and it is accompanied by the Modesty Survey Petition (which tons of guys have signed) which encourage young women to focus on the heart, not the hemline, to honor their parents, etc.

Go check it out: Here

Modesty Survey

I just added a link to the "Modesty Survey" for anyone interested - see the side bar on this page, you won't miss it. It is from the Rebelution Blog by Alex & Brett Harris. They conducted a survey of 1500+ christian guys on the topic of modesty and will be releasing the results tomorrow (Valentine's Day). I'll be doing an entry tomorrow with a link directly to the results. I think the survey is a great idea and will be an amazing resource for all of us who are trying to honor God, as well as all the men in our lives, with the way we dress. Spread the word!

Grocery List Document is Available

The link to my grocery list is now working in my last post. Check it out! The only thing is, I couldn't get the formatting of my grocery list to show up right. The way you'll see it, the list just keeps going down but in my document I have 4 columns so the whole thing fits on one page.

I'm still alive :)

Wow! It’s been a while since I blogged. There just hasn’t been anything too interesting going on :). We bought a laptop this past Wednesday - after shopping around for a few days and doing research to make sure we were getting a good one. It has the new Windows Operating system (Vista) on it which is REALLY cool! I’m still getting use to how different it is. The laptop will double as my computer since mine has been acting up and we’re getting rid of it.

I’ve been spending a good amout of time going through all kinds of food and cooking magazines I had stored up. I was quickly going through and ripping out any recipes I want to try. Now I have a pile of recipes and need to sort through them and start planning a few meals. I have yet to even start going through all my cookbooks and picking out recipes I want to try – that will prolly be a while from now.

Ever since I started keeping a blog I’ve also been keeping up with other blogs (see the links on the right column of my blog homepage). The Girl Talk Blog – By Carolyn Mahaney and her 3 married daughters: Nicole, Kristin & Janelle – has been doing a mini-series on meal times, meal preparation, grocery shopping, etc. This series came in prefect timing for me since recently I’ve been thinking a lot and working on all these areas; trying to find some way to make full, more nutritious meals for Jon and I, even with our busy schedule. Last night while grocery shopping I used an idea another Girl Talk reader submitted: as I was going through the store I made a list – aisle by aisle - of everything I like to keep on hand and use regularly. Then I typed it all into a Word document in the same order I make my way through the grocery store. Here’s a link to see my new "grocery list" – it’s not completely fool-proof yet but it’s a start. I plan to print one of these every week and hang it on the fridge so when I run out of something I can just check it off. Then when I go to the grocery store I’ll have my complete list, in the order I shop. I’m hoping this will help me not forget things and also make my shopping trips much quicker.

Tonight and tomorrow afternoon Jon and I are babysitting our favorite little friends: Hailey, Justin and Sydney. It’ll be great now that we have a laptop, I can take it with me and get some things done while the kids are playing or taking naps. I’m hoping to create a weekly meal plan and a budget/bill paying system on Saturday - Jon has some things to do during the day so I’ll be alone with the kids for a good amount of time.

So anyway, other than that, nothing much has been going on.