(M)orning

Good Monday morning. I have sort of been unavailable in the blog world this month and I apologize for that. I still have a lot of photos I want to add, but never get a chance too. I still don't have a lot of time this morning, but I wanted to share a little personal note for the day (who knows, maybe the week or month at the rate I've been going with the blog lately).

For Zach's birthday I got him the latest 2 cd's that the band, Mae, has put out: (M)orning and (A)fternoon - soon they will have an (E)vening album as well. We had listened to the album a couple of times, but yesterday while we were in our car on the way back from visiting Zach's family, I pulled out the lyrics to one of the songs, and I just couldn't get over how amazing they were, just absolutely beautiful. Zach was having a hard time hearing them while they were singing, so after the song played, I read the lyrics to them. As I got towards the end of the song I began tearing up. It's been a while since I've really felt God's presence and it was just amazing to me that in that moment, while reading some lyrics to a song, that I really felt like this was how I wanted every morning to feel. Like every day is a choice. God gives me the choice to be here and to make everyday what I want to make of it and for that I am so grateful. We have a lot going on this year and it makes me joyful and loved to know that God wants me to decide every morning what to do.

Night/Day

by Mae

I've been dreaming such a long time

And I've been waiting for the sunshine

But all my friends they say I'm getting by with sleeping in

They say I'm sleeping in

You know whenever I try I want to get it right

But I distract my focus and blur my own sight

Cause I've convinced myself that my best can only come in the moonlight

And I keep sleeping in

I keep on sleeping in

And missing something

(Close your eyes before the daylight breaks)

There are things about me I just can't ignore

I know I want to change and I see that door

On the other side daylight decides there will be war with sleeping in

Oh, I know they'll be no more sleeping in

I wait, I wait, I wait only in jest

I wait, I wait, I wait with no need to rest I wait

The day, the day, the day will come again, I say

A ray of light can only get in if I say

I've been putting off this purification a rebirth

and a regeneration inside of me

And I've been saying for far too long

even though something brand new is coming out of me

I'm going to wake up, wake up every morning and then decide

I'm going to wake up, wake up every morning and make it mine

Rain or shine

I wake, I wake, I wake and greet the day

The light is on the change is made I can see my way

The day, the day, this day has come again

Each ray of light will make its way into the core of me

I always knew that I was missing something

I know this time that I will leave nothing up to chance

And in the wake of this brand new day I see the light

and I feel the sun and I'll do it all again tomorrow

Fisheye

For my birthday Zach got me a fisheye/wide angel/micro lense for my camera. It is probably the best addition yet to the camera, it takes such fun photos and adds some humor to our personal photos. More posts about or birthdays soon, but enjoy some fun fisheye photos below from our Birthday weekend in STL!

 

 

Family Visits KC!

This is going to be a long post so watch out. In March, most of my family came and visited Kansas City and we spent the weekend doing fun stuff around the city. The main thing that encouraged the visit was the Copeland farewell concert in Lawrence. Which turned out to be a great way to get to know my younger sister's new boyfriend, Koji. He's been really great for Erin. He's from France originally and has lived in the states with his parents for the last 3 years. He's going to start college at Webster in the fall and i just a great kid all around.

Pics from the show.

Us with Ace Enders from I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody's Business

We really enjoyed the show. My favorite as I knew it would be was Ace Enders. This guy is a genious. And looks a little like Michael Cera...

The next day my older sister and her bf and my niece, my cousin Carrie and her kids and all of us met out at the Plaza and had lunch and just goofed around like we typically do.

 

 

 

     

Later that night we headed to T-Rex Restaurant and had a yummy dinner. Their food is so greasy and delicious.

 

The next we visited the Nelson Atkins and had a FREAK snow storm. That night we played some fun games at my cousin's and then drove back to our house and ended the weekend with a car accident. Everyone is okay, and my mom now has a new car out of the whole situation, which she loves. But it definitly made me hate winters in Kansas City even more!

Friday Fav

Today my favorite thing is

VALENTINE'S DAY!

yes, I admit, I love this holiday.

Before I used to think it was just a stupid corporate card holiday, but now that I am older and understand what an amazing thing LOVE is, I just think it's so great that there is a holiday to remind us how important it is to be thankful for the loved ones in your life and for the simpleness of understanding what we learned in sunday school that GOD is LOVE. :) So this post is dedicated to a few people in my life who I love and am so grateful for, there are so many more than are just in this post!

My cool friends

My buddy - yes, that's what we call each other. 

(This girls is an amazing person.)

 

My best friend from high school

 My awesome bro.

  

My beautiful sisters

  

Cutest niece in the world.

My Amazing parents

And crazy family in general

And my hubby - the love of my life (besides Jesus).

 

 

Sorry for the long post. Happy early Valentines Day. Don't forget that LOVE really does make the world a better place....

Job searching continues...

But at least he is looking good doing it! Zach had an interview this week for a recruiting position at a university here in town and he should have another interview next week for another job. We are really hoping that one of these will finally be the one! For those of you that don't know, Zach graduated with his masters last May and has seriously gone on like 20 interviews for jobs- not even an exaggeration. The field is just too narrow and there are too many people applying for the same positions. Well hopefully these latest two will just see how handsome he is all freshly shaven and with a nice haircut and new tie (a Christmas gift from his wonderful wife) and that'll just put him over the top. :)

He stayed in his suit until I came home at lunch, just so I could see him!

I love him.

 And am so grateful for every year more we've spent together.

Us at Zach's stepsister's wedding 2 weeks ago.

Our bowling date on our anniversary.

He love it, so does the kids behind him...

 Yummy anniversary dinnner (blurry photo...)

Our little family!

We love eachother :)

Can you tell?

Marshmallows + Puppies = Merry Christmas!

Towards the end of last week Zach had some fun in the kitchen and made homemade marshmallows and hot cocoa for us to give as gifts. I think he got his recipe from Alton Brown. Although, I can be too sure...

This is what the marshmallows looked like while they set over night in the pan. We tested out some toasted coconut toppings and red and green swirls.

From there we cut them up...

And them put them into little bags with the hotcocoa and some cute tags that I designed! ( I had to help somehow!)

These were passed out to our friends and family this weekend in Zach's hometown of Nevada, Mo. We are going to make a second batch to handout to my family in St. Louis this weekend.

Now just for fun are a few phots from this last weekend with Boston and Millie (Zach's Mom's dog: a pug-a-poo).

Pretty much sums up their friendship.

When we got home Boston got a haircut.

Such a handsome little fellow!

Hope you all are enjoying time spent with family this week! Remember the reason for the season, Merry Christmas!