Celebrating Life:

So this week has been birthday week for our family of 2--Jared's birthday on Monday and mine yesterday. My parents left town on Tuesday to spend the week with my brother and his family, so we decided to celebrate with them on Sunday (which worked perfectly with my plan of celebrating my birthday for as many days as possible). Jared and I went on a great bikeride Sunday morning after attending 1st service at church--the weather was awesome! When my parents got back from church (side note, Jared and I finally took down mom and dad's christmas lights while they were gone...we didn't want to be that house anymore), we decided to go to lunch downtown at a new place we hadn't tried called the Steelhead Grill. It was fantastic food, and we decided that Jared and I want to live there we love the decor so much. Anyways, we then decided to try to find a place for dessert and drove way south, went by a golf course that had a driving range right into this lake, and we decided we needed to get our golf swing on since dad had his clubs in the trunk! After some nice hits--especially by mom--we continued our venture for dessert which led us to the Davenport hotel downtown---it was awesome AND they gave Jared and I our dessert for free since it was our b-day-NO ONE does that anymore, so we were especially appreciative.
On the way home we stopped at Auntie' Bookstore to browse around for a while--upstairs there was a live band playing, and they played the theme song from O Brother Where Art Thou, which I love for some odd reason.
After heading home, we all went off to workout together at Anytime Fitness since Jared and I had a free week's pass and made it home in time to watch Amazing Race together! We had a fantastic time with them!

On Monday I wanted to do something special for Jared, so immediately after I got out of my subbing job, I went to Just American Desserts and picked up a white chocolate cheesecake for Jared, along with a picnic dinner of his favorite things. When he arrived home, we hopped in the car and went down to Riverside state park where we walked around, ate our dinner, and just enjoyed spending time together.

Yesterday I had to open at work, and then decided I should not have to do my own hair on my birthday, so I got it cut, and when I came home my fabulous now 26 year old husband had a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting on the counter for me:) We met up for lunch later on during the day and I went to youth group last night while he was in class--maybe not the most eventful birthday ever, but still great.

Saturday we are having a big LOST party here at the house-I don't even remember the last time I had a birthday party!! It's strange how every year older I get, the more aware I become of who I'm allowing the Lord to make me. My prayer this year is that through all of my life experiences, that the Lord would increase in me and I would decrease. I'm so thankful for all of our family and friends who either called us or gave us a card, or were just kind and thoughtful to us as we celebrate this week. We are so blessed!
~Angela M.

Another Year

Another year older
Another year smarter
Another year of life experience
Another year of laughter
Another year of drawing closer to God
Another year of loving
Another year of Joy
Another year of challenges
Another year to grow
Another year to dance
Another year to laugh
Another year to change
Another year to become more like Jesus
Another year to share love
share life
share joy
share peace
share patience
share dreams
share hope

I'm so thankful for another year, I think 28 sounds pretty cool.

~Angela M.

SUGAR FAST

So many of you know Jared and I did the Daniel Fast for a month before Incredible Easter this year--good times and great discipline. What I may not have shared is that since Dec. 31 I have not had any sugar* and decided not to have any until my birthday-which is this coming Wednesday. I have done a fast like this before, but never for this long. I have been so proud of myself for resisting the urge to eat cookie, candy, ice cream and anything else scrumptious. I really feel like if I have had the discipline to do this, I can discipline myself to do about anything!
To break my fast, my friend Charese has offered to make an ice cream cake for our birthday party!!! I can't wait for that first delious sugary bite!!!

*I have had natural sugars and honey-but honestly come on, it's a pretty big deal in America to give up all the stuff I did!

~Angela M.

Bloomsday is Coming!!!!

Since my parents told me they did Bloomsday last year, I have really wanted to do it. I planned on registering really early and training for months beforehand. Well, today was one of the last few days to register for the early bird price...and Jared and I decided to sign up! The race is about 7.5 miles...and neither of us have been running (although I did run 3 miles with Mariah last week). So the race is on May 3...I think it's 3 weeks away. We better start training...yesterday.
~Angela M.

Incredible Easter Miracle!!!


I love Amazing Easter. It is probably the best day of my life every year. And this year, not only did Jesus rise from the grave (again), I had a little Stupendid Easter Miracle happen.

For about the last 5 months I have been missing 2 very important things. My ipod (which I had gotten for free from my bank in Michigan), and my car keys (so we were down to 1 set-not very convenient). I had searched through every purse and bag I own, and could not find them anywhere. I re-traced my steps months ago and came up with nothing. I knew they had to be around somewhere...but where!?!?

Yesterday as I was running out the door for church, I grabbed my brown jacket thinking to myself "self, it's kind of cold out today, grab this brown jacket."
As we arrived at the church, I put my jacket on. (it was cold memember?) I of course kept the jacket on once I got into the sanctuary/auditorium since that is always the coldest room ever...and stuck my hands in the pockets...

IT WAS A FABULOUS EASTER MIRACLE!!!! In one pocket was my ipod, and in the other were my keys!!!! I announced to the rest of the music team what an Amazing Easter miracle it was, and they all raised their voices in praise to God! (ok, maybe they were singing the song we were rehearsing, but I'd like to think they were as happy as I to find them.)

The end.


~Angela M.

Florida Update:



Well Jared and I arrived home last night around 11:30 p.m. (and yes I did open at work at 4:30 am....yes I'm tired)We had the greatest time in Florida with our dear friends the Crydo clan. Here are a few pics of our travels!


~Angela M.