Archives for December 2006

There’s just something about RELAXING with family!

December 28, 2006 by Maren 10 Comments

It’s back to work today…RELUCTANTLY. The Break was SO nice! There’s just something to be said about relaxing for the weekend, eh? Nothing on the agenda–NICE! This is what we all look like as we relaxed throughout the holidays, but my dog does it best.

We opened gifts (or picked them from the tree)…

Worked a 3-D puzzle…

Made Sugar Cookies (Krista’s recipe is DELICIOUS!)…

Played Games… Settlers, Scrabble, Draw 2

Michael went hog-wild with the camera…

eBayed and worked on the computer…

Talked to our Bro and Sis-in-law in China! (R&L–Dad’s already bought a webcam and new and improved microphone. LOL! I looked for you online to try it out, but didn’t see you…)

Annoyed the younger brother who was on the last few pages of his book…

Ate…or at least, SOME OF US DID…

It’s always amazing how fast the breaks go, but, oh, how nice they are! Griffin & Sterling left the day after Christmas to go to the Urbana Conference. I’m glad they got to go, but missed them for the final day we were in Indy…

So, I’m back at work today, REFRESHED! We head back up to Indy Saturday morning for Michael’s family’s Christmas. His parents live in Ohio, and siblings live in Indiana, so we’re all rendezvousing in Indianapolis for Christmas #2.

Happy New Year!

So, you wanna come to Encounter?

December 20, 2006 by Maren 13 Comments

Tonight was an adrenaline-filled evening.

Goal: To pass out invitations to our Christmas Eve Service.

Method: To place business size card invitations on the windows of driver-side doors.

Reason: It usually doesn’t result in very high yields, but we have seen some results from it.

So here’s what went down.

It started out pretty normal. We go to J-Town Bingo and start passing out invitations. Michael, Kerry, and I are having a fine time passing out the invitations, chatting away as we pass out our invites.

We’re almost through, I’m several cars away from the guys when I hear, “FREEZE…GET YOUR HANDS UP…GET YOUR HANDS UP!” I turn to see a man in a t-shirt and pants running at Michael and Kerry with a gun in hand, ready to use! I freeze in terror–he’s obviously not including me and doesn’t appear to have seen me, but I don’t want to move for fear that he’ll see movement out of the corner of his eye, and pull the gun on ME. The man yells, “There’s people calling in saying you’re breaking into cars out here.”

Michael and Kerry do as the man commanded him to do. He takes their licenses, calls for backups, and asks what they were doing. Michael informs him that we were passing out invitations to our Christmas Eve Service.

Somewhere in the mix, Kerry asks the man, “Is that a real gun?” To which he responds, “Yes, and I’m a real policeman.”

He sees me. “Ma’am, you can go on in to play Bingo.” I start crying. “I’m with themmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.” Michael quickly claims me as his wife. Great. Now, we’re all going to be dead or in prison. I should have just gone in to play…better odds at having fun… 😉

The man looks at our invitation, cancels the backup request, and lets us go–But, not before instructing us to stop passing out invitations for the evening.

If only I wasn’t crying…I would have thought to ask the police officer to take a picture on my camera phone so we could have xanga’ed it. Somehow, I don’t think he’d of seen the humor. Sorry…no pics this time, folks. 🙂

So, that’s my evening…As I type this, I breathe a sigh of relief in the comfort of my own home. Definitely an adventure!

I’d hate to break a promise…

December 12, 2006 by Maren 8 Comments

So, a while ago, I blogged briefly about going to Cincinnati with friends. I mentioned that when I got the pictures, I’d blog about it….I’d figured I should do as promised, so here they are! I love getting together with friends from college (or anyone for that matter). However, the challenge is getting an open date on everyone’s schedules that is tricky.

We basically restaurant hopped and talked…hmmm…my specialties…eating and talking. I think those are the only areas in life that I qualify as an expert, and maybe then it should just be “foot-in-mouthing” instead of talking, ha! We went from dinner on Friday to our hotel to breakfast to lunch to Starbucks for a snack…all we did was talk, talk, talk.

The view from our hotel.

Just chillin’.

In college, our husbands (and one other guy) had this great idea to take us on dates and make us wear these ugly shirts with goofy nicknames that they had embroidered for us. Something happened (thankfully) and we never had to wear them. Michael gave me mine after we were married; I think the same may be true with Jill. Jill and I apparently both wear them as sleep shirts, and unbeknownst to the other, both brought them five years later just for the humor of it. So, we actually carried out our men’s plan 5 years later. What irony. (I’m sure, too, the Ohio State coloring was not coincidental. He was trying to indoctrinate me early on in our relationship. Someday, I’ll have to tell you about the Ohio State pullover he gave me for MY birthday so HE could wear it. LOL)

And our last stop–enjoying Starbucks. Like mentioned, there really wasn’t any sightseeing…just eating and talking, so the only picture opps were restaurants and the hotel.

GREAT TIMES! Thanks, Matt & Jill!

So, I struck it rich…

December 11, 2006 by Maren 8 Comments

Thanks for all ya’ll who commented about the belt stool–I appreciated it! The same day I went to the thrift store to get belts, I kept returning…multiple times. The thrift store had all these OLD Fisher price toys. So, I bought them all up to resell on ebay. WHOOHOO. If only I had the little people figurines, I could make some big bucks…Let’s take a walk down memory lane…Remember the old cash register with the red, yellow, and blue coins? Remember the old plastic record players that play old nursery rhyme tunes? Remember the old tv that scrolls through Jack and Jill? Yep, got ’em all…and a couple other villages…let’s just say I struck it rich, though the cashier thought I was crazy, and made it known. LOL

This weekend, Michael and I went out on a date to the Bristol. A lady from our church works there. Any of you Louisvillians who have never been, should go. Good restaurant. I had the best black bean soup I’ve ever eaten along with grilled chicken tapas and veggies. Don’t have much other news as far as interesting posts go… So, I’ll just leave you with a picture and sign off.

Have a happy week!