Dinner at Phillippi Creek

For dinner we ate at Phillippi Creek. For an appetizer my family had oysters on the half shell (some really liked them-my brother Joel, some did not like them-my sister Nicole). For dinner we enjoyed some blackened grouper-which by the way was awesome (for entertainment we wrestled a turtle and an alligator). We made it back to our condo just in time to watch 24.

Our First Full Day

Our first day was a relaxing one spent at the beach. The sand was great, the sun was shining, and the water was clear. We found a bunch of sandollars on the sand bar. Kay D. stopped by and visited us as well. After time at the beach we spent time at our pool eating chips and homemade salsa. It was a great way to wind down the afternoon.

Hello Friends from Sunny Florida!

To all our church friends back in Indiana- thank you for wishing us a safe trip and restful vacation while we are here in Florida. We wanted to let you know that we arrived here in Siesta Key safely. We had a great first day (sunny and warm avg. 74 degrees), and we are looking forward to the next few days here, it is supposed to be nice. We are enjoying having a moment to rest, but we want you to know we are thinking of you while we are gone. We hope you all have a great week and we will see you all soon.

Stay tuned for some Florida pics!

Goodbye Car (maybe??)

My '99 Chevy Malibu died today, possibly for good. Apparently the problem was that coolant was leaking into my engine oil. Obviously not good. We're not sure how bad the damage is yet, but it is possible that the engine is shot, and therefore the car is done.

As disappointing as this is, we have a great God who has always provided for us, and we have no doubt that He will do so again. We are trusting Him to do as the Bible says, to cause all things to work together for good for those that love Him.

In the meantime, pray for our sanity as we try to figure out how to get by with one car!

American Idol and Amazing Race Predictions

Well it looks like our early predictions for American Idol are holding strong. We guessed very early that Chris and Mandisa would both do well. They haven't let us down and each of them did a great job tonight. It's got to be those two in the final, although Kellie and Katharine aren't far behind.

If you watch the show, leave a comment letting us know your predictions/favorites.

As for Amazing Race, we're torn between cheering for the hippies and the nerdy couple. We're not sure who is going to win, but if we had to guess, we would pick the fraternity boys (although we can't stand them because they're so perverted).

Let us know what you think!

Happy St. Pat's Day!

Last night we had a great time with our family celebrating St. Pat's Day with the usual tradition. We ate meat, potatoes, and cabbage for our Irish dinner. After dinner we enjoyed watching "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" with green jello whip and sugar cookies with white frosting and green sprinkles for dessert.

Basketball Mania!

What a great day! March Madness starts today and I have the day off from work, so I will be soaking up non-stop basketball for the next 12 hours. I may need to sneak in a nap this afternoon though so that I can stay up late enough to watch IU tonight. Go Hoosiers!

Happy B-day Bryn!

Just wanted to wish our good friend Bryn a happy birthday on Monday. He will turn 7 this year! Yeah Bryn! We also want to congratulate him on his great swimming performance this weekend. (We thought that by putting the two pictures side by side you would be able to see the resemblance)

Alone in the Dark!

The picture you see is a picture of Natalie and me in our home tonight. The reason you cannot see anything is that we do not have any power. We always love coming home from the grocery store to find that our fridge is not working because our electricity is out. O how we love Huntertown! (Hopefully you can pick up on our extreme sarcasm!)

Oh well, at least this gives us a great opportunity to do absolutely nothing!

Roadtrip to Indy...

We took a roadtrip to Connersville, Indiana today to visit with a family from our church who lost a deeply loved nephew this past weekend. The calling was from 4-6 at the Miller Moster Robbins Funeral home. Our prayers are with them as they endure this difficult time.

On a lighter note... since we were down near Indy today we decided to stop by Jimmy Buffett's Cheeseburger in Paradise restaraunt for some good food on our way home.

Our Apologies to the Ashbauchers, Stones, and Troyers

We want to apologize to the Ashbauchers, Stones, and Troyers for not mentioning them on our blog. We had a great time with each of your families last week and we thank all of you for your friendship, food, and hospitality. Next time we will remember our camera so that we have some pics to go with our gratitude. Thanks again!

Bloomington Friends Home Again

We finished this marathon day with some time at Starbucks with our good friends who now call Bloomington their home, Jannelle and Amber. Since both of them were home from IU this weekend, we decided to get together. As you can see we had a great time enjoying our drinks, cookies and conversation at our favorite place. A thanks definitely goes out to our Starbucks friends who do a great job of taking care of us and who always make our time there worth it.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Well today we celebrated my dad's birthday. On Thursday March 2nd he turned the big 50. We celebrated today with a meal at Smokey Bones and then headed off to the golf dome to hit some golf balls. Unfortunately, the dome is not open on weekends so we didn't get to hit any (although we thought about driving some of our own golf balls over the road outside, but decided that getting arrested today wasn't a good idea). After the golf dome we went to Fast Track for some go-kart racing. Dad got mad when some guy nudged him out of the lead. After racing we went to the mall to check out some knives at the cutlery store and then visited Gander Mountain to look at outdoor clothing and other fun stuff. It was a great day, a great way to celebrate 50 years. Thanks for a good time dad. Happy Birthday!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that dad brought down his new base guitar and amp to show off what he's learning. Another great hobby for dad in addition to his sweet knife throwing skills.

Guaranteed Goosebumps!

While traveling to the grave site today it was requested of us that we would put on our blog the link for the video of the autistic student who stunned the crowd at his high school basketball game by hitting multiple three pointers with less than four minutes left. I will let the video explain the situation. If you have never seen this, or even if you have, it WILL give you goosebumps guaranteed. Everytime I watch it touches me. Enjoy!

To watch video, click on the link below.
http://www.gofish.com/userVideoPlayer.gfp?gfid=30-1016078&hid=-1902879330

God is faithful...

We praise God today for His faithfulness in providing us with the grace that we needed to minister to a hurting family. The funeral went well. We really felt His presence and power and give Him all the praise for it. How wonderful is His Word that remains a solid foundation for us to stand upon when the world around us is shakey.

Life is unpredictable...

We were reminded of one of life's most challenging lessons this week, that life is unpredictable. This became very clear to us once again as we received news Monday night that a man in our church had passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly in his home. One minute he and his wife were enjoying dinner and conversation together, and the next minute things changed and will never be the same again.

It certainly was not on anyone's calendar or agenda, it just happened. It was definitely a reminder of how fragile life is, how short it can be, how things can change in a moment. How important it is for us to make the most of our time, to love our family and friends with all the love that we can, and to cherish the opportunities we have each day with people we care about.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family this week at the loss of their loved one. May God bless you all with His comfort, peace, power, and protection.