Our Every Day

Mike's grandpa passed away on Wednesday morning. We were so thankful that we had a nice visit with him on Sunday at the hospital. When Mike walked into the room, Grandpa's face lit up, and he bragged to the nurses about Mike being an Army veteran. It was just a really neat time with him, and I will always remember it :) Mike and I will be leaving soon for the airport to pick his little brother up. Fortunately the airport is in our backyard. It will be good to see him - as well as Mike's older brother and his wife - even though I just saw them two weeks ago. I love Mike's family. His brothers and sister-in-law are amazing. :) The funeral should be interesting. I've never been so involved with a funeral back home. All the funerals for family I have ever attended have taken place in Western PA. Both sides of my family are from there - so they typically do the funeral thing the same! Who knows how Northwest Ohioans do this type of thing! Being married to Mike means I a...

I turned another year older since my last post. Here I am at the ripe old age of 28. I had an amazing birthday - truly one of the best. Mike surprised me with a beautiful Paloma Picasso ring from Tiffany's. I was so touched by it. It's a circle of different shaped hearts. Gorgeous :) On my birthday I was in a software development meeting for a good portion of the day, which was pretty amazing. I learned a lot, and I am excited about the changes coming down the pike at work. For lunch, the HR director took a group of us downtown for a luncheon. We saw some very talented kids perform, and it was just a really neat experience. When I got home that evening, Mike took me to On the Border for dinner. We came back home for ice cream cake. We stood in the kitchen, Mike wrapped his arms around me and sang happy birthday. It was just really sweet. We are truly a family - just the two of us - well...three counting the dog :) This morning we participated in the Walk for Lupus in honor of m...

Happy Valentine's Day! I have always loved this day. Out of my last 27 Valentine's Day, I have only had a "valentine" for five years. That means 22 years without ever having someone to share my Valentine's Day with. It didn't matter though because my parents always worked hard to make the day special for Robbie and me. We always got cards, candy and a little gift. We knew we were loved beyond measure any other day of the year, but that day was just really special. It makes me smile just thinking about it :) Mike and I headed south yesterday to visit his brother and sister-in-law. We had a great time. Mike worked yesterday morning, so he passed out when as we were headed home - luckily, I was driving! ;) But it gave me a lot of time to think - which is not always such a good thing - but it was good last night. It turned from thinking into a prayer for the hour and half drive home. But as a result, I have a lot of "stuff" on my heart today. I am going...

Thanksgiving has been over for weeks. I blinked and Christmas and New Years are suddenly both over. It's 2010, and I am sitting here reflecting over the past year. It was quite a year but here's a quick list to put my year in perspective: - Mike lost his job. - I got my job back in Cbus and quit my temporary job in Cleveland. - We moved not even a month after Mike had been laid off back to our old apartment complex in Cbus. - I started working again. - Mike started looking for jobs. He had several interview but nothing panned out. - I went to Florida with my parents to see my brother, his wife and their new home. (A bright spot!) - Friends of ours went through all sorts of trials throughout the summer. - I got really really really sick with a mysterious skin rash. - Mike had more job leads that didn't lead anywhere - so many times we got a tiny bit hopeful only to be let down. - My mom found out that she had bladder cancer. (She since had the tumor removed and do...

A fresh start at blogging. That is what I decided I need this afternoon while I was shopping with Mike's mom and sister-in-law, I thought about how much I missed writing on a daily basis. And how I wish that I had an outlet to write about the good things happening in my life instead of focusing, internally mostly, on the bad things that this year has brought to my front door. It inspired me to sign-in to this old blog, delete some ancient posts and start anew. So here I am. ... What to write though? It's true that this year has been not-so-great. Terrible really. But we have taken on each day and conquered it, and we have made it this far. We're moving forward, slowly but surely with a few stumbles along the way. As my dearest friend told me a few weeks ago, someday we'll look back on these hard days and laugh...we will remember them fondly as they are building character and helping us to better see Christ's hand in our lives. Hindsight is always 20/20, so...