This weekend we went up to Nebraska to celebrate Alexandra's first birthday. I can't believe it's been a whole year since I wrote this post and this one.
I don't have a lot time tonight to write, but I didn't want to wait weeks until after her birthday to post this. So....it's pretty much just going to be a picture post!
Victoria made Alexandra this card and picked her out a Jack-in-the-Box.
After all the gifts were opened, it was time for cake!
Trevor and I celebrated our five year anniversary last Friday and he took me out for a nice evening. We hit up a local restaurant in Kansas City's Midtown called Jardine's Restaurant and Jazz Club. It was great food and the music was lots of fun! They have live jazz bands every night. Some of you may not know that Kansas City is famous for its jazz. After dinner, we walked around The Plaza while eating some ice cream.
Trevor and I don't eat out all that much since we have a relatively low dining-out budget. I hate to feel like we are eating at the same chain restaurants all the time, so I wanted it to be a goal to eat at more of Kansas City's great locally-owned restaurants.
We didn't get one picture of us on our actual anniversary, but Trevor's Mom took this one at her house the Sunday after.
I feel so blessed to be married to such a great guy for five whole years!
Last Saturday a group of us girls threw a baby shower for our good friend Jenn. We decided on a brunch and I was assigned to make a punch. I didn't really have a punch recipe and I thought I should try to find one that was a little fruit-juice like so it would work with breakfast food. I found the following recipe online. It turned out well!
| ___________________________________________ Luscious Slush Punch | |
| Ingredients: | |
| -1 ½ cups white sugar | |
| -6 cups water | |
| -2 (3 oz.) packages strawberry-flavored gelatin mix | |
| -1 (46 fluid oz.) can pineapple juice | |
| -2/3 cup lemon juice | |
| -1 quart orange juice | |
| -2 (2 liter) bottles ginger ale | |
| 1 | In a large saucepan, combine sugar, water, and strawberry-flavored gelatin. Boil for 3 minutes. Stir in pineapple juice, lemon juice, and orange juice. Divide mixture in half, and freeze in two 1-gallon freezer bags. |
| 2 | When ready to serve, place the frozen contents of one container in a punch bowl, and stir in 1 bottle of ginger ale until slushy. ___________________________________________ |
This recipe takes a little bit of pre-planning since you have to freeze the mixture overnight. It does make your prep work on the day of the event very easy though! I found that it worked best to take the freezer bags out of the freezer and place them in the refrigerator two hours before the party and then break them up with a potato masher before mixing with the ginger ale. I really liked the way the whole punch stays slushy and keeps it cold during the event.
Here's some pictures of the shower...
We're all excited to get to meet baby Olivia very soon...she's due to arrive on September 1st!
After writing the last post about photography tonight, I realized I left you all hanging on what Trevor and I did early on the Friday morning of our South Carolina trip. I'm sure you were dying to know. :)
Before we left for the vacation, I had thought it would be neat to get to see a sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean. Good thing I'd expressed this to Trevor, since he helped nudge pull me out of bed at 5:00 AM the last day we were on Edisto Island. (Have I mentioned I'm totally not a morning person?)
When we got to the beach we plopped ourselves down on some towels and sat in the dark. As it started to get light, this is what we saw....
I have to admit I was a little ticked that I'd gotten up early and was maybe not going to get to see the sunrise, but God moved that cloud out of the way just in time.
See. A nice camera would have been GREAT for this - the pictures just don't do it justice!) Anyhow, here's the progression of the sunrise...
The few times in my life that I have gotten up (or stayed awake all night!) to see a sunrise, I am always struck by the fact that we take it for granted in the hustle and bustle of our daily life that the sun will rise every day.While watching the sun rise above the mighty waves of the ocean, I was 100% convinced that there is a God. I am continually amazed at God's design of this world he made for us. It is through the design evident in nature that I think we as humans can know that there IS a power out there that is much higher than us.
"...so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting
men may know there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other."Isaiah 45:6
I was supposed to have this new goal determined by July 1, and I've been thinking about it a lot since then (I just haven't blogged about it!). I really want to get a nicer digital camera and learn more (ok, something-I don't know much now!) about photography. Two of my good friends from college, Mary Ellen & Gladys, are both kind of into photography and when I see what great pictures they take, it makes me want to learn how. My two vacations this summer really made me realize how I would love to be able to fully capture the beauty around me.
I considered making the actual goal "Buy a Digital SLR Camera" or "Take a Photography Class", but I didn't know how all those would work out budget-wise. So I'm leaving this a little more open-ended. I may just read a book about photography, follow a blog about photography,etc. A friend from church, Emily, just started her own photography business (check out her photography blog here - she does an amazing job!) She volunteered to show some of us girls some tips. She said that you can do a lot of great things with even a point-and-shoot camera when you learn about lighting and composition. So I might just take you up on that sometime Emily! :)
So, maybe, you'll see some photos improving on the blog sometime in the next year or two!
(If anyone out there has suggestions on cameras, classes, etc., I'd love to hear them!)
Well, we've hit this goal out of the ballpark!
When I decided to put this on our list, I knew that even though we weren't watching an exorbitant amount of TV (compared to some people), that we were probably still watching more than we should. During certain times of the year we have a lot of shows that we record and watch faithfully - The Office, 24, American Idol, Pushing Daisies, Here Come the Newlyweds, and a few others. It started to feel like it was getting a little out of hand. So I decided to make it a goal to go an entire week (gasp!) without watching TV.
If I had known about this "International TV Turnoff Week" back in April, I would have tried to have turned it off for a week with the rest of the world!
However, instead of just skipping TV for a short time, two and a half weeks ago Trevor and I decided to cancel our satellite. That means we have no TV right now. We bought a digital converter box when they were giving out coupons for the digital transition, but we still haven't bought the antennae that is necessary for it to work - so we have nothing but static now.
There were quite a few factors that played into this decision.
We'd been talking about it for awhile and I don't think I'd hardly even watched TV since we went to Canada over a month ago since we were gone so much and the picture was cutting out all the time. It seemed like a waste of money, so we finally just canceled it before we left for South Carolina. So it's been a whole week and a half since we've been back from our vacation and we haven't watched one ounce of TV. Well, I take that back. Trevor has been having withdrawals from this....
I actually don't feel like I've missed TV at all. We've been pretty busy and haven't been home that much, so that helps. We have had a few moments where we feel lost without it, because sometimes all you know to do when you get home from a long day is just plop in front of the TV so you can space out. It's been good though to feel like I have more time to read and get other things done that I know I need to do. The other night we were sitting at the table eating dinner and we were saying, "When was the last time we've done this?!" I have to admit we've been pretty bad about eating in front of the TV. So I think this is a very good thing for our marriage, spiritual well-being, and productivity!
I did find this book when I was searching for some pictures for the blog...
...I guess we can always consult this if we can't think of anything to do!
Honestly, I'm not sure how long we'll go before signing up for cable again. Most of our shows are actually on network television, so I don't know that we'll need cable. I'm thinking either way, we'll probably get a TiVo or something after we get the digital converter box set up to get the basic channels. We did get too accustomed to being able to record shows and watch them when we want when we had a DVR with our satellite!
I have a sneaky suspicion that the one thing that might get us back on the cable bandwagon is this..
...I can hardly wait!!! 30 days and counting. Go Huskers!
Nebraska football was our number one concern with getting rid of the satellite. (Do you think we are loyal fans or what!??!) We think we can make it through a good part of the season though by watching the games that are televised on the basic channels, going to sports bars, and watching at family/friends' houses.
But for now we have really enjoyed "Turning off the TV and Turning on Life." I challenge you to do it too!
