Wahoo!

YAY!  My big project goes out today and I feel good about it.  I really think I got things done well and it'll be good.  It's nice to have this done.  We'll probably still have an addendum go out and we'll have questions to answer, but the major work is done. :)

Tomorrow I'm going to follow one of our Commissioning agents around another one of my projects to learn more about what they do to make sure all our equipment works right, so that will be neat.  I'm definitely thinking about taking Friday off too - I've worked enough to take it off without needing any PTO, and it'd be a good time to get my hair cut and have a nice Lindsey day. :)  Then Friday afternoon we're going back out to look at houses.  We have a few that we're really interested in, so i think it'll be really fun!

As far as last Saturday's house hunting went, we just didn't really see anything we wanted and it was all less house for our money, so we'll keep looking elsewhere.

Hopefully we'll have another house update later this weekend. 

House Update 2

Brian had mentioned a house we were interested in, well it went under contract (well the bank had 4 offers) before we could put an offer in, so oh well.  God has another house in mind for us. :)  I have a couple of houses I like, and Brian is "meh" about them, but nothing yet that has screamed "this is it!".  Tomorrow will be another full day of looking at houses - we have 9-10 on our list we're going to try and go see.  It'll be busy, but good.  We'll keep you updated.

Birthday Addendum...

So my birthday got even better.  My wonderful wife threw me a surprise party on the friday after my birthday.  She managed to keep it a secret for the most part, but when I arrived, I already knew what was waiting inside for me, not because I was trying to figure it out, but because I just picked up on some things that seemed out of the ordinary, including noticing cars that weren't supposed to be there.  Lu, was great though, she really made me feel special putting it all together.

She had a pasta bar, two awesome sauces made by two awesome chefs. (Emily (friend not sister) and my Dad).  And she got me a oreo cheesecake and another yummy cake for dessert.  She even made sure that the other cake was what was passed around first so i would have left over cheesecake.  She really is the best.

It was great seeing my family and friends all together to hang out and talk and all.  I had tons of fun.  I really enjoyed it.  Then to top of the Birthday extravaganza weekend, saturday we were able to keep our plans and still go up for lunch with my family and hang out with them which was lots of fun as always.

we also have more house stories, but that will come in another post, maybe by the best wife ever!  we shall see.   

Birthday!

Yep, another April 30th has come and gone.   And it was a great birthday.  I mean kindof lame cause I still had to go to work, but I got to spend a bunch of time with my wonderful wife celebrating my birthday.  She took me to Ted's Montana Grill, sooo good.  We had some coupons and it was my birthday so we also got free dessert.  I ordered my favorite bison burger, The Kitchen Sink.  The Kitchen Sink= bison, your choice of cheese, ham, sauteed mushrooms, grilled onions, bacon, fried egg... oh so yummy and incredibly messy.  

The weekend is going to continue the festivities, tonight we are having friends over for dinner and Lindsey is gonna cook, don't know what yet, but i am excited all the same.  It is going to be a fun evening i am sure.  then saturday i get to celebrate with my family, save for Em who is in Mass.  I did get to talk to her though.  But Mom is cooking breakfast and lunch on saturday so that is very exciting.  i can't wait to get some biscuits mmmm...   

Sometime in there we hope to continue looking at house, i am sure Lu has and update for you all on our house hunting.  We have one we are pretty interested in seeing so we hope to get a chance to do that soon, if we can get our schedules to work out with it and all.  Keep us in your prayers as we continue through the house hunting process.  

That is all for now, hope everyone has a good day.

First House Hunting weekend

This weekend our awesome realtor took us out to look at some houses.  Unfortunatley we went to some horrible foreclosures.  It's definitely true that pictures don't do some houses justice.  Here are a couple of pics from some of the "best"...

We think that one was maybe in the middle of being renovated....

This one had just been ripped open by potential buyers (our realtor thought), to see how bad the water damage was.  Obviously it was bad.  You might not be able to see it, but the pipes are rusted, there is lots of mold and rotted wood.  This house also had a dead bird in the sun room.  It was quite the experience. :)  The houses were so bad we just had to laugh about them. 

We did see a nice house at the end, but it was too small.  Our furniture wouldn't fit in the bedrooms.  We have a lot more houses we want to look at though.  So we'll just keep looking. :)

Hopefully we'll have better house updates in the future.  On the plus side, our realtor is really nice and great to work with, and she'll definitely work hard to find us our house.  

Our anniversary!! and more updates

So I'm really bad at posting regularly, but maybe I'll be better over the summer. :)  First, I have some pics from our anniversary!  Brian surprised me with a recreation of our wedding cookie cake, from the Carlyle House. :)

He got it from the Carlyle House on Wednesday and hid it in the fridge in the Leasing office until Saturday.  Then he went and got it when I was in the shower.   So I went to the fridge to get a drink and saw this:

It was a really fun surprise! :) haha

Of course we had to pose with it. :)  It was sooo yummy!  We also enjoyed an awesome dinner at Maggiano's too.

The next weekend (18-19th) we went to Tuscaloosa to visit my parents for my Dad's birthday (it was the 20th).  It was "A Day" at the University of Alabama which was the big day for their spring football game.  Alabama football and football fans are crazy serious about their football.  People were tailgating and they had different presentations and vender

s on campus.  I think Dad said over 70,000 people came out to the game.  It was intense, but fun. :)

Here we are:

My parents really enjoy Alabama softball now too - they have season tickets.  So we went to the softball game after the spring practice game.  Turns out they are really good.  

Anyway, we've had some busy but fun weekends.  I'll try and post soon about our first weekend house hunting - it was interesting. :) haha

363 days...

And every single one of them has been wonderful.  

Yep that is right, Lu and I will have been married for one full year come Sunday April 12th, yep that is Easter, and boy is it a great day.  Not only do I get the opportunity to celebrate having the most wonderful woman in my life for a full year, but I get the chance to share in celebration with my church family that our Lord, Jesus Christ is a risen savior.   What a glorious day.  I am very very excited.

I really hope that all of you can take the time this Easter to really focus on Christ, His love, and what He did for all of us.  I also hope that we can all share with others the truth of His word, His mercy, and His grace that they may begin their relationship with Him.  I pray that each of you are living your lives to the fullest, and that you are a shining reflection of Christ.

Two quotes I wanted to share for you to think about.

"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today... is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is simply what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable." ~Brennan Manning

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." ~ Ghandi

Work

So I think Lu has work up to her eye balls to do.  She has been so busy.  Two projects going out, essentially today or tomorrow and she has been working long and hard.  I am proud of her and the hard work she is putting in, I know her boss and company appreciates it.  Luckily these projects are almost over with (for now as far as I know) and she gets a break. 

On the other hand I don't get a break or a day although I am not complaining, Lu earned it and truthfully with a day off i would just likely be a bum.  She is probably going to be super productive etc.  But like I said before I would share more details on me and work.  I recently applied for a new position within my company.  I don't know anything yet, but it is an opportunity that I am excited about, I think it will help me further my career and my skillset.  Please pray for God's leadership in this situation. I would like to hear something one way or the other, and to know that it is God's will.  Thanks.

It's been 1 week...

So it has been a week since i have posted anything, and totally random the title i just typed reminded me that when i played a small portion of that song at Club this week (thanks to babybear's Ipod)  it was hilarious to me that every highschooler in the room knew the words and immediately started singing along...

Ok so what has been going on...  

Well continue to be praying for us as Lu and I go through the process of finding a house.  We have a realtor and will be talking to banks and brokers soon to figure out what our best options are.

I have taken over the media team somewhat at Church and that has been a lot of fun.  It has just been a lot of fun to serve in that capacity and really try and make the slides and visuals be part of leading people to the throne, instead of a distraction.

Lu has started a bible study at her work that meets every other monday.  Really exciting stuff, but i want her to talk about it so hopefully she will post on that.

Last night we had a lot of fun hanging out with a really great friend of mine from my days growing up over in Peru.  It was really great to see her and to catch up on all that is going on in her life.

Lastly, I have a request that you pray for God's leadership for me as I am seeking His will for me at work.  I will share more details on this later, but your prayers are appreciated.

This weekend, Celery and Michael get married!

Next weekend, Easter and Lu and I celebrate our 1 year anniversary.  I can't wait! 

Busy busy

Wanted to write a quick note to everyone who keeps up with us.  We have both been so busy with work and other activities that the blogging has fallen through the cracks.  This week we are house sitting so not being at home adds to our hectic schedule.  I will add more next week when things hopefully settle down a bit.

Court (old post from March that I never actually posted)

So unfortunately, I am quite comforatble with City of Atlanta Traffic Court now. I've been to the court house 3 times now. The first time was for a fender bender and I plead No Lo b/c I didn't know what to do. The second time due to a series of uncontrolable events (in the rain) I got another ticket. This time I was confident that I was not at fault, so I plead not guilty. In Atlanta, if you plea not guilty you are giving a second court date to come back and be heard. Today was that day. I got into work at 6:30am to try and get some work done before my court date. This was mostly because last time I was in court at 8am, I just went straight there from home and I was there until almost 11am!! This time I wanted to be able to get in and get some work done, just in case I was gone for 3 hours again.

Anyway, court is always an interesting experience. My second visit I saw 2 people be taken into custody right there in the court room, due to lots of outstanding tickets or getting a bad ticket and lack of a driver's license. Today

There are so many different types of people in court and they all really don't want to be there. I just try and be patient and not nervous, but it's hard. You can tell other people are nervous too.

Celica = hair dryer

So often times I leave the house without drying my hair, the joy of curly hair.  Well one Sunday recently it was cold and I wanted to dry my hair, but didn't have time.  So Brian was driving us to church in his celica and we turned the air on high and closed all the other vents but the 2 in front off me to try.  AND IT TOTALLY WORKED!  I'm sure I looked really funny drying my hair with the vents in his car, but it was successful and i'll probably do it again.  :)

Maybe next time we'll take a picture of it. :)

house hunting...

So Lu and I have been looking for houses, and sunday we spent a good three hours driving around and just looking at some we had found online.  (pictures can lie you know.)  it was a fun afternoon, but we both realize there is a lot left for us to do in order to get ourselves in a position to buy a home.

It is very exciting, but also a lot of work and probably stress eventually related to such a big life/financial decision.  So if you would, keep us in your prayers.

Ice Hockey Saturday

Thanks to Lu saying yes, I was able to attend a fantastic hockey game on saturday night.  I don't normally watch much ice hockey, pro or otherwise, but when our pastor called me up and asked if I wanted to come, I just don't like passing on free tickets, it was a good thing I didn't cause I had a great evening.  I got to hang out with Brad, Larry and Chris at the game while Lu got to hang out with their wives and the babies, fortunately I think this event helped cement the idea that kids for us are still a ways down the road.  

The game was a lot of fun, we were about 8 rows back from the glass, and basically next to the tunnel that the visiting team uses to get to their bench.  really great seats, all the players looked huge and the action was great.  TheThrashers scored 5 goals, basically all in the 3rd period, the first was 34 seconds before the end of the second period, to come from behind and win the game.  It was a lot of fun and it was great to bond with some of the men that are really influencial in my life right now.  I got a few pictures on my phone, however I have no way of posting them so your imagination will just have to do.