Off to see some Dinasours!

The other day we got to go to the Natural History Museum, it was alot of fun. We had been sitting around and had the Whole day to do whatever we wanted! Whaaat?! That is pretty unheard of with us, so we got to sleep in, sit around and do nothing for a few hours, then we decided to head to the museum :)

 We really have the most fun when we go on random adventures like this. I had a blast hear, I could have honestly stood at each display and read each plack but Jordan doesn't have an attention span for that so he was getting pretty antsy. If you're interested they have a pretty cool exhibit on climate change going on that touches on using energy more effectively and energy alternatives that were applicable to most people

I did not take this picture (eh ehm Jordan?)
But come on you gotta laugh

They had some really great photos there, but this guy
really looks like someone we know!

Oh Yea?!? And did I tell you Jordan proposed again?? Look at that rock!

And it was a real deal at $1.95!!!

Blogging newb

Heyyrrooo Erreebody!!!

This is my very first blog post! HOW EXCITING!

For those readers that don't know me, my name is Jordan and my life has recently gone through a series of incredible changes. This post is going to be a bit broad, I have a lot to catch up on. The first of change is marrying this beautiful girl, Michelle.

The wedding was amazing and we couldn't have asked for a better day. It also made us realize how priceless our friends and family are. We had SO much help and support through the whole process and couldn't have done it without everyone's help. Since the wedding its been an absolute roller coaster...The best kind of roller coaster though, like the millennium force, not the blue streak or something lame like that. I thought once the wedding busyness was over, things would calm down and we would be able to just relax...Boy was I wrong. It's great though. The best part is all the "firsts". For example we just had our FIRST Christmas married. :)

We still celebrate monthly anniversaries, which I think is awesome. Its just nice to take a day every month and reflect on the past, what we've been through, and where we're headed. We are really learning how to trust and rely on God and each other. For me it's really easy to get caught up in everyday life and forget about what's really important. Easy to take things for granted and forget how absolutely blessed we are. 

ANYWAYS! Other things about us......We are living in a house in Olmsted Twp. in a quiet little neighborhood close to where we both grew up. We have two cats, Parkour and Dumbledore. They are pretty crazy and always keep us laughing no matter what they do. We recently got a dog, Marley...He's a 7 year old Springer Spaniel who came with a unique set of challenges to say the least. WE LOVE HIM THOUGH! He's our little dude. 

We both stay really busy between work and school and always say that we see eachother less now that we're married than we did when we were dating. Just a season of life though. Michelle graduates in may and with that I'm sure will come MORE changes, but that's the adventure of life. We love adventures and are known for just hopping in the car and going somewhere unfamiliar. On the flip side we also love just lounging at home having a good conversation or watching netflix documentaries. Life is good. We have our differences and that's the best (and sometimes most challenging) part of marriage so far. If we both were the same in every way I don't think we'd even get along. One difference is that Michelle despises organized exercise like going to the gym or going for a run. I can't get enough of it though. For about a year now I've been getting more and more into health and fitness. I just got a serious road bike for Christmas!!! I'm not saying that Michelle doesn't like doing things that involve exercise like hiking or kayaking, but you will never catch her on a treadmill or pumping some serious iron. I don't want to be too long winded, just had a lot to say in my first post. Hope everyone enjoy's. Have a blessed day and don't forget to take a step back and look at all the things in your life that you cherish. See you later my interweb friends!


My fitness tip of the day:
To keep from hitting that plateau in your training where you feel like your doing the same thing over and over. Every time your in the gym, try to beat your personal record. Whether it's an extra mile, minute, pound or rep. Keep your body guessing by working different muscle groups and doing different exercises to work the same muscles. Don't be afraid to ask people questions in the gym if you're not sure what to do to change up your routine. Check out "Strength Training Anatomy" by Frederic Delavier. It shows you lots of different movements to work every muscle you have. Challenge yourself.

And now Introducing...!!

Hellloooo!

Guess what? From now on Jordan will be poppin in from time to time to share his side of the craziness!

Which is why you see the name change, I figured Michelle with double L's didn't really fit the two of us, it might change again honestly because Jordan is normally better and catchier than me :)  

But for now I feel like we are super heroes in  a comic book life, and we'll be better at keeping track of the pages if we're both writing.  Kemo is short for Kemosabe which we call eachother alot and baberoni is a nick name that has a kinda boring story behind it that you probably wouldn't think is funny. But it's us!

Christmas 2011

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

I'm excited about:

-Getting to start new traditions of our own

-Hanging out just the 2 of us

-Waking up next to my husband on Christmas morning!

-Seeing family we don't get to hang out with very much

-Wrapping presents!

-Cooking and baking!

-I'm really happy that Jordan got off work

Things I want to work on in the future:

-Not being so busy

-Not getting frustrated with others, this season is all about love and celebrating Jesus

-Family not fighting, I don't really know how to fix this but it would be better if I could change it

-making people unique gifts, sometimes I'm good at this but this year I felt like I slacked in this area

-Making more time for just Jordan and I, we try to make time but before I realize it I am getting frustrated with how little time we get to spend together

-I'm not looking forward to a christmas when Jordan has to work because this is a real possibiblity

-Sending Christmas Cards ( I feel like I should start now for me to finish my then)

I really love this time of the year, I love the excitement and anticipation. I love seeing kids so into everything. I like the kids skits and plays at church. I like that people go to church together. I like that people are saying Merry Christmas more than happy holidays. It makes me sad that for some people this is the only time of the year they think of Jesus, or maybe they only go to a church for Christmas. But I'm glad they still go. I'm so happy to have found a church, and friends that really cares for one another and cares about showing the love of God not only to our friends and family but to the world.

I know, we're pretty attractive right?

___________________________________________________

It's a privilage to know this family!

This family is so awesome, they have been on my heart and mind so much the last couple of weeks/months.

This has been their family, as of the last few years, and right now as I'm writing this they are in the Philippines bringing home the rest of their beautiful children you see in the picture below!

The whole family will get to spend their first Christmas together! Their flight arrives back to the U.S. on Christmas day! God is so good!

This is a tidbit of their story: The family has 4 kids right now, two biological and 2 they have already adopted from the Philippines. They felt the calling of God to adopt another child, they threw around the idea of two but remember the 6 children they had met years earlier at the orphanage. It was nothing but God's leading that transformed their hearts, they went from thinking about adopting one more child to actually preparing for Six!

Watch this video!

Hearing updates daily has been really great. You read about their story, and I'm just so amazed by all the blessings and prayers  that have been answered.

Praise God! He is so good!

Also, Check out their blog, read their story, I encourage you to pray for their family, pray for their needs to be answered as they journey home, pray for the children and the huge transitions it will be.

According to Gina, "God has answered every prayer and this trip has been amazing but not nearly as amazing as our kids!"

www.adoptsix.com 

 

Mushroom Potpie: An Easy Weeknight Meal

In Cleveland right now, its a dreary rainy yucky day. Normally by this time it's started snowing but for whatever reason is hasn't really, it has been unusually warm, so the rain today isn't actually so bad. Today I'm going to share and easy, pretty quick meal idea! 

Mushroom Potpie!

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds mushrooms (such as cremini or button), halved or quartered if large
• 4 carrots, cut into 1/4 inch pieces (This is calling for like actual carrots when I made it, I got baby carrots and chopped 'em up)
• 3 celeray stalks, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 sheet puff pastry (half a 17.3 ounce package), thawed

Hands-on time: 20-30 minutes Total time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Serves 4 (at least)

1.  Heat oven to 400 Degrees F. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium hear. Add mushrooms, carrots, celery, onion, thyme, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Cook stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the broth and peas, bring to a boil.

-Here, I added more flour than it calls for, add flour until the desired consistency for potpie filling

  2.  Transfer the mushroom mixture to an 8-inch square baking dish. Lay the pastry on top and cut several vents in it. place the baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until the crust is golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.

Yummy!

I couldn't find puff pastry, so I bought crescent roll and used that. It was still good, but tasted a little sweeter than I prefer. It worked though, for anyone lacking puff pastry. I honestly on't even really know what that is, so if you do and want to enlighten me :) that'd be awesome

The crust wasn't as flaky as in the picture. I think because I used crescent roll rather than puff pastry, it was still really good!

This recipe is vegetarian, for all the non meat eater friends I have out there!  I'm sure you could add chicken or beef to this recipe if you wanted :D Enjoy!

Hey Fellow Bloggers!

Hey everyone! I've been trying to figure more out about blogging and what not, and I keep thinking this person has a cuter blog, and this person is great at that, etc...

I want to know, what got you into blogging? What are some useful things or tips you can share? Or anything else you want to share about blogging!

Also, this is other stuff that's been life:
This week has been a busy one! I less than two week away from finishing my semester. So, what that means for me is I am at school and completing practicum hours all the time! But, it's almost done and then I graduate in May yaaay!  Also, this week we added a member to the house! Jordan and I have talked about getting a dog since before we were married, and we both Love dogs but realize we don't have a lot of time to take care of one, and take time to train a puppy. But an opportunity came up where a friend of a friend is about to have a baby but currently has 3 big dogs. They were trying to find new homes for 2 of them or else they'd have to go to a shelter. in my head I'm thinking "shelter, noo! I don't want it to have to be in a cage and be lonely!!" So there ya go, if you need me to adopt your pet threaten me with that word haha :)

But in all seriousness, he has been the best dog so far!

This is Marley, isn't he cute!

Our little getaway..

Over the past two days, Jordan and I got to go on a minnie second honeymoon

We were nestled away in the hills of Amish Country, the place was called the Inn at Honey Run. If you're looking for a cute place to go and relax and enjoy nature- this is the place for you.

There were'nt very many people here and of all the people we had to be at least 20 years younger than most haha :) but we had an awesome time.



The room was so cozy, it was built into the side of one of the hills and even though we were on the 2nd floor we could walk right out into the hill.



Maybe alot of people smoke here? This sheep is tryin' to smoke a stick  cig baaa. ahaha



This was an awesome gift we got at one of our showers :) we are so blessed.

Here I come!

Ahh, I have been out of the blogging stuff for some time now..honestly I've been pretty much out of everything in life right now. I haven't seen family, or friends, I'm literally out of groceries and shampoo and stuff like that too. 


But everything's starting to come back into focus, starting to get back in order :) 


I'm now a Wifey! It's so awesome and exciting and new to have a husband. Its really great to be married, though it's only been a month so far haha its seriously really great.

  

: D This is one of my favorites from the wedding!

I plan on getting back into or rather into blogging since I wasn't ever really in in the first place, now that things are settling down and my head isn't spinning with last minute wedding details.

I have alot of things to catch up on and write about! So for now I'm off, but check back,

 Because here I come! 

Flowermania

Hello....! I haven't posted in quite a while, and I've been missing it, but I've have been crazy busy! So, I'm gonna post later on that but right now on my mind, nagging the back of my mind is fllloooowerrs

Hmm, what about flowers? Well, first off flowers are beautiful, i love having them, I love getting them as a gifst, I love when Jordan suprises me with flowers, I also love having them in the garden (they'll be there eventually) and I really like watching them grow etc. They're great.

What I'm looking at now are wedding flowers. Wedding flowers are really pretty! Here's some ones I thought were pretty...

I love the grey and white here!

I like these other two because  they're not too dramatic, they're also in colors I like...

But what the heck why are they so dang expensive? I just don't get it, when I go grocery shopping and the flowers catch my eye I have to reason with myself why I should spend $7 on a bouquet I really like. We complain at valentine's day because roses are $20 a dozen.

So how come when is comes time to pay for a wedding are bouquets suddenly $30, $40, $50, $60 per bouquet!?! Let's be realistic for a sec most of these bouquets aren't even going to be around for a week, they're going to get left somewhere, lost, and thrown in the garbage by the night is over. At least my $7 bouquet I have around for a couple weeks...

And yes I know, all these flourists are telling me to preserve my bouquet and use it another time as a centerpiece or something. But I'm still paying an arm and a leg for the bridemaid bouquets. So that's my dillemma I can't reason enough with myself to spend $300 or more on flowers, they're really pretty but I'd rather get pretty flowers for $7 a bouquet.

Look at all those pretty grocery store flowers :)

I'm sure those will be perfect!

How about you, do you have any suggestions? Do you have any expiriences or advice? What did you do for your own wedding?

What are we here for?

 Why are we on this Earth?

We are here to share our truths, to share the Word. We are not here to sit week after week absorbing and never giving, or maybe not giving til it hurts, or maybe not giving til we're empty.

We are here to get up and get out and help and share. We cannot just sit and let life happen.

Who am I to think the only place I can get the Word is at church? That's just a building. WE are the church and it's our time to be the church!

Pastor Randy Young had an awesome message on Sunday.

God is a teacher. Teachers never talk or teach during a test. That's our time to shine and show what we've learned. God is silent during tests, but every test with Him is an open book test!  That's so good, and exactly what I needed to hear.

Too many men and women go to their grave with their music still inside them.

I want to play every last note that the Lord has created me with.
Lately, I have been so busy, from school to work and wedding planning. But it hit me, that more than I want it to, life has been happening, I've set aside time to go to church, but what I should really be setting aside time for is to BE THE CHURCH.

Why Michelle with Double L's?

I felt the need to describe why I titled the blog this...what can I say I'm a people pleaser

So, as I was sitting here thinking about this whole blogging thing and what the heck I'd call it, and I was thinking about my experience as a server. Whenever I meet someone new I always try to connect with them in some way (I think most people do that)

First: Introductions, I tell this new guest my name and as part of working at the mac shack you write your name upside down (and backwards in my case) usually the person comments on how hard it must be to write upside down, and like all the other servers there you say blah dee blah blah and laugh about it

But in some cases they have a connection to your name, in my case Michelle. Maybe it's their own name, maybe a close friend or daughter. What do you say to that though? Maybe you have a better come back but usually I'm sort of akward in saying Ooh cool, its a good name... But it's totally cool for some reason when your name's Michelle to ask whether you spell it with one "L" or two, this makes more of a connection. Something extra that you talk about, what the background is, why you like your way, and why think it's better ... because no matter which way you spell it your way is  always better.

So there it is... Michelle with Double L's

Getting Started in the wonderful world of Blogging!

Hello, so I finally decided today I think I'd like to start a blog :)

So here's a short "about me" for maybe some of you who don't already know

I'm Michelle.

Here, I'd like to share my view and expirience as a twenty something lady getting married, loving Jesus, decorating, diy projects, working, finsihing school, interpreting and everything else as we go through this thing called life.

Here's my finacee and I

And as you might be able to see all that has been on my mind lately is:

Wedding!

And decorating, lights, center pieces, candles, dresses, and everything else that goes along with that...

I hope you have an awesome day! Thanks for taking the time to stop by :)