love.

“God, in His Sweetness, is making puzzle pieces for you too. You may not be able to make the connection as to where it fits just right now, but there is always purpose. Life with Jesus guiding you, is a life that is complex, thrilling, hard, rewarding and full of questions. Don’t be afraid to soak in and store every experience along your journey as a lesson for now and a puzzle piece to fit in later. The people, the adventures, the decisions you make today are important for now and for later. Life should not be compartmentalized to where you close and open boxes, it should flow as one beautiful stream. Enjoy making yourself uncomfortable. Don’t shy away from teaching your flesh a lesson or two. Be grateful you have the chance to live, to love and look for others who need life breathed into them and love poured over them.”

I loved this quote from Gina Schmidt over at http://streamthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/07/project-apartment-to-third-world-rental_24.html .

She and her husband Mark are two missionaries down in Guatemala that we met this past spring. They have a beautiful family and love the Lord so much. I just thought this was a great quote and wanted to share!

I love gardens

Yum!

Milwaukee!

This weekend I made my first trip to Milwaukee!  We decided to go because a) My husband is an avid Brewers fan, b) we have friends nearby, and c) we had a gift card for tickets.  Win win… win!  So, we made the trip up on Saturday and arrived in time to visit one of Michelle’s favorite coffee shops.

It is in an old water pumping station right on Lake Michigan, all of the engineers enjoyed the fun facts about the equipment :)

After grabbing some coffee we met up with the Hartmans, completing our game day posse.  After parking at the Brewers’ stadium, we began the tailgate.  Ben and Lo provided most of the equipment, and Ben grilled away!

Once inside the stadium, we found our seats and prepared ourselves for a great game.  There were eight of us total, and it was great to see old friends.  We live all over the place, but it makes me appreciate these times when the stars align and we are all in the same place at the same time.

After the 7th inning stretch everyone sings “Roll out the Barrel”.  I think it’s pretty funny to have a team and song dedicated to Milwaukee’s beer brewing history!

And the whole group! 

Just to sweeten the weekend just a little more, Michelle and Andy got engaged the next day!  So exciting!!

Off to Dallas and Denver…and back!

Oh my goodness has this week been off to a crazy start!  I flew out Monday morning around 6 am (yes, you heard me right, that means waking up around 3:30…) to head to Dallas to train some of our sales managers on new software.  After the training, we headed back to the airport, and after running like a mad woman through the Houston airport, we made our flight to Denver.  All in one day!  And the next evening, I headed back home after training a group there.  Before heading out, I enjoyed a little treat for dinner :)

Anyway, this wasn’t even what I really wanted to tell you about.  As I flew home, there was an awesome lightning storm right out the window to the south.  It sounds dangerous, but I’m trusting our pilot that we were ok, but it lasted for most of the trip home.  It was so neat to see the clouds all light up, and sometimes even see the bolts of lightning through the clouds.  I couldn’t help but worship our awesome Creator for His beauty and power.  I know it was probably one of those, “you had to be there” situations, but I just love when we have moments when we can’t take our eyes off of God. 

I think I can use the excuse that I don’t see much of God and the love of Christ in my dad-to-day cubicle world.  But that’s just not true, I’m not looking for it.  My heart becomes so hard as I try to “be an adult” and be “a professional” and be “responsible”.  But what joy in having the heart of a child that can sit and be awed by our Father.

So, although the trip was very successful in a business sense, I’d say even more so in refreshing my soul and pushing me to seek out opportunities to bask in who God is and what He has created around me.

Gettin’ down on the farm

Thanks to Dave, we spent the weekend at his uncle’s old farm house!  Shooting guns, exploring, food, corn and movies!

dinner time!

 

playing in the corn…

and shooting…

Lots of laughs and good times!

St Louie

To continue the summer tour a la Midwest, this weekend I was down in St Louis to visit a good friend from college, Ms. Katie Lindborg.  I hadn’t seen Katie in months and I owed her a visit! 

I arrived Saturday morning and we went to get some delicious crepes, which sadly I do not have a picture of.  But they were so good.  We spent the rest of the day seeing some of the sights, starting with the art museum, which is free.  And then headed to the zoo, which is also…free! 

While we were in the penguin exhibit, which has real snow, one of the birds jumped into the water and totally soaked me.  The punk.  It was funny, but I definitely smelled like fish the rest of the day.

Katie and Katie!

Later that night (after taking a nice nap) we got ready and headed to dinner at a rooftop restaurant.  It was delicious, and the perfect evening to be outside.  We were joined by some of Katie’s friends, and they were a blast.

After dinner we went to the Chocolate Bar.  Yes, a bar that revolves around chocolate and desserts!  What a fun weekend, thanks Katie!

Long summer weekend

Don’t you just love long weekends!  It was such a great weekend of spending time together and enjoying the summer.  The last few weeks have been very busy (with something I haven’t yet announced on this blog, and no, it’s not a baby.  it’s a huge change for us, and I’m not good at keeping secrets so I’m sure you’ll find out soon!) and it was good to relax and be together without having to run out the door every 5 minutes.  I’m so thankful I have a husband that values quality time together and having a healthy marriage :)

So, with that being said, he surprised me on Saturday and took me up to Chicago for a baseball game!  The Reds (yay!) were playing the Cubs (boo!) at Wrigley Field, and it was a beautiful afternoon.  I love baseball and had never been to Wrigley before, so it was a lot of fun, even though the Reds lost. 

(tourist Katie)

Afterwards we grabbed lunch at a restaurant in Wrigleyville and then headed out to do some shopping.  We walked and walked and walked through Wrigleyville, Lincoln Park, and Lakeview (people from Chicago are probably rolling their eyes at my lack of Chicago knowledge right now) until we found…Molly’s!

Oh my goodness, it was like cupcake heaven.  I read about Molly’s here, and talked Ryan into walking the several miles to get there :).  And luckily for me there was a Threadless store, American Apparel, and Urban Outfitters on the way as bait.

  

Needless to say, the cupcakes were delicious!  While walking back towards our car, we decided that while we were in the city we should probably stop by Michigan Ave and say hi to the Gap.  After walking along Michigan Ave and the Riverwalk back to our car once again, we decided to call it a day and head home.  One of my favorite days in Chicago yet!

As for the rest of the weekend…we had a great cookout with friends and went to see fireworks Sunday night.

 

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July and made some great memories!