Mildred Agnes, a trip home, and a surgery

Millie is getting so big! I tell her every day to stop growing... she doesn't listen. 

This past week I gave her different hairstyles. She pretty much looks like she wants to kill me in all of the following pictures... 

the comb over:

The skater punk mohawk: 

The Donald Trump: 

I had surgery this week and we were going to be gone several hours. We put her in her crate and our neighbor let her out after a couple hours to roam around. This is what we came home to:

Needless to say she ruined her chances of being a free range puppy for a little while longer. 

I had a minor surgery this week. I'm not really going into detail here on the internet. Somethings need to remain unsaid and private... but I'm doing just fine. 

Matt and I are headed to West Virginia to see our families for Easter. Originally they were going to come up here, but my mamaw unfortunately spent some time in the hospital this week. So, we are going to them. We are taking Millie on her first long trip tonight. We'll see how it goes. We may have some good stories to tell... 

Also, today it was like 40 degrees and sunny. Millie and I were like 2 giddy kids outside running around (in her case..) and enjoying the sunshine today! 

Hope all is well with you and that your Easter weekend is lovely! I know ours will be! :-) 

I Need A Little Sunshine

It's March 19 and I am in the midst of YET ANOTHER snow storm here in Michigan. I am throwing in the towel. I am done. I need sunshine and warmth ASAP! I can't handle much more snow and grey and wet and cold. I am at my wits end!!! 

So, browsing around the web and seeing all the spring and summer things, I thought I'd post a few of my favorite spring/summer pins and things from around the web. 

Fashion/beach wear: 

this outfit and all her others. and this yellow and coral and blue (my fave colors right now!) here

this bikini from Nordstrom. and this adorable cover-up from here. 

Love this look. Already purchased my fedora for this summer. Now I need that bathing suit! http://richesforrags.tumblr.com/post/40634277806

outfits like this one. mustard tights, cute dress. 

For the home: 

Loving this dome like vases (not sure of the actual name, I have seen terranium and chlome used) this one is from anthropologie.

The most adorable mason jar display of spring flowers. found here

Cute kitchen table display found from this adorable blog.

The perfect spring colors to feed my blue BALL jar addiction from this palette

Food: 

Ready for the farmers market to open back up so I can have fresh delicious veggies to make dishes like these. 

Viva La Fiesta Vegetarian Taco Salad

Adorable idea. Breakfast picnic. Matt and I love breakfast (and coffee)!!! I think this is even more adorable as the husband to be planned it for his bride the morning of their wedding. cute! 

here

These are a few of my favorite things and a few bright things to bring a little sunshine to my day. Hope it does yours as well! 

Tomorrow is spring... and we have 4 inches of snow outside. ugh! 

iLife Lately

Matt and I are finally recovering from our illnesses. going on day 7 now. I still have it... he is pretty much done with it at this point. UGH! it was the worst! 

We literally sat around on our computers with headphones in and went from the bed to the couch for 3 days. We had alka seltzer plus cocktails on several occasions. 

The snow melted for a couple days and Millie had a love affair with a pine cone. 

She seriously HAD to be outside with her pinecone at all times. It was really cute... but it's not warm outside yet! So standing out there with her for a long time was hard but so cute to watch! 

I am soooo ready for warm weather and sunshine. I feel like everyone here is in a dark place. It has been SUCH a long and grey winter. I need warmth and sunshine and dresses and flip flops SOOON!!!!! 

I missed church on Sunday because I worked the night before. So when I woke up Sunday afternoon I went to a new (for me) coffee shop on Wealthy st. It was super hipster (like most of them around here), but I had the best Vanilla Latte and chocolate croissant! MM MM!!!! They make their own syrups. It was so yummy! 

Matt and I are starting a "house church" at our place. Right now it's just us and 2 other couples. It's been so nice getting to know them. We are going to study 2 Timothy. I am so excited to dive into it. 

Last night we celebrated St. Patty's day with a couple from our house church. Green beer all around!!!! 

That's about all that's going on here. Just Trying to stay warm here in Michigan and having some fun when we can! 

Under the Weather

We are a bit under the weather here. Matt and I both got sick after our travels this weekend. 

The past couple days have been sitting on the couch, watching movies on Netflix, drinking hot tea/coffee, and snuggling with the pup. 

I called the doctor today and the nurse there basically told me that if we still had this after 2 weeks, call her back. uuhhh EXCUSE ME!?!?! 2 weeks?!?!?! I have to WORK! That's why I wanted to go today... oh well... guess you get what you get... 

Today is full of hot showers, hot coffee, orange juice, lucky charms (I crave cereal when I'm sick... it's weird I know) and many chick flicks while Matt studies. 

Here's to hoping for feeling better soon!!!! 

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Get Away

I am in the midst of an 8 day off stretch from work. Matt and I have been living large this weekend (and eating ourselves large...) 

We started out the weekend on Friday night going to Buffalo Wild Wings and eating a bunch of junk food. Delicious. We had a nice little date night together. 

Saturday morning we headed off to our old stomping grounds, Chicagoland. We were headed to visit some friends Saturday evening, but had some time to stop in our favorite spot, Wicker Park, to get some food and shop around a bit. 

Our first stop was Al's Italian Beef. We weren't planning on eating here. We wanted to go to a swanky, hipster place in Wicker Park. When we got there, we parked and saw this and both were so hungry that we decided to just eat some good ole Chicago style Italian beef. So off we went. 

Next, we headed out to meander around to some of our favorite stops. Rudy's Roundup is one of my favorite stores in Wicker Park. We stopped there first, and then stopped in a few other Vintage stores, and Urban Outfitters. No purchases this time though. 

We also had to stop in Reckless Records. Surprisingly, no purchases there either (I think we were both in a frugal state of mind, and waiting to go to H&M and spend all our money). 

We also stopped at Glazed and Infused thanks to seeing it on Elsie and Emma's blog awhile back. 

After that we headed up to the northern suburbs and met one of Matt's friends from living in the quads at Trinity Evangelical Divinity school. We had some tea/coffee with Luke and his fiance and it was nice.

Then we headed even further up north and stopped to see our friends from our small group while we were living there. The Kim's are going to be heading to Nepal to be full time medical missionaries starting in June. We are going to miss them and their beautiful girls so much! 

When we moved to Grand Rapids, Phoebe was still so tiny! We couldn't believe how big she was getting! *side note: seeing my husband holding babies makes me incredibly swooney... seriously.. I might melt into a puddle on the ground when he holds my own babies. Puddles I tell you....*

We had an amazing dinner with the Kims and the Bursons. 

Sunday we headed even FURTHER north to a different state even! We went to Milwaukee, WI to visit our good friends/neighbors at TEDS while living there. Lydia and Glenn are great and we miss them so much! It was great to see them doing well and settling in. Glenn is getting his PhD at Marquette. Matt applied there but didn't get in and Lydia and I were bummed we wouldn't be PhD wives at the same school... but we share stories and we aren't too far which is nice! 

They took us to a great brunch place after church called Grand Cafe Centraal in Milwaukee. 

I had these breakfast tacos and potatoes and they were AMAZING!! I ate so much... again! 

Then we headed to Sprecher Brewery. We got the tour of the place... 

Lydia and I had root beer for our first samples... soooo good! 

Matt and Glenn had Irish Stout to start off with that looks even darker than our root beer.... not a fan of dark beers... 

Until this one.... for my last beer sample I decided to break loose and try a dark beer. Their darkest in fact... the Black Bavarian. I loved it! I couldn't drink a lot of it... but I did like it. Probably because it tasted a lot like black coffee... 

After spending a few hours sampling several beers and lots of gourmet sodas at Sprecher, we headed to Lydia and Glenn's place to hang out and relax for the night. 

Glenn and Matt started discussing theological books and things... and I started spacing out and looking at my phone... then all of a sudden I look up and see this taking place. 2 theologians.. discussing books, looking at books and RUBBING THEIR CHINS like they are so smart. Seriously... this happened! This was not staged at all.. and what are they looking at that's so interesting you may ask?!!? BOOKS!!!! Yup... Lydia and I embrace the fact that we married nerds. 

It was so good to visit with them. We had a great time! 

On our way back home we stopped at the Cheese Castle right on the Wisconsin border to pick up some gifts for our puppy sitters (and some for ourselves as well! 

Then we headed home. We were SO excited to pick up our Mildred from our good friends. We missed her! She was so excited to see us that when she got home she ran around for like 10 minutes and then this happened... 

It was a really great weekend with great friends, great food and drinks, and great time with each other. Now for a few more days of rest on the couch and recovering from the food coma I am currently in. 

Hope you had a good weekend! 

Encouragement

"So I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine" (Hillsong United. Oceans (where feet may fail)

The past couple weeks have been really kind crazy for me. I feel like when things happen, they happen in clumps. Everything seems to come crashing down. 

The past couple weeks have just been kind crazy. With work. With life. With family. I feel like God is trying hard to teach me a lesson here... 

Hillsong United released there new album this week and I really truly needed this song. I have been listening to it nonstop. 

With my grandma being in the hospital, work things, my own health issues, family being far away, and plenty of small petty things along the way it has been quite helpful for me to listen to this song and reflect a bit.

I just started an 8 day off stretch that I desperately need. I have some things to deal with this week, but when Saturday comes, Matt and I are getting out of town and headed to Chicagoland to visit friends and shop, and then heading to Milwaukee to see some friends there and spend the day with them Sunday. 

We are leaving Millie here with friends... and I have some anxiety about that. Leaving her for the first time... she will be fine though, and honestly it may be good for her to be away from us for a couple days as well! 

Thankful for rest, new songs of encouragement, a puppy to snuggle, and a husband to go on trips with and love!