Our First 5 Years

Carl and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on Saturday. To celebrate we went out to The Melting Pot, a restaurant we have always desired to try, but not wanted to spend the money to do so. We thought this anniversary was a good a reason as any, so we did and it was phenomenal! We LOVED it!! The food was absolutely delicious, and the experience was a great time. You will not leave there hungry, and all the food you eat is quite healthy! We got the 4 course choice (you can only get a minimum of 3 I believe), and our dessert was free as we had a coupon (always exciting). The first course is a variety of breads, apple slices, and variety of fresh veggies to dip in your choice of a cheese fondue sauce. The second course was a delicious salad (no fondue necessary ;) ) and the third course was the main course with a variety of meat and veggies and your choice of broth fondue. Here are a few pictures from the day and the meal. I will apologize in advance, I always remembered to take the picture after eating a bit, so you don't get to see the nice spread as we first saw it, but rather partially eaten. ;)

We of course had to get a little gussied up for our nice meal and special day. : )

Here is the first course (or what's left of it). : )

Main course of pork bbq, shrimp, salmon, honey dijon chicken, ravioli, and fillet Mignon (and veggies).

The boiling broth.

So, in our first five years we have lived in and traveled around Europe, moved 3 times, lived in 3 different states, had 4 different churches, gotten 2 dogs, both served in the war against terrorism, made many good friends, and seen the Lord keep us through hard times as well as good times. We have also seen many prayers answered. We are so thankful to be where we are now, as our marriage really does keep getting better all of the time, as we desire more and more to serve the Lord and through serving Him, serve each other. What a sweet blessing my husband is to me daily, and I strive to be the same to him. We are SO excited to see how God will work in our marriage in the next 5 years and more.

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Today is Carl's birthday! Happy birthday husband!! We decided today that this may be the first time we have been together on his birthday, which is nice. : ) We didn't do much tonight, since it is a Monday and all, but are going out for his birthday and our anniversary on Friday (his idea to combine the two). : )

Here are 10 reasons (though there are many more) for me to celebrate my husband today:

10.) He always takes out the trash for me (yuck!).

9.) He's sooooooo handsome! ; )

8.) He gets my jokes (which is sometimes quite a feat), and thinks I'm funny.

7.) He can do anything he sets his mind to, and he does!

6.) My husband can't tell the difference between make-up and no make-up, and therefore thinks I ALWAYS look great! ; )

5.) I never have to worry about a job getting done with him, he is so dependable.

4.) He stands up for what is right, no matter the cost.

3.) He always puts my needs before his own.

2.) My husband is soooooo funny!

1.) My husband truly loves me with a Christ-like love.

I thank God continually for my husband, and now you know just a few reasons why. : ) Happy birthday, my Carl!

Experimental Pictures

I have always wanted to be a photographer of sorts (for fun), and have for a while been experimenting and trying to learn how to be one. I have just a normal "point and click" type digital camera, that I am trying to master, as Carl and I have made a deal that I must first master the easy camera before I can get a much nicer, more complicated one. :) So, since I now have a blog, you, my fellow bloggers and such are subject to helping me in this process. :) I hope you don't mind. Here are a few experimental pictures I took the other day of a dying rose and one of our pups (the only subjects I really have at my disposal). Any advice or comments you have would be much appreciated. Thanks!

This picture is clearly blown-out (is that the right terminology, Jenny S.?). The lesson here was that having your subject directly in the sun is too much light. I guess this is why camera flashes tend to make people look pale at times.

I was working in Macro mode here (trying to take a clear picture close-up). I am not sure how well it turned out, though. My question is--how do you know what you are actually pointing at with your lens, or do you learn simply through experimenting? What is the best angle for macro mode? What do you think I was actually trying to capture clearly here--the rose, leaves, or grass?

This was my favorite picture for lighting. I discovered that having the subject in shaded lighting, with my back slightly covering the sun was the best angle for lighting. I love the angle and look of this picture.

Who says dogs don't smile? :)

The Bed That We Built

Since Labor Day, Carl and I have been working on our new bed, well our only bed. In our almost 5 years of marriage, we have never had a bed frame, just a box spring and mattress on the floor. We just never found a bed frame that we liked enough at the right price, and really were never really, truly on the search for one. Because of this, I one day got the idea of making my own headboard, as I was just itching to get our bed off the ground or more dressed up at least. This search then led to the question of a frame. My handy dandy husband came into the picture here and said hey, I'll build a frame! Carl has been dying to do some woodworking and this gave him the perfect opportunity! So, below is our CREATION (ha, ha, ha--insert crazy madman scientist laugh here). :)

Oh yes, one more thing, we know, we know, it may be the biggest bed in town, but I have always wanted a high bed and together we decided it would be nice to be able to put some nice looking storage under it if we want to. We are well aware, however, that when we are old and hoary headed we will have to cut the legs down in order to be able to get into bed. ;) Also, please let me know what you think of the bedding, I'm not sure if I'm done with it.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Leftover Pictures from Labor Day

I wanted to post the rest of the pictures from Labor Day weekend, since I discovered these Smilebox slideshows, thanks to my fellow bloggers. So, here are the rest of the pictures from last weekend that didn't make the cut for the initial blog, but are still just as good. ; )

Make a Smilebox slideshow

A Bit of Good News

If some if you recall, I had posted a while ago that I got a job as a Teacher's Assistant, though I have my certification, since we moved here too late in the summer to get into interviews for teaching positions. Anyhow, through that position, I am now going to start what they call an "interim" position, where I take over a teacher's classroom while she is on leave (in this case maternity leave). What is the point you ask...Well I get to TEACH! Yea! I was excited about this news, and just wanted to share. So, starting next week until November, I will be teaching kindergarten (pray for my patience ;) ). After that I'll be looking at possibly another interim position, and I'll keep you updated.

Labor Day Weekend Visitors

Over this weekend, Carl's sister, Krista, her husband Kris, and their dog Wrigley, came down to visit us. We had planned this visit about a month or so ago,and were quite excited about it. We had a wonderful time and tons of fun with them. Here's some pictures of all we did...

We went to our range and shot some clay pigeons. For anyone that does not know, they are clay discs that are catapulted into the air by machines, and using a shotgun, you shoot them. It is a fun time, and is actually designed for hunters to practice shooting moving targets, similar to how birds would be moving. Krista and I were some pretty intimidating ladies with these big guns (because of our shooting accuracy, of course). : )

Later that day we took a nice long walk at our favorite park with our dogs, wearing out both them and us.

This was toward the end of the trail. By this time the pups were both hot and thirsty.

Kris, Krista, Carl, Wrigley, and Sarah on the trail.

The next day we went into downtown Memphis and saw the Peabody Hotel ducks. The Peabody is a very nice hotel in Memphis that is known for having ducks that live there. During the day they swim in the fountain in the lobby if this grand hotel and at night they ascend to the roof for the evening (where they live) via the elevator! Sounds kind of funny, I know, but it's just one of those things you have to see when you are in Memphis.

Carl and I at the duck fountain, you can see a couple ducks swimming in the water behind us. The lighting is kind of poor, so you have to look closely (there is one over my shoulder).

The ducks are walking down their red carpet on their way to the elevator, followed by the man who "escorts" them up to the roof. I will admit, they were pretty cute.

Later that evening we went to a Memphis Redbirds game, which is always a fun time. It happened to set the record for the most attendance as well. Little did we know that we were going to make history. ; )

Kris and Krista at the game.

At the end of the game they had fireworks on the field.

So that was our Labor Day weekend. We had a blast. Hope you all were able to relax and have some fun on this long weekend, too.