Phil and Michelle's Blog

AJ Up!

2011-09-24T19:51:00.001-04:00

Pulled himself up for the 1st time!

AJ's Reading Material

2011-08-12T21:55:00.001-04:00

Next step: Wall Street Journal while on the potty.

AJ 7+ months

2011-07-18T08:07:00.000-04:00

Pool time!Chilling with his Sock Monkey!Busting out the play blocks from Grandma Strahm!

AJ - 5 months!

2011-04-30T11:03:00.007-04:00

May 1st will make AJ 5months old. Time flies...

April 4 - Yes, he is this happy when we come to get him out of his crib in the morning.

April 22 - and this is how he usually sleeps. Keeping it cool...

April 23 - Warmer weather means more walks in the stroller...

April 24 - Easter outfits

April 28 - Still likes to fly like an airplane

April 29 - Yesterday was our 1st walk with the baby ergo carrier strap.

AJ Upright

2011-04-03T17:14:00.003-04:00

AJ meets his Great -Grandparents

2011-03-27T22:00:00.007-04:00

AJ met his Great-Grandparents (on Phil's Mom's side) this past Tuesday while his Grandparents obviously tagged along as well.

From March 13. AJ's neck is getting stronger. Now (March 27) he is doing a lot better and starting to half-roll to his right side. Here he looks at his surfboard that has some water and fake fish that move around. Zambrano loves to sniff AJ.

March 22 meeting Great-Granmda and Great-Grandpa Jackson!

Playing "13"

Grandma Strahm needed her fix as well:)

Hey AJ

2011-03-15T17:58:00.001-04:00

AJ may be losing some of his hair:(
But he's becoming much more interactive, smiling, and making noises. Phil thinks he understands AJ but I just roll my eyes. Growing up fast!

AJ Smiling

2011-02-17T09:29:00.003-05:00

It's getting MUCH easier to get AJ to smile these days!!!

A little full and dazed after his 6oz feeding.

AJ - Random Pictures

2011-02-04T15:55:00.020-05:00

It's easy to take pictures of AJ. But not as easy to blog. Enjoy! If I ever post just one picture it's probably from my phone.

Very happy to get a Sock Monkey (January 1st)January 4

January 7 on his playmat

January 8 cuddling with Dad and Zambrano

January 14

Go Bears!

January 15 at the Strahm Family Christmas

This John Glenn letter jacket belongs to a teddy bear (see pics below) but we thought we'd try to put him in it. Sadly, only 1 arm would fit.

Go Bears! January 16
January 24 in his bouncy

Getting a bath. He takes these like a champ.

With the John Glenn Bear (January 31)

February 2 - chilling in the church gym during the ice storm

AJ with Landyn, who is infatuated with AJ. She sang him Twinkle Twinkle little star last night (February 3).

AJ at 7+ weeks

2011-01-22T16:56:00.001-05:00

It's hard work sleeping...

Merry Christmas from the Strahm's

2010-12-25T11:47:00.001-05:00

When you have a new baby that everyone wants to see why even bother putting the picture of mom and dad on the Christmas card.

The 2010 Strahm Family Christmas Card

Limited Edition Christmas Card (featuring Herbie the Hippo). An instant collectible. I got a little bored during the creating of the card and had a little fun.

AJ's Sleeping Habits

2010-12-20T15:18:00.002-05:00

Put your hands in the air if you're sleeping like there's no tomorrow!

AJ and Zambrano

2010-12-04T17:55:00.002-05:00

Mom needs her sleep too so the 3 boys of the house spend some quality time together on the couch. Zam still gets a little excited around AJ and wants to sniff/lick his face whenever they first meet up. When we first arrived home we left AJ in his carseat so Zambrano could slowly and safely get to know him. So far so good in the first 20 hours at home.
-Phil

Welcome Home AJ

2010-12-04T13:07:00.002-05:00

We got home Friday night before the snow came. AJ and Zambrano are becoming friends (maybe pics of that later). My sis-in-law Becca would like a "PG rated" version of his birth and we'll try to get that story up in the next few days. He is so precious:)

Last Baby Shower!

2010-11-11T07:39:00.001-05:00

I'm ready for this baby. Last weekend we had our last baby shower up in Walkerton as part of Strahm family reunion. Big props to Phil's mom for entertaining all the ladies. We have also been blessed with a baby shower at our church and at my job. We feel very blessed!

December 9th is less than a month away!
The nursery is nearing completion and we'll get those pix up when it is finished.
As for the baby name....well you'll just have to wait to find out!

Phil's sister also blogged about the shower/family gathering here.

A few of our friends who live close to Walkerton.

Sondra, due to have her first just a few weeks before me. The race is on!

Will our dog use this more than our child?

I think we have about 5 hippo books now. Phil is happy.

(written by Phil, pretending to be Michelle. I"m getting pretty good at this.)

If The Strahm's Were Pumpkins

2010-10-08T19:16:00.001-04:00

Can you guess which pumpkin is Phil, the upcoming baby, and me?

Pregnancy is Hard Work!

2010-07-16T19:09:00.001-04:00

Back to blogging! Phil made it so I can send blogs from my phone. Hopefully I'll be more regular in my blogging (or at least when Baby Strahm arrives). 19 weeks & we hope to find out the gender next week!

Sports and Concerts for 2009

2009-12-29T14:40:00.003-05:00

My hubby posted a recap of the sporting events and concerts we went to (okay, I missed a few of the concerts).

Wow...just two examples of how busy we were while having a ton of fun! Good thing we never had to find a babysitter;)

Phil's 2009 recap in concerts.
Phil's 2009 recap in sporting events.

More Fun Times

2009-12-14T20:11:00.003-05:00

Friday we went to a Collective Soul concert. Enjoy my bootleg videos here and here.

Sunday we went to a Colts Game as part of FCA day. We even got field passes to hear players share their testimony after the game. Good times.

What's Happenin'

2009-12-07T13:24:00.005-05:00

Over Thanksgiving we went to Walkerton to visit Phil's family. Phil's sister, Becca, has photos of that here.

We also got a little time in with my old roommate Abby, and her husband Seth, who were up from Georgia for the holidays.
I also went to make Christmas goodies with my mom and niece Mabri this past weekend.

And of course, some Zambrano love.

Operation Christmas Child

2009-11-23T10:47:00.004-05:00

This is what 60 shoeboxes full of gifts for children across the world looks like as part of Operation Christmas Child

Last Year I did 4 boxes on my own. This year we got our church and youth involved. The youth even sacrificed their fast food money to build their boxes!

These shoeboxes will be the only gifts these kids get for Christmas, and possibly their first gift ever. Plus, they all get child booklets telling the story of Jesus in their language and a 10 week discipleship course.

NeedToBreathe Concert

2009-11-09T13:44:00.002-05:00

Surprised Michelle with NeedToBreathe tickets at the newly reopened Music Mill on Saturday night.

Here are a couple of my bootleg videos...another one is on facebook.

Watch here and here or below.

Zambrano Around the House

2009-11-01T21:54:00.000-05:00

World's best dog. Maybe we should add these pix to upsidedowndogs.com

Annual IU Weekend

2009-10-20T13:18:00.002-04:00

Friday - Basketball Hoosier Hysteria
Saturday - Annual Football Game. It was Homecoming. IU won 27-14 and is 3-1 in the "Annual Strahm IU Football Outing." We should probably go to more games. I only took pregame pix.

Cleveland Rocks Weekend

2009-09-28T22:33:00.009-04:00

We spent this past Thursday and Friday in Cleveland for a little getaway.

Thursday - Zoo, Stryper concert at the House of Blues
Friday - Walking downtown, Lake Eerie, Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, and Cleveland Indians game.

As always, more pix are on facebook.

What does a Youth Pastor do?

2009-09-14T13:23:00.002-04:00

Often, it is random stuff like this video. From slides to VHS to DVD to one digital format to the next digital format...and then editing the video. Enjoy.

This past Sunday we had our dedication service for the new building addition.

I put together these two videos for the service. One is old footage from the church when they previously met elsewhere (the Hancock Co Jail is now built on that land) and the process of moving to our current location. If you pay attention you can see my house in the background as it was in the 1960's. And enjoy the old cars as well. The second is construction progress of the building addition. It was a great service yesterday! I think you will be able to tell which one I spent more time on.

Watch the History of Trinity Park
Watch the 2009 Building Addition Video

Grand Rapids to see the Newest Willis

2009-09-06T22:01:00.010-04:00

Visited my Sister's family (this is Phil) this past weekend.

Somehow we don't have any pix of my sister?!?
But she was a good host and made me no-bake cookies for my bday!
Tate Jackson displaying a big yawn- (Born in July)
Landon aka buckethead (19 months and full of all natural prozac)

(Insert comment about how awesome/natural we look holding kids)

One Long Day in the Windy City

2009-09-02T22:15:00.000-04:00

Always fun to head to a Cubs game, even if this season has been a disappointment.

Trains, Shedd Aquarium, and Wrigley all in one day. Left at 9am, got home at 4am!

Here's a little video of a beluga whale at Shedd. He was very talkative. If you can't see the video click here

Collective Soul Concert

2009-08-09T22:56:00.002-04:00

I won 2 free tickets through a goodwill contest that Collective Soul had on their twitter page.

Michelle sat in the back during the opening bands, Ryan Star and Safetysuit. Then she joined me way up front for the main event.

Some bands play better live...and Collective Soul is one of those bands. I also managed to pick up the set list and the lyrics (they hadn't played a few of the songs recently).

We got home from Cincy at 2am...tired, dehydrated, and pumped from an amazing show!

Here's some video and some pix...I couldn't record during the heavier songs because I was to busy going crazy! If you can't see the video...click here

Water Weekend

2009-07-27T16:58:00.003-04:00

As part of our Youth Ultimate Water Weekend (Splash Down Dunes Waterpark, camping, and Warren Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan) we went to a Switchfoot concert.

The weekend was great, except for the downpour of rain overnight while we were camping!

Michelle also randomly ran into her friend Sondra at the concert, and I ran into a few old friends as well.

Enjoy the short concert clip... If you can't see it, click here.

Strahm Family Vacation

2009-07-21T13:35:00.004-04:00

This past week we were in Gatlinburg with most of Phil's family.

It was great to hang out, swim, travel through the Smoky Mountain National Park, hiking to waterfalls, seeing Bears, Star Cars Museum, and doing some other touristy type stuff. We even had a cabin way up in the mountains with a great view. If you want to see all my pictures, you'll have to join facebook! We didn't get a group photo on our camera, but I know someone else did!

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Home

2009-07-09T21:30:00.004-04:00

I went home this week to visit my newborn niece in the hospital. She continues to get better and your prayer for Bailey are always appreciated.
It was good to spend time with my parents and Brian, Brooke, and Mabri.

Zambrano's 2nd Birthday

2009-06-30T16:55:00.002-04:00

Zambrano got a big treat for his 2nd birthday today. He was a little overwhelmed.

Pittsburgh Mission Trip

2009-06-28T13:13:00.003-04:00

Last week we took the youth to Pittsburgh on a mission trip. It was a great time. So proud of our kids! Here I am with the girls who went.

We were also able to make it to a Pirates Game and go out to eat with my cousin Jared.

Go Cubs Go!

2009-06-06T12:52:00.003-04:00

On Friday night we went to a Cubs game at Cincinnati to help out the visiting team! There were actually just as many Cubs fan in Cincy as there were Reds fans!

Carlos Zambrano was pitching (our dog is named after him. Phil got the naming rights...but now I love the name Zambrano).

We had great seats, the Cubs won, Zambrano picked up his 100th career win and he hit a home run (Phil tells me Carlos has a great chance of being the all-time home run king for pitchers)! The Reds also had a postgame fireworks show that was boomin'.

My birthday weekend

2009-05-26T14:42:00.001-04:00

A few weekends ago (the 16th) I celebrated my 26th birthday. 26...ridiculous to think I am that old but anyways...Thursday night before my birthday one of my best friends, Abby flew in to Indy and stayed at my house for a night before heading up to spend some time with her fam in Plymouth. We stayed up till the wee hours of the morning catching up and thinking back on college, our jobs, our men, etc. It was soo good to see her again and I miss her already!

Friday morning before we headed up to Fishers to meet Abby's sister for lunch, Phil told me to pack a bag, that we would not be coming back to Greenfield when we were done with lunch. I had no idea where we were going but I packed a bag anyways. After lunch with Abby and Kaitlin, we went putt-putt--reminiscent of our honeymoon. Here is a few pictures from putt-putt, including phil digging my ball out of the water with a fishing net...what a great guy!:)

After putt-putt we got in the car and headed for Brownsburg to The Old MG Bed and Breakfast. Phil knew I had always wanted to try a B&B so this was a perfect little getaway for us. After dinner out and a movie, we came back to our little house (we had the whole place to ourselves) and relaxed in our comfy green bathrobes (that came with the room). I didn't get too many pictures of the B&B but here is a shot of our room and us chillin in our robes...we had a great time and came home Saturday forenoon. What a great birthday! Phil has definitely set the bar high for his birthday coming up in August.

Some much needed updating...

2009-05-25T14:26:00.006-04:00

Hey everybody!! I have been super busy the last month or so but still wanted to give our friends a heads up on what we've been up to lately. So hopefully I will get caught up in the next couple of days.

All right first things first: our kitchen got some much needed updating thanks to my parents that came out a few weekends ago and helped us paint, change out hardware, and add some molding to our cabinets and drawer fronts. Aside from some accessories, we're pretty much done, and I am really happy with the way it turned out.

Here is what the kitchen looked like before...

And here is the almost finished product; I'm really

happy with the way it's turned out so far! Thanks again mom and dad for all your help!!

Life Centers Banquet

2009-05-04T16:17:00.004-04:00

Last Thursday we went to the Life Centers banquet fundraiser, formerly known as the Indiana Crisis Pregnancy Care Center. It is a pro-life organization with a mission "to affirm the value of life by providing a network of care to those experiencing pregnancy-related crisis and by compassionately presenting Biblical truth resulting in changed lives to the glory of God."

In 2008, it helped 572 moms decide against abortion, brought 956 people to Christ, and provided nearly 22,000 free services such as pregnancy tests, Ultrasounds, and support services.

This year's banquet fundraiser had Mike Huckabee as the guest speaker.

Over 2,300 people came to support the cause (and eat some pretty good food). Believe in life!

30 Hour Famine

2009-04-27T13:34:00.005-04:00

This past weekend was our 30 Hour Famine. I organized it with 4 other local churches.

We raised money and awareness to help solve world hunger and poverty.

Here's a few ways we did this:
*Didn't eat for 30 hours to experience a small sample of hunger (hence the name 30 hour famine).
*Concert fundraiser by Sevenglory and other fundraisers.
*Built cardboard boxes to gain a grasp of housing conditions in underdeveloped countries
*Served Indy and our local community through a variety of service projects
*5 Rotation stations that helped students understand poverty issues in our community and around the world

*It was fun...and we got in plenty of dodgeball and capture the flag

This was our cardboard house...You may not be able to tell, but it was carefully engineered to withstand the strong winds that were causing houses to go flying like it was the Wizard of Oz.

My crew that cleaned up a park in downtown Indy

The Weekend that Was

2009-04-21T16:35:00.002-04:00

This past Saturday I did my annual Race for the Cure. I have done it several times, and I blogged about it last year. We even got some support from the Indy zoo.

And on Friday night Phil took some youth to a Skillet, Disciple, Decyfer Down Concert in Indy.

Happenings...

2009-04-16T16:27:00.002-04:00

We were able to have our Easter Egg Hunt outside for the first time in our 3 years at Trinity Park. We spread those eggs all over the middle school football field that is across the street. Enjoy the pix.

And my parents were here for the weekend to visit (dad not pictured)

Last Friday night we went to Conseco Fieldhouse for a Chris Tomlin Concert.
This Friday night we went to Conseco Fieldhouse for a Pacers vs. Spurs game.

My brother Jon is a big Spurs fan (goes back to the whole David Robinson and his strong faith and community involvement) so we were blessed enough to secure 4 tickets for the game from a generous man in our church. Not only did he hook us up with tickets, but the tickets were in the Legends Section, where food is included! Brats, burgers, nachos, cookies, ice cream, pretzels...and plenty more! Noah, my 10 year old nephew, was chowing down the whole night! Personally, I'm a Bulls fan. But, we don't live in Chicago.

It was fun night and we are blessed!

Is it weird to brag that we had front row and center seats for the Night of Worship with Chris Tomlin? Literally, Michelle and I had the best seats in the house (if you wonder how I got these there is a simple answer: I ordered my tickets first! That's the benefit to pre-ordering the cd and having it arrive in the mail before it is released in stores with a special code for the concert).

And just to note: Tomlin toned it down a little for all the "old folks" in the audience. His band definitely turned the volume down compared to Ichthus Music Festival or Passion. If you can hear the tone deaf woman next to you singing then it isn't nearly loud enough.

Belated Update

2009-03-21T12:32:00.008-04:00

Hey everybody!!

I know it's been a while, but I still wanted to post a few pictures of our vacation to California the first week of March. Phil and I got to spend a Monday-Saturday in LA relaxing and enjoying some time off. We came home tired, but refreshed... Here are some pics:

Here we are at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach--this was about the warmest day we were there!

The aquarium also had this "aviary" (not sure if that's what you call it) where they had a ton of birds--as you can see from this video--they were just a little friendly. My arm was bleeding by the time we left from this bird boring a hole in it!

Phil playing with one of the seals--one of my favorite shots of the week.

In Redondo Beach we went on a whale watching trip out into the Pacific. Tons of fun-but the water was really choppy and it was pretty chilly. No whales, but tons of dolphins--which I was completely fine with!

Phil made up a little video of our trip; it's on facebook.

And for more pics--i have the whole album posted on my facebook page.

Next vacation: Strahm family to Gatlinburg in July! (I always have to have somthing to look forward to:))

Good times, good fun...

2009-02-21T19:42:00.003-05:00

Thursday my mom drove out here and we had a spa day! We each got hour long massages, a facial, and then an amazing spa pedicure. I obviously didn't get pics of the first two, but here we are gettin our pedi's!

After lunch out and a little shopping we headed back home. We had a great time...great idea mom!

Then today, I drove up to Marion, IN to see one of my best friends from college, Kelly Downs, her husband Nathan, and their new baby Jessalyn Maylie. It was sooo good to see them again and catch up for a little bit; i hadn't seen them since Phil and I got married over two years ago! Here are some pics from the morning.

Valentine's Day!!

2009-02-14T20:13:00.006-05:00

Today my amazing hubby had 18 beautiful red roses delivered to our house for me! They are gorgeous and I absolutely love them.

Roses, along with a girly chic flick and dinner out at my fave Mexican restaurant in town rounded out a great valentine's!
Zam wants to smell them too!

Last Weekend

2009-02-09T13:47:00.002-05:00

Last weekend was a little busier than normal for us but it was a good busy. On Friday, Brian and Brooke came out with Mabri to see us! They spent the day on Friday with us, slept over, and then went to see some other friends of theirs from Indy on Saturday. It was so good to see them again and catch up with each other. Mabri is at such a fun age right now, trying to say everything, and she even slowly warmed up to Zam a little bit. Poor thing hasn't had the best history with dogs to say the least. By the end of the stay she was feeding Zam and letting him lick her hands, which was BIG progress! Uncle "Phoy", Aunt Mimi, and "Mano" are so proud of you!:) Here a few pics of when they were here...

Zam chillin' with Brian on the recliner...

Ahh...parenthood in a nutshell...:) I love this picture.

Mabri loves to put on everybody's shoes...these were about more than she could handle!

Uncle "Phoy" (Mabri's still workin on her L's) and Mabri playing with her blocks.

Saturday night Phil and I went to the annual central Indiana FCA fund-raising banquet. The keynote speaker for the evening was Jim Caldwell, the new coach for the Colts. Neither Phil nor I are Colts fans, but I was very impressed with Coach Caldwell's bold Christian testimony and how excited he was that his first speaking opportunity after being announced as the new coach would give him an opportunity to honor God.

Then, last but not least, Sunday night we had our annual Valentine's banquet. The youth put on a banquet as a fundraiser for our annual mission trip. This was the second year that I was in charge of all the food---which all of you know---is a BIG undertaking for someone who doesn't particularly enjoy cooking. Buttt....everything turned out GREAT; the kids did a great job serving and helping out and the night was a great success.

A good weekend, but a busy weekend...now back to work. boo

25 Random Things About Michelle...

2009-02-05T17:01:00.002-05:00

For Momma Strahm and all my friends who don't have facebook (ahem: Sondra).

These random things are fun! I've been reading everybody's and thought I'd put in my two cents worth...

1. I always tell people that I'm 5'8" when in reality I'm like 5'6 3/4". I hate admitting I'm shorter cuz i always thought 5'8" was the perfect height. keep that on the down-low, ok?

2. When I was a kid I had two imaginary friends I played with: Timothy and Jalusy, and Timothy was a girl. One day I went and told my mom that they had died, and I never played with them again. weeiirrdd

3. Our dog Zambrano is my child. I did not know that I could love an animal as much as I love Zam. Pathetic I know, but he's my baby.

4. I love Coke--it's my favorite kind of pop but only fountain cokes, like what you get at a gas station or restaurant. I don't like it out of a can or 2 liter. It's the opposite with Mountain Dew; the few times I do drink it, it has to be out of a can or a small bottle or it tastes gross.

5. I am the baby of my family and Phil is the baby in his family. I don't think we have met another couple where they were both the youngest.

6. I absolutely love being a nurse and can't imagine what my life would be without my job. I love where I work and who I work with.

7. I went to the tiniest high school on the planet and graduated tied for valedictorian out of 8 people. Valedictorian gets you NOTHING in college when there were only 8 people.:(I loved my school though-it's all I knew.

8. I do not enjoy cooking whatsoever, but can make a pretty mean meal if I really put my mind to it. It's not a matter of not being able to, but more I just don't want to.

9. I HATEHATEHATE it when people tickle me. Phil thinks this is hilarious and loves to try. I don't get why it's funny.

10. Every "R" I ever write is upper-case. You will never see me write a lower-case "r." I don't know why, it's just my handwriting.

11. Phil says that if/when we ever have a son, his name will be AJ. I don't mind AJ but we have no A or J names picked out. Kind of a problem. If all goes as planned, we will have years to figure this out.:)

12. I have been a bridesmaid 7 times: Marian, Katy, Brooke, Kelly, Leah, Holly, and Abby. My senior year of college my mom kept a running tally of how much money I owed her for paying for bridesmaid dresses. Thankfully her interest rate was zero.:)

13. I absolutely hate celery. I bought a bunch a week or so ago because I am trying to eat more vegetables, not realizing how much I despise it. Zam hates it too; it's the one thing he refuses to eat. Can't blame him. So now I'm just going to try to wolf down one stalk every day till it's gone. Then we'll just stick with carrots. Me and Zam both like those.

14. From the time I was 9 to 18, I went to summer camp every year. I will not say how many boy crushes went along with those 10 years.

15. I am terrible at keeping our blog updated. A lot of the time when "I" do post, it's actually Phil writing, trying to sound like me. He's gotten pretty good at it.

16. My first car was a stick shift and I loved it. I miss driving sticks sometimes. And I don't think there's very many girls who know how to.

17. I get really annoyed with mushy-feel good forwards that people email me. Like, send this to 10 people and you will be blessed, blahblahblah give me a break. Does that make me a jerk?

18. Most of the cereals I like are little kid cereals: Lucky Charms and Froot Loops are by far my favorite. I'll eat a little more grown up ones like Honey Nut Cheerios or Frosted Mini Wheats.

19. I love fresh cold fruit, but not warm, or baked in anything. For example, during the summer I will eat a pint of blueberries, but I don't like blueberry muffins, pancakes, etc. Same with peaches, apples, etc.

20. I clip coupons with a vengeance and love to see how much money I can save with each grocery trip. Nerdy? maybe, but you'd be surprised how far a couple of coupons can go.

21. I slept with a blanket every night from when i was a baby till my wedding night---then it was relegated to a closet. I miss it, but Phil said i had to pick either him or the blanket. (sigh) bye blanket:)

22. I don't drink coffee--any kind of coffee drink hot or cold with any kind of coffee flavor whatsoever. I don't even know how to make coffee. My mom gave us a coffee maker as one of our "wedding gifts" when basically she just wants to be able to make it if they come over. So far it hasn't come out of the box.

23. I think adoption is one of the most amazing, giving acts that someone can do, and I hope to someday adopt a child of our own.

24. I have been pulled over 6 times since I got my driver's license, and if I remember right I've only gotten tickets twice. No one has given me a ticket since I am a nurse now. Policemen like nurses.:)

25. I passed out or came close to passing out probably 3-5 times in nursing school.

Home Video Time

2009-01-30T12:19:00.001-05:00

Even though I hate snow, Phil dragged me out into it!

Ornament Madness

2009-01-05T22:49:00.001-05:00

I have a hobby of collecting Peanuts Christmas Tree Ornaments from Hallmark. But, I only buy them after Christmas when they are 1/2 off. There's always a chance the ornaments will be sold out. This year I got lucky.

Despite Phil being less than thrilled about this hobby, he decided he could use one ornament for himself.

Mr. Reindeer

2008-12-17T20:31:00.000-05:00

No words necessary.

I love my job!!

2008-12-13T16:54:00.001-05:00

Tuesday night one of Indy's main news networks, WTHR, focused on our hypothermia program here at Methodist for their "health beat" section of the news. Some of you may be familiar with this technology as it is what the football player Kevin Everett was treated with after he suffered that horrible collision a few football seasons back.

This story is about one of my favorite patients and how the use of the hypothermia protocol here at Methodist helped save his life. I took care of David for two nights after he was off the vent. He was a great guy, tons of energy, and always joking around. He convinced me to play cards with him one of the nights I took care of him... Anyways...it's not every day that the general public gets to see a tiny of bit of what we do on a regular basis in the ICU...so here's just a taste!

You can read the story and watch the video here!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

2008-12-09T19:40:00.011-05:00

I feel like our lives have been going 100 miles per hour since we got back from Nashville. After working 3 nights straight once we got home, Phil and I went to my home in Ohio for Thanksgiving dinner. It was great to see my family again and my grandparents were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary which was really special.

Then, this past weekend, Phil and I had some of our best friends from college come and visit us for the weekend. Our friends Seth and Aly came from Findlay, Ohio with their daughter Leah, and Kyle and Nate came from Indy to spend a day or so with us. Phil and I met through Seth and Aly, and we hadn't seen them since the fall of our wedding, which was over two years ago! Phil, Seth, Nate, and Kyle all lived together in a house off campus in Marion during college. The guys had a great time reliving memories and goofing off, Aly and I got to do some long overdue catching up with each other, and we all got to play with little Leah, who is adorable!
Somewhere in the all the madness I managed to get up most of our Christmas decorations. We still need to put up the lights outside but with the torrential downpour of rain we had today I'm guessing it might be a few days yet. Here is a taste of what our house looks like at Christmas time, and the memories I have that go with them...

The Tree...

Last year Zam was still a pretty little NOSY puppy so we didn't get a tree cuz he would have destroyed it and all the ornaments. So this year I was so excited to get a tree again! We did not go to a tree farm like we did two years ago--None of Greenfield's tree farms' trees were as nice as HENSLER'S--where Phil used to work when he was home for the summers. This time we went to the little Lion's Club Christmas Tree plot right on the main drag in town and bought an already chopped tree. Phil convinced me to go with a pine this year; I always grew up with firs. I wasn't sure my ornaments would "dangle" enough (dangling is important:) but I was pleasantly surprised with the finished product. The tree is mostly dominated by my embarrassingly large collection of Snoopy and Peanuts character ornaments, a few from both of our childhoods, and some other randoms thrown in. So far Zam has done very well with the tree. Other than a few sniffs, he hasn't tried to attack or eat any ornaments. Good boy, Zam! I still have to find a topper that I like--maybe we'll wait for an after Christmas sale to find a good one.:)
The Nativities...

Besides the tree, setting up my two nativity sets is my other favorite Christmas decoration. Yes I have two. The first set is a set from my mom, who for years and years has bought each kid a piece for this set each year. My mom started doing this a long time ago and just kept each kids' sets back until they got married. Then, for their Christmas gift that year, they got the set that she had accumulated over the years for them. Phil and I got ours two years ago. Each year, Mom gives my bro's and me one more piece for the set. I think this is such a cool idea and I know that this set will always be a special family heirloom. This set--which is frighteningly breakable--is displayed on top of our tv cabinet, well out of reach of a nosy dog.
The other set is my Willow Tree Nativity Set. My friend Katy got me started on this set when she gave me the initial Mary, Joseph, and baby set as a gift for being in her wedding 4 years ago. Since then, I have added to the set each year with additional pieces. Now I'm only missing a few more additions, like the stars and the little angel on the stand. I LOVE these Willow Tree figurines; the soothing colors and carved body positions of each piece just speak peace and worship to me. And...something new this year: STOCKINGS!

It all started this year when we found the dog stocking at Lowe's when we were shopping for Christmas lights. I begged until Phil gave in and we bought it. Then I thought, "Why should Zam get a stocking and not us too?" Soo.....I headed off to Walmart and found a couple. I'm not completely sold on these, which is why the tags are still on them (haha), but I think they look cute on the wall together. Let's hope those 3m hooks come off as easy as the commercials say they do! *This post was actually written by Michelle (as opposed to the usual blogs of Phil pretending to be Michelle)

Reminiscing on Nashville

2008-11-26T10:00:00.014-05:00

Last week Phil and I spent 5 days in good old Nashville, TN. We were there for the National Youth Workers Convention. It was such a great and refreshing time. I learned a ton about teenagers, which has only strenghtened my resolve to not have children anytime in the near future!

There were some great worship leaders (David Crowder Band, Lincoln Brewster, Starfield), bands (Mercy Me, Jars of Clay, Matt Wertz, Kendall Payne) and very challenging speakers (Francis Chan, Shane Claiborne, Mark Yaconelli, Tony Campolo to name a few). There were also seminars to choose from where I gained a lot of insight into teenagers.

We also came home with a really cool painting. Phil explains that whole ordeal here, pictures included. He is always doing crazy stuff like this.

We also ran into a few people we knew including Phil's cousin Caleb and some old friends from Bethel and IWU.

Phil was taking a pre-convention class the first day, so I was able to go to Opry Mills and do a little shopping! We also did a little fine dining at the Hard Rock and a few other Nashville Restaurants.

We didn't take a ton of pictures, but here are some. Enjoy and have a great Thanksgiving!!!

Our pool at the hotel. Phil loves splashing around and I tolerate waiting for him to finish.
Getting ready for the session to start. David Crowder and his rigged up Guitar Hero Guitar that actually works! Lincoln Brewster. An amazing guitar playing worship leader and one of Phil's favorites.Our hotel was across the street from the Tennessee Titans stadium. They lost their first game of the season while we were there, so we must be bad luck. Sorry we didn't take any pictures during the daylight hours. Phil liked this sign for some reason.

My Wife Rocks!

2008-11-14T23:17:00.009-05:00

Phil here. On my blog I've mentioned different ways to spread the Christmas giving this year to people who could use a little extra love.

This is how Michelle does it...

I forced my wife to take this picture of the shoe boxes she filled full of Christmas presents for kids around the world. Not to brag about what she is doing, but merely to show one way to spread the love this Christmas.

I know there's a delicate balance between doing something unselfishly and A.) Not telling anyone so you don't receive recognition and B.) Telling someone to either inform or motivate. This time, I chose the latter.

If you are interested, visit Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child - Pack a Shoe Box.

p.s. Dollar Tree is a great place to fill a shoebox! (Socks, Racecars, Coloring Books, Crayons, Candy, Toothbrush, Toothpaste, Soap, Silly Putty, Harmonica, etc)

Food Pantry Fundraiser

2008-11-08T17:34:00.002-05:00

Last night we had the privilege of attending the Hancock County Food Pantry Dinner & Silent Auction. It's pretty much a big fundraiser to help raise money and awareness to the real need the county we currently live in has.

About 450 people were jam packed in a local church, and we were well fed from everybody around here's favorite local catering restaurant.

Tickets for the dinner, silent auction items, regular donations, and money towards special Christmas meal gift baskets are the sources of income to feed hundreds of families in the county.

The special guest speaker was Ray Tolbert, who according to my husband won Mr. Basketball in Indiana in 1977, was the Big Ten MVP in 1981 with the NCAA Champion Indiana Hoosiers (Isiah Thomas), and played in the NBA, winning a championship with the Lakers in 1988 (Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

The evening raised over $40,000.

If you're wondering if we won any of the silent auctions items, we walked away with item #37...fast food coupons and some movies. Last year we won 2 items, a car cleaning kit and a coupons to some sit down restaurants. All for a good cause!

#1 Fan

2008-11-03T18:04:00.003-05:00

We also picked up this little treasure for Zambrano while in Bloomington!

Weekend in Bloomington

2008-11-02T20:32:00.007-05:00

Sorry it's been so long...we've been busy, but haven't taken many pictures of our busyness. And what's the point of blogging without pictures???
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On Saturday we went to Bloomington for our 3rd annual IU Football game. Phil had to miss basketball "hoosier hysteria," aka the first practice of the year, for the first time this millenium due to other commitments.

We had fun walking the beautiful campus with the leaves having changed colors...and boy did we walk. One clothing store to the next and back and then to the game.

One store in town sells IU shirts 3 for $20, so every year we get some new shirts!

And then Phil ran into an old friend that is currently a student, so we caught up with her after the game over some Steak n' Shake Milkshakes.

Mmmm...Peanut Butter

2008-09-25T12:54:00.001-04:00

We don't let a little peanut butter that is stuck on the inside of a jar (but at the same time can't really be scraped off with a knife) go to waste!

Zambrano's tongue must be as long as a giraffe's to lick all this PB.

There was no peanut butter left...and the jar was chewed beyond recognition to reach all the precious PB.

And yes we do think our dog says this ALL the time! It is one of our favorite things to say back to Zambrano when he is sitting patiently.
*If you choose to drink, drink responsibly.

Visit with Jon & the 3 Rugrats

2008-09-09T01:48:00.001-04:00

On Saturday we headed over to Phil's brothers' house on the westside to babysit Noah, Morgan, and Kendra.

We also took Zambrano with us, the longest car ride for him since he was just a 5lb puppy.

We had a great time with the kids, running around in the backyard, eating Hungry Howie's pizza, Root Beer Floats, and some intense wiffle ball action. Enjoy the pix!Zambrano is a beast. Stilts for legs...
The girls definitely like to cheese it up for the camera...they all wanted to take Zambrano on a walk, even though he was in a fenced in backyard.

Weekend in Ohio

2008-09-02T15:58:00.001-04:00

Last weekend Phil and I drove to Ohio to spend a little time with my family. Jason and Marian were also visiting for the weekend and so YAY! I got to see my beautiful 3 week old nephew Cole Israel. He is positively one of the most beautiful babies ever, with a perfect little head covered in dark hair. Carter and Mabri were absolutely hilarious to watch and play with; Carter is getting so grown up and Mabri had us all laughing with her antics and constant little chatter. Plus look at that amazing curly hair!! Here are some pics from the weekend.

Here is Carter showing off (rather precariously) his new baby "brudder."
Positively one of my fave pics of the weekend---the apple does not fall far from the tree!

Carter loves his Aunt Mimi!!
Newborns are the best to cuddle with!

Phil's 26th Birthday

2008-08-28T09:31:00.001-04:00

2 posts in 2 days!!!

Phil is officially old, as of August 21.

Here is what he got for his birthday...
An IU ladder ball set (dog sold separately) found randomly while at Target

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

That along with homemade spaghetti and some BW3's....and the Cubs won (w/a homerun from Zambrano).

July/August Update

2008-08-27T10:51:00.002-04:00

So I always tell myself that I won't let this happen--going so long without updating and then it happens again. argh! Here are some of the thing that have been going on in our lives the last couple months.

July 20-25 Youth Mission Trip to Grand Rapids, MI

Phil and I took 9 kids with us. We had a wonderful time and all the kids did great. Check out the photo album for more pix or the youth blog to see us in the local newspaper... August 1-2 Garage Sale

I got the crazy idea in my head to have a garage sale and get rid of a bunch of old stuff--mainly clothes that Phil and I didn't need/want anymore. A couple of ladies from my Sunday school stuff also contributed as I didn't have enough stuff for a garage sale on my own. Even though we made a good amouth of money off it, garage sales are a lot of work! I had no idea that it would take so much time and prep. Now I know. And now everything will be going to Goodwill.:)

Aug.7-9 South Bend, IN

Phil I drove up to Northern Indiana to see phil's parents and grandparents and lots of friends. Thursday night we spent at Phil's parents', then Friday we got to catch up with friends in South Bend. That night we slept at one of my best friends Sondra and her husband Tim's house. I hadn't seen Sondra since Christmas so it was great to catch up with her again!. Saturday we attended the wedding of one of Phil's friends, Kyle Silveus and then after a quick visit to Dan and Annette's house (Phil's brother), we headed home. I did not get many pictures of this weekend, unfortunately.
August 17th - My parents and my aunt and uncle stopped in for a quick lunch. Look at what I created! God does indeed work in miraculous ways.

Aug. 21 Phil's 26th Birthday!

After dinner at BW3's---60 cent boneless wing night, we did some shopping. Phil got an IU Ladder golf game, some dress shirts, and I had already bought him a new Wii game. I'd say he did pretty good (pictures coming in the future)!

Aug. 23-24 Matt and Brandy here!

Some of our best friends from South Bend, Matt, Brandy and little Levi came and stayed with us on Saturday night. We had a great time catching up (even though it'd only been a few weeks since we'd seen each other:) and playing with Levi.

Aug. 26 Hillsong Concert!

Last night Phil and I went to a Hillsong United concert in Greenwood, Indiana. It was amazing. I was not as familiar with Hillsong's music as I am with some other popular worship music (Tomlin, Crowder, etc) but I had listened to the cd a couple nights before on my way to and from work. Such a great night of worship and and a clear message of the need to worship the Lord not just with our words, but also our ACTIONS. I think my favorite song was definitely "Mighty to Save." For more photos and video see Phil's post.
Of course the blog would not be complete without a few pics of Zambrano. He is doing great.

Michigan Vacation

2008-06-30T13:22:00.001-04:00

The Strahm family vacation in Mears, Michigan near Silver Lake State Park was a blast. We spent the maority of our time hanging out, eating grilled food, playing cornhole and ladderball, go-karting, miniature golfing, bumper cars, playing on the dunes, horseback riding, climbing a lighthouse, playing board games, and just enjoying time together as family!

Enjoy the pix!

Crazy Weather

2008-06-05T01:48:00.000-04:00

Friday night we had a big storm, which kept Zambrano very scared (and under our bed).

Saturday morning Phil walked outside to see these big limbs on our house, the only damage being slight dents in the gutters. They are bigger limbs than they look. Other people had barns blown apart, trees uprooted, and roof shingles blown off. A confirmed Tornado landed on the northeast side of Indy, destroying two-thirds of a 200+ apartment complex.
Last night the rain continued to come....there is a lot of flooding, especially in the frontyard of the our church, which is next door to us, and in the streets (no picture) where certain roads are shut down.

The flood behind the church and at the church next door (west of our house and the church) because the ditch overflowed. Probably 4-6 feet deep, above and beyond the ditch banks. The construction crews actually had to rush to get here because their lumber was floating away!

These pictures can't really describe the amount of flooding. Streets were closed from flooding. Michelle had to take a different route home from work. Cars were halfway covered with water. But things have gone down since this morning...thankfully.

Myrtle Beach 2008

2008-05-26T21:55:00.001-04:00

Saturday, Phil and I got home from a week long vacation with my family in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. My whole family rented a condo right on the beach. The weather was gorgeous, and we had a wonderful time relaxing and catching up with each other. Here are just a few pics from the week...

Jason, Marian, and Carter (and Cole on the way!)

Brian, Brooke, and MabriMom and Dad

I might have more pics later--but these will do for now. I love my family to death, and it was soo good to spend an extended period of time with them. All of those of you who live in the same community as your family, BE THANKFUL!!

And here is a video Phil took at Alligator Adventure

Top 5 Things I Learned at NTI...

2008-05-10T11:58:00.001-04:00

This past week around 30 or so nurses from Methodist, including myself, were selected to attend NTI in Chicago. NTI--which stands for National Teaching Institute and Critical Care Exposition is this HUGE conference that around 10,000 ICU nurses attended from all over the world. There are keynote speakers, and then hundreds of little workshops that you could choose to attend covering any subject concerning nurses, patients, families, death, diseases processes, etc. Also there was about 3 football fields worth of exhibits of medical STUFF...kind of like taste of Marion for all your IWU'ers or a Home Show, where there's tons of booths with all kinds of free crap and they try to convince you that their product, or hospital, or whatever is the best.

The hospital footed the bill for everything for this trip besides my food. They put us up at the Hilton Chicago, which is a beautiful hotel right downtown. So, basically, I got a little break from work, but was still "working" for the hospital!:) Here are just a few pics from the week.

This is the entire group of nurses from Methodist. Can you imagine the hotel bill for putting every single person up the at the HILTON?!This was the view from Kevin's (our medical director) suite overlooking the lake. Isn't it beautiful?!Here are all the nurses fromy my unit, CMCC.The first night a limo offered to take us to our restaurant. That was a blast!

Eating at Giordano's...a famous Chicago pizza place.

The TOP 5 THINGS I LEARNED IN CHICAGO:

1. I am not used to big cities...everything was so much more expensive than what I was used to!

2. Taxi drivers are nuts---the vast majority of them drive like complete maniacs. There were more than a few occasions where I feared for my life.:)

3. I do not like a la carte restaurants. A few places we went to you had to buy all your food separate. X$ for your meat, then x$ if you wanted a side item, then x$ more if you wanted a sald or something. Usually the food is not that much better anyways.

4. High-class hotels are very nice to look at, but they think of ways to charge you an arm and a leg for EVERYTHING. When Phil and I went to Passion we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express that was almost as nice and had complimentary wi-fi, hot breakfast, etc. The Hilton had neither. Of course you could call room service and pay $8.00 for a 1/2 grapefruit or $7.00 for a bowl of cereal from room service. RIDICULOUS!!

5. Lastly, I realized how blessed I am to work at where I do. So much of the new technology and studies that are being piloted, Methodist is usually one of the first to get to do so. My co-workers and I almost felt like nurse prima-donnas (sp?) walking through different exhibits: "oh we already have that," "we tried that and didn't like it," "we love that," etc. I am so thankful to work at a place that has the resources and the drive to always be cutting edge!!!

This was a long post, but I don't care---I had a great time and it made me very proud to be a nurse and to work at Methodist. Have a great weekend everybody!

Michelle's Hair--or what's left of it, that is...

2008-05-05T20:32:00.003-04:00

So, some of you may know that for a long time I have wanted to grow my hair out long enough to donate to Locks of Love. Last Friday I took the plunge. I have NEVER had short hair like this so I am still getting used to it, but so far I think I'm ok with it...

Here are the before pictures...

And the after:

All right, peeps--give me some feedback...good or bad--I can take it!!:)

Update

2008-04-30T01:46:00.001-04:00

Where did April go?! Geez....If you read both Phil's blog and this one, it is very obvious that he is MUCH better at blogging regularly and keeping his posts up to date. I quite frankly am horrible about keeping this thing up to date. So this is a long catch up blog. Here is just taste of what Phil and I (mostly I) have been up to this past month or so:

The weekend of April 12, Phil and I went to Atlanta with some friends for PASSION 2008. Check out Phil's blog for his post and pics about this. This was Phil's second time attending, my first. It was amazing, absolutely amazing. Enough said.

The next weekend, my mama came for a day to hang out. Friday we spend all day shopping and then that night went to the Central Indiana Crisis Pregnancy Center's annual fund-raising banquet. It was held in the gorgeous Sagamore Ballroom and the Indiana Convention Center. Cal Thomas, a favorite author/journalist of my mom's--was the keynote speaker. The banquet was wonderful--albeit a huge wake up call to the horror or the prevalence of abortion. There are so many terrible things that happen in this world that I just blindly forget about, and abortion is one of them. Cal Thomas and Star Parker--the other speaker at the banquet were absolutely wonderful to hear and their passion for ending this horrific crime in America was so powerful.

Saturday morning after the banquet, I ran the Indianapolis Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure with some girls from work. The weather was nothing to get excited about, but we had fun anyways--along with 45,000 other participants!

Sunday after the Race, Phil and I took the youth to see Expelled ,the new Ben Stein movie/documentary. Excellent film---very thought provoking, and it was great to hear the discussions it prompted among the kids on the van drive home. Check out Phil's blog about it here .

That brings us to last weekend--where we did the 30 Hour Famine with the youth kids. Friday night we had a concert at the church and invited a few other area youth groups to join us. Candlefuse gave a great concert and the kids loved hanging out with them afterwards. All the kids stayed Friday night at the church with Phil and me. For a nurse who is used to staying up night on a regular basis, I do not do well with youth lock-ins. I HATE them, in fact. You'd think I'd handle them just fine, but by 1-2 am I am tired, irritable and ready for bed. It's pathetic...shh don't tell the kids.:) Anyways, after an action-packed day, we all sat down to feast Saturday evening. yummy...

Last but not least, Tuesday I had the honor of attending the Indy Star's Salute to Nurses awards luncheon at the Indiana Rooftop Ballroom downtown (all these ballrooms lately!:) The luncheon was put on to honor nurses and recognize 6 or so for some special awards. It was wonderful to be in a room of over 900 nurses from across the state and realize that we all had the same purpose in mind and that we all had a passion for the same thing--delivering quality patient care. It made me very proud to be a nurse!!

I have pictues of a lot of these events but Phil has my camera right now so I will add those later! Have a great weekend everybody!

In Concert

2008-04-07T10:58:00.000-04:00

Phil has booked a band.

That's right, on April 25th...Trinity Park UMC in Greenfield will be host to Candlefuse!

You can also check out their MySpace Page to hear some of their newest stuff.

If you want to know why the band was booked check out Phil's blog post!

Check out their version of the well known worship song "Hungry (Falling on my Knees)" below. It ROCKS!!!

To Walk...or to Run

2008-03-26T01:28:00.001-04:00

Zambrano can never decipher between the two. So, we've had to resort to this.

The Halti...which essentially shuts his mouth if he runs ahead of us (the leash around his mouth tightens when he pulls on it). The goal is to train him to walk/jog/run beside us and not take detours for every smell he comes across.

After 4 trips he is slowly getting better...but taking a picture didn't seem like the best idea. So, you'll have to get the idea based on this dog's "modeling" of it.

Poor Z....

A Weekend Away...Baby Bonanza!

2008-03-19T18:01:00.004-04:00

This past weekend Phil and I got to get away for a while and catch up with some old friends and see some of Phil's family. On Thursday night, we met some of Phil's friends from IWU at PF Changs for dinner. Jeremy Holliefield and his new fiancee Heather were visiting from Texas, so it was great to meet her. Pat Cooper joined us at the restaurant and then went back to our house to puppy-sit Zambrano--thanks Coop!
After dinner we drove up to Walkerton and after saying hi to Phil's grandparents, crashed at Phil's parents for the night. Friday morning we drove to South Bend to see our friends Matt and Brandy and their new baby, Levi who was only 6 days old! We couldn't be happier for our friends and their new little family! You might notice in the family picture that Levi is already decked out in IU gear. Phil was quite impressed, to say the least.

From South Bend, it was up to Rockford, Michigan to see Adam and Becca and new baby Landon! Phil had been to Adam and Becca's before, but this was the first time for me. Adam and Becca have a great house that they've put a ton of work into and will probably be putting on the market before too long in anticipation of moving nearer the church where Adam now works full time. It was great to finally see the house, but even better to see Adam and Becca and LANDON...who is quite the chunker!:)

Old Spice Challenge

2008-03-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

For some crazy reason, my old deoderant (SpeedStick) just wasn't cutting it anymore. Apparently it couldn't handle the intense, action packed lifestyle of a youth pastor.

So, last week I made the switch. I walked into the store not having a clue what new deoderant I was going to get....Then this vision came to me.
The Old Spice Challenge...

In short, I am now an Old Spice Man...I will not have to dial 1-800-PROVE-IT because it clearly is the superior deoderant in the world today. To much information for you to know...oh well.

Big Z

2008-03-07T11:03:00.001-05:00

I told you Zambrano likes to sniff EVERYTHING! Best Pic Ever...Phil has incorporated Zambrano into his workout routine.
Something must be cooking in the kitchen!
One more pic just for kicks.

Those Crazy Mennonites

2008-02-29T13:22:00.001-05:00

I received the following from my secretary:

"Phil,

You’re not going to believe this! Remember the couple from Virginia who wanted to rent the new Ministry Center in December for a wedding reception? Remember I joked they were probably Mennonites!! They are!

And, they asked if they could serve wine. They said, as Mennonites, they frowned on the consumption of alcohol, but felt that wine was appropriate at the reception. I e-mailed back and told them no-go on the wine. They’re planning on a little band for dancing, too! Woo-hoo!

Thought you’d get a smile out of this."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Some denominations have a little more...let's call it "variety" than others.

Does this go to show that there are a large variety of Mennonites (much like there are a large variety of United Methodists)?

This is not the first time the Mennonites have been brought up.
Here are two other times off the top of my head:

1. In our 1st service we have a time of sharing joys and concerns. One time a lady stood up and talked about how she was going back down to Florida for the winter and how she was so disappointed that the UMC no longer had a campground she went to because they sold it to the Mennonites!!! (It was a sidebar to her prayer request of safe travel...she meant nothing by it, but it did come out kind of funny). We laughed...."those Mennonites stole our land!"

2. Michelle mentioned to Mike (Sr. Pastor) and I about Mennofest, a Mennonite Music festival, which I assume in all reality is pretty similar to any other music festival, except a certain denomination is attached to it.

This got Mike and I to thinking...maybe the United Methodist Church should have their own music festival. Let's see....what could we call it to let people know it was run by the UMC. Of course, how about METHFEST! While we realized the name would probably help draw a large quantity of "unchurched" people (along with suspicious Police officers looking for a drug bust) to spread the message of Jesus Christ...we decided to put the idea on the backburner.

****This is all in good fun....don't take this too serious. Michelle gave me permission to post this, so if you are offended it's her fault!!!****

What is going on?

2008-02-25T21:36:00.000-05:00

First off, this is Phil. I am trying to help Michelle get back in the blogging mode. I think her inconsistent work schedule leaves the blogging world behind. So, sorry for the lack of updates.

So, what has been going on with us???
While reflecting....this is what I can think of off the top of my head:

January
-Youth Lock-in
-Zambrano went under the knife. He can no longer pro-create.
-Church construction began on our new 17,500 sq ft addition...Click here to see the progress.
-Phil's sister, Becca, had a 10lb 4oz behemoth of a baby boy.
-Playing with our new Christmas toys, a DVD Burner and a Zune, (purchased via Christmas gift cards and Phil's hefty check from coaching 5th grade girls basketball)....

On a side note, do you have any idea how long it takes to rip every CD you have into digital format??? I can't wait until my brother Dan attempts to do this...he has like 1000 cd's. It's like asking the question "How many licks does it take to get to the center of the tootsie roll pop?" No one knows. But it was a classic commercial!

February
-Super Bowl Party with the youth.
-FCA Banquet/Fundraiser
-We laid down a sweet Valentines Dinner Fundraiser for our youth mission trip this summer to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Michelle was the cook workhorse (Chicken Alfredo). Phil held down the MC duties for the night.

-Phil preached while the Sr. Pastor was in Guatemala with the missions team. We also had the pleasure of dropping them off at the Indy Airport at 4:30am on a Saturday morning and picking them up at 10:30pm on a Saturday night (had to listen to the end of the IU game on the radio. Let's just say Phil can get a little distracted when listening to the IU radio broadcast while driving a 15 passsenger van with a trailer attached).

-Attending high school sports (basketball and swimming sectionals)
-Watching IU BASKETBALL (and now...debating/dreaming about IU's new coaching search that will begin at the end of the season).

We stay pretty busy....these are just a few things.

We have plenty of big events to look forward to:
-Passion in Atlanta in April
-The release of Mario Kart on Nintendo Wii on May 1st!!!

-Miller family vacation in May in Myrtle Beach
-Music Festival in June with the youth group
-Strahm family vacation in June near Lake Michigan
-Mission Trip in July

And some other stuff too.....We'll try to stay on top of things from now on in terms of posting updates.

Our time on Earth is temporary and we look forward to someday being in heaven. In preparation for the rare event that Mario Kart is not in heaven (yeah right) we (read: Phil) will spend hours upon hours playing Mario Kart while investing in the lives of today's youth at the same time. It's called multi-tasking...you should try it.

*Phil is not addicted to video games (the last system he had before the Wii was the Super Nintendo) so you do not need to pray for this habit that some people may claim to be an addiction. Instead, view Phil's countdown to the release on his blog. Only 65 and 1/2 days to go!

The Beast that is Zambrano

2008-02-25T00:25:00.001-05:00

While Zambrano slept we measured him (he was stretched out).

From nose to tail Zambrano is 51 inches long!!!! Yes, that's over 4 feet in length.

He weighs over 40lbs!!! This Beagle obviously has some Great Dane in him or some rare form of gigantism. Zambrano either stole our tithing envelope because he wanted to give it or because he wanted us to spend the money on chew toys.

It is almost baseball season...and Zambrano is ready to root on the Cubbies!

Christmas Card

2008-01-10T13:18:00.001-05:00

If you never received our Christmas Card, we apologize.

Here was our "family photo."

And here is Phil playing Nintendo Wii with his high school buds during a Christmas time reunion.
Mario and Sonic at the Olympics: the 100 meter dash. It is a very tiring game.

Christmas with the Millers

2007-12-23T22:30:00.001-05:00

This past weekend Phil and I went home--my hometown--to little ole' Plain City, Ohio to celebrate Christmas with my family. We got home on Thursday evening and came back Saturday night. It was sooo good to see my family again--Mabri and Carter are growing up so fast, and they are both at such a FUN age right now. And it was so good to see my parents, my bro's, and sisses in law again!

Friday morning I got up early and met one of my best friends in the worlds, Holly--for breakfast. Holly and I have been best friends since I was 16 or so, and even though we live a ways from each other we just pick up right where we left off when we do get to see each other!:) I love friends like that.

Friday afternoon I got to see my Grandparents and aunt and uncle and and a few cousins, which was great. And...my aunt and uncle just got a new puppy! His name is Hank, and he's an American bulldog. Sooo cute, with enough skin for 2 puppies!:) It was really good to catch up with my grandpa too. Phil and I were able to sit down and have a good time catching up with him.

It really hit me this time how much Grandpa is slowing down. Even though I take care of elderly people here at work all the time, I think I had the idea in my head that MY grandpa was ageless. And I think what made it the hardest was to hear him talk about how he could tell he was getting older and slowing down. My Grandpa is probably about the most godly man I can think of. His life is the epitome of a life lived for God, and I am so proud to be his grand-daughter.

My cousin Bud was home for the holidays as well, so it was wonderful to see him again. Bud and I are the closest in age on my mom's side so we have kept in close touch over the years.

Saturday my immediate family celebrated our Christmas. It was WONDERFUL. Mom went all out on the food, and we all ate like kings. It was so fun to watch the kids with their gifts--and Mabri try to eat all the wrapping paper!

Driving home, Phil and I were talking about each of our respective families, and the quirks and hangups that we both have with our own and each other's families. Isn't that what makes families great though--that weird aunt, uncle, cousin, or heck--maybe even a sibling--is what makes each family so hilarious and so great.

Zambrano Pix

2007-12-18T18:21:00.001-05:00

Here are some more recent pics of Zambrano----he is getting BIG...still very much a puppy, but in a 25 pound body!!

My Christmas Gift to Phil

2007-12-18T12:54:00.000-05:00

Phil really wants what is in this video below.

So, I think I will get it for him!

*Written by Phil. Could you imagine a hippo in the house???? How sweet would that be!

Christmas Busy-ness

2007-12-17T00:37:00.001-05:00

First of all, my apologies for not posting on here for such a long time. We were having issues with transferring photos from our digital camera onto the computer, only to find that everything worked fine when we took it Best Buy to try and get it fixed. Grrrr. anyways, I hope everyone is doing well and counting down the days till Christmas!! I, for one, am not actually as excited about Christmas Day, the 25th, like I am for the weekends preceding and after Christmas Day. Why, you ask? Because Christmas Eve I will be here, working...booo. I love my job but this is DEFINITELY NOT one of the perks. This coming weekend we will be heading to Ohio to celebrate with my family and the weekend after we will head up to Walkerton to be with Phil's family.

Christmas season has seemed to FLY by this year. I remember right before Thanksgiving telling myself that I didn't need to worry about starting to write Christmas cards because that was just ridiculous to do before Thanksgiving. ha---shift to Saturday night where I was frantically trying to finish up everyone's cards to be able to take them to church with me (ironically, church was cancelled this morning because of the weather). I was getting grouchy because I was rushing so much to get them done and checked off my list of things to do that I wasn't even enjoying doing them! It was the same way with making the Chex mix, Christmas cookies, and wrapping all the presents: I was trying to pack way too many things into one day.
Then today happened: the alarm went off and Phil got up, went and looked outside, and came and got back into bed, saying "I don't think we're going to have church today." As soon as we saw Trinity Park across the ticker on the TV, we fell back asleep and didn't wake up till 10 or so. And then we relaxed...with Zambrano...all day. Other than Phil shoveling outside and us decorating some cookies this afternoon, we did nothing but veg all day. Usually Sundays are one of the busiest days all week--with 2 services and Sunday school in the AM and youth in the afternoon, and then I usually go to work. Today was pure bliss--we did less today on a Sunday than we did when we were on vacation!:) Driving into work tonight I felt about as rested as I have in a long time. Three hopefully quick, eventless (yeah right) nights and I will be done for the week!

The mountains of Christmas cards that took forever to finish...

Some of the fruits of Phil and I's decorating labors...

Mornings when I get home from work...

One Year...TODAY!

2007-10-21T20:57:00.000-04:00

One year ago today, I married my best friend. It's crazy to think a year has passed already but I couldn't imagine spending it with anyone but Phil...Love you honey...

Vacation Pics

2007-10-20T20:09:00.001-04:00

I know we've been back for a week or so now, but I wanted to post a few pics of Phil and my vacation to St Pete. We had a great time of relaxing, resting, and sun-soaking.:) I strongly recommend vacations in the fall---rates are cheaper and there aren't a lot of kids around at the resorts because everybody's back in school. Enjoy the pics:

On Sunday Phil and I went to a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game. It was HOT, but we had a great time. If you read Phil's blog--the next picture is the pirate ship he was talking about in his blog.
Sunday night we ate at Philthy Phil's, a waterfront restaurant less than a mile from our hotel. Check out Phil's Blog to read more about this.
This is our snazzy rental car--a Pontiac Vibe. Enterprise gave us a free upgrade because they were all out of the intermediate size cars. We liked it ok--especially because it got great gas mileage!
Other highlights of the week included spending an afternoon at Phil's grandmother's house in Brooksville. I had never met her or Phil's step-grandfather, Ken before because they were not able to make it up for our wedding last year. It was good to finally meet them and get to spend some time there--and we could tell it meant a lot to hear that we took the time to come and see them. After lunch and the afternoon with her, we met up with some old family friends of mine for dinner. The Jarrells used to live in Plain City and I used to babysit their boys--who are now 19 and 17...crazy. We had a great time catching up with them as well.

I was already bugging Phil on this vacation about where we are going to go for our next vacation. I think I just need something to look forward to--no matter how far away it is...if i know it's coming up I can look forward to it!:) It doesn't have to be Florida or a popular vacation spot, but everybody needs to get away sometimes and relax, rest, and re-energize. I'm glad we did!

Zambrano - One month later

2007-10-01T14:16:00.001-04:00

We've now had Zambrano for over one month! The vet says he was most likely born in late June, so Phil decided his birthday was June 30, 2007. So, he is about 3 months.

We love him and he is getting sooo big! His hair above his eyes is changing to brown and he still loves to bite and chew!

Who needs baby pictures when you have a cute puppy!

Phil & Zambrano plan on watching a lot of Big Z (Carlos Zambrano, that is) and the Cubs in the playoffs!

*This post was once again written by Phil...albeit poorly.

GIRLFRIENDS

2007-09-24T21:45:00.000-04:00

I will be the first to admit that I am not the greatest at keeping in touch with friends if I do not see them on a regular basis. It's not that I don't miss them, or think about them, but I usually am just so absorbed in the present and where I am right now that I tend to just not get around to calling people as often as I should. Well today that changed--at least a little. This morning I woke up from dreaming about one of my best college friends. I dreamed that we hadn't seen each other in years and that she showed up as a doctor at work one night to see my patient. We were both shocked to see each other and spent some time catching up. I kind of laughed when I woke up because this friend has absolutely no interest whatsoever in anything pertaining to the medical field, but it got me thinking: what if something like that did happen to one of my friends and I would have idea because we hadn't kept in touch? Later that morning i called her and left a voice mail, along with a few other friends that I hadn't spoken to in ages. What do you know--a few hours later one of my best friends from IWU--Aly--called me back and we spent a good hour a 1/2 or so catching up on each other. Then while I was on the phone with her, another best friend from IWU--Kelly--called out of the blue. As soon as I was off with Aly--i called Kelly back and we talked forever too. And then I was talking with her, another one of my best friends from school calls--Leah. It was just like God was reminding me of how thankful I need to be for all of these amazing friends that He's blessed me with, and that I have a responsibility to not let these friendships go neglected!

So for those of you who are my good friends---you know who you are--please know that I love you all and miss you all and will be emailing or calling you in the near future!:)

PS---I have no idea who anybody in that picture is--I just put in "girlfriends" in Google images and these chics popped up. Someday our kids will think that our pics are old like we think this one is!:)

Labor Day Weekend!

2007-09-03T10:32:00.002-04:00

Thursday after Phil was done with work, we packed up Brano in the car and headed to Ohio to spend a few days with my family. I hadn't seen anyone on my side since June, so it was great to catch up with everyone again. Brano did great for the most part--only a few accidents. Here are some shots from Ohio... Here's me and Mabri--or Maygay as Carter calls her. She is getting soo big! Look at those blue eyes...

And Carter with his aunt Mimi!! The boy talks non-stop and will say just about anything you want him to--such a fun age!

It was so great to see everybody again, and we all had a great time catching up and goofing off. And of course playing cornhole...

We left for home on Saturday late afternoon and got home around 8:30 or so. We had to get home because one of my best friends Abby Claxton was coming to see us! She was helping move her sister into IWU over the weekend so she came down to see us for a day or so. It was sooooo good to see her again and catch up with her IN PERSON...it is so hard to go from living with someone and seeing them pretty much every day for two years and then hardly ever seeing each other any more! I love you girl! and miss you already!:) Brano LOVED abby, as you can see...

All in all, we had a great weekend!

Brano is doing pretty good I think--I don't really have any other puppies to compare him to. So far I think the only thing that has really surprised me is how much the little guy sleeps and sleeps and sleeps! I thought puppies were supposed to have tons and tons of energy! Not this one...you take him out for a walk (not a big fan of the leash yet) or just play around with him inside and he's all tuckered out after 1/2 and hour or so! He'll fall asleep in just about any position as long as it's on somebody, curled up in some crook of your neck, arm, leg, etc. He's not too picky!:) So far the training isn't going too bad---we try to take him out all the time and keep him on a schedule, but occasionally he does have slip ups. And he really hasn't barked or growled at all yet---just howls when we crate him to go to bed or go somewhere.

Hope everybody has a great Labor Day!!!

Finally!

2007-08-30T10:12:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we got our new member to the family!
A Beagle puppy named Zambrano. We absolutely love him, even if he's dropped a couple presents around the house. He also has a cute little howl where he sticks his nose up (well it's cute for now)! He also likes to sleep on your stomach (see picture below with one of our youth).

I think I'll call him 'Brano or "Z" for short.

Here are some pictures....for more pictures and details on our puppy (including why "we" named him Zambrano and where we got him)
check out Phil's Post.

This was the picture of Zambrano on Petfinder!

*this post was written by Phil for Michelle. He attempted to write as Michelle would.

My "Simpsons" version of us

2007-07-30T02:44:00.000-04:00

Sooo...I was checking out some other people's blogs and I found the link to the new Simpson's movie website where you can create yourself in "Simpsons" animation. I am NOT a big Simpsons fan by any means, but I thought this was kinda cool. Add to the fact that I have an orientee tonight, which means I have a lot of extra time, and waalaa check out michelle's version of the happy couple Phil and Michelle Strahm. Feel free to create yourself at http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/

BUSY SUMMER

2007-07-26T19:18:00.002-04:00

Hope everyone is having a great summer---we have been so unbelievably busy these past couple months, but it has been great! Here are a few pics from our recent mission trip to Nashville, TN with all our kids! Everyone had a great time, and I am so proud of the way our kids grew and let themselves be challenged...geez I sound like a mother...anyways, check out more pics of the trip at the Connexion.website.

Baby BOOM

2007-07-13T22:54:00.001-04:00

The past year or so, Phil and I have seen more babies born to the families of family, friends, and co-workers in the past 8 months than probably the past 5 years combined. A lot of it probably has to do with the fact that we are in that 24-25 age range and most of our friends got married about two years before we did, and are following the natural progression of love, marriage, baby carriage. It has been so interesting to see some of our best friends morph from single...to married...to parent. The following is a list of all the babies that have been born to...

Family:

Ava Grace Sanchez-Mustapha born to Tim & Sarah Sanchez-Mustapha
Mabri Quin Miller born to Brian and Brooke Miller

Friends:

Caleb Parker Chinlund born to Chad and Katy Chinlund
Leah Rae Kinley born to Seth and Alyson Kinley
Corinne Taylor Day born to Andrew and Heather day
Ethan Jay Sipes born to Matt and Sandy Sipes
Reece Maddux Miller born to Randy and Jenny Miller
Hayley Renee Jerrell born to Matt and Brandy Jerrell

Co-workers (Michelle's):

Carson Lee Devol born to ??? and Megan Devol
Meredith Ann Gretencord born to John and Jessica Gretencord
Ryann Elizabeth Marker born to Andy and Kelli Marker

And the boom is not done yet!! People we know of who are expecting...

Adam and Becca Willis
Troy and Kara Ogden
Steve and Rose Cooley
Eric and Tonya Mason
Stephanie Dennis
Jamal and Katrina Reedus - twins!
Angela Ramsey - possibly twins
Brad and Kelsey Bullock
Chris and Sarah Hardin
Jerry and Jessica Yoder

I am paranoid about posting this blog because I'm sure I've missed somebody; but I'll add to it as I think of more people, because I'm sure there are more. Everybody having all of these babies has been great for me, because I've gotten (sp?) to spend all kinds of money on cute baby clothes and gifts (much to Phil's chagrin:), and I've gotten to spend all kinds of time holding and cuddling babies and getting my baby fix every so often! Sorry if anybody thought this was just a cute way of announcing that we're pregnant, cuz we're very much NOT. I am a little worried however, because all the babies lately have been REALLYREALLY CUTE--somebody has to have the not-so-cute babies and I'm a little fearful it may be Phil and me--when the time comes of course..:) "oh well," Phil says--we'll never know, cuz nobody will tell us to our faces that our kid isn't cute." :)

Congrats to all you parents and soon-to-be parents out there--your kids are/will be all beautiful and we couldn't be happier for you all!

PS---The babies in the picture are actually made out of marzipan (sugary paste)! I can't imagine eating them--that'd be weird--but imagine how much time it took to make them!!

It keeps getting better and better...

2007-05-22T04:55:00.002-04:00

So I thought last night I had crazy patients...this morning we admitted a patient with major leg swelling and AFib, which is not the greatest heart rhythm. In search of something to take down the swelling in her legs, she had gone to her local pharmacy and picked up HYDROXYCUT, a trendy weight loss drug. She thought it must be a diuretic(something to make you pee a lot and reduce swelling) because it had the word "Hydro" in it. Ignoring the pharmacist's protests that swelling reduction was not the purpose of Hydroxycut, she went home and began taking the pills. One day later, she shows up in the ER with increased swelling and new onset AFib. She reluctantly had to admit that the pharmacist had been correct. This same patient swears up and down that if her blood pressure is high, all she needs to do is eat some yogurt or ice cream and it comes right down. I think she was a little put out with me that I was cracking up when she was telling me about it, but I just couldn't help it. It is patients like these with theories like these, that makes me love my job!!:) Perhaps this is not as funny to non-medically employed people, but I think it is absolutely hilarious. and I promise this is the last hospital related posting of the week...:)

Venting

2007-05-21T04:01:00.001-04:00

Tonight my cocaine abusing patient, after walking around in the hall, going into another patients room to talk to a patient she'd never met, and laughing and joking LOUDLY with her mother, proceeded to calmly tell me that she needed pain medicine because her chest pain was currently a 10/10. I am sorry, but if you are having pain THAT excruciating, you would be screaming/crying/freaking out but not having a high old time at the hospital. Normally I consider myself a relatively compassionate person, but seriously...
(sigh) I love my job...

Our Weekend

2007-05-16T15:48:00.001-04:00

Phil and I had a great time in Chicago and up at Phil's parents last weekend. The game was a lot of fun, even though the Cubs lost. Our view from the seats we had was great, and after the game we stuck around long enough to go down right by the field and take some pics. The traffic in Chicago is unbelievable; there was a lot of construction going on and since Phil had printed out all the maps and knew how to get there, I got to drive while he navigated. My neck and shoulders were so tense from being hunched over the wheel! Here are some shots from the game...

After the game was over and the crowds had thinned out, we headed back to Walkerton to spend a day or so with Phil's parents.

Friday night we hung out with our friends Matt and Brandy from South Bend. We went out for dinner and then went bowling. I bowled about the best and worst games of my bowling career--consistency is not my strongpoint!

Saturday morning Phil and I took his mom and grandma out for breakfast to a little cafe in town as a Mother's Day gift. Then it was off to Mishawaka for a wedding of a friend of Phil's. After the wedding we drove just a few miles over to one of my best friends Sondra and her husband Tim's house. We hung out at their house for a while and then went out to dinner at CHILI'S, which I had been craving for a long time. I was an idiot and completely forgot to take pictures...

We had a great time last weekend and it was really refreshing to get to see some old friends and break out of our routine for once. This was trip #1 of what will be many this spring/summer!

Wrigley, here we come!

2007-05-06T22:42:00.000-04:00

For my birthday this year, Phil got us tickets to a Cubs/Pirates game this coming Thursday. Now, while it could be argued that this is as much or more a treat for Phil as it is for me--as he has always been a big Cubs fan, and I just always wanted to visit the park--I am so excited nonetheless. And heck, his birthday's coming up in August, I'll see what I can get us some tickets to that I think we'd both enjoy. hmmm maybe some figure-skating??:)

In other news, I got to home for Friday and Saturday of this past weekend to attend the wedding of some friends from back home (congrats, Zach and Allyah!). It was so good to see my family and everybody from church and high school again. I love living in Greenfield, and know that this is where God wants us right now, but sometimes I just miss living nearby family and friends you've grown up with. I have this incredibly selfish and mistaken mindset that time essentially stops back in Ohio when I'm gone--kids stop growing, people don't get older, etc....and then I come home and kids have grown up so much, people have gotten married, joined the youth group, graduated, etc. and it hits me again how fast time goes and how quickly things change. Gradual changes for someone right in the middle of it all the time, but drastic changes for someone who only gets to come and see everybody every so often. So for those of you who have never really moved far from home, be thankful for the close proximity of your family and the community of people who have grown up with you. But also know that there is life outside of good ole' Plain City! I have no regrets of moving away; i will always cherish the memories I made livin it up with Abby here in Indy before we both got married, and now being with all our crazy kids here in Greenfield. But I will admit to getting a bit wistful every once in a while!:)

Race For the Cure!

2007-04-21T12:53:00.001-04:00

Today I had the privilege of participating in the RACE FOR THE CURE in downtown Indy. Approximately 40,000 people took part this year in the 5k run/walk and 1 mile walk to support and raise money for breast cancer research. I had never participated in anything like this before, and for those of you who have thought about doing something like this, I definitely encourage it. I did it with some other nurses from work, and we had a lot of fun. It's pretty inspirational to see that many people united together for one cause.

The course wound around downtown and past the Indy Zoo, where a few of the animals were decked out for the occasion.:)

Charlie Hall Concert

2007-04-20T16:17:00.001-04:00

Check out Phil's Blog Post about the Charlie Hall concert we took the youth to last Sunday. If you ever get a chance to see him in concert, you should definitely go.

To hear his music check out:
Charlie Hall MySpace

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

2007-03-27T22:38:00.000-04:00

31 years ago, my mom married my dad on this very day of March 27. Today, three kids, three in-laws and two grandkids later, I hope they can step back and be proud of what all their love has brought about. I love you Mom and Dad!

The gym is done!

2007-03-03T23:47:00.000-05:00

After countless hours, a ton of screws, and 1,000 pulleys :), the gym is done! This is a pic of the exact gym that we bought--when i took a picture of it in the office it turned out really dark. With this and my elliptical in the office there is not a lot of spare room, but we'll manage. The next time you see us we'll be so ripped...(coughcough)

Ashes...and haircuts

2007-02-22T23:00:00.000-05:00

Last night, Phil and I had the opportunity to go to an Ash Wednesday service at our church. I don't know about you all, but this was definitely a first for me. Embarrassing as it is to admit, I didn't even really know what Ash Wednesday was all about until yesterday. Growing up, I know that it existed as a holiday, but if somebody would have asked me what it meant, I probably would have ignorantly guessed it as some holiday that maybe Catholic people observed? And I also didn't know that this was the mark of the start of the Lent season. I knew that Lent was a period of time before Easter, but I didn't know when it started. And I knew that people gave stuff up for Lent, but I didn't know why. Anyways, Trinity Park held a very simple service, and our pastor Mike did a great job of explaining what Ash Wednesday was all about. We are a fallen people; we are all sinners who, without the saving blood of Christ Jesus, fall unbelievably short of the living the life that God has called us to. Ash Wednesday--in my interpretation of the service-- is a day that is dedicated to Christians acknowledging that yes, we ARE sinners and have sinned in the past--against others and more importantly, God. The mark of ashes on the forehead is an outward sign/symbol of that repentance and acknowledgement of sin. While the day could be taken as pretty depressing, we have the knowledge of what Christ's saving work on the cross has done for us. And we have the confidence of knowing that all our sins--those committed in the past or yet to be comitted in the future---have already been forgiven by Him. The spirit of the evening was not one of condemnation or judgement, but one of hope and confidence. Later, as I stood in the front and received my mark of ashes from Pastor Mike, I was thankful for the opportunity to finally know what Ash Wednesday is all about! All of us needed reminded now and then that we are sinners saved by grace.

On a lighter note, today I gave Phil a haircut all by myself! Becca had walked me through it when the Strahms were all together in January, and it was time to bite the bullet and do it myself. I tried to remember everything that Becca had taught me, but Phil's hair just grows WEIRD (sorry honey). Instead of growing down like normal people's, his grows out at the sides. I did the best I could and I really think it turned out pretty good, other than the part where I got a little crazy with the trimmer around his right ear. Phil thinks it's crooked, like I went up higher with the trimmer on one side of his head than the other, but he notices more than anybody else because it's HIS head. Sooo, if anybody sees Phil, just tell him hair looks great, cuz it does! and it will make me feel good.:)

Our New Purchase

2007-02-20T03:58:00.000-05:00

About a month ago, Phil and I went and bought some exercise equipment. We've both been feeling the "winter slump" and I don't have the access to exercise equipment like I did at the apartment or when we were at IWU. We decided that buying some equipment would be better than getting a membership at the local fitness center because: a) we don't have to get in our cars and drive there, b) the equipment will eventually pay for itself in what we would pay for membership fees if we did join a club, and c) if we spent money on it we are darn well gonna use it!!:) Sooo...we got this elliptical for me, and Phil bought a home gym. The guy at Sears put together our elliptical for free--so all we have to put together is the gym...which I'm sure will be no sweat (get it?). Here is a picture of me on the elliptical, check out those GUNS! ;) teehee Yesterday I did a workout on it while I watched Oprah (distraction is key when you are working out), and so far I am pleased with our purchase. Maybe Phil will have the gym all put together when I get home from work this morning! (yes, I am blogging at work, tsktsk) Have a good day everybody!

Weekend in Ohio

2007-02-18T15:41:00.001-05:00

This past weekend Phil and I got to go to Ohio to see our new baby niece and the rest of my family! Mabri Quin was born last Sunday, February 11, to my brother and sister in law Brian and Brooke . She weighed--are you sitting down--a whopping 12 pounds 6 ounces, and was 22 3/4 inches long! She's a whole lot of baby! Jason and Marian came in from PA and our whole family was able to be at B and B's apartment together on Friday night. Mabri is BEAUTIFUL, dark skin with lots of curly black hair. We all had fun Friday night trying to keep her awake--but not screaming--for the evening so hopefully she would sleep for a while that night!
It was also great to see my nephew, Carter, whom I hadn't seen since Christmas. He is walking now and into EVERYTHING!

Saturday morning after a big breakfast, Jason and I went and picked up my aunt and uncle's snowmobile and got to go snowmobiling for a couple hours. We had a blast tearing around back in the woods, the pasture and fields around the house, and in the front yard. After Jas and I got back, Phil and I took it out for a little spin. I had forgotten how much fun that is!

After snowmobiling, we hung out at my parents house for a while and then went to one of my best friends--Holly's--to see her new house. After a quick stop back in Springfield to say bye to Mabri and get my last "baby fix", we headed home. What a good weekend!