Manic May

May was a busy, but fun month. May usually is very busy for us because of all the birthdays, holidays, and vacations that inevitably fall in this month. Below are some highlights from the month, but I'll blog in a couple days about our biggest adventure in May: the Alaskan cruise we went on!

Just so you know, we have the cutest dogs in the whole wide world. I may be biased to make such a claim, but I'm sticking to it. :)

As the spring semester came to an end, all the husbands from our couples' Bible Study group got together to throw a surprise date night for all the wives. I'm a blessed woman! They had us wives meet at Sara's house, where Chris was waiting with the first clue. But this was no ordinary scavenger hunt - at each location the clue led us to, one of our husbands was waiting, and gave a single red rose to his beloved, along with some sweet words and kisses.

*Melt*

My hubby had the final location, the Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater. He was dressed handsomely (as always in my opinion), and got down on one knee to give me the rose and whisper some sweet words. It was also kind of funny because there were lots of people at this location, and afterwards they asked, "Did she say yes?!" Michael's witty response was, "Yes...about 6 years ago!" LOL

Our final clue led us to a local coffee shop, where the husbands had set up a dinner table in the courtyard as the sun set. They had music playing, table decor, and catered dinner. Well, since the dinner they catered (Carino's) is not something we choose to eat anymore, Michael went above and beyond by not only planning for the date night/scavenger hunt like the other husbands...he also went to the grocery store, cooked, and packed a home-cooked meal for us to eat. With dessert. Have I mentioned how much of a blessed woman I am?

THEN, if that wasn't enough brownie points (dairy-free of course), the husbands took turns reading poetry/speeches to us that they had written. The video below was what Michael shared.

*Sigh*

It was such a wonderful, romantic night that I'll remember for the rest of my life. :)

And as the saying goes, "All good things must come to an end," we finished our final semester serving on the Newlywed/Young Married leadership team. It's bittersweet. We are so very grateful for the NWYM class. It has been a crucial support system for our marriage and I'm 100% confident that our marriage is stronger and better off because we were involved in this class.

But we both felt that it was time to move on to a different form of ministry. Because of our struggles with infertility, it became more difficult to be excited for other couples who became pregnant while also dealing with the pain and emotions we were experiencing. It may be difficult to understand this paradoxical feeling unless you've experienced it firsthand, but we prayed about it and felt peace about moving on from the class.

Coincidentally (or maybe not, seeing as how God tends to open doors when you ask for guidance), around the same time that we decided to move on from the class, we also became passionate about helping people improve their health in ways they have control over. So much so, that we are interested in pursuing this as a form of ministry at our church. There's nothing concrete to report yet, but hopefully something will happen soon.

But, I have decided to take a step in this direction on my own -- I'm starting my own business! I have no plans of quitting my day-job, but plan to do this business on the side at my own pace (which will be slow at first). It's a work-in-progress at the moment, but if you're interested in following my business, I will be transitioning my other blog to be part of my business, Tofu and Manna.

May is filled with birthdays and other celebrations. Mother's Day was on the 12th; Michael's 27th birthday was on the 13th; Meemaw's 93rd birthday was on the 14th. To celebrate all three, we hosted a lunch at our house. Our 6th wedding anniversary was on the 19th, and to celebrate, we set sail to Alaska (a separate post about this coming soon). I can't believe it's been 6 years since our wedding day and 8.5 years since we first met and started dating! I wouldn't change a thing. :)

We upgraded our dumbbell set in the garage so that we now have a wider range of weights. Craigslist has such great deals if you can be patient enough! I love having the weights neatly lined up on the rack against the wall (which we arranged after the above picture). We sold all the duplicates on craigslist to help offset how much it cost us. We're pumped (pun intended)!

Just before leaving for our cruise, we got to visit with the Schmuckers when they came into town. It was fun catching up with them and watching Caitlin walk around the house, cooing at the pets. She did this funny thing where she would grab her thighs and walk around like a sumo-wrestler. So cute! Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of said cuteness, or their visit.

Shortly after our drier stopped heating, the laundry room light stopped working. Because we were so busy with the planter box and other projects/work, we did not get around to fixing it until very recently. The old (broken) light was a fluorescent with a ballast, and we think the whole fixture stopped working because changing the fluorescent tubes didn't help. We decided it was more economical to replace the fixture all together with a bulb-type fixture (no ballast). Because then we could put compact fluorescent bulbs in it, and they're cheaper to replace. So my handy hubby installed the above new fixture and let me tell you how wonderful it is to do laundry in a lighted room again (rather than using a flashlight to look in the washer/drier). Thankful for my man!

Latest update is that I got my hair cut. My last cut was in September when I got side swept bangs for the first time, but only got my hair length trimmed because I wanted to keep growing it out. Well, I successfully grew my hair to the longest I've ever had it...so long that when I had it pulled back into a ponytail, it would still wrap around my arm...not so lovely when working out (which we do almost every day) and you're sweating and it sticks to you...yeah, I know. And it's starting to get hotter here, so I spontaneously decided this past Tuesday that I wanted to cut it, and my stylist had an opening the next day. I kind of miss the long hair because I could do a lot with it, but I love how light and airy my head feels.

Next post: Alaska!