Friday, February 20, 2009

Happy 'Love' Day

This was our first Valentine's day as Hubs and Wifey!! Northstar had a Valentine's Night dinner for couples and a movie! We had about 26 people and some great food!!


This was the banquet room I got to decorate--good times!

Our Associate Pastor and his wife making out.

my hubs being romantic and silly!

new friends and fellow bloggers--Megan and Shane

The good set up (my eyes go directly to the dessert table!)



Watching the movie during dinner



The girls from our table and Jenna (Megan, Jenna, Erin, Tonia and Me!)

Christine decided to join in too---i realized after that we all wore black and red!!

We had a good time! Hope you enjoyed your valentine's day too!

Lots of Love,
Cody and LaRae

Thursday, February 12, 2009

An Eventful Sunday Morning

This past Sunday morning, I was getting ready for church...just like every Sunday. I had just gotten out of the shower and decided on making some Oatmeal for breakfast. As the oatmeal was cooking, I thought, "let's put some clean dishes away from the dishwasher..." (bad idea).

As I began putting our drinking glasses into the dishes, one "lost it's balance", I suppose and came tumbling down; landing on the pots and pans I had just washed and were peacefully reside on the counter top below. As the crystal goblet hit the saucepan, it shattered into a million pieces (literally). One of the larger of the million pieces decided to seek out my left ring finger for vengeance. I felt nothing and my initial thought was, "PHEW, that was a close call"..then i looked down and my finger was anything but ok! (the rest is kinda graphic)....

As I looked down, blood was pouring out and glass was everywhere on my hand...needless to say, I was freaking out! I was home alone and not sure what to do--i called Cody, basically hyperventilating and asking what to do. I was guessing since I could see ALOT of blood and a ton of the inside stuff in my finger, that I should probably go to the ER. I grabbed the towel off my wet-head of hair and applied pressure, all the while trying to remember that stupid acronym from health class, IRCE, RCIE, what was it??? RICE!! Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate.....hahaha, i had no idea what i was supposed to do--i'm running around my house getting dressed with just my elbows and a towel holding my finger together. I run to my car, get in, realize i have no keys or even a wallet....run back in, grab those things, run out and forget to shut the door, run back.....it was exhausting, my poor heart was probably at 220 beats per minute.

I speed to the hospital (of course, I don't get pulled over because you never do when you have an honest and legitimate excuse) and run into the ER. Thankfully, no one was there (by all means, it was 8am). The lady, clearly, sees I'm in distress and rushes to get my info and get a doctor.

I'm admitted and they start their work--about an hour and a half later, I'm stitched up and calmed down. I leave with a sense of confidence...I just did that all alone, just me and God. Cody couldn't come because he was the ONLY pastor there on Sunday and I knew he needed to stay--so it was just me and God. Looking back, it makes me smile knowing that God got me through...I seriously felt him right next to me the entire time....except maybe when the guy was pulling the needle through my finger...haha.

The greatest part about this is God's truly divine goodness to me....as I was sitting in the little ER room waiting, I began to pray...knowing that I couldn't have 'moral' support with me physically. I was so nervous and scared--I needed a friend or something. Enter the doctor (well, student Doctor), his name was Dr. Pate and was a student at the local Med School. He was in his 3rd year and doing rotations..that scenario sounded familiar, so i asked if he know Erin Carter (the wife of our Associate Pastor, she also is a 3rd year at the local med School and doing rotations)--He responded with a resounding yes and we began to talk all about Worship and Church and God----the next thing I knew, I was stitched up, calmed down and walking out....realizing that God showed up to talk with me when I was all my myself. It makes me smile so much just realizing how much He cares for me and how He knew EXACTLY what I needed. Our God is AMAZING and so perfect, I am in awe.

Days later, a number of people said they were thinking about me and Cody this weekend and just started to pray for us, not really knowing why---WOW, absolutely incredible. Thanks my Father for looking out for us every moment of the day.


*This is about 5 days after the fact, so it doesn't look too severe and I finally got to wash it today---but, she's a-healin' nicely, but still quite swollen....praising God for the fact that I don't wear my wedding rings when I do dishes...it could've been MUCH worse! :)

Friday, February 6, 2009

Girl's Weekend!

This past weekend, my mom and I flew up to Ohio to attend West Hill's Annual Women's Retreat!!!! It was a girl's weekend to the fullest!!

We both arrived late Thursday night at the Akron/Canton Airport--we were so excited to see each other!! And of course, we both had black and red on--hahaha, we must be related!

Mom was so nervous to drive in the snow with the rental car--it was hilarious the entire weekend!!!!!!

After a night of excitement, we only got 3 hours of sleep!!! The next day called for RELAXATION!

Manicures and shopping were in order!!

In the hotel room, ready for an afternoon nap!


Later Friday afternoon, we helped set-up some stuff for the retreat....we actually ended up just sitting around and being moral support :)
*Mark, Cody's dad, was there setting up the sound equipment, so we couldn't resist a photo-op!

Cyndi Glasgo and Lindy at the registration table

Robin and Cartha were setting up the Karaoke room and couldn't resist giving it a shot!

The early birds were able to pay a few bucks to get a little massage---after a sleepless night, this was just what the Doctor ordered!!!

Me and the lovely masseuse

It was an afternoon of pampering!! After our massages, we did a paraffin wax dip on our hands! Seriously the best antidote for dry, gross winter skin!

Our hands look so weird!

Cody's Grandma even got in on the action!

The Retreat has started!! Robin was welcoming all the ladies to a weekend of relaxing!

The excellent speaker--Joanie Tabor!!

Ladies at the women's retreat as crazy--seriously!!

HILARIOUS!

The theme was "A Caribbean Vacation"---so the ladies dressed up as synchronized swimmers--it was hilarious!!! This is Cody's aunt, Lindy!

Part of the routine



The next day, Robin was slightly more relieved and looking cute in her "Sea gals" shirt

At our "free-time" on Saturday, My mom, me and Cody's Aunt Merry went to a cute little town called Hudson, Ohio--it had great little shops and delicious food!!

The quaint Main Street shopping--it was adorable!

 We went to this cute little place called Main Street Cupcakes--absolutely adorable and soo delicious!

The next day was Sunday--My mom and I went to West Hill (Cody's home church) and had a great time!! After church on Sunday we hung out with little Noah (Cody's nephew--we'll he's mine now too!!! haha)

Vanessa dresses him absolutely adorably!
After church we went to lunch with Joanie, the speaker from the retreat! We had a great lunch at Pine Tree Barn (my favorite place on earth) and shopped around! Needless to say, we were exhausted and needed to relax!!

That Sunday was Superbowl Sunday or better known as Vanessa's Birthday!!! She had to wait until half-time to enjoy her big day!

She loves Tiramisu, so we got her her favorite dessert and Noah helped blow out the candles

He was pulling the candles out and licking them--he wanted to put the candles back in the cake to get more icing---it was hilarious!


His first taste of Tiramisu

Clearly enjoying it

Opening presents--we got her cute Damask coffee mugs that match her kitchen

*We had a great trip--it was so nice to hang out with my mom by myself...it's been a LONG time since that's happened!! Also, the weekend was such a great time of spiritual renewal and encouragement--God did great things and I am so encouraged to keep going in this life and Christian journey!! Thanks Joanie for speaking your heart and your transparency! It was so great!

Love y'all--
LaRae