Love is a Mystery

Last night Chris and I attended the Love is a Mystery dinner hosted by our Sunday School class. We weren't really sure what to expect. All we were told was to show up at 7:00 for a 4 course meal. So, that's what we did. The atmosphere was adorned with reds and pinks, hearts and candles, etc. There was soft music playing in the background and a 5-star wait staff ready to serve our every need. We were seated by couple according to our place cards, 3 at each table. Everything as was anticipated and expected, and then we were handed our menus. Hmm, I'd never seen a menu quite like this before. The food choices were as follows:
Nature's Plug
Snow on the mountain
Cupid's arrow
A chip off the old block
Popeye's delight
Heart strings
Chris Harrell's past time (yes, my notorious husband actually made the list!)
A small raise
A roman mix-up
"Are you ready for the summer?"
A square soda
Jack and mac
Seedy character
Lover's delight
Exotic blubber with a twist
Sticks and stones
We were then instructed to write down on the opposite side of our menu the order in which we would like to be served (4 items per course, 4 courses). The funny thing is, our utensils were included in this cryptic list, so we had to be very careful and methodical about our choices; otherwise, we would be left with no utensils to eat our food with. AND, you weren't allowed to carry any items over into the next course. So, if you were given more than one utensil at a time, you were screwed :) This, of course, happened to me on my second course. I was given a knife, a fork, cubed cheese, and olives. Hmm . . . at this point, I'm thinking that I haven't eaten anything that required utensils yet, so 2 more courses left and somewhere in there are entree type foods. To ease the suspense, my 4-course meal went as follows: Course 1 - spoon, peanuts and carrots, Caesar salad, meatballs; Course 2 - knife, fork, cubed cheese, olives; Course 3 - bread, crackers, sliced pickles, toothpick; Course 4 - spaghetti with meat sauce, chocolate brownie with whip cream, jello, Hershey kisses. If you'll notice, that lat course did not include ANY utensils. It was very interesting. We had LOADS of fun with our friends. A small food fight even broke out between tables - to be expected with our crowd :) Anyways, the atmosphere was pleasant, the company was terrific, the service was extraordinary, and the food . . . well, the food was . . . interesting :) I was able to steal a few snapshots in between all our fun. Hope you enjoy them.

It's been a while since we last blogged, so I though I should catch you up on these last few weeks. After 2 weeks, I have finally nailed down a phone interview with the Director of College Counseling at the Cannon School in Concord. I am interviewing for the job as Administrative Assistant to that Department. It sounds like a lot of responsibility, but for the most part, it's all stuff I've done before (with slight alterations), so I think I could be great at this job! I get the impression that this department is quite overwhelmed right now, so she's asked if we could do a phone interview over the weekend. This is certainly not my first choice, but it seems to be what works best for her (and it's all about pleasing her at this stage in the process). My "interview" is at 1:30 today. The school is less than 5 miles from my house and is directly in between our house and Chris' office. Not to mention that it's across the interstate from my "regular" shopping center, so I could tend to all my errands after work without any inconvenience. I'm LOVING the idea of a school schedule as well - 7:00 - 3:00 M-F / ALL federal holidays off/spring break, summer vacation, etc. This still allows me to work on my sewing projects on the side! This could be great for us! I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much b/c I don't know many specifics of the job yet, but from a distance, it seems perfect.

Secondly, Chris' birthday is in 3 weeks! He'll turn the big 3-0!!!! This is a big birthday in someone's life and we are definately celebrating!!! We're still working out the details, but we're thinking about having a small party at our house (just Chris' close friends) and then go bowling!!! His favorite candy bar is Butterfinger, and I have a recipe for Butterfinger cake, so that's what he's requested I make for the party! I'm working on a special gift for him (that I obviously cannot disclose yet), and I really hope he likes it! YAY for birthdays! They're my favorite days of the year!!!

Last week I started a new Bible Study with the beautiful ladies in my Sunday School Class called "No Other Gods" by Kelly Minter. Basically, it's all about acknowledging what other gods we worship in some way everyday and learning to put them aside for the glory of our Heavenly Father. Some idols can be small (like media, food, etc.) while others can be huge (like infertility, spouses, etc.). This will be a good study for me as I am always struggling with inadvertently making pregnancy/babies/family my idols.

Well, I guess that's it for now. Hope ya'll have a wonderful weekend! Until next time . . .

The TRUE Meaning of Christmas

This year our Sunday School Class (http://hgbcmarriedadults.blogspot.com) had the awesome opportunity to adopt a Christmas family. This family is compiled of a grandmother, mother, and 5 kids (ages 6-16). After talking with the grandmother regarding the needs of her family, we came up with a list of items for each individual. Now this is this first year that our class has done this corporately, so we were expecting a much smaller family with much smaller needs; however, the Lord knew what we could be capable of and the many ways in which we could bless this family. The list of needed items included school clothes, winter coats, shoes, gloves, hats, scarfs, socks, toys, giftcards, christmas stockings, etc. Some people chose to purchase specific items for individual family members and others chose to donate money towards the cause. Well I found out last night that not only were all the needed items met for each family member, but there was a remainder of $500 in donated funds leftover. The remaining money will be put towards grocery and gas giftcards. How amazing is that?!?!?! Our class is not very big, there's only an approximate total of 30 "regular" members in our class, so to experience this much generosity is truly amazing! This family will be blessed so much and the best part is that we all get to show and experience the wonder of Christ's love during this holiday season. This is definately something to praise God for today!

Lindsay's Baby Shower

2008 Halloween Social/Costume Party

Chris and I spent the evening at our Sunday School Class Halloween Social tonight. As mentioned in an earlier post, we decided to go as Ron Burgandy and Veronica Corningstone this year. Here are some pics from our night! P.S. - we won top prize for "Best Couple Costume" - YES! Victory!!!

"Mmm - I look good. Real good. Hey everyone, come and see how good I look!"

introducing Ron Burgandy and Veronica Corningstone

"I love scotch - scotchy, scotch, scotch!"

Me (Veronica) and Valerie (Dorothy)

Chris (Ron) and Rob (Big Bad Wolf)

Me (Veronica) and Kelly (Little Red Riding Hood)

Wii bowling - my "strike" pose :)

Chris and I had a wonderful Saturday working around the house. He worked so very hard in the yard all day today - mowing the grass, weed-eating, blowing, replacing pine needles, pulling weeds, etc. But my favorite thing that he did today was plant a flower bed around our mailbox! It's so pretty!







We hung out with our friends at the Kannapolis Intimidators baeball game tonight! It was our first baseball game since we moved to Charlotte! It was super fun and always a good time when we get to be with our peeps :)







The best part of the weekend is that Carolina Panthers pre-season football started today! They began their pre-season playing against the Indianpolis Colts (one of my top 3 teams). We are SO excited that NFL season is finally here!!! This year, the Panthers are gonna be awesome . . . I just KNOW it!!

Pictures from the beach

Weekend At Ocean Isle Beach

Chris and I spent the weekend at the beach with our friends and it was SUCH a blast! The weather was absolutely amazing and we could not have planned a better weekend to go. There were so many fabulous things that we did and some great memories that we made - WAY too many to document on this blog entry. However, I will amuse you with a few . . .

One of the most exciting things that happened to me was venturing out and trying new seafood. Now, up until this point in my life, I haven't been a big fan of seafood. Mostly because I haven't really tried anything other than shrimp and salmon. But this weekend Chris and I set a goal to try at least one new seafood item. So, on Friday night, we gathered with our friends at The Giggling Mackerel (on the water). We ordered the seafood platter - containing a half pound of shrimp, half pound of crab legs, half pound of clams and mashed potatoes. This was CLEARLY enough food for us both to enjoy, so we split it up. All I can say is it was amazing! Crab legs are my new favorite food! Everything about dinner that night taste SO good to me and I was really glad that we had waited to try these items for the first time at the beach - it might not have been so exciting if we had them for the first time in Uptown Charlotte. Needless to say, between to both of us, we finished that platter in its entirety!





After dinner, the girls all went to the local creamery and got some ice cream while the boys went to Wal Mart to buy fishing items and food for the next day. Afterwards, we all went back to the house and the girls cuddled up on the sectional with popcorn and drinks and watched "27 Dresses" - it was fabulous! We were up until midnight just laughing and talking and having a great time!

Saturday was full of sand, surf, and just relaxin' on the beach. Chris and I drove around the island for a couple of hours, sightseeing and picking out which house we'd like to own someday. :) They're all so beautiful, but the beach has had such a terrible problem with erosion these last few years and it is literally being swept out from underneath itself. It's so sad to see. So, with that in mind, we just decided to rent a house for a weekend/week here and there in lieu of owning any property, that way we can still enjoy all the benefits with none of the risks :) We spent the entire afternoon on the beach with all our friends and had a great time together! The weather was 83 and sunny with just the right amount of wind to keep you from getting hot. We're talking PERFECT beach weather! And after we all got cleaned up, we headed out to N. Myrtle Beach for dinner. That was . . . well . . . interesting : We ended up at this restaurant called Fire Island Grille. The atmosphere was pretty cool, but that's where it ended! I ordered the shrimp and chicken pasta primavera with Alfredo sauce - a pretty normal meal. After approx. 30-45 minutes, they brought out our food and as I'm getting ready to take my first bite, I realize, there's no pasta or chicken in my meal. Hmm . . . So I inform our waitress and send it back. A few moments later she return with my complete meal this time, only to discover it tastes like a Lean Cuisine frozen dinner. So, once again, I sent it back. They were gonna charge me $20 for that food and I wasn't going to pay it. The waiter questioned me as to why I did not like the food and insisted that he had tried it and thought that it was good. I then proceeded to tell him, "I don't mean to be rude, but I'm the customer, and what matters is what I think of the food, not your opinion of the food. I would prefer not to pay $20 for what tastes like a Lean Cuisine meal." And then, as if that wasn't humiliating enough, the other waitress who was assisting our table, came back and told me "well that sucks, we sent it back once already and you're still sending it back again." Are you kidding me???? Did they forget what their job descriptions were or why they were there in the first place??? To serve ME! It was completely ridiculous! Almost everyone in our party of 14 was very dissatisfied with their meals and had an issue with our waiter - it was a very unpleasant dinner. But, I knew I had no reason to fear - there was a Krispy Kreme shop on our way back to Ocean Isle and we stopped and picked up a dozen to enjoy in the car ride home :) Mmm - yummy! :)



This morning, we packed up out stuff, checked out, and went into Southport for a couple of hours on our way out of town. We had a wonderful time there with our friends, Rob and Kelly, and ate the best meal out of the entire weekend at this adorable little restaurant call "Fishy Fishy" on the marina.







The trip was amazing - best weekend we've had in a long time. We can't wait to go back again soon!!!

Charlotte Rescue Mission - Service Project

Chris and I spent the latter half of the afternoon preparing and serving dinner to the men at the Charlotte Rescue Mission. Our good friends, Pat & Amelia, arranged for our Sunday School Class to do a service project there. This is our second time going as a class and we really enjoy it! The men at the CRM are so grateful to have outsiders come in and prepare a meal for them and socialize with them for a short while. It certainly reminds us of how fortunate we are to have the many blessings in our life that God has given to us. We really enjoy serving at the CRM and we look forward to many more service projects in the future. Below are a couple of snapshots from today.

Good News . . .

Chris has an appointment at REACH to get tested onWednesday at 12:30 pm. Please be praying for him during this time - it's very difficult for him (or so it seems). Soon we'll be able to have more answers and we can put this whole thing behind us.

We had some friends over tonight for a cookout and games. It was SO much fun! Chris made steak and shrimp kabobs, corn on the cob, and roasted potatoes. I also made a fruit trifle for dessert. Everything was great and it was really fun hosting it at our house - we should really do that more often :)

We've been pretty busy this week. Outside of our jobs, we also have done a lot of home decoration this week. We completely switched out our guest bedroom and office. It looks really great, but it was a lot of work!

Hope everyone continues to have a nice weekend! Love to all!

WOW . . .what a weekend!!!

I'm ready for a break! Somehow we keep filling our weekends up with events and I think I'm finally ready to cool it for a while! This weekend was SUPER fun - but busy :) Friday night Chris and I went to Ryan and Valerie's house to decorate their basement for our Sunday School Thrift Store Formal. We had a great time working on it with a bunch of our friends - but we didn't leave their house until 1 am!!! Saturday was busy with errands and the like - but Saturday night was all fun and games! We had our first ever thrift store formal and it was a blast!!! As you can see from the pics on the left, many memories were made and many laughs were shared! There's some great shots of Chris participating in Limbo and the hoola-hoop contest! :) Chris and I were the winners of the "Newlyweds game" and we also took home the 2007 Thrift Store Formal King and Queen crowns!!! We just has SO much fun with all of our friends! Sunday we went to church, grilled out for lunch, took a very short nap, and went to the Charlotte Checkers hockey game with some more friends! The Checkers won (in sudden death) and will now advance to the playoffs . . . whoohoo!!! This week will probably be super busy for me at work. However, my good pal Amy will start working for CJS tomorrow and I get the pleasure of training her this week - that will be fun! Chris and I are leaving after I get home from work on Wednesday night for Alabama. We will be spending Easter with my sister Harmony and her beautiful family!!! I can't wait!!! We'll come home on Sunday (it will be very late I'm sure!) :) So . . . there's lots going on this week - I hope you all have a nice week and a wonderful Easter weekend!!!

Weekend Report

So, our weekend has been fabulous! Our dinner engagement was so much fun! We played numerous games - including Mad Gab, Tribond, Catch Phrase, and Pictionary - I have recently begun to remember how much fun board games can be!!! Today's missions work at the Charlotte Rescue Mission was so great as well! We met some super nice people that live there/work there and it was so humbling to be able to serve others who were so grateful for any little thing they could get. Even a smile and a "hello" meant so much to them. We will probably be doing this pretty often looking forward - perhaps every other month. It's a great service opportunity and we're privileged to participate in it. Tomorrow we'll go to church and fellowship with our friends then hopefully have a very relaxing Sunday afternoon! Sunday's are great for R & R!!! I'm just beginning to unwind when Monday rolls back around again :( Oh well, that's life!

Weekend Plans

Well, per usual, our lives don't slow down much on the weekends - here's what's on tap for us this weekend. Tonight, Chris and I are meeting 4 friends at one of their homes for dinner and board games. Should be a lot of fun!!! Plus, the menu consists of chicken parmigiana, salad, bread, appetizers, and dessert - just can't go wrong with that, you know?! :) Then tomorrow, Chris and I will be joining another group of friends in preparing and serving dinner to the members of the Charlotte Rescue Mission. We've been studying up on that organization in our Sunday School class these last few weeks and it seems like a great opportunity to serve. I imagine in our "down time" we will do the usual "weekend items:" laundry, X-Box (for Chris), grocery shopping, house cleaning, etc. What fun!!!

Weekend Plans

Tonight I start a new Bible Study with my gal pals on the book of Daniel by Beth Moore. I'm really excited about this because I think Beth Moore is so awesome and I learn so much through her studies. Afterwards, my parents will be coming into Charlotte to spend the night with us on their way out to Alabama (where Harmony and her family lives). They will be our first guests in what I have nicknamed the "Shabby Chic Guest Room - Phase I." Unfortunately they cannot stay long as they will be gone again after breakfast tomorrow morning - but at least they could stop by for a quick visit. They'll also be staying with us on their way back in on Sunday night. This weekend is going to be a very busy one for me. Tomorrow night I'm meeting some girlfriends for coffee and a movie. Saturday I'm hanging out with my Meredith friends (in Raleigh) for lunch and then Jennifer's baby shower. I'll also be spending the night with my BFF, Corrine. Sunday will be church at "The Prov" then back to Charlotte I go - just in time for my parents to meet me back at my house :) Busy, Busy, Busy! Chris will - hopefully - be at home painting this weekend! :) Before I sign off for the day, I'd like to give a big shout-out to my nephew, Donovan - "Happy 3rd Birthday, buddy!!! I love you!"