under the weather and over the seas

Boo.  The flu, colds, coughs, sneezes are running rampant up here.  Along with snow.

I've already gotten stuck in unplowed roads twice- Sunday night and Monday morning.  Yes, when Andrew was out of town.  Thankfully my nice staff team and random strangers were kind to help and neither ended up being a huge ordeal.

But sadly my scratchy throat has morphed into coughing, fatigue, and general ickiness.  Hoping though that it goes away soon.  Like really soon.  We hop on a plane tomorrow for India. 14 hours of uncomfortable seats, no personal space, airplane Indian food and recirculated air sound exponentially worse with feeling sick.  So we're praying I'll be feeling better by tomorrow...

I am however, very pumped about the 70 degree weather I'll soon encounter.  Yay! 

Ladies lunch

This weekend inaugurated the two craziest weeks for me and Andrew this year so far.  He left early this morning to teach a Perspectives class down in Iowa, which is a missions seminar "on the world Christian movement."  It's a great class and gives lots of history, practicals, and vision for Christ's name going to the nations.  Anyway, he'll get back in a few days.  The following day we'll fly out to India for a week and a half to acclimate some other staff for their summer trip.  The next day of getting back I'll have a staff women's retreat up in Bayfield, WI.  When I get back, Andrew flies to Colorado for a support raising conference. Whew.  That wore me out just saying it.

But then...

We go to Cancun!  Andrew surprised me with an anniversary trip we'll take during student's spring break.  Though we got married in April and we'll take the trip in March, it counts.  Ya know, he is just the best!  He found a last minute deal online, but I have no idea of the details.  I wanted to know about one thing: warmth.  This filled my mind:

Since he was leaving, we planned to have a date out on Friday and night on Saturday because I planned to be a women's conference on Saturday day.  On Friday we headed out to get burgers and go see "The King's Speech."  The movie times gave us less time to eat dinner to we settled for SmashBurger instead of the Minneapolis classic Annie's Parlor.  SmashBurger was really good though and we had enough time to hike it to the theater, get tickets, etc.  The movie had enough history and hint of war and leadership for him and wit and interesting and developed characters for me.  We both really enjoyed it.  Saturday was great but then we got at call in the morning from a friend who was performing a marriage ceremony that afternoon. He had laryngitis.  The one thing you need to marry someone is a voice.  Anyway, I left the conference early and Andrew cancelled all his administrative plans and we headed down to Eden Prairie so Andrew cold marry some students we knew.   We got there,he did a run through of the ceremony, performed it, then we were out!  We were glad to help, but Andrew had a lot of stuff to get done.  Poor guy!  But he is a servant and we were grateful to help!

With all that, Andrew left today and I didn't want to be alone doing errands so I invited several girls over for lunch.  I made a bunch of different salads so there'd be little prep time after church.

Here's the run down: sun-dried tomato pasta salad, strawberry poppyseed spinach salad, Caesar (I threw that in when more girls than I expected stopped by), 4 bean salad, and a chicken waldorf salad.  Yum!

Here are the recipes:

• Sun-dried tomato pasta salad- I used about half the tomatoes, omitted capers and olives and added 1 small yellow bell pepper.  This one was my favorite.  I will definitely make this one again!
• Strawberry poppyseed- I was going to make this one, but ran out of time so I quick cut some starwberries, mixed in some asiago cheese, and poured some poppyseed dressing on top
• Caesar- this was my back up in case I wouldn't have enough food, so it was from a bag at Aldis- a steal at 1.89 per bag, I used 2.  
• Four bean salad- originally a 3 bean salad, but I also added black-eyed peas; subbed fresh parsley for dried, and red wine vinegar for the vinegar they called for.  Very good! I'll make this one again too!
• Chicken waldorf- I added 1 breast of shredded chicken, subbed fresh orange juice for lemon (grocery store was out) and used light greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise because I hate the stuff.  Makes my skin crawl.  Next time I'll add a little more fruit juice, salt and pepper

I really enjoyed having them over and it made me look forward to the afternoon instead of dreading the silence of our apartment.

Oh yeah, and we're having blizzard conditions and its been snowing all day.  

heart day

I love my husband.  I loved getting to celebrate God's biggest gift to me on earth- Andrew!  Though Monday was officially Valentine's Day, we had to change it up due to our funny schedules.  We were on a retreat with students all weekend.  It was a blast.  But that plus a busy Monday left us to figure something else out.  A was stressed about getting the retreat on track last week and had to prepare for all the meetings/trainings he was doing on Monday, so I said I would plan an evening!  This is a milestone, because my husband is king of planning, foresight, and surprises.

In the mean time while Andrew was napping after the retreat on Sunday I made a quick banner since we were celebrating by having friends over later.

Service is not my love langauage...at all.  But it's his so I really wanted him to feel appreciated!  After the retreat I washed A's car and tried to clean up the whole apartment.  I really wanted him to feel stress free and served. After he took a nap, (and I whipped up the banner) we got all dressed up (which he also loves) and we drove down to Zelo's on Nicollet in downtown Minneapolis.  Then we came back and instead of making the strawberry shortcake I'd planned, we made my back-up plan: chocolate covered strawberries! So good!

chocolate = demolished

Then after a day of meetings on Monday, A planned with some of our great friends to host a little Valentines get together that night.  Hubs grabbed some vino, roses, notes, and decorated the apartment while I was scooted out of our place.  Three couples came who are our co-workers, church family, and incredibly great friends.  The other husbands brought a cake (yum!) from the best local bakery in town, made a fun romantic playlist, and one questions and rules to play the Newlywed Game!   Sounds a tad cheesy, but it was such a blast.  But really A and I were the newest married by a few years and one couple was going on 20+.  Regardless, it was fun to laugh with friends.  We came in third.  Which we'll take.

Hub's addition to the decor :)

great friends Lisa, Theresa and Samm with that strawberry cake at our place

Sweet roses from the hubs that I put at my bedside table

And weather update: GOD LOVES ME.  It's been in the 40s and nearly 50.

In Minnesota this means: flats (no boots) for the first time in 4 months, sunroof, no scarf, no gloves, light jacket and sanity!  I really have been in the best mood and have literally been praising the Lord since!

can't you hear the angels singing?!

and yes, that's snow still everywhere, but thankfully it's melting!

 This is for evidence.  And to remind me God is faithful since it's supposed to snow for the next 4 days.  

loathing to truth

It's been cold here for a few months now.  It's just that, well, it's finally getting to me.  I was enjoying the snow, finding things to enjoy about the cold and the winter, but I'm starting to loathe it.  Here's my weather forecast for the week:

And this is without the windchill...which means minus 5-10 degrees.  A long sigh.  

This is the time of year when I've got to start speaking truth to myself.  This is where He has me. He is for me and withholds no good thing (Ps. 84:11).  He knows the plans He has for me and He desires to prosper me, give me hope, and a future, and not harm (Jer. 32:11).  He is in control.  He is good.  

And...this light and momentary suffering is preparing me for eternal glory (2 Cor. 4:17-18).  Dang cold weather will be gone soon and is God's way of getting me ready for heaven.  He wants me to look to the unseen things and not the seen.  God wants me to realize that this world will not satisfy, but only He will.  He reminds me that weather will never fulfill me.  Disappointments are pointers that my Christ is the only thing that will never disappoint, falter, and be loathe-able.  So really, I can thank God for this icky cold because He's drawing my eyes up to Him.  Not to mention all the dependence on Him that I need for supernatural warmth. :) 

Dear friends from warmer places: please don't remind me how much warmer it is there.  You are tempting me to covet :).  I actually changed my default weather locations on my phone to Minneapolis, then some place in Canada (because I tried somewhere in Alaska and they were still warmer) THEN Atlanta, THEN Delhi, India.  I am merely protecting myself from temptations of discontentment.

Anyway, Andrew and I were at a marriage retreat this past weekend and it was awesome!  It was great content but also great to escape and spend time alone together along with time with fun friends.  We love our church and love how much they value marriage, value good teaching, and value connecting with one another.  Betsy and Gary Ricucci came and spoke (from CJ Mahaney's church Covenant Life in MD). They were a sweet, down-to-earth, engaging couple. Their book, "Love that Lasts" has been one of or church's favorite marriage books though we've never read it.  Hopefully I'll be able to post some good thoughts from it soon.