THE ENGAGEMENT

December 20th 2007, it was a cool and clear evening in Baltimore city when Megan and Mike went out for a romantic night on the town. It started out that we were to get dressed up nice and go to see the Christmas lights of hamden and then have dinner and dessert. Of course no one is suprised to hear that we did not get to see the Christmas lights because someone was no ready on time. That reminds me of my favorite song since I met Megan (waiting on a woman). When Megan was finally ready she looked so beautiful that it was well worth the wait. We went and had a lovely dinner at ruth's chris steakhouse with our very own Christmas tree right by our table. The service was excellent the food was incredible but the company was by far the best. I wasn't as nervous as I was excited to get to tell Megan again how much I love and care for her. When dinner was over we walked out and went to the end of the pier over looking the harbor. We then proceeded to break and enter into a lighthouse climb to the top and then the rest was just for Megan to hear. I proposed Megan accepted and the rest is history. This concludes one of the best nights of my life with the girl who has become my very best friend. And now my fiance

copy the link and paste it into your browser to view : )

Mike and I are already feeling the Christmas Spirit and thought we would share a little with you:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9628429095

The rest of November!

I hear it's time to update our blog...this past month has been busy, so there's lots to catch up on! Mike and I took a trip to Salisbury and Ocean City one weekend to see some of my friends from college. Salisbury was hosting the National Field Hockey tournament so I got to see some of my old teammates and Mike got to see his first field hockey game! Salisbury advanced to the final four but lost in the semi-finals.


Although I'm sure the field hockey game was exciting for Mike, I think his favorite part about the weekend was eating the "Whaler" Prime Rib at Harpoon Hannah's. It was seriously the biggest piece of cow I've ever seen. I wish I would have gotten a picture of it!



The following weekend I went on a road trip to ohio to visit with two of my close girl friends from high school...well actually I guess middle school! One of the girls moved there after college, met her husband, and just bought a house! It was neat to see her place and get to see her all grown up! It was also great to catch up with my other girlfriend who now lives in VA on the drive up there. We had PLENTY of time since we got stuck in traffic from an accident. It took us 2 hrs to drive 3 miles. Something about a truck that turned over and spilled sodium chloride so they had to completely shut down 70. My friend and I both looked at each other and said, isn't that just salt? Anyways, we did finally make it there. Saturday we watched the Ohio State football game and I think our highlight of the weekend was going to see "The corn"...one of the weird attractions of Ohio. It was Lindsay's birthday and that's what she wanted to do...so we did!


The same weekend, Mike went to Northbay for a Young Life weekend retreat. He had a great weekend....especially knowing it was his last trip with Young Life for a while, he seemed to appreciate even more the time he got to spend with some of the high schoolers he's gotten close to over the years. I didn't hear a ton about what he did all weekend....all I know is that he came back with a lot of bruises from playing paint ball!!

Thanksgiving came next, and there is definitely a lot to be thankful for this year! I got to spend Thanksgiving with Mike's family, which was such a blessing since I couldn't go home to see my own...I had to work Thursday night. We went to church and dinner with his parents Wednesday night, spent the rest of the evening with his grandparents ...it was his grandmother's birthday!... then headed to his parents house to watch Elf while his mom made tons of pies! His mom and I ended up being the only ones awake at the end of the night to finish watching, the boys fell asleep. Thursday we hung around the house that morning and got to catch up with his brother and sister in law, Chris and Victoria, on the internet. It was 10am our time but 10pm there's! So I think we pretty much put them to bed talking their ears off! Then we headed over to his aunt's house where we ate SO much food! Let's just say work that night was pretty rough after eating all that food and being awake all day! It was worth it though :).

This past weekend I had to work, but did get Saturday night off. Mike and I went to Kobe...a Japanese steak house (Mike's first time!...I know I couldn't believe it either) to celebrate Mike switching over to verizon cell phone service...yay no more crazy expensive cell phone bills!!

In between everything on the weekends, Mike has started on a new job with his company remodeling a bathroom, and has picked up a side job putting in a bay window bench seat. I have been picking up a couple day shifts in the ER for once and have really enjoyed the day-time life style. Going to bed at night and waking up in the morning is an amazing thing!

Quarter Century

Yesterday was the absolute best day! I woke up early, sat around on the couch, and pretty much did nothing. It was seriously the first time I can remember doing that in months! It was amazing. It was my birthday, so I decided to treat myself and take a little time off work and just relax. It's quite a refreshing thing. I got to talk with my dad a while and check out some of the pictures my sister posted of my nephews.



After doing nothing, I went on a run/mostly walk, and then just sat by the creek for a little while enjoying the beautiful fall colors! On my way back, I caught Mike sitting in his truck in front of my house writing in my birthday card haha....he was quick to put it away and come up with an excuse that he was "working on paperwork." After finishing and coming inside he surprised me with the most beautiful roses. I was pretty impressed when he told me he picked them out himself!


Next it was kraft macaroni and cheese and left-over chinese for my birthday lunch (isn't Mike lucky I'm easy to please?) and then that evening Mike took me to Wilmington, Delaware to see Nickel Creek in concert. It was a cool experience since they were playing at an opera house and it was one of their last shows. I recorded a couple videos and am still trying to figure out how to post them. It was a lot of fun and so nice just getting to spend time together. This was the only picture we were able to catch of the two of us before my camera battery died!


This past weekend I got together with my girlfriends from work and we celebrated all the "winter birthdays." It was a good time to get to hang out since it's so tough to match up all our crazy schedules! They totally spoiled me by getting me my first (and probably only) "big girl coach purse!" I was so shocked and sooo excited!

I'm still getting to enjoy much needed time off but am realizing I definitely have a tough time not really having anything to do. I guess I'm more like my mom than I thought! It has been really good though to have time to get to catch up with friends who I haven't talked to in a while. I can't believe how many phone calls and messages I had yesterday! I am so blessed to have so many people in my life who care for me!

So we're never going to make a blog...

...Or so we thought. A few people have suggested that Mike and I start a blog. Okay so maybe just one person, and Mike and I considered it...but we figured we would probably never get around to it. But here I am at 348 in the morning, not able to fall asleep b/c i slept all day (ah the life of nightshift), and I've run out of things to clean in the house....or really just got tired of cleaning....after cutting my thumb on the apple peeler, I've had enough.

I'm sitting here reading all my families' different blog sites and Mike's brother and sister's blog site and I figure...why not? Mike and I talk about how we really want to get to know each other's families really well, and we want you to get to know us too! Besides, I often get a little overwhelmed thinking how I'm going to keep in touch with all the people I want to keep in touch with, and barely have enough time to call them all....so maybe this will be a good way to keep people up to date on stuff going on. Especially since my family lives in South Carolina and Florida and Mike's brother and sister live in Cambodia.

So....this could honestly be the only time I ever post....and most likely I will be on here more than Mike...but we will give it a shot. It already took me 10 minutes just to pick a template....I tried to get some orange in there....it's Mike's favorite color. So since he doesn't really get a say in the start of this, I thought he would like that.

So, to catch you up, here are some pictures of things we've been up to over the last couple of months:

Orioles game in June. This was Mike's first experience hanging out with 6 nurses. He was educated on how "nursing is the hardest job ever!" I got to meet Mike's brother, Chris, and his sister in law, Victoria, and their two kids, Charis and Ilana. We all went out to dinner to the Mongolian Grill. I was so glad to get to meet them as they headed off to Cambodia soon after and will be gone for a year!

In July, Mike headed to Sharptop Cove in GA for Young Life Camp where he was a transformer, a scary hic boy, and had a great time hanging out with and ministering to YL students.

And I went to Nogales, Mexico with Grace Fellowship's youth group where I got stuck at the Atlanta airport on the way (but my family must really love me b/c my parents, sister, brother in law, and two nephews drove three hours to come see me at the airport for an hour! I was sooo happy though b/c I hadn't seen them in months!), helped build homes, got to play with kids, and experience serving the poor with high school students.

Once back, I got to run/bike the Muddy Buddy race in Richmond, VA with my best friend Lindsay who finally came back from Malawi, Africa after being there for a year and a half in the peace corps! We had a great time....as you can see :)

BOAT DAY! Although guys and girls both came, girls pretty much hung out together and Mike had to kick it with a group of guys he barely knew! He did well though ;). Unfortunately the boat got stuck and we had to push it free!!

At the end of August, Mike got to come with my down to South Carolina to visit my whole family! The guys were beat by the end of the weekend from setting up tents for Caleb's first birthday, but we had a great time and still had enough energy to go to the driving range, swim in the pool with my nephews, and go to church as a family. I miss them so much and can't wait to see them all in December!!

Now that Shockwave and Young Life have started back up, Mike and I spend a good amount of our time hanging out with and loving high school students. Please pray we are able to balance work, time with each other, family, and friends, SLEEP, and also focusing on our ministries and our own personal walk with Christ. As you can see, Mike is loving getting to be a different character every week!

At the beginning of October, I ran a 5K race with a couple girlfriends from work to benefit one of their niece's schools. I somehow managed to come in third in my age group and the girls made me wear the medal for the whole rest of the afternoon!

Mike's birthday was this past weekend....the big 25! I took him to the Raven's game to celebrate (my first one!) and even got to hang out with his dad and grandfather in the Box seats for a little while! The next weekend we headed to the drive in with homemade
lasagna and got rained on, went out to dinner with Mike's family, and hung out with friends that night. I hope it was a special quarter century birthday (week) for him :)!

I've now gotten to meet Mike's grandparents and they are just as welcoming and loving as the rest of his family! I'm so blessed to get to be around a close family when I can't be around my own!