They say it's my birthday...nananana

I haven't been able to post in awhile. Life has bee moving at a rapid pace...well at least more rapid than I normally like. This is a big time for us and our friends. Geoff and Melinda are expecting their first baby in just a couple months, Sy and Dasha are selling everything they own and moving to Iceland the week after we get married, Natalie is trying to start a learning center for the kids we help from the inner city, and we are preparing to get married in 1 month, 1 week, and 6 days! Talk about a lot going on in just a few short months! It is an exciting and special time for us all, but it is also a time filled with lots of celebrating, projects, and to-do lists. Thus, we are all a bit "busy". At the same time, we are also trying to take everything in, to truly appreciate this special time and gather in the memories. We want to be able to look back on this time and say that we truly enjoyed every minute of it! We don't want to think of this time as a stressful period of our lives, so we are doing everything we can to RUN away from the stress. We are still trying to make time for date nights, I am still trying to cook as normal, we are still trying to serve others, we are trying to simply look at the tasks at hand instead of everything that needs to be done, and most importantly we are trying to have fun! My beautifully pregnant friend Melinda.
Sy and Dasha!

The lovely Ms. Natalie and I.

Apparently Natalie and I think we are crafty because we took on the challenge of painting a bunch of canvases for The Linc this past week. The walls looked so bare in the awesome hang-out room so we wanted to put some color on them! Here is just one sample of our many creations!

This past weekend we had our first shower at Brandon and Missy Lusk's house. We called it our "EMUN" shower. It was mainly for Nathan's co-workers and their wives and our close friends. We had such a great night with everyone. Everyone that came is very special to us and it was so fun celebrating with them. I was a little nervous (okay I was visibly shaking) when it came time to open gifts, but I got more comfortable once people starting cracking jokes. It was a great night and we truly appreciate Brandon and Missy for hosting such a great party!

Thank you Lynn for the embarrassing gift. This is a major inside joke for the people that go to the light. I had to read this book for a class and accidentaly sent a reply-all email to almost our entire church asking Natalie if I could borrow the "Vagina Monologues". I don't know if I will ever live that one down. We laughed a lot!

This past weekend we had 2 other BIG-might I say HUGE events at our house (I hope this doesn't confuse people...I don't know how not to call it "our house"...I live there now, but it is our house). Nathan (with the help of Brent) finally put up the living room fan and our big dining room chandelier! With 12 FT ceilings this is no easy task and I was so proud of them for finishing them! I even had to take some pictures... They look great and now the dining room is ready for the table, which comes TODAY! Thanks guys for being right on time!

Oh and today is my birthday! I woke up today and Nathan had left a cute little outfit (he actually picked it out, which is SO not Nathan) on the counter for me and I got to eat lunch with Natalie and Nicole at a neat little place called Dallas Mills. It has been an interesting day to say the least...maybe I will tell you more about that in another post. Nate and I plan to eat dinner at this awesome restaurant downtown called The Chophouse. I am not one of those people who are big on birthdays. I actually enjoy celebrating other people's birthdays more than my own come to think of it. But never-the-less, I am truly thankful for yet another wonderful year of life! God has showered me with blessings this past year and today I am trying to focus on each and every one of them!