Halloween - Bachmann Bash 2009

AJ and I decided we were not going to have a Halloween party this year like we did last year because we had been traveling 3 out of the 4 weeks in October! But alas,... we had a bunch of friends encourage us to come, by saying "they're coming." So AJ and I in 48 hours pulled together a menu, costumes, and decorations to throw a 20 person Halloween party this year.

We were GI Joe and GI Jane (without a shaved head...). This is probably the last Halloween party we'll have because Lord willing, we'll be pregnant during that time next year! Woohoo!

Last Minute Trip to Beverly Hills, 90210

Oh yea! AJ got offered an opportunity at work to go to an "executive negotiation" training at our Northrop Grumman Corporate Headqurters in Centruy City, LA. He flew down Monday for training on Tuesday, Wednesday and thursday and I joined him after work on Wednesday night.

We stayed in the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, a few blocks away from Rodeo Drive and 2 blocks down from Century City Headquarters. It was ao amazing! We felt uncomfortable being in sweat pants in the lobby just walking to the hotel gym! I felt like I needed high heels just to be in the lobby! The pool was so nice with a HUGE projector system that showed old time movies at night above the pool and had an outdoor returant on the patio deck as well and huge sectional lounges that you could lay on at night and watch the movie and be brought your food and drinks! What a life!

We of course we went down to Rodeo Drive to say we've been where "Pretty Woman" had her make over! We saw a few red carpet events and ate at some very fancy resturants too!

But the highlight I think was not only having Frank DiLeo (Michael Jackson's manager since 1984 and actor/producer) buy me lunch and spend the afternoon chatting me up at the pool AND inviting us to his exclusive birthday party the following night, but we got to rent a BMW Z4 convertable for the day to take to Rodondo Beach! We went to go visit our space systems branch there and went down to walk on the long famous bike trail that runs along the water. Here are some shots from the 5 day trip!

Invitation only, Cartier, red carpet event going on behind us.

At McCormiks & Schimdits for Happy Hour!

AJ did a case Study on De Beers Diamonds last year so we had the security guard take our picture on Rodeo Drive!

This is the driveway of our hotel. We saw so many bentlies and mercedes... seriously, having a BMW for a day was slumming it!

AJ insisted on getting his picture taken by at least one of them at our hotel...

Thank you, Honey for a great last minute trip! It was amazing!

Fall is Here, but We're Headed to the Beach!

My Mom and Dad were generous enough to rent a huge 8 bedroom semi-ocean front beach house in Waves, NC (Outter Banks). He reserved it for 2 weeks and any of my siblings was welcome to come down and join them and stay as short or as long as they wanted. THANK YOU DAD!

AJ and I were blessed enough in our school and work schedules to be able to go down for an entire week! We got to do it all, which of course makes it the best vacation for us! AJ was in the ocean as often as possible and had our niece Mary Claire to keep him company most of the time!


We even got to do a little ocean kayaking which we'd never tried before. It's a little rough to get beyond the breakers but after that it was the coolest thing ever!

We're so bless to have a great family we can both enjoy vacationing with and provide a place for us all to relax! Thank you Lord for our amazing blessings and ability to enjoy such a time together!

Sisters making lunch with Mom!
These are the mornings while reading stories to the girls.
All the kids on the beach before our first beach Bon Fire!

Jen, is actually 3 months pregnant here... can you tell?

This is how AJ spent most of our days at the beach,... with the girls in the water. It was his favorite part about the trip! Who is ready for kids???!!

My brother, Bennett and my Dad trying out the kayak.

AJ making me try out the kayak...

AJ's week long "beyond the brakers" partner, our brave neice, Mary Claire.

Here we are visiting Cape Hatteras!

I have no idea why I pose like this...

THANK YOU Wise family for a great vacation! We look forward to next years trip!

Anniversary Day in July!

I know it's been forever since I updated this but I do have pictures from the last 4 months to share with everyone. So I'll try to be brief!

On the same day that we got up early to dress as cows for a free meal at Chick-Fil-A, AJ and I went to Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis to go kayaking! It was so beautiful to be on the water in the morning! So calm and peaceful. We each got our own boat because being the competitive couple, racing was a guarenteed event!

It was so much fun, we both marveled at how nice it would be to wake up to the view on the water every day! Maybe some day! ;o)

Chick Fil-A We Will Do Almost Anything for Your Food!

Yup, that's right! On July 10th, 2009 Chick Fil-A was having a promo that if you dressed up like a cow, then you got a free meal! Not just a plain chicken sandwich for free but any meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner) for free! WOOHOOO!

So, being cheap engineers, I mean, cost efficient people, we did it! AJ was very determined, so he woke up early to cut out all the spots and we even had a tail too! Good times!

Happy 3 Year Anniversary My Darling Husband!

It has been 3 years since we first said "I Do." I can't tell you how many different meanings I found for that "I Do" promise I made back then. Here are a few I thought I'd share that I fought to learn our first year and our second year and still our third year of marriage:

I Do = .....

-I Will

-I Choose

-I Yearn

-I Cry

-I, with joy...

-I Fight

-I Choose

-I Forgive

-I Insure

-I Work

-I Never

-I Choose

-I Always

-I Forget

-I Burn

-I Can't

-I Try

-I Promise

-I Love

-And lastly, I choose... again.

My message to all of the married couples from this is that Love takes on a whole new meaning in marriage than it does in dating relationships, or with family members. You make a daily choice, to keep your promises to your spouse, and most important your promise to God. No matter what the struggle or the hurt.

Keep in mind, that with the ability to hurt and be angry so much at one person, comes the exact opposite ability to LOVE so deeply with all your heart, your soul, and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37). Marriage was created to model Christ's relationship to us. He can burn His anger and judgement on our actions, but His holy goodness, and forgiveness, brings us into a more intimate relationship with Him then we could even try and come close to having with our spouses.

"You my brothers were called to be free. But not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather to SERVE one another in LOVE." ~Galations 5:13

If you are married because you wanted someone to dwell and doat on you and make you feel good for the rest of your life... you got married for the wrong reason. You marry to share and serve each other with a selfless love that completes the emptiness humans are born with inside. Only in serving and being selfless do we truely feel free and full, and gloriously loved!

Happy Anniversary my Man, and hard worker! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for an amazing 3 years, that only gets better and better the more we learn how to love eachother! Thanks for never giving up on me! God isn't even close to being finished with us yet!

Naptown in the Summer!

So on Friday, we had some friends from work invite us down to Pussers in downtown Annapolis which is a great little Caribbean Resturant right on the water. To my suprise, we actually had numerous other friends show up later after last minute invitations from AJ. We enjoyed the entire evening from 5-1am on the outdoor patio!

The weather was nice, after a hefty, but short lived, thunder storm. Just being no the water around tons of sailboats, of every shape and size was breath taking! No noisey, smelly motor boats here!!

One of AJ's friends who is a Navel Academy grad got us excellent parking on the base too! Lucky us! AJ informed me that if we ever become rich someday that he would like to live in Annapolis. HA! I told him instead we can visit as often as he likes.

Spiritual Gift(s)

Anyone know what their spiritual gift is?? Some days I feel like I have a TON of them and I can't read where God wants to use me first because I feel like the Philippians 4:13 woman, "I can do ALL things, through Christ who gives me strength!" But then there are other days where I feel so insignificant in what I'm actually capable in doing for God. How can one little vote, or one letter to a political power, one stand for what's truely right in God's eyes, actually make a difference?!
Well, I'm going to admit that sometimes one person doesn't make a difference to the rest of the world. But I'm here to tell you the good news that one person does make a difference to the Creator of THIS world! What can be worth more than that?? Every action you make matters to God, your Father. If it's a huge protest on the front steps of the Washington Monument, or if it's an annomyous letter to your politcian about the true sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman. God sees the difference and God uses your actions, big or little, for His perfect plan.

God knows what you do in secret:
Matthew 6:6 "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

God's perfect plan was laid out before the beginning of time, and you are apart of it, with no action or lots of action, your life was a part of God's script!

2 Timothy 1:9 "Who has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us before the beginning of time."

Well, I'm hoping to hone in on which spiritual gift of mine that God wants to make a statement with. After doing many years in church activities and leadership, I feel God has trained me up for many years now and is telling me I'm ready to go outside the church and take his message from here to the nations!

Matthew 12:18 "Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations."

We can't reach the lost in a house of the saved. We are trained up in the house of the saved.

Mark 2:17 "On hearing this, Jesus said to them, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'"

So I hope you check back as I weigh my options on so many groups and organizations that need faithful servants to make and impact for Christ. The more people we reach the soon Christ will come back to take us to everlasting peace!

So Behind... last of San Fran

Here, to play catch up here is the remainder of our trip pics. I actually have other things to blog about this summer even if I don't have too many pictures to add. Enjoy!

I just fit!

I made AJ sit on this huge tire since I got into the big rope!

That's the Golden Gate bridge behind us. You can see closer up pictures from last years trip.

Lunch in the sun with a bottle of wonderful Calfornia Wine!

Where they make the best chocolate in the world! Also, notice I'm in tennis shoes with my skirt because after 5 days of wearing cute instyle shoes in a very hilly city... I learned my lesson and I was just going for comfort for our last day of walking city adventures! I pulled it off ok, didn't I?

Cheesecake dessert before our Dancing Broadway Show we saw on AJ's birthday!

At he top of Macy's at the cheesecake factory over looking union square on AJ's birthday!

Yes, that is a dog, with a cat on top and a mouse on top of it. Yes, they were all live and living. You can see this guy on Utube too!

AJ wanted fried shrimp for his birthday...

We both got sick from eatting so much fried food... that were not used to... blah.

We got hot chocolate, tea and coffee brought to our room for free every day with a wake up call! It was so nice being in an upscale hotel for a change! Bathrobes too! What fun!

This is me mad on the cable car ride on St. Patty's Day because AJ wouldn't stop taking stupid pictures in the dark of every car we saw while riding up the hill...

This is AJ super excited to be on the cable car and refused to sit down inside the car but hang on the outside like they do in the movies.... sigh.