California Love...

So we have 600+ pictures from our 8 day vacation to Cali! It was amazing! For those of you who don't know, AJ and my birthday's are 3 days apart in March and it always falls on spring break so we usually go away for it every year to celebrate! Here is a brief, very brief itinerary of our trip: First we arrive in Las Vegas airport for a transfer out to San Diego, here I am, pretending to enjoy slots!

We arrive in sunny San Diego with an amzing view from our bed & breakfast! Right on the top of Point Loma! Everything was blue and green and sunny! We even enjoyed the very classy night life of the Gaslamp district downtown!

Then we just had to visit La Jolla and saw tons of see lions! Those rock looking things on the beach behinds us in that one picture are real sea lions only 30 feet from us! Also, we just had to go to the San Diego Zoo. AJ kept laughing at me because I was like pushing kids out of the way to get my picture taken with all the animal monuments in the park! Look, in one, I'm hiding in bamboo!

Second leg of the trip we just had to go to where all the famous people live! We didn't have ANY interest (despite my little sister Melissa's encouragement to go to Hollywood row..) we drove through LA but right before, we went to Laguna Beach! Yes, that's the beach where they had that popular teeny-popper show! It was cold and the waves were big but it was beautiful and a ritzy, but small town! I even took a picture of the road sign to say we've been there!

Driving through LA, I looked everywhere for the big "Hollywood" sign on the hill like you always see in movies... I couldn't find it anywhere! I was kind of mad but we got over it because we still had "Karen" our GPS (that's the name of the austrailian women voice that prompts us to our next destination). Here we are in the car because it really was a road trip within the vacation!

Ok, enough for now. Can you believe it that was only 2 days?!?! Day 3 we drove up the coast through all the mountains (not the 12 hour switch-back road of coastal highway). It was great and beautiful! We took pictures of everything,... there were cows all over the mountain and it looked like pepper sprinkled everywhere! It's amazing to see such beauty in God's creation! How could anyone ever not believe there is some master creator of this planet!?

I'll post more later!

Happy February Birthdays!

We had a huge party for my Dad on Saturday the 16th! Mom rented him a saxophone to play and pop pop even played the accordion to go with him! Dad hasn't played since his high school band back in the 60's! AJ and I got him the coolest MP3 player too for his birthday! I actually think I'm going to ask him for the same one for my birthday!

Dad turned 65 on February 13th, 2008. A Valentine's Boy!

Then the day before, February 12th, 2008, our little neice, Elle Caroline, turned 3!! (She's the one on the right)

AJ and I sent her a package since we couldn't celebrate with her in person! No matter how old she gets, she still looks cute holding her "woofie(s)"!

Happy Birthday to anyone else out there that I missed!

Also, I hope everyone had a Valentine's Day full of God's love for us and sharing with each other!

Lots of things TO DO!

Now that our big yearly Super Bowl party is over, (lots of food leftovers... next time I won't make so much, or I'll convince AJ not to get the wings this time), Valentine's Day has passed (a traditional crab cake meal in, compliments of G&M's famous lump crab cakes with french fries, of course), and we had a semi-formal dinner to attend for all the MBA students at Smith Business School for UMD. (Pictures to come)

Now back into the swing of things, AJ is back for his second semester at Maryland getting his MBA. Which means some late nights again for classes. He also took a new rotation at work to try out the business sector at Northrop to see if his MBA could be put to good use with an Engineering background. It's too early to tell if he likes the work but they certainly are social on the business side. He gets happy hours, bowling trips, lunch meetings all the time over there! Not the engineers.... so I do miss him now that he's in a different building. No more morning walks down to the caferteria together.

I started BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) after much coersing by my mother. The homework is pretty instense but it's a great non-biased look at nothing but the bible, purely God's word. It's been really nice to get facts and look in depth to each verse instead of getting opinions or just talking to other women about what they "think" about everything. It's wonderful and structured (perfect for me!) and no one talks about their denomination either. It's actually against the rules. We're studying Matthew right now and we're up to Jesus's transfiguration. It's really been great to get me into God's word of truth and not reading a lot of Godly books to dance around the real truth. I frequently catch myself singing "The B-I-B-L-E, yes, that's the book for me...!"

I also took some initiative and started a women's christian book club at church all by myself! I had quite a few turn outs too for our first monthly meeting. I actually put a twist on this book club, it's recipe exchange as well! Every month at our meetings we try out a different recipe and someone brings ni the dish and hands out recipe cards. All the women like it and I get some new ideas to try at home too! We're starting off with "When Heaven Weeps," by Ted Dekker. A Love story thriller! So please pray for me that I can lead these women and encourage them and have this be an outreach into the community to bring other women readers to faith.

It's now been the 4th month without my puppy... I desperately want another one, but God has other plans for me. I couldn't be doing the bible study or the book club if I had a lovable bundle of fur to great me when I get home at lunch and then again after work. I think we've decided we'll get another one when I get pregnant (2 years). It still really hurts to see pictures, but I miss the walks and the snuggle time in the evenings. We're enjoying our fire pit instead for now as an outside substitue place to talk about things on the weekends.

I hope all is well out there! I'll up date you more on the status of our week birthday trip in March to California coast! I'm too excited for words right now!

BABY TIME!

Mike (Clipper) and Laura had their baby after a long 9 months! On January 17th at 10:06pm! Laura and I were planning a fun girls weekend of baking cookies and watching movies until the baby came (due date was the following tuesday). After her 3pm check up on that friday I was to come over, Laura called to cancel our date and let me know that she was 6 cm dialated and she was going to head to the hospital in an hour or so. You could tell she cancelled with a huge grin!

I called AJ and he paniced and called Clipper to make sure he knew... of course he knew but Aj was afraid he was in a closed area and Laura couldn't get in touch with him. (Mike works at Northrop with us) AJ and I left work an hour later and raced home for a bite to eat and called Clipper to see if he wanted anything to eat. He requested a large drink and two double cheese burgers (a true father-to-be). We got in sweats and brought a book and headed to the hospital around 8pm. Laura's mom had just gotten there too and we got to go in and see Laura hooked up to everything and she was all excited and had only had a few bad contractions at that point. She was about 8cm dialated at 9pm. We went out in the waiting room at 9:30pm and Laura's mom joined us 15 minutes later and said the nurse broke her water and she was going to start pushing.

After 14 minutes of NATURAL labor, Isela Gabrille Maragni entered this world! Perfectly healthy! We got to go in and see and hold the baby about 15 minutes after they had cleaned her up and everything. So cute! Her skin had no blemishes at all! Mike and Laura are super excited and I went to spend the whole next day in the hospital with Laura to keep her company! I learned a lot about new mother's and all the healing and breat feeding details I'd ever need to know!

After being almost 2 weeks old, Isela came to our house as her first trip for super bowl! The whole family came, even Scotch, the dog!

Fun with Friends!

New Years Eve we went to hangout with a bunch of friends in their new house as their first year as newly weds! They had bought a beat up 20 year old single family home and completely renovated it themselves! It looks like a brand new house now!

Of course we all did the count down thing and then danced the new year in,...well, at least the girls danced... AJ and Clipper decided to put on party hats and play with the blowers like 5 year olds! Good times!

New Year, New Fun!

Well, it was a quick Christmas and some how I don't feel like we got everything out of it. But of course we tried! Our tree went up and down and I didn't get to admire all the little ornaments on our tree. Sigh... tis' the season!

But we had great company over the break from work and school for AJ! My brother and his family came to stay at our house and we moved back and forth to our parents house down the road and back! "What fun it is to ride and sing..."

We even got to roast marshmellows in our new firepit! The girls loved it!

Here are some pictures from the break! Now it's back to work for 2008!

Our First Snow!!!

We had our first snow today! It snowed from 7am until 10pm... and it's still flurrying! I also suprised AJ yesterday and painted our entire kitchen while he was at class! It is now a mint green and looks so good with our white trim and red Christmas decor! Don't worry, the white couch and coffee table (our blue cooler) are leaving on Saturday, they just needed a temporary home. Our Christmas tree will go there this year since the sofa has monopolized the bay window!



Christmas presents are mostly wraped and waiting for a Christmas tree to sit under (which is coming on saturday). AJ also got me a piano bench that fits perfectly under my piano! It's modern but stylish and ANYTHING beats my dining chairs being used to play the piano!






There is the new couch everyone.... it's big I know. We've decided when we have company to seperate it and have two long couches facing eachother but having it together actually opens the room much more to the piano and it still allows plenty of room to walk behind it as you come in the door. It's SO nice have new furniture in the house! Thank you to Jen for the new pictures and throw pillows that our men hate to have!