Lovely Links

Happy Friday! This is our first weekend since February where we don't have a full schedule or visitors in town. The only plan we have on the docket is me leading worship Saturday and Sunday night. Lucky for us the weather man predicts 70 degrees and sunny all weekend! We may have to take Felix for  his first hike.

I've been dreaming of more travel and made this fun little print this week.

Also, here are a few links I found this week that you may find interesting! Enjoy.

fun glasses

I learned how to make my own brush in Photoshop and used it on Felix's 2 month update thanks to this tutorial on how to make a bunting flag brush.

I love all things brown and I'm a cowgirl at heart therefore...I want this clutch 

Looking forward to some summer entertaining and these straws would be a fun touch!

I've seen 3 different unrelated blogger mention the Bread and Wine book by Shauna Niequist. It is now on my must read list.

Speaking of Shauna Niequist, she wrote one of the best articles on social media I've read in a long time.

Sweet tear-jerker music video.  

Super trend - potted succulent plants. Super party idea -  potted succulent plant favors.

The difference between a first time mom and a 2nd time mom commercial.

Meanwhile in the UK...this happened.

Arrested Development. Released on Netflix. May 26th...I can't wait. 

Loving these colorful triangle leather mobiles

Happy weekending!

Fall Creek Falls

In case you weren't aware, yesterday was presidents day. The day we celebrate all the past leaders of the great U-S of A by getting a perfectly timed day off giving many people an unusually warm long weekend in February. The man and I decided to fill said weekend/president's day with a camping trip to Fall Creek Falls state park a few hours outside of Nashville.

We had originally planned the camping trip as an extended Valentine's Day celebration, but then we realized camping is always better with friends and Cynthia (my older sis), her hubby - JP, and trooper-3-month-old-niece, Annalee came along as well.

We circled all the possible campsites several times trying to find the perfect fit.

We saw a deer at the camp site Josh and I stayed at a last year.

We (read: the guys) chopped wood.

hott!

 Willow was cute.

 Sadie (Cynthia and JP's dog) was cute.

We (read: the guys) started a fire.

We made hot dogs and smores. YUM!

We made fun of our neighbors and suspected them of "hot-boxing" in their tent when we caught whiff of some sneaky drug like scents...

Josh, Willow, and I slept horribly the first night in our ridiculously small tent with no ground padding, 40 degree weather, coons rooting around outside our tent all night.

We made eggs, sausage, and toast over the fire. They were ridiculously dried out, but they tasted good anyway because they were made in the wilderness...over a fire.

The guys whittled things embracing their inner-Samson hoping to slay 1000 men with a donkey's jawbone.

We hiked to the main falls and were amazed at how Annalee slept the whole way there and gazed silently from her baby bijorn at God's creation all the way back.

We wondered at God's creation with her.

We let the quietness of nature soak deep into our souls.

We crossed a precarious suspension bridge.

Cynthia and Willow were cute.

We ate pie irons. (yup...there's an official website for pie irons...)

I made myself sick on them, actually...i can't resist a good pie iron.

We stayed up late watching in awe as the fire the men built raged on for hours without ceasing. I was quite impressed.

We ate more smores.

I'm a little too excited about that smore.

We slept better the second night when the temperature rose about 15 degrees and we realized putting the dog food in the car was the solution to our coon problem.

Josh, Willow and I hiked to the bottom of the main falls Monday morning and we talked about how we would hike this every weekend multiple times if we ever were training for a rim-to-rim Grand Canyon hike again.

you wouldn't think it, but she's a natural hiker!

We took the stereotypical breaking the rules picture.

We used up an Olive Garden gift card on the ride home.

And took the best nap of our lives in our California King upon reaching the humble abode.

In case you were wondering, this is what a sleepy-worn-out puppy looks like. (Sorry for the bad audio and awkward sideways view! I had the windows down and didn't realize the video needed to be the other direction!!)

France - Days 7 & 8

After a very long hiatus from my these posts, I'm continuing on with days 7 and 8 of our France trip from last October. (If you are new here you can find the rest of the France Journey through out my blog: Days 1 & 2, Days 3 & 4, Days 5 & 6) I'm determined to finish these posts by the end of February!

Day 7 - Wednesday, October 6, 2010

We rolled out of our slumber back in Chambery at about 10 am, Wednesday morning. Nathan and Joanna's apartment had such heavy blinds we could barley even tell it was daylight out when we finally forced ourselves to rise. We spent the morning putzing around eating yogurt, cereal and enjoying each other's company. By noon we decided it was about time to do get out and about. Even though we were warned that French clothing wouldn't fit our *ahem* Large/Tall frames, we hit up a local store called Kabi.

After a short walk from Nate and Jo's apt. we got to the store and immediately realized they were having a MASSIVE sweater sale AND they had clothes in our size! After about 2.5 hours of trying things on we walked away with basically an entire new wardrobe for Josh. You have no idea what kind of feat this is...it is impossible to find clothing to fit him that is also fashionable and that day he left with like 3 sweaters, and 3 jackets. A.maze.ing

The only un-amazing part was a very embarrassing situation at the cash register where the woman checking us out didn't speak any english. She wasn't like most french people who say they don't speak english, but really do. She ended up having to page someone to come to the front and translate what was going on. (apparently we didn't have the right amount of sweaters to get the buy one, get one deal they had going on). Eventually, things worked out and we walked out with only a slightly bruised ego from having .01 French speaking skills.

After shopping, Nate, Josh and I went to the velo station (bike rental shop) to pick up some bikes for the rest of our trip. We had a little bit of trouble finding bikes tall enough for Nate and Josh considering they are the one's pushing up the national height average, but in the end we all pedeled away on super cute and matching light blue cycles. Mine with a special little basket on the front.

These bikes opened up an entirely new France for me. We decided to pick up some bread on the way home and Nate took us the scenic route. We zigged and zagged across traffic to a little car-less area where old, brightly colored buildings stood tall on either side of us. French women strolled in pairs eating ice cream in high heels, vendors stood outside by their shops beckoning passerbys into try their wares, Old men walked their dogs along cobblestone streets and fountains provided background music to the scene. And the best part of it all, I got to carry the baguette in my basket on the way home. I felt like i was living in a dream land. It was perfect. This first bike ride is still one of my strongest memories from the entire trip.

That night Josh and I went on a special dinner date at a crêperie, so josh got ready and Nate took some pictures of him.

So handsome!

Headed out to dinner!

Hey there handsome. :)

I was really excited about my crepe.

The place was packed and Josh and I discovered that it is strange for someone to wait for a table at a restaurant if there isn't immediate seating. I guess this is due to the fact that there are so many food choices within walking distance and also because most French dinners last several hours, but we waited anyway! Awkwardly in the alley outside the restaurant right by the windows where people were eating because there was no entry area. 


We got a table within 20 minutes and I enjoyed crepes filled with hamburger, egg, onion and mushrooms, while josh ordered one with goat cheese and Lardon (the same stuff that was in tartiflette). He asked to add tomato but, some how it ended up coming out with ham in it instead. The BEST part of 
the meal though was dessert which consisted of delicious nuttella, banana and whipped cream. Yumm!


After dinner we headed back to N&J's apartment for a little hang out time and a late night Pirates of the Caribbean viewing. Life was good.


Day 8 - Thursday, October 7, 2010.


Thursday, October 7, 2010 is a very special day. For Thursday, October 7, 2010 was Joanna's 27th birthday! We woke up to the smell of Nate making french toast...out of a french baguette...in a french kitchen...with a french mustache...OK I may have made up that last part about the mustache...but either way it was an awesomely french way to make french toast with a french baguette. FRENCH!

At breakfast I gave Jo her present I carted over from the US - Real Simple magazines and a pair of earrings - only to find out that my Mother-in-Law had brought her all the same Real Simple magazines a few weeks prior, and that Jo already had a very similar pair of earrings...sigh. Great minds think alike i guess. :)

After breakfast we all got ready and headed out for a quick bike ride around Chambery. Again - amazingness abounds and I have no pictures of it all because I was so worried about not being hit by traffic while aggressively riding my bike around the busy streets. Also, i didn't want to look TOO much like a tourist with a rented bike and a giant camera around my neck all the time.

After our fun bike ride on matching bikes we grabbed a quick lunch at a sandwich shop. As usual we ended up getting duped into buying more than we realized because we couldn't read the French signs.

Taking our lunch to a nearby park I had me and Josh's sandwiches in my awesome bike basket. While trying to keep up with Nate and Jo I carelessly ran my bike through a huge pot-hole and watched in slow motion as my awesome sandwich came flying out of the bag, then out of the box, landed on the ground in front of me and i swiftly ran over it with my bike. I may or may not have cursed like an American sailor at that point...so much for blending in.

me right before I ran over my sandwich.

Lunch was beautiful. We parked our tooshies right next to a fountain in the middle of a busy park. Little Ayla ran around picking up leaves and showing us then throwing them into the fountain. (haha!) The whole lunch was very peaceful and the weather couldn't have been more perfect in early fall.

Once lunch was over we continued to ride our bikes around time and did a bit of shopping. I found a good deal on a pair of shoes and we found some good christmas presents for our family around the Old Town area of Chambery.

The happy family in the old-town area of Chambry. 

Later, I went back to Kabi while the rest of the crew went home for a quick nap. Looking back - I wish I wouldn't have done as much shopping (surprise!) I wish we would have spend more time riding our bikes, walking, hiking, doing cliche toursity things like going to museums, or taking tours, or even just sitting and reading outside in a park.

After sufficiently doing some damage to our shopping fund, we went back to Nate and Jo's apartment for Taco Night with some of their friends to celebrate Jo Jo's birthday.

Their friends brought Settlers of Catan over for us to borrow later that evening and play just Nate, Jo, Josh, and me. Apparently this was a HUGE deal because the guy who lent the game to us is very particular about his game. So particular that all the pieces were packaged in color coordinated Altoid boxes and pill bottles. Exhibit A.

We may or may not have taken this picture so we could remember how the game was supposed to go back in the box.

After the shock/amazement of his Catan packaging set in we had an epic battle till late in the evening with yours truly taking home the big win. (are you even remotely surprised?!)

We finally crashed around 2:30 am and set our alarms for a 5:45 am wake up call for Josh and I to make it to the 7:00 am train to Annecy the next morning.

Our Plans for Christmas and Some More Thinking

Christmas is 3 days away. I'm so excited! Josh and I will be trekking to Bloomington, IL to celebrate the holiday with his mom, dad, sister, and her husband. The forecast predicts 8 - 10 inches of snow Christmas eve, so sarah (my Mother-in-Law) called yesterday to remind us to bring warm clothes for sledding!

Last year we went sledding and I swear, I think i peed my pants a little due to my uncontrollable laughter every time i belly flopped on that sled and sped down the hill with snow flying in my face.

This will be the first Christmas I will spend away from my mediate family, which in someways is hard. I'm also kind of excited because it's the first Christmas where Andrea and Mike are married so there will be a really fun dynamic in the Michael household this weekend. Mike is a GREAT cook and will be preparing a christmas Goose on the 25th! I will be making my mom's apple pie and perhaps a few other side items to accompany the feast.

The biggest thing that will be out of place is not having Nate, Jo and Ayla in our living room with us. Even last year when they were in France we were able to video skype with them so they could participate in and see the festivities. This year, they are in Africa and they share internet with the main Wycliffe camp there, so no one is allowed to get on video because it takes up too much bandwidth. They will be there on the phone though, so we will just have to be extra descriptive and creative in conveying what's going on!

Random picture to break up the post.

Snowing - downtown Franklin, TN.

On a side note: Recently, I can feel my heart craving some alone time. It needs just a bit of space to sort through thoughts and emotions and to really hear God's voice and understand what he is trying to teach me and guide me in as we approach 2011.

I can tell when my soul is needing this alone time quench because i find myself filling my time with meaningless activities and trying to take control of my own life. When I haven't taken time to listen I get the looming feeling that i need to start making decisions and take action on things or I will end up just meandering through my days in Franklin, TN going through the motions following the next "logical step for people of my age in my position of life".

I find myself at a stalemate with the puzzle of my future starring a hole through all the tiny pieces trying to find that last corner piece with a bit of yellow and green to fill in the frame around what this life should look like. I don't want it to be status quo, but the more pieces of this puzzle I put together on my own, it starts to look a lot like the same Thomas Kinkade puzzle the other 20 somethings around me are putting together.

Yet, instead of doing something meaningful and actually taking control i fill life with more routine like cleaning, facebook, Hulu, blogging, and since my birthday last weekend the Nintendo 64 and Golden Eye/Mario cart beckoning me to keep my mind busy and entertained. That's what I do. Because I lack any type of real strength and self-control on my own to break the mold,  i allow the distractions and what everyone else around me is doing to dictate my life.

I'm hopping while we are in Bloomington I will be able to find a few mins here and there to really allow God's peace to wash over me. To sit in silence and meditation allowing my whole being to absorb what God has for me and allowing HIS strength and love to fill me up and direct my path.

In case I don't get a chance to post while i'm gone, I hope you all are surrounded by love and joy this season.  Merry Christmas!

France - Days 5 and 6

Day 5 - Monday, October 4

On Monday we woke up super early (6am) to head to Beaune.  I wore my new brown hippie dress that I purchased in Interlaken and we caught a bus while it was still dark out to make it to the train station in time. Nate wanted to encourage Josh in speaking French and nudged him towards buying the tickets for our bus ride. He counted out the proper amount of Euros and coached him to say “Deux billet, si-vou plait” (two tickets, please) to the driver when he got on. Turns out the price per ticket had gone up and josh didn’t have the right amount pre counted out. It got all awkward and funny with about 50 French people watching us bumble about at the front of the train with our giant packs and non-French speaking-selves. 

The train station was PACKED for so early in the morning on a Monday. We assumed a lot of the traffic was due to students returning from a weekend excursion trying to make it to class on time Monday morning. 

We purchased tickets (with a bonus discount because we still fell into the 25 and under category!) and jumped on the train.

With one stop in Lyon we grabbed a quick espresso and pan au chocolate on our layover and then went on to Beaune. The second part of the trip was about 3 hours and Ayla entertained us with some adorable singing and general sweetness.

Our hotel in Beaune was a historic looking chateau directly across from the train station. It was so quaint and cozy inside. Our shared room was on the top floor and inside the room we found that it had two levels inside. (Upstairs 3 twin beds and a few windows overlooking the red roof tops and downstairs a double bed, TV and bathroom). The furnishings weren’t fancy, but it had such a feeling of home and comfort that we were cool with it.

Once we dropped our bags off we decided it was time to explore and grab lunch! We roamed a few sparsely populated streets taking pictures for a while.

Then we stumbled upon a bustling café , and in true Michael style, we decided the restaurant based on the amount of people already there. Gobs of people = Awesome Restaurant. This restaurant was no exception. We ended up being seated in the back room next to a HUGE group of very loud and rude Asian tourist and another group of lunching French women.  

Here is where we had some of our favorite food of the entire trip. Josh ordered croaque madame (Ham and cheese with egg) and I ordered Beof Borgunione with a diet coke served in the fancy glass bottle.

After lunch I had my awkward moment with a French Woman and then Josh and I dropped a LOAD of money at one of the local wine stores. Totally taken in by her “Our whites in this region are the best around” schpeel after already committing to 3 reds.

Then we went on to do the most touristy thing we had done yet – a wine cellar tasting. We paid 10 Euro and got to visit the cellars under the streets of Beaune and tasted 17 different wines! Nate and Jo had a conversation in French with a semi-toothless portly Sommelier in which I’m pretty sure he insulted all Americans. Regardless - this was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip to France.

Those numbers = the wine's vintage! Crazy!

Before leaving, we of course had to buy some more wine and maybe a few Christmas presents (thank goodness for Ayla’s stroller carrying all of our goodies!) When we left the celler it was cold and POURING Rain outside! (So much for the weather.com 70 and sunny prediction) We got soaked sprinting to a nearby awning to decide what to do next. Baguettes and espresso were in order to warm us up! 

Afterwards, we were faced with the hard decision of walking back in the rain about 10 mins to our hotel to drop off our stuff before dinner or waiting around in the downtown area for 3 hours till we were hungry enough to eat. (I don’t know why there wasn’t an option number 3 of waiting for the rain to STOP and then walking back…but I digress)

Let’s just said 10 mins later my mood was more than sour as we got back to the hotel. I was cold. I was tired. I was sopping wet. I was first back to the room and didn’t have a key so I just had to stand in the hallway waiting for everyone. I had ruined my cute brown dress and realzed that because it was just one night, I packed light and didn’t have a reasonable change of clothes…ARGH! The more upset I got about the situation, the more upset I got at myself because I was in France and ruining everything with my crappy attitude! It was an endless downward spiral to the pit of cranky despair. 

When the door was finally opened I huffed to the upstairs stripped out of my cold clothes and put on some warm PJs and laid  on the bed listening to the rain beat the hell out of the roof top.  Josh came and snuggled with me on the tiny twin bed and we dozed off to the storm. It was quite a poetic moment of morose comfort.

The remainder of the afternoon we killed time in the hotel room looking out the window at the rain, reading, Watching TV and speaking in hushed towns while Ayla took a nap. 

The rain died down and we headed off to dinner around 7 and went straight down to the heart of town to see what types of restaurants there were. 

Most of the patios and restaurants were empty because French people don’t dine until 8 or 9, so we were out there with the other tourists and the old people. There was a strip of 5 restaurants in a row off the main circle and I was entranced by one that had bright white Christmas lights strung all around it’s entrance. 

The place was empty save for a petite blonde woman standing behind the bar. Joanna asked for a table and we plopped down at one of the many open spaces. I’m not going to linger to much more on our experience here because, let’s just say the twinkle lights outside were the only good thing about this place. My Pasta was bland, Jo’s Beouf Borgion was burnt and Josh’s pizza was only saved by the fact that he ordered it with two fried eggs on top. (Yup, eggs on pizza.) 

Josh and I left a bit early to grab a bit of dessert at one of the other cafes in hopes that their food would be better.

We thought splitting a nutella waffle would be good. We both pictured a big waffle covered in warm nutella and possibly topped with whipped cream. What we got was 2 (not one to split, as I had ordered…I think she was confused) plain Belgian waffles with a small packet of nutella each. Lame-a-tron. 

(Side bar: Sorry to complain so much, but the last part of our first day in Beaune was probably my least favorite part of the trip. This is in stark comparison to the first part of our day in Beaune being my some of my favorite memories!)

Back at the hotel was also much better as Joanna and I read through the welcome book left on the night stand and made fun of their poor English and the fact that they offered babysitting services. (never heard of that at a hotel before!) Then Josh and I giggled like children till about 3 am trying to see who could unroll the toilet paper on the iTouch game fastest. Good times.

Day 6 - Tuesday, October 5

Nate, Jo and Ayla headed out early on Tuesday because they needed to get back to Chambery for a Doctor’s appointment. We grabbed a few pastries with them before they left and promptly went back to bed till about 10 am due to our late night of crazy game competitions. 

Around 11 we headed out to wander the (again cold) streets of Beaune some more. We found several new areas that we hadn’t explored and looked a few shops till they closed down for lunch (yup…shops close during lunch time).

Josh came to his hunger/shopping breaking point when I was paroozing some jewelry and we quickly found a nearby restaurant with a good lunch Menu (not the thing listed with all the options, but French restaurants often offer Menus which are basically the daily special that includes an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. Kinda like the Chilis 2 for 20 deals…except more sophisticated and awesome)

I ordered pizza and josh ordered the menu which included chicken, noodles, mushrooms and cream sauce. Kinda like a marsala, but not really. We grabbed a couple of dessert pastries on the way back to the train station and then jumped on the train around 1:45.

The trip back was uneventful aside from us taking these really "cool" photos holding a bottle of wine that was older than both of us a gypsy asking us for food during the layover in Lyon.

Back in Chambery we stopped by yet again another boulangarie to grab a baguette to go with dinner. The woman tried to speak English to us and told us the total was nineteen fifty…even though we knew she really meant ninety-five cents. 

That evening Nate and Joe made an awesome Lardon and goat cheese quiche with salad for dinner. We stayed up late talking and playing Euchre.

It was so good to be back around them.  They have seen both Josh and I at our worst and still seem to always love and forgive us. They were a friendly warm welcome after our cold cranky days in Beaune. They really are life-long friends, that just so happen to be related to us.