www.anAbundanceOfFriends.com

I can't even begin to explain what the last 4 days has done for my spirit. It began with Thursday night, enjoying playing violin for Spring Arbor - an institution that I love. The previous blog gives insight into that evening.

Friday I worked but it was interspersed with a phone call with Mel, then I spent my 1hr dinner hour with Mel - talking... and then we decided that that wasn't enough time, so we decided that after Mel and Kevin were done with dinner at his parents house, instead of driving back to Monroe - which was their plan - they should come over to our house, hang out and then sleep over!! Which is what happened! I love hanging out with friends! So Saturday we woke up with guests - enjoyed talking around the kitchen table until around noon. Then instead of the busy day we had planned, we decided the friendship connection was more important and had a lazy rest of the afternoon.

Around 3:30 we headed in to Jackson wit the hopes of going to CiCi's but found out that it had closed!!! We had to go to Target and ran into Seth and Crissie King with his parents in the parking lot. So we visited with them. Then we drove to SAU where we enjoyed the Marino's pizza buffet, and then picked up Anna to head off to Concord for Kazia and Mike Siler's wedding!! It was wonderful to see her again and I totally predicted her dress exactly! At the wedding we got to visit with Anna, Travis Traxler, Matt Francis, the Jewells, and more fun friends for SAU!!!

So after the dessert reception we returned home, amazed by the beautiful moon and amazingly warm weather for November! This morning we got up for church - totally excited to go. We arrived on time and sat on the right side which is unusual for us, but the church is sooo full (waiting for the much needed addition begin built). After the first 2 songs, the offering and into the 3rd song - Nich and Jennie walked in and there was only 2 seats left in the whole church and they were right beside us!!!! I was so excited and gave Jennie a great hug. They whispered to us that they were ON TIME.. but of course were stopped by lots of people! They had left Hailey with Nanna so after the service they asked if Nick and I wanted to go for lunch with them. We stuffed our faces at a chinese buffet!! Then wandered through Art Van together for a bit!! It was wonderful to spend time with them again and are thinking we'll head up to Ann Arbor on Wednesday this week!

Nick and I talked and we decided as much as I love the idea of moving to Toledo - we love the Jackson/Spring Arbor area, we are familiar with it, we love Nich and Jennie and I feel like we need them and they need us (especially now that a certain family is moving far away!) and we love our church and we don't want to leave. Soo now we shall focus our job searches more here....

Now to spend the afternoon with my husband!! What a wonderful weekend!

www.FeelingOld.com

I saw my name written in the program for the Dedication of Michindoh Conference center which has been given to SAU. The String Ensemble played 2 selections. We got a lot of compliments and dinner was fantastic.

Anyways it said Brittney Everett (Class of 2008). I felt old. Then I rode back to SAU in the party bus. They passengers were all freshman, or just goofball college students.... there was dancing, there was lights flashing, there was singing... a couple of the girls were looking at my wedding book and they thought I was soo cool since I was married!!

It felt weird to feel old. Then work today megally sucked which is what happens when you are old.

However I talked to someone tonight who I feel was put in a place to get a chance to talk to so hopefully life will proceed due to the conversation I had with her.

www.HotBliggityBlog.com

I feel like a new woman - therefore a new background! I found this one at Hot Bliggity Blog!!

So I have a new old computer. It is the exact same model as my old one, so its just as old but not nearly as used! The screen is clean and really bright, the keys all work and the letters aren't rubbing off. The little red dot in the middle is clean and looks red still (instead of burgandy due to the dirt in the little grooves). My hard drive is in the computer so I don't even have to set up the computer the way I like it because its all the same!

Next I got my hair cut! Except it looks the same length, but styled! She trimmed very little off the bottom, but layered it all cute, and thinned it a bit, and gave me a cute little bang. Right now its still the straight straightness that comes from the really awesome professional hair straighteners so I'm loving it!!!! Woot!!

Thats all.

www.soImportant2spendTime.com

Halloween.

'Tis an interesting phenomenon.

It has been years since I went door-to-door, and as I watched the phenomenon on my way home from work I thought about how weird it was... a friend of mine's child expressed it well....

"Another door opened and I got candy!" - Conner (1 of twin boys)

How weird is it!?? REALLY!

I have decided that when I am a parent, I'm taking my kids trick or treating at Wal-mart and to our friends houses only... in our car. Its way too cold for kids to be outside that late at night and the last several years it has been rainy! Wal-mart hands out free candy to kids Halloween night at every register, and department! How cool is that? Soo needless to say, we don't get a lot of kids in the pharmacy and they are supposed to hand out candy starting at 7pm, but we close my 7pm so we had a whole pumpkin bucket of candy to eat by 7 pm. By about 6:30pm I was wired!!! I was just about being done working another 58hour week of work....

About 6:35 I see my brother peak around the corner with Sarah!!! They were out shopping together to buy ingredients to make caramelized peach smoothies. So being ridiculously hyper, I said why don't you make them at our house!!! He looked at her, she was cool with it, so they did. They had to go back to SAU to do something though, but arrived at our house about 20 mins after I had gotten home from work!

The Michael and Sarah thing: they are not dating.... yet. I don't know what the plans are, (I think she still has a boyfriend at home) but those 2 have been hanging out since the last week of August. She has gotten him to go to church almost every week, and not only to GO but to get up early and go to the early service which sings hymns - which they both enjoy!! Sooo I figure if they are out shopping together they are going somewhere....

Anyhoo back to our "double date". We were all hungry since I had just gotten off work, and they had been shopping, none of us had eaten, so I talked Michael into making stir fry! It was delish! The stir fry was full of noodles, chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, corn and peas - seasoned with a General Tao's sauce. Thanks Steph for the wok and the oil and the noodles!

(this isn't a picture of our but its close...ours was better)

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We watched some Simpson's, and then we watched Monsters' Vs. Aliens. Half way through the movie we paused it and made the caramelized peach smoothies... Michael wasn't as impressed with them as he wanted. (pictures to come...). Overall it was an enjoyable evening.

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We've been married 5 months and this was the first time we spent a significant amount of time with a "couple" at our house... unless you count Ben and Gavin. Nick and I both loved having the male/female interaction. They left around midnight. - That's my kind of Halloween!

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Then Sunday morning.... we set our clocks back like we were supposed to.... however my alarm clock/cellphone didn't get plugged in and died over night. Sooo it didn't wake us up like it was supposed to. We were very disappointed because we really wanted to go to church. Kazia and Mike were there again and we missed them! Anyhoo so we awoke at 10:45, showered and ate cereal. While we ate cereal we watched the Crystal Cathedral service on TV. When I found it on TV the first thing I saw was Sean Groombridge playing the piano. Sean played/assisted my mom at the wedding we sang in a couple weeks ago. Soo I yelled up to Nick and he came running and was sooo excited! We know him!!! Then after such an exhausting morning I fell back asleep for an hour.

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The rest of the day was soo relaxing, I think all I did was cooked dinner .... and lay around. Dinner was a "lemon chicken pasta toss" (pictures to come). It was wonderful and needed. By the end of the night I was more in love with Nick and wishing I had more days off!!! It is soo important to actually spend time with your husband! The end of the day for a couple hours half asleep every night doesn't cut it!
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I love him.

www.Totalled&Refurbished.com

So he's the diagnosis....

"It appears as if your notebook has a bad Motherboard. It would cost about $250.00 to repair. The age of your computer might not make that a good idea to do."

So after 5.5 years together, 3 crashes, 8.75 million pictures, and 1642 days of communication with my friends and family.... its time to say goodbye.

Soo with the help of my cousin Terry - the computer guy, Nick and I are going to look into getting me a new lappy... we're looking into a refurbished one... all I need it for is pictures, & internet communications such as MSN, Facebook and Blogging.

*** Weeping......

www.PotentiallyExcitingNews.com

Hi all,

Yesterday I went to Ann Arbor for an interview. The place is called the Mediterrano and I found the place on theknot.com. John, the Mediterranean owner had created 2 banquet type rooms off the restaurant called La Piazza. He had an event planner that recently moved to Grand Rapids, but he hasn't been looking for a replacement because of the economy.... so when my resume showed up there last week, he thought he should call me. He's basically offered me the event planner position part time until the economy pics up. The position at this point is really going to begin more under a marketing influence, trying to regain clients he had previously that he hasn't seen or heard from in a while.

Based on the name, without looking at the website you could guess that the theme is Mediterranean and you would be right. It is beautiful, fancy, elegant etc. There are 2 rooms, one is a small board room meeting type place that is so pretty (holds 25), the other is a small banquet room that holds up to 80 people. The 2 rooms can open up into each other allowing for around 100 guests. The main uses for the rooms are business meetings from U of M clients such as Pharmaceuticals, and rehearsal dinners, small weddings, bridal/baby showers etc. He also owns another restaurant that is more of the steak pit type restaurant that also hosts events.

So I'm waiting to hear from Larry, the logistics guy, but I can hardly wait to walk into Wal-mart and quit! I'll still work at the church so that we can keep the free house!

In less than exciting news, my lappy is very very sick. I don't know its prognosis, but it sounds expensive. It has to do with the battery, I've asked the 2 computer doctors that I know and one of them is looking at it today. I can't live with out my computer and I can't afford a new one right now.

When it rains it pours right?
Thats what my mom has been telling me... as soon as I got one interview, I'd hear from a few others..... well this morning I received an e-mail from another Ann Arbor location that I had sent a resume too - letting my know that a 1 year intership is being posted next week and that I should look into that.... so I shall for sure do that! Yikes - it is exciting times in the life of B.L.E.

Pray for me, that I the right opportunity comes along and I choose it!!

www.weekendFunnies&Fluffies.com

After I hit publish on the previous post I remembered 2 things that I wanted to write about, but decided there wasn't a place in the post to add it... so without further adieu....

1. As I crawled into bed Saturday night, Nick made me crawl over him to the other side and I overshot a bit and fell right off the other side... so picture me stuck between the wall and the bed and the 2 of us laughing out heads off!!!!

2. Two weekends ago we were singing in the choir for the wedding, and Daddy was the sound man.... he made several comments about wishing that he had learned how to sing, so he could sing in the choir. He has a great voice, a sweet range, but no training. He has a musical background though. Soo needless to say, I'm sitting next to Nick in the pew yesterday listening to the choir sing, watching my pretty mama in the front - thinking after the service I'm going to tell Daddy that he should totally just join the choir - it's never too late to learn... I scan the choir and I notice how many new choir members there are since I sang in the choir... I'm missing singing in the choir and worship team a lot and there are tears in my eyes... I'm barely holding it together.... then I noticed Daddy! Standing up there with the basses!! I squeezed Nicks hand.... he had already noticed that my daddy was up there.... so now I'm really struggling to keep it together! How wonderful!! All these years my dad has been going to choir practice and now he's actually singing!!!!

I hope he totally enjoys it!