Tag: Happily Married to Mike (Page 4 of 4)

Valentine’s Getaway

February 23, 2009 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

Mike and I had a nice get way to Joe Wheeler State park last weekend.

The grounds were beautiful.

It was a really nice sunny day… not as warm as home but we survived.

Here’s my attempt at self photographing..

I thought these huge mushrooms were cool!

We saw about 14 deer. A group of about 6 stood by while we were on our walk.

The marina was the big deal there.

Too bad we don’t have a boat. 🙂

This was outside our window.

I Love Lucy Lunch

August 13, 2008 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

One of our favorite things about our new house is Mike’s 7 minute commute to work. He has always wanted to be able to come home for lunch and finally can. It’s nice sharing lunch with your best friend every day. Most days Mike gets home around 11 for lunch and it just happens that that’s when the “I Love Lucy” show is on.

What more could I ask for?

My Camera

July 15, 2008 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

See the shadow around the top edges? The lens snapped out of place.

If I bang it around a little, this is as centered as I can get it.

I hid the screwdrivers from Mike and my Computer Programmer. They both couldn’t wait to get at it. That brings up another hard thing about moving so often.. you never get to know where the honest local camera shop, or car shop, or plumber, pool guy, etc. is.

Picture taking and I are not getting along too well. I forget to bring my camera. I forget to get it out. I am not patient enough or have enough room in my brain to learn how to use the camera properly. I am shy. I don’t like to get in people’s faces, so I don’t take the time to get a good picture.. Then my kids are always ducking out of and running away from the camera. I leave the camera at a friend’s house. I drop and break the camera.

Blogging has motivated me to battle the dragon and take more pictures. Thanks for getting me into it.

Jenny

Father’s Day

June 21, 2008 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

Christmas at Mike’s Grandparents with Granny

(Grandmother’s Mother) and her favorite Bible verse.

For Father’s Day this year I made Mike some family history scrapbook pages to hang in our front entry way. Most of our moves have followed a pattern of moving away from TX then back to TX. I our move from FL to AL broke the pattern and has made me feel further from our family even though we are closer. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to visit. To strengthen my roots I’ve been doing things like educating my self of AL history and like making family history scrapbook pages to hang on our walls.

Mike’s Grandparents (his mother’s parents), Sam and Roxie McInnis

and her favorite Bible verse.

Mike’s Father’s parents, Gene and Carolyn Coleman

(Mimi) her favorite verse and the image of a dove for Daddy Gene.

Thanks, Mom, for reminding me.

I wanted to thank all of Mike’s family for helping me find pictures

and for sharing with me their favorite scripture verses.

22nd Anniversary Trip

June 9, 2008 / Jennifer Coleman / 3 Comments

Mike planned a great anniversary trip for me

to DeSoto State Park up in Northeast AL.

He was speaking to me in my love language.

Taking me out doors to walk along a river is the best.

To top that he threw in some mountains and waterfalls

and a kiss by Queen Anne’s lace.

We stayed in this really nice little cabin in Mentone, AL

on top of Lookout Mountain.

It was fully equipped with everything from a kitchen to a hot tub.

Hubby and I talked about how it’d be nice to have money to invest

in a cabin like it, rent it when we could, and go up on long weekends to kayak, ski, golf etc. up in the mountain. We saw several for sale.

Mike made us some great big stakes on the gas grill.

It’s been so hot at home that we’ve started thinking twice before using our grill.

We are used to Florida’s milder weather.

It was a little cooler, much more bearable up in the mountains.

Water falls were easy to find a long Little River.

The park was really nice. It’s nestled in the mountains between a couple of little towns. To get from one town to the other you have to drive through the park, so there was no entrance fee. I like free.

I don’t know what it is about big rocks that are so impressive.

Mike gave me some cool, new jewelry that matched my top perfectly.

It’s not in this picture.. I got it later that day.

It’s my new favorite color.

Blue has been my favorite color since I can remember.

A few of years ago I discovered purple.

Now I am into this steely aqua color.

I’ve decided that I like changing my favorite color from time to time.

I still love sky blue and lavender.

I think my favorite, favorite color is a mixture of the two, periwinkle.

This rock was so cool that they built the road around it.

Once the morning started warming up, we decided to head down the

mountain to Fort Payne to find some air conditioning.

We stumbled across a big homecoming celebration for Alabama.

It took us a while to figure out that they meant

the country western band “Alabama”.

Turns out that they are from there originally.

For a little town of 12,ooo that’s a big deal.

We had chicken fried steak at the Santa Fe Cattle Co.

The food was good and we got ice water to go.

Our next stop was the Unclaimed Baggage Center.

It’s a in a little town called Scottsboro on the Tennessee River. Seeing all the stuff people had lost on planes was interesting. They had a Kirby vacuum cleaner just like mine that’s a steal at $300,

but most of the stuff wasn’t that great a deal for used stuff especially considering that they got the stuff for free. I guess that’s the law of supply and demand at work for you.

I found a Message Remix Bible for $10. I was thrilled. It’s practically new and I’ve been wanting one for months. Mike found some sun glasses and we also picked up some DVD’s; Felix the Cat, Home Alone, The Grinch, Skillet Worship and a few others. Most of them were around $4. A deal but non-returnable.. so we’ll see how well they play.

I wanted the Felix the Cat DVD because the kids have from time to time asked me what I did when I was a kid.. basically my answer is.. I watched TV and they have no idea what I am talking about when I tell them how I had a cat that looked just like Felix the Cat that I made watch the show with me everyday.

The kids survived the weekend.. new responsibility of driving and all.

We’ve got a busy week a head. Our creation scientist got his acceptance letter from AUM this weekend and has a lot to do before school starts.

Thanks for your prayers..

March Birthday Trip

April 19, 2008 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

For Mike’s birthday I talked him into taking us to Macon, GA to the International Cherry Blossom Festival. Knowing that the cherry blossoms wouldn’t be a big draw for him, I tried to emphasize the fact that we could eat dinner at Shakeys Pizza in Warner Robins, GA.

Shakeys brings back lots of happy memories of our first dates, fellowship with old church friends, a little bit of home in Thailand, and of course really good food. The Shakeys in our home town, San Angelo, was at one time the largest Shakeys in the world. Most everyone went there after church at least once a week – one of the best examples of what church should be like to us. Mike, Shanna (who had a big crush on him) and I went to Shakey’s after a football game my first time there and Mike slipped off his shoe and played footsie with me. It was only our third time seeing each other and I was only there because Shanna wasn’t allowed to single date. I was so embarrassed and afraid Shanna might look under the table and didn’t know how to get him to stop without making a scene. Boys. It was a while before I decided that I liked you, Sweetie, but I’d be up for a game of footsie anytime you’d like now.

The Shakeys in GA is the only Shakeys left outside of CA. We discovered it a couple of months ago when Mike had a class there. I love their fried mushrooms and Mike loves their rojos (battered and fried potato slices) and the pizza of course.

Back to the cherry blossoms.. Last year we planned our trip to Washington DC the week after their cherry blossom celebration and to our disappointment most of the cherry trees lost their blossoms by that time, so when I heard that Macon, GA claimed to be the cherry blossom capital of the world, I didn’t want to miss their cherry blossom festival. They have over 3000 cherry trees and lots of entertaining activities.

We took care of first things first and spent Friday night in an inn near Shakeys, ate too much and went to bed early. The next morning we got up early (6 AM GA time which translates into 5 AM AL time) to go to the air port to see the hot air ballon lift off. We were thankful later for the early start because we showed up at the wrong air port and a nice police officer had to give us directions to the right one across the county. I was very excited at our first site of the cherry blossoms along the road to the right air port.

The morning was gorgeous – cool and crisp. Some boy scouts had the right idea and camped the night on site. The atmosphere was very peaceful and we enjoyed guessing which hot air balloon would be the first to lift off.

The day before our neighbor, Marry Lou, related an experience she had of waking up one morning to the sound of dragons out side her window. Confused she thought, “But dragons don’t exist, do they?” When she looked out her window, she saw a bunch of hot air balloons flying low over her house. We enjoyed remembering her story while watching the balloons flying over head. Princess J didn’t think they would have been loud enough to wake her and I am sure she is right.

Our favorite balloon got lost in some trees but eventually made it out safely and over to the field where they were giving tethered rides.

After the hot air balloons we went to explore Macon’s Central City Park and found their pink pancake breakfast, Bengal tigers, art exhibit, craft show, and train exhibit with its pink cherry tree filled trains.

The park was beautiful. The cherry trees were decorated with Japanese lanterns. I really enjoyed the exhibit of photos from their photo contest and the quite peaceful atmosphere.

Around 10:30 we started getting hungry for lunch (change of time zone) and went down town to find a a parking space and a place to eat. The town is very well laid out with beautiful buildings. We ended up eating at Acapulco (best Mexican food I’ve had in a long time). It was right on the corner where they were holding the bed race and the professional riding lawn mower grand prix.

After lunch we found a great seat on some bleachers in the shade in plenty of time to see the bed race. So many people were wearing pink to celebrate the cherry blossoms that Judi and I wished we had worn our pink shirts from the day before the day of the celebration instead.

There were about 9 contestants in the bed race running to win money for their cause. Most of the beds were so modified that I wondered if they were ever beds to begin with. The slowest one was actually a hot tub on 5 inch wheels. The girls inside were dressed like Greeks in togas and the runners pushing it were dressed like the mob. The “beds” were pushed by 5 or so runners up a couple of blocks one at a time and timed. The most creative bed was the Flintstone bed racer complete with wooden wheels.. one of which fell off near the end of their run. I think that the ladies running for breast cancer won the $500.

The professional riding lawn mower grand prix looked a little scary.. they drove souped up lawn mowers while wearing helments but not seat belts. They were traveling pretty fast and two crashed as they went around cornner number 3. During the delay we decided to go a head and start traveling toward home. All the fun and excitement had worn us out.

On our way home with my new knowledge of what a cherry tree in blossom looks like I started thinking that I might have seen a cherry tree in my neighborhood. I was right! There is one down my street. Then last Thursday I spotted 8 of them conspicuously planted in the median of East Chase Parkway, the road that I take to Costco every week. I don’t think they blossomed until after our trip to GA. Next year I’ll know to watch for them.

The Wait

December 15, 2007 / Jennifer Coleman / 3 Comments

This week has been excruciatingly long. Mike and I have been living in two different states for 75 days. We got in two little visits. But buying and selling a house is so stressful that it just wasn’t the same as being together day in and day out.

Yesterday was the big day. Mike did his final walk through of our house in AL and signed all the papers. We are now the proud and nervous owners of two houses. Hopefully not for more than a few days. The previous owners of our new house scheduled a professional cleaning of our house and carpets. And were planning to be out by noon today.

Mike called and let me know all went well. Closing cost were less than they had expected and Glenna, our sweet realtor, gave us an iron cross to hang over our new fire place for a house warming gift. He didn’t have much to do for the rest of the day. He was all packed and ready to move out of his apartment. We had one last excruciating day of waiting for him to be able to move his stuff into the house and drive down to help us move up.

One thing that’s been nice about the separation is that we have free minutes to talk to each other on the cell phone. We’ve done hours and hours of that. Around 6 pm I started wondering what he was up to and called and asked where he was and what he was doing. His first answer was that he was in AL. I said “Well, I know that.” Then he said he had been out shopping, named off some stores that he had been to, and said he had a surprise for me. We chatted some more. I kept thinking that it was awful quite on his end and I asked are you still shopping or are you home now. He said he was home. I kept thinking why don’t I hear your TV. I was looking at stuff on line and wanted to send him some links via e-mail to look at. He didn’t act real interested in looking. I thought that was odd.

We hung up because I had to get ready to take the kids to One Thing, an international house of prayer. The kids and I were out late. One Thing ended at 11 pm then we went to Walmart to pick up a couple of things and to McDonalds for a snack. Got home and made some tea to unwind and sat down. A few minutes later I heard James calling out, “Dad’s home.” It didn’t compute. He walks in my room saying “Ho, Ho, Ho.” I thought, “Is he supposed to be home?” Then as I jumped up to hug and kiss him I realized what you now know.

Yay! The wait is over!

Jenny