Birthday and Camping…what could get better.

For Jon’s birthday, we got to go to Lemongrass. According to TripAdvisor, it’s the best restaurant in the Chinese, Asian, Thai, Japanese cuisines. Jon says he enjoyed it. We splurged and got a little appetizer which was really good. Some spicy shrimp cocktails. For the main course, Jon got Duck Curry, and I got Sweet Basil Chicken. He jokes that I am finally coming around with the whole Thai thing. We shall see. For his birthday, I bought him a Multi-clad stainless steel set of cookware. I know crazy, but he liked it. I tried to get a picture of him seeing it, but the timer was a bit off with his entrance.

 On Friday, we left after work to go to Kings Mountain. I had been praying all week about the weather, because we got some terrible storms at the end of the week, and the forecast called for rain all day/night Friday night. I just wanted to get our tent up, and then it could rain, but I didn’t want to set the tent up in the rain. The Lord answered prayer! The weather was perfect. No rain and not too hot. A special thanks to my family for supplying us with our camping gear between my birthday and our Christmas gifts. Our tent seriously could house an army, but we (and Lexi) were so thankful for it.

 Lexi was exhausted before we even started, but we had a great time with her (pic bottom left is the ride up). She does so well at the campsite. She literally only barked once. At one point, Jon and Buddy left to go get more ice and water since we were going through it pretty quickly, well Catelynn and Lexi patiently waited for their “dads” to come home (bottom middle). And, it wouldn’t be a vacation without getting my exercise in, right? Courtney was a trooper, and we did our 4 min run and 2 min walk series for 3.5 miles, then we walked 3.5 miles back. Not too shabby (middle right…after the workout). We were headed to a visitor’s center that we hoped would bring us right back to camp, but alas, it didn’t, so we just turned around to come home. Poor Lexi had already done about 5-6 miles with Jon and Buddy earlier in the day, so she was VERY exhausted when we got back to camp (bottom right, second one in).

Our camping trips would not be complete without Jon’s campfire heated coffee, his smores that everyone loves, and of course breaking open a can of black beans with an axe since we couldn’t find the can opener. I will be honest, I was afraid we would be making a trip to the ER. That rounds out the weekend. Today, we hope to spend the day with some friends, but I have to finish a major project for school, so we shall see. Off to work on that project a bit more. See you next week!

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Today is JON’S BIRTHDAY!!!!!

If you had asked me six years ago (yes, we have been dating for that long), where I would be today, I would have told you a completely different story. God has blessed me more than I could imagine. Today, I celebrate Jon. I celebrate his leadership, drive, compassion, tenderness, and romanticism. I am sure I could think of many more adjectives, but again, I don’t want to lose that meager readership that I do have. I also celebrate his parents for raising a man that is responsible, self-sufficient, and God-honoring.

 

For Jon’s birthday, we are heading out to some Asian restaurant….he doesn’t know which one yet because I like to keep him on his toes. I had planned on taking him to a local place called Lieu’s, but he ruined the surprise by suggesting that we go there. 🙂 We have typically gone to P.F. Changs in the past, but it’s a bit old to me (AND, they did have a whole potty in the kitchen issue a few years back that I refuse to let Jon forget, although DHEC said they couldn’t determine the actual cause). I tell him each year that his birthday proves my true love since I can’t stand Asian food….sorry for all you asian food lovers.

 

Well, enough blog writing. On to CELEBRATING!!!!     To help you better enjoy, here is a picture from Jon’s very FIRST brithday….Such a cutie….

And so we have it….

We survived another week, and to my surprise, the world didn’t end yesterday 🙂 The highlight of this week was starting Jon’s birthday week celebration yesterday AND successfully completing my mid-term exam and paper…well, I’m not sure how successfully since I haven’t seen the grades, but they are done. Only two weeks left! We went to my nephew’s t-ball game as normal, but this time supplies some doughnuts. I’m proud to say that I only ate one of six! My favorite picture of that collage is the picture of Jon and Madelyn playing “imaginary soccer.” I thought for sure she would tell him he was silly, but she played right along until Uncle Jon said he lost the ball, and Madelyn bought it.

For Jon’s birthday celebration, we headed to Atlanta to the InterContinental hotel in Buckhead. I have never stayed at this hotel, but it’s supposed to be the highest quality hotel in the brands of hotels that I usually stay at. When we arrived, we were upgraded to a “Club Room” which when I looked after the fact was a $259/night room….which we got for free. The very nice part about a Club Room was free access to the Club Lounge on the 21st floor of the building. Jon and I had high hopes of touring Atlanta since we never get to when we are there on business, but what we ended up doing was even better. The Club lounge had free sodas all day and free food throughout the day, so Jon and I ate an afternoon snack, dinner, and dessert there. We actually didn’t leave our hotel once. You can see from one of the pictures that we got into a pretty intense game of Monopoly while overlooking the city.  I will be honest and say that Jon won, but he introduced a shady house rule that is still under consideration for the new Sutter house (i.e. when you get snake eyes or two ones on the dice, you get one of each bill from the bank). So, between him getting like 10 snake eyes and landing on free parking like 6 times, I was pretty dead. He even had debt forgiveness to help me out…which it didn’t help me out.

A pretty nice rest area that we stopped at.

A funny story about that mini-bar picture. Jon and I clearly don’t get out much, because we had never seen anything like it, but the drinks were sensor controlled. The sign said if you removed anything for more than twenty seconds that your room would be charged. An 8oz coke was $3.50, so there was no way we would pay that knowing we could get the same coke in the lounge for free. When we checked out, the lady asked if we had purchased anything from the mini-bar because a charge was showing up. I quickly explained that I put a coke IN the fridge, but that I did not take anything OUT. Thankfully, she credited it off the room.

We arrived back mid afternoon Sunday. Our “busy” weekend left me tired, so I rested some more until we ventured out into the heat for our run. We took the girls with us, and I think the picture explains how tired they were. Now just picture Jon and me. The birthday celebration will continue through next Sunday! Jon is sure excited.

The girls were a bit exhausted after the run.

Life as we know it….

Thankfully, this week started very busy and slowed down to a pace that allowed Jon and me to get some much needed relaxation. On Friday, the Bible Study group got together for a ladies night. One of our ladies just purchased her first home and has done some major renovations, so we were eager to see it in person. It was a great time of fellowship since our group had been apart for a month thanks to graduation.

Saturday seemed to be busier than necessary just because everything was spread out throughout the day. Ethan had a t-ball game, mom had a party, and then we were having guests over. Due to the busyness, I had to find time to get my run in…yes, I have been running. I have been trying to get in shape. I’m at a faithful three weeks….Anyway, you knew it was faithfulness, because Saturday was our sprint workout (I say “our” because Jon is a great encourager). We head out to start, and it’s a beautiful day. On our second to last sprint, the sky just opened up. Seriously out of nowhere. You can’t really tell in the picture, but Jon and I are SOAKED. The evening ended much nicer with a fire on the fire pit and some of Jon’s homemade pizza and guacamole. I got lucky marrying him.

Sunday was rather uneventful…thankfully. I just read lots of accounting articles for class, and we did another run. Today we took a different route and came across a snake. This is our second snake in two weeks. Thankfully, this one was dead which in my opinion is the only good snake.  Well, I don’t want to push it on the length…I mean it is only my second post in a week. In the meantime, I will leave you with some pictures from this week and graduation from last week. See you next Monday!

Before all of the curls came out….

My proud mom!

My supportive hubby

Joey and me! I miss him already.

The three graduates

My buddy Ruth who graduated from LAW SCHOOL the day before.

Some of the Bible Study group.

My sweet niece.

One of Ethan’s great hits!

Running to first!

Two of my favorite people.

SOAKED!

Hiatus ended…hopefully.

Yes, I have had a long hiatus on writing, but I will hopefully get better. My sister-in-law is so good about updating their blog weekly, and I am hoping to get in the same routine. I won’t bore you with too many details because I’m sure many of my readers don’t particularly care what I ate for breakfast (cereal sample that I received at Old Navy). Since I have been gone so long, I will also not try to catch you up. Rather, since I hope we are friends, I will do what I would do if I saw you…pick up as if we never were apart.

Last week was the week of all weeks. Our family from PA came to visit to celebrate three graduations, Mother’s Day, and a Sweet Sixteen. Jon’s sister graduated with her doctorate, Jon’s brother (and our housemate) with his undergraduate degree, and me with my masters. I loved how our house was bursting at the seams at meals and how we had family all around to celebrate. I have never cooked for that many people, so the weeks leading up to the visit and the weekend was an eye-opening experience. We were all very anxious and excited to hear of the arrival of another baby in our family. Colette Elisse Sutter was born on Friday to Sam & Ashley in NY. She is perfect, and we love looking at pictures of her. I’m hoping to visit with her when I go to NJ for a business trip in July.

This week is a return to normalcy for us…I still am not entirely sure what that word means. I started summer school on Monday which has definitely been a major challenge for me. I didn’t rest much on the weekend, so the new work/school schedule has really taken its toll. I’m hoping to catch up on rest this weekend and get my mid-term and mid-term paper completed…wishful thinking? I’m trying to keep my eyes on the prize….the Outer Banks in 23 days. I’m so excited to get to spend some quality time with my husband and family…my sister from Virginia is even coming!

Sorry there are no pictures on this post…I don’t have any pictures on my work computer anymore now that we have a snazzy home computer (so thankful for that)! Hopefully, in the weeks to come as I develop a system to my posts, I will be able to include pictures from the past week. Well, I don’t want to push it. Getting you back to reading my posts is an accomplishment in it of itself, come visit each Monday and see if there is something else happening in our exiting lives. J