Welcome, Addie Grace!!!

Congratulations to our dear friends, Stacy & Dustin Grove on the birth of their new baby girl, Adeline "Addie" Grace. Addie was born at 10:43 p.m. on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008. A whopping 9 lbs, 12 oz, and 22 1/4 in. long... with a full head of dark black hair. And she is beautiful!!

Just look at her....

Congrats, S & D. It'll take all my energy to not drive up and see you guys before Saturday morning!!

Betty Mack

I have had this bug to make complicated, flavor-filled dinners for the past few weeks. Typically, I try to plan out our week's worth of meals and grocery shop on Sunday so we eat well-rounded and fun meals each night. This summer has been so crazy, though, that my planning has gone to the wayside. Not in July, though! We've had Tilapia Florentine, Filet Mignon and twice baked potatoes, etc, etc.

My latest discovery is Waldorf stuffed Chicken! I found Waldorf Stuffed Porkchops on Recipezaar.com and made it much healthier by using boneless, skinless chicken. No photos to share, but it was delicious! Apples, walnuts, onions, gorgonzola and chicken. Yummm! Serve it on a bed of whole grain rice, and you have an incredible (and fairly simple) dinner.

(To alter recipe for chicken, bake in oven at 400 for 30-40 minute. I put water in the pan and covered with foil to prevent it from drying out)

Delicious dinners make happy husbands!

TWO DAYS!!!

NEW CAMERA!!!

In just six days-- SIX DAYS-- we are headed to the Domincan Republic for a relaxing, sun-filled vacation. I know, it may be hard to imagine the Macks relaxing, but we're doing it. And we CAN'T WAIT!! I'm sure we'll still fill our days with snorkeling, scuba, horse back riding, golf (for the man), etc, but we'll get pool/beach time, too! I get so excited just writing about it....

Well, two weeks ago our camera decided to work only when it wanted to, which wasn't often... so that meant quick decision on a new camera! Mike found an awesome one, used our dell gift card from last year's laptop purchase and hooked us up big time.

Here comes the fun part..... we had our weekly babysitting night with sweet little Sarah Land tonight. She comes to play with us when mommy & daddy go to church for their class on Sunday nights. We love it!! And today Abby was hanging out with us, so she got to play with Sarah, too. Which included trying out the new Sony CyberShot on our adorable 7 month old model.

Check out what our camera can do!! (No photoshop used, just the rockin' camera)


Mike entertaining us all with his beautiful music... (note the highlight of his guitar)

Sarah being sweet... (note the "nostalgic" feel of the photo)

Sarah doing what she does best, teething! (note the gaussian blur and highlight of her face)

Abby might kill me for this one, but I had to do it! No, her head isn't that large, but the camera does an excellent job at distorting, wouldn't you say??And finally, no changes required, this is Sarah's devilish grin that I just happened to capture. I can't help but laugh out loud whenever I see it!!!

Book Club!

Tonight was book club. Another great night of girl talk, wine, chocolate (almost everyone brought a dessert this week), and books. I wanted to blog about it because this book is a "must read." This month was a serious book, Mistaken Identity. If you're from Indiana, you probably remember the crash on I-69 a few years back where Taylor students where involved and two girls' identities were mixed up afterwards. One of them died and one was in a coma for weeks, eventually making a full recovery.

This book is incredibly emotional, real and based on God's incredible grace. Our book club administrator (I won't give her identity...) couldn't even read the book because of its intensity. But I highly recommend it. God worked incredible things through the tragedy and through the story afterwards.

If you're looking for something to ready, or just something to do today, pick up this book! I read it in 3 hours. I had to borrow it, though, because of all Marion County libraries, there are 143 people waiting ahead of me for one of the 30 copies in circulation. It's that good.

Next month we're going for something much lighter with Remember Me by Sophie Konsella. Stay tuned until the 2nd Tuesday of August for its review!

Regional Meetings

Two weekends ago we spent five days in beautiful Fontana, Wisconsin-- also known as Chicago's playland. We were there for Edward Jones Regional Meetings where the brokers have meetings in the mornings, and then we have activities/free time/etc during the day and fun dinners in the evenings. It was great to catch up with old friends and make new ones, too!

Since the drive was longer than usual (5.5 hours) a lot of people left their kiddos at home, which was PERFECT for us! We had fun getting to spend time with friends who are usually chasing small children around all night. We also got to hit the local dives for late night beverages and gettin' down to a shady band. It was fantastic! A perfect getaway.

Here's our virtual scavenger hunt. There were 4 teams of about 30 people sprinting around this resort. I'm sure they l-o-v-e-d us.

Yes, a bathroom. Bleh! Something to do with Myrtle the Turtle in Harry Potter.

And one of the incredible boats at the boat show behind the resort!

One of the great parts about this trip is that my parents went, too! The four of us rode up to the resort together and got some good quality time in.

This is after the boat cruise through Lake Geneva. We toured behind unbelievable lake homes -- mostly old money like the founder of Post Cereal! Nobody thinks about him, do they?

My sweet hubby and me after the cruise.

Troy and Mike. An evening at Chuck's. Need I say more?

(p.s. He'll kill me if he knew this was on here, but I'm scouting for a good Christian woman for this guy. He's pretty much my favorite unmarried man!!)

The awards banquet on Saturday night was our grown up night! Mike cleaned up with many successes in 2007. He's kicking butt, and Regionals recognize those achievements. My dad also scored an incredible feat this year. I was a proud wife and daughter!!

Mike getting one of the big awards. (Had to throw this in there)

Next year, we're headed to Hueston Woods again! Can't wait!!

Weekend at Grandma's

After Abby's birthday celebrations, we headed north for Mike's Grandma's Surprise 70th Birthday party! We coordinated Hailey's 3rd birthday party in there, too, and got to see the whole family! Can't believe how quickly Hailey and Connor are growing up.

Grandma thought she was extra sneaky... she was told we were throwing a surprise party for one of Mike's aunts. It was hilarious how it all played out! This is my favorite shot of grandma being shocked by the whole ordeal.

Mike and Connor making faces at eachother. and Grandma with two of her many great grandchildren.

Sweet girl, Hailey!

I can't get over how stinkin' cute she is.

Happy Birthday, Abbs!

Abby's birthday was the 21st, so this is a bit late, but here's our short and sweet celebration!

Mike and dad with their cigars... Dad loves him even more now