Something to celebrate!

I GOT A JOB!!!!! Many celebrations are in order, mostly that we'll have two incomes again. :)

I interviewed with four different companies last week, all seemingly viable options for my "career." It wasn't until Friday that I knew where God wanted me. I interviewed with GenFlex, an industrial roofing company that Bridgestone/Firestone bought out last year. They had an opening for a Marketing Coordinator, which sounded good to me. It sounded absolutely perfect after hearing the ins and the outs of the position. I was really excited, but they said it would be about two weeks before they called for 2nd interviews as they'd be gone this week Tues-Thurs.

Before I left (after the 3 hours of interviewing), the GM and Natl Marketing Director asked if I might be available Monday morning to come back. I was thrilled! So after my two hours yesterday meeting a ton of people, talking with HR, etc, they offered me the position. No waiting, no game playing! They offered me more money than I was expecting or even hoping for, with huge bonus potentials. Everything was God-blessed and very clear that this is it.

Mike was so excited too!! He now has a working wife again. :) We broke out the bubbly last night to celebrate. We have felt very blessed while I haven't been working, though, because Mike had his best month of his career in August! He blew his past performance out of the water, and we were well cared for. Praise God!

So, I will officially be employed next week. For all my northsiders (and my favorite shopping spots), my job is at 96th St and Meridian, so I'll be there often! Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support!

Rock Solid!

Last weekend, we were thrilled to get away to Stacy Grove's mom's lakehouse on Lake Freeman. We were there to celebrate Bonnie & Kevin's upcoming nuptials on Saturday night, and we somehow turned it into a weekend retreat. Stace & Dustin, Aim & Jason, Bon & Kevin, and Mike & I met up in Monticello Friday night for dinner, game night, boat rides, jet skiing, laughing, relaxing and catching up. I couldn't have planned a better weekend!

It was wonderful to be back with my best girlfriends all in one place, and it was so much fun watching the husbands (and husband-to-be) hanging out and having fun together. Being on the lake was perfect to get their adventurous spirits out, especially since it really didn't get warmer than 75 all weekend. Needless to say, we'll have to plan plenty more of these weekends because it was WONDERFUL!

I also took about 50 pictures in addition to Amy, Stacy and Bonnie's! So, enjoy!!

Ahhh the sunset!

B & K

Fab Four

We scare me... but we're so dang cute!


Late night boat ride!

... ahh the life!

Cap'n Amy~

Playin on the water :)

Pre-shower picture! Aim was already gone...

The Gillespies to be!

Bon & Care
Showering... what a view!

We decided this would be appropriate for our Christmas card. : )

The Groves~

Candid~

Can't wait for another weekend just like it!!

Raining cats & dogs!

After months without rain and an 8 inch deficiency of rainfall in Indiana, we were THRILLED to have storms pass through this week! The winds were so strong, though, that they blew over our grill. I thought it was no big deal and tried to upright it by myself, and that was pretty much impossible. Nick tried to then help me, and we still had nothing. So, when Mike got home, the boys put on their rain clothes and ventured out to save the grill.

As I was watching what was happening with the guys acting like little boys as they headed out to play, I was describing it to Lea on the phone. She suggested I capture the moment for everyone to see.

So, here are Nick and Mike saving the grill:

Reassembling the grill:

And then remembering how fun it is to play in the rain:

State Fair

We ventured out to the State Fair last week-- mostly to feed our child of a roommate who enjoyed himself on a thousand different fair specialties. :) But after discovering that the animals had all gone to bed for the night, our tummies were gurgling with oils and we'd done all the people watching we wanted to, we ran into the Mayers! Just a cute picture of our men with the kiddos.

Can you hear me now?

We made the move! We're finally on a joint cell phone plan thru Verizon. And the most exciting news is that we're official texters!! Mike isn't nearly as excited as I am, but I think it's really fun to text now. I never even had the option, and now we have unlimited texting to whoever we choose. So, if you've got the number, bring on the texts. :)

Have a stellar day!

Before & After

The most recent Mack house update is our crown moudling that was installed this week! It confined me to our house for three whole days, but in the end it is definitely worth it.

Here are some before & afters:

Our front room-

Kitchen nook--

Look at the curtains mom & I made, too!

I plan to add brown ribbon to them, and they'll be all done.

Kitchen/cabinet area

Hooray! We looove it! Definitely big proponents of crown moulding to make a home look finished.

My baby with babies

We have been baby crazy! (Other people's babies, that is.)

Last weekend we spent an evening at Victory Field with the Clems, Pierces and Dahl with his girlfriend. The Pierces kindly brought Isaak for us all to enjoy. Here's Mike & Isaak watching baseball:

Mike's BOA has a brand new baby grandaughter, Ava. We were able to meet miss Ava when she was just 2 weeks old! She's the tiniest thing, living up to her grandma's nickname "bird baby." Here is her being precious with Mike:

I think he's getting the hang of this baby thing! Don't tell him I said so. :)

Marco-- Heaven on Earth!

Part of the family (minus Abby & Mike)

Dad took us all to Marco Island for a 10 day family vacation over mom's birthday last month. It was the most wonderful vacation we've been on! Incredibly relaxing-- no schedules-- nowhere to be-- we spent our days by the pool, our evenings at dinner and our nights playing games or doing absolutely nothing.

We had a few visitors over that time-- Grandpa & Grandma Schuler came in for a few days... then Mark & Deborah Clark surprised mom for her birthday on the 18th.

We spent a morning shelling on "Isla de Pamela," my mom's self-proclaimed sand bar about 100 yards away from our condo. We now have enough shells to finish one of the spare bedrooms into our beach getaway room!

We had a boat for three days and saw more dolphins than I've EVER seen!! The most incredible time was when we were in the backwater and a group of 7 dolphins splashed, swam and played within 20 feet of the boat for a good half of an hour. Amazing!!! Here are a few fins for you:

Mike grew a goatee in Florida, but this was only about day 2 or 3 of it... Unfortunately, he just looks a little dirty. ha! I was a big fan of the full goatee, though!

Mike and Rachie went fishing one afternoon... here are the little and BIG catches of the week!

It was so much fun going out to new restaurants each evening with such incredible views! Yet another beautiful sunset!

Picture perfect, wonderful, incredible vacation! Ahhh, to be back there again!

4th of July

I know I'm behind on blogging!!! We were on vacation, and then I just didn't get the pictures uploaded.

We had a great 4th at the Campbell house. Mike sprained his ankle severely the night of the 3rd, so he was hobbling around on crutches, but he still pulled off a great fireworks show for us with Abby!

Mike's roman candles with the help of crutches:

Abby being cute in her "rain hat."

Rachie & me!

Mike & me posing again.

Mom & Dad

Rachie & Shaun being good spectators