just doing life together...

Every Monday night we have a life group that meets. We have been apart of this life group ever since we have been married, which has been a little over 2 years. Last year we started the tradition of going to the festival of lights in our town together as a life group! A couple in our group have family members who own absolutely charleston, a company who rents out big party buses for events and special occasions, and we got to have one for the night! It was so fun!

Here is me and Mike on the bus.... (this picture was taken with my phone, poor quality)

On another note, look how long my hair is! My hair hasn't been this long since high school! I guess this is what prenatal vitamins will do to ya!

Here is our entire group. Our group hasn't always been this big, three couples just recently joined in the past 2 months. Actually this was the first time that everyone was together- all 16 of us! The festival of lights is a drive through deal, where you look at all the lights, but halfway through you can get out and walk around and they have stuff to do. There are big fire pits to roast marshmallows, so we brought our own fixings to make s'mores & hot chocolate. {they charge way too much- like $1 for 4 marshmallows- rip off!} We really had such a great time!

This is the crazy sand sculpture that was on display at the festival. I told Mike to not take a picture of it, because it is just going to waste space on my laptop. So I decided to make the picture serve a purpose and show it to all of you- It is pretty impressive and it is huge! I guess I'm just not the kind of person that takes pictures of random things. I like pictures of people and their faces, not dumb sand sculptures! hehe.

Here is our entire group again in front of the trolley that we took! A pretty good looking bunch of people! I'll name everyone from left to right:

Travis & Lisa, Leland & Mary, Matt & Ashley, Joel & Annette, Garrett & Lauren, Robert & April, Stew & Ashley, and Mike & me.

Such a fun way to get into the holiday spirit! Have you done anything fun to get in the Christmas spirit?? We did put up our tree{s} this weekend... I'll post on that later!

in 90 days...

it will be April 25th.

And my goal is to read the entire Bible by then! Yes, call me crazy & say I'm not going to finish it, but I am committing myself to it! Our lifegroup that Mike and I are in together are going through the Bible in 90 days, in chronological order. I start tomorrow and will be reading Genesis 1-16. It is A LOT of reading everyday. No, it is not an in-depth study of the Bible, but it will be good for me personally to do. I'm excited about this because it will be very structural for me & I have a feeling it will be easy structurally to do because I know exactly what I have to read that day & I need to get it done. I'm using youversion.com to go through it because they have a complete reading plan for people who are reading the Bible in 90 days. It displays your completed percentage to, to visually see how much progress you have done!

For myself, I have a hard time sitting down to read the Bible daily unless I have a plan, or devotional that I do. I try to find devos that work for me & some of my favorites come from Beth Moore's Bible studies. I just love her and her cute passionate self! I'm sure I will keep all of you posted on how I'm doing with it too!

* Hopefully by then I will have this extra 10 pounds off as well! (our biggest loser competition will be over by then too!)

party, pork loin, electric knife... oh yea!

I was just so proud of myself for making this pork boston butt tonight for our small group! I was so nervous at first, because Mike wasn't home with me {he seems to be the meat expert} and I had never cook any other meet than ground beef or chicken! I really can't believe that we've been married for over a year and that's all the meat I've cooked!

Here is how I did it:

-I covered the butt in some Lawry's seasoning and balsamic vinegar before I put it in the oven. I added a little bit of water to the dish that I had it in, covered it in tin foil, and put in in the oven for 2 hours on 350 degrees.
-I used my instant meat thermometer {that was a wedding gift that I haven't used yet} to check the butt around 1:30 and it was 160 degrees {I wanted it to be closer around 170}. I actually cut some slits in it, flipped it over and put some more seasoning on it. {That's not necessary, but I wanted all of the sides nice and brown, and the bottom was a little mushier than the other sides}.
- I drained and uncovered the butt for the last 30-20 min in the oven and it turned out perfect!
-I then used my electric knife {another first time use of a wedding gift} to cut all the meat off, I mean, I couldn't believe how much meat was on that bone!!!! I love my knife too, it was so fun and easy to use! As I cut the meat, I put the meat on a separate pan and then put the brown sugar glaze for the final yumminess!

-Then the best part was the brown sugar glaze that I made to go on top of it!
Brown Sugar Glaze:
-2 cups of brown sugar
-2 tbsp of flour
-1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp mustard
{I did add a little bit of water too... maybe 1/4 cup}
I put this on simmer on the stove as I was slicing the meat to make it thinner for a perfect glaze.

All this preparation was for our life group halloween costume party at our apt... it was super fun! Here are all the costumes
{some people didn't dress up, so they didn't want to get in the picture.}
{notice Matt in the Gecko costume, he won the "best costume award" for the night}

Mike and I were Captain Hook & Tinkerbell
I got his "pirate set" and my "fairy wings" from the dollar store. Pretty frugal costumes. I cut the tutu I had on off a kid's costume someone let me have, and it was very stretchy to fit me.
Mike also has in his vampire teeth that we all got, April brought everyone treat bags!
{We played games & had a lot of fun}

Roman Goddess{Natalia} Catwoman{April} Tinkerbell{me}