This post is dedicated to all of my Michigan and New England friends who know what snow really is!! Throughout my school years I always thought about how once I was out in the real world, that I would never have another snow day again in my life!! A pretty devastating thought as a child!
This past Sunday, the weather channel here in North Carolina predicted that we would get up to 1" of snow that night. Before the first flake had fallen, delays and cancellations were already being made! I got a text once the snow had started to fall that my work would be delayed two hours on Monday morning! People were already beginning to panic on Sunday night and by Monday morning all of the surrounding area schools had been closed. School 'districts' aren't laid out the same way that they are in Michigan- one county is considered a 'district'. So, if one side of the county gets snow and the other side doesn't, the whole county still has a snow day. When I headed out to work Monday morning, this is what I found....
A light dusting, and dry roads!!! :) I texted these pictures to my brother and told him that all of the schools were cancelled and he responded with "We have more snow than that right now and I'm sitting in class!!"
Ok, so kind of tacky getting a picture of myself, I know- but I figured I needed to document the one time I have to scrape my windshield with dry roads! Only in North Carolina would weather like this cause a panic!! :)
Friday at work, my boss asked me if John and I were going anywhere fun for the weekend and after I told him we weren't, I started to think that we hadn't done any 'North Carolina traveling' in a while. The more I thought about it I realized we haven't gone anywhere because we have friends here now!!! :)
We met a couple, John & Danielle, through our friend Phil a few weeks ago and have been at a few different get togethers with them since. We had dinner with them two weeks ago and they invited us to a Valentine's Day party that they were having! Danielle is a very crafty person so the invitation was on a 12"x18" sheet of paper with a poem that she had stamped on inviting us to the party.
Danielle and one of her friends, Lauren had cooked dinner for everyone and they were surprised at how many people RSVP'd yes! There were 25 or so people there and it was such a fun night! Phil was the only person that we knew prior to arrival, but they had a social hour before dinner with Valentines Day snacks and wine for everyone to mingle and get to know each other.
Everyone had a name place and we were seated next to more people who we had never met, but it turned out that we had quite a few mutual friends with several of the people we met that night- it was a really fun group of people!
I love him!
The poem on the invitation wanted to celebrate "young love, new love and soon to be love" so asked everyone to "bring your beau, bring a mate or come stag and be our date!" It was super cute, and it wasn't a couples dinner- just friends getting together to celebrate love!
This weekend was another fun-filled weekend with friends. Our good friend Phil went on a date last weekend and was telling us how it went at the Valentines Day party so when he took her out again on Friday, we got to meet her! :)
We joined in for a drink at the tail end of their date, and it was fun to have another girl in the mix with those boys- they're a handful when they're together! John and Phil sat next to each other at the Valentines Day party and there is no pause in the bantering between them! One of the girls we sat next to told them that they needed to have their own late night radio show! We were so glad Phil thought highly enough of us to introduce us to his date and it was fun for me to get a word in with someone!! :)
Last night, we finally got to see the Gerstmyer's new house!! John works with Brad at Rental Works and his wife Lauren is so sweet so we really love getting together with them, but they had lived about 45 minutes away until recently! They just moved to Greensboro only about ten minutes away from us, so we are so excited to have them in town and are really looking forward to getting together with them more often!!
Their daughter, Eva, is such a sweet little girl and they are such great parents!! We loved having dinner with them and they even introduced a new game to us (which we are always up for!! We are so so happy they are in Greensboro now!!
Very last minute, John and I were able to make it work and were able to attend the National Prayer Breakfast in DC last weekend. We were so excited that everything fell into place and had a wonderful time getting to see so many friends as well as meeting so many new ones! I had been to the breakfast only once before and found it extremely overwhelming! Granted, John and I were only engaged, so it was a lot of new faces in a short amount of time! I felt much more prepared going into it this time and felt like I was better able to stay present in the moment I was in, instead of trying to process the one I had just come out of!
John and I watched this video a couple of weeks ago and I kept thinking back to it when thinking about the Prayer Breakfast as a whole. There were over 115 different countries represented there and people from so many different religions! At this event, religion is sort of checked at the door and everyone here looks beyond it- it's a really cool feeling!
John and I both took half days of work on Wednesday and made the drive up to Washington DC- it worked out great for me because I still got quite a bit of work done on the car ride! :) We made it just in time for the festivities! We met up with our friends Stenn & Betsy (whose wedding we went to in May) along with Parker & Matt- some more California friends! Stenn and Matt each gave speeches at a California dinner that we stopped at and then we met a group of thirty for the annual Wednesday night prayer breakfast dinner- a night that everyone looks forward to! It was fun to catch up with everyone we knew and meet some people who we had heard so much about!
Thursday morning was the actual breakfast and after that I didn't see John very much the rest of the day! The breakfast was great- President Obama spoke and the key note speaker was Eric Metaxas and both of them did very well. Jackie Evancho was the singer- and she was absolutely incredible! It's hard to believe a voice like that can come from an eleven year old girl!
After the breakfast John ran off with Stenn, Parker & Matt so I got some quality girl time in! It was so fun catching up with Laurie and Jan- since I don't get to see her as often anymore!!! I also loved the time I got with Betsy and Lindsay! John was pretty excited about all of the fun stuff that they got to do too. The boys went down to the Capital and met with Senator Marco Rubio and then got to tour the Senate (while they were voting) and ride on the underground subway that takes the Senators from the House to the Capital to the Senate- I only wish he would have taken a few pictures!! :)
After the boys got back we also went to a mini seminar on the Glo Bible. The guys who came up with the app were at the Wednesday night dinner and we briefly talked about what they did. I walked away from that conversation admiring their passion for what they did, but didn't fully comprehend it all. Betsy said going into the seminar she was thinking "I wonder how many Bible apps there are?" and I think that was a pretty common thought until they showed us how it worked! They have put years and years into this app and it is unbelievable all the capabilities it has! You can go on virtual tours of places in the Bible, create a reading plan that it reminds you about and browse topically, chronologically or geographically just to name a few! It blew my mind (in addition to everyone else in the room!!) I strongly suggest checking it out!! Globible.com
The closing dinner arrived sooner than we thought and we couldn't believe how much we had crammed into 24 hours! It was so fun for me to get to see John spend time with these great guys that mean so much to him!
We also loved all of the Parton time that we got it- and Mama Lo even convinced us to stay an extra night! Truth be told though- it didn't take too much convincing on our part! :) Jackie Evancho sang at the dinner as well and it blew my mind again! I included a video clip for those of you who have never heard her sing. She sang Phantom of the Opera (which is one of my favorites), 'When You Wish Upon a Star', and Sarah McLaughlin's 'In the Arms of an Angel'- difficult songs for anyone- let alone an eleven year old!
She brought tears to just about everyone! Absolutely incredible! That night was a lot of socializing and catching up with old friends! We had seen John's brother Jared a few times since we had arrived, but Belen made an appearance on Thursday night!! I hardly ever get to see her (and Jared!) twice in two weeks!! After two days in a row of being up by 6 and not going to bed until 1 we were exhausted! Everything is so planned about this event (which is so greatly appreciated), but John and I talked about how unbelievably tired we were from simply socializing! We literally didn't have to make a decision while we were there- meals were planned, agendas made, etc. John and I decided that must be how the President feels every day when he goes to bed- people all day, every day. I'm glad it's not me! :)
John and I had originally planned on leaving Friday but Laurie Parton talked us in to staying another night! And we were all so thankful that Raan and Lindsay's flight got cancelled so we got another day with them as well!!
We all headed over to The Cedars and walked around for a bit- the grounds are absolutely beautiful! After that we all moved to a hotel in Georgetown and had a mandatory nap time before dinner- needless to say, nobody objected to that!
We had a great dinner with The Parton's and The Richards'- we were so thankful to be included in that! I knew Lindsay and Betsy already, but it was so wonderful to have some good conversation with them over dinner. I was also so glad to get to know Chelsea Richards too! I had met her a time or two before, but it's always fun to make new friends! They are all such wonderful woman and I am so glad that we got to stay an extra night and spend more time with them!!
We are so thankful to have gone on another fun adventure together and re-connect with so many friends!!
