P.S. I Love You

Alright, so Allison came over tonight and we watched P.S. I Love You. Now, Titanic all those years ago made my cry like a baby. (Sadly it's true, and I think I saw it 3 times in theatre) Then, came the Notebook. Wow. Now that is a movie that will make you weep. I'm pretty sure I saw that in the theatre will all girls, and we all sat there and cried. Then comes P.S. I Love You. Now, it may not be the love story of the magnitude of the Notebook, but seriously, I was crying then I was laughing then I was crying then I was laughing. You get the idea. It was good. As with all movies now-there were obviously parts that the movie probably could have done without. But overall, I loved it. So Mom, this is for you, 7 months later, but I've finally seen it. And...p.s. I loved it.

Bad joke.

Also, Brad and I had another bet, and just to let you all know. I, Rachael Allison, won. WOOOOOOOOOOO! Let me explain. Last summer, prior to our wedding day, HGTV had a show called Design Star, and after cream of wheat Sunday dinner's for a month, Mom and I would watch Design Star. This year, it started again, and I wasn't home to watch with her, so I decided I would watch down here and we could discuss. I wanted Brad to join me, so we made it like a fantasy league so it's more his style. So, on the airplane home from Indiana I had bought a magazine, which had an add for Design Star in it. We "drafted" our teams, and on we went. This Sunday was the final challenge, and just so we are clear, the last two were BOTH on my team! Yay! Now, I won't say that he didn't have a good team. He had two of the best, and I honestly thought they were going to be the final two. Mine didn't let me down though. :) Yay.

Big week ahead. Work a couple more days, and then Mom and Dad arrive on TUESDAY!!! I am so excited for someone in our family to meet our friends and see what Austin is like. Woohoo.

In other news, I discovered a new website for recipes. Pillsbury has recipes on their website, I'm sure many of you knew that already, but if you didn't, quick and easy recipes at your fingertips. I am not the queen of researching anything on the internet, even with effort. However, you give me an ingredient and I will find you a recipe. Alright all, have a great week!!

Oh and, apparently the Journal and Courier knew how much I missed the fair this year, so much so that they put a picture of Dad on the front page. Aw..touch of home.

So happy!

We've had such a great week! Nothing too spectacular or out of the ordinary, but it's just been great.

This weekend I had the entire weekend off...which really almost never happens...so we were pumped. Saturday, we decided to spend some time together and head down to the outlets. We were determined to find some furniture for the house at the outlets, and we heard there were good sales. Well..there were good sales; however, we just didn't like anything that much. So sadly, after the hour drive down there, we came home empty handed. It was still fun though, being out in the sun, being together during the day. We had a great time.

Sunday, we spent most of the day at church. In the morning we had nursery duty, which was awesome. We LOVE kiddies! We had the class called stepping stones..where the children are just learning to walk. They're all around Emily's age and a little older, which made us miss our precious niece, but so fun. During the next service I had my class...which I remain so excited about. Will update more on this sometime soon. Then for the evening service, Brad went back with me so I go actually go to service this week. I'm so glad we did, we just started a new series this week, and we're discussing it in small group so that was awesome.

One pretty sweet experience from Sunday...we headed to Joe's Crab Shack for lunch because I have been craving crab. Here is a picture, I'm all dressed up ready to break into the crab bucket.

Sidenote: I need to explain that the reason I have been craving crab is a result of watching Ace of Cakes. Hahahaha. On Ace of Cakes sometime over the last couple of weeks they made a basket of crab cake for some restaurant in Baltimore, and ever since then I have been craving it. Strange, I haven't been craving cake! :)

Anyways, the best part of the week so far has been Tuesday. We were able to host our small group this week at our house, and it was just perfect. When we bought this house we knew that we just want to have people into our home, have them feel welcome, and just find a way to love on them. That's the dream for this place, and Tuesday we had the chance! Not to mention, our small group is just fantastic. We have really started growing together, and it's so great to have an opportunity to grow even closer to people down here in Austin. We LOVE it. That's all there is to is. So yay.

As for this weekend. I have some serious plans to watch some P.S. I love you, followed by a get together with the small group.

For the weeks coming up...MOM AND DAD ARE COMING TO AUSTIN!!! I'm excited, we're excited, we can't wait for them to be here with us!

P.S. Friends and family, as previously stated, this is an open invitation.

Alright, all for now, the laundry is calling my name!

P.S. For all of you in Tippecanoe County, Brad and I just want to inform you we're missing the fair this year! This is the first fair of my life...or of my memory I've missed, and Brad said he just feels like it's part of us. So...enjoy the elephant ears, and the pig show, and my dad the auctioneer, and the greased watermelon race, and the queen contest (El and Rox), and seeing everyone you possibly know, and the hoagie's, and the home ec building, and Wendy's, and Pizza King, and the Country Kitchen, and the rasberry milkshakes, and the sweltering heat, and the smells, and the animal excretions on the ground, and the free give aways in the tent (Breann). Enjoy it all. We miss you guys! Love you!

Long Night

Just so we're all clear...
Left our house at 5:10 Pm last night
Arrived home at 8:10 Am this morning.
15 hours at HHA.
Just insane.
It was a long night.
But home I am, cheerios to eat, and off to bed.
I felt the need to share this morning.
Other than that, nothing new.
Please pray for Nana and possible gall bladder surgery.
Have a great day!

Sorry sorry sorry sorry!

We've been doing well lately! Super busy, but really great! We just took a trip back to Springfield, MO to see Brad's parents and it was so great to be back there! We hadn't been to Springfield since Jess and Ryan's wedding last June and my shower. Whoa. So here's the play by play.

We got in Saturday and headed straight to Carl and Rosemary's house where Brad and I passed out for an hour nap before some family friends came over for a cook out. This was so much fun, we got to spend time with people that have been a big part of Brad's life, and I was excited to visit with people who took the time to travel all the way up to our wedding last year and let them know how much we appreciated that. I felt like at the wedding we didn't get enough of a chance, or we didn't do a very good job of showing our family and friends how grateful we were that they were a part of the day, so this was such a fun night. We had some DELICIOUS food as always. Rosemary is just a flat out great cook, and Carl rocked the grill out so it was a great night!

Brad with Jonathan at the cook out...goofy kids.

Sunday morning we SLEPT in, I think later than we've slept any Sunday morning since we've been married. We then got up and had a great mix of breakfast, including hotdogs and deviled eggs, and then headed to St. Louis. Rosemary and Carl stayed at Harrah's and went to a Joe Cocker/Steve Miller Band concert while we headed to Jess and Ryan's to spend the evening with them! These two are such awesome friends! We don't get to see them much, but it's like no time has passed when we do. Brad truly has such great friends from back home, every one of them is so genuine and awesome, so I have had such a great time getting to know them all, with their wives/families/girlfriends over the last few years. We're spoiled. Anyways, Ryan and Jess had gone all out and made us a FANTASTIC dinner. Brad and Ryan had these T-Bone steaks which were by far the biggest steaks I've ever seen. Jess and I had cute filet's wrapped in bacon, which as we all know is a WINNER in my book! We had corn on the cob with herbed butter and cilantro. Brie with brown sugar and grapes for an appetizer. Homemade potato chips, literally, and a desert that my words couldn't even describe other than amazing! After we ate dinner we just relaxed with the two of them, although we were total losers and headed to bed way early. It was so great to see them! Here's a pic from Monday morning, we look a bit like scrubs as we hadn't showered yet. Thanks Ryan and Jess for letting us stay...please come down here now so we can return the gesture!

Monday, after Ryan and Jess left for work we headed over to meet Brad's parents, his Aunt Susan, and his cousin Alex for a brunch. I tell you, for all the good food we had this weekend it's a wonder we're both not 15 pounds bigger. Brunch was great, it's always fun to see family, and I hadn't realized how close we were to Susan, Mark, Alex, and Ashley's house. So after we ate we headed over there to visit. Brad and Alex played some Wii, and now I can't remember who won, so we'll give the victory to Alex. I spent time just talking with Susan and Brad's parents. It was neat to see their home, I had never been there before. After awhile, we decided we needed to head back to Springfield, and that we did.
Monday night, Preston and Courtney's nephew was set to play T-Ball, and we really wanted to see that, so the two of us and Rosemary hitched a ride with Betty G up to the game. It was HILARIOUS! For Preston and Courtney, since you all can't be there we took videos. See below. Anyways, the little guys and girls were so much fun to watch, along with all the dads on the field trying to give some sense of order. We had so much fun! We also got to see Jason and Stephanie's new little girl, Emerson, who is just beautiful. Here are some pictures of the game...Preston and Courtney we really missed you two since we were with your family but not you! It's amazing to see the work being down in Puerta Vallarta though!



Here are the videos...

I love this, Elliot caught up to the sweet little girl ahead of him, and then turned around.


Priceless.


Again.


Got it the 2nd time around.


Last at bat...hard hitter!

Now we're back home and getting back into routine. As nice as it is to visit family, it's always nice to come back here too.

Work is good. I know on my end I'm feeling like I am geting my feet on the ground, and that I am a competent nurse, which is a relief. I will tell you though, I'm still having crazy dreams. Yesterday I dreamt that I never once, in 12 hours, went to check on my patient, and I was really embarrassed when the nurse I gave report to started asking questions. In this dream I also asked Brad to go draw some blood for me. Who knows. I'm losing my mind. Brad's job is going well too. We believe that in 2 months or so he'll be back on to compressed work week. (Wed-every other Saturday). This is great in some aspects, but it has made a little confusion for us as we decide it it is time for me to switch to a days position. Who knows, we're just praying and giving things time to settle.We know whatever happens, we'll make do so we're just happy that he won't have to work 5 days a week anymore on this schedule.

We've gotten to spend some time catching up with friends lately here in Austin. We've missed them. It seems like all of us have been out of town lately, and then we're each taking different classes this summer, so it's nice to catch up when we can. Below, Katie and Evan and the cornhole set. This was from back when they were our very first official guests. This weekend 5 couples went to lunch after church, it was great just to all sit and talk and enjoy. I love it. I love that the Lord has given us friends that have made Austin home to us.


At the Stone, we've both been taking a leadership class this summer. Brad is taking a class for potential small group leaders, and I am taking one on mercy ministry. I can't even explain how excited this class makes me. I love that we are going to be actively working towards showing mercy to those in our community and our church. I love it. That's all there is to it. Love it! We've also started Kidstuff once a month with the little kiddies. Heck yes. And our small group has grown and we're getting to know each other better and better. Yay! God is go good!

Alright all..I promise to post more frequently so I won't receive any more angry comments! Take care, hope everyone is doing well!