This weekend was a fun weekend! It was a restful weekend of cleaning and house work, but fun because we got to be together! Saturday was beautiful and in the 70′s with the flowers starting to bloom and Sunday brought snow. Not what I was expecting, but it was our winter and now were ready for Spring! JJ had a an early morning on Friday so the weekend consisted of a few afternoon “Charlie” naps (see the pictures 
). Thankful for quiet weekends at home every so often!
Valentine’s Day
It’s Valentine’s Day…Ever Since JJ and I started dating we’ve never really celebrated Valentine’s Day. I’ve always felt you shouldn’t just show love on a Hallmark Holiday, but everyday your with the one you love. JJ and I have always just had a dinner in with Chocolate covered strawberries. It used to always be Harris Teeter Sushi and homemade Chocolate Covered Strawberries, but JJ has decided he no longer likes sushi, so now it’s something yummy we cook and homemade chocolate covered strawberries. This year it was grilled Salmon (for me) and steak (for JJ), spinach parmesan risotto, and roasted asparagus. We also added chocolate covered cinnamon almonds to our Chocolate Covered Strawberries….yummy! It was a quiet and great Valentine’s Day, I will leave you with something the Lord brought to my attention this morning and some pictures from our evening!
“Though the mountains move and the hills shake My love will not be removed from you.” - Isaiah 54:10
The word of God uses the phrase “unfailing love” 32 times, and not one is attributed to humans. Every single use of the phrase refers to God and God alone. Although the love of others can be rich and meaningful, only God’s love is unfailing. – Beth Moore
I’m blogging again…for real this time (Bachi’s reading!)
Bachi and Gaddi have an iPad now and so I told her I would start blogging again so she could read it on her iPad and see pictures. So where better to start then with our weekend in Orlando.
We had tickets to leave on the train at 9:27pm, at 9:10pm we find out the train is stuck behind a broken down freight train outside of Rocky Mount. After waiting about an hour or so, we decided to get a refund and start the 9hr drive to Orlando. So Friday night/Saturday morning was spent on Interstate 95 avoiding deer and swerving big rigs. We got to Orlando around 7:45am and Bachi had breakfast waiting for us!
We had a great weekend of spending time with Bachi and Gaddi, eating, laying by the pool, swimming, eating, golfing, playing cards, eating, taking pictures, relaxing, eating, and having a great weekend with Bachi and Gaddi. Below are some pictures from our weekend!
December was a busy month…
Needless to say December is a busy time of year for everyone, but for us it seems to be even busier (hence why once again we slacked on blogging). As soon as Thanksgiving is over we go straight into birthday season, friends birthdays, Levi and Chris’ Birthday, Paige’s Birthday, JJ’s Birthday, Jesus’ Birthday! And, of course, all of the Christmas parties and get togethers and decorating and shopping and wrapping and traveling and and and..it’s busy! But we love it!
I love this time of year! I love celebrating all of the people around us and of course Christ’s birth. I have always loved Christmas, but the past 4 especially have meant so much to me! 5 year ago in January I gave my life to Christ. I had always grown up in the church knowing the meaning of Christmas, but never fully experiencing it until 5 years ago! Not realizing that Jesus was born to die for my Salvation. This time of year with Christmas and the anniversary of my salvation coming up in January, Christ always seems to bring me to a time of reflection, and I love it, I need it. I have put a few pictures to recap December and will hopefully do a few more detailed posts of our adventures!
Thanksgiving
It has been way too long since we have blogged! We have had an exciting year or so since we started this blog and have had a hard time keeping up with it! This summer we…..
-Celebrated our One Year Anniversary with a stay-cation in Raleigh, after first completing a sprint triathlon (btw we completed another in July).
-I (Teran) went to the OBX for the first time with Paige and my parents for Father’s Day. We had a great weekend!
-JJ and I went with his family to the OBX again for the 4th of July and got to go deep sea fishing!
-We went with my moms side of the family to Colorado for a reunion. We had a great time visiting, eating, hiking, and spending time with the family!
Needless to say we’ve been busy and have had a lot going on…we’ll have to write an update blog to fill you in on the rest!
We had a great Thanksgiving and are just reflecting on how thankful we are for our families. We got to spend 4 days in Franklin with both JJ’s family and my family. We had a great time eating, eating, and eating! We did do a lot of eating but we also got to spend a lot of time with the families. We played a lot of cards, bean bag toss, good guy/bad guy, watched NC State lose, and went and got our Christmas tree! We are so thankful for the life that the Lord has blessed us with with and realizing that because of Him we have so much to be thankful for.
Long overdue..everything but Italy
We have been really busy since getting back with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and everything else we have going on. Needless to say the blog has taken a bit of a back seat. Our friends Nate and Maria who we visited in Switzerland blogged about our trip so I’m going to post their links so you all can at least see some of what we did and then hopefully get out Italy pictures and post up soon!!! Sorry…and enjoy!
http://mariaandnateineurope.blogspot.com/2009/12/teran-jj-come-to-basel.html
http://mariaandnateineurope.blogspot.com/2009/12/snow-day-in-alps-withteran-jj.html
The 11 Days of Europe – Day 2
When we were ready to go we then took the tram to one of the few open grocery stores in the city (most things are closed on Sundays). We got the necessities for dinner: chips, this awesome apple drink, and ice cream! Here are some pictures we took in that square and walking back to their place.
Nate was hungry so we had to keep moving, but we passed a lot of cute streets and pretty buildings! We made tomato basil and mozzarella sandwiches for lunch with Tomato Soup, then headed back out for a 3 hour stroll around Basel! Basel is such a pretty city and it was a lot of fun just walking around and seeing what it had to offer. As we were walking along the Rhine River we did see a man using heroine and another man peeing in the river.
SO…before I finish up this blog (JJ speaking here), I would like to first say that I think I have been duped. I remember when I had days off and my sweet wife would say, “Have a good day off, do you have any plans today?”, and then she would be on her way out the door. Then on occasion she would ask if I could do a small errand here and a small errand there. Now lately, when I go downstairs to eat breakfast on my days off days there has been list of things to do. I can’t help but wonder…have I been subtly trained without even being aware of it??? She sure is sneaky 
but I love her. One of my tasks today was to finish our day 2 blog.
Anyway, sorry to side track, now back to the day. I would like to say first of all, the trip was a lot of fun. I like the towns and cities a lot, but why all the graffiti? There is graffiti ALL over the place, it is very tacky. Anyone who spray paints a building that is over 500 years old needs a nice big thump on the head.
So we were walking along the Rhine River, it was pretty neat. However the entire time I had no idea that it was the Rhine River. Teran claims that she made me aware of this but I’m not so sure. The whole time I’m thinking to myself, I like this River and wonder what it is…now I know!
We ate some roasted chesnuts by the River. They were very good. There are a lot of vendors that sell them, I guess I would compare them to boiled peanuts here in the states. Yum! Nate and Maria walked us all over Basel, very fun. We went the Munster Church and saw some men playing Bacci Ball. The whole city just has a different kind of feel to it. We got home around early evening that night and had supper and watched a little football!
Later that night we got a phone call “the airport is outside” atleast that’s how we translated the Swiss German, but we assumed that meant my luggage had finally arrived from being lost! I was excited to change my underwear. 3 days in the same underwear and socks is not my idea of a vacation. The “We are sorry we lost your luggage” bag or toiletries was not getting it done. They gave me an XXL T-shirt, small stick of unscented deodorant, 2 q-tips, and tooth paste and tooth brush…thanks.
So that was day 2 of the trip but day 1 of the vacation, because at no point during our day of travels did I feel like I was on vacation. Nate and Maria did a great job of starting our stay in Europe off right!
(Teran again, I can’t figure out how to seperate my pictures, so they are all together at the top, sorry! I’ll try to figure it out.)
The 11 days of Europe – Day 1
So we’ve decided to do a different post for each day we spent in Europe! Each day was jammed full and always fun! I hope you enjoy our trip!
Day 1 – The traveling….so our original “confirmed” travel plans were to leave RDU at 4:00pm for a flight to JFK in New York City. Then catch a 10pm flight out of JFK to Zurich. We were supposed to land in Zurich at 12:40pm that Saturday the 10th and had a day full planned of exploring Zurich. We were then going to take a 5pm train to Nate and Maria’s house and spend Saturday evening with them. This is how it actually happened….
JJ and I got to RDU airport at 2:15pm to check in with Delta. As we are checking in, super excited about our upcoming trip the woman says…”your flight left 45 minutes ago”. Never has this happened to me! We were very early, but our flight had changed and we were never informed! So the woman we were working with spent the next 25 minutes on the phone and her computer trying to find some way to get us to Zurich, because there were no more flights to JFK that day…She finally looks up and says, the only way I can get you to Zurich leaving today is to take a 4pm flight to Atlanta, have a 6 hr layover there, then take a 7 hour flight to Paris, have a 5 hour layover there, then take an hour flight to Zurich, which will put you into Zurich at 8:55pm. We just wanted to get there so we took it!
The flight to Atlanta was smooth and short (just the way we like it!). My boss and 2 of our managers had been in Atlanta for the Catalyst Conference and were flying back to RDU that night, so we got to have dinner with them! That helped the time pass and was really nice!
We then boarded the plane at 11:00pm for our 7 hour flight to Paris. I had worked that day and all the traveling had worn me out so I was a sleep before the plane ever took off! Needless to say I slept most of the flight except when JJ would wake me up to eat! He got to sleep some too! The next “morning” well morning for us, 1pm in Paris, we landed! Just to sit in the airport for another 6 hours…. We brushed our teeth and freshened up (I love the tax free stores that sell perfume, I always freshen up with their testers ) then sat and read for awhile. It was almost 5pm so we figured we better try to get ourselves on their schedule so we got 2 sandwiches from a restaurant there in the airport, then JJ passed out as usual…
We finally boarded our last flight for the day to Zurich, Switzerland! Our flight left on time and was a pretty easy flight! We landed in Zurich at 8:15pm and ran off the plane because we had to catch the 9:05pm train to Basel. We rushed through the airport to baggage claim, to find JJ’s luggage had been lost… so now not only did JJ not have his luggage but we also had to go through the whole baggage claim process while still needing to make the 9:05 train. We finally got it all straightened out, went through customs, and ran to the train station. We bought our tickets then did our best to figure out what train we were supposed to be on! We took a guess, but in an hour and a half we were getting off the train in Basel to Maria! After 24 hours of traveling we were glad to be there! We then took the tram to their neighborhood and met Nate and Jake who helped us get all our stuff to their house!
It’s been a long time!
It’s been a long time since we have posted, but we are back and posts will be coming soon!!! Stay tuned!
The Story of Us!
So I realized that I haven’t really told the story of us since starting this blog. Below is the story we posted on our wedding website before we got married!
Where should I start… Although we grew up in the same small town, JJ and I did not meet till the end of high school. Truth be told…when we did meet we didn’t really like each other. Well I take that back JJ had a great time picking on me and making fun of me, but I couldn’t stand him! When JJ graduated he went to NC State. A year later I was heading there as well. Even though we were now in Raleigh, things did not change much, the teasing continued through out my freshmen year. By that summer our story would finally change! We realized how much fun we had together and how well we could actually get along!
For the next 2 and a half years we had our ups and downs. When I look back now, I realize we were both young, but yet it was during those times I came to understand that whether it was going to NC State games, hanging out with friends, or just watching TV, I loved every minute we shared together. During that time God was doing amazing things in our lives, (that we didn’t even realize He was doing). If there’s one thing JJ and I have come to understand it’s God has always been intimately working in our lives. When we first started dating JJ was running from the Lord and I had yet to experience what a personal relationship with Jesus Christ was really like. In January of ’06 JJ and I went to the Passion Conference in Nashville, TN. It was there that the Lord called JJ back to himself and for the first time in 21 years I truly understood what the Lord was calling me too. Two weeks later I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
For the next year our relationship faced many trials, God was calling us as individuals not as a couple and in January of ’07 we broke up…what I thought was for good. For a year and a half we both did our own thing, keeping in touch occasionally. Then in March of 08, I heard JJ was graduating from the Police Academy and I just knew I needed to be there. A couple weeks later JJ invited me to a dinner that would change our lives. Although I would have never expected it was then that JJ told me he believed I was the woman he would marry. It would be an under-statement to say he caught me off guard. While I was not sure what the future held, he seemed confident that he knew what was ahead of us. For the next 4 months we spent time praying, hanging out, and getting to know each other all over again. In that time I saw the Godly man JJ had become and the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. On August 1st we got back together and the rest is history!
