July 2012 - 101 in 1001 Update

We only completed a few goals this month but it was still a good month. We are in the process of completing a couple more and we have plans for some others. At this point, we are really to the goals that take time and planning. We are over 30% there! 

Our Goals

1. Add a member to our family. 

2. Pay off all student loans. (our deadline: 6/30/13)

3. Visit NYC.

4. Take a long road trip. (DONE on 7/26/12 with our trip to Nashville)

5. Sell something on Etsy  

6. Have Dad's Crawfish in Louisiana.  

7. Take a trip to Louisiana at least once a year. (1/3)

8. Host a holiday in our home.

9. Go camping.

10. Build a real fire.   

11. Rent or buy a house. 

12. Decorate the outside of a house for Christmas.

13. Stay at or Visit the Biltmore. (Going on August 17th when Mom visits us)

14. Serve in a soup kitchen.

15. Grow our own tomatoes.

16. ******* ;)

17. Give an item away each time we buy something new (clothing, housewares, etc).  

18. Go on dates at least every other week.  

19. Complete a blog series together.

20. For one month, don't buy anything extra. 

21. Contact our family members at least once a week.

22. Go to a shooting range. 

23. Go sailing.

24. Get involved in a community service group.

25. Go on a mission trip.

26. Read at least one book a month for a year. (7/12)

27. Start a small business. 

29. Buy a new Christmas ornament each year. (0/3)

30. Get a massage.  

31. Send a card to a friend or family member just for fun.  (DONE 7/23/12)

32. Begin a photography business (big or small).  

33. Eat at a local/non-chain restaurant every time we travel. 

34. Visit a new place once a year. (So far this year, Charlotte, Asheville, Columbia, Chimney Rock)

35. Ride in a hot air balloon. 

36. Attend at least one festival a year in the state where we live. (1/3)

37. Stay at a B&B.

38. Floss more- at least once a week. (WE HATE FLOSSING) 

39. Give a 100% tip. 

40. Go see a musical.

41. Eat a new type of foods (Korean, African, etc)

42. Repurpose a piece of furniture. 

43. Watch a sunrise and photograph it.

44. Explore secret paths.

45. Do something nice for someone anonymously. 

46. Pick fruit at an orchard. 

47. Get a library card. 

48. Go to a garage sale together. DONE 7/27/12 but we didn't buy anything! 

49. Celebrate our Golden Birthdays in style! (1/2)

50. Make homemade ice cream. 

51. Learn a new hobby together.

Leslie's Goals

52. Lose my desired amount of weight. (focused in on this right now)

53. Continue to utilize this blog to document our lives especially once we start having children.

54. Get a Skype account and use it. 

55. Paint something worth looking at (not just a wall) :)

56. Add at least one cross to my cross collection. 

57. Learn to make the best sweet tea my husband has ever tasted. 

58. Make homemade marshmallows.  

59. Sell/Give away at least one cake or cupcakes that I've decorated for a party/gathering/birthday/etc.

60. Plan a scavenger hunt for Matt. 

61. Bake and decorate each of Matt's birthday cakes. (1/3)

62. Rake someone's leaves.

63. Meet up with at least one other blogger whose blog I read.

64. Complete a blog series or post about our wedding, including the planning. Just for my own sake :) 

65. Continue mailing out birthday and anniversary cards to our friends and family. 

66. Invite someone to stay with us for a weekend or longer at least once a year. (1/3)

67. Complete a vlog.

68. Go fishing.

69. Make a point to call my closest friends as often as possible, not just texting.

70. Take a continuing education class related to Autism or other childhood disorders-even though I don't currently work with children. (this will have to happen next year or the next because I've already gotten all of my CEU's for this year)

71. Find a yummy Low Country Boil recipe and cook it. 

72. Take at least one picture of Matt and I every time we travel.

73. When we take a long trip (5+ hours one way), drive so that Matt doesn't have to. (DONE 7/26/12. Drove to Nashville)

74. Take a trip to visit a few special friends (we know who they are).

75. Take a cake decorating class.

76. Read a book, write a blog post about it, and link up with a book club blog. 

Matt's Goals

77. Run a 5k. (Officially registered for the Color Run-Charlotte on 11/17/12)

78. Take a photography class. 

79. Take Leslie to an air show. 

80. Make a picture frame out of an old or hand-made window frame. (bought the frame this month, working on refinishing it!)

81. Go to a college football game. (hope to do this in the Fall)

82. Get a dog.

83. Get a new camera lens. (we are in the process of saving for this. Our goal is 9/13/12)

84. Make my wife cry in a good/romantic/sweet/you get the idea way. (DONE on 6/27/12; should have gone on last month's list but after I updated it thinking we wouldn't meet any other goals, My husband surprised me by buying a book for me on the Kindle that I was not expecting and made me cry. It was special) 

85. Give Leslie a love letter at least once a month for a year. (Doing well on this 7 down,  5 to go)

86. Visit Chimney Rock, N.C. 

87. Wear a suit, and look good doing it. ;)

88. Visit a new, to me, zoo. 

89. Watch the Flyers destroy the Hurricanes in Charlotte (hopefully with Leslie).

90. Fix something for someone.

91. Cook something new and exciting. 

92. Swim in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

93. Make something from scratch. 

94. Do something with Granddad. 

95. Journal more often.

96. Learn all the words to or learn how to play one of Leslie's "high school days" favorite rap songs.

97. Teach something to someone.

98. Ride a horse.

99. Surprise Leslie with surprises. (doing good so far) 

100. Spend an entire day, literally the entire day, in bed. Hopefully not while sick. 

101. Figure out how we will finish all 101 things on this list. 

Ours: 16/51

Leslie: 10/25

Matt: 9/25

Total:35/101

Til then-

Did YOU Hear about the Morgans? 

Foodie PenPal

This month I participated in Foodie PenPal with The Lean Green Bean Blog. It was such a fun experience and I hope to do it again one day. I received my package from Alexis from Lex's Life as a New Wife. Here are the goods. 

The box was re-used from a package she must have received and it was for Carolina cookies and Matt and I thought that was fun. 

 She packaged well. A plus in my book.

Lex is from Florida so she sent some of her local faves. First up...chocolate. It was yummy. Very rich!

Next up, a homemade treat, "Brownie Crackles". These were AWESOME! I ate mine with milk.

Trail Mix. It was pretty good. I'm not a HUGE fan of trail mix but this still yummy.

A non-food related treat. A fun notepad with magnets on the back to place on the fridge. Great gift!

Brownie Crackles recipes. I'll make these soon.

Pop Chips...I've wanted to try these before but hadn't. They were pretty good. I think I'd like the flavored chips better.

A cupcake reusable grocery bag. This was small and is perfect for holding magazines/mail I'm currently going through etc.

All together now!

Thanks Alexis for the great treats! You rock!

Til then-
Did YOU Hear about the Morgans?

Open Letters

Linking up with Ashley for her "Friday's Letters" linkup!

 

Dear Pinterest, Your quotes like the one below are starting to make the world go-around....And this one is my Fave! 

Dear Lela Cole Moody, Your cheeks make me smile EVERY time I see them. Can't believe you are 5 months and 4 days old. 

Dear Crayons, when you are glued onto canvas and melted with a hair dryer, you look pretty awesome.  Just sayin'. 

Dear Toys R' Us, thanks for having 24-pack crayons on sale for 25 cents last week. We bought 20. 

Dear Chalkboard paint, you are making my life so much fun. And you made this awesome platter, awesomer. 

Dear Chevrolet S-10 that we purchased last week, my husband loves you and because of that, I love you too. 

Dear Olympics Opening Ceremony, Tonight we will celebrate you with food. 

Dear Nashville, we are spending the weekend with you. WOOT!

Til then-

Did YOU Hear about the Morgans? 

Provision Part 3

This 3rd part is not nearly as huge as the other two but it was still pretty special to us. When we were leaving church Wednesday night. A lady walked up to us and said "You are Matt from HD!!". Matt said he was and she went on to say that she realized we were George and Ginger's grandchildren and that she was glad to know that. She also told Matt how grateful she was for his help.

That night at church, we had a guest speaker who spoke on revival and was really quite interesting. The lady asked us if we enjoyed him speaking and when we said we did, she pulled out one of his books to give to us. About that time, the speaker was walking by and she got him to sign the book for us.

It wasn't anything huge but for us, it was just a continued testimony to God's provision!!

Til then-
Did YOU Hear about the Morgans?


P.S. Before we left, we got to speak with our favorite pastor at church (besides Granddad) and he prayed for us that when we begin our house hunt that we will know without a shadow of a doubt that the house we chose is for us. He said, "I don't know how much it will cost but I do know that when you acquire that house, it will be miraculous". We are holding on to that truth until we find the house of our dreams! :)

Another story of God's provision

A few days ago I shared about God's provision to us with a new to us truck. I wanted to share part 2 of his recent blessings.

Matt has worked at The Home Depot for over 5 years. He worked there throughout college and when we got married, it was where we both felt like God wanted him. We can't really explain why because it isn't an extremely high paying job BUT we just knew it was so.

When we moved here, God had opened a door for Matt to continue with HD here but as a part-time employee whereas, he had been full-time since college. It wasn't ideal but it was there and again, it was the open door. We have been able to manage extremely well with the part-time position and it has allowed Matt to get his photography business going to an extent. However, we began discussing that he really needed something full time.

Matt's decision was to approach the managers at HD regarding full time and if they didn't have it available, he would begin looking elsewhere.

On Wednesday, he went into HD to speak with his department head and she said "I'd love to have you full time especially since Max (another co-worker) is transferring. Go talk to the manager". Matt then goes and talks to the manager who says "We would love to have you full time. Go check with the assistant manager to confirm with her." Matt then goes to the assistant manager who says "Perfect. That solves my problem (finding another employee to fill Max's spot)".

Keep in mind that this entire event transpired within 5 minutes. Matt and I couldn't help but have tears in our eyes just knowing that God had provided for us, yet again. We are grateful!

Side note: Matt and I are also grateful that we are not defined by what we do. Our jobs are enjoyable to us and we are grateful for them BUT they do not define us.

Til then-
Did YOU Hear about the Morgans?

P.S. Stay tuned for part 3 of God's provision.

Testimony to God's Goodness

Just recently the Lord has blessed us tremendously in very tangible ways. He is ALWAYS good to us BUT these days it seems his blessings our so obvious, we really can't miss them. We are grateful. In this post, I just wanted to share about some of those blessings.

In November of last year, we sold my car of 10 years to a young college student. That left us with one car, Matt's Taurus, that was in decent shape. When we moved here, we purchased another car, a Buick,  that is used but in excellent condition. Not long after that, the Taurus began to give us trouble. We found out that it was a transmission problem but because of how old the car was (13 years) and the other problems it has including no air conditioner, we decided to just save for another car and wait for the Taurus to kick the bucket.

On Tuesday of this past week, Matt was leaving for work at 2:00pm because he had the evening shift. He texted me at work and said the car wouldn't start. I ran home to meet him and take him to work and we began discussing a new to us car. Matt had Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off so he decided he would car shop then.

We have a local used car dealership in town. The owner goes to church with us. He sold us the Buick as well as cars to many people we know here. He's very reputable and has some great used cars. We had seen a white Chevy S-10 on the lot as we drove by several times and it was very appealing to us. Matt's never had a truck but we knew it would be good for hauling things in the future.

Matt went by to see the truck and told the guy our budget. The truck was in great condition, a 2002 model but with only 74,000 miles on it. It was close to our price range which was great but not quite there.

Side note: We financed the Buick when we bought it in December but we put a large amount as a downpayment and paid double payments each month and paid the whole car off with our tax refund. It worked well for us but we really wanted to pay cash for this next car.

The dealer told Matt he would take $1000 off of the sticker price and he would give us $500 for the Taurus (we were shocked because I'm pretty sure it's quite possibly not worth that). That brought us really close to our budget but not quite there. We were stuck in that moment. The dealer offered to let us repay the extra to him without getting a loan which was generous but we didn't want to be indebted to anyone.

We sought wise counsel who confirmed what we already knew to be true. The Lord was really speaking to me especially that we just needed to wait. Wait for my next check (which is every Friday) and wait for Matt's check (which was this Friday), examine our commitments for bills, giving etc and go from there.

On Thursday night, once we knew what our check totals would be and we had tithed, paid bills, saved, etc,  we discovered we had enough money for the total of the truck without stressing our budget. We were elated!!

On Friday, Matt drove to the dealership, traded in the Taurus, wrote a check for the total amount of the truck and drove that baby home!

He is so excited and so am I. Here it is!

We are so glad that the Lord saw fit to bless us in this way. We are thankful that he has been teaching us how to manage our money best, save well and be good stewards of what he has given us. It only because of his grace that we were able to do this! 

Til then-

Did YOU Hear about the Morgans? 

P.S. This was longer than I expected so I'll share the other stories in another post. 

Friday Funnies

My mom sent an e-mail today with some "Older People" jokes. She knows I love old people, after all I spend at least 8 hours a day with them! Hope you enjoy!

Oh, before I put those. Here are a couple of my own. Today, one of my patients said "Well, don't you look fresh as a sunflower" as I turned the light on in her room at 7am to get her up for therapy! So cute.

Same patient later in the day was asked "Are you hot?" to which she replied "No, I'm not high!!" Gotta love her!

Here are the ones from mom!

Garage Door The boss walked into the office one morning not knowing his zipper was down and his fly area wide open.. His assistant walked up to him and said, 'This morning when you left your house, did you close your garage door?' The boss told her he knew he'd closed the garage door, and walked into his office puzzled by the question.  As he finished his paperwork, he suddenly noticed his fly was open, and zipped it up. He then understood his assistant's question about his 'garage door.' He headed out for a cup of coffee and paused by her desk to ask, 'When my garage door was open, did you see my Hummer parked in there?'  She smiled and said, 'No, I didn't. All I saw was an old mini-van with two flat tires.. Two elderly gentlemen  from a retirement center were sitting on a bench under a tree when one turns to the other and says: 'Slim, I'm 83 years old now and I'm just full of aches and pains. I know you're about my age. How do you feel?'  Slim says, 'I feel just like a newborn baby.'  'Really!? Like a newborn baby!?'  'Yep. No hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants.' Hospital regulations require a wheel chair for patients being discharged. However, while working as a student nurse, I found one elderly gentleman already dressed and sitting on the bed with a suitcase at his feet, who insisted he didn't need my help to leave the hospital.  After a chat about rules being rules, he reluctantly let me wheel him to the elevator.  On the way down I asked him if his wife was meeting him.  'I don't know,' he said. 'She's still upstairs in the bathroom changing out of her hospital gown.' Couple in their nineties are both having problems remembering things. During a checkup, the doctor tells them that they're physically okay, but they might want to start writing things down to help them remember ..  Later that night, while watching TV, the old man gets up from his chair. 'Want anything while I'm in the kitchen?' he asks.  'Will you get me a bowl of ice cream?'  'Sure..'  'Don't you think you should write it down so you can remember it?' she asks.  'No, I can remember it.'  'Well, I'd like some strawberries on top, too. Maybe you should write it down, so not to forget it?'  He says, 'I can remember that. You want a bowl of ice cream with strawberries.'  'I'd also like whipped cream. I'm certain you'll forget that, write it down?' she asks.  Irritated, he says, 'I don't need to write it down, I can remember it! Ice cream with strawberries and whipped cream - I got it, for goodness sake!'  Then he toddles into the kitchen. After about 20 minutes, The old man returns from the kitchen and hands his wife a plate of bacon and eggs.. She stares at the plate for a moment.  'Where's my toast ?'

---

A senior citizen 
said to his eighty-year old buddy: 
'So I hear you're getting married?' 
'Yep!' 
'Do I know her?' 
'Nope!' 
'This woman, is she good looking?' 
'Not really.' 
'Is she a good cook?' 
'Naw, she can't cook too well.' 
'Does she have lots of money?' 
'Nope! Poor as a church mouse.' 
'Well, then, is she good in bed?' 
'I don't know.' 
'Why in the world do you want to marry her then?' 
'Because she can still drive!'

---

Three old guys 
are out walking. 
First one says, 'Windy, isn't it?' 
Second one says, 'No, it's Thursday!'
Third one says, 'So am I. Let's go get a beer..'

---

Morris,
an 82 year-old man, went to the doctor to get a physical. 
A few days later, the doctor saw Morris walking down the street with a gorgeous young woman on his arm. 
A couple of days later, the doctor spoke to Morris and said, 'You're really doing great, aren't you?' 
Morris replied, 'Just doing what you said, Doc: 'Get a hot mamma and be cheerful.'' 
The doctor said, 'I didn't say that.. I said, 'You've got a heart murmur; be careful.'

---

One more.. . .! 
A little old man 
shuffled slowly into an ice cream parlor and pulled himself slowly, painfully, up onto a stool.. After catching his breath, he ordered a banana split. 
The waitress asked kindly, 'Crushed nuts?' 
'No,' he replied, 'Arthritis.' 


Til then-
Did YOU Hear About the Morgans?