Saturday, August 23, 2008

Mark's Birthday!



































































Today is Mark's 29th birthday! Last night we went with our best friends in New Olreans to Superior Grill, Mark's favorite restaurant. Then some friends came back to the house for cake. Today we went to the bakery down the street for a cream danish and sticky bun and coffee. The people there are awesome. It's like having a old-time bakery in a bedroom community where everyone knows each other. Mark got a guitar, bag, tuner, etc. and a lion statue for his birthday. He's planning on learning to play the guitar this year. He already sounds pretty good and he's only had it for 15 minutes! That's the way Mark is...full of many hidden talents. You might wonder why I would get Mark a lion statue...There was something that grabbed us about the lions in Venice, Italy. They are winged and they hold open books representing the power and knowledge of the Venitian Empire. It is also representative of the apostle, Mark. He was stolen from Venice, found and returned, so the wings represent "coming up from the waves" of the ocean and back to Venice. When Napolean conquored Venice, he had all the books closed, which symbolized Venitian defeat. It's sad to think of a powerful empire being overcome that way. Later, Around the same time that we went to Italy, The Chronicles of Narnia film came out. Since then, we have been captivated with the image of Christ as a Lion, as Revelation 5:5 calls Him (And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. ) It's so amazing to think of the power, majesty, authority, strength, and courage of Christ in that way! When we think we are defeated, He "opens the book". Thus...the lion statue.











Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Our Anniversary!

Okay, so I've been REALLY bad about updating this the last few weeks. School is starting this week, and it feels like I've been through a drive through car wash (without the car). In fact, that's not just how I feel, it's how I look too. I need to go to bed early tonight. God has been so gracious though to give me a great new friend at work. Ashley loves Jesus as much as I do, and we are going to meet a couple times a week to pray. What a blessing! School starts tomorrow (Wednesday), and I'm excited to start a new year with new kids.

Mark and I celebrated our anniversary July 26th. We were careful to bring our camera and very soon realized that our camera was out of battery!!! We parked and walked to Irene's, a fantastic Italian restaurant in the French Quarter/Marigny area. When we got there, there was a wait, so Mark ran around looking for batteries. To make a long story short, he came back to the restaurant sweating with no batteries. For those of you who don't know, grocery stores/convenient stores are hard to come by in the Quarter. So...all that to say...I will tell you about our anniversary without pictures this time. :(

Back to Irene's. Irene's is a small Italian restaurant owned by a little Italian lady (named Irene - crazy! I know!) who runs around cooking, chatting, serving and laughing with the hundreds of guests that come through the restaurant. We waited for two hours to eat there, and it was worth the wait. The waiting area had candle lit tables, a piano player, and tons of people to watch. We sat at a cute table that was literally in a whole in the wall. (Very romantic!) We ate mussels, clams, shrimp in a red sauce over pasta, fresh bread, bread pudding, etc.

Afterward, Mark surprised me by taking me to the Marriot on Canal Blvd. where we stayed for the night. The next morning we had an appointment at the New Orleans Cooking School where we attended a cooking demonstration for traditional New Orleans food. Then, of course, we got to eat everything he cooked! Gumbo, Jambalaya, Bread Pudding, Pralines... YUMMM!

Later on, we went to see The Dark Knight (Batman movie) with some friends, which was a very depressing ending to a wonderful weekend! Ha! It's a pretty dark movie...no pun intended. :)

Anyway, that's a quick update. I'll try to be better about writing more often.