Nice Day for Coffee and reading...

We went to Beans Coffee again today:-) Got there about 3pm and stayed until 7:30pm! Ana Maria and I spent our time working on our homework from our Beth Moore Bible Study. Ana snapped this photo of me at one of our afternoon excursions at Beans.

Our Soup-iversary...

Last Monday, March 20, was the anniversary of our first meeting. Ana Maria and I met at a Council of the Arts soup. I was there, singing with the Sons of Dixie, and we struck up a conversation over a bowl of soup :-) I believe it was Portuguese Caldo Verde (green soup) made from collards:-) These are the bowls we ate from (we got to keep them). When we got married, we had soup at our wedding reception, eating from these very same bowls! The framed picture in the background is from our wedding day.

Met an Old Friend at Beans Coffee...

Last Saturday we enjoyed having a coffee break with Anita, a friend of Ana's from a long time ago! This was such a busy day at Beans Coffee - we finally found a place to sit and enjoy a nice chat. We also had a moment to take this nice picture of Anita and Ana Maria :-)

My lovely wife..

This lady is the reason my life is so rich and full :-) She taught me how to dance (I dance pretty good now, I think), how to NOT procrastinate, how to budget my finances, and more importantly how to put faith into action. She truly lives her faith in God. Ana Maria helped me return to a relationship with God-- a relationship that had grown cold. She didn't know I was going to put this picture on our blog. But this look is the look she gives me when I know she's thinking nice thoughts about me :-) Somehow it says to me, "I love you." It only takes a look from her, and I can determine whether I need to "straighten up" or "I'm doing something alright." :-) I thank God for her everyday.

Time to get back in shape...

Well, we've been through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthdays... and lots and lots of cakes.. It is time to face the consequences of our indulgences :-) We bought this equipment some time ago, and we've been using it from to time to time. But now it is time to get SERIOUS. We will be regimented from here on out! We actually posed for these pictures- our excercise faces are much more strained and determined-looking -- actually abit tortured looking :-) We are determined to stay the course...

Birthday Aftermath... :-)

We had a great time Friday night at our house! Ana Maria decorated the house and made everything so festive for my birthday gathering! I must say, Ana loves a party, and loves to celebrate! Thank you, Sweetheart, for all your expressions of love - nothing goes unnoticed. And thank you, Mom and Dad, Lori, and Joy and Allen (along with my nephew and neice), for coming over and having pizza and cake with us :-) We really had a great time together, eating and laughing! I am so thankful for all my family. After all the guests left, Ana and I had more cake :-) and just alittle more... :-) And then we watched a dvd Nicole copied for me, "Groundhog Day." And so, Ana Maria and I laughed and laughed some more:-) Thank you, God, for a wonderful 51st birthday!

Birthday! :-)

I'm home today, since its my birthday, and I'm playing around with the blog:-) I've received several calls from work about various problems, so it has not been a completely peaceful morning :-) Anyway, Ana Maria is at work, and she's left me home to my own devices (I'm supposed to be vacuuming the house at some point). But she did tell me to have a great day and enjoy doing things I want to do! (yeah!)

My daughter, Meredith, sent me some pictures last night, so I thought I'd post them. And I decided to make a set of "Our Girls" pictures on our 'flickr' page:http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikenana/ I think our children are the most beautiful, intelligent, winsome creatures on the planet (maybe they're not really our children:-)) I am so very proud of all three of them!

Birthday Week Begins... :-)

Nicole and Brian took us out to eat at Shogun Japanese Restaurant for my birthday! We ate a sampling of various Japanese dishes, but my favorite was the sushi! My birthday is not until March 10, but Nicole has to work that evening - so I got an early treat! Thank you, Nicole and Brian for the night out and the cool gift- a memory card for my phone (so I can download pics into this blog with relative ease:-))! A couple more birthday pics can be viewed on our "flickr" page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikenana/

It's 1:30 am, and Ana Maria is at the computer. I'm on the laptop playing with the blog. And Aaron, our yellow tabby cat, is having a good time checking us out, playing dead, and various other attempts to get our attention. I decided to take his picture while he was in a good mood. But everytime I attempted to take it, he would move towards me and try to "love" on me. Finally, I caught him by surprise :-) "Meow," Aaron says.

Yeah! We made it to Beans Coffee House about 2:30pm today. It wasn't so crowded, so we got a table rightaway. Here's a picture of Ana Maria standing by the coffee bar (doesn't she look sweet!) She's getting a refill of one of her favorite coffees, French Toast, while I drank several cups of Caramel Vanilla! It was such a beautiful sunny day, but we enjoyed being indoors, spending time reading God's word, and talking and talking and talking.. :-)

'Twas the Night Before Saturday...

Well tonight, Ana Maria and are playing around with our 'blog' and making plans for tomorrow. We're also watching Everybody Loves Raymond while I type on the keyboard :-) Tomorrow is Saturday - our day off! We'll sleep late, then go for a morning jog. After that we'll head to our favorite coffee house, Beans Coffee! We will probably spend a couple hours drinking coffee and reading some devotionals. As we generally don't drink coffee all week long until Saturday, our coffee time is a little like having Christmas each Saturday :-)