scratch that

this past weekend we made our way up to maryland to spend mama's day with our mama's and to take a look at a few possible apartments for our pending move north. luckily, we narrowed our search to 2 wonderful, affordable apartment choices! we have already heard back from one, letting us know we got the unit we wanted, and we are waiting to hear back from the other (a bit larger) to make our final choice...woo hoo!

we were also able to spend some quality time with our families- friday dinner with the schmidts, making dinner for mama chewning on saturday evening (yummy steaks, trimmings and homemade lemon merangue pie by katelyn), and taking mama schmidt out for lunch sunday! - a weekend filled with meals and family is just what the doctor ordered- we had a fantastic time visiting and prepping for the move :)

ALSO, on sunday morning, we found out some even more wonderful news than i wrote about last week- mark has been accepted to UMD's MBA program! YAY! it's something we were hoping would pan out and mark and i are very excited about this opportunity, obviously. therefore, chinese will take a back-burner, and hopefully he will be able to learn the language in the future, maybe while he is working, etc. it's an achievement for mark and we are SO excited about whatever is in store for us next...maybe a job for me?! :)

below is a photo of us on sunday after the great news~ note: i recently requested blonde highlights from a new hair stylist...not quite what i got, but i think i might be diggin' the new 'do anyway...

go terps!

YAY! today is the day that mark, my fantastic husband and favorite person, found out he got accepted to UMD for this fall! the plan is for mark to primarily concentrate on gaining language fluency in chinese along with taking some business classes. hopefully there will be some co-op opportunities with various businesses and/or agencies along the way as well, which would be awesome!

since we're coming up this weekend for mother's day and to look at places to live, we might just have to take a drive through campus and breathe a sigh of relief for a decision we have been hoping and praying for for a very long time ;)

SO our plans are starting to take shape instead of being that irksome shadow we were forced to deal with for the past few months, which is HUGE for us. now we're just going to concentrate on finding a great, affordable place to live and getting me a jobby-job!

we hope all of you are well- see ya on the other side of the potomac!

like the wind

through much of my life i hated the act of running. i found it boring, tiresome and extra boring. however, a few years ago there were no other cardio machines available at the gym and i hopped on the treadmill. walking seemed lazy, so i amped it up a bit. to my astonishment, i was running- and liking it! after a few weeks i thought to myself, "if i could do a marathon that would be the ultimate accomplishment." well, registration for the 33rd marine corps marathon in DC opened up today, and i signed-up :) i've been training for a little over a month, running about 4-5 times per week and will continue with that through the marathon in late october. it's been great so far, even though some nights i would much rather plop down on the sofa and veg out- i've literally got to change into my running clothes immediately after getting home from work or else i somehow find a way to justify sweat pants and a nap. i'm sure it will be hard and cumbersome at times, but i'm REALLY excited about it and try to keep myself motivated with thoughts about how lucky i am to have a fully functional body that allows me to do something like this...perspective is everything. if anyone else is interested, i definitely encourage you to sign up...spots are limited though so HURRY!!!!

http://www.marinemarathon.com/

Family Fun Time

this past weekend we were graced with a visit from the chewning's! it was nice to spend some QT with the fam and have some good times along the way. friday after a late but delicious dinner (i- jenn - am still learning the fine art of humility with regard to my cooking), we opted to play a game. eventually, we decide on "scene it" and mark and vera (jenn's mom) proceeded to kick the butts of the other teams. doug (jenn's dad) and allie (jenn's littlest sister) received 2nd place, while jenn and katelyn (jenn's younger sister) were shamed to a lowly last place. we retired after games and rested up for the fun-filled day at busch gardens on saturday!

below are a few photos from saturday's adventures. it was a bit overcast outside, but that kept away enough patrons that we were able to ride rollercoasters with virtually no lines all day- fantastic!

the ladies, enjoying the nostrils of one wise-looking tree...

the whole gang :)

katelyn, enjoying some of the aviary's main attractions

after the days festivities, we all were thankfully able to take mini-naps and lounge around once we got home. following some yummy lasagna, we headed over to the chewning's hotel for some swimming/hot tubbing/NCAA tourney watching :)

it was sad to say "adios" to the family on sunday after more stuffing-of-the-faces, but we know we'll see them soon...very soon ;)

March 6th- Best Day Ever! (aka Jenn's Birthday)

27 years ago, jenn was born at 3:11 pm to her tired mama and her nauseated father.

anyone that knows jenn, knows that she starts celebrating her birthday around the 3rd week of february and continues to celebrate the whole month of march- it's quite the holiday, at least, in jenn's mind.

this year, it was decided that sandwiches would be the dinner of choice, as that is one of jenn's favorite foods...so off to schlotsky's we went, jenn sportin' her "birthday girl" sash, courtesy of katelyn...






at the deli, jenn enjoyed some of her favorite things, a nice and fizzy fountain diet coke and...

a delicious veggie sammich!

after the fun-filled times at dinner, we headed home for another of jenn's favorite things- eating some yummy dessert in pants with an elastic waist...thank goodness for mark's old army sweats!

woo hoo for strawberry rhubarb pie!

birthday wishhh ;)

the one who started it all

today is a special day, folks: it's michael schmidt's 32nd birthday! many happy birthday wishes to mike! apparently, he was a good enough kid that it prompted 2 more from mom and dad schmidt, so we're guessing he didn't show his true colors until around age 5 or 6...just kidding...sort of...

:)

andrew cole!

happy belated "actual day-of-birth" to andrew cole morgan, who was born yesterday, february 25, 2008 to the lovely susan and shawn morgan!!!!!

we can't wait to see, hold, pamper and hug our new nephew :)