Pier’s parents and brother, Pier’s maternal Grandmother (Mama Dee), & Us! Three generations! The “Kids”
Pier’s brother, Paul 🙂
There you have it – our long-awaited Easter 2014 pictures! 🙂 What a GORGEOUS day God gave us to celebrate His resurrection!
If you didn’t have the opportunity to read our blog and watch our vlog yesterday (since it was uploaded SO late!), click here to do so – and we urge you to do so. Don’t just read the text – Watch the video! Much to satan’s chagrin, I finally was able to record and upload our amazing story and it’s one you will not want to miss. Share it with your friends and family. God is powerful and awesome and good, and we must not keep His Goodness to ourselves!
SO…..I know, I know…Today is supposed to be “What’s Up Wednesday” and we are supposed to have pictures and updates and all kinds of fun and excitement, but the truth is…well, we are having some technical difficulties – camera-wise. I totally forgot to put the memory card in the camera for Easter…and now all our pictures are literally trapped inside the device, just waiting to get out! But fear not, an a/v cord is on the way! We are keeping our fingers crossed for its arrival in the mail tomorrow!
In the meantime, we will (hopefully) treat this Friday as Wednesday, and today will be Food For Thought Friday – which composes a few different things:
1. Meal Planning
If you aren’t already doing this, you should be. Meal planning not only can save you a great deal of money on food, but it is a total de-stresser for your week! Click here for a free printable meal planning worksheet. Here’s mine for the week (well, the week which for us begins tomorrow when Craig is back home for dinner!):
I love these lists that include the meal chart and the grocery list together! When you are able to plan your meals for a week and walk into the grocery store with a firm list of what you need to make those meals happen, you save big money and time, too! I was in and out of Ingles yesterday in 15 minutes. AND our budget for groceries for the week is $100 – I made it out at $92! Winning!
2. What is your “Life Verse”?
I’m a total sucker for ‘quizzes’ and I discovered the one above perusing Facebook today – specifically Pastor Alan’s page. Maybe he likes quizzes too 🙂
This quiz is quick and gives you a Bible verse at the end – your “life verse” – and there is nothing wrong with one more Bible verse for the day! Click here for the “What is Your Life Verse?” quiz. I got Romans 8:28 (and so did a lot of other people…but I re-did the quiz again with different answers and received a different verse, so it isn’t rigged. 🙂 ):
I’d say that’s a pretty awesome verse to be handed mid-day. 🙂
3. Â Learning (For Free!)
There’s a really interesting website I just discovered where you can take online courses, in a variety of areas, and receive a certificate of completion…and even better, many of the courses are FREE! Here’s a link to check it out yourself –Â UDEMY. Here are some of the free courses available:
And those are all FREE COURSES! How great is that?
Well, folks, enjoy your Friday for Wednesday! 🙂 Let us know which courses you pick, which recipes you choose for your meal plans, and most importantly, which Bible verse you “got” on your Life Verse Quiz!
Craig’s 32nd birthday began 3 days early this year, on April 10th. After all the other preparations were made, I made his birthday cupcakes (shown here) and arranged them carefully with a special riddle/poem:
When Craig arrived at Water Dog Kennels the next morning, he was presented with another clue:
And when he met me at work, my car already loaded down with luggage, gifts, and a huge cooler, he got this clue:
And then a pair of sunglasses:
He jumped into the driver’s seat with a smile on his face, and I gave him a special mix CD 🙂 and told him to choose from the Saved Destinations list in the GPS “Craig’s Birthday Part 1“… And the drive begin…He still had no idea where we were headed – just that it was about 160 miles away!
Around 6:30pm, we arrived outside of Lulu’s On Main, which I mentioned here…
It was seriously some of the best food…Yum! And then it was off to our next destination…And still, Craig had no idea where we were going… This time he just chose “Craig Birthday #2” from the destinations list and off we went… 15 miles down the road…
The Balsam Mountain Inn has a very interesting history and the most “shabby chic” rooms I have ever seen! They are each unique and charming, and we have never stayed at a more friendly place!
That evening, Craig and I sat on the rocking chair porch, enjoying the scenery and each other’s company! The air was warm and the night was just breezy enough! It was truly a beautiful evening!
The next morning I woke up bright and early to surprise Craig with his next clue:
{Translation: “You’ll want to wear this; I know you’ll look hot. But will it help your feet? No, probably not! They’ll be roaming along. You’ll wish you had four…as we travel on this WALKING BREWERY TOUR!”}
Craig was super excited about our little trip to Asheville & the brewery tour! We ate a delicious breakfast at the inn, and then headed out to the “big city” (most cities are enormous in comparison to Balsam, NC!) for a fun-filled afternoon!
Craig found a cat in one of the shops we ventured into…
Then we began the tour of three of Asheville’s local breweries: Lexington Avenue, Green Man & Twin Leaf:
…followed by dinner at a dive called The Thirsty Monk ( – chosen since I call my husband “Monkey”, “Monx” & “Monk” :-))
It was a gorgeous day and we had a wonderful time walking all over Downtown Asheville!
The next morning I had chosen a church for Palm Sunday, and we ate a quick breakfast and made it to the 9AM Mass – Luckily, we were literally BLESSED with a palm! Then it was off to the next destination:
The Georgia Guidestones
And then back in the car with the next unknown plugged into the GPS…Fortunately, as we were driving there, Craig pointed out the exit for my office along the way…where his truck remained parked… We had to make a surprise detour into Dunwoody to  retrieve the truck, and then I hugged Craig and told him I would see him at home… 🙂
Where he received his final clue:
Here’s his new belt:
And we drove to South City Kitchen in Vinings for his birthday dinner…
…where he was very surprised to find my parents, brother and our dear friend, Julia, waiting at the table to surprise him!
As you can imagine, we have slept like rocks since we returned home!! We had an absolute blast, and I would plan something like this for him any day of the week, any season of the year!
I love you, Monkey! 🙂 Happy Birthday (one last time!)!
Eeeek! Only a few more days until my husband’s special birthday extravaganza begins!! Can you tell I’m excited?!?!?!
Two Very Special Birthdays Ago
I have SUCH a special weekend planned, and I am BURSTING to share everything with him! (Good thing he’s out of town, so it’s easier to keep my secret!)
Of course, until tomorrow when Craig returns home…I have a TON to do – errands to run, things to bake, places to go, coolers to fill, clothes to pack Oops! Did I say that?!?! 🙂 Tonight is church – for which I am super excited – but then it’s time to head home and finish making all the last minute preparations!
Just wait until next week when we get to share all of the details and pictures with you! Promise you it’ll be worth the wait! 🙂
In other news, we have our summer vacation planned!! TO THE BEACH WE GO!!!! I found a heckuvah deal on Groupon, and we booked our room today at Majestic Beach Resort! By mid-July, our view will be like this…
…and I cannot wait! There is nothing like crashing waves on the beach, fresh seafood, and a summer glow to make everything better!
Don’t forget to wish Craig a Happy Birthday on Sunday! He’ll be the big 3-2!
Great news – We haven’t been so boring this week! There’re actually updates!!
And (drumroll, please!)…
Our House Is Finally On The Market!!!!
I don’t know if you can hear that or not, but it is whispering, “Please buy me!!!!” – Okay, maybe not so much a whisper as an insistent YELL! 🙂
Craig & I are thrilled! We can’t wait to find a home together and settle in! We have spent this past weekend and week, thus far, cleaning and de-cluttering and making our home look “un-lived-in”. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
Our Dining RoomOur DenOur KitchenOur Handy Tilework In The Master BathThe Yard We Fenced Ourselves
Know anyone looking for a home??? 🙂
On Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed God’s Not Dead finally! Really, folks, if you haven’t treated yourself to this movie, DO. There wasn’t a dry eye in the theatre, and you will feel God tugging at your heartstrings. You simply cannot leave this film unaffected.
Click Me!
As you all are well-aware, it’s Wednesday and therefore, one of my favorite nights of the week! We have be oh-so-blessed by adding Wednesday evening church into our weekly schedules! Full Turn Church is currently doing a Body Life Series entitled “Kingdom Come”, and last week’s (first of the series) message was powerful. I can’t wait to worship the Lord tonight – just sad my husband won’t be along for the ride this week! 😦
How can you be more involved in church and keep Christ at the center of your week? Comments, please! We love them!
It’s (finally) mid-week! Yay! Remember my mentioning yesterday that it was our One & A Half Year Wedding Anniversary? Awwww… 🙂 We are continuing the celebration through the end of the month – on March 28th, we mark the 3 year anniversary of our first date and the 2 year anniversary of our engagement!
What better way to celebrate than with a collection of pictures from our dating days?
Our First Picture TogetherThe First Flowers Craig Ever Sent Me
Our First Wedding Together
Our First (Atlanta) Braves GameOooh! I am TOO tan!!We are engaged here and JUST finished moving a bunch of the furniture from my condo into our (now) home!This was taken just a week or two before the wedding!!!And our Engagement Announcement!
What a wonderful three years together we have enjoyed! Here’s to a lifetime more!
It has been non-stop since Friday last week. We told you we had an adventure of sorts planned and we weren’t lying!
The whole plan was to fly out to North Dakota for the weekend, visit Craig’s old stompin’ ground, and go to a University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux hockey game – and that’s precisely what we did! 🙂 Our weekend was just a tad bit more audacious than we had originally planned…
We met at the airport around 4pm and tried to get out to Minneapolis…After running around from the T Concourse to the A Concourse and back, we realized neither Minnesota nor North Dakota were happening tonight! Everything was booked – overcrowded and oversold, at that.
Off to spend the evening in Madison, Wisconsin – for which Priceline came in handy! We were able to find a decent hotel with an airport shuttle at the very last minute!
Luckily, this hotel even sold beer, wine & champagne at the reception desk (You gotta love Wisconsin!) – which Craig and I happily enjoyed once we got settled in for the night! We thought we’d had a crazy, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants trip already…Little did we know…
THe next morning, we caught the hotel shuttle back to Madison’s airport and easily made it to Minneapolis on the first flight out. Whew. But…we didn’t make it on the flight to North Dakota…So we decided to drive…for five hours…in this:
Hatchback cars are a long-running joke between Craig & I, and when he first mentioned we may have to drive the last leg of our journey, I laughed that we might have to drive an “egg” car… Craig said, “No!” He had booked a compact – similar to a 4-door Ford Focus!
I collapsed in a fit of giggles when I saw we were making the trek in this little beauty – a Ford Fiesta. Good thing we didn’t have the furs with us…My goodness, we’re relatively small people and we barely fit with our two carry-on bags and my purse. Cue CLAUSTROPHOBIA.
As usual, we had a BLAST in the car, singing along to songs on a playlist I made quickly on Spotify. This is one I THOROUGHLY enjoyed at Wednesday night church with our friend Julia last week, and it was my  ABSOLUTE FAVORITE in our road trip mix!
Oh, I LOVE that song!!!! And I can’t tell you how AWESOME it was in person…Wow.
But back to our journey!
We finally arrived in Grand Forks, North Dakota and checked into our little hotel.
We had dinner at the Blue Moose Bar & Grill – It was DELICIOUS!!!
We also had drinks at Whitey’s Wonderbar – and they had the spiciest and yummiest Bloody Mary I have ever had!
I had a special little skirt made on Etsy at the Preppy Pink Shop for the game, and found a coordinating green and black L.L. Bean shirt for Craig to wear. We may have been the only two people in the arena not wearing a jersey…But I just had to bring a little bit of the South to the Midwest. One does NOT wear a jersey to an SEC Football game, for sure! 😉 As a matter of fact, I’m not even sure I’ve ever worn jeans. Probably some of the cutest outfits I wear all year long are worn to Georgia Bulldogs football games!
The game was alot of fun! It was my first hockey game, and while I wasn’t sure what was going on most of the time, it was certainly more exciting to watch than some sports!
Unfortunately, UND lost to Western Michigan that night…But we still really enjoyed ourselves!
The next day, we got up early and enjoyed a beautiful Mass at St. Michael’s Catholic Church.
And then we headed back on the road for our five-hour journey in the Fiesta back to the Minneapolis airport…Only to NOT make it out on the last flight…And that’s another blog post all on it’s own!
By this point, we were a little bit grumbly…
But we made it – by the SKIN OF OUR TEETH – to our last alternate – Kansas City, Missouri! And again…Priceline came in handy! We even managed to wrangle a Sheraton for the night, complete with a restaurant, a shuttle and a super comfortable bed – for a steal!!
We finally caught a flight out of Missouri and made it back to Atlanta on Monday…We both collapsed as soon as we had a home-cooked meal on our stomachs, and slept long and hard! I felt as if we had run a marathon!!!!!
Which made Philipians 3:14 come to mind:
Philippians 3:14
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Things aren’t always smooth sailing…but we must finish the race and press onward toward the goal, the prize.
Until tomorrow…. 3 more days til this giveaway is over!!! “Follow” our blog officially to enter, or if you already follow us, comment below “Done.”.
Today is Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent – a time for us to do some spiritual spring cleaning and focus on the Lord – we will focus a lot more on Lent and what it really is all about tomorrow. 🙂
Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite days of the Liturgical Calendar. Why? Because it gives us an opportunity to truly wear our hearts on our sleeves. Even wearing a cross around your neck could be taken for granted in today’s society. It could be just a fashion statement, or even a mockery. However, wearing a black smudge of ashes on your forehead is noticed. And thus, a wonderful opportunity to share a small part of your faith.
My personal tradition (since Craig is never in town for Ash Wednesday) is to wake up early (now, I’m typically up and out so early it felt late!) and go to the 6:55AM Mass at a church close to my office, and head to work afterwards. I cannot tell you what an amazing (hidden) opportunity this is! It’s 1:45pm in the afternoon and I have had no less than fifteen conversations about Ash Wednesday and Lent and the meaning of it all since I arrived at the office at 7:55AM – and these were both in the office and when I headed out for a quick bite of tuna salad around lunch time.
If not enlightening others about the meaning behind the ashes, it is discovering others in your place of work or around town who share your Christian faith. Community is a wonderful thing, and you don’t have to be Catholic to participate in Lent or Ash Wednesday. Head to a service right now!
Like I said, more tomorrow on Lent! Don’t miss it!
In other newlywed news, I’ve been ramping up my workout by adding in two days of cardio every week, in addition to 3 days of Pure Barre. I’m getting very very addicted to exercise – a concept I never thought I would understand!!!! If I can get excited about working out, any one can. Trust me. There is hope for us all!
Most of our other time this past week was spent with the furs – as usual – when we weren’t at work or working out:
Our little Lucy is a mama’s girl and she does NOT realize she is enormous and no longer a puppy! She is such a big girl nowadays she literally steps up onto the couch and lays down on top of me – and that’s the end of it. ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz! and not a thing we can do about it! (And we wouldn’t have it any other way!)
Lucy Lefebvre
Just look how much she’s grown!!!! This was taken just a year ago!
And finally, on Saturday, we went to LaGrange and had our hair done (Yes, Craig too!) 🙂 . Then we had a sweet visit with my grandmother, Mama Dee, and ended up going to dinner with my parents.
Pardon my red eyes! 🙂
We ate at The Farmhouse At Serenbe, and it was such a wonderful experience! I wish we had taken a picture with my lovely parents, but I think we were too mesmerized by the dessert to think about such things! Yum!
*Don’t forget about our giveaway! iParent.tv graciously donated this free one-year subscription to us, and we can’t keep it for ourselves! Maybe you know parents who could benefit? Enter to gift the subscription to them! Today – All you have to do is comment below. ANY (NICE) COMMENT AT ALL – wins you one entry!*
Join us tomorrow for our first Lenten Edition of Thirsty For Christ Thursday, and right now – head to an Ash Wednesday Service near you!
Oh, and one more thing! CLICK THE IMAGE for a beautiful and FREE Lenten devotional by the amazing Ann Voskamp, brought to you free of charge by Ann herself at A Holy Experience.
Your Devotional Is At The Bottom Of Her Blog Post – But Make Sure You Read That Too! How Beautiful!
Today was a big day at the Lefebvre household. Pier had her surgery today.
We thank everyone for their continued prayers. Everything went well. My patient is recovering comfortably at home.
My wife is such an amazing wife. She will endure the most difficult of challenges with a smile on her face. We are both putting faith forward in that the Lord will bless us very soon. I can not ask for a more devoted and loving wife! I thank God for her each and every day.
Pier’s parents and brother, Pier’s maternal Grandmother (Mama Dee), & Us!
Three generations!
The “Kids”
The Balsam Mountain Inn has 
Off to spend the evening in Madison, Wisconsin – for which Priceline came in handy! We were able to find a decent hotel with an airport shuttle at the very last minute!
The (Not-So) Newlywed Lefebvres 
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