Philipians 3:14

March 12, 2014 The Not-So Newlywed LefebvresLeave a comment

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.”.

Lots of Love!

Mixed-Bag Monday/Tuesday

March 11, 2014 The Not-So Newlywed LefebvresLeave a comment

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Maybe you noticed we didn’t post yesterday… Well, if you knew we were flying stand-by this past weekend, you might have guessed why we were missing…

Today’s post is a special supplement: a list of essentials to bring to the airport, just in case you’re flying stand-by:

First, and foremost, you will need to bring the biggest bag of PATIENCE you can find!!! You may not make it on the first flight you sign-up for…You may not even make it on the second…You might have to devise an alternative plan altogether! The key is to stay calm and think of the whole thing as the adventure it is.
A car charger for your phone… Oh, but you’re not planning to drive anywhere? Ha, ha, my friend. You just never know when a five-hour drive might show up on the horizon, and there you are…in an unfamiliar vehicle with an almost-dead phone and no method of charging it.
An account on Priceline – You just never know when you’ll need to book a last minute hotel room at your last minute destination as you’re running down the jetway…Priceline specializes in last minute bookings, and if you do your research, you can get a great hotel for the price of a scary hotel by using their bidding tool!
Your very best friend. What kind of adventure is fun when you don’t have someone to share all of the frustration, laughs, and sites with?!?! Besides, so many crazy things happen, no one else will believe it, but your travelling buddy!

Visit us tomorrow for a full recap of our crazy weekend!! If you’ve never seen the 1980’s classic “Planes, Trains, & Automobiles“… maybe you should watch it first for reference! 🙂

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway! This is the last week! You only have until Friday to enter to win the FREE ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION TO iPARENT.tv! Today, all you have to do is enter your (confidential) information in the form below:

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The Big 3-1 & The First Week On The Job!

April 17, 2013 The Not-So Newlywed Lefebvres4 Comments

Good Morning All!

First, my apologies for being MIA the past few weeks! We’ve had a lot going on here in Georgia – from C’s birthday to his recurrent training to my new job as a nanny! Unfortunately, in all the hustle and bustle, we were unable to make the trip to MN for Craig’s cousin’s wedding – We were so sad to miss it, but plans are in the works for us to make a trip north very soon! Would anyone in GA like to volunteer to watch this little ~~rascal~~ sweetheart for us while we are gone?

My sweet husband celebrated his 31st birthday last Saturday and we were so lucky to be able to spend the whole day together! I made a Layered Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting with Pecans – all from scratch. You can see the recipe here. I made a few minor changes: The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar, and I ran out of sugar at 1 1/3 cups…So I added Dark Brown Sugar to reach 1 1/2 cups, plus about another 1/3 of a cup. Also, I used pecans throughout the batter AND in the icing, as well. Craig LOVED this cake. He isn’t much of a dessert person, but loves his breakfast, so this combination worked out well for him, as it is very similar to Banana Bread. Typically, I would have a picture of this deliciousness for you…but, alas, I used a new type of icing to write “Happy Birthday Craig” on top of the cake….and instead I made a MESS! 🙂 Who says delicious has to be pretty?? 🙂

l surprised the birthday boy with a ride in a World War II Vintage Open Cockpit BiPlane!

I had no idea how much fun our ride was going to be! You should definitely try it out! You can make a ‘reservation’ here. We followed our flight with a yummy dinner at Elevation Chophouse:

And then some of our very best friends – Josh, Julia and Steve – met us to end the evening at Electric Cowboy! Happy Belated 31st to Craig! And thank you to everyone who helped make his special day even more special! 🙂

In other news, I am officially into my second week as a nanny to beautiful newborn twins and a lovely two-year old little girl! This week I have begun to cook for the family, as well, and just cannot begin to explain how much I am enjoying my new “job” – two of my favorites: cooking and children, and it’s what I do for a living?!?! Love it!

Well, speaking of my new nanny position, I must get going! Little Lucy needs a walk before I head off to work!

We hope all of you are doing well! Promise it won’t be such a long time until our next post! I’ve got a great recipe to share for a Buffalo Chicken Dip I turned into a Casserole/Hot Dish. It’s easy, gluten-free and quite tasty! 🙂 So, until then…

Take Care! XOXO,

Pier & Craig

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Ready For Rome!

January 21, 2013 The Not-So Newlywed Lefebvres2 Comments

Good Afternoon All!

I apologize it’s been so long since I’ve posted! It feels like forever since I’ve given all of you an update, but we have just been insanely busy – maybe even more-so than usual!

After my Memphis excursion, I finally was able to fly on a flight flown by my husband – who, may I say as a girl who has been flying frequently since the age of 3 – accomplished the best landing I have ever experienced in a plane! The first weekend of the month, I flew with Craig to Kileen/Ft. Hood, TX. Other than go out to dinner and browse around a strip mall, we didn’t do much of anything – which was actually WONDERFUL! Time together when we don’t have anything to do is SO RARE!!

First Class...Delicious! — First Class…Delicious!

Hard To Be So Close To Craig & Yet, Unable To Talk To Him!

The Flight Back To Atlanta - Beautiful View! How Can You NOT See God In This?!?! — The Flight Back To Atlanta – Beautiful View! How Can You NOT See God In This?!?!

Of Course We Didn't Take A Picture Until The Early Morning Flight Back When I Hadn't Fixed My Hair!! :-) — Of Course We Didn’t Take A Picture Until The Early Morning Flight Back When I Hadn’t Fixed My Hair!! 🙂

The next weekend we were FINALLY able to celebrate Christmas with our Lefebvre Family in Minnesota!

It was GREAT to be able to spend a good, long weekend with family, AND to be able to see some real winter weather! (Well, this Georgia Girl thought it was pretty wintry!) I also had the opportunity to “see” more of the U.S., since we traveled to MN via both Detroit, MI & St. Louis, MO! 🙂

Beany & Jenna Playing Reindeer Games (AKA Scrabble)

And as much as everyone LOVES to take a family photo, I think these turned out REALLY well!

Of course, all good things must come to an end, and we had to head back to reality …where there IS no 4th Christmas that is celebrated in January! 😦 Instead, you have to go to work! Boo!

But…you all know Craig & I, and we can never just leave well-enough alone. So… at my husband’s request, I got a ‘New ‘Do’:

AND…

We got a puppy dog!!!

Lucy Lefebvre is the newest member of our little family, and younger sister to Miss Daisy, our kitty cat – and longtime “Only Child”…It’s been an adjustment of sleepless nights, but we are SO excited to welcome our new little addition home! Even Miss Daisy has given her nod of approval!

Well, let me end this entry and grab another cup of coffee before I fall asleep at my desk! Craig & I have been getting up during the night at the cries of our little one and taking her for several midnight strolls throughout the wee hours of the morning! We are both walking zombies!!

Wish us luck! And come visit us and the newest little member of our family!

Lots Of Sleepy Love,

Pier & Craig