sittin in Starbucks...

yep- its me. I know I know- its been a day or two since I have posted. As I type I am sitting in a Starbucks enjoying the smell of fresh coffee, listening to the abused orders- 1/3 fat free milk, 3 shots of Carmel, 1/3 whole milk topped with whip and Carmel drizzle..whatever floats their boats and enjoying some quite time to myself.
 Nathan is at a meeting with a client so I had a few mins(91 so far) to kill so I thought a post to say hi would be nice and I know Sara would appreciate it.

hi :). Happy Saturday evening sittin in Startbucks..

donkey tracking & our new neice!

This past weekend was AWESOME. I mean really, really fun! I don't think I have laughed as hard as I did in the last three days in a long time. Our great friends Shane and Jana came down for the weekend to enjoy some r&r. The weekend started on Friday night with dinner at Kayhans and enjoyed an awesome dinner, really fun conversations and of course everyone asking 'is she your sister?'. The very common question that we get when we are out! :)
 Saturday morning we slept in- except for Nathan who headed out for work at 6-which means I was up too, but that was ok because I got alot finished for 721 before everyone else was up! By the time he was home around 10, we were all up and getting some breakfast ready. We spent the day cooking delicious ribs on the BGE, talking, planning, watching football and just enjoying great company. We finished off the evening with a game where you had to answer a question and then guess who answered it with what answer- if that even makes sense. It was too funny! Lets just say everyone had some very interesting answers to Never lick..... and Name something that swings... TOO FUNNY!

checkin out those ribs!

adding a little more sauce!

YUMMMM!

Shane is ready...I am not sure about the rest of them!

this picture makes me laugh!

 Sunday morning we enjoy a little more sleeping in and then we watching a lecture from Suncrest...we still cant seem to find anything that matches up to our 'old' church! :) As we were discussing the lecture- I looked out the window and noticed a donkey running down the street. Yes, you are reading that correctly- a donkey!! As soon as I told everyone, Shane and Nathan ran outside making donkey noises- I am not sure if they thought it could come back to those crazy calls but needless to say it didn't work. Soo....(this is when the adventure of 'donkey tracking' starts)- we all jump in s&j SUV(a Mercedes, if I might add) and starting following the donkey. We quickly notice it running in the field in front of us so we decided to try and cut it off. Oh, I forgot to add that Nathan grabbed a dog leash so he could catch it and bring it back home! riiiiiiight- like that was going to work- but we were willing to try.

Here goes Nathan to try and get the donkey!!! 

nathan sneaking up on 'donkey' notice the dog leash in the hand!

Donkey says....catch me if you can!

Run Forest Nathan Run!!

keep running you are getting closer!!

see ya Nathan!

 Nathan decided he had had enough so he got back in the car and off we went to keep tracking the donkey!
 This is where we found him....

Yep- we are still tracking the donkey down the highway!

At this point we decided to call the police. Here was my conversation with them...
  911- Hello this is 911, what is your emergency?
me- It's not an emergency, its just that there is a donkey running down the highway!
 911- Oh- really. Well we have been out lookin' for that thing all mornin! Where abouts you at so I can send the police that way?
 me- We are on 56 headed west. Tell them to go towards Leota and they will find the donkey.
 911- Ok great thanks. Can y'all still see the donkey?
 me- Oh, yeah. Not to worry- we are trackin the donkey!!
    this is where I lost it...WHAT In THE WORLD WAS I JUST DOING!!! I told the lady I was 'tracking a donkey'!! I kind of felt like Turtle Man.
 911- Ok thank ya mama- we will send someone out that way.

We tracked the donkey for about another 15 min. and never found him again. :( Lets hope someone else did. All I can say is that was one of the funniest 30 minutes I have had in a while!!

The rest of the day was much less eventful but we continued to get many laughs out of that crazy donkey!


Onto more exciting news...on Monday Mark and Mandy welcomed a beautiful little girl, Mylee, into the world!! We could not be more excited for them! I think that is one of the reason's why it has seemed like the week has went on forever- we had to wait till this weekend to see her! :( Nathan has been gone all week so it made it impossible to make it up to see them. We have seen pictures and she looks JUST LIKE MORGAN! She is sooo cute!! We are going to get to see them all this weekend and I can not wait! :)

I will be sure to post pictures of her sweet little face next week. Tonight mom and are going to to hang out and enjoy more mom/daughter bonding time!! :)

Happy Donkey Chasing!

today was a new day!

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

I woke up today having faith- when I was getting ready I listened to a little Jeremy Camp, had an amazing conversation with God and had faith it was going to be a good day. He does have a plan and I know he is working it. I just must have faith.

It was a good day at school, I got alot of work finished and the day ended with my mom coming to visit!! :)

As Nathan always says- 'its a great day to be alive'!

ok...what are you telling me

Have you ever wondered just what God is trying to tell you. Well..ok maybe its just me but I wonder all the time. I listen, talk, listen more, talk more, talk more and more(yes, I love to talk- maybe that is half the problem). Over the last few months we have had some big changes happening in the Taulman house and I 'thought' I had made a few correct decisions regarding parts of our life that needed a little help. They were not easy decisions to make- ones that took ALOT of thought, prayer, tears, and long hours of dicussion but I THOUGHT in the end that we made the right decision.
 Then today happened. I got an email questioning about one of the big decisions and a face to face question about the other. Neither one did I expect AT ALL and neither one was I ready for. I must say, they both kind-of took the wind out of me and now they are both making sit at my desk, shake my head and start to ask 'ok what are you telling me'.
 God's plan is NEVER easy to understand especially right now. I am working at understanding it but boy oh boy this is hard. really hard.

about time...

I guess its about time that I update my blog! :) It's only been about three months. I was told that for Christmas I would be getting a voice recorder to help make this blogging thing a little easier but for some reason that hasn't ended up in my mailbox yet! haha  So I guess I am left to type. :) Here it goes...if I can remember how to do this!

Wow- what a Christmas we had. It was full of LOTS of family time. I soaked up every second of it. One of the worst things about moving has been moving further away from my brother. I know- my mom is probally in shock reading that but its true. I LOVED hanging with him and I know Nathan did too. I so enjoy watching them get along so well and share so many good laughs. It is something that I always prayed for but wasn't sure would happen. It really is awesome.

With that being said- we enjoyed having Gavin and Mom home with us. Mom, Gavin, Nathan and I enjoyed Christmas Eve service at four and then came home to spend a quite Christmas Eve where we played cards, drank wine, shared our 2012 goals, told funny stories from the year, and just enjoyed being together. We were then headed to bed to wait for Santa to come! Christmas day was really fun too!! We opened our gifts and then it was time for a little nap. After a nice snooze for everyone except Nathan(he was too busy shinning his new shoes!), the guys started cooking on Nathans Christmas present....The Big Green Egg! It is pretty stinkin awesome if I do say so myself, and I think the guys loved it too! We then had a wonderful dinner together and enjoyed the ribs that were cooked on The Big Green Egg!

Ribs....YUMMY!

the boys workin' the Big Green Egg!

Putting it all together! Master-minds @ work. :)

Monday morning we were up early and headed for Nathans parents. We had a great day there with Mark, Mandy, Morgan & Marek and Duane & Linda. It is always fun watching little ones open presents- they get so excited! I made out like a domestic champ! From Nathans parents I got a bread maker and from the M's I got a sewing machine!! That was really fun to open! I had posted on FB a few weeks ago that I wanted to learn to sew over the holiday but Nathan suggested that I learn QuickBooks instead. I guess Mandy saw that and decided to help make my sewing dream come true!! I can't wait to learn how to use it! haha The bread maker was another added bonus- about two months ago I went Gluten Free so it has been hard to find yummy bread- this is the perfect fix! I even made my first loaf the next day and to everyone's surprise it was delicious!

my first loaf of fresh baked bread!

Not only that BUT we woke up on Tuesday morning to snow!We enjoyed a day of resting up, watching it snow and getting ready for our crazy adventure for the next four days.

The first real snow of the season!

On Wednesday we headed to Texas to photograph the ranch. I will save all the details for a post on the 721Photography blog but I will leave everyone with these photos.....

or how about this! :)

doesn't everyone want to hire a photographer in an outfit like that!

We arrived back  on Friday night around midnight and then Saturday we had the Taulman Christmas in the morning- then raced to the Purdue game in the afternoon. After an AWESOME victory we raced to Louisville to meet some friends for New Years! It was a typical Taulman-style day! :)

Boiler Up!

:)

Yesterday Nathan and I took down all of the Christmas decorations and tried to get the house ready for the crazy month in January. Why does it always seem that its much more fun putting things out then putting things up. I must say that I am just very thankful that I have a husband that will help! He really is the best.

can you guess who took these lights down...

or how about these! :)

Today I am getting caught up on 721 and working on lesson plans for school tomorrow. :( I want to get everything done before the Bachelor is on tonight!! Its my silly addiction and Nathan is so awesome that he already taped it for me! I told you he was awesome!

Last thing...as a new years resolution I have decided to take a picture every.single.day. It might not be fancy, of anything amazing, just a picture. I am really excited about this AND I am going to try really hard to post them on here at the end of each week! Maybe that will help my blogging.

January 1, 2011- the view from where we are now.

Happy Monday and Happy New Year!