New Year

Happy New Year! 
Nothing like being a week late :)


Due to the power outages, our New Year's Eve plans switched up a bit and instead of being at Daniel and Wendi's, we hosted.  Troy and Ellie and Adam and Rhea came as well.  

We spent New Year's Day working on our latest project: kitchen chairs. 

We got these chairs from Tristan. 

I liked the bones of these better than our current chairs. They were pretty dinged up and I didn't like the color of the seat. 

Nathan sanded down the seats

I spray painted

What the finished product will look like.

We are having problems figuring out how to varnish the seats, I don't want them to been too shiney and we are struggling to keep the varnish from bubbling. It may take another trip to Menards. 

Saturday, I went to Wendi's for brunch with Kendra and Ellie and our moms. It was fun. :)  We used to spend so much together and with eachother's moms. It was great to sit down together again. 

Saturday evening, Nathan and I went to Tristan and Larissa's rehearsal dinner. (Nathan was an usher in their wedding.) 

The dinner was at the restaurant Two 25 

My food :) 

It was good.

I'm so glad I got snuck into the rehearsal dinner with Nathan. :)  We got to sit with Greg and Diana, Fred, Jason and Rebekah, and Kyle and Heather.  Since I've known both Larissa and Tristan, it was so much fun to be with their families and friends. 

We took a quick picture by the court house before we headed home.

Sunday, we spent the day in Peoria for the wedding. It was beautiful ans very sweet. Favorite quote of the day "Tristan, it's usually the bride that cries."

gorgeous cake and decor

the happy couple.

Congratulations Tristan and Larissa!

This week has been pretty quiet. Work has been slowing down. The budget cuts have been affecting how many clients we've been getting.  Our parolee clients have been affected the most. The Department of Juvenile Justice doesn't have enough money to keep them on parole for very long. Some of our clients have been given less than two weeks notice that they are being discharged from our program.  And, just a reminder, the reason they are in our program is that they have no where else to go. It's hard not to get too frustrated that some of these kids are going to be homeless purely because the state can't afford to help them transition. 

Anyway...I could write an entire post purely on my frustrations with the state budget issues :)

This past year has been wonderful. It's been full of ups and downs with plenty of opportunities for growing. 

In Christ

~Michelle