The Country Fair

After the Mariner's game we headed up to Bellingham for three days. We had a relaxing time and enjoyed seeing our friend Jennifer and her family, Jay's family, exploring Bellingham and then going to the Whatcom County Fair. Jay was super excited to take me, the city girl, to the fair as I have been to very few. Jay's brother Joel, hooked us up with some great tickets for the Demo Durby, which was a very loud but a fun experience. We ran into our friend Deb Slater, I was able to meet several of Jay's friends from school, visited the many animal barns, we hooked up with the nieces and took them on some rides, and the highlight for me was we saw a Cow giving birth. That was quite the experience, but pretty cool! The fair was great, and I have a feeling it will be an Allen Annuel tradition. Here are some pictures from our trip.

The Demo Durby

I love this cow, he is Scottish. =-)

A momma pig and her babies.

This lamb, I don't remember exactly what is was called, cracked me up. He kept baaing as I took pictures and he had hay all over him. Too funny!!!!

Jay and our friend Deb Slater

The new born baby calf. =-)

The momma and her baby. =-)

Jay wanted to get me on a tractor. Doesn't that sound like a country song. =-) We thought this was a really cool one, and it turned out that it was Judy's (our sister-in-law) family's tractor.

Jay, Annika and Alyssa had a blast on a few rides.

Seattle Mariners

Friday, August 14th, started our marathon vacation. We headed up to Seattle to join our friends the Hines for a Mariner's game. We had a blast being with them, but unfortunately the Mariners lost to the Yankees. Jay will tell you he hates the Yankees, but I must admit it was pretty cool to see them. They are a Baseball team that has been around for years. =-) Sorry Jay, but don't worry I'm not a fan. Now Dodgers and the Lakers might be another story. he he

Anniversary Surprise

First of all, we want to say thank you to all of you who called us and sent cards on our anniv. What a fun treat. I personally didn't expect that at all, but it made for an extra fun day. =-)

Jay was so wonderful. He loves to surprise me so he planned this year's anniv. celebration. He said he figured we would have plenty of anniv. where we do dinner and a movie, but you only have one 1st Anniv. So he pulled out all the stops!!!! What a wonderful husband. =-)

Jay arranged for us to stay at a beautiful hotel in down town, called the Hotel Monaco. If you get a chance, check out the website I've attached. It was very European and very magical...as my sister would say. =-)

We had a wonderful dinner at McCormick and Schmick's down at the waterfront. Then we walked around and enjoyed the city lights, saw the River Place Hotel, where we stayed on our honeymoon, and tried to enjoy the HOT evening. Yes this was in the midst of our heat wave. But all in all, it was a fun evening.

Later on we had fun eating our one year cake... which was fresh from the bakery, watching our wedding video and give presents. Jay gave me this ring I had been eyeing. It was great!!!!

We had a wonderful anniversary. Thank you Jay for blessing me. I have the best husband ever!!! I love you!!!! Now it's my turn to plan our next anniv. and I've got a year to start planning. =-)

Playing Catch Up

Wow, the month of August has flown by. It feels like just yesterday we were celebrating our one year anniversary. Now we are at the end of the month and preparing for football season, and the blossoming of my business.

August has been a great month. Full of celebrating, vacation and launching New Day Counseling. God has been so good. Jay and I are excited about the new season ahead. We have had the summer to rest and spend some good quality time together, we've made some new and fun memories and I've ended my 4 year journey of Grad school and begun a new business. So now it's time to look to this new season of life and see what the Lord has in store!!!!


Today's devotional spoke a lot to Jay and I, especially this line, "You are positioned for victory! You are positioned for power! And you are positioned to receive everything God has in store for you!" AMEN!!!!!!


Bare with me as I have several posts to share with you. However, before I post my Aug. pictures here are a few pictures from the end of July I wanted to share.

In mid July we went to Las Vegas. Jay was there for work and I joined him later in the week. This was my first trip there. Other than it being over 100 degrees every day it was a blast!!! We stayed at New York New York, we went to two shows: Jersey Boys and Love, we saw the lions at MGM grand... I love this picture of the Lion, we went to the M&M store, had dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe, and had fun touring around town. The one picture of Jay with the two guys is Kenny Vance and Brian Wheeler. They all do a show together called Wheels at Work.

One evening in July we got together with our friends Darryl and Tana for a double date. It was a blast. We had dinner at a yummy Italian restaurant, went to my favorite spot in Oregon, the Rose Garden and then ended up at Dairy Queen. Afterwords we went back to their home for some Wii action...we were sold, we need to get a Wii!!!!

July was also Jay's birthday. Since we were in Vegas over his actual birthday we decided to keep his celebration small, but he got nice gifts. =-) And of course his favorite cake, an Oreo ice cream cake from 31 Flavors. =-)

Oh and yes he got a Wii.... come on over!!!!! =-)

Our First Anniversary!

Wow, it's so hard to believe that today we are celebrating one year from when we said "I will". God has been so good to us. It's been a great year and I'm so excited to be on this journey with my sweet husband. I love you Jay! =-) OK, I'll stop being mooshy.

In honor of our first year I was trying to upload a little video of our wedding that a friend made for me for Christmas. Unfortunately, it wont upload. So if you want to see it, here is where you need to go. http://vimeo.com/2607392, the pass word is Vidito. She did this for me as a gift and it's great! It's about 17 min.

Here are a few fun pictures from our special day.

OK this is from our rehearsal, but I couldn't resist. It's too funny. Is this the perfect picture of who we are, or what? Great shot, Katie!

1 day till our 1st Anniversary

In honor of our upcoming 1 year anniver...Saturday, Aug. 1st. =-) Here is a link to see our engament pictures.

Enjoy!!!

http://www.mitstudio.com/jaymandiP/

New Day Counseling

Well it's official. I now have an office space and business registered in my name!!!! I'm still working on all of the crazy paper work and developing my website, but it's coming. I also have a friend who is going to sublease the office with me. We received the keys yesterday and it was such a wonderful and exciting meeting. It is seriously better than anything we could have imagined.

Afterwords, Jay and I went to dinner with she and her husband. We both feel really good about this working relationship. Again, God totally ordained this.

So please just keep in your prayers that I can everything done quickly and get my cards out there. I have a list of people who are waiting for my information to pass along. Oh and of course that He brings the clients.

Here is a picture of my office building.