You may wonder why I haven’t blogged in… oh, forever…!  Well, here’s a glimpse into our lives over the past few weeks (and coming up): 

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Nov 17 – Sign Lease on New Place

Nov 20 – Wedding Rehearsal (Mike: groomsman; Me: bridesmaid)

Nov 21 – Wedding

Nov 22 – Wedding Party Brunch

Nov 26 – Hosted Thanksgiving Dinner with Friends

Dec 03 – Mike’s Birthday (Happy 24th, darling!)

Dec 05 – Mike’s Birthday Celebration

Dec 06 – Arlington Church Plant Sendoff

Dec 12 – Move to Arlington

Dec 19 – Leave for Florida

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We’ve been a little distracted – in between all the celebrations and engagements, we’ve been packing to move, so our house feels like it’s in shambles. Add to that realtors coming over to show the house, people coming to buy stuff we’ve sold on Craigslist.com, and Christmas shopping, and we’re pretty wiped!

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But we’re so happy that we’re moving to Arlington this Saturday. It’s on the same street as two of our friends who also happen to be our Care Group leaders! Yes, I suppose that makes us stalkers. And yes, Jill and Michael, I believe this means we are incapable of living on a street without friends.

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Why are we moving to Arlington? Well, to be closer to our Care Group (read: Bible Study, for you non-churchified folk), of course! And the church plant that Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD is sending off has finally begun. Redeemer Church of Arlington will begin meeting with just the core team in January and February (we have a few meetings this month, too). We’ll post a blog when we “go public,” because then we want all our friends to come!

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Please pray for us over the next 2 weeks as we pack, move, unpack, repack for vacation, and finish up stuff… like Christmas shopping. Pray for focus and stamina, and also for grace and joy to serve our new church, even amidst busyness at home.

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I’m going to post photos of the new rental house soon – as in, within a week (I hope). So stay tuned!

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This weekend, Mike Walsh and Heather Stewart got married. (My) Mike was a groomsman, and I was a bridesmaid. Just a few photos from the weekend ahead…

Heather was stunning!

Monitor my progress with the status bar on the right.

Help me keep it up! Encourage me, shame me, give me plot ideas… I’m determined to finish!

New word count. See previous blog post. Ohhhhh yeah.

I am going to keep this short, because this is just my way of procrastinating. I signed up for National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo(.org) for short. My friend, Allie Brannon, did this a couple years ago, and I thought then that I could/would never do it. But this year I felt inspired. So, here goes nothing. I am partly blogging this because the NaNoWriMo gnomes keep emailing me and encouraging first-timers to tell everyone they know that they are writing a novel – the purpose is to shame me into doing it even when it gets hard (which it already is).

Here are the basics:

Goal:

By midnight on November 30, have 50,000 words written

Don’t write the same word over and over

Write fiction and start from scratch Nov 1 (no previous drafts)

Murder your inner (and outer) editor and just WRITE

So far, here is my status: 5,761 words written. (This is below my goal for this point in the game, but I’m playing catch up!)

I watched my friend’s cat the last time she was out of town, and I totally didn’t expect this kind of thank-you:

It was especially welcome, given that I am home sick – unable to talk (yes, to myself… or to Bailey). Yummm… I promptly “tested” one. Yup, quality. Thank you, Leen!!

I mentioned I’m sick. Well, I wanted soup, and we didn’t have any. Mike has the truck, so I can’t go pick anything up from Panera. So – I made some!

being sick = yuck

getting strawberries dipped in chocolate delivered to your door = awesome

Making soup that’s not only edible, but good = also awesome.

]]> http://icardi.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/silver-linings/feed/ 1 icardijrfamily IMG_6283 IMG_6288 http://icardi.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/stuff-we-icardis-do/ http://icardi.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/stuff-we-icardis-do/#comments Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:31:21 +0000 Mike and Laura Icardi http://icardi.wordpress.com/?p=1158 ]]>

It’s scenes like this at Eastern Market that make me wish I had a nice digital SLR camera:

One night, I wanted to make my mom’s delicious taco pie recipe. It calls for crescent rolls, and we didn’t have any. No problem! Chef Laura to the rescue! I just whipped up some pie crust dough from scratch, and it tasted great!

Then, we were able to get these crazy/awesome seats at the Nationals game – padded seats, a waiter, nice bathrooms, great view, and FREE! All because of a great friend of mine.

]]> http://icardi.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/stuff-we-icardis-do/feed/ 1 icardijrfamily IMG_6263 IMG_6271 IMG_6277 http://icardi.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/top-icardi-results/ http://icardi.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/top-icardi-results/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:28:16 +0000 Mike and Laura Icardi http://icardi.wordpress.com/?p=1161 ]]>

Regarding this blog post: Top Icardi (Poll)

The winner is…. Plate A!!

Plate A was mine (Laura’s). Mike’s was Plate B.

I may not be the chef of the family, but I guess I can plate a meal…

Thanks for indulging our competitive streaks! Another new blog coming shortly. Stay tuned!

Inspired by our love of Bravo’s Top Chef, Mike and I decided to have a contest tonight to see who could “plate” our dinner more aesthetically, and YOU are at the judges’ table!

I won’t tell you which one is which – a true blind test. See the pictures, and vote below:

Plate A:

Plate B: