Neslay Toulouse...Nestle Toll House!!!

Happy Ash Wednesday everyone! So pictured above is one of my guilty pleasures...homemade strawberry shortcake. None of that fake shortcake crap you buy at Kroger for $1.99. The real deal...homemade shortcake with strawberries and vanilla ice cream. Now I'm not Catholic and have never given up anything for Lent before so this year marks the first year of trying! All my friends always gave stuff up for lent and yes i always thought about it and then realised there would be no way that i could stick with it. So this year, with the help of my hubby, we are going to give up sweets! That's right...no more sweets, except maybe on Sunday because apparently you can cheat on Sundays! So last night marking me and Jonas' Fat Tuesday and our last night to eat sweets for quite awhile...we made our beloved strawberry shortcake and ate it without any guilty conscience! :)So get ready because there may be quite a few blogs about me going through withdrawals.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Last night we all went to Mazatlan to celebrate Matt's 24 birthday! His sweet wife,Aubrey, invited everyone to come and have dinner and eat yummy cake! We have loved getting to know Matt and Aubs this past year and hope for many more times together! Happy Bday Matt!!!

Update...

So for all you bloggers out there who have been buggin me to update here ya go! Sorry i havent updated in a while and i know some of you were having withdrawal symptoms from not having my blog to read so here is a little update on our life right now and what has been going on. :)

We had an awesome Christmas with our families and enjoyed every bit of our break! We went to Birmingham for new years and had a blast with Ashley and Matt, and Jan and Lisa who were so nice and let us come and bring stoney too! We then came back home and i headed off the next weekend to Chicago with my friends Aubrey and Cherry! It was soooo fun and i want to go back so bad! It poured down snow the entire time and we got out of there by the skin of our teeth because the week we left they were in the negative temperatures and had a blizzard! We shopped til we dropped and when i say "dropped" i mean ran my credit card bill up too high :) That week i got home Jonas traveled for work and then i was off again to the mountains in Georgia for a reunion with some of favorite people ever, Katie B, Em and Bird! It was a good long weekend with them filled with rock band, marsh mellows, and tons of food and gossip girl! Jonas and I then finally had some weekends here together and celebrated the super bowl with our friends last weekend! Our friends Gavin and Margaret came in town and we got to have dinner with them a few times and catch up on their lives. Which are pretty busy right now. Margaret is trying to get into Music school either here or in Chicago and Gavin is currently searching for a job. Its always good to see them! I wish i had pictures from last night to put on here because we had our House Church activity last night where we made Valentine's and took them to a nursing home and handed them out to the residents there and they loved it! Despite waking a few of them up they loved it and it was so good to see them smile and so happy to have visitors!

We have a weekend coming up again where we dont have anything to do so we are relaxing and going to have a saturday of walking around window shopping. I cant wait! Hope everyone has a happy thursday and a good weekend!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! So even though i have to work today and tomorrow :( i am soooo excited for Christmas!!! This is my favorite time of the year and i can not wait to be done with work and be with family for the next week. We have a busy week ahead of us but i cant wait for it to all start. We had the traditional Swedish Smorgasbord this past Saturday night with Jonas' parents and my parents. For those of you who do not know, Jonas' dad's family is from Sweden and the always have the Swedish dinner that consists of some weird but good food. Not only do we have tons of food but Jonas' dad breaks out the famous "todden" song. It's a tradition to sing Swedish songs at the table and drink schnapps or Aquavit...so Joe, Jonas, and my dad sing the songs throughout dinner and its always funny to see not only my mom's face but my dad's after he has tasted the Aquavit shot. :)It always gets me in the mood for Christmas and starts off the Christmas week right.

Growing up Christmas morning was of course my favorite because it usually consisted of me and my brother and sister jumping on each other to wake the other ones up, and then going and waking up my parents. Then we would run, shove and push each other to be the front of the line in the hallway that led to the playroom where Santa had left all of our gifts on display. Then after Santa, we have a huge breakfast and then get our stockings.

Now that we are all grown up and getting older the dynamics have changed quite a but. We are all married and there are now twins in the family!!! So this Christmas will be a little different. Brian and Roch and the twins will be with us, but Matt has to work at the hospital through Christmas so Ash is coming up for a couple of days and then going back on Christmas day to be with Matt. Jonas has already witnessed a traditional "Ray" Christmas because every year we can see both families since they are here in Nashville with us. But we are celebrating out "Santa" on Christmas eve morning this year due to my sister having to go back to bham to be with Matt, and we are going over to Jonas' parents house on Christmas morning at 11 for a brunch with his family. Even though things are different Christmas is all the more special and interesting with new families added into the mix!

So to all who may be stuck at work and are bored like me! I wish you a Merry Christmas this year with your families and i hope you have a wonderful week remembering our sweet Savior who came this week to save us!

Merry Christmas!

Count it all Joy...

Yesterday at work I was challenged by something. I walked into a patients room just before the nurse was walking out and i walked in on the nurse talking with the patient about religion and her beliefs. I walked in just as it was ending so i am not sure what the content or the reason for the conversation was, but i did hear the patient say "Well i used to be a christian and believe in all that religious crap and then i never found any joy in the celebrations or the fellowship, so now i just call myself an agnostic and don't have any part in it." So they finished their conversation and the patient was pleasant and nice and i stayed in the room with her for awhile helping her and we never discussed any religion or anything but as i walked back to my office i just realised that you never know who you will encounter, who is watching you, or who is affected by you and your choices/lifestyle. Because here was a woman who says she was a christian but due to the lack of joy and bad relationships she had through Christianity she decided to change. It breaks my heart that due to being a christian or being surrounded by Christianity she found NO joy and changed her heart/mind and turned to a practice that as far as i understand it to be one that doesn't necessarily say there isn't a God, but one that says it's impossible to prove or disprove. I feel like joy should be the essence of being a christian because that is what God called us to do, LOVE others and to have joy in Him. I probably do the crappiest job out of anyone remembering my blessings and being joyful in all things. No matter what you believe, whether you are a christian or not, i pray that we would ALWAYS be joyful in life and in our blessings because you never know who is influenced by you and the decisions you make.

-Blessings-

Rockin Around the Christmas Tree...

Break out your christmas best, your cameras, and scrubs? Last night we went and saw the INCREDIBLE, and seems to get better every year, Opryland Christmas lights with some of our favorite people.



Us girls got loads of pictures



and even the boys got a few of their own :) And of course the men were happy when we realised we could walk around and drink our wine/beer while looking at the lights.


And after 50 pictures, walking around for hours and, wine we started getting pictures like this...


Merry Christmas everyone!

-Blessings-

Give Thanks

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was wonderful! Blessed with full bellys, tighter pants, family, and relaxation! Ours was great with both of our families. We had 2 huge meals, played games, watched a lot of TV, and of course played with the twins. Here are some videos from this weekend. Turkey trot is a Ray family classic :)



-Blessings-

Em