happy holidays!

just thought i would share one of our christmas pics for this year! hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving holiday!

finally...

...things have started to slow down. we moved in to our new house at the end of september (pics to come soon!). and this month we have moved more stuff, unpacked tons, and redecorated our kitchen. the next huose project will be our bedroom :) also this month we have been to gatlinburg for a family vacation - which was completly wonderful, ruth went to atlanta for a conference, and this past weekend we were in the mountains for our annual apple picking weekend with our best friends. now we are back home, into a house that is finally feeling like a home, and getting exciting about the cool air and upcoming holiday season!

things are looking up...

well....we are moving this weekend (well, hopefully we'll get it all done) AND we have a new (used) vehicle! yay!

pray through the attacks!

funny that in the last post i wrote that things could get crazier....b/c that's just what happened. wow was that a hard week. the night i wrote the last post my mom broke her collarbone (the week before she broke a bone in her foot). then two days later brooks had a car accident. he is okay (thank the Lord), it wasn't his fault, but we are currently looking for a new vehicle :). two days after that was a week of vacation which was VERY needed after the insane weeks we have been having lately. on the way to the beach the train my sister was traveling in engine caught on fire. so it took her an extra eight hours to arrive. needless to say once we all safely made it to vacation it was very restful, and a good time with the family.
keep praying for my family as we seem to be being attacked from every side. and also be in prayer for Body Shop athletics where we work-out b/c one of the employees there was killed in a tragic boating accident. these are our friends and i know they are going through a hard time.

we praise you Lord for you are good. we trust you Lord and thank you that you are in control of every situation.

Big God

wow, has it been a crazy couple of weeks. busyness, decisions, and emotional ups and downs. today i just thank the Lord that HE is sufficient. HE is all we need. we must focus on HIM, because even when we may not be faithful in the little things, HE can still prove faithful in the big things. HE has our best interests in mind. we know that our crazy couple of weeks may not be over yet, and it could get crazier...but it's great to know that we have a BIG GOD!

July

just wanted to let you know that we are still here. we've been a little busy lately with not a lot of time to post. we are doing well and can't believe that it's already mid-july! we started off the month by visiting Rebekah and Andy (sister and bro in law) in VA. we had a great weekend with them visiting and helping them with odds and ends at their new house! which is beautiful. we were home for the 4th and spent some time with Brook's side of the family and ended the night with some peach ice cream and fireworks at the peach festival. Ruth just got back from a week in Pensacola FL with the youth group at a youth conference. she is home now and enjoing seeing her hubby and puppy again. the next few weeks brings a few more events some which include Cheerio's first birthday and Mom's 50th!! on the same day! should be fun. and the month ends with Ruth vacationing with some old friends. like i said we've been (and will be) busy!

congrats!

well, this weekend was spent marrying off Brooks sister Tiffany. friday was full of pedicures and manicures, decorating and rehearsing. of course it was followed by a USC tailgating themed rehearsal dinner where we had burgers and wings. we enjoyed hanging out and taking lots of silly pictures. saturday began very early as cheerio got to go meet a new friend named annabelle and her owners brent and sarah (thanks guys!). then it was off to the church for ruth to get hair done and brooks to help his dad with some last minute things. the ceremony was lovely and the reception was beautiful and lots of fun. we definitely did some damage on the dance floor! congrats to newlyweds tiff and patrick! hope you have a great week in disney world!

well, we went to the kenny chesney concert friday night and it was great! but it wasn't that simple...there is quite a story on how we got there and i thought you might enjoy it.

so brooks won rascal flatts tickets back in february, so he decided he would try to win kenny chesney tickets b/c it would be fun to go to the concert. well winning tickets turned into on obsession. ever since they began to give away tickets he has been listening to new 92 non-stop!
it began one day and never ended. he called all the time and was caller number 10 a few times. he won many t-shirts and cd's but never any tickets. one day we stalked jeff roper to gb shoe warehouse where brooks again wanted to win tickets. i was thinking "we are stalking this guy, and my husband is obsessed", but later that day we found out - his name was drawn and we were headed to see kenny! of course it didn't stop there, the morning he went to get his tickets he ended up hanging out with jeff roper and his wife angie and being on the radio for about 45 minutes! and that didn't help his obsession with new 92 any! even after he won tickets he continued to call, continued to be caller 10 and continued to win. how crazy.
i guess i can't complain because my husbands new obsession got us to the concert, so i guess i'm thankful for it. although i think everyday he comes home with a new story about talking to someone at the radio station and now that the concert is over he wants us to be roadies!

hmmm...

lately i have been very contemplative. which is interesting cause i'm not normally the quiet, thinking type. wonder why?

what a gal

today i received an email from someone my parents new in college. the email included some wonderful things about my mom and how she truly impacted this persons life the first time they met. it brought tears to my eyes. what a neat thing to hear stories about my mom and how she was when she was my age. never take the moments with your parents for granted. my mom...what a gal!