Happy Birthday Gary

Our friend Gary turned 29 yesterday. His wife, Heather, gave him a surprise party in the Education Building at church. We had hot dogs, baked beans, chips, and banana pudding. After finishing his meal at the kids' table, Gary tried on this toilet seat cover set, a gift from another friend, Nageb. Good sport, good times...

A Stormy Dance-off

After the boys left at 2, Nathan kept working for a while and the girls and I watched Elf. Then, it started getting stormy. I mean, really stormy! Lightening struck a neighbor's tree two doors down and it blew chunks of wood into our yard. Nathan started to worry about our big, ancient trees in our yard and herded the girls into the kitchen (away from the trees), where we decided to have a dance contest. Here's Nathan giving the girls a few pointers on "The Robot." Notice that he's also dressed to kill in his socks and flip flops.


This picture is kind of dark, but you can probably tell that a huge tree is inside someone's house! The tree was rotted on the inside by bugs, and the strong winds just ripped it from the ground. Our neighbor around the corner, Bruce, and his family were inside when it happened, but everyone is safe and unhurt. Please pray for them if you think of it. It's got to be just crazy to have that happen.

Dance-off Video

Here's a dance-off between Anna Grace and me. We're mostly just impersonating Nathan. :)

I Love Being a Teacher

Another cool thing about Whitefield Academy is that students need 10 hours of community service to be promoted to the next grade. With the school year coming to a close, these fabulous young men below are racking up some hours doing yard work with Nathan and me. I got a text from our neighbor Bev (whose house you can see across the street) which read, "U guys do know that child labor is frowned upon, right?" Anna Grace and Emma Jackson (our flower girls) were over as well. Anna Grace was the photographer for the day.


Anna Grace and I were outside in our flip flops picking up sticks when Nathan said, "You're standing in a giant patch of poison ivy!" We screamed, washed our feet off with gardenia body scrub in the tub, Anna quit her stick picking up job, and I proceeded in the yard armed with my poison ivy deterring socks. See below. Who knew that my cheer socks would come in handy for such an occasion?


Here is an action shot of me dumping sticks onto a pile. You may or may not recognize the pile as the previous location of our Super Bowl party bonfire. Good times. Thanks for shooting the memories Anna Grace!
Dressed to kill, I say. Dressed. To. Kill.

The South at Its Best

Monday night Nathan was changing the oil in my car and was having trouble unscrewing something underneath it. Before we knew it, we had all the neighbors over to help fix the problem, including Danny (in blue) and Howard (in red). It was pretty funny. They were out there for about an hour before Howard pulled over this HUGE jack across the street. On his way home, I laughed with Nathan about how he looked a lot like a little boy pulling his wagon home after the street lights came on.

Check out Nathan's face. He was pretty frustrated.


While the boys were outside, Danny's wife Katie, and their baby Oliver came in to visit me and Nathan's sister, Hannah, over some more sweet tea. Here's Oliver showing off his new skill! He just learned to walk!


Somehow I got the pictures vertical, but I couldn't tell you how. :)

Good Hair Day

One cool thing about working at Whitefield is that they give you the day off for your birthday. Since my birthday is now a summer birthday (May 27), I got to pick when I wanted to "celebrate" it. I picked yesterday because we already had Monday off. I woke up late, showered and shaved my legs, did my nails and hair... things I rarely do all in one morning. It was fabulous! I'll have you know that I went strolling through the aisles at Target feeling like a million bucks. I should do my hair more often. :)
Hope you like my new 'do!

Another River Walk

Nathan and I went back to the river on Sunday. Atlanta has just been beautiful this last week!



This is in the car on the way to the river. I've been on a sweet tea kick lately. A Southern belle phase, if you will. I think I look like a greasy frog in this picture, but I am rarely seen without my Whitefield cup and sweet tea this days.

Nathan figured out the timer on the camera, and we took this picture right outside of the parking lot to the river. You have to pay $3 to park in the lot, and we're kind of cheap, so we walked the extra 500 yards to the reserve. Besides, there were pretty azaleas on the street. :)

Giant lizard! We totally would have missed this if we had parked in the lot, right Nathan?


Nathan reminds me of Gaston from "Beauty and the Beast" when we take these kinds of pictures. :)




Atlas comes out by the river! Is the gym... this way... or that way?

A Nice Walk

Nathan and I took a lovely spontaneous walk down by the Chattahoochee River the night before last. I have visions of the Kern River looking much the same if it had water in it... and trees. Ok, so maybe the Kern River will never look like this one, but I can dream, can't I? Nathan had a good time trying to push and kick dead trees down. I ended up running away from swarms of gnats and mosquitoes. It's another lovely spring in Atlanta!

Oh, and I got my haircut. This picture is not showcasing a particularly good hair day, so I'll have to post a few pics when I'm feelin' really sassy. Soon...

Jungle Dweller Dave

Our dear friend Dave (center) is leaving tomorrow for the Peruvian jungle. He'll be serving as a missionary with Pioneers, making contact with unreached people groups. He's already told us some crazy stories about preparing to go to the Amazon, including seminars on how to avoid poisonous darts from the locals and how to fight anacondas in the river. Um, yikes.

Notice Aaron's "bunny ears" arm being jerked away from Jennifer's head by his fiance, Becky. You go girl! Carter is on the right, posing briefly between witticisms.

One of my first memories about Dave included me freaking out about a 5'4" snake right by Nathan's front door on my "meet the parents" visit to Atlanta. [Background: Dave was living with Nathan in our house before he was summarily kicked out by me, the new bride. However, we still call the extra bedroom "Dave's room."] It turns out Dave had killed the giant snake in the backyard with a shovel and strategically placed it under his truck to freak us out. After a few laughs (nervous laughter by me), Dave skinned it, chopped it up, fried it in a pan, and ATE IT! Dave was made by God to do missionary work like this.

Our Quick Getaway

Nathan is a great husband in that a few times a year he takes me to this fabulous bed and breakfast in North Georgia called Swan Lake. Unfortunately, this time we didn't get any pictures of the house or its grounds, but you can check out the website at http://www.bbswanlake.com/ It's amazing! We love everything about it! Anyway, this time we caught the fine print on the speed limit at the entrance to the property. If you can't read it it says, "Do not exceed 5 MPH. Children at play. DON'T KILL ONE! Slow down now." We thought that was funny.


We also got a picture of our favorite BBQ place, called Hawg Heaven. It's a tiny little place, but it has the most amazing food! There's no official address, but the flyers say it's between the Hiawassee fair grounds and the Sit N' Sleep. I doubt they have a website. Again, very Southern. :)

A Few More from the Wedding

This is JoJo (aka Josephine or Josie), the flower girl in Kristen and Nick's wedding. She could be my sister's daughter! They've got all the same facial expressions, attitudes, and dance moves.


I felt the need to share a picture where my hair didn't look so poofy. :)



This is my cousin Quinn, who was more excited about that red bow tie than... than... I don't know. He was super stoked to be wearing such a sophisticated accessory.


Nathan's handiwork, yet again! My mom's pet peeve is when able bodied people park in handicapped spots. After the reception, we were cleaning up and had to move cars to the front to load up all of the wedding stuff. The three cars, from left to right, belong to my mother, her best friend Kim, and my dad. :) Caught on camera! Nathan thought this was the most brilliant and hilarious picture of the whole wedding weekend - with his "I'm so hot in this church!" picture a close second.

My Best Twine's Wedding

Here she is... the lovely bride! You could have sworn she was a model. She looks gorgeous, doesn't she?




Here is a picture of her hair. I think only girls would be interested in this, but I just loved the hair jewelry she picked. She borrowed my veil too, which I thought was really special.



Did Carrie Underwood escape from the Country Music Awards? Or is that Miss Texas fresh from the Atlantic City Miss America pageant? Oh wait... it's me! Don't worry folks. The hair died down after a while.

Anyone who knows my sweet husband knows that is is perfectly normal for him to forget to take any pictures of the ceremony but to remember to take a picture of himself being hot in the church.

My mom looked so beautiful and happy! In this picture she's watching my dad and sister dance at the reception.

Happy Birthday Bev

For my good friend and neighbor Bev's birthday, we suprised her with dinner together at Mary Mac's Tea Room. It's a very old and Southern iconic restaurant here in Atlanta. They have lots of good food, as you can see by my face and the fried and/or smothered with gravy items on my plate. Next to me is Rachel, a friend and my sister-in-law's roommate.




Here's the birthday girl, Bev, with her roommate (and therefore our friend and neighbor) Natalie. I love having these girls across the street!

Super Bowl Adventures

It's a Super Bowl party! Nathan brought home the projector and screen from church, loaded six couches in our living room, and we had a blast! We had movie nights for friends and family the three nights following the party. We watched "The Saint" (which was much cooler when I saw it in the theatres at age 15), an "Indiana Jones" movie, and some "Planet Earth." Way fun! I hope we make it a tradition.

Kids love their Super Bowl food...



Nathan always has to outdo himself. Last year we burned our very dry Christmas tree. This year, he salvaged Will's wooden floors (originally installed in the 1890s - very dry indeed), made a big tepee structure out of them, and topped it with a dried out Christmas wreath from church. We got lots of big cheers when it finally caught ablaze.



And this is what it looked like after a few buckets of gasoline. I think it's safe to say that the flames leapt into the 20 plus foot range. Thank the Lord it was raining. I don't know how to flip the pictures vertically. If anyone knows how, feel free to leave a comment and enlighten me. :) 

A Note About Facebook

I just wanted to send out my apologies to all of you Facebookers out there... Nathan set up a Facebook account for me without my knowledge. I think he was trying to collect on a bet with a friend of mine (she bet him $20 I would never join). What Nathan didn’t know was that Facebook is blocked at my school, and we don’t have a computer at home. I’ve been getting these “friend request” e-mails and wringing my hands thinking, “I’m sorry! I want to be your friend too! I just can’t get to you!!!” Please know that I want to be friends with all of you, but I just don’t have the technology to communicate that over Facebook. Send me your blog links so I can catch up on what's going on with you!

He was sweet to do it for me... or was he greedy for his 20 bucks?!. :)

A New Beginning

We've moved! Thanks for joining us here at the new blog. Much has happened since I last posted on our previous blog, as you might have guessed. Many lessons have been learned. The last blog was kind of like a journal for me, a way to entertain while blowing off a little steam. This blog will be more like an scrapbook.

I can't really post about the main pupose for which the last blog was created. We'll have to call the time between the last post on the old blog and the first post on the new blog the Silent Period, not unlike the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments. :) However, I'm free to answer questions via e-mail and phone calls. You know where to find me!

You can look forward to upcoming posts with pictures and stories from the youth ski trip, Super Bowl party, my sister's wedding, our quick weekend in north Georgia, etc. See you soon...