Justin and I are about to leave for the Smokies! It's Justin's spring break, and we both got some time off from work. We are SO excited to get away and couldn't be happier. :) We're meeting his parents, Adam & Rosie, Phillip & Tracy, and all of their kiddos too, of course! We have a cabin rented and are looking forward to soaking in the beauty of the mountains, with lots of relaxation and time together. Hope you all have a great week!

Well, we wound up having a FANTASTIC weekend following my last post about the impending winter storm. But before you can appreciate hearing about our weekend, you need a little history...

My family moved to Tennessee from Florida in the fall of 1994. My parents found us a home on 1 1/2 acres of beautiful land. Our yard backs up to acres of woods, and we spent many hours playing on our beloved wooded hill. At the top is a clearing that runs the entire length of the hill, creating a fantastic place for sledding. (And a great workout year-round!) The first 2 winters we lived there we had a couple really nice snows of 6 or 7 inches. We Floridians just loved it and assumed that this was normal for the area. We ran out and bought a little plastic sled when the first big snow was predicted, and we had a blast with it, even if it was cheap and less than ideal. It survived those first couple snows and then succumbed to the rigorous hill and cracked. The next winter my dear Grandparents gave me and my brothers a beautiful, old fashioned wooden sled, complete with metal runners. Here we are with our Grandparents and cousins! :)



We were ecstatic and couldn't wait to try it out when the next big snow came...

It never did.

It's been hanging in my parents garage since 1996.

Every winter since, we have thought longingly of that sled, just hoping for the chance to get to use it. We would have a few snows here and there, but nothing over a few inches. Due to the rough terrain of the hill, you really need at least 5 inches to cover the rocky ground and make sledding safe or even possible. We began to joke that the sled was a curse and that it would never snow again until we burned it, ceremonially. We refrained, hoping it would have its chance yet!
But as the years passed, our hopes dimmed. Now that all of us kids were grown and out of the nest, what were the chances of ever getting to use the sled? What was the likelihood that we would all be at home together when the infamous big snow finally came?

Fast-forward to Friday, January 29, 2010.
That's when my parents had to decide at the last moment that they couldn't come up to Bowling Green to spend the weekend with us kids as planned. The predicted winter storm would make it too hard for my aunt to come and care for my Grandma as had been planned.
So we kids decided to take the weekend to THEM instead. :) We weren't going to miss out on our weekend together. And in the back of our minds, we were all thinking, "Maybe we really WILL get a big snow this time....maybe we'll finally get to use that sled...”

Jeremy, Justin and I were lucky - we all got off work early and headed for my parents' in the early afternoon Friday, trying to beat the storm. The snow started falling as we made it further south, and by the time we got home, there were already several inches on the ground. Mom said that Dad was up on the hill, making sure the sled run was clear. We all bundled up and ran up to help him clear the way! Dave and Sarah made it in later that night, but they didn’t have as fun a trip down, as the roads were much slicker by then. Thankfully, they made it in slowly but surely – and safely. We had a great night, talking by the fireplace, watching the snow fall, and looking forward to the next day.

By the next day we had over 5 inches, with a half inch of ice on top! After lunch we pulled out the sled and set out through the woods and up the hill. The snow covered woods were GORGEOUS! The sled run turned out to be just right, as the little ice on top packed things down and made for a breathtakingly fast ride! It honestly was a little frightening just how fast you would go! The sled was still in great condition even after all these years of hanging in the garage. It performed beautifully and was even better than we’d always hoped!! :) Mom and Dad were right there in the middle of it with us, and Mom even got the record for going the furthest!! I love my parents. :) Here's a video. It doesn't look as fast as it felt!



It only took a couple hours for us to get worn out, as it’s quite a hike back up the hill each time! We headed back to the house for some hot chocolate and to exult in our adventure. The rest of the weekend was much enjoyed as well, filled with delicious food, laughter, and good times. :)
I am so blessed in having such a great family that enjoys being together this way, and I am so very thankful!

In other news, work is going just fine for both of us, and Justin has started his LAST semester!! He is soo busy, but there are only three months to go! This week we’ve been enjoying the Olympic Games. I’ve always liked the figure skating, and this year we’ve gotten into the Moguls, Snowboard Cross, and all kinds of events. And we loved seeing Shaun White in the Men’s Halfpipe!
Which event is your favorite??

They're saying we could get as much as 5-9 inches of snow by Saturday, which is a LOT for around here. It hasn't snowed that much since the mid '90's, so I'm pretty excited about it! Of course, they often miss these forecasts, so it could turn out too be much ado about nothing. But I can't help but be hopeful!
The only negative is that my parents are supposed to come up and spend the weekend with us, and we've all been looking forward to it so much! So, I'm just hoping they will be able to get away and here safely, so they can enjoy the snow with us.
What are your plans for the coming weekend??

Well, it's not fall anymore, so I guess I need a new post!

I can't BELIEVE how fast December is going. We had a very happy Thanksgiving and were able to visit with a lot of our family - it was wonderful!

And now we're quite behind on Christmas preparations! :) Justin and I usually do the Christmas shopping together - it's so much more fun that way! But with him in school, our time has been a little more strained this year. I grabbed a few presents while I was out this weekend, and he's finishing up his finals this week. So, we should be able to get things finished up between this week and next - at least I sure hope so, since that's all the time we have left! ;) At least we finally got our tree up last week. That's been interesting since we now have a playful, curious cat; Thankfully he's not knocked it down yet, so I think we're doing pretty well! :)

Most of you have probably heard the following song by Straight No Chaser, but I just love it and thought I'd spread the cheer. :)

Hope you're all having a very merry December so far!

The trees here have been GORGEOUS lately, and I’ve just been eating up every minute of their beauty. I think I’ll always appreciate the changing leaves so much, maybe because I didn’t get to experience it for the first 12 years of my life. It's hard to believe it’s almost November -we’ve been busy since I last posted, and autumn is just flying by. Here is one example of the beauty around here. :)


Here's what we've been up to lately. And warning, it's a lot - I don't expect this to be read in full! :)

-At the end of August, Justin and I went to Mammoth Cave with Dave and Sarah. It really is an amazing cave and we had a great time spending the day together! It’s SO nice to be able to live in the same town as my brothers and get to hang out all the time. I love that we’re all close and such good friends. And I just love Sarah and am having so much fun getting to know her! A few pictures...

The entrance into the cave

A cave doesn't make for a very interesting background, but here we are.


Sarah and David

Justin and I

Speaks for itself

Sqeezing through...




Coming back to the light

We had a great tour guide and just had a really fun time! :)



-Justin finished up his summer classes and started his busy fall semester – 19 hours. Including a PE – how crazy is that? It’s his who knows what year of college education, and he had to take a PE. Since his degree is now all online, they sent him a bill that was $2600 over what it should have been. Apparently their “distance learning” rate is a lot higher than the normal tuition! When he called about it, they said if he was taking just one class that met on campus, they could bill him the normal amount. So, he signed up for a 1 hour PE class that meets 3 times this semester, and saved $2600. I’m thankful we found a way to save the money, but how broken is THAT system?? Anyway, he’s super busy balancing all that school plus working 20 hours/week. But he’s doing so well and really seems to like what he's studying.


-Labor Day weekend, Mary and Leroy (Justin’s parents) took Phillip and Tracy, his grandmother, and us to see the musical “Wicked”! Adam and Rosie weren’t as interested and kindly volunteered to keep Andrew so that Phillip and Tracy could go. We had a really fun time – it’s an amazing show!! We were thankful that Justin’s parents were so kind to take us. We stayed at Mary and Leroy's the night before the show. Here is a video of little Andrew - our camera isn't the best, but that doesn't keep his cuteness from showing! :)



-A week later, my parents were able to get away and come spend Friday night with us! Jeremy was speaking in the college lectureship that night, so they were able to hear his talk. I was beyond proud of the job he did and got so much out of his lesson! We all went out to dinner and had a fun night and then a relaxing Saturday together. It’s always a blessing when my aunt is able to stay with Grandma (my mom's mom), and my parents get the break they need - we were so happy to have them here!

-The next weekend Justin and I helped with a weekend camp that Lawrence and Janice put together with some other couples from Lost River. The camp was similar to FC camps, with lots of inspiring singings and devotions and all kinds of fun and crazy activities. I had never been a counselor before, and we had a fun time. It was for middle and high school kids from all the congregations here in Bowling Green. It seemed to go really well, and they’re planning on making it an annual camp. Fun times!

-The next week, on Wednesday, we got the exciting news that our friends Richard and Charity had their twins! Ok, so Charity is the one that had them, but you know what I mean. :) They had a boy AND a girl, Hudson and Tilley. We got to meet them the following Sunday, and of course they are just precious! Sadly, I just now realized we didn’t think to take our camera! :( But anyway, they all seem to be doing great!
We also met my parents that weekend in Nashville, kind of a spur of the moment thing. We met at Opry Mills mall and saw a 3D movie and then had dinner at TGI Fridays. It was a really fun thing to do - it’s not often we get to meet up like that with my parents, so spontaneously. Jeremy, David and Sarah came too, and we had a great time!

-The next weekend, Phillip and Tracy came down for a youth lectureship at which he was speaking on Saturday. So on Friday night, we (Justin and I, Adam and Rosie, Phillip and Tracy, and Justin’s parents) were all able to meet up at this cute little Greek/Italian restaurant that none of us had been to before. It was so nice to have the time to visit and just be together!!
On Monday, my cousin Rhianna came up and stayed with us for a few days! It was her fall break, and we were so happy she got to come for a visit. We decided a long time ago that we would consider ourselves sisters, since both of us grew up with just brothers! Justin and I stayed up way too late each night, hanging out, but it was worth it! :)

-Then THAT weekend, Justin and I took off for Cincinnati to go to King’s Island !! We had been hoping to go for a while, and we finally made it happen. We drove to Lexington Friday night, and Phillip and Tracy were kind enough to let us use their house as our home base for the weekend. (They were out of town for a meeting.) We got up Saturday and drove the remaining way to Cincinnati, and spent the whole day in the park. It is a GREAT amusement park, especially if you like roller coasters! I was a little nervous about whether we could still handle this – it’d been over 6 years since we’d been to a theme park! But we loved it. We had to take a break after riding a bunch of coasters right in a row – the lines were SO short the first half of the day. But after our break we were recovered enough to keep going and had such a fun day. We wound up riding 8 different roller coasters and another thrill ride. At the end of the day we repeated two of our favorite coasters. Our hands down favorite ride was the Diamondback roller coaster. It has to be the best ride I’ve ever been on! It’s unbelievably fast, but smooth as silk – it doesn’t jerk you around at all. And the drops are truly breathtaking!!

The next morning we went to services at East End, where Phillip normally preaches – it was sad that we were there when they weren’t! But we got to visit with our friends Steven and Kara, and their adorable little boy, Warner. We went with them out to lunch and had a delicious meal at Johnny Carinos, where we’d never been before. It’s a new favorite now!

-The NEXT Friday night (ok, seriously, I knew we’ve been busy, but I didn’t realize we’d done THIS much back to back!) we drove down to Murfreesboro with my brothers and Sarah, and went to the high school football game! Such fun, fall stuff! My cousin, Rhianna, had a featured part in the band this year, and we really wanted to get to a game before the season was over – after all, this is her senior year! SO hard to believe that. It was freezing, but we got hot chocolate and stayed bundled close together and had fun anyway. Sadly, the team lost. It wound up being their ONLY loss all season – I guess we’re bad luck. But they won the district champion game last night, so it’s all good! We stayed with my parents and the next evening my parents had our annual bonfire, complete with roasted hot dogs with chili and s’mores. Uncle John and Aunt Syl, Uncle Randy and Aunt Amy, all the cousins, and my Grandmamma, (my Dad’s mom) come every year. It’s such a fun tradition. We told some scary stories later and took a hike through the woods – without flashlights! Fun times.

-That brings us to this past weekend. We had hoped to make it to Rebecca and Daniel’s Halloween party, but Justin had too much school work to catch up on. (I guess so, considering the past few weeks!!) Saturday afternoon we drove down to Justin’s parents’ house for his Grandmother’s birthday party. We had a great afternoon and evening visiting with the extended family. Then Sunday started our fall meeting with David Thomley, which went through Thursday night. He had so many great lessons and we were blessed to have the opportunity to hear him preach.

-Last night we met up with our friends Clay and Jenni and Sterling and Meg. We always have such a blast together and last night was no exception! We went to dinner and all wound up at Clay and Jenni’s to check out their new baby nursery. Jenni is due in just about a month! It’s crazy to think how soon they will have a little one in their family. The nursery is really cute, and Jenni is even cuter!! We had a great time and wound up in several uncontrollable laughing fits – the kind that make you cry. That is one of the best feelings, and it seems to happen a lot when we all get together. Today Justin and I slept in, and he’s been busy with school work and I’ve been busy catching up on things around the house, which has been really nice.

And so, the novel is complete, even if just for my own benefit! :) I’ve GOT to start doing this more often, so events don’t get so piled up!

Happy fall wishes to you all!!