movin' on up

So, this week John graduated from 8th grade (he's in high school!!),


and Hayden graduated from 5th (she's in middle school!!).



We are proud of them as if they were our own siblings! I'm seriously going to be a mess when I have kids of my own growing up. I cried at both of their ceremonies because I can't believe how old they're getting!


Lynn actually conferred the diplomas and it was so neat that she got to give Hayden hers!



I don't know how Dr. Mosier missed out on this picture, but we LOVE this precious family.

And this video isn't great quality and it's shaky, but if you know sweet HayHay it is so fun to watch her smiling at me. I literally have tears running down my face right now as I watch this again! Wow. Basket case for real!

Monarch of the Seas

We had a blast on our cruise last week! Yes, it rained every day, but it didn't hinder our fun (too much). Rather than give you a play-by-play, I'm just going to post a few of my random favorite pictures:

one thing at a time

Since a lot has happened since the last time I blogged, I figure I better take it one step at a time.

First of all, my brother has put lots of pictures on facebook. Check those out.

Friday, May 15- Ashley graduated!

First on the docket was her pinning ceremony. She's a baller and was asked to be the one who introduced their teacher speaker. She was great (Ashley and the teacher)! After the ceremony we took a bunch of ridiculous pictures. Proof:

After pinning we ate at Brio (Ashley's first time! ridiculous.). Outside. Poor David spent the entire day sweaty.

In between ceremonies and food, we spent time at our house in Birmingham dealing with the damages. Since I'm in a reasonably good mood right now, I'm not going to delve into that subject and ruin my day. I'll update you later.

Friday afternoon was Ashley's actual graduation ceremony. On the way there we got rear ended. I burst into tears, but David took care of everything and made it all ok. Our insurance company hates us.

Thankfully we made it to graduation in the nick of time and watched Ashley, cap and gown clad (which is much more becoming than her Clara Barton outfit), receive her diploma. The ceremony was great- mostly because it was short.

We are so proud of her! She has a great job lined up at a hospital in Birmingham, and she'll be starting work in July(ish). Yeah, Nurse Ashley!!

Post-graduation events, we did house-related things for hours and hours and finally got to Columbus (GA) around midnight that night. All in day 1 of our vacation! whew.

heading out

What a weekend!

Friday:

• left Chattanooga before the crack of dawn
• arrived in Bhm shortly after the crack of dawn
• worked on our rental home there (details to follow... it's not pretty)
• went to Ashley's nursing pinning ceremony (she's a nurse!)
• went to lunch with the fam and some friends
• back to the rental house to work (David commenced sweating like a pig)
• get rear ended by a couple who spoke no English
• barely make it to Ash's graduation ceremony (she's a nurse!... again)
• rush back to the house to wait for the contractor for.ever.
• head to Columbus, GA and drive through torrential rains, arriving after midnight.

a ridiculous day.

Because of the ridiculousness of that day, we made Saturday all about relaxing! I spent the day with my mom and David hung out at the house with my dad.

Now we're packing the cars and heading out!! We'll be in Jacksonville with some family tonight and leaving on the ship tomorrow!!!!!! Can.not.wait.

Why I love Pioneer Woman.

A snippet from today's post...

"Hi. I carried you in my womb. And now you’re seven feet tall. Amen."

I want to do this!

Blair is freaking out (and rightfully so) about this awesome video! I LOVE it too!!

Sound of Music Train Station @ Yahoo! Video

a little humor in the midst of a crummy week

Emily: "What would you do without me?"
David: "Have dirty underwear and get lost...
... and be lonely and sad ...
... because no one would want to hang out with me because I would have dirty underwear."

our official photo

so many blessings

We're in the home stretch! 4 more days of work until we are OUT of HERE!

This weekend, unlike most, seemed really long. I don't know why but I'm thankful! Friday we had a real treat in that David and I each had a friend in town. Sharon and Andy spent the night and we had such a nice time! We all ate at Amigos with the Bryants for dinner, and then the boys (Bryant boys included) spent the evening playing basketball, which gave me and Sharon some girl time at the house! We stayed up way too late (which was fine for us, but Andy & Sharon both had 6 hour drives the next day), but relished in our time together!

We love Sharon and Andy!

Harley loved Andy too. Andy didn't love Harley quite so much.

Harley (our long-haired, dirty-faced dog) was sad to see our guests go!

David was constantly making everyone laugh, and the laughs continued with these Immanuel Lutheran (where D & A went to school until 5th grade) hats that David just happened to have in the garage (??). Oh, and Andy is still rocking the silly sunglasses from our wedding! Nice!

Andy is on staff with Athletes in Action (a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ for collegiate athletes) at Virginia Tech. Check out his amazing ministry website and read about all that the Lord is doing. He is going to be spending the summer at a ministry site in California ministering to homeless people. Pray for him as God continues to challenge him and use him in a new setting!

Sharon is halfway (!) done with Occupational Therapy school at UNC Chapel Hill. She had a break between spring classes and summer work, so she made a trip to Birmingham and a detour in Chatty on her way back to NC. She will be spending the summer working at an Outpatient Clinic in Charlotte, NC as part of her curriculum. She works so hard and is going to be an amazing occupational therapist in one short year! Pray for her as she continues to work as for the Lord and not for men.

We are so blessed by friendships that continue to challenge us and encourage us in the Lord- even when we are far apart. Thank you, Jesus for the blessing of these friends!

Saturday was spent running errands that, though important, seemed to not be as productive as I wanted. I have a lot I need to get done by Thursday night, so I wanted to maximize my opportunities to ... do that stuff. We did get stuff done which made me feel good about spending Saturday night watching two of my favorite little ones at their ballet recital! I have been looking forward to living in Chattanooga for events like this! Laney and Ellie are so precious, and I desire to be a steady element of their lives that loves them (not that they are lacking in that department! They had 2 parents, 4 grandparents, and aunt and a cousin also at their performance!). They were absolutely.precious.adorable.wonderful.perfect. Seriously, I teared up watching them dance their little hearts out on that stage! Shelby (through her tears) whispered "it is worth every minute" to me as she watched them flutter about. Obviously ballet class once a week and recital craziness takes a lot for any family, but it is always nice to see the end result pay off!

I love Ellie and Laney!

... and Shelby and Mark (I wouldn't forget you Mark!)!!

Sunday brought church, phone calls to moms and grandmas, lots of fetch with our pooch, and the Breast Cancer Network of Strength Walk to Empower. One of our goals for 2009 was to volunteer in the community, so we started (5+ months into the year...) with this! We manned the water station at the halfway point (1.5miles) and had a BLAST. Seriously, it was so much fun to encourage and thank the walkers along their way. It was the first year that BCNS hosted this walk in Chattanooga, and David wants us to become the annual water station helpers!

He's so cute. and totally into visors right now.

It was really special for this walk to be on Mothers Day- especially since we weren't with either of our moms! We thought a lot about Mrs. Carr and Aunt Barbara, both who I lost to cancer, and we are thankful for organizations like this that provide support to families dealing with this wretched disease.

a beautiful day in the neighborhood

We are loving our home and our neighborhood more and more each day. In the evenings when it starts to cool off, we leave the door to the screened porch open so the breeze blows into the house and Harley plays inside and outside without a fuss. It's fabulous!

We've been going on lots of walks/runs lately. The weather (when it hasn't been raining) has been warm and perfect for being outside! We have a pretty routine route that we take, and it always cracks me up that Harley knows the way. Our neighborhood is perfect for taking walks - though a little hilly, which makes for a good workout. There is one street that I particularly love. It is completely shaded and is always cool and damp and smells like honeysuckle. mmm...

Forgive the cell phone picture.

Yesterday we went on two walks. Even though we had taken our usual run (shortly after I got home from work), it was too nice of a night to sit inside! We headed out again later for a leisurely jaunt around the block, which was lovely.

Like I mentioned, we are loving our neighborhood more and more. Every day I see people I haven't met before and am learning folks names. Older neighbors sit on their porches and wave to the passers by, kids swing from their tire swings in the front yard (it's not quite as picturesque as it sounds... it's a little red), people plant in their gardens and play with their dogs. In fact, we live in DOG CITY, folks. Between our two walks last night, we saw 13 different dogs. 13! I need to count the number of people who run or walk past our house on a given night, but it is definitely in the double digits. I love that we are in a city that innately has such an emphasis on being outdoors!

Change of weekend plans: Andy AND Sharon are coming tonight! Thank goodness for multiple rooms with guest beds! We are SO excited to spend time with two of our favorite friends!!

11 days to embarkation

Yes, embarkation is a word. They use it on the Royal Caribbean website.

11 days! Thank you, Ashley for graduating from college. David and I are SOOO excited about heading out of town one week from tomorrow to begin our vacation! We'll go first to Birmingham to spend the day watching Ashley get pinned and graduate, then we'll spend 2 nights in Columbus and one in Jacksonville (with family hopefully!) en route to the cruise! Harley will spend the week boarded with my parents three dogs in Columbus, so he'll be leaving town with us (which reminds me... I need to talk to Chuck about 'house sitting'). We'll be cruising through the Bahamas for 5ish days, and I can.not.wait. A few things I'm most excited about:

• Spending time with my family.
• Playing lots of cards and Catan.
• Hanging out with my parents.
• Eating awesome food (this is definitely what David is most excited about).
• Getting a tan (prayerfully).
• Reading, reading and more reading. All of this (again). And definitely this Becca recommendation. Other recommendations?
• A break from work clothes and a chance to lounge around in whatever I want.
• Coming back from a week-long vacation and having a holiday at work (thank you, Memorial Day!) - and getting to spend it at camp (thank you, boat driver training!)!

There are probably many more fun things about it, but I need to contain my excitement so I don't totally flake out on all of my responsibilities between now and then.

productivity

I really like to be productive. I like to make a list, then do the things on my list and cross them off. I get the greatest sense of accomplishment from having a completed list. Sometimes I will even add things to my list that weren't on it originally- just to cross them off to make myself feel better about being productive (yes, I'm sick, I know).

Last night was a productive night! David had his first class of the first summer term (yep, no break between spring and summer terms), but he got out early! I was able to take the dog on a long run (ok, long for us... not that long in real people terms), do all the ironing (which was a lot since it hadn't been touched in... a while), simultaneously catch up on Dancing with the Stars and tidy things up around the house before he got home (dinner was in the crock pot. and it was gross.). Since he got home early, he had time to mow the lawn and blow off the porch and driveway. So by dinnertime, we had conquered much of our to do lists. Post-dinner we cleaned the couch cushions [side note about our couch cushions: if you are in the couch-buying market and you aren't looking to get leather, I recommend looking for cushions that have removable- and machine washable- covers. Ours aren't, and man it would make life much easier if they were.] and got to spend a little bit of time just hanging out and playing with the dog.

All in all, it was a great night- largely due to our productivity. Tonight needs to be equally productive because I have floors that need cleaning and we have company coming!

Thursday night: Andy
Friday night: Sharon

Can't wait!

free KFC

Go here to print a coupon for FREE KFC from Oprah! It's only valid until noon today, so get it now!

steak & kate

Last night David surprised me with a steak dinner! In fact, he bought fillets and grilled them to perfection! I'm so thankful for him.

After dinner we spent time with our respective gendered friends, which led to a last-minute babysitting gig! We love baby Kate and it's always nice to spend some one-on-one (well, two-on-one I guess) time with her.