Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Carah came home with us yesterday after church. We decided that we would watch "The Incredibles". This is not unusual for us when Carah is there, because it is the only DVD that we have that she wants to watch. I had not seen the movie in a while, so I watched it with her. It really is a neat movie. I understand why so many of our kids want to be Dash or Elastigirl. Carah was great as always. This blog is starting to be very Carah and Cate heavy. They have their own blog now. Check it out. There is a link to the page under links.

Night With Carah and Cate

Our first stop on our night with Carah and Cate was the Rainforest Cafe at Opry Mills Mall. We had a great dinner, but the girls really enjoyed playing in the store beforehand. Carah really liked petting all of the animals and climbing on the rocks in the restaraunt.





Next we went to Build-a-Bear workshop where Carah and Cate busied themselves making new stuffed friends. Carah chose a purple bear with a light Cinderella outfit. She appropriately named her bear "Cinderella." Cate chose a very cuddly light brown bear which we named for her. Based off of my dream of one day becoming a grandparent, we named her bear "Papa Jeff." The girls did not want any help carrying their new best friends.



On our way out of the mall, we just had to stop at our favorite beverage shop. It was just after Christmas so Starbucks still had their peppermint mocha (mine) and peppermint hot chocolate (abbey's). While I stood in line, Abbey had the girls on some chairs not far away. Carah came to me with her beautiful eyes and innocent smile and said, "Misser Jaff, I want to hot cocoa." How could I deny the girl Starbucks? So, here it is world, Carah with her first Starbucks. She could be my own!




We finished off our evening by going to look at the Christmas lights at Opryland and for a ride in the boat. Carah was surprised that we could ride a boat inside a building. Cate was just happy to be on a boat. It was not the same as her Papa's (on the lake) boat though. All in all we had a great time. The girls were great, but that shouldn't surprise you! However, when it was bedtime, Carah wanted Abbey to read her a story and she did not want me to! That hurt my feelings, but her Dad tells me it is the same way with him.

Snow Day

It finally snowed in Tennessee! Abbey, as you might have guessed, was thrilled to have a snow day! I was at Writer's conference all last week in downtown Nashville, so I missed most of the snow. It did snow down there, but Abbey told me that the yard and the house were covered. I have attached a picture of the daughters of our Minister of Education and his wife (who loves the song "Christmas Shoes"). Until Abbey and I have one of our own, we like to steal Carah (left) and Cate (right)away and spoil them. If we can ever find the cord to the camera, we will be downloading some pictures the day C and C spent the night. It was a blast! They are sweet girls! Cate is finally starting to say our names. For a while, Abbey and I were both known as Dah. We are hoping that we will get a really good snow sometime this winter! I thought that when we moved to Tennessee we would be seeing a lot more snow. So far, this just hasn't been the case. I will also post a picture of my writing team from Writer's conference if the EIC remembers to send it to me!

Finally a new post

I am sure that no one ever looks at this blog, but I will post with the hopes that someone might actually stumble upon it and have some type of life-changing revelation. We had an excellent Christmas which included time with both sides of our family. We got to see my brother Bobby's new (historic) home. Abbey and I are really jealous because it is a great house and we love older homes. We'll just have to visit more often.

December turned out to be one of the busiest months I have had so far at church. On top of that, I was ordained as a minister and I graduated from seminary. Abbey and I were caught off-gaurd by our sentimental feelings about Texas when we were there for my graduation. Life has yet to slow down for us. Abbey and I are now both looking into how we will further our educations. I am set on Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for my doctorate, but I still have to convince them. Abbey knows she wants to do something, but she has not decided yet.

For Christmas, I received many great gifts. None were quite so life-changing as my PDA. I was able to retire my notebook in which I listed my daily activities and then distinctively checked them off with a red marker. Now I can sit at my computer or through a boring meeting and come up with tasks. I can even assign them to my assistant! That is so cool! I love it.

Abbey has had a hard start at getting back into the swing of things at school. She's an excellent teacher, but I am not sure if she thinks its her passion. We're still praying for a baby, so any extra prayers are appreciated.

I have some great pictures to download, but my wife, who is very methodical (in her VERY own way), has somehow lost the cord to the computer. We want to show you our night with Carah and Cate. Maybe this weekend we will get the closet where Abbey's THINKS she might have put the cord clean!

A Post a Month

While I do not think that it is a good idea to only post once a month, I think that I have been reduced to that type of blogger. Well, actually, I have just been too busy. I would like to point out that Abbey has never posted. She is a busy girl too. We made it back safely from a wonderful vacation AKA visit with parents, family, and friends. Since then, we have worked tirelessly on many things including schoolwork, homework, housework, churchwork, and probably some other work that I am not listing. The great news is that I am about to finish my degree from Southwestern and I will then be able to make application to the Ed.D. program at Southern. You know it would be out of character for me to slow down. Abbey is also looking at prospects for her next degree.
Abbey and I also stay busy with our bowling team every Tuesday night after we eat at Chik-Fil-A (it's church bulletin night so we eat for $5.00). Lately I have not broken 100, but I did get to a point where I was decent.

Vacation

Well, it's finally here. It seems like we have been waiting to go on vacation for a long time. I am so excited that today we are leaving for a week off from work. Hopefully, our vacation, which is really just a trip home will be one filled with our parents waiting on us hand and foot. Considering they did this the whole time we were growing up (HA), I am certainly expecting. We are planning on visiting old friends and I am also planning on getting some schoolwork done. I have got to get caught up enough that I can study for the GRE. I would like to be able to get that done in early November. Abbey said that she has NO plans for the week other than to sleep late and rest. That is good, she needs it. School is very stressful. I don't know how people are teachers. I am so thankful that we have them, but it is such a daunting job. The cats are planning their escape. We have some WONDERFUL friends from our church who are going to be taking care of Jack and Will while we are gone. Burglars beware, out CATS are ferocious!

Travels

It has been a really fun past couple of weeks. I traveled to Las Vegas and San Francisco/San Jose to teach some courses for LifeWay. It was a very interesting experience for me, as I have not been to either of those places. It is really crazy how all of the hurricanes have been affecting America. Of course, my brother Trae decided that he would move (well, actually, his apartment was destroyed) to Galveston after Gulfport got blown away. Our church sent a group down to Mississippi today. They are going to Ovette. I don't actually think that I have ever been there.

Time Flies

Somehow I knew when I started this shin-dig that I would not be very good at updating and alas, I have not. Since the last post, Abbey and I have been busy traveling and working. We spent Labor Day weekend at the amazing home of some of our friend's parents. It is right on the lake and so we rode jet-ski's (Well, Abbey only rode for about 2.3 minutes - something about a previous accident where her husband (me) made her fall off - well, actually, the whole thing flipped), tubes, and water skis. It was a blast. Our friends serve with us as Minister of Education at the church. Danny and Michelle have two beautiful daughters, Carah and Cate, whom Abbey and I totally enjoy spoiling! This past weekend (well, really it was like a 26 hour period between 6:00p on Friday at 10 p on Saturday), I was in Las Vegas where I taught a Preschool conference. Contrary to what one might think, there are some VERY nice Christian people in the sin-city. It was exciting to see these people so excited about teaching preschoolers at church. I will be teaching a very similar conference in San Francisco this weekend. I will have a little more time to breathe at this event. Abbey is going next weekend to the Beth Moore Conference which she is really excited about. School is going well for Abbey. She is an excellent teacher and has worked hard to teach her children that although a southern drawl is a wonderful thing, it is possible to speak and write correctly. I just wish that I could learn better grammar so she would have to proof everything I do! We're gearing up for the Harvest Festival here at church which should be really exciting. Above is a picture of some of my older kids at church!

Crazy Week

Just wanted to check in and let everyone know how we are doing this week. We've been really busy. It seems that the week just started and now we are almost done. I am glad that today is Friday. Abbey and I both need a break. Today is my "day off". but I will probably spend most of it cleaning and working on some projects for LifeWay. At least, I will be able to save the $2.50 a gallon driving into Joelton. If the gas prices don't slow down, I think I might have to telecommute. The bad thing is that I heard that Tennessee has the 4th lowest gas in the United States. My brother Trae works on oil-rigs, I think that he needs to build a pipeline to my house.

Everything's Going On

Have you ever noticed that it seems like the first thing that people say when they greet each other is "What's going on?" I don't know about you, but it seems like I always have a little bit of everything going on. This week has been no different. We started the week on Sunday by staying at the church from 7:30 in the morning to 7:45 that night. Well, we did leave briefly for lunch at Chili's. The great news is that we had a wonderful turnout for Awana Sunday night. Abbey had her first full week of students at school and I think that she has had a good week. The students seem to be very well mannered. They are all rural kids and so they seem to be less citified (have less attitude than the metropolitan eighth graders). I am taking my day off today, Friday. I have to work on some of my schoolwork today though! Before it got extremely hot and dry in Tennessee, my potted plants were doing quite well. They never recoveed from our Anniversary trip though and are dead. I am glad that we took a picture. I am getting ready to plant for the fall now. Have a great day.

Our 4th Anniversary

Wow! Can you believe that it's been 4 years since Abbey and I got married. We celebrated our anniversary yesterday. We stayed from Tuesday until this morning at The Brentwood Bed and Breakfast. If you are looking for a nice getaway you should go there. The innkeepers were great, rooms were awesome and the breakfast was delicious. Check out their website at http://www.brentwoodbandb.com/. We stayed in The Arrington Suite. We also went to a MercyMe concert yesterday. It was great. We decided that we do not want to move this year. We started counting and we have lived in 4 "homes". We are happy in Tennessee, so I think we're settled for a while. Let us know how you all are doing!

Here We Are Again!

It's Saturday and we are at church. Tomorrow is Sunday School Promotion day, so all the little boys and girls that will be starting school next week, get to go to their new classrooms. This year, we saved promotion to the end of the summer. Last year (I wasn't here then), they let them move up at the end of May! Do you know what kind of attitude a 5th grader that "is really a sixth grader" gets? I wasn't ready for that. I guess we will hear it tomorrow. We are up here to let the teachers get their rooms ready for their new students. It is great that our teachers make an effort to come up here on their day off. We are very blessed to be in such a wonderful church. We stay REALLY busy! Check out our church website at www.fbcjoelton.org.

Our Family

Our cats, Jack and Will, enjoy lounging in our tub. Well, honestly, they enjoy lounging anywhere. They make sure that they get plenty of rest each day. I guess that is good because we certainly do not have time to rest. On Thursday of next week, it will be three years since we adopted our two cats. They have lived in all of our married homes except our awful first apartment. Ralphie is our new ball of energy. He is a one year old cocker that could not stay with his previous owners. Our house stays pretty busy with the animals and with our jobs.

The New Blog on the Web

We finally have our own blog. Rest assured that when Abbey is posting, the grammar will be perfect and when I am, it won't. Hopefully we will be better at updating this than we are at emailing our friends. Email us and tell us what you want to know. We are currently living in Springfield, TN. I am Minister of Preschool and Children at First Baptist Church in Springfield and Abbey is going to be a teacher again this year. I will tell you about our family in the next blog.