It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

It's been snowing here in the 'Ville! It started last night and snowed off and on all through the night and into the morning. We'll leave next week for Atlanta to spend Christmas with my family. Then we'll stay in Birmingham for our anniversary and head to Memphis to ring in the New Year with Kolby's family. We're excited to get to spend time with our families. It's been a while!

Back in Black

It's been a little while since I've updated this blog. We've been staying busy here in Louisville. We have some very generous friends at our church who gave us this set of patio furniture. It was faded from the sun, so after 15 cans of spray paint, I had it looking like new. I just love it. My mom surprised me by having the cushions sent to me early. They were supposed to be a Christmas present. I love having comfy furniture to sit on outside. The weather has turned very cold here, so I guess I'll have to wait until spring to enjoy it more.

After I finished painting the furniture, I guess I still had the painting bug. My mom came up for several days and we decided to paint my kitchen cabinets black. It was quite a project but went much faster with two people. I'm so happy my mom was willing and ready to tackle my kitchen. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. I really think it modernized our kitchen tons. Hmmmm...what can I paint next???

My Brother and Sister-in-Law Come to Louisville!

This past weekend, my brother and sister-in-law flew up from Memphis to spend some time with us in Louisville. I loved having them here!! My brother can always make me laugh like nobody else can! He's one of the funniest people I know. We took them to see Churchill Downs and then went to the Muhammad Ali museum. My brother loves boxing, so I think he thoroughly enjoyed the exhibits. They were able to come to church with us on Sunday morning. Andrew was leading worship that morning, so I was glad that they could hear him. I wish they lived here and could come to church with us all the time! Karson and Michelle got to meet some of our friends up here. We did a lot of eating and hanging out. I hope they can come back for another visit soon.



***So I noticed that I'm wearing the same clothes as I was in the photos from the Oklahoma trip. I do own other shirts..I promise. :) Haha.

Oklahoma Trip

Andrew and I had such a wonderful time in Oklahoma visiting my family. I wish we could have stayed longer. We got to watch Oklahoma State beat Texas A & M! What a great game. My cousin is on the pom squad at OSU, so it was fun to see her perform during the game. I really enjoyed seeing so many cousins, aunts, uncles and my grandparents. It had been over a year since I had seen them. My mom even got to come to Oklahoma while we were there. It was nice to see her too!! I hope that I can make another trip out to see everyone. I love them all so much.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma where the winds come sweeping down the plains...

We're headed to the great state of Oklahoma tomorrow to see Kolby's family. We're excited for fall break and this long awaited trip!

Birthday Time

It's still so weird to me that we live in Louisville, KY. But I'm really starting to love this place and all the wonderful friends we've met. We lost power for several days, and we stayed over at The Smith's house. They were so gracious to let us stay with them! It was really quite fun, but it was nice to get power back so I could work on the magazine and send it to press!

Last week, Andrew and I went out and bought a new couch and loveseat....finally. I had the hardest time picking out something that I liked. I've been so indecisive (a problem I struggle with all the time) but finally found a set I was happy with. I'm glad Andrew convinced me to go ahead and buy them. After lots of struggling and lots of stopping, Andrew and I managed to get the loveseat up the stairs and into our condo, but there was no way I could get the couch. My guns just aren't quite big enough! But our friend Tom, one of the pastors at Fellowship, came and helped us. He and Andrew had the couch upstairs in like a minute!!

Last night, we had a birthday celebration for Andrew and our friend Ashley. It was lots of fun. I really enjoyed getting to hang out with some friends! And it was a good excuse to cook. I just really like to be in the kitchen and wish I had more time for it.

I went up to the seminary today to go to a chapel service with Andrew. I love being able to do that. I hope that I can continue to go to more of them in the future. I'm staying busy with my Seminary Wives classes, my Philippians Bible study through church and my discipleship group. I know these next few years are really going to be a great time of growth for both me and Andrew. Andrew's workload is quite a bit more intense than mine, but I feel very blessed to have all these opportunities to study God's Word and learn more about his awesome wonder!

It's hard to believe it's almost October! I love the fall. I love love love being able to wear sweatshirts and jeans and sip on hot chocolate, and of course, watch football. Andrew and I have a trip to Oklahoma planned during his fall break. I'm really looking forward to seeing all my grandparents and extended family. It is long overdue trip! It will be a great time. In the meantime, we'll just stay busy with studies and work!

It's Electric!

We're back in business! The electricity came back on last night about 8 o'clock, and we came home this morning. Kolby will be setting her office back up and trying to get her magazine finished. It's great to be home!

Weathering the Storm

We are 1 of 300,000 homes in Kentucky and Southern Indiana and 1.5 million in the midwest region who lost power Sunday. Hurricane Ike caused a windstorm that hit the midwest late morning Sunday and lasted all afternoon. Winds blew at speeds of around 50 mph with gusts up to 75 mph. As of tonight our power has been out for almost 36 hours. We are blessed to have great friends who have power that we are staying with, as we hope and pray our power is restored. They are saying it could be up to two weeks before they finish restoring the power.
We are grateful that we were kept safe from the storm and our home was not damaged. We know there are many both here and in Texas who were not so fortunate.

Listen to This Message

This is from chapel today. Dr. David Platt from Brook Hills Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was preaching this week. He preached from Romans 9 and all Scripture he recited from memory. I pray your soul is blessed by this as mine was.

The Authority of Christ in the Great Commission

The Best Time of Year

Happy First Day of College Football! This should be a national holiday. No really, I'm serious. I love this time of year. My Gators kickoff against Hawaii on Saturday, and I'll be parked in front of a TV to watch!

This week has had its ups and downs. We are still praying with and for our friends back in Murfreesboro. Classes have been stressful and the workload is starting to catch up with me. I'll write my first paper this weekend. Today started with a slightly flat tire and that set the tone for the day. Kolby started her Seminary Wives class tonight and her Women's Bible study this morning. She's got a full schedule on her plate and will be keeping up with me on the workload!

Tomorrow we're going to hitch a ride with some friends from church to Memphis for the holiday weekend. We're excited to get to meet our new nephew finally! Wilson Russell Conway was born a couple weeks ago and this is our first chance to get to Memphis and see him.

That's it for us for now. Off to bed with me!

Blessed Be the Name of the Lord

This weekend has been good. Really hard, but good. We traveled to Murfreesboro Friday and arrived near the end of the visitation for Hayden (see previous post). We struggled through the pain and sorrow and deeply hurt for those closest to Hayden. But in the midst of the sorrow, God was present and obvious. Our Awesome God was faithful to draw Hayden to Himself in his last few days on this earth and leave three journal entries behind for all of us to see the Lord's handiwork. As much as it hurts and will continue hurting, we are trusting the Lord and praying:

Lord, as you saw Your work in Hayden's life through to completion, see the work You began in his death through to completion. We know that Your plans are not our plans, and Your thoughts are not our thoughts. We saw You at work in saving Hayden and anticipate Hayden's story leading to salvation for others. As hard as it will be, we know that You are still good. We pray for Your will to be done on this earth and Your kingdom to come in the lives touched by Hayden's story. Thank You for Hayden. Amen.

On a happier note, we were able to see Derek and Karen Kramer's brand new baby boy. We stopped by the hospital in Nashville on our way home to meet Timothy Michael Kramer. He was born Friday at 1:28 PM and tipped the scales at a whopping 5 lbs 6 oz (I'm told it's all muscle). It was good to rejoice with such dear friends at a precious new life, even while mourning the passing of another friend. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

The Beginning of One Thing and the End of Another

We got word today that one of the youth students we worked with in Murfreesboro was killed in a car accident yesterday. Join is in prayer for the family of Hayden Carter, our former students, and Chad Vinson who will be conducting the funeral services. We're making plans to head to the 'Boro this weekend for the funeral Saturday morning. These things are never easy, but this will be especially difficult. Hayden brightened many a day with a laugh over his quirky sense of humor.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Paul reminds us:

13Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage each other with these words.

We thank the Lord for Hayden's life and trust Him through it all. We know that He is good. His love endures forever. He holds the whole world in His hands and has a plan for even the darkest hours. We are encouraged knowing that, "He (God) will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:4)."

In Loving Memory of
Hayden Montgomery Carter
3/7/92-8/19/08

Day 1 of a New Beginning

Today was my first day of seminary. It felt like kindergarten all over again (see above). I didn't really know what to expect, but I was excited to start. The day flew by.


I have a lot to read and am still excited about all the things to learn. I've got some great professors and really look forward to getting to know them and learning from them.

It's going to take some getting used to the early mornings. I'm really trying to start being more intentionally disciplined. I am refocusing in my time with the Lord, not only in making the time, but also in how I spend the time, what I'm accomplishing, and what the Lord is working out in me. I am really concentrating my thoughts on the local church and trying to think through the context of the early church and what I can learn from it.


We're still enjoying Louisville. Sunday night I went with a friend and took the pictures above of the bridge to Indiana and the city.

Counting Up and Counting Down

Our beautiful new city

Days in Louisville: 42
Days at new job: 30
Days until Seminary starts: 17 (18 for me b/c I don't have Monday classes)
Days until the college football season starts: 27

We've been busy lately. I'm leading worship at Fellowship for the second week in a row (crazy I know!). We've spent just about every free moment this week hanging out with friends from our new church. Sunday we experienced Skyline Chili for the first time. Then after prayer night at Fellowship the guys went to see the new Batman movie and Kolby went with the girls to the house of one of the pastors and his wife.

Monday we painted the guest bathroom using the leftover paint from the guest bedroom.

Tuesday night is usually Community Group night, but since the Barlows are out of town we invited the rest of the group over to hang out. We love showing off our new place!

Wednesday afternoon we had a visit from Kevin and Virginia Moore. It was good to see some old 'Boro friends and spend a few minutes with them. I think Ginny is still not used to the fact that we live in Louisville (now if only we could convince them to move here, it would be great). Then Wednesday evening we were invited to Greg and Jenn Taylor's for dinner. We hung out with the Taylors and Brandon and Ashley Smith came over after dinner for some cards.

Thursday night is worship band practice. It was a small group, just Todd Pellowe, Josh Perkins, and me. Todd and Josh are both photographers, so I get to enjoy their work and take notes. I showed them some of the pictures I've been working on and tried to get some pointers. After worship band practice we had dinner with Todd and his wife Emily. We kept them up far past their bedtimes, but we had a great time.

Today we got our Seminary IDs and paid for Kolby's Seminary Wives Institute classes. Then we went downtown to find an antique store to try and get a new advertiser for her magazine. We tried out the Mexican restaurant around the corner from us, but it's just not Camino...

I'm looking forward to school starting in a few weeks. I've been busy reading already and have almost finished my Story of Christianity book. I've got a few thousand more pages ahead, but I'm ready to go! In the meantime I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to cram college football into my already busy schedule. Let the countdown begin!

3 Weeks and Counting

Southern Seminary

As of yesterday we have been here in Louisville 3 weeks and are really growing to love this place. We have quickly settled into our new church here, going to a Bible study Tuesday night, and spending yesterday getting to know other couples from the body.

Fellowship Louisville is encouraging its members to get together and pray with people outside of their small groups, so yesterday we spent some time getting to know Charlie and Kari Sims. The Sims worked for Campus Crusade at U of L until recently. Charlie is now in the beginning stages of creating a college ministry for the church and Kari is a physical trainer. We hung out with them for a couple hours and spent some time in prayer. We love that the new church is encouraging its members to pray for the church and each other and love seeing it in action.

We also got to hang out with Andy and Caitlin Barlow until about 1 o'clock this morning. Andy leads worship at Fellowship (and was leading at Fellowship Murfreesboro when Kolby first came). The Barlows are awesome. We have really enjoyed getting to know them over the past few weeks. Andy and I sat down and pulled out the guitars last night and ended up writing a worship song that we're both really excited about. It's been a while since I had someone to write with, so last night was a lot of fun. We are looking forward to making more friends at our new church and spending more time with the ones we've already made.

I've been working for Hurstbourne Country Club for a little over a week now. We thank God for providing a job for me, even though it's not exactly my ideal. I'm cooking, mostly in the pool snack bar, which is basically a concession stand with more choices. It can be tough work, and I'm not used to working on my feet so much, but it pays the bills I guess.

I ordered all my books for school and they are starting to come in one by one. I'm trying to wrap up a few of my other books I've been reading and get started on the ones for class. I've already started into my 3" thick Systematic Theology book. I loved to read growing up, but hated to by high school because of book reports and required reading. I am finding myself rediscovering that passion now that I have something worth reading, and an abundance of it! Pray that I can focus and get through all my books because it's more than I've read in the last decade combined!

Pictured above are some pictures of our first attempt at painting furniture. We found this little desk on craigslist. We put a gray primer coat on and then several coats of black. We could not find hardware to fit, so we just used metallic spraypaint on the handles. It looks really cute in our little kitchen. You can see the ugly paint color in the kitchen that we were covering up with the wythe blue paint. The new color didnt show up as good on my camera. But it looks much better in person! We replaced the hardware on the kitchen cabinets and removed the little railing above the cabinets. I had to put a picture of my new dining table and the light fixture that my dad and Andrew installed. I also have a cabinet to hold my china. This room doubles as my office too. The last picture is the guest bedroom. Andrew got to pick this out since it is also his studio. His mom painted the room Rockport Gray and added a black horizontal stripe all around. Some of the shelves on the bookcases are empty to leave room for all the seminary books. Andrew just spent several hundred dollars buying books for this semester. Fortunately, we have another bookshelf still in the box! We'll probably need it. I still haven't figured out what to do with the living room. Maybe by the time we move out of here, I'll have it just the way i want it. Haha. We still have lots to do, but it's coming together slowly but surely. We have already spent way too much money at Home Depot and Lowes.

These past couple of weeks have been a blur. We've had company 10 of the 17 days we've lived here! We've also been going to Fellowship Louisville. Everyone there has been so welcoming and so friendly. We've gotten to know several couples and have been invited to join a small group for the summer. Andrew has started playing bass in the worship band. He also just got a job at a country club working in the kitchen. We are very grateful that he found work. So we are staying busy!

Family, Painting, and CHAOS!!!

After a week chock full of projects, job searching, and late nights we finally thought we could start to slow down, BUT...

My family is in town for the week, so we have 6 people crammed into this condo (that felt gigantic until they showed up!). We spent Saturday cleaning the place up so it was perfect for the first impression. Then they came in and we made a complete disaster of the place! We have an air mattress and pallet bed on the floors in the living and dining rooms, tools and tool boxes everywhere, and missing outlet covers.

My mom just finished painting our kitchen Wythe Blue and it is a MAJOR improvement! We put new brushed nickel knobs on the other day, pulled off the railing from the top of the cabinets, and touched up the trim. All the updates makes it feel like a new room and a much bigger room.

Last week we bought and painted an antique desk black and painted the drawer pulls silver. We recovered the chair that came with the desk and painted the chair black as well. The desk will go in front of the kitchen windows for Kolby to use her laptop and write letters.

Today my brother and I went and bought a TV Armoire that is HUGE!!! It took up every inch of space in my mom's Trailblazer. We got it up the stairs and in, but I think we've decided it doesn't really fit what we need. We may Craig's List it back and maybe make a few bucks.

Needless to say, we've been busy! Pictures are coming soon, I promise!

We went to Fellowship Louisville again this morning and really enjoyed it. We've met several couples and love it so far. We've talked about looking around at other churches, but we may settle in and call this home.

We Are In!

Well it has definitely been a whirlwind of a week!! My parents came up to Murfreesboro on Wednesday night and we spent all day Thursday loading up the UHAUL!! After we cleaned up the apartment, we headed to Louisville, KY. We closed on the condo on Friday morning and began unloading. We had four guys from Fellowship Louisville show up to help us unload. That was a huge blessing. Those guys were amazing!! They had our truck unloaded in about 45 minutes. I can't even describe how grateful we were to have them, especially since we were on the second floor. My parents were such a huge help as well. We spent the rest of the weekend unpacking boxes. We still have a long way to go, but this place is actually pretty livable. My dad and Andrew put together our new dining room table (that I love!!) and they installed a new light fixture. I will post pictures soon. I'll continue unpacking today and getting more and more settled. We've already met several of our neighbors. If anyone is traveling through Louisville, please feel free to stop in and see us!

Inside the Condo and my heart

This is my first post. I figured I would type in blue. I decided to put up a couple pictures of the inside of our condo. After years of apartment living, I can't wait to start painting. If anyone has some good paint colors, just let me know.

I still can't believe we are really moving. Andrew is up in Louisville already looking for jobs. As I sit in this apartment surrounded by boxes, it all seems so surreal to me. I went to my last FSM Sunday night. I'm really going to miss that. For the past two years, our schedules have been planned around FSM. Those kids have been a huge part of our lives and we love them so much. I will miss my girls in my small group the most. I always looked forward to our weekly meetings. I will miss their laughter, their funny comments, and their genuine love. The Lord has blessed us with amazing friends here in Murfreesboro. Our Community Group was made up of wonderful couples who will be dearly missed. I'm so torn between the excitement and chaos of the move and the sadness I feel to be leaving our friends and the life I've known for six years. Fellowship Bible Church has been such a crucial part of my walk with the Lord. I plan on listening to all the sermons online so I can still hear Jeff and Monty's sermons. I'm not ready to give those up yet.

This past year, Andrew and I have both felt the Lord pulling us to a new direction. We just didn't know where. Now that we actually have the direction (at least for the next 3 years) it all seems to be happening so fast. If it was based on my plan, I would stay in Murfreesboro until the end of the summer. I'm sure God chuckles at all my plans. I'm so proud of my husband for truly listening to the Lord and trusting in him. Sometimes my faith seems so small, especially when it comes to change. I know the Lord will continue to work on my heart as we move to a new location and leave our comfort zone. If only I could take all our friends with us, it would be perfect. :)

For Old Time's Sake

Tonight was my last night at FSM. Kolby will be here a couple more weeks, but I'm going to try to head up to Louisville next Sunday afternoon. It was good to spend one more night with the students. I'm looking forward to the last hang out with my FSM small group this Thursday, and a Community Group send-off Wednesday. That's if I can dig my way out from under this pile of boxes by then...

I have a to-do list a mile long... Call the mortgage banker, find a job, apply for scholarships, etc... etc... etc... The next few weeks are going to go by quick, but Kolby and I are excited to begin the next chapter in our lives! We know there is a lot to come over the next few years.

Kolby and me at the Seminary Preview Weekend