It's been a year already????

Our first visit to the seminary last April!

Leaving our apartment in Murfreesboro last year!

Our new little home in Louisville!

Wow.... it's hard to believe that one year ago today, we were signing our mortgage papers and unloading our UHAUL into our new little condo. This year has really flown by! Andrew has finished his first year of seminary and I've spent another year with The Busy Bee magazine. I've really enjoyed Louisville and all the wonderful people we've met. We still miss all our Murfreesboro friends!

We had a great trip to Memphis for BBQ Fest in May. It's always nice to see my family. We found out that my brother Karson and his wife Michelle are expecting their first child!!! So Andrew and I will have a new niece or nephew in December. Can't wait to find out what it's going to be! On the way back to the Ville, we stopped in Murfreesboro briefly and went to FSM for the senior send-off night.

Andrew took a summer class the first week of June and was consumed with reading thousands of pages, writing book reports, writing a big paper and studying for a test in addition to working at Chickfila all the time. I was buried in my deadline time for my magazine.

We finally got to hang out together a little bit last night. We enjoyed yummy ice cream from Brusters and went to visit one of our friends who just had a little baby boy. We had to head to bed early since Andrew had to be up at 4 am to go to work. I couldn't go back to sleep after he left so I got up at 5 am!!! If you know me, you know I am NOT a morning person. I couldnt think of anything to do so I figured I'd write another blog post. I think it's too early for my brain to be functioning properly, so I'll just post some pictures of what we've been up to!

Good times with great friends at Memphis BBQ fest in May!

Andrew and our niece, Emmye, on their back porch.

Karson and Micelle, the parents to be! Due in December.


My sister-in-law, Karey, and nephew Wilson. He's getting so big!

At a Louisville Bats baseball game with our small group.

Visiting our friends at the hospital after they just had TWINS!!

Andrew holding baby Nathan, born June 1.
This is Jacob & Rebekah's son.
Andrew works with Jacob at Chickfila

Strawberry picking at Huber's Farm with our friends

Josh, Joanna, and their kiddos, Hannah and Drew

Great strawberries! We've only got a couple left!

Unloading Kevin and Virginia's truck after Kevin made the long treck from California!

What we've been up to . . .

It has been quite a while since we've updated our blog!! Maybe when we have children, I'll have more fun things to write about. :) We've stayed busy with school, work, and church. In March, we traveled to Atlanta for some time with Andrew's family. His little brother drove up from college to see us. It was such a nice trip and it's always great to be with family. We even got to have lunch with my mom in Nashville on our way back. She was there visiting a friend.

We have really been enjoying the wonderful friends that God has placed in our lives. We've had lots of get-togethers and baby showers to go to. It seems that so many couples in our church are pregnant. For Easter Sunday, we had 30 people over for lunch. I couldn't believe everyone fit in our condo, but somehow it worked.

Andrew has been enjoying working at Chick-fil-a, and the Lord is really using Andrew here. He has been able to reach out to several of his co-workers. It is truly amazing to see how the Lord is working.

Andrew finished up his first year of seminary last Thursday...woohoo!!! He's been studying and reading non-stop. Even though he's finished with school, I still see him with a book in his hand. He's happily admitted that he is an official "geek." :) The Friday after he finished his finals, we took a quick get-away to Cincinnati. We were taking our friend Andy to the airport anyway, so we thought we would make a day of it. We went to the IKEA store, which I loved. This place was huge. I had so much fun browsing around. Andrew, of course, found a comfy couch and read. We were able to catch a Reds vs. Cardinals game as well. It was fun. We had to come back early Saturday morning for him to go to work and I had a baby shower to attend.

We're heading to Memphis this weekend for the annual BBQ fest. We've had to miss it the past two years, so we are super excited about delicious ribs and pulled pork sandwiches. My mouth is watering!!! We also found out that our dear friends from Murfreesboro, Kevin and Virginia, will be moving to Louisville in just a few weeks. What fun to have them here!! Virginia is the one who initially brought me to Fellowship in Murfreesboro. She came into my life at just the right time.

Andrew is planning on taking some classes this summer, and we'll both just continue working. I have a wedding to attend in July. My best friend since 3rd grade is getting married out in Colorado. Unfortunatley Andrew can't attend, but I know I'll have a good time.

Well I guess that's about it. I'll try not to wait too long before the next post!

A visit to Atlanta to see Andrew's Family

A "luau" party for our friend Ashley

Just a sampling of the 30 people over for Easter lunch

Our friends Dave and Leigh's precious daughter Greta in her "Derby Hat" at their Derby party.

A surprise "welcome back" party for our friend Tricia. Tricia is in our small group and had spent three months in Africa. Our other friend Nicole will be in Africa for another 3 months.At Tricia's welcome back party

Our trip to Cincinnati . . . at Reds vs. Cardinals game

A baby shower for Ashley.

February re-cap!

Watching Gator basketball

Getting baptized

My parents attempting to play "rock band"

Our new light fixture and framed in mirror!

After we thawed out from the ice storm, we were able to enjoy the rest of February. On the 10th, we drove to Lexington for the Florida vs. KY basketball game. We were a little bit outnumbered in the Rupp arena. There might have been 10 other Gator fans besides us. :)

On February 20, I turned 25!! I'm now officially a quarter of a century old. I hung out with some women from our church, and Andrew and I enjoyed a nice dinner out at Bonefish Grill.....one of my favorite restaurants. I spent the rest of the weekend re-caulking our bathtub and painting a table. I really know how to have a good time. :)

Our church was having a baptism service on the Sunday following my birthday. When I was 17, I wanted to be baptized and was sprinkled. But since we've moved to Louisville, I've just felt God working on my heart to be immersed. I wanted to experience that symbolic picture of being buried and raised with Christ. Our church meets at a Holiday Inn, and we were able to use their pool for this special service. It was such a neat experience and we had about 200 people in attendance that morning. As 10 of us were in the pool, it was really awesome to look around and be surrounded by our church body.

The weekend after my birthday, my parents came in town for a visit. They are always pretty handy for projects. My sweet dad installed a storm door for us, and it really helps keep the draft out of our living room. We also hung a new light fixture in our bathroom and added a frame to our giant mirror in our bathroom. We used some molding and painted it brown. It made a huge improvement in our bathroom!! We got to introduce them to lots of our friends in Louisville, and they got to experience playing "Rock Band" at our friend's house.

Andrew is really enjoying working at Chick-fil-a, and we both love eating there!!! He is staying busy with school and playing in the worship band at church. Greek is his most challenging class this semester. Fortunately, he is only taking 9 hours, but it's still a full load for him. I'm really enjoying my seminary wives classes that meet on Thursday nights. I'm learning a lot. And it has finally warmed up here in the 'ville. We enjoyed beautiful 70 degree weather yesterday. I sure hope it lasts!

Surviving the Storm

This was the 58 inch icicle over at Andy & Caitlin's house!

Since Andrew and I have lived in Louisville, we have experienced the two worst power outages in the state's history. We had a huge windstorm in September that knocked out power for over 600,000 people in the state. This week, we had a massive ice storm hit and over 700,000 people lost pwer. We lost our power on Wednesday morning, and finally got it back on Sunday afternoon...wahoo! Unfortunately, there are still several thousand people without it. Please keep them in your prayers. We were so grateful to our friends the Barlows for letting us live with them this past week. We periodically made trips back to our condo to get more clothes. It was colder inside our condo than it was outside. BRRRRR. Andrew was supposed to start school last Tuesday but classes were cancelled all week. So tomorrow, Feb. 3, should be his first day. Here are some pics of the white out.

A Wonderful Christmas Season Continued

Our niece Emmye

Playing in the styrofoam peanuts

Our little nephew, Wilson

Playing the fun game with Andrew's Family

Andrew's Mom and sisters and me

Andrew and Emily in Murfreesboro

Andrew and I were so fortunate to get to spend so much time with our families over the holidays. We left Louisville on the 23rd and made a pit-stop in Murfreesboro before heading to Atlanta. We were able to say hi to the Kramers and the Bakers (they were in town from Dallas). We had lunch at Andrew's favorite restaurant, Camino Real, with some of the youth students. We miss them so much!

We surprised Andrew's family in Atlanta. They thought we were coming later! Andrew got sick on Christmas day and spent the next two days going between the bed and the bathroom....not fun! He passed it on to his little brother and cousin. We felt bad about spreading the sick germs all around. But other than that, we had a great time. We had not been to Atlanta since May.

On the 30th (our 2-year anniversary) we drove to Memphis to be with my family. We had our Christmas celebration on New Year's Eve. Christmas is so much fun with little kids around. Our niece was fascinated with one of the boxes that was full of styrofoam peanuts. She didn't even want to open the rest of her presents. She just wanted to play with the peanuts. We aslo got to go to the Liberty Bowl football game. Kentucky won! It was fun to see the team from our state win.

We returned back to Louisville on Jan. 4th. We had lots of unpacking and Christmas decorations to put away. It's always hard to get back in the swing of the things after being gone so long. Andrew started his new job at Chick-fil-a right when we got back. They just opened a brand new store right down the road from us. He likes it so far. And we get a discount on food!! I'm super excited about that...I LOVE Chick-fil-a.

On January 8th, we got together with several friends to cheer on our Gators to a National Championship win! It was a great game. Both of us are a little sad that college football season is over. But maybe Andrew will be able to get more reading done for school!!! He will start classes on the 27th My seminary wives classes will kick off on the 29th. In the meantime, I'll just keep plugging away at The Busy Bee!

A Wonderful Christmas Season

Before Andrew and I left to visit our family for Christmas, we enjoyed some fun times with our small group from church. We are so blessed to be a part of this wonderful group. Andy Barlow (pictured bottom left) used to lead worship at Fellowship in Murfreesboro years ago. He and his precious wife Caitlin are dear friends! Andy is also in seminary and has been a huge help to Andrew. Nicole (pictured in the middle) and Tricia (not pictured) will be leaving for Africa the beginning of February for an extended mission trip. Nicole will be gone for 6 months and Tricia for 3. We will miss them dearly while they are gone. Sisters Linda and Judith moved here from Nigeria several years ago. Linda is a grad student at University of Louisville and Judith works as a phyiscal therapist. They are so much fun to be around! These pictures are from a super fun game we played at our Christmas party.