6 years and growing...

Then...

and Now...
To celebrate our 6th anniversary on October 21, we went to Stoney River. It was delicious! We reminisced about our 10 years of being together. We sure have had our shares of ups and downs with all of life's twists and turns, but the good definitely outshines it all. We pray that our life will leave a legacy of love.

Then...

and Now...
To celebrate our 6th anniversary on October 21, we went to Stoney River. It was delicious! We reminisced about our 10 years of being together. We sure have had our shares of ups and downs with all of life's twists and turns, but the good definitely outshines it all. We pray that our life will leave a legacy of love.

5 years and counting...

Can't believe that 5 years ago I was getting to do this:
Seems like just yesterday. I'd do it all again, and I'd do it all the same. Same friendship, courtship, holding zone-ship, falling in love long distance-ship. I've known my husband of 5 years through a 9.5 year journey, and I would not trade my best friend in the world for anything in the world...

Our journey has been an adventure with peaks and valleys, ebbs and flows, and lots and lots of love. I am thankful to partner with a servant-leader, and man of character and integrity, and a sweet sweet Daddy.

As we anticipate welcoming a new child into our family in less than 2 weeks, we celebrate all that the Lord has taught us and all of the blessings He has bestowed on us. Can't wait to see what the next 5 years hold...

Here is a picture of us from the early days. I think this was during my last semester at Auburn, Fall 2002 when we went to ATL to celebrate Cortney's birthday...
I think we might have been in the courtship phase at this point... or maybe still the holding zone phase... but we were DEFINITELY in the kissing phase at this point! :) And, boy, was that kissing phase a fun one.

We have a special date planned for tomorrow night, so I'll post an updated NOW picture afterwards. :)

Can't believe that 5 years ago I was getting to do this:
Seems like just yesterday. I'd do it all again, and I'd do it all the same. Same friendship, courtship, holding zone-ship, falling in love long distance-ship. I've known my husband of 5 years through a 9.5 year journey, and I would not trade my best friend in the world for anything in the world...

Our journey has been an adventure with peaks and valleys, ebbs and flows, and lots and lots of love. I am thankful to partner with a servant-leader, and man of character and integrity, and a sweet sweet Daddy.

As we anticipate welcoming a new child into our family in less than 2 weeks, we celebrate all that the Lord has taught us and all of the blessings He has bestowed on us. Can't wait to see what the next 5 years hold...

Here is a picture of us from the early days. I think this was during my last semester at Auburn, Fall 2002 when we went to ATL to celebrate Cortney's birthday...
I think we might have been in the courtship phase at this point... or maybe still the holding zone phase... but we were DEFINITELY in the kissing phase at this point! :) And, boy, was that kissing phase a fun one.

We have a special date planned for tomorrow night, so I'll post an updated NOW picture afterwards. :)

"House Divided" or "House United"?

Patrick and I reside in a "House Divided." I am a proud Auburn alum and he is a homegrown Alabama fan. We are equally passionate about our schools and teams. We love that about each other. In our relationship we have established a healthy respect for each other's interests and passions. We proudly sport our individual team colors and logos on fall Saturdays when we run our errands, and we look forward to hanging up our football flag.

We joke about our girls being confused as they grow up.

However, we plan to raise them in a "HOUSE UNITED."

We celebrate because we get to expose our children to two teams, two heritages, two loves. Our girls are going to be lucky because they get to have 2 teams to pull for, 2 stadiums to visit, 2 cultures to experience, and each year both an Auburn shirt AND an Alabama shirt to sport during this fun time!

I know that rivalries and team spirit and trash talk are usually "all in good fun," but we are intentional about promoting positive aspects of getting to cheer FOR two teams rather than cheering AGAINST any one. Unfortunately, many well-meaning people do not feel the same.

Addison [and Ansley] may say, "War Tide" and "Roll Eagle;" she [they] may confuse colors and mascots and chants; she [they] may cheer for a different team every year. That's ok with us.

We are excited about this because, in addition to Patrick and I respecting each other's loves and passions, we hope that it will also teach our daughters to be respectful and loving of the people and things in this world. "Hate," even in respect to such trivial things as sports, is something we don't want to expose them to.

We are never going to tell them who to be AGAINST. We will celebrate who they get to be FOR.

And that's a fun life lesson--for us and our children.

Can't wait for this opening weekend. We are heading to the plains and all of us couldn't be more excited!

War Eagle! ...and Roll Tide!

Patrick and I reside in a "House Divided." I am a proud Auburn alum and he is a homegrown Alabama fan. We are equally passionate about our schools and teams. We love that about each other. In our relationship we have established a healthy respect for each other's interests and passions. We proudly sport our individual team colors and logos on fall Saturdays when we run our errands, and we look forward to hanging up our football flag.

We joke about our girls being confused as they grow up.

However, we plan to raise them in a "HOUSE UNITED."

We celebrate because we get to expose our children to two teams, two heritages, two loves. Our girls are going to be lucky because they get to have 2 teams to pull for, 2 stadiums to visit, 2 cultures to experience, and each year both an Auburn shirt AND an Alabama shirt to sport during this fun time!

I know that rivalries and team spirit and trash talk are usually "all in good fun," but we are intentional about promoting positive aspects of getting to cheer FOR two teams rather than cheering AGAINST any one. Unfortunately, many well-meaning people do not feel the same.

Addison [and Ansley] may say, "War Tide" and "Roll Eagle;" she [they] may confuse colors and mascots and chants; she [they] may cheer for a different team every year. That's ok with us.

We are excited about this because, in addition to Patrick and I respecting each other's loves and passions, we hope that it will also teach our daughters to be respectful and loving of the people and things in this world. "Hate," even in respect to such trivial things as sports, is something we don't want to expose them to.

We are never going to tell them who to be AGAINST. We will celebrate who they get to be FOR.

And that's a fun life lesson--for us and our children.

Can't wait for this opening weekend. We are heading to the plains and all of us couldn't be more excited!

War Eagle! ...and Roll Tide!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

I'm so thankful for you and all of our times together. Can't believe this is the 9th Birthday we've celebrated together. Addison and I are very blessed by your love.

I'm so thankful for you and all of our times together. Can't believe this is the 9th Birthday we've celebrated together. Addison and I are very blessed by your love.

Just because he loves me...

and he knows I've had a heck of a week, P brought these pretty flowers home with him today. What a sweetie!

And, I know most of y'all have seen this video by now, but if not, enjoy! It is truly one of the greatest wedding spectacles I've seen.

and he knows I've had a heck of a week, P brought these pretty flowers home with him today. What a sweetie!

And, I know most of y'all have seen this video by now, but if not, enjoy! It is truly one of the greatest wedding spectacles I've seen.

VIVA LA VIDA

Best. Concert. Ever.

For Mother's Day, one of my gifts from P was a ticket to Coldplay--a "date" with Chris Martin, if you will. :) My man is awesome, I know.

Anyway the show was tonight with Snow Patrol opening for them. They started off the night with a captivating energy. Most of the audience sang along to their familiar songs, and when they played "Chasing Cars," I replayed Grey's Anatomy's Season two finale--scene by scene, line by line--in my mind as I intently listened {which, on a bit of a tangent, is arguably the best episode ever...} It was a great moment.

However, none can compare to Coldplay. I've watched several of their shows on music tv, but seeing them live is altogether an emotional experience. They played for a solid 2 hours, performed every song I would have wanted them to except "Swallowed in the Sea" which I really didn't expect. My personal favorites were "In My Place," "Fix You," and of course "Yellow." Chris was humble, funny, personable, and they gave each audience member a free cd of live tracks.

Before the show, P took me out to eat at Sunset Grill in Hillsboro Village. It was so fun for us to get to go out and be datey lovey. Addison had a blast with her cuz at Jaydee and Bear's, so it was a pleasent evening for all of the fam.

Best. Concert. Ever.

For Mother's Day, one of my gifts from P was a ticket to Coldplay--a "date" with Chris Martin, if you will. :) My man is awesome, I know.

Anyway the show was tonight with Snow Patrol opening for them. They started off the night with a captivating energy. Most of the audience sang along to their familiar songs, and when they played "Chasing Cars," I replayed Grey's Anatomy's Season two finale--scene by scene, line by line--in my mind as I intently listened {which, on a bit of a tangent, is arguably the best episode ever...} It was a great moment.

However, none can compare to Coldplay. I've watched several of their shows on music tv, but seeing them live is altogether an emotional experience. They played for a solid 2 hours, performed every song I would have wanted them to except "Swallowed in the Sea" which I really didn't expect. My personal favorites were "In My Place," "Fix You," and of course "Yellow." Chris was humble, funny, personable, and they gave each audience member a free cd of live tracks.

Before the show, P took me out to eat at Sunset Grill in Hillsboro Village. It was so fun for us to get to go out and be datey lovey. Addison had a blast with her cuz at Jaydee and Bear's, so it was a pleasent evening for all of the fam.

Several months of catch up

I never blog anymore. Today I sort of realized that I missed it. I've been writing a bunch elsewhere; I've been thinking a bunch; and our family has been going through a bunch. Leisure time has been nonexistent, but I like this outlet, this relationship that I've had with blogger over the past 3 years, and I decided it was time to jump back in.

I don't have tons to write about on my usual topics. I haven't read much--although I am reading an awesome book right now World Without End by Ken Follet and finished Middlesex and The Shack earlier this year; I haven't seen many movies lately--but I did enjoy Marley and Me over Spring Break and was part of the Slumdog Millionaire fan club; the only traveling I've done was a girls' trip to Florida over Spring Break. My life has mostly consisted of taking care of my sweet baby, enjoying Patrick's days when he's been able to come to town, mentoring my student teacher, and preparing my Juniors for their AP exam--which means grading lots and LOTS of essays. I have had fun weekend visits and homecooked meals from Jesse, sleepovers with Heather, and evenings with Lia. I've been busy and distracted, but I've been learning lots of hard lessons through the craziness of life.

The Lord has been teaching our family so much through our experiences these past few months. Mostly, he's been reteaching us how to depend on Him, that He has to be our first love, and that we should not ever take any of our moments together as a family for granted.

Sometimes I complain about how my students have entitlement issues. They think they deserve to have grades, freedoms, luxuries at their disposal. However, through our countries' struggling economic times, our world is changing. My world has totally changed, and upon reflection, I realize that I have had some entitlement issues of my own--expecting my life to go along according to my plan.

I am learning to appreciate the little things--sweet moments with my daughter, quiet moments with my husband, bonding together as a family. I'm learning again how to take time for myself, but I'm learning that I can't do it--and don't have to do it--all by myself. Thank goodness for real friendship and strong family loyalties.

All in all, 2009 has been a whirlwind of change, independence, flexibility, balance, and growing pains. Though some of it has been painful, we have experienced some of our most precious moments and made incredible memories. Being a mother is one of the most challenging, humbling, and rewarding roles I have ever played, and I can truly say that I love every moment of it. I am amazed by Addison every day.

Here are a few recent snapshots of our little girl:

I never blog anymore. Today I sort of realized that I missed it. I've been writing a bunch elsewhere; I've been thinking a bunch; and our family has been going through a bunch. Leisure time has been nonexistent, but I like this outlet, this relationship that I've had with blogger over the past 3 years, and I decided it was time to jump back in.

I don't have tons to write about on my usual topics. I haven't read much--although I am reading an awesome book right now World Without End by Ken Follet and finished Middlesex and The Shack earlier this year; I haven't seen many movies lately--but I did enjoy Marley and Me over Spring Break and was part of the Slumdog Millionaire fan club; the only traveling I've done was a girls' trip to Florida over Spring Break. My life has mostly consisted of taking care of my sweet baby, enjoying Patrick's days when he's been able to come to town, mentoring my student teacher, and preparing my Juniors for their AP exam--which means grading lots and LOTS of essays. I have had fun weekend visits and homecooked meals from Jesse, sleepovers with Heather, and evenings with Lia. I've been busy and distracted, but I've been learning lots of hard lessons through the craziness of life.

The Lord has been teaching our family so much through our experiences these past few months. Mostly, he's been reteaching us how to depend on Him, that He has to be our first love, and that we should not ever take any of our moments together as a family for granted.

Sometimes I complain about how my students have entitlement issues. They think they deserve to have grades, freedoms, luxuries at their disposal. However, through our countries' struggling economic times, our world is changing. My world has totally changed, and upon reflection, I realize that I have had some entitlement issues of my own--expecting my life to go along according to my plan.

I am learning to appreciate the little things--sweet moments with my daughter, quiet moments with my husband, bonding together as a family. I'm learning again how to take time for myself, but I'm learning that I can't do it--and don't have to do it--all by myself. Thank goodness for real friendship and strong family loyalties.

All in all, 2009 has been a whirlwind of change, independence, flexibility, balance, and growing pains. Though some of it has been painful, we have experienced some of our most precious moments and made incredible memories. Being a mother is one of the most challenging, humbling, and rewarding roles I have ever played, and I can truly say that I love every moment of it. I am amazed by Addison every day.

Here are a few recent snapshots of our little girl:

"Marriage is hard work."

Those words began and ended each of our premarital counseling sessions with Brink back in the day. In the 3 years that I have been married so far, I have definitely learned them and their absolute truth--although sometimes with ease and others with more difficulty. Dying to myself every day as a Christian is hard; dying to myself as an individual for my husband is harder. But it is so worth it--when I am intentional enough to do it. On our anniversary, we went to see this movie with minimal expectations. We saw Facing the Giants and loved it despite the harsh criticism of the acting. We were willing to give this one a try--even though the cheesiness of Kirk Cameron can be a little retching.

It was so worth it. I would recommend it to any married couple--no matter what phase of life. In the past month our life has drastically changed--in awe-inspiring ways, in stressful ways, in celebratory ways, in devastating ways. A new child, a job loss/change, new roles to learn, new sleep habits, new hormones, being even more totally dependent than we realized was possible on the Lord, being blissfully happy and utterly hopeless in the same hour... This month has been different for our marriage. Difficult but wonderful. This movie helped us celebrate our three happy, adventurous, successful years of our marriage so far. It also helped us prepare for the ncxt 3, and then the next... It brought up many important conversations and it helped me look at Patrick with a more mature (I hope) love. We are learning.

The movie itself isn't magical, but I believe God's work through it can be.

Those words began and ended each of our premarital counseling sessions with Brink back in the day. In the 3 years that I have been married so far, I have definitely learned them and their absolute truth--although sometimes with ease and others with more difficulty. Dying to myself every day as a Christian is hard; dying to myself as an individual for my husband is harder. But it is so worth it--when I am intentional enough to do it. On our anniversary, we went to see this movie with minimal expectations. We saw Facing the Giants and loved it despite the harsh criticism of the acting. We were willing to give this one a try--even though the cheesiness of Kirk Cameron can be a little retching.

It was so worth it. I would recommend it to any married couple--no matter what phase of life. In the past month our life has drastically changed--in awe-inspiring ways, in stressful ways, in celebratory ways, in devastating ways. A new child, a job loss/change, new roles to learn, new sleep habits, new hormones, being even more totally dependent than we realized was possible on the Lord, being blissfully happy and utterly hopeless in the same hour... This month has been different for our marriage. Difficult but wonderful. This movie helped us celebrate our three happy, adventurous, successful years of our marriage so far. It also helped us prepare for the ncxt 3, and then the next... It brought up many important conversations and it helped me look at Patrick with a more mature (I hope) love. We are learning.

The movie itself isn't magical, but I believe God's work through it can be.

Bliss

Today is Patrick's and my 3rd Wedding Anniversary, and we cannot believe how fast time has flown. These 3 years have been the happiest of my life, and I feel so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man of character and compassion! Love you!

Today is Patrick's and my 3rd Wedding Anniversary, and we cannot believe how fast time has flown. These 3 years have been the happiest of my life, and I feel so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man of character and compassion! Love you!

teacher nerd

I am offically a teacher nerd. I get excited about composition notebooks, reading days, stickers for my students, Chaucer, colored pens to grade specific things with, easy graders, notebooks to organize novel studies... It fascinates me and gets me going. Now, what I am not so adept at is timely, organized grading and record-keeping. I know that I need to improve in those areas, but I seem to stay a couple of steps behind... I love Fridays when my students come in ready to read and respond. I HAVE to believe that their reading levels are improving and that they are learning to enjoy reading.

Last night, Patrick and I made our weekly trip to Auburn for premarital counseling with Jim. Our experiences with this counseling have really opened our eyes to ways that we will constantly need to be working on in our marriage. I am overwhelmed at how easy it is to shift into auto-pilot and coast through life, and I enter into this marriage with high hopes that Patrick and I will do what it takes to have a healthy marriage. We talked about power styles, and not surprisingly, we learned that we are both on the assertive ends. We balance between assertive-controlling and assertive-adaptive. We both, however, recognize situations in which we have portrayed passive-aggressive and passive-sufferer tendencies. Just rating ourselves and rating each other revealed to us how to serve each other more fully. I am continuing to learn and realize that marriage is about being selfless. I am definitely not there yet.

At school, through church, with my family, we are trying to find ways to serve the hurricane victims. I feel helpless to do anything that would be of any significance or real help, and I feel sick at my stomach when I start thinking about things. I keep "hoping" that it's just all almost resolved... hoping against hope.

After my "functified" post the other day, I ordered 3 books of Amazon: The Great Gatsby (which I plan to teach my 11th-grade classes beginning next week), Blue Like Jazz (recommended to me by Jesse), and The Jane Austen Book Club. I am ready to read something good! I am struggling through A Prayer for Owen Meany right now. I have heard wonderful things about it, but I can't seem to get through the first 50 pages. I am going to keep pushing through though.

I am so thankful for this weekend. I need a break so badly to get well, to rest, to address wedding invitations. Nothing is on my schedule, and that makes me so relieved.

I am offically a teacher nerd. I get excited about composition notebooks, reading days, stickers for my students, Chaucer, colored pens to grade specific things with, easy graders, notebooks to organize novel studies... It fascinates me and gets me going. Now, what I am not so adept at is timely, organized grading and record-keeping. I know that I need to improve in those areas, but I seem to stay a couple of steps behind... I love Fridays when my students come in ready to read and respond. I HAVE to believe that their reading levels are improving and that they are learning to enjoy reading.

Last night, Patrick and I made our weekly trip to Auburn for premarital counseling with Jim. Our experiences with this counseling have really opened our eyes to ways that we will constantly need to be working on in our marriage. I am overwhelmed at how easy it is to shift into auto-pilot and coast through life, and I enter into this marriage with high hopes that Patrick and I will do what it takes to have a healthy marriage. We talked about power styles, and not surprisingly, we learned that we are both on the assertive ends. We balance between assertive-controlling and assertive-adaptive. We both, however, recognize situations in which we have portrayed passive-aggressive and passive-sufferer tendencies. Just rating ourselves and rating each other revealed to us how to serve each other more fully. I am continuing to learn and realize that marriage is about being selfless. I am definitely not there yet.

At school, through church, with my family, we are trying to find ways to serve the hurricane victims. I feel helpless to do anything that would be of any significance or real help, and I feel sick at my stomach when I start thinking about things. I keep "hoping" that it's just all almost resolved... hoping against hope.

After my "functified" post the other day, I ordered 3 books of Amazon: The Great Gatsby (which I plan to teach my 11th-grade classes beginning next week), Blue Like Jazz (recommended to me by Jesse), and The Jane Austen Book Club. I am ready to read something good! I am struggling through A Prayer for Owen Meany right now. I have heard wonderful things about it, but I can't seem to get through the first 50 pages. I am going to keep pushing through though.

I am so thankful for this weekend. I need a break so badly to get well, to rest, to address wedding invitations. Nothing is on my schedule, and that makes me so relieved.