Christmas 2008

Joel took his favorite Christmas present to AL with us...the Wii. He and our nephew, Kiah, played it every time they got together.

We got 3 Cracker Barrell rocking chairs for our new home..when be build that is! The UT covers are a must during football and basketball seasons.

And what would Christmas be if Baby J didn't get something? Books, onesies, shoes, diapers and passie clips!

My nephew Kiah.

One of my identical twin nieces. I'm not sure which one this is. My sister-in-law has 4 children - Kiah - 4, Anne Elise - 2 and Eva and Sophia - 1.

I have been so far behind on posting and to be honest I haven't gotten the hang of how to post on here. Now maybe everyone will understand the complete randomness to these pictures. But as you can see, we had a wonderful and blessed Christmas!

What a mess!

Joel and I live in his grandparents old house. The house was built around the 1950's. The house is very tiny, outdated and only has 1 closet. When we moved in, we updated what we could and left the rest as is. We plan on building our own home in about a year! So, with that said, now that Baby J is on the way, something had to be done. Joel and I are remodeling the extra bedroom in the house for the baby.

Notice the paneling on the walls (which is one every wall of this house!) Joel has worked so hard on destroying this room! Baby J will have the most up to date and best looking room in the house!

I will post more pictures once we have made more progress!

H2H Christmas Party

Joel and I have been attending Laurel Church of Christ for a few years now. We have become friends with so many young married couples our age and really enjoy doing things with them. On Sunday nights the church splits up into small study groups for what we call Heart to Heart sessions. Here a few pictures of our H2H Christmas Party at Chris and Regena's house.

We decorated cookies...

played games....

and ate the cookies! I'm not much of a cookie decorator, but I made this one especially for Joel.

C.C.H.S. Living Skills Christmas Party

We went to Twin Cove Marina for our Christmas Party this year. My students really enjoyed their lunch and Christmas gifts from "Ho-Ho" as most of them called the jolly man in the red suit!

Big News!!

We finally get to share the wonderful news!! Joel and I are pregnant! We went to the Dr. today and everything looks perfect! We are 6 weeks and 3 days...that makes our due date July 31. Baby "J's" heart rate was 152 bpm and measured at 7 weeks 3 days.

We found out about 4 weeks ago. Joel and his best friend were in Missouri on a hunting trip. I knew something was wrong when I left my hour long aerobics class and went to buy a pint of ice cream. (Which I devoured in less than 30 minutes...very unusual for me!)

The test read positive immediately! I called Joel and he announced it to the entire gas station he was at in Missouri.

After saying all that, we are absolutely thrilled and are so excited about the next 7.5 months. We have decided to not find out the sex of the baby so that makes this journey much more interesting!

Why I love my job...

I am often asked why I want to teach the population that I do. Take a look at these pictures. The children are awesome and so much fun to be with.
On Thursday, my class, along with all the other Living Skills classes in the county, went to the corn maze. This was probably a first for many of the students.

27!

My parents took Joel to Ye Ole Steak House for his birthday.

Atomic Man

6:30 a.m. - Registration

The race was scheduled to start at 7:30, but because of the fog on the lake the first swim wave started at 8:00.

1.2 mile swim/56 mile bike/13.1 mile run

Mom, Dad and Amy came out to cheer us on. My mom had tried to convince me that I should swim in a life jacket!

Jay and Jennifer Norris

Dan and Sarah Watkins

We had several comments on our shirts!

The fog was terrible! I am in that mess somewhere. The fog made the swim very difficult.

Almost to the finish line!

Passing the timing chip to Jay.

I was so happy my part of the race was over!

This was the half way point. 28 miles.

Joel was such a great supporter! Check out that shirt! I have the greatest husband!

Passing the timing chip to Dan.

Only 6-7 miles to go!

I couldn't forget Joel's birthday!

We finished just under 6.5 hrs.

Team Tri for Him ...

and the greatest supporters we could ask for!

5 weeks of training and now...

Tomorrow morning, two friends from church and I are competing in the 1/2 Iron Man Triathlon at Melton Hill Park. I don't know why I am doing this or what I have gotten myself into, but I am very, very nervous. I am worried about the temperature of the lake water. I hate being cold!
Anyways, we are competing as a relay team. I am swimming 1.2 miles, Jay Norris is biking 56 miles and Dan Watkins in running 13 miles. I have the easy part!! I have trained for 5 weeks and am feeling pretty good about the swim!
Tomorrow is Joel's birthday and he is stuck at this race all day. What a great husband I have! He could be doing so many other things on his birthday.
Stay tuned...pictures and results to soon follow.

5th Annual Marine Mud Run

Some friends and I from church decided to run this race today. We had no idea what to expect, but we had so much fun!

Sara and I stuck together through the entire race. She wouldn't let me walk...even though I wanted to a times!
Rusty and Kyle were there too.
Here's Sara and I making our way through the last part of the race that is in the lake.
We were muddy, but not like we had expected.

Clinica Ezell - Guatemala

On July 12 I left for Guatemala for a week to do medical mission work. I went with two great friends from church, Sara Watkins and Jennifer Norris. The mission team perfromed eye surgeries that week. I have about 600 pictures, so I decided to post only a few.

Greg and Rachel's Wedding

The four of us went through Undergrad. and Grad. school together.

We are all going to school this Aug. to get our EdS!