Our Anniversary

For our third anniversary Chris surprised me with a trip to the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. We had lots of fun staying in their hotel, eating fancy foods, and touring the house with all the Christmas decorations. It was great to just get away for a weekend and go to a place we had never been before. The third year of marriage was full of blessings and had its share of heartache too but we are thankful that God has blessed us with another year of marriage.

too much going on...

Well since I last posted lots of things have happened. Most importantly we have moved to a new house! We are still in Habersham County but have ventured to the south side. We hated to leave the cabin but decided it was time to move into our own home. Living at the cabin was the best place a newlywed couple could ever imagine living! But God has ways higher than ours and He lead us to Baldwin to find our first "own" home. It has been bittersweet leaving Batesville. There are so many things we miss but it is also nice being homeowners at the same time. I have one funny story that came from buying our house...the day we put an offer in, chris and i were driving home to the cabin in sort of a solemn mood (i guess you have to see where we lived to understand) rehashing what we had just done. We were talking about the new house and sharing thoughts about leaving the cabin and how hard it would be. When we got home I got to work on some Christmas projects and Chris said, "You know, I'm going to go out in the woods and see if I see anything." (That is his way of saying, "I'm going hunting.") So he geared up and took off into the woods by our house. He wasn't gone for too long when I heard a shot echo my way. I thought for sure it couldn't be him because he hadn't been gone too long. I mindlessly went back to wrapping presents by the fire not thinking much about the shot. After it started to become dusk, I began to get worried. I would get up from in front of the fire ever so often to peer out the window looking for my mountain man to come walking out from the woods. But he was never there when I looked. Fifteen minutes after my last visit to the window, I heard him coming up the front steps. He came to the door, panting and out of breath, and asking me to get my camera. "That was your shot!" I said. He affirmed my thought and said that since that shot had gone off he had been dragging the buck he shot out of the woods. He pulled at least 200 yards (and that's his estimation...so it's not an exaggeration!). So of course, I took his picture with his deer and then let him go about slaying the animal. I thought that was a cute story...Chris in the woods and me by the fire. Those are the two places we always loved to be living at the cabin. I guess we realized just how much we were going to miss Watts Mill Road!
We miss the cabin but living near work has helped make it easier to pour our lives into our students. I guess living near our students gives us a bond we didn't have before. I feel more connected to them. Just today I got to take a student out after school and still be home by 4:30! That is amazing. Just pray that continues to God increase our impact here in Baldwin through being closer to the students we minister to. And come and visit us soon.

Last week of summer...

Well, I guess summer is finally over. It has been quite eventful though with Chris finishing his masters degree through NGC&SU, visiting family in Mobile, and then touring NYC! I had been to NYC before but Chris had not. We went to two baseball games while in New York, one at Yankee Stadium and one at Shea Stadium. Both games were great games and I have to thank the row of Yankees fans that sat behind us in the bleachers in right field, they made the game exactly what Chris and I expected. We also toured the Staue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Empire State Building, China Town, Little Italy, Central Park, Harlem, and the Musuem Mile. We did all of this in 3 days! Needless to say we were extremely tired when we finally made it to the airport Wednesday night to catch our flight. Upon arrival to LaGuardia Airport we learned that our flight had been delayed from 8:46 pm until 11:12 pm. To make a long story short, after sitting in the airport for 4 hours and experiencing delays until 1:12 am our flight was finally cancelled until the next day at 4:20 pm. This gave us another night in NYC. This night was quite interesting to say the least. We started out looking for a hotel room...which was hard to find since 8 other flights had been cancelled also. We finally found a motel somewhere in Queens and took a taxi there. When we arrived there, we immedietly realized why there were still rooms! Chris thinks you could rent a room by the half hour (if you catch his drift). The lobby was protected by 2 inch thick glass. Chris told the guy behind the glass that we had asked for a room but changed our mind and wanted him to call a taxi for us. We got back to the airport, waited 2 hours for a blanket from airport officals, then ended up sleeping on the floor of the airport. I slept wonderfully and Chris slept horribly. There were hundreds of people sleeping on the floor when I fell asleep and none left when I woke up. Chris and I then ate 3 meals in the airport, bought books and magazines to occupy over time, talked to many people from all over, and then finally boarded our flight at 8:46 pm...24 hours after our first flight was to take off. We finally made it back to Atlanta, got in our car and headed back to God's Country. We only drove a 1/4 mile through the parking lot at the airport before Chris turned on the light and jumped out of the car with ants all over him and crawling all over the front of our car (they were even coming out of the parking brake)! I then jumped out, stripped down, and then started spraying Off and hand sanitizer on the ants. They did finally die, we laughed, and finally made it to Bateville and our own bed. The trip was awesome. We just learned two lessons...1. don't fly into LuGuardia 2. don't park at the airport unless you can park in the parking deck! I will put pictues up soon.

Our Garden

Chris and I have started a new hobby with Dad and Mom.  At the house we have a garden in the memory of my grandfather, Waymon Blackburn.  Chris and I live on his property and thought this would be a good way to remember him.  He loved to garden and all of his grandchildren have many memories of working in the garden with Papaw and Big Mommy during the summer months.  The garden has done well by the grace of God since we are all new "farmers".  This garden has also been a great way to help us cope with the miscarriage we experienced in early June.  It has given us something to do and shown me God's goodness in how He waters our seeds, matures us and makes us bear fruit.  I included some pictures of the garden which includes tomatoes, squash, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, corn, and (my favorite) okra.  It sure has been a lot of fun.

I can't believe I'm doing this!

Well this is the first post on our new blog.  We are in Mobile visiting the Akridge Fam and great friends we haven't seen in awhile.  We have already been to Foosackly's and Sabor a Mexico and we've only been here two days.  

Our summer has been pretty busy.  Chris just finished summer baseball and his master's degree. YEAH!!  I have been to the beach with my family in North Carolina. We have also spent two holidays at Lake Burton with our good friends, the Barrys'.  Chris and I both ran in the Lake Burton Fun Run.  It was lots of fun but showed me just how competitive my husband really is!  

Next week we are going to New York to fulfill my dream of going to Yankee Stadium before they tear it down.  I will post pictures from that when we get back.