Proud Wife

We have had a super busy week. Somehow I ended up scheduling more to do at school than I had hours in they day to take care of! It was a good week though. On Wednesday night David and I got to go over to Jay and Katherine's house to see one of my best friends from high school, Luke Porter. Luke is one of my long-time friends and he and his wife Christin live in Nashville with their new little girl. He was in town on business and staying with Jay and Katherine (Jay and I graduated Highschool together as well) so we went over before David had to leave for choir. Katherine left for choir at her church and David left for choir at LBC and I got to stay and hang out for a while with Jay and Luke. We "facetimed" our other great friend Drew and enjoyed talking about "old times." We were "thick as thieves" during our Senior year and had a lot of fun together and had fun thinking about it all on Wednesday night. I am very thankful for lasting, Godly friendships. Here's a group shot from before David and Katherine left. Christin was in Nashville with their little girl, so she wasn't there. Thanks for the picture Katherine!

On Friday night David and I layed low and tried to go to bed early. We decided to go eat Chinese food and somehow ended up at a VERY authentic restaurant. In fact, the only thing on the menu that was in English were the prices for food items that we couldn't identify. We chose the buffet. :)

On Saturday I did home stuff while David went down to the school to practice for boards. Then David coached upward with Matt again and we enjoyed an evening with the Schneiders.

Church was fantastic today. Mainly because my hubby sang his first short solo at LBC! He sings on the praise team, so I'm used to seeing him up front, but today he sang alone! He did amazing, and I absolutely loved it. I was one proud wife. Click here
to see the video. David sings about 18 minutes into the service.

This afternoon Mom and Dad wanted to get everyone together to plan parts of the Italy trip...but how do you get everyone together when two people live in Little Rock, two live in Kansas City, and one lives in Fayetteville. Apple took care of that for us. I facetimed Mom on her ipad, Trip facetimed Dad on his ipad, and then Mom and Dad sat behind their respective screens. The result was David and I looking digitally at Tripp on Dad's screen, seeing Dad sitting beside it, and barely seeing Mom in Tripp's tiny window box! The miracles of technology...

We're really excited about this week because this weekend John, Sarah and Shepherd are coming to town! The last time John and Sarah came they were still just dating, so we can't wait to have them up here as a married couple with our precious nephew!

Relaxing Weekend

Hello! Happy Sunday night to everyone! This weekend has been great, but unfortunately I didn't take a single picture! So sorry. The week ended good, and quickly, and Friday night we were able to go grab dinner at Bonefish with our good friends Mitch and Nicole Hancock. The food and fellowship was great.

Saturday was filled with a whole lot of relaxation. We didn't even leave the house until like 2:30 in the afternoon! I did a VERY minimal amount of laundry, watched some TV with David, read a book, and generally thought about how nice it was to sit around. David sat around too, but he did some preparation for the AEGD, renewed my passport for me, and kept the fire blazing all day long. When we finally did leave the house it was just to go get me a new passport photo, which I assure you, turned out lovely...NOT. For dinner we had a date night in the power and light district at The Drunken Fish for some sushi. We sat upstairs by a nice big window and could look out into the city...very fun! It was SUPER cold though.

Today was a fantastic day at church. It was Pastor Steve's annual vision Sunday sermon and we were excited to hear what he feels like the Lord is leading our church to do this 2012. This year marked LBC's 17th consecutive year of growth, which is amazing. LBC also baptized 154 people this past year. As for the future, LBC will continue to be "one church, two campuses," that includes The Fellowship at Greenwood in Greenwood, MO. We will also continue to look for opportunities for another campus out south, in addition to in North Kansas City. It's all very exciting! Our new Associate Senior Pastor, Mark Penick, will continue in his succession of our Senior Pastor Steve Dighton as the years go on. Here's a picture that Starrla Penick sent me recently from a night we got to enjoy a dinner our with Pastor Mark and Pastor Steve. We are so thankful for our church here in Kansas City.

They were watching a football game before sitting down to dinner...

Because I took zero pictures this weekend, I'll leave you with a picture I took at school this week. It was so funny when this little boy turned in his graph that I couldn't help but take a picture after I took them to Spanish. The lesson was about how to make a pie chart and the assignment was to show how they would use $100 if they had it. The pieces of the pie needed to be near the correct size, and they could only use exactly $100. This was a hard assignment for most. However, this particular student was one of the first done, and didn't need any assistance from me...

...that's right...$98 for donuts, $1 to save, and $1 for candy. This guys got his priorities in line. Good lesson. Have a great week!

Long Weekend!

Three day weekends are where it's at. One more day makes such a massive difference on the weekend! On Friday night we had a date night and went out to eat at Kokopelli where we had a groupon. When we got up to leave, we noticed that the people sitting beside us had brought their own backgammon board to the restaurant and were rolling the dice while waiting for their food. So random. We didn't hide our emotions very well and I'm pretty sure that we let a couple giggles escape and they may or may not have noticed.

Saturday was a day spent almost entirely inside working on home stuff. David worked on dental stuff most of the day and I did standard housework. Saturday night was a special treat for David and I. Our friend Matt coaches an Upward team at church and his assistant coach was out of town for the first game and he asked David to fill in. To say that is was funny, would be an understatment. The boys were third and fourth grade and I think David and Matt did about as much laughing as they did coaching...

After the game we all (us and Matt and Diana) headed over to the Hiene's house for game night. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures, but we had fun eating pizza and playing games. Thanks for having us over guys!

Sunday was a great day at church. The music was awesome and the sermon was about being a good steward. We went out to lunch after church with Mark and Starrla Penick, some friends they had in town, and Mitch and Nicole at California Pizza Kitchen...yum. We spent the rest of Sunday enjoying some unnaturally warm weather for January in Kansas City. We took Deuce to a trail that is pretty sparsely populated and let him off leash and walked around for about 2 hours. Deuce was loving the weather.

Behind the trail were some little league fields that were absolutely covered in geese. Deuce got in through a hole in one of the gates and tried to find his way to them. Deuce LOVES chasing birds (along with squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks and anything else that moves). It was kind-of an intricate maze of gates and fields, but we helped him figure it out and his joy was complete when he ran directly into the middle of them and they all took flight. Please excuse the poor video quality at the beginning of this...we were running to try and catch up with him while guide him too. I promise, it gets slightly less shaky as you watch.

Our little bird dog...



The weekend wasn't over today! We got to enjoy running errands, walking the dog, and again, enjoying some really warm beautiful weather. Tonight it is already cold again, but it was great while it lasted. This week is normal, but short. I have one cheerleading practice to lead, David has praise team/choir practice, we will lead gospel group, and we're looking forward to a dinner at Bonefish with Mitch and Nicole on Friday.

The big news of the weekend is that Mom and Dad booked all the flights to Italy for the family! It's offical and we're way past pumped. This year is Mom and Dad's 30th anniversary, and they decided they wanted to go to Italy and take David and I and Tripp! Mom and Dad...WE CAN'T WAIT!

Big Decision

David and I have made a fairly large decision in the recent weeks. As y'all know, David graduates from dental school on May 5...so THEN what? All this time wanting to get to this date, and now it's less than 4 months away!

Through much prayer and talking with our families and teachers at school, we announced last year that David would not be specializing and would become a general dentist. Now we have had another big decision to make...join a practice in Arkansas immediately following graduation, or apply for a residency? We decided to apply for the residency and see if he got in.

The most recent news...he did! We have now decided that David is going to do the one-year residency here in Kansas City! What this means for us:

1. Moving back to Arkansas in May 2013 instead of May 2012, which we feel really good about.
2. David will make a small amount of money! Woohoo!
3. David will receive extra training, especially in implants, and be more marketable while looking for a job.

God has continually directed us as a couple, starting with moving to Kansas City in the first place for dental school. So we know that He will continue to guide and direct us as we turn our focus to this residency and finding the right fit for David in a practice in Arkansas. God is good...what He has for us to do has always and will always be better than anything we could think up on our own. :)

Cotton Bowl

It's Cotton Bowl Night. It's really late. I'm blogging. I had to! Tonight was SO much fun. Our friends Katherine and Jay Thorpe came over to watch the game with us tonight and to cheer on the Hogs. The weeks leading up to this bowl game have been a different experience for David and I. Arkansas was playing a Big 12 team with lots of fans in Kansas City. Not only were K-State fans rooting for their team, but it seemed like most other big 12 fans were rooting against Arkansas (which we can totally understand). But the difference for David and I is that we live here, and we have been surrounded by it! We've never experienced it before.

Now, we have suffered our fair share of trash talk in these past weeks, and we have tried to handle it gracefully. Everyone loves their team, including us. But I would be lying if I said I wasn't glad the game was over. No more hearing about how K-State might beat Arkansas! It's over. The Hogs have won, and they looked good doing it. It's a good night to be a Razorback.

John and Sarah sent us a picture of Shepherd...he's game ready!

Deuce was feeling a little nervous, but he was game ready too.

We loved watching the game with Jay and Katherine. Thanks for coming over y'all! We love you guys!

Victory is sweet...