Baseball

Last week I was able to spend some time at one of my all time favorite places.....Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves. I spent a lot of my 3 years of seminary cheering on the Braves with some of my dearest friends. I love that place.

It was a brief trip because I ventured with the youth from our church. Luckily, I'm headed back this weekend to spend some time in my favorite city with Jillian! I can't wait to eat some Flying Biscuit, do some quality shopping, and enjoy the big city life.

Ordination

On Friday evening, Matt was ordained into full connection in the United Methodist Church. After a process of written paperwork and in-person interviews over the past several years, he is now officially ordained!

Although you can't tell from this photo, I had the privilege of standing with Matt during the ceremony. I couldn't have been more proud. Can't wait to see where ministry takes us in the years ahead! Congratulations Matt!

Garden Update

Last weekend, we also spent several hours working in the garden. I let the weeds grow out of control so it was time to put a stop to that.

We also did some research (should have done the prior to planting?) and realized we needed to separate our leeks and onions so Matt took on that job.

After a brief scare in which I thought we'd lost our garden for the year because of extreme heat early in the season, I'd say things are looking pretty good! We've had several strawberries, tasty spinach, and are currently waiting on some baby squash and okra to grow (side note: our spaghetti squash given to us as a seedling is growing out of control, as in it might grow out of our "garden box"!).

Having a home garden is a heck of a lot of work but so rewarding and fun when things go well. I recommend everyone give it a shot. There is nothing like getting your hands in the dirt and growing your own food.

Memorial Day Get Away

My in-laws recently bought a lake house and they invited us down this weekend to enjoy it (I forgot to actually take a picture of the house...next time). So we spent Friday and Saturday on the lake. My view looked like this for most of the time:

It was wonderful to escape our every day norm and spend some time taking in the sun and the breeze on the water. Maggie loved the freedom of not being on the leash and splashing around in the lake. She played so hard that the minute we returned home we found her like this:

Matt and I are looking forward to many more great weekends spent at the lake. They are beginning some renovation work this week & we are hopeful that in the near future there might also be a boat to go with the house. But until then, we are thankful for a weekend of rest and sunshine!

Turning 27

Yesterday I celebrated my 27th birthday. It doesn't even seem possible that I can be that old. But it was a great start to a new year of life ahead.

After returning home from a quiet dinner together, Matt arranged for our dearest friends to surprise me at home. I seriously had no idea. We walked into the house, the alarm wasn't beeping, the light we usually leave on was off, & Matt was staring into the living room. My first thought was, "we've been robbed." So I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the lights came on and all of my friends jumped out yelling, "Surprise!" It was great to spend the evening with friends. Thank you Matt for arranging something so special & fun. I love you to the moon and back! (oh and he also gave me a new Kindle so I am exploring the world of the e-reader these days...so far, so good).

Here's to the 27th year!

Debris

The past few weeks have been crazy so I am just now getting around to posting the debris that we found in our yard after the tornadoes April 27. I went out to water the backyard late in the evening the Thursday after the storms and ran across this newspaper clipping from Tuscaloosa!

And then the search was on....I am fascinated by the fact that debris from that far away made it into our yard (and also terrified by the realization that the tornado actually came THAT close to our own home). I felt like an archaeologist trying to piece together documents and figure out where they might have come from. Here is a phone bill I found across the street, also from Tuscaloosa.

Alabama is still reeling from the destruction of these tornadoes. This will be a long term recovery and we don't expect it to go away any time soon but we are glad for some sense of normalcy returning to our lives.

With Heavy Hearts

Yesterday was a rough day here in Alabama. We woke in Birmingham to the sirens at 5:15 am and were hit pretty hard with some serious straight line winds and severe thunderstorms. We were without power for the morning and a portion of the afternoon. We had been alerted that it was only going to get worse from there....

...and it did. We waited all afternoon at home, knowing it was coming. We prepared our "safe place" in the tiny guest bedroom closet, bought a battery powered radio, and grabbed the flashlight and water. We watched the tornado pictured above move through Tuscaloosa and head our direction. It was terrifying. We were fortunate in that the tornado moved slightly north of downtown Birmingham and north of our neighborhood.

Today, we are thankful for our home and our safety but know there are many, many people in need in our state. We've cancelled our trip to Memphis this weekend and are waiting for the "go" to get out and begin the clean up. If you are looking for ways to give, I recommend the Red Cross or UMCOR (the link isn't working but google it).

May God be with all of us as we deal with this tragedy.