Seminar Saturday

This weekend I had a great time attending several seminars offered by the seminary. I wanted to post a few images from the Floral Arranging Seminar. I enjoyed learning from a native Alabamian. Bronwyn is from Birmingham, Alabama and we even know a few common people. It was great to hear a familiar accent and to learn from such a creative woman. The arrangements she did were "English" style. She learned from a group of ladies who learned from a group of ladies who arrange flowers for the Queen of England! I purchased a DVD of this seminar so hopefully I will be able to somehow make a duplicate of what she did. She has arranged flowers for home parties to weddings. What a domestic diva!

I learned so much this weekend! Another seminar I attended was on disciplining children. I had a great time learning from Dana and her adventure with her 5 young children. Dana has 3 children she gave birth to and 2 adopted children. Because the children are so close in age, you can imagine the importance and need for discipline to keep the family peaceful. She told the story of riding on a trip with the family. One of her boys said "You know what?" "What?" she and her husband said. "I think this spanking thing is really working. I've been a lot better." Hilarious! It made me excited about the possibility of Rocky and I having children one day and all the fun things they say.

I also attended seminars on homemaking, submission, and evangelism. They were all great and I feel I have a lot of new wisdom to add to my life. All these seminars have definitely inspired me to be a better wife and keeper of our home. I hope I can honor the Lord in this way.

MIA

Okay, so I have taken a brief, involuntary, sabbatical from the blog---not because I wanted to, but because we were in the process of moving. We just moved and ugghh! I hate packing and all that goes with it. However, we are now up and running and so hopefully so is the blog :)

Above is a picture of me and my friend Shelley at her bridal shower. It was great to meet some of her close friends from home and I am excited for her that she is getting married in a little over a month. Congratulations girl! While in Nashville for the shower, I also got to see my best friend Karen. She and her husband are currently in the process of selling their condo so I had the joy of helping them fix up the place for open house. It looked great!

To give you a little update on Rocky and me, we have definitely been keeping busy. We are loving the warm weather and have been hitting the parks lately along with our little dog Buddy. He went in to a bit of doggie depression when we first moved, but now he seems to be adjusting fine. He loves the outdoors! Rocky and I were also in a funny, but cheesy, skit at church. Rockstar was the main character and did a fabulous job. Look out Hollywood . . . he just might have his own sitcom soon. I was very proud of him. It helped that it was "family night" at church so all the kids were in the service and laughed at all the cheesy jokes :)

I'm looking forward to a seminar I am attending this Saturday. I am taking several classes including: floral arrangements made easy, disciplining children, and homemaking 101. I will feel very domestic after Saturday. Speaking of domestic, my mom got me a sewing machine for my birthday this year. I am very excited about this and plan on trying it out soon. If any of you have any sewing tips, I would love to hear them!

One more thing . . .I wanted to take this time to thank my husband for being so sweet to me for my birthday and Valentine's day. He did so much to make me feel special and I wanted to acknowledge that here. For my birthday he got me a Kitchen Aid Mixer, he had been saving money so that he could get it for me (I really have always wanted one). For Valentine's day he cooked for me! We had homemade fruit dip, strawberries, Au gratin potatoes, steak, and fried chocolate ravioli for dessert. It was awesome and I felt like a celebrity or something. He also got me roses and tickets to go see the Lion King. I am thrilled. He is so wonderful and I appreciate how he always goes out of his way to make me feel loved. I love you Rocky Clark!

Cold Hands, Warm Hearts

All of my friends living below the Mason Dixon Line better not say a word about how cold they are. On my way to work today, the temperature was 6 degrees! As my friends well know, I hate it when the temps drop below 70.

Although the weather outside is frightful, the fun inside is delightful. Sorry I don't have any pictures to show for it, but we had a wonderful weekend spending time with a lot of our friends we have met through the church. Being in a city where we knew absolutely no one the day we arrived, to having so many friends now, has made us both so thankful for the church and the way it has pulled us in.

Saturday we attended a surprise birthday party for Jason. Jason and Mindy are in our Sunday School class and are moving at the end of this month. We have only known them for about a year and a half, but we have grown very close to them. We are very sad to see them leave.

Saturday night we had a couple over that we met through our church, Stephanie and Mark. Mark is now the pastor of Farmdale Baptist (we have a link to their blog on our web site). They have an adorable little girl Hope and we had a great time eating, laughing, and playing a strategy game called Settlers of Cutan. It was a little difficult for me to get the hang of, but my husband dominated!

I am so thankful for the church and the ability to form relationships with people who have the common thread of Christ. I love being in an environment of people who you know desire the best for you and only want to see you know the gospel more. I know that not all churches are healthy, and not all provide this environment. I hope that wherever Rocky and I "settle down" that we will work to make others feel as loved and encouraged as our church has made us feel.

Birthday Bash 2007

Everyone has friends, but then you also have a category reserved for your "best" friends. The people you can honestly be ridiculous around, and you know they will still love you.
This weekend my husband and I made a treck down south to Nashville. Nashville is home to my best friend Karen and her husband Scott. My other best friend, Rachel, and her boyfriend Will also came up from Alabama to help us celebrate my birthday. It was GREAT!!
It was so nice to be with my 2 best friends and fun to see how each one of them is so grown up! Karen was married in September this year and she and her husband were amazing hosts. Aside from going out to dinner Saturday night, they cooked the entire time. I especially loved the banana pancakes. Rachel is now seriously dating Will and it was my first time to meet him. He is a really nice guy and I am excited to see how their relationship will progress :).

I enjoyed being around two friends who know me so well. We had fun retelling old stories, and catching up on new ones. We also had a blast just hanging out.

I had been craving Japanese food, so we went to a Japanese steakhouse on Saturday night. I just loved watching the chef perform as he made those knives fly! The food was delicious. I also got to see my good friend Lauren and her boyfriend. It was great to see her! We all had a fun time eating and talking.

Here are a couple other pics from the weekend:

Rachel and Will Pose for a quick pic at dinner

We were stuffed!

Season's First Snow

I was on my way to work taking in the beauty of our first snow of the season when I snapped this photo out of my car window. (don't worry, I was stopped at a red light). This picture hardly does justice to the beauty of the snow. A thin white sheet had lightly dusted our city and the snow was luminous up against the dark tree braches of winter. It was freakin' gorgeous!

I am so thankful to God for the glorious beauties he gives us in nature.

No Ordinary Delivery

Our friends Tony and Jaimie (pictured left) recently brought a new baby girl into this world. Claire Elizabeth was born at 12:32 p.m. on January 12th.

My friend Jaimie went in for a sonogram on January 12th and the doctors reported to her that the baby would need to be born that very day because she was so small. (they were afraid she was not getting enough nutrition in the womb). Jaimie wasn't due until February 8th so this was definitely a shocker.

After the baby was born at 4 lbs. 7 oz. they took her to the Children's Hospital. This was a very scary time because we did not know if little Claire was going to survive. Her lungs were not fully developed and she was having a hard time breathing.

Jaimie and Tony spent many sleepless nights by their new little girl's bed, hoping and praying for the life of their child. Thankfully, after a couple of days of bad news, Claire started making progress. She was taken off the ventilator. Soon after they were able to bring Claire home.

I'm so thankful for the life of this new child. I just love her already and am thankful that God brought her into this world. There is such innocence in a new child and I can't wait to see what my little Claire is like as she continues to grow.

Here are a couple more pics of her:

Here is baby Claire in her hospital bed at Kosair

I'm so proud! She is beautiful (even if she does look just like her daddy!)

Happy Birthday Suzanne!

My beautiful wife is now 27 years old. I have the best wife in the world. She's possibly the funniest person I know and definitely the sweetest. She does more for me than I deserve, and I can't imagine my life without her. Happy Birthday! Love you sweet thing

Alabama Fans

Since most of the people that read our blog are Suzanne's friends, I bet that we have a few Alabama fans reading this. Here's how those in Tuscaloosa are reacting to the hiring of Nick Saban. Gotta love those Bama fans

Where's the Testosterone?

Hey everybody (all 3 or 4 of you that read this blog), this is Rocky, and I'm making my first contribution to "our blog." Sometime in October, Suzanne came home and told me that she started a blog for us and that I'm supposed to write on it. I put off posting anything because, well, I didn't want to. Between school and work, free time can be hard to come by. So, when I have some, blogging doesn't top my list of things to do. Suzanne's vision is for her to keep everybody up to date on what we're doing and for me to write the deep, theological articles. There might be one or two of those if you're lucky, but mainly I'll probably just write about things that I'm interested in. What am I interested in, you ask? Well, I like books, sports, movies, food, music, God, exercise, fantasy football, and my dog Buddy...not in that order. So, my articles will generally be about these topics. I didn't know if I was going to ever add to our blog, but after reading Mark Rogers' blog (a Louisville friend whose blog we provide a link to), he inspired me to take part. Suzanne has done a great job with this blog, but it is in desperate need of some testosterone (albeit not as bad as Chuck & Ashley Flurry's blog, which is pink -another friend whose page we provide a link to). Therefore, this will be my task, to talk about our life and interests from the Y chromosome's point of view

There's no place like home and Wii wish you a merry Christmas

Rocky and I headed down south to Alabama for Christmas. It was wonderful to be with my entire family. Pictured from left to right are Stephen, me, Rocky, mom, dad, Leah (my sister-in-law), and David. I was so thankful to see my mom since the accident and as you can see she looks great. I had not seen my brother David and his wife Leah in almost a year. He is in law school in Houston, TX. We had a great time together, going to the movies, bowling, decorating cookies (as seen below), playing poker, and just hanging out.

My youngest brother, Stephen, got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas which we had a blast playing. It's almost like a simulator. When you play tennis you hold the controller like a tennis racket and "hit" the tennis ball. Modern technology is amazing. Does anyone have a way to upload video clips to blogs?? I have a great video of my husband boxing. It's pretty funny and he really gets into it. I have to say to my suprise I was a champion boxer. I defeated my brother, but the next day, I was SO sore. The Wii also has bowling, golf, and baseball which are all a little less intense than boxing. Here are some more pics from our trip home:

Leah sings her favorite Mariah Carey Christmas Song

Dad is REALLY excited about his new shirt

This purse has a story, it's hard to tell from the pic, but it is atrociously ugly. I got it from my brother one year when I asked for a purse, I thought it was a legit gift so I tried to say thanks. It was actually a joke bought by my sister-in-law. So after I got it, the next Christmas I wrapped it up and gave it to my sister-in-law. Then, this year she wrapped it up and gave it to my mom!!

One tradition we have at Christmas is decorating gingerbread cookies. Here you can see my dad is thinking back to his fond childhood memories of decorating cookies.

Stephen got tired of decorating the cookies so he started eating all of them so mom wouldn't make him stick around to keep decorating

Here's my favorite cookie!

Rocky and I pose for a quick pic while decorating

Go Cougars!

Pugalicious--Stephen hangs out with David and Leah's two pugs, Otis and Gracie

Mom got stuck dog sitting!

Leah and I have some fun with the automatic timer on my camera

Here's all the kids, how did Buddy get in that picture?

Stay tuned for New Year's pics (as soon as my friend Ashley emails them to me, my battery in my camera died over Christmas, gotta get a new one soon :)

Christmas Time is Here!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6

Many have said that Christmas is too commercialized these days. I have to agree and have been fighting to remind myself of "the reason for the season."

One drastic and unexpected reminder came early last week. I was working when I received a phone call from my dad that my mom had been in a serious car accident. My mom was among three passengers in a Yukon being driven by her friend. They t-boned a car that pulled out in front of them. The driver of the other car could not see my mom's car because of the fog and was pronounced dead at the scene. My dad said he did not know if my mom was okay. Some of the ladies in my office were able to peal me off my desk and put me in a back office as I awaited the call. Those few seconds of not knowing if my mom was okay were torturous. I clutched my cell phone with my sweaty palms as I tried to gain control over my sobbing, waiting to hear from my dad. My dad called in what seemed like an eterenity to tell me she was speaking and had injured her foot.

I went home from work that afternoon to sit on my couch and wait for more news on my mom, her friends, and information about the driver who didn't make it. I thought about the finality of death. My mind drifted to a recent story in the news of a famiy that wandered off the path of their driving destination and were lost in the snow. The mom and child were rescued, but the dad was found dead. I thought about how when they found the body of the deceased man, there was absolutely nothing they could do to bring him back. They had the body, but it was useless without the soul and brougth little comfort to the rescued mother and child.

All week I have been praising God for my mother's life. She and her friends escaped death with minor injuries. I love my mom dearly and I cannot imagine my future with out her here. I have also been trying to focus on the real meaning of Christmas in light of this tragedy. The woman hit by the car my mother was in was a mother of five. She is no longer on this earth. Death is such a stinging and painful thing and without Christ is the most hopeless event you can experience. For those without Christ, death means isolation, pain, and darkness for eternity. With Christ, death is still very painful, but there is hope. For those of us who have trusted Christ to be our savior to forgive us our sins and truly want a right relationship with him, when we die we do not have to pay for our sins in an eternity of isolation and pain. Instead, through death we meet our creator and we are not punished for our sins because we accepted Christ's death on the cross as payment for them. I talked to my mom yesterday and she found out that the parents of the lady who was killed became Christians at her funeral. Even in death, with Christ there is hope.

This Christmas, I praise God for my mom's life, and I also praise him for sending his son Jesus who conquered death so that we might live eternally.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." John 3:16-21

There's Just Somethin' in the Water

It seems like seminary is a breeding ground! I can't count the number of baby showers I have been to since I have been here and each is special in its own way. It's always exciting to hear about someone who is expecting. This picture is of a shower for my friend Jaimie (she's the one holding the cake). We had fun enjoying snacks, playing games, and oohing and aahing over her new baby gifts. Jaimie is having a little girl and is due early February.

On a more somber note, several of my friends here have also had miscarriages. My husband and I were discussing last night how common they are and yet how tragic each one seems. After seeing a couple of my friends morn the loss of an unborn child, I am saddened for them and also made aware that while the baby was not born, the baby was a human life. How else can one explain such grief over a loss of what some scientists would say is only a "group of cells." The unborn child is still a child and has reason to be grieved when lost.

Psalm 139:13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

Christmas Parties

Rocky and I have enjoyed being a part of several get togethers here in Louisville. To the left is a picture of us at a Christmas party for my office. We enjoyed a main course of steak and a yummy dessert of peppermint icecream with chocolate sauce. It was a nice time to chat with co-workers in a stress-free environment.

Here we are enjoying time with our co-workers.

Here I am with a few of my co-workers. Hilliary (second from the right) hosted a cookie swap for all the ladies at her house. It was a great time as we chowed down on appetizers and 2 delicious soups she had made. And of course we had tons of cookies!! We also played my favorite game, Cranium!!

This is me with my co-worker and good friend Jaimie, we were being silly at the cookie swap!

Our 1st Black Friday

Rocky and I had a great time with his family over the Thanksgiving holidays. We arrived at his mom's house Tuesday evening and of course she had so many goodies ready for us. She fixed us a feast on Thanksgiving and we enjoyed spending time with her and Truett. We even exchanged Christmas gifts.

Then came BLACK FRIDAY. Neither Rocky nor I had ever braved the crowds on black Friday morning. We decided we would give it a whirl this year so at the crack of 4:30 a.m. we were up and ready for the sales. As my husband will tell you, I'm not much of a morning person, but shopping is great movitation. I was up and at 'em a little quicker than him. We got in the car and drove into the freezing cold black morning. Traffic seemed light so I expected not too many shoppers were as dedicated as we were to get up so early . . . that is until we passed Wal-mart and saw that there wasn't a vacant parking spot on the lot. We headed our merry way to the department store, breathing a sigh of relief that Wal-mart wasn't our ending destination.

Once at the department store I decided wade into the shoe department. I say "wade" because there were so many people and shoe boxes everywhere you could not simply walk through. After waiting on a clerk to assist me for around 30 min., I decided it wasn't worth the wait for the $30 discount, I was earning my discount by the dollar just standing in line!!

I headed to the home department upstairs . . . JACKPOT. All the Christmas decor was %60 off. I smiled to myself at my good fortune as I thought about all the suckers who were still sleeping and missing such great deals. I walked out of the department store a champion with my tree skirt (originally $60) , gold angel, and bed sheets. What a score.

Afterwards, we went to sleep for a good few hours, and headed to Rocky's dad's. He has a beautiful home on the water. We enjoyed lounging in the semi-warm Mississippi temperatures just talking and playing with the dog. It was great to see Rocky's dad and just spend time with him.

Engagement

My friend Shelley got engaged this weekend. I am very excited for her as she has found a great Godly man to spend her life with.

Hearing of her engagement brought back wonderful memories of when I became engaged to Rocky. It was such a wonderful time. Congrats Shelley and we all look forward to meeting Andy!

Buddy the reindeer

My friend Jaimie gave us this outfit for our dog, all he needs is antlers and he reminds me of the dog on The Grinch.

Birthday Bowling

If you have ever been bowling, you know that luck plays a large part of your final score. Saturday night my husband and I went out for a game of bowling with 6 other couples (for a total of 14 people). I was in a battle against the birthday girl (pictured center in black) for last place. I was begrugingly in last place for the entire game until the very last set I bowled a strike, and then I bowled another strike, and then I knocked down all the pins except two. It was quite suprising, especially for me! Also, I did not end up in last, but I came in second to last with a score of 67.

Pictured are several of the girls from my church, bible study, or other friends from the seminary. From left to right is me, Jamie, Josie, Jaimie Z. (the birthday girl), Lori, Jenny, and Ashley. Jaimie Z. and Jenny are both pregant. There is definitely something in the water around here.

Before the game, Rocky and shot some hoops in the arcade with a few of the couples. While Rocky beat me in bowling (he was 2nd overall), I kicked his tale in basketball with a total score of 80.

A Woman's Choice

Thursday night my husband and I got all fancied up for a banquet to raise funds for the local crisis pregnancy center. We had a great time dining with some close friends of ours, Ashley and Chuck Flurry (pictured). The highlight of the night was supposed to be the guest speaker, Richard Dobson, son of Dr. James Dobson. Because the state of Colorado was having an October blizzard, he was unable to make it. So instead of Mr. Dobson, I would say the highlight was hearing from a young girl who was saved from making the only choice she thought she had, abortion. This young woman, we'll call Stacy, found herself in a crisis pregnancy and an abusive relation. Stacy left this abusive relationship and came to A Woman's Choice Resource Center where she received advice from loving counselors who showed her abortion was not the only choice she had, she could also choose not to abort and to keep her baby. I had a hard time holding back the tears as she described the hopelessness she felt. Before she came to the center, Stacy said she felt she had nowhere to go but down and was ultimately considering suicide. The center directed her to their sister facility, Necole's Place. Here, Stacy was able to receive her G.E.D. and pursue other classes in cooking, parenting, fitness, etc. When asked to describe her current hope, she had a hard time getting out the words. From going to feeling hopeless and without a purpose, Stacy now felt smart and as though she could really be someone, including a mother.

Another key speaker was Leigh Ann. Leigh Ann and I both volunteer at A Woman's Choice Resource Center located purposefully across from Kentucky's only aborton clinic. Leigh Ann volunteers at the center in hopes to keep women from making the same choice she made. When Leigh Ann was in college she found herself pregnant after only being with a guy one night. She and her mom went to her minister for advice, Leigh Ann was shocked to hear her minister say he thought she should abort. Leigh Ann described the painful experience of having her minister driving her and her mom to the abortion clinic. She said she felt so confused and the proceedure was so physically painful. In addition, the doctor and nurses were very cold towards her and the receptionist told her to stop crying. While the physical pain was terrible, the emotional pain she felt was almost unbearable. Leigh Ann said she still has to live with the consequences of her decision and the memory of what happened. Now Leigh Ann uses this experience to educate other women about the trauma of having an abortion.

So many women do not know the truth about abortion. It is not a one time decision that will be forgotten later. It is a decision that affects the life of the person who chooses to abort, thereby taking a life. Short-term it may seem the easy answer, but long-term it will be haunting. For more information on A Woman's Choice please visit their website: http://www.awomanschoice.org

Huber Farms

Rocky and I had a great time this weekend out at Huber Farms. For those of you not from Louisville, KY I would love to tell you about Huber Farms. This place is quite the production. We first went to the Winery where they have all sorts of wine (I sampled the Strawberry wine because I love that song!). The live music was a sort of jazzy/80's mix and we enjoyed listening to the sounds of the guitars and drums outside in the perfect 65 degree weather. It wasn't too cool and yet not to hot either (If you have ever seen Miss Congeniality then you will remember the question "Describe the perfect date," and she says, "April 25th, It's not too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket.") Well, it was that kind of perfect date. After lounging outside for a while we decided it was time to pick out our pumpkin straight from the patch. The farms also boast of having apples, broccolli, and cauliflower to pick. We decided to stick to pumpkins. We boarded the hay ride and took the bumpy road to the patch. Rocky didn't want to stick around and look at all the pumpkins like I did. We found one we both liked pretty quickly, but I wanted to keep looking just in case we over looked the perfect one. So we boarded the hay ride and went back to the farms.

After we left the winery side of the large farm, we went to the restaurant side. For those of you in my sorority, the fried chicken we ate was just as good as the kind Bobbie Gene and Metta made! I sure do miss that fried chicken. We also had dumplings, green beans, cole slaw, mashed potatoes, and the best fried biscuits and apple butter you've ever had. Yummo! as Rachel Ray would say. If any of you would want to visit us here in Louisville we would love to take you to Huber Farms. We definitely had a great time!

This is Ridiclous!!

Okay, so I know this isn't the most exciting blog, but I had to post some cute pictures of our dog Buddy. He really is a very funny dog and I try not to love him too much. (Sometimes it scares me how attached I am to this animal.) I mean, it really is ridiculous how many pictures we have of Buddy. You would think he is our kid or something! I am sure once we do have kids he will be in a lot less pictures. Can anyone else relate? I don't want to be that girl that only ever talks about her pet. Anyways, here are the pics!