Memorial Day Weekend in FL

We were able to spend Memorial Day weekend in FL with my family this year and it was a wonderful break from Army/Work life! We flew down Thursday night and spent most of Friday sleeping and lounging around the house with my parents. We had a great double date with our friends, Shari and Jason, at Beef O'Bradys. Saturday, we headed over to Orlando to meet up with some other friends, Chris & JJ West, for a yummy lunch in the downtown area. We got back in time to relax and have a cookout with my parents. Sunday, we headed to the other side of FL to Anna Maria Island to meet up with my bro, sis-in-law, aunt and uncle for a family lunch and some beach time. It was amazing to be over there on such a pretty day! Monday, we got some sun out by the pool, ate some lunch and headed back to the airport to catch our flight back home. I have been very forgetful lately and left my camera at home, so no pics of our visit this time. We are so thankful for little breaks like that to get away!

Vegetable Garden - check!

One of the goals I had for this planting season was to create a vegetable garden in my backyard. There was a strip of unnecessary grass that was a pain to mow and I decided to kill the grass and create the area for my garden. It's taken a lot of tilling and hoeing to get the soil ready, but I finally was able to plant this past weekend. SO, I have planted 2 green peppers, 1 zucchini, 1 yellow squash, 2 yellow tomato and 4 red tomato plants. We'll see how it goes - if the squirrels and birds leave them alone. I can check my vegetable garden goal off the list now!

GPC - Good Job!

Today, I had my last event of the school year with the programming board that I advise called Govs Programming Council (GPC). This is a major part of my job each day and it definitely gives me a sense of accomplishment to see how much these students have grown as leaders over the last few months. Our last event of the year is a traditional "stress reliever" carnival called Spring Fling. It was a pretty good way to end the year. I wanted to show everyone a picture from our banquet we had last week of my kids - only 2 of them are returning as leadership so I'm bummed to see them go. Also, I wanted to share with everyone a little bit of the work that I do each day. Nicely done, GPC Exec Board!

Jesse's 29th Birthday

Jesse finally is the same age as me...the long month and 20 days of me being older is over (numbers-wise)! We had a great birthday weekend celebration. We started the weekend on Friday with an appointment with a Thyroid specialist to finally find out what Jesse has wrong with him - Thyroiditis with a hint of Hoshimoto's in his levels. To anyone with thyroid issues, they probably understand what this means, but to those like myself who didn't have a clue, it means that for the next few months, Jesse will have hyperthyroidism, then level out at normal for 2-3 months and then end with 2-3 months of hypothyroidism. Due to the hint of Hoshimoto's, he might permanently have hypothyroidism, but he also could level back to normal. The only bad thing about all this short-term is that he can't get any medicine to help, but long-term, it's the best thing to have if you have thyroid issues - NO SURGERY and a chance at not having to take a pill the rest of his life! Anyway, we celebrated with lunch at Schlotsky's and a movie. We met up with our friends, the Mason's, for a celebration at Joe's Crab Shack to crab it up. Jesse was forced by the head waitress (this was all Cindy's doing, not mine but man I enjoyed it) to "ride a horse" around the restaurant while everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to him with some orders to stop periodically...check out the video below:

The next day, we had a lazy morning and then went out for a hike at Land Between the Lakes at a trail called "Honker Trail". The weather was BEAUTIFUL here and our only negative was that halfway through the trail, we were supposed to cross Lake Barkley on a mini-dam but it was flooded over, so we had to hike back the way we had come. Despite that hang-up, we had a good time just being outdoors and hiking together. We ended his birthday celebration by having a few friends over for dinner and peanut butter brownies (Jesse's request for his cake). It was a great way to celebrate his last birthday in his 20's - full of answers, friends, good food and fun!

Rivers & Spires

Rivers & Spires is an annual festival that Clarksville puts on downtown where several of the streets are lined with vendors from all over and there are several stages set up for musicians to perform for 3 days straight. We went on Friday night to see "The Afters" on the Christian stage in our church's parking lot - it was packed! We brought our friends, Jason and Lena Cox, with us after we hit up Hananoki Japanese Restaurant for dinner. The weather was great so we had a great time walking off our dinner. This is definitely a festival we will return to each year while we are stationed here. I have attached a funny video from the concert we saw - check out the kids having a light saber fight near us before Jason took over the camera! Enjoy.

Easter Weekend Celebration - Knoxville style!

Where else would we spend Easter than in Knoxville, TN?! We arrived Friday night in time to meet up with Jesse's parents and sister, Jamie, at Jason's Deli - that's a great place! I'd never been there. The next day, we were able to do a few errands in the morning after a yummy breakfast at Cracker Barrel with his parents. We met up with the Purnell's, Stansell's and McNair's for lunch at the new Casa de Purnell! :) Their house is beautiful and it was great to be able to really visit with them. Then, we went to the new Casa de Denny, which was AMAZING! Becca and Steve found them an incredible deal on a new home in Knoxville - I'm so happy my best friend lives in Knoxville permanently now! We finished our evening with more errands and a yummy dinner at our favorite - Calhoun's (http://www.calhouns.com/). Sunday, we were able to go to Providence Church (http://www.providencechurch.com/) for the Easter Service, which was incredible as we expected it would be. It's so great to be able to catch up with our friends and celebrate the Resurrection of Christ with the church family we love the most. We ended our great weekend with an Easter lunch at the Dunn's house with Jesse's family (check out our adorable niece and nephew below). We had a wonderful time touching base with friends and family - we miss Knoxville!

The last few weeks...

The last few weeks have been filled with doctors appointments and tests - not for me, but for Jesse. He has been having some issues the last few years with random chest pains that usually go away. This time, they didn't go away and a few extra symptoms were happening - dizziness, shortness of breath, fatigue, etc. Classic symptoms of heart disease, right?! Oh no...it's his thyroid! Little did I know that a little organ like that could do so much to the body. They have done every test known to man on his heart and lungs and he is perfectly healthy in those areas. So now, we have moved on to the thyroid - it's the only thing that came back abnormal on his tests. We should know more tomorrow after his thyroid scan. Jesse is so tired of feeling crappy - he has no energy and at times still feels all of the symptoms. We are both ready for him to feel better. It has been quite a scare for us both! Please pray for him this week as we hope to find out exactly what is wrong with him and get the right medicine to make him feel better.