Long time no Blog

So ... I'm "thinking" of getting back into the blog world. Not that I have time, but I figure if anyone cares to keep up with me, this may be the only way possible since I'm worse than ever about keeping in touch :)

I think I last blogged in March. Let's see ... what has happened since then? ...

1. I'm pregnant with a little girl - 7 months today actually. She is due to make her arrival on January 27th, 2010. I believe she will be earlier though. Anxious to see when her birthday will be.

2. My cousin, Brittany moved down from Ohio in the very beginning of June. She is staying with us, working and going to school. It's fun to have her here!

3. My uncle (Brittany's dad) just got a job in Greenville and will actually be moving down next week. The rest of the fam hopes to move in January. They will stay with us for awhile so they can get adjusted and figure out where they want to be. I'm excited for this season to spend with my family. It couldn't be better timing with the new baby coming. I will have plenty of help.

4. I got laid off in April (I guess this isn't in any kind of order ... just as it comes to my mind). So anyway, I have been staying home with Averi since then and it has been awesome! I don't know how we managed to lose half of our income and me stay home but God has provided. He is awesome! Blows my mind!!!

5. We finally moved into our beautiful home that Tavner spent two years building. We moved the first week of August, during youth conference week. It was crazy but we are soooo enjoying the new crib :)

6. Tavner took over Wednesday night youth services and has started a new service called Club Red! It has been awesome and hundreds have been saved in just a month. Pastor Brandon is starting in depth discipleship classes to plug in all of the newly saved young people and those who are just eager to go deeper. We as leaders are all very excited about that too. God is about to do some awesome things in the youth of this city through our restructuring, I believe!

7. Averi will be 2 one week from today. It's so hard to believe. She acts older than she is but I still have a hard time believing I'm the mommy of a 2 year old. That sure does make me feel old.

8. Averi is becoming quite the smarty pants. She can count to about 15 in English and she can count to 10 in Spanish and French. She can say her continents and almost all of her planets.

9. My best friend Lauren, who lives in LA, came to visit this week. She had not met Averi yet so when it didn't work out for us to go see her this year, she decided to come visit us. We had a blast. It always feels good to hang out with old friends.

10. Last but not least, I got my braces off 6 weeks ago. It's wonderful! I had them entirely too long! Tavner's should be coming off in the next couple months. I'm anxious to see what he will look like. I know he will be HOT!!! :)

Anyway, I will try to blog more often now that I have given a brief update on life. There will be a lot going on in the next couple months. It may just be the busiest I've ever been in my life, but I'm excited for it. I am starting to think about my Thanksgiving menu and decorating for Christmas. First, I better figure out what I'm going to do for Averi's birthday since it snuck up on me and is only a week away. Poor girl has such a procrastinator for a mother ... man it's magnified when I'm pregnant. :)

God Bless! Will try to post again soon.
<3

Spring, no winter! Spring!! Wait, no ... winter? Bah!!

A couple of weeks ago we had a

 snow storm.  It was literally pouring snow.  I've not seen anything like it since I've been here and I've been in SC since 2000.  Anyway, we lost power and were snowed in for a couple of days.  Snow days are a blast if you've got power.  We made the best of it though.  Averi LOVED it of course.  

The very next weekend, it was in the mid-70's and Averi had to go out and play.  Here are some photos to show you the contrast from one Sunday to the next :)  Seems to always be the case in SC. One never knows how to dress for the day. 

On another note, I looked back at my blog from awhile ago and saw the things I looked forward to in 2009.  Some of these things have already happened and MORE.  Check it out.

"Things I look forward to in 2009:

- Spending another year with my amazing husband and celebrating our 5 YEAR anniversary!! --Our anniversary is in 2 days!! We celebrated early because this past weekend I had to go on a retreat for my Leading Ladies bible study I'm in and this weekend Tavner has to go for his bible study, so we won't be able to do anything on our anniversary weekend.

- Watching Averi continue (sorry I can't get that stupid orange to turn pink :) to grow and mature into a wonderful, godly, precious young lady

- Seeing amazing things in the Junior High ministry -- Tavner has been promoted to Sr. High and Jr. High Youth Pastor

- Starting life groups with Jr. High -- and Sr. high :)

- The Bartee's moving down here (I'm stating this as fact)

- Getting a new niece or nephew -- 2/16/09, Alexander Christian Jones, 8lbs 8oz.

- Getting to produce cool new TV shows at work -- Shot a pilot episode for a show we are currently working on for network TV 

- MOVING INTO OUR HOUSE -- pouring the concrete in the garage this week ... one of the 3 major things we have left.

- Having Christmas in our new house next year

Life's a Zoo

We took a family trip to the Greenville Zoo this weekend.  Justin and Kyle went with us (our sons) but somehow didn't end up in any of the pictures.  I guess we just made them take them all.  Anyway, it was Averi's first trip and she LOVED it!!  Way more than I imagined she would.  Here are a few pictures of our day.

An eventful year end

A lot has happened since I last blogged, so I will try to make these updates quick.  Averi's birthday party in our new house was wonderful.  She had a great time running around hitting balloons and squealing the whole time.  I tried to post a picture, but it didn't upload correctly.  Maybe later.  

We left the following weekend to go on a cruise with the youth leaders at church.  We went to Cozumel and Grand Caymans.  The weather was stupid, we saw a terrible car accident in front of us (that we were almost involved in) ... both men were laying in the road after their truck flipped several times and someone died ... God protected us.  For the most part, we had a good, restful vacation.  We did an AWESOME shore excursion where we got to ride jungle buggies through the jungle of Cozumel along the coast.  I've also included a pic of the beautiful waves crashing the shore line ... gorgeous!!  The same reason the weather was bad for the cruise allowed us to see this beauty.  God is cool.  Here's a couple pics.

Christmas was wonderful!  The entire Christmas season was "Beast" this year (as the junior highers would say :)  We went to Ohio for two weeks the day after Christmas and had a lot of fun.  Aunt Shelly, Chazz Daddy (U. Chuck), Alex, and Matae are driving down here Thursday because they want to check Greenville out ... they will probably move here soon and wanna check the place out, and because Alex wants to look at a school in Charlotte.

The new year has started off great so far!  God is awesome as always and I have such a sense of expectancy for great things this year.  I'm so excited to look back a year from now and count all of the miracles and blessings he has allowed us to experience.  

Things I look forward to in 2009:

- Spending another year with my amazing husband and celebrating our 5 YEAR anniversary!!

- Watching Averi continue to grow and mature into a wonderful, godly, precious young lady

- Seeing amazing things in the Junior High ministry

- Starting life groups with Jr. High

- The Bartee's moving down here (I'm stating this as fact)

- Getting a new niece or nephew

- Getting to produce cool new TV shows at work 

- MOVING INTO OUR HOUSE

- Having Christmas in our new house next year

2 Little Pumpkins

Tav and I went to Carrowinds Saturday with the youth group. It was such a fun trip. We were able to get to know a lot of the kids better and build relationships. I think the bus rides there and back were more fun than the actual day at the park.

Anyway, while we did that, princess Averi stayed with Judy (Tav's mom). Judy and Jessica took the babies to a pumpkin patch in their little pumpkin outfits and got some cute pics. They said Averi actually sat still which I absolutely cannot believe, but am glad, so they could at least get a couple of pictures. They said she straddled the pumpkin forever without moving. If you know Averi at all, you know that is a very rare occurrence for her to sit still for longer than 5 seconds :) She's such an angel. These two babies are too much! I can't wait to see them grow up together and share many more memories.

Earmarks in the Bailout -- words don't discribe my frustration sometimes.

Definition of an EARMARK: to set aside for a specific purpose, use, recipient. Politicians put earmarks into all of their bills to make their special interest groups happy and buy political votes to pass the bills. Here are a few I found while reading through the new Bailout Bill ... thought the rum, motorsports, film production provisions, and child's wooden arrow earmarks were particularly entertaining ...

INCREASE IN LIMIT ON COVER OVER OF RUM EXCISE TAX TO PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS.
EXTENSION OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CREDIT FOR AMERICAN SAMOA.
EXTENSION OF ELECTION TO EXPENSE ADVANCED MINE SAFETY EQUIPMENT.
DEDUCTION ALLOWABLE WITH RESPECT TO INCOME ATTRIBUTABLE TO DOMESTIC PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES IN PUERTO RICO.
QUALIFIED ZONE ACADEMY BONDS.
INDIAN EMPLOYMENT CREDIT.
ACCELERATED DEPRECIATION FOR BUSINESS PROPERTY ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS.
RAILROAD TRACK MAINTENANCE.
SEVEN-YEAR COST RECOVERY PERIOD FOR MOTORSPORTS RACING TRACK FACILITY.
EXPENSING OF ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION COSTS.
EXTENSION OF WORK OPPORTUNITY TAX CREDIT FOR HURRICANE KATRINA EMPLOYEES.
EXTENSION OF INCREASED REHABILITATION CREDIT FOR STRUCTURES IN THE GULF OPPORTUNITY ZONE.
ENHANCED DEDUCTION FOR QUALIFIED COMPUTER CONTRIBUTIONS.
TAX INCENTIVES FOR INVESTMENT IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
ENHANCED CHARITABLE DEDUCTIONS FOR CONTRIBUTIONS OF FOOD INVENTORY.
EXTENSION OF ENHANCED CHARITABLE DEDUCTION FOR CONTRIBUTIONS OF BOOK INVENTORY.
EXTENSION AND MODIFICATION OF DUTY SUSPENSION ON WOOL PRODUCTS; WOOL RESEARCH FUND; WOOL DUTY REFUNDS.
PERMANENT AUTHORITY FOR UNDERCOVER OPERATIONS.
PERMANENT AUTHORITY FOR DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION RELATING TO TERRORIST ACTIVITIES.
PROVISIONS RELATED TO FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS.
EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROWS DESIGNED FOR USE BY CHILDREN.
INCOME AVERAGING FOR AMOUNTS RECEIVED IN CONNECTION WITH THE EXXON VALDEZ LITIGATION.
CERTAIN FARMING BUSINESS MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT TREATED AS 5-YEAR PROPERTY.

sigh

Infanticide ...

Wealth distribution ... class warfare ... rob the rich to pay the poor ...

Ignorant, selfish people ...

That's all I have to say today.