Thanksgiving Break

My parents joined us for Thanksgiving this year, and we definitely appreciate them making the trip. It was nice not having to travel, and even nicer not to cook (or watch other people cook... I guess that's a more accurate description of what I would've done). Thanks to the Colliers who were nice enough to host us for Thanksgiving dinner AND send us home with leftovers. Can't beat that.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. The turkey is already gone (man, we killed it)... but hopefully the spirit of appreciation will stick around a little longer. Enjoy the holidays!

I'm thankful 4...

family. second chances. computers. epidurals. having a job. my education. the internet. electricity. cold medicine. freedom. and national parks.

Where's Jasmine?

Farewell Wishes

May this be the happy beginning of a wonderful life together. God Bless!

Long Distance Dating

It's a shame that we've gotta travel all the way to California just a catch a movie that doesn't involve Elmo, Thomas the Train, or a Care Bear... but as they say, it is what it is. With the wedding ceremony over by 3 and not enough energy to drive back to the coast, dinner and a movie is exactly what we did last night. It was great. In fact, this whole weekend has been a nice throwback to those good ol' days of being married with no kids. I was at dinner like, "hey... you're funny... we should go out again sometime"... No seriously, I almost asked her out on a second date until I remembered that we were already married. Funny, yes... but also a reminder that, as much as we hate to be away from the kids, we probably do have to do more to stay connected as a couple. Either that, or we'll just fly to California every other weekend.

As for today (Sunday) we did make it back to the coast, and decided to embark on our own personal food tour. We drove from Santa Monica to Oxnard, via Malibu, and stopped (seemingly every 30 minutes) to fill our bellies with some grub. Pancakes and eggs at the hotel; followed by fish tacos, thai food, and sushi along the way. And of course there will be Indian cuisine at the reception tonight. If there's nothing else we can say about our trip to the left coast, we can certainly say that we've been well fed. It all tasted great going down, but personally, I'm just hoping that this hodgepodge of food plays well together in my stomach. Fingers crossed and Pepto on standby. May the force be with me.

Holy Matrimony

Nine hours of travel time, and a 3-hour time change pretty much rendered us useless on Friday night. We went to bed at 8, which our bodies thought was 11... and woke up at 3, which should have been 6... and spent the rest of the day trying to figure out which way was up. But we did make it to the wedding (on time, no less) and had a really good time. They had a charismatic officiant who did a great job bridging the gap between the audience and all of the cultural components of the ceremony. The scenery was just ridiculous (a gazebo in the middle of a garden with blue skies and a mountain range for a backdrop... like I said... ridiculous). Congrats again to Kermit & Yasmine. We'll see you tomorrow at the closing reception.

One day I'll learn how to take pictures without having that, "please don't break my camera" look on my face. Evidently, however, that day was not today.

Last Moments

... as a single man. Here's me and Kermit, pre-ceremony. Kermit and I met in undergrad, and it's fairly easy to say that he is one of the most amazing people that I know. Lawyer. Medical doctor. Engineer. Navy officer. Trilingual humanitarian. And a phenomenal friend. And very soon, most importantly, a husband. We lost touch for a while, but I couldn't be more excited to be a part of this chapter in his journey through life. And you'll be happy to know that I didn't wear my jeans and tee-shirt to the ceremony.



And by the way, for the record, Los Angeles traffic is insane. I just had to mention that.

California Love

And thus begins our trip to California. 4 days. 1 wedding. No kids. And a whole lot of sleep to catch up on. This should be fun. Here's V soaking up the sun on the Santa Monica shoreline.

A Word of Thanks

Hello Family & Friends!

As of yesterday, my father finally checked into an Assisted Living facility in Greenville, SC (very close to where the rest of our family lives). It's been a difficult journey for us as a family to get to this point, but we are so grateful to God for this answered prayer and for His provisions until we got here.

Thank you all for your prayers as well. Although his journey to recovery is not over, we are thankful that my dad is in a place where his needs can be met daily and he still has full and unlimited access to family and friends. We know that God has a calling on his life to preach and although we don't know how that will take shape, we are waiting with great anticipation to see how this part of his life's testimony is going to work out. For God's glory, of course!

Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

Love you all.

Backyard Bandits

G'Morning Justin

Justin had a call for an audition the other day. Problem is... it was in Silver Springs, Maryland. Um... yeah... I don't think we're ready to take our show on the road for auditions just yet. So we declined. But after not finding what they were looking for, we got a second email asking us if we could at least send in a video. Well... being the superb parents that we are... we missed that deadline, too (and can officially say that moving and readying the rental has kicked our butts over the past 7 days). But this morning, before hitting the road to Roanoke (work related trip) V and I threw together a 6 minute video of Justin being Justin. As ordinary as it gets, but it's what they asked for. It's two days past both deadlines, but if nothing else, we at least have another vid for our personal collection. Granted, we probably could have at least combed his hair and got him out of his pijamas... but then, would it really be us if we did it any other way?