A Trip to Williamsburg

My mom came in to visit Doug and I this week. This was her first visit to North Carolina. While she was here we took her to Nags Head and also Colonial Williamsburg. Williamsburg was so beautiful all decked out in it's Christmas decor. Every historic house there has to make wreaths and decorations that are all natural. They used the most interesting things to make these masterpieces. All kinds of dried fruits and vegetables -chilli peppers, okra, lemons, apples, nut shells- and they all looked so beautiful! They all gave me wonderful ideas for my window boxes at my house. They need some work! Hope you enjoy!

Finishing School

Today is a day for catching up. I feel like I finally have time to do that! This is the last full week of school and next week is exams. Because of that, most of this week will be spent reviewing. Yeah!! This week also marks the more than halfway done with the yearbook deadline. Any of you that have ever been a yearbook advisor know exactly what I'm talking about. A big sigh of relief that the book will be done on time! For those of you who haven't had the joy of making a yearbook, you just wouldn't understand! Because my students have worked so diligently all semester to meet their deadlines and have even been early on a few of them, I decided to let them have a Christmas party. Most of the time these are forbidden on high school campuses, but my yearbook staff is the exception to the rule! So while every other class was sitting half asleep in exam reviews, my 15 hard working kids were cramming down cake, no bake cookies, chips and salsa, and cheesecake. Mmmm, there's nothing like chips and salsa at 10 o'clock in the morning! One of the girls even made Doug his favorite kind of cake, red velvet as a thank you for designing our cover and end sheets for free. I have a great group of kids who listen and work very hard, most of the time! I thought I would share a few pictures of them with you all, so enjoy!

Long Time, No Post

Sorry it's been so long since I have posted. I hate posting without pictures so I don't post at all! We have been very busy this last few weeks. On Veteran's Day, Doug made a video honoring all of the veterans in our church. He also made two displays with all of their service pictures and a few uniforms. He did a great job and everyone enjoyed it.

Doug's grandfather passed away last Friday morning from bone cancer. So Friday we ran around like crazy trying to get everything done so we could leave Friday night for Bristol, Tennessee. Doug's grandfather (who he is named after) wanted Doug to preach the funeral, so he wanted to make sure that we got to TN soon. He did a great job and kept himself composed even though I know it was hard on him.

On Tuesday night, we went Ice Skating with Doug's brother and his family. I have to say that my husband did NOT want to go! He only went because I wanted to. He was afraid of falling and looking dumb. His brother and I finally coaxed him away from the rail, but whenever he felt shaky, he would grab hold of my coat for dear life! By the end of the night he was doing pretty well and even had a little bit of fun!

We spent Thanksgiving day with Doug's family enjoying a big meal. That night, we went to the Bristol Motor Speedway to see their light show. They have lights for something like 4.5 miles. At the end of the lights you can drive your car around the track in the speedway. Talk about an incline! We had a lot of fun and saw a lot of lights.

Now we are finally back home in good old North Carolina! Although, I did really enjoy being in Tennessee again! Nothing like being in the mountains! Maybe now I will keep up on my posting! Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Doug standing at his grandfather's grave

This is the last picture Doug has with his grandfather. It was taken in October.

Doug and I with Brittany and Brandon

Doug and I ice-skating, kind of
Watch out, he's gonna fall!

Veteran's Displays

Veteran's Displays

My Tramatic Visit To The Dentist

First of all, I have to tell you how much I hate the dentist! I have avoided going like the plague since I was in high school but it finally caught up with me. I have a tooth that has been Killing me for about a month now. I finally made an appointment with the dentist for this past Monday. I was scared to death! Everything was fine until my annoying cavity turned into a major problem! The dentist proceeded to tell me that I needed a root canal on my precious tooth! Of course my reaction was one of shock, I started sobbing uncontrollably! The dentist even got a little teary! So, not only was my cavity not filled, now it hurt even worse! So, I very tearfully scheduled my root canal for Wednesday, expecting the worst. But, surprise, surprise! The root canal was a piece of cake! No problem whatsoever! There wasn't even any crying! So for all of you who would rather go the doctor 10 times over one visit to the dentist, there is hope for all of you too!

Teen Spectacular II

The Lord really blessed our Teen Spectacular this week! On Wednesday, we had 467 teenagers and 43 saved! It really was an exciting week. It was amazing to see teenagers from all walks of life there to hear the gospel. Bro. Reno did an outstanding job and the kids had a great time! On Wednesday night we gave away a '97 Chevy Cavalier along with tons of other prizes. Our church members worked so hard to prepare for this week so it was great to see the Lord bless it.

What a crowd!

Bro. Reno Likens and Pastor Jones

Slam dunk competition

Praise the Lord, 179 souls saved!!!

Teen Spectacular

On Monday, Tuesday and tonight we are having our 1st Teen Spectacular! So far it's going great. We had Bro. Reno Likens here to preach all week. He has done a great job! On Monday we had 288 teenagers and 89 salvations! On Tuesday, there were 415 teens and 47 salvations! Isn't the Lord good! Having over 400 public school teens hear the gospel was amazing! I helped Doug on his bus this week. We had 65 last night just on our bus! I just wanted to give an update, I'll post some pictures tomorrow after it's over! Pray for tonight, we are giving away a car so we expect over 500!

Catching Up

This weekend has been very busy! First of all, on Saturday, we had our Annual Couple's Class Harvest Party. It was a good time of food and fellowship with our church family. We had sack races, bobbing for apples, an egg toss, a corn pit, hayrides and a jumping hut. The kids really enjoyed it. Doug managed to smash the egg all over me so I caught up with him and gave him some back!

On Sunday we had Tug-A-Bus Sunday with our bus kids. I didn't think they would get into it much, but I was VERY wrong! They pulled the buses so quick it was over in less than a minute! My bus lost because our rope broke! It was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time. We had 50 on our bus but 25 of them were teens!

Aren't they cute?

Getting ready to pull with all their might!

This is little Jackson Elliott

Merry having fun in the corn pit!

Look at all that food!

That sack is bigger than Macy!
My husband with some other crazy church members!

A Week Alone

This week Doug has been gone to Lexington, Kentucky to the National Bus Conference. Usually, I am the one going somewhere but this time I had to stay home. I had high hopes of getting caught up on my house work but the week sort of got away from me. I have missed my husband so much, I'm just not sure how to act when he's not around! He thought about staying an extra day, but I convinced him that I needed him home more.

Last night, he started back and went to church at Temple in Powell. He hadn't originally planned it that way in the beginning but it worked out. I was so jealous because I knew he would get to see some of my college buddies! I miss you Sarah, Cathy, and Charity! But he had a great time getting to see some of his old friends too.

My friend Jessica had her baby on Monday. I went to the hospital on Tuesday to see how she was doing and of course hold Baby Jackson. He was a big boy! He weighed 8 pounds and 14 ounces. Both are doing well and are at home now. As soon as I can I'll post a picture of him.

Sorry there are no pictures, my beloved husband took the camera to Kentucky all this week!

Babies

This post is all about babies! Aren't they cute! It seems like everyone I know is having a baby or just had a baby. My friend Joy is having a boy named Jackson in December, my good friend from church Jessica is having a baby any day now and she is naming him Jackson as well. Mrs. Mindy, my pastor's wife is having a boy in February. I think they are going to name him Micah. So it seemed appropriate to show some pictures of some sweet babies! And maybe someday I'll have one of my own.

This is Tyler Pearce. Isn't he a cutie?
This is Macy, my preacher's middle girl. She is almost three and crazy! She keeps telling me that she wants to go home and stay with me and Bro. Doug.

This is Merry, preacher's youngest daughter. She is such a ham. She is 15 months old and has NO desire to walk on her own. Why should she, she knows someone will carry her!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

No, not the pictures you're thinking of. Today at school we got the school pictures in. YEAH! This soiunds like a breeze, but since I'm in charge of the yearbook that also means I'm in charge of the school pictures. So now I have tons of questions that I can't answer about retakes and prices and mistakes and anything else they can think of! It will all be over soon! Well, I need to go, I have a hair appointment. I need a good trim!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Hey everyone! I know it's been a while since I posted but nothing too exciting has been going on. Our Pastor has been preaching a revival in Ohio this week so Doug has been very busy. He preached all day on Sunday and Bro. Gary is preaching tonight. I found some very random pictures and thought I would post them. They are all somehow related to our church. The best church in the whole world!



I have been busy at school as well. Trying to teach 5 classes and do a 250 page yearbook is quite a handful! This week we had to give out progress reports and like a dummy I had book reports due Monday and a vocabulary test on Tuesday! All of this had to be graded and in the computer for 75 kids by Wednesday! Whew, I finally got it done! Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Doug and Bro. Gary (Captain America and Kid Krusader) at Kid Krusade this summer. Who knew those tacky American flag jackets would be useful someday?!

Bro. Bobby Roberson and Preacher

Doug in his office

The Blue Bus

Our church during an Oliver B. Green revival

Crazy Weekend!

Hey everyone! Yesterday was a great day at church! We had 540 in attendance Sunday morning and over 200 back on Sunday night! God is so good!

Yesterday was "The World's Largest Banana Split Sunday" on our buses. Doug had a man in our church make these six foot long troughs to put the ice cream in. Each bus had their own and filled it with bananas, cherries, brownies, anything they wanted. It was a great turnout. We had 211 just on our three buses.

Our church is really growing! It's so exciting to be here and see God do such great things! Check out our church website at http://www.vbcrr.org/ .

Labor Day Trip

On Labor day, Doug and I decided to go visit our good friends Luke and Becky Shope. They just moved to Winchester, VA which makes them pretty close to us. We had a great time with them and their son, Jack. We hadn't seen them in about 2 years, since their wedding, I think. Anyway, here are a few shots of our mini-trip!

Here is Luke and Becky's house (and our new Pacifica!)

This is Luke and Jack (isn't Jack cute?)

Doug and Luke

More Vacation Pics

Hey everyone! I thought I would post some more pictures of our vacation to Norfolk and Virginia Beach. I am just hanging out on my lunch break. It's nice to not have any kids around for a while. Hope you enjoy!

Jenn

Getting drenched at Virginia Beach

Doug acting crazy (as usual) at the Virginia Aquarium

Standing in front of the U.S.S. Indianapolis in Norfolk

The Beginning!

Ok, here goes! One of my best friends in the whole world (Joy) has now inspired me to begin this blog. We'll see how it goes. I love keeping up with everyone!

Here are a few pics of us on vacation in D.C.

Jenn