So Much More

It's a Sunday morning. I'm alone. Settled on the chaise lounge with a pillow and the laptop, looking out over our frontyard through half-opened blinds. It's raining - steadily - and expected to do so throughout the day. I'm holding out hope there'll be some good lightning and thunder thrown in. I need comfort.  

Not necessarily because Cliff is gone this weekend (rafting with the guys) or because I am, in fact, by myself. But because I've just got that ickyness that comes from not having my heart and mind in the right places. That is, using what's going on around me as a barometer for how I should be feeling about myself. So, maybe here in a few I'll fix myself a cup of coffee and trade the laptop for a book, or my bible, or my journal. Just something besides this hunk of metal which somehow sends me into portals of self-loathing when I least expect it.

Oh, there was the thunder. Ah, my soul feels better already.

We all just want to matter. To succeed. To be happy. And sometimes, when we aren't feeling or doing those things and then we see what seems to be EVERYBODY ELSE doing so, it feels like some conspiracy. Like everyone's out to be awesome so you aren't. Or whatever. I don't know. And then I sit here and laugh because someone out there is thinking the very same thing when they throw me into the pile of social media "friends" who seem to have everything they want. And it's true, while I may not have all I want, I certainly have all I need and MORE. So much more.

And right now, I matter and am succeeding and am happy if only because the most important things in my life - my faith and my family - are healthy. That I've got a home to not just live in but enjoy, immensely - pining for the comfort of my lovely bed and green-filled views when I'm not here. A home I happen to share with the kind of man who leaves post-its with sweet messages tucked away in random places throughout the house for me to find in his absence. Who, in every way, is the kind of man I can count on to pull me through - and who is an adoring dadda already to Lil' Turkey. Oh, and Lil' Turkey. I've been so aware these last couple of days of his or her presence - throughout the day - in dreams - in all my thoughts. I've had dreams about the baby these last two nights straight and though one was entirely bizarre, the other was so real and left me half panicked (for preparation, not for fear) and half disappointed to not have it be true in that moment.

So what if my own photography business is a little slow (though by appearances and schedule, I'm as busy as ever - just playing a supporting role to photographer friends) or my social life is a little dim - if that's all it is... if that's all I have to even dream of complaining about... what is my deal? There is so much more and everything has its season and right now, mine might just be this way to give way to the other things that need a little attention right now.

Now about that. I think right about now is a good time to trade out the computer for my coffee and bible, don't you think?

Where the Redbud Grows

After rousing myself from bed (well after Cliff has fought with his 5AM alarm and gone to Crossfit), I make myself a cup of coffee and breakfast. When I'm lucky (which is often), it's an omelet made of farm fresh eggs, spinach, peppers, and onions... and don't forget the cheese. One teaspoon of honey, a dollop of Hatcher Family Dairy half & half and I take my first sip. Gosh I love mornings.

Within a few minutes, I've made my way from the kitchen to the yard. Yesterday, the front-stoop. Today, the back. I breathe in the morning air as I feed my brain and body and heart all of the fuel it needs to welcome the day. I marvel at the calls I recognize from birds littering the trees above me. I look down at my snowflake covered pajama pants and chuckle at the irony. I look out over the yard we have lovingly and frustratingly tended to for the last year and a half and I smile. The breeze lifts my face towards the sun still not yet mounted above one of two original trees on our property. And then my gaze falls on the fresh, cheery personality of one of our new trees, the Redbud. While I love every Spring, this one... well, it is just different.

Once finished with my last bite (but not my last sip, for I make my one cup a day last as long as possible), I take a quick walk around the yard to check on the health and moisture of the soil around our newest plantings. Today will not be nearly as warm as its predecessors, so all is well.

All, is in fact, very well.

I did some shopping yesterday.

My rosemary I planted the end of last summer.

Cherry laurels, newly planted just a few days ago.

My cascade of lovely - lavender, parsley, basil... and still more to go.

The redbud.

Turning forsythia newly transplanted from a precarious middle-of-the-yard spot to the fenceline.

Where We've Been

It's amazing what you remember on accident, some times. Take for instance, yesterday afternoon. I was cleaning out the boxes we'd placed all of our desk belongings into in the great office shuffle of 2010 and early 2011. We are collectors in more ways than one, the both of us, so that makes our stash of random things rather interesting.

In a set of nondescript folders were about a million and one little receipts, brochures, and paper itineraries form about half of the trips we've ever taken together. When you spend as much time as I do planning journeys, I guess the proof - or at least the work that went into it all - seemed valuable enough to keep at the time. I decided to keep only those guide magazines from places we have dreamed of visiting again, and pitched the rest. At this point in the game, I think I've proved my resourcefulness to the extent that an old car rental confirmation print-out isn't really something I'll need one day.

But all of that rifling got me thinking.

We've been a lot of places, together.

And if there's one thing we've kept going since well before our days of sharing a last name, it's our love of travel. It's our love of taking in pieces of a place we've never been, or rediscovering the things that are so wonderful about places we've been before.

I thought it might be fun to lay it all out here. Disclaimer: there are a few trips in between these which involve visiting family (in VA, MD, NC, NY and even here in TN) and are not cited - and a few of these actually include those, particularly where we made efforts to sightsee in our own hometowns for the sake of the other.

East TN (Cleveland & Gatlinburg), 2004 (Met his family!!)

Maryland (D.C. & Baltimore), 2004 (Met my family!!)

Virginia (Norfolk & VA Beach), 2004 (Met my family!!)

California (LA area), 2005

Knoxville, 2005

Annapolis Rocks, 2005

Chestnut Mountain, 2006

Arkansas & Texas, 2006 - no photographic evidence

Big Frog Mountain, 2006

Memphis, 2006

Kansas City, 2006

Utah (Park City), 2006

Big Frog Mountain, 2007 (Proposal!!)

St. Lucia, 2007 (Honeymoon!!)

New York (Long Island), 2007

Florida (Grayton Beach & Panama City Beach), 2008

Memphis, 2008

Tampa, 2008

Grand Cayman, 2008

Mexico, 2008

Belize, 2008

Honduras, 2008

Wyoming, 2008

Chattanooga, 2009

California (San Diego area), 2009

Washington (ALL OVER), 2009

Massachusetts, 2009

Oregon (how abstract! Portland & Hood River), 2009

Colorado, 2010

Germany, 2010

Arizona (GRAND CANYON), 2010

Gosh, that's incredible.  I mean, I know it because we did it - but sometimes I forget. And I'm sure there's something in there I'm forgetting, as it is.  But I love seeing even seeing just this and knowing that there's a lifetime of journeys ahead for us!

The Only Way To Make Sense

I know who I am is most at work when the first thing I can bring myself to do after physically processing an event, is to verbally do so. To lay here in this bed with the window cracked for almost two hours now - letting every raindrop bring with it a new memory and a new hope - finding myself filling up like a cup on a pendulum - toppling just as the contents err on the side of being too much. And then righting itself to be filled up again. I'm hoping to find, in this chaos of memories, regrets, and grief - some sense of understanding, if any at all.

What I know and feel right now is a loss inexplicable.

To know that the woman I think of every time I uncover a new gray hair of my own... is gone from this earth. To know that her occasional e-mails about topics related mostly to distant streams of our family tree that only she would know... are gone. To know that a period of my early childhood was spent, her and my grandfather supporting and loving and providing a place to be and yet so much of my later life of wishing to reclaim the distance... is over. To think of her dry humor, shared with my grandfather's - and how she carried that - among a million other things - down from the Bean side of the family to give to us. 

I think of quilts and clocks and cat hair and salty ocean air. I think of sleeping on a mattress in the back of a van on the way to see my brand new baby sister. I think of eating french onion soup, toast with marmelade, cranberry sauce steeped in orange zest, celery with cream cheese and olives, and the Schwan's delivery truck. I think of the day they gave us our first computer, after putting up with my long hours of usage on her's during visits to their house.

Their house. A place I have not been in so long, and yet colors so much of my early childhood memories; those I've mentioned already barely scratching the surface.

I think now of my Grandfather. I can't imagine the state his heart and mind are in after spending almost fifty years with a woman who is no longer here, at least in body. His quiet, tall stature seems only matched by her gentle and yet still strong presence. My heart breaks to think of his own unique sadness in our family's loss.

And I can barely stand to think of my mom, if only to maintain any sense of composure or comfort. Our few minutes on the phone this morning were spent mirroring each others grief; I felt so helpless. Because as much as my grief is strong, it only increases as it finds its way closer to the trunk of our family tree.

And still, no sense.

Just loss.

Some joy, but not enough, just yet.

My Grammie has passed on.

2010 in Review

I figure if I get this done before halfway through the month it's still a little timely.

And really, we've almost started needing this in a way. Because as much as we can talk about "Oh man, what a year it's been!" - one day we won't remember exactly why, or what happened, or why it was a year unlike any other. Every year is that way.

2007. 2008. 2009. 2010 was no different.

January: I welcome 2010 on the ski trip with Natalie in the mountains of North Carolina with Ryan's family while Cliff lives it up with Brad at the Bowl Game in Atlanta. I complete second round of Spring Orientation at Belmont and then resign the next day (talk about that for timing) - the date was determined just a week before, however. Cliff goes to Haiti to help with Earthquake disaster relief and the migration of oprhans from Port au Prince.

February: Ends up being a pretty low key month for us, minus a car accident involving me, a deer, and my poor Honda Civic which ultimately gets totaled. I finish up my days at Belmont and end out the month saying farewell to a long chapter of my life.

March: I officially begin the month as a full-time photographer, take a trip to Vegas for WPPI - a massive photography conference, and Cliff begins work on the first major overhaul of house projects for the year. In March alone we have the mold remediation of our crawlspace, ductwork replaced, heating and air unit moved, and a corner of our foundation lifted. We find out also that we've both got spots on the Germany mission team for the summer. I start playing soccer again!

April: Cliff starts up with the Franklin Citizen's Fire Academy! We finally get the car we've been waiting for - a 2003 Hyundai Santa Fe - Silver, no less. It takes it's inaugural voyage on the great trip out east to visit my family in MD and VA for Easter and my brother's spring break. Soon after our return, I get into my second accident of the year - this time at the fault of a woman not paying attention when switching lanes. I'm on my second rental of the year and we cross fingers that nothing else happens automobile-wise for the rest of the year. Upon our return from the East Coast, s well, we have the new drainage system installed and the yard graded and I try my hand at mulching.

May: The flood comes and goes and leaves a mark on our area unlike any other... we spend the next week removing six inches of water from our crawlspace while some of our neighbors end up gutting whole portions of their house because of high waters. We spend a weekend in North Carolina witnessing and celebrating Ashlynn's first communion.  I turn the ripe old age of 26 and start writing some for a women's online magazne. At the end of the month, we take our first trip together to Colorado to play in Denver and the mountains for a couple of wonderful days! Cliff graduates from the Franklin Citizen's Fire Academy - having loved every bit of it.

June: Started off teaching a photography course at VBS with my dear friend Evin. Cliff turns 27 at the lake with friends and family. At the end of the month we host the first-annual Brew-Haha, which goes swimmingly!

July: The Benton kids come for a visit full of pancakes, trips about town, skateboarding, and old school Nintendo before we head out to the Lake for the Fourth of July weekend. Cliff gets voted on to the Williamson County Rescue Squad. I have photo published on the cover of the Nashville Scene.Then there's final preparations and the actual departure for Germany. Just before that we celebrated our THIRD wedding anniversary with a night "away" at the Marriott!

August: Back from our incredible trip to Germany (Potsdam, Berlin, and Munich included), we get a visit from Marcus and then eventually Mom and Cearra, too. The five of us head off to the lake, which made for two lake weekends in a row as we made another last minute trip there to round out the season. Cliff starts his extensive training for the Rescue Squad, which kind of becomes his life for the fall.

September: At the beginning of the month, we leave for and hike the Grand Canyon - an experience unlike any we've ever had before. And so begins our fall of weekends taken up by UT football games - considering our season ticket holder status for the year. Training with WCRS continues!

October: Training with WCRS continues even more - with burn weekends and all sorts of crazy things Cliff can do now (like extrication!). We take our gangly rose bushes out and replace them with new ones - getting a taste of our first real hand at landscaping. We take a trip mid-month to New York for my second cousin's wedding on Long Island, my first of the seconds! Cliff tries his hand at crab picking. We continue with more UT games.

November: The month of our sixth meetiversary and dativersary! MORE and last UT games of the season - fortunately winning ones. We take Mark and Stephanie on their first visit to the Lake for  a relaxing fall weekend. I head out for my second conference of the year - and second PartnerCon ever - again in New Orleans. We have a wonderful, relaxing weekend at the Buckhorn Inn on the weekend of six years since our first date. We head to Cleveland for Thanksgiving and then return to go full steam ahead with the tiling project begins. We also begin the great tree removal and supporting, with a few of our new replacement trees being planted.

December: The tiling project ends, just in time for my trip to visit Sarah in Texas. We enjoy ourselves immensely at the Lampo Christmas party and a night at the Embassy Suites (as well as our first REAL snow of the season). We put lights on the house for the first time and beef up our outside decorations for the holidays. We also begin preparations for the hardwoods project. Our Christmas is spent with family in VA and MD, before my late December departure for Italy! Cliff goes to the Bowl Game here in Nashville - welcoming the New Year in Cleveland (and me in Sorrento!!).

WHEW.

2009 in Review

In keeping with reviews from both 2008 and 2007, the tradition is staying alive.

This afternoon Cliff and I are both headed east, but this New Year's, not together. Hold your horses, it's a good thing, my friends. Cliff and his brother-in-law Brad scored tickets to the Chick-fil-A Bowl to see Tennessee take on Virginia Tech (my two "homestate" teams!) and I am glad for them to get some guy-time in together. Brad has been one of the most influential persons in Cliff's life and anytime they get together is always a grand ol' time.

And as for me? Don't worry. I'm hopping in a car with one of my best friends and heading out to the mountains of North Carolina for a couple of days of - big sigh - skiing. Oh, it's been too many years and Natalie was thoughtful enough to both oblige and include me in some pre-I'm-starting-Grad-School-at-Vanderbilt-on-Monday fun. Just think... snow, mountains, bare trees dancing in cold winds, ice in my hair, my breath visible in front of me, and skis on my feet. My heart just bursts at the thought.

So we'll bring in the New Year separately, and yet, still together. We're looking forward to our mock celebration on Saturday with each other!

What a year this has been... and what a way to celebrate.

So what does our year in review look like? Let me give this a try:

January: We ring in the under starlight by the wild and scenic Obed River. Just a cold night and firelight to mark a new year, and then a couple of days of spontaneous fun in Chattanooga. I facilitated my first Spring Orientation at Belmont - and survived. We sold the Jimmy (oh, how we miss you) and bought the Jeep (oh, how we love you!).

February: I began as an associate-in-training with Gray Photography and ended up taking a bunch of pictures of people in love. Appropriate for the month, I guess. Cliff cooked for me for Valentine's Dinner - Penne a la Betsy, a PW favorite. Cliff went to the UT Recruiting Celebration and saw the Kiff-man live and in person. We started meeting with our men's and women's groups!

March: We take a wonderful trip to Virginia Beach to visit with Mom and Marcus for a couple of days. Make trips to Kitty Hawk and Nags Head, played a couple of games of bowling, and just enjoyed each other's company. Cliff keeps his beard (GASP!) Volunteer for an alternative spring break service trip with a team from Belmont to work with Habitat for Humanity of Cleveland. Stay at the cabin and relished the experience of working all days with your hands to benefit people's lives only to come back to good food and fellowship every night. Became master-siders and tile removers. Bought my 5D! Shot more weddings.

April: Cliff celebrates his second anniversary at Lampo! ELP Department picnic at Jack's new property in the country. I appear in a newspaper ad for Belmont. We buy lots and lots of pretty-baby lenses for my pretty-baby 5D. Town Hall For Hope goes nationwide and is a great night of learning and encouragement. I become officially an Associate with Gray Photography! I visit Birmingham, Atlanta, Knoxville, Cincinatti, and St. Louis for Enrollment Services' BU2U trips for admitted students. We go on our incredible, wonderful, never want to come back trip to San Diego to visit Aaron for Easter. Cliff still has his beard...

May: I celebrate my 25th birthday with Cliff, Natalie, and Ryan over s'mores and later, scrambled eggs, during our first visit to Wildwood (Natalie's dad's place). Ah, and I shoot my first Associate wedding that day as well. Buncha, buncha Gray Photography workshops. Lampo hosts an awesome day for the company and family at Joe C. Davis YMCA camp. We finish planning and booking our July trip to Washington!

June: I could just say Orientation happened and that'd be enough evidence for the reason why not much else happened during June. Except, that wasn't it. We went to visit with my Dad and family in Maryland! Cliff turned a glorious year older - 26. We managed to make it to the lake. And I spent three weeks with an amazing team of students orienting nearly 1000 new students and 1500 of their parents and family members. I subsist mostly on Passion Pit and give up caffeine for most of the month. Cliff goes on a guy's weekend with his men's group to Mammoth Cave where they take a long canoe trip and play in some caves. I have my first slumber party with the women's group since college.

July: Mom, Marcus, and Cee come into town and we ring in a new year of Independence at the lake with everyone. I decompress from June and we gear up for our trip to Washington. We go to Washington and spend a blissful week plus a couple of days taking in lush greens, soft grays, orca whales, good coffee, striking mountains, busy cityscapes, expansive oceans, calming rivers and lake, and so much more. My heart wakes up again. We celebrate two years of marriage!

August: Not much is recorded from this month, as it was a total blur. We spent our last weekend at the Lake to close off our cabin season with Natalie and Ry and had a blast as usual. I stayed pretty busy gearing up for my student leaders to return and all of the new students and their families as well. Had a successful move-in and Welcome Week. We start talking about the prospect of changing our house plans and actually looking at possibly looking at some before the end of the year.

September: Cliff goes to two UT games - one with the guys and one with friends, which I was absent for due to the first visit of a nasty cold. We decided to stay-cate for Labor Day Weekend and that ends up being a fateful choice. In a series of days we meet with our realtor, look at umpteen homes, and make an offer on a beautiful ranch house in Franklin that Monday just before bbq-ing with friends. The couple, after a couple of back and forths, takes the offer. I launch my house. We do all of the stuff you're supposed to do before closing... and then close on the last day of the month! I manage to select the new Orientation Council and host Parent & Family Weekend somewhere in the madness of it all.

October: Another blur, but a beautiful one as we learn the cost not just financially but emotionally of taking a home into your hearts. In a matter of a couple of weeks, every room is re-painted, crown molding is put up, floors are cleaned and buffed, everything is packed up from the apartment and moved over, and we call the place home. We take a quick trip up to Rhode Island and Massachusetts to visit with family and go to my cousin's wedding. We take another quick trip up to Oregon for Cliff to work with the Live Events team for Dave's Portland Event and for us to get our quarterly marriage getaway in. A piece of my heart stays at a bed & breakfast lodge in Hood River and we herd sheep and hike around Mount Hood.

November: Our local friends come over for a housewarming party in our new digs on our fifth meetiversary! I head off to New Orleans for a couple of days for a Photography conference. We celebrate our fifth dativersary. We go to UT-Vandy game with Brad & Wendy. I take my students on a retreat after which, Cliff and I go camping with some friends at Savage Gulf and hike around Stone Door. A short Thanksgiving visit to Cleveland caps off the month.

December: We visit with our family in North Carolina for a weekend and see Ashlynn dance in the Apex parade. Lampo has another INCREDIBLE Christmas party and week of festivities leading up to it! The Benton kids come to visit for a couple of days and we celebrate our third Christmas in Cleveland!

So while were off celebrating today and tomorrow, we wanted to take a chance to say, we hope you have a Happy New Year's!

It's Christmas Eve Morning

And surprise, surprise, I'm the only one up.

Every morning that we've been here, I've slipped out of bed and found a comfy place on the couch to plant myself on and make a dent into the good, easy read I picked up at the library. Usually it's another hour or so before someone makes their way from the back bedrooms or from the upstairs loft and half tiredly - half crankily join the world of the living.

This quiet time I relish. And on this particular morning that we're celebrating our Christmas here before hopping in the car later this afternoon, it has a particularly refreshing quality that I don't want to take for granted.

Reflection is so lovely and essential. It's a wonder I make it from day to day when I don't stop to think about cause and effect, beauty in difficulty, lessons in life and the like. I think that's what time like this is most useful for, because I find in reflection that it is easier to talk to God. To simply pray. And to find that I am grateful for so much more than I remember to thank Him for on a regular basis.

In this season, I am most of all thankful for the gift of a new and abundant life through Jesus. And that we have every reason to expect and to hope in Him. And that Christmas is so much more about giving than receiving and that I guess, with age, that's finally starting to make sense and become a reality to me. Though receiving is half the beauty of giving, don't you think?

Anyways, I'm rambling.

But we've had a great time here... walking around a memorial and the mall in Norfolk... taking in beautiful views at lunch and on a boardwalk stroll down at the beach... and best of all, watching movies, playing games, sharing meals, and snuggling with the cats here at home. I'm sad to be leaving in a couple of hours but grateful that our time with family isn't over just yet...

We'll be in our way to Maryland to visit with dad and the rest of the family up there, starting with Christmas Eve at my grandparents' house tonight!

2007 in Review

It's the time to do that, right?

Cliff and I are sitting here on the couch, Cearra and Mom next to us on the loveseat, and Marcus is upstairs playing his new wrestling game on Playstation. We're watching "Men in Black II", which seems to be Fox's New Year's Eve movie of choice this year. We just finished eating the second course of our traditional New Year's eve fare which includes steamed shrimp, crab dip, and then a midnight meal of pork roast, brown sugar sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes with sparkling grape/apple juice to bring in the new year.

I started thinking about 2008, which of course gets you thinking about 2007. It has been one of those years that just goes by and leaves you bewildered that it's the last day of it, you know?

So what does our year in review look like? Let me give this a try:

January: We got engaged! Cliff started working with SIFE at Belmont. Aaron moved to Nashville and became Cliff's roommate. I got my wisdom teeth taken out (and was swollen for a week after). We passed off our Homecoming crowns and went to our first symphony.

February: We started going to our Nearly/Newlywed's Sunday school class and began premarital counseling. I successfully completed a high intensity round of VUcept recruitment, applications, and interviews. Cliff started getting the SIFE team ready for regionals. We celebrated Valentine's at the WONDERFUL Restaurant Zola. We took up climbing!

March: We bought our kayaks! Belmont SIFE won regionals in Nashville and started getting in gear for Nationals.

April: I went to Orlando for the NASPA/ACPA joint conference. We spent Easter in Cleveland. Cliff started working at Lampo! I finished my first year of grad school and started my summer nannying job. Zach and Jody shot our engagement photos.

May: I began spending a couple of days a week with a darling boy named Jake. Cliff went to Dallas with Belmont SIFE who came back a top ten team in the nation. I celebrated my 23rd birthday! Molly and I took off for my first shower in Maryland.

June: We had our shower in Cleveland. Natalie and Ryan, and then Zach and Jody came with us to the lake. Cliff turned 24! We ate at The Melting Pot! I had my bridal portrait taken. Cearra came in for a week and we started her trip off at the lake.

July: The ladies threw a bachelorette party for me! We moved our stuff into the new apartment in Franklin and Cliff took up residence there. We went to the FPU reshoot. All of our families came into town for the big day. We recited our written vows in a tiny chapel in Nashville in the presence of friends and family, said our "I do's," and were pronounced man and wife! We celebrated with an awesome reception and then took off for our honeymoon in an undisclosed location. St. Lucia was awesome and seems like a dream. I officially became a Neeley and a resident of Tennessee!

August: I started back up at Vanderbilt, but in Student Campus Events. I also started my practicum at Belmont working part-time with SIFE. We started our FPU class.

September: We took some people from our Sunday school class to the lake for the weekend. Cliff and I went ice skating for his first time, ever!

October: We went to a Preds game for Cliff's first NHL game (where we happened to meet ice-skating great Scott Hamilton). Kanye at Quake. Our Get-away weekend at the lake and the UT-USC game. Dave's show on Fox Business Network premiered. Cliff participated in a rousing Spirit Week at work! I learned to shoot a gun.

November: We went to Atlanta with Cliff's team. We celebrated our third "dating" anniversary! We went to a Titans game for Cliff's first NFL game (Montell Jordan sang the national anthem!). We went to New York and Maryland for Thanksgiving and Cliff met my (now his!) amazing 93 year-old Great Grandma McCarthy.

December: We finished our thank you cards! We sent out our first Christmas cards and did all those other things that couples do when getting ready to celebrate their first Christmas together. Lampo had their INCREDIBLE Christmas party and we got a camcorder. We celebrated our first Christmas in Cleveland! We packed up the car and drove here to Virginia Beach to bring in the new year with the fam!

And next year? Oh my. If anything, Lord willing, I can tell you that I will graduate and get a job, doing what exactly? Your guess is as good as mine. Besides that, we'll keep learning how to love and serve both God and each other better, as well as do our best to take care of our health, our finances, our family, and our friends. Who knows, once I actually don't have homework I might actually start working on my book again. 2007 has been good to us, and I can only pray for God's continued presence and blessings in 2008.

We're hoping for a great 2008, both for you and for us!