Category: Post for…

Well… 2017 is upon us! I need to publish something!

It’s been fun to not be writing for the first week. I spent some time playing a video game -Rome: Total War. That was a blast. I still haven’t finished it but I’ve had to put it aside so that I can get back to work. The week was really a restful start and then a transition into the new year. So, I cleaned my office, got a desk calendar, and addressed my goals for this season. Then, I went on the 7th to visit Tim in Chatsworth and we finalized my goal sheet to start when classes begin. Really, it was an encouraging and hopeful week. It has only made me more and more excited for this year as a whole.

Before I can get to the fun part of this year as a whole, I need to make it through January. There are two big things happening in January. The one that I’ll tell you about now is my wife and I are buying a duplex. Or at least, we’re trying to. We are currently under contract and are trying to figure out a lending solution so that we can close in the next 3-5 weeks. Hopefully we will succeed, but that is causing us a lot of stress for now. Assuming we succeed, the real work begins of making it livable before our lease runs out in May. I think that part will be the most fun.

To my accountability partners, I will try to write four or five days a week to you answering the question, “how do you feel about how you spent day _”. Everyone else, thanks for following along. Feel free to comment.

I’m officially back in Chattanooga as I’m writing. The beach was wonderful; North Georgia was wonderful. It’s good to be here to end the year.

Here were those days:

The morning of December 28, I was feeling much better. I took time to write on the blog, sleep in, read and pray. Really, it was an ideal morning as my sickness came to an end. I’m equally proud of Wed, Dec 28, because I spent some of the day reconnecting with tasks to be done back home and brainstorming for Music Ministry with Hayley. After, as dinner was closing in, I played card games with my family, ate good food and stayed up with Samantha celebrating her last night before leaving – we played pinochle.

The morning of December 29, I slept in and felt totally well. With Samantha and Daniel gone, Hayley and I stuck around to say goodbye to our French family and then snuck off to go for a fun bike ride. Afterwards, we tried to stand up paddle board – Hayley actually succeeded in standing while paddling. It was really fun. Then, we cleaned up and as dinner neared we decided that we would leave at dinner of the following day. With it our last night, we stayed up and played games and sang songs with family. All-in-all, it was perfect.

The morning of December 30, we slept in for the last time on vacation and then went over for breakfast. After breakfast, we went back to our house, I massaged Hayley, we took turns showering and then we packed so that we could focus on enjoying our last day. For us, enjoying the last day meant getting another board game in and finishing journaling. Finally, it came time to sit down and have last conversations and then to stand and say goodbyes. The entire evening was spent driving.

The morning of December 31, we finally arrived at Hayley’s parents’ house and greeted her dad and our cat before turning to sleep. When my morning started, I found Hayley up sharing stories with her parents and a visiting family friend. As the group split, I went to organize our car and pull the things needed for the day in and repack the things left at her parents’ place during Florida trip. Then, we spent a few last minutes with her parents and we said goodbyes and hit the road to make it home. We arrived this afternoon, let the cat in, set up his things, checked the mail, pulled everything in, went for a nice dinner and are finally finished unpacking. Tonight, Hayley will probably share her goals with me and we’ll talk about Sunday expectations before getting back into the swing of things.

To the guys who are so good to quietly read, thank you for your friendship. It is a rare and common and sweet thing when one takes an interest in another. May the Lord bless us on account of our friendship and may His name be spoken at each of our gatherings and glorified in each of our lives. Christ be with us.

I woke up this morning on a beach in Florida. My family is celebrating Christmas/New Year’s here. My grandmother (and her husband of 12+ years) live here. So, all of the living children and their children have descended in order to reconnect and celebrate the holiday. The first thing I wanted to do though this morning was update you on the past few days while I still remember them.

Thursday, Dec 22, I started the day at Hayley’s parents house. We woke up late, enjoyed a quiet breakfast and then went to Vickie’s for a visit around noon. Don let us in and we chatted with him for a bit before going back to Vickie. When we did, we found how very thin she is. Not eating has truly taken a toll on her body and she is very physically weak. We brought our cat Gandalf with us and she really seemed to connect with him and come alive as we played with him. Truly, she is a wonderful friend and I miss her often.
The nurse came and we left the room while she was there. Hayley and I found a Sudoku puzzle untouched and solved it, which set us on a sudoku frenzy where we downloaded apps and played several games competing with one another for speed and accuracy. Finally the nurse let and we went back to Vickie’s room again. We caught up on her life and shared about ours and exchanged gifts. Vickie’s sister, Linda, also arrived and visited with us -as did Andrea. Eventually conversation waned and we said our goodbyes and departed.

On the way back, we stopped and bought some last minute Christmas gifts for my family. Once we finally arrived, we packed up and left for Peama and Grandaddy’s (since we would miss their Christmas Day celebrations). Katie and Jason and their two boys came with us -we actually rode in their car- and we caught up, enjoyed a really nice meal, exchanged gifts and played with toys before departing for the evening.

Friday, Dec 23, we started the day just like the one before, but after sleeping in and a quiet breakfast we packed to go to North Carolina where Nana lives on the same land as her son, Randy, and his family. We travelled to North Carolina and there celebrated Christmas with Nana and Gran. We also helped to set up the house for the remainder of the family’s impending visit on Christmas Eve. However, we were set to leave before they arrived – around 11:45 AM on Christmas Eve.

Saturday, Dec 24, Hayley and I woke up in North Carolina and did leave around 11:45. That put us back in Tennessee by 2:00 with 3 hours to unpack, clean, repack and prepare for Christmas Eve services at the church. Blessedly, we succeeded and even got an oil change. The service went well and we left shortly after for Georgia where we picked up a last minute addition to our trip from the storage unit and returned for sleep at Hayley’s parents’ house. We saw them and traded stories of the day and packed vehicles full of presents and then went to bed.

Sunday, Dec 25, we were very glad to have packed the presents the previous night since we drove them over to Katie and Jason’s for breakfast, Christmas story reading, and gift exchanging. Alex and Jen showed up and it was good to realize that next year, two new nieces will be with us as both Katie and Jen are pregnant. The morning went well and was socially and emotionally rewarding. And Hayley and I departed for Florida around 11:30. 8 hours of driving later, we arrived just in time for gift exchange with my family. We all helped to pack each other’s stockings and it went really well. After gift exchange, we played card games and turned in for the night.

I woke up this morning on a beach in Florida. My family is celebrating Christmas/New Year’s here.