The Journey Lebanon Campus

Today was an exciting day for our church and our family. The Journey Lebanon Campus opened this morning!!! Alex and I have spent a great deal of time helping to get the building ready to open and so we were thrilled to see it all come together this morning. To make it even more exciting, the church was packed. I didn't actually get to see the service because I was working in the preschool class, but we had over twenty children alone in our 2-3 yr old class. It is so exciting!!!! God is going to continue to bless The Journey and surrounding communities. Just stay tuned.... HIS plan is bigger than we can even imagine!

If you don't have a church home, then check us out in Lebanon or in Mt Juliet.

www.thejourneytn.org

Excitement

Our family has been spending a lot of time at our new church building helping to get it ready for our grand opening. We are all SUPER excited that this Sunday our church is opening our new building in Lebanon. The Journey finally has a home at the corner of S Maple and Leeville Pike. We open on Sunday at 9am. If you don't have somewhere to be, you should join us.

End of the Year Program

Tuesday night, Ashton and Maddie had an end of the year program at their school. They both did a good job. Alex and I were very pleased with how well they did. I tried to load the videos, but at this point, I can't get them to work. I think they are too big. I'll keep trying though. Ashton class did three songs and Maddie's class did two. It was adorable. I really hope I can get the videos to load, but in the meantime, here are a couple of pictures.

Ashton is so short that you can hardly even see him. He is on the right side, third one in on the back row.

Maddie could hardly see because she had to wear a duck on her head, so she spent a lot of time trying to raise it up and look for us. LOL

The Creek

My neice, Addison is here for a visit while her parents have their first overnight date. I decided to take all three kids to the park this afternoon to see if I could wear them out. They had a lot of fun! Alex stopped by after a workout and we took them for a walk along the creek.

There was a small little trail down to the water, so we decided to take them for a closer look. Alex started trying to show Ashton how to skip rocks. It was so cute.

He and Maddie kept trying, but of course just couldn't get it. I got some cute pictures of them all trying though. Finally, Addison decided she wanted a rock to throw in and she would literally drop it right in front of her in the water.

Then she'd ask Alex for more rocks.

When we decided we were done, we told the kids it was time to go. We headed back to the car and there was one BIG rock in the park. Ashton and Maddie decided they were going to try and pick it up and carry to to throw in the creek. LOL

Irreplaceable Friendships

This morning I woke up thinking about how blessed I am to have such great friendships. I think what really sparked this thinking, today in particular, is that last night a group of gals and myself met for a bible study. We've been doing this for a long time now and the group has changed over that time. We started with a small group, then it became larger, and now we're down to just five women. The five of us have grown a lot together and developed a very strong bond. Some of us, me being one, had a hard time opening up and sharing, but now I feel very comfortable and share whenever I have something I want to bring to the table. It has helped me overcome some fears that I've had and become more confident in those areas. We talk throughout the week if things are going on and we lean on one another during good times, bad times or just when we need some advice. I'm so blessed and thankful that I became apart of this group. I don't know that I'd be where I am in my journey of faith without these women. I've learned so much and grown even more. I love you girls!!!!!

Fun times...

This has been a good week. I feel like I've been pretty productive and the kids and I actually got to enjoy a day in the sun yesterday. We got up early and went to the gym for mommy some workout time. Yes, I know you can all pick your jaw up... I went to the gym. Alex and I are planning a trip only us two this summer, for our anniversary, and we have both set a goal to shape up before that. So, yes I'm going to TRY and hit the gym some. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, after we did that, I took the kids to the park. It was so nice and they had a lot of fun. I am not quite sure how kids can have so much energy. I think I was more in need of a nap afterwards than they were. We ran from one side of the park to the other and had a great time!

When we got done, we had some lunch with Daddy and then headed home. Ashton got invited to hang out for the afternoon with his "best bud" Kaleb. He was so excited. Ashton, Kaleb and Erik (Kaleb's dad) went to putt putt, ride go carts, and bumper boats and then Kaleb had a baseball game. Ashton was in heaven. He then got to spend the night with Kaleb and sleep in the tent. The boys got new flashlights and had a good time. Ashton hasn't stopped talking about it since he got home. I am not sure if Erik and Katrina realize what they may have started. LOL

Meanwhile, Maddie was home with Alex and I and so we decided to do something special with just her. She was a BIG girl yesterday and had NOT ONE accident in her panties, so we took her for Maggie Moo's ice cream. She was so excited to get ice cream and then hardly even ate any. She finally just told Alex he could have it. Silly girl!

Off to see Gee & Geega

Sunday afternoon, Alex and the kids decided to go visit Gee and Geega and take dinner. I had bible study with the girls, so I didn't get to go. For those of you that don't know, Gee hasn't been feeling well and so the kids have both been praying with Alex and I each day that Gee will get better and her doctors will be able to help her. They don't fully know what is wrong, but it is cute to listen to them pray for her.

They were really excited to get to go over to Gee's and play in her "toy closet". As you can see, they like to "ham it up" when they are over there. I think they realize what a kick Gee and Geega get out of them acting silly, so they do it even more. LOL

Visting Grammy and Papa

While Alex and I were in Chicago, Ashton and Maddie spent some time with Grammy and Papa (Alex's parents). Alex doesn't let the kids dig in our yard, so Grammy decided to buy the kids shovels for her house and let them dig a big hole. They were so excited about getting to dig at Grammy's. I know that sounds strange, but yeah kids love to dig and play in the dirt and especially when they aren't supposed to. If you think about it, it was fairly smart thinking on Grammy's part because it was a good way to wear them out to sleep good at night. LOL

Here is the "big" hole that they dug in Grammy and Papa's front yard. Pretty impressive for two little ones.

The kids also decided to let "Lou" their turtle go free while they were visiting. Grammy and Papa have a big pond in their front yard and so it was the perfect place for Lou to live. Ashton got a little emotional about letting the turtle go, but in the end, he did it. He actually told me this morning that we needed to go look for Lou and say hello.

Chicago

Alex and I are having a great time in Chicago. I'm taking a break from running the streets while Alex has to work a three hour block. So, I figured while I was sitting here I could do a quick blog and post a few pictures.

On Wednesday, when Alex and I got settled, we decided to take a double decker bus tour of the city. It was much colder atop that bus than I think either of us expected.

It was so cold for me that I went that night and bought a scarf because I was just not prepared at all for the temperatures! LOL.

The tour was great. We got to see a big portion of the city and find out some "factoids" as Alex likes to call them. Here are a couple of shots that we got from the tour.

Soldier Field

Navy Pier

Shot of the street from downtown.

Thursday, Alex had his biggest block of time to work and so I hit Michigan Ave for some major shopping. It was raining pretty hard off and on, so I kind of bounced between shops and a mall in order to try and stay as dry as I could. When I got done hitting the shops, I decided to hop on a trolley and take a ride around the city. I had a FANTASTIC tour guide and really learned a lot about the city.

After Alex got done working, we went to have some dinner and then went to check out the Hancock Observatory. I believe it is 94 floors tall and has a great view of the city. It was night time when we went and Alex got a great shot of the city all lite up.

Today, we slept in and then went to the Sears Tower. It is over 100 floors high, but we were only allowed to go to the 97th floor due to maintenance. It is just unbelievable to see a view of the city from that high. These buildings are all so tall you can't even see streets in a lot of areas. It was so amazing to me. Here are a couple of pictures we took while we were up at the Sears Tower.

Here is Alex putting the choke hold on Obama in the gift shop!

It was kind of funny because most people were getting their pictures made either standing next to him or even hugging him. Not my husband, he had to put the choke hold on Obama. It was hilarious to watch the people walking by laughing at him.

Well, that is all for now. I'm sure I'll have more to tell later. Have a great weekend!!!