With this ring...

David and I will be celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary this coming Monday! Who would've guessed that almost 12 years ago when we met during our freshman year of college that we would end up together? Well, other than God! It's actually a funny story of how we met...you should ask David sometime...oh wait, that's right, he doesn't remember the first time we met! HA! We have varying stories...mine is that we met one afternoon in early fall semester of our freshman year at APSU....his is that we met in Leadership 101 in  the spring semester of our freshman year. He claims that there is no way that we met before that because he would've remembered me...he also claims that he had a "thing" for me since the day he saw me...maybe he had temporary lapse of vision the first time we met! Either way, we went on to become really good friends...best of friends I would say for a couple of years before he finally worked up the courage to ask me out. He actually left an elementary style note with yes or no checkboxes on my car when he asked me out...funny, I don't think I ever checked a box! Guess it worked out in his favor though! I think I had fallen for him long before I knew, so once we started dating, I knew he was the one! He proposed after we had been dating for about a year and I was in my fall semester of pharmacy school. He came to visit one weekend and had a large box for me to unpack since he couldn't be there when I moved in...at the bottom of the box was the ring! It was really sweet! We got hitched a couple of years later after my second year of pharmacy school and the rest is history!

I never could've imagined the awesomeness that God had in store for us when we said "I do!" I am so thankful that we have such an amazing and wonderful God that created us for each other. There are so many little twists and turns in our lives that would've led us in different directions in life, but He placed each of us in the path that led to each other. Our marriage has been amazing so far...we have two beautiful daughters that have only made our bond stronger. I am so thankful and blessed to have such an amazing husband that gets me! He's seen all my quirks...trust me, there are gazillions....and he loves me just the same! Thank you, Lord, for this awesome man you made just for me!! Happy anniversary hon! Love you!! (I don't even think David reads my blog, so if you see him, tell him I love him...ha!!)

You Are What You Read

Over the past year or so I have become a fairly avid reader. I think in 2008 I probably read three books...maybe. In 2009, I read about 20 books. So far, I have read 16 books...working on two more right now. My goal for the year is 30 books, so I'm pretty on track! Of course, I can't mention reading without giving some love to Amazon for the Kindle. A coworker at BACH had a Kindle last year and after fiddling with it a couple of times, I decided I had to have one. Considering I'm married to the ultimate gadget guy, it wasn't very hard for me to convince him to buy it! I got my Kindle in spring 2009, hence the major jump in reading from 2008 to 2009! If you ever want to play with the Kindle, let me know. I love telling people about it because I use mine so often. Here are a few stats...it can hold something like 1500 books, you can download books wirelessly from the Kindle store without a computer, it uses a 3G signal without a contract or monthly fee, you literally download a new book from just about anywhere, and there are tons of free books available...just a few reasons I love mine! (If you know my hubby, you know he's an iPad fan...as an e-reader, the iPad doesn't have a thing on the Kindle!)

All that being said, let me get to the meat of my soap box for the day. One of the great things about Amazon is that they recommend purchases based on your previous purchases. For instance, if you read a book by certain author, they will recommend books by that same author or books of similar content. Thanks to that feature I have discovered I am a huge "chick lit" fan...you know, the stories where girl meets boy, girl likes boy, boy likes girl, something big happens to keep them apart, girl and boy find each other again and fall in love and live happily ever after. I love those stories! The problem with those books is that it's so hard to find clean content with that type of storyline. I have recently started to feel very convicted about what content enters our house as far as tv, internet, movies, and music. We don't let the girls watch too many kids shows even because we don't like the message being sent out by them. I have also stopped watching a good chunk of the shows I once watched "faithfully" like Gray's Anatomy and Private Practice. I would dvr the shows and watch them after the girls went to bed because the content was inappropriate for them to watch. I figured that if I wouldn't watch in front of my kids there must be a reason, so why am I watching it? It seems like so many shows are filled with so much sexual content, immorality, adultery, and language that it's almost not worth even having cable anymore! I know that I may sound a little extreme on this one, but I'm OK with that!

Fast forward to a couple of months ago...I've tried to eliminate as much impure content from my life as possible with music, tv, and internet (I cut out TMZ and celebrity gossip a long time ago...what a waste of my time), so I'm good right? Well, I'm laying in bed one night reading a book and I realize that the book I'm reading is littered with language, sexual content (not trashy romance), adultery, and blatant immorality. It occurs to me that I am reading what I wouldn't watch...it's not any better because I'm still creating that mental picture of those acts and you can't just skip over a "dirty" word by not reading it...it's still there. So, I downloaded one of the many free books available under the Christian fiction category. Jackpot! I found me some Christian chick lit!! I have found a few authors that write my kind of stories with a little more substance and I am loving it. There's nothing better to me than reading a cheesy lovey story and having a Bible verse referenced that you go straight to your Bible and highlight it! There's no shame in that kind of reading....it's kind of like Adam and Eve, there was no shame in their nudity until she took a bite of that stupid apple, but that's a whole other blog topic! I tried reading the regular chick lit a couple of weeks ago since one of my favorite authors released a new book, but I was so put off by the language and content of the book that I had a really hard time reading it. I went straight back to my new chick lit after that and I so thankful for it! Once again, what a great and awesome God we have...He even provides us with Christian fiction! HA!

On a side note, if you do so happen to purchase a Kindle, get the insurance they offer! Trust me on that one, one treacherous drop on the floor at the Y and that screen is toast! I am actually on my second Kindle because of good drop and I now have insurance! Here are a couple of pics of my Kindle...I finally got a skin for it!!

It All Happens So Quickly

We all know this day is coming, but are we ever really ready? I'm talking about Kindergarten! We have been mulling over the big kindergarten decision for months....where do we send Hannah for school next year? After much, much prayer and indecision I think we have finally made a call. Last week, David and I toured Clarksville Christian School as an option for Hannah...and ultimately Sadie! We were really pleased with what we saw at the school and decided to go for it! After turning in her application packet, we scheduled her for the Brigance test (spelling?) for kindergarten readiness. In the public school system, this test is done during the first two weeks of the school year, but with private school, they do the test ahead of time so that the children can start the school year with the other grades. I took Hannah for her test yesterday afternoon...I guess my test anxiety from my school years has followed me into parenthood. I was more nervous for her than she even knew to be. Of course, she did fine on the test and we now officially know that she is ready for kindergarten! It's very exciting, but also very nerve-racking to think about my baby girl going off to big school....good think I have a couple months to mentally prepare! 

As if that's not enough drama for the week, Hannah also had her Pre-K graduation this past Friday evening. I was prepared to ball my eyes out during the whole thing, but I was so entertained by all of the cuteness that I didn't even think to cry! There are two Pre-K classes at her school and each class had prepared a song to perform during the ceremony...naturally, Hannah's class did better than the other! Ha! Just joking, they both did excellent! The children also sang the national anthem, said the pledge of allegiance, and sang a version of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" in English and Spanish!! They were so sweet! Hannah got flowers from us and from David's parents and was so excited about them. Following the ceremony was the most important part in Hannah's eyes...punch and cookies!! After everything, we all went to Chick-fil-a for dinner and Hannah got to play! The evening was topped off for her by having her Nanny and Poppy stay the night. She loves when they come to visit!! 

Hannah in her cap! Isn't she cute!!

Hannah's favorite teach, Ms. Kayla! Hannah got her flowers for being such a great teacher!!