Friday, February 1, 2013

Wow, Where is the Time Going??



First, off I want to apologize for not posting on here in so long.  We have been pretty busy over here in Kentucky, so I'm going to try to sum up for you all what we have been up to.  Before I do that, I would like to give praise to the Lord for all the blessings he has given us while we have been over here at Southern Seminary.  We feel truly blessed that God has given us this time to prepare and train in order to serve Him with our lives.

After coming back from our amazing vacation in Gatlinburg, TN, we began to get back into our old routine of things.  At the end of December, my grandfather, Harvey Behrends passed away.  Although, he lived a very full life, it is never easy to see a loved one go.  Yet, we praise the Lord that he is now in Heaven, in no more pain, seeing our Savior face to face and that someday we will see him again.   Thankfully, my family was able to fly me home for his funeral on Friday, January 18th.  The service was a celebration of the life he lived and his dedication to the Lord upon his Salvation in his later life.  While in California for the funeral I was also able to see many of my family and friends.  I loved being able to go to the beach with my in-laws, and just hang out with my parents and my brother's family for one of the days that I was there.  Being with family is definitely one of the biggest things that I miss, so it was such a blessing that I got to be with them for even just a short time.

Visiting the beach in Southern California, was such a refreshing experience.  I just love a sunset on the beach!

Hanging out at the bowling alley with two of the cutest nieces, Jesse, and .....

Kris.  Aren't they just the cutest girls ever!!?
I just love this picture of Jesse standing by the fan at the bowling alley, look at that cute hair!
And here's Kris waiting for her turn to bowl.  She's pretty good and she even beat me. :)
My mom with the girls
I loved being able to spend some time just taking in the views of Anza, CA my hometown.  
And of course I loved being able to see my dog Lacey again.
Then when I got back to Kentucky Matt had these flowers waiting for me...I think he missed me. :) 

One day Matt and I decided that we needed to go on a very cheap date day adventure.  You'll never believe where we ended up...The cemetery (Cave Hill Cemetery).  Yep, I know that's really weird, but this wasn't just any cemetery, there were famous people buried there.  We got to see Colonel Sander's (Kentucky Fried Chicken) grave, and many more famous people's graves that we didn't know.  It really was a beautiful cemetery, and we decided that we would have to go back in the spring to see all the flowers in bloom because not only is it a cemetery it's also a botanical garden.  So that was probably the strangest date day that we have ever been on, but it was really fun and interesting! 

The grave in the upper right hand corner is Colonel Sander's Grave.
Both of our jobs have been going really well.  I don't know if I've already mentioned this, but Matt is now hired on full time, and he even got a pretty significant raise.  Where he is working at he has the opportunity to get quite a bit of overtime on the weekends, so this is good for our finances.  Pray for him as he works long nights and has long days of studying.  Pray that God will give him the strength that he needs each day to make it through.  I still love working with preschool students and working at Christian Academy of Louisville.  Lately I've been really into doing bulletin boards, and here's the winter bulletin board that we had up in the classroom, it was a lot of fun to make, and the kids had a great time posing for the pictures. 


Did I mention that there's some pretty crazy weather over here.  Let me just give you an example of how the weather went this week.  On Monday and Tuesday we were in the high 60s, so it was pretty nice, even a little warm, Tuesday night, we were awaken to the tornado sirens going off.  No Tornado actually touched down, but it was pretty interesting to pretty much sleep through our first tornado warning.  I know, I know, we should have got up and went to the basement, and that's what we'll do next time, we just didn't know where we were supposed to go, we live in a pretty big apartment complex here on campus, but we know where to go now.  Wednesday through Friday the weather was freezing!  We had some snow last night, and this morning I woke up to a text from my school saying that they had canceled school due to the snow.  So, I've had the whole day off today, this is probably why I'm actually having the time to write this post. :)  All that to say...the weather is crazy here!!! I sure do miss our predictable California weather, but I do like the snow here.  Oh yes, one more thing, all this salt on the roads here is going to destroy our cars.  I'm not used to all of this salt, but oh well, my car has been on it's last leg for a pretty long time, so I don't think it will be coming back with us to CA when we are finished with Seminary anyways. :) 

Look at the interesting salt crystals beginning to grow on my car. :) 
Today's snow (1/2/13)
Cold weather must have:  Huge pots of Chili.  That's my "baby" kitchen while cooking chili, and after cleaning it up. :) 

So, as you can see, we've been pretty busy over here in Kentucky.  Matt is enjoying his Spring Semester classes.  He's taking Greek Exposition, New Testament I, and a Preaching class.  He has a lot of reading to do, but he has a schedule in place that should allow him to get it all read by the deadlines.  Thank you so much for all your prayers, they are very much appreciated.  Until next time, everyone stay warm, unless, you're in California, just enjoy the nice warm weather over there. :)














Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Our First Christmas in Kentucky

Well, it's been quite a while since my last post, and I apologize for that.  So much has happened since then that I decided to share it all with you through the use of pictures and captions.  I hope that you all enjoy this picture journey of our first Christmas in Kentucky.  God has truly blessed us this year, and for this we are truly grateful.

Our Trip to the Creation Museum in Northern Kentucky

This past Saturday we went to the Creation Museum in Northern, Kentucky.  We had an amazing time!
The gardens at the Creation Museum were all lit up and decorated for Christmas, it was quite an experience.
The Museum's beautiful like reflected the Christmas lights along the garden path.  
Of course we ate too.  We had some delicious pizza at one of the cafes in the Museum.


Our Road Trip to The Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee

Here we are excited to get on the road.  I think I look a little scared, I have some crazy faces that I make. 
All along the highway in Kentucky were these amazing icicles clinging to the limestone cliffs.  
For breakfast we split a meal at Cracker Barrel in Lexington, Kentucky.  Umm...it was so good!
We visited the Tennessee welcome center as soon as we crossed the State line.
The gas prices over here are amazing.  I feel so sorry for my poor California friends and family. :) 


Our Cabin in Sevierville, Tennessee (Dolly Parton's hometown.)

Our cozy little living room and fireplace. 
The Kitchen.  I was so excited to cook in a full size kitchen it was so nice.  
A view of the downstairs looking down from the loft.
Our first dinner in the cabin. . . chili and cornbread.  
The view outside of our cabin window. 
Matt barbecuing on our cabin porch for Christmas dinner. 
The humungous Christmas steak that was given to us by one of the church members.  It was so good!


Our Christmas Trip to Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountain National Forrest

A 200-year-old log home at the park.
Matt inspecting the clay mortar on the fireplace of the log home. 
Matt behind the pulpit of the Primitive Baptist Church at the park.
The little Primitive Baptist Church.
Matt behind the pulpit of the Missionary Baptist Church.
One of the many bucks that we saw while visiting the park.
Ahhh. . . the rustic beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains. 
Our 5-mile Christmas Hike to Abram's Falls begins.
Crossing Abram's River on a rugged log bridge constructed by the CCC.
Here we are half way through our hike with the river fork in the background.
Were almost there, I'm thinking about taking the "easy" way down. :) 
Just a few more feet. . . but wait, Matt has discovered a natural water slide. 
Were so happy to have made it to Abram Falls!
Matt considers going for a dive. . . but then he changed his mind. :) 
Being this close to the waterfall I could feel the power of the rushing water.


All Good Things Must Come to an End

My amazing husband loading the dishwasher before we headed back home.
I enjoyed sitting on our cabin's front porch for the last time.
And. . . Matt locked the cabin door as we headed home to Louisville. 


Look what Louisville Had for Us!

When we got home, we were so happy to see all the snow, it was only a day late, but that's okay.
The campus is so beautiful here whether it is green or white. 
I hope you all enjoyed our little photo journal of our first Christmas over here in Kentucky.  The most special thing about this Christmas is how Christ centered many things are over here.  We enjoyed many different Christmas nativity dramas as well and many Nativity Christmas decorations adorning the lawns of homes around town.  During this special time of year, it is great to be reminded every where you look of the miraculous birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  

Monday, December 3, 2012

In Not So Many Words...


Alright, I promised myself that I would not write a book with this blog, so I'm just going to list our latest activities here in Kentucky, and then post some pictures for you all to see.  I hope you all enjoy.  We sure are loving this Holiday season over here in Kentucky. :)


  1. Matt passed his final Greek exam. :) :) :)
  2. My coworker gave us a Christmas tree...What an answer to prayer.
  3. Matt surprised me by putting the lights on the tree while I was at work.
  4. We went to Matt's work's Christmas party at the Crown Plaza Hotel on December 1st.
  5. We decorated our Christmas tree.
  6. We got a free futon from the Seminary thrift store..The Attic.
  7. I have to serve jury duty for the next 2 weeks :( 

Okay seven seems like a good number, so now, here's the pics that I promised.

Yay!!! Matt passed his Greek exam and wrote me a sweet note to tell me about it.

Our Christmas tree with the lights.

Our new futon.  It's pretty comfortable as you can see. 

We bought this mistletoe from some kids at the flea market.  (I look really goofy in this picture. )
Decorating the Tree Together. 

Matt is getting to hang our new ornament for this year.
Here I am hanging up the ornaments just right. 

The finished tree and our stockings.