It's Spring and It's Snowing!!!

Okay, I know that this post has kind of a strange title.  But...I didn't know how else to title a post that is going to cover so many topics, so I just looked outside, saw it was snowing, and realized that last week was the first day of Spring.  It really doesn't feel that Springy with snow falling, but it is pretty.  We don't get really bad snow here, so we don't get snowed in or anything like that.  It is pretty cold here though, and I'm really looking forward to some warmer weather.  This California girl does not like these prolonged periods of very cold weather.

So, I think it goes without saying that I have been very bad on keeping up with this blog this year.  I think that I need to schedule a notification on my phone that will pop up and remind me to write a post. :)  Well, we have been pretty busy over here, but I'll try to keep this post as short as possible, so y'all don't have to be here for hours reading it.

So, let me just some up our lives since February in bullet points.

• Matt is taking a full load of 9 units here at Seminary.
• I no longer work as a preschool assistant at Christian Academy. (no I didn't get fired.) :)
• I made a career change and decided to look for positions as a nanny.
• Within 2 days of beginning my search for a nanny position I had an interview (Praise God!)
• I was hired as a full-time nanny the same week that I began looking for a position.
• My salary for being a nanny is double what I was making at Christian Academy.
• Matt is now required to work mandatory overtime at his job.
• This mandatory overtime is a blessing because we are doing our best to get out of debt.
• We are doing are best to find creative ways to spend time with each other.
• We will be moving out of Fuller Apartments.
• We will move into Springdale Apartments on April 3rd.
• These apartments are on campus and a lot bigger than what we're in now.  
• Matt will be preaching full-time at a small rural church in Turners Station, KY beginning this summer.  
• God is so good, and He is blessing us in so many ways!!!

Okay, so that's what's been going on with us in a nut shell.  Now, I know that if you're all like me, you would rather see pictures than read a bunch of words, so here are our most recent pictures since February.  

Matt got me flowers and sushi for Valentines Day.  I have the sweetest husband!!

We wen't to the Louisville Slugger Museum for one of our date days.  We ate tacos at a little taco shop in downtown Louisville called Taco Punk, and we had coffee at a cute little coffee shop called Please & Thank You also in downtown.  We had a great time and enjoyed the rare opportunity to have time to be with each other.

For another date day Matt and I went to the Louisville Dog Show at the fair grounds.   Neither of us had ever been to a real dog show before, so it was quite an experience for us.  We had a great time, and we especially enjoyed the agility trials for the dogs.  Matt's favorite dog was the Cattle Dog, and mine was the Grey Hound.

Here is a picture of the house where I'm a nanny at.  I really really really love being a nanny.  The two kids that I nanny are ages 5 and 7.  The girl is 5 and the boy is 7.  The family is amazing, and I thank God every day that He has given me this awesome opportunity to serve this family as their nanny.

Lastly, I wanted to post a video of our first home here at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the Fuller Apartment.  I say our first home because we will be moving to a larger on campus apartment next week.  So, If you're interested to see how we set up our 500 sq foot apartment go ahead and enjoy this clip.  

Thank you all for taking the time to read through this blog.  We want you all to know that we miss all of you back in California, but that God is so good in providing for us while we are over here in Seminary.  Please continue to pray that God would make His will clear for us for after Seminary.

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. :)

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.