Here is the slideshow that Chad and I made for my grandfather’s visitation. I think the family enjoyed it a lot. The funeral was very nice (sad, but nice). His friend, Elmer, spoke and shared about my grandpa’s faith in God. It was a blessing to hear that confirmation that he loved the Lord and is now spending eternity with Him. If you love the Lord, let everyone know. Then, when it is your time to be called home, you will give your loved ones great peace and be able to give an account to Jesus of all the work you’ve done for His kingdom.
He will be missed
This morning, my grandfather, Nick Nicholson, passed away. He was 92 and his health had been failing for a while now. I praise God that he was able to live as long as he did. I’m grateful that I was able to have him in my life for so long and that he got to meet Chad and be in our wedding. I also praise the Lord that he is no longer suffering. He was a great man who was so kind. Even though he was in his nineties, he was still very sharp and liked to talk about WW II (in which he served) and current events. He was a mall walker up until just months ago. Pappaw was also a great guitar player and would play every chance he got. I loved him, and he will be greatly missed.
I’m a Mac
I recently received a brand new MacBook from my work. I’m really excited about it. A couple months ago, I went to some training on how to use a MacBook because our school now has a mobile lab of 30 McBooks. Ever since then, I’ve felt really comfortable using the laptops, and I’m glad I am now considered a proud “custodian” of one. It doesn’t quite have the same ring as proud owner, but it is technically still Simpson County property. I had to apply for it and accept responsibility for it if anything happens to it, but I still get to use it as if it were my very own. Now I can join Chad on the couch as we watch TV and play on our (employer’s) computers. Talk about quality time!
First Uppercase Living Party
For those of you who don’t know, I have started selling Uppercase Living products. These are cute vinyl expressions that can be placed on walls or other surfaces. There were too many that I wanted, so I knew I couldn’t just buy the products. Chad would not have let me get all the things I wanted if I had to pay for them. So, my only option was to sell them myself. I’ve never wanted to do something like this before. I always felt like these jobs were a nuisance to friends. I don’t want to bug my friends to buy things or make them feel like I’m constantly trying to sell them things. Hopefully, I won’t have to do that. I really think the Uppercase Living items sell themselves, especially if you are in to decorating your home. Here is a picture of something I made tonight by putting Uppercase Living products that I created on a tile I bought at Lowes.
Well, anyway, tonight I had my first party and I played hostess too. I invited over some friends to check out the Uppercase Living and so I could practice. Only 3 girls were able to come, so it was a pretty intimate event. I think it was a little weird presenting to my friends. It probably would have been easier if I had been talking to a group of strangers. Once again, I really don’t want to bug my friends. I don’t want to risk harming a relationship because I seem pushy. Overall, it was a nice evening, and I’m glad I’ve got my first party under my belt.
One of the best things about the party was the refreshments. We had sausage balls, cheese ball, bread and bacon dip, and my new favorite Funfetti cake cookies. The cookie recipe can be found on the side of a Funfetti cake mix. They taste like a combination of sugar cookies and cake batter. You top them with the rainbow chip icing and you have a super yummy dessert that no one can resist. I think I might have to go get one now.
Happy Columbus Day!
Usually, we never get Columbus day off at school, but for some reason we did this year. I think it was simply to give all of us teachers one more day of fall break. I have been on fall break all week, and I finally have to go back tomorrow. Am I ready? No. I haven’t done a bit of schoolwork since we got out of school. That is why it is so fortunate that I get this day to do all the work I should have done over the break. On Friday before I left, I put up a new bulletin board for fall. I told someone that I knew once I got a taste of lazy, I wouldn’t want to do it anymore. It’s true. And here I am writing a post instead of doing what I should. So, I must go to school now and put in grades, make new seating charts, and prepare lessons. Happy Columbus day!
WCHS Ten Year Reunion
Tonight was Chad’s ten year high school reunion. It was a pretty nice evening, but we are both glad that it is over (Chad especially). You see, Chad was the president of the class of ’98. Therefore, he was in charge of getting the whole shin dig together.
We started making plans back in the summer, soon after we got married. Since then, Chad has been responsible for sending invitations, getting in touch with people, getting their money, booking a DJ, picking a menu, and making name tags with the alumni’s senior picture.
Ok, so that last task was sort of my fault. His plan was to buy the “Hello, my name is…” sticky name tags, but thanks to me, he got a lot more work than he had planned. I wanted to try to help, so I bought some name tags and set out to make them, but Chad ended up taking over the whole process. He worked on them for hours, scanning in the pictures and getting them typed up correctly. This was totally the opposite of what I wanted because Chad has been so busy lately. The name tags did turn out really nice and everyone got a kick out of them.
The reunion was at The Sloan Convention Center at the Holiday Inn. The meal was really good- salad, bread, chicken and green beans and rice. I was surprised at how good it tasted. For dessert, they had cheesecake with strawberry topping. I have to admit, I ate mine and somebody else’s because it was so delicious. The DJ played music on his guitar during dinner and then started playing hits from the 90s. I don’t think too many people got into the music much. For some reason more people were in the hall just outside of the room than actually in the room. We had people fill out sheets and vote for superlatives, like married the longest (9 years 11 months), traveled the farthest (from San Diego), most children (3), most tattoos (8) etc. Unfortunately, there were only about 10 people in the room when Chad announced the winners. We actually won “most recent newlyweds,” but Chad didn’t want to announce it.
I think the whole night was a success, and nobody could have done a better job. Chad put the whole reunion together while taking two MBA classes and still being a great husband. I’m so proud of him. Great job, honey! I love you!
Pappaw goes to D.C.
My grandfather served in WWII, and was recently offered a trip to Washington, D.C. to visit the WWII memorial. He went yesterday with his friend from church, Elmer, who also served in the war, my dad, and many other veterans. This was a free trip that was offered to veterans of WWII. It is amazing that he got to go on this trip. He is 92 years old and hasn’t been in the greatest health lately. He was scheduled to go on the last trip in August, but then he ended up having to have to have surgery. Thankfully, he is doing better and was able to make the trip. From what I heard, he had a really great time.
Here is the story in the Washington Post. My grandpa is the 3rd man mentioned, James “Nick” Nicholson. He is the man farther back in the picture.
Third Day Concert
Last night, Chad and I had a wonderful date night in down town Nashville. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant, where we got to sit outside and watch the people walk by. Then, we walked down to the Sommet Center for a concert. We saw Jars of Clay, Robert Randloph and the Family Band, Switchfoot, and (my favorite) Third Day. This was all part of the Music Builds tour that supports Habitat for Humanity.
I really like Third Day, and I have their new CD, so I was looking forward to seeing them. I’d seen them once before and they were very good. Chad really wanted to see Robert Randolph and the Family Band, but I didn’t know who they were. They actually were pretty good, but it was a lot of jamming out on his lap steel guitar and not a lot of singing. Jars of Clay preformed first, Robert Randolph followed, and then Switchfoot. Switchfoot was very entertaining and sang a lot of good songs. Third Day was great and I knew most of their songs, but I think I had run out of energy by the time they came on. It was a Sunday night, and Third Day didn’t even start their set until after 9:00. We left before they finished their encore, but we needed to get back to BG before it got too late.
One cool thing that happened was that someone close to the stage had a sign that said, “Please wish my mom happy birthday.” So, Mac Powell sang “happy birthday” to this person’s mom and everybody sang along. Well, let’s just say, for this story’s sake, that I was the person with the sign. Yesterday was my mom’s birthday! So, Mom, check out the video of Third Day singing “happy birthday” to you!
Happy Birthday Mom!
She is the one on the left.
Camping…sort of
This weekend we were given the opportunity to go camping at Cages Bend Campground near Hendersonville, TN. Jerry and Peggy drove his RV down to a nice campsite right on the lake. They set it up, and got everything ready for us. They even had firewood left for us and waters in the fridge. When we left, we packed up our stuff and left the RV just as we found it. All the grunt work was done for us- you know, the part of camping that nobody likes. They really made it easy for us, and we appreciate all they did to make us have a great weekend. Thanks guys!
We headed down on Friday after Chad got home from work. We didn’t go to the grocery before, so we planned to go when we got down there. The site was really nice. It was pretty and clean and very spacious. The RV was nice too. We basically dropped our stuff off and headed into town (which was only 5 miles from the campground). At this point, we were already hungry and didn’t want to wait or mess with cooking anything, so we went out to dinner at Demos’. Yum! Then, we went to the grocery store and picked up a few items (stuff to make sandwiches, stuff to make smores, breakfast bars, bananas, wet wipes, and bug spray). We made smores when we got back to the site, but that was pretty much it. I was pooped and I went straight to sleep.
The next morning, we slept in a little. Chad didn’t sleep well in that bed. We got up, ate breakfast, and ran a lap around the campground. Next, we sat out in our chairs by the lake and went through some of a study we have been doing together. It’s called, “Before You Say I Do.” Needless to say, we’ve been working on it for a while. We only got 2 chapters done before we got married, but we thought it was such a good study that we wanted to continue with it. We ate lunch and played a new game that we got called electronic A to Z. It’s pretty fun. It’s a good little game to play with just 2 people. Although we didn’t do much, we were kind of tired so we took a nap. I slept in a chair out in the sun and Chad slept in the air conditioned motor home with the tv on. After our nap, we showered and got ready for dinner. We didn’t have anything to cook, so we met Jerry and Peggy for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Then, they showed us around the area as we looked at million+ dollar homes. They came back to camp with us to have smores, and when they left, Chad and I played Phase 10. It’s a long game, but it goes by a lot quicker when you only have 2 people. We packed up some and went to bed.
The next morning, we woke up earlier than planned, so we did a little more of our marriage study and then got ready for church. We went to church with Jerry and Peggy instead of trying to make it back in time for Living Hope. Finally, we headed home. Chad had a migraine and felt really bad, so we didn’t stick around. He was kind enough to let me stop at Quiznos on the way home. I love that place and we don’t have one in Bowling Green anymore. Chad is feeling much better now. He got a nap and was able to go to choir and play volleyball tonight. We had a great weekend, and we hope to go camping again soon. Maybe next time we will “rough it” a little more. We don’t want our tent and sleeping bags to go to waste.
