I had a training for school today. Here are a few pictures I came across while looking for images. I had completely forgotten about them. This is is my gorgeous husband.
Garden Spot Run
This morning, Chad and I ran in the Garden Spot Run 5K in Franklin. I had run in the Trooper Island 5K in July to kind of prepare for this race, but other than that, this was the first 5K for me and Chad in about 2 years. In the 5K I ran a few weeks ago, my time was about 34 minutes. I felt good when I ran, but I wanted my time to be better. Chad and I have been doing some training ever since to prepare for today’s race. We are just getting back into it, but I am very happy with how we did. I finished with a time of 30:34, and Chad’s time was somewhere around 32 minutes. I would still like to get my time under 30, but I’m please at how I did. I’m really proud of Chad. He hadn’t been running until the past month or so, and he hasn’t been able to run as much as me, so he did great!
I work in Franklin and our school system has begun a new health initiative. So, my school got a team together to enter the race. There were 4 of us who ran, and 14 who registered to walk. I say registered because 1 woman decided to sit it out on the sidelines, and another took a different route so she wouldn’t have to walk the entire course.
We left before the awards ceremony was over, but we stayed long enough to hear that we did not win our age groups or any door prizes. We want to keep training, and hopefully the next one we run we will get under 30 and place.
No More Naked Door
I like to decorate or house, especially for seasons, but during the summer, there isn’t much you can do except brighten the house with lovely flowers. I bought some silk flowers to put in the vase in our hallway, and that made me happy for a while, but I began to feel like the front of our house was naked.
I’d been wanting a spring/summer wreath since Easter was over and I took down the little egg decoration that had been hanging on the front door. The problem wasn’t that I couldn’t find a wreath I like. The problem was that I wasn’t willing to spend $50 for it. One day while showing Chad a particular wreath that I thought was pretty nice, he mentioned that I could probably make one just like it. I thought, he’s right! So, that’s exactly what I did. I went to Hobby Lobby during a time when their floral stuff was half off. I purchased the wreath base and then picked out flowers that I thought would look gorgeous together. I brought it all home and put it together, hot-gluing to secure the flowers. I tied a ribbon on the back to hang it up, and it is now adorning our front door. I have to say that I am more pleased with this wreath than any other that I saw to purchase. I’m so glad I was able to make it just the way I wanted, and, the best part, for under $25! That might seem like a lot, but comparable wreaths that I liked and wanted to buy were originally $80-$100. Even on sale, they don’t beat the price of this Jennie-made wreath. Feel free to stop by and admire it or wave to it. There are only a couple more months until the fall decor goes up.
Top Ten Reasons I Think my Husband is the Cutest
#10 He times how long we cook our meat at The Melting Pot to ensure it has been exactly 2 minutes.
#9 He tucks me in with a kiss EVERY night and answers when I call for my “tucker.”
#8 To appease me, he wears his snowman pajama pants at Christmas time.
#7 He takes his Harry Potter book with him everywhere “just in case” there is a chance he can read it.
#6 When he knows how my sentence is going to end, he mouths along with my words without realizing it.
#5 He throws a little hissy fit when he has to go back to work after lunch.
#4 He gave me this t-square to help with Uppercase Living.
#3 He says, “Look, my socks match my outfit.”
#2 He actually believed that it was me under the covers and told the pillows, “wakey, wakey.”
#1 Just look at that face.
I love you, cutie!
100 Posts
I like to celebrate milestones in our life and in our marriage, so why not on our website as well? I noticed when I finished my last post that we have now written and published 100 posts (this one makes 101).
On average, we have written a post every 5.6 days. January is the month of most writing with an average of 10 posts per month. July might come in second place, but we have only been through 1 full July since having the site.
It is so nice to look back at the things we have done and what we were thinking. We hope to keep them coming by the hundreds. Thanks for reading! Enjoy all 100 of them!
Lifetime and Eternity
Ok, I hate to admit it, but I watched that show on Lifetime called Drop Dead Diva, and I kinda liked it. It is about this cute model who dies, and when a gate keeper is trying to decide whether she should go to heaven or hell, the girl hits a button to make her go back to earth. The twist is that she returns into the body of an overweight, not as cute, girl, Jane. Now, she has to pretend that she is Jane, who is smart and a lawyer. It is actually a pretty cute and funny show. The actress who plays Jane does a really good job of trying to be this self-centered model trapped in a plus-sized woman’s body.
When the girl first dies on the show, the gate keeper looks on a computer and can’t determine where she should go because she has done just as many good things as bad things, so there is this straight line across the computer screen. I know I used to think that that’s how it worked: you do more good than bad, you go to heaven. The only problem with that is, who decides what’s good enough and what’s bad enough? If it’s us, well, we can always find someone worse than us. And if it’s God, well, we could never reach the perfection of God. Thankfully for us, that’s not how it works! We do not work for our spot in heaven. Grace is given to us by our Father.
In Bible, it says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
So, what the show really should have looked like is this. The gatekeeper looks at the computer, and he doesn’t see “Was she good or bad?” He turns on the screen, and looks: “Did she love Jesus?”
Birthday Fun
The celebrating started on Monday, when my mom and dad stopped in Bowling Green on their way back to Louisville from Atlanta. They showed up at my door with a balloon and cupcakes. It was so sweet…literally! The cupcakes were delicious. We met Chad at Mariah’s for lunch and then came back to the house where they gave me some nice gifts. It was a good visit, even though it was short. I will see them again this weekend when I go to Louisville.
Tuesday (my actual birthday), Chad woke me up by bringing me breakfast in bed. The menu was the same as last year, but this year he brought me two dozen pink and red roses. They were beautiful, and it is the best way to be woken up. During Chad’s lunch break, I met him at AT&T to get my birthday present, an iPhone. Now I can have something to play with when Chad’s on his.
That evening, I had a couple girls over for a bible study. My friend, Jaclyn, surprised me with a cookie cake. She didn’t even know that I like them. I thought that was very sweet. We enjoyed our study and talking over cookie.
After the girls left, Chad pulled out a Blizzard ice cream cake that he had ordered for me. It was Tagalong flavor. Can you tell that I like sweets? Even Quiznos sent me a coupon for a free cookie. We decided to wait until after dinner to dig in. Then, he surprised me with another gift, a makeup mirror. I thought it was precious because he was able to remember that I have wanted one from a long time ago. It was months ago that I told him how, if I don’t do my makeup in the closet, I have to move my full length mirror to another room or use a tiny little compact mirror. He actually wrote it down, so he could remember to get it for me. How sweet!
Next, Chad and I went to Red Lobster for dinner. Chad doesn’t usually want to go there, so I took advantage of getting to choose. He loved it, though. He really likes the lobster pizza. We came home and enjoyed the blizzard cake. It was sooooooo good. I really liked it. The rest of the evening was spent just relaxing with my hubby. It was a wonderful birthday! Thanks, everybody!
Kine and Kaka in Hawaii
While in Hawaii, we discovered that our names in Hawaiian are Kaka (Chad) and Kine (Jennie). Here are all the details about our trip!
On Friday, June 12th, Kaka and I, along with Kaka’s sister and brother-in-law, Ashley and Brock, left for vacation in Hawaii. (I don’t know anyone else’s Hawaiian names). We flew to Dallas, and after missing our connecting flight, got on standby for the next flight, which we eventually made it on. It was kind of fun running through the airport trying to make our original flight. We finally took the 7 and a half hour flight to Oahu.
We got there and headed for our hotel in Waikiki, where we met up with Kaka’s dad, Jerry, his step mom, Peggy, and her children, Laura and Brad. Jerry and Peggy had already been there a week, and Laura and Brad had only been there for a day. We didn’t do much that first day because we were pretty tired. Hawaii is 5 hours behind our time, so we ended up going to bed at 7:30 that night.
The next day, we headed to our ship, The Pride of America, for our cruise to the Hawaiian islands. On the way to the cruise, our driver let us stop by Da Kine Bail Bonds where Dog the Bounty Hunter works.
Here we are in our cute little cabin.
We spent 1-2 days on each of the islands we went to. It was a lot of fun! I’ll give you a recap of the things we did each day.
Sunday-Maui:
First, we went to the Iao Valley and saw the Iao Needle.
We went to a beach that I can’t remember the name of. It was very pretty, but hot. We didn’t want to get too gross because we were going to a luau that night and wouldn’t have time to go back to the ship.
That night, we went to a luau in Old Lahaina. It was beautiful there, right on the beach. We received leis as we arrived, and we had all the food and drinks we wanted.
We got to see them take the pig out of the ground, and they later served it in the buffet. I had low expectations for the food because I just didn’t know what to expect. I knew they would have pork and spam (yuck!), but I didn’t know if I would like anything else. To my surprise, I really liked a lot of the food. I was glad because it really made the luau one of my favorite things. They also had a show with dancers as they shared the history of Hawaii.
Monday-still in Maui:
Jerry drove us up to a lookout of the Haleakala crater. We went 10,000 feet in elevation on winding roads. It was not a very fun drive, but I think Brad had it worst. He road on a cooler in between 2 seats in the van. These pictures are on the way up to the crater.
When we got to the top, it was pretty cold and windy, so Laura and I covered up with our beach towels. There was a wedding going on while we were there. It was very pretty, but it looked like the bride was going to lose her veil at any moment.
After the crater, we had a picnic at a beach. Jerry, Brock, and Kaka went to walk around a little town while the rest of us tried to lay out. It was very windy and we kept getting pelted with sand. We had to move 3 times before we found a tolerable spot. Peggy’s hat flew off and went pretty far down the beach before Ashley caught up with it. Once we got settled, it was nice and very pretty. If you look close in this first picture, you can see the sand blowing.
Tuesday-Hilo (on the Big Island):
The first place we visited was Punalu’u Beach, a black sand beach-very cool! It was really neat to see all this sand created from volcano lava and some of the rocks that looked like flowing lava. It’s something you don’t see many places in this world. This was also the first place we saw a sea turtle. It looked very ill and almost dead except for when it blinked.
Next, we went to Volcano National Park and saw Kīlauea Volcano from afar. You could see the gases coming up from this active volcano. Naturally, we couldn’t get that close for safety reasons. We also went in a lava tube, through which lava used to flow. It looked a lot like a cave.
Next, we saw Rainbow Falls-pretty.
Wednesday-Kona (on the Big Island):
All Kaka and I did this day was go to Turtle Bay where we went snorkeling. It was very cool… and free. One of the crew told us about this place that you could see lots, and we only had to pay for our snorkel equipment. Turtles would swim right up to the shore. There were lots of pretty fish, even prettier than in Jamaica.
Thursday-Kauai:
Went to Waimea Canyon. It’s not what you would picture when you think of Hawaii. There is a waterfall in the distance that you can see.
Went to Poipu Beach to see Spouting Horn, a lava tube that shoots water into the air whenever a wave comes in. This area of Hawaii was beautiful! I thought this was the most gorgeous area we saw. Spouting Horn was pretty cool too, and we saw more sea turtles swimming near the rocks.
Next, we went to the Kauai Coffee Company. I don’t like coffee, but it was so beautiful there and smelled great. They gave away free samples of the different types of coffee to try.
Friday-still in Kauai:
This was our last full day on the cruise. We were still in Kauai, but we didn’t have a car, so we didn’t get off the ship. There weren’t anymore places that we really wanted to see, so we went to the pool, drank some fruity drinks served in pineapples, ate lunch, played BINGO, went to an art auction (hoping to win a raffle), and played water volleyball. The water volleyball was so much fun! Kaka, Brock, Ashley, Brad, and I all played with others against the crew. We were awesome and won. It was a blast.
That evening, the shipped sailed past the beautiful Napali coastline. It was very pretty at sunset, and there had been a rainbow earlier. It was nice to look at, but also fun because it was very windy on the deck of the ship. I had a hard time keeping my dress down and my hair out of my face.
Saturday-Back to Honolulu:
Disembarked the ship and went back to our hotel in Waikiki. We walked around and checked out the shops and the International Market Place.
Later that night, we took our family picture on the beach and said goodbye to Laura and Brad, who headed home.
Sunday-Waikiki:
We took a bus to Pearl Harbor to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. It was very beautiful there, and it was interesting that the memorial was built right over the ship. Most of the men are still there where they died, and the ship still leaks oil to this day.
When we got back, we had lunch at Duke’s and tried the famous hula pie. It was good, but I’m not a huge fan of Macadamia nuts (which are very high in calories).
Later that afternoon, we went to Waikiki beach, which was only two blocks away, to lay out and swim. You could see Diamond Head from the beach. The ocean was great. You could go out very far and still touch the bottom. The water was super clear and the waves were kind of big. We wished we knew how to surf or at least had a boogie board.
Monday- Waikiki:
Our last day 🙁
We did our last minute shopping and headed to the airport to go home.
After the long flight, we were so glad to be back. It took quite a while to get back on the Bowling Green schedule. Hawaii is 5 hours earlier than us. So, when we got back, we couldn’t fall asleep until 2, 3, or 4 in the morning. I think we are finally getting back on track.
We had such a great time, but it’s good to be home. I really hope to go back again. It sounds like my parents are up for a trip, so maybe there will be another visit in the future.
We’re back!
We made it home from Hawaii safely. We had a wonderful time and hope to share our pictures and experiences with you soon! While in Honolulu, Chad was told, once again, that he looks like Ben Affleck. How many times do you have to be told you look like someone before you quit your job and become an official celebrity impersonator?
More about the trip to come…
One Year Anniversary
Sunday was our one year anniversary! We finished up celebrating in Nashville by going to church and dropping by to give Peggy a birthday card (Happy birthday, Peggy!) That evening, back at home, I decorated the table and kitchen counter with elegant decor and pictures of us. Chad grilled us some yummy turkey burgers and corn on the cob, and we dined by candle light. If you were at our wedding, you might have tried the punch made with pineapple juice, ginger ale, and peach sherbet. We did not. In fact, I completely forgot about the punch fountain until I saw it in pictures. This was devastating to Chad Webb. I think he was sold on the caterer as soon as she described it. It might have been the thing he looked forward to the most that day. Well, because he did not get his so desired punch on our wedding day, I recreated it for us to have on our anniversary. I don’t know how it was really supposed to be made, but I guessed and it was good. Chad was happy.
After dinner, we opened our gifts. The traditional first anniversary gift is paper. I had decided to get Chad some gift certificates to the movie theater because he really likes movies and I just don’t care all that much to go to them. Little did I know they had joined the modern world and now have gift cards. So, it wasn’t paper, but I still gave it to him and let him know I would go see whatever he wants. The real gift I was excited to give him was still part of the paper theme. I purchased a picture frame and got a large matte cut for it. I had a black and white picture of our wedding rings printed and put it in the frame, and I had someone (with better handwriting then me) write our vows on the matte. I had been wanting to have something with our vows on it for a while, and this was the idea I came up with. I think it will be nice to have them displayed so we can seee them and remember them. We didn’t actually write them ourselves, but we did pick them, so they are special to us. I also believe that we should honor our vows, and the best way to do that is to know what they are. It will be nice to have a reminder around. Chad really liked his gifts.
Then, it was my turn. I opened my paper gift, which was Scrabble Slam, a new card game. I had seen the commercials and it looked like a good time. We played that night, and it was pretty fun. He also got me the game Partini. The cards in it are paper, but he really just got it because, on the way to picking up Scrabble Slam, he noticed it was on sale. Along with the traditional, Chad also gave me the modern first anniversary gift, which is clocks. He found a cute math clock, which I’m sure will annoy the heck out of my students at school and bring me minutes of delight.
The frame I gave Chad came in handy because after exchanging gifts, we exchanged (or renewed, I guess) our vows again. Then, after dancing to our wedding song in our living room, we ate the top layer of our wedding cake. Actually, it was a replica of the top layer of our wedding cake. We didn’t save ours. I thought there wouldn’t be enough for the guests if we did, and I was totally wrong. Anyway, I wanted to still celebrate this tradition, so I had Walmart recreate it for us with the same design and everything as before. It looked just like it, but it was fresher and a little bigger. I can’t say I regret not saving the original.
I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed my wedding day, but that was only the begining of the best year of my life (so far). I have been truly blessed to have a wonderful husband who loves me and is amazing to me everyday. Thank you so much, Chad, and happy one year anniversary! I hope I can spend the rest of our many years together making you as happy as you have already made me. I love you!
