Christmas progression...

We had our Louisville "family" Christmas dinner last night...For the second year in a row we had a progressive dinner with some of our closest friends here in Louisville...our Louisville "family", if you will. We have been so blessed to meet and form great friendships with three other couples who are all at the seminary and go to the same church that we do. We ended the evening with a viewing of "Home Alone" to keep us in the Christmas spirit. Yes, we are just big kids!! Even after all these years, I'm still able to quote the lines from this movie as it plays...I think I used to watch it WAY too much.

After much complaining from the guys...we got together in front of our tree for a "family" picture...


Nick & Kristen, Grant & Melisa, Lindsay & Dustin, Kenny & Jana


I just put this picture in because I thought it was quite stunning of both of us...I mean, we look good!

On a different note...GET READY ALABAMA!! We are storming the town this Friday and we are both so excited to be able to visit with family and friends we haven't seen in a while. ROLL TIDE! ...and Merry Christmas!

Christmas Time in Georgia!

We joined Kenny's family in Gainsville, GA this past weekend to hang out and meet the newest family member...Maguire! The little guy was the hit of the weekend and I don't think he touched the floor all weekend! Although we drove a total of 16 hours, I think Kenny and I both agree that we would do it again in a heartbeat! We had a blast visiting, eating way too much, playing games and playing baby!!


Doesn't he look like a natural! (Kenny, I mean!) Maguire actually fell peacefully asleep in Kenny's arms...how cute!


Maguire...at a big 2 and a half months!!


All smiles! Jana, Johnny Mac, Kenny, Lisa and Megan!

it's SNOOOOWIIIIINNNNNGGGG!

that's right...the white stuff has arrived! i'm going to be honest...i got WAY too excited about this this morning when i walked outside and discovered that our temperatures in the teens and twentys had been joined by snow! i audibly gasped...and ran back inside to get the camera!! after taking a few pictures, i called kenny and i actually heard him roll his eyes as i told him it was snowing! he just didn't understand how excited i was!! anyway, it did snow for a while, but we ended up total with just a good dusting...but it was so pretty while it was coming down. and i drove in it...it is still so odd for this girl from alabama to be in a car and driving while it is snowing...i mean, shouldn't the roads be closed or something?

"My God is always gonna be..."

Encouragement for the day! If nothing else can lift you up, the fact that God has made you as His very own should...

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Titus 2:11-14

Grand Central Station: Louisville, KY: The Cook's House

We were very blessed to be able to call our home Grand Central Station this week! We have visited with friends and family and have loved every minute of it!

Our friends Chad & Amanda from Texas came to see family in Kentucky and flew into Louisville, giving us time to spend with them Tuesday night and again on Saturday afternoon. Chad is a childhood friend of Kenny's and the three of us attended Alabama together. It was great to get to know his sweet wife even more and we look forward to seeing them again VERY soon!! Love you guys!! (Hope y'all read this, Chad & Amanda!!)



Kenny's parents and sister, Megan, came in on Wednesday afternoon and were able to stay until Saturday. We had a blast cooking turkey and dressing (my first attempt, but I had a great helper...who am I kidding...Kenny's mom, Lisa did most of it!! Thanks!). We had turkey, dressing, giblet gravy, sweet potato casserole, green beans, black eye peas, cranberry sauce, pumpkin and pecan pie...hope you are jealous!! It was SO good! And we have enough leftovers for the week!! We introduced Lisa, Johnny and Megan to the game of the Mexican Train and after some confusion about numbers and colors (ha!) we had a blast into the wee hours of the morning! I can't believe that they stayed up until 2 AM playing dominos!! On Friday we went and got our Christmas tree and Lisa helped me decorate. I don't know about the rest of them, but I was so excited to have the tree up and to be able to decorate with family. That's how I grew up doing it and we haven't been able to have family tree decorating since we moved to Louisville. Isn't it beautiful?!?



On Friday night, my mom, dad and brother joined us for a wonderful dinner of Kenny's homemade spaghetti!! I was really glad that they were able to come up even if it was only for a short time. They left Saturday night, but not before me and mom were able to get some Christmas shopping done!!

I don't know what we would do with out the support of our family and friends and I (and Kenny, too) just want to thank all of you that took the time to make the trip to visit!! No matter how many hours you drove or flew, we were so blessed to see your smiling faces at our door! Please come back soon!! We love you all!!

Goofy Girl Fun!

Jana went on a Ladies Retreat with the church...Highview Baptist...a couple of weekends ago. We had a goofy blast and had a great time fellowshiping and hearing the testimonies of many great and Godly women!! Below is a picture of the women from the Spencer County Campus where Kenny and I are attending...it's really hard to get that many women to look at the camera at one time...

Merry Thanksgiving!!

I can not believe that a month has passed by SOOOOOOO fast! Sorry for no posts, but here's the updates on what's been going on in the last few weeks with Kenny and Jana...

Kenny is finished with school for the semester. Yea!!! No more Hebrew until January...I know Kenny is glad for the break. Pray for us as we decide what he should take next and more importantly how MANY classes he will take depending on his load at work and finances. We know that we will be in Louisville for a while since Kenny is working full-time and are content with where the Lord has us right now, but Kenny still wants to take as many classes as he can each semester.

Jana is still loving the new job and still (unfortunately!) doing physical therapy for her knee due to some crazy nerve stuff. Apparently they have to cut nerves when they do surgery...who would have thought? Mine just don't won't to heal right. PT/doctor are trying some different stuff and I should be running marathons by January! Right...

little kenny & little jana

so i found the slideshow that we showed at our wedding while i was cleaning and i thought a few of you might get a kick out of it...it's pretty long, but kenny and i have enjoyed laughing at it! (you can forward it at your own speed by using the arrows at the top if it's too slow for you!) let us know what you think...

(keep in mind these pictures were taken in the land of no digital camera, so they are scanner quality!)

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Riding tractor's in Indiana...

Don't worry mom...I was hanging on tight! And I had my knee brace on!

Are we too old to let corn cobs make decisions for us?

Yesterday we went back up to Huber Farm in Starlight, Indiana with our friends Grant & Melisa and Dustin & Lindsey (who all happen to be from or have ties to Birmingham, Alabama! It is amazing how all things happen in God's timing and how he provides for our ever need...even friends in a new place!). It is about a 30 minute drive into Indiana, but it was really pretty. We had made 6:00 dinner reservations, which was a good plan, because the place was covered up since it was such a nice fall day!

We had a nice tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch where we all picked the perfect pumpkins (FYI: ours weighed 15 pounds!)

Dustin, Kenny and Grant showed off our pumpkins. I think Grant was really excited about his!

After we bought our pumpkins, we rode the tractor back out to the corn maze, where we entertained ourselves until time for dinner. This the scary hay-pumpkin man...not really that scary! Being the grown-ups that we are, each time we came to a fork in the maze, we threw up a corn cob and which ever way it pointed was the way we would go...interestingly enough, the "cob" (as we affectionately referred to it) was always right! (This was really more for the boys who found it hilarious to leave our wandering in a corn field up to a corn cob!)

Waiting for our fried chicken and apple butter.... mmmmm! It was good! If you will come to visit, we promise a visit to Huber Farm...any excuse to go for us!

Colors of Louisville

We just got back home from church. Our church is located in rural Spencer County about 40 minutes from our house in Louisville. As we drove, I was just amazed at all the colors...all the trees out there have changed and as you go down the highway, you are totally surrounded by bright, bold colors of fall! It is so pretty and I really wish yall were here to share it with us! When ever I see pretty fall scenes, I never seem to have my camera, so here are some more pictures from around the complex. If you go back a few posts, you will see the three trees from the front of our apartments were totally green...now they are pretty much red and so pretty. Now I'm just waiting for the white stuff...SNOW!!

More Gatlinburg pictures...

The Cutest Couple!


Cliff & Heather...PJ party!


Daddy & Jana!


Jared, Katie & Kim...can we make a nice picture please?!?


Don't ask questions? These two are nuts!! Uncle Kerry & Aunt Tarrie...


Kim, Katie, Cliff & Jana...the kids!!

Fall Fun 2006

What happens when you get together the Hill Family in Gatlinburg? (plus the Love's, the Cook's...and a Cooke, and a Manners!) Crazy things, I tell you! But we did have fun, despite the 2 hour/16 mile drive into Pigeon Forge! The guys played golf and we went shopping. We had our own photo shoot by utilizing the trash can and some books. Great looking group, huh?

Seated: Pop, Kim & Mom Peg, Standing: Dad, Mom, Cliff w/Heather, Aunt Tarrie, Uncle Kerry, Jared w/Katie, Kenny & Jana

Happy Anniversary...to Kenny & Jana!

thanks to the donation of hilton reward points (thanks dad!!), we got to go to cincinnati for the weekend to celebrate our 2 year anniversary! yea for weddings!! it was a wonderful weekend with just the two of us and no one else...we slept late, went to the newport aquarium, ate good food, and slept late some more! we also watched our wedding video...you know you are married to a good one when he will mute football to watch your wedding video!!!


Ahhhhhhhh! Don't touch the shark, Kenny!!


Good boy...look, don't touch!


Eating outside at Johnny Rocket's!


You put a quarter in the telescope to look at me?

Red is the color!

soooo pretty! the colors are coming through! wish yall were here to see it with us... and by the way, i took one for the team while taking these pictures: a mosquito bit me right on the end of my nose while i was outside!! i look like rudolph...you're welcome!! its all for the trees...

"it's like a bad snow storm!"

the above is a quote from one of our neighbors...we have had almost 10 inches of rain in less than 24 hours and it's STILL raining!! what is being called "Flood of 2006" by news stations has already caused 5 deaths in the kentuckiana area!! below are a few pictures around the apartment complex...we just received a call from management to move our cars from the property. and exactly where do they propose we go with them? we haven't moved ours yet but will keep an eye on it throughout the afternoon/night.



the water was above the trunk of this car last night...



the ohio river...oh, wait...no...this is just the road next to our apartment building!



yes, that is a refrigerator that was reportedly used as a boat about 3 am this morning...(i'm gonna guess bad judgement/alcohol was involved as well)




a resident removing debris from a storm drain. management had this area blocked to oncoming traffic...



about 3 minutes later...remind me again why we pay rent? cars were now able to get through thanks to this kind heart who stated, "i'm too pretty to be doing this!"



i thought dumpsters were heavy...

in the building next to us, you can see in the kitchen through a window. water was in the apartment last night and picked up the refrigerator and moved it around in the kitchen! no one has been home there yet...they may not want to come home!

don't worry about us! we are staying put! kenny is studying hebrew and i'm ammusing myself by taking pictures of water...

Give me a break...we haven't even been married two years!

what to do in the bottom of the bowl if you eat the last of your husband's favorite puppy chow desert! also, it helps if you aren't in the room when he finds it........

Pretty Trees

unlike alabama, land of the pine tree, louisville is full of...trees that have leaves! call me crazy, say i have too much time on my hands (which i really don't), but i'm about to allow all who read this (which apparently numbers 1...and i'm adding posts by request of the 1) to experience the beauty of the coming of the fall colors! God is about to blow up this city with what i personally think is one of the most beutiful parts of creation...the leaves changing colors!! what you see below are a few sample of trees around our apartment complex that haven't started changing yet (yes, i just walked around the complex with me camera and took pictures...i'm a nerd.) i want to show yall the progression of the coming of the colors and will try to take pictures again in the same places as the weeks go by and the colors change...i'm excited just thinking about it!! God is so good and shows himself in so many ways. I'm loving that i can experience just one of the ways...





so keep an eye out and hopefully you will be blessed just a fraction of the amount we will by being able to see it in person!

now that "jana's nature segment" is out of the way, would you like an update on us? i'll assume yes...kenny is still plugging along in hebrew. loving it, but feeling pretty overwhelmed with it at the same time. pray for his WHOLE family...johnny just had back surgery yesterday and last time we talked with them, he was running a fever (just thinking its a sinus infection though). lisa's mom, honey, recently had heart surgery and went back into the hopspital last week and as far as i know is still there. and megan is scheduled to have a mri soon to determine what the lump on her leg is. and lisa just needs sanity and peace as all this goes on around her! we all know how the power of prayer can work and how God is the great physician and has a healing hand...please join me in lifting up the entire family! your prayers are appreciated by both of us...

i am really enjoying my new job and meeting all kinds of new and interesting people. and the flexibility that i have makes me giddy just thinking about it...as long as my work is being done and i'm getting in at least 40 hours a week (actual work or comp time), nobody really cares if i'm at the office, at home, etc. i love it! onto other southern issues...i'm unfortunately still wearing the monster knee brace. went the dr last week expecting to be moved to the smaller, functional brace and the dr decided to humor me and keep me in the big one until at least my oct 9 appointment. that will be 10 weeks in this brace in case you have lost count! i'm not really in too much pain any more, but physical therapy is going slow. i have NO muscle and my leg looks really puny!! i just forgot how long this takes to rehab. but we have been blessed that this acl surgery has gone much better than the last one!

things are going great at church...for those of you that don't know, we are helping with a church plant (of sorts...really just an additional campus to the church we are currently attending) in rural spencer county (next of our county) that is meeting in the elementary school. we are averaging about 100 on sunday mornings. we just started small groups on sunday night and as far as i know they all went well. i'm serving as our preschool coordinator and really enjoying it. we have over come many obstacles in the preschool department, some of which includes black widow spiders, really dirty classrooms, and packing 3 classrooms worth of furniture, toys and materials in 2 large crates to travel!! we are packing experts now! pray that God continues to grow this church and bring the many unchurched, young couples that live in the community to highview baptist church...and to Christ!!

sorry so long, but i love letting yall know how things are going up north...let me know if you are actually reading! leave us a comment!! we love yall and miss you even more!!

pray for healing!

who's that handsome man??









couple of prayer requests for those prayer warriors out there...

1. Kenny's grandmother, Honey...she had heart surgery last week and is still in the hospital in georgia.

2. Kenny's dad, John...lots of neck/back pain with the possibility of another surgery in his future. Pray for total healing and no pain!

3. Samuel Norris (Jeff & Rachel Norris)...this is the adopted son (from the Ukraine) of some friends of ours from college. he is 3 and had to have surgery last thursday to repair a hole in his heart...now the pressure in his lungs needs to decrease. (you can check up on them at http://norrisfamily.ministryhome.org/index.php click on latest updates!) he has only been in the US since nov 2005 and has already gone through so much!

thanks for the prayers guys!