Gooooo football!

It's freezing outside... and has been for the past month... literally, freezing! I think it was like 20 degrees today for the high. I'm cold. But not presently, because I'm sitting next to a roaring fire, while Kenny naps on the couch, awaiting the funny commercials of the Super Bowl...I really don't actually care about the game. On to more important stuff...Kenny turned 30, I mean 27 (ha!), this week.
Yeah, he's getting old. He also started classes this week: Church History and New Testament II (I believe). Pray for him as he reads far more books than anyone should have to over the next several months. We got some more snow this week...real, school closing snow! I was so excited, and while some is still on the ground, I'm just looking forward to the next snowfall...seriously, if it's gonna be this cold, we should at least get some snow to go along with it!! That's what I think! Below is a nice little display of the fun had by all in Chattanooga last weekend...ENJOY!

Awaiting snow...and FUN!

So, while Kenny is playing bachelor this weekend, I sit in the great city of Chattanooga, TN awaiting the arrival of my wonderful college roommates! We are meeting to relive the joys of the college days for a weekend...funny (probably) pictures to follow in a couple of days! But guess what, Alabamians?!? It snowed again this week...still nothing significant...they are promising that for later next week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and my sled and my snowsuit ready!! (Okay, so I don't have a sled--or a snowsuit, but I'll find one if it snows!)

Perfection vs. Our Flesh

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48

A tall order, but one we could all stand to work on...Christ sets this unattainable standard for us, but the marvelous truth is that HE has also met this standard on our behalf. Awesome, awesome God!

The Joys of A New Year

Once again, I have totally been reprimanded for not posting in a timely manner! Thanks Katie!! Anyway... welcome to 2007!!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! We went to Birmingham before Christmas to spend time with family and friends. Kenny welcomed in the New Year here in Louisville, without me...sniff, sniff (someone had to come back to work early)...and I brought in 007 in Birmingham with great company (see below)!! (The pictures to the left are Kenny's 3 year old niece, Elizabeth.)

New for 2007...
--Kenny starts his second Hebrew and second New Testament class at the end of January...on his birthday, none the less...January 29th for those wondering.
--Jana has been released from physical therapy (but not from the doctor)! Whoo Hoo!!
--Jana has started aqua aerobics to get that knee back in tip top, marathon running, mountain climbing shape!

We have no huge plans for 2007 other Kenny taking as many classes as he can handle while working full time. (Don't tell him, but I'm so proud of him!!) It's going to take him a while to finish his M Div while working, but we haven't forgotten why we are in Louisville in the first place...to eventually be overseas working in full time missions. Pray for us as we continue to seek God's face in our future!! I will continue to work full time as well (didn't want it to seem like I wasn't contributing to the cause!). We have plans to be back in the 'Ham in May...Kenny is in his college roommate's wedding and Kim (Jana's little sis) is graduating from high school, so we can't miss either of those wonderous events! In the mean time, you are all welcome to visit at any time...our door is open and our couches are comfortable!

The Cook Family!

Fun with Jana, Dara, Cheryl (she with child!!!), Jennifer and Emily! We went looking at Christmas lights and just spent time catching up on the good 'ol days.


New Year's Eve before we got too bored...












New Year's Eve after we got bored...Don't ask! (The only drink involved was sparkling white grape juice!)




RE: HILL FAMILY...somehow I got away without making a single picture of any of you...that won't happen again...

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...