at some point in the near future...i'm making this.

love this blog. love this project.

umm, hello?

hello? anyone still have us on your blogreader? lol

okay, so it has been about 3 years since our last post. and i was just feeling random today, and thought i'd post something for the sake of posting something.

here is our update...

about a year from our last post, we had our third child, lily marie, july 2009. 19 months later, we had our fourth child, charlie hodge...feb 2011. so here's the rundown... ella is 6, seth is 4, lily is 2, and charlie is nearing 6 months. our kids are hilarious and pretty darn cool. we love our crazy life with them.

Also, God has been leading us through an amazing journey, that has taken us from collierville and placed us in the vollintine-evergreen area. (north memphis, really). we are excited to be here in memphis, and are enjoying jumping in this great community of amazing, eclectic, interesting group of people.

okay, so that will suffice for now. i hope to post a bit more often than every 3 years, but i'm not committing to anything right now. lol.

jo

Something Different, Something New (to me)

I (joey) had the opportunity to attend The Great Emergence conference here in Memphis this past weekend. I only attended 1 of the 2 days because I unwisely chose work in Nashville over taking Friday off to attend the event. It was held in the St Mary's Cathedral which was beautiful, and attended by many different flavors of practicing Christians. Though I disagree with several comments made during the day that I was there, I am glad that I attended. In this postmodern society, we will be different Christians than we have been in the past. The world is different. What do we do differently? At the event, I worshipped in a different way, I spoke with and broke bread with people who are different than my normal community, I listened and learned of different than my normal ways of serving, praying, thinking, and worshipping. It was refreshing and funny at times, yet weird and uncomfortable at times, but I emerged with a few thoughts in my head and realized how different the Christian community is compared to mine, so it was worth it. Now I just need to apply some of the things I encountered/learned/saw examples of:

- more relevant and effective ways to serve the poor
- different avenues of worshipping and praying
- being in community with those who are not like me

How all of this looks is unknown for the most part, but I am starting to think divergently now, and that is good.

Oh, and I got to write a verse in the Handwritten Bible (1 Samuel 28:1) so next year, when it comes out, turn to my verse. :)

Merry Christmas Video

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Pro-Abortion Obama: Good info

Just thought I would post a little something about Obama. There are some scary, scary, Halloween/Jason/Freddy type things in here that you should be aware of. Really its scary.
This will take you to Pastor Sam's site that has a summary of an essay. This will take you to the essay.
Have fun reading. I have decided that I know who I am not voting for.

Thanks, Liz!!!

My best friend, Liz took our pics last weekend at the Collierville Square...she did an INCREDIBLE job!!!! I'm SOOOO excited!!!

You've GOT to check it out!!! (and the sweet story she wrote about how we came to be such lifelong friends!)

Thanks, Liz!!! You're the bestest!!!

http://elizabethwiggsphotography.blogspot.com

Tag I'm It

My sister, Angie, tagged me and so I have to do this crap.
She is an amazing mom, sister, and friend. And I can't begin to say all that she means to my family, and personally to me. So I won't :)

She did this tag thing, so I have to be a good sport...I have to write 6 random things about myself and then tag 6 other people.

1. I can touch the tip of my nose with my tongue
2. I scored 30+ on English, Math, and Science on the ACT, but a 15 in the Reading section.
3. I went to the following schools in K-8

• K - Ross Elem
• 1st & 2nd - Germantown Elem
• 3rd - Benefield Elem (GA)
• 4th (Semester 1) - East North Street Elem (SC)
• 4th (Semester 2) - Ridgeway Elem
• 5th - Germantown Middle
• 6th - Crump Elem
• 7th & 8th - Germantown Elem

4. Joanna turned down my date requests for several months before giving in to going to a DC Talk concert. HAHAHAHA
5. I have Crohn's disease
6. I often wear shorts under my jeans/pants, and two pair of socks

I don't know six people to tag that haven't done this, but here are a few

Clay...
Zach...
Heather (or Benjamin)...
JR...

Here are the rules.
1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules to your blog
3. Write 6 random things about yourself
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them
5. Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.

5 YEARS!!!

Happy 5-Year Anniversary to Us!!!

I can't help but think that I have the most awesome husband in the world. God has made Joey so unique and special. And as we have grown and journeyed through the ups and downs of our ever-changing life together, these 5 years, my love for him has grown deeper and stronger. I am so blessed....so, so blessed.

Well, our lives have pretty much been constantly changing since we got married! Here's the run-down:

2003-Married

2004-Expecting 1st baby

2005-Ella was born

2006-Expecting 2nd baby

2007-Seth was born
2008- 5 YEARS!!!

Here we are in 2003...

Here we are in 2008!...

So we really wanted to "get away"for our anniversary...and we did...sort of. The kids spent the night at their Honey and BB's house, and Joey and I were off to downtown Memphis. We checked into the Madison Hotel, got dressed all fancy, then went to Grill 83 (in the Madison). All the food there was great...Joey and I both had steaks (of course) and they were delicious. It was nice and quiet...and we had lots of time to talk and reminisce. It was so nice going out "just us".

After we ate, we went to the rooftop and watched the sunset...it was so peaceful and beautiful. Perfect weather.

Okay, so we got a little bored up there...

Doesn't he look like a hot-air baloon? (check out the lightpole)...

I tried it, but it just wasn't the same.

I like getting pics of ALL face...it reminds me of the hilarious time a while back when we noticed one of Joey's mom's multi-picture frames on the wall at her house...where she put a big close up picture of him in a tiny circle.

It was kind of like this...

Sorry for the randomness.....

Okay, so after that, we rode the trolley down to this quaint little hole-in-the-wall place called, Cheesecake Corner. I tried to eat a yummy cheesecake brownie, but I was so stuffed from dinner, that I barely made a dent in it.

A few trolley pics...

Then we trolleyed on down to Beale...we almost decided not to b/c we were so tired after all that food! It was only like 10:30 or something, and we were both yawning! Man, we must be getting old. Anyway, I'm so glad we kept going, b/c we ended up randomly running into our friend, Brock (who we hadn't seen in almost a year) and his new fiance, Grace. So we hung out with them at the Flying Saucer for a while.

Then Joey and I headed back to the rooftop to relax for a bit...we just could not get over how awesome the weather was! It was a perfect ending to a perfect night!

hello again

hello blog world...

we are still here... just crazy busy this summer.

i'm in the process of posting stuff, but thought i'd say hello first. :)

more to come! :)

home sweet home

(this is joanna, by the way)

so, after we got home from our most recent beach trip, ella was really wanting to be home! she talked about going home the WHOLE trip back! "i just want to go to sugar lane," is what she says.
well, we got back on a saturday night, and had a pretty busy sunday planned. so ella's next day consisted of going to church, eating lunch, taking a nap, waking up and heading straight to a graduation party...then coming home and going back to bed! poor girl...i really did feel bad for her. every time we had to leave that day, she would just say, "i just want to stay home, mommy." (though it really makes me feel good that she loves being home)

so, of course i made it a point to go NOWHERE the next day! we were just going to stay home!

well, that day turned out to be so much fun! still in "beach mode", i got out the little pool in the backyard. i ended up bringing the slide over and putting it half-into the pool...and that was a HUGE hit for both ella and seth!

ella and i spent some time out there "just us" while seth took his morning nap. then seth joined the fun when he woke up. they were absolutely hilarious together. i think i had just as much fun watching them as they did playing!

seth would climb up the slide as far as he could, then slip down into the water...CRACKING up laughing the entire time. ella would do the same, sliding down into the water (and into seth)...and they would just laugh hysterically! so, of course, i HAD to catch some of this on camera!

we stayed out there all morning and into the afternoon! it was definitely past "lunchtime" when i took them inside to eat...but the rest of the day was just feeding them lunch, bathing them (they were so muddy and greasy from the sunscreen), and then putting them down for their nice, long, nap. :)

_______________________

it was just an awesome day at home.

hmm........uh...

i really think my brain is out of practice.

i just have a hard time thinking and communicating well these days.

my brain doesn't seem to give me words to express what i feel or think very quickly...and it's pretty frustrating. i think i've always been a pretty good listener, and that hasn't changed much...but what takes most people like a minute to take in, think about, and respond....takes me, well, ...a LOT longer.

....oh, and by the time i'm ready to talk about it, or have thought through a response, everyone else has moved on. but even if the conversation returns, i've usually forgotton my thoughts. (VERY bad short-term memory)

i don't think i've realized until lately how out of practice my brain is. my mind has been racing about heavy, life-changing things lately, and i'm beginning to feel overwhelmed. well, i don't know if that's the right word for it. my brain just constantly feels FULL.

hmm... i think i could probably illustrate this better than can explain it...(easier to do that if i were blogging with a pen and paper)
i think i just have so many issues that i need to engage...but in the meantime, they're just stuck racing in my brain (really fast, usually)...and it seems like more new ideas/convictions keep being stuffed in there on top of it all... and picking and choosing which ones to focus on first can be staggering to me.

my day-to-day life is spent communicating VERY simply, and doing simple things (though mostly in multi-task form), but it's definitely busy, tiring, and emotionally draining. so usually, when i have down-time, i'm too tired to think about the overflowing heavy issues in my brain....though i DESPERATELY want to.

anyway, just been thinking about thinking about thinking about thinking lately.

:)

jo

...and funny (and interesting) that this is what i post right after our 2 incredible, relaxing beach vacations. something else to think about, i guess. ;)

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problems...

So we are back, and ready to take on another week of work before we vacation again...Well I wish. I think that's it for a while (unless any of our friends want us to go to Navarre Beach with them.)

Well I learned a few things on this trip. The main thing is that I was invited so that Gib and Jill could have someone to make fun of. That's it...The only reason.

Whether it be that I like the sun alot, or I'm a picky eater, that I can drink whole milk anytime of day or night, or some story about a dude wearing Speedo shorts, or that I asked Gib to look at the stars with me while drinking a Pina Colada...they had to find something to poke fun at me about. So you're welcome Gibson's for the laughs :)

Really we enjoyed the 2 full days we had on the beach again with some more great friends. To see Ella and Reese enjoying each other's company and making memories, made all of the driving (including Joanna's 82 in a 65 speeding ticket) worth it.

Cool tidbit, anyone used to watch "That 70's Show", and remember Hyde...Well we saw him at the beach. Here he is.















Last thing I learned, when you apply sunscreen, put it on your chest and stomach too. Or else you could look really funny the next day. I wish I had a pic Gib...

Here are some pics of us and the kids having fun in the water.

Off To Da Beach

Nothing eventful here, just wanted to rub everyone's noses in, I mean, let everyone know that we are heading to the beach again tomorrow. Yes we went 2 weeks ago and yes we are staying at the same place. But with different friends, so we are changing it up a bit. I will say that we will do the same thing with the Gibson's that we did with the Kudrna's, absolutely nothing.
Mom told me a story today that when I was a kid, she read a Q&A in my yearbook. It asked, "What do you like best that your family does together?" My response was, "Nothing." I know that sounds bad, but consider what I love to do at the beach, and you realize that I loved just sitting with the family while doing nothing.

Tribute to Mom

So I started my blogging days by pokin fun at my mom. For the record, I was kidding. It did happen, but I am sure it had to do with the situation (me at her work), and the lighting, so Mom, I understand. But here is another reason to poke fun...




















Is that a diaper????

But I do want to say a few things and I hope you enjoy the pics throughout...

First, for Mother's Day, I called my Mom from the beach. That is it. No card, no gift, no hug, no chocolates. So this is my makeup, and I will still give her all of the above.


My mom has always been there for me. She is one of the few reasons I have self-esteem today. When every other person in the world had critical things to say, she was always there to encourage me.





















She taught me to love God and family. She taught me to sacrifice even when I don't have much to sacrifice. To be honest and caring. She is selfless, tender, and oh so beautiful.


















She made me want to find someone like her to spend the rest of my life with (and I did).






















She always called me her rock, but I have come to understand what that really means and have realized that through life she has always been my rock. On Earth, there is only one person that I can say has ALWAYS been there for me since the beginning to come to when I need encouragement, someone to hug me really hard, or just someone to cook me a greasy cheeseburger. Yes its my mom. I love you Mom. And I know you know who I am. I was just kiddin.