Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Jeremy and Lori!

15 weeks pregnant

Too Long

So, I just realized it has been four months since I posted anything. That is pretty sad! Anyway, I will outline the high points of the past months...

• We found out we are going to have a BABY!!!! The due date is June 13th. We are soooooo excited. I am 15 weeks and 1 day as I type this. We will know the sex January 24th.
• Jeremy was accepted to begin his Master's of Divinity at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky (cyberspace) and then a month later found out he got a FULL SCHOLARSHIP ($41,000) from lady who left a trust fund in Roswell. He will begin in February. Praise God!
• The youth ministry is awesome. The people of Hartwell are so wonderful. We love it here. We are making many new friends.
• I am beginning my Education Specialist Degree in January. I decided that having a baby wasn't enough, so I wanted to add something to my plate. Husband, mom, mom-in-law, and many community members have promised to help me survive. I will be done with half when the baby comes, so I think I can make it.
• Prayer Request: Our house in Canton is still on the market. Please pray that it will sell before the baby comes. That is our prayer these days.

That is all for now. I will post some pictures when we get back to Hartwell. We are visiting family for Christmas right now. I hope all of you have a very merry Christmas!

Our New Adventure

So, many weeks ago I posted that Jeremy and I were about to embark on a new adventure. Well, we are here! Jeremy and I moved to Hartwell, GA for him to be the new Director of Youth at Hartwell First United Methodist Church. For those of you who have no idea where Hartwell might be, it is the very last exit on I-85 before you get to South Carolina. It is a very small town: three elementary schools, one middle schoool, and one high school. This is quite a change, considering I have no idea how many elementary schools Cherokee County (my previous employter) has. Hartwell is also surrounded by the beautiful Lake Hartwell and only 45 minutes from Clemson University. Anyway, God opened the door for Jeremy to get to work with the first minister he ever worked with and who Jeremy admires greatly. We moved here on July 24th, and it seems that we have been going non-stop ever since. We live less than a mile from the church and less than two miles from the middle school where I teach. I am teaching 7th grade, which is a big switch for me since most of my experience is in 11th grade. However, I would have to say "so far, so good" with my experiences with the 7th graders. I have taught 9th grade in the past, so I just tell people that 7th graders are like 9th graders, only smaller. Life is awesome here. The people have been so welcoming and we really love it! It is definitely different, though. It is pretty similar to Dahlonega, but without the outlet malls 20 minutes away. We do live about 40 miles north of Commerce where all the outlets are, so it isn't too bad. :) Our house in Canton still hasn't sold, and only two couples have looked at it in the three months it has been on the market. Please pray for God's will in the selling of our home. We were blessed to be able to move into the house we are going to buy here, so that is awesome, but it sure would be nice to go ahead and make it official! Well, I could type so much more, but I will spare you! Thanks for reading! Take care!

Grill Much?

Like most of you, I love food cooked on the grill. So, Sunday night my dedicated husband was going to use our Charcoal grill to cook us some chicken. We also have a gas grill, so we don't always use the Charcoal grill because it takes longer. Anyways, I guess it has been a while since we felt like using the Charcoal grill because when Jeremy uncovered his grill there was a present awaiting him. His first comment was "what is this on my grill?!?!" I replied "it's a bird's nest!" We keep our grills on our deck, so I guess the bird just chose the covered grill instead of a tree. I thought it was pretty cool and was very amazed at the detail of the nest. To make it even better, there were four little eggs in the nest. Jeremy and my neighbor both told me that the mama wouldn't come back once we had touched it, so we did dispose of it over the fence. That part made me very sad, but the nest was pretty awesome! Things like the detail of a bird's nest remind you of how big God really is!

Our House

In October of last year Jeremy and I bought a new house. We love it, but it looks like God might be changing the direction of our life and ministry together, so we are selling it. I will post more about where we are headed when I get the official clearance. :) I do covet your prayers that God will work out all the details for the next steps in our life. Even though we'll be moving out of this house, I'll still post some pictures of our house. If you know anyone in the market for a house in Canton, send them our way!

Cruise Destinations

For those of you who don't scroll to the post before the cruise pics, here is where we went on our cruise: St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Nassau. We spent four days in the open waters of the ocean! Our favorite part of the cruise was sitting at a table next to the windows while eating breakfast and looking out at the beautiful scenery. Our second favorite part was shopping in St. Maarten. The Virgin Islands are absolutely beautiful. If you ever get a chance to go, you definitely should!!!!!

Cruise Pictures

Spring Break '07

Jeremy and I were very blessed to take a 7-day cruise to Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten for Spring Break. The HVAC business is very busy during the summer, so this was our big hoorah for the year! We had an awesome time and were able to see some of the most beautiful parts of God's creation. Here's a pic (from the web) of one place we visited on our vacation. It is Megan's Bay in St. Thomas. I will post more of our pictures when Jeremy brings me the camera cable from work. :)

Random Update...

So I haven't updated in forever, and I feel obligated to do so. Here goes...Life is awesome here at the Green house. I had a week off from school last week, which was absolutely spectacular. I got to continue organizing and arranging our new house, make the bed every morning (very rare for me), catch up on some reading, and spend extra time with my sweet husband and doggies. God continues to do a work in my life challenging me to live intentionally. We spent the weekend with some friends in Dahlonega and were able to visit Mountain Lake Community Church in Cumming. Some of you NGCSUers might remember that church. It is awesome! The pastor really spoke to me about living my life intentionally. It is soooooo easy to fall into a routine and forget to live on purpose. Maybe it's just me...but I'm guilty of that. My natural tendency is to be really hard on myself and think that I live my entire life unintentionally, which isn't true. There are many things that I do intentionally. Jeremy and I are intentional in cultivating our love for each other. We are intentional about saving and investing in God's kingdom. I am intentional about being Jesus to my students. However, like Paul, the more I get to know Jesus, the more I realize what my life is lacking. Not to mention the fact that working in a public high school can take a toll on one's spirituality, which is why Jesus taught us to pray "Give us this DAY our DAILY bread." It has to be a daily process and re-commitment to live intentionally for God and his precepts. I'm not saying anything that most of you haven't already heard or maybe even felt, but it's what is on my heart and I wanted to share. Thank God that his grace is enough for me.

Goofy

Jeremy is quite the goof ball...tonight he decided to see how Daisy would like to have a piggy back ride. As if that wasn't enough, he also decided that we should document the occasion with a picture. Here it is for your vieiwng (dis)pleasure...

Our dogs are buddies. Here they are snuggling on the sofa.

Date Night!!!!

Jeremy and I try very hard to be faithful with the money God has entrusted to us. Therefore, we only go out every once in a while. We give ourselves an allowance every weekend, and this weekend we decided to spend it on an official date. Friday night we put on our dating best and headed out to Red Lobster. Lily, our black Cocker Spaniel, was so jealous that she wasn't getting to go that she laid in her crate and cried. I guess she could feel our excitement! After our bellies were completely full, we came home and watched a movie. It was a very scary movie; I wonder if Jeremy planned it that way!?!?!?!!? Needless to say, we had a very wonderful night and are looking forward to doing it again as soon as we can.

Dreaming about the future

Wow! What an amazing holiday season. Jeremy and I had a wonderful time being with our friends and family. Now, here we are in 2007. I am back to work and life is back to some sense of normalcy. Jeremy just started his third class in his Master's Degree; he is studying Early Childhood Education. Of course, I think he will be just fabulous at it. We are looking forward to the times we will get to spend with our future children on our time off. We are already dreaming about purchasing a travel trailer so that we can pull our home away from home all over the United States, children in tow. I can hardly wait! So friends, I hope the start of a new year finds you looking forward to all that God has in store for you. Dream big. Delight yourself in Him. May His desires be your desires. May your life be a reflection of Him for all to see. We are indeed very blessed and strive to share the blessing of Christ with those around us. May God bless you and use you in the upcoming year.