(By Greg)
It went! I'm glad everyone else has a lot of confidence in me, because I don't feel good about the test today, at all! I will have faith and hope that I really did pass the test, because I feel I was able to talk myself through (hopefully) the correct answer on most of the questions that I was unsure about.
It was very frustrating and demoralizing--6+ months of studying (hard studying) and it really felt like I was not prepared for the test.
I thought it was an unfair test and hopefully the committee will think the same thing when they begin grading them soon. All the important stuff they tell you to study and what's going to be on the test, NOTHING...
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Another Jam-packed Weekend!
We had yet another fun-filled, jam-packed weekend!
Friday night, Greg had his first softball game of the season! He still plays on the co-ed league with our church, only this year, Dad Kelly is one of the co-coaches and together they decided that it would be better if games were on Friday nights instead of Monday nights. Anyways, Greg had a lot of good plays that night, and our team won! What a great way to start off the season!
Saturday was quite an exciting day for our family. Becca had her first bridal shower given to her by our church! A fun little group of people showed up and she went home with quite the loot! It was also fun because Jen and her friend Patti won cool prizes for both of the games that were played that afternoon. We were both sitting on the same bench, so we attributed our luckiness to the bench. ;)
Sunday was a nice relaxing day. We did the normal church thing, and dinner at Mom and Dad Kelly’s house. Greg took a break from studying and enjoyed his day of rest before buckling down the rest of the week.
Monday began Greg’s week off. He took this week off so he could intensely study for his big test on Saturday. He spent all morning studying, we ran around in the afternoon and went out to lunch, studied some more in the evening, and then we headed out to Brian’s graduation party. Brian graduated college on May 22nd, and Monday we celebrated with a party for him. We are so proud of him and all he has accomplished in such a short amount of time. (He graduated in 3 years instead of 4!) Maybe now that he’s not in school and studying all the time, we’ll get to see him a little more before the wedding. ;)
So that was basically our weekend in a nutshell - and it only plans on getting crazier for us!
Friday night, Greg had his first softball game of the season! He still plays on the co-ed league with our church, only this year, Dad Kelly is one of the co-coaches and together they decided that it would be better if games were on Friday nights instead of Monday nights. Anyways, Greg had a lot of good plays that night, and our team won! What a great way to start off the season!
Saturday was quite an exciting day for our family. Becca had her first bridal shower given to her by our church! A fun little group of people showed up and she went home with quite the loot! It was also fun because Jen and her friend Patti won cool prizes for both of the games that were played that afternoon. We were both sitting on the same bench, so we attributed our luckiness to the bench. ;)
Sunday was a nice relaxing day. We did the normal church thing, and dinner at Mom and Dad Kelly’s house. Greg took a break from studying and enjoyed his day of rest before buckling down the rest of the week.
Monday began Greg’s week off. He took this week off so he could intensely study for his big test on Saturday. He spent all morning studying, we ran around in the afternoon and went out to lunch, studied some more in the evening, and then we headed out to Brian’s graduation party. Brian graduated college on May 22nd, and Monday we celebrated with a party for him. We are so proud of him and all he has accomplished in such a short amount of time. (He graduated in 3 years instead of 4!) Maybe now that he’s not in school and studying all the time, we’ll get to see him a little more before the wedding. ;)
So that was basically our weekend in a nutshell - and it only plans on getting crazier for us!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Goin' to the "Q"
It was fun to be with our family this past weekend. It’s always such a wonderful thing when you find another family that you can meld so well together with and bond so tightly with, that you consider them just like a part of your own family. Seriously, everyone gets along with everyone and we’re all the bestest of friends. The Dad’s are like two peas in a pod, the Mom’s are practically like sisters, and all of us “kids” get along so well it’s like we’ve all grown up together! It feels great to have people like this in your life. If you have a relationship like this, you will know exactly what we’re talking about. They always say that blood runs thicker than water, but in this case, we know that is definitely not true.
So in case you are wondering, we (Mom and Dad Kelly, and us) headed out to Albuquerque this past Memorial Day weekend to spend time with the Mangum’s. The boys had a blast bonding and doing guy things - A baseball game, shooting guns at the gun club, playing hours of Guitar Hero, doing jam sessions on the drums and guitar, and doing all the other fun things that boys do. =) The girls had a blast shopping, doing lunch, hanging around snuggled under blankets talking about girl stuff, playing games, watching fun stuff on TV, making the BIG fun Mexican dinner, and just enjoying their time together. The only bummer the whole trip (other than the fact that Brian and Becca couldn’t go) was that we were supposed to have a “pool party” out in their pool in their backyard sometime while we were there, but every day wasn’t quite warm enough to get in. Well..... we take that back. It was sunny and quite hot the day we left. Of course, right? ;)
We’d post pictures from this weekend, but can you believe it? We didn’t take a single one! For the first time in a long time, we took our camera and didn’t even bother to use it. Luckily for us though, Erynn snapped a few pictures before we left, but we’ll show those another time. ;)
We couldn’t have asked for a more fulfilling, fantastic weekend. A weekend that passed just as quickly as we thought it would.
So in case you are wondering, we (Mom and Dad Kelly, and us) headed out to Albuquerque this past Memorial Day weekend to spend time with the Mangum’s. The boys had a blast bonding and doing guy things - A baseball game, shooting guns at the gun club, playing hours of Guitar Hero, doing jam sessions on the drums and guitar, and doing all the other fun things that boys do. =) The girls had a blast shopping, doing lunch, hanging around snuggled under blankets talking about girl stuff, playing games, watching fun stuff on TV, making the BIG fun Mexican dinner, and just enjoying their time together. The only bummer the whole trip (other than the fact that Brian and Becca couldn’t go) was that we were supposed to have a “pool party” out in their pool in their backyard sometime while we were there, but every day wasn’t quite warm enough to get in. Well..... we take that back. It was sunny and quite hot the day we left. Of course, right? ;)
We’d post pictures from this weekend, but can you believe it? We didn’t take a single one! For the first time in a long time, we took our camera and didn’t even bother to use it. Luckily for us though, Erynn snapped a few pictures before we left, but we’ll show those another time. ;)
We couldn’t have asked for a more fulfilling, fantastic weekend. A weekend that passed just as quickly as we thought it would.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
3 States in 3 Days
That’s what we almost accomplished this past weekend......
We woke up early on Saturday, with a quick pit stop at Einstein’s (our favorite!) for bagels and coffee, before hitting the road. It was a fairly nice morning in Colorado Springs and we couldn’t wait to get up and out to see what the day held for us. We totally love the warm weather spurts we’ve been getting and are ready for the much warmer days to come. If only it would quit snowing already......
So our first state was Colorado and our first stop was at the Celestial Seasonings plant in Boulder. It was neat to see how they made tea since we drink mostly Celestial Seasonings teas, and it was also fun to get a free sample in the beginning AND the end! =) Our next stop was at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Ft. Collins. It was very interesting to see how they made beer, and we were pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t an awful smell of beer throughout the whole tour! They too had free samples at the end, but we chose not to indulge ourselves - yuck! So it was a fun experience to tour those two places since we’d never been there before and it was also convenient since it was on our way to our next stop - Wyoming!
We’ve been to Wyoming before - about 5 years ago when we took a trip to Yellowstone National park. But this time we stopped WAY South in Cheyenne and visited with our friends who had recently moved there. Jason and Allison are such great hosts and we had THE best time catching up and enjoying time with them and their kids again. Time always seems to fly by when you’re having fun, and it sure did this weekend. It seemed like we had just gotten there when we had to leave again. =(
Our next stop was supposed to be South Dakota - our third and final state. We were supposed to drive all around the Rapid City area, see Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the black hills, go through Wind Cave National Park, Custer State park, and even go through the Wind Cave! Well, luckily the night before we left, we decided to check the weather. The weather forecast said that Rapid City and most of Western South Dakota was currently (and would continue to be for the next day or two) under a winter storm warning. So, being proactive, we called our hotel to see what it really WAS like in Rapid City, and the lady said indeed it WAS snowing and that it was only going to continue to get worse. Luckily for us, they cancelled our hotel reservation for free and we headed home the next morning instead of continuing on in our mini-vacation and possibly getting stuck or stranded in the snow.
Our trip was fun even though we didn’t get to do everything that we had planned. We still needed it though. It was fun having each other all to ourselves, as well as taking a break from the stresses of life and studying.
We woke up early on Saturday, with a quick pit stop at Einstein’s (our favorite!) for bagels and coffee, before hitting the road. It was a fairly nice morning in Colorado Springs and we couldn’t wait to get up and out to see what the day held for us. We totally love the warm weather spurts we’ve been getting and are ready for the much warmer days to come. If only it would quit snowing already......
So our first state was Colorado and our first stop was at the Celestial Seasonings plant in Boulder. It was neat to see how they made tea since we drink mostly Celestial Seasonings teas, and it was also fun to get a free sample in the beginning AND the end! =) Our next stop was at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Ft. Collins. It was very interesting to see how they made beer, and we were pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t an awful smell of beer throughout the whole tour! They too had free samples at the end, but we chose not to indulge ourselves - yuck! So it was a fun experience to tour those two places since we’d never been there before and it was also convenient since it was on our way to our next stop - Wyoming!
We’ve been to Wyoming before - about 5 years ago when we took a trip to Yellowstone National park. But this time we stopped WAY South in Cheyenne and visited with our friends who had recently moved there. Jason and Allison are such great hosts and we had THE best time catching up and enjoying time with them and their kids again. Time always seems to fly by when you’re having fun, and it sure did this weekend. It seemed like we had just gotten there when we had to leave again. =(
Our next stop was supposed to be South Dakota - our third and final state. We were supposed to drive all around the Rapid City area, see Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the black hills, go through Wind Cave National Park, Custer State park, and even go through the Wind Cave! Well, luckily the night before we left, we decided to check the weather. The weather forecast said that Rapid City and most of Western South Dakota was currently (and would continue to be for the next day or two) under a winter storm warning. So, being proactive, we called our hotel to see what it really WAS like in Rapid City, and the lady said indeed it WAS snowing and that it was only going to continue to get worse. Luckily for us, they cancelled our hotel reservation for free and we headed home the next morning instead of continuing on in our mini-vacation and possibly getting stuck or stranded in the snow.
Our trip was fun even though we didn’t get to do everything that we had planned. We still needed it though. It was fun having each other all to ourselves, as well as taking a break from the stresses of life and studying.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Happy Easter!
Happy Easter, everyone!-----------------------------
Here’s a quick update on our weekend: Greg surprised Jen with a hotel room on Friday up in Denver so she could get more studying done, more sleep, and wouldn’t have to get up so early for her test on Saturday morning. He had Good Friday off from work, so we spent the morning and early afternoon running errands in the Springs and running around Denver before we checked in early to our room. In the midst of all that running around, we FINALLY got to have lunch at the Paradise Bakery and Café. It was totally amazing and we would definitely recommend it to anyone! The rest of the afternoon and evening we studied, went out for dinner, and spent some time in the fitness center working off some of our pent-up energy. ;) Saturday morning was test day for Jen. SHE PASSED!!!! So, in honor of that, we went out and met some good friends of ours who live on the South side of Denver (since Jen's test was on the South side) for a celebration lunch. We tried another new Mexican restaurant and would definitely recommend that to anyone too!
Instead of staying up in Denver the rest of the day and night on Saturday as originally planned, we decided to come back home early and spend Easter with the family...... well, almost all of the family. (We miss you, Mom!)
From Jen - Thank you to everyone who so faithfully lifted me (and my test!) up in prayer, and for letting me know that you were doing so by sending all those encouraging emails and text messages. =) I have THE best friends and family, ever! (Oh, you know who you are!) ;)
Celebrating with Ali and David!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Happiness is a Decision
(By Jen)
I saw a quote on a magazine cover the other day that said:
"Happiness is a decision."
So, I had to stop think about it for a minute or two….. is this really true? Is it really a decision, or do you seriously have no control over how you act and feel? I mean, you hear all the time of people who quit their jobs because "they just weren't happy there." Or people getting divorced because "they just weren't happy." Or of people who have committed suicide because "life wasn't worth living and they just weren't happy anymore." Well, after much thinking, you know what conclusion I came to? No one ever said that life on this earth would be easy, but you sure can try to make the most of it and find the positive about things while you're here! Quit using "unhappiness" to justify sin, or to justify a negative overall attitude! Sure it's horrible to lose a job, lose a loved one, fight with your spouse, overdraft on your checking account, foreclose on your house - but there is always, always, always a reason to be happy and to smile about SOMETHING. Surely you can find at least ONE thing in life that can make you smile and show you just how incredibly blessed you are. If you have the Lord in your life, that’s one thing right there! He can get you through anything! Now, I’m not saying that there's never a time to cry, get mad, and show other emotion..... but overall, there's just no reason NOT to be happy a majority of the time and find the good in the midst of the bad! You can choose to get upset about things, or you can choose to let them roll off your back and be happy! After all, it IS your decision – it truly is. ;) As my Auntie is famous for saying: “we all make our choices!”
Proverbs 17:22 says: "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine....." So get happy - it’s good for your health! =)
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Thorn
In spite of the blowing snow, minor drifts, and roads that glistened with ice, we skipped our normal Wednesday night activities and braved the weather to go see The Thorn at New Life Church here in Colorado Springs with a few of our buddies. (Our friend John played Matthew!) It was an awesome and very vivid performance that walks you through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There were exciting parts and horrific parts. Parts that made you want to jump up and down with joy, and parts that made you cry. If Jesus wasn’t in your life and heart before the performance, there should have been no reason that he wasn’t afterwards! The show even ended with a surprise engagement! Some guy proposed to his girlfriend up on stage and made a big thing about it. They said that was the first time in the history of The Thorn that that has ever happened - so it was fun to be there and be a part of that. We all didn’t end up going out afterwards because it was late and the weather was bad..... so we came home and watched the American Idol results instead. ;)
Mom Kelly is on her way to Arkansas as we speak. Pray for safe travels and a good time while she is there. Dad Kelly and Brian will be fending for themselves for the next week, so pray for them! Actually, Dad will be over on Friday night while Brian is working, so he’ll at least get one good meal in while Mom is gone. ;) Greg's hoping for a snow day from work tomorrow so he can sleep in and catch up on some of his DVR'd shows, and Jen's walking plans with her neighborhood friends are being postponed because of the weather we have and will get this weekend. Ahhhh, Springtime in Colorado. ;)
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