It's been quite a while since I have written in here because I have not had a ton of time to write at all. Let's start back with Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving - We had a great trip up to the mountains and had nearly everyone from the family up at Bonnie and Jim's house. What the real surprise was, though, was when we went to TubaChristmas. Tasha had been acting strange most of that day, and I just figured that she was trying to be squirrelly. I really kind of got irritated with her because I was hungry and nobody would give me an answer on where we were going to eat. Well, what Tasha was up to was a surprise party for me at Mercier's Orchards. It was truly a great surprise, considering that I haven't had that kind of party for me I think ever. :D
Christmas - we went up to the mountains while Tasha's family went down to Florida. What was supposed to be a fun Christmas day ended up being quite scary, frankly. Tasha and I had gone to her parent's house with our cats and to take care of the two dogs up there. We knew that there was going to be a bit of snow. Most reporters and websites were saying at worst, we'd have three inches. Well, we had that when we got the Accent stuck into the snow and mud on the side of the road at Deep Gap in Fannin County. Luckily, we caught a ride from a good Samaritan that let us hitch over to Home Depot. Dad came down from the house to pick us up there.
The sad thing is, this should have been the end of the day at that point. There was around six inches of snow on the ground already. Well, we realized that the dogs (both Tasha's parents and grandparent's dogs were at the house across the county at this point), and they weren't going to 1) have enough food for two days, and 2) weren't going to make it for the bathroom for those two days either. We got a break from the snow for a while, and so BJ, Dad, and I piled into Dad's van to go down to the Bonnie and Jim's house. Well, we were doing well until we got out of the one set of tracks that went down to the house. We ended up in a ditch that was just low enough to put one tire up from the ground. While BJ and I hiked down to the house in the snow, Dad waited on a tow truck. We were able to let the dogs out, put out food and for the dogs and put out enough food and water for our cats as well. I got enough clothes for a couple of days, my computer, and our toiletries. Dad had come down and as we started to walk back, a person picked us up and took us to the van. We luckily got someone to stop with his Toyota Tacoma, and actually pulled us out of the ditch! When we got the van out, we realized that if we had gone off the road another 30-60 feet further, we would have dropped around 30 feet, and if we had gone off the road about 40 feet earlier, we would have been into heavier trees than we did hit. We finally pulled Tasha and I's car out two days later. We ended up with a full foot of snow! Needless to say, if we think there's going to be snow for Christmas, we may not go out.. :D
January - Started out the New Year at our friend's house, Kerri and Michael. We ended up getting home around 2:30. Who'd have thought that, right?! :) We began to do shots in secret for another round of IVF. Both Tasha and I felt bad about keeping everything secret from everyone, but we didn't want to have the same thing to have happen like last time and everyone be disappointed. We didn't take a trip like we usually did on MLK weekend because poor Tasha was getting progesterone shots. We did get to travel a bit, though. We also did have another major snowstorm that knocked Tasha out of school for a whole week. This made things a bit dicey because we knew we were going to have to do a transfer on the 18th of February, and that was originally a day off for her. Well, we did lose that day, but Tasha was able to take the day off later.
Also what happened in January were two important events for me. First of all, I was licensed for the ministry by Morganton Baptist Church on the first Sunday of the month. This was the first major step towards ordination for me, and made it where I could marry my first couple. That happened over MLK weekend! Kara Vick and Robert Boyer asked me to marry them at Seney-Stovall Chapel in Athens on that weekend. We nearly didn't make it because of all the ice that was still on the road after five days of it being on the roads and trees. Even when we were driving over, we still hit ice patches, especially when we picked up some of Tasha's medicine at our doctors in Sandy Springs. We ended up going sideways for a while until I could get us stopped spinning. It ended up taking us five hours to get to Athens from Emerson, a trip that usually takes only at most 2. We stayed at the Holiday Inn right next to campus and had just a wonderful time while we were there. I even danced quite a bit while we were there! :) (Btw, one of the cool things that I just found out about Seney-Stoval is that REM filmed there before. I was on the same stage as REM...just not at the same time. :D )
On a sadder note, Papaw passed away after his long battle with Alzheimer's. We ended up having a gorgeous set of funerals down in Milledgeville and up in the mountains. It was of course hard on the family, but it was definitely a release since Papaw had been sick for so long.
February-now - The last couple of months have been sort of a blur because they have gone by so quick. Why not just combine them, right?! I started classes again just before February, and just ended them this last weekend. I took a leadership class, Old Testament (which I hated because of the teacher) and a New Testament class (which was interesting, but hard b/c of the teacher's hard grading). I also changed majors to Master's of Religious Education. I finished my degree for Christian Leadership, so when I do graduate from Liberty, I'll have two Master's degrees.
On February 18th, we had two embryos implanted into Tasha. Obviously we were very nervous about going through this process again, but we trusted in God completely. We honestly felt that God led us to do IVF one more time. Well, after two weeks, we went back for our pregnancy test and were confirmed pregnant! After a couple more weeks, we actually had our first ultrasound and were able to hear our babies heartbeats. Yes, we are having TWINS! :D It was absolutely amazing to be able to hear the heartbeats, see their little bodies already growing, and know that God had blessed us so greatly. We have since heard the heartbeats grow steadily stronger, seen some of their facial features begin, and hopefully in a few weeks we'll know if we're having boys, girls, or one of each. We are also in high-speed planning mode. We already have quite a few outfits, the crib that all of Heather's kids used, a brand new crib for later for our second baby, and a list of things that I have to get done before the babies get here. :P
One other major thing that we did last weekend was to trade in the Accent for a 2004 Honda Odyssey van. I have officially joined the daddy van club. :P But at least it's the EX-L model van from that year - it has all leather, DVD system, cruise control, heated front seats, and tons of other stuff. It's a really sweet vehicle. :D
Also, I have been preaching quite a bit over the last couple of months at New Vision Baptist and Trinity Baptist here in Cartersville and once back up at Morganton. It's been amazing to be able to hone my skills as a preacher and feel much more confident while in front of lots of people. I still haven't really had a bite on a job, but I feel that one is coming very soon.
Hope that fills everyone in on all that's happened since I last posted. :D I'll try to post more often, but for now, all I have to say is that I will write more later...:D
