Our Anniversary Continued

Monday May 19 was officially our anniversary and we didn't do anything too special, but we did have a pretty cool meal. We made our own pizzas and they came out a lot better than I thought they would. Then we ate the rest of our wedding cake.

Nathan's Pizza

My Pizza

A one-year-old piece of cake (eww)

Our First Anniversary

On Friday May 16, Nathan and I headed to Waxahachie, TX to a Bed and Breakfast to celebrate our anniversary. It was a random choice of destination. I simply searched for the most charming B&B on Google and hoped they had a vacancy. Well, little did we know that Waxahachie, even though it is only 35 miles from Dallas, is maybe the most charming little town we had ever seen. It is so rich in history and they have preserved it so well. Waxahachie is a cotton town that flourished in the late 1890s. All the houses on Main Street have kept the early 1900s architecture and it really gives you a glimpse into what life was like back then. Well, I won't bore you with the details, but if you get a chance, you should go sometime. 

Anyway, the B&B we stayed in was built in 1900 and the current owners remodeled the whole house from top to bottom in 1990 and it totally immaculate. There are six or seven guest rooms in the house and each one is named after an author and decorated like the time period that author lived in or wrote about. We stayed in the F. Scott Fitzgerald room and it was decorated like the 1920s because he wrote The Great Gatsby. There's a Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and Teddy Roosevelt room to name a few. 

The town square was amazing and there was simply not enough time to do everything. We ate a restaurant on Friday night that used to be the General Store in the late 1800s and the cowboys traveling on the Chisholm trail would stop in and eat there. It has been a restaurant ever since. Wow! That's so cool. Okay no more history, I promise. Anyway, when we were done eating and walked out to our car, we realized that there weren't any cars parked near us and we were blocked in by a city truck parked perpendicular to our car. Well, we were able to get out thanks to Tatum's tight turning radius. But when we tried to get out of the square we were blocked in at every exit and there were people everywhere putting old tires along the curbs of the streets. We later found out that they were setting up for a mini Grand Prix in the square and we finally found a way out. 

Okay this is a novel, but Saturday Nathan and I went antiquing and Nathan actually admitted to liking it. Don't tell him I told you that, but I think that's the first time he's said he enjoyed shopping with me. The whole time on Saturday, the mini Grand Prix was going on around the square and we stopped and watched it for a little bit. We headed back home around 4:00 and called it a weekend. Good times.

What a Sad Day :(

Goodbye Julie!

We sold Julie tonight and so I took some last pictures of her. We took her to Carmax and they wrote us a check for her and we had to say goodbye. Jules has been a good car for me in High School and College. She was a present from my parents for my graduation from High School, but I had her most of my senior year. Here are some final pictures with Julie.

When we cleaned out the car tonight we found the original window sticker! 

The ink kinda rubbed off because of the extreme temperatures it has endured over the years. Can you see the estimated annual fuel cost? $1,223!?! I wish. Anyway, I thought it was cool that we still had that. So Julie's gone now, but we did get to keep a small part of her.

Nathan and I both have a thing for license plates. I memorize them and Nathan likes to use them as decoration :) So all in all it was a sad night, but Tatum definitely softens the blow. 

Meet Tatum

It's looks like she's smiling. Nathan and I have been thinking about getting a different car that gets better gas mileage and we decided that the Toyota Yaris was the best choice for us. It gets great gas mileage (39 mpg) for a great price. So we spent 5 and a half hours at the Toyota dealership today working everything out. But now she's ours! I decided to name her Tatum, Tatum the Toyota. I think it fits her. Take a look.

Nathan's Commissioning

Yay! I got the pictures! So as I said in my previous post, Nathan was commissioned on May 2nd at the Seminary. Well, he was actually commissioned a week before that (April 25th) in the recruiters office because they wanted him to do it as soon as possible. So we took our time and prepared a nice service at the Seminary a week later for all the family to come to. Enjoy.

Here is Nathan affirming his allegiance to the Constitution (and the top of my head).

This Dr. Vann. He works at the Seminary as a Professor and he was also an Army Chaplain.

Nathan got up and said a few words about his call to the chaplaincy . . .

. . . and then they asked me to say something which I was not expecting so of course I laughed because I was uncomfortable :)

Here we are grazing on the food.

Dr. Vann telling a very compelling story.

Nathan and I holding his certificate from the Navy.

Here is the Etheredge/Wolfe Family with Nathan and I.

And last but not least, the Clardy Family.

Trying out the Slide Show

This is a test. I know you've seen these pictures but I wanted to try out the slide show thingy and I thought this Drive-In theme was really cool with the Blast from the Past pictures.

Not a natural blogger . . .

I have decided recently that I am not a natural blogger. What I mean by that is I don't naturally have this desire to sit down and write out all my thoughts on a regular basis. Now don't get me wrong, I do want people to know about my life and my thoughts, but I don't always have the desire to take the time that it takes to write it all out and make it look pretty. Part of it is that I think I need to have millions of pictures to make a good post. But I've decided that's not true and that's good news for me because I don't take very many pictures. But have no fear, this post will have plenty of pictures because it's been a while. I have been trying to post these pictures for two and half weeks now. (By trying I mean I really want to do it but I keep forgetting.) But in the future there may be posts without any pictures *gasp*.

Well moving on, April 19th was the All-Famous, Second Annual, Meadowbrook Baptist Church Youth Group's, Blast from the Past. That's AFSAMBCYGBFTP for short. Anyway, we lip-synced to oldies while the adults enjoyed a drive-in style meal in the fellowship hall. This year we also presented the gospel through a skit using sign language. Anyway here are the pictures.

Here's me with the girls in "Mr. Postman." It's a somewhat obscure oldie by a group that sounds alot like the Supremes.

Here we are doing "Stop in the Name of Love."

This is the guys doing "Macho Man." They decided to dress up like old men instead of the typical Village People impersonations that everyone would expect.

This is Nathan and I as Sonny and Cher doing "I Got You Babe." According to everyone at church we should have cross-dressed since Cher was so much taller than Sonny.

Here are the girls in "It's My Party." I'm pretty sure we're all saying "party" in this picture and that's why we look so strange.

This is one of the guys in "The Way You Do the Things You Do." They bought all their suits at the thrift store! Well that's where we got all our costumes but I was surprised we found so many suits!

Well, be watching for pictures of Nathan's commissioning service. Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that Nathan was commissioned on Friday May 2nd at Seminary. Of course we forgot our camera so I'm waiting on pictures from my parents.

Another note on that subject, Nathan won't be going to training this summer because it filled up before he could be commissioned. "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Proverbs 16:9. The Lord is in control and even though it made sense to us for Nathan to go to training this summer, he is supposed to be here. We can make this great plan for our futures but it will always pale in comparison to what God has in mind. So we are excited to see what God has for us this summer and we look forward to all he is going to do through this time as a Chaplain Candidate.