Sunday Fun

Our friends got a huge 16 foot waterslide for their Son's birthday. But, of course, the grown-ups took over the slide once all the kids were gone and had a blast as well. We should have know it was a bad omen when the whole thing collapsed the first time. There is a 300 pound weight limit for this inflatable slide but there were 4 kids and 5 adults already on there when I stepped on. As soon as I did we had too much weight on one side and it detached from the air fan and fell over. The kids were all the way at the top but they weren't hurt at all because there was still a ton of air in it.

Erin

Head First!

So, of course we blew it back up and kept sliding making sure there were only 3 adults at a time :) But Erin and Will decided to double-bounce each other and they had a collision resulting in a deep cut on the elbow for Erin and a trip to the emergency room for shin stitches for Will. But, they're all fine. Of course it is always the grown-ups that hurt themselves! Erin asked me if we could buy one!

Michelle's Wedding

We had a great Memorial Day weekend...very busy but fun.

Saturday was my good friend Michelle McNatt's wedding. It was in Knoxville so Erin and I drove out for it. She asked me to be a part of the wedding by praying over her and James during a portion of the ceremony and I was so honored to do it. They are going to be a great couple that God is going to use in awesome ways. They had the wedding and reception at a family friend's house on the lake. It was so beautiful. Here are a few pics for you Lindsey :)

Check out this playhouse. It even had a loft! Probably cost as much as our a few of our house payments.. ha! Erin thought it was funny that I was so obsessed with the playhouse, but I had always wanted a liliput playhouse (http://www.lilliputplayhomes.com/) as a kid and this reminded me of one. I told Erin he would be building one for our kids one day :)

SYTYCD

It has just been the best day.

1. I passed my Chem test today.
2. Erin got me sushi so I didn't have to cook (he ate Chic-fil-a).
3. The season premiere of So You Think You Can Dance is on tonight. I LOVE THIS SHOW!!We watched some of the auditions tonight and you have to see this kid. Erin and I watched in disbelief... I mean Danny from last year is the most beautiful trained dancer. But, this kid can move his body in unbelievable ways....incredible.

Study + Prayers + Tutor = CHEM CLEP PASSED!!!!!

I did it!! I'm so excited I can't even stand it. I finally passed the dreaded Chemistry CLEP exam and am so thankful for it. It wasn't even as bad as I thought it was going to be. I can actually feel the weight off my shoulders. I'm trying to decided if I passed because I studied for about 3 months or because I met with an awesome tutor 3 times or because EVERYONE was praying so hard for me. But who cares why???? I PASSED!!

Me before test -pulled an all-nighter studying

(caught an hour and half of sleep on the floor in the office)

Me after test

(Still looking rough...but excited!)

Clapping

Been a busy weekend. Brittany's b-day was this past week so we all went to Outback last night to celebrate. Today we went to see Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. It was good. Not as good as the first, but good.

Today when we were in the movie theater I experienced 2 of my pet peeves.
1. Lots of noise in the theater. I understand that we were in a "kids" movie, so a little noise isn't so bad. The occasional shake of the candy box, slurp of the drink, or in todays case a loud burp by a little boy :) .... all that I can handle. In fact I expect and to be honest my Hot Tamale candy can rattle a bit in the box at times. But this CONSTANT crinkling of the popcorn bag I CAN'T STAND. Ok Mom's and Dad's out there...if your kid isn't quite old enough to sit still through the whole movie then don't bring them. And please, only allow them to reach into the popcorn bag every few minutes or so...not every second.

2. But my #1 movie theater pet peeve of all time is ....drumroll... when people clap at the end of the movie. I mean, seriously, what is that??? Who are you clapping for??? The producers, photographers, directors, writers, actors? Well guess what? THEY CAN'T HEAR YOU!! I (a co-audience member) am the only one that can hear you and your clapping isn't doing anything for me. I didn't help make the movie, I only paid $8 to go see it. So please, if you really really appreciated a movie don't clap. Instead, write a letter to the editor, or maybe focus on the family, or Pixar, Disney, whoever, to tell them how much you liked it.

Click on image to enlarge

Ok. I'm off my soapbox. :) I'll do a more positive post next time, I promise.

Bethany's Plans

Here are my plans for the near future

1. Study like crazy and pass my Chemistry test on May 21. (please pray hard...really need to make this happen)

2. Start eating healthy again, exercise daily (I'm at about 3-4 times a week now), and lose 10 pounds.

3. I really want to do an in-depth Bible study of some sort. I may just do a read through the bible plan with my friend, or I might look at doing some David Jeremiah stuff. Either way, I don't feel like my Bible Study time right now is cutting it. I'm craving more. Erin does a Bible Study every week with some friends and gets a lot out of it. What do I do during that time? Get together with Pabst, go to the gym, and watch American Idol... :)

4. Start a cleaning business while I'm in school. Erin and I made this door hangers (below) which I will deliver to the nicer neighborhoods in Murfreesboro. I plan on under-cutting the competition as far as prices are concerned. This is a much better alternative than waiting tables in my estimation. I obviously blacked out my phone number and email address in case there are any pervs or weirdos that visit the blog.

Naples Vacation

A week ago Erin and I and Erin and Nate Pabst all left work early and headed to the airport to catch a plane to Naples Florida. (FYI - to avoid confusion I will refer to Erin (girl) as "Pabst" from now on) Several months ago we had found a really cheap flight to Naples, and since Pabst's parents live there thought it would be a great place for a quick vacation. I could go on and on and on about Pabst's family. Her mom and Paul are such amazing people who opened their home and lives to us. They were so generous and showed us a great time. Thank you!! Paul's family (extended) was amazing as well. Altogether it was an awesome time. Here is a rundown of events (sorry its so long):

Thursday

We arrive late that night and head to Paul and Debbie's condo and just chat and get ready for bed.

Friday

Busy day. Debbie fixes us an amazing brunch and we head out to see the cute city of Naples. Really neat Italian influenced architecture and shops. Then we go get lunch at a little restaurant called Riverwalk which looks out over the water (Thanks for treating us to lunch Debbie)

That afternoon we head out to the beach and cookout on the beach for dinner. We had an exciting battle with a racoon which you'll have to ask Erin about. :) We then headed back to the condo where we enjoyed the rest of the evening just goofin' off. It was fun!

Saturday

We got up Saturday morning and Debbie, Erin, Pabst, Nate, and I headed off to Ft. Myers (about 20 minutes away) to see the beach.

It was really cool because it was a very crowded place... people everywhere. There were also pelicans all over the place that would let you get right up next to them.

We then played putt-putt golf where we all got extremely sun-burned.

That afternoon we went to the pool at the condo and just goofed off.

For dinner we went to the best pizza place I've ever been to. Paul's sister and her husband and daughter came with all of us to. The restaurant, ZaZa's, is owned and operated by Joe DiMaggio's nephew who is one of the top chefs in the world. In fact, he was the chef for the Rat Pack. Pretty cool huh? Anyway, Marco (paul's brother-in-law) is really good friends with him and they brought out soo many things for us to eat. We had 3 exotic types of pizza (one had lamb and curry and feta cheese :)), we had spicy calamari, amazing bread, and cheesecake, and tiramisu, and canolis. Thanks to the Bazelgette's and Bronzini's for showing us a good time and treating us to dinner. Erin, Nate, Pabst, and I went back home and stayed up way too late... til about 4 am just laughing about the nights events and enjoying vacation.

Sunday

Sunday was our rest day. We got up early and went to the beach until about 3:30. We mostly rested at the beach but we also swam in the ocean and made some sand art :)

Nila and Emily came with us too. We then headed home to get cleaned up for church which was at 5 p.m. Paul and Debbie started a new church in Naples and have grown from 10 to 60 people in 6 months. Paul is such a biblically grounded man of God and Debbie is such a wonderful pastor's wife with such a caring heart. They meet in Marco's art gallery (check out his amazing work at http://www.marcobronzini.com/). Paul and Marco met years ago when they both attended the Royal Academy for Art in London. It was really neat to go there because the people are so on-fire and Erin, Pabst, and I led the music. It was very impromptu but I really feel God used it because the people expressed how appreciative they were and how worshipful it was. The whole crew then headed over to Marco and Nila's house where their ENTIRE family greeted us and we had a wonderful dinner and time of fun. And since Pabst knows DAvid Cook from American Idol really well, she was a big hit with her cousin Rebecca who is a HUGE David Cook fan :) I can honestly say that I have never seen a family who gets along and builds one another up like this family... and thats something given how close I am to my family. But, Paul's family would never make fun of a poor ugly child's snaggle-tooth :)

Finally a Post

I know it has been forever since I have posted... I really do apologize. Many of you expressed that you were tired of seeing the last NCAA post, so I'm giving you an update. A lot has happened, so I'll just give you a brief rundown of events.

1. Erin spent 15 days straight in Ft. Worth, TX for the United Methodist General Conference which occurs every 4 years. He was there from end of April to beginning of May. They bring in about 3000 delegates from the UM convention and they debate and vote on the church's stance on issues for the next 4 years. Erin was not a delegate of course (he's Baptist :) but he was there to set up the networks for 3000 people, organize the internet cafe's, and troubleshoot problems as they come.

One of the major issues they voted on was whether the methodists would continue to regard homosexuality as a practice "incompatible with Christian teaching". Now, I would think this would be a no-brainer (especially if you look in the Bible, its pretty cut and dry) but apparently there was a lot of debate about the issue. I'm glad to report that in the end they voted to retain the original language of their beliefs: that homosexuality IS incompatible with Christian teaching.





Family...If you decide to comment on this please remember that Erin works for the agency and some of his coworkers read this blog.







2. I had planned on continuing to work with my company through the end of May. We had an adjusted schedule worked out so that I could continue shadowing at a dental office as well as work and get a new person trained to take over. I would also be taking on more classes during the night hours to help out the company. Unfortunately during the first week of May I was pulled from the class I was teaching and told that they would no longer be able to hold their end of the bargain as far as the schedule was concerned and so I told them that my last day would be 2 weeks from that day. At first I was surprised that they reneged on the deal but then I remembered the structure of the company. I had a boss (we'll call him R). R was supposed to be over the entire Nashville account (which included 3 locations). However, R actually has no authority. Anything R says, his superior undermines. So, R will make a decision and she (his boss) will go against it. He has to run EVERYTHING by him and she micromanages him to a ridiculous degree. The problem is that micromanaging is a problem all the way from the top (also most of the people in power are women with a chip on their shoulder). So I found out that R had agreed to our schedule but his boss had not. When she heard about it, she acknowledged that it would be beneficial to the company for me to work an adjusted schedule but that it would be "unfair to the other people in the company if I got to work an adjusted schedule for a few weeks" and that since I was "friends with R" she wouldn't allow it. This is coming from the same woman who took complaints from the other women in the company who said that I was only liked by my boss because I was "skinny and pretty". They would also complain to the boss if I finished my tasks for the day (efficiently) and they had not. So, I would get their tasks piled onto me. Ahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! When did the workplace become socialist too? Good riddance.





3. My friend Jessica finished her graduate program. We all went to her graduation in Chattanooga. It was a lot of fun to celebrate her big day with her.

Brittany, Jessica (the graduate), Bethany

Mmm...Ben and Jerry's. I mean, Bethany and Brittany

Jessica and Scott