In Case You Were Wondering

In case any of you were wondering, this is how Erin feels about the Men's NCAA Championship Game and its winners.

Enough Said.

In Honor Of Travis

If you look at Travis's comment to my last post, you will understand what he is referencing. Thomas Beatie (in above picture) is man who used to be a woman. He had the trans-gender surgery to become a man but kept some of the "female parts". He then married a woman and when his wife was unable to conceive he had invetro fertilization and is now a pregant man. Weird and gross, and in general, perverted, huh? Anyway, that is what Travis was referring to. And though I appreciate the veiled compliment, I take some offense. I mean, I know I was one of the world's ugliest children. However, I wasn't THAT bad was I??? ...... Don't answer that :)

NEVER CHEAT ON YOUR STYLIST

I'm a firm believer that once you find a great stylist, you should never, under any circumstances, cheat on him/her. Seriously. I did it once and I'll never do it again. Here's why I love my stylist (Steven Fields - http://www.jsfieldsandco.com/):

1. He's not overpriced (in fact I think he's underpriced, but don't tell him that)
2. He tells me "no" when I have a bad hair idea. I came in with ideas of the cut I wanted. It was a short straight bob. He said "This won't work for you. I know 3 things about you: 1.) you won't get up every morning and straighten it. 2.) You won't get your hair cut every 6 weeks like you're supposed to and 3.) You want to be able to pull it back into a ponytail." Most stylist just do what you tell them to make a buck. Not Steven, he knows my hair and what works best for it and more importantly he knows me and the things that are important to me.
3. He gives me a versatile haircut - one that looks good curly and straight and one that will grow out well.
4. He's my friend and has done much more for me over the years than just cut my hair.

Okay, so I'm going to cut short my tribute to Steven so that I can get back to studying but just know he's the best! He's got a great team too. Christina and Phyllis and the rest of the folks there know all the clients by name and make the business's success a team effort.

~ Your faithful client, Bethany

New 'Do

I am embarrassed, but not surprised, to report that it had been almost a year since getting my hair cut. My hair was long, shaggy, and generally dead. So, it was definitely time.

Here's my new do...curly. I'll post one of it straight later. Its a great cut because I can literally wake up and it looks like this already, without any styling. AWESOME.

Baby Calvin is Here! Aunt and Uncle Times Two!

Shawn and Jill were due April 17th so we were surpised when we got the news yesterday that Jill's water had broken and they were at the hospital. After a several nervous hours when Jill was only dilated 2 cm and Calvin's heart rate was irregular, we thought Jill was going to have to have a C-Section. We were all praying like crazy that his heart rate would even out and that she would be able to have him naturally. Well, God is good, because Calvin was born, perfectly healthy and precious. When I talked to Shawn, he was bragging the whole time about how awesome Jill was during delivery and how proud he was of Calvin. They are going to be great parents. I love him very much already and am so sad that I don't get to go visit him anytime soon :(

Here's a pic of Shawn (dad) and my Aunt Susan...apparently Jill didn't want any pictures taken of her 'cause I don't have a single one :)

And just to prove that I am Aunt to the cutest 2 kids in the world, here is a picture of Zion in her Easter dress.... love this girl :)

Easter Dinner

We decided to have some friends over who didn't have any family in town for Easter dinner. After dinner we just talked and played a few games. It was a lot of fun but unfortunately we forgot only took 1 picture: the table before everyone got here. We got to know a new couple in our sunday school class and are really looking forward to becoming better acquainted with them. Everyone brought a side dish and I made the following:

• Ham - my first attempt at Ham and glaze and I must say it was delicious! Although I'm getting little tired of it. This is my 3rd day in a row eating the 10 lb ham's left-overs.


• Pineapple-Cheese Casserole - always a hit


• Fresh Strawberry Pie w/ homemade crust


• Kentucky Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie w/ homemade crust

Erin took the left-over pies and coffee cake (made for sunday school brunch) to work the next day. Better the IT guys devour them instead of me and my thighs :)

Easter Worship

This was a great Easter. I must admit that Satan was pulling a number over on me Saturday. I was in a horrible mood, didn't want to go to church, and for some reason Satan was having a hayday with my attitude. But, Saturday night I made a decision that I wouldn't be that way, to stop complaining, and live with a grateful heart.... how can you NOT be grateful when really thinking about what Easter means. It turned out to be a wonderful Easter.

Erin, myself, Erin P and Nate all sang or played in all 3 services so we carpooled in together at 7AM!!! Early. The worship in the service was amazing and even though we did the same service all three times, worshipping never got stale, old, or boring.

Mom, I don't remember all the songs but know we sang:
You Saved the Day (choir and soloist)
Jesus Saves (choir)
He's Alive, Alive, Alive Halleluiah
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Easter Reminder

Erin had a friend/business associate of his over for dinner. This friend is from India and practices Hindu. He is such a wonderful person and we had interesting discussions about the differences in religion, culture, politics, sports, etc between America and India. I was explaining to him about how America celebrates mostly Christian holidays with Christmas being the biggest and Thanksgiving the next. But he pointed out that this didn't make sense: "Shouldn't EAster be your biggest holiday?" After I explained the differences between secular and spiritual celebrations of these holidays I realized that sometimes even Christians put Easter lower on the scale of celebrations. But, EASTER is what makes Christianity real, its OUR HOPE! It took someone of another faith to really make this hit home with me. So, this year, I really focused on remembering the sacrifice and most importantly the VICTORY that Christ had over the grave.... all for our sake. Praise the Lord.

Game Night Part Deux

I love game nights. So, every time Jessica comes into town from Chattanooga, we invite the gang over and have a girls game night and dinner. I love these nights because I ROCK at Scrabble and like to prove my vocabulary and polysyllabic prowess to anyone who will play with me :) If you've seen the post from last game night you will remember that I had a controversial win last time because of my use of the world "si" which is part of the melodic scale and is sometimes used instead of "ti". (a.k.a. Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do). Anyway, I came this time ready to conquer.... and guess what? I DID!! (sorry Brit, Jennie, and Jess). They gave me such a hard time about my word choice last time, but look at the PROPER noun they used below...totally illegal game play. But, no hard feelings. :)

I did not win Scattergories, so it wasn't a totally successful night. But, we always have a blast together and I'm so glad that God has blessed me with such wonderful friends that have remained close since college. We even forgive one of us for being a liberal (don't worry I'm NOT the liberal one)... but mainly its okay because she's a liberal in TN and we know her vote won't really make a difference anyway :)

The Gals -- we're a strange conglomeration of girls -- but we make a good team.

We still think fingers and noses are funny.... hmmmm.

I passed!

This book and I have gotten to know each other really well over the past few weeks. Today I finished step 1 on my journey towards dental school. I passed the Biology CLEP test!!! It is a scaled score test with scores ranging from 20 to 80. It is pass/fail and you have to get a 50+ to pass. I got a 60. I didn't like cutting it so close but unfortunately I didn't use the best study materials. I only used the Biology CLEP study guide and figured that would be enough. Lets just say that I almost panicked when I went in there and the material was much more in depth. But, fortunately I was at least able to make educated guesses on the majority of the questions. I'm glad its over. This test got me 16 hours of credit. I have a lot to do before I can even apply to dental school. If ONE thing doesn't go as planned then my dental school plans and hopes and dreams will not work out. Please pray for God's timing on this one. Erin and I want to make sure that we are following God's will, not our own. Here's whats left to do.

1. Now - Pass another CLEP test. This one is MUCH harder. It is for 16 hours of Chemistry 1 and 2 credit. I only get ONE shot at this. If I don't pass then I don't get another shot and am done.


2. May - Possibly shadowing a dentist friend of ours in his office. Need to have experience in a dental office so that I can discuss that in my interview with UT.


3. June - Begin summer classes. I will be taking Organic Chemistry I and Physics I


4. July - Next summer session. Organic Chem II and Physics II


5. July - August - Take the DAT. I can take it up to 3 times.


6. August - Fall term begins. Microbiology, Comparative Anatomy, Biochemistry, and possibly Histology


7. November 30 - Application due to UT Memphis


8. December - Finish pre-req classes

Uggh! Pray for me!

A New Direction

Recently Erin and I have been praying and thinking about my future. We laugh at how many jobs I have had in my lifetime but it is actually becoming an issue for me. I do not like the field I am in. It is as simple as that. I grew up wanting to be a Doctor. That is all that I ever wanted. But, when I went to school, my lack of maturity, circumstances, expectations of how my life would turn out, etc intimidated me and I took the easy way out. I got a business degree because it was easy, cheap, and what everyone does when they don't know what else to do. Not exactly the best way to make decisions about your future.

So, Erin and I began listing the things I have liked and enjoyed in my previous positions or hobbies. This is what we came up with.

1. I enjoy being with people
2. I want ownership and to be my own boss
3. I like to choose who I work with, to be able to pick my own staff. At cj, I was fortunate enough to be able to assist in choosing some of the new hires that I would be working with. This makes for a great cohesive team, where everyones strengths complement the group. Less nit-picky too.
4. I like for my work ethic and my income to be directly related. I want to be able to control how much I make by how hard I work. In my previous and current positions, now matter how hard I work, I am not rewarded for my efforts.
5. I LOVE to be on my feet
6. I like science and healthcare. I read physiology books and medical manuals and journals for fun.
7. I want a flexible schedule so that I can be a mom one day
8. I like preventative care. I think people should take care of themselves before there is ever a problem. It is much easier to do regular maintenance and prevent a problem than to fix one. Plus, I think that America as a whole is over-medicated.

From this list Erin and I came up with a few career possibilites: M.D., Dentist, Chiropractor. We ruled out M.D. right away because of the cost of school, the length of school, and the fact that I don't want to treat colds, flu, and hypochondriacs. I would rather be a surgeon and I would be in school till I was 90 :). Also, I have more and more issues with our healthcare system. We are over-medicated, over-charged, and if universal healthcare comes into play I want to be as far away from general medical practice as possible.

We ruled out Chiropractic care next. Although I have found relief from Chiropractic care and used to work for a Chiropractor, I am not passionate enough about it to make it my profession. I have done some research on the science. I believe in the methods but not neccessarily in the philosophies of Chiropractic. Plus, it is more likely to be influenced by a slow economy than any other type of healthcare.

We then evaluated dentistry. It seems like the perfect fit. We could pay cash for school if we stick to the same strict budget we're on now. We could also save enough to give us a good start on beginning a practice once I'm out of school. Dental school is only 4 years long. I have pretty teeth (heheh). A large part of a dentist's work is preventative care. I love people. I could own my own practice. I'd be on my feet. We feel God's leading in this direction and until he tells us no or closes a door, we will pursue this.

Manning Fans

I've got to admit that leading up to the fact, I was very uninterested in the Superbowl. I was first pulling for the Titans to make it to the big game. They of course did not. Then it was the Cowboys...well Jessica Simpson and her pink Jersey ruined that for us. We are NFC fans but we could not root for the Patriots. Tom Brady is a man-whore (pardon my language). So, we decided to pull for Brett Favre thinking they could definitely beat the Giants. I mean, come on, the Giants were the LAST wild card pick and everyone knows that Eli isn't as good as his older brother, right? I had basically chocked this up as a worthless superbowl and figured Brady and his cheating coach would take it home this year.

Well we were definitely proven wrong. It turned out to be one of the best Superbowl games I've ever seen. Erin was glad to see Burress catch the winning pass for a touchdown. After all, Burress gave Erin most of his points on his fantasy league this year! What a great game. Considering the fact we live in UT country, we are Manning fans. It was very good to see Eli win a superbowl and get MVP and not have to be under the shadow of his older brother anymore.

We also had fun going over to Brittany and Scott's for their annual superbowl party. We had a good time. Here are a few pics.

Birthday Fun!

Erin and I's birthdays are very close together. Mine is January 23 and his is February 2nd (groundhog's day).

My birthday was on a Wednesday this year (bleck!) and I had to work. Nothing too exciting happened at work except for the fact that I had more friends call, email, or text my birthday wishes than I ever have before! We had decided not to do presents this year for our birthdays because we got everything we wanted for Christmas and we would rather write an extra check towards the Dave Ramsey plan than receive a present. So I wasn't really expecting anything. After work I went to the gym and worked out and when I came in the house it was perfectly clean, something delicious was cooking, and there was a fire in the fireplace! Turns out Erin had taken a half day off work to clean the house for me and cook me a fantastic dinner of Candied Glazed Lamp Chops and my favorite bleu cheese chopped salad. Yummy! I also had roses and a sweet card waiting for me. It was a great birthday.

Erin's birthday was on a Saturday which gave it a little more flexibility. I got up early that morning and a Monkey Bread (or Pull-Apart) coffee cake, Juice, and a Quiche waiting for breakfast. I even put 28 candles in the Monkey Bread for him to blow out :) We spent the day just doing fun stuff: went for a walk, threw the football, etc. Then that night Hale and Andi, Nate and Erin P, and Erin and I went to Macaroni Grill (we had a gift card!) and ice skating. Ice skating was a blast; probably more funny than anything!

Thanks to all of you who sent birthday cards and gifts. We appreciate and love you all!

LOST is back!!!

Tonight was one of the most exciting nights in a long time. That is right folks; LOST is back!!! If you have never watched the show LOST, you need to go to Blockbuster and rent the 1st three seasons, lock yourself in your house until you've watched them, and then start watching this season. It is definitely the best show on TV.

To celebrate the occasion, we had a LOST get-together. The Metcalfs and the Pabsts came over and we watched the season premiere. It was awesome. I just know this season is going to be good. I have some theories but I won't bore you with them now.

Here are some pictures from our LOST themed get-together:

The Spread

Game Night

The roommates: Jessica, Bethany, Erin

Jess is in town, so of course all the girls got together. Jessica is staying in "her bedroom" here at our house but we all got together this time at Brittany and Scott's house. Erin and Scott wanted to watch some game that was on and the girls wanted to play games. So, we all headed over there, cooked dinner and played Scattergories and Scrabble. I scored a controversial win with the 2 letter word "si". Being the Scrabble champion that I am, I know that the 2 letter words are important. Si is part of the melodic scale, a substitute for "ti". Its in the scrabble dictionary, look it up. The girls weren't too happy. But, we had a great time as always. Brittany is definitely the most creative speller...she provides the fun, the rest of us provide the vocab :)


Serious about Games

Microwave

In yet another home improvement project, Erin installed an over-the-stove microwave for me today! I love it. Now we can get the microwave off of the cart and put the toaster oven there so that it is off of the counter. I was definitely needing more counter space. Yay! I love having a handy husband :)

A Quick Hi!

Just wanted to say hello to you all who are wanting an update. It has been busy since the new year began. Erin and I enjoyed a great new year, came back home, and got right back into the grind. We may sound old and boring but the highlight of the new year so far is the fact that we had Stanley Steemer come and clean our carpets and they are so pretty and clean. We are excited.

I also emceed a pageant this past weekend. Erin (mine) and our friends Nate and Erin came to watch. I think they were entertained although peeved that they had to miss the first playoff game of the season. It was so fun to get back into the pageant scene...especially through Joe's pageant. I got to see some old friends and wear some gorgeous gowns from Stevens (J.S. Fields and Co). Plus the 2 girls who were crowned are wonderful. Congrats Amy and Rebekah!

Erin Pabst and I are also helping each other with New Year's Resolutions. I have decided to re-join choir at church and Erin decided to join a gym. So, we are working out together and she's making sure I actually show up for choir. Its great because we are neighbors now and we can carpool. We were proud of ourselves yesterday because we even jogged three miles on our off-day at Brentwood high waiting for choir practice to start....talk about dedication!

A 2nd Amendment Christmas

We spent Christmas with Erin's parents and will be here in Springfield until the weekend. We had a wonderful Christmas day....enjoying each other's company, calling friends and family to wish them Merry Christmas, opening presents, and of course eating great food. We'll post more pictures and video from our time here later but I wanted to post pictures of a very happy Erin and the present that I got him. I am officially the COOLEST wife of all time :)

Excited Erin :)

Glock 23 compact - .40 caliber handgun.

Our House - Freshly Painted

One of my Christmas presents is an electric paint roller. I have been begging Erin to let me paint the bachelor pad ever since we've been married. I thought that he had been resisting painting because he didn't want the change but it was actually that he didn't want to go through the pain and annoyance of painting :) But, he gave me the paint roller before the Christmas party and we painted the living room and kitchen that week. It looks so great!! I'm very happy with it. Here are a few pictures.

THE KITCHEN

THE LIVING ROOM

Cheesy Christmas Sweaters!

Last night we had an "Ultimate Cheesy Christmas Sweater Party" at our house. It was just a get-together for a group of our friends from Sunday School and the only requirement was that you had to wear a cheesy christmas sweater! It was so funny seeing all our frends dressed in this cheesy garb! The winner of the cheesiest sweater for the guys was definitely our friend Nate and the winner for the girls was his wife Erin. She wore more than a just a sweater...she wore a Christmas jumper as well!! We also had a ton of fun playing a Wii that our friends James and Suzy generously let us borrow.

The winners - they look so happy :)

Cheesin' with Hale and Andi

Our new Smyrna neighbors!!

The Cheesy Hosts!!!!

We spent all week preparing for it...we even painted the kitchen and the living room. We had assorted holiday beverages and a great spread of:

Hamburger Cheese Dip and Chips

Sausage Cream Cheese Bake

Ginger Creams with Icing

Snickerdoodles

Choc. Chip Cookies

Sugar Snap Pea Tea-sized Sandwhiches

Chocolate Oreo Filled Truffles

I was really proud of it, since I made it all from scratch and didn't mess up on any of it. That is a real first for me :) I even managed to keep the kitchen clean while preparing :)

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful time in Moriarty, NM visiting my side of the family for Thanksgiving. We arrived on Thanksgiving day, which was perfect for us because we got to miss all of the cooking and arrived just in time for the eating (sorry mom :)) We stayed until Monday evening and so enjoyed seeing my family that I don't get to see enough. I love having a big family. It was so fun to cram all 12 of us into Mom and Dad's home.

Anyway, dinner was wonderful. We loved seeing everyone and catching up. Hearing my grandparents tell stories, and mom and dad catch us up on whats going on in the church. Hear about Jordan's social life, interests, and just have fun with him. See Jill and Shawn (and Calvin) and hear about their excitement about their arriving baby. Of course, it is always good to see Travis and Reba and Zion. They are such a great family... tight knit, busy, and fun to be around!

Zion is walking and really got some practice in while we were in New Mexico.

Check out her pink shirt. It says "If you think I'm cute, you should see my aunt." I love this little girl! I can't wait to welcome my new nephew Calvin into the world in April!

He's Back!!!!!

Erin got home this evening. Yay!! It is so-o-o good to have him home. I've missed him so much. He is exhausted from all the travel and I'm glad he has a day to rest before we get on another plane and head to Mom and Dad's (Schenk) for Thanksgiving. We had some good ole' American food for dinner - a juicy burger from Red Robin - as a welcome back to the States dinner. Here are some pics from Riga, Latvia and Prague, Czech Republic. I know he probably won't post anything about his trip so if you want to know what all of these are pictures of, you'll have to ask him.

I do know that he loved the food in Latvia, got to experience their independence days, and that he saw some of the oldest buildings in the world from Prague. Very very cool.

What have I been doing?

I've been keeping myself busy since Erin has been gone.

Tonight I went to Publix to pick up some groceries to make dinner but I got lucky. They were having a special Thanksgiving celebration and were cooking different sample meals throughout the store. I just ate dinner there. (Slightly cheap of me but hey Dave Ramsey was proud). It was great. I had honeybaked ham, turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, green beans, cider, coffee, shrimp cocktail, egg nog, ice cream, cobbler, and they also had chess pie available. But, I had just gotten done working out so I only had one dessert :) It was free, it was good, and it kept me from having to cook. Hallelujah!



My friend Jessica Lacy (the one on the left with the fantastic reddish hair) came into town this weekend. She, Brittany, and I spent the entire day shopping and eating and laughing. Dave Ramsey even let me buy a fantastic pair of trouser jeans. I have been needing jeans that actually fit me so badly. Jessica then spent the night at the house. We stayed up way too late and dyed our hair on a whim. I haven't dyed my hair since high school, but fortunately I had the presence of mind to by a 6 day wash out. It isn't too horrible. In fact, I'm thinking about dying my hair permanently the color of Brittany's (the one just to the right of me).

I also kept Charlotte again this past weekend. I love this little dog!

I started a Beth Moore study called "Living Beyond Yourself". I have actually done this study but found myself needing to really study the Fruits of the Spirit again. The fruits of the Spirit should be very apparent in every aspect of my life as a follower of Christ, yet I know they aren't. It has been really powerful so far. One of the things that hit home for me this week is this: we talk politically about how people aren't entitled to anything...especially when it comes to border control issues, amnesty, etc. But, we also need to remember that on a spiritual lever. The only thing I'm "entitled to" or deserve is death. "For the wages of sin is death." Thank you Lord that I'm not getting what I deserve. Only by grace do we have the wonderful lives that we have. We should expect suffering. We should count our sufferings a blessing because no matter how severe, they aren't as bad as eternal separation from our Creator.

Last week I got all caught up on the show HEROES. It is really cool. It makes me want a super power. But, I guess all super powers have their cons. If you heal from anything, you can't die....which seems cool but I'd get tired of this earth around 100 years old when all of my loved ones were dead. The technopathy superpower is cool though... being able to get technology to do anything you want through your mind. Anway, it is a really neat show. But, don't get the wrong idea, just because I like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Heroes, and Lost does NOT mean I'm a sci-fi fantasy dork. Or maybe it does. Whatever.