and...we're back

whew. it has been quite the busy month...primarily due to a little something that i've been working on since january called vbs. :) there have also been birthdays, father's day and other fun things going on.

we've also had our little paisley for just about a month now and she is so much fun! she's quite the little firecracker...she's sweet but she's spunky, too and i love that about her. she loves giving our neighbors' dogs (who are about five times her size) a hard time. she knows how to get them all riled up and it cracks me up. (although, our neighbors might not appreciate it all that much.:)

joel's last post highlighted his birthday celebration and in my opinion, was a little too gracious in his response toward me...he deserved a fabulous birthday celebration and i'm so glad he enjoyed it. he really had quite the birthday week...cookout and party with my family (with lots of fun presents), his celebration with me, and dinner with his parents. i certainly hoped that by the end of his birthday week he felt celebrated and loved...and caught a glimpse of just how awesome (and attractive ;) we all think he is.

vbs went so well this year! the Lord truly blessed us beyond our imagination and when the week ended, i knew without a doubt that He definitely worked in spite of our short comings to bring all things together for His glory. total attendance for preschool (kidaroos and adults) was 1,216. isn't that awesome? i was astounded and so thankful. our elementary kidaroos had 95 decisions for Christ that were made as a result of the presentation of the Gospel on various nights throughout the week. AND pastor scott and i were slimed, of course, because our preschool and elementary kidaroos brought $1,177 for their offering total. we promised them if they hit the $1,000 mark, we would both get slimed and boy did we ever! i've never been so excited or looked so forward to having green applesauce dumped over my head as i was friday night. the kids (well, most of the kids...some were a little afraid that mrs. amy was going to get hurt being slimed...they know me too well ;) loved it and i admit, i had a blast! cleaning up from being slimed is a whole other thing but it was so worth it! i've heard rumors about what next year's challenge will be and trust me, it will be good and waaay better than being slimed.

in the mix between paisley, birthdays, vbs, and father's days we've had a few very fun date nights including movies and the brad paisley concert. he was at verizon amphitheater and we were SO thankful to have seats under the cover because it rained like crazy the whole night.

here we are...after walking a long way in the rain...we were happy to be under the covered seats!

the stage during one of brad's new songs

needless to say, we've had quite a busy but a fun month and it's not over, yet! our two year anniversary of our first date is this friday (june 26) and we have a fun overnight stay planned including a visit to a spa! this girl is SUPER excited about that!

There is no charge for Awesomeness or Attractiveness

( Today, in a rare public appearance, "the Hubs" writes a blog entry :-o )

My wife is awesome! Those of you who are close to us already know this, of course, but it's time for the whole world to know. My wife is awesome!

A few days ago, we were celebrating a minor event, a celebration which Amy has apparently been planning for some time. I should note at this point that Amy is an honor roll student in the School of Joel. I don't mean that I'm teaching her things; she's way smarter than I am. I mean that she studies me. Amy knows stuff about me that I don't know about me. She knows why I'm always late for stuff (sorry, baby). She knows my favorite foods, favorite movies, favorite shoes (yes, I have a favorite pair of shoes- some really comfortable old sneakers). And not only does she know this stuff, she uses it.

Anyhow, back to the celebration. On the day in question I walked into the house after work, and it smelled especially great. Amy is a great cook, and it was clear that she had been working magic in the kitchen again. I came around the corner, and this is the first thing I saw:

Sure! Balloons at a party make sense. But my wife is sneaky, and she knows I like puzzles. These particular balloons weren't just decorations. They were a clue!

While she was finishing up dinner, Amy had also made little toasted pepper jack pimento cheese bagettes as an appetizer. Because she knows that pepper jack is one of my very favorite cheeses, and because she knows that I discovered I like pimento cheese at another event she planned for us a while back. Sorry, no picture of these, because they were all eaten up before we got the camera out! (Are you beginning to grasp the awesomeness of my wife? Wait, there's more!)

Dinner was soon ready, and this is what she set on the table for me.

If you're from the South, or if you watch the Food Network, then you know exactly what this is, but for the unitiated, what you see before you is a little bit of heaven on a plate. That, dear reader, is stone ground grits, with butter and bacon and scallions and cheese, and some of the most ginormous and tasty shrimp you ever had, with some cornbread hushpuppies just to show off a little bit. My wife made that. For me. Because she knows they're my favorite. And they were so good. I'm telling you, Awesome.

Any man would have been happy now, but on this particular night it was like I was on the Showcase Showdown on the Price is Right, and Jonny kept saying, "But wait, there's more!" Remember those balloons at the beginning of the post? Have you guessed what they were a clue to? If you guessed "Up" then you were right.

Somewhere, somebody is saying, "Timeout! Your wife took you to a kid's movie?" I see that you have momentarilly forgotten that my wife is Awesome. Because my wife knows that I love animated movies, especially CGI animated movies. I'd like to tell you it's because I studied computer graphics in college, but in reality, I'm just a big kid. And my wife knows this. And she's awesome.

By the way, in the world of family friendly movies, "Up" knows some serious ninja moves from the government. Seriously, mad kung fu skills. It's a rare movie that you can take older young children and adults to, let them sit next to each other in the theatre, and give them both something that entertains them. The kids get a fun adventure movie, and the grown-ups get a neat story about a guy keeping his lifelong promise to the love of his life. There's even a spot in there where I dare any red-blooded, wife-loving tough guy not to tear up. Go ahead, I dare you. It does have a few scary scenes with big dogs and a rather mean antagonist, which explains the PG rating, so it's probably not good for younger children, but for the older kids, and the kids at heart, it's great.

I love my wife with every fiber of my being, and I would love her that much even if she weren't awesome. But I think we can all agree now that my wife is Awesome! And lest anyone think I've forgotten the other adjective in our blog title, let me put that to rest right now.

It's okay. You can say it. "Wow". I'm not even a little bit ashamed to admit that my heart beats a bit faster whenever I see that smile. Amy is so pretty.

Awesomeness and Attractiveness. I am a lucky man.