A Hero Returns

  I am so happy to say that a good friend of mine, Terry Henley, is home from deployment. He married his bride, Mehgan, this past October and they have collectively spent about a month together since their wedding. Mehgan orchestrated a surprise dinner party for Terry and his family. The event was a double surprise. Terry's mother, sister, and grandmother thought they were meeting Mehgan for dinner. Terry, not knowing his friends and extended family were there, thought he was going to surprise his family when they showed up for dinner. It was perfect!

   Though Terry has not seen battle first hand, he is the epitome of a hero. He knew his job could lead directly to a grave. He knew he would have to give up the freedom to live his life the way he wanted to for the next four years so that his family, friends, neighbors, and fellow Americans could. He knew he could possibly see things that would change him forever. He knew he would have to leave the wedding planning up to his wife and show up the day before the wedding and leave town two days after. He knew he would have to leave his new bride for months while he was deployed. And he did all of these things willingly--for us. For his country. For our freedom. For our way of life. For our security. For our future.

  Thank you Terry! We are so grateful to have you home!

Terry with his sister, mother, and bride



I'm Over October

   As stated earlier, I love the month of October. (If you wanna know why, click here.) And this October did not disappoint. Because I have not blogged about any of the happenings this month, I'm just gonna sum it all up in this one post. So here goes:

Main Event 1:   Words cannot describe how much I look forward to the Alabama National Fair's annual visit to Montgomery. I absolutely love rides that spin, and the vast majority of the rides at the fair go in some sort of circle. So I'm pretty much in a state of bliss the entire time I'm there.
     I went with a dear friend this year, and we had a blast! We exerted so much energy that I literally had to be carried to the car because I was so exhausted. And I didn't leave empty handed--I left with a HUGE pink pig. My students were so happy because the pig is now our class pet. (We named him Herbert.)

Herbert



Main Event 2: Daddy turned 50 the 19th of October. We got (almost) the entire family together at Kelly's house and threw him a surprise party. It was so much fun!

 Not the best picture, but it'll do.



Main Event 3: This is the first year that I have decorated the house for Halloween. I usually decorate the house with fall decorations but skip those decorations specifically related to Halloween. I really enjoyed trying to make the porch cute but scary at the same time.



Main Event 4: Tyler turned 11, and Kelly and Troy had the fam over to celebrate. I love that I'm considered T's family. I love him like the nephew I never had! :)



Main Event 5: Liberty set up a booth at Trade Day to raise funds for a mission trip to Haiti. My role was to paint faces. I can honestly say there was virtually no rest from 8:00 am-1:00 pm for me. And I'm not complaining! We raised a good bit of money for the mission team! I know they're going to do great things in Haiti this December!



Main Event 6: Kelly, Aunt Lynda, and I went to see Dracula at the Shakespeare Festival. We had so much fun! We had dinner at Bonefish that was absolutely delicious, and Dracula was fantastic! I already can't wait until April to go see a play about King Henry VIII. ASF knows how to put on a good show!



Main Event 7: Jenna and I went to Syrup Sopping this year. It makes me sad to say Jenna had no idea what I was talking about when I asked if she wanted to go. So we woke up early (Okay, that's a lie. We actually slept in crazy late for us, but I feel like I have to say we woke up early because you're supposed to on Syrup Sopping Day.) and headed to Loachapoka for some handmade goods and sugar cane syrup. We had a great time!



Main Event 8: We celebrate Homecoming Sunday at my home-church in October. While I do not attend Calvary anymore, I absolutely love my sweet church. You won't find a more God-fearing pastor and people. We heard a great message and had dinner on the grounds afterwards.



Main Event 8: I now have a second job. A friend of mine has 12 pecan trees on his land and offered me a job helping pick up pecans. With Christmas shopping in mind, I quickly said "yes." So I've been picking up pecans here and there when I can after work and on the weekends. I really enjoy it. We can't ever sync our schedules to pick up at the same time so we basically work in shifts. I have really, really enjoyed picking them up. With work, television, and the Internet, we rarely spend time just "being." I have enjoyed having some alone time with just me and the pecans. It's extremely relaxing!



Main Event 9: Halloween weekend! Ben came to town to play with My Two Wings Friday and Saturday night. So, of course, we made a weekend out of going to hear them play. We had so much fun! I didn't dress up Friday night (gasp, I know!). Apparently I missed the memo that you are only supposed to dress up Friday night because I dressed up Saturday night and wound up being the only person in a costume. Finally, after a couple of hours, people started filtering in with costumes. I'm not gonna lie, it was awkward for a while. I couldn't exactly play off my costume like it was a regular outfit--I was a crayon. Haha! It was still a good time!

My Two Wings playing at Blue Bagel

 Josh, Ryan, and "Razzle Dazzle Rose" listening to My Two Wings

Main Event 10: Because Halloween fell on a school day, we decided to have a party in each of my classes on Monday. I was very nervous on my drive to work that morning because I felt like I was really going to regret allowing the kids to be all hopped up on sugar while I'm trying my best to teach a lesson on congruency. I'm so glad that my worry was unnecessary because the students did a great job! We only spent bout 10 minutes actually partying (I know, that's not really a party, but my job is to teach them--not entertain them), and no one complained. Apparently we packed enough fun into those 10 minutes for them to realize they didn't have a lot of time. :)

I can't show pictures of the kids, but you can take my word for it--they had some great costumes!