one year later- Katrina Dolphins

I saw this on the morning news. Here is the link.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2318974&page=1

DNR Banquet

Me and Meagan

guy on the right from Flip this House

Josh and I went with Meagan and Jeff to a fundraiser for the Deparmtment of Natural Resources. Jeff works with them so he was one of the people in charge of running the event. It was funny because I made a comment to Meagan that it was the type of event I could see that guy from Flip this House attend. If you don't know the show it had a season where they followed a company here in Charleston as they bought, re-modeled and sold homes. Anyway later that night I look over and I see another guy from that very show. He wasn't the main guy but he was the on site guy. We thought it was very funny. Meagan snapped a pic of him while we were posing for a picture. They auctioned off a lot of things. Most of the stuff went for hundreds if not thousands of dollars. It was pretty amazing. I bought 3 tickets for 5 dollars and took my chance on the drawing items. No luck though. They had a great spred of food. (lots of seafood)

Just Because

Josh bought me flowers earlier this week just because. These flowers get prettier each day. See pictures.

Florida

Pretty Florida water

sea turtle

On our way back from home we stopped in Florida. Here are a few pics of our trip.

Temple Baptist Church

Here are a few pics of the new sanctuary at Temple, our church in Hattiesburg. They should be finishing up the inside in a few months. It is a really large building but that does not reflect the relationship of the congregation.

Fishing

Josh trying to untangle his fishing line

Josh and Matt fishing at the creek

Franklinton

Dad's birthday

Leslie and Norman

Here are a few pics from my visit home. We spent time with my sister in her new house and with the longhorns. We also had my dad's birthday party and went out to eat with my mom and George.

Hattiesburg

Haley and Campbell

Jennifer, Me, Hannah and Lindsey

Josh and Jacob

Nancy, Emily, Me, Maderra and Nicole

Here are a few pictures of us hanging out with our friends from church in Hattiesburg. We had a great time visiting and hopefully we will see everyone again soon.
While we were in Hattiesburg we went and visited so many people from work, school and church. We got to eat at Purple Parrot for our 2 year anniversary (I was excited about that).

14 year old world series

We are a host site for the 14 year old world series. (or something like that). Anyway Josh has been in charge since the head coach is out recruiting. Sunday he was at the field by 6:30 am and he didn't get home until 10 pm. I was up there most of the day helping out where I can. So the past two days have been pretty much like that. I have reverted to doing any field work I can (moving coolers, packing up chairs, sweeping the stands) just so we can get out of here when they finish with the field. We will be doing this until Friday, which is when we leave for MS and LA. We will be home for 10 days so hopefully I 'll get some pics from my visit. Since I am not teaching I am doing anything I can so I don't just sit at home. Well check back in a week or so.

Fourth of July

Josh is somewhere underneath the water being dumped out of the bucket

Meagan, Jeff, Josh and Nola

We have had a busy last two days. Monday night we met up with our sunday school class and had a cookout. We had a lot of fun and ate a lot of food. We didn't get home til really late and we got up really early the next day. On the fourth we went to Whirlin Waters and played in the wave pool and lazy river all day. It was a lot of fun and nice to be outside with some cool water nearby. Then we headed over to James Island to visit with Meagan and Jeff. We went to Fort Johnson, which is where the Grice Marine Lab and NOAA are to watch the fireworks. It was a great location because we could see the fireworks at Sullivan's Island, Isle of Palms, Patriots Point and The Navy base. It was a small crowd so we didn't fight any traffic. Again we got home late last night so we slept in a little this morning. It was a nice couple of days and I think we both enjoyed it.

VBS

Brave Belugas

I just finished vacation bible school. I worked with the four year olds. We had a lot of fun this week but I am exhausted.

Picnic for Two

Yesterday we went to the park and had a picnic. I tried some of Paula Dean's recipes. I also cooked a casserole last night from Paula Dean. All of the recipes were very easy and they came out delicious.
For the picnic we had a salmon salad sandwich with individual pineapple upside down cakes.

For the casserole we had a chicken and rice casserole. Now I have made a very simple verison of this before but her recipe tasted much better.

I modified some of the recipes so that I didn't put some things in b/c I didn't like them or added just a little of something but the end result was great. Try these out they really are time savers and they taste really good. Let me know how they work out for you.

Last week of summer classes

I am finishing up teaching Summer I. I have to teach Thursday night and my student give presentations on Tuesday night and I will officially have a break. It will be nice not to have to teach for a month and a half. We plan on going back home next month to visit. Josh is working basketball camp this week for some extra cash. I think he is enjoying it but basically he has to keep up with a group of 8-10 year olds all day.

Red Sox vs Braves

I went to my first major league game this weekend. It was the Red Sox and the Braves in Atlanta. There were probably equal if not more Red Sox fans at this game. It was kind of strange being in Atlanta and having the stadium shout "Let's Go Red Sox" and "Yankees suck". We sat up high but we were looking right down the third baseline so I could see really well. Here are some pics, the guy that is hitting is Ortiz. It was funny b/c when Ortiz, Yukelous (spelling??), would get up to bat the crowd starting cheering really loud (remember these are Red Sox not Braves). Anyway we had a lot of fun, minues the 1 1/2 dinner at Steak N Shake and the neverending bus ride home.

Maritime Festival

This past weekend we went to downtown charleston and spent the day shopping on King Street and the Market. We then walked down to the bay and went to the maritime festival. You could sign up for a 2 hour sailing trip later that day, so we did. It was a lot of fun and we ran into a couple we met through Meagan M. It was nice to have an entire weekend just to go and do things.

Riverbanks Zoo

We took the afternoon and went to Columbia to the zoo. It was only an hour drive. It really got me motivated to start some research up again. Now I just have to figure out who to contact. They had lots of great animals, elephants, lions, tigers, sea lions, gorillas, and lots of monkeys. We had a good time and we want to go back. They key is to go in the morning b/c that is when the animals are most active.

USC

We were in Columbia today and we drove by the University of South Carolina - Gamecocks. The school is in the middle of down town and very spread out. I don't think I would have liked going there. Here is a picture of their football stadium, kind of big. I can't imagine a college football game with that many people.

Myrtle Beach

This weekend I finally went to Myrtle Beach. I went with a few friends to the outlet malls and we ate at margaritaville. It is not like the one in New Orleans, this one is much larger with lots of interesting things. On the ceiling there is a hurricane and once every hour a weather alert goes off and the hurricane starts spinning faster and a bottle comes out the middle and fills up this large blender underneath it. Here is a picture of it.