Hope

Hope isn't optimism. Optimism often denies reality.Hope never does. Optimism is positive thinking; hope is passionate trust.- Rick Warren

So long 2009

Wow...I can't believe that 2009 is really almost gone.
Here's a recap!

Januaryish - Mee-Maw Christmas = Hippopotamus ornament and another drive pass the railroad tracks, turn left at the post office, and a failed attempt at watching a dvd!

February - Atlanta Valentine's Day. World of Coke, Varsity, DownTown ATL. (This trip ended up having to be salvaged at the last minute but my sweet husband pulled it through and made it a great weekend.)

March - Lost my job

April - Worried about losing my job.
JDAY! It really was one of the best that I can remember.

May - One Year Anniversary trip to Nashville. Grand Ole Opry, Country Music Hall of Fame, BB King's and so much more. We stayed free at the Hilton because of the mishap on Valentine's Day Trip mentioned above.

Moved into Brandon's grandparents' house.

June - Got our new puppy Millie.

July - Got and started new job at Youth Middle School

August - Heather had PIPPA!

September - Millie's accident. She became a 3 legged pup!

October - My birthday...what else do you need??

November and December - Because they have seemed to morph into one this year. A hard two months but very blessed to have been able to spend the Holiday season with such good friends and family.


So...so long 2009. I pray that 2010 is one of health and happiness for us all.

Hope

Hope

Every year we buy an ornament that symbolizes and sums up our year.

This year it took a little longer than usual to find the perfect 09' ornament to add to our collection. It's difficult to put into words what our year has been like. A roller coaster probably would seem more fitting!

However, when I finally found her I knew she was the one.

HOPE!

Brandon and I have decided that this will be our theme for 2010. Something to keep our hearts and minds focused on why were are here on this earth in the first place.

Merry Christmas and may you find yourself resting in HIS HOPE this season.


"Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark." ~George Iles

Together....

Over the past few weeks Brandon and I have endured our toughest challenge as husband and wife. We have held each other, fought with each other, laughed at each other and cried together. We have looked at one another wondering if the pain would be less the next day but preparing for the worst. We have grieved the loss of a child that only heaven has seen but one day we will hold. The good thing is...we've done it all together.

I fell in love with Brandon for so many reasons, the first being his smile. It captures you. It engulfs you. You can't help but smile back. It is contagious to say the least.

His smile still melts me but now I love him for something so much bigger. I love the way he loves me. He takes care of me. He protects me. He knows that all I want on this earth is to feel secure and he is seeking to make that his number one priority.

The past few weeks have been hard. I'm sure that there will be things that we will go through that will be harder but knowing that he is by my side makes it so much better.

Love, Love, Love Christmas

So excited about Christmas this year. I love, love, love the season of Christmas because...

1. We get to celebrate Advent and light the candles in our church and in our home!

2. Love the fact that Jesus was once a baby....so human yet my Savior.

3. Love the decorations and the cozy feeling in our home. We are slowly adding a few new decorations each year and really making our home look pretty during Christmas.

4. Love getting together with so many different groups of friends and family.

5. Love that Christmas means a new ornament for my tree from a Mee Maw.

6. Love the smell of Christmas things...fires, cinnamon, cranberries.

I just LOVE it!

Wahoo

I am now officially on Thanksgiving break and it feels amazing. So glad that I ....

1. Have time to catch up on grad school work. Just sooooooo ready to be done with it.
2. Have time to clean my house.
3. Am GOING HOME TO ALABAMA. I haven't been there since the summer. This is the LONGEST that I have EVER gone without going home and I can tell it. So ready to be there.
4. Can rest.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

Trust

Tomorrow we continue our Relationship series at church and the word we tackle is TRUST. Trust is a BIG word to only have 5 letters. In fact, it is a word that send shivers up and down me. Putting my trust in something or someone is a really big deal to me. I try to not be a person that is defined by the circumstances. The fact that I was abandoned at 9 months old is merely that...a fact. It is a part of my history but I am not defined by it. My life has been about trying to live above that reality and becoming a better person because of it. However, a pastor of mine said it best when he told me that you are not brought into this world and left abandoned without having trust issues. But I've learned that it is better to live and be hurt, than to not live at all. No one is perfect. Everyone will do something to hurt you eventually whether it is intentional or not. Trust is a choice that I choose to make.

What does trust mean to you? Does it come easy or is it a choice that you have to make on a daily basis?

Presence Voice Touch

I can remember going to church as a young child with my aunt Lorene. It was a small, white, country church in New Hope. The people in that church loved the Lord and meant well. I can still remember the church offering envelope that I would be given in Sunday School. You would check off if you had prayed everyday, read your bible everyday, how much money you gave, and how many people you had contacted in the week about church. For so long I have struggled through most of my Christian life feeling as though I will never hit the mark. Never be able to check off all of those things on that envelope. I'll never do good enough, never pray enough, never say the right things, etc. I know that this thinking is wrong but it's so hard to break out of this mentality.

Recently after reading THIS BLOG (Annie is a greater writer) I stumbled upon Brad Huebert! Brad is a pastor in Canada that makes sense and puts all of this into perspective. His book Finding Home is a free E - Book that you can download that is in incredible. It's a short read but it is so good. He writes it in the style of a parable about a man (himself) finally finding the true Kingdom of God. It is one of the best things I have read in a long time and just finally makes sense.

He also has a website that is pretty neat. Happy reading!!

Psalm 46

This morning at church we sang the song...You and I were made to worship. A line stuck out to me that When you and I choose to believe, you and I will see, what we were meant to be. What could/would happen if I truly chose to believe in the power of God, if I chose to believe in myself more, if I chose to believe in the goodness of others?

Psalm 46 was the text for our sermon that was delivered at a needed time in my life. The pastor told us that sometimes you have to be weak enough in order to surrender all that weighs you down. It all made perfect sense!

1. God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.
2 So we will not fear when the earthquakes come and the mountains crumble to into the sea.
3. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge.

10 - Be still and know that I am God!

Google Images

I would love to know what Google Image you can look up and find my blog under but apparently you can (just see the Feedjit!...especially if you are German). Maybe time to jump on the private bandwagon...hmmmm?

Week from hell behind me...

So by now you might have heard that we have just come through the week from hell around the Peevy household. It actually started two weeks ago when....

1. Our basement flooded during the ATL flood of 09. No serious damage...just annoying. However, we love our friends the Kendricks who helped clean us up and fed us that night so that we didn't have to deal with cooking.

2. On the way to clean out the basement Brandon's grand daddy experienced some heart trouble and was put in the hospital where he is still today. He will be coming home soon. Lots of details that I don't remember but things are looking up at least.

3. Thursday night Brandon starts to feel bad.

4. Friday he comes home from work with a high temperature.

5. Monday...finally goes to the doctor to discover he's had H1N1. Sweet!!

6. Tired of being in the house all weekend, Brandon and Millie decided to take a ride to the walking trail by our house. Millie usually rides really well and just hangs her head out the window. But for some unknown reason she decided to JUMP OUT OF THE CAR!!

7. Breaks her leg. 3,000 to fix it, put her down or amputate. Those were our options.

So we decided to amputate and save Millie. Brandon just couldn't make the decision to put her down and there was no guarantee that she wouldn't need additional surgeries. She is doing great though and we are just glad we have our dog.

So that's it. Fun times in a bag. October has officially started off better than September ended at least.

Hoping that the week from hell is behind us!!

Crock Pot Fun

So I've been looking for ideas on how to cook every night of the week while going to grad school 3 of them.

Cooking for a whole month?? Not for me. Idea is great, reality it's just not that feasible right now. Number one because I don't have a whole day to cook, another is because I don't get home until 10:00 sometimes and there's just no way to heat up all that frozen stuff at school....

So...that led me to the Crock Pot Blog. (thecrockpotblog.blogspot.com) It's not the same as the 365 crock pot blog (that's a lot of CP meals) but it looks great. The recipes seem easy and look good. Brandon is a very picky eater but I'm hoping that I can throw in a few things here and there and make our dinners a little healthier.

So...I'm going to spend Sunday shopping (with my coupons of course) and trying to figure out my schedule. I'm hoping to post some reviews so that you can try them out too!!

You know what assuming does??

Just a little rant...

Why does everyone assume that when you get married you are no longer available to be friends? Change is so hard for me sometimes and I just never know how to deal with it. I hate the feeling that I am not really friends with people that I use to be so close to. They are all still friends but somehow I'm the one that drifted away. If I never texted, called or facebooked them I would never hear from them. Maybe it was my fault for assuming they would call me and should have been more proactive about protecting and nurturing those relationships. I just hate feeling the change in the air and hate feeling like I can't even have a conversation with "friends" because we don't know each other anymore. Oh well. I'll value the friendships that I do have and look forward to new ones that the Lord may place in my path. It'll just be hard to look at wedding pictures down the road.

It feels like home to me....

It's been a whirlwind around the Peevy household since the end of July. School has started and the only word that can describe it is hectic. Youth Middle School has turned out to be a great place for me and I am finally able to see the pieces of God's plan come back together. For a while I was very resentful of having to leave Davis and my friends behind. I am just now starting to see why I am there and why I am not at Davis and I know that it will all continue to work itself out.

School starting means that grad school has officially started as well. I am taking 4 classes this semester in order to try and finish in May. I filled out my application for graduation the other day and it felt amazing. (minus the 75.00 fee) I will finish next semester with one class, my internship (second part) and my final capstone. The hardest part is being gone three nights a week. I don't know how people who travel all the time keep their marriage strong and together. This whole season of being gone takes a toll on us but we are fighting (not literally...ok maybe) through it the best that we know how. Just say a prayer for us if you think of us.

This weekend has been Labor day weekend and we decided to start some our painting projects. We've just put them off for so long that we decided it was time to make this place feel a little bit more like home. I've planned, bought and prepared for a few months for these rooms. We are hoping to have the entire house painted and decorated (somewhat) by next weekend. So glad that it's starting to feel like home.

There are some photos up on facebook but I'm hoping to have some good before and afters up soon.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

So excited...

I FINALLY HAVE A JOB!!! Even though my summer if officially over and I start back to school next week, I am so happy to finally have a job. I didn't realize the weight that I had on my shoulders until it was finally lifted with the words you have a job.

The ladies I interviewed with were wonderful and the school itself seems to be a pleasant environment. I am really hoping that it's going to be a great place.

The only downfall is the fact that it's a 20 mile drive (which here can take you forever) and I have to be there at 6:45 in the MORNING....gross. But a job is a job and that's all that matters.

So for now it's GO HORNETS!!

Selfish

I get so selfish sometimes and get involved in my own little pity parties. However this story reminded me this week of how blessed I am and just how good I really have it right now in my life.

A few days ago a former co-worker of mine sent out a prayer request for a family that she knew that lives in our area. I opened the e-mail to find the most heart wrenching story I've ever read. Yet, they are hanging on somehow to the hope that the Lord has a reason behind their ordeal.

You can go hear to read the story of the Morgan family. They are a family of five who have lost both the mother and youngest son out of the family this week to cancer.

It's times like these that you have to hope that there really is a God who really is control and knows what's best...and pray that he holds this family close.

www.superryan.blogspot.com

Catching up....

I have spent the majority of the afternoon uploading about 400 something pictures from the camera to the computer. I finally got to the box with the USB cord in it!!

So much has happened in our life since the summer started.

At the end of May I left my position as a teacher at Davis Middle School. We are still hoping and praying that the opportunity comes back around for me to work at Davis in the fall. However, I have put in my application with other surrounding counties and hope to hear from some of them soon. This is a picture of most of my class from this year. I taught EBD (Emotional Behavior Disorders). It was a challenging job but I learned just as much as the kids did from the experience.



During the month of May we also celebrated our first anniversary. We spent the weekend in Nashville. We were able to go to the Country Music Hall of Fame and to the Grand Ole Opry!! In some ways it feels like we have been married forever and in other ways it feels like we have been married for only days. He is truly my best friend and I love him more than words could ever express. I hope the next 50 years go by slower than the first!!









At the end of May we were finally able to move in our house. The house sits right behind the Mall of Georgia on a very busy road. We are hoping to only be here for a few years but are grateful for the chance to live in a house with such a rich heritage and great family memories. His grandparents built this house and raised both Brandon's mother and uncle here. The house is kind of quirky with some of it's features and additions. One funny thing is the indoor grill that is in the fire place. Who wants to the smell of charcoal in your house?? Still, it's fun to to have. We have an amazing fire place that I am excited about using in the winter. The only thing I don't love is the scary basement. With our washer and dryer down there it's a great way to get out of having to do the laundry. :)








The first week of June brought about yet another wedding. Since our wedding in May, four of Brandon's friends have taken the walk down the aisle. We started the trend I guess you can say. We headed to Birmingham for the Loudermilk wedding. Brandon's friends are crazy but always a blast!! Jane added our fourth wife into our self proclaimed wives club. We love having her here and can't wait to have Amanda round out our group soon!! That's a hint Baker!!









After we left the wedding on Sunday, we headed up to Huntsville to pick up our newest addition. Millie is a lab/something mix. We say that because there is a big debate about what her mix is. The vet in Huntsville thought border collie. The vet here say Jack Terrier. That's a pretty big difference if you ask me. She has made this house exciting for sure. She is so sweet and loves being here. She has learned her name and even done well with using the potty outside. She has chewed up a few things including a ballpoint pen on our new sofa that we just bought a few weeks ago. However, we love her a lot and think that our family is pretty complete for now.








The last few weeks have been spent trying to pack in as many things as possible. I've started decorating cakes and that's a post all to itself. We are headed to the beach this weekend with family and are set to see the American Idol tour at the end of the summer here in Atlanta.

We are also inviting you all to come to our house for the 4th of July. It's a great place to watch the fireworks from the Mall of Georgia. So if you want to see them and have a free and great view, come on up!!

We hope that your summer is safe and fun and hope to see you soon!!

Meet the newest Peevy

Her name is Millie. She is a lab that I got from my great grand big from Judson (well of that family line!) We picked her up on Sunday from Huntsville. She was real shaky and nervous in the car. We stopped to let her pee and she just fell over when she got out of the car. She had no clue how to walk on the leash.

Since then she has made her home here and seems to love it. She gets real happy when she sees Brandon in the afternoons and pouts when we put her in the bathroom when we have to go somewhere. We are reading all the websites on how to potty train her. The fact that I am home during the day doesn't hurt either.

She'll be huge when she gets full grown, so I am enjoying her being a puppy right now.

Come see her soon!!

BFF

Only we can sing all the words to Fancy...even the ones that we made up because we couldn't figure out the real ones and still sing to this day like they are the real words. Only we can randomly tell the random songs on your random CD's by the first few notes and bust it out like we are ghetto. Only we can have 10 word conversations on the phone, most of the time calling each other some kind of name, and end it with love you...bye. Only YOU can be the best friend I've ever had or wanted. I love you and hope that you have a great birthday.

I'll even make you a for real birthday cake instead of one out of cereal.

She didn't have to be....

There are very few words that can express the love that I have for this woman. She had no reason to take me in and love me like her own. She had no obligation to rescue me from the horrible life that I was living thanks to her step-daughter. She just simply chose to love and care for me in a way that only a mother could. She once gave me an angel that said "without you I wouldn't be a mother,".....but without her I wouldn't be alive. She may have not physically gave birth to me, but she gave me a life that I wouldn't trade for anything.