Memorial Day Weekend!

Joel and his older sister Bethany

The Smith Family
Riding in the car
T.J. and his college buddies at coffee underground

Me and T.J. being silly Joel's Nana and Papa
Joel, Andrew (his younger brother) and Uncle Freeman
Joel's family


We had a wonderful memorial day weekend with our families!! We went to Anderson, SC to see Joel's family. It was so relaxing and fun. Joel went golfing with his brother and Dad, then we went fishin' for catfish down at the pond near their house, and his sweet mama cooked us some home cooked meals...mmmm!!!! We loved it!
The picture above is of us and my younger brother T.J. He just completed his freshman year at Furman University, so before he left for home we took him out in downtown Greenville (it is such a cute town) T.J. and his friends quickly reminded us what it was like to be a freshman in college again. They had so much energy...not to mention that we went to a coffee shop to hang out, but we had a great time anyway. We were so sad to leave everybody.

THE NEW JOB!!!

It's official...I finally started working again!!!!! After 5 months of going to target and sleeping until 10am everyday, I guess I need to start being productive again. I've been at it for almost a month now working at Wakemed in the Pediatric Clinic. Basically, I work 8-4:30pm Mon.-Fri. giving shots, drawing blood and lovin on little Hispanic children. Within the first week of work I decided I needed to learn Spanish. The job is growing on me, but I miss working on the floor, however, the stress level is a lot lower in the clinic and the hours are perfect for a newly-wed.

Auntie Gwen and Cutie Caroline

This is my adorable niece Caroline. My older brother Drew (the guy in the picture) and his wife Sarah had Caroline on August 18th 2006. She is sooooo precious, and she is the first grandbaby so far....

These pictures were taken about a month ago, when I went to visit them in Virginia. I stayed for 3 days and just got to play with Caroline and spoil her. We went to bible study, took naps, laughed, ate carrots (in the picture above) and tried to crawl. I wish I could see her everyday!!!It is hard to believe that she is already 9 months old. There will be more pictures of Caroline soon.

Tobacco Road Golf Course

Today I got to play a round at Tobacco Road Golf Course with some of the pastors at Providence. The weather was awesome and we had a good time. Tobacco Road is one of the most beautiful courses I've ever played. Golf Digest ranks this course as the 10th most difficult course in America. There was so much sand, it was like a desert course. There were GIGANTIC waste bunkers all over the course. There were some holes that had 100 yards of rough before the fairway started. I did pretty bad but made just enough good shots to keep me wanting to continue playing. The top picture is the #1 tee shot. The second picture is the 17th hole which I birdied along with two other guys in my group. The third picture is the 17th green. I'm looking forward to playing golf with my dad and brother this weekend.

Matt and Pearl have a new addition to the family!

This is Matt Parks, my best friend from college and childhood. He and his wife Pearl just got a dog. By the way, it weighs over 100lbs! Good luck with that.

Congratulations Class of '07!

Depending on what statistic you read, somewhere between 60% and 80% of high school students will drop their faith in college. If these stats are true, which they are, that means we are doing something terribly wrong in our churches today. Well, on second thought, I'm not going to open that can of worms right now. But yesterday at church we had our Senior Brunch for our '07 graduating seniors. This is a picture of many of them in Belize on a mission trip back in April. I'm praying that they will keep their faith in college and make Christ known on their campuses these next four years...or five...or six.

We've done it...

Well, we've given in. We've finally done it. We've created our own blog. Gwen and I don't know how this is going to work out but we're givin' it a shot. We're just beginning to set this thing up so, in the words of Alan Jackson, "please be patient, I'm a work in progress."