.....what a crazy week.  Marla and I are still trying to deal with the fact that we are in Texas when we would rather be in California.  Although today, I read some unsettling news from Fox News that California is long overdue for a catastrophic earthquake...yiiiiikes!!!!  Marla and I were discussing earlier today though that you can't live your life in fear because there is so much one would miss out on.  This weekend turned out to be very relaxing even after all the stress of last week.  We were suppose to go see Jeremy Camp in concert on Sunday at Cornerstone church, but Marla ended up having to work and the concert started right when she was suppose to arrive at work, so no concert for me either.  We finally got caught up on our Bible reading this weekend too.  Marla and I started reading the Bible together on December 1st and plan to finish December 1st of this year.  We kinda got a little behind over the past couple weeks with all the packing and planning, but seeing as we didn't plan on being in Texas at the moment, and now have a lot of free time on our hands, we have been able to catch back up.  We just finished up Numbers and are about to start on Deuteronomy.  For those of you who have never read the Bible in its entirety....I definitely recommend it.  We have only read the first three books of the Old Testament, but there is so much information and we have found it very interesting thus far.  At times the reading can get difficult and repetitive, but to think influence this book has on our lives as christians encourages us to read chapter for chapter and word for word and really meditate on what God is trying to tell us. (That last sentence may have been a run on, but oh well...10th grade english was a long time ago....)  Speaking of concerts...if you ask Marla she would probably tell you that I have a slight, how should I say this...."addiction" to them.  Marla would rather spend her money on clothes, purses and jewelry, but I would rather go hear good musicians play good music.  I have always had a thing for live music...especially those hot summer days and those outdoor pavilions.  So far this year we have gotten FLOOR SEATS to see Elton John and Billy Joel at the Honda Center in Anaheim (not outdoors, but still really excited), great seats to see Fleetwood Mac at HP Pavilion in San Jose (again not outdoors, but excited) and lawn seats with friends to see DMB and the Avett Brothers in Charlotte (OUTDOORS!!!)  Hopefully there will be others, but this is it so far.  Oh wait there is one more....we are going to see Trey and his band Qwiksand play at the House of Blues Anaheim in a couple weeks and Marla and I both are looking forward to seeing that!!!  Treyshawn on stage at the House of Blues....he has come a long way since the days of the Granville Towers talent show in the Agora.  On top of getting to see Trey sing, we are planning to spend a couple days in Los Angeles to visit with him, sight see and do the touristy stuff before driving to San Jose and heading home for a week.  The biggest task will be keeping Marla and Trey off of Rodeo drive so she doesn't end up spending our lives' savings....I guess I have rambled on enough for tonight...it is late and I am beginning to doze off, so until next time......

-p

p.s. GO HEELS BEAT FSU!!!

the life and times of -m and -p

....so Marla has taken it upon herself to create a blog for us, which I think is an awesome idea and I am not sure why we didn't think of doing something like this sooner.  I think it will be pretty cool to record our travels and adventures over the next couple years, if not for everyone else's enjoyment, then for ours.  We all know it is fun to read everyone else's business, so we will definitely be broadcasting ours for everyone.  We have been very blessed and fortunate to have this opportunity to see the country before we settle down and Oliver, Samuel, Lillian and Emma come along.  As Marla said before, or I think she said, things have been crazy this past week with the whole California situation, but she received a call today and we should definitely be there by the end of February.  I am really excited about going to California as is Marla seeing that we have both never been.  I am also looking forward to traveling home the middle of February to see friends and family for a week and drink some sweet tea.  Believe it or not...I didn't think it got any more South than Texas and they don't serve sweet tea here...ahhhhhh.  It's probably a good thing though because for the first time in my life I made a new year's resolution to lose weight and start running again.  I haven't ran since high school, so believe me when I say that there is a difficult task ahead, but I seem to be making good progress.  I have lost 13 pounds since January 1st, which means I am definitely having to get used to sweet tea made with splenda.  Well I guess I have rambled on enough, but I thought I would get on here and let you know a few things that are going on....

-p

Stop #4: San Jose, CA

...Well we are planning on going there next. If everything works out, we will be heading to San Jose in Febuary. We are planning a trip home to the mountians Feb 11th-18th!!!!

I'll keep you posted on our next stop!

-m

New Camera

I'm so excited that we got a new camera!!!! Now we can take really good pictures of the places we go. I am so excited about it and wish we had gotten it earlier. It is a Canon 40D!

-m

Stop #3: San Antonio, TX

Spurs Game
Still wearing shorts in December at Sea World

...the great state of Texas. We are in the 7th largest city in the US...San Antonio. We have been here since the end of Sept. and we are ready to move on. For some reason I keep having to extend my contact for two weeks at a time (I'll get to that story later). San Antonio has been fun. The best thing here is the mexican food...YUM!!! We have been to Sea World, a Spurs game, underground Caverns, Wurstfest, Downtown, the River walk and of course the Alamo. We have also eaten at the BBQ Capitol of Texas. I guess that it was good...I wouldn't know, but I think Patrick enjoyed it! I got to spend my birthday here in TX so we went up in the Tower of the Americas for dinner and that was a pretty awesome view of San Antonio. The weather is crazy here. One day it's 80 degrees and the next it's 50 degrees. The wind blows like crazy. While we were here we had some awesome guests. Brian was the first to come out west to visit....as a matter of fact Brian is the ONLY friend that has come to see us every place we have been. Thanks Brian...I hope to see you soon in Cali! Patrick's Mom and Larry also came to visit and we had an awesome time with them...I think they will fly out next time though ;) Larry seems to have a lead foot once he gets past the Lousiana border ;) It was nice to have my parents and brother out here for Christmas!

One of the coolest things we have discovered here is Oak Hills Church, which happens to be the church Max Lacado is the senior pastor. For those of you who don't know who Max is, he is one of today's best selling Christian authors. We have really enjoyed this church!

-m

The Big Purchase!!!

We made the decision that it was time to head west. It was a hard decision but we were ready. Since driving the Honda was not an option and my Explorer has 120,000 miles on it we made a purchase. The most expensive purchase we have made together as a couple...we bought a car. Very wise decision considering it is a Tahoe and we can pack a lot of stuff in there and it has a DVD player....very handy when traveling halfway across the country.

It took us two days (19hours) but we finally made it to Texas!

-m

Stop #2: Boynton Beach, FL

Henry Airing it out after the A/C went out
Our Little Piece of Heaven
Jaxon's with Mama, best ice cream!!!
Key West, FL

We thought we were going to spend the summer of '08 in Durham but quickly learned that would not work out so we headed to southern FL in June '08. Boynton Beach to be exact. We decided to be smart and drive Patrick's little Honda down there since gas was so expensive and since I have so many miles on the Explorer. Ironically the A/C went out in Georgia...so we drove pretty much all the way (~10hrs) without an A/C in 90 degree+ weather. Needless to say when we got the A/c fixed and the gas was $4.39/gal we did not complain about that anymore. But we did learn on the way back to NC (at the end of the contract) the Honda was wayyy to small for all of our stuff and the kids. We lived there all summer...right on the beach, aka A Little Piece of Heaven. Loved FL, loved the beach, but the hospital could have been better. We spent most of the summer hanging out at the beach but we also ventured down to Key West with Brian for a few days. We also we on a cruise to Grand Cayman and Cozumel and lived through Tropical Storm Hannah. We actually drove down to Miami the day she came through...haha. Maggie and Henry discovered the ocean while we were there. We would sneak them down to the beach at sunset and Henry would bark and pounce at the waves :) Ahh, how I miss south FL and those white sandy beaches and that crystal clear water...


-m

Stop #1: Washington, DC

I Just couldn't open my eyes for the most important shot of my life...grrr

We decided, after the wedding, that we wanted to pack up our lives (and the kids) and travel around the country. We started traveling in July 2007. We started out in Washington, DC and stayed there for 9 months.

In that time we had some amazing experiences including getting to stand on the south lawn of the White House during the landing of Marine One and meeting Former President G.W. Bush, touring the White House (East and Westwings), touring the Capital Building and getting to see Pope Benedict. We also went to NYC and Vegas in this time frame. There was so much to do in DC. With all of the museums and the National Zoo (my favorite!) all, of which, were free.

In that time we sadly realized that traveling was not going to be good for Frances. Luckily we found a wonderful family with two young boys to adopt her. We still keep in touch with them today and she is doing well. After giving Francis up we realized Maggie was lonely so we started looking for a small playmate for her. To our surprise we found the cutest little boy online and decided to adopt him. That's when Henry comes into the family.

-m

The start of an exciting adventure together...