June 2013

Fun events this month:

-Central Baptist 5k to raise money for the Ecuador mission trip. I did not prepare for this race very much, so my time wasn't impressive. What was most memorable about this race is that we ran it in the pouring rain! I have never done that before, and it was totally worth it!

-VBS at Central Baptist. I volunteered in the nursery this year. Lots of sweet babies and girl talk!

-Britt and Adam's wedding. They had one of the most beautiful receptions I've ever been to!

-5 year anniversary photo session with Abrea Garwood Photography. Photos to come!

-James's scuba trip to Mermet Springs.

-Weekend in Millington to spend Father's Day with my family and to go to Janell and Joseph's wedding. This is also the weekend that Eric moved out of our parents' house and in with James and me. He plans to go to UTM this fall.

My mom got to meet country singer Jimmy Wayne!

-Copeland/Hawkins/Tull family hiking trip to Mt. Cammerer. James, his dad, uncle, brother-in-law, and cousins went hiking in East Tennessee.

James and his dad at the top of the mountain

Copeland/Hawkins/Tull Family

April and May 2013

April and May have come and gone. This has been a big year for us so far, and it seems like we've only just begun. I heard this song at lunch today, and it brought back memories of listening to the Carpenters with my mom. It seemed appropriate for this post. 

April consisted of the following shenanigans:

-I spent the first weekend with some amazing women from our church at Women of Joy Conference in Louisville, KY where we got to hear a concert by Jeremy Camp and several awesome speakers such as Lisa Whelchel, Jill Kelly, Liz Curtis Higgs, and Angela Thomas.

Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory

Riding home from the conference on the church bus

Central Women's Ministry

-We ran with the Skyhawk Veteran Association in the UTM ROTC 5k where James and I both won second place in our age/gender categories. Whoop whoop!

SVA before the race

-My mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, a family friend, and I went on a day trip to the Southern Women's Show in Nashville where we got to see Miss Kay.

The Copeland Metals girls at the SWS

Miss Kay Robertson from Duck Dynasty

-Last but not least, James and I both made it through the end of the semester at UTM which is a very busy time for us. James made all A's!

May began with our 5 year anniversary Carnival cruise from Miami to Cozumel, Belize City, Roatan Island, and Grand Cayman. This was by far one of the best times James and I have ever spent together! We made so many memories and experienced several firsts: our first cruise, our first trip to the beach together, our first visit to the Caribbean, and James's first ocean dive. We absolutely loved it! The weather was perfect, there weren't any ship mishaps, and God kept us safe the entire time. Click here to see some photos from our trip.

We both love traveling, and we try to take advantage of any opportunity to travel abroad as often as we can. This trip added 4 new countries to our growing list. James has visited 10: Brazil, Germany, Kuwait, Iraq, Thailand, Peru, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and the Caymans. I have also visited 10: Japan, Thailand, Peru, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and the Caymans. We plan to take a break from traveling abroad next year and go to Colorado where I worked two summers during college - Camp Redcloud. I have been patiently waiting to take James there since we started dating, so I am thrilled that we are finally making plans to go!

The rest of May included:

-Getting gutters installed on our house

-Dog-sitting for my co-worker Somsak. He and his family are from Thailand, so we are taking care of their dog, Junior, while they spend the summer back home. We are not typically dog people, but keeping Junior has been so much fun for me. He is an old dog, so he requires some special attention. I have done my best to make life great for him while he's staying with us. He hardly ever barks, he doesn't jump, and he is fairly obedient. He has the sweetest temperament. Such a good boy!

 
-During the last weekend in May, we went to Paris to spend time with James's family and to go to his 10 year high school reunion. Yes, folks, it's been 10 years. We can't believe it either.

Our nieces Evie and Ava

Our nephew Jax

Our nephew Caden

James and Ariel

Fun at the reunion!

February 2013

I started February strong by running 7 miles while visiting my family in Millington, but my half training quickly took a nosedive a week later when I developed a sinus infection. Although I started to feel sick the next weekend, my friends Tara and Felecia and I ran in the Kiss It Goodbye 5k. Here are pics from before and after the race:

 

The sinus infection has lasted well over a month. James wanted me to take a week off from running so I could recover, but I just couldn't shake it even with taking a break. Over the past few weeks, I've only ran a handful of times. Because of that, my knee has started hurting when I run. It just takes time to get back to a point where it won't hurt when I run...time that I don't have before the Murray Half Marathon. With that being said, I made the decision to drop out of the race, and my friend Britt (Felecia's sister) is going to take my spot. I'm a little disappointed, but there will always be other races. I may just stick to shorter races for now anyway.

Only 50 days until we leave for our cruise!

January 2013

Just wanted to take a moment to recap January 2013. I have done a fairly decent job at keeping up my New Year's Resolutions. I finished the Hunger Games trilogy yesterday, and I have a long list of books to read. I'd like to try to read one book per week. So far, so good.

I cooked more in the first two weeks of January than the past couple weeks, but keeping up with my half marathon training is taking more time than originally anticipated. For the entire month, I've ran 4 times a week. Two weeks ago, I also started going to a fitness class two nights a week to strengthen my core. The long runs on Saturdays have been fun this time around. I'm training with several of my friends from college and church. We plan to do a few smaller races in the next couple months to help us prepare for the half marathon. Having a group of friends to train with definitely motivates me more than just about anything.

I have already begun to see a difference in how I look and feel since training began. Hopefully, I can keep this up until May 4. That's when we leave for our cruise. I'd love to be more in shape then than I ever have been. I have exactly 100 days to get there!

Four Month Hiatus

Once again, I have allowed time to slip by me, and I have neglected to update my blog. I'm sure many of my readers have long since moved on since I have barely written a post this year. Although I'd like to think that life will finally slow down now that I have graduated (whoo!), I have a feeling my extra free time will fill up quickly (with things to be described in an upcoming post). I'll recap the past few months (or year, really) with the Christmas letter that we sent out to friends and family:

Merry Christmas to our dear friends, family, fellow bloggers and readers!

As 2012 comes to a close and as we all look forward to what’s in store for 2013, we hope that you and your family are doing very well! God has blessed us in great ways this year, and we would like to share some of our 2012 highlights.  

The most exciting event this year was most definitely when my dad became a Christian and then was baptized on July 22! Praise God who is faithful! Although his soul is now healed, please pray for physical healing and relief because he still struggles with a great deal of back pain and discomfort. Thank you for your prayers!

In March James and I celebrated our 4^th anniversary by spending a night at Patti's 1880's Settlement in Grand Rivers, KY. James had been there a few times with his family, but this was my first visit to Patti’s. The pork chops are definitely worth the drive!

In May James’s sister Casey and I spent two weeks in Europe for a Holocaust Travel Study with groups from UT Martin, Union University, and Rhodes College. We visited Poland (Warsaw, Oswiecim, and Krakow), the Czech Republic (Prague), and Germany (Dresden and Berlin). We toured ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto, Treblinka (extermination camp), Auschwitz I (main concentration camp), Auschwitz II-Birkenau (extermination camp), Auschwitz III (factory/work camp), Terezin (concentration camp), and many Jewish synagogues, cemeteries, museums, and memorials. Words cannot describe these humbling, surreal experiences. Casey and I have both been captivated by the history of the Holocaust since we were young, and we will not soon forget this incredible trip! 

On December 15, I graduated from UTM with a Master of Business Administration. I plan to continue working as the secretary in the Department of Engineering at the university as long as James is working on his nursing degree. As James continues his studies in nursing, he also enjoys his job installing and repairing classroom technology with UTM’s Information Technology Services. Over the past several semesters, James has also taken scuba classes. Diving has become one of his favorite hobbies. He has attained several scuba certifications and has had many opportunities this year to dive at Mermet Springs in Belknap, IL.

Speaking of opportunities, we have booked a 7-day Carnival Caribbean cruise in May 2013 to celebrate our 5th anniversary! James has already planned an excursion to go diving in the Cayman Islands. This will be his first ocean dive! Our ship will leave from Miami, FL and stop at 4 ports: Cozumel, Mexico; Belize; Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan, Honduras; and Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. We have never been on a cruise, so we are excited to try something new like this together!

This year we also visited with James’s aunt who was in town from Africa (my first time to meet her!), went camping with his family during a beautiful fall weekend, and celebrated with many of our friends and family who either graduated, got married, and/or had babies. This summer I helped with VBS at our wonderful church and this fall I attended an uplifting women’s conference with her mom and home-church ladies. James still actively plays the drums at our church and for other ministries through our church. We give thanks to God for how He has worked in our lives this year.

One last thing we’d like to add: In September, James officially got out of the Marines!

We hope that you and your family have a joyous Christmas season celebrating the birth of our Savior!

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill!” Luke 2:14

Three Month Hiatus

Since I began this blog in July 2009, I have posted at least once a month . . . that was until this summer. Somehow time got away from me, and I neglected my blog for, not one, but three months! Shamefully, I have also gotten extremely behind on reading my favorite blogs written by friends, family, and blogger world acquaintances. Classes begin soon at UTM, so life will only get busier!

To recap the month of May, I traveled to three countries in Europe for two weeks. My sister-in-law and I had an amazing time in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany on the Holocaust travel study trip. It would be difficult to sum up the trip in a few words, so I'll just post some pictures instead:

Warsaw Uprising Memorial

Auschwitz

Auschwitz Birkenau

Auschwitz Birkenau

E. Wedel Chocolate in Poland

Astronomical Clock in Prague

The UTM group

Terezin Concentration Camp

Terezin Memorial

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

German Curry-wurst

30 days!

For the past several months, I've had a Holocaust trip countdown on my desktop computer at work. Today marks 30 days! Last night, part of our group gathered for a pre-departure meeting at Union University. We had the chance to meet many of our fellow travelers while also learning important information about our trip. Dr. Carls put together a handy booklet filled to the brim with all we need to know and more. Being at that meeting and talking about the trip made Casey and me so impatient and excited about going! I know it'll be here and gone before we know it, but that doesn't change the fact that we wish we were leaving today!

After the meeting, Casey and I enjoyed a relaxing and decadent dinner at Olive Garden. Both of us agree that Olive Garden is our favorite restaurant, and we did not hold back. We got bread sticks, bread stick sauce (which I had never heard of...goes to show how much I get to go to OG), appetizers, salad (Casey skipped out on that), and then we shared our entrees. Oh and to top it all off, we each enjoyed a 25 cent Roscato wine sample. Yum-ME! After dinner, we rushed over to Dick's Sporting Goods and Target before they closed. It was a whirlwind shopping trip, but we both found goodies to pack in our suitcases next month!