So much has happened since we last posted anything. We're living in Idaho now. Jarid has landed his dream job of pastoring a Christian church. I am a stay-at-home-mom, which I've discovered has it's own acronym, SAHM. Ahhhhdorable. 
Jarid got ordained a few weeks ago. That is weird! We have planned and worked for it for years, and now it has happened. And he's a pastor! That's crazy. Our life will never be the same. We are following our calling and have taken a huge step. Many things are yet to come!
Braden, our son, turns one in February.

Everyone says "enjoy this time, it goes fast." I've been thinking about that. I think that yes, looking back, time has gone by fast. But in the moments, it is not fast. We play, laugh, adventure together, cook, plan, vacation, spend time with people, garden, cuddle, watch TV, write, love....and it doesn't feel fast.
Life is so good right now. 
I know there are mountains and valleys. Last summer was a bit of a valley. Living in Idaho, having achieved many of our dreams, is definitely a mountaintop. But there have been so many times, last summer especially, where the sun broke through and life was good. I am not expecting to live on the mountaintop, but I am sooo grateful for where we are right now. God who began something in me/us, is faithful to see us through! Praise Him.
So yes, time always seems fast looking into the past. My plan is to make many, many good memories for myself and my family to look back upon and cherish, but in the meantime, I'm going to live life now. And plan for the future. I hope to look back at these times when we are young and poor and blissfully happy and not be sad that life happened fast, but love that life happened.

Church Camp Slideshow

Greek Influence - By Jarid

Well I am sitting in my second class for the day: Christianity in the Reformation Era, and I am completely tuned out. I have been sittin here trying to pay attention to a guest lecturer who is just reading off a script. It is so boring that I cannot take it. Though I think this is partially due to the good brain-frying I recieved during the last hour in Greek II. We are learning participles, and I guarantee you it is no easy task. I am so tired of looking at Greek right now; I spent 6 hours yesterday translating 17 sentences into English. Now I have to sit here and listen to how influential the Vulgate was in the Reformation era.

Oh listen to this: "Thomas Linacre, an Oxford humanist, medival scientist and classicist wrote in his diary after doing some textual critical work comparing the Vulgate NT with the Greek NT, 'Either this is not the Gospel, or we are not Christians.'" Interesting...

Another random note: it is snowing outside!!! Just lightly, but I did not even realize it was cold enough to snow today. Crazy. And: Last night a tornado touched down just 50 miles north of where we are, taking out several barns and stuff. Crazy? Boy, I tell you what!

Well I should probably pay more attention. Be well y'all! God Bless.

Interesting Info.

It is fun to be able to share fun little facts about our lives here, and so it continues...

You may or may not know, but we have some pretty cool buildings next to us. Just across the street (literally) are three very well known restaurants in the Nashville area: South Street, Giovanni's, and The Boundary. All are owned by the same person, as I understand, but all provide a different atmosphere. We have a person who lives in our house that works at The Boundary, and he told us that just two nights ago Gwyneth Paltrow was there. It is not very uncommon for well known people to be there nearly every weekend. We have even seen two commercials and/or music videos filmed there since we have lived here. There are always limos around at night too.

As we live on the corner of two intersecting streets, there is another huge building across the other street from us. This building is primarily used as housing; it has very expensive condos in it. The top floor condos run for 1.2 - 2.5 million dollars!!! Interestingly enough we have heard first hand from residents in the building that Taylor Swift lives in one of the top floor condos. Though this admittedly sounds creepy, at night when we walk Zoe it is easy to see into her condo, and she has a tree built inside with a hut-like treehouse in the tree. The story is that she sits in that treehouse and writes her fans responses to their letters. Believe me, if we ever see her we will get her autograph.

Crazy place we live in!

More south

So I'm in AP now, that is, Asset Protection, for Walmart. I wear normal clothes, watch people steal, and bust them at the door. It's a lot of fun. I have a new boss and she's a blast! I've been picking up all kinds of new lingo I never knew existed. Among my favorites is the phrase "hot second." Like, "hang on for just a hot second," as if that means, give me a short amount of time? But in a different context like, "are you sure you want to wait, I'm gonna be a hot second," it means I'm gonna be a WHILE. I don't know... Then there's "I'm not trying to be hateful but..." and it's followed by something mean or, hmmm, hateful. It's incredibly amusing. My absolute favorite though, is, "She (or he) is a hot damn mess." WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN??? I have no idea. Sometimes it's affectionate, or sometimes its...hateful. :)

On my birthday weekend Bethany took me to the Nashville Zoo! She did an amazing job at making sure I had a great weekend. This first picture here is us in front of the elephant exhibit. You can see the three elephants they have just behind us.




We had to ride the carousel of course. In case you can't tell, not sure how you would, I am riding a Koala Bear. I did not know they were that fast.

Bethany, looking gorgeous by the way, is riding on a tiger. Yes it was a slightly cold day and some of the animals were not out in their exhibits. However, we did see the Cloud Leopard cubs playing and the reptile and amphibian exhibits which were the very best parts!

Bethany also threw me a huge birthday bonanza where we had a ton of food and a George Killians keg. Not to mention she pulled together everyone in the house to have a poker tournament with a $5 buy-in. Not only did I play, but I won the tournament and $40. A pretty sweet birthday I would say. Thank you my loving wife Bethany!

Teaching a new dog new tricks!

So here is Zoe officially playing fetch. Finally! She still does have a little puppy A.D.D. as you can see, but she can now sit, lay down, and she waits until we tell her she can eat. She is very smart but still has her puppy ways of disobeying. She is doing great though, especially now that she has been housetrained for over 2 weeks!