UPDATE!!

I'm back and I will be in action, I promise from here on out! There will be many more blogs full of exciting details about our lives here in Baton Rouge!! (Did you believe that exciting part?!) j/k! We do have some very exciting moments!

Update #1 - I am so very sad but filled with joy for our friends Jen and Grant as they are MOVING TO HOUSTON! Jen is from Houston, her family is there, and I know she has missed this place tremedously! What an exciting opportunity the Lord has presented to them and I fully trust in Him that he will continue to provide and show His glory to them! We will just be picking up kleenex all over our house for the first few weeks as we will miss them tremendously! ;) However, I know there will be many visits between us and about a billion phone calls thanks to Sprint to Sprint!

Update #2 - I know it was only about 4 months ago that I was writing very enthusiastically about my job at the LSU Childcare Center, but seasons change, and while I will miss many of the children I have grown close to at the center, Mo and I feel like it is time for me to move on as I've been offered a very exciting opportunity/position in my field. As of May 1, I will a Case Manager/Family Service Coordinator for Louisiana Early Steps. This is a state-funded program that provides services/resources to children ages 0-3 yrs. who are experiencing developmental delays. So basically I will be responsible for coordinating services between the families and the service providers (Occupational Therapists, Speech and Hearing Clinics, etc.) While I am SO VERY excited about this opportunity and thrilled to learn and grown in my field, I would be lying if I said I wasn't terrified. Ultimately I will have a caseload of 50 families for whom I will be responsible for. Please please pray in the comings months that I will have peace with my new position and that I won't experience too much anxiety!

Other than that exciting news, the hubby and I have just been enjoying our weekends together! Mo has been getting plenty of kayaking, fishing, and golfing in while I have been cleaning, shopping, and preparing for the spring! For those who don't know the wierd side of me, I LOVE to clean - it is very relaxing to me. There is nothing like a clean, organized house. It makes my day. However, I know it drives my husband CRAZYYYY!

Oh! AND we just ordered the TomTom ONE. With my new job, I will be driving all over town meeting with my families, and we've been wanting one anyway, so here it is! I can't wait until UPS arrives at my door!



Well my precious friends and family, that's about it for today! I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Love you all!


Katie

Thankful

This morning as I sat in my car outside of work, I was trying to cram in a devotion, grasping for some nugget of encouragement that could get me through what I knew was to be a hectic day. The nugget: Start a journal where you list 5 things from your day that you are grateful for. Here are mine:


1. Easter parties at school! There is nothing more exciting to a preschooler than stuffing easter eggs full of candy, making easter baskets, participating in an egg on the spoon relay race, and eating junk food to your hearts delight while sitting at a festively decorated table with 30 of your closest friends! It is even more exciting for an adult to watch all of this!

2. It is spring break this week so traffic around campus has been just phenomenal! 10 minutes to work - holla! The smallest things are sometimes the best!


3. The donuts in the lounge. Let me just say that the ladies I work enjoy food as much as I do and they are eager to share with the rest of us, so yay for the teacher who brought donuts for all of us today!

4. Dinner with Jen and Grant. I can't even begin to explain how much I needed this time with them, both Mo and I. The Lord really led our conversation and I feel so rejuvenated!


5. My new shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Only a girl can really understand how exciting this truly is!

6. Most of all I am really grateful for this:

:)

I hope all of you are experiencing wonderful little blessings throughout your week!! Have a safe and happy Easter everyone!!!







KT

A little of this, a little of that!

To start off, I just want to say to Lindsee how awesome it was to meet you this weekend! Chick fil a has never been so fun as it was Saturday sitting there talking for what was probably two hours with two very precious ladies! The conversation was great, even though it was interrupted by the girl whose mother never taught her to pick up her feet while walking! I am glad you are back home safe and sound and hopefully next time we will get to hang out more!

So I promised pictures from our Key West Vacation which was nearly 3 months ago, and here they finally are!!! Hope you guys enjoy! We sure did!!











God Bless!!!

KT

Praising Him

On Thursday night when I got home from work, the LAST thing I felt like doing was being social. This however posed a problem because we meet with our newlyweds bible study on Thursday nights! So for about 15 mins, I whined about how I was tired and didn't want to go anywhere. I didn't want to get out of my pajamas that I had already put on or have to put a smile on my face and be pleasant with people. I was TIRED!!

Oh poor pitiful me! Let me tell you that Thursday night was one of the best bible study sessions I have sat through in a very long time. We typically have a little agenda or guide that we follow each bible study session, but that night was different. As we were sitting there with each other, catching up on the past few weeks that we hadn't met and just generally enjoying each other's company, we all began to open up about our recent struggles of genuinely and sincerely PRAISING JESUS for where we are right now in our lives. First of all, it felt so good to be able to open up comfortably to these couples and to express these feelings. We all agreed how we tend to get so caught up in searching for the perfect home, getting that promotion, graduating, etc. that we forget to PRAISE HIM for where we are right now at this point in our lives. For each and every thing that we have been blessed with. For our home, whether we think it's too small, for our jobs, whether we think we should be making more money, for where we live, whether we would choose to move to another location. I learned that instead of anticipating Mo graduating, making more money, moving to another city - I need to focus on the here and now and what HE us calling me to do in my current situation. It's good stuff people!

On a much lighter note, Mo and I went on a camping trip to celebrate our 2 year anniversary! It was so much fun! We had zero distractions from each other that weekend - no TV, Wii, internet, phone calls - it was heavenly! We met Roscoe the racoon who kept invading our campsite, and who, on the last night of our stay, was wounded by my husband who threw a log at him because he was within three feet of our tent! Yikes! Here are some pictures!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!!

God Bless!!

KT

Ohhhhh the weekend!

Since I have started my new, ever-exhausting job working with preschoolers, I have come to CHERISH my weekends! I have become extra stingy with my free time and am snuggling up in my bed a whoooole lot more! While I LOVE my job and the sweet faces I get to see everyday, it is so super draining and forces me to stay on my toes all day!!!! I know many of you can attest to that!

I am very excited to say that our Newlyweds Sunday school has started up again after the holidays - yes, we were a bit delayed! This weekend we will begin the study "The 5 Love Languages" - I am extremely excited to dive into this study as I feel I need a minor tune-up in that area! It's always refreshing to learn new things about your spouse and to invest time, energy, and focus into your marriage!

Speaking of marriage, our TWO year anniversary is coming up on the 25th of this month! I can't believe it has been two years since I walked down that aisle with all of my friends and family watching, speaking those vows to my husband, and celebrating with all of our friends and family! Time flies! I'm not quite sure what we are doing to celebrate this year - last year we went to Houston and it was FREEZING the entire weekend!!

Today I went to perform my ultimate duty as an American citizen - I voted! I was very excited as I hid behind the curtain looking at this "thing" I didn't quite understand! It took me about 10 seconds of panicking to realize which buttons I needed to push, but I did it and am very excited, as silly as that sounds! I voted in 2004, but had to vote with a paper ballot and that was much less confusing! Maybe I am just being dramatic! Me????

I'm sure this blog seems quite random - I guess I just have to get back into blog mode, it has been a while! I hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend with their friends and families! Much love to all of you!

KT

Oh my word!

I am so embarrassed at my lack of blogging this past month and a half and apologize to those who actually check to see if I have updated!

WOW - where to start!! December was a month full of excitement and wonderful happenings! We went to the beautiful Florida Keys and had the most fantastic time together - I even got to KISS a DOLPHIN!! Woohoo!! Pictures will be posted soon for those of you who haven't seen any from the trip.

Christmas was very special as we spent the morning together at the house opening presents and preparing Christmas dinner, which we shared with our sweet friends Mark and Laura. Goodness, Christmas seems like ages ago!

I started my new job at the beginning of January. I know I said before that I didn't want to spill the beans on my blog about where I work, but I feel that it is probably pretty public information anyway so I might as well go ahead and say. I work at the LSU Childcare Center on campus. I absolutely love it and am so excited to be working daily with preschoolers whose sense of humor, honesty, and innocence never cease to amaze me! Mo works only a few buildings away so we get to carpool and have lunch almost every day. Some people might think that would make you sick of each other, but I honestly have not been this happy in so long! It is so great to be able to share lunch with your spouse and have that mid-day checkup on each other to either vent, share stories about the day or just be able to hug each other halfway through the day! I just feel so fulfilled at the end of the day, especially when those sweet little creatures give their goodbye hugs! Priceless!

So there is somewhat of an update! I am super exhausted and ready for bed so that will have to be it for tonight! I love you all and am sorry for the super-delay in updating!!


XOXOXO

Katie

Concert

Yay for a beautiful concert last night full of amazing music and worship! Here are some pictures! Please excuse the blurriness - that's what happens when they say "No Flash Photography!" Booo...

Waiting in line! It was cold so we drank hot chocolate!

Before Jen broke out in hives for what reason we still do not know!

More waiting - at least we were inside at this point!

Scary faces

We were certainly bored Daniel Kirkley

Aaron Shust

Natalie Grant

Yay for FREE concerts!!!