family at the lake memorial day weekend

cousins playing games



this is what a snake says - "no, no, no"



aunt jenny and avery sharing some fun moments



if she isn't cute, i don't know what is!


"Peep, pease you pay wif me?"

(awww...)

having fun with the uncles

You can tell that I spent a bit of time with the kiddos - they were a lot of fun! They are growing so unbelievably fast!
Peter and I had a great time with the family - we wish we could have stayed longer! We didn't get to go out on the lake because of the weather, but we did have fun watching movies, eating, playing games and catching up with each others' lives.

We love you Maddoxes and Hardins!

FINALLY!

...been a while since i've been on here...


WE ARE OFFICIALLY HOMEOWNERS! We closed on the 30th of April and moved the 5th of May. We're still doing a little unpacking, and our "to do" list will probably never end, but we love our new home. We are so blessed. Thank you to everyone who helped us - especially our parents!

Happy Easter!

House on jefferson

Okay, here is the house. We forgot to take a picture of the front but here is what it looks like plus what the neighborhood looks like:

View Larger Map

Kitchen



Bathroom off of kitchen


Dining room


looking from the dining into the living room



looking into BR#1






Bedroom with built in beds


Office


upstairs hallway

3rd bedroom













Pet owls that live in the garage :) (jk)

(i'm so done with those owls! - so i deleted them. WARNING: IF YOU CLICK ON THIS YOU WILL SEE THOSE OWLS! sm.)

Snow Day Adventure!

Proverbs - Who Knew?!

Our pastor will be preaching a sermon this Sunday on the book of Proverbs. I decided, therefore, to read 6 chapters a day (mon-fri) to cover it all this week, adding on the 31st chapter to either Friday or Saturday, in preparation for Sunday morning. Today I began my reading with chapter 1 (obviously) - My point in stating that is that the title of chapter 1, according to my NIV Bible is, "Prologue: Purpose and Theme."
With that in mind, the next few verses were extra enlightening as I read them - as if for the first time - as an outline for the rest of the book. As I type this out it seems a little like, "duh, Sarah," but I really never noticed it before, so I decided to blog about it. Based of the first six verses here is the "Purpose and Theme" of the book according to Solomon:

1. attaining wisdom and discipline
2. understand words of insight
3. acquiring a disciplined and prudent life
4. doing what is right and just and fair
5. giving prudence to the simple - knowledge and discretion to the young
6. let the wise listen and add to their learning
7. let the discerning get guidance

And he concludes the section with verse 7 - "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." I'm no scholar, but from the little reading of Proverbs I have done, this seems to be the "theme" part that the NIV title was alluding to.

I don't want to be a fool. And as I read those seven little points in my list I just realize what a treasure the book of Proverbs is. We wonder and wander at life and through life - why not pay attention to the book of Proverbs for a change?!

One more thing, this wisdom, understanding, and knowledge that we are admonished to obtain is also what Solomon describes as the Lord's tools at the beginning of time,

"By wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew." (3:19-20)

I have to say that I don't know what all of the implications of that are, but it's highly intriguing to me to be in pursuit of the very things present with the Lord God as He created.

MERCY HAS COME!

The newest edition to the Goodrich home: Mercy Kathleen Goodrich.
Kimberly and Jordan are officially a family as of January 14, 2009! Congratulations you guys!
We've been waiting and waiting for little Mercy to come - she was due the 31st of December! After weeks of patience and 2 hours of torturous labor, she finally decided to come into this world weighing in at an even 7 LBs and measuring 19 inches. Way to go Momma!
She has many aunts and uncles waiting to love on her - some are in Kentucky, Kansas and Florida, while others are away at school, and yet others, like myself, are not biologically even related, but will most definitely love her as if they were.



Even though they moved to KY after college, Peter and I have maintained a great relationship with Kimberly and Jordan since our early years at College of the Ozarks. The Lord has blessed us with a beautiful friendship.


Peter and Jordan have loved hiking and camping together as well as mulling over and over maps. They're both pretty stubborn but have sharpened each other because of it.



Kimberly and I have have been blessed with a relationship that can been quite silly sometimes, quoting particular movie lines over and over, yet so much of my spiritual growth in college happened with her and I just discussing and questioning all sorts of things, going back and forth.

(We're also secretly trying to work out an arranged marriage between at least one of each of our children...)

(at our wedding)



Kim & Jordan,
We sure do love you guys and are exceedingly happy for you and your new addition! She's beautiful! You will be wonderful parents!

Our prayer for Mercy is that she would grow up to experience her name as well as it's counterpart, grace; that she would know how deeply she is loved by those around her and more importantly by her heavenly Father. May she see her heritage of goodness, generosity, and godliness, and walk in its way.
Mercy Kathleen, "The LORD bless you, and keep you; The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace" (Numbers 6:24-26).

FIRST ENTRY of 2009

DECEMBER UPDATE:


We had a wonderful Christmas - short, but wonderful nonetheless. It was a Maddox Christmas this year, and so on Christmas Eve we drove down to Hardy and spent the day with Peter's family. On Christmas we opened gifts and ate a fabulous meal that Liane made for us - thanks Liane! Our oldest nephew, Gabe, will be three at the end of January and so Christmas morning was a lot of fun watching him open all his gifts! I would ask him, "Gabe, what is that? What did you get?" and regardless of what the toy actually was, he would reply with great certainty, "It's Gabe's!" Gabe's baby brother also recieved a lot of fun gifts for Christmas; sweet baby Sam is always a joy to be around, and even thought he didn't really know what was going on, he had fun with the rest of us and even helped to open some of his presents.



The Sunday before Christmas we had our Scowden Christmas. (Sadly, I only got one picture) Here it is: Jacob got a shirt!

We went to church, came home, ate Dad's traditional sausage gravy and biscuits, and then exchanged gifts. It was a good day. Mom and Dad bought us a dresser, and since then Peter and I have been working on staining it...it's been an interesting project, and I've decided that maybe it was a little bit too big of a project for my first attempt at staining because I feel as though I never want to stain another piece of wood again! I am glad about the dresser, though, and it has been a fun leaning process.

Also, in December Peter and I became Travel Agents. We have our own website - coldcreektravel.com - and anyone can book travel through us - flights, hotels, cruises, rental cars, the works... We have the same deals as Travelocity and those others, the only difference is that when you book through our website we earn commission off of whatever you book. I've posted a link to the website here on our blog on the right-hand side.


JANUARY 2009:
We are both continuing to work. Peter has been transferred to Willard which is only 15 minutes away from our house instead of the 45+ he has been driving for the past couple of months. I think it will be a good change and save on wear and tear on the car, plus Peter can be home a little more.
Our lease on our apartment ends in April, and we aren't sure what that will mean for us exactly, but we'll probably stay in Springfield...who knows...so much could happen in those next 3 1/2 months.
We continue to love being married and love being with each other (married for 1 year, 5 months and together for 3 years, 8 months). We feel very blessed to have each other.