Hurricanes, golf, and no sleep

Quite a bit has happened in the past 10 days or so. First of all, we had the remnants of Hurricane Ike visit us... yes, right here in southern IN/ Louisville, KY. We didn't get any rain... just a whole lot of wind. Gusts were officially measured up to 75 mph. Over 400,000 people in the area were without power for up to 7 days, and there are still a few people that don't have power yet. Thankfully, we didn't lose power or have any damage to our property. It makes me VERY thankful that I don't live in Houston where the storm hit! Here are couple pictures of some of the damage.
This WAS a metal shed
Part of the awning down... it looks like pick-up sticks
A HUGE tree fell over... fortunately there is NOT a house underneath it!

The following Wednesday, Chris and I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity GIVEN to us for FREE: tickets to the Ryder Cup international golf tournament practice. If you don't know, the Ryder Cup is 12 of the best players from USA vs. the 12 best European players. It is only held every 2 years, and alternates being hosted in the USA and Europe. This year it was held at the Valhalla Country Club right here in Louisville! Here is a picture of us in front of a Ryder Cup statue:

We were privileged to see all 24 players up close, and Chris got 10 autographs while we were there. I'm not really into golf much, but it was fun to spend the day together outside in the beautiful weather. Of course, it's also cool to say that we got to go! :-)

On a quite different note, if you are reading this Tuesday night, please pray for me! I'm going in for a sleep study at 7:30pm. I have had sleep issues for as long as I can remember... having trouble falling asleep, waking up multiple times during the night, and nightmares. The last few months things have been getting worse... struggling to stay awake while driving to/from work, struggling to stay awake AT work, being incredibly tired all the time, etc. I finally broke down and went to the doctor, and she went ahead and scheduled the sleep study. SO - all that to say, please pray that the doctors will be able to figure out what is wrong (besides the fact that I'm messed up in the head... we already knew that!):-) and that they will be able to fix it WITHOUT putting me on sleep medication! I appreciate it!

That's about all the new and exciting stuff for right now, except that my SIL is due for my nephew to join us in this world any day now! :-) Can't wait to meet him!

Still Alive...

Hi, everyone! Yes, I'm still alive! I can't believe how lax I've been about posting lately. I was just looking at the "count" of blog posts... 201 in 2007, as compared to this being the 32nd post of 2008! I've been busy reading EVERYONE ELSE's blogs... and I'm addicted to Facebook! So, there you have it!

Well, August was very busy for us, as has this first week of September!

The first week of August (3-7) was our Youth Conference at our church, Shawnee Baptist, here in Louisville. We had 961 teens from (I think) 34 different states and 4 different countries that attended the conference. Our Youth Conference is different in that the kids come to hear the preaching of God's Word... 6 times a day for 3 days straight, then on Thursday they get to go to Kentucky Kingdom. It was absolutely AWESOME! You can check out the pics that I posted on Facebook here:

Youth Conference pics #1 Youth Conference pics #2

The following weekend, the 15th, Chris had free tickets given to him for a Cincinnati Reds baseball game. We called our friends, Steve & Joy Francis, and met them at the game. We enjoyed their company, the game, and the fireworks after the game that we watched as we were walking back over the bridge from Cincinnati to Florence, KY. I had to work EARLY the next morning, so I was VERY tired, but it was fun anyway. More pics here

The next day after work, Chris and I headed to Lexington, KY. Chris had mandatory training for his work that Sun/Mon, and we have friends that live in Lexington. Since Monday was my birthday (happy birthday to me! :-P), I didn't want to spend it by myself or working while Chris was out of town. We called Kevin & Beth Busch, and we spent the weekend with them (and their son, Silas,) instead... well, I spent time with Beth while Chris was in training. I also got to visit some friends... the Valentine's... that we hadn't seen for a LONG time! Their kids are adorable! Beth made me a cake for my birthday, and we celebrated Sunday night. See more pics here

On the 23rd, we had free tickets to a Bats game, so invited our friends, Scott & April Mohler to join us at the game. We enjoyed the fellowship with them, and were greatly entertained at the game by the presence of the San Diego Chicken mascot. It was fun! Click here to see more pics

I left on Aug. 29th to drive (all by myself) to Watertown, WI, to see my whole family together (except Chris couldn't go... SOMEBODY has to work around here!) :-) It was Maranatha Baptist Bible College's Alumni "scrimmage," and my older brother, Steve, and middle brother, Greg, were playing on the alumni team against my baby brother, Nathan, who was playing on the Crusaders college team (for the last year.) It was so fun to watch them play again, and also to see my family together. I got to meet my newest nephew, Colt... who is absolutely ADORABLE! (of course). I really wish Chris could have come with me, but he is saving his time off for another very special occasion later this fall that we are praying God provides the time off/money for us to go. It was a good time with my family though, and it's rare for them to all be together at the same time. I tried to upload pictures to Facebook, but I couldn't get it to upload the other night, so I'll have to post a link when I get them up there.

This weekend, our church had their Ladies' Retreat. I had to work, since I was gone last weekend. Fortunately, I work only 30 minutes from the camp where our Retreat was held, so I went there from work, spent the night, and drove back to work this morning. It was a shorter distance to drive to the camp than to drive home, so it worked out well, and I enjoyed the short time I was able to spend there. It was a blessing!

So - that's the major run-down of things going on here. In other news, I FINALLY went to the doctor to get a sleep study done. Chris thinks that it's very possible that I have sleep apnea. My sleep study is scheduled for Sept 23, so please pray that they can figure out what is wrong with me so that I can get it fixed (hopefully without medicine!) I have been SO incredibly tired lately (more-so than usual!) I've been dozing off when driving to/from work a lot lately, which is very scary and dangerous! So - please pray for all of that.

That's it for now... see you next month! :-) Just kidding -I'm hoping to blog a little more frequently now.