We designed this blog to reach out to our friends and family that we are away from. Keep up with our walk with God and our adventures along the way. Thank you and God Bless!!!
About Us
- Joel and Katy
- Joel and Katy started dating in December of 2004 and were instantly inseperable. By January of 2006 we were married in Zihuatanejo, Mexico among 20 of our closest friends and family. We lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for the first year and a half of our marriage, then moved to Yellville, Arkansas. We love living in the south and God has blessed us with truly amazing lives. To top it off, we now have a beautiful daughter, Mia!
My Blog List
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Hello world!11 months ago
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Hello world!8 years ago
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Fun times11 years ago
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We had a general check up with the midwife yesterday. We wanted to deliver with a midwife, but we also wanted a hospital delivery, so from the start we've been going to this lady who is just fantastic. The nice thing about the midwife is that you have more say in what happens. Doctors tend to push for certain things more quickly and don't always allow the mother much say in what happens. Also, it's nice to have a female taking care of you, one who has actually been through a delivery, unlike a male doctor :) This midwife works in an absolutely gorgeous clinic under a doctor. So if anything were to become high risk with our pregnancy or delivery, the doctor is on hand and would take over. So long as things remain routine, we have the midwife. To top it off, they deliver in the hospital with the nicest birthing center around! Sweet! Anyways, the baby is doing great, his/her little heart is beating strong at 143 which is perfectly average for 16 weeks. On January 6th we'll find out if it is a boy or a girl, so stay tuned!!!
Last weekend we took 9 of our youth group to a lodge in Jasper, AR for a weekend youth retreat. Our previous youth minister, Lee, came as our guest speaker and between his wife, our current youth minister, a parent, and Joel and I, there were 15 of us total. There was a pool table and hot tub and we played a lot of games from horseshoes to dominos. The theme of the weekend was finding our purpose in life-why God put us here. 6 of the 9 youth were kids that Cody (the kid who is living with us) knows from the alternative school and most of them are in host homes too. The lessons that Lee presented were perfect for this group and the kids all asked great questions. I really hope they took the messages to heart and find ways to apply them to their lives. I didn't take very many photos this year, and in fact this first one is a photo from last year's group that I'm posting to show the outside of the lodge.
Joel concentrating on a game of horseshoes.
It was so chilly outside, these goofs put the lid on the hot tub with a breathing corner!
Kyle, Cody's brother, in front, and 3 of the other boys figuring out how to 'break'.
In addition to our on-shore excursions, we had a lot of fun on the boat. Here are photos of us at our formal nights on the ship and at the ballroom dance competition we took Runner-Up in with our Salsa dancing :) We won a trophy, rose, and bottle of champagne that I couldn't drink because I'm pregnant! Thanks for checking out our stories and photos from the cruise. It was a ton of fun and we will definitely be doing more cruises in the future.
Our last stop was Princess Cay, on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. Princess purchased a huge section of this island and has created a private, beach-front resort for its passengers. They serve a buffet of food, have beach volleyball, snorkeling, kayaking, etc. It's a relaxing day to end the trip. Here are a few photos.
Our next stop was Cozumel, Mexico. It's a little island off the east coast of Mexico. Once again, we rented a Jeep and took off for some exploring. We first went to one of the ruin sites that ended up being really lame. It only had one building and wasn't very tall or impressive looking. So we continued on the 1 road that goes around the island and drove past miles and miles of untouched beaches with incredible waves. Once in a while there would be a market along the beach, but really nothing else on that side of the island. We found a blow hole where water would spout through the rocks when big waves would hit. We randomly saw two racoons run across the road, and later saw a wild crocodile soaking up the sun on a rock. It was only about 3 feet long, but exciting nonetheless. We then went to another ruin site that was far better than the first. There were probably 20 different buildings or sites where buildings had once been. They weren't the tall pyramid buildings I was expecting, they were 10 to 15 feet tall and arranged in a way that suggests a whole village lived there. It was really neat. After that we explored the city a little bit and dropped off Isabell and Danny. Our Jeep rental place had warned us not to go down this one road on the island because, according to him, Donald Trump had just bought the property and it was therefore private property. Joel asked another guy and he said that that wasn't true, but that the road was really rough and shouldn't be driven down. So he asked ANOTHER guy about the road who told us that as long as the Jeep was 4x4 we would be fine. Apparently there was another ruin site at the end of the road. So Joel and I let our curiosity get the best of us and took off down the road, past the "restricted access" signs, and they sure were right about it being rough! It went through some gorgeous terrain, but after nearly 2 hours and miles of maneuvering over rocks and through deep sand, we still hadn't seen any ruins and the time for our ship to depart was getting closer and closer. So eventually we turned around and headed back. When we were within sight of the main road, two Mexican policemen appeared walking down the road. They were strapped with M-16's across their chests and didn't look very pleased to see us. We pulled up and said Hi, and they just looked around the Jeep, said a few words, and walked on. Phew!!!! So, here are a few photos of our sights around the island of Cozumel.
As I mentioned, we were sailing for Jamaica, but when we got there the seas were so rough, with winds reaching 55 knots, that the captain, for the first time in his career, aborted our stop. We were pretty bummed, but he really had no other choice. The seas were really crazy, to the point where they had to empty the swimming pools onboard because the water was crashing out into the restaurant areas. So, we just kept sailing for Grand Cayman Island, our next scheduled stop. When we got there, Joel and I rented a Jeep and took off to explore the island. We went around the entire island and saw beautiful properties, gorgeous beaches, crystal clear waters, and neat little towns. There is even a little town there called "Hell" that we drove to. It's pretty hilarious because the little kids at the school in Hell wear red uniforms ;) Poor kids. Here are some photos of places we visited and things we did while on Grand Cayman.
Last Saturday, November 22nd, Joel and I boarded the Ruby Princess for our 7 day cruise to the Caribbean. The boat is 950 feet long, 19 stories tall, holds 3500 passengers (not counting the 1200 employees), has 9 restaurants, 14 bar/lounge areas, 4 swimming pools, 6 jacuzzi tubs, a complete theatre, and is absolutely beautiful. They treat you like an absolute king from the room steward who makes your bed in the morning and turns down the sheets at night with chocolates on the comforter, to the waitstaff who brings you as many appetizers, soups, salads, main courses, and desserts as you could ever wish for. From a pregnant woman's perspective, it was HEAVEN. No cooking, no cleaning, just adventures during the day, all you can eat food, and fantastic evening entertainment. They have an amazing crew of dancers and singers who did multiple amazing shows from a Broadway dance show to an abstract Alice in Wonderland type production. There were also comedians, jugglers, live bands, and much more! So needless to say, we were never bored. So we got on the boat Saturday with our friends Isabell and Danny from El Paso, TX and spent the next two days at sea sailing for Jamaica. These are a few photos of the boat from the swimming pools, to the big screen where we would watch "Movies Under the Stars" on certain nights, to the grand piazza in the center of the boat.