Nurse Kevin

So, last Thursday Kevin drove me to Chattanooga to have my wisdom teeth cut out. Needless to say, I was not thrilled at this turn of events, but it cost my dad a lot of money to create this smile so it just didn't seem right to let my wisdom teeth hijack it. 


Here are ten reasons why Pastor Kevin deserves a medal for being my nurse for 4 long days....


1. While I was sitting in the waiting room, bleary-eyed and planning escape routes, he promised to storm the surgery room and rescue me from the clutches of Dr. Spann if I yelled, "Kevin! Help! Come get me! Save me! I can't do it!" 


2. He listened carefully to all of Nurse Pam's instruction about post-surgery care and faithfully pulled the car around to the correct entrance to collect me after my morning of surgical adventure.


3. Not once did he pick up his phone or a camera to video/photo-document my drugged state of being. Hence the lack of photos for this post. This was a no camera zone.


4. He faithfully donned his latex gloves to remove and replace soggy gauze and listened without laughing when I mumbled proper gauze placement instructions incoherently.


5. Every time I turned my hazel eyes in my moon-shaped face to him and asked, "Does my face still look swollen?" he faithfully said, "No, I think its getting better," when in fact my face was obviously trying to double in size without asking my permission.


6. He brought me pain pills, rented movies, fluffed my pillows, arranged my blankets, cooked scrambled eggs, bought me a milkshake, and kept me from tipping over when I unwisely decided to stand up and walk around.


7. When I decided to break my 15 year "no throwing up" record as the anesthesia wore off, he stood next to me to make sure I didn't fall down or run into the furniture as I wove my way to the bathroom. No kidding - it was similar to what happens when you drop a Mentos into a 2-liter of Diet Pepsi - eruption is imminent.


8. Every once in a while he'd poke his head into the room and say, "Are you okay? Do you need anything?" just in case I was too loopy to remember to ask.


9. He gave me a pep talk in the car before we went into the surgery center and gave me ideas about how to distract myself from the IV that I knew was coming. (Luckily, Nurse Pam was good so I didn't feel it!)


10. When I'd start to fall asleep with my glasses on he'd take them off and put them on the nightstand so I didn't roll over and smoosh them into my face. 


I'm doing much better and went back to work today! Hope your hubby is as awesome as mine!


Mandy

Breathe

About 6 weeks ago some of the ladies at church began meeting at my house on Tuesday nights at 6pm for a Bible Study. However...this isn't anything like any women's bible study you've ever done before....

1. There is no workbook...Why assign homework if it stresses us out to the point that we don't enjoy the study?

2. Ladies of ALL ages are attending....I wanted a variety of perspectives and experiences to all come together and mingle in my living room :)

3. There are no "fill in the blanks" flip charts, videos, acronyms, or matching questions. 

For our study, we're all reading one chapter of the book each week and then coming together to talk about it - and how its changing us. We're getting to know one another in an environment where we can be encouraging - where we can help carry one another's burdens to Jesus.  Its a study for the hassled. worried. hurried. and stressed among us. (Go ahead 'fess up....you fall into one of those categories!)

Check out Breathe: Creating Space for God in a Hectic Life by Keri Wyatt Kent. You can get it on Amazon for cheap. Keri's writing style is very conversational and full to the brim with real life examples you will relate to. This study will touch your heart and remind you that your value comes not from what you do but from who you are. - You are a beloved child of God.  

Let me know if you like it!

Mandy

Go Warriors!

Fall is in the air and I can sense that its football time! It might be the moans of agony coming from the living room every time Georgia touches a football or maybe the chill in the air or the fact that your backside is numb after about 10 minutes of sitting on the bleachers, but you can just feel it around here.


Either way, Marion County's homecoming has come and gone once again...check it out. 

Hannah is one of my seniors and she was the best yellow jacket ever! The senior float involved her getting squashed by a giant fly swatter....Jordon is her cousin and maybe the sweetest "all boy" I've ever met. 

 We're serious about supporting our kids! We paid to advertise on the fence at the stadium. There's one at the softball field too. 

One of our other seniors, Dylan, is #20...He's in this picture somewhere. This kid has the most heart of any player out there....and he's our comedian. 

You wouldn't think Dylan or any of the other players would know who's there and who's not. A couple of weeks ago we tried to flag him down but we didn't think he saw us. We were talking about the game the following Wednesday night at church and we told him we figured he couldn't see us, but Dylan said, "I see you. I always know who's there." Kids know when you care enough to show up! 

 He loves that we show up to support them...regardless of the score at the end of the 4th quarter. 

This Friday night JCN is sponsoring 5th Quarter....aka feeding 60 ravenous football players and their fans pizza at the Warrior Fieldhouse after the game. Its going to be exhausting but its a great way to tell our kids that they're worth our time and attention! Saturday we're throwing our annual Fall Festival....

So if I don't post pictures immediately, its probably because I'm in an exhausted coma or Kevin squashed me in the sumo ring....

Mandy

Happy Birthday "Paster Keven"

I'll go ahead and apologize for being a blog slacker. I promise that I've been trying to post, but my camera and I got in a fight with the Mac again and it has just been downhill from there. I've outsmarted it for the time being.....just so we could all say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"... who cares if its 3 weeks late. It just makes the birthday fun last that much longer. 

 This was the photo on the front of his birthday card from me this year....We will definitely re-enact this in another 40 years.

The kids all wrote cards to "Paster Kiven" so I picked out a few to share. They speak for themselves.....

 To: Paster Kiven

From: Robbie

 When can we go play golf. And can I go with you.

I hope you have a great Birthday Special "K"!

Love, Abby-Lynn

P. S. I love you :)

Happy Birtheday Paster. Keven. you rock. 

A special Birthday boy like you your a good Pastor like god wanted you to be. 

Love, Gracie-Mae Jordan

I took the birthday boy out for some italian at Tony's in the Bluff View Art District....take that Olive Garden!

Mandy and Kevin