Congratulations, college graduate

April and I are flying to Ohio for the weekend to see my brother graduate from college. Here are the top ten reasons that I'm excited for this weekend:

1. Cheap airline tickets from Southwest. They turned what is usually a 9-hour drive into a 1.5 hour flight for not much more money than it would take us to drive.
   
2. I haven't had real (as in not from a can or frozen package) Skyline chili in almost 7 months. That drought will be broken this weekend. Three way, cheese coney plain, and a root beer please.
   
3. We get to hear Bill Clinton speak at Ohio State's graduation. I hear that he's a good public speaker. The guy who spoke at my college graduation put the entire college of engineering to sleep, so Old Bill won't have to do much to exceed those expectations in my mind.
   
4. I will get to see lots of my family at Randy's party, including some that I haven't seen since our wedding, and at least one cousin that I haven't seen in years.
   
5. I still get excited about flying. There's something about being able to look down on the world from a completely different perspective that turns me into a little kid, peeking out the tiny window to see as much as I possibly can.
6. I get to see all the places that I grew up in. They're still so familiar to me and always bring back floods of old memories. Just having the chance to spend a couple of nights in the house I grew up in (from 5th grade through high school) is cool for me.
   
7. Because April doesn't like Skyline, I'll include our planned pre-graduation Sunday lunch at Chipotle. It is definitely the greatest burrito place in existence, and for some reason they decided to skip Philadelphia when they started making restaurants. Somebody needs to teach these Philly people how to eat something besides cheese steaks so we can get a Chipotle.
8. Just because weekend road trips are lots of fun, especially when you get to travel with your wife!
9. We've been trading off weekend dog-sitting duty with our friends Sarah and Seth and their dog Snoop, so Mabel gets to hang out with good friends in West Philadelphia for the weekend. I'm so thankful that we make it easy for each other to get away even when we have dogs to worry about.
   
10. I get to see my little brother graduate from college and celebrate with him before he moves on to exciting times in Nashville. I'm very impressed that he had the intelligence and patience to finish college (with an engineering degree, none the less) when what he really wants to do is pursue a career in music. He's definitely prepared for life in the real world - not just with an education and rock-star-like musical skills, but he is also kind, level-headed, and responsible. Those are the kinds of things that make me know that he will be a valuable member of whatever community he is in after college.

Mabel

This is probably the dumbest thing we've ever done, but it gave us a laugh, let us play with Windows Movie Maker, and let us introduce Mabel to the world.

Anniversary

Today is the first (of hopefully many) anniversary of the day that April and I promised our lives to each other on this beautiful day down in south central Virginia. I can say without any hesitation that it has been the the best year of my life, and I look in anticipation to what the future holds for us.

Happy anniversary!

Drama at Citizens Bank Park

We had the honor of hosting 42.85% (that's 3/7 for those of you who can't do math in your head) of the Cook family here in Philly on Tuesday night. Darrell Cook was (and still is) the campus minister at the Virginia Tech Baptist Collegiate Ministry while April and I were in school, and the Cooks are good friends of ours. Darrell also performed our wedding for us. We were very excited to hear that he and the two oldest Cook kids (Rachel and Andrew) were making a stop in Philly for their annual summer baseball tour.

We all headed down to the ballpark to see the Phillies take on the Brewers. The place was packed out due to $1 hot dog night (which was amazing), but Darrell still managed to score tickets about 20 rows back on the third base line. The game was close and tense; Adam Eaton pitched a great game for the Phillies, but they wasted a lot of chances on offense, which led to the Brewers tying the game at 3-3 in the top of the ninth. Thankfully, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Carlos Ruiz hit a solo game-winning walk-off home run. The crowd went nuts and uneaten hot dogs began to rain down from the upper decks in celebration.

All in all, it's hard to beat going to an exciting baseball game on a beautiful night with good seats and good company.

TV

During my four years of college there was never really a TV show that I got super into, unless of course you count Alias which my freshman year roommate and I did watch religiously every Sunday night at nine; however, my life with TV this past year has drastically changed not only did Nic & I discover the wonderful world of TiVo, but I have much more free time to enjoy it. I have three favorites: House, The Office, and Scrubs. This morning on my way to church I found myself engrossed in a conversation about Thursday night's episode of Scrubs and how I thought JD was an absolute moron. Then I expressed my extreme delight that one of my new favorite artists, Jon McLaughlin had his song featured in the closing scene. A few weeks back I cried when Laverne passed away, not a small cry either, I'm talking five minutes of giant crocodile tears running down my face. Yet thirty minutes before that moment I was laughing my butt off at Michael, Dwight, Jim, and the rest of The Office staff, which may I add is the only show I go around quoting, which Nic with his kind and patient heart, puts up with during the following week leading up to the next episode.
So you may be wondering, as I am myself now, why I just posted an entire blog about TV. I used to make fun of people who were obsessed with TV shows, all those Survivor fans, Grey's Anatomy junkies, and Seinfield nuts, but I guess my mom was right, "Never say never."

Wedding Season

A couple of weekends ago, April and I traveled down to Winchester, VA, to see my old roommate Steve marry his beautiful bride Mallory. This is a picture of us from the event. We ended up driving a total of 8 hours in one day to spend about 4 hours at the wedding and reception, but it was definitely worth the effort. Not only did we get to celebrate Steve and Mallory, but we got to see a lot of my old friends from my days of living in Fairfax, VA. I lived down there for almost two years after I graduated from college (while April was still at VT).

Steve was a part of a Bible study group through McLean Bible Church of about 10-12 single guys that I was involved in while I lived there. I had moved to the area after graduation with two of my friends from college (Todd and Micah), but I didn't know a single other person in the entire Washington DC metropolitan area. We started hosting a Bible study at our townhouse soon, and the guys that came quickly became great friends. I was dating April then, but most of the guys were single and very eligible bachelors, so there were many attempts at hanging out with groups of girls and dates and so on. Stories of dinners and coffee and late night talks and break-ups and "DTR"s were often part of our weekly meetings. These guys were the ones who helped me pray about, plan, and execute my engagement to April. Three of them were groomsmen in my wedding, and many of the rest came down to Danville to celebrate with us.

When I moved to Philadelphia in March 2006, there were maybe two guys with steady girlfriends. Five are now getting married this year. I'd like to think that I was a leader and I inspired the rest of the guys, but I'm pretty sure they would have gotten along just fine without my example. What it all really means for me is a busy wedding season that will take me (if I can afford it all) to Ohio, Delaware, Virginia, and even Alabama to celebrate with these guys. So Steve, Nathan, John, Micah, and Steven, God bless you guys and your weddings and marriages, and thanks for all of the chances for reunion parties this summer!

A Year

Nic has been hinting at my lack of blogs lately, so I guess it's about time I get down to it. A lot has happened since the last blog. I realized yesterday (why it didn't register till then I'm unsure) but I've been out of college a year now. Wow! Nic and I have almost been married a year, wow again, we've been in Philly a year now too, my goodness.
And don't get me wrong there have been moments over the past year when time seems to move so slow, but for the most part my mom was right, time flies. I was reflecting today about my time out of college and I've discovered there's so much I miss about it. I miss the people, Blacksburg, having my summers off and surprisingly enough I miss learning. Now make sure you read that sentence well, I don't miss tests and papers and writing lab reports, but I do actually miss learning. I remember listening to a sermon once in college about enjoying the moment you're in and not always dreaming about how much greener what to come will be. Now don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with getting excited and dreaming about the future, but we have to learn to experience the joy of the present and what God has given us now. I feel like I'm learning to live that out now. I'm loving being a newlywed, having the freedom of no kids =), and believe it or not living in Philadelphia (including our church and new friends, Wissahickon Gorge where we take my wonderful puppy hiking and swimming, and so much more). So as I close I'm reminded of what John Piper says "God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in him."