Congrats Andrew and Laura!

Welcome Evie Jane Stacy to the world. Laura and Andrew became parents last night in Memphis, and we're so happy for them. Look at that hair!


If you were at our wedding, you may remember from his memorable approach to the dance floor. If you weren't at our wedding, where were you? Seriously?!?! You would rather do that than come to our wedding?

A lesson in Frugality

Katie and I have been on a money-saving tear lately (except for buying a new car.....whoops) and it all started with a little tip from the Nunley. We were at their house and talking about Comcast and how expensive they are, and he told me that you can just call them and ask for a lower monthly bill, and they will do it.

At first, I was a little skeptical. But after some internet research, the approach was proving itself to work for others. So, unless you like paying more money than you should, you should pick up the phone and call your cable provider and ask for lower rates.

The way I did it was this:
- Call Comcast (either the local number or the toll-free 800 number)
- From there, I would recommend going into the "If you want to cancel service...."
The reps that answer the phone in that department are usually going to offer you more to keep your business with Comcast.
- Once they answered, I basically told them I thought I was paying too much and was thinking about switching companies. After less than 5 minutes of talking about where to trim, we have cut off $34 a month from our bill forever, and they also threw in a $15 credit for the next 6 months. I think they called it a "Customer appreciation" credit.

We lost everything between channels 100 and 200....saved us $16 a month. Sorry Encore, your movies just aren't worth it.
We also downgraded our internet package to something slower and haven't noticed a difference yet.....saved us $18 a month.

$50 bucks a month in our pockets for the next 6 months? I think so. If you have tried this, leave your story in the comments. If you haven't tried it, what are you waiting for?!?!


I think we're on our way....

I think Hell may have frozen over

Because we actually bought a car!  After a long day of looking and thinking and looking some more, we finally did it, we bought a new (to us) car!  I really didn't think this day would ever come, but it finally has.  I really am still in shock that we actually did it, but I'm also very proud of us.  As you all know, we certainly did not enter into this lightly and we took our sweet time deciding on what kind of car to get, how much to spend, and most importantly when we would actually get one.  

We started out this morning around 10:30 and headed to Carmax to look around, test drive a few Pilots, and see how much (if any) money they would give us for Justin's truck.  We were presently surprised by their offer and felt that it would just be easy to sell it to them whether we ended up getting a car from them or not.  We saw a few we liked that actually turned out to be close to our price range once we calculated in the trade-in value, but we still wanted to look elsewhere.  We had seen one at Carsmart, "home of the half-priced car" and wanted to check it out.  So we drove to Hendersonville and were there long enough to find out that somebody else had bought that car early this morning.  They had one other really nice Pilot, but totally out of our price range and the guy we talked to was not even interested in trying to get us to look at it.  It's probably for the best, because we both would have really liked it and could have ended up spending more than we could.  So...we called Joe at Carmax and told him we wanted one there and headed home to get the truck ready to turn in.  Luckily, the bank was accommodating and we were able to go sign the papers to become "slave to the lenders" as Justin called it.  We headed to Carmax and picked up our new ride!  After taking it by the Farmer's and the Joneses' to show it off, we were finally home by 6:00.  Did I mention it was a long day?  

It was a long day, but totally worth it.  We have been blessed with the cars that we've had up to this point (despite a lot of the work that they've needed, they have gotten us to the places we need to be) and we are blessed with good jobs that allow us to be able to get a good quality car that will hopefully take us many, many miles over the years to come.  If you ever need a ride and are in the Nashville area, don't hesitate to ask.  It seats 8!

Yellow Dan

A lot of people have asked about how my sister is doing. First, let me say thank you for all the prayers and concern for her. It's nice to know what there are people out there checking up on us.

She is doing well, despite the circumstances. She was was put on bed rest about 6 weeks ago, and has spent the last 3 or 4 weeks on more of a voluntary bed-rest. They are coming up on 23 weeks and although she still has contractions, they are not as bad and aren't anywhere near as painful.

I would encourage you to hop onto their blog and drop her a comment. She has a laptop and tries to keep in touch with the outside world that way. Oh, Yellow Dan is one of her nicknames from the Mississippi days.

She gave me a nickname in middle school that I was especially fond of: Rat...Thanks again for that one Sis!

Long time no blog...

Well, I finally have a little bit of free time (which I usually have most nights, I just don't spend it blogging) and I wanted to contribute to 'our' blog and update those of you that read it on what's going on in our world from my perspective or point of view as I tell the students in Guidance class.  Speaking of, school is going really well this year.  I am full-time in one school and I think I can actually say I love it.  Maybe not everyday, but today I do.  I still have trouble getting up and actually wanting to go to work every day, but once I'm there, I usually enjoy what I do and I am really excited about that.  Today was a pretty normal day, but tonight we had Open House.  I can't remember the last time I'd been to an open house, but it was really fun to watch how excited the kids were to show off all of their school stuff to their parents.  I was of course waiting in the Guidance classroom for them to come by and surprisingly, LOTS of them came by.  I certainly didn't have time to plan lessons like I thought I would.  But, it was really neat to see the kids and their parents.  I actually enjoy getting to know the parents and it is fun to see why the kids are the way they are :)  The main thing I'm really enjoying about my job is that being in one place all the time is really letting me be able to do my job and be effective.  I think the students and myself missed out on a lot of opportunities to build relationships last year because I was in two places.  Hopefully this year, I'll be able to see some of the benefits of what I am there to help the students with.

Justin's job:  He loves it!  I am really excited for him (he is too, just not as vocal about it as I am) and this opportunity.  He finally has a place that he enjoys going to each day and likes what he is doing.  He is working for a top-notch guy who genuinely cares about Justin AND me and I am just so thankful that Justin has him as a boss and mentor.  We are really looking foward to what the future holds at State Farm.  And, if any of you need any kind of insurance and live in the state of TN, Justin is your guy!

At home, things are moving along as usual.  Maybel keeps us somewhat occupied, but really is an easy going girl and doesn't require much effort which is nice.  We of course are still crazy about her and she probably gets annoyed with us always wanting to love on her while she just wants to sleep.  Oh well, she better get used to it.  She is still spending most of her days over at the Farmers' yard with her boyfriend Maverick.  In case we haven't given them recognition on the blog, we are SO greatful and blessed to have such good friends like the Farmers and for them letting us use their back yard as  doggy daycare for Maybel.  We love you guys!

Car update: Well, we still don't have a newer car...I'm not sure what our plans are, but I sure hope it happens soon.  I am glad that we are not rushing into anything and trying to be smart about it since it is our first time to buy a car for the both of us, but it's getting to be a little annoying, for me anyway.  I'm just ready to get it over with and I'd like to have a car with nice heating by the time the mornings start getting cool.  As always, we'll keep you posted...

Church:  Our church involvement has just grown quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, but we are both really excited about what we'll be doing this year.  We are working with Club 56 (activities with the 5th and 6th graders) again this year.  We did it last year with the Farmers and really enjoyed it.  This year, two other married couples are doing it with us and we are looking forward to getting to know them better while working with the kids too.  We are also helping teach the 6th graders on Sunday mornings.  No, we are not qualified to teach and that is why we are just there to help facilitate.  But, it is a really cool curriculum that helps prepare these crazy pre-teens for the journey they are about to embark on (spiritual and pubescent, yikes!)  I'm actually looking foward to it for the experience it will give me as a counselor and for both of us as parents, hopefully someday.  Our lifegroup is still great as well.  We are so thankful for this group and definitely wouldn't have been able to get as plugged into Otter Creek if we hadn't had it.

I think that pretty much sums it up, sorry I don't have any pictures, I am trying to get better at taking pictures of things we do, but I just haven't uploaded them.  I guess I need to get over the idea in my head that a good blog post has to have pics.  Oh, one more thing, when I'm not blogging, I'm usually taking my free time to read, the Twilight series to be exact.  Any fellow Edward and Bella fans out there?  I'm on to the third book, Eclipse, and I'm loving it.  It's taking me a while b/c I usually fall asleep by the time I can read, but it's so good.  Just wanted to share, if you haven't heard of it and want a good read, I highly recommend it.