Tired, Overworked, and Sickly...Happy Anniversary baby!

After Kathleen expressed her feelings about me to the entire world, I had no excuse not to do the same. I made the plans for the weekend which included dinner at a very nice restaurant and an overnight stay at a nice hotel, and rumor has it there may even be some flowers involved. The only negative was that I had been fighting a cold all week long which seemed to fight back at the worst possible moments. But what's a man to do for the woman he loves?? Keep on keeping on. Saturday after working all morning we were off to the booming city of Raleigh, just 15 minutes from our home you find a whole other side of the Capital City. With reservations at the Sheraton we checked in a few hours before dinner, to have time to explore the 'newly' transformed Fayetteville Street. Finally the hour comes when we can sit down for a nice dinner at The Mint. The restaurant was amazing. Everything about it was clean and crisp with outstanding service from everyone involved. The flowers showed up just in time and were hand delivered to the table for all to see just how much Kathleen means to me. But to be honest, those flowers do not say enough. As the title of the blog may suggest though it was not all kicks and giggles. After another 65 hour work week, I was exhausted and felt like I would kill over at any moment, so the romantic and quiet dinner I had planned never happened. Kathleen requested our server box our dinner and we quickly left the restaurant all because I have not been taking the best care of myself. Throughout the whole ordeal she constantly smiled saying, "This is what marriage is about." Well not exactly but, it is for better or worse so I guess she is right, as usual. The restaurant was truly amazing and for whatever reason the owner/manager decided to make sure we visit again by giving us a gift card to make up for me ruining the evening.

So what is the point of this long and drawn out post? To simply say that even though the evening was not picture perfect...my beautiful Kathleen is the most beautiful picture ever taken.

To my husband

Here are a few reason I love my Jason

You love the Lord. You love me. You pray for our family. You lead us well... You value my opinion. You are kind in letting me know when I am wrong. You are a hard worker (one really draining full-time job with 100+ kids and a second weekend job so that I could build my clientele) You like taking me out on dates. You love to talk to me before we fall asleep (any of my greenville girls will tell you the same was true for me.....)
You are sweet to my mom. You love family. You thank me when I take care of the house or cook. You make me laugh until I cry a lot. You have great dance moves....they always make me smile. You make me feel loved every day. You come home and tell me all about your day...i love that! I love the relationships you have with the kids at the club and how careful you are with them knowing that you reflect Christ. You balance out my crazy thoughts and remind me to not over think things so much. You encourage me in things that i pursue. this one is obvious.....you have great legs, a beautiful smile, and warm eyes.

I could go on......but I won't.

I have loved being married to you for the past year. I can't believe it's you......still! Why didn't I know? It was so obvious.

I look forward to the rest of our future. I am so thankful for God's great timing in all of this. He has truly blessed me to have you as my partner in life. I have learned more about God through you.

YAY!!! A YEAR!

Baby Elias

Congratulations to Tara and Matthew Thomas.
Elias Howell Thomas was born June 20th at 5:30pm. He weighed 7lbs. and 13oz.
He is long and thin.
He seems to be a content baby so far! Tara did a great job....she was in labor for a long time.
Jenn and Drew Rorex met Jason and I at the hospital to see him.

......Today, I am taking his blanket over to Tara and Matthew's so that Brody (the bearded dog....special) can get used to his scent.

Almost a year

We are almost at a year! I can't believe it.

Prayer for The Chappell's baby

As some of you know, I have been blessed to work with Casey for the past year. She offered me the chance to come work with her in Wake Forest and eventually take over a lot of her clients so that she could be a new mom and concentrate more on photography. (she did our wedding!)
She is about 28 weeks along in her pregnancy and just found out that their baby is not doing well. Please keep them in your prayers. Thankfully we have a God who is bigger than us.....and knows more than we do. His intentions for Baby Chappell are already planned and He knows what is best.

Check out her blog......she explains everything well.

Wilkie Wedding in Wilmington

Congratulations to Stephanie and Hart Wilkie!!

Steph is a friend of mine from Meredith. She got married this past weekend in Wilmington. Jason and I had a great time with everyone. Hadley and Gilbert were in for the occasion.....and they brought their little cutie Kaden. If you can't tell....she is a fun baby. I think Jason enjoyed playing with her too.

Missing Them