What we've been up to lately

During the week of Thanksgiving, we soaked up some sun rays and good time together on a cruise in the western Caribbean.  We took off the Saturday before Thanksgiving to Miami where we visited Paul and Jenny.  Then, they took us to the port on Sunday. 

Nine days is the longest time we've spent together without interruption, and we enjoyed our time very much.  Our first full day on the cruise was at sea.  Then we spent a day each in the Cayman Islands, Honduras, Belize, and Mexico.  The last full day was also at sea, and we returned to Miami on Sunday morning.  It took us only eleven hours to get home in post-Thanksgiving traffic on Sunday, and we both went to work on Monday morning.

We're hoping to post some pictures soon, but getting back into the real world has been a little crazy.  Keith has had some allergy congestion since Sunday, and the holiday season is in full swing for us.  (I'm really glad I did the bike ride before the cruise instead of after!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you're all having a great week of time with family and friends!

No help needed up the hills

Jennifer started in Byron yesterday and felt good on the first leg of the ride yesterday. Keith drove 15 miles down the road, and Jennifer met him there about 40 minutes later. The cooler starting weather had warmed up, so Jennifer changed clothes out of lined wind pants. The next 15 miles was about the same, and she was roughly halfway to her goal.

At the end of the next twelve mile segment, Jennifer felt good. The game plan called for a ride in the car for the next six miles, but she passed Keith while he talked on the phone. She rode another five miles up and down some hills, and Keith caught up to her. We made a plan to meet at the next scheduled stop, see how Jennifer was feeling, and let her pass if she felt good. She did.

The last leg of her trip had the most traffic, but all was well (except the dog that chased her for several yards!). That last leg ended in Columbus.

The entire trip yesterday was 72 miles with no car rides between Byron and Columbus! Jennifer's mom took a picture of Jennifer and Keith at the end of the trip. All the way home last night, Jennifer said in her head, "72 miles" and couldn't believe it.

As with any endurance exercise like this one, there are unexpected things along the way. There were no flat tires or crashes. There was no need for a stop in the middle of a leg of the journey. There was no hydration or energy problem. Of course, those were all expected, and we were prepared for them. What we didn't expect was the beautiful weather we got and the sunburn that Jennifer got because of it. That really is the worst that happened yesterday, so we'll count the day a success!

Our latest major accomplishment

Ever since Jennifer bought the house two years ago, there's been a trampoline in the backyard. Several friends have jumped on it, so there's been some use in the two years, but not enough to warrant keeping it in our backyard.

On a whim last weekend, Jennifer suggested that we try to take down the net around the top of the trampoline so it would not be so obtrusive. We got to work, and the net came down. Then, we detached the padding over the springs, which is weathered and not worth anything. The next thing we knew, we were finding the buttons to detach the metal parts. Within an hour, we had the entire trampoline taken apart and stored out of sight.

Our yard really is huge! Thanks to Keith's work over the last year of clearing out lots of weed trees and overgrown bushes, we can tell what we have to work with.

Right now, there is a brown spot where the sun was blocked by the trampoline, but that will grow green next season. Keith will also have an easier time cutting the grass since he doesn't have to work around the trampoline.

We've accomplished a major milestone for our house, and we're excited. On Monday morning, we even took a moment before we left for work to marvel at the empty space in the backyard!

A Metric Century in honor of Jennifer's 30th Birthday

As you've read in the last year, we have been riding bikes a lot. Jennifer gets more time to ride after work than Keith does, and she's been training for a big ride coming up.

Before she turns 30, Jennifer will ride a metric century. That's one hundred kilometers (about 62.2 miles) in one day.

As predicted, the last six weeks of this year will be busy. There's Thanksgiving, Jennifer's birthday, and Christmas. We also hope to go camping sooner or later! So, before the hectic time comes, we've decided to schedule the metric century for next weekend.

Training has been good. Jennifer has been on the bike for 20-40 miles every other day for the last two weeks, and she was riding quite a bit before that time. Today is her last significant ride before the metric century. Her weekly mileage has been 75-90 miles with the longest ride being 41 miles. We did ride 50 miles in May, but the conditions were better than Jennifer will have next weekend. Next week, Jennifer will ride twice for 10-15 miles each. Then, the game plan for the big ride is 63.5 miles from Byron to Columbus.

Keith will follow along in the car with snacks, repair tools, and patience. The planned route is 75 miles on four-lane highways (sometimes including a bike lane), but we'll load the bike on the car for the giant hills. Google Maps has a pedometer feature that lets you map out a route and see the changes in elevations. We used the map and our familiarity with the route to make decisions about where to ride and where to drive up the hills.

If, by chance, you are interested in joining Jennifer for part of the trip (3 miles or 20 miles or anywhere in between), let us know. We'll report back after the ride to let you know that we finished.

Until next year....

The Braves gave us hope last week when they swept the Mets and the Nationals. This week, they had to win two more than the Rockies, and the Marlins dashed their/our hopes of grabbing the wild card.

Keith and I watched the Braves win and win and win some more for over a decade, and we both love baseball. So, now, we'll wait until next year to see the Braves play again.

The last three weeks have taught us, though, that "it ain't over 'till it's over!"

War eagle!

Last weekend, we watched Auburn beat Ball State at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Before football, we got to campus early, and Keith showed Jennifer where he had horticulture classes. He was surprised by all of the changes on campus since he graduated. We tried to see the Tiger Walk before the game, but Keith felt rain drops and saw rain clouds in the sky. We took off to find shelter, and we got into a building before the downpour.

It was Jennifer's first SEC football game, and Keith hadn't been to an Auburn game in seven years. We sat on the 25 yard line on the eighth row. It rained for the entire first half, but we were prepared for it.

We'll certainly be going back for some more football in the future.

Rain cancelled our camping plans, so we found another adventure

We are working with Patrick to throw a party in two weeks, and I agreed to bring our ice cream maker and ingredients for ice cream.  We got our ice cream maker as a wedding gift, and we had barely opened the box until yesterday.

When we got a whim to make ice cream a couple of months ago, we read the instructions and knew it wasn't a "whim" kind of project.  So, with some advance notice, we decided to do a practice run this weekend.

We cleaned the parts, soaked the bucket so the wood would seal, and bought ingredients last night.  The user's manual got us concerned about raw eggs, so we chose a recipe that required cooking.  

This morning I got up and checked to see how much milk was needed and realized that we didn't have enough at all.  So, Keith went to the store for milk and a bag of ice while I started the process.

I combined sugar, corn starch, and salt.  Then, I beat four eggs and melted six squares of chocolate.  Keith got home, and I poured six cups of milk into the dry ingredients.  I was supposed to "stir constantly until the mixture started to simmer," but I didn't think it would ever do that!  So, once the steam was coming off the top, I decided it was close enough.  I added the beaten eggs, and Keith started the stirring job.  He was supposed to "stir until the mixture thickens slightly," whatever THAT means.  Then, the melted chocolate went in next.  I added vanilla, half and half, and heavy cream.  

We were doing all of this in a stock pot, and we were supposed to pour the mixture into a glass container to go into the refrigerator.  I found two glass containers that barely held it all, and we let it sit in the refrigerator four a little more than four hours.  

Later in the day, we poured the mixture into the frozen canister, put the canister in the bucket, and turned on the motor.  We poured ice and rock salt and ice and rock salt and more ice and more rock salt around the spinning canister.  Then, we poured water in on top.  The motor stopped spinning in about 35 minutes, and I opened the canister to find a milkshake-like mixture.  Keith attached the hand crank and turned that for several minutes to try to fluff the mixture.

We poured our ice cream into plastic containers of 4 cups, another 4 cups, 6 cups, 1 cup, and another 1 cup.  We ate the 1 cup containers and put the rest in the freezer.

This is definitely a labor of love for ourselves, and we'll do it again in two weeks for a dozen of our friends.  We think there must be a simpler way to do it all, so we want your help.  If you have an easy recipe that calls for no eggs or cooked eggs, we want to hear about it.  Also, if you have tricks for thickening the mixture, let us know that, too.  Maybe what we need to be told is that making ice cream is, in fact, an all day process!  :) 

Thanks to our friends who gave us the ice cream maker!  We had an adventurous day after a week of rain made us cancel our plans to go camping for the weekend.  And, now we've got some good tasting ice cream for the next week.  We've also got some confidence for our endeavor in two weeks!

Just call her "Jennifer the Plumber"

The shower in the hall bathroom was dripping for a few weeks and getting worse along the way. Last fall, we learned how to fix a drip in the master bathroom shower, and we had to buy a new tool to do the work. This time, the grand total of the money spent was $1.44 on new washers since we already had the right tools. The job took just under two hours, and Keith contributed his strength to loosen snug pieces on two separate occasions.

If you need some basic plumbing advice or help, save yourself the plumber fee, and call Jennifer!

The cook of the weekend

Saturday morning: fried eggs over toast with bacon
Saturday afternoon: brownies
Sunday evening: bacon cheeseburgers from the grill

Keith did all of that and cleaned up the kitchen after himself each time. All of it was good, too!

Did I marry well, or what?! :)

Island Time

Around April 7, the battery in my watch died. We'd been married for three days, and we were headed to Jekyll Island for our honeymoon in two days. I decided to go without a watch at least through the end of our honeymoon. Then, we enjoyed our vacation so much, especially living on "island time," that I didn't want to let it go after we got back. After a few weeks without a watch, I decided that I was close enough to the end of the school year that I'd just go without a watch as long as I could.

Now, I'm back at school again. They're not ringing bells between classes, and my office does not get enough traffic to figure out when classes are changing. So, I got my battery replaced yesterday afternoon.

Island Time is done for now, but we're looking forward to some getaways in the next few months.

Congrats, Jay!

If you know my brother, then you know that he's smart!  Well, he started using his brains in college last August, and he has completed three semesters of classes.  Every semester, his GPA improved to the point that he earned straight A's this summer!  I'm so excited with him!

So, how easy were the classes that he took?  Not at all easy.  Jay is applying to the program for physical therapy assisting, so he had to have two classes in anatomy and physiology.  Those were certainly the most demanding, and he earned A's in both.  He also took English, math, computer science, humanities, medical terminology, speech, and two classes in psychology.  

As you can tell, we're proud of Jay's accomplishments in the last twelve months!

Road trip with mom!

I left Keith at home for a week and went on a road trip with my mom in Iowa where she grew up.

First, we spent three days at Nordic Fest. I'm a quarter Norwegian, and the festival celebrates our heritage. We got to see a lot of cousins and other more distant relatives, and they even got us all together for a family reunion on Saturday afternoon.

Then, my mom and I set off on our own for some statewide genealogy research. In the last three days we went to small towns and large cities. We hit some cemeteries that were five miles out on dirt roads. We saw schools where my mom attended and family homes where we visited when I was young. By the numbers, we've stopped at the following:

6 courthouses
6 cemeteries
3 schools
7 houses
1 church

We're in the airport now ready to go home. We've stayed in 5 motels in the last week, so we're ready for our own beds, bathrooms, and cooking.

Our day at the river

Keith's family has a rustic river cabin that is the location of an annual gathering on July 4th weekend.  There's a boat with all the water sport options, a jetski, a TV, lots of great food, and family.  Jennifer missed the trip last year because she was teaching GHP, but nothing could keep us away this year.  We also invited Jay to come along.

Here are some of our favorite pictures from the day.  Our camera batteries ran out of juice before we were done, and Jay's camera has some other pictures on there that we hope to get our hands on one day.

Keith kicked it off with the wakeboard.

Jennifer hadn't done water sports in more than 10 years, but she picked up kneeboarding again pretty quickly.

Jay liked the kneeboard, too.

Keith worked on his wakeboard jumps throughout the day.

Jay decided to ski.

Daniel got bounced around on the tube, but he was willing to let go of the handle a few times.

Jay had never been on a wakeboard until this weekend.  He liked it a lot!

Keith couldn't pass up the kneeboard.

Jennifer managed to get up on her first skiing attempt.

This is the one crash we got on camera during the day.  We never tried to capture a crash on film, but somebody gave us one anyway.

David vowed to ride the wakeboard, even if he blew out a knee!

Jennifer had her first ride on a jetski.

Keith turned his first 360 on the kneeboard.

Jennifer and Jay were captured during a brief still moment on the boat.

Jennifer got her first tube ride and dared to let go before it was over.

Have car (and GPS). Will travel.

That's our motto this weekend.

Keith had a four-day week last week, which is his first of the year.  So, we made some plans for our weekend.

On Friday, we went to White Water Amusement Park in Atlanta, and we spent seven hours sliding down slides.  Sometimes we used a tube, and sometimes we even got to ride in a double tube together.  Neither of us are roller coaster people, but we love water parks!  We packed some food in the car so we didn't go broke at the park, and we took a break around 3:30 to eat some sandwiches.  We think we rode everything we would dare ride (we skipped the Cliffhanger - a nine-story vertical drop), and we talked about upgrading our tickets to season passes.  We decided against it since we're far enough into the summer now, but we're going to think about it for next year.

Saturday, we woke up slowly because we were tired from Friday's adventure.  We watched some Wimbledon tennis then made some plans.  At one of the bridal showers in the spring, we received a gift card to AMC theaters.  We've learned that the closest one to us is in south Atlanta.  So, we went to see The Proposal then continued north to watch the Gwinnett Braves, which are a AAA team.  The seats were sold out at the game except for the Berm in the outfield.  We got home late, and went to bed.

Today, we got up early and headed down to Baxley, Georgia.  Sandy and Alan, who played the guitar in our wedding, live there.  We went to Alan's church and watched them both play for morning worship.  Alan also preached.  Then, we went to lunch at a seafood restaurant, and they had to leave town on business.  We got home this afternoon.

Keith said it best when he announced our theme for this weekend, "Have car.  Will travel."  But, the GPS has been quite important along the way, too.  :)

My mom's magic touch

When I ordered flowers two weeks before our wedding, the florist told me I could save some money if we got the flower girl petals ourselves.  The florist told me how far in advance we could pick off the petals, and he told me how to store them well.  So, my mom and I bought two dozen roses two days before the wedding.  Somehow, the basket was filled (lots of things happened in those last two days that I had no idea about at the time!), and my mom saved the stems.  After the wedding, she planted the stems, and most of them have died in the last three months.  

This morning, however, I was checking my email, and this picture was there from my mom's yard!  One of the stems bloomed this week.  I thought it was really cool!  

how's the summer going?

Jennifer has been riding her bike quite a bit. She's got 365 miles logged on the new bike. She thought she'd ride most days of the week, but it hasn't worked out that way. She's averaging about ten miles a day by riding 25-40 miles at a time about three times a week.

Keith is working a lot, so weekends are really important for him. He likes to relax some, but he's enjoyed our fun days, too.

For the last two weekends, we've been on the road. Most recently, we went to the World of Coca-Cola on Saturday and then up to Birmingham to celebrate Father's Day with a baseball game. The Barons won their tenth game in a row that night!

Today, Jennifer started a summer job. She's teaching an online math class for four weeks. She's not sure if it's worth it yet, but it doesn't hurt to make a little bit of money during the summer, especially after a Trek purchase!

We're hoping to keep on having fun when we're not working.

2 months

Yesterday was two months after our wedding day.  We got two wedding gifts that we're using this weekend, so it's turning into a celebration of our wedding!

Last night, we ate dinner at Carrabba's because MO's office staff got us a gift card for dinner there.  We both got entrees that we've never had before, and we've even got some money left over to help us pay for another visit.  We got home in time for Jeopardy, too!

Today, we've got tickets to see the Braves play the Brewers.  We got the tickets at a shower before the wedding, and they're great seats!  We've never been to a Braves game together before, so we're excited.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

50 miles!

We have a winner!  The person who wrote the anonymous comment guessing 35 miles wins!  Congratulations, Winner!

Yep, that's right.  We rode our bikes 50 miles on Sunday, which marked our 50th day of marriage.  We didn't mean to make it work that way, but this number-crunching mind of mine enjoyed it anyway.  It was a LONG ride, and Keith rode a bike he'd only been on two times before.  His longest ride on his mountain bike is 20 miles, so this was a giant leap for him.  He worked hard, and I am proud of him.  

We're still talking about riding a century.  The Silver Comet Trail with no car traffic, very few people most of the way, and mostly flat terrain is a promising location for our 100 mile endurance ride, but we'll see.

Have a great weekend, readers!

Okay, more hints, as requested

We rode for a total of four hours, but our breaks made it a five-hour adventure.  The last hour was in a light rain!

It was our first ride on the Silver Comet Trail, which we've been talking about, even on this blog, for a few months.  That's important because the Trail is quite flat since it used to be the path of a railroad.

So far, we have a clear winner for our game--there's only one guess!  

Careful, that's three hints.  :)

Guess how many miles we rode yesterday

Here are some hints:

We went out of town to ride.

We are still tired today.

You win if you can guess the closest without going over!  :)

Keith owns a road bike

After riding the Schwinn a total of 125 miles in two and a half weeks, Jennifer knew she liked the riding style and wanted a bike made for her size.  

Three days ago, she went back to the Trek store to see about the bike again.  The store had what she wanted in a smaller size, so Jennifer went back on Tuesday because they brought the right size from their other location.  Jennifer took a test ride and bought the bike.  The manager threw in two water bottles with cages, a valve nozzle adapter, and a bottle of lubricant.  That was $29 of free stuff that we'll use.

So, you want to see a picture of the new bike?  Well, the camera will never do it justice, but the Trek website has a pretty picture.  If you know anything about bikes, you can see the specs and geometry there, too.  

Jennifer rode 3 miles with Keith on Tuesday (they both rode road bikes), and she road 31.4 miles yesterday, which is a new longest distance for her!  Jennifer is also considering training for a century ride in September in Savannah.  (Yes, "century" as in 100 miles in a day!  Think "marathon of biking.")

If you took pictures at our wedding

we'd love to see them!

Already, we know that our guests caught things on camera that we didn't know were happening, and we love the surprises. We enjoy getting to see the facial expressions that we had that day, too.

So, if you took pictures at our wedding, please share them with us. We'll be happy to send you our email address or mailing address if you want to put them on a CD. We'll even take the pictures with blinking eyes or strange faces--they're all part of the story of the day.

Thanks!

News for the week

Jennifer rode the new road bike a record distance yesterday: 22.7 miles! She was eager to agree to Keith's suggestion that we eat Panera Bread for dinner so she didn't need to cook. :) We also went to Barnes & Noble last night where Keith impressed Jennifer once again with his knowledge of Spanish vocabulary!

This weekend, we're going to be two of four chaperone's for a group of graduating seniors going to Six Flags in Atlanta. Neither of us like roller coasters, but there are other things we can do there, and it's free for us. We're looking forward to a little bit of adventure for the day, especially with a 40% chance of rain in the forecast right now.

We're off again!

This is a big weekend for people we love!

Jay is finishing his second semester of college this week, and his birthday is on Friday. We're going to ride mountain bikes with him on trails near his apartment. We're really going to celebrate his birthday, but we also are excited for his accomplishments in school! Way to go, Jay! We're proud of you.

Since we'll already be in the area, we're celebrating Mother's Day with Keith's mom on Friday night and Saturday. Keith's dad's birthday is around the corner, too, as well as their anniversary. (It's busy in our families, as I said!)

We're going to spend the day with Jennifer's mom on Sunday. We've got yard work planned as a gift for her, and we might get some other things packed into the day, too.

So....

Congratulations, Jay, on another successful semester!

Happy Birthday, Jay!

Happy Mother's Day, Jane/Mom!

Happy Birthday, Mike/Dad!

Happy Anniversary, Mike and Jane/Dad and Mom!

Happy Mother's Day, Pat/Mama!

The story of the next bike

Jennifer's bike is getting a lot of use--about 27 miles on the weekdays this week plus 19 from last weekend--and she's hoping to ride a lot during the summer.  Two problems have come up, well, maybe three problems.  The bike is heavy, the tires get a lot of friction on the road, and the newest problem is that the bike squeaks in rhythm with Jennifer's pedaling.  

Last weekend, we went to two bike stores looking at road bikes.  The "entry level" bikes are running $900+ for Trek, Cannondale, and Specialized.  We've thought about used options, and Jennifer looked at LOTS of bikes on eBay this week.  They now make bikes that are specifically designed for women, so the dimensions of the bike fit a woman's body better than the typical road bike, which is designed for a man's body.  After last weekend's visits, we came to a few conclusions.  Keith really wants Jennifer to get a women's bike, and he's very supportive of her spending that much money because he knows she loves to ride.  Jennifer knows it's a lot of money to spend, and she's not totally convinced that she'll love riding stretched out like she would on a road bike.  

All week, Jennifer has wavered between "I'll try something less expensive first" and "I'll just take the plunge and order a Trek."  Since neither extreme has settled well, she's still talking about this drama.  

This morning, Keith made a suggestion.  What if we buy the $225 bike from Wal-Mart so you can ride it to make sure you like it.  Then, Keith will ride the bike later if Jennifer gets the Trek.  Jennifer LOVED the idea, but she wanted to shop around a little bit more.

We went to Dick's Sporting Goods first where Keith got his bike.  There are absolutely NO road bikes with drop handlebars, and Jennifer insists on drop bars if she's getting a new bike.  At the Wal-Mart on the other side of town, we thought we could get a better deal than the Wal-Mart in "Richville."  We saw the bike, and it was $229.  (The numbers are important later.)  There were a few things we weren't crazy about in the way this bike was put together, so we thought we'd check out the other Wal-Mart.  In "Richville," the same bike was priced at $199.  Keith pointed out some rust in several places, and we noticed that the owner's manual had been wet at some point.  It was put together well, so we were satisfied with the bike, but Jennifer wanted to see about a reduced price for the rust.  It was surface rust, so Keith was pretty sure he could get it off.  They offered 10% off, and we paid $179 before tax.  The bike is a little big for Jennifer, but a good size for Keith.  It's LIGHT, too!  

We put our bike rack in the car this morning, so we knew we could load the bike up in the parking lot.  But, then we started thinking about riding it home.  We decided to do it.  We inflated the tires with Jennifer's air pump from the car, and we removed all of the labels for the store.  Jennifer put her cell phone in her pocket, tested the gears in the parking lot, and told Keith she'd meet him halfway home.  When she got there, they traded car and bike, and Keith rode the bike home.  

At home, we agreed that we both really enjoy our new bike!  We planned to ride this afternoon already, so we loaded up the bike rack, and put our new Schwinn on along with Keith's mountain bike.  We went out to Barrington Hall, where Jennifer lived in her first apartment, and we parked the car in their lot.  We rode through the neighborhood and decided to see what was at the end of the road.  We found another road that seemed really quiet, so we wanted to check it out.  Jennifer had a relaxed ride while Keith worked hard at some moments, but Jennifer enjoyed having the roles reversed for a change since she is usually the one working hard.  By the time we got back to the car, we had gone over 14 miles!

We're both happy with our purchase, and we like that Keith will be able to ride the bike when Jennifer decides on an upgrade.  

We declared a "Keith and Jennifer Weekend"

Our priorities for the weekend included bike riding, eating good food, and spending time together.

On Friday, we both got off work early just because we got lucky. We ate dinner at Logan's, and we managed to get the $13.99 for two entrees deal because we got there early. After dinner, we watched Jeopardy and then went grocery shopping for the week to avoid the Saturday crowd.

Saturday morning was slow, but we knew we wanted to beat the heat for a bike ride. We headed out before 11am toward a part of town that our bikes had never seen. In the first 2.3 miles of our ride, we had to walk up two hills that are outrageous! We weren't even out of our neighborhood yet! At the top of that climb, we got to Forsyth Road, a main road in town with a sidewalk. We turned from there onto Zebulon Road, which also has a sidewalk, and we headed for Wendy's. We knew we needed light food because of the heat of our ride and because of our plans for the rest of the day. After Wendy's, we rode across the street to Wal-Mart and checked out bird baths, water hoses, grill brushes, step ladders, and digital frames. We bought a grill brush, and we decided on a step ladder, but we'll have to take a car to go pick that up later. Our ride home was warmer than we really liked, but we were fine. Total miles for Saturday: 11.7.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to two bike shops looking at road bikes for Jennifer. We're still shopping so far. We came home and cleaned up around the house, and Keith washed his cars. Then, we started working on dinner. We grilled steaks (our first ones on our new grill!), and we had twice-baked potatoes, brussel sprouts, and rolls. It was quite easy and delicious!

After church on Sunday morning, we continued with our digital frame shopping. We love the frame we got for Christmas, and we want to put our wedding pictures on a larger one. So, we hit several stores in the same shopping area, and we got lucky at HH Gregg. The right size for the right price! It's the same brand as our first one, so the learning curve won't be too hard.

We also continued our bird bath shopping, but we weren't very successful with that. So, we headed to lunch at McAllister's where we ate light again because our steak dinner was still with us, and we were hoping to get another bike ride in later.

On our way home, we drove around looking at other bike riding options to get away from the two steep hills in our neighborhood. No luck, though! On our ride that afternoon, we rode those hills again on our way to Virginia's house. We took our laptop with us to show her the digital pictures we've received from our wedding. We got home just in time to shower and go to a special event at church. Total miles for Sunday: 7.7.

At church on Sunday, they showed a documentary about Liberia called "Pray the Devil Back to Hell." It was quite intense as it told the story of the Civil War in the country and how women led the way to peace. Since we have some ties to Liberia already, it was an important movie.

So, on this Keith and Jennifer Weekend, we accomplished our goals!

We're doing great

There's very little going on that's newsworthy, and we like it that way for a change. Keith is very busy at work this week, and Jennifer has something out of the ordinary planned for most days of the week. We're learning each other's routines and adjusting well together. Thanks for continuing to read and care for us.

It's official!

Jennifer's name is legally changed with the Social Security Administration and the Driver's License office.  

She is now "Jennifer Michelle Blackwell."

Life is moving slower for us

We can't say we have a routine yet, but our life is moving much slower now than it has for the last six months. This weekend will be the first that we haven't had something on the agenda in months, and we're looking forward to it.

So, don't take our quiet here on the blog as a bad thing. It's just that we're catching our breath after the busyness of our wedding.

Some reflections

So many details of our wedding experience amazed us.

First, our families and friends have left us humbled by their (your) support and help. Truly, we couldn't have done it without you all. You recognized important moments along the way, and you kept us from getting too stressed out sometimes with your help and sometimes with your listening ear and compassionate responses. It took an army to pull off our wedding, and you were there ready to decorate, move things, and take our minds off of the craziness. We are grateful for you, and there are not enough words to communicate the depth of our gratitude. We were also humbled by your gifts to us. There will be notes in the mail eventually, but we sure do want you to know that we appreciate your generosity and thoughtfulness!

Second, with an outside wedding and a honeymoon trip that depends on good weather, we have been stunned by what we have seen. In the ten days before our wedding, Macon got over eight inches of rain! Lots of folks were afraid for us, and we stuck by our plan. In fact, on April 4, the sun was so bright that our programs were used to cover heads and keep sunburn at bay. Then, a few days after our wedding, the air was very cool, even getting down to freezing one night! It didn't rain really, but we were watching the weather on Jekyll Island carefully. The wind came during the weekend, so our bike-riding was more demanding. But, the rain storm that came through Georgia yesterday did not affect our vacation nor our unpacking after we got home. We literally drove through the rain for eighty miles! People have said they prayed for the weather during the weekend of our wedding. I don't know if God has anything to do with the weather, but it all turned out amazing for us!

We know life won't always be this sweet, but it's been a great way to start our marriage! We even talked over the last weekend about trying to extend our happiness during our honeymoon into at least the first year of our marriage. Things will happen, stuff will come up, but we'll negotiate it all as best we can. If the year of our dating relationship and engagement is any indication, we'll resolve things things well together.

What stories do you remember from our wedding? Who did you see that you hadn't seen in a while? What surprised you? What still makes you smile ten days later? Especially, we know we couldn't be there for everything, so we want to know what we missed. Let us know in the comments here.

Behind the camera

MO is not in most pictures because she's behind the camera most of the time. Ginger snagged a picture of MO walking in to the reception with Jennifer's flowers.


Ginger did a good job of making sure MO got into at least a few pictures. We even had our own picture of just the two of us!

Us in the Park

Some quick pictures from our honeymoon

We're having a blast!  Here's the view from our balcony.

Does this man look relaxed, or what?!

We've gone more than 31 miles on our bikes in three days, and this is one of the views we saw on the first day.  We had to come back for a picture!  Live oaks are the state tree of Georgia.  Look how beautiful they are!

We rode about two miles of our trip today on the beach, with about half of that at Driftwood Beach.  Here's Keith with some wood in the water and on the beach behind him.  It's a very surreal landscape.

Jennifer crawled on a tree out over the water.  Happy girl!  (It was quite an adventure getting back to the dry land....)

Happy Birthday, Mama!

Jennifer's mom's birthday is today! We hope it's a great one.

You certainly worked hard last week making sure everyone knew what their jobs were for the wedding. Your phone rang off the hook! Thanks for keeping Jennifer sane as long as possible and for welcoming Keith into the family as a son. We can't say enough how much we appreciate you.

Feel free to leave a comment for her here, if you like.

Some group pictures

Our families


All of Keith's family


Jennifer's family


The unofficially adopted family - three generations!


The wedding party


The Sign Language Crew


The Ladies of Honor


Mike's daughters-in-law


The ministers


One side of the crowd

Pictures from our ceremony

Jay is escorting me down the stairs.


Keith is watching as I make my way through the crowd hugging lots of folks who love us.


In the Hands Ceremony, Nikki tells me that Keith's hands are a gift to me. His hands will celebrate with me, wipe the tears from my eyes, provide for our future, and care for children and elders in our families. Similarly, my hands are a gift to Keith.


Our Sand Ceremony starts with separate colors of sand that mix inside the frame to make a piece of art that will be displayed in our home. There is no way to separate the grains of sand into their individual colors again just like there is no way to separate our lives.


This picture was taken just after Nikki said, "Keith, you may kiss your bride" and just before she said, "And, Jennifer, you may kiss your groom."

From Jay's camera

Jay and Megan, his girlfriend, arrived on Friday. They came to our house first, and they met up with my mom and Ed at the hotel. Someone (probably Aunt Shirley) got drafted to take a picture. This sure does look like a happy crowd!


Melissa worked hard all weekend along with Lynne. This is a picture before the ceremony.


From his seat, Jay snapped a picture of us during the sign language. It's another angle of the first picture we posted two days ago. You can see both Rick and Nikki behind us in this one.


Jay and Aunt Shirley hadn't seen each other in ages (she lives in Iowa and wins the "longest distance traveled" award for the weekend), but they worked hard together during the weekend.


Jay and Megan at the reception. You can see blue flowers in the background.

Check this out!

Pictures in the park after our wedding!