more turkey?

i realized i had too many pictures and i just couldnt decide...so i had to add another post. hope you like these too :)

us enjoying an afternoon beer...somehow we justified doing that every single day.

caroline and amber are o-so-cool...but remember, the coolness factor of this picture is directly proportional to that of the photographer (you can figure that out, right?)

i couldnt help myself. (whitney, thats for you.)

this was our favorite lunch, hands down. the food was wonderful, the view was perfect, the weather was amazing, and the company was unbeatable :)

us enjoying after-dinner drinks in a wine bar/ book store...so random, but really fun. we got a history lesson from our curtish waiter. he wanted us to ask obama why the US wont let him in. amber's working on that.

turkey, anyone?

i went to istanbul in august with my 2 friends, amber lehman and caroline mitchell...why, you ask? caroline came up with the adventure, and i conviced amber that we had to go. so we did...yay. we stayed for 5 days in istanbul and then we flew to london where we met up with dave and matt (amber's husband.) here are some pics from turkey...

men washing their feet outside the mosque

me, amber, and caroline on a cruise of the bosphorus (the strait that separates the asian side of istanbul from the european one...yes, we killed 2 birds with one stone and hit up 2 continents in one city...)

this is a picture of the spice market- craziness. there were spices and dried herbs (and huge spools of turkish delight) everywhere! yes, amber and i snagged some paprika and saffron, among other things, to bring home :)

a picture of us outside the blue mosque, one of the most famous landmarks in the city- it was gorgeous- the entire inside was covered in tiny little blue tiles...no picture i took did it justice, so just imagine it in your head...

the view from a rooftop bar (very popular over there...) before our crazy good meal...we drank gin and tonics for $20 each and chalked it up to the cost of the view (which was well worth it, by the way)

little boy sunshine

so, we took a trip to the ocoee to celebrate my birthday a few weeks ago...there is not much better than white water rafting. and i dont go enough- this trip made me want to make this an annual occasion.
check out these pics. dave must have either gotten a memo that there was a camera on him OR this is documentation that he always has fun doing whatever he's doing because he was posing/smiling in EVERY one. every one. (so forgive me in advance for posting so many pictures of the same scenery...just doing it for effect. i hope you appreciate it...)

presh, libby, and me before we hit the rapids...check out libby's water socks. she is L-E-G-I-T.

dave smiling #1

dave smiling #2

dave smiling #3

dave smiling again (and his tongue is out, mind you) #4

tongue out again #5

still smiling #6

and, lastly, he's still having fun #8...notice one more thing...his paddle has yet to touch the water and we were ALL supposed to be PADDLING. hmm...

we love dave. and white water rafting.

dallas

dave surprised me with a plane ticket to dallas in july to visit my 2 best friends from high school...ridg just had her 3rd little girl so i got to go spend a few days with them. it was a BLAST! seems harder and harder these days to get together, so i appreciate that time so much...

here we are enjoying some cocktails before dinner (chad, ridg, and me)...reed was so sweet to play mom while the 3 of us spent some time together.

the 3 hogan girls...raney ("raney boo boo" to her sisters), dendy, and millie...arent they freakin adorable?

summer in highlands

earlier this summer, i went on a fun girls trip to highlands, nc...it was an awesome (but much too short) weekend- we hiked, ate sweet treats (my favorite!!), got treated to a wonderful southern lunch thanks to mrs. turnbull, cooked in, slept in, and got some great hang time...

us on our hike (from left to right its melanie rogers, me, presh, melanie wages, marshall turnbull, libby sanders, and brooke smith)

here we are at presh's parents house enjoying the beautiful weather and some fabulous cocktails compliments of candy killebrew :)

my comeback

well, hey there...its been a while...but I'M BACK :)

i have lots of excuses why i havent posted in FOREVER, but rather than list them one by one, im promising to post some pictures (in a timely manner) in the coming days letting you know whats been keeping me busy.

heres a little taste:

we sold our house (and moved)!!

whitewater rafting the ocoee for my birthday :)

istanbul

london

seaside

and in case you're wondering what im most excited about in the coming months...??

ole miss football...go rebs!!!

my old man...

dave celebrated his 31st birthday this past weekend...it was so much fun. we threw a party on friday night and it was a hit. saturday was his big day...we just hung out with friends, and then my parents took us to dave's all time favorite, stoney river :)

me with rachel ward and ashley eicher

aimee, dave, and idah...they are all rockstars :)

mel, aimee, me, presh, libby, and idah...all sweating our butts off

happy birthday, bo!

vbs...

rachel ward, aimee mwizerwa, and i put together a vacation bible school for the african refugee kids in town. most people dont know this, but nashville has one of the biggest refugee populations in the nation- we are very global. (besides the point, but nashville has the top US population of kurds...) anyway, we also have a huge group of africans- mostly from burundi, sudan, somalia, and rwanda. they are coming in every day. its crazy hearing them talk about where they've come from and how hard it is to acclimate into a completely different culture, education system, and way of life. can you even imagine?

aimee is...well, an angel to these people. she's from rwanda herself, and she works for african leadership ministering and serving the refugees. she helps them with everything they need- getting clothes, learning how to grocery shop, getting the kids in school, helping them learn english...you name it, she probably does it. and since she has so much on her plate, she enlisted rachel and me to help her plan vbs. its been going on this week...its been going well, but lets just say we have learned some good lessons for next year :)

believe it or not, we have had a lot of volunteers- some from local schools and also a church from pittsburg sent us some high schoolers. they've been great.

i turned my back for one minute and the next thing you know, these little punks had taken all 4 paint colors, squirted them onto the plate, and rubbed them around until it became army green...then painted their arms and started calling themselves frogs. i'd say that went well.

sweet dave has been the musical entertainment for the week...he has had some help along the way- thank you micah and wertzie! they've done great. we've resurrected "deep and wide", "this little light of mine", "i've got a river of life", and the crowd favorite, "father abraham"- when dave asked for requests this afternoon, one of the little boys shouted "jingle bells!" ...o yes we did.

ellie's run

last saturday was our long-awaited event, ellie's run for africa (affectionately known as ERFA for those of us who have been working on it for quite some time...) it was a great success! we raised thousands of dollars to put kids in school and we had a blast doing it. i must admit, i didnt actually "race" per se, but i did burn some quality calories cheering on the runners...i think they appreciated me :) i was overwhelmed with the number of people who came out- it was crazy! i also must give a little shout out to my ERFA boss, amber lehman. she freakin rocked it. she works her butt off all year for this event and she deserves a TON of credit. i am totally impressed by her willingness to give of her time, energy, and money- and im positively sure that ellie's run wouldnt raise half as much if it werent for her. it was a privilege to serve beside her (well, maybe a few yards behind her) and see all she does for this cause...and it made me even MORE proud to call her my friend!me, amber and allison bucchinani registering the runners. we felt it boosted our self-confidence to sit underneath that poster...

barrett, dave, micah, and matt lehman before the race...notice who is wearing numbers and who is not...

golf anyone?

brad took dave and me to the driving range to give us some pointers...brad is freakin unbelievable and we were...uhh...a little rusty, to say the least...

we're getting geared up...

im hoping brad's face wasnt a response to our performance...or maybe he had just realized the work he had cut out for him...

brad is a machine...no surprise there...

i'm just tryin...and now i have a little more motivation to practice- anyone wanna take up golf with me?

portland

im getting behind on posting...sorry...we'll have to play catch-up.

so, weekend before last, dave and i went to portland to spend some time with the young family. paul young is a friend of ours and he wrote the book The Shack. if you havent read it, im sure youve at least heard about it...either way, you should read it. paul is great and they have an amazing (and huge) family.

they just moved into a new house (picture above is the view from their backyard of mt. hood.) they had a big party last weekend celebrating 2 birthdays (lexi and matthew, the 2 youngest of 6 kids) and the new house. dave and matt wertz played a few songs, we ate, swam, played games, and hung out. we had a blast getting to know everyone. they welcomed us like part of the family...

dave has this new app on his phone where it takes 4 pictures back-to-back...we were playing bocce ball as the sun set, so you can see both :)

here we have most of the crew- abby and justin on the left, matthew, amy, tyler, me, then lexi, and nicco

amy and i rockin it in the hot tub...she was our hostess for the weekend, and a fanstastic one at that :)

this is us with paul before we took off back home-

another annie...

so... although i usually dont do this, (but now that im about to, im thinking that maybe i should do it more often...) i want to introduce you to a special friend of mine, annie. she is relatively new to nashville and, in less than one year, has successfully taken over this city. really.

she is an amazing writer and i think you should read what she writes..cause she's amazing. she is leaving for south africa in the morning- with the MOCHA CLUB...holla- and she is going to blog about her trip while she's gone.

also, she has her own personal blog and she wrote a really special blog about me today here. you should read that too. she has quite a way of putting things... im just crazy about how her mind works. she's one of those people that puts life into perspective and makes you realize the bigger picture. im really thankful for her. and i think there are a lot of people who are really thankful for her as well...

heres the link to her blog while she's with the mocha club in south africa...