Our "Suwanee Ward" Debut

So today Rod and I spoke for the first time in our new ward. We've been there for 5 months & we thought we were totally safe! They threw us into Nursery pretty quick so we were able to "hide out" for quite some time. Well 2 weeks ago...Rod decided to go find a member of the bishopric to give our tithing to cuz we had the kids eating their snacks and we always have a tough time finding someone after church to give it to. He was gone for 5 mins...and he came back with the 2nd counselor by his side...yep, busted. There are so many new ppl moving into the ward so we were only "new" for about a week!
Anyways - I guess it was inevitable. My talk went well...I always get really nervous for some reason and I'm pretty sure my voice was a little shaky the entire time, but I got the congregation to laugh twice during my talk which helped me relax a little! PHEW! Rodney did amazing! He acts so calm and his words just flow so elegantly, kinda makes me sick. :~)
I guess the good thing is we won't have to give another talk until we move back to AZ! YAY! And don't worry...we are still believers in paying our tithing...but we now recommend MAILING it instead!

My trip to Jacksonville, FL

This past weekend I hopped on a 48 min flight and headed down to Jacksonville to meet my pals Shannon & Amanda Gillespie for a weekend in Florida! A guy named Gil that Shannon taught on her mission was going thru the temple for the first time and that event was pretty much the main reason we went out there. Orlando is the closest temple to Jacksonville and is only a few hrs away from where we were staying. It was an AMAZING experience and it was so cool to see the excitement & happiness in his eyes.

There were a lot of supporters there, some that drove almost 4+ hours to get there! Even his best friend who is a recent convert himself, drove 2 hours and was outside to greet him as he came out of the temple. So after lots of hugs and about a million pics, all 18 of us headed down to Olive Garden to celebrate!

We visited Gainesville - the home of the University of Florida GATORS, which was Non's last area of her mission. I went to the single's ward with them and tried my best to blend in! It was pretty nice outside - so we decided to walk campus and see some of the sights. The campus is HUGE and they are pretty hardcore there...there was a gas station completely painted blue and orange to represent the school colors. Talk about school spirit...

Everything there was pretty spread out, we spent a lot of time driving to get where we needed to but it was def. worth it! One of my fave places we went was Fernandina Beach. Met up with a few more converts that Non taught and WOW - they were probably some of the nicest ppl I've ever met! Some haven't even been members for a yr and you could tell they had rock solid testimonies! And what was even more amazing is they were in a branch - and it blows me away how devoted and faithful they are even when the majority of ppl around them are inactive or not members. It made me feel a little disappointed that I haven't really considered what a blessing it is to have been born and raised in the church!

Monday came around and it was time to head back to our respective homes...for the first time in my LIFE of flying - I heard the words that no one wants to hear in the security line - "BAG CHECK". They scanned it twice and the guy had to take me over and check the contents of my backpack which contained a book, my iPod and my purse with all my crap.
Carrie - guess what they were suspicious of...MY OVERSIZED D&G PURSE ZIPPERS! Had to laugh about it though...I guess that's the price you pay to own a sweet purse! :~)


The trip was a success, made life-long memories and that's the most important thing. So what better way to end a trip, than in a random rocking chair at the Jacksonville Airport.