Birthday Roadtrip

Like I mentioned before, in order to avoid any let down of birthday expectations, we postponed it until Kevin's finals were over and done with. Kevin planned a surprise roadtrip for me to Cincinnati where he took me to ride rollercoasters at Kings Island. It was pretty much the same as Texas theme parks except for it wasn't swelteringly hot--even a bit chilly to be honest! We spent nearly the whole day at the park and had plenty of whirling & twirling and ups & downs. Then we had a relaxing dinner at Cheddars (my fave!) and headed back to our room at the Hyatt that Kevin had reserved for us. As funny as it sounds, flipping channels is always one of our vacation highlights since we don't have TV at our apartment. So we spend the rest of the night hanging out at the hotel.


We spent the next day at a beautiful park in downtown Cincinatti. We read by the pond, toured a free art museum, and played Speed Scrabble. All in all, a wonderful birthday weekend. Three cheers for my husband and his surprise!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

I donated my hair to Locks of Love today. Here are some pictures of our hair adventure to prove it:

Going...



Going...



Gone...



























Here is our new marketing idea for Locks of Love. Mens facial hair pieces!



This is by far the shortest my hair has ever been. But Kevin likes it, I like it, and hopefully some little person who gets my hair will like it too!

The Blog hermit once again

Once again, I've let it happen. Once again, the Blog has slipped to last priority in the great scramble of life. But here is my dedication to you, all of my faithful Blog-readers: I've just spent two hours on a beautiful Sunday afternoon updated you all on the past three months of Peek life. To you, Jamie Butts, who has read and re-read January 31 update over and over again. To you, Kari Breed, who so kindly informed me that my Blog had become "officially boring." To you, Chris & Sarah Peek, who waited for the Ebenezer update like a drought waits for rain. To all of you who make this Blog count, this is for you!

(I'm so dramatic...isn't it fun?)

One day you wake up and you're 24...

That was the office quote of the day on my birthday last week. Seeing that I'm the oldest woman in my office, turning 24 set me even further ahead of my other 3 female co-workers.

In order to avoid any birthday disappointments, Kevin & I decided to postpone any birthday celebrations for a few weeks until he finished finals. So it's kind of like I get two birthdays now because that didn't stop the celebrating...

The night before my birthday, Kevin told me that we needed to go over to the Pennington's house to pick something up. The Penningtons are a dear family with whom we've gotten to be quite close. Our small group from church meets at their home every other week, and I babysit their six children often. When we got there, it turned out that they had planned me a family surprise party! With a family of eight plus Kevin & me, that's really all you need for a party. The told me that since I'm just a big kid that they had planned me a kid's birthday party. We played Pin-the-Head-on-Becky, musical chairs, and Kevin, Kevin, Becky (a revision of Duck, Duck, Goose). Each one of the kiddos made me a birthday card, and we had a famous Tracy Pennington birthday cake. So thank you to Jonathan, Tracy, Mandy, Spencer, Grant, Owen, Nathan, and Emma for making this such a special birthday!

Here is the final outcome of the Pin-the-Head-on-Becky game:


























I also got some very fun birthday e-mails. One was from my best friend in China, Leslie. It was so special to me that she actually remembered my birthday! The other was from Elijah Gentry:


























But the best gift is that Kevin is now done with finals! He's taking me on a surprise road trip next weekend. And when I say that I will update the Blog after we get back, I really will try to do it this time. I can't make any promises because obviously I'm a Blog-promise-breaker. But I promise to try my hardest! In the meantime, back to being 24.

A Very Busy Day, Part 1

The count-down began for April 28 at the beginning of the year. As the days counted down, the training miles counted up. First at 6, then at 7, 8, 9...all the way to 13.1 as I crossed the finish line of the Derby Mini-Marathon. Alongside my running buddy Beth Wilson, we finished in 1 hour and 56 minutes. That's right--we're so fast that people on the streets are confusing us for either Dean Karnazes or a Kenyan. Well, maybe not but I'm pleased with our time and we had fun nonetheless.

Here we are shortly after crossing the finish line:





You can also click here for some pictures of Beth & me mid-race. (You can click on the pictures to make them bigger).

Our favorite highlights of the race:

* Running through Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby would be held a week later. We even got to see some ponies running!

* The running Elvis club. There really are people who dress up like Elvis and run road races. They even push a baby stroller with a stereo playing Elvis music!



Now you might be wondering what our dear husband were up to while we ran. They said they would be studying for finals but you can be the judge on that one...







At least they made it to the finish line in time. Or I guess I should more appropraitely be saying at least I made it to the finish line!

A Very Busy Day, Part 2

After 13.1 miles and the hugest blood blisters I've ever seen, Kevin & I got all dolled up and headed over to see the one and only Ms. Vanessa Brooks become the one and only Mrs. Vanessa Kynes. The wedding was terrific. Dr. Al Mohler (the president at Southern) preached for part of the wedding, and the groom's father preformed the rest of the ceremony. My favorite part was that from the preaching to the music, the wedding was very characteristic of Will & Vanessa's personalities.

The reception was just as wonderful. They chose a glass blowing factory as their venue. I'm not talking a dirty industrial building but a beautiful reception room that overlooked these sweaty men making glass. Vanessa's stylistic eye with her greens & browns throughout the decorations definitely deserves a place in Martha Stewart magazine.

But more than the wedding, we are so excited for their marriage. These two are definitely perfect for each other. The Kynes are moving to Scotland in August for Will to pursue his PhD. I will miss you, V, but am so glad that I got to be a part of this Louisville season of your life. Welcome to the SWC!

"Haus"sitting with "Haus"guests

Last month, our dear friends from church, Larry & Kathleen Hausman asked us if we would live in their house for a week while they traveled down to New Orleans. Their dog Romeo is sixteen years old and needs some extra attention. Just so you can get the idea, here is a picture of our decrepit tenant:



Since Kevin was on spring break, we decided it would be a fun opportunity to serve them and have a change of pace for us. So we officially became "Haus"sitters for the Hausmans! Let the fun begin!

And oh boy did it. The kind of fun that involves water heaters exploding and flooding the entire basement. The kind of fun that involves my poor husband spending his spring break pulling up carpet and mopping up puddles. We were so thankful that we were there though--imagine what the basement would have looked like had the Hausmans come home a week later. Yikes!

That same week, sweet Ashley Marshall came up to visit us. I got to take some time off work and just spend the day together. I am so very thankful for Ashley's friendship. Thanks for taking the time to come visit, Ash! Wo ai ni!

Elbow Explosions

A word of caution: when playing intermural basketball, wear a mouth guard. That's all that has to be said. Especially when you're playing with seminary boys. Apparently, all that studying gives you explosive elbows on the court. Elbows that explode into Kevin's mouth...elbows that break two teeth in half...elbows that make us thankful that medical insurace covers emergency dental...elbows that make us thankful as well for dentists that can schedule you 12 hours later for two root canals and crowns.

Another word of caution: this picure isn't for the faint-hearted. So I made it a little smaller.



(This is after the dentist worked on him. When he was in so much pain that night, I couldn't bear to take a picture. We both regret it now because he really did look like a pirate.)

One year later and I'm still this excited!

One whole year of marriage. One whole year of laughter & tears, joy & frustration, quirks (and there are many!) and personalities. One whole year of loving each other more and loving the Lord more. After a year, we are both so thankful for marriage. Even though we see the grace we've been given, we are still learning roles in marriage and how to encourage one another better. We've developed tons of inside jokes, and we're very thankful that our home is filled with laughter.

Our first anniversary would not have been complete without the traditional top o' the wedding cake. My parents certainly were more than willing to pack up my Igloo cooler with ice packs and that freezer-space-dominating cake they've been keeping for the past 12 months. But it made it home and into our mouths on January 7th. It wasn't in our mouths very long though since it was a little too spongy. But tradition is tradition!

Our Ebenezer weekend was exactly what we wanted it to be: a weekend to get away and enjoy each other and to think on how faithful God has been to us.

This is how we felt when we got there!


























The online description of our cabin advised us to take a 4-wheel drive vehicle. Hmm...that could be a problem for our little Civic! So our dear friends Matthew & Nikki Savage traded us cars for the weekend and let us take their fancy 4 Runner. Quite honestly, one of Kevin's favorite parts of the whole weekend was climbing that steep, rocky terrain in his big ol' truck. Thanks again, Savages!


Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend the whole weekend alone. When we arrived, we noticed that our door was falling apart. We had to call the maintenance people and the next day our friend Gene arrived. Now we were quite aware that we were in rural Tennessee but if for some reason that face would have slipped our minds, Gene would have reminded us. He was a good ol' country boy and he sure did love to talk. It took him about two hours to fix our door and then ab out 30 minutes to tell us about a tasty local restaurant. We call him Garrulous Gene.

Another one of Kevin's favorite parts of the weekend was building a fire. It took a while to get it started (I was thankful to have a book at least!) but once it got going, we absolutely loved it.



But finally we had to go home. Back to life, back to Louisville, back to work and school. And this is how we felt then:

What's New in 2007

So this is a simple simon post. No pictures, just words. To be honest, it's taken me a while to get over the pride of producing a beautifully laid out post with pictures and captions and stylistically placed bolded fonts. But not today! I figure it's better to just give a little bit of something rough rather than nothing at all.

Kevin started back at school this past Monday. He is taking four classes: Systematic Theology III, Greek syntax (his book is called It's Still Greek to Me, which I think is very funny), Intro to Biblical Counseling, and World Religions. So far, he likes his classes very well (even the one that starts at 7 AM!), and we think this will be a good semester.

My exciting news is that I've begun training for a mini-marathon (13 miles) which is on April 28. I even put my money where my mouth is and actually registered for the thing. Sometimes I find it so ironic that people will pay money to go run a really long time. But we do. Crazy folk.

We're heading to Gatlinberg, Tennessee on Friday where we've rented a cabin in the Smokey Mountains for the weekend. This is our belated anniversary celebration vacation. If you think about it, please pray that the Lord would bless our time together. When the Lord defeated the Philistines in 1 Samuel 7:12, the Bible says that Samuel "took a stone and set it up...and called its name Ebenezer saying, 'Thus far the Lord has helped us.'" So pray for our Ebenezer weekend, that we would be able to recall all the ways the Lord has helped us this past year in growing us both more in the image of Christ through this mystery called marriage.

We'll give you Ebenezer updates next week!

Tour de Tejas

Though Christmas has come and gone, I feel like we're just now winding down from all the holiday hustle. So you can't blame me for taking a month off from blogging, considering our December included six states, three different time zones, and many precious friends and family members. So here for you is our Tour de Tejas:

Yes, Blogworld, we braved the loooooong drive to Tejas. We stayed the night in Memphis at the lavish Ramada Inn to break up the drive at least somewhat. Nevertheless, from start to finish, two best friends (me & Kev that is) with 800 miles traveled, the snack bag eaten (no meal pitstops for this frugal pair!), one book-on-tape enjoyed (well, kind of enjoyed...), lots of Christmas carols sung (over and over again), and we arrived in Denton at Kevin's parent's house. We enjoyed dinner with the parents and Kevin's sister Robyn's family that was not able to join us in Spokane.

The next morning we headed to Arlington to see the precious Gerlt family. It was so refreshing just to be in their home again and to meet newest addition to the Gerlt family.



Then we headed to Austin to meet up with my parents for Christmas. As we have for every Christmas I can remember, we headed to Houston to join our extended family. Here are our favorite Christmas memories of '06:



Whoonu! Thanks to sister Shannon who brought this delightful game to Spokane, we too had lots of laughs on this side of the family. It was especially fun since my darling granny could join us in the festivities. Just don't try to change the rules. Though you might think it would confuse granny, it really just confuses my PhD mother.



Moose Meat! It has turned into a yearly tradition to receive Moose Munch popcorn from my aunt & uncle in Oklahoma. Though I think it's intended for the entire family, you have to make sure and get at it before mom does.

Mark & Val...sort of! Mark & Valerie weren't able to join us from New Jersey this year. Being the technically savvy people that we are, we scheduled a conference call Christmas so we could open our gifts together.




My sweet husband had to work the 27th so he left from Houston to brave the drive back to Louisville...alone! He let me stay behind so I could spend some more time with my family & friends. Here is my showcase of my lovely friends I got to see:



Mama Ambs! Elijah is getting bigger and bigger! I absolutely love watching Amber as a mother and was so thankful to get to spend so much time with her. If only Louisville & Austin were closer!



Holly's in college! I've know this sweet girl since she was in eighth grade, and now she's in college. It's hard to believe!



Andrea's engaged! Though only for a short bit, I got to meet up with my dear friend Andrea Carney. We were roomies in China in 2004, and now she's engaged! Maybe I'll get to see her on the big day...



The One & Only...Ashley Marshall! A trip to Texas just wouldn't be complete without my fearless companion. Ashley was kind enough to be my date to a wedding when Kevin was absent.



Mrs. Sarah Patrick! Sarah was my roommate the last year of college, and now she's married. I was so thankful to be able to attend and was encouraged by how Scripture saturated their entire wedding was. Plus there were lots of fun friends to see. Derek & Sarah~ May your marriage be used to the end goal of not only happiness but primarily holiness.





And then back to reality. Back to Louisville. Back to work. Back to my husband. So fun. What a trip!

Merry Christmas from Our Home to Yours

This is our 2006 Christmas card & year in review:



Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas to you all! This past year has included so much change and transition for our new family. After our wedding on January 7, which we were so delighted to share with many of you, we moved to Louisville, Kentucky for Kevin to pursue a masters degree at Southern Seminary. His degree is tailored toward international church planting, and our hope is to be able to move overseas for a two-year term in 2008. He has now finished two semesters and is enjoying his class work and the professors tremendously. Kevin also works part-time at a fondue restaurant called the Melting Pot. I am currently working as a legal assistant at a personal injury law firm. This is by far the most interesting job I've ever had, and between Kevin's job and my own, we have plenty of interesting stories to share at the dinner table.

Outside of work and school, we are so blessed to be a part of a wonderful church home at Clifton Baptist Church. Our church is so faithful to the exposition to the Scriptures, and we are thankful for the teaching we receive each week. This group of people has quickly become our second family, and the relationships we have built here have made our transition away from home much easier. Our pastor and his family were even gracious enough to invite us to share Thanksgiving with them!

2006 has been the year of weddings for both the Peek and the Corbin families. Besides our own wedding to kick off the year, Kevin's sister Shannon was married in May and my brother Mark was married in October. We were thankful to be able to join our families in Texas for these two celebrations. Kevin's twin brother Chris will be married on December 16, so we will be headed up to Spokane, Washington very soon. Now that all the family weddings are over and done with, our families will have to come up with another excuse to get together.

We do hope that you have a God-centered, Christ-exalting Christmas. How amazing it is that the fullness of God was actually born into earth as the little baby Jesus so that He could grow up to take the punishment that we deserve for our sin and failure to love God rightly! May we delight in God’s heart for Himself and for us as the true heart of Christmas! We love you and are thankful for you!

Though He was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ~Philippians 2:6-11

Mr. & Mrs. Christopher Peek

Our family has grown yet again! We headed up to the great northwest last Thursday to enjoy the beauty of marriage between Mr. Christopher Peek and Ms. Sarah Comfort. We woke up bright and early to catch our 7 AM flight to Spokane, Washington where we spent the day helping out with last minute preparations for the wedding. Chris & Sarah truly have a wonderful community & group of friends, with whom Kevin & I both had a wonderful time hanging out and getting to know. There were so many opportunities to serve Chris & Sarah that day and the next, and many of my prayers were answered as the Lord continued to give me a heart to be observant for needs that I could meet and ways I could serve. My dear husband was such a servant as well, and it made me proud to be his wife to watch him help his brother in so many ways. With the three hour time change though, the day seemed forever long but a blessing nonetheless.

Friday the rest of the family arrived, and it was rehearsal and rehearsal dinner extravaganza. Chris & Sarah even carved an evening out of their wedding weekend for our family Christmas celebration at our hotel. We didn't have mom's cinnamon rolls or Settlers of Catan, but apparently our festivities were festive enough and a little bit too loud for the other hotel guests, as we were interrupted by the late-night security guard.

Saturday was the big day! Our dear friend Matthew Savage performed the marriage ceremony, and, unlike other Peek weddings of the past, he successfully invited the audience to be seated as the ceremony began. I was most encouraged by Chris & Sarah's intentionality to put Christ at the center of their wedding. Their vows were thoughtfully written to detail their loyalty to their God-given roles to one another as head and helpmate. Sarah couldn't help but to put a quirky twist at the end of her vows to Chris: "And I'm so darn excited to be your wife!"

Chris & Sarah had asked Kevin & I to be their escorts from the wedding chapel to the hotel. This proved to be lots of fun even after we dropped them off at the hotel. The car we were driving still had the JUST MARRIED sign on it, so we continued to receive honks and waves. Who was I to crush the enthusiasm of our excited bypassers? So of course I waved and grinned and carried on just like a giddy new bride would do!

We were truly glad to be a part of this joyful weekend. May Christ continued to be glorified in your new home, Mr. & Mrs. Peek! We love you both!

Work Perks & U of L Basketball

So one of the bonuses of my job is the perks that our partners give us. As if it weren't entertaining enough to spend day in and day out at the office, our partners bought season tickets for the office to the University of Louisville basketball games. They told us the seats were pretty good but I had no idea that this is where we'd be sitting:















Every person in the office gets to go to two games. My sweet friend Helen McDonald (another Aggie grad!) went with me to this particular game, as my poor husband had to work. We had such a fun time, except the view made it a little difficult to follow the game:

Post Offices & Passports

So I talked to my sweet mother last night. She was telling me about her day, which included a visit to post office. Very nonchalantly, mama added the she picked up an application for a passport. I asked her she was planning on going, though I just assumed she and daddy were planning a trip to Europe over Christmas break (which would be a shock in itself). "Well, of course," she said. "It's for when I go visit you when you move overseas." Even though we're not going to be leaving for at least another year and a half, I was so blessed that my mom would think ahead so naturally. So thanks for loving me so specifically, mama!

I can go ahead an update everyone on our Thanksgiving holiday as well. Since we were so far from home, our pastor and his family invited us to join them. They really are a neat family, and it was such a pleasure to get to be a part of their traditions. Plus the weather recently has been just like Texas (but it's supposed to snow tomorrow). Though Kevin missed his mama's cinnamon rolls and Shannon's dog show, our first Thanksgiving away from home was quite enjoyable.

Kevin has survived his second full semester of school. He finished his last two finals today. I am so proud of my studious husband. When I watch how hard he works at school, I am reminded of how he is striving to move our family forward into the next phase of life.

So that's an update on our crazy KY life!