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: