Deck The Halls!

Hooray! It's December! Can you all believe it? How is it really December already? But we LOVE December because that means Christmas, family, and vacation. Merry Merry indeed :-). To get in the spirit, we pulled out the Christmas tree (thanks, Mom and Dad!) and all of the gorgeous ornaments we received from a Christmas wedding shower our dear friends Liz and Jody hosted for us two years ago, turned on the holiday carols, and got this dorm apartment looking festive! A whole month of coming home to a decked hall--gotta love it. Bring on the holidays!




Speaking of holidays, we just enjoyed the most wonderful visit to Driftwood, Texas to see Clay's parents and sister. John is in Azerbaijan with the Peace Corps for the next two years (umm, yeah, he rocks), and we missed his fun sense of humor and big hugs tremendously as we feasted on Kay's to-die-for cornbread dressing, turkey, southern-style green beans, homemade cranberry sauce, hot rolls (you know I love those!), corn pudding, and yes--a chocolate bourbon pecan pie.

I didn't want to move for hours...but we did as Clay and I made our way to the famous Broken Spoke on Thanksgiving evening to see Jesse Dayton (a great country singer who performed at Nick and Ashley's wedding!) and do a little Texas two-step.



Did Clay and I know what we were doing? No. Were we the only ones in the whole place who didn't know what they were doing? Heck yes. But we laughed our way through a couple of sets and then admired the footwork (and, we have to admit, the tight jeans and cowboy boots) of the other patrons.

A little (or a lot) outlet mall shopping, some workouts around the Sierra West neighborhoods, some yummy Mama Gahan meals, a James Bond flick, the celebration of Kay and Pat's 33rd wedding anniversary (awesome), and lots of reading happily filled up our short time in the Lonestar state. We always love going to see them. Life is happy, the food is the best, the weather is always warm, and the time with family simply can't be more fun or special. Thanks for a great visit, Pat and Kay! We can't wait to see you up here in February!


Happy Holidays to you all!

Refining and Refinishing

Yup, this weekend we refinished our dining room chairs. Love the new green fabric on the antique chairs that have hosted Hume family members for generations. And we are talking GENERATIONS--the insides of the old seat cushions hid 3 layers of fabric, old burlap, and horsehair. You should have seen us tearing them up--tacks and fibers and threads were everywhere; Camden was having a field day (don't worry, though--we kept him at a safe distance). But I have to admit that it was so therapeutic to do something with my hands (other than grade--ha!) and be creative again. It's been too long since we have tackled a creative project and made something totally unique! 1 chair down, 5 to go, but no matter how long it takes me to grade those Lord of the Flies passage analyses tests tonight and prep for this week, I have a feeling the end of the evening will find me on the floor with the trusty staple gun. I just love this too much!

What I don't love is the Tennessee process for becoming a state certified school bus driver. Yes, ladies and gentlement, Sara Gahan is now an official, legal school bus driver. OH BOY. On Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m., I met the manager of the Hamilton County school transportation depot and for the next two hours proceeded to identify over 75 parts of a school bus (catalytic converter anyone?), drive the bus backwards through cones, and do a speed-limit-only tour of Chattanooga in a bright blue GPS bus. Covered in grease (from sliding underneath the bus to point out the steering, suspension, exhaust, and shock systems--I'm not kidding) and soaking wet from the rain, I found myself asking, "Now, why am I here again? Is THIS why I got a master's degree? However, after three months of various testing (this was only the last step), a medical physical to ensure I am healthy enough to drive (again, not kidding), and five tutorial systems with a CDL tutor (??!!**), I passed the final inspection and can now drive the same mini-bus that I drove for the past 4 years at Saint James. Don't ask; I still don't know why I had to go through all of this. But now I can drive the Cross Country team to our practices and various meets. It's a good thing, too--the season just ended. Ah, gotta love it.

But in all seriousness :-) and with the exception of the early morning driving test, we had a great weekend. Sara went to the McC headmaster's house on Friday night for some fun time with the McWomen and then together we made shrimp creole and relaxed at home with Cam-dawg. Clay volunteered with our young adult church group (called the YAMs) at the Community Kitchen on Saturday morning while I was at the bus depot, and then we hosted two of our new friends to brunch at the dining hall--they loved it. I mean, what's not to love? Jello, soft-serve ice cream, and rice krispies at every meal. Heaven. We worked out at the gym, took a glorious nap on Saturday afternoon, and then browsed the beautiful fabrics at one of my students' family fabric store before picking up a pizza and a bottle of wine and heading home to cheer on the Tide.

Our Sunday School class continues to roll on, and today we had a great group of 12 people who were all enthusiastically involved. YAY. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out the trick to not working the entire rest of the day on Sundays (Mary, how do you do it?), but we did manage to get in a long walk along the ridge with Camden.




This week brings a baby shower for a co-worker, the second meeting of the literary society, duty, book club, and the cross country banquet and slide show (which I am in charge of making--yikes). It will be a long week, but we are always trying to squeeze in moments together and some down time.

We love you all!

We Love This Time of Year!

What an exciting week it has been! From Obama's election to state football playoffs to a half-marathon this morning, we have been taking advantage of all of the neat things happening in our community and in the nation. It's also fall--and in Chattanooga, that means BEAUTY. Man, the trees on this campus are stunning...and I am not one who usually stops to marvel at the changing colors. But WOW. It's tough not to notice how gorgeous this time of year is on Missionary Ridge. Here are some cute pictures of Clay and Camden as we head down to the track for Clay's workout this afternoon:











I was more than happy to cheer Clay on during his Crossfit workout (check it out--it's this online workout phenomenon that Clay has been following religiously since Spring: www.crossfit.com. It's all about maximizing your workout in a short amount of time. It's pretty hard core.). Clay was the rockstar cheerleader this morning as I ran the Chickamauga Half-Marathon. I have been looking forward to this race for weeks, viewing it as my opportunity to put all of the CC workouts to the test. I felt good throughout the whole race and finished in 1:51 (8:31/mile pace). My goal was under 2:00, so I was pretty pumped. But I was most pumped about a crew of girls who surprised me and showed up to cheer me and our head coach on--the CC team! They brought out their bikes and faithfully biked all over the course, cheering us on to the point where another runner looked at me and said, "I think you have the best fans out here." SO TRUE. I didn't know they were coming, but I smiled throughout the whole race and felt so blessed to know a group of girls this special. Coaching can be exhausting at times, but there is simply nothing else I have found that provides quite as much depth of emotion and connection with kids. There is something about working together to achieve a goal and pushing yourself to the limit day in and day out that makes you feel an extra close connection with your teammates. Coaching and being a part of team is such a dynamic, exhilarating, all-encompassing experience...and I feel so grateful to have coached this special group of girls this year. They have brought so much joy to my life this fall.

Tuesday night we were on duty in the dorm, so we hosted an election night party for the boys and were with them with Obama was declared President. At that moment, all loyalties and opinions were pushed aside as realized we were watching history unfold. Clay and I stayed up to watch McCain's concession speech and Obama's acceptance speech, both of which we thought were pretty impressive pieces of rhetoric. Now if only I can figure out how to weave them into my courses...

Wednesday and Thursday nights were big work nights for us (grades due Monday), but we of course took a break to watch The Office, our favorite. Last night Clay headed to Nashville to watch the Big Blue battle Ensworth. Unfortunately, it was the end of the road for the Blue Tornado as they lost 34-17. I stayed home, ate pasta, graded papers, and went to bed early in anticipation for the race this morning.

Today, after picking up my favorite Apple Cinnamon bread from The Bread Basket and a Caribbean Way smoothie from Smoothie King (yum) on the way home from the race, we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon. We met our friends Adam, Whitney, and Erin for dinner at Jet Stream Grill (yes, I'm not joking--everything on the menu is named after weather patterns. Mom would love it) and then went to GPS to watch the fall production of To Kill a Mockingbird. It was very well done. What a great, great story.

Tomorrow is Sunday School and Church and then a long day of grading, but its been a great week so far, so we can't complain. And when you have a dog as cute as Camden, life is just always good :-).

Love to you all!

CC State

After five months of training, countless miles run, dozens of workouts in the weight room, several inspirational talks, and a pretty awesome pasta dinner at the home of one of our runners on Halloween, our team traveled to Nashville's Percy Warner Park for State today. We were expecting to come in third, we were hoping to come in second, and we thought with a miracle we could win it all. We came in sixth. Needless to say, it was a disappointing day. But our team is composed of some incredible young women, and after some tears and reflection, we rallied to take some pictures of the team before we headed home.

It's been a great season.

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween with the adorable kiddos on campus--and look at the fabulous pumpkins that the boys in our dorm carved! Go Blue Tornado!