updating

Now that our time in The Islands has come to an end we are updating our website and preparing to move again.

the present and the future

What have we been doing lately?
Well...
We have been to Lexington to visit the family.
We have been to Lexington to hang out with Sarah & Woody and David.
We have been planning a very exciting family vacation to St. Simons Island, GA.
We have been taking care of Asher.
We have been taking care of Roger (he had his wisdom teeth removed).
We have been twittering (you can follow Courtney or Roger).
We have been exploring the world of swagbucks (you can check it out here).
We have been taking lots of picture of Asher (you can see those here).

What will we be doing?
Well...
We will be going to St. Simons Island, GA.
We will be going back to Lexington to go to Keeneland.
We will be going to Louisville to meet Maddie and family.
We will be taking care of Asher.
We will be going to Denver for our appointment service.
We will be going to Richmond, VA for 8 weeks of training at the end of July.
We will be moving to Bangkok at some point (don't have a definite date yet).

And don't forget to keep up with Asher's life by reading his blog!
www.thehamptonbaby.blogspot.com

Ice Storm

We survived the Ice Storm and the accompanying power outage. I put all of our pictures on our zenfolio page, so if you missed out on the actual storm you can see what it looked like at our house by clicking here.

This picture was taken on Oak Street when we were leaving our neighborhood to go to Nashville. It was definitely the craziest thing I have ever seen. There were trees and power lines down everywhere. We were taken in by some of our wonderful neighbors until the roads cleared up enough for us to leave. Thanks to them we were able to keep Asher warm and enjoy some great company.

what's going on

During the past few weeks we have been busy traveling and visiting family and friends. We have been to Lexington and Louisville and will be going to Richmond, VA in two weeks. In Lexington we visited Roger's family and spent some time with Sarah and Woody. The next week we went to Louisville for an interview for our new job and were able to visit the Record family, spend the night at Will and Beth's house and drop by the Webb's house for a quick visit with Laura and Andrew. It's been a busy few weeks!

On Sunday night, December 11, Roger and I will be speaking in the evening service at Lone Oak FBC. If you are interested in hearing stories or seeing pictures from our time in Indonesia come and join us.

Check out Asher's blog and zenfolio to see what else we have been doing.

we're home

We just wanted to let everyone know that we made it to Kentucky. It was a long trip, but Asher was great and we didn't have any problems. We are all jet-lagged (especially Asher), but we are recovering and adjusting to the icy conditions in Paducah. It is great to be home with our family and we are looking forward to spending lots of time with them over the next 6 months.

We did have a great send-off from Surabaya. As soon as our friends arrived to take us to the airport it started raining. It wasn't just a few sprinkles, it was a full out rainstorm. Everyone was soaked by the time our 2 suitcases, 4 duffel bags, 2 carry ons, diaper bag, car seat, and stroller were loaded into the car. During the whole loading process our electricity went out and the street and house began to flood. We jumped into the car and took off for the airport before it got any worse. Luckily we made it just fine, but we have been told that our street flooded quite a bit after we left.

No new pictures for now, we forgot the power cord for our computer in Surabaya (since we were leaving in the dark). Hopefully it will be here soon and we will be able to post some pictures for our last days in Surabaya and our first days in America.

the big trip: part 1

Well, it is near midnight on January 1 and tomorrow is the big day! We are going to the field! This is such a confusing time, full of excitement and anticipation of what is waiting for us on the other side of the world, and at the same time we feel sad as we leave our friends and family behind. It is hard to imagine how much will change in the next few years.
Tonight we were able to get together with the CCBC crew for one last goodbye (I think we've managed to have like 4 goodbyes with them, but this one is for good.)

What a fun time of reminiscing about previous trips and talking of things to come. Thanks guys for a wonderful last night in da Ville.

As you can see all of our bags are packed and we are ready to travel. We hope to update this journal as we go, but that will depend on the availability of free wireless internet at the airports.
Here is a travel schedule, please remember us tomorrow as we fly.
Jan 02 3:35 pm Depart Louisville for Dallas
Jan 02 6:00 pm Depart Dallas for Los Angeles
Jan 02 10:20 pm Depart Los Angeles for Hong Kong
Somehow we are completely skipping Jan 03 and spending most of Jan 04 in the Hong Kong airport.
Jan 04 6:00 pm Depart Hong Kong for The Islands
Jan 04 7:45 pm Arrive in The Islands

skype

We just wanted to let everyone know about this great service called skype. Skype is a program that you download onto your computer that enables you to talk to others free of charge over the internet as long as you are talking to someone else that has this program. We already have this on our computer and if you do not have it, we highly encourage you to download it onto your computer because we would love to actually talk with our friends and family over the next 2-3 years. To get it, all you need to do is go to www.skype.com and download it...it is a very easy process! We look forward to talking to you soon!

coming soon

We are going to be sending out our "Island Update" very soon. If you have signed up to receive our updates and given us your email address, look for it in your inbox in the coming days. If you would like to receive our update and have not given us your email address, email us at rogerandcourtney@gmail.com and we would be happy to add you to our mailing list!

almost time to go

We are back in Kentucky after 7 weeks or so of training in Virginia. We have been in Louisville visiting friends and we spoke at CCBC on Sunday morning. It was good to be back one last time before heading to Southeast Asia.


Then we went to Lexington, the best city in the Commonwealth, to celebrate Christmas with Roger's family and say "good-bye" for 2-3 years. We also got to hang out with Woody and Sarah, our very dear friends and former roommates in Louisville. We drove around Lexington looking at Christmas lights, both the classy kind that you would find in the nice areas and the tacky kind which is definitely much more fun!



Now we are in Paducah and will be here until January 1st. We will celebrate Christmas with Courtney's family and hang out with some of her friends before we ship out. We will also be speaking at LOFBC on Christmas Eve morning at the 10:50 service.

Maybe we should have a "tour" link like bands so that everyone will see where we will be, but I suppose that is a little pretensious, however, below you can find our schedule for the next couple weeks

December 21 - Leave Lexington for Paducah
December 24 - Speak at LOFBC in Paducah
December 25 - Christmas Day
January 1 2007 - Leave Paducah for Louisville
January 2 - Fly out for The Islands (at last!)
January 4 - Arrive in The Islands

did you get the update?

Dear Friends,

We just wanted to let you know that we sent out our first email update last week! The update came from a different email address, so if it did not appear in your inbox, try looking in your junk mail folder. If you have looked there and still did not find it, then there is the possibility that you did not get it (for some reason or another), and for that we are deeply sorry. Let us know if you did not get it by sending us an email at rogerandcourtney@gmail.com and we will make sure that you get on the update list!

things you hear on the farm

I (Courtney) went walking today and noticed several things that seem somewhat unusual. First, there were cows. This is not unusual here, we live near a farm with lots of cows. But today the cows were near the fence and they actually looked up and stared at me when I walked by. And then they ran away. Second, I could hear electricity going through the overhead power lines. Louisville is never quiet enough that you can actually hear the electricity. Third, the cows again, they were in the field eating grass as I walked by and I noticed a strange noise. It was the cows. They were eating grass and I could hear them biting and chewing. It was pretty weird.


In other, somewhat important news, we are leaving FPO in less than two weeks and are leaving the country one month from today. We now have visas, tickets and an ipod, pretty much everything one needs to travel internationally.

sorry for the delay

Dear Friends,

We are sorry that we have not put any new posts on our website...we have been very busy and our computer is broken...it needs a new motherboard! We are almost done here in Rockville, it is amazing how fast time flies. Here is a schedule of events in the coming weeks.

December 14 - Leave VA for KY
December 16 - Arrive in Louisville
December 17 - Speak at CCBC in Louisville

here we are

Look at pictures of us.
www.rogerandcourtney.zenfolio.com

i'm tough (at least this week)

Today was our second clinic (shot) day. As you may have heard, we had a rough time with our shots last week. Roger got rather dizzy after his four shots and Courtney got rather sick after her five shots. We have decided to blame all of that on a stomach bug/bad cold. We are tough people, we are not afraid of needles...well, we are afraid of needles, but the nurses here are really good at giving shots and we keep our eyes closed while they do it...
As a result of our illness last time we were scheduled to come into the clinic a little early today. I think they were scared that we would get sick again. Courtney had to lie down on a table, tilt her head back, and apply a wet rag to her throat (this is supposed to restrict blood flow to the diaphragm and somehow this has something to do with preventing vomiting). It was sort of funny and actually a nice way to get shots. Luckily we only had to get two shots today along with a TB skin test and we are proud to report that everything went well. I (Courtney) hope you can see my bandaids, this week I have Garfield and Shrek, Roger has the same. Last week Roger had Hello Kitty and My Little Pony.

a day in the life

We thought that perhaps our adoring public would like some insight into how we spend our days or training. Here it is!

6:30 am Wake up
7:35 am Roll into breakfast and hope that there is either gravy and biscuits or oatmeal available.
7:55 am Quickly make our way from the cafeteria to the auditorium for our first session of the day.
8 am As a group we discuss our reading from the day before and then have time to spend with Dad, this time has been named "Second Breakfast" by Elbert.
9 am Our first session of the day. The topics so far have ranged from Applied Anthropology to strategies we will use in our new jobs. These sessions continue until noon.
12 pm LUNCH! So far the best meals have been the "special meals." These meals are supposed to prepare us for different cultures, normally they are far better than what is normally served for lunch AND we get to eat with our hands.
1:15 pm More sessions on more stuff we need to know for our new jobs, if you are really interested in what we learn send us an email and we can share some specifics.
3 pm FREEDOM! The majority of our days officially end at 3, although we often go for a few more hours meeting with different Company departments to talk about fun stuff like payroll or taxes. Before dinner we will sometimes go walking around campus or spend some nice, quiet, alone time with our Dad.
5 pm Dinner. Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is not so good. Tonight we had lasagna, last night we had something called "Jumpin' Johns." I don't know what that is.
6 pm Go see our friends or go somewhere or do homework. We are taking a class while we are here, so we have quite a bit of homework and reading to do on top of the assignments that are required by our region and by the training program.
The Rest of the Evening
We sometimes go into town and go to Target or Starbucks or we play sports. So far basketball has been our favorite evening activity. On Sundays we get to play outdoor sports like soccer or ultimate frisbee. Roger is quite the goal keeper and Courtney just runs around trying to look like she's doing something while staying out of the way of the ball and the big guys chasing the ball. Later in the evening our dorm seems to come to life and we all gather in the lobby to play games. Usually poker. I know, we're here, but we're playing poker. Don't worry, no money changes hands.

Well, I hope that can give you a better idea of what all we have been doing. We are having a wonderful time and are enjoying all of the things that we are learning. The time is going by so fast, we can't believe that we are already in week 3 (of 7). Email us and let us know how you are doing, we haven't heard from anybody in a while.

for will j

We have already had the privilege of finding the elusive j-man room, in fact we found the signature of CCBC's own Will J and decided we needed to leave our mark by him (you can tell we had to black out the name of our country). A lot of schools have their own parts of the room and we are proud to say that CCBC has now staked a claim.

umm, i'm dizzy sausage gravy

We have had another great week here in Virginia. It has been a busy one, but good nonetheless. Roger has been a little under the weather for most of the week, but for the most part he is feeling better now. We have been going to all of our sessions which this week was about CPM...for help on the acronyms, feel free to write us and ask.


Then on Friday, we got our first round of vaccines! We each had 4 shots!!!! Japanese Encephalitis, Polio, Hepatitis, and Rabies. From the title of this you can infer that it did not go so well and that we shut the clinic down for a while.

For those of you asking about pictures, they will be up soon. We forgot the camera cord at home and is in the process of being shipped here.

Now we are on to our class from 3-5pm and then another weekend of ESL certification!

UPDATE!!! Remember Courtney as you bring your requests to the Father, she is not feeling very well, probably an adverse reaction to the shots.

weekends on the farm

So I am sure that everyone is wondering what us crazy kids do out here on the farm on Fridays right? Well, you are in luck!

Today was a great day! We started our day off with a couple of really good sessions and then we got to spend several great hours alone with our Father. If you want to know more about that, feel free to ask us. Then we had one last session which was very cool.

Now for Friday night...We had dinner at 5pm (as usual) and then we had a party, and by party I mean we ran laps around the basketball court for 20 minutes. Roger ran 34 laps and Courtney was the winner with 37. Now we are planning on going over to a friends' to play some games!

On Saturday we are going to attend an ESL class from 9am-5pm and will get our certification next Saturday after yet another 9-5 session! Oh the joys of being a RLM!

rockville (that's right near short pump)

We have arrived at ILC in Virginia and will be living here for the next seven weeks as we complete training to prepare for our move to the Islands. The past few weeks have been very busy, but we are happy to report that everything went well. We moved out of our apartment and managed to sell everything we needed to sell and gave away the rest. CCBC was a huge help in loading our UHaul and we are very thankful for them. UHaul on the other hand was not a big help.

We also had a wonderful time on vacation with Courtney's family (check out the pictures at www.rogerandcourtney.zenfolio.com) and also enjoyed visiting Roger's family in Lexington (pictures coming soon). We had a big send off dinner at LOFBC before we left and were able to say bye to many of our family and friends.

Things are just getting started here and we will be sure to update you more on what we are doing as soon as we figure some of it out. We have an address so please feel free to send us stuff. You can email us or just ask one of our moms and they will be able to give it to you.

momma, we're coming home!

Well, we are finally down to our last few days in our apartment and in Louisville. Today we will pick up our UHaul and start loading it up. For the next few weeks we will be traveling quite a bit and visiting with family and friends. In case anybody is wondering, here is our schedule:

Oct 4 and 5 - Loading moving truck, cleaning the apartment, and doing something with the Jacksons that involves being blindfolded, $16 and being picked up at 6:30 Thursday evening.

Oct 6 - Moving to Paducah Day, yes, we are moving in with my mom

Oct 7 thru 13 - Atlanta, Covington, and Jekyll Island, GA. We are going to visit the fam, go on a little vacation and hopefully see one of Atlanta's newest residents, Gabe Close.

Oct 16 and 17 - Back to Louisville for some meetings and a few last minute visits

Oct 18 - Lexington for our nephew Brandon's football game and a little family visiting

Oct 19 - Sell the Honda and make our way back to Paducah

Oct 24 - Leave for FPO in Rockville, VA

We are quickly learning that saying goodbye to our friends will be the hardest part of starting this journey. As we approach each last thing, our last night of sitting on the Jackson's couch, our last load of laundry, our last night in our first home, we try to not dwell on leaving, but on what we will encounter in the next few months.
For now, we are off to move some more stuff...