Copeland Corner.

update on life

2009-05-05T17:55:00.001-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES! Tomorrow he will turn 23 years old! I cannot start to describe the type of man James is except to say that I am one of the luckiest girls (or gals as James would say) in the world to marry a man like him. He is Godly, selfless, a great provider and an awesome a wonderful best friend! I love you, James and thanks for being you and also looking at the glass half full :)

A lot has happened or at least it feels like since I have last blogged. James is almost finished with school for the semester and has 1 course over the summer and then 3 more to take in the fall and he will have completed his course work for his masters! I am so proud of him he works so hard day in and day out. He works 40 hours a week and took 21 credits this semester and he is doing great in both! :) pretty much amazing if I do say so myself.

On Saturday our summer travels will begin. We head out west to visit Ryan for a week in Oregon. He just bought his first home and we are excited to go see the beauty out west. We are hoping it will be a nice relaxing vacation after some long and stress past few months. Then we are hoping to do something with Tim and Kristin (soon to be Mr and Mrs. John as of 7/11/09) over memorial day weekend. Not sure exactly what yet but a good time will surely be had. Then June 6th we head up to Nova for the Shull/Connor Wedding. Christie of my close friends from the high schools day will be getting married! James and I are so excited for Christie and Dave! In the middle of June there will hopefully be a girls weekend to celebrate Kerra's wonderful bday :) July 11 we get to celebrate the wedding of Tim and Kristin. It will be great and we are truly looking forward to that. At the end of July we head down to Orlando for Riley's birthday weekend. James and I are looking forward to hanging out with the gang while enjoying some wonderful weather in Orlando. :) We are also hoping to make a trip down to Atl to see the Braves play one weekend at Turner field and head up to Ocean City, NJ to hang out with Dave and Shauna as they spend the summer living at the beach! (we are totally jealous of that for sure)
On the work note:

James is still working at LU and is hoping for a career advancement as a project manager. :)
Katie- I had a rough couple months at work but I am excited to see where the next few months are headed for me and the company. I recently just had two consumers get hired and another should find out this week if he got the job he interviewed for. This is very exciting because I have not been able to get any of my consumers hired since Octoberish.

James was also able to meet with a Division Chaplin in the Army who really encouraged James with some great news about our future. We are currently in the process of finding out James training dates but right now it looks like he will be gone for at least 8 weeks if not 12 starting in January or February.

Best time of the year

2009-04-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

So it has been a a while since my last post, but I guess it is time for number 2.

Last night Katie and I didn't celebrate anything, but seven years ago last night I asked her out as a young strapping soaking wet golf course ball piking high school sophomore. We have moved on to our favorite date being July 19, but it was cool in my mind to know that for the best part of seven years I have "been" with Katie.

So that is why that is the start of why it is the best part of year.

Also, my favorite golf tournament, the Masters, started yesterday. In Augusta and on the most sacred peace of golfing land, the Masters takes place usually on second weekend in April, and most of the times coincides with Easter. One of my favorite things about the PGATour is that a lot of the players are Christians, and every Sunday am they hold a chapel service that different players preach at every week. Two years ago Zach Johnson won the masters after giving the am Easter sever. In the green jacket ceremony, Billy Paine, the chairmen of the Masters asked Zach if this is great day; Zach said that it was, but not because he just won the masters, but because Jesus rose again for all the times he isn't a winner.

My love for the masters isn't just because the course is amazing, but because I love the players and I love the way they carry themselves.

The Masters is also a tournament unlike any other. On Wednesday, usually a day that people rest right before a tournament, the Masters holds the par 3 tournament. On this day players have their kids caddy for them and put for them. You get to see the players being dads instead of seeing them acting like dads like most other sports figures.

The Masters make happy, and there is no better combination than coming home from a great Easter service, having lunch with great friends, and rooting for another Christian to win golf's greatest game so that he can put Jesus on the national stage.

bucket list..

2009-03-24T17:08:00.001-07:00

I have decided it is time to make a bucket list. I have been thinking of a lot of things I would like to accomplish before I die so I thought that making a bucket list was a great idea. 1. because it will allow to actually remember the things i say i want to do 2. i love making lists and checking things off. so here we go. I will probably add to this over the next few years but here is what i have right now.

1. Run a marathon. I like running I just have to a reason to do it.
2. Take a cross country road with my best friends with no agenda or no real end destination.
3. Live in another country.
4. Camp on the beach.
5. Take dancing lessons.
6. Visit Australia.
7. Go on an Alaskan cruise.
8. Complete a painting to hang up in my house.
9. Become a mom.
10. Meet the President of the United States
11. Go to see Saturday night live.
12. Build a Habitat for Humanity Home
13. Pay for my children to go to school.
14. Have a second wedding to James (of course!) this time make it a destination wedding.
15. Go on an African safari.
16. See gorillas in the wild in Uganda.
17. Ride a camel while visiting Jerusalem.
18. Owe a house with a fireplace.
19. Make a difference in someones life.
20. Work in an orphanage.
21. Take photography classes.
22. Take a ride in a range rover with the windows down while listening to country music :)
23. Wipe off home plate at a braves baseball game.
24. Learn more about politics and economics.

Well that is all I can think of right now but I am sure more will come as time goes by.

On another note. James and I have booked one summer vacation. We are going to out to Oregon in May to visit Ryan. James and I are really looking forward to traveling out west and seeing the all the beautiful places we always hear about. James is over half way through with his 3rd semester in seminary. who-hoo! He will be taking 1 summer course and take his 3 final courses in the fall semester. He has been flying through his courses and doing so well in all of them all while working 40 hours a week. He is such a great provider and I am blessed with such a hard working husband.

I also must mention after two rounds out march madness. I am currently beating James in the brackets. James has Pitt winning the entire thing while I have chosen an "underdog" Syracuse. I will keep you all updates who goes out of top. :)

girls just wanna have fun

2009-03-09T17:09:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I got to spend a 3 day weekend with the greatest friends on earth. Alisha and I headed down to NC to spend the weekend at Kerra and Gini's apartment and Emily flew down from Maryland. It was great for the five of us to all be together again. On friday night we went out to birkdale which is a really cute town center near their apartment so we were able to walk in the beautiful weather! For dinner we ate brick oven pizza and then went bowling and it was a blast. We played for about 3 hours could not stop laughing the entire time. On each side of our lane we had some great people so they kept us entertained if our group became a little tired. On Saturday we walked around downtown because the weather was once again amazing! I am really hoping spring is here to stay but i am pretty sure i am wrong about that. Then on Saturday night we went to Red Robin for dinner because we all love their ranch dressing (if you have not had it, it is to die for!) and then headed out to jokers for some good laughs.

No matter how tired i may be from our girls weekends I always look forward to them because that is the one of the things i am going to miss the most when James and I move away. We wont be close enough just to get in the car and drive a few hours and see my best friends just for a little pick me up weekend. Well i have to get off here and get some stuff finished around the house.

The next girls weekend will be sometime in April hopefully to help celebrate Alisha's birthday :)

snow day!

2009-03-02T08:55:00.000-08:00

Today James and I both have off from work because lynchburg was hit with 10 inches of snow! I loved every second of it! I also wanted to wear my wedding dress in the snow. James wanted to get married in the winter but i really hate the snow so i thought it would be fun for me to at least take some pictures in the beautiful snow in my wedding dress because i love it.

Before

after.

Sweetly Broken

2009-02-23T14:26:00.000-08:00

The Lord has been placing a lot of important issues upon my heart in the last couple days. He is truly showing me that I can truly live this life alone no matter how hard I try. Since James and I got married about 7 months ago I have been trying to the "perfect wife, christian, employee, friend, daughter" but the Lord has finally broken me of this. I cannot do this alone and when I do all I do is feel crushed and defeated.

If you have not noticed I am huge people pleaser. I know this should not matter to me but it does. And recently the Lord has truly broken me over my relationships. I want to be a great and loving wife, great and loving friend and a great and loving daughter but the Lord has really shown me that my negative attitude can really get in the way of being great and I am not finding my joy in Him but rather in the praise of those around me. Another thing that gets in the way is my critical spirit. I can take one look at someone and judge them from the look on their face, the clothes they are wearing, etc. Who am I to judge? I have no idea their background, what may have happened to them in the last few hours or their current life situation. The reason I am so ciritcal of these people i have never met is because of my own insecurites and to make myself look better i make these harsh comments but in the end all i do is look like a another Christian hypocritic and that is not something i want to do or be at all.

James and I also went to see the movie fireproof on Saturday night at our church. I went into the movie thinking this is going to be cliche' corny christian movie but the truth is i cried throughout the movie thinking that this could be my marriage if I do not stop living for myself and truly lean on the Lord for guidence and joy this is going to be my marriage. Needless to say I do not want my marriage to become like that so I have some changing to do in my personal life starting by making the Lord first, James second and me last. This is a lot easier said than done so please pray that I continue to see the Lord and submit to my husband as he submits the Lord.

The other half

2009-02-12T08:33:00.000-08:00

So I have been watching Katie write all over this thing, so I figured I would hack into her account and write about some very important things.

Thing #1. The ACC just announced the football schedule for the 2009 season, so just as we had to stop thinking about football about a month ago, we can now bring our focus back. It looks like we have a pretty good schedule. Playing Alabama and Nebraska makes me think that we are trying to make a statement, and if we win those games, we would be making a statement. The home slate looks good and brings me to my next point. or half point I guess.

Thing #1.5 So do we get VT football season tickets or do we not? We just bought a couch (which is amazing btw) that is roughly the same price as getting 2 season tickets, so... I guess we'll have see.

Thing #2. This Saturday is valentine's day. I think the holiday is stupid, but I still take the chance to make sure that Katie knows that I try to treat her better than most husbands. So in case you havent heard, Katie is getting a nice long massage at Isis Spa in Wyndhurst this Saturday morning as her Valetine's gift. She was going to take me golfing, but the weather doesn't look like it is going to cooperate, so I will take a rain-check.

Thing #3. It has come to my attention that Mr. Phelps got cuaght with a banned substance in American. SO... for the sake of image, all of you who might have heard the bet Katie and I made during the Olympics, the bet is off. Michael put himself over the team and because of that , there are serious consequences. So what does that mean? The middle name of my first son no longer has to be Phelps. Maybe tiger or chipper now can step in.

Thing #4. What the heck is up with Jamar getting kicked off American Idol. My brother from a different mother could sing like no one's business. I wouldn't have minded it if the judges actually thought it was time for him to go, but when they keep the likes of Tatiana or however she spells her name, on the show, you know something is up. But if they like hearing her grumble and beg after ever performance than I guess they got what they wanted.

Thing #5. I just watched Will Ferrel's, "Your Welcome America", online and it is hilarious. I am not sure how it got put online, but it surely came from someone who went to the show and taped it with a videocamera hiding under their jacket. I wanted to see this when we were in NYC, but I guess it is good that I saw it online an dnot for $160.

Peace out.. A-town's finest.. those of you who know what I'm saying, just laugh and thank me later.

Sincerly,
Chi chi chi poo poo poo

blessed.

2009-02-11T18:08:00.000-08:00

Currently James and I have been truly thanking the Lord for all of His blessings He has given us since we were united as husband and wife and beforehand. Some of things we are truly thankful for these days are:

1. Our jobs. God provided us both the perfect jobs that allow us to follow our dreams. I am currently working with adults with special needs and i love it. (well most days anyways) as well as love the people i work with. It truly great to work with one of your best friends as well being able to make great friends through work. James works at LU which allows him to go to classes as he persues his masters to become a military chaplin. With james's job we were able to great benefits which allows him to take paid vacations, retirement, health care just to name a few. We recently also entered in the world of mutal funds. I am not going to lie this was very scary and I continue to stress over it but I know it is the Lord's hands.

2. Our home. Before my senior year of college my mom bought a cute little townhouse in Lynchburg which she planned to rent out. This was great because James and I know rent it from her. It is a great location to both our jobs. We each have less than a 10 minute commute which is great since we have one car. (mine died two weeks before the wedding).

3. Our families. James and I both feel are truly blessed with a great family. We get along great with our parents. Our parents get along with each other great. and we get along with our in-laws great. We are also very lucky in fact that we can see them pretty often. We wish however Jolene and Garry (PA), Ryan (OR), The Hartsells (FL) and Gonies (FL and Va) all lived closer. Hopefully we will see them sooner rather than later.

4. Our friends. We pretty much have the best friends anyone could ask for. James has been pretty close to guys since he first moved to Virgina back in elementary and I have been blessed to have close friends from both high school and college. Even though we have all been spread out through up and down the east coast. We stay in good contact which is great. I also get to see my close friends from college pretty frequently with our annual girls weekends. Those are moments I will always cherish no matter were we all end up.

5. Living in Lynchburg. Recently, I have found a few "new" things of lynchburg that I am so happy I have discovered. I truly love that Lynchburg is much smaller than Herndon and I feel a true sense of community. I have fallen in love with the beautiful scenery I pass daily as drive for work, Bill's Pastry Shop that people travel miles to have, Little Dicken's books the miltons are to die for, flower's bakery discount bread (I get english muffins and a loaf of bread for under three dollars. You can find that deal anywhere in NOVA) the college basketball games, the dollar -fifty movie theater (YES i said a $1.50), the fresh market on Saturday's downtown to get fresh fruits and vegies locally grown, and generally the slower pace of life.

a few shots from our weekend in NYC.

2009-02-04T17:20:00.001-08:00

Getting ready to hit the big apple for the first time!

A shirt with a quote from one of our favorite shows. NBC's the office.

Getting ready to go out on the town!

The four of us at dinner for before Phantom. The food was amazing. I finished my entire meal which is the first time in a long!

On our way to see Phatom on Broadway. Here we are in the middle of time square.

My favorite place in the entire city. Central Park.

Nothing like riding the subway. I know i am looking rough but it was in the single digits outside and you all know how much i love the cold. ahhh

Weekend getaway

2009-02-02T17:15:00.000-08:00

James and I just returned last night from a trip to NYC for a long weekend with some friends of our the Meadors. It was great to get away for a quick trip with friends and not have to think about everything else going on with life. We each took half days on Thursday and started our adventure to NYC. On the way up we were able to stop by my mom and Dave’s diner for dinner which was great. I love being able to see family. I really wish we lived a lot of closer to our families but 3 and half hours is better than 22 hours! We arrived into the city around midnight and found our hotel and started getting making plans for our first day in the city.

On Friday morning Alisha and I headed out to the see the Today Show. We were running a little late because we were very tired and cold which caused us not to be able to see Matt but that was okay because we did get on TV twice. After seeing the today show we headed back to the hotel to pick up the guys and start our adventures in NYC together. It was so great to experience the city with James. Our first stop was grand central station where they happened to be making a commercial for the new Sony vaio laptop that can fit into a clutch and weighs only 1.9 lbs! It was great to watch and then we made our way back Rockefeller center and see NBC shop. After that we headed to time square. This was a great experience because it was not too crowded so we could take it all in. That night we were able to see the Phantom of the Opera and go to a really nice restaurant. Saturday we got and headed out into the freezing cold. We were hoping to go see another Broadway perforamce that night but everything was sold out which James waited outside in the single digit weather to find out while the rest of the stayed in and slept. It was in the single digits but that did not stop us from going to see Central Park. It was the best thing we did the entire trip if you ask me. It was so nice to get away from the craziness of the city and just watch it from the distance. We spend 2 hours in the park as we walked to see the MET. The MET was a great experience as well. The MET is a museum and has a different time frames in history. My favorite part was the Egyptian section. They had artifacts I only remember reading about in history class back in elementary school. We spent most of the afternoon here which was great to see keep us out of the cold. After the MET we heading down to the financial district to see ground zero.

Last time I was in New York, Ground Zero was still a huge mess and construction had not begun yet. This time it was totally different you could barely see anything as the new construction was well underway for the building. We headed back uptown to our hotel to change and then head out for dinner. We grab dinner at a little pizza place in the heart of time time square which was great and then we headed over to the movie theater to see Taken. Which is an awesome movie! After that we headed back towards the area of our hotel and went to a pub we found a few days earlier called the Black Sheep for a few drinks before calling it a night and saying goodbye to NYC.

Last night we arrived home just in time for the end of the 3rd quarter of the Superbowl which was great but sadly it did not turn out the way it had hoped. Today we headed back to work and were able to pick up our new couch. which We are both currently laying and enjoying to the fullest!

Well I better get off here and start cleaning the house and such for our guests who are coming into this weekend! Can't wait to see you on Saturday!

life as I see it

2009-01-27T14:12:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our blog! I have been wanting to make a blog for a while to keep in touch with our loved ones as well just to write our thoughts on life. Life has been crazy for us since we became husband and wife just a little over 6 months ago. We are currently living in Lynchburg for another year until begin our life as a military family. We are hoping for Germany or Italy. James has 1 more semester left after this semester which is great but also very scary! we have so much to think about between now and this time next year and so many things we wish to complete and before we say goodbye to this season of our lives.

I find myself often wondering about what life will be when we enter into the military world. Will I fit in with the other army wives? Will I be able to handle being so far away from family and friends? Will we be able to travel as much as we hope once we go into the next season of our life? Will I work or will I get to be a stay at home? How will the other army familes see us since James will be their pastor if they so choose? so many questions and yet for some reason i am very relaxed and not worried about the answer to each other these questions. I know the Lord will provide the answers to us in His timing as for now I will enjoy the stage of life the Lord has blessed us with currently.

The next few weeks are filled with excitement for us. On Thursday we head up to NYC for a four days with our close friends Jim and Alisha. I am really looking forward spending time with James in Central Park. (james has never been there before and I have only seen a small portion of the park). And going to see a broadway play. Phatom of the OPERA.

well i need to run and finish laundry and then go pick up james from work.