December already?

Kelly and I and the cutest almost 7 month old baby in the world picked out our Christmas tree on Sunday. Enjoy the pictures. Maddie wants to tell Grannie Annie and Grandpa, "thank you for the coat"
Maddie has started crawling a little bit. Pretty soon, she'll be raking all the leaves in the back yard.
I went deer hunting for the first time ever this past weekend. We stayed at Mama C's house-that's my friend TJ's grandma. They have a bunch of land down in Duplin County. We left Friday night, hunted Saturday morning and Saturday evening and then headed back to the 'Boro. I don't know what it is about getting up at quarter til five and sitting in a stand watching the sun come up, but it was awesome. Just as cool, is sitting in the stand watching the sun go down in the same day. For those of you that want to know, I had my chances at an 8 pointer but missed. Oh well, it was a successful hunt because it everyone had a fun time and everyone came out of the woods safe. I'd like to thank my guide, TJ Beroth, for inviting me on this trip.

Here is a picture of Matt, Greg, myself, TJ and Mama C

shhh...don't tell mommy!

So I was supposed to look after Maddie today and instead I got our dog, Dakota, to do it. Maddie and the dogs have met before, but never this close. I figured it had to happen sometime. They got along great all afternoon. Maddie especially liked it when Dakota licked the back of her head. I think Maddie wanted to lick him back but I told her she couldn't until she was older.Maddie can pretty much take care of herself now. I walked into the kitchen and found her drinking her milk all by herself!!I had my ten year high school reunion last weekend. I had to go because Kelly was the class president(i said it was because she was a nerd, she says it was because she was popular) Anyway, we had a great time catching up with the people we graduated with. One girl came all the way from Alaska! Here I am with my hot high school girlfriend!Kelly and I took Madison to her first ECU basketball game. They won the game, but haven't won again since.

Sporting Clays, Virginia Tech, Ocean Isle, Tailgating, beating Lamb U.

The 3rd Annual Daniel Cupit Memorial Young Life Sporting Clays tournament was a huge success. Close to 50 shooters participated in this event. My good friend Chris Rich joined my team and ended up winning a year membership to Shane's Sporting Clays. Since Chris is in Denmark for the next few months, he gave the membership to me! Thanks Chris, I need the practice.Here is Jonathan Smith, myself, and Justin Smith after a long hard day of shootin' On September 1st, my parents, Jimmy, and I went to Blacksburg and saw the Pirates play VaTech. It was a very emotional time at the game as this was the first football game at VaTech since the shooting last April. The ceremony before the game to honor the victims was something I will never forget, capped off by a fly over by two F-15's. This is one of the coolest places I've ever seen a football game...nice background! ESPN's College Gameday was at the game. ECU's defense held VaTech to 33 yards rushing. East Carolina's backup QB threw an interception on the 6 yard line that Tech walked in for 6 and that was pretty much the difference as ECU lost 17-7. Even though they lost, I am very excited about this year's team. Here's a picture of Jimmy and I at our tailgate after the game.

Last week, we went to Ocean Isle with three other couples. We had a great time and the weather was awesome.


Me and Maddie at the beach in front of my new tailgate tent! Thanks mom and dad!!

Maddie and Mommy in the pool...
UNC visited Greenville for only the second time ever on Saturday and wow what a game! We hit the tailgate lots around 1:00pm for the 6:00pm game. My dad, mom, brother, sister-in-law, in-laws all went to Carolina...so we had a "divided" tailgate. (Kelly was the only one at the tailgate who didn't go to either school, but she is also the only one that went to a school whose football team just beat Michigan in "The Big House" and has back-to-back national titles) UNC was up 17-7 at one point only to have ECU come back and tie the game at 17-17. East Carolina went up 31-23 and things were looking great. Then UNC returned a punt for a touchdown and made the two point conversion. ECU's kicker missed three(!) field goals before finally nailing the game winner! Below is a picture of the teams setting up for the final field goal. The crowd was the fourth largest in ECU's history and it was loud. I can't believe I'm about to say this but UNC has a great football team. I was expecting us to beat them by double digits. Their RS Freshman QB burnt our DB's a few times for quick TD's.

Here I am with Kelly--she's glad ECU won because I would have probably been a bad mood!

Any of you Carolina fans reading this: You can use this picture as your desktop background!
Jay Ross--ARRRGGGHHH!!With this game behind them, the real test comes this weekend when we host Southern Miss. USM has won the last 7 contests in Greenville. If ECU wants to turn the corner in college football, this game is a must win. ECU beat Southern Miss down in Hattiesburg last year--so we're looking for two in a row.

ECU 34 UNC 31---Pictures and more to come later!!!

Work, Teeth, Pool, Young Life, 11 days!!

It's been a while since my last post--I know. Its been really busy at work lately(hence the dark circles around my eyes. We are trying to complete a project(see pic) and we should(have to be) done by next Friday! Why next Friday? Well, for one, ECU plays Virginia Tech on Sept. 1st, and then Kelly and I and some friends are going to Ocean Isle for the week!!

Madison has teeth! Two of them on the bottom row. I didn't know babies got teeth that early. She's actually been pretty good (kelly might tell you differently) She is rolling over, laughing, trying to talk, feeds the dogs, does her own laundry, etc. Next week, we may teach her how to ride a bike. We took her to Green Valley pool tonight(thanks Jeff and Becca!) She loved playing in the water with her mommy. We had our annual Young Life leader's retreat this past weekend down at Lake Tillery. We had a great time hanging out and fellowshipping with the other leaders. One of the highlights of the weekend was hitting golf balls into the lake off of the dock--especially when we lit them on fire at night!! I finally broke my 0-for streak on fishing when I caught 6 little bream on my favorite lure--the diving cricket--if you don't have one of these lures and you want to catch some fish, you need to get one. We took Madison to the lake with us and she had fun sleeping in her sun tent. Speaking of Young Life--I am now starting my 9th year as a Young Life leader. I have been blessed by many relationships with high school kids--some who have already graduated college, which makes me feel old. The guys that I am leading this year are all seniors at Grimsley High School here in Greensboro. One of the ways that Young Life is able to function in Greensboro is through fundraisers such as our annual Golf Tournament and our annual Sporting Clays tournament. I am on a team this year with 7 of my good friends. If you would like to sponsor our team, you can follow this link http://sites.younglife.org/sites/greensboro/Open%20Content%20Pages/Sporting%20Clays%202006.aspx All donations are tax deductible and if you don't donate--that's ok, just pray for my ministry with these high school guys!
I received my season tickets to the ECU games last Wednesday and on Friday I got my tickets to the Virginia Tech game. My dad, mom, Jimmy, and I are heading up to Blacksburg on September 1st on what should be an awesome game. ESPN Gameday is going to be there (its the first game for VT since the awful shooting that occurred last year) so it should be a pretty hyped up game. VT is ranked 7th in the country in some polls so ECU has its work cut out for them, but that's why you play the game.

That's it for now! I'll post again soon--this weekend probably!

Washington, DC and Baltimore

Kelly gave me tickets to an Orioles game for our anniversary so this past weekend the three of us drove up to Baltimore. We stopped in DC so Maddie could see the Capitol and where all the crazy politicians live.We saw the Orioles play the Chicago White Sox. Madison was given this certificate in honor of her first Orioles game. I first came here in 1992(the year that Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened) with my parents and brothers. My favorite baseball player growing up was Cal Ripken, Jr. He is being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. The Orioles came back to tie the game in the 9th inning and ended up winning in the 10th (of course we stayed!!)
Madison and Kelly near our seats on the third base side! We moved out to Right field in about the 5th inning. The weather was perfect. The only time Madison cried was when the Orioles' Kevin Millar hit a homerun in the 6th inning-because the crowd went crazy. Two batters later, another Orioles player hit a homerun and this time she smiled!
Madison is waiting for mommy to get ready so we can go eat lunch.Here is Maddie and Kelly eating lunch at the Inner Harbor. If you haven't been--you should!!

52 Days until East Carolina Football!!

I was at Southpoint in Durham, NC today and saw David Garrard! For those of you that don't follow ECU football, he was the quarterback at ECU when I was in school there. He's now a quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars. David and I are both construction management majors (he was in most of my classes) His starting salary was a lot higher than mine. Many of you know that Garrard came to my house in college and played College Football on the playstation--he was on the game!!

Baseball, Bog Garden, The Best Hot Dogs in the Galaxy!, and Happy 4th

We went to a Durham Bulls game last week for my sister-in-law's birthday. If you've never been to a Bulls game-you need to. It is by far the best minor league stadium I've ever been to (sorry Greensboro) Here I am with my two brothers (Jimmy and Wally) wondering if we're ever gonna catch a foul ball--Jimmy actually did catch one in the 7th inning and gave it to James, our little nephew--all the girls in the stadium said, "awwww Uncle Jimmy that was so nice!" Kelly's parents (Mama Lu and Grandaddy) came to visit us last weekend. We went to the Bog Garden to feed the ducks and look at the waterfall--another great place to take visitors in the 'Boro. Just look out for the weirdo doing some kind of crazy thing with no shirt on near the waterfall-seriously I think I was the only one that saw him but it was weird--he may have been doing some type of power yoga or something. I've got three and a half words for you! Bright Leaf Drive-In. If you haven't been to the Bright Leaf Drive-In movie theatre in Mt. Airy, NC then I feel sorry for you. If you have a couple of minutes call this number to at least listen to their answering machine (336.786.5494)Folks, this is as red as it gets! Until I went there the other night, I could only imagine what a drive-in movie was like. My mom told me they used to get in their pajamas and my Pap and Grandma and would take them to the drive-in. A guy at work told me they had the best hot dogs in the galaxy--he was right!
Kelly and I went with our friends, Jeff and Becca, to the Bright Leaf drive-in on Tuesday night. We got there around 9:00pm and stayed until 4:00 in the morning--we watched all three movies. Madison was with us too, but she slept the whole time. Here is Kelly and Becca in the back of my truck watching the movie. We had room for 4 more so next time ya'll will have to come with us. We watched "Evan Almighty", "Fantastic Four", and "Knocked Up" all for $5/person total! Wow, she is cute. Madison can't wait to see the fireworks and celebrate the 4th of July!!
Madison and her cute mom hanging out at the 4th of July cookout at Justin and Sammie's.

Madison loved the fireworks at Grimsley High School!

Hope you enjoyed the update!

It's about time!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post! No excuses, we'll just move on!! A lot has happened since May 29th! Here is a quick update:
We went to Hilton Head, SC the first week in June. My parents, my brother Wally and his wife and son, and Kelly, Madison, and I had a great time hanging out at one of my favorite places in the whole world. Jimmy was actually working at the Wide World of Sports in Orlando for the MLB draft.

We ate at the Salty Dog at the South Beach Marina on Wednesday. This was Madison's first trip to the bar where she ordered "Mommy's Milk" in a bottle.
We took Maddie to the beach Thursday morning. She wanted to lay out and work on her tan, but we didn't want to cause any of the little boys to stumble.
Kelly came to Hilton Head with my family in 1998, after we had been dating for one year, and it has become our favorite vacation spot. Oh and last week June 15, was our 5th wedding anniversary!!! Its hard to believe its already been 5 years.

Maddie went on her first boat ride aboard the "Vagabond". We actually saw the space shuttle take off from Florida while we were on the boat. That was pretty cool considering it was two states away!

That's my dad after he got the bill for the boat cruise! Thanks dad!!!
Maddie Grace and Kelly on Maddie's first boat ride. Aren't they cute?

My mom (Grannie Annie) and dad (Grandpa) on the "Vagabond" with Harbor Town in the background. (Pay attention to my mom's eyebrows!)
We went into a store and Maddie thought that this was a stuffed animal of Grannie Annie (see picture above this one) but I had to tell her it was actually Bert.

I had my first Father's Day and Madison gave me this card and an ECU chair for tailgating. Kelly asked me what I wanted to do for Father's Day and I told her all I wanted to do is lay on the couch and watch the US Open golf tournament with my daughter. Kelly wanted to know how that was different than any other Sunday until I told her it was THE US Open! Kelly and I also got DirectTV with DVR this week. Kelly didn't think we needed the DVR but when we missed "So You Think You Can Dance" one night she was disappointed but then I told her that with the DVR she didn't really miss it--she realized it was worth it. Our small group (minus Jeff who is at YL camp this week) went to Celebration Station for .99 Putt-Putt night. Actually, 99 cent putt-putt is really 1.99 now. I started off the first hole with a hole-in-one and thought I would cruise to an easy victory-not so as I actually came in tied for 4th after I allowed Millie to come back and tie me on the second to last hole--Great putt Millie!!
I promise you my dad is not the guy that lives down near I-40. We had our annual Summer Soiree with my dad's side of the family. We meet every year in June with my cousins, aunts, and uncles at my Aunt's house on Market St. We always have a lot of fun just catching up with each other and eating good food. My mom and dad are usually in charge of the games so we played this relay game where you have to run down to a chair, open a suitcase, put on the clothes in the suitcase, run and tag the next person, and then they have to repeat the process.

Tha'ts my mom (Grannie Annie) showing off her skills.

Well, again sorry it has been so long since the last post. I hope you enjoyed this update and I'll be sure to post more stuff more often. Oh yeah, there are only 69 more days until ECU's 2007 football season kicks off!!