Beth Moore, Swimming and Jazz....

So I can't believe how busy Ricky and I have gotten over the year and half of living in St. Joseph.
It is totally amazing to me that being taken away from my comfort zone in Memphis, that I have become more outgoing, and confident. I guess for the shear fact that you more or less have to be when you are in a new environment and you do not know a soul. Ricky and I do more things here than we ever did in Memphis. Extra activities that is. I am just so blessed that we are on this adventure in our lives here in St. Joseph, and can't wait to see where God takes us next.

This weekend was busy for me. I went to a Women's Ministry Retreat with our church Friday night through Saturday morning. We did a Beth Moore "retreat in a box". The study we did was "Loving Well". It was really good...we watched a video on it, and she was hilarious! We did the retreat at a local hotel here and we stayed a night. I roomed with some ladies from my Sunday School class. It was a lot of fun getting to know them a little better. Saturday the retreat ended at noon and I was exhuasted because we stayed up late chatting the night before. Thinking I was going to get a good nap when I got home, I was excited.

When I got home and went outside the weather was gorgeous. It was warm but there was a breeze and no humidity. I suggested to Ricky that we need to take Seminole swimming so after lunch we headed to the swimming hole :) Seminole had a blast! We also planned later that night to go to a Jazz Festival downtown. We went last year and had fun visiting with everyone from Ricky's work. Well on the way back from the swimming hole some of a good friends called us and said that they had just purchased a hutch from Target but couldn't fit in their car. Luckily we were really close and stopped by to put it in our car. It was a sight to see because poor Seminole had to lay on the floorboard in the back and didn't have much room because the hutch took up the entire back of the car. So we went to there house and stayed a good while, having fun chatting and of course saying quotes from our new favorite movie "Kungfu Panda!!" (side note: everyone must go see this movie, it is sooooooo funny!!) From leaving there house we came home freshened up, went to dinner and then to the Jazz Festival and didn't get home until late that night. So much for my Saturday afternoon nap!! :) But it was worth it, we had a great day!

I leave you with some picture of Seminole swimming!

A Busy Week

We just had a really busy, but fun past week. My parents came to visit for the week. We got to do a lot of things.

We all went to Worlds of Fun for a day. They came to our Taek won do practices and our test. Ricky and I were testing for our green belts. We taught them the game Settlers of Catan. They are now hooked on the game as well. They helped us go futon shopping and buy one for our basement downstairs. Thank goodness my dad had a truck so we were able to haul it and then he helped Ricky put it together. They went to church with us and were able to hear our pastor preach. We have been wanting them to hear him because we are really enjoying his preaching and we really like the church that we can call home now. They also got to hang out with some of our friends for a night of game playing and of course eating :o)

I will leave you with just a few pictures from the past week. We really didn't take that many, normally I am a picture taking freak. We were just so busy we didn't have time for it.

My parents at Worlds of Fun.

Ricky and I testing for our green belts.

Breaking my board. For orange belt testing to be green, you had to spin around while keeping your leg extended and straight coming around to break the board with your heel of your foot.

So yea, we're bloggin'

So this is the first ever official blog post by the one and only Ricky Gipson. I don't know how many times you'll see me blogging on this thing, so savor it while it lasts. I'm not exactly sure what I'm suppose to be blogging about, but I guess if I ramble on long enough I'll have typed enough to make people stop reading before they get to the end.

Ashley's parents are still here in St. Joe. They will be traveling to Bethany, MO tomorrow for our taekwondo testing. Ashley and I will be testing for our green belts. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and we will pass with flying colors. Since Ashley's parents are there I'm sure we will have plenty of pictures to show off.

That's about all I have to say for now...it's been a pretty uneventful week. However, if you would like to see my real blog, "Nerds 2² Ever" you can go here: http://www.stjoenews.net/news/blogs/nerds4ever/. I also just redesigned my personal website at http://www.three-w.net. I'm trying to start doing freelance work again so I wanted somewhere to point people.

Anyways, that's all I have time for today...until next time.

-Ricky

Garage Sale and Parents

Well we made it through the garage sale! I don't know why I took a shower before the sale because I had to take one again afterwards....it was hot! We made some mula, not as much as I hoped but it's better than nothing. It was fun to have friends there to hang out and help sell their things as well.

So my parents are coming into town today! We are excited, they are just coming for a vacation for once, we aren't putting them to work! :o) The other times they have come it has been to help us move. We are planning on going to World's of Fun, teaching them Settlers of Catan and just hanging out so that will be fun.

Well I'm spent, didn't get much sleep last night and then had to get up for the garage sale so that's it for now folks! Have a great weekend!