First Half of the Year in Review for 2008

January

We started off the year saying good-bye to our son at the Jacksonville International Airport on January 1st as he goes back to his duty station in Hawaii. From there he is deploying for Iraq for the next 15 months. A sad beginning to the new year.



We also had the duty of saying good-bye to Courtney on January 7th as she headed back to Trevecca for the next semester of school that will finish out her first year of college. Good Job girl, keep up the good work!



January 13th is the day Michael actually boarded the plane for Iraq! Good Luck son!



January 27th Brittney,Jackie, Chyna and Gina performed a skit for church on the story of Job. They did a fantastic job, very entertaining-sorry I did not take pictures to share with you. Wish you could have seen it.



February



3rd- We missed Gracies birthday. Living so far away from family can be a bummer some times and this is one of those times. Sorry Gracie! Maybe next year...



9th-Brittney and I are beginning the booklets for the next teen program that we will be starting soon called MTV (Making Teens Victorious). This is an awesome program that I picked up from the sunday school convention I went to in January. The idea and program is inspiring and we are both excited about starting this. It's alot of work but it will be worth it in the end.



11th-HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL. Michael is celebrating his 21st birthday in Iraq. If you would like to keep in touch with him his address is :

PFC Cowan

58th MP CO

FOB Normandy

APO AE 09324



16th: Brittney was invited to a birthday party for a friend of hers called Jessica. Jessica wanted an 80's theme birthday party. Brittney had fun putting together an outfit for the party weeks in advance. Finally the day arrived and she got all dressed up. We drove her out to BW3's for 1:30p.m. and boy did she ever feel stupid! No one was there and apparently there was not a party on the books that day for a Jessica, according to the staff. We drove down to another wings place in Jacksonville called "Buffalos" hoping maybe we just got the wrong resteraunt-Nope! No party...you know the old saying "All dressed up and no place to go..." Well, we could not let this adorable outfit and all of that work go to waste. So we took Brittney to lunch at "Bennigans" and enjoyed all of the weird looks she got from people. This was one of those mommy moments when you don't know what to do to ease the pain of disappointment and heart break in your babies eyes.



17th: We took the teens to "Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames" production. What an awesome production! We had several parents that came along for the experience and no one was disappointed. This is a play put on by a group that travels around the U.S. sharing the story of salvation. This show is very theatrical and tells you the facts-No holds barred! If you ever hear of this production coming anywhere near you take advantage and go and see it, it is well worth it!



22nd: Burial for Richard Gregg. This loss was both a sad and joyful one. We selfishly will miss this much loved member of the Cowan-Gregg family. But we are also happy because we know that he has gone to be with Jesus. So he is dancing and singing with our Savior as we speak. He is not missing us yet because he is in the presence of Jesus. But when he realizes who he has left behind he will be waiting patiently for us down here to hurry up and join him in paradise! We will see you soon Grampire when our jobs here are finished...can't wait to see you and get the tour of your mansion!



Another bummer to being so far away. Dave used up all of his vacation time when Michael came home. We have no vacation available to go to the burial, but atleast Dave was able to visit with Grampire and be with him before his passing. That was a special gift all it's own. Michael also was able to see Grampire before he passed away-I am so glad he made the time to go and see him.



23rd: We went to the Scottish Games Festival in Green Cove Springs with Bill and Isobel Hogg (true Scottsman-they have the accents and everything). This was our second year going to this festival. Brittney did not join us last year but after hearing what a great time we had last year, she was determined to give it a try this year. She was not disappointed. We had our own Scottish tour guides telling what food to try, what games to watch and also explained the history to alot of the entertainment. The Finale was listening to a bagpipe show that would melt your soul even if you're not Scottish. We had a wonderful time and Brittney is looking forward to going back next year with us. This is becoming a family tradition....I hope we will get to share it with our Michael soon!



March



18th: The month of March was a milestone for me. I got my first ever TOOTHACHE! I had been battling with severe pain in my jaw and ear and whole right side of my face. I had no idea what was going on. I wasn't sure if I should go to my family doctor or my dentist because I didn't know what was wrong. I finally decided to start with my dentist. He took about 5 minutes with me and broke the news to me that I was going to need a root canal-also a first for me, ever! I had a very good doctor in Mandarin take care of my root canal the very next day. However, I must admit I was not totally pain free immediately after. I was sorely (no pun intended) disappointed! It was about a week before I could say that I was finally noticing the improvement. They had me on Ibuprophen 600 every 4 hours for pain as well as Vicadin to help me sleep at night, along with an antibiotic for the infection. Let me just say that the cost of this endevour was more painful than the root canal....



20th: Courtney's grandfather passed away! As I said earlier, this is not turning out to be one of our better years. We did what we could to offer support for her during this difficult time. Gladly she was home on vacation during this time and not back at school, that was a blessing.



23rd: Gregg and Becky's Anniversay is today! Congratulations guys on another successful year. We wish you many more to come.



This was also the "Living Lord's Supper". For those who may not have heard-Dave was "Simon the Zealot" in this play. Byron and Connie were here to see their son perform his part in this incredible play. I have never seen this play performed before but I had heard others talk about it in the past. Dave did a great job. He learned all of his lines and put alot of emotion into his character. This was honestly something I never thought I would have the honor of seeing....my husband participating in a live play about the Lords last supper in front of a huge crowd. What a blessing it was. Bill Hogg was also in the play along with many others from our church as well as members from another local church. The pastor of the Weslyan church played Jesus.



April



5th: I was finally able to go into Michael's room and do some cleaning. I have not been able to go in there without crying, especially after his last visit home at Christmas. Mainly Dave cleaned out his closet and took everything out of his room. He hung a new ceiling fan and window blinds. Dave also shampooed the carpets. I bought a new bedspread for the bed and really spruced things up in there. It looks very nice and will make a nice guest room or bedroom for Courtney when she comes home for the summer.



12th: We had a Rummage Sale at the church for our teen fundraiser. It went really well. We had gotten alot of donations from the church membership and we had a beautiful day for a rummage sale. We made alot of money to help the teens pay for their trip at the end of the MTV session to Universal Studios.



18th: We had an Adventure Landing Lock-In with the teens. This is our first lock-in at Adventure Landing and it was great. We had the teens meet us at the church at 8:00p.m. We fed them Little Ceasar's pizza while they watched "The Last Sin Eater". From there we left for Adventure Landing. We were there until 2:00a.m. What a blast!



19th: Dave and I decided to have a garage sale of our own today. Brittney cleaned out all of her stuff she had hung onto that was stored in the attic and cleaned out what she could live without. Dave and I had been cleaning out the house room by room prior to this, so needless to say we had a garage full of stuff to sell. We made enough money from our garage sale to purchase a queen size box spring and mattress for the guest room (aka-Michael's room). We had been given a bed frame by some friends from church, so now we had everything we needed to get rid of the old waterbed that we were using for our guest room and replace it with a nice queen size bed. Michael will be so happy when he comes home. He tried talking me into letting him set up the waterbed in his room and I never would. Courtney also likes sleeping on a queen size bed...I know as little as she is what does she need a queen size bed for? Trust me when I tell you-that girl is all over the place when she sleeps. Sometimes she even ends up on the floor-I pitty her future husband!



26th: Dave, Brittney and I as well as Tammy and Chyna Pope drove down to Monticello for the Nazarene Youth Convention. Lot's of really good ideas, lots of useful information for the coming year and great entertainment from a band from Trevecca University. It was a great day and lot's of fun.



May



1st: We drove out to Nashville, Tennessee to pick Courtney up from school and bring her home for the summer. She already had almost everything packed and most of her stuff in storage when we got there. She had gotten us a room on campus at the guest house. We (Dave and I)spent the night in the guest house, get this, in bunk beds! Brittney spent the night in Courtney's dorm room. Courtney had taken Brittney on a tour of Trevecca's campus, which by the way is beautiful! Brittney and Courtney had a great time and this was a good opportunity for Brittney to start dreaming of her college days which will be coming soon.

2nd: We left Trevecca and decided to start home early since Courtney had everything ready when we got there. We stopped in Chattanooga, Tennesee. We went to "Rock City". That was really cool. I had seen the bird houses from time to time but I never really knew what Rock City was. The scenery was awesome. What an unexpected pleasure this stop was. We had not planned on doing this on our trip. The plan was drive up and get Courtney and come home, but since we had some unexpected free time we thought we would enjoy some site seeing. Chattanooga was Daves idea. After Rock City we got a room for the night.



3rd: Today we went back up Look-Out Mountain to see Ruby Falls. This waterfall is 1500 feet inside the mountain! This was one of those moments in life that brings you face to face with God's wonderful and miraculous creation. I have always wanted to go to the caverns here in Florida but we never were able to make the time to do it. I would love to go back and do this again...it was incredible!



12th: Well, today was my 40th birthday! Whaahoo. Brittney, Courtney and Dave planned a very nice surprise birthday party for me at church. My boss and co-worker(Gina) as well as several church friends showed up. They had games and music and this whole Hawaiian party theme done up for me. It was very nice and truly unexpected. Thank you guys for your thoughtfullness. I welcomed 40 with a bang. I needed it! This has been a difficult year for me. Not the turning 40 but everything else.



13th: Today was Peter Cowan's Graduation! Congratulations Peter...I am sorry we missed it. We did not receive the graduation invitation until May 10th. That did not give us enough time to work out the time off from our jobs in order to go.

We missed Williams graduation because Courtney was graduating also. So far we are 2-0... Maybe we can make it to Lukes graduation next year!



16th & 17th: Brittney, Courtney and myself as well as many ladies from our church went to "Women of Faith". This year Women of Faith came to Jacksonville, Florida. We usually drive down to Orlando for it, but this year they came to us. Lucy Swindoll, Patsy Clairmont,Sheila Walsh, Sandy Patty and Marilyn Meberg. Also Max Lucado was there (the only guy in an auditorium full of women) and Nicole C. Mullen. It was a great time of reflection and it was nice to hear these famous ladies talking about their struggles and they share the same problems we all suffer with. The conference this year really touched me. I had been to Women of Faith conferences before but none of them touched me like this years conference did. The topics were definately those I needed to hear and God really touched me and made some definate changes in me through this conference.



18th: We played hookie from church today and just spent a day picnicing and fishing. This year has been a very difficult and turbulent year and it has seemed like it just has not stopped swirling around long enough to catch our breath. The time in Chattanooga made us all realize that we have been so busy that we have not been able to take the time to enjoy God's gifts. They are right here in front of us every single day. We went down to Little Talbot Island and did some fishing and sunbathing. We even took Cadence (Brittney's dog with us). What a great day we had! Thank you God for your many blessing and the ability to share in your creation every single day if we would only open our eyes and see...




21st: Our last MTV class in this session. This program was very fun and just as much a blessing to the kids as I hoped it would be. The games, lessons and the entire platform for this program was a treat. The kids had fun dressing up for the different themes....this program has been a God send!



22nd: Skate Night with the Teens! Dave bought me my own roller skates at Christmas last year. This was my first time using them....I want you to know I am not 16 years old anymore. The floor moves faster than me. Every now and then it feels like someone is trying to move the floor out from under me. I did not fall tonight (Courtney did but we won't mention that). They say you are only as old as you feel, well tonight I felt all of 40 years old!



25th: The P.I.G.S. (Puppets In God's Service) are back in Orange Park Church of the Nazarene! Brittney does the Cameron the Camel puppet and she does such a good job. The puppets had not performed in the church for a while, it was really nice to see them back. They are entertaining for all ages not just the kids.



28th: I celebrated 1 year with Spring Chiropractic today. I can't believe that it has been a whole year. I have been doing medical billing for Dr. Spring. He is a great boss to work for and the clinic is a great environment. I thank the good Lord for putting me in such a nice and nurturing environment. I didn't think there were any nice places to work. I just resolved myself to the fact I would always hate my job if it meant working outside the home. God is Good All the Time!



30th & 31st: We decided to wrap up the month of May with a 30-hour famine for World Vision. Our teens starved themselves for 30 hours in order to raise money to help feed starving children in Africa. They were on the honor system from 2:00p.m.-7:00p.m. Then they showed up at our house at 7:00p.m. We started the evening by showing the teens videos that explained the reason for the famine. The activities associated with the 30-hour famine were very informative and really touched all of the teens involved. We took a break and went to the park near the house. They ran around and had fun and acted dumb. When it got dark we went back to the house and played some video games, watched a movie, did some more 30-hour famine activities then went to bed around 1:00a.m. We got everyone up the next morning and took them to Silver Glen hoping that would help them take their minds off of being hungry....no one wanted to swim except Brittney and Courtney. They were all too tired and had no energy due to lack of food. They all slept in the van on the way home. We had our last activities that went along with the famine lessons and wrapped things up around 9:00p.m. Saturday night. We broke the fast with the observance of communion. Brittney and Courtney showed us how communion was done when they went to NYC last summer. After communion we went inside for some grool looking type food. This is the kind of food that is given to starving people in Africa to help their bodies accept food after being in a state of starvation. After they ate their grool Brittney fixed a breakfast sticky bun for them to take with them. They loved that. The Famine was a huge success! The teens learned alot, I learned alot, and we are excited about doing it again next year.



June



7th: We went to the Bostwick Blueberry Festival finally! I have been waiting to go to this festival ever since we moved here. Every year there is always something that kept us from being able to go. Well, this year we went. The food was very good and they had lots of vendors with handmade items for sale. I enjoy festivals, they are so much fun. We stayed for about 2 hours and then decided we had seen and done everything. On our way out, the line of traffic on it's way in was incredible. This is just a little festival but the turnout was incredible. We had a nice time but probably would not go back again. The blueberries they were selling were to expensive so we didn't buy any. But I'm still glad we finally made it to the Bostwick Blueberry Festival.



11-15: Brittney went to church camp for the week. Some how it seems to work out that she is rarely home for Father's Day! But Dave didn't mind to much because this camp experience will be good for our baby girl. Can't wait until she gets home to tell us all about it!



16th: Brittney starts Drivers Ed at Middleburg High School. She has to go Monday - Wednesday for the next 4 weeks and the classes are 4 hours long. She was not able to work drivers ed into her class load because she takes all advanced classes. She wants to be able to take it easier on her Senior year so she is cramming all of the tough stuff in the first three years of high school. She would have had to drop her French II class to take drivers ed and I felt the French class was more important (and so did her guidance councilor). So summer drivers ed was an option and we ran with that. I don't think Brittney minds this kind of summer school! Can you believe my baby girl will be driving soon?



22nd: BRITTNEY GOT BAPTIZED TODAY!!! Yeahhh-Good job baby girl!



28th: Teen group takes a trip to Universal Studios. We got a great deal on the tickets and we were able to do Islands of Adventure as well as Universal Studios. I had no idea so many teens were roller coaster crazy....I thought they were normal for the most part! Brittney and Courtney were glad to finally have some comrades with them on the rollercoasters. This was really fun and the teens earned it!