Wow! Called Out

I had some free time today and noticed that my wife called me out on our blog (see previous post) for not ever contributing to the shared blog, and she is completely correct about that. So, in an effort to help her out I am renewing/starting my effort to blog. (You will also notice that I changed our profile picture to, you know, put a little bit of me in the design template)

Anyway, I wanted to point Holly Packer (not because she needs it, but because she has the honorable distinction of being our only follower) and any other person who has accidentally discovered our blog to this incredible website. It is an amazing satire on people like me who feel the need to get into things that they may actually not be into but want to like so that, ultimately, we can seem relevant and thus win friends and influence people. The humor is good, and the blog is well written. When I don't fit the object of the joke I feel good about myself, and when he is speaking directly about me it almost hits a bit too close to home.

A Trial Run

So I was reading Cassie's blog the other day and she called Dave and I out on updating our blog! Something we have never been really good at. Here are some reasons why we haven't updated:

1. We are incredibly busy. With Dave coaching football and wrestling and me coaching cross country and now track there are some nights we don't get home until 10:00.
2. Friends- Not only are we busy with work but we have had a fun time hanging out with friends some nights during the week, which on top of sports, there are some weeks where we've had something every night of the week.
3. Laziness- when I am home I don't want to blog!
4. Solo- the blog of Dave and Kristin was meant to be updated by 2 people but that has turned into a one person job! I don't blame him though. He's working, coaching, and going to school.
5. Lack of blog knowledge/creativity- I can't keep up with how cute everyone's blogs are and I just feel incredibly behind in the blog world. However, I think I can overcome this one and be okay with my average template! It's me!
6. Everybody is having babies! Makes me feel like I should be posting about babies but we're not there yet!
7. I'd rather talk on the phone! It's more personal!
8. I'm a little hesitant to put my life on the internet!
9. I don't know what to talk about some days!
10. Does anyone really ever read this?

Okay so you get my drift! We're busy and we're having fun and I'm not creative! However, I'm going to try something. I'm not going to pressure myself into blogging every day and not even every week. I will try to blog 2 times a month for 6 months. After 6 months if I have not been successful in updating my blog 2 times a month then I will shut it down! I really do want to be good at this because I do have people all over the world that I'd like to know what's going on with us! Thanks for the boost Cassie! Hopefully I will do you proud!

To Come... some updates/pictures of things we've been doing since July! That should keep me busy for a couple of months!

I've been waiting for this week all summer because this week I officially became a "Coach." My title has yet to be determined. I don't want to be called "Coach Sessions" and "Coach Kristin" just doesn't sound right but I'm sure that somehow the sound of "Coach (something)" will eventually begin to sound normal. Right now we are all going through the change of not having the Mrs. Coach Lavender around. It's very difficult for me right now to even imagine replacing such a wonderful Coach and I think the girls are having a hard time seeing me as something other than "Friend Kristin," the name they gave me last year. We are all trying to embrace the change that has been set before us and I pray that God will give me the strength, courage, and wisdom to lead the precious girls that are on the team. We began our camp this week and just the third day into it my knees are already hurting! This is a new pain to me. Last year it was my shins, during track it was my hip, and now my knees. I think my body is trying to tell me something. But something inside of me doesn't want to stop. I love running... let me rephrase that... I love running with a team. It's such an amazing accomplishment to finish such an excruciating workout with others along side of you cheering you on. I cannot wait to see what the season has in store!!

I'm really excited about this next school year. I've spent a couple of days a week at Lipscomb this summer seeing some kids and doing some language camps. I've truly enjoyed being in the Lipscomb environment. I'm also excited about all the sporting events. Now that Dave and I have established relationships with kids at the school, I can't wait to see them in action on the fields, courts, and mats. Dave began his camp this week for football as well and they've been practicing in the heat all day long, something I'm not jealous of. Games and meets will be beginning soon and we will be very busy. We'll be doing something we love and hopefully ministering to those who are around us. I can't wait!!!

New Author

Since its inception daveandkristinsesssions.blogspot has not had a lot of representation from me (Dave) so I thought it would be good to keep our friends informed from my perspective.

Kristin and I paid for digital cable and DVR service this year and the year, along with the promotion, are almost up so we are on our final two months of "pausing and rewinding live TV." Thus, we are both feeling the need to get our money's worth by watching a lot of TV and sometimes it even seems like we are watching things that we wouldn't have watched anyway. Right now Kristin is watching Beverly Hills 90210



(The one where Kelly and David start a call-in advice show on the radio program that David runs from the night club that is behind the Peach Pit, Dylan buys a gun so that he can kill his former mob-boss-Father-in-Law after said Father-in-Law exhumes Dylan's former wife and inexplicably moves her grave to a place Dylan can't find, and Steve's newest get-rich-quick scheem is a seduction service...hilarity ensues) and I am doing my best not to make fun because her and I both know it will be football season soon and no-one puts up with more football, and more Seahawk fan moodiness,



than my wife.

We just got back from visiting Kristin's sister and her husband and, like usual, they were kind enough to take us water skiing on Kentucky Lake. My pride was a little hurt when I was the only person out of 7 of us who was not able to get out of the water. There was even a point where Levi was attempting to pull 5 people up at once, me and 4 women, and I was soon the sole person bobbing in the water trying to recover my ski while Mindy, Kristin, Olivia, and Erin were carving up the lake.

Finally, this week starts season 2 with the DLHS football team. I've really enjoyed coaching at Lipscomb and learning from guys like Coach Glenn McAdams who do an amazing job at both coaching a sport and teaching high school boys about Christian brotherhood. We should have a great team, but I am most looking forward to seeing these guys grow and learn to count on each other. Cheesy, I know, but it's a really special experiance to coach and compete in high school sports while simultaneously living out the Christian life not abandoning it.

Video Time

I thought I'd finally post some videos from our trip and also tell you about our Jack Black story! That's what the first two videos are from. So here's the story...

One night after shopping for opals in the city, we were headed to Circular Quay for dinner. On our way we passed a large theater that obviously was planning some big premiere. We kept circling the block trying to figure out what movie it was for and who was going to be there. After finding out it was a premiere for Kung Fu Panda, we asked an officer who was coming. To which he replied, "I think it's Joe Black." The four of us looked at each other and were so excited because we knew we'd get to see Jack Black. We continued circling the building until finally we heard some drums being played. Thinking that he was there already Darla and I jumped out of the car to see if we could catch a glimpse. Fortunately they were just playing the drums for the big panda and we knew we had some time. Darla saw a spot across the street that had an opening so we headed over there to claim our spots. It took us about 5 minutes before we realized that we were standing in the perfect place. His car would pull up right in front of us and we'd for sure get a good view. So here's the video of after he pulled up, did some karate chops with the panda, and is having an interview with Channel 10.



As if you couldn't tell from our screaming we were so excited! Then it just got better. After his interview, he turned towards the street and said, "Now I'm going to talk to my fans." He said it in his voice... I can't explain it but it was definitely how Jack Black would say it! I had the camera at this point and the next thing I saw through the screen was him coming straight at me. I couldn't figure out how to work the stupid camera after that. I was so excited and Darla was grabbing my arm jumping up and down that I just started snapping away! He came right in front of us. Here's how close he got...



Then he jumped up on the barricade in front of us and started acting like he was going to crowd surf. It was amazing!! So then he started to head down the row of people lining the street and we headed for the car. We wanted to see him one last time and that's what this next video is of...



It must be so ridiculous that we were that excited but he definitely looked at us and pointed to us! Anyway, we have another video that I love. I mentioned in our previous post the 300 dolphins that we saw. Dave took a great video of them right below where we were standing on the boat. If you listen closely, you can actually hear the dolphin noises. They are so cute! Please excuse Dave's comments. He was so excited you could here them!

Picture Time!

There's so much I could say about our trip to see Darla and Michael that it's a little overwhelming. For that reason I've kind of been dreading this post. So, to make it easier on me and more entertaining for you I figured I'd just post some pictures of things that happened and tell our story that way! Enjoy!!



Happy to finally be at Michael and Darla's!


Dave tasting Vegemite, a dark brown savory food paste made from yeast extract, used mainly as a spread on sandwiches, toast, and cracker biscuits. In other words... disgusting!!


On our way to Nelson Bay...

Where we went whale watching...


And saw close to 200 dolphins all at once!


Nelson Bay is beautiful... with very large...


Pelicans and...


Spiders... Australia has HUGE spiders!!!


On our way back from Nelson Bay we saw wild kangaroos, which Dave and I were really excited about!


One day we saw the movie, 21. I had never seen a movie like this before. We had reclining chairs and were served free popcorn and drinks and then a meal during the movie!!! A very nice experience!


Unfortunately, the weather in Sydney didn't cooperate. However, Dave and I didn't let that stop us from touring the city. We fought the rainy, cold weather and set out into the city when Michael and Darla had to work!


One day we went to a Koala park where we pet Koala's and kangaroos! If you look at this Koala's belly you'll notice it's really big... that's because she has baby inside of her!!!! We actually saw the baby's arm poke out of her!!


Then we went to the Blue Mountains and saw the Three Sisters, the rocks behind us


Another really fun thing we did was go to a Rugby game! This was very exciting for Dave and he will forever be an Eels fan!! Go Eels!!!!!!


Like I said earlier, the weather wasn't nice to us so we had to have our picnic in Michael's parent's house!!!


After shopping for opals one day, we headed to Circular Quay (pronounced "key") for our dinner reservation. We passed the theater and noticed there was a premiere. Fortunately we were able to park the car and see Mr. Jack Black himself up close and personal! There will be another posting about this event on a later date


the view of the Opera House at night!


The last full day there we hiked to Manly Beach where we saw beautiful scenery


This is just one of the great things about Sydney!!!


Our last morning, Michael cooked us an incredible BBQ breakfast.

So this is obviously the shortened version of our trip. There just aren't words to express the wonderful time we had visiting our friends that we miss so much. I despise the tearful good-byes that we have now since we don't know when we'll see each other again for sure... but I'm hoping it's 2010 in Seattle!!!
Love you guys!!!

Mr. Jet Lag

We have returned from our adventure to Australia. We had a blast with Michael and Darla and miss them so much already! Thanks you two for taking us in and for such a great time! We have tons of pictures and stories to tell! I will post them when we return to Tennessee since I don't have the hook up for our camera with us! So for now I'll just tell you about our flying adventure:

We left Sydney on Wednesday at 1:30 pm (Tuesday 10:30 pm Tennessee time) and got to Seattle on Wednesday at 3:00 pm. So nice to not lose a day! Anyway, the flight home did not go as smoothly as it had on the way there. We got to the airport and our flight was delayed due to maintenance issues but luckily we were able to catch another flight out, however, the flight was packed because everyone on our original flight was put onto this other flight. About 3 hours into the flight, right when we received our food, the plane started bouncing. I say bouncing because it felt as though we were some bouncy ball being thrown around. We'd hit one pocket of air and go flying to the next and bounce of it to another one. This continued on and by the time it calmed down everyone who had received their food was soaking wet from their drinks spilling on them. Unfortunately our bouncy ride was not over and the turbulance continued on for about 10 more hours. That's right... the turbulance never stopped. At one point I turned to the flight attendant, who was sitting behind us since we were in the second to last row of the 76 row plane, and asked, "Are we going to be okay?" He of course reassured me that this was normal and that he's been in worse but for some reason I couldn't shake off the fear and tears just came rolling down. When I have moments like these I always look around expecting other people to be terrified as well but somehow I seem to be the only one on the stinking plane who is worried. I'm stupid for not taking my medicine on this flight!!!

With the packed flight and bumpy ride, Dave and I didn't get much sleep. It totaled up to 30 hours of no sleep! Which leads me to the point of the title and picture above. I have made an enemy since we left Australia and his name is Mr. Jet Lag. He was nice to me when we got to Australia but Dave was tempted with the feeling of sleepiness! However, both of us since we returned haven't been able to fight the temptations that Mr. Jet Lag sets before us. We have been waking up around 3 am or either staying up until 3 am and falling back to sleep about 6 or 7 and sleeping the rest of the day away! I think I'm learning to defend myself a little bit. I decided to stay up as late as I needed and then fall asleep and wake up around 8 or 9 in the morning and fight him off the rest of the day. But Dave is giving in at every moment and he is sleeping as we speak. I hate Mr. Jet Lag and I am ready for him to leave so that I can have a normal routine again.

We are excited about our time in Seattle. We leave tomorrow for a wedding in Spokane until Monday. And then we will be back on our way to Nashville! As much fun as I've had I'm ready to get home to a routine and to Abi! I miss that dog a ton and can't wait to see her!!! Thank you to our friends and family who have taken care of her for us. I know she had a blast and loved every moment of it!!