Happy 19th Anniversary

It all began in the spring of 1989. Philip Thurman asked me out on our first date. 8 months later, we were engaged. 8 months after that we were married. What a wonderful time it has been. We have grown together and as individuals. We were such babies. I was 22 he was 23. I know you are suppose to be responsible and have it all together by then but we were not. Philip only had a part time job when we were married. I remember when our rent went up to $380 from $360, we moved home. We just couldn't make that happen. I look back now and wish that was all we had to pay. We have moved alot, had 3 children, started a church, cried, laughed, yelled, loved, talked, worshipped, and celebrated in our 19 years together.

We started taking pictures of ourselves on our anniversaries each year. We got the idea from some friends that had been married a while before us. We keep them posted on our refrigerator. If you have ever been to our house you have seen them. It's so funny to see someone, who has never been to our house, stare at the pictures trying to figure out what they mean. Finally they understand and smile. I thought I would include them in my blog today so you could see how we have changed. It will make you smile.

1st year. Aren't we so cute.

2nd year.
Seems a life time ago. We lived in Atlanta, GA

3rd year.
We were expecting Brice. Love the big earrings and floral shirt.

4th year
Brice was included in this picture for some reason. Don't you love the permed hair? We were in seminary during this time.

5th year
We lived in Jackson, MS working in our first ministry position (college and singles). I was expecting Shelby.

6th year
We were living in Madison, MS. Still at FBC Jackson. Somebody help me with the hair...

7th year
We had just moved to Hattiesburg. We were on staff at Temple Baptist Church. (college and singles.) This picture was taken at The Crab Trap in Destin. We took the singles to a retreat at SanDestin every year. The next few pictures are taken at the same restaurant.

8th year
Destin, FL

9th year
Destin, FL Come on with the overalls. Good grief....

10th year
Destin, FL
We had moved to Columbia, SC
We worked with the Single Adults and took them to the same retreat.

11th year
We had just moved back to the Jackson area. We were living with my parents at the time. We were waiting to sell a house and buy another one. As you can see, I was much with child. (Eli) In fact, he was born just a couple of weeks after this picture. We were on staff at FBC, Jackson again as young adult pastor.

12th year
We were in Atlanta, GA visiting some friends.

13th year
Not too long after this picture was taken we started LifeBridge Church. Wow, what a journey! Notice Philip's hair after this point. I told him the other day he gave his hair for this church.

14th year
We had moved to Madison by this time.

15th year
Destin, FL
We took a trip, just the two of us, to Destin. We sat on the beach all day, reading and watching people. We had so much fun. I love the beach and being with my sweety was awesome. I think we both read 2 or 3 books while we were there.

16th year
Notice the gray?

17th year
OK, so we both looked drugged in this picture. Brice took the picture and we thought it was so funny we kept it.

18th year
Perdido Key, FL

19th year
Wow!

What a life! I love you, Philip. I'm so glad that you had that class with Stacey and Rose Mary so many years ago. For those of you that don't know the story... Stacey Norris Hight and Rose Mary Chapel Buehler(My room mate and good friend from MS College) had a class with Philip, my junior year. They had a project in their class where they had to interview each other. One of the questions they asked Philip was, "If you could ask anyone out on campus, who would you ask out?" Well, not knowing that we were friends, much less roommates, he said, "Lori Kinchen". The rest is history.

Philip, we have been through a lot of good times, hard times, sad times, questioning times, funny times, and wonderful times. Through it all, we have learned to trust God when we didn't have enough. We have learned to lean on each other. We learned that it's ok to disagree. We've learned that it's fun to laugh and be silly. We've learned that we are totally opposite but that works for us. I'm so proud to be called your wife. I'm so happy that you gave me 3 wonderful children. I'm so proud of what and who you have become. We've come a long way in 19 years and I wouldn't change a thing. I look forward to many more years with you and will cherish each of them.

Thank you for allowing me to share with you, our friends and family, the past 19 years. Hope you have enjoyed....

Still here...

Yes, I'm still here. It's been awhile and I don't really know why. I've been working on going through my 25 random things that I posted on Facebook awhile back but I'm tired of doing that. I may pick it up another day but it's getting boring.

To catch you up on my life the last month. We have been busy with nothing. You know the days that are filled with stuff and by the end of the week you say to yourself, "What did I do all week?" We've had lots of those. I've been busy with kids, church stuff, vacation, Brice's driving, etc.

We went to Perdido Key for our vacation this year. We went there last year with our friends, the Dodds and decided to go again.

We had so much fun! It was a very relaxing week.

I found a great deal online. We were able to get a 3 bedroom condo, right on the beach for 6 nights for $1000. We split that 2 ways. Great deal. There was an interested day in the middle of the week. A little 6 year girl was lost on the beach for a couple of hours. She was found 2 miles down the beach. Very scary for the parents. Philip went down to the beach to pray with the parents. As soon as he was finished praying the sheriff came up to Philip and told him that they had found her. God works so great miracles.

Brice got his driver's license after we returned from the beach. He has been going everywhere. He is always asking me if I need anything from the grocery store or from Wal-Mart. I worry about him so much when he is gone. I hope it gets a little better. I know I will always worry about it but it drives me crazy. I will just have to step up my prayers for him so I don't worry so much.

Philip, Brice and Shelby are at camp this week. They went to BigStuf camp again in FL. They are having a blast, as far as I can tell. Philip and Davis(our youth pastor) are twittering about it and Philip has sent text messages along the journey. Philip's last text read: "It's all I can do to hold it together when I look down my row and see Brice worshipping. Eyes closed and hand lifted. Wow. Glorious one." Wish I could experience it with them. It will be a great week.

Eli and I miss them. We are going to have a mom/son day today. Going to the movies. He wants to go to McDonalds to eat lunch. I'm just not real sure I can handle that!

It's good to be blogging again. Maybe I won't wait another month to blog again. Good day!

Brice's Truck

Sean and Brice found this truck back in May.

After talking long and hard about it we decided it would be awesome for Brice's first vehicle. He is working this summer to pay for it. Over the weekend, while Brice, Shelby and I were in Meridian for soccer, Sean and Philip went to get the truck. Sean took it to a buddy of his and they cleaned it up really good. Philip parked it in the garage and it was there when we drove into the driveway Sunday.

It was a big surprise for Brice. He had no idea that Philip had picked it up. He loves it and is very careful with it. He doesn't get his license until the middle of July but he is ready. I'm sure since he is buying the truck himself he will take really good care of it. I was driving with him the other day and he said he was nervous driving it because it's HIS. It will be hard to see him drive away that first time all by himself. Pray, pray, pray.....

#16 From Facebook's 25 Random things

#16 I love driving my kids to school (great conversations)

I have always driven my kids to school. I do complain about the carpool line but taking them is a different story. Some days they are very quiet but other days they are very talkative. You can really see into their world on days that they are talking. You can find out who they hang out with, who is mad at them, who they are mad at, what teachers they like, what tests they think they failed, why they didn't sleep well they night before, what they want to do on the weekend, and sometimes what they think about life in general.

Life is so busy these days and it's nice to just take some time out to listen to your kids. I will miss that this year with Brice. He will drive himself to school this year. UGH!! Can't believe it!!! I will have to find some other time to get into his head. I guess the best thing we can do is listen when they do talk and pray for them the rest of the time.

The last few weeks

It has been a while since I have really posted anything worth while. I have been so busy! Brice started working right after school was out. He is working for Sean at Wonder Woods. Sean is keeping him busy with those play structures. He has learned a lot! He is working to earn enough money for a truck. We thought we were going to get it in May but the owner of the truck is letting his son drive it right now. His son is not in any hurry to find another one. Maybe by school time we will have something for him to drive.

This is Brice singing at Amplify. (youth group)

Shelby is busy this summer with her friends. She is keeping Eli for me while I work. She actually hates it but she is making good money!

Shelby is trying her hand at the sound board during practice last Saturday.

Eli is just lovin' life. He has fun no matter what he is doing.

Eli is playing with Bear. I think he was trying to teach Bear to drop his toy so he could throw it again without having to pull it out of his mouth.

We had our best friends from GA come to stay with us last week. It was so much fun! Buffy sales premier jewelry and I had a show for her last Thursday. It was a pretty good show. I will get lots of free jewelry. I'm so excited to get it.

The kids had so much fun together. They stayed up late every night and never got tired of each other.

Brice and Andrew had fun trying to beat a Wii game.

Shelby and Emily... BFF

On Sunday, the Thomas family led us in worship. Philip and the LifeBridge team have been doing a series called, Retro...Summer of Love. We all are wearing tye-dye T-shirts and groovy clothing. It is so fun. They did an awesome job with the music. They started off with a medley of 60's songs. They are so talented. I'm so proud to be their friends. People from the church are still talking about it.

Buffy and I thought it would be nice to have a "new" picture of us since the last one we have of us together is when I was pregnant with Eli.

The kids...minus Abby(she stayed with her grandmother in AL) and Eli(he was in his class at church)

Brice and Andrew being cute.

Rob leading worship

Emily and Buffy sporting their 60's attire.

Andrew lovin' life

This past Wednesday we had a volunteer training for the preschool, nursery and children's ministries at the church. Melanie, Amanda and I worked really hard to make it happen. We had about 45 people come Wednesday night. We were expecting about 30. It was awesome. We shared stories of how they are making a difference, gave them friendly reminders and gave away prizes. They were all blown away. I love making people happy that way.

Thursday I was so tired after all of those activities. My friend, Courtney, invited the kids and I to go swimming. We had so much fun just relaxing. Thank you, Courtney. I needed that so bad.

Well, Since my life has slowed down a bit hopefully I will be able to post more. I really like to blog but some days I'm just too tired to type.

Have a great weekend....

#15 (From Facebook's 25 Random Things)

#15 My family was the first, of all my friends, to get a microwave.

I'm not sure if the above picture is exactly what we had but it is close. The one above is actually called a radar range. I remember thinking that the microwave would fry my brain if I got too close. We probably used it only to heat things up, not to really cook anything. I still don't use mine to cook in, only to heat up. One of my childhood friends reminded me that we were also the first ones to have a VCR. We actually had the beta version first. I remember the video store we used to go to. They had the video cassette covers velcroed to the wall. It was a fun Friday night at our house.

#14 (From Facebook's 25 Random Things)

#14 I used to play in my attic when I was a kidMy attic, as a child, looked a lot like this one.  It wasn't full, but had lots of boxes and old stuff.  It was mostly Christmas decorations, probably.  When I was still in elementary school my sister had an accident that involved the garage door being torn down. (won't go into that one here) After that, we decided to enclose the garage and make it a "play room" complete with pool table.  I loved hanging out in that room.  One day I decided I wanted to see what was in the attic.  It's one of those doors that pulls down from the ceiling with the folding ladder.  I went in the attic and decided it was pretty fun.  I took toys up there and had my own little special get away.  I remember playing school up there and reading, probably even took my meals up there.  I asked my dad the other day if he knew that I did this.  He doesn't remembering knowing about it.  You know it gets pretty hot in an attic and when I opened the door to play, I'm sure I let all that hot air into the house.   Not very smart.  But when you aren't paying the bills, you don't really care.  Fun childhood memories!!!  

#13 (From Facebooks 25 Random Things)

#13 I've always thought my sister was beautiful (still do)


This is my big sister, Melanie (with her sweet husband, Woody) Melanie is almost 7 years older than me. I was born two weeks early and my mother missed Melanie's dance recital because of me. I'm sure Melanie and my mom have forgiven me but I'm reminded of that fact often. My sister is loved by many. She is a wife to Woody (for 25 years), a mother to Zach and Hannah, an aunt, a daughter, a friend and my sister. I love her very much.

I've always loved being with my sister. I looked up to her so much. We used to play together a lot when we were little.

We had our favorite foods that my mother used to make. And dreaded some days when she made certain things. We went on several camping trips through the years and even survived sharing a bed in a small camper.

Melanie is a beautiful person inside and out. Look how cute she was as a little girl. I can remember wanting to be just like her when I got older.

I know I probably drove her crazy, wanting to be in her room all the time and wanting to know what she was doing and who she was with.

I don't ever remember her getting mad at me or yelling at me. She may have, but I don't remember. Maybe I blocked all that out because I only wanted to remember the good parts. From the picture below, you can tell I wanted to be with her all the time. I couldn't even let her take a birthday picture without me.

Even during her "awkward" years, I thought she was pretty. The picture below looks like our mother had a few "awkward" years too. Ha Ha!!

When Melanie was in high school she was on the dance team. Of course, I thought that was awesome. I used to sit down on the gym floor of the basketball games close to the cheerleaders because they knew my sister and I thought they should know me too. I'm sure Melanie could have killed my mother for letting me do that.

My sister has been there for me through the years. From broken hearts, to health issues, from the births of our children to moving out of town. She is there to listen with me, cry with me, laugh with me and now working at the church with me. I never thought in a million years that my husband would be my sister's pastor. But, she doesn't treat me like her pastor's wife, to her I'm just her little sister.

Thank you, Melanie for being there for me, for praying for me and for supporting me. I've always thought you were beautiful and I still do.