Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Reedy

This past weekend we headed up to Lexington to see one of our good friends from high school get married.  It just so happened that he was marrying one of my good friend's from college and Charleston, Mandy's sister.  Small world!  Richard (my brother-in-law) tried to tell me that God is running out of "extra's" in the drama that is my life.  Anyways, we went to Lexington on Friday and spent the whole weekend helping Matt's dad get ready to move and I spent some time at the lake house with Lauren and Richard.  It was an awesome weekend at the lake house- we just played games, talked, played cornhole, and relaxed!  

Here is Lauren and I on the back porch of the lake house...one of my favorite places in the world.  Sorry we look a little rough, thats the joy of the lake house- you cant come looking fancy :)

On Saturday night we headed to Ryan and Mary's wedding in downtown Columbia.

Here is the bride and groom dancing away as their first dance as husband and wife!

Who else do I always get to see at weddings besides Cam!?

Mandy (Matron of Honor), me, and Cameron at the reception.  The reception was so fun and the food was so yummy, but we knew that already because Matt vividly remembered how good it was at Mandy's :)

Matt and Ryan.  Ryan is so funny!  He has always been the "class clown."  Of course he had a few surprises for everyone.  When his groomsmen walked down the aisle they all did a different, crazy handshake to him at the end.  It was funny, and SO Ryan!

I never really got any good pictures of the bride and groom...whoops!  But she looked beautiful and her dress was gorgeous!

Lastly, this is Garett...Matt's best friend from growing up.  He just recently got engaged to his now fiance, Courtney and we are SO excited for them!  Overall, it was such a fun and nice wedding.  It is always nice to see a Godly couple who is committed to putting to the Lord first get married.  I wish them all the happiness and a God-filled marriage :)

Coffee Chat with Matt

      That’s right boys and girls, the moment you have all being waiting for. In case, you do not know I am the other half of the Cogdill Crew. My wife Alyssa has been blogging about the interesting and not so interesting details of our life for the past 6 months or so. Ever since she started, there have been rumblings through cyberspace that the always opinioned husband should make at least some type of appearance and through multiple requests, I have given in (this one is for you Joya!). So here I am, a person in most aspects technologically challenged and downright scared of anything you plug in…writing a blog…on a computer. I mean I am not even on Face book…it’s ok I will wait while you collect yourself.
      I will first say that I marvel at everyone who writes these things. You are completely being vulnerable to the people who read it. How about if you write about something really amazing that happens to you and no one comments. That is the sort of thing that makes you want to go eat your lunch in a bathroom stall alone. With fear completely set in on what to write, I have decided to take a topic that is close to the heart for many reasons but mainly because I love golf and everything associated with it.
      Obviously, if you did not know who Tiger Woods was before November 27th, odds are that you do now…and probably not for a good reason. I first want to preface what I have to say with that fact that I was disgusted with what he did. Being a HUGE Tiger fan, I felt almost personally offended when all the rumors came pouring out. Being married now for two awesome years, I cannot think of a more selfish and hurtful thing to do than something like that to your wife. With that said, I think it is time to put the Tiger bashing aside. Over the past 5 months the deepest and darkest secrets of a man who is intensely private have been thrown out into the public for a feeding frenzy a la some piranha mealtime in the Amazon. Tiger might deserve everything he has gotten, but enough is enough. See, there are mainly three camps. There is the Tiger camp who genuinely wants to see his life restored and play great golf because he is the greatest golfer to walk the planet. There is the, for lack if a better term, Phil Mickelson camp who is loving this. They sit quietly by and say, “See, I told you Phil is a better person than Tiger.” And finally, there is the cold heartless post modernistic golf fan who says, “I don’t care what you do in your bedroom, just win baby!” I am here to try to convince you Tiger does not owe us anything anymore.
     After two months of inpatient therapy, public apology, several interviews, and many more to come, Tiger has said he is sorry. He has apologized to his family, friends, fans, sponsors, and fellow players. Even though I am a huge fan, that is where Tiger and I stop, I am just a fan. The real work goes on off cameras, with his wife, kids, mother, and friends. Those are the ones that should demand a change. For us, the regular Joes, we should be praying for Tiger that he gets all this junk figured out. Tiger being on top is the best for not only golf but for the millions of lives that he impacts through his Foundation, charities, and events. I will say this; I am bummed, to say the least, that Tiger has “embraced” his Buddhist beliefs again. There is not a single faith that preaches the unbelievable gift of grace like that of Christianity. Grace is exactly what Tiger needs. So, the next time you get ready to slam Mr. Woods, throw up a prayer for him instead. You never know what the Lord can do!

"for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God"

Romans 3:23

10 Things you may not know

Beth Moore, who is kinda my hero, just did a post about "10 things you may not know about me" on her blog and encouraged her "siestas" to do it too!  Here are her directions:
What are 10 things - right off the top of your head - that we would only know about you if we knew you really well? 10 random things ranging anywhere on your personal map that make you a tad distinctive? Or just plain weird? Think quickly. Don't go for deep. Go for quirky. Don't try to put them in any kind of order and don't make them long. Just start typing.

1. I detest dishes in the sink
2. One of my favorite things to do is go for a walk with Matt after dinner
3. I have never had braces, broken a bone, or even had stitches
4. I was in the 3rd grade spelling bee and lost on the word "length"
5. I was born in Toledo, Ohio and lived there until I was 9 and moved to the south..and I will never go back north!
6. I don't like it when people wear tennis shoes with no socks
7. I always wanted to be a teacher
8. I don't like change
9. My favorite girl scout cookie are the shortbread ones
10. My favorite season is spring :)

And the SUN is shinin'

This weekend was SO pretty! I was so excited to be able to get outside and sit in the warm sun!  I pretty much rearranged my weekend so we could spend as much time outside as possible.  On Saturday we invited a bunch of friends over for a little cornhole tournament.  We all brought lawn chairs, coolers, footballs, bocce ball (which we never got to play), etc.  It was so hot I had to go inside and change to a shirt that wouldn't give me tan lines :)

Here is Mandy showing off her cornhole skills ;)

Stephen and Emma ended up winning the tournament.  Little suspicious since it's their game, haha.

We could definitely use some more sun :)

Matt and Stephen throwin' the ol' pig skin.  Tiger is of course trying to catch it.  He is OBSESSED with football.  When he sees one he goes crazy.  He can't even carry it around because he can't get his mouth around it, but he is still obsessed.  We decided to try and just let Tiger "roam" around while we played and he surprisingly did great.  He never wandered off and listened really well.  I was pleasantly surprised!

After our long day of  playing outside it started to get a little chilly when the sun started to go down. Not to mention all the bugs that decided to come out then, too.  We decided to go inside and we ordered pizza and watched the Northern Iowa/Kansas game.  My bracket has gone completely to pot.  I only have ONE of my elite 8 teams left and none of my final fours...way to go me.  So, even though I should have wanted Kansas to win I was cheering for N. Iowa because I wanted everyone else's brackets to be as terrible as mine, pretty rude huh?  ha.  So Ben, Stephen, and I were the most annoying N. Iowa fans ever and it worked out for us because they won.  What a good game!  All in all it was such a fun and relaxing day.  I needed a good, warm day to brighten my spirits....doesn't spring just do that to ya?

March Madness

I am not a basketball fan- to be honest, I didn't watch one game this year.  BUT- somehow I have gotten sucked into creating a "bracket" for March Madness.  Because I knew absolutely nothing about these teams, I had to come up with some type of system of how I picked my teams.  I decided to strictly base my teams off of their average points per game from this past season.  I am not exactly sure if this system will work out, but we will find out!  I have picked BYU to win the national championship- not first choice, but I have to go with the system! So, go Cougars :)

P.S. I wanted to attach my bracket, but couldn't find a way to make it look perfect. And it still looked really wonky so I took it off. 

All you need to know is that my final four are Texas, BYU, Villanova, and Kansas :)

Birthday Boys

The time period between January 17th and March 31st is like one big celebration for us.  It starts with my brother's birthday, then Valentine's day, Matt's birthday, our anniversary, Will's birthday, Richard's birthday, and then my dad's birthday!  Whew...I told you it was a lot!  So this week we have had some fun celebrating our brother-in-laws' birthdays!  They are just one day apart, one this past Sunday and one on Monday.  

For Will's we met everyone at Olive Garden after church and then went to their apartment to eat cake. 

As always, Olive Garden was delicious!  Matt tried that new Pansotti dish (he's a sucker for those commercials...haha) and he said it was awesome. 

Will's parents are so sweet, it is always great to see them!

Jordan made a carrot cake to DIE for!  She homemade it from a Southern Living recipe and it was worth all her trouble.  It was moist and perfect, good job Jordan :)

Here is the group out to eat for Richard's birthday.  We went to the best mexican restaurant right by Lauren and Richard's house- Rio Grande.  He had just gotten in yesterday from Uganda so we were also celebrating a safe and productive trip.  

Funny story- so my sister had been planning all day to make Richard a $25,000 cake- which sounds odd, but its just a chocolate cherry cake.  Its one of my dad's favorites so we have it all the time, but I've never had this particular cake anywhere else.  Well, Lauren had some car issues and ended up not being able to make the cake so Miss AnneMarie (Richard's mom) told her not to worry, she had it under control.  Lauren didn't tell her what she was planning on making, but Miss AnneMarie made the EXACT cake Lauren was going to make.  Isn't that freaky and so random?!?  I thought it was!

The very happy birthday boy and his little wife. 

Happy birthday Will and Richard!  We are very, very blessed with wonderful brother-in-laws! We love you guys :)

Funniest Show of ALL Time

I am not the type of person that will laugh at movies or TV shows...I think they are funny, just not laugh out loud funny.  It gets on Matt's nerves because he will be cracking up at something and, although it might be funny, I sit with a straight face. That is just me.  I think real life is hilarious and spend hours laughing at people or situations or even jokes told to me- just not TV or movies.  Well, I have found one show that literally cracks me up.  Modern Family makes me DIE laughing the whole time.  I know this is a bold statement, but its the best show on TV.  Here is a clip from this past week's episode.  If you watch the show this will make more sense to you, but Cam is my favorite character.  He is the chubbier one in the car in the clip.



Not only is it funny, but it some how leaves you with a little "feel-good" moment at the end of each episode.  So if you don't watch, you need to start.  I am making you. It comes on Wednesdays on ABC at 9:00, so set your DVR :)

Picture Game

Courtney at Team Molony tagged me in a little picture game.  Here are the rules:

1. open your first photo folder

2. scroll to the 10th picture

3. post the photo and the story behind it

4. tag 5 or more people

This is a really random picture, but I wasn't going to cheat.  Like Courtney, my album started with a number (2007) so it came up first!  Our senior year of college we would have dinners with our townhouse and the one next to us at Megan's parents house.  Her parents would always cook us a gourmet dinner and it was SO good.  It was a nice break from our cafeteria at school, GDH.  This was our Christmas dinner in this picture and I think we were about to exchange gifts.  That is Kathryn on far left and Cameron on my right.   You can see about half of our friend Catie on the far right.  I miss all those girls, our townhouses, and I miss our yummy dinners at Megan's house!   

I tag Emma, Anna, and Lacey...everyone else who I think would do it has already been tagged :)

TWO years!

It is hard for me to believe that it has already been TWO years since I walked down the aisle and said "I do!" Time really has flown by, but I have honestly loved every minute of it.  I have learned so much about myself, some good some not so good (haha) in these past two years.  I am SO absolutely thankful for my wonderful husband and could not imagine one day without him.  I am more in love with him today than I was last year or the day we got married, and I hope that I can say that every year until we are 100.  The Lord has blessed me beyond anything I deserve and I give Him all the credit.  God is so good to me!

I wish we were on our way to Nuevo Vallarta again instead of being stuck at work and school today.  I don't know if I would go back and do my wedding over again (too much stress and attention for me haha) but I would DEFINITELY take another honeymoon!

I love you Matt, thank you for the best two years of my life :)

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

-James 1:17

They finally got to me

I knew the day was coming.  Acutally, I am surprised that I made it this long.  Everyone had told me that I would be out sick all the time once I was in clinic with all the kids, but I have yet to even get a cold.  Well, I did have a 24 hour stomach bug last semester, but that has been it.  I am literally in the face of snot-nosed kids all day long.  And I don't say that negatively, I mean literally 99.9% of all kids that come into the office are snotty and congested.  So I knew that I would probably getting way more than average number of colds this winter, but I have held out! My body has been like a fortress to all the germs :)  This all came crashing to a halt three days ago.  My nose has been running, I have been sneezing like crazy, and I am totally congested.  These have been my best friends...

Hopefully it won't last very long and I can get over it fast, but I am such a baby when I have a cold.  Its like my head gets all clogged up and I can't think straight let alone try to be nice to anyone.  You can ask Matt on that one, haha!  I know I am being whiny and I should be thankful that this is all I am facing right now, but having a cold is just miserble!  Good thing I love those little kiddos :)

On a different note, my brother-in-law, Richard, is headed to Uganda for the next couple of weeks to do some medical missions.  Just a few short weeks ago, he found out that they were in desperate need of some physicians to go to Uganda or the trip would have to be cancelled.  Well Richard felt the Lord calling him so he got everything together last minute and now he is THERE! The Lord worked so quickly to get everything lined up for him and even got off time from residency.  How awesome is that?  That truly is a MIRACLE!  You can keep up with him and all they are doing over there by this blog at http://www.palmettomedical.org/blog/.  There is even a professional photographer going with them, so the pictures will be incredible I'm sure.  Please pray for Richard and their team as they serve this country and bring them medical care and the gospel!

"He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.'"  

 -Mark 16:15

A new look...

If you have checked my blog in the last 12 hours or so it has probably been a mess.  I have been trying to rearrange and get a new look for my blog and have tried many, many options.  I really wanted a cooler banner than the one I had...which was so plain.  I kept seeing everybody having all these cool designs and pictures and I wanted that too!! haha!  Well I have finally come up with something.  I don't know if this is the final product or not, but I like it for right now.  I switched my template to "stretch" and now it has done some wonky things to my previous posts.  Which is fine, but I have to decide if I like this stretch or not.  I think it will only work if you have a wide computer screen and not a square one, so I don't like that too much.  I am still messing with it, so bear with me!  It might change ten more times before I am finished, but hopefully I can find something I like.  Any "professional" bloggers out there have suggestions let me know :)

Happy Birthday Matt!

Today is Matt's 25th birthday...a quarter of a century old :)  I wont mention the fact that I already beat him to it, but thats ok!  When its Matt's birthday, it is always like a week long celebration.  It was no different this year, things started this past Friday when we met with his mom for his birthday, on Saturday he ate dinner with his grandparents, then it continued to Sunday where we had his birthday dinner, cake, and presents with my parents.  He even squeezed in a round of golf for his birthday with his dad somewhere in there! I can't talk too much because my birthdays tend to be a little out of control, too.

Here is Matt with all his presents at my parent's house.  That strange chair-looking one is actually a lawn cart.  We thought it was some kind of chair, too :)

I love the time between March 3 and September 21 when we are the same age.  Makes me feel like less of a "cougar" (as Matt would call it). haha!

Mmmm...chocolate eclair cake, our favorite!

Most of his presents this year were for the house that hopefully we will buy soon!  So he got things like weed eaters, shop vacs, lawn carts, etc.  He seemed pretty excited about them, not exactly what I would be thrilled about!  The celebration continues tonight at California Dreaming.  We are going to meet Jordan and Will and maybe Lauren and Richard (if they're not on call) for a little birthday celebration.  Well, happy birthday Matt- I love you and hope you have a great 25th birthday!!!  

Go Hose!

As I had mentioned, this past weekend was our cheerleading reunion.  It was so much fun and it was SO good to see some of my best friends that I hadn't seen in forever.  We pretty much spent the whole weekend just talking, playing games, being silly, and catching up.  Not to mention a few stunts thrown in there :)  I knew it was going to happen, I am just glad we are all still alive!

Me and Kathryn snuggled in our bed ready to go to sleep the first night. 

A few of the lazy bums that decided to stay in our pajamas instead of go on a run.  I can't keep up with all those half marathoners :)

We played the game where you give a scenario and take a picture of the reaction.  I can't remember this one, of course, but it was obviously pretty disgusting. 

We played all kinds of games this weekend...too bad my catchphrase got cancer and sounded like it was dying the whole time :(

Group Picture! This one definitely belongs in the PC Magazine

And we had to do a few stunts to prove that we still had it ;)  And not only did we still have it, but we are still good at it! haha, jk- but we did do a lib, first try!  

"Senior" lib- Laurie would be proud!  This weekend was so much fun and I hope we continue to do this every year.  I love all these girls and had forgotten how absolutely funny they are and how much fun we have when we get together.  We had four years to recap and almost three years to fill eachother in on, one weekend was just not enough!