The Cordle Fam

How y’all doing? Busy week so far here, but mostly because it’s going to be a short one. Can’t wait to see the fam @ the lake this weekend! Well, everybody but Goob…she’ll have to be there in spirit. Maybe we can ichat or something.

Have a great week…see you in a few days! Luv Evrybdy!

This time 25 years ago I was 25 years old experiencing for the first time the thrill and excitement of labor pains! Living in Clarksdale, Ms at the time… I mowed the yard the day before hoping to move things along. Our due date had already passed us by and we could hardly wait to meet our precious “Bundle of Joy”! It worked…somewhere around midnight I started having some real back pains…by 5:00 am we knew “IT WAS TIME”! With bags packed, we were off…I would like to say that I followed through with my “mighty woman” statement of going “natural”, but it didn’t take long for me to start pleading for “SOMETHING”! (By the way I do have much admiration for all you “mighty women” who have gone naturally) However, this was in the “olden days” and in Clarksdale, Ms, epidurals were not an option. I wasn’t convinced that what they gave me helped at all..but to spare those details…

ROBERT EARL CORDLE III made his entrance into the world somewhere around 1:00 that afternoon. What a miracle! Overwhelmed with Joy! Our first born.. A Baby Boy! The Lord rocked our world ..it would never be the same! By blessing us with such amazing love for this little guy He sent down from above! As newborn parents we didn’t want to put him down..so we rocked him and we cuddled him and we rocked some more.. “passy” and “pippy” were his favorite friends.. so full of adventure, curiosity and fun.. that hasn’t changed any and he’s only just begun..

As parents so proud of you now as we were then… Our little “fella” grew up and what a man you’ve become! There’s a girl out there somewhere (I pray for her daily) who when the timing is right will meet the “catch of a lifetime” and be blessed beyond measure!

With a heart of gold and a sense of humor to treasure.. you make life so much more fun whenever you’re around! You just never know where you might be found.. fulfilling your dreams and making them come true! You inspire all of us why not just do that, too! Where in the world is Walbo? Where will he be next? Family, friends, coworkers, too.. you are loved by all, this is so true! (I suppose you’ve made someone mad along the way, but they probably still think that you’re OK!) You teach us so much about many things… but when it comes to computers, technology, and such.. without you where would we be?! Your gifts and abilities came directly from The Lord.. they sure didn’t come from your Dad and me!

We give our thanks to God for blessing us with you.. and really can’t wait to see what all He’s going to do.. IN YOUR NEXT 25 YEARS!

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Birthdays. We all have them, right? For the past few hours, I’ve been trying to see how many birthdays I could remember. Of course there are a few that stick out. My 13th birthday at the lake is one. Another would be my 16th. The first place I went after receiving my drivers license wasn’t my girlfriend’s house, it was Jack Peek’s Sales, a lawnmower place in Palmetto. Man, did I catch some crap for that. Add to that the countless birthday memories with the family huddled around one cake or another talking and laughing, and I don’t think I’ve had a bad birthday.

As I sat here recounting birthday memories, I couldn’t help but reach under my bed for the logbook from my 2004 sailing trip. I remember my 21st birthday as though it were yesterday… (more…)

It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.

-Pope John XXIII

1. Dad’s very understanding. As his kids, we’re very fortunate that we don’t have to worry about dad getting real angry when things don’t go exactly as planned. Just ask Anna, who’s had about as many traffic tickets as she’s had birthdays. Or Caroline, who got pulled over tonight. Twice. Granted, the argument could be made that they learned it from him. I’ll never forget the day he received a letter from the DMV in the mail stating “Robert, your drivers license is no longer suspended”. “That’s good”. He wasn’t aware it was suspended in the first place!
2. He’s a very hard worker, and it’s made him very successful. I’ll never forget the day when I was in elementary school and they sat us down for a “family meeting”. Mom & Dad explained to us that Dad had been laid off at the bank, and was going to work for himself. “We think this is really a blessing…Dad’s been wanting to open his own firm for a long time”. We were too young back then to know how scary this must have been for them.For many years tax season was a very stressful time for him, yet at home you could barely tell a difference.
   
   And even though tax season and soccer season overlapped, it was a rare case that he wasn’t sitting beside Big Bob during Goob’s games cheering their team on. Getting laid off did turn out to be a huge blessing, and we’re in awe of what Dad has been able to accomplish in his career, without ever neglecting his family in the process.
3. He’s a giving man. It’s no secret that he’s been amazingly generous to us, and for that we could never repay him enough. But he’s often just as generous to complete strangers. Several years back, Dad walked into his office one morning to find a young man trying to thieve his computer. Through some masterful negotiation, he talked the kid out of stealing his computer. Instead of having him arrested, Dad took him over to Broadway Fashions and bought him some new kicks, which is what he really needed.
4. He’s forever supportive. I’ll never forget the night in 2003 that I met the fam at Houston’s in Buckhead. We’d barely ordered our drinks before I handed Dad a two page, typed document outlining a crazy plan I’d hatched to spend a semester on a sailboat in the Gulf of Mexico. Never mind that neither he nor I really had any sailing experience, by the time we got to Starbucks after dinner, he was 100% on board. That was a life-defining trip for me, and it couldn’t have happened without the support of he and Mom.
   
   One more story of support… About a year ago, us Cordle kids went through a bit of a rough patch. Through a series of misunderstandings or unfortunate events, all three of us were struggling. I was in jeopardy of losing my job, Goob had been accused of plagiarism, and Anna was accused of hazing. We all laughed when someone would ask how we were doing, and he would casually mention our various situations, then emphasize how proud he was of how we were handling them. (For what it’s worth, I’m still employed, Goob still graduated, and Anna’s still a Zeta.)
5. He is the most loving father that anyone could hope for. Rarely does a day go by when he doesn’t tell us he loves us, whether it be in person, by phone, an email, or a text. But not only do we know he loves us, he’s also a very loving husband. We can only pray that one day we’ll have a relationship as good as our parents. The example they’ve set is something we’re thankful for every single day.

Dad, sorry that Anna & I couldn’t be there to hang out with you on Father’s Day this year. I was sorry to hear that you ended up working most of the day, then I realized that Goob was in town, and it made sense. Kidding. We enjoyed getting to see your office a few weeks ago, and hopefully you’ll be able to use the pictures we left to brighten it up a bit.

Although sometimes we may not show it as much as we should, we appreciate you more than you can imagine, and we absolutely know that you’re the Best Dad Ever.

Love You!

-B, AC, & C

Hey Folks- It’s been a few days. Hope everyone’s doing well! Here’s a quick recap of my week. Ready?

• Monday- Get back from 10 days in Ireland, and 5 in Mississippi. Realize that I have a lot of work to do between now and August 30. Oh, and btw, I’m teaching a 4 day training seminar next week. Probably ought work on that some.
• Monday Night- Had a going away dinner for one of Auburn’s interns that I’ve become good friends with this year. I ate the snapper…it was really good. But, that makes the 3rd friend I’ve had to say goodbye to in the past month. This time of year’s always been bad for that…I seem to always make really great friends who always seem to move away in May or June. Sad. Before KK left, she gave me a really cool collage of tons of pictures we all took together…that meant a lot.
• Tuesday Morning- The really good snapper wasn’t so good after all. I threw up at 6:30am and felt better. I was fully awake at that point, so I went in to work at 7:15 to submit a project I had due. Finished the project at 8:15, and was back home throwing up again at 8:30. Dang you snapper. I stayed home until just after lunch, then made it back to work for a few hours.

  To finish the day off, I went and bought some Dunkin’ Donuts coffee for in the morning. When I got home to set up the coffee maker, I realized that I bought the whole beans, not the grounds. Do I look like someone who would have a coffee grinder-johnson? Don’t answer that. Well I don’t have a coffee grinder-johnson, so I went without coffee Wednesday.

• Wednesday- Wednesday got ugly, probably partly because of a lack of coffee. I had several technical issues at work that led to some serious frustration. Days like this are expected in August & September, but not June. The sun set on Wednesday with a deadline looming, and no solution in sight. I drove to Newnan to spend the night…I wanted to check on the house, and needed to run a couple of errands for Dad.
• Thursday- After driving back to Auburn from Newnan, it was straight to work on a solution to our technical issues. Magically, things were working 100% within a few hours. We made deadline by several hours, and nobody even knew that it was ever in question.
  I celebrated by getting a snow cone (Banana w/ Cream, of course) and washing my car. Hear that Alex? I washed my car tonight…go ahead and tell people it’s going to rain.
• This Weekend- So this weekend hasn’t exactly happened yet, but I’m pretty excited about it. Tomorrow I’m going to ride up to Atlanta and take Goob’s computer to the Apple store to get fixed. While I’m there, I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to play with my new phone. Then I’m going to Decatur to do dinner with several friends. The rest of the weekend will likely be spent helping Andy & Anne move to their new house. They’re pretty sure their old one is going to be sold in the very near future…they just have to work out the details (Congrats y’all!).

Ok…so that’s my week. From talking with Mom & them, Nee Nee seems to be doing better…she’s living in their apartment in Jackson for the time being. And don’t worry, I know I still owe you the story of how her & my grandfather met. For another time.

Love y’all!

I took this from Carrie’s blog. Our cousin Amy had her baby yesterday.

The doctor’s discovered today that Amy has galstones. They are trying a few things to “dissolve” them before they talk surgery. She’s still pretty weak – and last night had an allergic reaction to the morphine. She hasn’t been able to see the baby b/c she can’t sit up for long periods – so they were working on that today. Ashlynn is doing good. Thanks for all the prayers!

PTL! About an hour ago mom and I got to bring Nee Nee home to the apartment. She seems to be doing fine! Thanks everyone for all your prayers.