The Cordle Fam

This post is a little late but I feel that it is important for everyone to see the talent that The Cordle Fam has. After we left Louisiana we went to Jackson. We went to hang out with the Garlingtons. We played Rock Band! Who knew that we had this much talent!

Has it already been 2 weeks? Well…let’s see here. After Christmas, the fam drove to Biloxi to dad’s work condo. We spent the night there before driving the rest of the way to Louisiana to visit mom’s side of the family. Friday night was pretty chill…we wandered around a couple of Wal-Mart parking lots, hit up a few Old Navy’s, and I bought a shirt like Jeff’s* at the Polo Outlet. We also ate at the semi-famous Blow Fly Inn in Gulfport. I just wish they’d blown a few more seasonings on my etouffee.

Anyway, I fell asleep on the couch (thanks girls) after a few episodes of House.
We got up bright & early Saturday morning and headed West. We got to stop by cousin Carrie (who wins our “Commenter of the Month” award, btw) & George’s new house under construction. It’s pretty exciting for them these days…it’s all framed up & they just got a roof!

A few hours later, we were at Aunt Vickie & Uncle Darvin’s house. It was really great because their whole family was there. It’s been way too long since we were all together, and it was awesome to be able to catch up. Marianne even got some great family pictures of everybody.

Oh, and Goob got to work on her rusty driving skills with the grand-cousins. I’m pretty sure this would be a violation of her parole if the law found out. Even if Kayla is the one doing the steering, it’s the pedal foot that got her in trouble!

* And speaking of Goob…she’s been hiding something from you. You’ll have to ask her about this “Jeff” guy.

Merry Christmas everybody! Although this had potential to be a sad occasion (…the last time we’ll celebrate in this house & all…), it turned into one of the best Christmases ever. This year it was easy to see that we don’t need any more “stuff”, and we were able to really focus on having a great time with the fam & celebrating the real reason for the holiday.

Yesterday we had a great brunch with the Tarpley family. It was sad the Garlington’s weren’t there, but we’ll get to see them this weekend. After lunch we visited an old neighbor, our 1st grade teacher, and some other friends. Later, we went to First Baptist’s Christmas Eve Service like we do every year. There are always some amazing singers, and this year was no different.

Once we got home, Mom assigned us the task of making this really good looking “Black Bottom Pecan Cheesecake Pie”. Due to a minor mathematical miscalculation it ended up more like a pudding, so we’ll just change its name & move on.

We then watched my personal favorite holiday movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Such a good movie…I catch something new every time we see it.

This morning we woke up, exchanged some gifts and had a devotion. We went to the Tarpley’s to see what Santa brought the 3 mini Tarpleys. Hung out with them for a while, then made our way up to Turner Field to volunteer for the first time ever with Hosea Feed the Hungry. We’d never really done anything like that before, so it was a great experience. I think we’re going to do something similar every year from now on. They gave us a great “beginner” job…we were in charge of manning the ‘volunteer gate’ & getting all the volunteers to sign a “don’t sue the Braves” waiver.

It really is amazing how many people they serve. We never got to see the meals they were serving, but I do know that almost every homeless person left with their very own 2-pack of whole cheesecakes & Monster energy drinks. So, if you’re planning on wandering the streets of Atlanta tonight, beware the hyper homeless.

Anyway, can’t wait to make our way over to Louisiana to see the Welch’s this weekend. Hope y’all’s Christmas was amazing!

Yesterday was the big annual Cordle Christmas. We had a pretty good crowd, despite the lack of a few of our cousins. Uncle Jimmy took the cake with the tackiest attire by robbing his Christmas tree of it’s skirt.

Everybody got really into the whole “Tacky Christmas” thing and we had a lot of fun. After a really good lunch of Gumbo & Fruit Soup we opened our White Elephant gifts Dirty Santa style. Mom got the mosquito head net she’d always wanted (“You could steal bees with that thing!” -Nee Nee) and Anna scored some sweet doilies.

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Ok…so mom’s found her camera (part 1), charged the batteries and cleared out the memory card. Now what? Here are a few things that’ll help you snap a few more keepers than you did last year. Ready?

1. Get Close
2. No More Blur
3. Just Pay Attention
4. Be Snap Happy

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Hey Folks- In conjunction with the new web site theme, we’ve set it up so you can now subscribe to the blog using email if you’d like. That way you’re guaranteed not to miss anything good.

It’s pretty easy…you just click on either this link or the one that says “Entries (Email)” on the sidebar on the right and then put in your email address. You won’t get a million messages a week or anything crazy…you’ll just get one message on days that we post. So if we post 6 times one week, but only on 4 different days, you’ll get 4 emails.

You can also subscribe to the “Comments” as well if you want to do that for some crazy reason. Anyway…Hope you enjoy!

I love funny pictures.

It’s often said that “today is the first day of the rest of your life”. Months from now, I hope to look back on this day as more than just another forgettable day. Last summer, I made the decision to return to Nashville in April and run a full marathon. After significant procrastination (and one final large heath bar blizzard from Dairy Queen), today marks the first day of my marathon training. I jogged 10 minutes on the treadmill, and walked 15. You have to start somewhere, right?

But wait, there’s more. As if training for a marathon weren’t suffering enough, I’ve also decided to completely give up sweets until Christmas Eve. No ice cream. No Coke. No cookies. Nothing. You may be sitting there eating your salad, thinking “that’s not hard…what’s the big deal?”. And yeah, I’ve gone through spells before where I’ve tried to eat better and all, but nothing like this. I’m a guy who enjoys more than his fair share of dessert.

Today, I weight 217 lbs and I’m out of shape. But today I’m taking the first step down the road to do something about it.

When’s the last time you’ve had an unforgettable day?

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Phil 4:13