The Cordle Fam

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.

Well. It’s been quite a while since I have posted. Everything is going great here! I feel like all we do is work though. We have only been to the beach three times since we have been here. But. we are still having a great time!!! We absolutely love all the girls we work with and have had so much fun getting to know them! 

I have to work today from 9:30-5 then I’m off to Jackson for a week! I am so excited and ready for a little break from work! I will give a more lengthy update later!

Love and Miss!!

After patiently waiting for results from test we finally have some news! Good News!  Mom’s (NeeNee) report is NO cancer… rather inflammatory fluid from Pneumonia.. along with we shouldn’t have to be in the hospital much longer.  Continue to pray with us that the medications they have given her will work quickly and thoroughly.. and that she will regain her strength back and feel good again soon!  Thanks so much for your prayers!  We are most thankful!

After a few bad gas station choices (no matter what Katy says, say NO to chili lime almonds) Anna and I made it to Jackson late last night. I had some work to take care of this morning, then we went up to the hospital to visit Nee Nee.

I think Nee Nee’s doing a good bit better. They attached some sort of drainage pipe to her lung, so that’s helping with the fluid issue. It sounds like it’s pretty painful though, and they’ve finally put her on some pain medication.

She’s still as sharp as ever mentally though, and we had a great time listening to her tell stories. It’s amazing to hear how different things were when she was young. One of my favorite stories is from when she was in college. Her friend Annaline convinced her to go on a double date with Hector Ubinas and his friend to New Orleans. They went and ate at Court of Two Sisters. Then, for whatever reason, they didn’t make it back to Hattisburg until 2am. The catch is, curphew was 10pm, and if they got caught, they would have been “campus’d”.

Being “campus’d” wasn’t a good thing. It pretty much meant that if the house mom caught them out past 10, she’d have grounded them, and they could leave the dorm only for class (especially since Nee Nee already had 1 black mark for being caught in her other friend’s room after 10 earlier in the year). By some miracle, they snuck back in when the house mom wasn’t looking, and they never got busted. It must have been pretty scary at the time, because she remembers it like it was yesterday.

It’s just crazy how different things were. There was also a rule that dang near caused Nee Nee another black mark. She’d gone on a date with this fellow to a ball game, and hadn’t told him about this particular rule. So, when went to drop her off at the dorm, he wanted to stop and talk before she went inside. Well that’s an absolute no-no. When a guy walks you back to the dorm, you aren’t to even slow down, much less stop to talk. You have to walk straight into the house without breaking stride. I imagine this was to cut down on the ever-so-risky goodnight kiss.

Well the poor fellow tried to stop and talk. The house mom was watching this time, and yelled out from the window “June, you better keep on walking! You already have one black mark, you sure don’t need another!”. I can’t imagine why that was their last date.

We certainly do live in a different world now…the first dorm I lived in was coed. Just don’t tell Nee Nee.

If you’re lucky, maybe tomorrow I’ll get a chance to write the story of how Nee Nee met Boyd, my grandfather. It’s a good one. Oh, and remind me to tell you where the term “honky” came from. Night!

A Hundred Thousand Welcomes

After an 8 hour plane ride and several rounds of customs and security screenings, we made it back to the States Saturday. It’s hard to believe that the trip we’ve been looking forward to for so long is actually over. I think we’d all agree, though, that it was a trip more amazing than any of us could possibly have dreamed. Ireland is a magical place, and it’s hard not to be inspired by the people and the landscape.

Words and pictures don’t begin to capture the experiences we had. Each day was filled with awe inspiring history, breathtaking scenery, and unforgettable fellowship with friends and family.

Here are a few excerpts from our trip journal…

Starting the trip I had high expectations of being able to spend time taking in the landscape of Ireland. Little did I know it would be too much to take in! From lush gardens to rolling hills– from beautiful seas to majestic cliffs– Ireland delivered the scenery. I’ll always cherish the time connecting with family and friends.

Our pictures don’t even begin to fully capture what we experienced– unbelievable hospitality, lots of laughter, breathtaking moments, muzzy bites and so on. We truly got to know Ireland through its curvy roads, vivacious people, lively music, ever-changing landscape and the fact that there is no place like it on earth.

When I think of Ireland, I think of my senses. The Cliffs of Moher & the Skye Road; the sounds of church bells from maginificent structures built before my own country existed; the smell of green fields, tea poured in a china glass, and rocks and seaweed on the beach of South Harbor.

Walking through a field & into a cemetary over 600 years old, trekking through a rock desert to come across a tomb constructed over 4000 years ago, reading & appreciating a book written & illustrated 1200 years before are all great experiences that will last forever. Even better is being able to share it all with family and friends.

Click Here to view our Ireland photos on Flickr.

As many of you know, mom’s mom Nee Nee was hospitalized late last week. She apparently had fluid in her lungs, and an irregular heartbeat. It sounds like she’s doing a little better, and it didn’t get any worse today, so that’s a good thing. They’re going to be taking her to a lung specialist in Jackson, Ms. in the morning.

My aunt and most of our cousins were able to be in Indianola with her this weekend, as was Mom & Dad. I think Anna & I are going to try and drive to Jackson on Tuesday, and Goob’s coming on Saturday.

We really appreciate your thoughts and prayers! Love You Nee Nee!

Wanted to post a quick update this morning before we head off to the airport for Atlanta. Yesterday was quite a contrast. We woke up in a Bed and Breakfast in Dublin and decided to go ahead and check out a day early because the place was so nasty. When we informed the staff around 8am, they said that they were going to have to charge us for both nights anyway, and we’d have to speak to the manager when they arrived. Little did we know that the manager wouldn’t “arrive” until they returned from overseas in several days.

So we left the B&B rather frustrated and hopped a tour bus to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. It’s s really cool pictorial of the Bible done back in 800 AD. 800 AD. Get that? 800 AD. 700 years before Columbus found America, there were a bunch of guys in Ireland drawing out the Bible, and it’s still here for us to look at. So cool.

We went from Bible to beer…after Trinity College we toured the Guinness factory which was really cool until we tried the Guinness. That stuff is nasty.

After leaving there, we discovered that Anne had bed bugs from the night before. Little bites began surfacing everywhere. So we hopped on the tour bus en route back to the B&B to get our car. The most miserable bus trip I’ve ever taken…we were on the roof, it was unbelievably hot, and we got stuck in traffic for an hour & a half. It should have taken us 20 minutes. This was absolutely the lowest point on the trip…the bed bug thing was quite an issue…we actually picked one out of Jackie’s arm while on the bus.

Fast forward 5 hours, and Andy and I are in the steam room at the Marriott in Ashbourne, just north of Dublin. Quite a fortunate contrast to say the least! We ended the day wonderfully, having a phenomenal dinner at the hotel reminiscing about the trip. When dessert came, we were only on Day 6!

It’s been quite a trip, and I can’t wait to come back and show y’all the pics. Love y’all!

Hey everyone! The trip keeps getting more and more amazing as we go. Yesterday we started the day by visiting The Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland. It was super-pretty, and we all waved back home to you. It’s been the most touristy thing we’ve done so far…it cost like $12 to park, and the muzzies (mosquitos) were unbearable.

We then drove through The Burren and saw some really old rock things. There was one grave we saw that was built in 2000 BC or something. Crazy. A church & graveyard we stopped to walk around was built in the 13th Century. Old has a whole new meaning over here. You’ll just be driving down the road and spot castles and ruins that have been there for literally hundreds of years.

After lunch in Ballyvaughn we stopped at an internet cafe in Galway then drove to Clifden. We drove the “Sky Road” after checking into the B&B. It was super amazingly beautiful. Pictures don’t do it justice…the view is majestic, no matter which way you look.

We then enjoyed some fish & chips at EJ Kings in downtown Clifden. Right about the time we finished eating, the live traditional Irish music began. This is the Ireland that we’ve all heard about…it’s quite surreal.

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Today we’re off to Dublin. More later! Love y’all-