Friday, May 16, 2008

A New School and a New Head Coach

We have some news to share for those of you that haven't heard yet. Both of our jobs are going to be quite different next year and we are excited to see what God will teach us through these new experiences.

I (Tara) got a new job at a new school for next year. I decided it would be the best for me to stay in the same school system so that I would still be tenured. There is another Jefferson County School about 10-15 minutes from our house called Gresham Elementary. I applied for a transfer, had an interview with the principal, and got a job offer all within about a month. I will be a Title I teacher, which is what I did my first year at Oak Grove. I will be a resource teacher who helps struggling students in targeted grade levels. I will probably be working with 2nd and 3rd grade or 3rd and 4th grade. While I'm very sad to leave my current school because I LOVE it and the people I work with, I'm also very excited about the challenges of a new job. God has made it very evident that this is where I need to be since it all worked out so perfectly and quickly.

For those that don't know, the Head Cross Country and Track Coach at Samford, Coach McWaters, was suspended back in the beginning of March and later let go. Samford is entering into a new conference next year and they said they wanted to go in a "different direction." We are VERY close with Coach McWaters and his wife because he was our coach at Samford and Chad's boss for the last 6 years. They will be missed very much, but we hope to still see them often.

Because of this, Chad has been the Interim Head Coach for the last few months and has been very busy! I have been helping out as much as I can and going to the meets on the weekends to help him out. He also had 2 former athletes helping out with the sprinters, which was wonderful. It has been very challenging, but we have grown closer through it all.

Earlier this week Samford hired a new Head Coach for next year and are currently in the process of hiring another assistant coach. So, if everything goes as planned there should be one head coach and three assistant coaches next year. This will be a huge help and hopefully will take some of the load off of Chad! Chad and Lauren Blankenship (the other assistant coach for next year who just graduated from Samford) will be in charge of the distance runners.

Chad's job will be very different next year, especially at first as he will be learning how to work with 3 different people. We are excited to see some of the good changes that will be made, but it will be sad to have some of our traditions change that have been around for the last 13 years. Please pray for Chad as he goes through some major transitions in his job next year.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day Moms and Mema(w)s!!! We are so sorry we could not be with you today. Thank you for all you do for us and being so encouraging and supportive. We hope you had a great day today. We love you!

Baxter Warren Carroll

On Saturday I went to a baby shower for my friend Abbey and her son Baxter. Several people that I ran with at Samford were in town for the shower and it was so good to see all of them. On Saturday morning I ran with Jan and Alice (Abbey's twin sister) and we were able to catch up. The baby shower was that afternoon and I got to meet Baxter for the first time. He is so tiny and precious. Erin Giesa and her mom were also in town from Florida and it was good to see them there. That evening we met a group of people for dinner. It is so good to see friends and so crazy that most of us are married now and beginning to have babies. Alice will have her second (a boy) in September.

Abbey and Baxter

Alice and Emma Kate (cutie!)

Me holding Baxter (don't I look so natural)

Some girls at the shower-Erin, Christy, Jan, Me, Ashley, Alice, and Abbey

Chad and Tara with Baxter

Cinco de Mayo

We have been involved with a Core Group at our church this year. A Core Group is a small group of people from our Community Group (Sunday School Class) who meet every 2 weeks. We usually discuss the past 2 weeks sermons, but sometimes we just meet for dinner or hang out. We decided to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with our Core Group by going to eat Mexican food. We always have a really great time with them and God has blessed us with some really good friends that can challenge us in our faith and pray with us. It has been so nice to get to know some other young couples that are also newly married. One couple already has a 1-year old little boy who is precious! Two others have babies on the way. Here is a picture of our group:

Chris and Dana, us, Blake and Susan, Adam and Karen


Jimbo and Hayley had already left when we took our group picture because it was Carson's bed time.