March Celebrations

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Garrett Griffin!

With only God's perfect math can 1 + 1 = 1 - Callie Lisenby and Garrett Griffin wed Saturday in an elegant ceremony, followed by a fun reception at River Oaks Country Club. Dash had the honor of being an usher in his high school friend's wedding. It was great to catch up with friends and stay up way past our bedtime dancing!

rehearsal dinner at Maggiano's

Also, Happy Birthday to Grandmother Cowden (Sammie) and Brody and Lorena Roche who all celebrate birthdays this month!

School of Rock

Do you hear that loud rock music coming from our house? That's just Dash playing Weezer on his new guitar.

We bought Guitar Hero III for our Wii this week and Dash has been jammin' out. Remember this? Well, it's been a lot of the same but with more booty shakin'. After years of playing the air guitar and air drums (and if that is not a scary enough picture - always while driving), the dedicated practice must have paid off. He's pretty good.

You will have to join us next time you come over, if Dash will hand it over. We heard a rumor that Sammie and Debi might be having a guitar playing throw-down tonight at Sammie's birthday dinner. Hopefully, someone will catch some evidence of that!

Happy Voting Day!

In case you have been living in isolation with no television or radio, TODAY is Texas' Primary election. Make sure you exercise your right to vote! Check out Ruth's blog to learn something interesting about voting in Texas (did you know we could vote twice?)!

Also, to echo our last post, please pray for Shae and her job. Again, if you are living in isolation then you may not have heard that the housing market has really slowed down. Basically, there are a lot of misconceptions about mortgages and people are not able to sell their current homes to buy a new one. Even though she works for a company that is faring better than the rest, her company is still experiencing layoffs. Even though we know her job was not meant to be a career for her, but please pray for God's will and provision and for peace for us. Thanks for your prayers!

We are still alive...

In case you were wondering after the lack of recent blogging, we are still alive! Those of you that have been sitting on pins and needles waiting for our next post - sorry you had to wait 4 months! So we will try to resurrect our long lost blog. We have been busy to say the least...

• Dash is working 6 days a week, working on his great tan lines.
• Shae's work has slowed down with the market a little so pray for her contentment with her job
• Soon you can call him Coach Connell - Dash is working very hard on his teaching certification to teach high school history. The school district we live in, Cypress-Fairbanks, has posted a job listing for a Head Tennis Coach for the two brand spankin' new high schools opening in August. One is in a very nice area close to our house too! We are getting Dash's resume and references together to apply for this position ASAP. Please pray for God's will with Dash's (hopefully soon) career change.
• Our annual youth retreat has come and gone! Shae and her amazing high school students planned the retreat in February for 4 months! The weekend's theme was The Verdict - teaching the students the evidence and the case for Christ and equipping them to stand for what they believe in when they are put on 'trial'. We had great devotionals, Family Feud with Dash as host, a GIANT CLUE game (with real character, real rooms, giant dice, etc), and ending the weekend with a mock trial in a Harris County courthouse with lawyers and a judge. The students were subpoenas on Friday night by a court official even. Many students are saying it was their favorite retreat so far so we are praying that the fire started in them retreat weekend continue to blaze and spread to their friends.
• Maddy and Cooper are good. Cooper topped out at 100.2 lbs...and the vet's reply when we asked him if he was overweight, "no, he is just a thick dog". Is that a good thing?
• Our two year anniversary is next month! It doesn't feel like two years already but we are so thankful for the ways God has blessed us in the beginnings of our marriage.
• Christmas and Thanksgiving - long gone
• Started Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover to help us prepare for a major cut in income soon
• Painted some of our home and installed wood floors in our family room - looks great and already has some character (well, dog scratches)
• Shae's doing Beth Moore's Bible study on the fruit of the Spirit with some ladies at church and God's timing has been perfect with it
• Dash is still leading a group of 8 guys (juniors in high school) in a weekly Bible study

Random thing today - We went to take one of our cars to the new Christian Brothers Automotive that opened just a few miles from our house today. The owner - Don Carr - the same guy that used to stick his head inside Zach Bynum's t-shirt when Dash and he were All-Stars at T Bar M together. We knew his brother owned the one in Katy (with Brad Fink from T Bar M) but our jaws dropped when we saw his business card at the counter. Owner of a franchise at 23? Yes his dad owns the company, but still - Not too shabby!

So we will try to keep you updated more frequently, but you have our phone numbers and e-mail addresses if you are wondering about us!

Welcome Betsy!

Congratulations to Tommy and Ruth upon the birth of their beautiful baby girl, Elizabeth (Betsy) MacMillan Connell!! She was born yesterday at 5:52 p.m. weighing 7 pounds, 9 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. We cannot wait to meet our newest niece!

Also, our walk went great! Team Connell had 10 walkers and as a team, we raised $600! Thank you Roche family, Debi and Tommy, Sammie, and Caitlin for all walking with Dash and I to support finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes. I will post some photos soon of the fun!

Join Team Connell!

Time has come again! Walk to Cure Diabetes brings people together in a fun, healthy activity for a worthy cause. As most of you know, Dash was diagnosed with Type I diabetes in 9th grade. Type I Diabetes is genetic and Dash is insulin dependent, unlike Type II that can be controlled with diet and is usually obesity related.

In honor of my husband (your brother, son, son-in-law, and friend), we will be participatin for our second year in Houston’s Walk to Cure Diabetes. I would love to have you walk with Dash and I. The walk will be at Reliant Park on Saturday October 20, with registration starting at 7am and the walk starting around 8am. It will be approximately 3 miles. If you would like to join us, just follow this link to register: http://walk.jdrf.org/register.cfm?id=86871053 – TEAM CONNELL! (We have 3 miles to think of a better name for next year!)

We have also set up a fundraising page if you are not able to walk - skip your Starbucks or fast food for a week - and donate in honor of Dash to JDRF through this page - http://walk.jdrf.org/support.cfm?id=86871053. (TEAM CONNELL walkers can set up their own fundraising page) Each dollar takes us one step closer to finding a cure for diabetes. Doctors and researchers are predicting we will actually see a CURE for diabetes well within Dash's lifetime.

Be proud on Walk Day and beyond, experience the pride and satisfaction that comes from knowing you were an important part of a nationwide effort that raised millions of dollars to help find a cure for diabetes.

Thanks in advance for your support!

Dash and Shae

Yesterday was an exciting day - I picked up Dash from his Pro-Am tournament after he called and could not say more than one word - "yeah..." On our way home, I made a comment about his negativity and mood swings he gets when he has a low blood sugar (it was probably in the high 20s yesterday). I was laughing about it, telling him that I try not to take his attitude personally. My husband looked at me and smirked at finding a loop hole. "hehe...you cannot get mad at me for at least the next hour."

He is doing a lot better now, after some Mr. Donuts and pizza. The upside - we both got half of Saturday off work!