Happy Spring!

Shae and her sister and mom welcomed the first day of Spring with a day trip to Galveston Island. It was a relaxing way to spend the beautiful day but a tad chilly (note we are all wearing shirts in the photo!). Happy Spring everyone!

2 years

Happy two year anniversary to us! We celebrated our anniversary at Brenner's Steakhouse. These past two years have been the best (and easiest) years of our lives. Thank you to our friends and families for all the support in our first two years.

at Brenner's Steakhouse

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!