Weekend at Home

I can not explain to you how great it is to be home for the weekend. It did rain most of the weekend, which was perfect and meant that we did lots of sleeping in and napping. Saturday I had a meeting for my bible study that starts in a few weeks and I am very excited about getting started back and in a schedule with bible study. CBS (Community Bible Study) really makes me be more consistent with my time in God's word. Plus I just love the growth and knowledge that I gain through CBS. Although over the past two weeks, on the mornings that I get up and run (at 4:30am) I have so much time before I have to be at work, I have started to have quite and sweet time with the Lord during this time. It is so refreshing to be with Him. I am reading Walking with God by John Eldridge. It is a very easy read and has been a great tool for me at this time in my walk with Him.

Saturday night we went to some friends house to watch the Bristol race - which I was thrilled to see Carl Edwards win the race...for those of you who don't know I am a Nascar fan. I know that this may be shocking to many of you. My favorite two drivers are Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards. Carl has actually won the past two races and is 2nd in the standing. The reason I like Carl is because he does a back flip when he wins and I think that is super cool! Anyway, it was fun to visit and hang out with so many friends who we don't get to see very often.

Football is right around the corner. Can you believe that it all gets started this weekend. I can't. Justin is headed to Atlanta for the Alabama/Clemson game and Doc, Brinkley and I will be headed south to the lake for the Labor weekend. I love football season and it has already started with the trash talking this year. I have to admit that we are respectful of each others team, so it isn't bad at all - but we have fun with it and like to give each other a hard time! Justin did tell me "it's on this year" I guess that we'll see how that works out. War Eagle for now and I love you all!

5K Pix

Final Update

The Saturday before we went to the beach I ran a 5K with my friend Crystal. It was a retro run and everyone was supposed to dress up in their 70's and 80's garb. Well, in effort to survive the race and not be bogged down by an outfit, I went standard with a pair of short shorts and 80's looking t-shirt, Hair in pig tails and big polka dot bows, sweat bands on each wrist. Speaking of sweat bands, I'm not exactly sure how those got lost or out of style because they are really handy. It was great to have those to wipe my face with that instead of with my greasy fingers. Anyway, I'll probably be wearing those again - even if they aren't exactly stylish.
We did do very well in the run. We ran the entire time and were very proud of our selves. It was Crystal's first ever 5K and it was my first in about 4 years. Needless to say we were just thrilled to have finished with out walking! We hope to run a few more over the next couple of months.
I will probably have pictures to add soon. Justin took a few pictures, but most of them were fuzzy. He did get some good one's of other people in their outfit choices - which were a bit crazy.
Ok, I think that we are all updated on the past several weeks. I can finally post about current stuff now. I'm not sure that yall even cared to hear about all of it, but I still wanted to share it. We are still getting up really early to run at least two or three mornings per week. It is really great to have exercise done in the morning, but by about 8pm I am ready to dive into the bed. Speaking of 8:00 I'm fading fast and headed towards bed now. Night night and sweet dreams to you all (well except all of you that are catching up during the day :)

Update Intermission

MOVE OVER AMSTERDAM'S - DINNER FOR ONE PLEASE

Well last night Justin was out of town and so I had dinner alone. It is hard to cook for one, but thanks to my dear friend Lindsey I made a Turkey Wrap. The night before (Justin was also out of town) so Lindsey joined me for dinner AND she brought me a surprise...tortilla wraps....just like the ones at Amsterdam's! Is she a saint or what - company for dinner and Amsterdam's wraps, friends can't get better than this! Which that set up for my dinner last night and my mind started wondering 'can I make sweet potato chips too'. After a little research and eliminating 100's of recipes for frying the sweet potatoes, I decided on a simple recipe to bake them. They turned out OK - next time I need to slice my chips slightly smaller and they need to cook a little longer (almost 2 hours) a few of them were a little softer in the center. None the less, I thought I was back in Auburn...if only I had a to-go box, I would have put it in that to make me really feel like I had just ordered out from good ole Amsterdam's. My night was complete...plus I watched a movie - August Rush and if you haven't seen this movie yet it is really sweet but chicka's you will cry so be ware!

For all of you lost people who have never been to Amsterdam's in Auburn, I apologize. You should certainly consider making a trip to auburn to enjoy this delicious slice of heaven in a turkey wrap and sweet potato chips! And to all of you who have eaten there and who enjoyed many many eat in and to go orders of turkey wraps with me...I know your mouth is now watering. Mine is just thinking about it. Or you can call me and I'll serve you up a turkey wrap...I'll need a little notice for the sweet potatoes!

Ok. well this was just an intermission in between all of updating from last week. I have one more up date to share my 5K run before we went to the beach!

Catch-Up Part 2

So, we spend all of last week at the beach. Well we were in San Destin at the Baytown Whorf, which is a fabulous and wonderful resort that is on the bayside of the beach. I had a conference on Wednesday- Friday, we were at the lake on Sunday and Monday afternoon we drove down to Destin. Monday and Tuesday were supposed to be off days...well, I ended up working quite a bit on Tuesday,which took away from my beach time - can we say job security? I did manage to squeeze in about 3 hours at the pool in between the rain and the phone calls from work. I can't really complain, I was out of the office and on the companies dime. Life was good. Justin and I certainly ate good and we actually had the opportunity to meet up with some friends and spend some quality time catching up with them. We even went out on the boat one day with a group from the conference, it was overcast all day - but we still enjoyed ourselves. It really was a wonderful trip and I have some very shocking news....we never went on the beach! WHAT! Between the conference and rain we never made it over to the beach side. I was sick when we left and I realized that. The whorf is its own little community with restaurants, night life and anything else that you may want/need. Still no excuse, that was my only beach trip for the year. Crap, did I really just do that? Well, to late to change it now! but still...CRAP!
Friday we headed back to the lake for the weekend. It was really so much fun to just relax and not answer any phone calls or emails! We relaxed and of course the dogs were enjoying their last bit of lake time. They stayed with Mom and Dad at the lake all week while we were at the beach - needless to say they were tired when we got home on sunday. It is really funny to watch them enjoy the water like they do! Enjoy the pix of them - most are from the lake but a few were just too darn cute to NOT include! Ok, so I'm bragging a little ABOUT MY BABIES!

Catch-Up Part 1

It has been over a week since I've last posted. Its been a little crazy and on the go in our family! I think that I need to post backwards and post what has most recently happened and go back. There has been so much going on and lots to catch up on!

First, I want to share that with in the past week I have had two dreams about being in a tornado and both times I was surrounded by lots of people and people that are close to me that I care deeply about. In the 2ND dream, I was praying out loud to God for protection and safety. It really bugged me that I had two dreams within a few days apart about the same thing - especially something so destructive as a tornado. I started wondering if this means that there is chaos or craziness ahead for me or maybe that God is trying to get my attention and call me closer to Him. I have not been as diligent as I would like to be in spending time and quiet with Him. I realize now that my priorities this summer have not been in the right order. If you would please pray for my right focus and quality quiet times with Him each day. I appreciate your prayers as I focus on Him throughout my days - not just at the end or beginning of my days!

After being gone for a week, it was great to be home in our on bed last night. Although we're headed out of town again this weekend, at least I'll be home for the next couple of weekends and I am looking forward to that for sure.



This past weekend we celebrated my sister-in-law's birthday. It was fun to be with our family and visit with them. Here are a few pictures from our evening with them! Amanda is a great sister-in-law, she is extremely sweet and is perfect for Chris. Not to mention she is an amazing mom to sweet Ashlyn. It is always a joy to be with them and spending time with Ash. Check out the video of her throwing the ball for Tess. Plus the pix of her in the wagon are priceless! Do you get more southern...riding in a wagon with an umbrella - Only thing missing is a glass of sweet tea!




Stay tuned for my backwards updates!