life

My goodness, talk about busy! I guess I’ll start with the Thursday before Christmas. Justin and I went to Polk County to see Stacey for her Bday! We were able to stay for a little while. Then it was off to Brevard to see Mandy, Buck, Anna, and Matt. We went to Casey Jones to eat and hoped to see at least one person from our high school years. We ended up seeing 4 people we knew. While waiting for our food we all took out our cell phones and were taking pictures of each other. Mine, was what I like to call a “gameboy” rather than everyone elses’ “Sega”. It had the green background as the main color and did not take pictures. I jokingly held mine up and told everyone to say cheese just for fun. After that we went to a place called Dugan’s to get some undrinks as Justin discussed in his blog. Then we went back to the Jones’ and played Catch Phrase (fun game!) til 1 in the morning. It was definitely a good time! I wish it could have been longer. Justin and I had to head back to Shelby to do some much needed laundry and get ready for the late Christmas Eve Service.

The Service was beautiful with all the poinsettias (however you spell it). Justin’s mom was even able to make it. It was nice to have some company while Justin worked the sound. He even had a speaking part. He told the church what the “Light of Christmas” meant to him. He did such a great job!

Then Justin and I headed home (it now being past midnight and technically Christmas) and opened presents. Justin got me a lil lazer level! I’ve been wanting one of those! and the Phil Vassar CD! and yep…a new cell phone! pictures and all. After opening presents we decided to play Justin’s new Atari flashback for a little while. Then we started getting sleepy but knew we couldnt go to sleep if we were going to get to his parents before 5am to surprise them (especially Stacey). We took a 30 minute nap and got up and packed and left.

We parked at the top of the driveway and snuck down and opened the door to see Justin’s mom in the Kitchen frozen with fear and confusion. Then she saw that it was us. Next his dad came down the hall and eventually Stacey. We opened presents. It was so much fun! and I loved all my gifts! Justin and I even got a really nice glider swing (maybe David will come and assemble it for us hehe). Now all we need is a nice deck to go out back someday. It will be nice to have in the front yard too.

I ended up asleep on their couch for about 2 hours and then Chad and Faith came with our present and Justin’s surprise gift to me (us). It was our new baby Java (chocolate lab). She is adorable….yes even at 230am when she is whining to go out. She is so smart too! Before long she will be huge and very well trained. I believe she already knows her name and sometimes what “out” means and “inside” but definitely not the word “no” yet haha. I was so surprised to get her! I kept jokingly bugging Justin about wanting a dog to keep me company and that I could go run with. I’m so happy!!! The boys (apache and pixel) have even found their own way to tolerate her. Pixel is our new babysitter. He just stays about 2 feet away from her most of the time and watches and even sleeps. He is so cute. Apache just watches from afar and periodically gets curious. No biting and attacking yet ….at least on the cats’ part.

Back to our busy time. We headed out to Brevard again this time to see my side of the family. We brought the surprise puppy too (then nameless) . Everyone loved her. Of course I didn’t get sleep again from trying to keep her quiet for the others to sleep. She was so good though. We opened presents and had a great time! All our gifts this year were awesome! Thanks everyone! We watched Blue Collar Comedy and then stayed up (what seemed like til 2am due to lack of sleep but only 11) and played 90s edition trivial pursuit. Then went to bed and the next morning around lunch, headed back to Polk County for the Moore side lunch Christmas party. Fun stuff!

Finally our journey came to an end and we headed home with Java (named on the way home) to see our boys. It was about 7 I think when we made it home. I couldn’t ask for a better husband, cats, and dog. What an awesome family!

Well, I better go for now. Justin is at work today (hehe) and I”m home with Java and the boys. Since I have to watch Java’s every move I can only get things accomplished when she is sleeping. She fell asleep on the desk while I typed this so now is my chance to get motivated.

Happy almost New Year everyone!

Yes, that’s right, Gardner-Webb actually gave us a few days before Christmas off, so I am home and enjoying being away from the iceberg. I actually got up this morning when Justin had to get up for work. I really wanted to go back to sleep but I know myself better than that. I’m not a morning person, but I make a much better person when I just get up and not lay there forever. Today Justin’s mom is coming to pick me up so we can do a little shopping and looking around. I’m excited and hope we can find something good.

Last night Justin and I were going to wait til late to go to wal mart and do some shopping to get away from some of the crowds….well…instead we both ended up falling asleep on the couches.

I absolutely love this time of year…much more than I used to even. In the past few years I’ve realized more and more what Christmas is about. I’m now so much more excited to see others open gifts than me to get any. I smile and am so thankful for the most precious gift God gave us! I couldn’t even imagine giving someone I loved so much away, especially to a hateful, greedy, and ungrateful world. I know that I would want to hold on to them with everything I had. For someone to love me that much is amazing! I know I’ve mentioned this before but I have been thinking and relating a lot about Brandon and Meagan’s new little one. I couldn’t imagine giving something as precious as that away to someone (especially someone who didn’t deserve it). I know they couldn’t imagine it either. And on the flip side…to know that I’m one of the undeserving that God loves so much is sad and awesome at the same time. Justin and I were listening to some Carl Cartee last night and one of the songs just really hit me…it said something along the lines of, “every breath that you take was paid at a cost.” awesome! …just AWESOME!!! Merry Christmas everyone! and I do hope you love the gift you were given over 2000 years ago!

Well…today has been busy busy with about 300 boxes of books coming in and 45 middle schoolers. Erin stopped by on her way home to mom and dad’s. I’m just about worn out BUT…tonight justin and i are Greenville bound (SC that is) to the Bi-Lo center to see my favorite band Rascal Flatts!!! I’m so excited!!! They have their new CD out so go get a copy. So far I haven’t been disappointed with any of their CDs. I love EVERY song. Julie Roberts is set to open for them and Gary Alan was supposed to but cancelled due to the death of his wife. Have I mentioned we are sitting in ROW 17!!! I’m so excited! Mandy from work is going too! Maybe we will spot each other.

Once we finally get home we will have to get right to bed. Tomorrow is our church’s auction at Pleasant Ridge. We are trying to raise money for our mission trip to Moscow. Everyone come if you can! You won’t leave empty handed and there will be food! Wish us luck and for those of you that pray please pray for us and those that don’t….please start!