h1n1.

• I just found out Toni has the swine flu. It’s crazy that so many people are getting it, now. The flu is bad enough… I’m sorry, Toni. Pray for this sweet girl to get well soon.
• I just heard about this awesome new show coming on called “Trauma”… some of you may not know that my life before the SCBC world was in the trauma bay @ Richland ED. I’ve got some crazy stories if you’d ever like to hear them
• I really like Monday’s. I mean, yeah, I hate that I have to get up and stop living in “weekend world.” But, Monday’s fly by! There’s so much to catch up on from the computer being MIA all weekend. Friday’s are what kill me!
• I want to make this:



• Call me old, but this is what I will be found doing tonight…

mud.

the mud run was awesome.
I wish I could do that every weekend.
can’t wait til next year!
see lots of pictures here.

recovery

Last night was our first night of Recovery @ Midtown. It’s much like “Celebrate Recovery” but tweaked a bit to better fit our church family. This program has been a huge need for a few months, so we are so happy to offer this to our family members that are hurting and are in need of recovery groups. It was an awesome night–only because of what God is already doing in their lives. It is so great to walk away from a group like that and be so excited because of how well it went and even more excited since there’s no way I had anything to do with how well it went. God is at work in these lives, people!

One thing I realized in myself last night that I definitely need to address: before I even knew names, I genuinely loved every single person that walked through those doors. As soon as I saw their faces, I had this genuine, deep affection for every person. I truly listened to their stories… my heart really broke with them as they shed tears… I prayed for them last night and have been praying this morning… I genuinely praised God for what He was going to do in their lives and begged for His mercy over their sin. And all along I’m realizing that this is supposed to be naturally what I do for any person I meet. I felt the pull on my heart last night as I was leaving Earlewood with the rain beating around me as theme music… “You’re supposed to feel this way about people you meet with regularly…your co-workers…people on the street…your neighbors…your family.” And my pride and selfishness was altered as I realized that I do not love people well. Every person I meet has some kind of weight they are pulling–whether I deem it “big” or “small.” And although many people aren’t experiencing sin/weighty issues like the ones last night, they are all experiencing something.

Above all else, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4.8

little green pastures.

Court showed me this blog a while ago and sometimes I go to this one post and can’t help but laugh, cry a little bit, and thank God for how He loves us.

This blog is a journal of a mother that has two children and lost 5 children after the birth of her son, Sylas. She was pregnant with sextuplets and 5 passed away, but little Sylas lived. He’s got lots of different things that are going to “hold him back” as people may say… but man, he’s got a God that is taking care of him and growing him in ways they can’t believe!

Go here to watch this precious video. Then make sure to save it because you will want to watch it again

attitude check and leaves of many colors

Today when I drove back to work from my lunch break, I saw a neighbor raking up a bunch of leaves. Ah! I love fall! It’s not even truly here yet… so the sight of rakes and piles of leaves makes me so ready. Of course, Columbia isn’t the prettiest place to be when fall arrives. But, lucky me! I’ll be at North Greenville on the first day of fall next week and I will absolutely be taking some time to ride around and experience all of the colors.

Today I heard this quote… and needed to hear it quite a bit.
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. it will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day  regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day…. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes.” –Charles Swindoll

bk.

Happy Birthday to my sweet best friend Bethy! Beth is one of those people that can make you laugh no matter what… she has always been one of those friends that I can tell anything to, cry with, and just be still and do nothing with. I can’t ever tell her how grateful I am for her friendship. I love you BK! Have a good day full of wearing jeans to work, eating free pizza, and sneaking to the beach for a getaway! Happy Birthday!!

life update.

• Cook out with Bran’s family Friday night…haven’t spent good quality time with them in months!
• Clemson game with my family and most of my lifegroup on Saturday. Go Tigers! Spiller got hurt… Jacoby let me down at first but then turned his game around… and I loved watching Morgan Hale (yes, a USC student) cheer on the Tigers with a tiger paw on her face and everything!
• Courtney and I headed to Mount Pleasant on Sunday afternoon and stayed through the day Monday. We stayed with the Coleman’s, biked the IOP Connector, ate Chickfila for free, layed on the beach and of course got stuck in traffic on the way home. It was restful and relaxing and I wish I could do it every weekend!
• Date night with hubby last night ended up being me watching the game while cleaning out closets and Brandon sleeping until the last quarter. (Yay for Miami pulling a big win!)

September is proving to be about as busy as August… how did that happen?

old.

Sorry that the pictures are so ugly and worn looking! My camera chord is missing, so photobooth will have to do. I am loving this fall’s feel… vintage, antique, warm colors. Vintage is my thing. Namely because my whole house is filled with vintage pieces from my great grandmother and Brandon’s family (oh, the barn filled with goodness!) Piece by piece, I fell in love with the things that fill our home and now my eye is always drawn towards things that are at least 50 years old. So my love for antiques plays into my love for vintage fabrics and the old glamorous silks and scarves and rustic everything. I started playing around with some of those inspirations this week and came up with some headbands, pins, and a recycled-everything bag. The bag is made from a recycled blue and white skirt that I got from Goodwill and a belt that I’ve had since high school (or maybe middle school). The inner lining is just the skirt as well. Sorry about the pillow behind the bag… ghetto pictures, I know!
And I made lots of different hair pins and headbands. But my favorite is below: you can barely see it, but this picture is the sweetest little hairpin made from a goodwill silk shirt that I found for 20 cents. It will make at least 30 pins if I had the time.

And it’s Labor Day LONG weekend for me. Loving the fact that Football started tonight… it’s fall season!! Happy Labor Day!

september.

I can’t believe it’s already September. This week holds many great things, like: everyone commenting on how the “fall weather” is here (and it’s 84 degrees outside), COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!, getting to live in Columbia–Home of the Gamecocks–as we cheer for the Tigers, Fall Cleaning because I never get around to Spring Cleaning and back to school for everyone except me!

And I leave you with a new favorite “I’m bored” time killer… fail.