Ahhhh!!

nThere's just so much to say. I wanted to do this blog to write about everything I'm thankful for to celebrate just being alive!! I want to harp on everyone and everything and wanted to start by telling everyone how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family and friends. I'm starting to feel like I'll never catch up, so I have to write about my weekend and then I'll slowly add all the other stuff!

Friday night Stuart and I had enjoyed time on the patio with Charter and Bailey and it was FAB!! I worked Thursday night so I slept most of the day Friday. Stuart has some work to do in Marion so I had time to paint my toenails and do a mud mask on my face...which was awesome!! I turned on some tunes and really relaxed after a long work week. We had grilled deer tenderloin, fried okra, and sliced tomatoes!! I absolutely LOVE that Stuart enjoys cooking so much. He really is so good! We we first started dating I had to learn to eat my meat medium to medium rare and also had to learn how to fry. My mom never really fried things, but Stuart, he'll fry just about anything! (I promise we don't allow ourselves to do it that often).

Saturday afternoon we watched part of the Arkansas game - we won't go there - that's one thing I'm not thankful for :). But, Saturday night we attended Kristen and Blake's wedding. First, it has rained for 40days and 40 nights here is Memphis, so the fact that it was not raining was UNBELIEVABLE!! Secondly, it was just a beautiful night!!!! After the wedding we went to one of our favorite Beale St. stops B.B. Kings which is one of those places you always have a good time. The band was so fun as was our company. It was just a super fun day!!!

Sunday, Stuart went to work at deer camp. Yippe!! :( I headed to church. Have you ever had that moment that you say, I'm pretty sure God interjected here?! Yeah, that was my Sunday morning. I know God wanted me this church service. The church's moto is this: The perfect place for imperfect people. Every time I go it's like a breath of fresh air!! The worship is awesome, the teaching is real and truth and challenging. I just love this church and have so much to learn about it! This Sunday happened to be the church's 7th Anniversary. During the worship they had a painter, Mike Lewis a.k.a the Jesus Painter, painting three HUGE portraits of Jesus. It was breathtaking!!! Before he was done with each painting a big lump formed in my throat because they were so incredibly beautiful!!

Here's a link to Highpoint's website...you can watch Sunday's service by going to the section marked imperfect.tv and clicking on Sunday Services

www.highpointmemphis.com

I'm so happy to have this church in Memphis. I have so much to say about it but have talked your eyes off by now...I'll definitely add more later!

Family

My next few posts will be about all the important people in my life. I thought I would start with my family since in the whole scheme of things they were the first people to know me.

My mom, Bonnie, is an incredible woman. She has worked hard for my brother and I so we could have many of the things she didn't have growing up. This meant a lot of sacrifice. I know more than anything she wanted to stay at home with us when we were young, but our education and the ability to participate in the activities we wanted to was so important to her as well. To this day she is still working full time and I'm sure wishing she could be home working in the flower beds. I appreciate her more than she knows. She and my dad sent me to private school, allowed me to cheer competitively (which involved lots of travel), and sent me to college (twice :), paid for me to be in a sorority, the list goes on. I appreciate all these things. But, more importantly my mom is my friend. She love me so much and it puts a smile on my face to think of her. She's always there, but she also knows when to push me to be a grown up. She's so kind hearted!

My dad, Wayne is pretty fabulous too!! One funny trait of his that I have seemed to adopt is repetition. If there is something he really wants to say he'll say it three times, three different ways in the same conversation. I've discovered that I to do that too. Like my mom, dad had worked hard to give me so much!! He's always been the one with the run down cars, beat up tennis shoes, and cereal for dinner :)...although I believe this is truly his favorite meal! My dad loves the simple things in life and has taught me to appreicate all that I have. In last few years he has started to build furniture which I am so excited about!!

Lastly is my brother Jesse who like my mom is a softy. He is very kind hearted, and does want to hurt anyone. Jesse's path through life has been hard, he doesn't see all that he can be and has allowed himself to follow a path through life that most of us wouldn't chose. However, I know a lot of folks praying for him - like me!! I KNOW one day he will be happy!! I was able to visit with him a few weeks ago with mom and dad and it was good!! We laughed about old times and talked about what's ahead. I'm just going to keep praying for my sweet little bro!!

My Hourglass

I'd say for the past ten years I've been counting down the time, anxious for what's going to happen next. I've always waited anxiously for the perfect man, the perfect career, the perfect house/home, the perfect life...the perfect plan. I've never allowed myself to sit back and breath and be happy and TRUELY content and joyous in whatever place I am in life.

I'm tired of allowing this discontent in my life. I'm not saying I'm not a happy/joyous person - I am, I just want to celebrate my life. I am so thankful for everything I have, I'm thankful for every person in my life. I don't want to sit and wait anymore, I want to live in the moment, experience the joy of the people and things I'm surround by everyday. I don't want to watch the sand in the hourglass trickle so quickly that I was never able to really play the game.

I'm flipping the hourglass over, filling the top bulb up and allowing myself to really feel life and love it! All of this may sound cheesy, but I really haven't created this blog for you. I want this to be an outlet for me, for me express my joys and sorrows and excitement, but really allow a place for reflection. Those of you who know me, know I'm pretty much an open book so this blog will probably not surprise you. I just need to share my heart and my desire to allow my life to be all that God intended it to be!