So, its been a reallly looong time since I've written anything, and believe me, I have heard, "Write something on your blog" from my dad way too many times, haha, so now I am. The reason for this blogland leave of absense is that I really haven't had much time or really a semblance of a life for the past 3 months, up until now. I was working 50 hour weeks, 10 hour days, that's right, all through the summer. Needless to say, it was a challenge, but I made it! My days consisted of work,entertaining kids, , driving 24 miles plus a day, home, sleep, repeat. What fun! I am glad to be off of that hectic schedule, and back into a more "relaxed" one. Overall, we did do some fun things, (Josh and I), but most of the time, my life revolved around the above. However I am not complaining, because I am thankful to have a decent job, and once again, some days were very entertaining! :0) We did get to take the kids to a Braves game, which was pretty fun, and hot! Luckily we were in the shade,,, maybe not our exact "seats", but we were still in the shade.

I had a week of vacation at the end of July, through the 3rd of August. I was really thankful for this week, I felt like I was free if only for a little while,, hehehe. We did go on vacation, we took a cruise, and it was lots of fun! The weather was perfect, and it was nice to get away and spend some time with Josh again, by ourselves. We went to Cozumel, Grand Caymen, and Jamaica. Cozumel was really neat, we just did some shopping there, and we also ate lunch at I guess you could call it a real life mexican restaurant. It was YUMMY. I don't know if I've ever had chips and salsa that great anywhere. As you can probably tell, I love mexican food, but that's a whole other story in itself. So.. more about our vacation. Cozumel was really nice, shopping was good, just bought a few little things, a pair of shell and real pearl earrings for like 6 bucks, I was proud of myself, what a bargain. Other stores were a little pushy for you to buy, but we tried to avoid that. When the cruise ships come in, that's their way of making money, it is a little sad. We also went to this beach called Paradise Beach. It was pretty neat I thought, we had to take a taxi, and that was a experience in itself let me tell you. I've been sheltered all my life, and this was my FIRST taxi ride. Really intresting. Anyway- so the beach was okay, it was pretty for the most part, and I was just happy to be on vacation, so I enjoyed the afternoon there. There was alot of sharp coral, so it wasn't the best beach for wading near the shore, you had to get out a little ways, but they did have floats, so that was helpful for me. We just swam there, basically.
Grand Caymen was after Cozumel, and this was our favorite place ever. We swam with the Stingrays and then we went to the beach. I don't think I've ever had this much fun in my life! The stingrays were so tame, they would swim around you, and bump into you like it was no big deal, and I was nervous at first, but it was really awesome. Some of them were absolutly HUGE! It was crazy, but they would let you pet them, and we could even feed them, too. With squid. See, this was a problem for me, because, I don't do squid. It's slimy, and nasty, so I fed them a couple peices and I was done with that. We just swam around underwater, and interacted with them some more, it was a really worthwhile experience. If you should ever go there, you have to do this! After the stingrays, (I was sad to leave, trust me I could have stayed there all day), they took us to the most beautiful beach Ive ever seen. It was called Rum Point beach. The water was this aquamarine, turqoise, emerald, every pretty blue green color you could name, that's what the water looked like, and it was crystal clear. The sand was pink. (favorite color), literally pink, it was gorgeous. We ate lunch there, and swam around and snorkeled. You could literally go out 150 yards into the water, and it was still like waist deep if that. It was almost like you were in a huge swimming pool. Kinda like destin, but without waves. It was awesome. We found some conch shells,too, but we had to leave those there. If you google Rum Point Beach, you can see some pictures of it, but even those won't do it justice. Sadly we didn't have our camera with us, because it wasn't ours (thank you again daddy), and we didn't want to risk it, although it would have been ok. We just didn't know, so we didn't get to take any pictures there.
Jamaica was our last stop. We have some friends that went on this exact same cruise for their honeymoon, and they were telling us that Jamaica was the worst part of the whole trip for them. I don't think it was the worst, but it was the most intresting. We decided that we wanted to see as much of Jamaica that we could while we were there, and as we were getting off the ship, random people were coming up to us, trying to get us to do a taxi tour with them. I didn't really have a comfortable feeling about this, especially with a guy taxi driver. So, we stopped at a few shops, and looked around. We went outside on this pier to look at the ocean, and this woman was below us with necklaces to sell. She saw us, and immediatly came crawling, (yes crawling) up the rocks to get to us. My first thought was, this poor lady, this is how she makes her money? But then, I changed my mind, she was trying to show us all of the necklaces she made, and then out of nowhere, these 2 other guys, selling the exact same necklaces started to make their way towards us too. Josh and I looked at each other, and said , allright, lets get out of here. Can we say zombies, anyone? That's exactly what it reminded me of, they all had this glazed over look on their faces, and needless to say, that was enough for me. Creepy.
Later, we did end up taking a taxi tour with a woman driver, and it was alot of fun. She took us to the rainforest, and we got to try some sugarcane and pineapple that was delicious. We also got to go to this really pretty place that had an amazing view of our ship, and the harbor area. Good picture spot, and yes we did have our camera with us this time. Yay! On our way back to the port area, we did get to go climb the Dunn's River Falls. We got some great pictures too. We had lots of fun that day. I learned that it pays to be a little adventurous from time to time. You just have to be careful, and use common sense. Overall though, we had a great vacation. I will post some pictures on here, and on Facebook too, so everyone can see them.

Well, it's Friday, Labor Day weekend. Me and Josh are moving in October, to a much nicer and cheaper place, so we are going to be painting this weekend. We're excited, and we'll be saving alot of money every month, so that's a plus, too. I have today through Monday off, and then going back to work on Tuesday. My mom and Dad are in Florida trying to stay away from the hurricane, and I think they're having a really great time. Imagine that, I'm really glad they went on vacation with each other, this time :0). Anywho, that's about all for now,, it won't be so long now until I can write again-
Have a blessed day- bye for now!

Vacation time!

okay, so technically I have 2 more days before I go on vacation to see my friend stephanie out in texas, but it's better than a week, right? The last time I wrote was awhile ago, and alot has happened. We decided to get a new car, and we sold my old one-praise God. Beth will like the fact that I went with the Civic. I really do love it, it's so much fun to drive, and I can already tell it will last a loooooong time. Now as to this "using my car for a dump truck" thing dad, I strongly disagree. If you call the 2 magazines, and my BIBLE trash,, hahaha..... anyway- no I'm keeping it really nice. You'll see.

I mentioned above that I'm going to see my best friend stephanie out in Texas on Thursday- will be gone for 5 whole days, and without Josh. He's going to Albany GA to see his Dad, and they're gonna do some golfing and fishing in florida. My trip sounds a whole lot more fun :) haha...anyway- so the only part I'm not looking forward to is the "flying alone" idea. Sure I've done it before, and I am 24 years old, so it's not that I can't handle it. It's just that, airplanes arn't my ideal thing. Kinda scary to me really. Not that it wouldn't be the same with Josh, or whoever else I know, they would be right there in the same boat with me, but at least I could grab their hand if I got scared, or things started to get bumpy. But since I won't really know the person I'll be sitting next to, it might not be such a great idea to suddenly scream in panic (yes, I've done it before), and reach for their hand. So, please pray that everything goes as it's supposed to, and I won't even know I'm thousands of feet in the air. Ahh,,, all of this to say, I am excited to see my friend, I just wish there was some way of forgoing the "traveling" part.

Well, sorry again I havent been keeping up with my blog, but when I come home at night from work, most of the time the last thing on my mind is being on the computer. I don't know why, it's almost like I have to be in the mood to type, and gather all my thoughts at one time. It's strange, but I will try and be better, because sometimes, I do have entertaining stories to tell. Sometimes.

So, I told you how me and my husband decided to purchase a new car. This was really a big deal for us, because before now, we have never had a car payment, also meaning, we really didn't have any debt. But, now... it's a whole new ballgame. Needless to say, all of that aside, I really LOVE LOVE LOVE my car. The "new car smell",, I'm telling you, they should find a way to bottle the stuff, it's great! Why is that anyway? Why is there a new car smell? Why doesn't it last the entire life of the car? I guess because unfortunatly, after a while, the newness wears off. For now, it's still really new, and I'm excited. What does it mean when "the newness wears off". To me, that means alot of things, especially with our relationship with God. You have to work on keeping your relationship with Him, new everyday. Do you want your relationship with Him to ever feel old? I think about that almost everyday, and I really want to keep it new and exciting. Just like our friendships, and our marriages. You can have an "old" friendship with someone, meaning that you've known them for forever and a day, but you have to work at keeping your friendship fun and exciting, and you have to nurture the relationship, or it won't grow into somthing beneficial for both people. Wow- maybe I should write a book,, I had no idea I was so smart,, just kidding! I think this does make sense, and I wonder what would happen if everyone who had a chance to read my blog applied it to their relationship with God, and others.

Anyways- my husband is getting jealous of the fact that I won't let him read this blog until I'm finished with it, so I guess that's my cue-

Have a Blessed Day*

Too Busy....

I have been so busy with my job, and doing things around the house, I haven't written in so long. But, here we go....
Today is Friday, :0) so at work, that means laundry day. Ahh... laundry. I'm debating whether or not to go in early so I can get it all done. I'm leaning towards the reagular 2:30 time. Thankfully they have a really nice laundry room, that's always a plus.

So, this past weekend, my dad, Josh and I, went to look at cars. It was really fun, and if I sell my car, I think I might get a brand new one.I don't want to be in a big hurry to do anything, b/c I still like my car, but it's not getting any newer if that makes sense. I'm thinking I like the 08' Honda Civic, but in September, the 09's come out. It's weird how car company's do that, why make so many models, if they're only going to make more? It's confusing,, and then what do they do with all the cars they don't sell? Can they really sell all of them? I have no idea, but I would imagine most of the time, they don't. Buying a car is like a game, especially dealing with the salesman..althought the one's we talked to were pretty nice. Not too pushy..I guess. We test drove a new Mazda 3, and then the Honda Civic. Guess which one my husband liked? The Mazda 3 of course. It was sporty, it went fast, it had a bigger engine....all of the above, it had plus more. I liked it, it was okay, the price was awesome. But, it just wasn't me. The Honda Civic was nice, it was simple. I like simple. :0), simple is good.

Anyway- we had a really good time though, and it was fun to get to spend some extra time with my dad. I think we gave him a minor heart attack though, driving in and out of the traffic. I think I'm a pretty good driver, never had a tickett, never had an accident. Josh is a good driver, he would really be a great nascar driver,,, needless to say he likes to driver defensivly, all the time. If I do get a new car, it will stay new for a long time..... as long as he keeps his lead foot off the gas pedal. hahah....

Well, I have to go and do somthing productive before I start my day-- TGIF

See ya' later-

* When you pray, rather let your heart be without words, than your words without heart*

Have a blessed day!

It's late, but I'm awake!

My dog has decided it's waayyy past his bedtime, and he's signed out for the day, but...
It's after 10 pm and I am wide awake for some unknown reason. I find that ever since I got married, I stay up later and later than I used to.I'm being very serious when I say, I used to could go to sleep at 830 and sleep the entire night, and wake up around 9 the next day. You don't beleive me??? Ask Eddie, my Dad... but anyway, somehow I strangely think my sleep patterns could be because of my husband. He has a hard time falling asleep at night, and I stay awake, (most of the time), until he finally wants to go to bed... I guess he's kind of like my security blanket,, haha, cheesy I know, but still, just another random thought. Hope everyone else gets plenty of those wonderful z'ssss.

I am going to Texas to see my best friend in may, and I'm soo excited. Last time I went out to see her was almost 2 years ago, (I've seen her since), but it was when Josh was deployed to Iraq. I bought my plane ticket tonight, and it was an amazing price! I love getting good deals on things like that! It makes my day. Speaking of which,, on the opposite end of the spectrum,, it is a VERY sad day when 20 bucks will not fill up my 10 gallon fuel tank in my car. It's getting ridiculous. I wonder what would happen if one day every American decided they would bike to work, or walk, or skateboard,, or just do anything but drive!!?? I don't even want to know what it's going to be like this summer, and I will be driving around alot because of my job. Yuck-o!!

To answer my lovely sister's question about the Bible study I'm doing, it's called "Discovery, God's Answers to our Deepest Questions"... and it's very good! I love it. Thanks for reading again,, Hope tomorow is a beautiful day~*~*~

"Whether through circumstances or rich blessings, God does, or allows, whatever is best to conform us to Christ. He does this because He is committed to our eternal good."

Monday,Monday

Hello there all-

Today is the begining of a new week for me, once again. Last week was a pretty long one, I worked 10 hour days, but I had a good time. My summer schedule will be like this past week, so I will have to get used to it all over again. Oh well, I plan on having a set routine for the kids anyway, so it will be ok.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. It was a very restful one for me and my husband. I like those types of weekends, you know the kinds where you don't have ANYTHING remotely planned, so you can just do whatever you want. Yep, those would be my favorite. Those don't happen very often for us, but when they do, we enjoy them. Is anyone else like this? I'm sure there are others who enjoy weekends like this past one for us,,, so that was a dumb question.

My husband has been pondering what he will do after he graduates college in 2 years time. He's narrowed it down to 3 ideas. Game Warden, "somewhere" in the state of GA, working for the GBI-Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and finally an Officer in the Marine Corps. He has plenty of time to think and make up his mind,,,, and 2 years is plenty of time for me to make up his mind for him, against any of these choices. hahahha,,, only kidding. I guess all three are pretty good options. Maybe,, we will keep you posted.

I have been doing a Bible study with several of my girlfriends in my Sunday School class, and I'm really learning alot, and enjoying it also. I thought I might add a few of the things I've been learning so all of you who read my blog, might be able to get somthing out of it as well. So, here we go.....
God is working ALWAYS for your good:
* When you received Jesus, God started a good work in you. He is commited to your growth, and He will never give up on you.*
* God is in front of you and behind you. He knows how you felt about yesturday; how you are feeling about today, and what will happen to you tomorow.*
~These are really simple statements, but they mean so much, and they are so true! I've always known that God is always with me, but when I read these statements and really thought about them, it blew me away that God REALLY is with me through every single day of my life, He goes in front of me, and knows everything that I'm going to do, and dealing with every second of every day. But, it's not just me! He does this with all of His children, how awesome!

And then the last one is really great too, and it makes you think about how much God really does have our best intrest in mind-and what if this is true?
* If God one day allows us to look back to our time on earth and see what really went on around us, we'll realize we were unaware of the hundreds of ways in which He blessed us and protected us. Only then will we fully know the depth of His love, concern, and care for us!*

Okay, go and think about that for a while, and let me know what you think. Hope you have a blessed day!

Ya'll come back now, ya' hear? :)

A fun weekend

Hey again, sorry I haven't been posting in the last few days. I've been pretty busy with work and some other stuff. I was thinking about how many people would read my blog in a couple of months or a year, I should say that I was wondering. Anyway- Well, I am off of work today because the family I work for are very nice, and because me and Josh are going to get our passports for our vacation in July this morning. I'm excited for some reason, I guess only because this means we're really going! I will let you know how it goes, I'm sure it's a simple process, it's just the HUGE amount of money they want for the little thing, and waiting until it arrives to you in the mail. Whenever they feel like sending it to you, I guess. It's funny how waiting can be such a countdown!



Me and Josh went dancing Saturday night. Not at a nightclub (can we say never),, but at a real DANCE STUDIO!!. Besides Prom, and the Marine Corps Ball,, I've never done anything remotely close to what we did. Needless to say, it was a very entertaining experience, and It was SOOO MUCH FUN! We learned several dances, the Two Step, Cha Cha Cha, and the Waltz. My husband surprised me at how well he did for his "first real dancing lesson", and I dare say he did even better than me. :) However, my toes were happy to be off the dance floor by the end of the night, hahaha. We went with another friend, and she is the one who introduced it to us in the first place. I definitly want to go back sometime in the near future. Now, if only I can find some real dancing shoes, and not Sunday shoes I will be much better, I think.



We went to church yesturday, and it was really a blessing to me. Our Pastor preached on Colossians 3 23-27 I beleive. It definitly spoke to me in even some of the things I am guilty of sometimes, ie, having a bad attitude, and saying hurtful things. Now notice I said some of the time. hehe.. you can go to my church website, and watch the whole sermon online. http://www.fbcw.org/, or just click on the link on the side of my blog where it says "My Church". Pastor Johnny told the congregation yesturday that he would be speaking about "The church of Oprah" next week, and I am anxious to go and actually learn more about what she calls "her religion". My sister has recently commented on her blog about this issue, and I whole heartedly agree that it is very scary, and very sad to know that she is so lost and deceived, and that she has so much influence on other people, people that call themselves Christians even, and that she wants to "recruit" more people into beleiving the false teachings that she does. Christians need to stand up for what they beleive in, THE TRUTH as I like to call it, and pray diligently for the lost that they would come to find the Only Way, Jesus. I could go on and on, and beleive me I would love to be able to share my faith with Oprah, but until that day comes, I will just do what I can, share with others, and pray for her.

Thankfully, we just returned from getting our Passports. It was a fairly simple process, other than writting the checks :),, so hopefully in about 6 to 8 weeks we will be able to call ourselves "World Travelers", or just people with Passports, hahaha... anyway- so that's taken care of, and all we have to do now is just wait for our wonderful vacation! Well, I am going to go and enjoy the rest of my day off, and I will write later! Thanks for reading, see you next time.

~*~ Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.*~*~

Another day

So, today is Wednesday already, these last couple weeks have flown by. I think it's because I really like my job. For those of you who don't know, I'm a Nanny for a family that lives in Roswell. They're a nice family. God is good. My husband is in school right now, and he's taking online classes, and it makes me wonder, who came up with that idea? I mean, it can be really convienent, for really busy people. Notice I said busy people. Bless his heart, my husband is not busy. At least not when I'm home, but maybe that changes when I leave for work. :) hahah, but it probably is a good thing that he doesn't have to commute this semester what with the gas prices and everything. They should be illegal!! Not that I'm worried about not being able to afford gas for our cars, but I've heard on the news that in some places like California, it could go as high as 4 bucks a gallon??? At this point I'm very happy with my 4 cylinder car.

We are going on vacation this July. It will be nice to get away and have some fun for a week. We tried to put a count-down on my blog, and it was really neat to be able to see the exact number of minutes, even down to the second,until our trip starts, but oh well.... all I know is it's about 3 months away at this point. We will just keep thinking positive thoughts, and daydream of palm trees and carribean breezes until then. I guess it would be helpful if I told you where we are going. We decided to go on another cruise. That's what we did for our honeymoon. It was so much fun, in fact, it was the best vacation ever. So, were all set for round 2. We still have to get our passports, and all of that fun stuff, we'll be doing that next Monday around 1030 in the wonderful AM. The only down side to the pending vacation is the inevitable kennel stay for poor little Gus. He's only been to stay in the kennel once before, and I felt bad the whole time! Isn't that awful? Well, I'm thinking I might be able to handle it better now, only because I'm just SO EXCITED! We'll just pretend Gus is having his own little vacation away from us. It will be fine. I'll just keep telling myself that.

Anyway- well Bon Voyage for now,,, it's almost work time, and I have several things to do before then. Have a blessed day-

This is definitly something new...

Wow, I've never done this before, so I guess here we go! I will start by telling you a little bit about myself. I was born in Tennessee, but I've basically lived in GA all my life, this is where I would say I did most of my growing up. I was saved by the grace of God at the young age of 8 years old. Now, some people would question that, and say, "How can you be saved that young, and understand all that there is to understand about it?" In answer, I will say, I knew that I needed to be saved, and I remember talking to my sunday school teacher at the time. She helped me understand what I needed to do, and since Jesus was tugging on my heart strings, it wasn't a hard choice for me! Anyways, so ever since then, I've been living for God. I have made a few mistakes along the way, but I know that I know that I know, I've been forgiven! My family is very important to me also, I'm Eddie's daughter, and my sisters are Beth and Lisa. I love my sisters soo much! I just wish I got to see them more, because we live about 4 hours away! Maybe one day that will change. My Dad is also a wonderful person, and he is such an encouragement to me, everyday. I don't know where I would be today without him! I married my highschool sweetheart, Joshua, when I was 21 years old, (kind of young, I know), but I wouldn't change anything. He served his country for four years in the Marine Corps. and did 2 tours in Iraq. We were married for about 6 months when he deployed to Iraq the second time, and it was a challenge. That experience taught me to rely on God for everything, and it wasn't fun at the time, but I grew into a stronger christian and individual because of it. You could say before all of this happened, I prayed for patience, and God sure did give it to me!hahaha. My mom is a blessing to me too. We haven't always had the best relationship, but I love her none the less. I've only got one mom, and I intend on showing her love everyday. Anyway- Well, what else to say? I've talked about me, and family, but I did leave one important thing out- My dog. Yes, Gus, the Chihuahua. I never thought that I would ever have a chihuahua, I never grew up around one, never thought they were that cute, and I don't know, just didn't picture myself with one. That all changed about 2 years ago. Me and my husband were living in Jacksonville N.C. and I had come to the conclusion that I wanted a dog. No, that's wrong, a PUPPY. I literally bugged my poor husband to death with the constant, "I think we should get a puppy" speal. My husband was gone alot during the day, and sometimes days at a time because of his job. I was lonely, so obvioulsy That's all I thought about, wanted, dreamed of, for several months. I looked online at all the cute pictures I could find, trying to decide how I could sucker my husband into letting me have one. We weren't supposed to have one at our apartment, but... I decided it was a risk worth taking. (I look back now, and realized it might have been a bad decision,,, but all's well that end's well, right :)?) anywho..... We first saw Gus at the pet shop in the mall in Jacksonville. I remember saying to him, after we talked to the girl that was helping us, "I hope you get a good home!" It cracks me up now that I think about it,, but moving on.... a couple days after that, we finally went back, and he was still there. I knew then that he was mine and I just had to rescue the poor little guy. We brought him home with us and I guess you could say me and josh fell instantly in love with him.. I know this is probably crazy to say,, but he's like our child! We don't have any "human" children yet, one day though. For now, Gus is all we can handle. Well, I think that pretty much does it... hopefully it wasn't too incredibly boring and Hopefully I will start to get the hang of things, like my sister beth! She's very good at this "blogging" stuff. Maybe she'll teach me a few tricks along the way. Anyway- as long as I have been an encouragement to someone, I've done my job.
*Until I write again*
Happy Blogging everyone :)
*~*~ Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it---because it does~*~*