Catch-Up Post #1

I have a lot of bloggging to catch up on. I have seriously been working on this post for like 3 weeks. Everytime I start it I get interrupted.

So the first post is mine and Charli's trip to the Alabama vs. Arkansas game. Last year, Charli and I got tickets from her dad's boss to this game and we got lucky again this year. He has really good seats.

On the way there, the weather wasn't looking too promising. We had so much stuff to take into the game-a whole roll of trash bags so we could use them to sit on, towels, rain coats/ponchos, etc.

Here we are walking into the game. (Last year we lost our car when we came out and spent almost an hour walking around looking for it-In our defense it was really late and really dark.) It poured until right when we got in and then it stopped. It ended up being a really good day after all of the rain.

These definitely came in handy! And I'm always looking for a good excuse to wear them!

Right before the game started.

Charli and I after getting drenched from the rain.

I think it's so funny how the people you are sitting by at the games somehow become like your best friends while you are there (Even though you have never seen them before and will most likely never see them again). I felt bad for the man in front of us because 1.) He was crazy 2.)I think he really was hoping to have some really energetic people around him who were as crazy as he was.

At one point we scored and he turned around screaming and looked at Charli and I. I think he was hoping we would bump chests with him or something manly like that. We didn't though. The best part was when he is standing up raising his hands to try and have everyone else stand up with him. Everyone just kind of looked at him and kept watching the game. Then something exciting happened so we stood up for that. I looked at this man and he had a grin on his face-I really believe in his heart that he thought he was the reason all 80,000 or so people in the stadium were standing. Poor Guy! He had his son with him too. The son basically stayed facing the opposite way in a fetal position because he was so embarrassed by his crazy father.

Then the lady on the other side of me was a grandmother that had brought her little grandson with her to the game. He was probably 7 or 8. She and I talked a little but nothing meaningful. She didn't get my name or anything like that, but for some reason she trusted me to watch her grandson while she went to the bathroom. I know I'm pretty overly cautious about a lot of stuff, but I could have been a crazy too and walked out with her grandson. Maybe I have a trusting face or something.

Anyways, Alabama won and it was a lot of fun!

I hate titles.

I feel terrible today. My throat isn't hurting, but it's definitely not feeling normal. My head hurts and I'm scared I am getting sick. Normally if I don't feel well or if I have any type of pain I do not try and keep it to myself. I'm pretty quick to let everyone know. And usually it isn't anything serious, but this isn't me just being a little dramatic. I really do feel strange. Hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow and feel better.

My body is a little achy, but I'm thinking it might be because I did this last night:


It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. The funniest part was that I was doing the video while my roommate laid on the couch watching me. She was my motivator :)

I saw an advertisement for this the other day:

I would love to go! My Grammy used to take me and my two cousins when we were little. We went every single year, but I haven't been in forever. We may try and get a group of girls to go.

Here are some pictures from this past weekend. It was my friend Charli's birthday and another friend of ours. Our celebration was not quite as eventful as it was last year, but it was fun hanging out with everyone.

Autumn and I at Mellow Mushroom for the party

April and I (She is expecting a baby boy, Levi, in December. I'm making her baby shower invitations and I'm super excited about it!)

This is one of the cutest familes ever! Josh and Lauren and their sweet baby, Dillion. They are fairly new to our ministry and God has done a lot in their lives over the past few months. I love them and can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for their family!

Me and Mal

Dillion
Several weeks ago I got the idea in my head that I wanted my bangs to be shorter. I saw a picture of a friend who had really cute bangs and I wanted some. Every once in a while I go through this phase where I want bangs, but then when I get them I always regret it. They are so annoying and they never look as good on me as they seem to on everyone else. (FYI: I had real full out bangs until 9th grade! haha! It was a big deal when I let them grow out!)

So one day I just decided that I would cut them myself. I was kinda in the middle of an "emotional moment" and decided that bangs might make me feel better. Um... they did for about 5 mins and then I remembered how annoying they are and I was over them. So for the past few weeks I've pretty much worn them pulled back every day. Hopefully they will be grown out very soon.

Here is a random picture of me at the beach with the shorter bangs. This is pretty much the only time I have worn them down since I cut them.

Ok, I'm leaving work now and heading to bunko.

FYI

My sister started a blog.

http://cpelfrey.blogspot.com/

Not quite as exciting as me, but I have high hopes for her!

Baby Shower and other randomness.

This past Saturday we (our College/Singles ministry at church) hosted a baby shower for a lady in a women's shelter here in Birmingham. Autumn, my roomate, has a huge heart for this kind of stuff and she got everything together. We had cake, punch, presents, and everything else baby shower.

Some of the little girls that came to the shower. (We definitely left there way more grateful for everything we have).

The whole group with the lady we had the shower for. She was so grateful for everything.

Some of the great gifts that she got. Even though the guys didn't get to go, they gave money and gifts to help this sweet lady out.

How cute is he?

Roxy, Jenny, and I. (Jenny just moved in with me and Autumn for a month or so while she is getting ready to buy a house).

And this has nothing to do with the baby shower, but this is what I cooked for dinner tonight-Enchiladas! No idea what got into me.

And Autumn (who makes fun of me for blogging) requested that I put Rosco and Kitty on the blog.

Kitty (AKA Satan. Seriously, this cat looks nice but is very mean).

And here is Rosco. AKA: Roskee. He's quite the DIVA. If he was a real boy, he would be the one that gets made fun of on the playground and all of the other kids give him wedgees (no idea how to spell that) and push him down.

FYI: Autumn felt like a bad mother after seeing these pictures of Roskee and she trimmed the hair around his eyes..... I'm defintely not ready for a dog like I thought I was :)

Beach Pic.

This is sad, but here is the one decent picture I have from the beach. And I didn't even take it. I stole it off of a friend's Facebook page.

This is at The Red Bar in Seaside (It's right in between Panama City and Destin). They have amazing food! There are only 5 or 6 things on their menu, but I think between all of us we were able to try everything they offered. It was all soooo good! I'm not a big fish person, but there's was amazing! (Or maybe my taste buds have changed and I do like fish now- I'm thinking I should try it again).

It's a fun place to go too. There are kids there, but I wouldn't recommend taking them-It's very crowded and very loud! Expect to wait a while too. But once we ordered, our food was seriously on our table within 10 mins. I guess that's one of the perks of not having that many options.

A picture of some of the girls. When we first got there it was a down pour,

so this is after all of us had been soaked.

A Moment

Do you ever have one of those "God moments" that you just know you will never forget? I definitely experienced that this weekend.

Like I said before, our Beach Retreat was amazing. It was one of those weekends where almost everything that was spoken seemed to be directed right to me.

These past few weeks God has done a lot in my life. There have been a lot of things I don't understand and I've definitely played the "why Lord?" game quite a bit. I feel like I have been on a roller coaster of emotions and even though it's not always easy, I'm at a really good place right now.

Several weeks ago I heard someone speak about us being living sacrifices. He mentioned how as humans, we have the option to lay down our lives on the alter for God to do what He will with them. But we also have the option to pick ourselves up, turn around, and walk away.

For a lot of people, me included, the problem isn't laying my life down.... it's laying it down and keeping it there. So many times when things get hard I tend to pick myself up and question if all this is really worth it (in my heart I know it is, but sometimes it really is a struggle).

I watched a little girl try and give blood last week at work. She tried to fight it the whole time. She would stick her arm out and just when the nurse would get close to her, she would jerk it back up and tuck it under her other arm.

I'm not one of those people that tries to make every situation into something super spiritual, but I couldn't help but think that that is what I've been doing with my life lately. I lay a certain area down, and then right when it doesn't go like I think it's going to or I start to question what the Lord might be doing, I jerk it right back up. Or when I feel like I'm losing control, I try and take matters into my own hands.

I've been battling with this for months.

Friday night in our first service, I was really challenged to just lay it all down. Our college/singles pastor really encouraged everyone who felt like they needed to, to go down to the alter. I haven't been to an alter in a long time and it was very intimidating to have to walk down in front of everyone. Especially when I always sit in the very back and had to walk past everyone I knew.
And you know there are people wondering why you are going down and what it is that's going on with you. We've all done it before.
*Why is it that we feel the need to try and make people think we have it all together and we aren't struggling? I've been doing a lot of that lately.

So before I can even make it to the front the tears just start coming. So now, not only am I walking in front of everyone, but I'm a blubbering mess the whole way there. I just sat there and cried. And when I felt like I could get composure enough to walk back to my seat, I got up. I realized once I got back that I didn't really even pray or anything while I was up there. I just cried.

I think I experienced some of what this verse talks about:
Romans 8:26 (The Message)
"Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. "

****Note to the people: I'm not really sure what the whole "pregnant condition" thing is all about. But it most defintely isn't the part of the verse I'm relating with :)

All I could do was stand there and try to pull myself together. I was having a moment where I really needed to feel God. Just hearing someone tell me that the Lord is always with me wasn't enough.

So I look up and I see my dad walking towards me. (For some reason I always want to be brave in front of my dad. I know he doesn't expect me to be, but I also know that he doesn't like to see me cry and see me hurting.....especially when it's something he can't fix and make better. I think dads are just like that with their little girls/24 year old daughters). So I try and pull it together for my dad because I know he's about to hug me. But as soon as his arms closed around me, I lost it. And I just stood there for what seemed like forever and cried while he hugged me.

I really felt like the Lord lined that moment up. He couldn't physically reach down and hug me so He gave me the next best thing. I think I needed it way more than I ever knew.

I'm back.

Well, I'm back from the beach and back to work this week. Our Beach Retreat was amazing. I have a lot I want to say about what the Lord is teaching me right now, I just have to find the time to sit and write it all down. And my computer at home is doing something very crazy, so who knows when it will happen.

Until then though, here is a poem I read today- I thought it was very challenging:

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
[Sir Francis Drake]

Slow day.....

It's been a very slow day at work today, so I've had a lot of time to blog and get some other stuff done.

One thing I've been working on is my packing list. Most of my friends think it's so weird that I make a list of everything I need to pack. But I think it's just necessary! I don't forget anything because I have it all written down. And packing isn't as time consuming because I don't have to think about it. Pretty much everything that goes in my bag will be written on the list. And then I can take the list with me wherever I go and I won't forget anything when I'm coming home. It's pretty smart if you ask me!
FYI: I'm not as OCD as this makes me sound.

Here is my packing list.

But.... since I had a lot of extra time today, I decided to vamp up my list. So here is the new and improved packing list :)

And I saved it to my computer so I can just modify it as need.

(I told you I had a lot of extra time today!)

An update for the "People"

Work is going great! I still love it! Our office stays pretty busy which (in my opinion) makes for a fast day. And I love everyone I work with- that is such a huge blessing!

The other day, I had this 4 year old little boy ask me if we would be giving him a shot. I told him, no because we only take blood. We don't give shots.

He responded very confidently with "well actually..... I think I just want to keep my blood today."

Haha! So many cute kids!

On a different note, I'm getting ready to leave for the beach this weekend. The Generation is having our annual Labor Day Beach Retreat. This is the 3rd one I've been on and I love this trip!

And because every good blog post has pictures, here are some pictures of where we are staying.

San Destin Resort

The plan was to leave early Friday morning, but we are actually leaving as soon as we get off of work today. (Side note: That's one reason I'm glad I don't have kids yet. If we want to pack up and leave early for the beach, we can. We don't have to make a lot of different plans and work around schedules. No offense to the mom's out there, but I've seen what it takes to leave for a vacation with kids. It's not an easy task!)

I'm so ready for this trip. I'm excited for the whole beach aspect, but also for the worship services we have. They are always amazing! David Jett (he was on staff at Gardendale and then the pastor of the church I worked at in Memphis) will be speaking. Everyone who knows him, knows what an incredible man of God he is. I'm super pumped that he will be there!

You know when you are at the place where you just really need to hear from the Lord?...... I'm definitely there.

Hopefully I will take some pictures of the weekend. However, my camera hasn't seen the outside of my purse in over a month.

Another exciting aspect of the weekend is that Alabama football will be starting! I love getting together with everyone to watch the games!

I think that's really all of the updates for now. The Lord has been showing me A LOT lately. Hopefully I will have time to share some of that too.

Hope everyone has a Happy Labor Day!

P.S. The Herb Garden.... hasn't happened yet! haha! shocker!