Fun in the Sun....and humidity

Well, I guess it took me long enough, I've only been home almost two weeks since heading to Bama to hang with the family but as promised here is a re-cap and some pictures.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures everytime we did something really fun, but you'll get the just.

After driving through the night, Jarrad and I hit the ground running as soon as we got to Bama. I took a quick shower and headed to my mother-in-laws to spend time with my niece while Jarrad immediately jumped in a boat and went fishing...even though it was already too hot by the time we got there.

I got to do everything I was looking forward to. We spent several nights sitting around the pool discussing times past, the now and the future. This is always my favorite part, just hanging out. I stole my niece away as often as possible to have time with just her and I, we spent all day Saturday at the Lake, my mom cooked some AMAZING Food, Jarrad and I jumped in and cooked one night as well. And the last two days there, Jarrad, my dad and I woke at 5:30 AM to go fishing before the sun rose too high and it got too hot. I have to admit, even though we woke at the butt crack of dawn, and one of those mornings we'd only been in bed for less than three hours before our wakeup call, these were the most relaxing. The one thing I stress about with family is trying to manage time and equally split time between the two families and it often feels like they're battling each other for our time. Luckily, these mornings were stress free. And I have to admit, while fishing was just something I did with Jarrad because he enjoyed it, I was pretty proud of the fish teeth marks left on my thumbs and it will probably become more of a hobby for me as well. I hope you enjoy the following pictures.


This is my niece MaKenna with her granparents ("Honey" & "Paw-Paw"), also known as Jarrad's mom and step dad. She loved the water that day, check out a couple of other images with Makenna as well.





And this is me with my parents. I couldn't have asked for a better duo. They've always supported me in all my endevors (sometimes more reluctantly than others :) but never-the-less, they've always supported my choices). They're also two of the most caring, tender hearted, loving individuals you'll ever meet.


Unfortunately I have no pictures with my sister from this trip as I always forgot my camera when hanging with her, but below is a picture of my "little" brother. He was AMAZING this trip. Whereever we were, whatever we wanted to do...he was there. He didn't care, he didn't try to stress us out, he only wanted to be with us hanging...that was much appreciated. As a matter of fact, I'd like to think he's learned a lot from me over the years, but the truth is, I've learned a lot from him. He's very protective of me, and I LOVE that, he's very caring and it rips him apart if he thinks either I or my older sister are unhappy...funny how my baby brother has kind of taken on the role of big brother over the last few years.

God is the SHIT!

First I'd like to start by saying...I KNOW I KNOW...I owe a post about my time in Bama along with pictures, which is coming this weekend....PROMISE.

This week has been a world wind of a lot of downs and very few ups...but things, as always, quickly turned towards the positive. So secondly, before I continue, I'd like to say I know you probably don't expect to see the word Shit and God in the same sentence, especially when praising him but in this case there's no better way to describe it. For those of you that follow my blog regularly, I know you remember a little post I did on giving God his fair share, tithes, and my promise to do so.

Well, while I was in Bama I sat down one day to pay all of my bills and in the process I wrote my tithes check, put it in an envelope and in my bag to give once I returned to NC. As I returned and was checking my checkbook for the damage done while in Bama, I realized we were low, very low, scarily low on funds and since it was still the beginning of the month, this made me think twice about giving tithes.

But I made a public oath and knew I couldn't back down, so last Sunday I forked over the check with only minor hesitation and then looked to God and said I'll have faith. Well, can I just say that he's hitting me hard and make sure I don't mistake him for coincidence. That week, money Jarrad and I had been waiting on but no longer expecting, suddenly showed up in our mailbox....so maybe that was a coincidence, but then as the week has gone on, little side jobs that will help produce income for the month have popped up...a babysitting job here, an event there...then to top it off, the head of the Simulation Game Design department at Wake Tech calls Jarrad, he has a paid internship for him that he's trying to help Jarrad secure....20 hours a week Wednesday-Friday of this coming semester on top of continuing to work for the coffee shop on the weekends......what do you think about that. Some may say that that's work we have to do in order to earn money, but no one ever said paying tithes meant money will magically appear. For me this is a blessing as God is proving that he'll continue to provide for Jarrad and I as long as we have faith...and I'll work a million side jobs to help supplement our income as long as they're available.

God is awesome, God is the Shit....YAY GOD!! :)

PS- Now excuse me as I'm going against everything I was taught about journalism. I'm absolutely pooped so I'm going to simply publish this post without editing.

PPS- I WILL publish my post catching everyone up on Bama THIS WEEKEND!