Black Friday Madness

Madness is the best way to describe what i saw in some of the stores this morning...but i had a blast with my sister and 10 yr old nephew Riley. My day started at 2:15 when i woke up to get myself together to meet my sister at 3 at her house. The funny thing was i only had slept a few hours and woke up actually not tired. Anyway i got to my sister's around 3 and texted her when i got there....to my surprise she didn't text back. So about ten mins go by and it's the time she wanted to leave...so i texted her again...still no response. Then decided to go in through the garage...once i got in the garage i realized that i was locked out. So here i am in the dark cold garage. So i texted again a few times and still no response. ten more mins later got back in my car and left cause i figure that she had changed her mind.

But her alarm didn't go off in time, and her phone was on silent. On my way home i get a text saying they were still going...so back i went. And my sister finally got my texts...so we were laughing so hard. I think she'll probably blog just about the series of texts i sent her.

So off in a hurry we headed to the first stop Hhgregg...which we didn't have any luck at. Then Target where we stood outside for about twenty mins before they opened...brr it was cold!!! Sarah found some stuff there....then we got starbucks. And Riley tried his first Peppermint Mocha (decaf) and like it. Sarah might have a coffee lover on her hands...haha. Then we went to home depot... lowes...the christian bookstore...walmart..and the other christian bookstore.

So i got home around 8 and went back to bed for a few hours.

Volunteering

Today i had my interview with the director of volunteers for Levine's Children's Hospital (LCH). So now i'm an offical LCH volunteer!! I have orientation on in a few weeks, then will start my training in the surgery waiting areas in october. And i'm also on the waiting list to volunteer in the NICU. That position is the most popular one and is filled right now. But i'm still excited about helping in the surgery waiting areas cause i'll be helping the patients and their families.

For those of you who don't know why i decided to do this...here's the story. I was watching an Extreme Makeover Home Edition one night about a year and half ago and my heart was just really gripped while watching it. It was about this family whose daughter had cancer, she was 6 when she was first diagnoised. She was cancer free for several years, then it came back. Instead of focusing on her self, she focused on how she could help the other kids (patients) that were in her ward at the hospital. She made sure every child had a teddy bear. Anyway it was amazing the difference that the little girl was making by just doing such a simple thing. So i immediately started to think what i could do, cause i really wanted to do something. Then i thought of crocheting blankets. And i went to several websites and finally got on LCH's site. And i got in contact with them and have been making blankets for them ever since.

Everytime i go in to drop off the blankets, the director tells me another story of how the blankets are making such a difference. It just about brings me to tears when i hear it. It has been so amazing. So i can't wait to start being more involved.

Fantasy Lake

Last Weekend we took our youth group to Fantasy Lake Waterpark in Fayettville. I never heard of it before our youth pastor told us about it. But this place is really neat. It this waterpark based on this man made lake and has all kinds of waterslides and some other extreme things to do in the water. For example they have a jump tower..where you climb up this tall ladder to the top and then just jump into 10 feet of water.

Then they have Tarzan Swings, which are these long rope swings that are up really high. And once you climb up the ladder and get to the platform..


.you grab the rope jump out ..



you start swinging across the water and then jump off.


It sounds and looks pretty easy right? Well I thought it did, so i decided to be brave and give it a shot. Climbing up the ladder was almost enough to do me in. Then once i stepped on the platformed and looked down and saw how high i was ..i had second thoughts. And then realized that the only way down at this point was to either go through with it or just jump off the platform cause you couldn't go back down the ladder. So i jumped and grabbed the rope..unforunately i jammed my finger in the process of grabbing the rope and couldn't get a hold of it again...so down i went....falling..crashing into the water. I don't remember much just that i think i did a back flop in the water. I was lucky enough to have just sprained my finger and not injured myself anymore.

Kitties

This week i get to watch my neighbor's kitties while they're away. They're the cutest kitties ever... Bach and Beethoven. And they're so beautiful! So far it's been fun and exciting watching them cause you never really know what they're going to do or what you may find when you walk through the door. Yesterday they were pretty hyper and were wrestling and chaseing each other around the house. Another day they knocked over a plant so i cleaned it up, they ended up playing with the dust pan for an hour. And today when i came in i found that they knocked over a lamp in the living room...i think i was able to fix it. And right now they're taking cat naps next to me as i type this. So here are some pictures of them...

this is beethoven


This is Bach


playing with the blinds


it's amazing that they can be amused with the simplist thing...a dust pan


Cat Napping




Bach sleeps with his mouth opened..so funny


And this is what they're currently doing..

Life Lessons..part 1

When i decided about three years ago to learn how to crochet, i never thought that i would learn so many things about life. That wasnt my goal. My only goal was to learn a new hobby that i could do during all this "free time" i have since being on disability.

The first major lesson i learned was to never give up but always keep trying. If you are determined to do something and you keep trying inspite your mistakes and failures...you will eventually accomplish it. I know that this isn't something profound, and we probably all already know it. When i first started learning how to crochet i was so excited abotu my new found hobby. I actually thought it would be a piece of cake and i would have no trouble learning. Well after a month, my excitement quickly turned into confusion and frustration. I felt like i would never figure it out. Then i stopped for awhile and picked it up again later. This time i was determined to learn and so eventually i did.

There are times in life when we're faced with a challenging situation. Maybe at first we're encouraged and feel strong enough to face it and fight through it. But then nothing seems to be happening or maybe our attempts don't work..or maybe the situation just drags on. And that's when we eget so frustated that we want to give up. Sometimes we just need a break from it ...a chance to catch our breath or get a second wind. Maybe we need sometime to step back and get a different view of it, and refocus. Once we're refocused, we can take it on again...and this time we can accomplish it.

Stay tuned for part 2

Youth Last night

Last night i got to help with worship at youth. This is something that i've been wanting to do for a long time. I've been praying that God would give me opportunities to play keyboard and it's fianlly happening. So i was really excited when our youth pastor asked me to help with worship. We were only going to do a few songs, but i ended up playing for over an hour. Halfway through we ended up breaking the youth up in groups to pray for one another. And they spent a lot of time going after God. It was awesome to see God moving through them.

Beautiful day to walk through a garden

Yesterday after a fun filled Nemo bday party for my nephew Scotty, My mom and me went to the daniel stowe botantical gardens. It was such a lovely day that we didnt' want to go home. So here are a few pics from the gardens....

Talent Night

Last night we had a talent night at youth. I'm so amazed at how much talent there is in our youth group. We had everything from playing instruments, skits, singing songs to balancing a soccer ball, painting and cooking. I even played the keyboard and sang a few songs myself last night. The youth were awesome. And we had a lot of people come out to support them...it was great. So here are a few pics i took from it. one the youth took some really great pictures last night so i might be posting more after i see hers.

This is Brett playing with his band The Paper Cities...


The Paper Cities did 3 songs ..Evie plays the bass and sang the first song, Brett plays electric guitar and sang the second one, and Benj is on the drums



And this is Dylan playing an amazing guitar solo


Paige did sing language to the song "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath. She's studying to be a Deaf Interpreter.


Here's Jana doing a violin solo


And Haley and Stephanie sung a duet

Snow Day!!!

Last night it finally snowed here and got a real snow day. I say "real" because usually here in charlotte they close the schools even if it's only an inch or less of snow. And everyone acts likes it a blizzard. It's actually quite funny to me. Especially since i found myself soo happy that we got a whole 4inches of snow over night. Where i grew up that's not consider major snow, i used to blizzards, but here it is. So some of my roommates had their friend over and we stayed up past 2 in the morning.

We were all so excited about the snow last night and spent alot of time taking pictures of everything when it first started. The snowflakes were soooo big at times...it was really cool.


Here's a bunch of paw prints from the dogs...i think it's so cute. They were really funny when they went outside...they couldnt figure out why this white stuff kept falling on them.


This is the side of our house. Early we had a small pond and river running through the side of the yard because of all the rain we had over the last few days. And now it's all frozen and covered with snow.


I just thought this tree looked really cool in the snow, with the big snowflakes falling


Whenever we get a decent snowfall, Crystal likes to make snowcream. She used to do this when she was a kid. So it's a tradition. Basically it's just snow mixed with milk, sugar, and vanilla...and you used the very top part of the snow. We used the snow from our table. It's taste pretty good but is very sweet.


And as part of our snow celebration...we played Dutch Blitz. I was really excited cause i hadn't played in awhile. This game ended up being the longest game i think i've ever played. It took us almost 2 hours to finish, i think it was around 1 am when adrienne finally reached 100. You win when someone reaches 100...well i actually broke a record last night. Instead of reaching 100....i scored -202. As my roomies said last night, i won twice in "opposite land". I'm not that good at the game cause it's really fast, and it hard for me to go through my cards that quick, but i have fun anyway cause usually the games gets really crazy.

So like i said before we didn't go to bed till after 2 this morning. And then i slept till about 9 this morning. We were all awake by 10. And Adrienne made us chocolate chip pancakes, and i made us plenty of peppermint coffee. So we had a yummy roomie breakfast. And now i'm laying in bed, watching the snow melt outside of my window.

Cruise highlights part 2

Here are some more cruise highlights.. when we stopped in Port Cavnaveral, Fl the Disney Wonder ship was docked next to our ship. It was neat to see them get the ship ready to sail. And we finally got to see it leave at sunset.


That night we decided to get dressed up. And it just happened to be when the water got really choppy..which made it hard to stand and even harder to walk around the ship. So in this picture i'm holding onto the piano cause i didn't i would of fallen over. By the way this is my dream piano...it's so beautiful.



Our last night they had the chocolaholics chocolate lovers chocolate buffet..where there was every kind of chocolate you could dream of..and chocolate sculptures. here is my little plate..i coudln't even finish most of it but i did manage to finish the big chocolate covered strawberry

Cruise Highlights part 1

I'm finally getting around to posting something about my cruise.It's probably going to be one of the top vacations i've ever been on. here are some pics...

We left on saturday evening and spent Sunday at sea cruiseing to our first stop Great Stirrup Cay..NCL's private island. So in the afternoon while my mom was taking a nap i explored our ship. And i was so blessed to watch an amazing sunset.






Our first stop was Great Stirrup Cay...which was a small but pretty island where my mom and i had massages on the beach (one of my favorite things of the whole cruise) The water was crystal clear and freezing but i managed to get all the way in even though it took me 20 minutes...but i did it.





This the massage hut where we had 25 minute massages..


Our second stop was Nassau, Bahamas...where we went to the Atlantis Resort for the day. We spent the day going through the lazy river (which is so big it takes 30 mins to get through), i went down a few water slides, swam in some of their many pools, saw their aquariums, and walked around the grounds.

$25,000 a night suite



This manta ray reminds me of the one from "Finding Nemo"..

Me with my fishy friends..