Youthcamp in the mountains

so i'm back from youthcamp and back from the beautiful mountains. We had perfect weather and it actually got cold at night...i loved it. Overall youthcamp went pretty good..our new youth pastors did a great job and the kids had a great time. I'm still recovering from camp due to the lack of sleep (staying on the floors as all of the girls...the last night some of the girls were break dancing down the hallway...the night before they were doing cartwheels)...and majorally pushing myself beyond my limits. I didn't take alot of pictures but here are a few...


Four Way Tug of War

Here's me with a few of the girls...Jana and Evie

From the Beach to the Mountains

It's after midnight as i write this and i should really be asleep right now. But it's been about a month since my last post, so i figured i'd let everyone know what i've been up to.

I spent last weekend in Myrtle Beach for the FIRE Ladies Retreat. We stayed at the Embassy Suites Kings Plantation Resort. It was soooo nice. We were right on the beach and also had 3 pools, 4 hot tubs, a waterpark, and lazy river to enjoy. So there's was plenty to do there. And we didn't have much of a schedule, so we had a lot of free time to just relax. Here's my friend Beth, Crystal (roomie) and me on the 20th floor of the hotel.

Here's Crystal and Adrienne playing in the pool




And tomorrow i leave for the mountains...for youth camp. We're taking 40 teenagers...so please pray for lots of grace for me and the rest of the leaders. This is also the first camp with our new youth pastors...i never posted about this yet, but recently our youth group has been going through ALOT of changes and transistion. We had a bunch of the leaders leave, and just about a month ago our youth pastor stepped down. Actually tonight was their last night....it was sad. Anyway there's been a lot of shifting. So please just pray for our youth group, that this transition will be smooth.

Well i really need to get to bed...so i'll post more about camp and hopefully some pictures when i get back.

Desert Song

"  This is my prayer in the desert

When all that's within me feels dry

This is my prayer in my hunger and need

My God is the God who provides

 

This is my prayer in the fire

In weakness or trial or pain

There is a faith proved of more worth then gold

So refine me Lord through the flame

 

I will bring praise, I will bring praise

No weapon formed against me shall remain

I will rejoice I will declare

God is my victory and He is here

 

This is my prayer in the battle

When triumph is still on its way

I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ

So firm on His promise i'll stand

 

All of my life, In every season

You are still God

I have a reason to sing

I have a reason to worship"

(Desert Song by Brooke Fraser)

Move That Bus!!

For the last week, Extreme Makeover Home Edition has been here in Charlotte, doing a house. So yesterday my mom and i went for the "big reveal". It was so awesome to be there for it!!!! It was really hot and there were alot of people passing out...the news side 30 people passed out, 3 of which went to the hospital. I'm still surprised at how well i did. I didn't start feeling sick or like i was gonna pass out till the very end.

So back to the reveal...we got to the site around 12 and the reveal was scheduled for 1ish. They had to run through practices...and even had the practice limo drive up so we could practice screaming and yelling move that bus. Well then the reveal kept getting pushed back. And finally we were told that around 3 they were hopeing to do it. Meanwhile, we saw some the designers walking around.

And we got to watch Ty do a few practices...that was funny. Before that he ran down the side of the street and high five everyone....Ty high fived me!!!! I was on the phone with my friend when this was going on and screamed. It was awesome!!!! AFter the reveal, Ed one of the designers signed autographs, so he signed my shirt.

So around 3 the real reveal happened. It was great watching the family react to the house. The mom was jumping up and down and screaming.

So here are some pics....
Here's the house


here's the back of the bus


the limo bringing the family in


Ty is getting ready to welcome the family



Here's the family


Here's Ed signing autographs

Ahhh...SNAKE!!

Yesterday there was some excitement at my house. I went outside to get the mail and on my way back, i saw this baby snake in my driveway. At first i thought it was just a really big worm, but then took a closer look at it and then i realized it was baby snake. When i realized that it was indeed a snake, i screamed and ran inside. Keep in mind that no one else was home at the time.

So i went inside and instant messaged one of my roomies cause i didn't know what to do. So i thought about killing it but didn't know and didn't know if i even had enough courage to actually go back out there and kill it. I went back out to see if it had moved and was alive....and it had coiled up more...and was indeed alive. So i went back in and messaged my roomie...and started thinking about ways to kill it. The problem was i didn't to crush it with my shoe cause then there would be snake guts on my shoe...but i didn't have anything else to kill it with. So i had to be really creative.... I thought that if i took the trash can and rolled over it with the wheel...it would hopefully do the job. Well that's exactly what i did. I went back outside and ran it over with the trash can wheel. It was really gross but it killed it.

I still can't believe i did that. That was my excitement for the day. Hopefully nothing like that will happen today or any time soon. I think i had enough of that kind of excitment for awhile.

A nice quiet morning

Well this morning was a nice a quiet morning except for that i was awaken by the sounds of people cutting down trees across the street. They've been working on my street this week and trimming the trees that are by the power lines. I didn't think they would be working this early in the morning...it had to be around 7am. So instead of sleeping in like i wanted to i decided that i might as well get up.

I got up and went out to the living room, cause the noise isn't that bad out there. I laid on the couch hopeing to fall asleep. then this big thunder storm came through. The thunder was so loud that it was shaking the house and scareing one of my roommates dogs.. Doc doesn't like thunderstorms. Well after the storm calmed down some, i walked out on the deck and saw that we had a rushing river flowing through our yard. We have a ditch that goes along the side of our yard, all the way through it. And it really looked like a river...it was crazy. But once the storm passed and the sun came out...it only took a few hours for the river to dry up.

So that was the excitement for today.

A Beautiful Picture

Here's another beautiful picture from the Bahamas....a sunset in Port Lucaya.

Happy Birthday Sis!!

This post is decidated to my sister cause today is her birthday. Let me just say first how amazing i think my sister is. She's been through soo much but she still keeps going. I think the world of her and she is one of my heroes.

So Sarah, i hope you have a wonderful special day today!! And i pray that this next year will be filled with lots of blessings! I love you so very much!

Cruisin in the Bahamas

So you thought my Bahamas posts were over?? Well i took too many pictures..and my mom says that i don't have a good picture of her up yet. Even though i think the ones that i have up are good of her. but anyway these picture are from the 2 cruises we went on.

the first one took us out to the reef and was called a "semi sub". When we got out to the reef, we went downstairs and could see the reef and all the fish. I didn't take my camera down there cause i forgot...but the fish were beautiful. So after about 20mins, we went back up and went snorkeling. this was my first time trying to snorkel and i was sooo scared. For one reason...i was going to be in the ocean ( i don't like swimming in the ocean), and another reason you're surround by fish. Well i tried to snorkel but couldn't get the hang of it...forunatley the were literally surrounded you so you didn't have to have your face underwater to see them. The funny thing was everytime i would moved, i would hit a fish.

I'm enjoying the cruise.


the next day we went on another cruise and this time we saw all the million dollar homes that were on canals. I've never seen so many huge beautiful homes before. AFter we saw the homes we out to the ocean and our guide dove for sanddollars.

What a week

Okay so this week has been soo crazy. Monday was realitivly calm... excited to report. Then that night it was very hard to sleep cause i was nervous about my surgery that was going to happen the next day. So i think i slept like three hours or something. Then on tuesday was my surgery. And incase someone is reading this who has no idea what i'm talking about i'll explain later on in the post. I was more nervous then i was the night before. But a couple of my friends called and talking to them helped me ALOT. One of the them was made me laugh alot.

So my mom picked me up and off to the hospital we went. We got to the hospital and they brought me up to where they were going to prep me. All the nurses and doctors were super nice and that really helps when you're nervous. It took them awhile to prep me ..i had to have an IV...an EKG done...and they had to do the EKG a few times cause something wasn't working right. After all that they brought me down to the where i was gonna have the surgery. I don't really remember that much because they ended up giving me a lot of happy juice. I just remember them getting everything ready before my dr came in...then they gave me the happy juice..so after that everything else was a blur. The surgery went well... my dr put in the reveal loop recorder that will be monitoring my heart..with no problems that i know about.

So after that i was brought to the recovery room..which again was a blur. I just remember that i was in alot of pain more pain then i thought i would be. It felt like someone hit me full force with a brick or something heavy like that. I think even the nurse was surprised that i was hurting that much. But she was great and gave me oxycodone to help...which helps but makes me very loopy.

So now i'm recovering and i'm still in pain. I had an okay day yesterday so the pain wasn't so bad..just sore. I actually made it to church last night. And today i started off feeling pretty good just tired from the pain meds. And i went to my sister's to have lunch with my nephews at Riley's bday party. I felt alright while i was there but after we left we had to stop at a few places and then were goign to go out to eat. And the pain started to come back So since 4pm i've been in alot of pain...it almost feels like the pain i was in on tuesday.

So now i'm just laying in my bed writing this, listenign to a podcast. Trying to stay awake for a little while longer. that's the excitement for this week...next week I'll be going back for a follow up appointment and they'll take the dressing off and do all the other fun stuff.

Fun at the Harbour Room

well it's been a few weeks since i've been back from the Bahamas and yes i'm still blogging about it. I took alot of pictures and the trip was just too much fun, not to. We found this really nice resturant in Port Lucaya, called the Harbour Room. It was one of the best resturants i think i've ever been to. They had really good food and the service was awesome. Our waiter, whose name was Perry was definately one of a kind. First of all he totally took care of us and went the extra mile every time we were there. And on top of all that good stuff..he was really funny and went around singing "oldies". So here's a few pictures from one of the nights we were there.

Being silly in the Bahamas

While we were in the Bahamas i was constantly keeping my eyes open for a great silly picture opportunties....and they're were plenty on this trip. So here are my favorites.

"Help me...I'm trapped in an old phone booth!!"


Who should i call??


Here's my new friend...Mr Nutcracker...we met at the Harbour Room


Here's me trying to be a diva


The shark's gonna get me....ahhh!

More pool pics

I wanted to put these in my last post but it was getting too long so here are some more pool pics...

Bahamas... the pool

One of the best parts of the resort that we stayed at was the pool. I've never seen a pool this beautiful and so huge. So this post is devoted to the pool.

This is one of the two bridges that went over the pool. And all the landscapeing and flowers, palm trees...made you feel like you were in a rain forest or something.
The pool has these caves..each one had a jaqcuzzi inside...it was really cool. And there were also alot of waterfalls. So to get in some of the cave you had to under them...so much fun.
And there was this one huge cave that they had a pool bar inside. You could either swim up to it or if you didn't want to get in the pool or wet ( that would be no fun) you could walk in on the dry side. One day we swam up to the bar and ordered chicken strips and pina coladas...it was soo much fun

Here's the "dry side" entrance to the bar....soo pretty. And also they had a going around the cave that the bar was in. I think that besides laying in the hammock...the waterslide was my favorite thing to do. I had a close encounter with a lizard on one of my trips down...i was about half way down and there was this lizard inside the waterslide and i was headed straight towards it for speed ahead and there was nothing i could do....so i screamed and hoped i wouldn't touch it.

Bahamas....My New Favorite Place

Well I've been back from my incredible vacation for almost a week now....it's hard to believe. I took alot of pics and have alot to say so this will be the first of many posts about vacation. I really love the Bahamas so much that i've decided that it's my new favorite place. Just look at how beautiful it is??? Don't you just want to go relax in one of those chairs and enjoy the view??? i know i wouldn't mind hopping on a plane right now and go hideout there for another week. For the most of the time the weather there was great, except that it was extremely hot and humid...and on a our last night it thunderstormed really bad...looked like a hurricane was coming through. It took awhile for me to get used to the heat.

We had a direct flight to Freeport (Bahamas), so it only took a few hours to get there. Once we got there we had most of the day left to enjoyed. While we were waiting to check in our resort we went the resturant that's on the beach and had Bahama Mama's( no alcholic) and some snacks. We just sat there and enjoyed the sight of the palm trees and the ocean. I couldn't believe that we were really there.

After we were all checked in and settled we walked around the resort to explore and i discovered this wonderful hammock by the pool. It was in the perfect spot...beneath two palm trees and right by the edge of the pool. I love hammocks!!!! Later on we went took the water ferry over to Port Lucaya...had dinner at the Harbour Room (which i'll write about later) and walked around.

My Puppy in the Bahamas

So you're probably wondering what in the world I'm talking about. Well a few years ago my wonderful nephews, Riley and Reagan got me a puppy stuff animal for my birthday. I asked Reagan what i should name it and he said "Puppy". So her name is Puppy. Anyway i thought it would be fun to bring her with me on my vacation to the Bahamas and take pictures of her doing different things. So Riley and Reagan this post is especially for you and i hope you enjoy the pictures. And for everyone else incase you're wondering, i'll be posting some pictures and stuff from the bahamas soon...the next on my list. So here we go...

Here is Puppy getting ready to enjoy a nice long soak in the jacquzzi tub. she really needed it cause she spent several hours stuff in a suitcase on the way to the Bahamas. She's a good puppy and didn't complain much..she was just so happy to go on vacation.

After a long hot day, spending time at the pool and the beach, and walking around Port Lucaya...Puppy was usually pretty tired and loved to sleep on the big bed.

Puppy loved to find a place in the shade to keep cool when it got really hot. Here she is in her hideout outside of our room.

One of her favorite places to go was to the pool and just relax in the sun or swing in the hammock under some palm trees. And when she got really hot she enjoyed jumping in the pool and going down the waterslide. So puppy had a great time in the Bahamas and would loved to go again someday. I think it's her favorite place she's been so far.

I saw it!!!

I saw "Prince Caspian" last night!!!! I went with my roomies. I loved it and thought it was really good. They had some great new characters. But the movie was more violent then the last one, and had one scene involving the White Witch that really freaked me out.( think it would scare young kids)..i had to look away. I don't want to say too much about the movie because i don't want to give away anything for those of you who haven't seen it yet. Overall it was definately worth seeing.

Bahamas here i come!!

So this time tomorrow..i'll be on a plane headed to the Bahamas. I'm so super excited...I've never been before. My mom is taking me and we'll be there for a week...actually 7 nights and 8 days. I can't believe that we're going to be there that long....wahoo!!! So i'm not sure if i'll be posting while i'm there cause i don't know what the internet/wireless setup there is like...so we'll see. I do plan on writing while i'm there so i'll definately be posting more when i get back.

Oh by the way about the Smoothie Contest that i want to enter....i'm having a hard time with their website so i'm not sure if i'll be able to enter or not. I tried yesterday and submitted my entry but it kept saying that there was some kind of mistake..so i'm tried again like 20 more times and it still did the same thing. So i'm going to give it one last shot today..i think the deadline is the 25th or something. Hopefully this time it will work.

Still awake

Well it's a little after 1am and I'm still awake. The question is why in the world am i still awake??? The past few nights i've been having a hard time sleeping. Last night i didn't fall asleep till around 3am. Most of the time it's because im in some kind of pain but tonight i'm actually feeling okay. I'm wide awake so i'm hopeing that writing this blog will make me sleepy.

This week has been a calm semi boring week. I'm been trying to get ready for my vacation ...im leaving on sunday for the Bahamas. My mom is taking me and we're going to be there for a whole week. I'm so super excited! So to get ready for the trip, my mom's been taking me shopping and i've gotten some new clothes and stuff. And tomorrow i'm going for a manicure and a pedicure...wahoo!

So like i said i'm sooooooo excited about this vacation. I can't wait to escape reality for awhile and relax. To be real honest i'm really drained from dealing with everything that has been going on in my life. I really need this vacation.

Need some help please!!

Well i said that i would be posting more and haven't yet...so here's some news. I'm going to be entering " The Ultimate Smoothie Recipe" Contest that Marthastewart.com and The Why Milk Campaign are running. There's a grand prize of $1,000 and a few other prizes that include a really fancy blender. So i need some help with nameing my smoothie. The one i'm entering has every kind of berry there is (strawberries, rasperberries, bluberries, blackberries), Pina Colada Juice, and of course milk...that's not all the ingredients...I don't want to give away my recipe. So if anyone has any suggestions please feel free to let me know. Thanks!