O PRAISE HIM!

On my way home from Emily's today, I pulled over to enjoy a scenic view of the Great Smoky Mountains. (This picture does not do the actual experience any justice whatsoever.) I pulled over, rolled down the windows, cranked O Praise Him up, got out of the car and stood in God's creation in complete awe and praise of Him. I had my own personal Anthem on top of a mountain. If anyone drove by, they probably thought I was completely nuts! But, how awesome is our Creator!? I was literally up in the sky, among the clouds. I will never cease to be amazed by how powerful and majestic the mountains are. Yet, in all of their greatness, they are held in the palm of God and they tremble at the sound of His voice. Oh, how my itty bitty brain will never fathom His greatness! How awesome is He!

She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain...

She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes!

I headed to Hayesville, NC (in Clay County) this weekend to see my friend Emily. Emily and I lived together three of our four years of college. Since graduation, we've only seen each other a handful of times and it was great to just hang out for the weekend. Here's the weekend round up:

Friday - I arrived just in time for a wonderful home cooked dinner of baked chicken and rice. Emily, her husband Bryan and I enjoyed dinner while three year old Seth decided to be shy and not come out and play. By the end of the weekend, he hard warmed up to me. He's so cute and such a blast! Then, Emily and I in true roomate tradition put on our pajamas and watched a scary movie.

Saturday - We woke up to a thunder storm on Saturday morning. I walked out onto Emily's porch and let me tell you how blessed she is! They live on top of a mountain. When you walk outside all you can see are trees and mountains on either side of you. No neighbors, sidewalks, cars. Just nature! I thought it was awesome! We were planning on going hiking in Georgia, but due to the rain those plans were cancelled. So, we went to a community clean up activity that Bryan was co-organizing. Then, we decided to shop around a bit before dinner. On the way out to shopping, we stopped and saw the Track Rocks (see image below). They are these rocks that Indians have done drawings in. They were pretty cool and Seth did a great job of translating the guide for us. So, now. Let me tell you about DINNER! We went to the buffett at Brasstown Valley and um, we proceeded to stuff ourselves with prime rib, mahi mahi, crab legs, baked potato, rice, fruit, cheese, shrimp, cake, etc. It was so good! We went back to Em's to watch the UNC game and we were good for nothings. You would have thought we were drugged because we were so full! All I know is at half time we were up by 12 and all of a sudden I woke up and it was a two point game. But, luckily, the Tar Heels pulled through and are headed to the Final Four! WHOOT! WHOOT!

Sunday - We went to church at Downings Creek Baptist where Em and Bryan go to church. Church was great. While I feel truly blessed to attend Colonial and am thankful that God has put me there, there is something to be said for the small town church. I think I was welcomed by just about everyone there and it was one of those churches that you could just tell that they are always there for each other. Em's parents were there and we grabbed some Mexican for lunch. It had been five years since I saw her parents so that was great! Then, I headed back to Ra Ra town.

Hopefully, I'll make it back out to visit over the summer!

Go Shorty. It's Your Birthday. We're gonna party like it's your birthday.

Yesterday was my sister Lindsay's 20th birthday! Here are the top five reasons I like Lindsay (in no particular order):

1. She is a Tar Heel - like me!
2. She is a bigger dork than me.
3. She is great to go shopping with because she has the weird ability to do any kind of mathematical equation (no matter how difficult) in her head.
4. She will fix me a class of water if I ask her nicely.
5. She is a super awesome sister who loves everybody and I am mad proud of her!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDS!

Survey says....

We were hit with a random all company survey today at work. Apparently, the internal marketing crew is actually going to use it for something. Here are my responses:

Favortie non-alcoholic beverage:
Orange iced mocha no whip

Favorite band/artist:
oooo....you want just one? IDK. I'll say JJ Heller's playin' right now. That's a tough question. Skynyrd was my first concert though. 8th grade. Bought a tee shirt with a huge eagle on the front and the lyrics to Free Bird on the back. How red am I?

Favorite blog/web site:
raleighgrits.blogspot.com - yea, I just plugged myself. What 'bout it?

Major influence:
The Apostle Paul. I don't know Paul's last name. He's in the Bible. You can find him in the New Testament. He rocked. I think we would be friends.

Totemic animal:
I don't know what totemic means. But, I will come at you like a spider monkey if need be. Let's do spider monkey. That's fun.

Crib Cravings

Here's my crib craving for today. Will you look at the bookshelves in the dining room!?! Be still my beating heart!

My new personal trainer

I've spent the past half hour chasing my 14 month old nephew back and forth across my parent's living room saying "I'm gonna getcha! I'm gonna getcha!" Man, what a work out!!

Saturday Night Foreshadowing

Walk It Out

What did we do before You Tube?

TGIF

Eric's TGIF email for today makes me happy. I might have to go buy a coloring book!

Tonya's Travels

My friend Tonya just went skiing in Switzerland! Oh, how I covet her vacation!

The Best Corsage Ever

The pretty little purple flowers (you can see them down at the bottom) matched my neon orange dress perfectly! And, the duct tape used to adhere it to my arm gave an extra silveresque shine! I loved it!

Here Am I! Send Me!

I recently received my official invitation to join a short term missions team at my church! We will be going to Asia this spring and our team will be involved with the caring and ministering to orphans. We will spend each day getting to know the boys and girls through various activities like Vacation Bible School-style programs. I feel so blessed that God is providing me an opportunity to share His love with these children and let them know that they have a Heavenly Father that loves them more than anyone on Earth every will.

“But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them?” Romans 10:14 (The Message)

I am so excited about the upcoming trip! God continues to fuel my passion to serve Him more and more every day. It overwhelms me to look over the past couple of years and brings tears to my eyes to see how He has been preparing me and how everything works just so perfect because it IS His perfect will! Please pray for this trip as the logistics are ironed out and pray that God will use our team as He sees fit and that the Holy Spirit will move in a mighty way in Asia.

“My Word…will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11 (NIV)