Bridget & Carter

It's been awhile since I've posted any pictures of my most adorable niece and nephew. :) Nothing new, except they are still super cute. Carter coos and giggles and Bridget talks/jabbers non-stop!

Mr. Carter did great when us girls took a shopping trip to Woodfield mall!

Reading books with "Papa"

On Friday mornings or afternoons I usually go to Heidi's to spend some time with kiddos, since I don't usually see them during the week. It's so fun to just hang out there for a few hours and eat lunch with them at the end of the week. I've been taking Bridget to the store with me too when I go. This Friday wasn't any different... Aunt Wendi and Bridget had quality time together. :) And we maybe stopped at Culvers on the way home. :) Which is why her mouth is a mess in this picture, but still so cute.

Helping herself. This girl loves her sweets and not much else!

And Mr. Carter.. so sweet and smiley. He always gives you a smile no matter what, and giggles more at this age than Bridget ever has!

So there's an update on my life as an Aunt. :) It's too fun. Bridget now knows all of our names and every time she comes over she points to all of us and calls us by name. And gives us kisses. And if one person gets a kiss, everyone must get a kiss. She's always making her rounds. So cute! :)

Thoughts

Just a few thoughts I thought I'd share.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about God's Will for my life. I want to follow His will just how He has it planned out for me. A few things that have meant a lot to me lately..

All of the verses of "Have Thine Own Way, Lord", but I'm just going to share some parts.

Have Thine own way, Lord.
Thou are the Potter, I am the clay.
Mould me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, Yielded and still.

Fill with Thy Spirit Till all shall see
Christ only, always, Living in me!

Last night I read in Acts 21, where the prophet Agabus, bounded Paul and was going to take him.. And still in that situation, read what Paul said..
vs 13..."for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."
Then the next verse Paul says "The will of the Lord be done.."

Even in that state of persecution, Paul still wanted whatever the Lord willed for his life.

I hope I can always be that submissive to God.
Sometimes it's so hard to always be content. I feel like I'm a person who always wants to be moving to the next thing. Even though this is my last semester of college, I need to be content with it.. and not wish the next few months away like I always want to.
...And if I'm doing God's will then I shouldn't be wishing my time away.

It's something that is so hard for me to do.. to be content where I am NOW. Be content today, not always looking into the future. To not tell myself that in May, when I'm done with college.. then I'll be content. Or looking into the future even more and telling myself that's when I'll be content and finally feel like life is "good"... or what I thought would make life "good."
But life is good(really good) if I follow His will for me, not what I want or thought would make life good.

God's Will.
Nothing More.
Nothing Less.
Nothing Else.

I heard that last weekend and it's really stuck with me.

One of my favorite verses, " ..but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart."
Ephesians 6:6

I hope you and I both can do what God wants us to do. To be content where we are, because God has us in this situation right now for a reason. It's His will!

I know

..I know, I know. It's been forever since I've updated.

I'm in full swing of my last semester of college! Praise the Lord! I'm currently taking 15 credit hours at school, working 20 hours a week, and still teaching my 10 kiddos music lessons every week. And of course one thing that I can't cut out of my busy schedule is my socializing. :)

The weeks really have been going super fast though, which I'm glad. Only 3 more weeks until Spring break!

I'm really liking my internship/job more and more the longer I'm there. I'm getting used to everything. I never really dread going to work. Ever. And there's always plenty to do since it's the great tax season. :)

I'm still liking the dressing up every day for work thing. Kinda. Although I do wear flats quite a bit more than I used to. My feet can only handle so much of the heels! Especially on the days I print tax returns and I'm running around the office and not just sitting at a desk.

School. It's kinda been last on my priority list. It's not like I'm doing terrible with it or anything... it's just an easier load than last semester. So nice. Because I only have so many hours in a day. I've just become the world's best procrastinator. :)

Like I mentioned, I haven't been able to cut down on my social life. I've been gone every weekend for the past month, which I love. Although I am ready for a weekend at home now even though it's been fun.

Just a few random pictures just so you know I'm still alive. :)

Hannah and I went out to eat and to Bass Pro one night. In case you're wondering why us girls went to Bass Pro... I had to get a gift. :)
On a random Wednesday night Hannah, Kristin and I all went out for Mexican and then they came to church with me.
A few weeks ago we(the three who travel together a lot.. Kendra, Michelle and I) went out to Bluffton for Breana Wagenbach's wedding reception. We stayed with the Klopfenstein's in Leo, and then headed to Bluffton in the morning. It was so good to see Britt & Breana. I miss those girls! They looked gorgeous. I got to go to Bluffton for the first time in my life. Wow, is that ever huge!

A week ago we(the 3 of us again..) went to Oakville to visit Kaylyn. It was a wonderful time. We did a little shopping, went out to eat, went to a singing, played games, talked a lot, went to church, and then went to a taffy pull to finish the weekend off. So fun. Kaylyn is so great to hang out with!

Just this past weekend Kendra, Kristin F, and I went up to Belvidere. We stayed with Darcy because Ellie had company, but it was a lot of fun. I don't really have any pictures except for a few of Darcy.. which she would kill me if I put it on here. :)

One more somewhat older news...another one bites the dust. My good friend Brooke is engaged to Cory W from Oakville. Actually they were both there when we were. She's totally in love and on cloud 9. It's so cute. I haven't really known Brooke for that long but I've always really appreciated her and we just always got along really well. How could you not with Brooke? So weird that I literally met her on the day we left for Florida last year! I'm excited for her wedding in April.

So there's a short update on my life. I'm never home and I look forward to my bed every night, but God has really provided with everything. Now I'm just praying to find a job by May!
...And if not, I'll just travel all summer. Sounds good to me. :)

**And I know.. I have some formatting issues on this blog. I'll fix it eventually. :)

Marco Island- Part 2

I'm finally getting around to this second post. Now let's see if I can remember... It already seems so long ago.
Friday. Our 4th day. It was sunny until about 1:00, and after that it got sort of cloudy and windy. We ended up sitting out by the pool freezing but covered with towels, still trying to get some sun through the clouds every once in a while.

Needless to say, we spent the rest of the afternoon doing something active because we needed to keep warm while we were outside. You'll probably get tired of beach pictures, and this picture doesn't really capture it, but the sun was shining thru the clouds and it was beautiful.

Friday we decided to make dinner for Bill, Sandy & Kay. So Darcy & I went grocery shopping on Friday morning so we could make them a delicious dinner.
We did chicken in the crockpot (so we could be outside all day :), fried squash & zucchini, fruit smoothies, and bruschetta.

Oh yes, Bruschetta. We put it in the oven on broil and this is what it looked like when we took it out...

...WHOOPS! The whole condo filled with smoke and these pieces of bread were like hockey pucks. :) We had plenty of bread so we tried again. And it turned out perfectly the second time. I think it was their favorite part of the meal.
But while the place was filled with smoke and me and Darcy ran the pan outside so the alarms wouldn't go off in the house, I think those older ladies thought "this is going to be an interesting dinner, and these girls have no idea what they're doing."

BUT! They bragged on us at church on Sunday because our dinner was so good. That made me feel a little better :)
We ate dinner really early so we could catch the sunset on the beach... although it wasn't the best, it was still pretty.

I think Darcy & I both realized on this trip how good we get along. We're kind of alot alike. Not exactly with our personalities(well, sort of), but our preferences, thoughts, and just the way we think are a lot a like. We just had so much fun. We never ran out of things to talk about. I'm currently going thru Darcy withdrawals. :)

Bill & Sandy went to the beach with us too.
I loved it because Sandy was always up for whatever me and Darcy were. :)

Just a little peak of the sun going down.

This was taken across the street from their condo, at the Marriott. Absolutely gorgeous. Especially at night with the lights.

Saturday it was chilly. Like really chilly. I don't think Darcy & I did anything that day but slept it, read books, watched some TV, and showered. Wow. But doing nothing felt great so I never minded it at all.

That night we went to Carrabas, an Italian restaurant with Caroll & Louise. It was delicious.

When we got home from the restaurant we were spared of Domino's again, thank goodness. But Bill taught Darcy & I a new game that was actually quite fun. Maybe old people don't only play boring games after all. ;)
One of their goals was to get us to play shuffleboard. Thank goodness it was too cold for that on Saturday other wise I think we may have had to. With each other it'd be fine.. but with them, who knows how long it'd take. ;) I'm kidding... I really loved the old people, I just like giving them a hard time and being over dramatic about it. haha.

Sunday morning it was time to pack up and go to church.

Darcy in the bedroom we stayed in.

We were seriously just about the youngest people there in church on Sunday, besides only a couple of kids. An older lady came up to us and said "it's just so nice to see some young blonde ones here today!" :)

Darcy was of course a favorite because she's Kay's granddaughter. Me? Well. This is seriously how many conversations went:

Other people: "Oh! Are these your two granddaughters?"
Kay:"Just one! ... this is Darcy!"

minutes later... "oh! and this is her friend."

Yep. :) I didn't matter because I don't have a grandma there. Haha.

Sunday after church Darcy & I got dropped off at a hotel near the airport. We said our goodbye's, gave our hugs, exchanged phone numbers, the whole bit. (Just a side note: I still text Sandy.. and she text's me too. She even sends me pictures of a sunset or something every once in a while. lol)

We tried to soak up some sun for an hour, but it was a little too late.
So after being spoiled all week with getting all our meals made and paid for us all the time, for dinner Sunday night in the hotel room, we just ate our leftovers from the night before... because we were sick of eating out. We just hung out in the hotel room all night long and did not much of anything.

Monday morning, after a creepy ride in the shuttle van, we flew out of Ft. Myers. Our plane in Atlanta was a little delayed but besides that, we made it home safely. Obviously. :)

The only bad part was, we got back to Darcy's at 3:00.. and I still had a 2 hour drive home. But it went faster than I thought it would. And Bridget was at the door at home to meet me. :)

I did not get anxious at all to get home with this trip. Maybe because it was only for 6 days. Or because I knew I was coming back to school and work. So yeah, some people have asked me what I did, and I said NOTHING. The pool, and nothing. And it was wonderful.

I'm ready to go back now...

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Marco Island- Part 1

Last Tuesday morning Darcy & I flew into Fort Myers where her Grandma Kay and great aunt and uncle, Bill & Sandy picked us up. They have a condo down in Marco Island which is where we stayed for the week.

Atlanta airport. We had all carry-ons and I had a few too many bags so Darcy had to take one of mine so I wouldn't get in trouble. :)
It's the ocean!!

We got in early afternoon, so we were able to lay out for about an hour and soak up some sun. Then we went out for pizza with some of their neighbors, Caroll & Louise.
Oh, and how could I forget? We went to Caroll & Louise's after for Dominos. A game that never ended. It's kind of an inside joke, but Darcy & I weren't the only ones who didn't exactly want to play Dominos. :)
Our first whole day, Wednesday, wasn't the nicest. Bill made us some amazing omelets. It was rainy in the morning and then overcast the rest of the day. We just relaxed. We went on a walk on the beach in the afternoon once it cleared up a bit.
We went to Naples for church that night, which is held at a hotel. We were only 45 minutes early... that's watcha get when you ride with old people to church. :) They may be old, but oh my, they crack me up. Bill & Sandy and Kay, who we stayed with, always made it lively and it was never boring. And we never ran out of stuff to talk about.
There was pretty much all old people at church, except a few visiting young ones. It's almost like a social event. They have dessert, water, and coffee afterwards, and they're all such good friends.
I got to see and talk to the three couples we stayed with last year when I was down there with the 8 of us girls. When we were stranded? Yeah, they didn't forget us. They are so much fun.
That night I drank a lot of coffee. They told me it was decaf... but it looks like the hotel made the wrong kind. So I was up late and energetic that night when we got home. :)

Thursday was a beautiful day, our best day of the trip. It started off with a walk on the beach, then crepes made by Bill. He just took care of us, it was great.
We spent most of the day by the pool. Sandy & Kay even joined us every day.

One thing I love about staying with older people is they don't eat much lunch and then eat a good dinner super early

We went out at a fish place where I had really good grouper. It was even right on the water which was neat.
Then we went shopping and around time to avoid another game of Dominos. :)

A gorgeous shopping center.

Kay & Darcy and Bill & Shirley enjoying Coldstone.

There's my first 3 days of Florida... more coming! :)

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Ahhh... Relax.

I completely finished my minimester on Sunday night by turning in a research paper online.

I have finished 5 whole days working at my new job... I love it. Although at times it can be a little overwhelming and discouraging trying to learn all the softwares. Sometimes I leave feeling like I didn't accomplish much. Hopefully it will get better with time. But it really is fun, the people are so so nice there.

Monday after work I drove up to Darcy's, and we left at 4:30am the next morning for the airport.
By 2:30 that afternoon, we were sitting by the pool soaking up the sunshine. :)

So I am sitting here in Florida... 76 degrees, although today for our first day, it's cloudy and sprinkling here and there. :/ So it's been a bit of a lazy day. But I don't care right now. It's just so nice to sit here and read and relax...

...Because one week from this morning I will be sitting back in a classroom.

So.. I want this week to last as long as possible! ... and preferably with sunshine! :)

Monday, January 02, 2012

Troy & Ellie

To all those who haven't seen my pictures from Troy & Ellie's wedding, here's a post for you. I just realized I never posted much about it, and we just got the professionals back, so I decided to post my favorites.
All are used with permission by Francis Nora Photography.

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