Lake Weekend

This weekend my Bible study group went up to Lake Burton! We are starting to make this a tradition, kicking the year off with a lake weekend. We took the summer off from meeting so we had lots of catch up time. Tricia's family has an amazing house and the setting is perfect. I love the lake and the mountains and just being outside!

We went up late Friday night and had some serious talking/bonding time that went into the wee hours! Saturday we slept in and then Tricia cooked us a fabulous bacon, eggs, and pancake breakfast.

Enjoying the porch

Tricia drove us around in the boat most of the day and a few people went wakeboarding and surfing behind the boat!

Mary making it look easy!

We can't all be that graceful...

We took a cruise around dusk and it was beautiful! So relaxing!

Sadie enjoying the ride!

And probably the most hilarious part of the weekend...Laney sacrificing her body in an attempt to tie up the boat!

You can see how well that worked out. I haven't laughed that hard in a while! For dinner we grilled chicken and vegetables, and we had a cake for Laney's birthday! Tricia also gave her a fun birthday mug and glass to use for the weekend!

The weekend was such a great opportunity to bond with these girls. We had honest, serious talks, and laughed till we cried. I love that I can be myself with them and they know the good and the bad. I never have to put up any fronts about how I'm feeling, what I'm struggling with, or where I am spiritually. We have been together for 4 years, and I've loved hanging out with them every Monday and getting into the Bible with them. Looking forward to another year with yall!

Love you girls!

On Tour

Its officially concert season! I feel like such a groupie. Last Friday was the first for the season...Jack Johnson at Lakewood. Monday night was Ray LaMontagne and David Gray at Chastain.

Thursday I saw Thad Cockrell at Eddie's Attic. Thad is good friends with my pastor Curt and came to lead worship at Village Church one Sunday!

Coming up is Kings of Leon for Jessica's birthday and Avett Brothers at Chastain! Can't beat an open air concert!

Here's a video of the song "Kathleen" from David Gray's encore. Enjoy!

The Scoot

Now that facebook pictures have started to raise questions about my heinous looking leg injury, I figure its time to come clean. I bought a scooter. A small, cute, Vespa-looking scooter. Not for any hippie, Earth-friendly reason, and not even to save money on gas. Just because its a scooter!  My friend Kenny was trying to get rid of it, and when else will I have a chance to own a moped for next to nothing?  I've always wanted a Jeep wranger, so I thought this might be a way to quench a poor man's desire for the open air.

On Thursday, the scooter's first day under new ownership, Carlyn came over to check her out. We cruised all around the neighborhood, feeling pretty adventurous and a little self-conscious, but loving the new toy.  On the way back to the house, I asked Carlyn if she wanted to drive the home stretch. She'd been a little shaky at driving earlier and had given up after it stalled out in front of a yard filled with people. But I guess she'd gotten her confidence back, because she jumped up front and gave that little scooter some gas going into a turn, and we broadsided a parked car!

The car sustained some minor injuries, scoot got some cracks, and then there's us.  Carlyn's foot scraped the ground and she lost a few toenails and some pride, and has bruises all over her legs! I think she took the brunt of the impact.  I got a big cut and bruise on my leg that apparently looks like I've had knee surgery. It definitely could have been much, much worse, so we're pretty thankful!
 

And the scooter is still running like a champ! Not too many people are asking for rides after they see my leg, but I convince them its user-error. I'm still loving the scoot and am riding every night, but with closed-toed shoes! The scooter needs a license plate with its name on it...any suggestions?

Weekend summary!

I had such a great weekend! Anna got into town Friday afternoon right before the Jack Johnson concert, and Miller and Matt stopped by about the same time on their way into Atlanta. I got some quick hugs from the Buddro but he was totally not into me.  In fact I think he cried when I held him. No offense taken, Will...I learned my lesson...next time I'll greet you with food: your love language.  He took a little warming up to but by Saturday he was back to lovin on his Aunt B!

Friday night we went to Jack Johnson at Lakewood in the rain! About half our group wimped out because of the weather, but the true fans toughed it out and enjoyed some awesome music!

 Before the downpour started!

Wading through the puddles on the way back to the car!

By the way, props to my amazing rain jacket. Marmot, if youre in the market. Saturday, Anna and I went to American Roadhouse for breakfast.  While I'm doing some advertising, stop by this place in VA Highlands! Sooo good!

After getting turned away from a bridal store like a scene out of Pretty Woman, we shopped for wedding invitations. We both got anxiety just looking at the binders full of paper, font, print style, color, insert, and liner options.  Later we went to some other bridal stores and luckily one had a cancellation so Anna got to try on some dresses! She looked amazing in all of them!! Then we hung out with the Darts for a while! Sorry for the blurry pics...I only had my cell phone on me.

 Will getting into the peaches! Boy loves some fruit!

Will is so cute right before bedtime! He was being so sweet and cuddly! I am going to miss him! Anna and I ended the night as every girls weekend should...with cookie dough and ice cream. Don't judge. She had to leave Sunday morning but hopefully she'll be back to visit soon!! What a perfect weekend!

Visitors

Guess who's coming to visit me today?

This guy:

And this girl:

And this guy and girl:

Needless to say I'm pretty ecstatic! Miller and Matt are stopping through on their way back to Chicago.  Can't wait to see them and steal some kisses from Lil Buddy! And Anna just got engaged!! I'll try to get more pics of her ring. We're going to a concert tonight and have no plans the rest of the weekend! Hopefully lots of quality time with everyone!

Vacation

The past few weeks I've been on summer "vacation" from school. This is actually just a few weeks off between summer and fall semesters, and since I'm working full-time, the only change in my schedule is at night. No reading, no paper writing, no assignments lingering over my head when I get home from work. So what have I been doing?



Watching movies. A total of 3 this weekend: Sum of all Fears, Book of Eli, and Slumdog Millionaire. This picture is compliments of Josh. However, we didn't capture the palette on camera. If you don't know about the palette, you don't know me. I'm sure there will be a post dedicated to the palette one day. The latest version of the palette consists of the most amazing air mattress, piled high with blankets, comforters, and pillows. We also grilled, went out to breakfast, and made homemade pizzas. I gotta learn to keep the camera around to capture the food!

And the girl in the foreground of the picture is Camilla. She is our newest roommate, but will only be around for a month or so. She just graduated from Auburn and started a job yesterday so she needed somewhere to live temporarily! She's great!!

I've had high hopes for the "vacation" from school, but haven't gotten around to all the hobbies I wanted to pick back up. I know I have a week until school starts, but I got a reality check in the mail from Amazon today:



Better put those back in the box until next week! Back to relaxation!

Guest Post

Well this is my 2nd official blog entry and I'm already getting calls for guest posts. True story. Some may say this guest post had more to do with my friendship with the admin at Village Church than with my writing/blogging skills. I call these people haters. Let me have my moment, people.

So check out my guest post on my church's blog at villagechurchvinings.org to see my current thoughts on community. This topic is one of the 3 core values of the church. The church is amazing and I have loved being a part of a church plant. The official launch is coming after Labor Day. Pray for us!

And if you're interested in booking me for a guest post, have your people call my people. Slots are filling fast.

"Blogging" and Grooveshark

I'm officially blogging. Is this an example of one of those noun-turned-verb words? So I've had this blog for a while but it has been private up until today. I made some pretty honest entries, which have now been deleted, but I saved a few for your reading pleasure.

I'm new to the public blog world and not sure exactly what direction I'm going to take this thing. I'm guessing I'll be one of the few readers, so it will probably be a collection of random thoughts and updates on my life. Probably whatever I'm learning about God, whatever I'm doing on any given day if it is remotely interesting, or something related to counseling. Get excited.

For now, I'll start you off with my current favorite website: www.grooveshark.com. Pretty similar to Pandora, except rather than creating a station, you pick exactly which songs you want to listen to. For free. No time limits. Enjoy!