Life - Real.

Howdy friends!  I hope this blog post finds everyone doing well.  With an assignment due date moved back 24 hours, I found that I finally had a sliver of time to sit down and give a little update.


Holy moly!  June turned out to be way more busy than I had planned on!  The summer school course that I am taking this month is usually a 6 week course, but in order to give us a little more time off before diving into the grad program, our professor decided to cram it all into 4 weeks - which we all greatly appreciated.  However, it made my schedule for the past 3 and a half weeks a little crazy.  Don't mistake any of that as a complaint though, I would much rather be busy than be the opposite!

So what else is new?  A lot of events going on this month.  Jonathan started full swing with his new job the first weekend of the month and has been going nonstop since.  From what I can tell, he is loving it.  I am so thankful that God has provided a way to keep baseball in his life...and in mine!  What's more...he is SO close!  It has been so great to be able to see him every weekend and not have the stress of traveling so far to do it.  We are really enjoying having all this time to spend together. Even though most weekends that I am there he is working tournaments all day, it's still a huge difference and I feel immensely blessed!  One of the things that I know Jonathan has been really thankful for is being able to spend more time with his godson, Cooper.  Coop just turned 2 and until now, Jonathan has only been able to see him on holidays.  I know he was really ready to be around enough that Coop could really get comfortable with him and know who he was. Without surprise, that little boy loves his Oggy!

One more benefit of him being in B-Town - I get that much more time with one of my best friends, Sydni. Syd and I met while I was at A&M and we lived together for a year. Who would have known the friendship, no - sisterhood,  that would come out of that year of living together. When life gets rough and I start to feel discouraged, Syd has been there every time...with a bottle of wine and some Blue Bell. (She knows me pretty well!)  Soon after the ice cream and wine, comes the "saddle up and get over it" and the constant reminder that GOD'S PLAN IS BETTER THAN MINE. She truly is my faith drill sergeant!  With all that said, you can see why I am so blessed to have her and am so thankful to have the opportunity to spend more time with her. I've always loved this pic of us from the day that Blake proposed to her:

Other things? Let's see...

Mom left last Wednesday with a group of others from GSUMC on a mission trip to Rwanda.  She has been wanting to go to Africa for a long time.  If didn't know this already, Mom has a real heart for missions work, so this opportunity is very exciting for her. She returns this coming Sunday and I can't wait to hear about her trip and about all the ways that God was working through their group to change lives across the world.

Mine and Sam's sweet friend Courtney was married to her wonderful guy, Rob, last Tuesday in Key West.  We are so happy for the both of them and it breaks our hearts that we couldn't be there for it.  They are such a GREAT couple.  Here's the funny thing - when we were in high school the 3 of us always said that Court would be married first, then ME, then Sam.  Boy, did we get it wrong!  Sam was married in May, Court was married last week, and then there's me...oh my. ;) On that note, here's a little throwback for ya:

On Sunday I got to go help my wonderful bff's, Kat and Kyle, move into their new home. I am so excited for them as they start a new chapter of their lives - being married AND being homeowners!  It was so fun and special to be there to help them get started.  Love 'em!

Other than those things, the rest of my life has been filled with work and school!  One of the really great opportunities that I've had this month is to observe in some pretty amazing speech-language pathology settings.  And I want to go on and tell you more about, but there is so much!  I will save that for another post, coming soon!


Leaving you with this from my devotional the other day:

"Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat.  But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over.  In the same way, anyone who holds onto life just as it is destroys that life.  But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal." - John 12:24-25 (The Message)

Lord, help us to remember every day, to give our lives up to you and to seek your will - not ours.  We want to be reckless in our love for life, knowing that you hold it in the palm of your hand and that a life in you is real and eternal. Amen.