Sorry its been a while

Sorry its been a while since I’ve posted. Things have been pretty crazy around here especially since I was trying to get ready to start school. I have successfully made it through the first day of school today. It was a very good day and I am excited about starting a new school year. Up until this point of starting school we have been super busy with all sort of things. Papa is still in the hospital so please keep praying for him. We have also been busy helping Whit move into college. For those of you who don’t know who I am talking about, Whitney Cope was in our youth group when we were at Pleasant Grove and she just recently moved into Liberty Univ. Needless to say we were very proud to be moving her into our old stomping ground. I helped her move in on a Wed and then Phillip and I went back to visit her on that Sunday just to catch up and visit the campus. We had a blast! Other than that I have just been working at the bookstore and starting school. I’m completely exhausted after these past few weeks so hopefully I’ll catch up on some rest this weekend. Sorry this if kind of a boring post. Hope I’ll be back in the routine soon. Hope everyone else is doing well! Have a great week!

Up to Date…

Well thought I would post a few things to get everyone up-to-date to what is going on around here:

*We got a call Wed morning that Phillip’s g-pa had a stroke down at the beach so we just got home from being down there with them for a week. He is still not doing great. He will enter therapy today when they arrive home from the hospital. He still doesn’t have use of his right arm, very little use of his right leg, but he is starting to talk more so that is good. I think his vision is messed up for now as well so we are praying that therapy will help to improve most of that. We don’t know how long he will be in the hospital here so just be keeping our family in your prayers. Phillip’s mom and his aunt are really having to stay around the clock at the hospital to help take care of him. Just keep praying for him.

*We had a major issue right before we left on Wed with our septic tank. Got it fixed it just cost out the rear.

*Got an estimate on the car from the wreck and we currently have a rental car while our other one is in the shop. Hope it will be fixed soon. It will feel good to have the car back.

*I will be starting school back on Monday and I’m excited and yet sad all at the same time. I really enjoy starting a new year but its always sad to let the summer go.

*Still working at the Christian bookstore and I love it. I think I will probably be working some during the school year as well so be sure to say Hi when you stop in!

*Get to go to a Math Workshop next Tuesday and I am really looking forward to that one. I always learn so much at workshops and it really gets you pumped to get back to school and try new things. It keeps you excited about your classroom and the learning that goes on in there.

Well I think those are the highlights for now. Sorry it has been a while since I have posted. Things have been super crazy but hopefully things will calm down soon and I’ll be able to get back into the routine. Hope everyone has a great week!

The Shack

Wow, wow, wow, and again wow! Thats about all I can say about this book. I just got done reading it a couple of weeks ago and I have suggested this book to anyone I can. If you have not had a chance to read or hear about this book, I high recommend it. It will truly challenge your faith. Its definitely been one of those books that is hard to keep on the shelf everywhere so you better get it fast. We sell it at the Christian bookstore but they get gone quick so don’t miss your chance! GET IT AND READ IT!!!

*If you want to check out more about the book go to this website and get more info:

http://theshackbook.com/

Building Relationships

Today Phillip got the privilege to preach at Lakeview Baptist Church. We got invited there by one of the girls that was in our youth groups at Pleasant Grove, Jordan Lowder, and I we were so excited to go. Jordan and Abby came by the house on Monday and just hung out til midnight and we just had a blast catching up on everything. Anyways, Phillip preached today on building relationships with those that are nonbelievers and I must say, God really used him to bring a wonderful message that we all need to be reminded about. Building relationships is something that Phillip and I are very passionate about because that is exactly the tool we plan to use most through 704 youth center in reaching students. He said some very important things this morning that I just thought I would share for you to chew on:

*Building relationships is not hard-Jesus gave us the perfect example over a meal with the tax collectors.

*The same Holy Spirit that had a hand in helping create the universe lives inside of us and can help us be creative in order to build those relationships-now that’s powerful!

*Until we invest in people’s lives, they don’t want to hear what we have to share so building relationships should not be an options for us.

It’s Wii Time!!!

Well exciting news in our house right now is that we have purchased a Wii. Phillip at Christmas time always asks for money so that he can save it up for something cool that he wants. Well, you guessed it, he saved all of his money up for a Wii. He sold his other game stations, old games, and used all of his Christmas money for a Wii. We have really enjoyed playing it. We took it down to the beach to play with Becca and Clint and had a blast learning how to use it. Then after we got home we hung out with Torrey and Tiffany Sunday night and had them over to play the Wii. I think we stayed up til about 12:30 that night playing bowling and golf. I have really enjoyed it more than I thought. Here are few of pics of us playing the Wii. If you haven’t had the chance to play one, I highly recommend it. Good for having others over because its definitely a party favorite!!

Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

So far we are having a blast at the beach. We have been to Barefoot Landing, Broadway at the Beach, played putt putt, played the Wii, eaten until we can’t eat anymore, and just been bumming out on the beach and by the pool. The other night we went to one of the the million Waves stores they have and tried on sunglasses. Becca and I tried on this pair and, Wow, is all I can say. Who do you think looks better in these? Can we pull them off??? Good times!

Almost no Beach….

Saturday Phillip and I headed down to the beach. We were so pumped and excited and just couldn’t wait to get there. We are going down with some great friends of ours, Clint and Becca, and sharing a place with them. We left right after I got off work around 1:00 and were beach bound until we had a wreck. I mean to tell you I was so scared I didn’t know whether or not we were going to be able to continue on. It turned out not being too bad so that we were finally able to get back on the road to the beach. We were pulling out of a gas station and into the turn lane and we didn’t see the car and hit it on the side. Luckily we were not and she was not hurt just shaken up. Our front bumper was torn off but we were able to get that under control so we could continue on. I was super upset when it happened and then I really thought about how fortunate we were that it wasn’t any worse and that no one was hurt. So needless to say we finally arived to the beach around 7:30pm, much later that anticipated, but we made it safe and sound and that’s all that counts. Anyways, Clint and Becca will be doing the driving while at the beach since our car just looks retarded with all these bungee straps and zip ties holding what is left of the bumper down. Things are good though and we are having a blast so far. Lets hope for no more accidents for the rest of the week! Here is a picture of the car and what is left of the bumper. Man thats sad!!

Weekend Recap

We have had a great weekend. Friday night Abby and Whitney came over and we made bagel pizzas and watched PS I love you. They definitely did not prepare me for just how sad the movie was. I definitely cried off and on throughout the whole movie. It was good but sad. Then we just hung around eating the delicious chocolate cake that Abby made for us. It was quite an odd dinner. We all got a craving for chips and salsa so before dinner we ran to the Mexican Rest. to get chips and salsa. We had bagel pizzas, chips and salsa, and then chocolate cake. It was all very yummy. Abby’s mom definitely made the cake wonderful with extra fudge frosting. So Friday was great to spend with the gals…love you girls! 100% baby!!! Then Saturday we were just being lazy until I went to work closing at the store. Then today we went to church at North Albemarle and it was an awesome service and then went to lunch with Torrey and Tiffany. After lunch we came home, took a nap, now we are getting ready to watch a movie while Phillip’s homemade pizza cooks, then we will top the night off with some reading and relaxing in bed before sleeping. Oh yeah…almost FORGOT…..sometime in between all that we will watch the Next Food Network Star episode. WE LOVE THAT SHOW. Anyways, so a great end to a great week. Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Mission Mississippi

I promised everyone that I would give a little details of our trip when we returned so here they are. We had an amazing time. We spent our time in Miss. working on cleaning and restoring several parks in the area and then the rest of the time we spent working at the local community center. There we got to play and hang out with the kids staying there for the summer and North even brought their puppet team and they performed every day for the kids. They absolutely loved the puppets. We were really able to share the message of Christ through the puppet team. I even had one little girl come up and ask me about being a Christian. The students from the youth at North really got in there and met those kids. They really built some amazing relationships with those kids and we just felt honored and privileged to work with a great group of students. They all worked really hard all week long so Torrey rounded up everyone on Friday and we all spent the day at the water park. That was fun. Then we came back, had dinner and a little devotion then we packed up and headed home around 11:00pm that Friday night. We drove all through the night and got home around lunch time Sat. I think Phillip had a major caffeine crash when he got home. The week was overall wonderful and God opened up so many doors of opportunities for us to minister. We even got to talk to some of the neighbors in the area who shared their story with us of how things were for them when the hurricane hit. We will be praying for both of those women and you can too. Their names were Inez and Katherine (not 100% on the Katherine but I think that’s right). Also I can’t close this post without raving about how wonderful the food was on the trip. We went to Miss. to serve along side to missionaries that were from North Albemarle. When the hurricane hit they both felt God leading them to sale all their things, get and RV, and move to Miss. They now live in an RV in a church parking lot. They serve full time down there and are two amazing people. Sheryl and Claudia are their names and Claudia did all the wonderful cooking and every night she fixed home cooked meals for about 35-40 of us (ie: meatloaf, homemade mac and cheese, green beans, corn, homemade banana pudding, etc). It was all so delicious and we just couldn’t all thank her enough. So overall the week was just amazing in every way and I really appreciate getting the chance to go with Torrey and Tiffany and their wonderful youth from North Albemarle. God is doing great things in that church and we were just honored to serve with them and get to know their kids and some of their other adult leaders. Thanks guys! We enjoyed hanging out with all of you!!

Like my new hat…..?

So most people now know that I am currently working this summer at the Christian Bookstore and I am loving every second of it. I just love the atmosphere and I have loved meeting and working with all the wonderful people there. Tonight I closed with a wonderful lady, Hope, and I just really enjoyed getting a chance to talk with Hope more and we just had an absolute blast closing up the store tonight. As we were closing up, her and I decided to buy these cute hats at the store and took a picture together. I thought it turned out cute. So next time you see Hope working behind the counter at the bookstore, be sure to let her know how much you like her new hat!