What the freak took so long?

It’s been a while since I last updated. Reason being that Justin and I took Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off for a “mini vacation”. We went up to his family’s hunting camp and relaxed. We had been planning this for a while now, Ben and Sam were going with us and bringing Hayes (their new baby) and Jus and I were bringing ours….Prissy. Well, it was nice and quiet up there, due to the fact that cell phones don’t work! Ahhhhh! Anyway, I thought it was fun, I mean nothing thrilling, but nice to relax and not worry about anything. Samantha didn’t find it as relaxing as me. I guess with a baby to deal with, roughing it in the woods isn’t as refreshing as it should be. She was ready to get back home after the second day so I rode home with her and then hopped back in my car and drove back. After getting home, I could have just stayed home but, my husband was up there and I wanted desperately to be with him for the next couple of days………even though he was hunting for most of the time. Prissy and I had fun though we cooked and watched TV and when the boys came home every afternoon and night we got to go fun places with them, like Waffle house, haha. Ben and I left on Friday night and Justin stayed till Saturday. This is his last weekend of hunting this year (cause our anniversary is next weekend, yay!) so I agreed with him staying to get it out of his system. Anyway, he shot a big eight point! What a great little hunter/gatherer I married! He hurried home Saturday night and that boy was sooo tired. We got up the next morning for Sunday school and church. Sunday school wasn’t the best. Probably because I have a few hemroids that decided to hum throughout the lesson, and when I got them to stop doing that, they started with the fake coughs………but the service definitely made up for any angst I was feeling. It was awesome. They say Christians go to church on Sunday to get fed, to refill their spiritual tanks…….and so many times that isn’t done, but this Sunday, I left church clappin! We had Crimson Flood from Liberty University there, three guys who can sing like nobody’s business. They were awesome, then the choir sang my favorite “choir song”……..Great is the Lord Almighty. Oh gosh you know those song that the choir sings and they all get really into it, so much that you feel like you are in heaven looking at the angels. That is this song, it has so much power and I just can’t picture heaven any better! Then we had a guest speaker, Josh McDowell. I had heard him speak before when I was in youth group in high school, but now that I am an adult I guess I really listened. He focuses on the family, and how to raise good kids and youth in our church. He talked about how important the father’s relationship with a child is. The mother’s relationship is also important but as we all know, it is taken for granted and in a child’s eyes the father’s relationship is adored. When that bond isn’t there or isn’t strong in a child’s life, statistics show that they have more problems in life, and a huge number will turn away from the faith. It was a great message for Christian men to hear how the child rearing depends greatly on them too! We then headed off to Sonny’s BBQ with Toby, Kurt, Ms. Joy, Ben, Sam and Hayes. After getting stuffed we went and got Justin some new shoes, and I didn’t even buy any! I should get a plaque. Dennis asked us to help work the Josh McDowell conference the church was giving that afternoon from 2-5 and I am sooo glad he did. It was a Parenting conference. Justin and I wouldn’t have gone otherwise, we aren’t parents. But sitting through that three hour conference made me realize how doomed our kids are now a days. I’ve noticed that just with my youngest sister (senior in high school) that things have changed dramatically. Kids don’t know what truly being a Christian is. And the sad part is, because they only know what they see, and most see parents who claim Christ as their Lord but don’t follow his scripture, they don’t trust that his grace is sufficient for them, they don’t place faith that he will provide, and they don’t treat their children as well as they treat their pastor. He talked about how you have to set rules for your kids, but rules without relationship leads to rebellion. They may not like your rules but if they like YOU as a person, they won’t stray from you. They will mess up, but they will run back to the loving arms of mom and dad instead of drugs and others. There were too many little points to mention but I took good notes and hope that God will imbed all these principles in my heart so that I can raise a child so strong in the Lord when the time comes. One huge thing I got from his seminar was about discipline. And he didn’t even say this out-rightly, but I inferred it from the things he spoke of. I am a stickler for sticking to the rules God has set before us. I truly believe that God doesn’t want me to live my life with the attitude of “how close to sin can I get without actually doing anything wrong” but instead with the attitude of “how incredibly far can I run from sin and how holy can I be”. And I am 100% sure that God is pleased with that attitude. But I have cast that expectation on those that I love. And undoubtably my children one day. Instead of comforting someone who has gone astray, I feel that need to correct them and help them do right again……just because I love them soooo much and want them to truly be the best they can, I have such a deep desire for that. But Christ says in Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” And it hit me. I am going to want my kids to do right, to live so according to the Word that it hurts, I am going to have this desire for their lives, I already do. But rules without relationship leads to rebellion. I know that I have to hold them accountable when they do something wrong and I don’t want to make lightly of their sins and gloss over it, but I don’t want to be so downtrodden by their mistakes that I forget to love on them in their time of need. I pray that God grows me in this area, that my first reaction would not be disappointment or hurt, but that it would be compassion to rejoice with them when they are happy and cry with them when they are sad.

The conference was just great. We went out with Matt and Kristen to Chili’s afterwards and discussed bachelor and bachelorette parties and wedding planning in general. Their’s is in 2 months! Sooo close.
We arrived home after a long day and relaxed for a while, then Ben and Sam came over a visited for a little bit. Oh yeah and who can leave out little Hayes who thinks the TV is hilarious. Haha. It wasn’t even a funny show but he was cracking up in that cute little baby laugh that makes your insides happy. I can’t wait till we get to that point in our lives, you know, baby point! Well, now I am at work after the major hacking that went down before I went on vacation, our company layed off sooo many people which left only 3 of us in my department, which means I’m on call that much more often…..fun!


Oh yeah but two majorly exciting things happened while I was gone………Tori came back from France, in what might possibly be the strangest trip of all times, where she proceed to get car-jacked by an archangel, flew all the way to tally and then had to turn around and go back to NC where they started, and Bubba and CG were reunited in car heaven where they now frolick in an asphalt meadow together. And on a more upbeat note, Emily and Chris are FINALLY engaged, hence the title of this blog which I promised to her weeks ago. Good luck you guys, if two people were ever meant to be together, if two people could make it through good and bad and survive the attacks Satan has hurled at them……..it those two kids. The wedding will be fabulous I am sure, Emily-style all the way! I love you guys, good luck!
Tonight is workout night with toby. Last week I decided I would run a mile on the track at Olive then do the rest of my workout in the new facilities. Well, for some unknown reason I just knew that 22 laps around was a mile, so I ran my little heart out and wondered a bit why this mile was a tad bit harder than usual, I chalked it up to my laziness lately and kept running. Afterwards, only to find that I ran almost 2 miles! Haha, turns out 13 laps is a mile, sucks to be me! I really am such a blonde sometimes. Tonight we have TaeBo and Yoga, let’s see if my flexibility is up to par, I seriously doubt it is! Love you all have a fabulous day!