Momma's Day :)

It's that special Sunday where everyone remembers why they love the one woman who as loved them from the start - their mom.  I'm blessed to have a lot of really strong women in my life who have helped raise and influence me, so today I'll be taking time to talk about each one of them.

Being that it's Mother's Day, I'll start with my mom (of course!) and all the amazingness that she is.  The amount of patience this woman has is unfathomable considering all she's put up with between me and my sister over the years.  She's been the foundation that I've built my life upon and when I look at where I am in life, I know I wouldn't be where I am or who I am without her.  She taught me so much over the years: the importance of God in my life and always coming back to Him; how to properly plant a garden that actually looks good and lasts the summer; that sometimes you shouldn't try to dig up big bushes in the backyard if there's a chance a stick might stab you in the eye; how to cook a delicious meal using family recipes passed down through generations; that overdrawing your bank account not only causes financial problems but that it makes your mom REALLY mad; that even though she's REALLY mad forgiveness is still a part of loving someone; and that being a genuine, loving, compassionate person is more important that having every material item in the world.  She's my best friend who has been there for me when I've been overcome by sadness or needed to share something exciting in my life, she's been a role model for holding a marriage together, grounding yourself in God's love and truths, and having a heart for service to others.  I attribute my character, sense of humor, frizzy hair, and love of academics all to her, and I am so thankful to have her as my Momma.

Who taught my mom all this amazingness that she could pass on to me and my sister?  Why, her mother, of course.  My Grammy was an amazing woman, a true saint in her own right.  To this day, she is one of the strongest Christian women I have ever known, and was the true matriarch of our family.  She made birthday cakes for Jesus every Christmas, and kept oatmeal cookies on the kitchen counter at all times.  She could make you feel like the most important person in the world with her love and kind words, but wasn't afraid to put you in your place if you got out of line (and trust me, that wasn't something you wanted to hear from her!).  She spent her Sunday's watching NASCAR and TBN church services with her shotgun by her side, ready to take out any groundhog trying to dig holes in her yard.  She was the woman I called when I was home sick from school just to hear her tell me to drink water and eat crackers in my jammies till I felt better, the woman I ate pie and drank coffee with on Saturday afternoons when I had breaks and was home from college.  She yelled at me for getting a tattoo, then told me how cute the black ink butterfly on my shoulder actually was.  There isn't a day that goes by, even seven years later, that I don't think about her or see her influence somewhere in my life.  I know she's up in Heaven fussing over whether or not the angels have planted the spring flowers in the right spots of God's garden :)

I've been fortunate enough to have a few "adopted moms" growing up, too.  Joni and Kim, mothers to my best friends since we were just babies, have been there for me for the past 27 years.  From help planning secret parties for my parents, advice on everything from school to boys, even just keeping me in line when my own mom wasn't there and I felt like I could probably get away with something (so optimistic on my part, and yet so wrong haha!).  They both saw me as their own child, and made sure that if I needed something they would try their best to take care of me.  I'm beyond thankful for their influence, love, and guidance growing up and for seeing me as their own daughter.

I can't help but look at today with some optimism and butterflies in my tummy that maybe just maybe this will be my last mother's day without being a mommy.  One thing I know for sure is that I have had a lot of "lessons" over the years of what a good mother/mother figure should be thanks to my incredible mom and all the other amazing mother figures in my life.  If I can be even half the mother that these woman have added up to be, I know my child will be blessed beyond belief and will (hopefully) grow up with good character, strong faith, and a compassion for helping others.

My momma and me through the years!

Happy Mother's Day to all my friends who are mommies, mommies-to-be, have been an "adopted" mommy to another child, a role model, a teacher, or who have had any kind of positive influence on a child around them.  You have no idea how loved you truly are!

-M

10 Years

10 years ago...

I was 15 years old, sitting in sophomore English class.
I was innocent and naive.
I never believed that someone would attack the United States.
I assumed we would always be safe.
I was sure that I would never have to see a war in my lifetime, let alone have friends and family fight in it.

10 years ago, I witnessed on TV as a plane flew into the second tower.
I watched a friend cry because her uncle worked in those towers.

10 years ago, I watched our country, I watched the world change.

I didn't know anyone who died in the WTC, and at the time I didn't realize just how big the scope of these events were.  Politics aside, I didn't understand the concept of going to war or of sending 18-year-old soldiers to die in a battle, but I understood the concept of protection and of protecting our nation.  Today, I understand it without doubt.  I have watched this country change in ways I never would have expected, some for the better and some for the worse.  And now, 10 years later, I prepare to start a life where my husband will be fighting this war that started because of the events that took place 10 years ago today.

Hearing the names being read out-loud makes the reality of that day come back full-force, and I find myself sitting on the couch watching it and crying.  I'll be praying a lot today: praying for God's peace for those who lost loved ones that day and who have lost loved ones in the war since then; praying for the safety of those who continue to fight for our freedom and safety; praying for our nation to rekindle the love and compassion for each other and the the unity that was formed on that day; and praying for God's presence to settle upon our country.

Gone, but never forgotten...

Looking Back

I can definitely say that 2010 was a CRAZY year for me! I learned a lot, had some interesting experiences, made a lot of new friends, started a career, and fell in love all over again. Here are some things that I learned this year:

-Trust God no matter what. He knows what He's doing, and in the end He's going to make things work out for you.
-Be patient. Good things come to those who wait.
-Don't be afraid to tell someone how you feel, good or bad, because in the end you have to do what's best for you.
-Love freely. Love who you love, when you love them, for whatever reason you love them. And if you can't stop loving someone, trust that God's got a reason for that.
-Apply for a million jobs until you land the right one.
-Have faith.
-Hold tight to your family, through good and bad. A wise woman once said "We'll get through this. We're a family, and that's what families do."
-Look for the little joys. They are what make life worth living.
-Yell when you need to. Cry if you have to. But don't ever go to bed angry.
-Forgive. Simple to say, hard to do, but essential to getting through life.
-Listen to your instincts/heart/conscience. Chances are they probably know what's going on.
-Say "I'm sorry."
-Find something to be thankful for every single day, even if it's something trivial. You'll be more aware of your blessings if you do this.
-Reconnect with old friends. It's worth it.
-Don't let the little bothers bring you down. It's not worth it.

I love this verse, and I think it completely summarizes 2010 for me:
"When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider:
God has made the one as well as the other."
-Ecclesiastes 7:14-17


And now it's on to 2011! God's got BIG things in store for us, and I'm so excited to see what's going to happen.
Also, H and I have started a new blog for 2011. It's mostly me doing the updating, but it's to chronicle everything we have going on this coming year. This blog will obviously still be my priority; the other blog is a photo blog--1 picture a day for 365 days.

I pray that God blesses you and your family this coming year! See you in 2011!

I love college.

I realized tonight that there were a lot of things in college that I took advantage of, that I now would KILL to get back. So here's my list:

-Sunday night sorority chapter meetings. I hated these, because I had to get dressed up, walk across campus in the cold, and sit through a business meeting. Now, I wish that my Sunday evenings were spent talking to my sisters and best friends, and that it was the only day during the week that I had to actually get dressed up. As much as the business aspect of it sucked, seeing groups of girls laughing while walking to Olscamp for chapter makes a little part of me jealous.

-9am classes. Another thing that I hated at the time, but if I could sleep in until 830 and get away with going to work in my sweats like I did for 9am classes, I would be in heaven. And along those lines...

-Living on campus. Okay, so living in the dorms legitimately sucks and I DO NOT miss that, I do miss living at the sorority house. Yes, sharing a bathroom with 7 other girls is rough at times, and the quiet hours were a pain in the butt, but having your best friends right there all the time, having 12 other closets to share, waking up to homecooked meals every day, and being literally a 5 minute walk away from class every day was like a perfect life.

-Only having to go to class/work for like 4 hours a day. Does this one really need an explanation?

-Being able to procrastinate until Sunday afternoon and still being able to get things done. I half-butted (for lack of a better term...) my way through most of my college classes and always had A's and B's. In the real world, they tend to notice that kind of stuff when they are paying your salary. So procrastinating till the day before and only giving 50% effort doesn't really cut it anymore.

-Sweatpants Monday through Friday. I literally lived in sweatpants/athletic shorts and hoodies/t-shirts all the way through college. I would wear them to class basically every day. Now I have to put on dress clothes and look nice Monday through Friday--which is totally over-rated. I wish I could totally show up to teach in sweats everyday; sometimes I feel like being an adult makes me neglect my comfy clothes, and they miss me. Being an adult makes me a neglectful sweatpants owner.

I was so eager to get out of college and start my adult life.
Now I wish I could be in college for a little longer...

Summer Project 1: T-shirt Quilt

I realized that if, for some terrible reason, I was unable to find a job for the summer, I was going to need something to keep me busy so I don't go stir-crazy being in Farmtown, USA. So, now that summer is here and I am still unemployed, I've begun working on some of them. My list includes things like stripping down the dresser my parents gave to H and me and refinishing it, sewing new curtains for our apartment in the fall, and creating a quilt out of the t-shirts from my sorority and Dance Marathon activities in college. All three of these are things that I have never really attempted before (I've sewn a few things here and there, but never made curtains or a quilt, and I've never tried stripping and refinishing furniture) and will give me a finished product for something I can use at our apartment and in the future.

This week, I started working on the quilt. It's not done yet, but it's going better than I had expected! I cut up 35 t-shirts from various events in Phi Mu and Dance Marathon that I collected throughout college. I have a t-shirt from DM's 11-15 (2006-2010), the core committee's I've been on, my Swimmy shirt, and my steering polo from DM, and various recruitment shirts including the one I wore when I went through formal recruitment in 2005, my bid day shirt, shirts from formals and socials, and even a senior bar crawl shirt from Phi Mu. I really like the idea of turning these shirts into a quilt because it's not like I'm going to be wearing them anytime soon (sadly, half of them are size small from my thinner days and I couldn't fit into them even if I wanted to) but I don't want to throw them out, either--they are tied to too many memories. Rather than throw them into a box in the back of my closet or in storage, I thought I would put them to better use in a way that I can still keep all the memories close by. It took me 3 hours, but I cut out all 35 shirts and then figured out what pattern I wanted to put them in. I've spent the past 2 days sewing strips of panels together (which was definitely interesting, since I got into roughly 4 different fights with the sewing machine, and which is why I gave up sewing today after sewing together only one strip of panels... if the sewing machine and I were Facebook friends, I would totally block them right now!) and still have more to go, but I'm pretty impressed with how well it's coming so far.

Here's a picture of it before I started sewing it together:

It's going to be big enough to cover our queen-size bed when it's done! I'm impressed with myself, that's for sure--not only am I working on getting in shape and eating healthier, but I'm also working on improving my crafting skills, too!

Fast Cars and Freedom

Today, I rode for the first time with my little sister Mindy as she drove my car. A little scary, but not too bad for her first time! :) I'm proud of her! And I'm still alive, which is also very important, hahaha! Needs to work on her breaking and turns, but otherwise she isn't too bad with it. And now I get to pass my car (the Beast) down to her so she has something to drive, and I get the new car. Glad to have a newer and nicer car coming, but it's going to be hard to say goodbye to the Beast--we've been together for 7 years now and I have a lot of great memories in that car: driving around singing with Nikie, dancing after the school plays (oh the Car Dance), my first kiss with Tommy Boggs, the road trips, all the driving around when I was upset and singing at the top of my lungs to release that anger, taking Daisy for rides in the summer to the park, and lots of other good memories. I guess it's time to let Mindy make her own memories in that car and let my new car Ruby give me some memories for the next chapter of my life. :)