Crazy Busy

The last month has been crazy, so I put blogging on hold for a little while. I think this is the first whole week I have actually been home...and without Eric. Sad. Eric took the 11th graders from church to a Mission project in Charlotte for the week. Don't worry, I haven't been lonely at all, I have kept myself busy. BUT let me start at the beginning and tell you where we have been and what our lives have been up to (Go ahead and buckle up, this is going to be a long ride)

The month started with a quick trip to Wrightsville beach to hang out with this girl.

Emily is awesome. We laid out for a few hours and talked, then I headed a couple of miles down the road to spend time with one of my best friends, Ashley, and her family.

While I was down, Ashley rented a paddle board. One word. OBSESSED. I love it. I definitely want to do it again. I was so peaceful and relaxing, just me and the water.

I spent the night with her, then headed back to Raleigh. As deceiving as it sounds, I'm not out of a suitcase yet. I unpacked beach stuff, to pack up wedding stuff. The next day, I headed to greensboro to be in my friend, Rachel's wedding. We all hung out with her on Thursday night- dinner and movie at her house.

On Friday, we had the bridesmaid luncheon, let me just pause for a second and  say, the luncheon was at a family friend of Rachel's, and I felt as though I was at an Anthropologie photo shoot. It was not only beautiful, but very vintage and classic. YUM.

The wedding on Saturday was FUN. Rachel and Chad are both such fun people, so I knew this wedding was going to be a blast. Rachel looked stunning, like a queen. The dresses were two different styles of green, all of the colors looked great together.

And presenting, Chad and Rachel Lynam...

So the wedding was a BLAST...complete with a flash mob by yours truly (and of course 25+ people, including my hubs)

We went back to Raleigh on Sunday and celebrated our 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY on Monday (July 11). I can't believe it has been 2 years! Eric surprised me with dinner at the Angus Barn.

He insisted on blindfolding me so I wouldn't figure out the surprise...

We had so much food and so much fun!

A couple of days later, we once again headed out to the beach for family vaca with the Hovis'. Prince William let us borrow his and Kate's luxury condo on beaches of SC. Okay, so I'm kidding, but I might as well be serious...because it was NICE. So nice in fact, I couldn't take pictures. It would have broken the lense. Sorry.

We got back to Raleigh on Saturday, and I left again on Monday, to go to the beach to help out my favorite family, the HAGES. If you were at our wedding, you may remember the Hages by our blonde, curly headed flower girl.

Of course, she is a big girl now...almost 6!

Got home on Thursday and left Friday for another wedding of a great friend. I had double duty in her wedding, bridesmaid/singer. It was a BLAST. Katie looked so beautiful, and Haskell looked great too. A groomsman, brother of Haskell, even passed out during the vows. I mean he fell with a THUD.  It caught everyone by surprise...but not the ER doctor Groomsman who fled to his side, took his pulse, yet stopped short of mouth to mouth as he came to. He sat down for the rest of the ceremony while chugging his water. Whew, that was a close one.

Me with the Bride pre-ceremony

Still there?? Good! Because I'm pretty much finished. The wedding was this past weekend and now I am finally home...for the next two weeks! This week, Eric isn't here, but I have been finding things to do, mostly which I realized have consisted of this girl.

Thank you Brittany for keeping me company with runs, dinners, movies, talks, and coffee shops.

That's all for now folks, hope you made it!

Blessings

We left Monday for Impact bright and early. Abby, Tucker, and Trevor spent the night with Eric and I, and we all woke up at 4:30am Monday morning to head to Providence. We returned Saturday afternoon from Impact very, VERY tired. We had so much fun and the Lord did great things. The theme was Coram Deo, meaning, In the Presence of God. We talked about everything from resisting temptation, surrendering to Christ, and the dangers of hypocrisy. I completely forgot to take my camera, which is so like me. So you will not get to see any pictures...sorry 'bout that. The Lord did big things this week and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to go, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I am, however, definitely glad to be back. Here are some things that I missed while we were gone:

Showering barefoot. Of course camp bathrooms nasty. It is nice to come to home home and shower without putting on shoes, afterall, showers are to get you clean right?

No fear of roaches. I don't know how many cockroaches were killed in our cabin. Praise the Lord Eric and I have never had to share a house with roaches. I don't think I have ever seen one in our house...yet.

Sharing a bed. I'm happy to have my sleeping partner back :)

Shampoo in the shower. I like having my shampoo and soap already waiting for me in the shower, ya know, instead of taking it with you when you want to shower. At home, it's already there.

Good coffee. No explanation needed

Clean feet. I am a snob when it comes to cleaniness in my bedsheets. I don't like having dirty feet at bedtime, but when you are at camp, it is pretty much inevitable.

Although I am glad to be back in my own bed, what is camp without all of these things? A resort, not camp. Here are many things that I will miss from camp:

The dump. No I don't not mean going #2. The band leader, Chris White, led us in a little chant called "the dump." It. was. awesome. I'm thinking about introducing it to my high school students...not sure how that will go.

Hands lifted high. It was an absolute joy to see hundreds of middle school and high school students lifting their hands, praising the Lord. If all I got to see at camp was this, it was well worth it.

Relationships. I LOVED getting to build relationships with the students at camp. Eric and I had such a sweet family group of rising 11th graders, and I grew to love them so much! I also loved spending time with the rising 12th graders that Eric and I currently teach in Sunday School.

Of course there are so many more things that I loved about camp, I could spend all day talking/typing it all. I am so blessed that I got to go.

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Psalm 67:1-3