lifelong friends

so i forgot just how much i love my hammock considering that in the summertime, i hardly ever get to lay in it. its just always so hot outside. right now, its about seven in the evening and the temperature is just about perfect. i love evenings like this where i can just relax and enjoy the fall weather.

i got to spend some time this past weekend with one of my best friends from college, meg. her little boy charley turned one on the 24th of september and his first birthday party was this past saturday. it was such a fun party and i had a wonderful time there. i normally don't pick favorites either (like meg) but this visit to jacksonville was probably my favorite. it was relaxing, it was fun, i learned how to make lots of new recipes, and i had wonderful conversations with meg. it was a time that i really needed because the last few months have been really hard. i'm finally beginning to feel like the hard times are passing and i'm realizing just how blessed i am and how much the Lord loves me. its so wonderful to have friends that are such a stability in my life and meg is definitely one of those for me. she's definitely one of my lifelong friends! the picture in this post is of me and charley at the park one morning. he's such a precious little boy and i loved being able to be at his first birthday party! what a special time.

i'm excited about this weekend! friday night i am going to a fall festival with two of my favorite girls and saturday my dad is coming down for the day to repaint my bedroom. i recently decorated it with reds, blacks, and tans so we are painting my walls a dark tan color. i can't wait to see how it turns out. i am going to cook him breakfast on saturday and then spend the day at the apartment with him. sunday is a bridal shower brunch for one of the girls in my small group which i am going to with kerri after the 11:00 service at church. i always love going to showers so i am sure that this will be a lot of fun! its looking to be a fun weekend! and tomorrow is october 1st - yeah! i can finally decorate my classroom for halloween! what fun!

pivotal circumstances

i actually really enjoy days where i can spend time cleaning and organizing things, as weird as that may sound. i feel like i'm never at my apartment very much so the weekends that i have free, i try to stay home and relax and get caught up on things. after church this morning, i spent about an hour on the phone with my best friend and then cleaned until just now...7:30 in the evening. my closet was a disaster and i spent over an hour cleaning and organizing it. as much of a neat freak as i am, my closet tends to get messier faster than anything else. the rest of the apartment is pretty much always spotless but whenever i'm in a hurry and clothes fall off the hangers onto the floor, i just shut the door and keep on going. so needless to say, i had my work cut out for me today :) but its done and i have all my pumpkin scented candles lit so the rest of the evening is mine to relax!
this week at church finished up our six part series, "five things God uses to grow your faith." it was one of the best sermon series i've heard in a long time. andy spoke on five different things that are used by the Lord in order to stretch and grow and refine our faith. things such as private disciplines, providential relationships, and more. today's was on pivotal circumstances. the whole series has been good but today's was the best, in my opinion at least. a lady shared her story at the beginning in a video that was a minute or two long. she said that she had been trying for a long time to find a job and after a long search, she believed that she had. she had three interviews with the company, they showed her where her office would most likely be, etc... she started getting things together to move and to start her new job and out of nowhere, the company called and said that they ended up giving the position to someone else. the lady was so upset and cried and couldn't understand why the Lord would have let this happen. fast forward a few weeks and september 11th, 2001 happened - the building was hit - and everyone in the building where she hoped to have gotten the job never made it out alive. she said that now whenever she doesn't understand something, all she has to do is think "september 11th - HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING." it just gave me chills to hear that.
its so true that the Lord always knows what He is doing. a few different things have happened over the past year that have made me question Him and wonder why they were happening. however, looking back, He knew exactly what He was doing. its also true that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him. my faith has been challenged more over the past year than in all of my 26 years put together. i've questioned a lot and thought a lot but one thing has always remained the same: i trust the Lord implicitly. no matter what happens in my life, He is in control. even when my dad got diagnosed with cancer this year, i trusted Him. He always has a reason, even if it doesn't make sense to me at the time. i've learned just how much He loves me by seeing how much He protected me from. no matter what temptation i am up against, He always provides a way out. i've seen Him take things into His own hands in order to protect me from myself and i've learned that His love is absolutely unconditional. i'm sure that my faith will be tested many more times as the years go by and i hope to always remain as steadfast as i am right now. He always has reasons for things and He loves me more than i'll ever understand. i love looking back at my life and seeing all that He has done...and i will always place my trust in Him.

lots to do today!

i love saturdays! i've got lots to do today but it will still be a fun day. i love running errands and getting caught up on things. i leave for florida next wednesday and i have a lot to accomplish before then! i need to finish buying everything for charley's first birthday present, i need to buy a few more things for evie since i missed meg's shower and i need to buy cards for both gifts. i'm going to a bridal shower in two weeks and i need to get jessica a gift for that. i finished getting sarah's birthday presents together yesterday and i got it mailed off last night, right on time to be delivered on her birthday! yay for getting gifts out on time! i also need to mail my grandma's birthday card because her birthday is next week. september is becoming a crazy month for birthdays/gifts for me! i also need to spend a good majority of this weekend cleaning because i hate coming back from a vacation to anything other than a sparkling clean apartment! i'm going to try to get the bathroom done today and then clean the rest tomorrow.
have i mentioned how much i LOVE fall? well, i do. as much as i love summer and i love being in a bathing suit and living at the pool, i absolutely love fall. i am reminded of that every year when fall comes around again. i love the cooler weather and being able to break out the sweaters again, i love the crisp mornings and evenings, i love seeing the leaves change color, and i absolutely love anything pumpkin scented! bath and body works has the best wallflower scents for the fall and of course i already stocked up on those. i buy the original pumpkin scented one and this year i also bought the caramel pumpkin one. yummy! i love walking into my apartment every day! i already have most of my fall decorations up and i love that. i've already made quite a few trips to starbucks to enjoy the pumpkin spice latte...i was there the week that it came back out, i always look forward to that!
well, off to start getting things done for the day!