So Here Goes

I guess it's about time to blog about the past couple of weeks in my life. I know a blog doesn't have to be super peppy all the time so I'm keeping real once again. After my last post asking for prayer for Bam, I guess things went downhill quickly. The Friday of Valentine's weekend was the last time she was really coherent and thankfully all of my dad's siblings were with her. By Sunday, she had gone into a deep unarousable state and on Monday at 2:20 pm, she had passed away. It just seemed strangly quick since we had been home 3 weeks prior and she was up and moving around. We think she just kinda made up her mind that she was tired of the pain and ready to go home.
Adam and I went home for the funeral this past weekend and it was an extremely emotional time for everyone. We have a pretty close extended family and everyone was there. We were showered and blessed by so many friends with flowers and food the entire week. (I think at this point, I am trying to keep 5 different arrangements alive in my house:-)) [Also on a sidenote: These are the moments when you're on the other side and you realize what it really means to have have a meal cooked for you or a note to say you're thinking of someone. It makes you want to do kind things more often]. Bam was buried Friday morning on a GORGEOUS sunny morning at the National Cemetery in the same plot with my grandfather, Doda.
Since this is kind of like an online journal for me, I've decided to copy some of the words I shared from Bam's funeral. I'd like to be able to look back and read it when I miss her. It's been hard getting back to the "routine" things in life. Life goes on all around you, even if you're grieving on the inside./ My heart hurts for my parents now who have to deal hardest with the empty hole and empty house that was left behind. I'm trying to remember that "things" are not how you remember a person, but the memories.

So here goes:
This past Monday, I lost not only an amazing grandmother, but a best friend. Since I was one of the lucky grandchildren that lived in town, I can only think of a few moments or life events that didn’t include Bam. Without fail, she was present at every recital, graduation, prom, tennis match, birthday, holiday, new home, and wedding.

​Growing up, I spent my afternoons after school with Bam. And still to this day, no one can figure out where I came up with the names “Bam” and “Doda”. One of my favorite memories is when Bam and I would walk down to M&M Mars to meet Doda on his way home from work every day. I would play “salon” with her hair and give her hair massages using every single washcloth in the house.. and she would feed me baconJHer and Doda took me on a trip to Disney World and we would always laugh at how the cops pulled them over thinking they weren’t making me wear my seatbelt. She would let me sip on her wine (even when I was completely underage) and try on her engagement ring. I helped decorate many Christmas trees and help finish puzzles. My favorite would be when she would watch me play tennis for 2 hours and not know if I had won or lostJ She always had a way of making you feel special and were the “favorite” grandchild.

​Bam truly lived up to her motto, “Live, Laugh, Love”. Everyone loved her who met her and I often had friends comment on how jealous they were of my relationship with my grandmother. She had one of the most contagious spirits about her. She was beautiful, poised, graceful and remained fashionable throughout time. Everything in life was always “so wonderful”. She was generous and kind to everyone.

​Throughout the last year of her life, we were able to share some of the most intimate moments together where she shared that she was ready to go home. I miss her already and know that I will continue to miss her for a very long time to come. However, Bam left us all an incredible legacy and I know that she is now rejoicing in Heaven. “And God shall wipe away tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain”. We can be reassured with these words, but Bam, we will miss you dearly.

Things I Hate Talking About

I really don't enjoy putting sad or depressing things on my blog, but I just felt like I should share the latest with what's going on with Bam. Christmas was great getting to spend lots of time with the family but it was extremely evident that Bam was not feeling like her usual self. Over the past few weeks, from what I'm hearing from my mom and dad, she has spent a large amount of time sleeping and in a significant amount of pain. They have set up a Hospice nurse and a "sitter" to be with her while my mom, dad, aunt and uncle are rotating nights. It's especially tough to grasp this situation, especially being 8 hours away, but I still trust in God that He will be with her and take care of my Bam. They have switched her pain meds and along with Hospice, I hope she can be comfortable. As always, we appreciate prayers because that's the only thing we can do.

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze... Since you are precious and honored in my site, and because I love you". Isaiah 43:2,4a.

8 inches, baby!

So this is what our welcomed snow day consisted of:
Breakfast of cinnamon rolls and coffee: 12:15pm
Watching 2 episodes of 24: 1-3
Chores/Home Improvenment activities: 4-6
Taking Denali Dog for a walk: 7pm





Oh, I HAD to put this picture on here! Since Denali's fur is basically the equivalent of velcro when it comes to snow, Adam had the brilliant idea of putting real socks on his feet to prevent the snow from sticking. It was hilarious!

Dinner of chicken noodle soup and beer bread: 8:15


Watching "Australia" next to my homemade fire: whatever time it is now

It's amazing that when you can't leave the house, you finally give yourself permission to relax!

Sometimes I Wish I Could Go Back

This past weekend Adam and I made a very quick trip to Tennessee for a special reason. We had gotten a phone call on Thursday night that told us my brother, Scott, had gotten the vote for Chi. This is always a cool thing and especially cool because his brother-in-law (my husband:-)) probably had a large hand in Scott choosing Chi. Apparently his sister's bias had zero influence:-) To anybody outside of the Lee Bubble, our "Greek clubs" are crazy. And I'm so thankful that I married someone who could understand this craziness. But to anybody that's ever been a part of them-- it totally consumes your life during college and it's SO worth it. The friendships that you make, the life lessons it teaches you, and of course the cool jerseys that you get to wear every Monday were definitely highlights of my time at Lee. You're not the first person to be in the club or the last, but you'll always be a part of the legacy that that club is. I'm excited for Scott and partially jealous because sometimes I wish we could all go back 5 years (or however long it's been) and have that much fun again. Getting to watch a sampling of DZT's induction on Saturday brought back that feeling, but also made me realize that you do grow up and life does go on after Lee and yes, even after induction:-). I'm so thankful for my time at Lee, but I think I'm doing alright where I'm at too.

Crickets and Dance Parties

So I'm sitting here on Sunday afternoon exhausted, body sore, eating a hot dog. Since my boss decides not to celebrate MLK day, I do not get the privilege of a three day weekend like most of you. For that reason, I had to come back a day early from our youth Winter Advance this weekend. I thought I would be excited to come back a day early and be able to regenerate and take a nap and everything else glorious that comes with being at home by yourself for a day. But I'm not. I'm sooo wanting to be back up in Keiseltown, VA with the kids (and of course my husband). We had such a great weekend. We took about 55 kids and 15 adults into the mountains for a weekend to advance in their relationships with God. And it worked:-) We had an awesome speaker from Camp Lurecrest (where Adam used to work), we played ridiculous games (of which the #1 reason I'm sore all over and also why I spit a live cricket out of my mouth!), ate home-cooked meals from our awesome cooks, made only 1 trip to the ER (for a leader:-)), and closed last night with the best dance party I've ever seen including the coolest girls to the "geekiest" boys. And as far as I know, we had at least 1 girl who gave her life to Christ! Those are the moments where I am so proud of my husband and what he does on a daily basis for those teenagers. I love that God has called me to work with teenagers and I can't beleive that I'm sitting at home wishing I was with them!

It's That Time Again

I feel so inspired by reading everyone's blogposts about their highlights of 2009 and resolutions of 2010. I love so much that we have a God that gives us new beginnings every year and even every day. Even though there are times of doubt and loneliness, we know that no matter what, God is in control. And no matter how much we strive for in a new year, God is ultimately the one who is going to guide our steps. Sometimes I like that, sometimes I don't:-) I will give you some of my goals and resolutions for this new year but first I need to highlight some of my favorite Christmas moments:
-Traveling to TN a day early to surprise my parents
-introducing Denali Dog to all my family (he's like our kid, ok?)
-Meeting SO MANY new babies! Rader Jackson Brose, Charleston Graham Sluder, and Jodie Ann Baldwin. I fell in love with each of them.
-Having another Christmas with my grandmother and watching her put on her TN Snuggie Scott gave her Christmas morning:-)
-Not having to rush around and see a gazillion people (just the ones that mattered:-))
-Visiting with Holly H. on her route home to Ga.
-Winning at Domino's:-)
-Eating enough 3 Layer cookies to last through 2010 and then having my mom make me a special batch just for the plane ride home.
-Christmas morning at Bams with every single family member on my dad's side. I adore this family.
-Having Adam's parents come and visit last week and exchange presents. His sister Rachel was even in town from Colorado.
-The new 6 person HUGE kitchen table we bought at a steal of a deal:-) We also obtained an enormous living room rug for another steal.
-Watching Scott show off his potato gun... ridiculous.
-Getting to sleep in and come downstairs every morning for some sort of a homemade breakfast, usually cinnamon rolls:-)

The Christmas decorations are finally coming down today. I'm over it and now ready for the new year! And here are the resolutions I promised earlier:
Last years resolution was to read the Bible in one year. Granted I still have about 7 days left to read, I'm considering it an accomplished goal. I really did learn so much that I never knew! But I was definitely a time-consuming goal. This year I am making up for things that were neglected last year. I plan on journaling much much more and also blogging more. I don't exactly LOVE writing but I know it's good for me.


Praying more as a couple. Adam and I realize that we are more in sync when we pray together as a couple and not just individually. This also includes being less selfish and praying for other people more.


I want white, clean teeth this year! I know this one sounds a little superficial compared to the last two but this is really a goal. For a girl that has had braces 2 lengthy times in her life, I want to get them permanently straight and whitened this year. I also agree with Lisa and am adding flossing to the list:-)


Every year I look forward to new travel and this year is no different. (Does it mean something when I'd rather be traveling then be at home??) On tap this year: a medical missions trip to Guatemala with Lee University, a vacation with the Douglases to the Outer Banks, TN 10 Vacation (possibly also the Outer Banks), and a hopeful trip to Greece with the Reusses. Not to mention since my boss now gave me off every other Friday, I get three day weekends 2 weekends a month! Short term trips include hopefully going to see my friend Hope and a trip to Nashville and Vegas!


And of course the obvious. Adam and I have gotten fat and lazy these past few months and while it's been fun, the fun must come to an end. The annual Monument 10K will be in March again and it's time to start training for that. yuck. I'm already dreading it.

Of course all this is subject to change:-) God knows my heart and He knows where I would love to be by the end of the year. We will just have to wait and see:-)

Winter Storm 09!

Call me skeptic, but when I left work yesterday, I truly did not believe that we were going to get a foot and a half of snow that weatherman had predicted for the weekend. Well it's now Saturday night and while there is not 18 inches of snow on the ground, there is a solid 5 combined with lovely ice. The "Noreaster" :-) started yesterday night on my way home from work and it sure did take me 2 1/2 hours to get home with my blood pressure probably shooting extremely high. Adam and I had a wonderful evening planned out that included dinner at Olive Garden (we had a gift card:-)), watching The Blindside, and finishing Christmas shopping. By the time I got home at 8:00, we decided to risk it and head out into the storm anyways. Basically hunger was our motivation. We headed on to the interstate and before we could even get off the ramp, there is a wrecked car on the side with a teenage boy walking towards town. This was certainly not the first stranded car on the side of the road. We ended up taking him home, which was in the middle of absolute nowhere (keep in mind by BP was still skyhigh since our car does not have 4wheel drive). By the time we pulled into Olive Garden at 10pm, they were closing due to "inclement weather" and we ended up at DENNY's at 11pm. We had a very college date night, thankfully making it home alive. We woke up today to a wonderful winter wonderland and ventured out once again to finish up the Christmas shopping. This time we took Tammy Two-Tone because we thought if something happens to her, we don't care as much:-) The first two church services are cancelled for tomorrow and who knows about work on Monday:-) Let's just hope we make it home for Christmas!