Thanksgiving Fun

Oh how I love Thanksgiving! It is my very favorite holiday. We started off the day with the family tradition of watching the Macy's Day parade, but this year we added something that I loved...bagels of all kinds from Panera. My personal favorite was Cinnamon Crunch. Oh my my it was sooooooo good and I am now thinking of becoming an addict ha ha. After this yummy bagel I helped my mom cook the remainder of dinner and then proceeded to take a very lovely nap!! The past couple of years Rick's parents have come over to eat Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner together and this tradition continued this year as well. I love this about our families, that we make it a priority to spend holidays together. I am so thankful for both mine and Ricks's family! We have two of the best families in the whole world and I cant wait until we make it all 1 BIG family!! This was a very special Thanksgiving for me! This will  be our last Thanksgiving living at home and I was reminded of that all day long! It was a very bittersweet realization for me. I was thinking about it later though and I came to the conclusion that even though things are going to change I am not loosing anything at all. I am gaining my best friend as my husband and we will create all kinds of new traditions to add to the ones that both of our families already have! This was a very exciting thought! I am so very sure that this was the BEST Thanksgiving I have ever had. All of the things that I take for granted as far as the comforts of home and family and friends were somehow brought to the forefront of my mind and my reaction was to turn and thank my savior for all of the precious gifts I have been given and look forward to all of the many blessings he has in store for mine and Rick's marriage!!

2010 Family Christmas Ornament

Anna Kathryn and I on Thanksgiving Morning!

CAMPING IN THE FALL!!

My amazingly awesome college group from church went on a camping trip this past weekend to Mt. Cheaha! It was so much fun to spend time with the people that i would consider myself to be the closest friends with! We left saturday around 9ish to head up there and when we arrived we set up camp and did a little eploring; however this exploration quickly turned into a "where is the trail" moment and then into a couple of hours of not knowing where we were!! This would have been all well and good if only it were earlier in the day, but it was nearing dark and no one brought a flash light! God gave us a beautiful full moon to light the way up the mountain so we could all return to camping peacefully in out little camp site.Neadless to say it was an adventure ha ha!!

 

We were lost somewhere among these trees it was crazy to look down on it the next day and see just how far we walked!! ouch my legs are sore today!!

I was so thankful to have this time to spend with such amazing friends!! I know that leaving Tuscaloosa is going to be bittersweet! There are no greater friends than the ones that I have here!! I have grown so close to the comforts of home that I know leaving will be the first challenge Rick and I face when we are married! while I absolutely cant wait to call Florence home I know there will  be a lot of cell phone minutes spent talking to these wonderful people that God has blessed my life with! Friendship is the first thing that came to mind when I was thinking of the things I was thankful for this Thanksgiving week and how God allows us to have those people in our lives who make us laugh, strengthen, encourage, and just grow up with and that truley is such a blessing!! I have the best friend ever!!

Also on this lovely trip I was in awe of the splindor of the handiwork of God!! How anyone could look at something so beautiful and think that it is a coincidence I am not sure.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19:1

Worship the Lord in the splendor of Holiness; tremble before Him ALL the earth! Psalm 95:9

When I look into the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon an the stars, which you have set in place, What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Psalm 8:3

Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! Psalm 32:8

While getting lost in the woods was somewhat terrifying, later I was forced to think about these verses. While I was complaining about how stinky it was we were lost I am pretty sure God just wanted me to look up and thank him and just stand in awe of his splendor and majesty revealed in His creation! Just some food for thought next time you are lost in the woods ha ha!!

24 days until I start my life with this guy!!!

Somehow today I ended up on a website that was filled with sappy love quotes  it really made my day. Here are some of my favorites!!

"A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop words when speech becomes superfluous."

--Ingrid Bergmen--

You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.
Dr. Seuss

As we grow older together, As we continue to change with age, There is one thing that will never change. . . I will always keep falling in love with you.
Karen Clodfelder

As I was thinking of these sweet sappy love quotes I was reminded of the David Crowder song "How he Loves Us" and how much greater the love of the  Father is for us than the human love that we have for one another. This thought is so humbling!! My creator loves me more than any human on this planet ever will be able to!! As much as I love Rick I know that the love I have for him will never compare to the love our savior has for him. I pray that this thought humbles us throughout our marriage and the love we have for each other beautifully frames the love our gracious God has shown us!!

Today is exactly one month until the BIG DAY!!! I am so excited and overwhelmed all at the same time!! There is so much left to do!! Between finishing school for the semester and finals everything for the wedding WILL get done. I have complete confidence right now!!! I am doing my best not to be stressed, this is a time I will only experiance once in ym life and it is way to much of a blessing to be stressed!! One month from today I will marry my best friend, the one I can always trust and depend on,the one who will always be in my corner cheering me on and the one who will always strengthen me in my faith in my savior!! This amazing person is Rick Byrne we have been together 3 1/2 years and every moment has been wonderful!!  I know that God has such an amazing purpose for our marriage, because I have seen his hand throughout our relationship, starting from the time in our lives when we detested each other. Our families have attended church together since we were both little and we have known each other since we were like 5 or 6; however, we have not always had the loving emotions we have for each other now. Honestly Rick used to be the person that I would put on the top of my hit list if I had one. For some reason he just annoyed me and I could not stand to be around him. It was during this time that if someone had told me 4 years from then that he would be the person I would be completely in love with and vowing to spend the rest of my life with I would have laughed and then I would have slapped you in the face for even uttering those words. God drastically changed those emotions in the summer of 2007. Our youth and college group went on a trip to a mission camp. I knew that I had a strong calling on my life already to make the name of Jesus know to the nations! One night during the service we were asked to stand if we felt this calling, and as I was looking around at all the people God was going to use to further his kingdon (an amazing sight I might add, it was almost a glimpse of what heaven will be like) my eye stopped on Rick. I never knew that he felt that calling as well. I believe it was then that God allowed me to see briefly into the greater plan he had for my life. From then on I saw Rick in a completely different light, the light of Jesus Christ. From this point on I did everything I could to get to know him a little better (without him knowing of course). I started school in the fall and I was in a Chemistry class, Rick is a genius so I played the "I need help with my homework card." He bought it and everynight for the next 2 or 3 weeks he would come over and "help me with my homework. Man this sounds way corneyer than it was in real life ha ha. I guess somehow he figured me out because it became a very regular thing for him to be at my house. It was not complicated we didnt have to determine the realtionship we just loved spending time with each other. I guess as time went on it became apparent to our friends and family and this is when Rick had to step up and make a definative conclusion about the way he felt. Man that was a relief when he finally came out and said he felt the same way I had felt for A LONG time. I remeber praying before I met Rick that God would send me someone who loved Him more than they could ever love me and as I spent time with Rick I was so sure that he was the person that God had in mind for me. Growing alongside Rick I knew together we would together make his name known to the nations, I was and still am so sure of this amazing gift!!! We have grown so much together in the past 3 1/2 years and have learned so much through each other. He makes everyday a challenge for me as well as the greatest blessing!!! He sees me in my worst moments as well as my best and still loves me, which reminds me so much of the way that Christ loves us! This is such an encouraging truth that we have as believers and while Rick is not perfect what an awesome daily reminder I will have in a husband of this quality of my King!!  I am so excited to see how God uses us together for his glory!!