no longer a teenager

My younger brother isn’t a teenager anymore, since Sunday…this is sorta hard for me to grasp.

Like seriously yesterday we were…

playing cowboys and Indians together

arguing as we hauled maple sap back from the woods together

gleaning corn for the cows together

cleaning his room together, more like I was cleaning and he was watching and talking 

hunting white-tail deer together

swimming in flat rock river together

running all those roads around our old place together

And now that all over and he’s grown living in Tennessee six hours away. We text weekly and call some. I miss him but know this is the way life is indented to go.

 

And this weekend I went to visit him in TN with Christina…enjoy the few photos I remembered to take=) I had all these glamorous ideas of actually writing this post up during our drive home on Sunday. But I regretfully didn’t get to it and so it’s here a day later than I planned but oh well=/

The only picture of me…I know I know…without a schedule and a structured life, I can’t even remember to take a photo!Home at last!!! To lots and lots of snow and sub-below zero weather…just wonderful…

So here’s a quick recap of our trip…

Friday –

Christina came home from work saying her car was acting up.

I test drove it and moved the rattling pens in the console. Moral of the tale the car was fine…really fine!

Started on our six hour drive at 7:00 a.m.

Stopped to buy a sleeping mask for my tired “shot gun” rider. (so yeah it was a quiet and a very boring drive)

Met Samuel in Loblesville, TN. (Think a perfect redneck haven and you will have just begun to imagine what it’s like) TN had just suffered an ice storm and we all know what ice does to southern drivers, so Samuel led us in a less hilly way to his home.

Crashed at Sam’s house. (It’s so small and adorable)

Dinner at the Stoll’s house. We couldn’t drive up the hill due to the ice and snow so we walked up their mountain…I developed a head ache, which made my night miserable. Plus they served pasta and I had cuts in my mouth from a accident driving horses a few nights before. I’ll just stop there. (we were suppose to actually stay with these people for the duration of our stay but it was canceled due to their pipes freezing, poor people were without water for days. Which equaled no showers for them either)

Saturday -

Woke up at 4 and my siblings didn’t start stirring until 10:00 a.m.….I was starving!!!!

All the restaurants around opened late due to the weather….so no breakfast just shrimp alfredo

It was dumping buckets of rain all day long. And that on top of the ice made the road conditions worse.

Shopping…the only thing left to do. Christina and I got some wonderful deals at Goody’s.

Ate frozen pizza and cake at Sam’s house while watching his favorite you-tube singing clips=)

Then back Stoll’s house to watch “The Good Lie” btw: a very very good movie! The ice was still bad so we again parked and trudged to the very top of that pathetic hill.

About ten, after running to a friends house to shower the parents came in saying we were flooded in. GREAT! All the rain and temperature rise had creation yet another problem. Did I mention how much I love Indiana?!?!?

This bad new called for something chocolaty…freshly baked black bean brownies soaked in chocolate syrup did just the trick to cheer us all up.

Slept on their couches, and watched movies all night long. Needless to say we became very good friends with ALL the Stolls,

Sunday – Samuel’s 20th Birthday!!!!!!

Again, I woke up before everyone else.

Christina agreed to walk down and see if we were still flooded in.The water had all gone back down and the roads were clear. Also the hill was melted enough to drive up (so glad we didn’t have to walk that again!!!)

Ate a late but wonderful brunch – they made Belgian waffle with blue berry topping…so good!!!!!!

Everyone hurried back to their places of running water to clean up, then meet at the bowling alley in Dickson.

Samuel opened all his gifts from home that we brought with us=) while Christina and I hurried with our showers and makeup.

Samuel won the only game Christina and I had time to play with them. They continued to bowl long after we left.

Homeward bound by 4;30 p.m. (difficult leaving that sad face, of Samuel, behind us…but thankfully his friends were staying with him the rest of the day…..to help him celebrate his day=)

Home by 11:30 (They last hour I slept…but it was more like a series of a million nightmares. Seriously all the stuff I had to do this week kept playing through my mind)

12:30 p.m I sat in a daze on my bed thinking…inwardly vowing to never leave for a weekend again. even though I know I will…and I’ll regret it then too. Mainly because of ALL the work before I leave and after I get back is so stressful.

All and all it was a wonderful trip. Getting to see the wonderful smile of Samuel and celebrate his day, actually, with him was oh so worth it. All of it.

It was such a memorable weekend=)

 

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BTW: here’s a few pictures from the making of my first cake, frosting and all=) sadly I only took some on my phone…it was late at night, so I’m giving myself a break. Samuel loved it!!!

~Photo-a-day~ Dec 2–Dec 9

Hello!

My life has been so crazy lately…but crazy in a good way. I spent last week up near Shipshewana, IN attending meetings. I learned so much about Jesus, myself and most importantly that this life is a journey to be taken one step at a time. (and enjoyed) I feel so refreshed and invigorated, more than ready for whatever this life has to throw my way.

This weekend I gave in and instead of doing something profitable at home, I ventured out and included myself in the group jumping at Skyzone. It’s an indoor trampoline park in Indy…I jumped for like two hours straight and was so sore on Monday. haha! I twisted my knee wrong also (my only injury) and it has kinda messed with my workouts for the first part of this week. But other than ALL that, I’m quite alright and had a good time=) I even celebrated afterwards. with a milk shake,at Steak’n Shake. After my salad, of course…aren’t y’all proud of me?!?!?

Monday it felt so good to be back in the office. Sam missed me a lot!  I’m sure the horses I jog missed me at least a little bit. They were all pretty goofy after their weekend off though. But after last night, I think we’re back on track. Literally….lol!

Day 336

~errand~

Christina came up and spent the day with me last Wednesday. Here we are running errands for mom, picking up all her holiday baking needs=) BTW isn’t Christina perfectly lovely, in this photo?

Day 337

~candle~

In the middle of our table…I love Christmas time and all the decorating that comes with it.

Day 339

~dinner time~

Here we are up in mom’s and dad’s room eating dinner, while watching a movie. not weird at all right?!?!? I don’t know how many movies I’ve watched from a floor seat…quite a few and I don’t know why I continue to do so, it’s sorta uncomfortable.

Day 340

~ornament~

Y’all have seen these before, seriously this is what pops into my head when I hear the word “ornament”…weird I know, just thought you’d wanna know that…I should get out more=)

Day 341

~lights~

The lights on our stairway are so festive…I can’t help but feel in the season with our house all decorated=)

Day 342

~bundle~

I asked mom what I could take a picture of for “today’s word” and she immediately responded with this…so a bundle of bananas it is ladies and gentlemen=)

Day 343

~baking~

I don’t bake very much in the evenings any more (sniff) since I’ve started my second job. Mom made muffins and bread last night, so I HAD to take a picture. She’s an amazing baker and I’m so happy she finds the time to do it.

So that was my week…please tell me about yours.

Happy Monday!

 

Vacation with the parents!

I don’t know where to start…this vacation was by far the best one I’ve had this year!

The days leading up to our departure on Wednesday were crazy and fun. So much to be done and absolutely no time to do it…Christina actually packed my stuff the night before, I was baking for the road. that’s why I love her, don’t know what I’d do without her. I wasn’t proud of how much stuff I took, but hey I had to bring all my bedding because I was sleeping on the floor in the room.

So the night before I stayed up till three in the morning with Christina…painting our nails, watched a movie and then sorted pictures together…you know getting as much time together as possible before I left. I was asleep within an hour of sitting in the car the next morning.

The smoky mountains?!?!?!? they are insane, I’ve never seen any mountains before so bare with me=) I was so amazed! But after being on Black Mountain all week, this Indiana girl was ready for the flat land and corn fields. At least be able to see something other than trees all around me.

So what was it like sharing a two bed hotel room with my two younger brothers and parents? Ummmm insane!!!! Seriously…I won’t even go into the parents side of it...don’t worry you really don’t want to know. But my brothers! Isaac isn’t so bad, but now Samuel is a different story. His suitcase was unloaded within the hour of our arrival. Not into drawers, mind you, but all over the floor. It was like this the remainder of the week. the constant “guy smell”.  okay I’ll stop. It was just hard for this girl to get used to=) Sharing one bathroom…that was the hardest. Samuel takes longer than me on just his hair…okay I promised to stop….sorry.

What was our schedule like? It was a conference - so we had a very tight schedule. For instance: breakfast was served from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. We never got to bed before 2:00 a.m. so getting up and showering before this time was a tough one. (at least for this girl) Remember we had only one shower, for five people and thankfully only two of them were girls=) Then we would go to a session and then after lunch, the day was ours. There was organized basketball, volleyball, also hiking, swimming, etc. whatever the camp had to offer was at our disposal. Dinner. One last session.  Then we went to a gym and played games, with a ton of young adults, till about twelve. All the “night owls” would continue the night in the hotel lobby or another room till about three. I only made it to two. We would climb in bed at that 'ungodly hour' and repeat the next day=) so fun right?!?!?!

Are parents are so cool to vacation with…easy going and good with anything. Mom took a ton of pictures of us! I barely used my camera myself, I passed it off to her…I’m sad to admit it. They both got all their sleep so they were in good moods on the way home. As for the rest of us...I won't go there. I loved the 'one on one' time I got with my parents and two brothers for five days straight. I made a lot of good memories that I will hold on to for life. 

I put together a short video of our trip enjoy=)

Just loads of fun! 

~Photo-a-day~ Sept 10 – Sept 16

Vacation plus taking a picture a day equals looking through my pictures at the end of the day hoping there’s one that goes along with the word for that day. Sad I know, but with so much FUN going on it was hard to concentrate on something as simple as taking a picture.

North Carolina was AWESOME…I want to go back!!!!!!

My horse missed me. I missed him. Anyway we’re back together so everyone’s better.

I didn’t know how good our homemade food is, until I went a week without it.

I miss my brothers so much everyday and didn’t realize it until we were together constantly for a week. We even shared a room…”constantly together” took on a whole new meaning=)

We’ll more about this amazing week in a later post.

Trying to pull my life back together wasn’t hard except I never slept didn’t get much sleep while I was in North Carolina, so trying to catch up on that while not at work (yeah I’ve been nodding at my desk) has been difficult.

Day 253

~starts with a ‘B’~

book would be the word=) mom was reading to Isaac on the way out to the smoky mountains and back…reminded me of the many long car trips to and from church as a kid listening to her read these same books.

Day 254

~in the distance~

mountains….nothing but mountains everyway you looked=)

Day 255

~new~

a new place…I love hiking new places and there was so much here to go and see.

Day 256

~a friend~

I take for granite the life long friends we are so fortunate to have as siblings. As we get older and life takes on a faster pace and we see less of each other, I forget sometimes how special they are to me.

Day 257

~I wish for…~

I wish for many more vacations just like this one, one spent with family!!!

Day 258

~my shoes~

these shoe bags were Christina’s idea for an ideal flip flop and sandal storage.

Day 259

~routine~

making my lunch for the next day the night before, has become a routine I try never to skip.

So that was my week…in a few pictures.

Which photo do you like best, please comment below and tell me=)

Bahamas Cruise (part 5)…what we saw=)

So this is the fifth and final post on/about my Bahamas Cruise…this is about all the site seeing we did in the cities we ported at. I wish we could have done more this was while there.

A few cool facts about life on this island. They don’t have mail boxes, at all. Only a few post offices per island. And all the government personals have a different color of license plate.

 

In Miami the driving was completely crazy, These people honk at each other, you, and everything else. Insane…literally! Just walking down the street to the drug store and I was honked out like four times. And once when I was crossing the road…I had the ride-away…and still this guy wanted to go and honked at me (I was in the middle of the road) I stopped and he few by. He could have hit me! Lessoned learned I won’t ever go back to Miami=)

The Bahamians paint everything such bright, happy colors!

For sale in the local market, I would love to have my Christmas tree decorated with these, wouldn’t you?!?!

Some kind of festival was going on and our guide pushed us into doing this. You can tell we were very uncomfortable and embarrassed…I don’t know why who was looking? haha

A memorial to all the soldiers, from the Bahamas, that died in WWII

This is one of the first buildings built on Nassau, and it was originally a bakery.

Fort Fincastle (located also on Nassau) read more about it (here)

The Queen’s Staircase. This was by far the coolest thing we saw. Here's so more on this cool site

See the lady in the pink pants sitting in the corner? She was a nurse and on her lunch break. She had brought this paralyzed child with her. We couldn’t help but over hear her phone conversation…while standing there. She was telling the person on the other end, how she sometimes brings this girl out with her on her breaks because she was just so much calmer out there. She told how she would just cry sometimes and she went on to explain that she had been abandoned on their steps (I’m not sure if it was an orphanage or not) as a baby. Christina sat there with tears in her eyes (she’s a CNA) listening as she began to sing a hymn to this beautiful child.

These glass sculptures were hand blown (located in the largest Casino in the Bahamas) worth about 1 million dollars a piece. This Casino was located on Paradise island. 

Christina in the famous “king and queen’s chair”.

This was the bathroom, I don’t believe I have ever been in this nice of a bathroom before. The sign on the door indicating what gender’s room it was, was of a mermaid…and yes I took pictures of it.

The coolest light in the entire world=)

The Casino and all that beautiful stuff was in this pink building. Now I would go back to Paradise Island in a heart beat.

Fort Montagu…it was closed so we couldn’t go in, but we got our picture=)

Bahamian police officers…gotta love the skirt.

Look at all this color…what if we painted our streets in America like this=)

Classic telephone booth photo

There are probably three questions still remaining after you’ve seen all five of my post on this cruise

1. Would I ever go on a cruise again?

2. Would I ever visit the Bahamas again?

3. Would I recommend you going to the Bahamas?

Ummm…would I ever go on a cruise again?????…well I will never say never but would I go again in the near future? Probably not. It was a fantastic experience and I will even venture to say that I would do it over knowing what I know now in a heart beat. I learned so much. But I’m definitely a country girl and am most comfortable in a small town=)

Would I ever visit again????? Probably not. I’ve seen it and that’s checked off my list of places to see in my life time and I will probably never go back. The main reason because there are so many places to see in this world and life is too short to only revisit the same places over and over again.

And lastly “Would I recommend you going to the Bahamas”? And that would be a huge YES!!! but only if you were cruising=) It was very different than I expected, but worth the time…and the cruise ships are SO much fun!

So that wraps up my vacation…hope you enjoyed the pictures <3