She's Sun and Rain

A lot of people have been asking me lately, why are you a Clemson fan? I did go to N.C. State and was a Cheerleader there none the less. Let me explain. My uncle Kendall went to Clemson. Not only did he go, but he played for them during their amazing track to the National Championship in 1981. He was a wide receiver, #89. I love my uncle and am very proud of his accomplishments. My grandparents had orange everything...in their house in Salisbury there are still lots of remnants of those times. A pin my grandmother wore to the games, a clock with the National Championship team on it. My first college football games were in Death Valley. I have pictures of me, my sister, mom and dad with my uncle and my grandparents all out on the field after the games. When it came time for me to go to college...in my mind, I was going to Clemson. I applied, had letters written, and I got in. I made a trip down with my friend Katie over Valentine's weekend (which I don't recommend because ever...

Lord help me, I am reading the book Radical by David Platt. I am already an over the top person when it comes to radical thinking. I'd go live overseas in some remote area and help orphans if we didn't owe everyone else so much money. Which, is why we are getting out of debt. We don't want to be tied down by the things we owe people so that we can be FREE to go do whatever God calls us to do (not that he can't call you to do things while you have debt, but you are in some way in bondage to it). *Let me go ahead and be honest and say that I believe that health and wealth gospel, prosperity gospel, name and claim it gospel, etc....those are lies that devil has tried to make people believe and not the truth that our bible teaches. If you believe those, you seriously need to spend some time seeking the Lord and at minimum, read this book and a few others by Randy Alcorn on God and money.* While reading this book last night, I have come up with a new way to combat materi...

Truth: I think I offend people. Some people just get on my nerves. While I realize this is not a "godly woman" kind of comment...sometimes that is how I react to people. I get annoyed when people speak condescendingly to me. I get annoyed when others question my word. I get annoyed when people lie. I get annoyed when people try to tell what they are learning from the Lord to others as though that is what THEY should be learning at that exact same season of life. These things...ugh. I get annoyed when people who have kids talk to people who don't have kids like they are stupid or ignorant. Same goes with married people and single people. I cannot be the only person that struggles with this. And I try really hard to filter what I say...so usually I'm only thinking that I'm annoyed but occasionally it pops right out of my mouth before I have time to catch it. I think as I've gotten older I've gotten more and more jaded towards certain things. I love people, I...

Ok, I have to get this off my chest. The last few days I've been looking at wedding photos to print to put up in our home. I have been lying in bed this morning thinking about it. You see, I read a lot of blogs (hence out of control blogroll) and alot of photography blogs (that may or may not be on the blogroll) and one thing keeps coming to my mind. I wish we would have done the whole "at first sight" thing. Adam and I talked about seeing each other before the wedding, but I stuck with tradition for some reason. Well, I didn't want all traditional photos, just to stick to that tradition. I do think a certain amount of traditional photos are good to have. Now, let me clarify in saying I had an AMAZING photographer, and this is definitely not her fault or really has anything to do with her :) I just wish that we would've done the see each other before the wedding thing and taken all the romantic, sweet, just him and me photos before. After the wedding and before th...

Something spurred (is that the right word) in me today thoughts about stages of life. I was talking on the phone last week with a friend about how even though we are married women now, we don't want to exclude ourselves to only talking and hanging out with married women. When I was single, I hung out with singles, married people, people with children, old people...whatever :) I notice however that some people choose to only hang with people in their 'life stage'. I find there is something completely wrong about this. That's my opinion and I'm stickin' to it! Although I am not as fun of a playdate as someone with children, I think I'm pretty fun. ;) I'm kidding. But seriously, I think that sometimes people can get into this phase where, because they relate better with someone in their life stage, they choose to only spend time with them. There is much to be learned and shared with others in their different life stages. I love being around moms with childr...

People? One thing we have learned through this process is that there are two kinds of people. There are the ones who are only uplifting and encouraging through trials. They only have kind, nice words to say and keep your spirits high. We are so thankful! Then there are the other kind. You know what I'm talking about. The have nothing good to say, why aren't you doing things like this or like that ...or are you sure God really told you to do that...maybe you should think about... I wear rainbows...would you care to try them on? Praise the Lord for the people who have kind, encouraging words. We have been blessed by many of these. Nick and Meg, Thank you! Taylor, Thank you! Heather and Chad, Thank you! Jay, Thank you! Kristen, Thank you! Kristi, Josalynn, Lauren, Katie, The Russell and Newton fam, Rebecca, our parents and siblings, I could go on...but seriously, thank you to everyone who has encouraged us along our journey. We have yet to reach our destination ...

I may have blogged about this somewhere back in the land of blog but because it's on my mind again...here goes. There are certain people in my life I look up to. Family, dear friends, acquaintences...they all have one thing in common. Discipline. I have the utmost respect for disciplined people. The ones who do the things they say they are going to when they say they are going to. They don't procrastinate or make excuses for why something hasn't been done or try to blame it on someone else. They are go-getters and put in 100 percent to the things they take on. People like...Caitlin Storck for example. She gets up every  morning no matter where she is or what she is doing and does her quiet time. Literally, we would be out of town in the middle of nowhere Illinois and she would get up and go into the hotel bathroom and do her quiet time before everyone else got up. That is discipline. My friend Kristen T. She knows exercise is important to her husband so she gets up before ...

I'm not sure anyone reads my blog anymore, but in the hopes that...well, shoot, I just like writing. So readers or not, here I go. :) As I wrote before, life has been a whirlwind here lately. But I am, in fact, the happiest I have ever been (post my pops heading to heaven anyway). I was driving tonight home from my mom's house after church and it was awesome. Fun country songs on the radio, the smell of a late summer-ish night with the windows down and the warm air coming in from the cornfields and singing at the top of my lungs, some really cool clouds, it was blissful. I was thinking about how excited I am about this time in my life. It's an adventure. I'm SO excited to be marrying Adam. I have no clue what my next career is going to be, and I'm planning a wedding in less than five months. An Adventure I tell you! But what a great one to be on. I feel so blessed right now. I am, in fact, still the most indecisive person I know...at least when it comes to wedding g...

I am eating Cheese Puffs right now. That bright orange bag makes me happy. I'm looking for jobs too. I had my taxes done today and am getting back a whopping 30 dollars. But I don't owe...so I'm in the black. I've been doing laundry all day of old linens (that are still cute) that my mom gave to me because she said my old stuff was taking up room in her linen closet. Well mother, my life is in storage but sure. Speaking of mom, she looks great. She's lost a bunch of weight and her hair is darker. I like mom's hair dark. She's fabulous. I am going to the beach this weekend and am excited about it even though the weather doesn't look amazing. I'm wondering how you tell if blueberries are still good because I had some this morning and they were still sweet but at what point can I tell without putting one in my mouth? I got to talk to the lady who did my taxes about God and sin and how it doesn't matter 'how sinful' you are, He accepts you as...

That's what my papaw says when he gets excited or frustrated. "Great Day!" Haha. I love it. Today is a 'good for your soul' day. I don't quite know how to explain it. Something about listening to Kenny singing "Down the Road" and a good morning. My sis stayed with me last night. I got up, went to the gym at 8, came home and made pancakes, scrambled eggs, blueberries and coffee. So delish! Today is a day where I really wanna go run through a field. People make fun of me when I say this. Or sit on a dock for hours talking at the lake. Or take a long walk with the sand between my toes. That's a good for the soul day. The smell of wet grass or the cool spring breeze (It is almost spring, so this is relevant). I just want to spend time with people that I love. People that also know what it's like to feel like that. Great Day!

Praise the Lord for this snow! It is so beautiful and could only be created by the One who loves us so much He sent Jesus to live and die for us. What a great gift to wake up to this morning. There's something so wonderful about the smell, the feeling of the quiet, and the way the sun shines on it that makes it magical. I turned on the fire, made a pot of coffee, and then with pure glee went outside and stood there enjoying nature. So beautiful to see the birds and hear them chirping, the ducks on the pond and the pure, white snow everywhere. Because of You...Whiter than snow Lord... whiter than snow.

(Disclaimer, I'm not speaking to critically ill people or genetic diseases). I am frustrated. You are what you eat. You get out of your body what you put into it. I'm not saying that I have a perfect diet or workout routine. But, I have watched people self destruct in my life and I'm tired of it! Stop putting a slab of butter on your baked potato. Stop putting a pound of salt on your rice. Stop eating three helpings of apple pie. Stop smoking. Stop drinking. Start exercising. Or have a heart attack and die. God tells us that our body is a temple. He tells us not to be a drunkard, or a glutton. We don't listen. We get sick. We get fat. We get high blood pressure, high cholesterol. We can't breathe. We have strokes, heart attacks, and we die. IT'S WHAT HAPPENS! I know some people have a hard time realizing that what they put into their body is what IS their body. Watch the Biggest Loser. Watch the shows where they have to do the Gastric Bypass. Watch these people ...

My car, a wonderful 2005 Honda Civic...is in the shop this afternoon. She's not hurt or having problems... just in for a check up. She needs new tires (the current ones have lasted me since I bought the car in Oct of 04 with a whopping 90k on them)...and I'm due for my 90k Honda recommended maintenance. I have no clue what they really do in the recommended Honda maintenance check up thing...I just know that I always get what they recommend because I know nothing about cars. Being that my dad is deceased, I have no grandfathers that are car - capable...and my stepdad is pretty much always busy working....I tackle the car thing on my own. I try to play the pitiful blonde who has no money. Would you like the Michelins...they are the best but of course run about 690....No sir...I do cheerleading for a living...what's the next step down? :) Mike said something about a timing belt...better get that checked. Honestly, come on people. I can do alot of things and do them well, I can...

...is going on? In the past couple of weeks, the world's largest banks have been in a state of turmoil, and will continue to be. Why? ARMs....really stupid people getting really stupid loans (in Ginny terms), and really stupid banks allowing them to do so. Why? Because we are greedy people living in a sinful world. People like to live above their means. Banks want to make as much money off of greedy people because the people running the banks are greedy. I was just sitting here today thinking of the recent sell of Wachovia to CitiGroup and what a mess it is. How many people in my city, Charlotte, are going to lose their jobs. How many people in the Southeast are going to lose their jobs. Thus, reinforcing the recession we are sliding into oh so fast. So, my thought is, how can I not contribute to the recession? How can I not allow this to affect me and therefore allow me to be a functioning member of society and help our economy instead of hurt it? I'm the type of person who re...

Look around you today while you're driving down the road. God loves yellow. Who knew? :) I don't have any pictures to prove it just yet, but he does. Yellow flowers are all around us and somehow I have never noticed it before. They grow wild all down the street I drive to work on. When I was in the mountains last the yellow flowers were everywhere. Yesterday I saw a ton of them too. Pretty, yellow flowers. It excites me because right now everything is green still. The leaves haven't started to change, it's the last drop of summer and the first step into fall. And God made yellow flowers to announce it all. When my sister and I were driving to my great-grandparents lake house on Saturday for my Papaw Davis's 90th birthday, everytime I saw the yellowness, I poked her and said "yellow!" Haha.... Yellow!

Mr. McCullough wrote a nice blog about nostalgia, so thought I would do the same. I kinda woke up thinking about it, because when I heard my non-alarm (cell phone on vibrate) go off, it was raining outside and my room was dark and I thought "I should stay in bed til the rain stops". But, I didn't. Work and my paycheck calls. Last night I did Zumba with Kristi and when we came out of the church there was that wet grass at dusk smell. Dusk is my favorite time of the day. When I was little, it was when mom would yell for us to come inside from playing. I grew up going to Badin Lake, and it's still my favorite place in the world. At dusk, the water would be still as glass. Occasionally a boat would come into our cove where my papaw's house was and then the sound of the waves hitting the shore or causing the boat to rock against the pier, it was so relaxing. Dusk was when my dad, brother, sister, and I would get our fishing rods and go down and sit on the dock and try ...

In life, you have different kind of conversations with different people. Let me explain. Shallow conversations get on my nerves. The ones that go "hi, how are you...good, how are you doing?...great, thanks for asking". Then there are others that are not quite as shallow as that, that are more like "How was your weekend, what's new in your life, got a boyfriend?...or, how's your family, Oh, my family, they're doing ok..." The kind I actually prefer are the real ones. I know this sounds simple, but, they are better conversations. I like deep thinkers. I like witty people. I like people who want to know how your brain works and want to tell you how theirs works and want to really get to the heart and soul of the matter. Even if there's not a matter. Maybe there's just a random thought. I have some people in my life, when you really get to talking about heart issues, freak out. My mom is one of them. She'll say "it is what it is"...or ...