#madeforgood

This year (OK, technically LAST year) was my first opportunity to attend Exposure Youth Camp, held at the Embassy Suites and Von braun Center in Huntsville, AL.

It was quite an experience.

I went as a chaperone with Tenth Street church of Christ. I "chaperoned" four girls - it didn't take much work. They were good girls, always went where they were supposed to, always back by curfew, so I basically just enjoyed myself.

We heard several excellent speakers. The ones that will stick with me were David Shannon and Kyle Butt/Eric Lyons (the latter of whom held a question and answer session).

The weekend's theme, Made for Good, was drawn out of Ephesians 2:10. We learned about being handcrafted by God, which is an inpring thing, when you think about it. In that vein, we also watched this video, which I think is just wonderful. I hope you enjoy it:

No interest in Pinterest

I started my very own Pinterest account tonight.
I actively avoided Pinterest for a loooonnng time. I was afraid of being sucked in. I had so many friends whose conversations were slowly taken over by "Oh, I saw on Pinterest ..."
DIY projects. New hairstyles. Wedding bouquet ideas. They all came from Pinterest.
I was a good girl. I stayed away. One major time waster – Facebook – was quite enough for me, thank you very much.
But I could see the value of it. One location where you could collect all the things you were interested in, amassing a virtually unlimited assortment of recipes, reading lists, interior design ideas and photographs.
And so tonight when I decided I needed to start building a list of healthier recipes, Pinterest seemed like the natural destination. I would finally follow the crowd.
It was a short-lived decision.
I wasn't on Pinterest more than a few minutes before I was feeling overwhelmed. So many pictures, so many projects, so much to read and look at! Because I started my Pinterest through my Facebook, Pinterest obligingly went ahead and followed 189 boards for me.
...
189 BOARDS!
A few seconds of clicking set me down a path to what I hoped would be more manageable.
Unfollow. Unfollow. Unfollow.
Where is the "unfollow everything" button?! I found myself wondering frantically.
In the midst of unfollowing, I couldn't stop myself from pausing to click and browse through a few boards. You'll remind yourself how useful and fun this could be, and you won't feel so overwhelmed, I reassured myself.
But every friend had multiple boards, and every board had multiple pins, and many pins had multiple pictures ... agghhhghh!
Deactivate account.
Pinterest begged me to stay. But I was determined.
Deactivating kicked me back to the Pinterest homepage, where I was greeted with the tagline

A few (million) of your favorite things.

Yup. That was the problem.

I like a feeling of completion in my life. It's why I make to do lists from which I can cross off finished tasks. On Pinterest I don't think I would ever, ever feel a sense of completion. There would always be more pins I hadn't looked at, more ideas I hadn't considered, a few more (million) favorite things to pin.

I couldn't do it.

I'm thinking about going old school Pinterest. Where are my scissors and glue ...

Ready for fall

Fall of last year was a magically time in my life.

It was full of the "first time doing (x) as an engaged couple" moments.

First Auburn game, first Halloween, first time carving pumpkins.

And now we get to experience it all again, doing things for the first time as a married couple.

Only this time we have a front porch where we can display the pumpkins.

And fall has always been my favorite season really. Walking out of my front door in the morning to the slightly cool mornings is like a promise now – better times are on the way.

I have a huge box full of scarves calling to be set free and a closet full of jackets begging to see the outside world once more.

I can hardly wait to buy new costumes, set out my scarecrows and fill our candy jar with Halloween chocolates. I want to have a bonfire and roast marshmallows in the crisp night air and go crunching through fallen leaves, seas of red and orange.

I want to make big pots of soup and mug after mug of apple cider and hot chocolate to enjoy snuggled under a blanket wearing fuzzy socks.

It will probably be a while before Auburn, Alabama is completely done with 80+ degree weather. It's fine – I can be patient. But I sure will welcome it with open arms.

Where shopping is a pleasure

Thursday evening I was on my way home from work, eagerly anticipating an evening with my husband and a couple friends of ours watching the SEC football season opener. For those of you who don't know, I have about a 50-minute commute. But I was on the last 15 minutes or so when I got on the phone with Christopher.

"Hey, can you pick up some lighter fluid on your way home?"

A simple enough request. "Okay, where do I get lighter fluid?"

"Walmart."

Cue my morale sinking into the soles of my feet. The last thing I want to do right now is go to Walmart. "Okay, sure thing. Be home soon."

So I'm driving along, thinking about how much I don't want to go to Walmart. By my calculations, I am about 15 minutes from home. Also by my calculations, this 'simple enough' trip to Walmart is going to turn that into 40. I'm contemplating how I won't be able to find a parking spot, how annoying people will have their carts parked in the middle of the aisle, how I won't be able to find what I'm looking for and there won't be anyone to ask. How there will only be one lane open and 20 people in it. I'm getting more grumbly and sullen by the minute.

That was when I passed Publix.

I hung a right and pulled into the parking lot. Punt this - I ain't going to Walmart.

I got a relatively close parking spot and walked inside. It was brightly lit, clean and sparsely populated. Unfortunately, unlike at Walmart, I had no idea where to even begin to look for lighter fluid. However, in the space of time it took for me to look left, right, and then left again, a friendly Publix employee walked up.

"How are you tonight ma'm? Can I help you find something?"

I'm already inwardly grinning smugly at my ingenious decision to skip the Walmart mayhem. "Lighter fluid?"

She scanned the aisles quickly. "It's on aisle 7, at the very end next to charcoal."

The last time I asked a Walmart employee where something was (after I had already looked for it myself, and explained to her where I had looked), she spent five minutes looking on the same aisle I had already searched through before deciding Walmart didn't carry that product or they were out.

Thanks.

I pick up my lighter fluid, no problems, and breeze through the store quickly adding Kleenex, cookies and a bag of chips to my total purchase. By the time I reach the front, my arms are pretty full, but I don't care, because I'm done in about five minutes and haven't had the urge to roll my eyes once.

As I approach the cash registers, two employees are standing at the end of their respective check out lines. You know why? Because they aren't cram-packed crowded with people trying to buy 50 items in the 20 item or less line. Because they actually have more than one lane open.

I'm trying to quickly decide which check-out to use when one of the cashiers speaks up. "Ma'm, can I get you a cart?"

When was the last time a store employee offered to get you a cart?

I tell her I'm through shopping, and we make polite conversation as she checks me out. A bagger, with a smile, places my four items in a bag. As I'm about to leave, the first employee, who told me where to find lighter fluid, walks by. "Ma'm, did you find the lighter fluid alright?"

I'm mentally racking up point after point for Publix over Walmart. "Thank you, I did."

In short ... I love Publix. It really was a pleasure. Walmart may have cornered the market on "always low prices" but I'm not sold on believing that saving money=living better. I just might be willing to pay what Publix charges for the feeling I had when I left.

And that's the way it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgymlJ4mbgg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEHM4V3HG_w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHkqGgPpQOE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtAwOpQBYPI

A month and then some

I have now been married for 39 days.

Does it feel like five and a half weeks? I don't really know. It sure has been jam-packed.

Our duplex is finally looking so nice with a little help from friends and parents, along with a few early mornings/late evenings/working on the weekends. It's hard working full time out of town and still being a good housekeeper and such, but I think I'm getting the hang of it! Christopher is really good about helping out, and that is huge.

One of my favorite things about having our own place is having company. So far we've had the college kids over to hang out a couple times, two of our friends over for burgers and three friends for Hamburger Helper and corn muffins. Tomorrow we're having a dear family over for hotdogs on the grill. I'm just so excited to be able to host people! That can also be hard, when I rarely get home before 8 p.m. But again, we're getting the hang of it.

Christopher and I will have our first "adventure" this weekend as a married couple (grocery shopping, bill paying and dishwashing have been their own kind of adventure, sure, but let's not count that). Auburn's first game is Saturday, so we're headed to Atlanta for the Clemson game! It's our first away game, and we're both pretty excited. Let's just hope Auburn starts the season off with a victory. War Eagle!

Well, if any of you ever want to come down to see us in Auburn, please do! As I've said, I love having company, and we even have a guest bedroom! Come see us!

One of my all-time favorite football game pictures – from October of last year.

She's back!

I know, I know – I haven't written a blog in two months.

You may find this hard to believe, but I got a little busy – starting a new job, planning a wedding, having that wedding, taking a trip to Disney World and then trying to start a home and life together with my new husband hasn't left me with a lot of spare time.

Consider that previous paragraph your recap of what's been going on in my life. A lot of you probably expect me to talk about the wedding, or the honeymoon, or our duplex or even my job. But I'm not going to. It's just too much, and I wouldn't know where to start, where to stop, what to include and what to leave out.

So if you want to hear more about my life, give me a call! Or send me an email. I'd love to talk to you about it – that's just not what I want to use this blog for.

All that being said, what do I want to use this blog for? This post, at least, may be a little rambly. But what I really want to do is get back to my thought of telling you about my everyday adventures. Take this morning for example.

It's my weekend to work (again, call me and I'll tell you all about the job I've been doing for the past couple months). This morning I was assigned to cover Muster on the Tallapoosa at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park.

It's been a bit of a soggy morning, and the turnout wasn't great. But boy, did I enjoy myself. When's the las time you watched cannon or musket demonstrations from only a few feet away? And since I was on the clock, I had the added excitement of getting to take some great pictures with one of the office cameras.

One of the great things was seeing the kids who were there, learning about Creek history. As event organizer Ove Jensen explained to me, that may be a moment that stays with them forever. Some of those kids may study history, or become park rangers, or become any number of things based on what they saw this morning.

Of course, some won't. And maybe none of them will. But at the very least, they had a real-world experience. I worry about today's kids, that all they experience is video games of one form or another. People probably said that about my generation too, but I just see it so much now that I am a sage old 20-something. It was just nice to kids out in the world, learning about America's past, talking to people who have passion.

I would have stayed longer and learned more if I didn't have more events to cover this afternoon. Horseshoe Band National Military Park was well worth the drive, and I hope Christopher and I can go back for their big event in March. If you are in Alabama, especially the central-southeastern area, you should definitely make the trip out there.

Folks, I'll try not to wait two months before another post. Thanks for bearing with me. Love to you all!

(Just a teaser... Here are a few of our pictures from Disney World!)

This is home

As I have slowly transitioned out of school and into my full-time job (which, by the way, is fantastic), now and again people have asked me, "Now, when are you going home?"

They mean back to Sparta, and I've had to come to terms with the idea that I'm not going home.

At least not in the way I have in the past.

There is no more going home for several weeks over the summer. "My bedroom" is much more of a guest room now, where I stay when I happen to be home.

There's an awful, depressing finality to the thought "I will never go home again."

But that's only because that's thinking about it wrong.

The most popular home cliche says Home is where the heart is.

Well, that thought's a lot more cheerful, because that means I have many homes. I have left a piece of my heart in many different places.

I am at home in Auburn.

I also have a home in Selma, even though I was only there for 10 weeks.

I was in London even less time than I was in Selma, but I still feel that it's my home too.

Of course I have a home in Moulton. That's where my second family lives.

Best of all, I'll always have a home in Sparta, Tenn. Even if I never get to go back for a summer, Sparta is home. People I love are there, and that means a big piece of my heart is still there.

And I also have a new home in Alex City, where my new job is. So the truth is, I get to go home almost everywhere I go. I don't have just one home, because home is where your heart is.

"Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in." ~Robert Frost

One of my absolute all time favorite songs is about home. I usually turn to it as I roll off Highway 111 on my way to my Sparta home. Switchfoot says

"Oh, this is home. Now I'm finally where I belong, where I belong. Yeah, this is home. I been searching for a place of my own, and now I've found it. Maybe this is home. Yeah, this is home. 

And now, after all my searching, after all my questions, I'm gonna call it home. I got a brand new mindset, I can finally see the sunset. I'm gonna call it home."