Girl and God time :)

I wanted to let everyone know that starting next week I will be leading a girls bible study at my house. The girls are from my Wesley group that I attend and one of the girls, Sarah, will be helping me! I'm only taking one class this semester, which will finish my major here at Kennesaw (YAY) and so I was very excited how God worked things out for me to be a small group leader for Wesley! I met with Sarah last night and had been praying prior to her coming over. We both shared our thoughts and Ideas and realized that we were both on the same track! I gave her a few ideas of what I had done in the past and I think we've decided to study the women of the Bible, since I enjoyed it so much before and she said some girls had mentioned doing something along those lines last year!!!

I say all this to ask you to join me in praying that God can be glorified through all of us girls this semester and that our intentions in this group will be nothing but for his purpose!!! I'm so excited about this and hope to show God to these girls in a different way and at the same time grow in my walk!

Thanks and I love you all....I can't wait to share more throughout the year!

Michigan...Where 'EVERYTHING' is better!

So... My family had debated on where to go this year for the longest time. We wanted to go somewhere different because we have a time share that we can use, but because of the gas prices and other reasons we decided to drive up to michigan and stay with some friends of ours! Danial went with us and my Aunt Chris and her two girls flew up and joined us for the week.... nothing like a week with your cell phone turned off and spending time with the people you love most :)

I have to say, this probably has been one of my favorite vacations! We had the best time... everyone got along, we did more than you could imagine in one vacation and the weather was more than perfect!!!

We left out on Friday evening about 9:00 PM and drove through louisville and decided to stop right outside of Indianapolis at about 3:30 AM. We woke up the left out the next morning at 8:00, had to eat at Waffle House and was back on the road. Of course when we first arrived in Holland, MI we had to eat at skiles pizza whom my dad claims has the best pizza around, and he's probably correct, it is delicious!




Sunday we went to visit my great Aunt and Uncle. My Uncle Truman had a stroke and is in worse health than my Aunt Artie so she has to take care of him! My Aunt Artie is none like any other person on this Earth, thank the Lord, hahaha....SHE'S CRAZY, but I love her!




After that we went out with her daughter's family (my dad's first cousin, The Teermans) on their boat to lake Michigan! It was such a beautiful day and we had a blast... Their boat is about a 35 ft. cabin cruiser..... we anchored and went and played on the sand dunes and just relaxed!










Monday we first had to eat at Russ' for breakfast! They have the greatest pig in the blankets that ever exist :) We then drove around town "site seeing" and then that afternoon we headed up further north to stay at our friends lake house in Hart, MI!

Tuesday was lake day...... we spent the whole day skiing, tubing and jetskiing :) enough said...









Wednesday we drove up even further north to the upper peninsula to Mackinaw Island. This was a great day! Mackinaw Island is an island that uses no motorized vehicles and the only way to get to the island is by boat or snowmobile in the winter :) We rented bikes and road around the entire island, then we took a horse and buggy ride around the island..... it was so awesome!











Thursday was our kayak day!!!! We all went down the Pine River, which is close to the lake house... that was a lot of fun, the water was a lot colder on the river!!! (pictures will soon be available)

Friday we hung around the house for the first part of the day, after eating waffles with strawberries and icecream and played cards!!!





We then had jeep wranglers reserved and drove them on the sand dunes!!!! That was the great adventure..... my mom and dad are crazy behind the wheel, we all had a blast! It's amazing how much fun you can have on mountains of sand, and yes i said mountains, when you under 4-wheel drive :) It was a great conclusion to an amazing trip!








Saturday was our drive home and it was definitely a long day!!! We left at 10:30 AM and arrived in the Therber's driveway at 9:15 PM ~ We were glad to be home, but sad that the trip was over!!!! It's been several years since the four of us have been on a vacation together so it was really nice to spend quality time together. Can't wait to do it again!!!

Super Woman

It's almost been three weeks since I lost my first grandparent, my grandma Therber! I thought I'd write a blog about her to share with everyone what an amazing, strong woman she was....

My grandmother had a huge tumor in her belly several years ago. She literally looked pregnant the tumor was so large. They finally removed the tumor and it actually ruptured during the process of removal. I'm not sure what the name of the cancer is, it's very rare and they sometimes refer to it as 'Jelly Belly'. The cancer coated the organs in my grandmother and after removing the tumor they had to clean her insides to make sure they got all of the cancer.

About two years later it came back.... my grandmother went through chemo, which worked great. Around the first of the year, I believe, is when she started complaining of pain in her belly and again she started to become bloated, which is what had happened before.

She went to several different doctors to get them to do surgery on her and none would agree. She finally got her doctor in Byron to do the surgery although he told her that she could possibly die from the procedure. My grandma was in such pain that she did not care what the outcome was, she was ready to stop suffering.

The surgery went well and my grandma was in the hospital for almost a week after the surgery. She got to come home, but was not able to really eat much and had a lot of gas built up in her. I had gone to see her while in the hospital and then I went to florida with my friend Tiffany and her family.

I knew my grandma wasn't doing very well and so I would talk to my dad quite often to check in and several times my dad would break down and say that she wasn't going to make it! On the 9th of July, which was a Wednesday (my Aunt Penny's birthday and my cousin Sheila's) my mom told me that hospice had come to the house and had her on Morphine. My grandma passed away that day and all her children were there with her....

I came home that next day from the beach, which was when we had planned to leave in the beginning... I came home to a lot of family at the house which followed a full weekend of a house full, a lot of memories and a funeral!

It's so crazy to think that my grandma is no longer here... I almost don't believe it still! It's hard to believe that she won't be there for all the holidays. I dread going to visit my grandpa knowing that my grandma won't be there to greet me with a huge hug and kiss!

Everytime I talked to my grandma she always was making sure that school was going well, that I still had a roomate b/c she didn't want me living alone and she always hated hearing that I was going out of town somewhere b/c she worried that some one would get me while driving down the road, haha....

I admired my grandma so much... she raised eleven children and helped her husband in the body shop, working on cars, painting, sanding and doing whatever there was to be done! At the same time she was keeping things up in the house and cooking every meal. I have 28 cousins and 31 second cousins... our family is huge and it will never be the same!

I pray that we can continue to stay close and never take for granted the amazing and HUGE family that we are blessed with, which all started with my grandma and grandpa! I'm going to make sure that I can spend as much time with my other grandparents while they are still here!

Who says Diamonds are a girls best friend?!?!

Lilly Mae

Lilly turned One year old on July 15th! I got her last October and she was only about eight weeks old, how time flies! Lilly has gotten me through many lonely days and has gone with me everywhere.... She's like my child and sometimes I compare her to other people's children ( weird...I KNOW!)





Lilly went camping with me and went swimming for the first time, she even climbed up a rock that was about four feet high, I'm not even joking!



Lilly is very picky, unfortunately, about who she likes and when Danial came over the first time to hang out, which i was real hesitant about because I would hate for Lilly to be confused about who her daddy is ;) J/K! Well, much to my surprise Lilly absolutely loved Danial.... I honestly believe she loves him more than she loves me, who has raised her, fed her, and trained her from day one, geeze!!!

I am so excited about the years to come with Lilly and couldn't imagine life without her!!!!

True Friends Last Forever!!!

Last night my girlfriends, Megan and Tabatha and I got to hang out together for the first time in months! Although we talk almost every week and see each other every few weeks, it's not quite as often that we are all three able to hang out and catch up!

Megan and Tabatha and I have been best friends since high school... long story short, it took awhile for me us three to 'blend well'! Once we became friends, it was like it was never meant to be any other way and I couldn't have asked for better friends!

To give you a little background...



Tabatha is a beautiful, brown haired girl who stayed home for college and went through the radiology program at Dalton State. She's such a loving friend, always there for you to give good advice or to share your deepest secrets with and who is AMAZING at saving money!



Megan is my bestest friend ever! She went to college with me and I'm not sure there's something we haven't been through together! We've both been each others strength in hard times, our safe haven to go to when we couldn't go home and, sad to say, but our accomplice when we did something that probably wasn't very smart!!! She graduated from the nursing program at Kennesaw and is now working in the children's ER at Erlanger!

I'm so proud of both of my best friends and I love them so much! Last night was such a breath of fresh wind.... and every time we get together, it's like we've never left our small circle of comfort at home! We always pick right back up with life, never have a dull moment and ALWAYS recognize that none of us have changed one bit!
We went and Saw Mamma Mia! It was very cute and would recommend it to a group of gils/women! I would also recommend going to see it with a 'Hot and Fresh' dozen of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, which is what we did :)

Last night was great and look forward to coming home again so the three of us can do it all over again!

Dreams do come true....

So... It's kind of funny to sit back and think how much I always worried about finding someone that would truly make me happy! I've dated several guys in my lifetime, some that didn't last very long and some that I allowed to stay around a little TOO long! I guess i could just tell the story of how I met the amazing guy who has completely turned my world upside down!!!

I actually was dating a guy named nick, whom now I'm very appreciative of :), who got me to come to a christian group on Wednesday nights called Wesley! I started going and loved it...

One night we celebrated the passover, which was really awesome, I've actually never experience something like that before that night! After the night was over I was introduced to a few people, one which was Danial, also known as Danny at that time. Of course, i didn't remember him, like most people we meet and think they aren't relevant in our life. Anyways... I decided to work a Disciple now retreat for a church, which was actually very last minute! The first night I was there the workers were told to come dressed in 50's attire. I was very proud of myself, i made a poodle skirt and came as a 'poodle girl'. Danial was there, and at this point i still didn't really remember i had met him at Wesley before, but i knew i had seen him somewhere! He ironically came dressed as "Danny" from grease and of course EVERYONE there called us Danny and Sandy the whole night!!!




Once D-Now was over all the counselors went to eat at Taco Mac and i ended up sitting by Danial at the table... while we were ordering, to my embarrassment I leaned over to him and asked what Frijoles were and i definitely DID NOT pronounce it the proper way! He of course took every advantage to make fun of me for it...

The next week was Wesley again and it was 'family night'. Family night is where you bring your parents so that they can see what all is going on in your life and come hang out for the night, it was really great!!!! My parents weren't able to come, but that's ok and that's beside the point, anyways....
After we played a few games and before the praise and worship and service started Danial comes over, sits down beside me and asks if he could sit with me, of course i say yes :)

When I got home that night he had sent me an email asking me to go have coffee with him, so I did... coffee ended up being about a 3 hour conversation, which by the way was during finals time, so he wasn't helping me study AT ALL! And the 3 hour conversation turned into almost 3 months of us not spending a day apart unless one of us is out of town!

It's so amazing how God truly does give you the desires of your heart and it's crazy how sometimes you don't even realize what those desires are and he completely goes above and beyond what you could ever had imagined!!!!

Danial is amazing man of God, who loves everyone that he meets. He's so patient, slow to anger, humble and has complete faith in the Lord! I don't know what I've done to deserve someone like him, but am so thankful and blessed to be able to have him on my side!!!!

I've never had someone that thinks I am a princess and who's goal is to make sure I am happy at all times. I finally found that person that wants to open the door for you every time you go somewhere, who wants to buy you flowers or surprise you with little thoughtful gifts just because and who encourages me and lifts me up in the Lord everyday! Thank you Lord....

If you are reading this and haven't met the person that you are suppose to spend the rest of your life with, please... be patient! God has something so great that whatever you think is great, doesn't compare to what he wants to bless you with!

One step forwad... Two steps back!

well... so i started this a long time ago and never really took avantage! I've decided to start writing again since a lot of my other friends are blogging, it will be easy for them to keep up with me as i enjoy keeping up and reading about them!

This summer has been probably one of the craziest summers I've ever had. I started dating a guy in the spring named Danial, who I will talk about later! His dad had a stroke about 10 weeks ago (you can find the link to his page to your right, which tells about the miraculous story) and so I have been by his side through all of that. Although Steve, Danial's dad, is getting better Danial continues to drive to chattanooga from calhoun twice a week and he also stays at his parents house about two or three days out of the week to take care of the house for his mom. His dad is in a rehab center in Eastridge and everyday he accomplishes something new that he couldn't do the day before!

My grandmother passed away on the 9th of this month, which was very hard! She had a very rare cancer that some people call "jelly belly". It coats the organs in the body and basically ends of sufficating them and the pain is unbareable. My grandmother had surgery a few weeks before she passed because she was so miserable, although her doctor advised her against it and told her that it would probably end of killing her! She knew what she was doing... she was tired of suffering, and who could blame her! My grandmother was an incredible woman who had 13 children... we have a huge family and things will never be the same! I love her so much and miss her dearly :)

One thing that has helped inspire me to start writing again is that I have been sick all week and have had nothing else to do! I had pharyngitis, which is also called a "sore throat". I know is sounds pathetic, BUT... I'm not sure I have ever felt so bad, for so long! It's a viral infection in the throat therefore there is nothing you can do, but take something for the pain and pray that it runs it's course in about a week!

That's all for now, I'm really excited about blogging again and I hope that I can stay up to date with life :)