Part of the Youth Group No More

I've been going back and forth about whether or not I want to or should write about this, but I think I've finally come to the conclusion that I just want to get it off my chest. So even though I'm still a little hesitant and reluctant to do so, I'm going for it anyways, and hopefully I feel OK about it in the end...

Most of you probably don't know, because I haven't talked about it in over six months now, but had two jobs for a very long time. One was with the State of Florida, and one was with my church. Here's the super vague, 'Reader's Digest' version of the story...

I had been working with the youth group since I graduated high school in 2006 whenever I could during college. Then when I graduated and moved back in 2010, I worked with them as much as possible, and was even brought on as a paid staff member. Then the youth pastor resigned and I ended up doing it all by myself for about a year and a half. (And now here's where we get even more vague...) Then in December 2012, I found out that as of January, I would no longer be on staff, and instead they were hiring someone else to be the full-time youth pastor.

I was heart-broken. I literally cried about this for weeks, probably a full month, because I was so sad about it. I had wanted to be the full-time youth pastor, but I was told we didn't have the money. And now they were kicking me out to bring someone else in. I had been working with our youth group for seven years, and now this happened. It was devastating. The group of kids that were seniors, were the same group that were just in 6th grade my very first year of volunteering. I had been with them all through middle and high school, and now I wouldn't be a part of it for their final semester. Yes, I could still be a part of their lives, but I wouldn't be a part of their youth group.

So now the reason I'm finally talking about what happened this week, is because my youth group is on our annual mission trip to Miami to work with the kids at Touching Miami with Love, and I'm struggling so much with not being there. This is the first year since 2006 that I haven't gone, and I hardly know what to do with myself. I log onto Facebook, and see pictures posted of them with the kids down there, and I miss them all so much. I miss my youth, and I miss the kids from Miami. And I miss just being a part of the youth group as a whole.

All pictures from last year's TML trip, in June 2012.

Yesterday I was in a funk all day, and I didn't realize why at first. But I eventually figured out it's because I was missing TML so much. One of the first things I saw yesterday morning was a picture of my kids down there, and I think it just made me miss it all so much, and then made me kinda sad the rest of the day. And then when I saw another one last night around 10 pm (after a long, rough day and a headache), I just kinda lost it. I curled up with my head on Jeff's chest and just cried about it for a while. And writing this this morning, I'm getting a little teary-eyed still.

There's really no moral to this post or lesson I've learned or anything like that, I just needed to write down how I'm feeling, and get it off my chest a little bit. I think this whole week will be rough still since I can't be down there and be a part of it. I'll see more pictures, and read status updates, and continue to miss everyone and everything so much. I know I'll be OK, I know that. But it still just sucks so bad sometimes, ya know?

Last year's TML group, on field trip day.

I know God has a reason for everything He does, so I know there's a reason I wasn't mean to be there this week, or even meant to still be on staff on church. I get that. But that doesn't mean it's easy to deal with all the time. I know this is God's plan, but it still makes me sad. I still wish I was down there with them. I wish I was singing those silly songs over and over again, and constantly having to tell kids and youth alike to stop acting like crazy people. I still wish that I was playing Ultimate Frisbee with them before dinner, and then card games and 4-men-on-a-couch for hours on end before bed time. Those times from the past meant a lot to me, and it's when I formed some great relationships with some of these youth. I know they're all having a blast and loving their week so far, but I sure do wish I was there with them.

Parties, Wedding Dresses & a Fish Fry

And of course, Monday morning rolls around again, just like it always does. And this week will be the first full 5-day work week for me, after so much wedding stuff and a holiday last week, so obviously I'm not looking forward to that... What I am looking forward to though, is another week full of wedding planning before Jeff's twins arrive on Saturday! And of course I'm looking forward to them being here! But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's do a weekend recap. It's been a couple of weeks since I've even done one, so it's definitely time. So let's jump right into it!

FRIDAY
Met Jeff after work, and then headed out to a graduation party for one of my youth
Rode an old bicycle around the cul-de-sac waiting to help a family member of hers. Love the cruiser-style bike!
Had a great time eating ice cream and catching up with some old friends and youth and hanging out
Headed back to Jeff's house and watched "Fast Five" in order to get ready to go see the new one sometime soon!

Jeff took this on his phone, and it turned out so great and cute! :)

SATURDAY
Jeff picked me up from my house, and we headed out to another graduation party for one of my youth
We played ladder golf and ate some yummy cookout food

Then Jeff dropped me off at Vocelles Bridal with my Mama, sister & aunt for another dress appointment!

(I found one I loved there, but it was about $600 over the budget...sad.)

After that store, we went back up to Thomasville again to visit The New Image, where I had found one with my Mama about a month ago, but wanted to wait until my sister could see it too...

And we ended up buying it!!! (And this one was only $75 over the budget :) But my Papa said it was OK!)
I NOW HAVE MY WEDDING DRESS!!!

Later that night, Jeff and I went out to meet some friends for dinner at Miller's, then went to their house for game night

 SUNDAY
Sunday school and church, and it was Graduation Recognition Sunday, so we honored my favorite class of seniors
(This is the one class that I have been with from 6th grade through 12th grade, so they're very special to me! And this is only about half of them - there are many more who I also love a whole lot too, but couldn't make it to church yesterday.)

Grabbed a real quick lunch with Jeff at Moe's, and then went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to start our first registry!

We were there for four hours, and it was exhausting, but we're now officially ready to accept gifts ;)

Then we went to my Grandparent's house to celebrate May family birthdays -  Jeff (fiance), Aaron (cousin) & Bo (brother-in-law) - with a giant fish fry

Tilapia, catfish, shrimp, crab cakes, frog legs & hush puppies. Yum.

It was quite a busy weekend, but of course it was a great one! I got to spend time with family and friends and youth and Jeff, and that's what makes me the happiest - the amazing people in my life! I was seriously tired and dragging this morning when I first woke up, but it's worth it to be able to enjoy my weekend so much! So it's A-OK with me. We have quite a bit more wedding plans to conquer this week, so it'll be crazy busy again. But I'm at a really fun point of wedding planning right now, so I'm excited about doing everything this week! As more stuff starts happening, I'll definitely be posting more about it all. For instance, I'll probably write a post later this week about the dress-finding process, so look for that later!

Anyways, the weekend was good, and of course I wish it just could have been longer! Don't we all though?! I hope y'all had good weekends as well, and that your Monday morning isn't too rough so far. Can't wait to catch up with y'all and read about your weekends as well :) Happy Monday!

Linking up with Covered in Grace, Sami's Shenanigans & Synfully Delicious.

Pastors, Pizza & Patriotic Fruit - H54F

It's a little ridiculous how excited I am that it's Friday now, considering I only worked four days this week. But who cares - it's still Friday, and I'm still excited! It's been a pretty crazy busy week, and the weekend will be just as crazy. We've been trying to get in a ton of wedding planning before June 8, because that's when Jeff's boys get here, and they'll be here for three full weeks! We're obviously excited for them to be here, but it leaves us not much alone time, and definitely not much wedding planning time. So we're trying to cram before then!

And so for today's post, I'll tell you five things about this past week that made it good in the midst of the busyness, because today, we're going back to good ole' High Five for Friday with Miss Lauren!

1. My sister and her new husband hosted their first party at their house for Memorial Day lunch, and Jeff and I were in charge of fruit. So we got festive and made red, white and blue fruit skewers! Yummy, healthy, festive and easy. Perfect.

2. Tried a Lean Cuisine French Bread Pizza for the first time, and that baby was delish. And only 310 calories.

3. We looked at another wedding venue on Wednesday, and we really liked it. Not as much as Maclay, but it was still a really good location. Unfortunately, we found out that Maclay is already booked for all of October, so this new place (The Dogwood House) is now our number one choice. The pro's of this place over Maclay though, is that it's $200 less, and it has more tables and chairs that come with it. We'll probably be booking it in the next few days!

4. Sat through two hours of high school graduation on Thursday night, to see some very special youth of mine walk across that stage. This group was in 6th grade the first year I worked with our youth group, so I've seen them grow up all through middle and high school, and it's been amazing. Last night, about 15 of them graduated, and I was so proud of all of them!

5. Over the years, this special girl has become more than just one of my youth, and I am so glad I got to watch her grow up into the beautiful lady that she is. She is going to do amazing things with her life, and I can't wait to watch her!

And not pictured above is number 6. We finally talked to both of our ministers, and we're all set to go with our wedding officiants! Jeff's dad (who is a pastor) and my old youth pastor/mentor Duncan, will both be officiating our wedding ceremony, and I could not be more excited about that!

So yeah, it's been a busy week. And this weekend will be busy. And next week will be busy. But hopefully at the end of next week, we will have made a lot of progress in our wedding planning, and will be able to breathe a bit. Because holy moly it's only  four and a half months away now!! This weekend we have two graduation parties, wedding dress shopping, registering, and a family birthday party. Bring on the fun and the crazy and the busy!

Perch From the Top

So first up, I got 11 new followers over the weekend, which I was seriously shocked about when I opened up Blogger this morning! What an unexpected excitement! So welcome to all of you who just joined the last few days, I'm so glad to have you here. Pull up a chair, get cozy and stay a while :)

Now, moving on to my usual weekend recap post!!

Friday
Lunch time sushi date with my sweet man, which was super delish
Had some afternoon tea and a cookie at work
Finished the day at my Grandparent's house with the fam, for a joint birthday party for my sister, uncle and step-bro

A bit of delicious lunch time sushi. I'm ready for more again already! I'm becoming obsessed I believe...

I had the chai, and it was sooo good. And this tin was only $4 at Ross!

Grandparents said they needed this Snoopy to go with the Charlie Brown tree :)

Cute little sister

Peach cobbler for birthday party dessert

Saturday
Went to pick out our family Christmas tree in the morning
Finally cleaned my super crazy messy room, and it feels sooo much better in there now :)
Hung out at Jeff's house for just a tiny bit
Went downtown to meet Lacey for a late lunch at Po'Boys
Walked around downtown waiting on the parade to start, then watched the parade
Finished up the day at Lacey's house playing an intense game of boys vs. girls Pictionary

We got the one on the right, although I voted for the taller one on the left. But it looks good in our house still :)

Festival of Lights celebration downtown

He thought his card said "killer waffle" -- it didn't. Any guesses what it actually said?!

Sunday
Started off the morning with my family and coffee from Dunkin Donuts before church
Watched some super precious children's choirs sing during "big church"
Celebrated my sister's birthday with family lunch and presents at our house
Put up our Christmas tree and decorated the rest of our house
Went to Singing Christmas Tree rehearsal at church, and found out I'm on row 11 of 12, which is super high up
Then went to the ugly sweater Christmas party for the youth! (There were some really ugly sweaters by the way...)
Finished up the day hanging out at Jeff's house, watching re-runs of one of our favorites, "How I Met Your Mother"

One of four of our bins of ornaments!

First on the tree this year! "I" made this in pre-school, back in 1991, when I was three!

My view of the sanctuary in my Perch From the Top of the Singing Christmas Tree! So high up!

The youth that wore their ugly sweaters for our party. 

I'm sorry for another week of only iPhone pictures. I never realize how crappy some of them are until I put them in my blog, and then I'm mad that's all I've got. Maybe one day I'll learn... But anyways, it was a good weekend, and as usual I'm not super stoked to be back at work this Monday morning. Here in Florida, today is supposed to be a record high of 81, so that should be lovely in December... oh well! I'd rather have that than a foot or two of snow! So I guess I can't complain :)

Hope your week is off to a good start! And I look forward to reading/hearing about y'alls weekends as well!

{And today I'm linking up with Covered in Grace, Sami's Shananigans and Synfully Delicious.}

Parade, Penguins & Parties

Dear Penguins: Thanks for coming to my office and decorating for Christmas. I love seeing all of your cute faces, and you did such a great job! Feel free to invite a few more of your friends to come before the season is over. We always welcome more penguins around these parts.

Dear December: I'm so glad you'll be here tomorrow! I'm already in the Christmas spirit, but you really kick it off for everyone else who's been waiting around  for an engraved invitation. And tomorrow we're going to the Festival of Lights downtown, so that will make two lighting festivals for us this year! But this one has a parade!

Also, I've made an awesome activity calendar for Jeff and I for the month, and I can't wait to do some of these fun Christmas activities with him! And I wrote them all down on this little calendar that I picked because I knew how much he would like the cute little robots :) (You can find more cute stuff on their website.) Even if we aren't able to do every single thing, every single day, at least we have plenty of options to choose from on the days where we do want a Christmas activity!

Dear Fingernails: I'm sorry I've neglected you and you've been completely naked basically all week. I promise we'll make up for it and do something cute this weekend. And if I do something "fancy" enough, that will make nail art design #10 of 10 before my 25th birthday! And then that will be another goal I get to cross off :) Maybe a Christmas theme to kick off December? As if I'm not already Christmasy enough right now...

Dear Family: I'm so excited to decorate the Christmas tree on Sunday afternoon! And put up the rest of our decorations all around the house as well, of course. Get ready for my peppy spirit and some Christmas tunes while we do everything, because you can bet I'll be all over that.

Dear Boyfriend: Thanks for taking me to Japanica, where our chef was talented enough to breath fire out of his mouth after cooking our meal for us. Awesomeness I tell you. And the food wasn't so bad either.

Dear BFBC Youth: We're having another ugly sweater Christmas party on Sunday night, and I'm sooo looking forward to it! Last year's was so much fun, and we saw some truly ugly sweaters. So make plans to attend again, and please show up in the most hideous Christmas sweater you can get your little hands on! I'm going to be wearing one myself, and I promise we'll have a great time!

Sooo does anyone else notice how much I mentioned Christmas in all these letters? I'd say I'm a tad bit excited, but that's probably a huge understatement. I'm thrilled!

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow

Good morning my bloggy friends! (Or afternoon/evening depending on when you actually read this...) Today I'd like to focus a little bit on Thanksgiving, since it is this very week after all! I just wanted to share a few things I am thankful for in my life, and then share a challenge at the end as well...

Photo found via Google images

The Bible tells us that we should give thanks in all things! (1 Thessalonians 5:18)  Sounds like a tricky thing to do, but it's something we really should work on each and every day, not just once a year for a special holiday. 1 Chronicles 16:34 says, "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever." Isn't that great? That God's love endures, forever?! That alone is enough want to make you thank God all day long, right...?!

And then there are also some great Psalms about thankfulness as well:
Psalm 69:30 -- I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.
Psalm 95:2 -- Let us come before him with Thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.
Psalm 100:4 -- Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, gives thanks to him and praise his name.

Photo found via Google images

I am thankful for:

A wonderful, loving family

My super sweet boyfriend

An amazing Savior who died for me and forgave my sins

Living in the Sunshine state

A church family to call "home"

Being called to youth ministry, and getting to work with the youth in my church

My education

Being healthy enough to ride bikes!
Being surrounded by a great group of friends
This amazing life God has granted me with

These are only ten things that I am thankful for. But let's be honest here people, because there about a million more that we can each name in our own lives. My challenge to you however, is to recognize these things every day, not just on one day each year! So, write down at least ten things you're thankful for, make it pretty, and hang it somewhere you'll see it every day.{ I'm going to put mine on my bathroom mirror.} And then make sure you actually read over it every day, and thank God that he has provided a multitude of blessings in each of our lives!

And finally, I just want to share the doxology with you today, because even though it's not specifically a "Thanksgiving hymn," it's still very fitting when talking about gratitude and thankfulness...

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Praise him all creatures here below,

Praise him above ye heavenly hosts,

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen."

And Happy Thanksgiving to each of you!

Polls, Parties & More This Weekend

I'm really loving writing me some Friday Letters, so of course we're gonna go for it again this week as well...

Dear Fall Weather: Welcome to Florida! We're so glad you're here. Please feel free to make yourself comfortable and stay a while. We'd be so grateful if you did. Seriously.

Dear Weekend: We've got a lot of stuff planned for you, so get ready to be real busy. But at least it's fun things like a Thirty-One party, a joint party for some toddlers, and a family fish fry. I'll also squeeze in one of my high school-er's cross country race, and the Awaken service on Sunday night. Oh, and the boyfriend and I would like to go on a bike ride sometime too. Aaaand, I would like to attempt to go VOTE early this weekend too. See? Busy - but fun. 

{Side note: please, please, please -- let's all exercise our right and privilege to vote, and head to the polls sometime before Tuesday evening. It's so important, and something I fully believe all adults should do.}

Dear Belly: I literally just ate breakfast an hour and a half ago, and you're hungry already. Chill out. There's still hours before lunch, so you just gotta wait it out there, crazy pants...

Dear Blog: Holy crap we're growing so much still! More friends and followers, and more page views too. This is truly so exciting, and I'm loving every minute of it. Let's keep working hard on improving this little space here on the inter-webs and see where it takes us :)

Dear Trunk-or-Treat 2013: I'm already looking forward to you, so you better happen. We had so much fun decorating Mama's car and seeing all the cute little kids in their cute little costumes. I will go ahead and start planning our trunk for next year, because we want a way to take pictures of cute kids (that we don't know) without seeming creepy -- if that's possible -- so maybe some sort of photo booth set-up or something might work...??

This year our trunk theme was "Gone Fishin," so I'm just wearing my Dad's Columbia shirt.

Happy Friday friends, and happy weekend as well!! Enjoy your couple of days of freedom!

Pictures Galore

I hope y'all are in the mood for lots of pictures, and not a lot of reading. Because I have a ton of pictures from this weekend, and I don't feel like writing too much, so let's just jump straight to it, shall we?!

Friday night = dinner at Pepper's with some friends, followed by bowling, which was a blast, even if I came in dead last place... but what was weird was that we were the only ones there for the first hour or so, and it was a Friday night! The place was eerily empty, and we were sure there was something going on that we were missing somewhere, but it was nice to have the place basically to ourselves!

Saturday morning/afternoon = yummy and fun breakfast out with my family, and then learning some guitar chords with Jeff (I now know how to play A, C & D, I think...). I did decide though that my hand just isn't big enough to do it easily, so I might need to learn to play the ukulele instead...that's more my size I believe. So I might scratch " start learning guitar" off my 25 Before 25 list now, because at least I tried, right?!

Then we rode our bikes to Old Navy, where I bought 2 new pairs of jeans. We rode back home, got changed and headed downtown to the Asian festival where we ate some good food, watched some interesting dances, and just wandered around for a while. I tried Thai food first from Taste Budz Cafe (so that's new restaurant #2 of 6 on my list), but didn't actually like it very much, so I threw it away and got that same yummy Indian plate from last year, which was still so yummy again. I mean, hello - that butter chicken stuff is delish.

Thai coconut shrimp I tried first. I ate about 5-6 bites, and decided it wasn't for me...

Jeff got his usual Chinese again, from Azu - which was amazing. So fresh and obviously not frozen. Yum!

Saturday evening = exhaustion. So we watched "You've Got Mail" and Jeff fell asleep for the majority of the movie. After I woke him up, I painted my nails, and he actually helped me do it! (I did a Halloween theme for a guest post on a friend's blog, so the "tutorial" will be on her blog soon!) Such a super sweet and willing boyfriend I have :) We watched the sad Florida State game, ate a late dinner of some homemade chili with cheese, and then had some popcorn for "dessert."

Trying to do a spider, but it kept not working out, so we nixed that idea...

Jiffy Pop is super yummy popcorn. Try it out sometime if you haven't. Better than microwave kinds for sure.

Sunday = early morning church and Sunday school, lunch with a couple of good friends at Red Elephant, and then playing frisbee for 2 hours in the atrocious 90 degree weather. (Side note -- Florida! It's October and "fall," so let's get on with it already, OK?!) The rest of the day was pretty low key and chill, and was wonderfully great because of that. I ended up falling asleep around 10 pm while we were trying to watch "The New Girl" since Jeff hasn't ever seen it. He laughed his head off, while I just dozed off.

And then this morning I took some pictures of my finished mani (since I forgot to previously) before heading into work!

Jeff did that accent nail for me! How awesome is he?! :)

And today I'm linking up with these lovely ladies for weekend updates and Mani Monday: Sami's Shenanigan's, Glitter & Gloss, Covered in Grace, and Synfully Delicious.