some of my new fav pics...

Savannah 2009

here is a video of my niece from the year so far....

finish strong

well....i did it! i finished my first full tri and i beat my goal by 1 minute! i must have had a lot of people praying for me because i didn't get nervous at all. i was more excited than anything. it was so amazing to work so hard for something and then see it all pay off. the tri actually ended up being easier than what i thought it would be. i was able to do the whole thing without stopping or walking once. for those of you who aren't familiar with how tri's work, the order is swim, bike, run. we had to swim for 1/2 a mile, run to the transition area, put your socks, shoes, helmet, etc. on and then head off on a 12 mile bike jaunt, then rack your bike at the transition area and finish with a 3 mile run. my exact times in each area were: 00:19:42 for the swim, 00:47:26 for the bike, and 00:30:39 for the run. and the total for my transition times were 00:06:10. so the total for my tri including everything was exactly 01:44:00!!! my goal was to do it under 2 hours so i was more than pleased:-) it was awesome too because my parents got to be there for the race. when i crossed the finish line i started bawling like a baby:-) there's just something so neat about accomplishing something like that. i can't wait for my next one!! enjoy the pics!

just minutes before my "wave" left

mom and i-our first mother's day together in 7 years!

next in line to go

just finished swimming, running to the transition area to get on my bike

starting the bike portion

just crossed the finish line....trying not to cry :-)

hugging my tri coach, amy

team vortex rocks!

larissa, tammie, me and mom after the race-we are happy!!

danskin triathlon here i come!

so i'm doing my first FULL tri this sunday on mother's day. i am super pumped about it. i started training in feb for this tri and then because of my unexpected surgery in march, i had to take about 5 weeks off. that threw me for a loop and i was really nervous about the fact that i might not be ready for when the tri came. well now it's almost here...only 3 more days until i see if i have what it takes. i have to admit that i've really pushed myself over the last 3 weeks and it's really paid off. i feel even better than i did before my surgery. i'll be back to post pics of the race (in my lovely spandex outfit) and give you the stats. say a prayer for me if you remember!! since no post is complete with out a picture, here's a picture from my first tri back in '07 kissing my medal :-)

easter

for easter i had people over from church that didn't have family in the area and i hosted a big dinner for everyone. there ended up being 11 of us. i took care of the ham (my first time doing it all by myself) and the dessert. i had each person bring something else to add to the meal. everything ended up turning out great! thanks everyone :-)


glazing the ham

the "spread"

posing as "Martha Stewart"

after lunch i hid around 300 eggs in and outside of my house while everyone waited patiently outside in the front :-) this was my 2nd annual easter egg hunt and it was so fun to see adults turn into little kids as they scurried around every nook and cranny. michael and millie shipe swept the competition this year. millie found the most eggs...i believe her total count was 48! and michael found the large silver egg that got him a prize as well. afterwards we watched ironman. the whole day was a blast and i'm so thankful for all of my wonderful friends :-)

just moments before the egg hunt started

madness in the kitchen as they hunted for the large silver egg

the winners!! michael and millie did good!

everyone

looking forward to next year!!

cardboard testimony

for our easter service at church, we did the cardboard testimonies and i was able to be a part of that, which i was excited about! click on the "cardboard testimonies" below...

cardboard testimonies

four wheeling and shooting

christie, me, and jen

so i'm backtracking a little here, but that's ok. at least i am updating my blog two days in a row!! at the beginning of march a bunch of my friends got together and drove up to my friends grandparent's house in wildwood. they live out in the country and own thousands of acres. we were able to go four wheeling and shooting! yes, shooting. it was my first time shooting and can i just say that it's totally addicting and it was way more fun than what i thought. i shot an old 22 and a hand gun and was actually able to hit some targets that they had set up. and then we also did some skeet shooting and i even hit a couple of those!

the four wheeling was quite fun in that you had to dodge hundreds of piles of cow poo. and we even drove right next to the cows. although that kind of ticked them off a bit :-) we were celebrating jamie's 29th birthday and we had a blast! we all want to go back soon jamie!!

i never thought i'd hold one of these!

shooting with an old 22...couldn't get enough of it!

skeet shooting.......PULL.....

jamie and i doing some fast four wheeling

the girls....you better not mess with us

the gorgeous sunset

happy birthday jamie!

after eating the most amazing meal! thanks nana and pops!

recent pics of savannah

ok...so i've been getting lots of requests to post some more recent pictures of my niece. so here they are....

savannah and daddy on easter

savannah wearing her easter dress
look at those blue eyes...she gets 'em from her mama



this is one of my favorites :-) she's so beautiful!!

march madness

no, i'm not talking about the march madness basketball tournament. i'm talking about me here folks. the month of march was a crazy one indeed! it started out with me moving all of my stuff into the garage so someone could move in and take my spot in the house that i was living at. the home that i was supposed to move into was not quite ready yet, so i got to spend the month traveling from place to place like a homeless vagabond :-)


but it all worked out well enough. i stayed with some great friends from church, art and tammie and had planned to only stay one week with them until my appendix decided that it didn't want to be inside of me anymore so i had to go to the hospital one night and i found out that i had to have emergency surgery to remove the little guy that was causing me so much pain. there was a minor complication when they went in to remove it......because of all the inflammation, my appendix had "adheared" to my colon and they had to peel it off of it. (i know gross) they were worried about "leakage", but everything turned out just fine! i have the most amazing friends that came to visit me and bring me flowers and balloons. i am so blessed to have the friends that i do!

here is a picture of an appendix; not mine :-) although i did ask for it in a jar, but they wouldn't let me because they had to take it to pathology. i am feeling so much better than before and i only have three little scars to show for it. next monday marks a month since my surgery and i will finally be able to start my training back up for my triathlon.

so i ended up staying with my friends art and tammie for another week while i recooperated and then i was off to my friends brian and delia. they were out of the country and they graciously allowed me to stay at their place for a week. after that i moved all my stuff over to rob and melinda's place. i will be honest in saying it was a pain to live out of my car for a month, but i am so grateful for all of my wonderful friends that put me up :-) i am truly blessed!

last weekend i was finally able to move in my new house!! yay!! i am SO happy to be in a house by myself. i feel so content and happy to be living in this new house. my dad painted my bedroom and it turned out wonderful. i had several friends that helped me with the move. i am still unable to lift anything heavy so i had the luxury of telling people where to put things :-) not bad huh?

my bedroom :-) this is the accent wall and the others are a grayish color. i really liked how it turned out.

the living room...this is the furniture that my parents graciously brought down

my kitchen....i can't wait to start baking in it :-)

my screened in porch facing a "quaint" forest

yessss! i finally have my piano with me in fl. thanks to mom and dad:-)

i am settling in quite nicely in my new place. i still have a few things to organize and decorate, but it feels very much like home to me already and i am so happy :-)

a blanket with sleeves....my life is changed forever

ok people...brace yourselves for this one ;-) if you haven't seen the infomercial for the snuggie please check it out before you read this. as a joke neal bought chris a snuggie for his birthday. we have been joking about how hilarious it would be to get some and wear them around orlando in public. so for chris' 30th birthday, we robed ourselves in two lovely blue snuggies and drove from place to place to see what kind of reactions we would get. first stop was publix, then starbucks, but the best was walmart. all i can say is comedy....

unexpected joy

i love those mornings in which you wake up and you're filled with an abundance of joy. and there's no real reason for it. i mean nothing significant happened overnight in which i should wake up filled with joy. (well, i guess i did have a good dream :-))the only answer is god. he is the only thing that can give us true joy anyways. i haven't felt this much joy in awhile. i must admit, life has been hard for me over the last couple of months. i've been wrestling with god on life and why he does the things he does. i am learning that i can't wake up in the morning and ask god WHY? i have to look to god for WHO he is, not for WHAT he can do or give to me. it's been a slow process of changing my attitude towards god, but i am getting there!

i am filled with an exceeding amount of joy right now and the only explanation is god. he is showing me how blessed i truly am. he has given me much! i am thankful that i serve a god who help me change my attitude and my heart. without him i am hopeless!


here are just a few reasons why i am so thankful.....