Audrey Caroline

Alright, I am ready to share what has significantly impacted me most recently. When you get a chance, check out the website that I linked and you can see for yourself what I am referring to. What you are about to learn from me is not meant to be discouraging or depressing in any way. It is, in fact, to be an encouragement. I know several women in my life who are pregnant right now and I want to be sensitive to them. The thing that has impacted me from this woman's story is her strength in Him.

I stumbled across this woman's (Angie's - Bring the Rain (linked on my blog)) website when I was reading BooMama's website the other day because she referred to Angie's entry that day as a good read. I checked it out and was so moved by her entry that day, The Past and the Pitcher that I decided to delve further into who she is and what her story is. I was quickly taken aback and sucked into her life. I strongly encourage you to start here and read through her blog. When I stumbled across it, I spent the next three hours or so, reading every entry. I'm not gonna lie: I sobbed. So, grab yourself some tissue and get comfy.

I don't want to make this light-hearted because it changed me. It could change you, too. Angie's story is about her pregnancy with her daughter, Audrey. I won't tell you what happens if you promise to read it from the beginning, without cheating and seeing what happens. If you're not familiar with blogger, Angie's blog is set up like mine. The older blogs are at the bottom of the page, newer goes up. If you click on the beginning of the story first, you won't risk seeing the later posts. Also, along the side, the blogs are broken down into month categories, so you can move forward, as you read.

After everything that Angie has been through since the beginning of the year, her most recent post a couple of days ago just had me gasping for air for her and her family. I cannot imagine the pain that they are all going through together.

Her story has made me look at my own prayer life. Her story has made me look at the things that could happen when Stephen and I want our own children. Her story has made me take a hearty look at my faith. Rarely does this happen and when it does, I believe it is worth taking seriously.

Once you have read Angie's story, check out this. You have to scroll down pretty far to the "previous entries" and go back a few pages to the entry on April 29, "Rocked to My Core". It is a video segment (about 25 minutes or so) done by Angie's church to tell their story.

I just can't imagine that you would be disappointed after giving this woman your time to read her blog.

On the note of life-changing events and prayer, please be praying for a cousin of mine. He attempted to take his life yesterday and did not succeed, praise Him. However, he is still in the ICU and they are watching his levels very closely. If you think of it, please raise up a prayer for him. First, praise Him that he is still alive. Second, pray that he will allow Him to work His miracles in his personal life, as well as his physical life.

I know I am far from being an extremely wisdom-filled person. However, like all of us, and how I expect to be every day for the rest of my life, I am just seeking what He is trying to tell me...to tell all of us. I believe when you come to a realization in your life, it is good to share it. Especially with those you care about. Which is why I'm sharing with you tonight. Think about that person in your life who is lacking true direction. Think about the person in your life who is experiencing extreme hurt and let-down. Maybe you don't do anything. Maybe your role is to pray for them as often as you can. As Angie reiterates in her blog, He is always the same, no matter what the circumstances. He can take your friends' anger. He can take your brothers' anger. He can take your anger. Just give it over to Him.

I figured it out!

No, I am not THIS good at manipulating fonts and colors. I was able to finally get a [FREE] HTML template imported onto my bloggy. I don't know why this time it worked, but it did. I think Blogger is a little temperamental because I did the same thing about 4 times and magically, the last time worked. I don't know.

Anyway, what do you think? I love it.

Box count is up to: 10 KZ boxes; 5 CO boxes so far
Pretty much packed completely for KZ, so it's all about CO today, probably until the wee hours of the night, since the movers come tomorrow.

Oh, by the way, it was in the upper 80's yesterday and it rained during the night, and it's already 73 at 11:00 in the morning. You do the math. It's so humid, I'm pretty sure I saw a little cloud float through the apartment. Great packing weather! I should be nice and sweaty and stinky all day long. Lucky Stephen!

Open to Change...

Have you ever read something, or listened to someone and it changed you? I mean, really changed you. Like changed how you feel or think about something. Or maybe reinforced your thinking about an issue.

I experienced this last night. I am going to blog about it more in a few days. I don't have the time right now to get into it, but I will share with you.

Right now, I have an apartment to pack. The movers come Wednesday! I went to the Triple B again and got more Space Bags today, so once Husband is done taking his practice exam, I will be using the vacuum to suck air out of those things like you wouldn't believe!

Anyway, think about if you have had this changing-type experience before. Maybe it will re-spark the significance that it has had on your life.
I can't wait to share with you!

Bro's Graduation Weekend

We drove down to Maryland again this past weekend to help my brother celebrate his great achievement of graduating from George Washington University with his Masters in International Studies, or something like that. I don't really know exactly what he was studying for two years. A graduate program that required a lot of reading and paper writing!

We got down there on Thursday, early evening. First things first: Guitar Hero III

Oh yes, we did.

As you can tell, my dad absolutely disliked playing.

My mom gave it a whirl and got better and better each time she practiced.

I know what Mom's getting for her birthday!!!

I completely showed them how it's done. Just a few pointers: Mouth open wide, tilt guitar at every opportunity, stick booty out.

Stephen proved that he is also capable of awesome moves. Plus, you get extra points for tilting the guitar.

Kyle and Stephen turned out to be quite the co-op career team, beating their nemesis: Metallica's "One." It was a doozy.

We made Grandpa John and Grandma Nancy watch us. As you can tell, they are clearly wondering where they went wrong.

Okay, I can sense you've seen enough Guitar Hero...

The next day (Friday) was Kyle's actual graduation. Stephen and I stayed home to baby-sit, since Kyle had a limited amount of tickets. Gotta say, I was pleased, as I would choose a baby over a graduation any day. No offense Kyle, I'm proud of you and all, but I think my niece is pretty cute.

I am such a nice auntie. I swaddled her all up and placed her in her boppy. She slept like this for a good three hours. Happy baby = Happy Uncle Stephen

Then, on Saturday, we drove up to Baltimore and

went to the National Aquarium. First, we saw the dolphin show, which was pretty neat. I like dolphins.

I was very happy because my good friend, Lizzie, was able to come with us. Y'all remember her from my wedding, if you were there.

Yes, this is us, being all newlyweddy and cute and stuff. We were in great spirits, being with family, friends, and lots of fishes and marine wildlife.

I fell in love with this turtle that the aquarium rescued that had an infection in one of her fins and they had to remove it. She just looked like a nice turtle. Picture did not turn out, though.

Mom and Dad, cuddlin'.

Stephen, once again, hogging Hannah from me. Which makes me realize that I didn't get any pictures of me with my niece on my camera. Mama, help me out?

I Am Having Bloggy Issues...

Okay, so what do you think of my new get-up here? I have been spending the last couple of days, surfin' the internet, looking for neato blog templates. The background you are now looking at is not a template. It is me, resorting to what I know how to do: fool around with fonts and colors.
I have usually considered myself to be a computer-savvy-type chica. However, somewhere along the line, people who are really computer savvy have learned this thing called "HTML code". I do not know how to do this. I have been told (by my husband) that it is an "easy language to learn." He said this before he tried to figure out how to import a template for me and failed.
Plus, I am having enough trouble learning Russian right now, thankyouverymuch.
So, you might see my "template" changing a lot for awhile, until I either figure out how to import a free template that I absolutely love, or I am going to get REALLY good at manipulating the very limited fonts and colors that blogger offers its users.
Oh, sure there are websites that offer to custom design a template for you, but it runs about $80. This seems silly to me. But maybe once I start making some bucks, I'll fork over the money.

You have just witnessed me, basically venting my blogging frustrations on you. I'm sorry.

I Heart Space Bags

Our goal when moving our things to KZ is to have as few boxes/luggages as possible. So, I did the sensible thing and headed to the Triple B and purchased the 12 bag set of Space Bags. Can I just say these things are great! I mean check out these before and after pictures! The last picture is ALL of our winter clothes, stacked up. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a TON of winter clothes. If you're looking for a great space saver solution, I recommend these little treats.

AFTER I had sucked the air out of all of the bags, my wonderful Auntie Steph suggested sticking a

dryer sheet in there so that it smells nice when you open the bag back up. I was too lazy to re-do all the bags, but I will definitely do this next time. Although, I worry that the dryer sheet will stain the clothing, perhaps?

I finally started to really pack today. I got EIGHT boxes all packed and taped up! Four for CO, four for KZ!

I'll keep you posted on the box count. You might be surprised at how much stuff fits in this tiny apartment.

And although my friend, Brie, gave me great advice with how to do the pictures and spacing, as you can tell, I am still struggling. I mean seriously, can it really be this difficult?

Of course, after having my new computer in my possession for at least two weeks now, I just today figured out that I can get my pictures from my camera to my computer by simply placing my memory card in the special memory card slot in the front of the laptop. Clever, ain't it?

Season Finales

We were gone over the weekend, down in Maryland to celebrate Kyle's graduation from GW's Masters program. So, we missed Thursday night's season finales: ER and The Office
I know you might've gasped right there, but don't worry ~ we take FULL advantage of the most wonderful invention yet...DVR. When we got home last night, after a 7 hour drive that was supposed to take 4-5 hours, I had my shows, happily waiting for me to push "play."
Well, we watched The Office last night and I have to say that by the end of it, I was just...sad! First of all, could Jim have any more bad luck? But, he should have still proposed to Pam. Figure something out ~ take her out for ice cream or something and just do it! But I mostly feel angry at Andy. It was a hilarious proposal, though....um, okay. She said yes!
I can't get over how funny the whole bit with Kevin is. Kevin has always been one of my favorites, mostly due to his love of M & M's. "I love pie!"
But the most disturbing season finale, thus far is the ER one, which was on last night. I think it's just cruel that they leave us loyal viewers hanging like that! Who was in the ambulance that blew up? Pratt or Sam? And, did Abby get hurt, since she had just walked by? I watched this first thing this morning and couldn't stop thinking about it all day.
Alright, I know they're just TV shows, but still.....
We are also big How I Met Your Mother watchers, which was on tonight, but Husband doesn't like watching shows with commercials. So he'll watch other things, like basketball while the shows are recording and purposefully watch them later.
American Idol is on tomorrow night! Who will win, David or David? Here's what I think, in case you care. But this is my blog, so if you didn't care what I thought, you wouldn't be reading it. Anyway, I have loved little David Archuleta since the beginning, but now I'm not sure I would actually buy his cd. I think he has a great, pure voice, but I'm not sure what his style of music really is...he's kind of Josh Grobanesque, don't you think? David Cook, I think has great rock style and I can see him being a great song writer/producer-type dude. I don't think he's as vocally talented as little David, but he's more interesting to watch and listen to. I think Cook will win it all. And little David will still be famous and probably get signed, anyway.
The End