It's me, Charity

Day 3- Your First Love. Essh. The 3 guys I've dated aren't worth blogging about so , I will tell you about the first boy I fell for. I was 2 years old. He was 4. I thought he hung the moon. J. was my brother's best friend untill I was 12 and we suffered through a church split. I followed him around like a sad lovesick little puppy dog. Bless his heart he was always nice to me! He was the first person that ever played country music for me as well. Garth Brooks. I famously told him, at the age of 3, that we were going to get married and have 12 children. No, his last name was not Duggar and neither is mine! I hear he is married now, and is actually several inches shorter than me, so obviously it all worked out for the better! :)

There are several things I want to do before I die, get married, have kids, have a music studio, live in the country.. But those are more life goals I guess you would say. I would really like to visit every state in the Union before I die. I've already been to 10, and lived in 2, so I'm you know, 1/5'th of the way there?! I really really really want to go to Hawaii. Especially after the Yang to my Yin moved there, Amy, seeing her pictures and stories of all the amazing things she gets to do there REALLY makes me want to visit. Actually it makes me want to move there!! Kind of a sad little bucket list when I look at it. I guess I've always been a fairly in the moment person, I have a hard time picturing the future. .

So Audra and I have started having a Snack Break every day at 3 pm! Tuesday it was Cherry Dilly Bars and Wednesday it was popcorn! Can I just say that Cherry Dilly bars are mm mm yummy??!! Audra said that our snack breaks made her feel like she's back in Daycare. :) Thursday is her turn to bring in snacks and I am excited to see what she brings! and eat it too!

So I have been wanting to do a giveaway for awhile now and was contacted by some lovely people who wanted to help me with that!! If you're like me, you might like to send this via snail mail. I love sending cards and notes, and taking the time to let someone know I really care and appreciate them. Email is great but sending something in the mail that you've personalized really makes it feel special!! So in that theme....... How would you like to WIN 100 FREE Personalized Postcards? You totally do! Heck, I do!! So here's the legal deets peeps! The Fine Folks over at Uprinting.com would like YOU to have...... 100 Postcards for One (1) Winner 5" x 7" 14pt Cardstock Gloss No Folding Front and Back Printing 2 Business Days Print Turnaround Time Restriction: Limited to US residents 18 years old and above only. Check out their Postcards Their Super Fab Personalized Designs ! And you might just want to check out their Online Printing Company! So how do you win these cool...

Day 1- Introduce, show a recent Picture and give 15 interesting facts. 1. I came within 2 semesters of finishing my degree in Music at a Christian College down south, but transferred back home my Senior year. I say I have 1.75 degrees. :) 2. I'm fairly tall for a girl, 5'9". 3. My hair is naturally curly and VERY thick. Everyone who has ever cut it comments upon this. 4. I can change the oil in my truck but I prefer to let my Dad do that when I come home to visit. 5. I grew up on a farm, and have baled hay with the best of them, but prefer to stay clean and manure free these days. 6. I walk pretty fast wherever I go. Usually people have problems keeping up with my pace. I blame this on #2 and all of the concerts I was in at PCC. Walk with PURPOSE! And I do! 7. My best friends live in Florida and North Carolina, but we are so close you would never know that miles separate us. 8. I can't paralell park. I even failed it on my driving test. Somehow I still got a license on...

So in my efforts to become a more consistant blogger I am going to do a 30 Day Blog Challenge that has been floating around the interwebs for awhile. It won't be every single day since I'm going on vacation this weekend and then having surgery on the 6'th, but maybe while I'm laid up recovering from surgery this will give me something to do! So, here are the topics as follows! Day 1: Introduce, recent picture of yourself, 15 interesting facts Day 2: Something you want to do before you die Day 3: Your first love Day 4: Your parents Day 5: A song to match your mood Day 6: A picture of something that makes you happy Day 7: Favorite movies Day 8: A place you've traveled to Day 9: A favorite picture of someone you could never imagine your life without Day 10: Something you're afraid of Day 11: Favorite tv shows Day 12: Something you don't leave the house without Day 13: Something that means a lot to you Day 14: A picture of you last year - how have you changed? D...

Here's a little story about my evening. Apparently God was trying to teach me something today as I was cranky pants in the afternoon and was not listening to him, so he graciously amped it up a notch for me. I got off work at 6 pm as normal, and decided to run to the "Sketchy" Marsh to grab some Pierogies to make a super yum casserole I saw a recipe for. I grab a package of Drumstick ice cream while I'm at it. Nothing but healthyness here folks. Check out, and on my way home. Get to my apt, and go inside to check my mail before heading up to my third floor apt. It is at that point that I realize the key to my mailbox and my apt is gone from my key fob. Dread ensues. I run back outside to my truck, look all around the ground, empty my purse and nothing. Crud. I remember that I have a spare key in my wallet that I was planning on giving Emboz as a back up. I happily pull my key out, and trek upstairs. One slight problem. It was the spare key to my old apt. Remember how ...

The incredibally sweet post my BFF Kim wrote about me for SYUL-Show us your Singles! I'm posting this here for when I need a pick me up, I can go back and read her kind words! I love my sissie!

I really have nothing of importance to say, but I'm trying to blog several times a week, soooo HAPPY MONDAY!!! (minus the fact this picture was taken on Friday) This is going to be a fun week! Friday I will be leaving for IOWA!!! YEAAAH BUDDY!!! I am so excited to go see my nephew and spend some time with my brother and sil. I'm kind of fans of them! And I'm really excited to be able to give my SIL her Birthday present in person and see the look on her face! Then I can finally blog about the fabulous present I got her! Its pretty amazing I must say!! I'm hoping and praying the week doesn't drag by at work, but if last week's silence is any indication it most likely will. Please remind of me this when fall hits and I am stressed to the max frmo constant people around. I will miss these quiet days then! Happy Monday Y'all!!

1. Today I wore a light sweater and jeans. Its almost July and yet it was in the 60's?????!!!! I almost turned my heater on at work. ALMOST. 2. At this time next week I will be in IOWA!!!! Visiting MY NEPHEW!! Well, he'll be in bed when I get there, but minor detail! I am so excited that I've started having trouble getting to sleep at night!! I can't wait!! 3. I'm feeling better about my Sinus Surgery on the 6'th after talking to two people who had it done. Apparently the worst part of it will be the packing. Personally I'm concerned about how they remove it seeing as I'll be awake. Do whatever you want to when I'm knocked out. Not so much a fan of it when I'm awake.. :( 4. After our Bible Study, goodness, a few months ago now, when Whitney talked about being a lady and cleaning up our mouths. I've really been working on getting rid of slang, even if its not a "bad word" I want to avoid that. So now I say, Mercy!! Phooeey, And Sweet...

Meet my Best Friend Kim!! (on the right) She is a late 20's southern belle who has no idea I'm doing this. (Pray for my health and safety!!) Kim has been my best friend for 7 years now and is genuinely one of the nicest, sweetest, SELFLESS people I have ever met. People like her do not come around very often. She has a real sweet spirit to her and is very nurturing. She lives in Florida and graduated from the Christian college we attended with a degree in Office Administration. Just look at how pretty she is! As pretty as she is her heart is even prettier!! She is a firm believer and is very involved with her church teaching kids and is involved in getting a singles group started! She is very creative and is very handy! She can cook quite well, really well actually!! She LOVES sports, her favorites being Football, Baseball and the deal breaker- NASCAR. If you don't like NASCAR or are not willing to watch it and learn, you need not apply. I myself hate NASCAR but she didn...

I am soooooo excited to get to see this little snugglemuffin over the 4'th of July weekend!!! I will have my last hurrah before my Surgery the next week and spend the long weekend with three people I love! One of them being this cutie who I love more than I can describe!! Watch out Iowa, Auntie Charity is coming and she can't WAIT!!!

Weds was our Monthly Ladies who Lunch!! YAY! I look forward to these every month! I met Emboz at the library and this little cutie was on the ground, when she saw me she got the biggest smile on her face and started crawling to me as fast as possible! It was just the most precious thing!! I love that she recognizes me and loves me :) I was happy that I got her to laugh when we were walking outside. I haven't really heard her giggle much before, she's a smile monster! Her giggles were soo cute and made me smile as well! Oh I just heart her!! One of these days, before she goes off to college we will master the self portrait with both of us smiling. Practice makes perfect! I love that smily girl!! This picture just makes me laugh and laugh. We all try to entertain Madi when we take pictures and make noises and all kinds of stuff to get her to smile, apparently she was not so much loving the noises I was making! Ahhhh much better!! I don't know who these lunatics are........

Will Miracles ever cease, I'm actually blogging more than once a week!! I got this dress a few weeks ago at Target for 7.48!!! I was so excited! I call it my Big Girl Dress because of the ruffles (which you can't really see) I feel very Kelly in it!! I usually pair it with a white cardigan but it was SOOOOO HOT that i just couldn't take it so I went sleeveless. I love a summer dress!!

Hello to my loyal fans! Tis, I, Benjamin, aka Snugglemuffin blogging for my Auntie!!!! She's a little busy so I thought I'd stop by and tell you what I've been up to! I am turning into a BIG BOY!!! (this makes Auntie sad) I am a whole 6 months now! Yeah that's right, I sit up on my own, curl my adorable little toes and make funny faces. My legs are getting super long! I am definately going to take after Daddy and my Auntie and be tall! I can roll from my back to my stomach but haven't quite figure out how to roll myself onto my back. This has been disturbing the sleep of my household because I don't like it very much and let everyone know how I feel about this particular matter. I really like standing up!!!! Its fun!!! And yes, my hair is coming in strawberry blonde! I am practicing my serious portrait look for when I'm the President of the United States. Oh wait, My Auntie says I can't be that, too dangerous, I instead shall be the cutest, and most sma...

I would like to preface this blog with the fact that yes, I know I'm boring. But I keep saying I'm going to blog and can never think of anything good to write about and strangely enough I seem to be in a picture taking funk because I've hardly taken any pictures this month. I know. I'm about to check myself into a hospital because clearly something is not right with me! Wow that was an insanely long sentence and I"m pretty sure Dr Chapman would have a coronary if he read that. Oh well. Point being, I'm just going to blog about random nothingness because hey, thats better than notthing, right? RIghT! So if you follow me on Twitter, (ha, I've always wanted to have a good reason to say that!) you saw this picture from what happened in our town this morning. We had torrential rains, and when I say torrential boy howdy I mean it! To the tune of almost 2 inches coming down per hour! The "lake" you see here is actually all the front lawn of a business a...

I have been a horrible blogger lately. I have just been so busy running to and fro, and living life!! that when I am home and actually have time to sit down and write my mind goes blank on what I want to say, or I'm so tired that I can't think. I know this will send shockwaves around the world but I have barely taken any pictures lately. I know. I am not feeling ill, just busy :) It really stinks though because everyone has been complimenting me on my new haircut and the only pics I have of it were from the night I spent at Bergs after I'd been laying around and it was smushy. It's almost beginning to give me a complex because people are still saying stuff about it, and students that haven't seen me in awhile are coming into our office and stopping and saying WHOA!!! You got a HAIRCUT!!! I almost am afraid to ask if my hair apparently looked that bad before? Sheryl has told me I should always wear it this way and when it grows out too much she will inform me and the...

7 long months later Amy's hubby is finally back from Deployment!!! I'm so darned happy for her I am almost speechless, so I'll just say WELCOME HOME KEVIN!!!!!! WELCOME HOME!!!!!!!!!

I keep thinking of things I need to blog about as I'm laying in bed at night and of course when I wake up the next day I can't remember a blessed thing. So I've decided I'm just going to write all of the random things i'm thinking about!! I started reading Beth Moore's "So long Insecurity" I've never done any of her studies and I was really pleasantly surprised! Although I'm learning that I'm way more insecure than I knew and realizing things in my life that are actually insecurities. I'm on chapter 5 and I can tell that God is trying to teach me something amazing through this book so I'm excited. I have been abundantly blessed by my former Piano teacher, Dr Egan, he is scaling back on teaching and cleaning out his music library and has graciously and so generously decided to give me the books that he does not want or need anymore. I cannot tell you how huge and amazing this is!!! He has been teaching for over 50 years! He is single...

Tuesday night I spent with Bergs and Gunnar! I nearly died and went to heaven when she gave me this delectable treat of "angel cake" as Gunnar calls it, ice cream, and fresh picked strawberries. mmm I can almost taste it now! *drools* So Gunnar took a hardcore nap before Miss Charity arrived and it must have been quite epic because his hair reflected it! I about cracked up everytime I looked at it, it was just funny! And his little personality fit his hair! He was too cute! Bless his heart! I really enjoyed hanging out with the G Man! The other best part of the night was when we sat down to dinner and he prayed. And then he made Bergs pray. And me pray. It was sooo precious because he prayed and thanked God for EVERYTHING. And I mean everything. I thought about that later on, he was so pure and thankful for all of the little things that God had given us, kind of convicted me a bit because when I am so thankful for every single little thing? Out of the mouths of children... ...

The Caca's! From your other parents :) And you other Grams :) And another from your other Parents because Mom got carried away! Benjamin Ayva Mom, Jenn and Ayva Jodi and Amber! MEEE!!! Becky, Matt, Ben, Thadd and Charlotte! Bethy! Madi! 5 seconds later she ate your sign... But she did it happily! Brad, MaryBeth and "Peanut" (And yes, Kim, that means what you think it does!!) 30 years ago, on a warm Florida day a little curly haired girl was born. It would take 21 years for this little curly haired girl to meet me, no one could know that that meeting at Pensacola Christian College, in a shared bathroom, over curling irons and hairspray, would change my life forever. You see, that little curly haired Floridian, wasn't just any curly haired girl, oh no, Kimberly Michelle Lewis was and IS one of a kind! Despite our differences, her obsessive love of all things Nascar and the 5 inch height difference, we have become the best of friends, family, we are eachothers sis...