1820 Days

The beginning.....
A first year teacher, feeling the tug on her heart, surrendered her summer days to touch lives at a church camp.
A guy fresh out of college feels called to return to the church camp he previously served at.

The meeting.....
During introductions the first night of work week, the girl thought the guy was one of those sports-crazed fan (she later learned that she was right). The guy thought the girl had to only be 15 years old.

Work week.....
The girl was assigned many different tasks, all of which was supervised by the guy. Not a coincidence.

That summer....
Working side by side for weeks, the guy gets the nerve to ask the girl to the blob tower to watch the evenings firework show. Minutes turned into hours as they talked about life. This late-night-date resulted in numerous night chats that always led into the early morning hours.

The question....
After a year and a half of dating, the guy asks the girl to meet him at his house so that they can go on a double date with his friends. Girl shows up late (not uncommon). She walks into the living area and finds herself surrounded by roses and candles. Music plays from down the hall. She follows "their song" into the master bedroom, which is now empty of everything except roses, candles, poster-size pictures of the two on the walls, and one big, red, satin heart in the middle of the floor. On that heart lies a heart box. She opens the box to find another box. On and on it goes until she is left with the final small box. Inside....a watch. She looks up confused. The boy, who had been watching from across the room, steps into the heart, asks her to stop the watch (to freeze that moment forever), then continues to pour out his heart, followed by the big question.
The watch is now framed and sits on the mantle.

1,820 days ago.....5 years to be exact.....this girl married the small town boy that stole her heart.

Thank you Lord for leading our paths together and creating this perfect match.

Sunshine and bubbles

So thankful that the sunshine has decided to reappear with its warm glory. I'm also EXTRA thankful for the Easter bunny bringing Amelia a new bubble machine! My precious toddler has a slight obsession with bubbles, which results with numb lip syndrome for mommy and daddy.
I snapped a few pictures of Amelia enjoying this passion of hers. Can you just feel the joy radiating off her face?

She quickly learned what would happen if she stuck her head in the top of the bubble machine....

Even Titan joined the fun.

And let's not forget about little sis. She got a kick out of watching the bubbles blowing in the wind.

Until she finally passed out...

eggs, flowers, and personalities....oh my!

We had a lot of fun at Easter this year. Amelia understood the concept of egg hunting....and she didn't pass one up. Our first stop was grandma and grandpa's house. It was a nice day so the Easter bunny left a number of eggs out in the front yard. Amelia enjoyed the hunt....until she got dirt in her shoes. The dirt took the joy of running to each one away. She began slowly walking to each egg. When she had to cross dirt to reach one, she turned to aunt katie to get them. Poor aunt Katie!!! At home we run around barefoot and the dirt never phases us. Not sure who this girl belongs to at times.
Egg hunt number two was at our church. Since it had rained hours before, they had moved everything inside (thank goodness since I wasn't sure how she would handle wet grass). Hundreds of eggs were laying in the floor of the old sanctuary. Everyone circled around the room (ages 3 & under) and on "go" the hunt started. With so many kids and parents, you had to act fast. Amelia was able to gather up a handful and proudly showed them off. After the hunt it was time to move to the inflatable room. Sounds like fun, huh? Amelia thought otherwise. She cried and cried, clung to her daddy, and begged to leave. "Loud" she kept crying. She wouldn't even try to get inside the bounce. Again...not sure who this girl belongs to at times.
Our third and final egg hunt was actually on Easter day. After church service, we headed out to Grammy and Poppy's house. Of course it was a cold, rainy day....ALL DAY. We decided to eat and nap before hunting, hoping it would give time for the rains to pass. Nope. So the Easter bunny left the eggs on the front porch. The hunt itself took only a few minutes....Amelia moved really fast to beat Laney from getting them. Poor Laney. :)
Overall the girls had fun. It was a good Easter weekend. The following weekend was my brothers wedding. It was at a gorgeous golf club in the city. The days leading up to the wedding were very warm and dry. The wedding day.....cold and rainy (with a little hail). So the outside wedding was moved inside. It still worked out very well. Amelia and Laney were the flower girls. During rehearsal they did great walking down the aisle with their baskets. The wedding day, of course, was a little different. Amelia was in an "amelia mood" all day. She didn't want anyone to look at her or talk to her. Finally, with just a few minutes before showtime, bubbles saved the day. We sat in the hall and blew until it was time to enter the room. At first both girls saw me on my knees at the end of the aisle and both headed my way. Once they reached half way, Laney decided that the petals on the ground should be picked up. Amelia waited a couple seconds and then gave up and headed my way. Laney, on the other hand, could care less about everyone watching her or me waving at her to come on. So I ran down the aisle and carried her the rest of the way, while the onlookers chuckled. It was a "cute" flowergirl moment. The reception for Amelia was too much. She cried when the music played and when mommy and daddy danced. Thank goodness that grandma and grandpa were there to save the day. They took both Amelia and Abi across the hall to play and blow bubbles. ! I wish Amelia would have relaxed and enjoyed it, but once again.....I'm not sure who this girl belongs to at times. The wedding was beautiful and the flowergirls were cute and perfect.

Thank you God for the resurrection, weddings, and personalities.