Leaving Home...

It's been awhile since our last blog post...finishing up school has consumed a lot of our time recently, but we're finished now and I've decided the blog needs to be brought back to life!!! 

Beth and I graduated last Saturday and Aaron got to come down and spend the week in KY. We had a lot of fun visiting with friends and family and got to see a couple of Drew's baseball games while he played in West Virginia. 

 On Thursday morning, Aaron and I headed back to Seattle for the summer! It's my first time being away from home for more than a couple weeks, so leaving was definitely bittersweet. We woke up around 4 to leave for the airport and I couldn't help but to shed a few tears leaving the only home I've known for my 22 years of life. I remember Aaron saying something about starting a new chapter of our lives as we left and thinking that I liked the old chapter just fine. I think it's kinda like a sequel to a really good book....you get to the end of the first one and just know that nothing could possibly be any better. But then you finally decide to read the next one and it's just as good, if not better, than the first. As I left my house, I think it was like deciding to read the sequel...even as amazing as my life has been so far, I know that this experience will be just as fun and exciting and wonderful...I'm just really gonna miss some people along the way.

But....I am very excited about being here. It's so nice knowing that I don't have to leave Aaron in a few days and that we get to actually spend some quality and quantity time together. The long distance thing is okay for a while, but I think we were both ready to be done with that.

Our flight yesterday wasn't as good as we had hoped. We got our tickets a couple months ago and had reserved seats together but when we got our boarding passes, our seats were on opposite ends of the plane. We tried to get people to trade seats, but no one would trade with us...how rude! Aaron told the people next to him that it was my first time away from home and that he really wanted to be able to sit with me. He even offered to pay the lady next to him to switch seats. She said no and that it was probably best that I was flying alone. He said he just looked at her and said, "No, it's not" and then didn't speak to her again the whole flight. Haha. Oh well...we made it here just fine.

We went to an auction tonight for a Christian organization called Young Life to help raise money for kids to go to camp this summer. We had a really good time and left broke as a joke! We won all kinds of fun stuff though, including a $200 cake. What in the world?! It was for a good cause though, so we were happy to help. 

I'm going to try to stay up to date with the blog, if nothing more than to just let my family know what I'm doing...hopefully Beth and Meg will start again too :) I'm pooped now, but I'll update again soon. Love, love.

-Britt

A Message from Seattle...

Hey there! I thought a blog post from Seattle was in order since we haven't written in a while...and since I had some time 'cause my boy is conked out beside me (he had to go into work at 3:30 this morning...he's a sleepy guy!)

I have been having so much fun since I got here on Friday night. My flight got delayed in Dallas so I didn't end up getting into Seattle until around 3:30 Saturday morning....needless to say, I was pooped!

I got a few hours of sleep and got up bright and early on Saturday morning. We didn't stop running all weekend! We went down to Aaron's hometown and visited with a lot of his family and friends. You really couldn't find sweeter people...everyone I met was just the nicest, sweetest person ever! I love his family and he has the best friends a person could find! We were really sad on our way down because we forgot our cameras at home, so we didn't get to take any pictures :( 

We got back to Seattle on Sunday night and had a relaxing day at home yesterday. We went to costco and spent nearly 3 hours shopping...we had the best time together and since Aaron only shops for groceries twice a year, we had to get a lot of stuff to stock his pantry...$300 worth of stuff! Oh, and just for the record, I won the "guess how much all this will cost" game...I was only a dollar off :)

Today Aaron had to work so I spent my day with this cutie....

His name is Bullet and he is the sweetest, most well behaved dog ever (I love my Carson the most, but I won't even begin to claim that he is the sweetest or the best behaved. Ha!) 

Well, off to make some dinner. Aaron thinks Meg is a better cook than me, so I'm about to try to prove him wrong!! I'll let ya know how that goes! I'll write again soon!  

Love, love

Britt

Leavin' on a jet plane...

...But I know when I'll be back again :)

It's officially SPRING BREAK!!! Yippee!!! The past two weeks have been crammed with studying, test taking and learning all the muscles of the cat (if that doesn't sound fun, I don't know what does, HA!)....it's so nice to know we have a whole week of nothing ahead of us!! Well, not nothing...but certainly no studying. We've got fun S.B. plans! I leave tomorrow night around 7 for the great state of Washington to see my man!! I'm so happy I can hardly stand it...the next 24 hours can't go by fast enough!! I'll get there tomorrow night around midnight....HORRAY!!

 It's really only been about 3 weeks since Aaron and I saw each other last....but it feels like a hundred billion years! One thing I've discovered is that long distance relationships have their advantages and disadvantages (I'm still working on figuring out the advantages), but one of the many bad things is that I feel like I'm wishing my life away and just hoping time flies by until the next time we get to see each other. Oh well...it's worth it :) 

So today Beth and I had to give a presentation in our evolution class (gross, I know)....but we were in the kitchen practicing and we had a small, furry, but very attentive audience...

This was right before we let Carson out to run around in the back yard and he came back with at least 50 burrs all over him. It was terrible!! We worked for an hour trying to get them off his feet because he couldn't even walk. He still has them all around his face but he won't let anyone near them. We don't know what we're going to have to do...he's really struggled today and it's been so sad :(

Beth is headed to Arizona next week to visit Drew, Meg is off to Florida for her spring break with our mom in a couple weeks and my dad and little brother are going to Augusta, GA for the Masters next week! Our family is gonna be all over the country the next couple weeks! 

Oh...and how 'bout them Eagles today?!?! Holy smoke...I about had a heart attack watching the game this afternoon! Morehead State is where Beth and I go to school so we watched the game...and boy was it a great one!!!! ...And we're Cats fans around here too, so the fact that Morehead AND Kentucky won and Louisville lost was like a triple win! :) 

Well...I'm off to bed for the night! Hope everyone has a great Friday...talk to ya soon! Love, love!

-Britt

 

The Bachelor..SAY WHAT!?!?

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope you are all having a great week! Britt and I had our last test this morning before spring break so we are pretty excited and ready for a nap since we only got about 4 hours of sleep last night...and we LOVE our sleep around here!! ;) Anyway.....

Who watched the finale of The Bachelor on Monday night??? I know it's a silly show but I like to watch it..it's entertaining and you don't have to think, two things I enjoy! Anyway I have always said I could fall in love with a cardboard box if I got to travel the world, lay on the best beaches, and have the coolest dates ever imagined! I digress.

Emily, Brad, and Chantel

So..the last two girls were Emily and Chantel...I have loved Emily from the beginning. All I can say is DARLING! Is she not the cutest thing you have ever seen? Drew was watching the first episode with me and when he saw Chantel, he looks at me and says,"Hey! That's the girl that wins!" I'm like, "come again!? How do you know?" He said one of our friends (Kerri) read the blogs and found out it was her. I was literally mad that he told me the winner! Why would I want to watch it if I already knew the outcome..pathetic I know haha! So the whole season I have thought it was Chantel that won Brad's heart...Oh did I have another thing coming! So we were watching the finale and Brad ends up picking Emily! I was shocked! We'll see if that lasts....I think he is kind of weird really..and it looks like he has an anger problem so who knows! What do you all think about her/him/them......anyone?!?!

In other news...we have been reading Kelly's Korner blog for a long time and we all feel she is family now..even though we've never met or even seen the woman in real life. HA! But anyway, Meg wrote me a text this afternoon that said, "Hollis is here!!" She just had a baby this morning!! We have read about her pregnancy for the last 9 months so we are so excited and want to go visit them to see the baby. But that might be awkward for both parties, so pictures on her blog will suffice. 

Welp...i typed myself right into exhaustion! I'm ready for my nap:) Have a great night! We'll talk soon!

Bethany

Hoedowns, Candy, and Praising Jesus

Hello blogging world! Hooray- I'm finally writing a post ( Do you write a post? Post a post?)  Well whatever it is- I'm finally doing it! There are a couple of things that I've wanted to blog about lately but just haven't seemed to have the time to do it. Britt and Beth say that I can be found in one of the four following places: school, church, home, or Wal-Mart. This is true! So I took a picture of myself today to show you one of the places that I spend most of my waking hours- my classroom :)

Don't worry- the kids weren't here. Ha! I usually don't sit around at my desk and take pictures. Plus- I'm not a big picture taker, but who wants to read something without pictures!? That's the first thing I look for when I read a blog. But this weekend I actually took some because I knew I could blog about it! However, I apoligize in advance because they're all from my i-phone. Yikes! Sorry! 

Saturday I got to help chaperone our church's 4th, 5th, and 6th grade youth group who's led by my best friend Whitley- (who somehow escaped all my picture taking:) and her husband, at the Winter Jam concert at Rupp Arena. It was so much fun! I think I was more excited than the kids about it! They were so funny- I loved watching them. We waited in line for about 4 1/2 hours before we could get inside.

 The kids sang songs, played games and ate (well most of the eating was done by their chaperones!) while we waited.

This is Annie- the funniest little girl I know- and probably the one with the kindest little heart!

Here is the line we had to wait in once we got inside Rupp. We didn't have to stay in this line very long. But once it started moving it was like Home Alone when they were running through the airport trying to catch their plane!! I think I had Annie by the shirt and was dragging her behind me as we ran. There were so many people and I was afraid that she might get lost in the crowd! But thankfully we made it there in one piece and we got really good seats!

This is me with Annie and her BFF Molly :) I got to sit with them at the concert. Annie kept saying "This is my first concert! Did you know this is my first concert?!"  (They aren't actually in the youth group but their older sisters are so they got to sneak along on the trip too with Molly's mom and dad.) Those two little girls are the sweetest things together. They have such a genuine love for each other, and would do anything for one another. What an example for the rest of us!

This is my sweet friend Melissa. She also works at school- and I'm so glad because she can always make me laugh! Her little boy Kyle is in the youth group so she helped chaperone too.

This is where I could kick myself for forgetting my camera!! I wish I could have gotten better pictures of the bands. They were AWESOME! All of them were sooo good in person. They sounded great and how cool that all of the people there were not there to just watch a show but to worship Jesus! This is one of my favorites of the night- Chris August. He was great and even sang his song about candy- I think it's called Candy? ha! It was funny. But boy when he sang his new song 7X70 just with his guitar- wow. I loved it. I thnk he's even up for several Dove Awards!

I also loved the David Crowder Band. They brought down the house when they sang How He Loves.  At the end they brought out the banjos and sang I'll Fly Away. Of course in front of a Kentucky crowd it was a hit! Everybody was dancing around- it was great!

This girl was great too!! Francesca Battistelli was there and I got both of her CD's- which are wonderful by the way! She sings such fun catchy songs that you will hum all day long- but have such truth to them at the same time! All the girls in the youth group wanted to get her autograph so we waited in yes- another line :) to get her autograph. They were so excited to see her. Here is Ellie, Annie's sister, and Kyle getting her autograph. I don't think Ellie could have been any more happy if you had put Justin Bieber in front of her! (Now Annie on the other hand...)

Looking at this picture of Ellie with Francesca makes me so glad to know that there are such godly women role models for these young girls to look up to. I'm thankful thankful to know that there are women who put God first and that its reflected not just in their music or movies- but in thier lives too. (and yes I'm thankful thankful)

I hate that I got a picture here when she wasn't looking! Sorry Kyle!! How cute it he though?

We had such a great time at Winter Jam! I will definitely go back next year- lines and all! It was like a Christian music-palooza. We had everything from head banging heavy metal with shooting fire (which was a little different than what I'm used to- yikes!) to a David Crowder hoedown! But most of all- what an awesome night of praise and worship. Everybody coming together in the name of Jesus to lift Him up. Doesn't get any better than that!

Wake up my soul! Wake up, O harp and lyre! I will waken the dawn with my song. I will thank you, Lord, in front of all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations. For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens. May your glory shine over all the earth.

I better scoot- it's way past my bedtime- ha! :) Happy Monday!!
~Meg

The (Fake) Family Reunion

Happy weekend everyone!! I thought since today was Saturday, and I had some extra time on my hands, it would be a great day to share a really fun story with you guys. I’m gonna give you the long version…so grab a snack and get comfortable! :)

I guess I should start the story out by saying that there is a really sweet lady who goes to our church named Fancy who started reading a series of Christian fiction novels by Karen Kingsbury quite awhile back. She loved the books so much that it didn’t take long for several other women in our church to start falling in love with them as well. One of those girls was our good friend, Whitley. She began reading a series of K.K’s books that featured a family known as the Baxter’s several summers back. The only reason I remember that is because she would talk about how she wanted to pray for the characters in the books at church because of how real they seemed to her and because of all the hard things they were dealing with as a family. Ha!!

Anyway…a few summers later, Meg started reading them and I don’t think she said a word our whole summer vacation to the beach because she had her nose in a book the entire time! Seriously, she read from sun up to sun down…I think she made it through 7 or 8 books in a week and a half! Soon thereafter, Beth started the Baxter books and did the same thing. I was convinced that nothing could touch my Nicholas Sparks novels, so I wasn’t going to jump on that train quite yet.

I gave it another year or so and then decided it was time to find out what all the fuss was about.  I read the first book and all I’ve got to say is watch out Nicholas Sparks! Seriously….the best book I had ever read! I got through the first few books of the Baxter series and then school started back and I just never did have time to finish.

The next summer rolled around though, and I remember Meg came home so excited one night because she found out there was going to be a Baxter Family Reunion…so like a family reunion for fake people. Ha!! She found out that there were going to be people there playing the characters from the books and that it was going to be in Bloomington, Indiana (the place where the books are based) and she REALLY wanted to go. So we talked about it and decided just a couple of days before that we were going to go (we being Meg, Beth, our friend Whitley and myself).

I really didn’t want to go! I mean, I wanted to take a fun trip with the girls, but they had read every Baxter book that had been published. I had read 4 of like 20 books and I didn’t want to find out what was going to happen during the remainder of the 16 books…I wanted to read them! I tried and tried to think of a way to get out of it...but not having anything to wear just wasn’t cuttin’ it and I’m no good at faking sick. 

So…off we went to Bloomington, Indiana…home of the sweet Baxter Family. Well, it would be their home if they actually existed. J I spent the duration of the 4 hour drive trying to at least finish the 5^th book of the first series...it didn’t happen. We talked about what that night would be like and what we were going to wear and how we would do our hair and all things girl. There was going to be a red carpet event where Karen and the characters from the books would make a grand entrance and walk down the red carpet. And we all wondered what the infamous Dayne Matthews, the Brad Pitt of the Baxter books, would look like. Except, I hadn’t made it far enough along in the books to really even know who he was. But…cute movie star boy…I’ll wonder with you anyway. Please and thank you!    

Trying to read in the car

We got to the Indiana University auditorium that night where the event was being held and boy were there a lot of people there! Beth and I stood outside and roasted for a few minutes while Meg and Whit went to get us Wendy’s for dinner. By the time they got back, the doors had opened and Beth and I didn’t have time to eat our food, so Meg just stuffed it in her purse and we went in.

Arriving with our Wendy's

We got inside and we were packed in there like sardines! It was really hilarious to be around some diehard Karen Kingsbury fans…it was great! But finally the doors open and Karen and the characters that could make it that night walked the red carpet and the night began. I remember asking Bethany which of the boys was supposed to be Dayne Matthews…and once we figured it out I was like…DAAANNNG girl, he’s FINE! Haha…just kidding! He was very handsome, but it actually went more like, “Well huh…my Dayne Matthews has lighter hair….does yours?” Haha!

 That night was so much fun, despite the fact that I held my ears and made really weird noises most of the time so I wouldn’t hear what anyone was saying about the books. I came…but I certainly wasn’t gonna find out what happened in the books I hadn’t read yet. I heard the sweet beginning prayer and the awesome musical performances, but I couldn’t tell you another word that was spoken that night. Haha!

When the little program for the night ended, we got our pictures taken with all the characters and had so much fun! That really was such a fun, fun night. Oh…and I forgot to tell you about the food we left in Meg’s purse. Beth and I got it out to eat it once we were in the auditorium, probably a big no, no…but we were starving, ok? :) We open the Wendy’s bag to find the sauce to my delicious boneless honey BBQ chicken wings had spilled all over the inside of her purse and just made a huge mess! That wasn’t gonna stop Beth and I though…we went to the bathroom, cleaned her purse out as good as we could, and ate our dinner in the bathroom. We’re sick, we know!

Us with Dayne...How Beth managed to get to stand next to him is still a mystery! Haha!

With Kelsey (aka Bailey Flanigan)..She's so sweet and talented! 

With Ty, Karen's son...he has an AMAZING voice!

Anywho…we went back to the hotel for the night and had girl talk and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning trying again to finish my book…it still didn’t happen (I’m a slow reader).

Trying to read again in the hotel room 

…Did I mention this is the long version?...

The next morning we got up and got ready to go to the little Baxter Family Reunion picnic that was scheduled for that afternoon. It was such a beautiful day, but let me tell you, it was HOT!!! We brought our blankets and lawn chairs and just had a really fun little picnic. We visited with other Karen Kingsbury readers and got to visit with Karen and her daughter, Kelsey (aka Bailey Flanigan, another main character of the books) for a couple minutes had a really, really fun time. We actually got a little bit of the inside scoop on who the real guy playing Dayne Matthews was from Karen. He seemed to be a pretty upstanding guy from what she had to say…not that we would expect anything less since he was there to represent her and her writing.  But since Meg and I were the only single girls of the bunch, we then stepped aside and had a little knock-down-drag-out to see who was gonna win the heart of good ol’ Dayne Matthews. Haha!! Totally joking…we aren’t that exciting…we actually just went and sat back down in our lawn chairs.

All of us with Karen 

I remember Bethany and I were sitting on our blankets at one point…I was looking through pictures on our camera…and all of a sudden “Dayne” comes up behind us and scares me to pieces and says “I have a job for you girls”.

I said, “Okay, and what is that?” 

He says, “You see that Toy Story yahtzee game up there? I really love Toy Story and I need you to win that for me”.

I told him that we were up to the task and we’d be sure to get it for him. We watched that dang Toy Story game the whole picnic to try and find out what kids game we were going to have to play to win it.

We had talked to some really hilarious women who I think totally had a crush on “Dayne”…but since they were at least 20 years his senior and already married, one of the women found it only necessary to go get him and bring him over to formally introduce him to us. If they couldn’t have him…one of us should at least try! Haha! They really were a hoot!

So we introduced our(real)selves to each other and “Dayne” actually turned out to be a really nice guy…from what our 3 minutes of interaction told us at least. He even helped us carry our lawn chairs back to our car. That’s right, ladies, chivalry is not dead…don’t let anyone try to convince you otherwise!

So he walked us to our car and we gave him a ride back to the picnic area. He told us a little more about himself and gave us his phone number to try to get in touch with him if we all ended up at the same place later that afternoon (there was going to be a special premier ofLike Dandelion Dust, a great movie based on one of Karen’s novels).

 Texting "Dayne" after the picnic...and going through some weird drive-thru

Somehow (I say somehow…but maybe it was more like…I would have fought to the death to make absolutely sure) I ended up with the phone that had his number and we texted for a while to try to figure out what the plans were for later. We ended up texting for a while and found out they weren’t going to have time to make it to the movie. So…after getting lost for a while and Meg driving the wrong way down several one-way streets, we finally made it to the theatre and watched the movie…which was really great, by the way!

Posing at the movies

After the movie, the festivities were over, so back to KY we headed. It was such a fun weekend with some really fun girls!

I’m sure at this point you’re probably wondering what ever happened to Dayne Matthews and his phone number….and I’d be more than happy to tell you….It wasn’t too long after that that our good friend, Dayne turned into my best friend, Aaron.

We texted all night that night we got home. I got to know him a little bit better and although I really did want to talk to him on the phone, between the bad cell service at my house and the fact that I barely knew the guy, I told him that maybe he could call another night. Haha!

A couple days of just non-stop texting and I finally gave in to letting him call me. I remember that night like it was yesterday. He called pretty late…probably around 11:30 or 12 o’clock on a Friday night. I was so nervous! But he called and we talked…and talked…and talked. I think I found out more about him that night than I ever found out about all of my past boyfriends combined.  He laid it all out on the table…and I loved that. He was so open and honest and he probably told more bad things about himself than good…but I still loved it. We shared stories with each other…he really has the BEST stories…and just talked about ourselves and how we grew up and what we were doing now….we talked about it all! After about 7 hours of talking and seeing that the sun was already coming up, we decided that we should probably call it a night. That certainly wasn’t the end though…

Over the last 9 months I have gotten to know the most incredible man I have ever met. Aaron is really one of the most caring, generous, compassionate people I know. My mom always talks about how we girls needed to find guys who were kind by nature. I have never met a person as kind as Aaron….and he is especially kind to me, which is an even bigger plus J He has shown me what God intended true love to look like and I pray that every girl who reads this, even if it’s just one, will be encouraged and know that there really are great, Godly men out there. Don’t let yourself settle for anything less!

I got to go for the first time this past summer to visit Aaron in Seattle. I was on the plane and for a brief moment I thought, what in the world am I thinking going across the country to see a guy I barely even know…I have lost my ever lovin’ mind! The thought passed just as quickly as it came and we ended up having such an amazing time together. He came to pick me up from the airport and I just ran and jumped in his arms like I had known him for years...Yep, we’re that couple…you know the one that makes you sick to even look at…we’ve come to terms with it.     

At a wedding we went to the first time I visited 

On a beautiful beach in Seattle 

The last night in Seattle, Aaron took me on an amazing dinner cruise...so fun!

The last 9 months have truly been the best months of my life and I can’t wait to see all the incredible things the Lord has in store for us. I do love the sweet, fun story of how we met…but not because of the story, but because of the man I got because of it. 

What a fun one to tell though, huh?

P.S. If you’re not asleep by now and wondering what ever happened to that Yahtzee game, I swear it disappeared that day. I watched it the whole picnic and I took my eyes off of it for 2 minutes and it was gone.  But…I’m a girl of my word and a few weeks after we started talking, I saw it in Walmart, bought it and sent it to him in the mail and said, ”told ya I’d get it for you” :)

...Hope you all have a great weekend!! Take a little time to go back and remember how your love story began. And if you're still waiting on yours, just know that God already has a beautiful story written out just especially for you...just be patient, it's coming soon :)

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart...Psalm 37:4

  

 Love, love,

-Britt

Well Hello Weekend!!!

Yikes we have neglected the blog this week! I'll blame it all on Meghan because she hasn't blogged about ANYTHING;) However, she is very busy and I know she is pooped when she gets home from teaching all those cute little kiddies...So i'll tell you about my exciting week...or lack thereof. Ha!

This biggest (and saddest) part of my week was saying goodbye to my love as he trecked to Arizona for baseball spring training. I told him today that I knew he would be jealous of me when I told him I got to wake up to snow on the ground while he soaked up the 80 degree sunshine all day..how rude! He will be in Arizona for about 3 weeks and then flies out to start his baseball season in North Carolina at the end of the month. I will miss him so much but who knows..I might pack up and go west for my spring break:)

My week was also filled with LOTS of studying...I had so many tests this week..I have studied countless hours in my four years in college and I am ready to be DONE! Which class would you like to discuss first?!? Comparative anatomy? Pathophysiology? or my personal favorite, Evolution..HA yea right! That's nothing but a bunch of hog wash! Needless to say, I made it through just fine...like always! Praise the Lord!

Our dog Carson had to get his yearly shots today..and I'm positive you all want to hear about it..so I'll tell! He cried from the moment we got in the car! Geez...he doesn't like traveling much. Britt held him while he got his shots and I held his head so he wouldn't bite a chunck out of the vet lady..hah! He did pretty good though so we were proud. We even thought about taking him out for a hamburger at McDonalds...yes he knows the golden arches when he sees them (really he does!) but we were in a bit of a hurry so we skipped that part. Sorry dog.

Hopefully tomorrow I can just relax and have a pretty lazy day. That would be just fine with me! I've started a pretty regular running regimen to help get in great shape for my wedding...September will be here before I know it!! I ran 3 miles but then rewarded myself with no bake cookies..I'm not sure how good this is gonna work out..woops! Welp, I think that's all I have to say tonight. We will try to get better at updating..I promise!

P.S. I've been watching the news about the earthquake/tsunami in Japan and my heart just breaks for all the people who have lost friends, families, homes, etc. I pray God will just be with everyone affected and just give them peace during this extremely devestating time...I hope you will lift them up too!!