Michael's family, soon to be mine also!!! =)

Brothers! =)

Michael and his beautiful family!!!

I Just had to add this and show you all how INCREDIBLY AMAZING my man looks when he's all dressed up! This pix was taken today. Whew... I can't believe he's gonna be mine!!! ;)
Thanks Phillip (Michael's dad) for sending me this!!!

(= Our BIG news!!! =)

Michael and Candace Engaged!!!!! ;)

Jeremiah 29:11"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Michael has won the hearts of my grandparents next door, My uncle and aunt and their 6 children, both my parents, all 6 of my siblings and of course he has WON MY HEART also. Everyone is amazed! He has such a heart for God and such wonderful, hard core, Christian, values. We share all the same passions on HOW we want to live for Christ. Not to mention the fact that he's tons of fun and outrageously good lookin'!!! I can barely grasp that this is really happening to me. I never expected to be this blown away. I look up to him and admire him so much. I've never, ever, met anyone like Michael. My whole family agrees that this is a match made in heaven... Michael and I couldn't agree more!!! =)

Do what I love and get paid? Sounds like a fairy tale...

Wahoo! I love my new job!!!! Working at the local coffee shop! I've wanted to work there for forever. Now I get paid to be spread enthusiasm like it's a highly contagious sickness, wear a smile... ("Smiling's my favorite" Quote from Elf), take orders, serve people, and talk to them. I get Sundays off and I get to have time off every Thursday to teach my nature class that I am starting soon. Thank God for blessing me with this!!!!! I met a new home school mom today who said she was having a hard time so I gave her my moms number. Mom's favorite, is helping home school parents out! My boss told me today that she was "extremely impressed" with me already... Hmmm, guess I must have done something right! =) I love my fellow workers, too! It feels like I've known them for longer then just two days. We all get along great... I've made some new friends... Ok, I'll get off the Pollyanna glad game for your sakes and say... The End! =)

THIS LIFE IS A WHISPER

She stared, amazed, at the palm of her hand.
What sparkled there was common sand.
She was speechless, overcome with emotion,
The thousandth time she stood in the ocean.

A lonely tear stood still in her eye,
As she lay and watched the starry sky.
She laughed aloud and sang along,
When one little bird chirped his song.

In her heart she knew full well,
That all of creation lives to tell
And whisper of our Ancient of days.
Her heart joined in to give him praise!

In life’s blessing or human blunder,
She saw God’s hand and gazed in wonder.
Years made her old, and her death was the start,
Of joy bigger than galaxies, and God held her heart!

Writen today: by C&ace

God is trying to get into my thick skull right now!

Well, I got a new car. I said goodbye to my ol' friend the two-door bug and traded it in for a newer, non stick shift, four door car with MUCH fewer miles on it. My ol' VW had a lot of issues that cost too much. My new car is a white Dodge Neon SXT. I like the fact that the CD player holds 5 CDs at once. I really love my new car and it's so pretty. I wish I could upload a pix of it. Oh well...

So that's the latest news about what is going on with me on the outside, but in the past month or so I've had a lot of things going on mentally. I've been thinking a lot lately but I've gotten into a very strange habit, recently, of not really saying a whole lot of my deepest thoughts and I haven't written in my journal either. Both are the most abnormal thing for me for sure! I've held some things in awhile, hencely, I'm kinda out of practice at translating from my brain to explaining so that my thought can make sense to others. I don't know if I can get it in words very easy.

Well... hmmm... how to start... Ok. I felt convicted over the fact that I had no joy unless I could be a "social butterfly" (as mom calls me) and be around lots of different groups of friends. I was never satisfied either. I always wanted more. Being around people helped me escape my unhappiness. Now I see what that unhappiness was and it was not something I needed to escape from. It was something I needed to turn and face. That lack of joy was a desperate need to make God my everything. Oh yes I feel that God was my friend and I would like to say He was my everything but unfortunately He was not. In order for Christ to be my all he needed to be the only one I needed for joy and contentment, the only one that satisfied and my only escape. Friends are great and wonderful but in my case I felt God calling me to give up pursuing any social life. I took that step and as soon as I really made the decision to obey and listen to that little tug on my heart I have felt so much peace. I am currently working for Mom at home and pretty much the only thing I do besides hang with family is go to church. This is really a time of burning away my own desires and a time of overcoming. I know this is only a time and it will pass. I keep thinking and praying that song Jeremy Camp sings...
Holy fire
Burn away
My desire
Of anything
That is not of You
And is of me
I want all of You
And less of me

Empty me, Empty me
Fill ,won't You fill me
With you, Lord, with You
'Cause I want more.... I want more of you Jesus...

Anyway, the Lord is working on me and I can already see that He has helped me overcome some major "idols" in my life. Idols, to me, are things that come before God. I have found out that you can have things in your life that come before God and not even realize it. We have to examine every part of our lives and ask ourselves... "What is ruling me?" What makes me different? How am I being set apart from (meaning, unlike) the world? What do I dwell on the most?" Then we should answer our questions honestly!

I have to confess one thing that hurts the most is looking around and not seeing much of a difference between Christians and non-believers and then looking inward and seeing that I have that same pull to keep becoming less like a follower of Christ and more a slave to self! Oh God... I pray that He keep saving me from myself and help me continue to renew my mind and stay steadfast in Him. I want to help other people see that there is so much more to it then Just getting "saved". If we believe in God our savior then we will truly believe that His way is better then our way even when we don't understand. If we believe this then we ought to act like we do and give up everything to follow Him! Y'all this is serious and scary and exciting!

I pray that, somehow, God will touch you and and help you feel what He is making me feel right now. We all should feel such a burden! Please examine yourself and ask God to show you what you must give for Him. Do we believe in Christ, that His way is better then our way. Then lets live it like we mean it! Like it's the single most important thing in our whole lives! Our purpose is to live to glorify God! The more you say no to yourself and yes to God the easier it is to make more right choices! Living for Christ is VERY HARD but WORTH IT! =)

Pray for me y'all I have so much more that God is trying to get into my thick skull right now. So much that I must change!

Crammed highlights. Still much has been left out!

Ok! I know it's been way to long since I last posted! Apologies all around! So.... hmmm I need an excuse... I don't suppose any of y'all will believe that our dog ate our computer, would ya? Ok well if not here's one that is more believable. I have to find time on this thing and sharing 1 computer with 9 people is tough! I also am kinda more into facebook then blogging so my precious moments of computer time have been spent there lately.

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We are having trouble uploading photos lately and I hate posting without a pictures! No fun!

I don't have much time here so I'll cram! Sorry if it ain't interesting enough but no one's forcing you to read this blog! =) There's so much I'll just have to hit highlights.

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July 3rd: I went firework shopping with my Dad, two brothers (Luke and Abel) and two cousins (Josh and Paul) and my 6 year old sister came along too. She likes fireworks! My kinda girl. =) We stayed out till midnight and came home loaded with explosives. I spent two bucks on some Zipps and a guy gave my a few free fireworks! I didn't go to buy though. I went along so I could talk the pyromaniacs, who were with me, in to getting the one's I think are cool so I could be a tight-wad and yet still enjoy some sweet explosions! =) I also found them some cool Uncle Sam hats for a buck each and got everyone all pumped to look extra festive this 4th!

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July 4th!!! : Went tubing down the Hiwassee River with my fam. The highlight of that was when Pris, who was ahead, floated under a bridge where two guys were getting ready to jump off. The guys looked like they got a big kick out of scaring the heck out of her as they took turns, each jumping from 45 feet up and landing within a foot of her tube. We all watched and laughed till we nearly cried. Priscilla's freaked-out, horrified look, was to funny! She had the scare all over again when the second guy jumped. Trust me... It was just as funny the second time! We all had our share of excitement on the rapids though! I was flipped completely out of control at one point and had to frantically swim for my tube which was running away from me. AHHHH! =)

We later went home and got ready to go out to the firework show at the local city park. I had three sections of hair that I made stick up to look like fireworks and then sprayed with wash out BLUE hair dye. Everyone looked crazier then ever this year. I got to hang with some friends that I hadn't seen in months, played Ultimate Frisbee, watched a pie eating contest and lost my apatite forever!, and walked around with my cousin Joshua to help him sell the glow necklaces that we sold for twice as much as he bought them for. He made a good profit that night! =)

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A date in between then and now: We went to a swimming pool after church and I asked the lifeguard if it was ok to do flips off the diving bord. He said yes so I did a back flip off of it. My nearly 11 year old brother Abel decided he wanted to try it too! He ended up being taken to the emergency room on an ambulance and got three staples in head because in the process of completing the flip he whacked his head on the diving bord! I know I'm such a bad example! =( It was quite a dramatic seen but they took his picture to hang near the pool and they also wanted to put the story in the paper.

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Last Sunday: Right after church Pris and I went to a surprise birthday party. After that we spent the rest of the day with some friends. One, of which, has a boat so we spent hours on the lake swimming and taking turns, two at a time, riding the wild tube hooked by a rope to the boat. Wow! It was so much fun. We got some air at times we were going so fast and hitting waves! I thought for sure I'd fall off but somehow, each time I managed to stay on... I'm not sure how! We had so much fun with our friends they are so great to hang with! Even if they didn't have a boat. ;)

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Yesterday: I mowed the lawn, made lunch (while Mom took Abel to get his staples taken out), Helped get ready for the out of state trip that we are going on, made dinner, hung with three of my uncles, (had some catching up to do with the uncle that's only 6 years older then I), Spent some time watching some huge machinery work on digging the lake that we are getting put in!, watched the firework show that my brothers and cousins put on for us... using up the last of their fireworks, walked through the woods, over to my Grandparents house to see them, since they'd been gone for weeks, and stayed till 11:45 talking with them. A long but great day!

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Today: Got up at 6:00 am to sweep and mop the upstairs, before everyone was up, so that there wouldn't be foot prints put on the wet floor before it dried. Then I spent more time on trip preparation. We are leaving today at 4:00 pm to go on our out of state trip! Can't wait to see my terribly missed friends from the land of MO. Annddd... Wrote this post so all the nagging people will leave me in peace! =) Comments on this post are very looked forward to... It's only the nagging comments that I am complaining of! I guess the nagging had the desired effect on me though, because here I am writing!

www.TurnOffYourTV.com

I'm babysitting 3 kids 11 hours a day plus an hour of driving each way, 5 days a week. So 11 + 2 = 13!!! ;0 The oldest is 9 and the twins are 7. That'll be my life this summer. But hey, I make it fun when I can.

Like today, I announced that "I despise TV and we were going to do something fun!” turned it off and had them follow me outside... The truth is I had no clue what we'd do in their filthy tiny yard... So I pretended to have confidence, like I actually had a plan, and just made it up as I went.

I came across a cooler with wheels in the garage, and a hose by the house... hmmm lots o' concrete in a neighborhood. A little filling up the cooler with water, sticking a kid in it and C&ace becomes a carthorse... annddd presto! Folks, we have water ride! Also neighbor kids appeared out of nowhere and I got a good workout!

Got my paycheck!!! Yehaw!!! Went home. Took siblings and cousins to park. Taught cousin to do back-flips while swinging on the swing set. Played Frisbee. Did some more flips off some bouncy ropes onto wood chips. Bad idea! Got splinters from bad landings! Went to Sonic and got everyone treats. Played tennis and kicked tail! Got home wrote this post. End of day! :) Goodnight....... zzzZZZZZ! ;)

The Tragic Tale of Mr. S. F. =P

(Person of the month)... Luke. Aka Snake Charmer! Grama, who shivers at the merest mention of a snake, found one near her house. So my chivalrous, knight of a brother went over to rescue her from the miniature, legless, wingless, slithering, harmless, dragon like creature! Except, instead of slaying it he fell in love with it and brought it home!!! OK... The snake is not poisonous therefor, logic follows that it is harmless, or so we thought. It turned out to be the nastiest aggressive little twerp! This did not affect Luke's unconditional admiration of the snake. Undaunted, he put on some gloves and eventually "Mr. Slithering Filth" got tired of the taste of glove fiber and gave up on trying to bite the heck out of everything in sight. Alas this tale has, I fear, an ending of woe and tragedy. For Luke and Grama anyway. Mr. S.F. somehow managed to escape and returned to the wild! Luke morns his loss... Annddd... Grama prays that she won't gain back what she was relieve to lose and hopes the brute won't show up again, sunning itself on her porch!

I got less of what I had which I had a lot of before but now I have a little.

Before

After

Yes. Yes. I did get my hair cut very short. It's been REALLY long most of my life so I thought I'd try something new and cooler for the summer. It will grow back within a year or so to all those who hate it. Anyway comments are welcome as long as they are honest. I can't stand it when people are like "Wow. New hair cut. Looks great." with a plastered grin and a fake laugh. With me just say what you think. GOOD or BAD. :) I can take it................................... 'This oughta be interesting!' ;)

The Extremely Strange Outing

I’ve been sick all day today so I was still in my PJs with my hair in a wad when the girls and I decided to get in the car to go take pictures of a funny looking, dead squirrel. Pris was describing how hilariously cartoonish it looked, lying flat on it’s back with its front paws in the air. While we headed out, I slipped on Hopes flippin flops (as Kezzi calls them) that were conveniently sitting by the door and Pris grabbed her keys and the camera. We thought it was quite amusing and pretty funny as we looked around at each other… Pris and the camera, Kezzi with her purse, (we were only going a half a block away) Hope running to the car barefoot, (I had her shoes) and I was still in PJs. WHAT WEIRD GIRLS!

We laughed even more as we pulled over and saw that the squirrel was every bit as funny as Priscilla’s description of it. I tried taking pictures between times of the girls and I jumping into the roadside graveyard to avoid getting run over, ourselves. I’ll tell you what… we got some strange looks from some passers by. I would pay some money to know what was going through their heads… A bunch of girls, a camera, a dead squirrel, and a graveyard? What are we?? Obsessed with death or something??? Pris instructed us not to run back to the car ‘cause it would look even stranger. So, we got back and showed the boys and Mom. The boys thought it was hilarious but Mom only sighed and shook her head.

Stepping Stones To My Dream and My Passion!!!

Well, I talked to our church youth pastor two Wednesdays ago and told him that I really have a burden to help out with the youth. I offered to help wherever there was a need. He said that there was a huge need for a middle school girl’s small group leader! Anyway our church is very large. About 800 to 1000 people so there is a very good-sized youth group. There's a process I have to go through, first, to be leading but our youth pastor is very excited and wants to get this process over with so I can start.

The next Saturday night I drove an hour away to go to one of our church youth leader's get together. I got to meet the soon-to- be NEW youth pastor. I asked him some pretty point blank questions and was absolutely floored at how non compromising he is in his beliefs. The things he had to say, in answer to my questions, are exactly what our youth need to hear. Things that have been neglected for (in my opinion) far to long!!! I'm so excited that God is bringing someone else that is standing up for Christ's ways and willing to address some rather uncomfortable issues! Since I will be leading a middle school small group soon it will be so nice to have him backing up some of these things that have been avoided or overlooked. Things that have been such a burden on my heart for so long!!! This new guy says we need to make, leading this youth, a team effort. I have high hopes that, as a team, with God's help we can and will make a big difference!!!! :)

I went to my 'interview" last Tuesday and it went very well! Things will be up and moving very soon. (This is so much better then camp where I only have 1 week to work with the girls and then they leave and I never know if I will ever even see them again... Then a new group comes in.) With this, I will have so much more time with these kids!

Since then I've gotten to hang out and get to know some of the kids. I'm really, very, super, excited!!!!! I know this is not going to be easy because I know everything I say/don't say and do/don't do counts! Pray for me I need His guidance to handle this job well and to make a difference!!!

I Wana Pull My Hair Out! Or... Life's Like Candy Land

Ok so I did this really awesome post with a super cool pix of an old candy land game board and wrote on how we used to play candy land. Then I told of how we each had to be a character from the game that we would pretend to be. Pris liked Princess Lolly the best so that's who she was. I was Queen Frostine. Kezzi, The evil Lord Licorice & Hope Gloppy the Molasses Monster. There were many funny details about how the game just exaggerated our personalities. How I loved being the queen and how perfect she was and how BIG her dress was. Pris liked to be in charge of the game and directed everything. Kezzi was always interested in being the villain no mater what we played and I wondered how much acting it actually required for her and how much was just natural. Hope was so obsessed with sweets (especially chocolate) back then that we didn't even ask her opinion about who she would be. The molasses swamp Monster was just to perfect for her 'cause he looked like he was buried in melted chocolate fudge and happy about it! So yeah, that post was funny and a lot more time and thought put into helping the reader feel as though they were there... But... for some reason after I pushed publish, it got lost and malfunctioned. I got mad that all that time was wasted and the post was lost forever!!! So here I am writing this pathetic, filthy condensed version of it and I wana pull my hair out. I'm to discouraged to try to write another post that's just as good. So anyone who's had similar experiences can have sympathy and some of you might have tears in your eyes by now after reading this. Thanks for reading my sob story. Hopefully next post will be better and more cheerful.

What can I say but life is like Candy Land. You're movin' along one step at a time enjoin' the sweetness of life then unexpectedly you draw a card that sends you back a few spaces... annddd sometimes you get stuck for a long time in the Molasses swamp!