These Five People

These five people decided to go on an overnight canoe trip last weekend.

Phillip (My father-in-law)

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Michael (My Husband)

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Me (My own self)

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Jon (The bro-in-law who keeps things fun)

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And... Isaac (The best 8 year old brother-in-law I could deserve)

Haha. You be the judge of "What I deserve"

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So yes, we packed and started off yehaw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Paddled, fished, laughed and really LIVED! Then, before the dark of night could overtake us, we pulled over on a magical sandbar and killed a few saplings. Add some rope and a tarp... Wahla! You have shelter from the rains that, the weather man swore, was sure to come.

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We built a fire and had a tasty dinner. Then blew up our air mattresses with the handy dandy, battery powered, blower upper thing. Daddy Phillip forgot a decent blanket. Instead, he pulled a space blanket, folded into the size of a wallet, out of his pocket. (See space blanket, above, in top right corner.) We all tried to sleep but only managed to acquire sore abs from laughing so much instead. The hilarity of his snores, crinkles (from the blanket that might as well have been an over sized chip bag), and the one leak in our homemade tent that dripped on that space blanket over and over and over... was a bit to much. And yes, the weather man was right this time. It rained as we finally managed to go to sleep. After all, we were very tired from a day of hard core, playing in the river... Oh, and our air beds were SOOO very cozy! (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZ)

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We woke up to a beautiful morning and the river, that had gathered the rain, and snuck about 10 feet closer to our tent. After some delicious campfire-grilled, cheese sandwiches and a quick job of packing the canoes we headed off again.

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There were some amazing places to pull over and sight see! We found a fantastic rope swing and had a ball swimming too!

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No one saw Bigfoot but after a careful and tedious search, among the rocks, along the bank of the river, I found this foot print. We can now verify that he exists. He's just not a BIG as they say. You know how people take things and blow them out of proportion. Tall tales would be short, and boring if someone didn't spice them up every once in awhile.

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We did see two bald eagles along the way. One swooped down, close. NO JOKE!!! It was amazing! This is the best shot I could get at it, though.

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Thirteen hours of paddling in all, stretched over two days, from the Narrows of the Harpeth River to the Cumberland. It left us tired on the bank, ready to be picked up and head back home, with a head full of great memories and an even greater love of Gods great American outdoor sanctuary. ;)

Hey everyone!!!! I have a Poetry blog now. Check it out.
www.mypoetryspacebook.blogspot.com I hope that at least one of them will touch you right where you are. You are welcome to leave comments on them. I would love to hear your thoughts about what I have written from the depths of my heart and some from the goofiness of my brain.

Small towns, singing, a new way to buy a beverage, a coffee house, and horse back riding!

Last weekend was awesome!!!! We went to a coffee house and Michael and his mom played guitar and sang. Together and separately. I got to hang out with a lot of people that came and stayed a couple of hours to listen to them play. They were a hit, lemme tell ya. I felt like the wife of a real star in that room.

When we arrived to set up at the coffee house I went over to the counter and ordered something from off the menu, a Tall Amaretto Macchiato. The older man behind the counter, blushing bright red, asked me. "What's in that? How do you make one? " I started to tell him how and told him that I worked at a coffee house for a while. So he asked me to come behind the counter and show him how. I did just that. I couldn't keep my eyes from laughing hysterically but I managed to keep it from seeping out of my mouth. I love small towns and country people who have layed back rules all of their own. I made my drink but didn't pay cash for it. I payed with a diagram of how to make it instead. It was more valuable to him then my money. When we were leaving that night he thanked me and said that 3 other people had ordered a macchiato and they had told him that it was VERY good! ;)

Sunday after church we went horseback riding. I rode with a new friend of mine, who is a neighbor to my in-laws, and her mom, for a couple of hours. Michael joined me on the horse I rode, toward the end of our ride. We had a SUPER, OH-SO-FUN of a SWEET, AWESOME time!!!! I really like my new friend too. She is about my age and we get along great!

How things are going

One of our honeymoon pictures

Hey everyone!!! I'm blogging... Can you believe it??? I'm sure everyone has given up on me by now... But here I am! =)

So, now that I have been mairried for 3 months I feel qualified to say that Michael is turning out to be the most amazing husband I could have dared to hope for! I believe that a better match would be, pretty much, impossible to find. I love him more every day.

Things are going great. We had an awesome honeymoon. Married life is WONDERFUL!!! We found a church that we LOVE. I have been working at a day care center for a month now and that's going well. I made a really great new 'girl' friend here. I have the best in-laws in the intire universe. I killed my first buck this year a really good sized 8 pointer. I get to hear my favorite singer (Michael) ALL the time... And I miss EVERYONE in my family so much that I cry sometimes even though I'm the happiest girl in the world. We enjoy talking on the phone a lot, whenever we get a chance. I miss all the girl time, I had been so used to, in a house full of six femals (we greatly outnumbered my dad and brothers). I also miss living in a small town where I almost never felt like a stranger and being friends with all our neighbors. It's harder than I thought moving away from where I spent 12 years growing up.

The change has been for the better but it would be so untrue if I pretended that I never look back, with fondness, and miss the old life sometimes.

In the three months I have been mairried I have collected more wonderfull memories then I can possibly count, with my wonderful husband and yes, being mairied is everything, and more, that I ever dreamed or hoped for.

Lots of Love, Candace M.

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! =)