Sunirse

After watching the sunset and the end of my long day at the beach yesterday I thought it appropriate to watch the sunrise this morning and have my quiet time out there. WOW...God knows how to make a beautiful sunrise! I live here...this is awesome!

I'm almost to the beach and its still dark outside :)

Its starting to light up but no sun yet

Getting set up on the beach...bible, poptarts and the beach, I'm ready to go

It was only 50 degrees outside

Here is the Sunrise! I like how I caught the birds in the last picture :)

Geocaching around the beach!

So I decided to go geocaching in Ponce Inlet, a beautiful location near the beach, today after class and I even brought some homework to do so I can finally say I did homework on the beach.

My first cache of the day at the Ponce Inlet welcome sign

I had to pretend to take pictures because there were people around

This one was really hard and I got pretty muddy getting there...that swing in the background was really random as well, I'm about a quarter mile into a marsh and I trail-blazed the whole way

Finally made it to the Ponce Inlet lighthouse!

This cache was tough as well, it was under some rocks...as you can see, there are a lot of rocks

Trying to do homework on the beach...it was really really windy

I tried to get a shot of me and the ocean

I couldn't find this cache...my GPS was telling me to go on the dunes and it is against the law to go there

I'm going to miss this beach

I tried to do an artsy shot...I thought it turned out pretty good :)

The end of my day at my last cache...it was an awesome sunset!

This was an awesome day! I plan on having more off these days as I get closer to graduating :)

My Life Before the Blog

Ok, so I thought I would give you a brief look at my life before the blog. This will be hard because God's blessed me so much but I'll give it a shot.

I was born May 16, 1987 in St Louis, Missouri while my dad was in Seminary. Only lived there six months before my dad got his first church in Michigan. Lived there 3 years where my brother was born then moved to Mississippi and we lived with my Grandma. Was there like a year then moved to California for a year. As a 4 year old, our house in California was awesome!

My brother and I in California

We had a huge back yard with a monster truck stored in a garage...the owner gave me a ride once, AWESOME!

Moved back to Mississippi until my dad could find another church and then ended up in this tiny town called Leaksville, MS.

This is the church...the house I lived in is off to the left

Lived here for 4 years, and boy was it great. Became a Christian here, at a summer church retreat when I was 8, June 21, 1995 to be exact. I was ages 7-11, prefect age to have acres and acres of wood the run around in, playing tarzan, cowboys and indians, and cops and robbers. A friend, my brother and I made a club with a tree house and everything. We had officers, I was the president of course, rules and everything. We even had 3 tests that kids had to pass before the got into our club, they had to prove themselves that they could handle the outdoors. I had even made up certificates that we gave to all the new members. It was awesome, the word spread around town to all the kids...we had kids we didn't even know come to try to get into our club, probably like 2 or 3 a weekend for about a month or two. We had about 20 kids in our club and we'd have weekly meetings at our tree house where my mom would make all of us sandwiches for lunch and then we'd go down to the dollar store and buy root beer for a quarter. That was the life :)

My brother, dad, and I in our house in Leaksville

Ok, moving on...my dad ended up joining the Air Force and we moved to Fort Walton Beach, FL. We were here for 2 and a half years. I fell in love with the beach here. The water was a clear blue, the sand was so soft it even squeaked when you walked on it because it was so fine. I learned my favorite sport of all time now, soccer, at the middle school right off base, Lewis Middle School, and also learned to play the tuba at the same school. In, I think it was October of 2000 my dad comes to me and tells me we are moving next summer. He then says we are moving to Okinawa. I was so confused, I had never heard about this place, didn't know if it was in Europe like my dad had been wanting or some place in the states I haven't been before. I was totally surprised but super excited when my dad said it was a little island south of mainland Japan. He pulled down the globe we had and the island wasn't even on it.

These next four years are probably the most memorable ones yet. The first 5 minutes in Japan, I was called Godzilla by the little Japanese kid...I laughed my head off. I learned to speak Japanese here, learned to drive sitting on the right side of a car driving on the left side of the road, learned to surf, traveled to Taiwan and Thailand, climbed Mt Fuji, skied in northern Japan, ate my first raw piece of fish, jumped off a 60 ft bridge into the water, sat in the back of a police car handcuffed (ok, it was for a scavenger hunt...but is sounds cool right?), met my best friend Eric, and so much more. It would take me days to talk about all the cool stuff I did there.

A bunch of my friends and I at Aha Falls

My last summer there was the best of all time. You can't drive off-base till you are 18 so it was finally time for me to explore the island. We we would go out camping for a week at a time, finding a different beach each night. Jumping off of waterfalls, getting lost in the mountains, going tubing and getting thrown everywhere because we told the Japanese boat driver to go fast, and building giant bon-fires on the beach while almost blowing ourselves up because the gasoline tank caught fire were some of the things we did that summer.  Earlier that year in 2005 I received my acceptance letter for my ROTC scholarship and to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

College was/is for 40 more days, awesome! Classes were tough but worth it, I met so many cool people, learned a lot about myself and got a lot of experience through my ROTC training. The first two years, I lived in the dorms but after that I had to get out of them. I then lived in a really nice apartment for 2 years and now reside in a house I found on craigs list...after days and days of searching. Living near the beach is totally worth it, but I never once did homework on the beach like I told myself I was going to do :) I got into road biking and mountain biking here and started working at a bike shop so I could learn how to take care of my bikes. I learned to scuba dive, one thing that I will never regret doing, it is AMAZING! I learned to cook in college, something that I love doing now and want to go to culinary school one day just so I can get better. I also became a clean freak, its relaxes me when things are clean and in their place. I am about to begin the next part of my life in the Air Force here in about 2 months and I can't wait!

Ok, so thats it...my life in a blog!

Seattle and Canada Trip

I have to say, this was a pretty awesome last spring break! I had so much fun with Sarah, her family, and Jessica...I don't even know where to start :)

Ok, so the first two days I was there I went to work with Sarah as a "volunteer" :) One of her jobs is the volunteer coordinator so I made her do some work...she retaliated by making me do work, so nice of her ;) The organization had just moved to a new building and their copy room was a mess so I used my amazing organizing skills to clean it up and wow what a difference when I was done. The people in her office were so nice, I hope I have co-workers like them when I start working.

We left Friday, bright and early, for Canada!

The boarder wasn't bad at all, it took us like 5 minutes to make it through. On the Canada side...it looked just like the US. The houses were the same, the cars were the same, the view was the same...we were basically still in the US besides the funny accents and the km/hr. Well, we made it to the ferry 30 minutes later but barely missed it so we had to wait around for the next one. 

Here is all of us on the ferry.

Jessica, Sarah, Me

We finally made it to the Bed and Breakfast we were staying at around 1pm...and wow, this place was awesome. When I booked it, the lady who owns it hooked us up with an awesome deal and put us in the best room there...the Olympic Grand Suite! This place was so awesome, the pictures below will show you why.

                

                                                    

I wish we could of stayed more than one night but it just would have been too expensive. After checking in to this place we went to this castle we found. This place was awesome! This nice little old lady gave us a tour of the first floor and sent us on our way. Sarah even set off the alarm when she stepped over the barricade to try to take a picture. I was hoping the mounties would show up but it was just this other old lady who gave us a dirty look the rest of the time we were there. Below are some pictures of this place.

After the castle we went to go watch the sunset on Mt Tolmie near the Univ. of Victoria. It is supposed to be the best view of the city and the surrounding mountains...it was amazing!

After the sun set went went back to the B&B and ate the baguette of bread, brie and mozzarella cheese, and grapes that we bought at the grocery store. We had a fire place so I had to get the fire going then we all relaxed and put in The Goonies! I missed like half the movie because I kept falling asleep. The next morning was the best part of the B&B! I had my devo's outside as the sun was coming up which was beautiful. Before breakfast we decided to make some Earl Grey tea which was awesome. Even more awesome is the fact that after I took a shower I found a robe in the closet...this all combined into an awesome picture!

We then went down to breakfast...a 4 course breakfast! It was amazing. It started off with some tea, then homemade granola, plain yogurt and an assortment of fruit, then came the lemon scones with homemade raspberry jam, and last but not least...eggs benedict but instead of ham there was smoked salmon and a slice of tomato! The rest of the day involved touring this amazing garden for a couple of hours, geocaching and walking around downtown Victoria. It was very sad when we left this place, we had such a good time! 

The next day after we got back, Sarah and I just relaxed because we were both worn out from Canada. We made apple cinnamon pecan pancakes which were super delicious then watch Newsies, an awesome movie by the way, then made the best cookie bars ever! They are called Nanaimo bars and are probably one of the best deserts I have ever had. Her mom made this awesome soup for dinner and we watched Mamma Mia. Snap, two musicals in one day :) 

My last day there, Sarah had to get here car emissions test done and get new tabs, then we walked around a park, went to lunch with her parents, geocached, went to my favorite place to eat in Seattle called Assimba which is this amazing Ethiopian restaurant, then went bowling. Now bowling, this is a crazy story. It was Sarah, Jessica, and me. Let me preface this with my average the last time I bowled, 106. With that said, I did much better this time ;) I started the game off with a turkey in the first 3 frames. by the end of the game I had two open frames with 9s and the rest strikes and spares. I ended up with a 199, my second highest score ever! 

This trip was incredible! It was in an amazing place, with amazing people! For my last spring break ever...I totally went out with a bang!    

Last Spring Break :(

Wow...I can't believe in 18 hours my last spring break ever starts. It's kind of sad to think about it, next year this time I will be working away, not even thinking about that week off I've gotten off every year since I was 6.

I have to say, I have had some pretty memorable spring breaks though. Every spring break in high school was amazing! My youth group in Okinawa, Japan had a retreat called Shorebreak every spring break and we'd take a ferry out to Tokashiki Island. What an awesome place to see the beauty of His creation and worship Him.

College was just as fun, no awesome trips to tropical islands in the pacific but plenty of beach to go around. Living 10 minutes from the beach does have its perks ;) BBQs everyday after spending the day just chilling at the beach, body surfing, playing volleyball, ultimate frisbee and tackle football. This was my time to work on my tan and let me tell you, by the end of spring break, I was tan like nobody's business :) That was the life, one week where you have no worries, no concerns...you just go out and be spontaneous, do whatever pops into your mind.

This last spring break though will probably be the best of them all...you have to go out with a bang right? First, I go back to my parents home for the last time before I head out to Kirtland AFB. I do get the see them again when I graduate but this is the last time home with them. Then I head out to Seattle, WA...pretty far from the warm sunny beaches of Florida I know, but this will be worth it. Going to see my friend Sarah who lives out there and we have an awesome list in the works of things to do...sorry, you'll have to wait till my next post after spring break to know what's on the list ;) Thankfully, she found her passport, which she thought was lost, so we will still be able to go to Canada! I have never been, so I am really excited! I know Toronto is a long way away but the movie Canadian Bacon will be playing over and over again in my head :) Wait...should put that movie on the list...done!

God's work in my life

Ok, so this is my first blog post ever! Life is going really good right now. God has been teaching me so much these past couple of months, to trust Him with everything, to listen to the Holy Spirit, to pray without ceasing...it is awesome! I've been reading this book called Crazy Love, by Francis Chan, and it has been very convicting. Basically, he just talks about how the church has become more of religious practice than a relationship, how people go to church, don't curse, give to the needy and think that this is all God made them to be. Read James 2:14-26 and Ephesians 3:14-21. First, from James, faith without works is dead...period. You can't just talk the talk and act like a Christian, you have to actually bear fruit and have faith. Second Paul in Ephesians basically says that Christ is waiting to dwell in your hearts to give you strength and knowledge to understand "how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ." Do you really just want to sit on the sidelines going through the motions and miss out on the vastness of Christ's love and His power that is at work within us? I sure don't.