Miami, Florida

Miami is one of the coolest cities ever! :) It is so international..we felt like we were almost in a foreign country already! It was amazing though...loved every minute of it!
This is the view from our hotel balcony...



Saturday night, we met up with some friends (that were also going on the cruise) for dinner at Cafe Avanti. It was SOOO good! One of the best Italian restaurants ever!

Joy, Venita, Me, Julie, Rudy, Shannon, Rachel, and Sarah

The best lasagna...just sayin.

The next day we were so excited because we were leaving for our cruise that day! We got to sleep in a little bit then Venita and I decided to go have brunch at this amazing place, Cafe Bastille. We love going to little patio cafes! It was perfect and the food was amazing!

Decor on our table

Venita enjoying the view

Just Me...enjoying the outdoors and sunshine :)

My breakfast crepe with eggs, cheese, and ham. YUM!

Venita's omelett.

Venita and I...we had great conversation and very excited about leaving for our cruise. :)

Another view of Miami

The Lovely Florida :)

So, I'm finally getting a chance to upload my pictures from Florida and the Cruise..it's going to take a little while to get them all uploaded (will be posting several different posts) so bear with me. :) I took almost a 1000 pictures, so I'll just post the highlights from the trip. :)

I flew down to Orlando the Friday before my cruise and was able to get with some family friends of ours that I haven't seen since I was 14! They picked me up in Orlando, which is a couple hours from where they live..so on the way back to their beautiful home, we stopped by the famous and beautiful Daytona Beach! We even got to see the famous race-tracks! That place is H U G E!!!

We walked along the beach for a few minutes then went to meet some of my friends for dinner!

It was sooo good to see Ryan, Lisa, and little Rylee man!! I grew up with Ryan and also went to Gateway College with him and his now wife Lisa! They have the most adorable little boy! They are evangelists and just happened to be in the same area at the same time! It was soo good to get caught up with them! (I had my camera on the wrong setting, so the picture is a little bright lol)


After dinner, we went to St. Augustine for a little while. We walked around the old fort, drove around the town (which is awesome, btw!), and also went on a horse/carriage ride! LOVED IT!!
This is the old lighthouse (which still works) that we saw!

I loved the sunset that night! It was absolutely beautiful!! And all the palm trees....Oh My!! I LOVED it!!


This is part of the sidewalk thats made out of shells! How cool is that?!
Simply beautiful!

Looking at part of the old fort in St. Augustine.

Before we left St. Augustine, we took a horse/carriage ride through the town. It was absolutely LOVELY!! (my camera has been giving me fits, so some of these pics may be a little blurry)



This picture was taken on Saturday before I left for Miami. I was soo glad I got to see Vernon and Sibyl Coombs! I've known them since I was born, and even though the visit was short, it was wonderful getting to see them! :) Love you guys! :)

Reality...

I'm home!! And reality is setting in. I got very spoiled the last 10 days...and I am so not ready to be back in reality mode yet. There is nothing like a cruise! The ship was amazing, breakfast was more than I could ask for, lunch was lunch, dinner was incredible and then there are the midnight buffets. Yum! I got so used to soaking up those sun rays...so much that I got nice and crispy on the first day...but now its turned into a tan...so I can't complain about that! :) Every night coming back to your covers being turned down on your bed, a cute little towel animal with sunglasses just sitting there staring at you waiting for its picture to be taken. lol No more LONG hallways to walk, no more stairs to climb to your 7th deck balcony room, no more suitcases or ladders to trip over, no more friendly people to smile and say good morning, how are you?! No more cruise captain on the intercom saying "Cherrio!", no more friends right at your side every waking moment of the day, no one to call me "Hairspray" which was my nickname for the week! LOL No more random Papparazzi moments, I have to drive myself to work, no more people watching, no more laughing every waking moment, no more random dance moments and acting crazy...reality has set in. I must drive to work every day, and get back on my crazy daily schedule. Don't get me wrong, I love my life and I am so thankful I have a j-o-b, but it sure was nice and had a FANTABULOUS vacation! I made so many new friends and got to hang out with old friends, made LOTS of memories and it was the best ever!! It is going to take a little time to get my pictures posted...but they are coming! Stay Tuned! :)

BON VOYAGE!!

Well, its been a wonderful time already!! We are about to set sail on this beautiful ship, Carnival Glory!! I love the city of Miami! And we have a beautiful view of the city from our balcony room!

I'm not sure if my phone will work while I'm away...so if not...I'll see you in a week!!

BON VOYAGE!!!

A Visit to the E.R.

Wow...what a day this has been already! My Mom woke me up about 5:30 this morning saying we needed to rush my Dad to the ER and they thought he was having a stroke! What a way to get woke up! We got to the hospital about 6:15, thankfully my Mom called ahead and they had someone practically waiting on him. They immediately took him back to the room. They did several tests and we thought we were going to have to transfer to a different hospital to run tests to make sure it wasn't an aneurysm. The Doc finally came in shortly and said we weren't going to have to transfer and that she ruled out a stroke! Come to find out he had a severe inner ear issue and they gave him some meds to help him stabalize his balance. We got home about 1:00 and Dad is resting. He can't go back to work until Monday since they don't want him driving.

There were SOOO many people praying! I just want to say THANK YOU for ALL of your prayers, calls, facebook messages, and texts!!! GOD answered our prayers and I am so thankful for this!!! A special thank you goes out to Pastor Gleason for coming up to the hospital and praying with Dad! Also to my cousin, Paulette, for coming up there and being with us and for your constant support (thankful for the water and snacks too! lol)...Love you cuz! Thank You Jesus for all you've done!!

Ah-mazing!!

Do you ever get a overwhelming feeling about how awesome God really is?! We know HE is amazing at ALL times, but do you ever just really feel overwhelmed with His goodness?! I can honestly say, that is me tonight. There is simply not enough words to describe how awesome God really is. It doesn't matter what timing we think things should happen...He is always an ON-time God!!

I love it when God uses people to speak into you and they have no idea what you're feeling. You know it really IS God when that happens! I am so thankful for the two people that spoke into me tonight. I accept both those words!! I am soo thankful that God knows our hearts and knows exactly what we need when we need it!!

It brought me to tears tonight just thinking about the goodness of God and everything that He has done for me and kept me from. Simply amazing!

Sneak Preview...

A couple of days ago, I did a Easter photo shoot with Caedyn and Noelle! :) It was so much fun and we got a lot of cute shots! I've been too busy to get them edited and posted...but here is a sneak preview of whats to come! :)

Happy Easter!

Better late than never right?! lol I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday! It was quite the busy weekend for me! As you saw in a previous post we went to MOYC on Friday night, Saturday was filled with sleeping in (which was very MUCH needed), and running errands for my soon coming cruise! Sunday was busy with church, family and friends! I have no complaints! :) After all, God is good, right?! :)

Here are a few pictures of TLC Vertical Praise Choir during service! "Hosanna!"



We had a great alter call and 2 people got baptized!!



After church, I went out to lunch with some of my amazing friends! Dad ended up having to work overtime yesterday, so we were going to do our family thing when he got home. Lunch was great! We went to The Elephant Bar! That was the fastest lunch we've ever had...NOT! lol

After lunch I headed home to spend some time with Mom and Dad. We didn't do a Easter dinner this year, but I did make Mom and Dad a peach cobbler for dessert then we played some rounds of Yahtzee! We love that game! It was a lot of fun and believe it or not, there were lots of yahtzees that were rolled! hehe!!

Here are a few pictures that we took after our game. :)

Mom and Dad...in their non-church Easter clothes! ha!


Me with Mom and Dad


Here are a few pictures that Mom took of Muah...




Here is a sneak peak of my Easter shoes! :) Well...ok...I have to admit that I've had these shoes for about 5 years but this was the first time I've worn them! lol

The sunset was absolutely beautiful yesterday!!! Made a perfect ending to a wonderful day!

MOYC'10

I can't believe it's that time of year again! We were able to go to the last night of Missouri Youth Convention, last night! It was awesome! It was wonderful seeing 3,000+ young people come together with a heart for God and worship him without being ashamed!!
The theme this year was "Journey".

MoMass sang again this year...this choir has so much talent!! And it's growing! We have over 70 people in MoMass this year!!

Justin saying something before choir sang...

Some of the altos and our rockin' band!! The band rocks!!!

Some of the sopranos

And...some of our tenors!

My girl Ragen rockin it out on her solo! :)


Brother Huntley preaching. I love hearing him preach! We were sitting all the way on the side so the sound wasn't that good..and this was the best view...on the screen. lol


It was so good to see some "old" friends as well as getting to hang out with some of my awesome friends from KC. :) This is Jen and Crystal...Love these gals! :)

Crystal, Me, and Jen. :)

Jen and Ben...up from southern Missouri. :)

Crystal and Justin...

These were all the pics we took last night...but it was so good to be with everyone!! Love you all!! :)

Lessons in Life

I received an email today from a friend of mine about Lessons we should learn in Life. Some of them were really good and thought I would share my favorite ones. ☺ 

1. Life isn’t always fair but it’s still good.
2. Life is too short to waste time hating someone.
3. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
4. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
5. If a relationship has to be secret you shouldn’t be in it.
6. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
7. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
8. Frame every so-called disaster with these words, “In five years-will this matter?”
9. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
10. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
11. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
12. The best is yet to come!

And my new favorite quote....

13. Life isn’t always tied with a bow-but it’s still a gift.