The Secret is Out

Ok well now that my title got everyone's attention... Since the grapevine is still working quite well, not to mention Facebook posts by excited siblings I assume you all already know. But here it is anyway, Beau Cox and I are courting! Now I can just see the curious looks on ya'lls faces already. Courting? What does that mean? How to explain.... In Josh's words,"Definition of courtship:The process of a man's pursuing a lady to attempt to gain her affection,and has matrimony as its goal." That was quoted directly from his Facebook page. In other words my father has given him permission to win my heart with the intention of marrying me. Understand? So now you are saying well how does that differ from dating? Dating focuses on your needs and desires and on having a good time right now. Courtship looks to the future and says is this the person God has for me? Is this God's will for my life? Courtship includes friends and family. Dating has two young people spending large amounts of unsupervised time together. In courtship, however, the young people are supervised by their family and friends which protects them from making mistakes they would regret their whole lives. In dating there is not that safeguard. In courtship you keep your hands to yourself realizing that touching stirs up desires and emotions that you cannot rightly fulfill. With dating there is no such commitment and young people go around doing things that they will regret if they do not marry that person and sometimes regret even if they do marry them, hugging and kissing and hand-holding. Beau and I have both made a commitment to save kissing for marriage. Hand holding should be saved at least until you are engaged and you should have a short engagement. The dating spirit says I like this guy and I want to be with him right now then when you get tired of them you "break up" and go find another one. I personally believe this is one of the major contributors to the divorce and remarriage evil today. Courting encourages the "one man for one woman" principle that God has planned and helps build strong marriages. These are just a few of the differences between dating and courtship. If you have any questions I'll be happy to try and answer them. Or you can find all sorts of info online. Courtship has made quite a comeback among christian homeschooling families. But I'm sure that you guys are more interested in details other than the differences between dating and courtship. Evidently, Beau has liked me and has been praying a lot about me for quite a while. I was completely oblivious. He was my best-friend. I honestly didn't have a clue. Anyway he talked to his parents extensively and told them that he had prayed about me and felt like God was telling him I was the one for him. They prayed about it and made him wait a while. Then in June when we were down there for Beau's graduation and my cousins wedding they talked to my parents. After both sets of parents talked about it they decided to make him wait a while longer. Meanwhile they were all fasting and praying about it. Then Dad told them he felt good about it. He had been restricted to talking to me only once a week. With Dad's permission this restriction was removed but he was still told to wait. Finally, in October a few days after my birthday, after more talk between the parents and talks between my dad and Beau, my parents talked to me. I was surprised! My parents made it clear that they weren't trying to force me into it the decision was mine and there was no pressure. I didn't need pressure or encouragement I said, yes! You see I had asked the Lord to put me to sleep until it was His time. Around Thanksgiving time last year I discovered that I liked Beau. (Thanks Jacob!) I didn't like that at all!!! I prayed and prayed about it. "Lord I don't like having these feelings, puh-lease puh-lease take them away!!!!" That didn't help any. Then it was, "Lord I want to be in your will so if this isn't the guy you have for me then please help me out here!" I wanted God's will and wanted to do the right thing. I didn't want to lose Beau's friendship. So I just spent a lot of time praying and fasting for God's will and anytime you saw me on my face since then that's probably what I was praying about. So when Mama and Daddy talked to me I said yes! And God is so good to us! Isn't He? I love God so much! Not just because of Beau either! So that's been more than two weeks ago. At Thanksgiving this year we are going down to South Carolina to my Papa and Grandma Jane's house. Beau is going to his Mom's parent's for one day then Friday he's coming to my grandparent's house and staying till Monday! Mama told Papa that we're all going courting and he laughed. Anyway that's my secret that's out. See I told you you'd probably already heard about it. I mean that was one of the major topics people talked to me about this weekend. This was also an explanation for any of ya'll who have seen the relationship status change on Facebook. That's about it. I am expecting comments!

A short one

I'm blogging again... Well there's not really much to say. I've been pretty busy. I got my Driver's License finally. Mom and I had our Birthdays. I turned twenty. Bethany woke me up about six to say, "Happy Birthday Old Lady." The nerve! To wake someone up when they have permission to sleep in only to call them "old Lady" is awful mean. Lol Bethany likes to tease me about my age. She told me I'd never be young again. She even told me I was going to be an old maid. I'm only twenty! Mom didn't get married till she was thirty so I definitely am not an old maid! We had our Minister's Convention at the end of September. It was really good. The Lord moved and we were all blessed. I was still feeling pretty nasty then but I got prayed for at the Convention and felt a lot better. That stuff hangs on for a long time. We found out afterwards that we had all the symptoms of the Swine Flu. We didn't go to the doctor so it wasn't documented but according to all of our symptoms that's what it was. We are all a lot better now, thank the Lord. I missed a couple of church services because of it though. Before this stuff hit me I couldn't remember the last time I missed Church because I was sick. We love having Brother and Sister Anders in Farmville. Brother Anders is a good preacher and Sister Anders is really sweet. We love them both bunches. We are having a youth revival this weekend with Bro. Tim and Sis. Shannon Cox. Be in prayer for us that the Lord will bless us. I did something to my back this morning. Pinched a nerve or something. It's painful so everybody please pray for me! Ok I have to run. Goodbye!

I'm Back!!!

Ok I was given a not too subtle hint at the Assembly about needing to blog again so here I go. My summer was extremely busy. Camp was great. The Lord did a wonderful work in the young people. Sister Kim Taylor was our evangelist and she brought Josh Yohe, Chelsei Henderson, and Morgan and Chandler Fox along as a ministry team with her. Everything came together for the gleaner class. Johnna did an awesome job as the teacher and the kids seemed to genuinely enjoy the things I got together to supplement the lessons with. It seemed so strange this year. All of the kids I'd grown up going to camp with were all either working camp or unable to be there because of a job. I guess we are all growing up. I'm starting to feel old. Not really old just I remember thinking people my age were old when I was little. I'm going to be 20. Twenty!!! I used to think life ended when you turned 20 now I'm pretty sure it doesn't but I can't believe how fast life flies by. I came home from camp and by the end of the next week I headed down to South Carolina. I helped Vanessa and Jacob out with their 4 kids for about 2-3 weeks. They were cleaning some apartments in Clemson. It was the turn around season when the apartments are all cleaned and painted and any problems taken care of. So I took care of Carter(8), Emily(5), Hailey(3), and Addyson(8 months). This was basically from the time they left early early in the morning till whenever they came in that night usually around 1-2 in the morning. I learned how to handle a baby and catch a nap and get work done while the baby slept. It didn't take long to figure out that's the only way anything gets done when there's a baby in the house. I did most of the straightening up after I got all the kids down for the night. Although I will freely admit that I was not able to keep the house nearly as clean as I did last November before Addyson was born! It's unbelievable how much a baby changes things. Well I came back home and was there a couple weeks then came Assembly. Beau was unable to come this year because of Fire School. That was really strange. We really missed him a lot. I was very busy this year during the assembly. Sister Wantulock asked us to be in charge of the ushering for Children's assembly again and she also asked our family to do a message for Children's Assembly one day. So that took up every afternoon session and the morning session the day we had to do the message. Then I was Registrar this year and was on duty two other morning sessions this Assembly. Lunch breaks are always busy between choir practice and workers meetings for Children's Assembly and the Mission Luncheon. Then to top it all off dad and Zach were sick. Then the Cox's got sick and Micah, Bethany, and I started coming down with whatever Josh had. So dad and Josh didn't make it to the assembly several sessions. Then we all skipped Saturday morning session and slept in because we were all so worn out. Then the choir had to sing Friday night and Saturday night. Friday night Brother Brad drafted us to help with the baptismal service. Bethany, Micah, and I provided reverent music behind the stage where everyone who was getting baptized had to wait at. Zach and Daniel cleaned up all the water and Mom and Dad helped people in and out of the baptistery. Then we had to sing on the preliminary music program one morning and Brother Horton asked Mom to lead song service one night and she asked him if she could get me to help her and he told her yes. So then the first night(no pressure there) Mom, Bethany, and I ended up leading song service. Oh yeah I forgot that Bethany, Sissy Muse, Esther Orellana, and I were all in the Parade of Nations this year too. Then Mom's friend Dodie who she was roommates with years ago before she married Dad was able to come this year and stayed with us. Or rather she shared a room with Esther and her mother who stayed at the same hotel as the Cox's the Muses', and us. There was a boys room and Micah stayed there every night with the Cox boys. The Assembly was pretty good I guess but I didn't feel that great and was kind of out of it. I did enjoy all the Cox and Muse kids. I will enjoy listening to all the messages again now that I can enjoy them. I am still not feeling that great. I have been running a fever and generally feeling pretty yucky ever since I got home. I'm feeling a lot better but I still feel pretty yucky. I'm congested and that always makes you feel pretty nasty. I think my fever has broken though so that's good. Zach went home with the Cox's he got a job with Brother Deel and will be staying down there at least through December. Anyway I think that's about it for now. Is that okay Sister Tammy... Whoops I shouldn't have given you away ;-p Love ya!

Florida and Convention

Nate, Micah, and Lil' Aaron
Beau with Micah in the firemans hold
Elijah and Abby
Beau playing with Briana Kay
Jordo, Francie, Nate, Brittany, and Bethany at Washington Oaks
Me and Briana Kay
Giddy
Nate and I playing Skip-Bo
Beau and Daddy tickling each other
Mom, Dad, Beau, and I playing Skip-Bo
Lil' Aaron and Briana Kay
Bethany, Francie, and Brittany at the Muses house
Joshy and Abby sleeping
Beau and Abby at the firestation
Francie at the beach
Beau and Francie
Daniel with our favorite fire fighter
Beau and me
Abby and Caleb
Ruthie and Beau
Noah and Beau
Beau in his firefighter gear with Nate
Zach, Josh, Beau, and I at the graduation
Zach and Beau
Sister Betsy and Brother Jerry
Dad and Mom
Beau and Abby at the beach

Francie, Ruthie, and I at the beach
some of the kids at the beach
Beau in his cap and gown
Well I think the pics do most of the talking for Florida. We had a great time. We went to the beach four times. We go swimming in our clothes at a real deserted beach. It's tons of fun. The first weekend was Beau's graduation and they wanted Zach to participate too. The first week Beau and I spent a lot of time working on a slideshow for his graduation. It takes a lot of time. Beau took a lot of time off work while we were there he only worked a couple of days. The second week we were in Church every night until Friday. Monday we went up and saw Sister Browning and had a home service with her. Then Tuesday we went down and saw Brother and Sister Roberts. We went to the beach on our way home. Then Wednesday of course was nursing home service and church. That weekend was my cousins wedding down in Miami. We went down and saw the Muses on Thursday and stayed for their church service. Then the Cox's and our boys and Lil' Aaron headed back to Palatka and Mom, Dad, Beth, and I spent the night at the Muses house. Friday morning we headed down to Miami in time for the wedding Friday night. Saturday we headed back to Palatka. We got home in time for Beth and I to get our stuff together and go to the beach again. Beau had gone to St. Augustine to take his Agility test for fire school. He passed with flying colors. They made him a squad leader!!! He got back just as we were pulling out so he grabbed a change of clothes and jumped in too. We had a great time. Monday we went to the beach again this time the Muses met us there and Sister Deel rode along. Unfortunately Danielle was not back from her sisters house yet. That night Sister Deel came over when Cathy and Danielle got in so we finally got to meet Cathy. She is beyond crazy!!!! We played our favorite "lying" game, Balderdash! It was hilarious. I'll never forget Gazump.... Anyway Tuesday we headed home to Virginia. We finally arrived early Wednesday morning. Then we rushed around and got ready for Regional Convention which started Friday. The convention was really good. The Lord really moved and worked. Pappaw officially retired from pastoring this year at the convention. He will be 81 in a couple months and he just can't physically do it anymore. Brother Jerry Anders was appointed as our new pastor yay!! I'm glad we get Brother Anders. I love him and Sister Anders so much they are really sweet. When Farmville came into The Church of God from the former organization Brother Anders is the one who took us all in. Anyway Eric Hogan was appointed as the regional BTI booster and Brother Tony was appointed as regional Evangelism coordinator. There were quite a few changes this year but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head. Oh Brother Harvey and Sister Cindy Anders are moving to TN to pastor a church down there. :-( I wish those TN people would stop stealing our preachers! ;-p Anyway camp is coming up next. In 9 days as Bethany says. I've got to get ready... Anyway that's it for now. Hope the number of pics hide a multitude of sins as far as how long it's been since I last blogged... ;-p LOL Bye!

It's Me Again

Hey Everyone I'm posting again! I know, I know but the only thing I've really been able to do lately is check my e-mail and my facebook. No I'm not a traitor. I do like blogs better than Facebook but on Facebook you can quickly see what everyone is doing. The reason I haven't been able to get on here lately is because we've been working on stuff for Zach's graduation on the computer. On the rare occasion the computer is free, there are 4 people in front of me. When I do get on I only have time to check e-mail because 4 other people are clamoring for me to get off so they can get on... Last week I took the GED test and passed it with flying colors. Thank the Lord for that. I was really nervous. According to my test results I scored in the top 1 percent of highschool graduates. Yahoo! Mammaw and Pappaw had their 60th wedding anniversary last week. We surprised Mammaw at Applebees. Everyone went and snuck up on her and surprised her. She didn't know we were all coming she thought it was just her and Pappaw. She was very happy. We safely got home from our second wedding of the year. I helped my cousin with the last minute catering stuff and the set up and tear down it was a lot of work!! It was fun too. You don't realize how much work goes into a reception until you're involved in doing one. Today was the Crewe homecoming. Beth, Eliza, Daniel, Grace, and I went and looked atall the booths and the soapbox derby and all that good stuff. We ate lunch down there too. It is really warm today so now we are all worn out. I know I'm boring and rambling today I'm just tired and my brain doesn't want to think. It's so warm all you really feel like doing is taking a nap. Zach's graduation is May 30th. He is going to be participating with the Central Virginia Homeschoolers graduation. Katlin Horton is also participating. All the invitations will be sent out by Tuesday hopefully. We are waiting on his senior pics to get back from the lab. We are heading down to Florida the 8th of June. Yay!! We get to visit with the Cox's!!!! My cousin is getting married in Miami the following weekend so we'll leave Palatka Thursday to be in time for the wedding Friday then head back to Palatka Saturday. The head home for VA sometime the following week to be home in time for Regional Convention Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! We are going to be busy! Then we have camp and another wedding! Just thinking about it makes me tired. Did I mention that I'm going to be the assistant teacher for the gleaner class at camp this year? And that North carolina and Va are combining our camps this year? We are going to have LOTS of people. Who knows I might end up with an assistant just to help keep order in class! Anyway we are all excited about everything that is going to happen. Anyway that's for now...I'm not in a writing mood...

The Lynchburg Lock-in

I know it's been quite some time since I last blogged but I honestly have been busy. Even though I finished what I needed to finish to officially graduate last year, because we put our own course together instead of using a state accredited course, the state doesn't recognize me as a high school graduate. So mom and dad decide that I should take my GED. I have been studying for that just about every free moment. I was actually worried about it because I read somewhere that a test was done and 70% of high school graduates who had just graduated were unable to pass the GED test. So naturally I was worried. Zach and I took the practice test Thursday. A perfect score is 800 on the GED. A passing score is 410. Most people want to get a 510. On our predictor test Zach and I both scored high 600's low 700's. The teacher told us, "you guys did really really good." I got a perfect score on my reading section and 750 or 780 on my math. I even scraped by respectably in science, my nemesis. The lady who helps people prepare for the GED told us, "Colleges are starting to take people who scored high on the GED over high school graduates because it's harder to pass the GED than it is to complete high school." I'm just glad I passed the predictor test. It supposedly is just like the GED. Basically they say the score you make on the predictor test is the score you will make on the GED. I prayed a lot during that test. I hate tests and tend to get really nervous and sometimes panic when I can't figure something out. Thank the Lord he helped me and reminded me of things that mom had taught me in school. Anyway, yesterday evening was the Lynchburg Lock-in. We went again this year. We had fun. Some people who are normally really reserved can be hilarious when they haven't slept all night. So we had a blast. Exhaustion and caffeine make for great times. Try playing catch phrase at 6 in the morning when no one has slept all night... I slept for about 5 hours this mid-morning to early afternoon and feel pretty good now. Oh, I don't know how I did it but I beat Dad, Sister Lorrie, and Bethany at Scrabble! I even scored an expert score! It was the way tiles played out. I got 44 points one play by laying one tile! It was funny. Well I guess that's about it for now. so untill next time. Audios

Four Things

Four Things ....Share

FOUR THINGS:
This one is a bit different from the rest. Here are four things about me that you may or may not know, in no particular order... Some directions are at the end.

Four names that people call me:
1. Charity
2. Carrots (Josh)
3. Aunt Charity (Carter, Emmy, and Hailey)
4. Chair

Four jobs I have had:
1. Baby Sitter
2. House Cleaner
3. VLB Leader
4. Children's Ministry worker

Four movies I would watch more than once:
1. Princess Bride
2. Facing the Giants
3. The Last Sin Eater
4. Fireproof

Four places I have lived: (Since I've only lived in Crewe, 4 places I have stayed for a time)
1. Crewe, VA
2. Palatka, FL
3. Walhalla, SC
4. Collingwood, Ontario, Canada

Four places I have been:
1. Canada (Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan)
2. Tokyo, Japan
3. Malaysia
4. Singapore

Four people who e-mail me regularly:
1. Ashley Stamey (member at Midway SC)
2. Danielle Deel
3. Shannon Cox
4. Vanessa Ward (my cousin)

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Chicken enchilada casserole
2. Fajitas
3. Cabbage
4. Potato salad (I like pretty much anything)

Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. With all my family and friends happy and healthy in Heaven
2. Florida
3. hanging out with my friends
4. Church

Four friends I think will respond:
1. ???
2. ???
3. ???
4. ???

Four things I am looking forward to this year:
1. Going to FL
2. youth convention
3. state convention
4. youth camp

Four TV shows that I watch:
1. I don't watch TV shows they have now I like old ones
2.
3.
4.

RETURN DIRECTIONS:
Now, here's what you're supposed to do... if you want to.
Copy and paste this into a new note.
Erase my answers and type in your answers.

The theory is that you will learn a lot of little known facts about those who know you

Nothing to Blog

Yep that's pretty much it. I have nothing to blog about. We have no little kids to inspire hilarious stories, no remodeling to report on, and no Church events to tell of. Basically school and work has been the norm. Dad's been sick. Oh Bethany and Daniel had their birthdays. Bethany's was last Sunday and all the church kids were supposed to come over to our house for a little party. For the first time I can ever remember not a single kid was at church Sunday. They were all sick!!! That is something at our church. Never before have they all been sick or gone at the same time. So Bethany just had adults at her birthday. Dad spent all day Sunday in bed sick. He was running a high fever. He was miserable. You could tell he was because when Pappaw teased him about missing church he didn't even crack a smile. Wednesday was VLB service. I've been doing one service a month and getting one of my young people to do the other one each month. It has helped them get over their "stage fright" to a certain extent. They can basically do whatever type of service they want but they have to pass everything by me before they do it. Of course only the ones who are spiritually ready to do that are asked. They have been doing a great job. Bethany did it this week. She did a short devotional and then we had a game night. We hadn't done that in quite a while and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We did a sword drill and a Bible trivia game. The Wednesday before I had done a youth service on Missions. Each one of the young people had to give a reason missions was important to them and then I spoke on "Why the Mission work is important to the VLB work. Then Sis. Gayle did a talk on "why every VLB should work for missions" and then Mom did a talk on "Why VLB's are important to the Mission work." Let me tell ya'll something my mother is not a preacher but she was sure preaching that night! It was great. Everything went together so well. I had been praying about what to do for the VLB service and I felt like the Lord was telling me Missions. Focus on Missions. Then I started thinking about how the VLB work is really just an extension of the mission work at the most basic level. And then 3 topics came to mind and then later that day our Evening Light came. As I read the Evening Light it confirmed the Mission idea. Brother Smith's message was incorporated into the service and the Lord blessed us. I was so glad i followed God's leading instead of doing hat I originally planned! God is so good to us isn't He? This week I've been doing some spring cleaning up in my room. Having a younger sister who's idea of clean is not as high as yours can be quite ttrying sometimes. This time it wasn't really messy it just needed some deep cleaning. Our closet needed some work. The clothes needed to be reorganized so I got that done. Finally late this afternoon I was able to breathe a sigh of relief and smile at my organized and neat closet. Then I made grilled chicken, salad, baked potatoes, and peas for supper. Well that's it maybe I can get Mom or dad or someone who's not watching the NCAA tournament to play Skip-Bo or Rummikub. ;-p

We've got Snow!!!

Yes that's right Snow! Yay! 11 inches to be exact! 11 inches of perfect packing snow dumped right in our front yard and backyard and sideyard and street and on top of our car and well you get the picture... :-) It all started with an ice storm Saturday night. Which made it practically impossible to have church Sunday morning. So we had sunday school at home. It was mom's week to teach the adult class so we got the full blown completely studied out lesson. She took advantage of the fact that she didn't have a time limit too... Oh while I'm thinking about it, Mom, (my Mom!) told me to get a Facebook. How strange is that? This is even more so. She woke me up at 7:00 on a Sunday morning not to get ready for church but because she wanted me to check my Facebook! Wow! Ok so she had a perfectly good reason for doing it but I wanted the whole wow effect going. Actually my second cousin has a ministry with some soldiers in Iraq and she's got pics and testiminies on her Facebook. There's a catch the only way to see the stuff is to have a facebook and to be on her friends list. So that's the reason. She wanted to use a story in Sunday school class. Anyway Sunday afternoon it started snowing. Huge flakes coming down really fast and it snowed like that for hours. Until that night. We had a break in the snow coming down for maybe an hour or two then it started up again and snowed straight through Monday afternoon at which time it stopped and the sun came out. I woke up with a headache and sore throat Monday morning but if you think that stopped me from going out and spending the whole day playing in the snow like a little kid you are absolutely wrong. We played fox and geese for a long time. (Bethany, Micah, two of the neighbor girls we've been friends with for years, and I) Then we went to Grace and Eliza's (the said neighbor girls) and got warmed up with some hot chocolate and chicken and dumplings. Their mom loves having her kids bring friends home. Then we played bowling on their Wii and headed out for more fun in the snow. We played more Fox and Geese then broke out a sledding path. We slid down the hill for a long time then started a snowball fight. Bethany and Eliza VS. Grace and I. Naturally when you have an 18 and 19 year old taking on two 12 almost 13 year olds the 18 and 19 year old are going to win... I finally headed home after we whipped Eliza and Bethany they didn't take the loss to well. Well I guess I really shouldn't have knocked their snow wall down but they were throwing snow at my camera... Anyway we had fun. The only thing that got cold was my hands. My gloves got soaking wet from making snowballs... Otherwise I was completely warm. What with two long sleeve shirts, one sweatshirt, my heavy coat, two pairs of sweatpants, under a heavy skirt, three pairs of socks and snow boots, not to forget a hat and the hood of my coat plus my gloves I stayed really warm. Once I got back inside I discovered I had a terrible headache, a sore throat, sinus problems, and a low grade fever. So I started pouring in the vitamin C. However, I'm just now finally getting rid of the sicky feeling. Tuesday I had an eye appointment. Now I don't know if any of you have ever been to the eye doctor when you aren't feeling good but it is absolute misery. You go in and sit down in the chair. The optometrist pulls out a flashlight and you are thinking oh no he's going to shine that light in my eyes I've already got a splitting headache and now this but it gets worse. Not only does he shine the light in your eyes he gets right in your face to do it. Now I don't like it when people get in my face and when I'm sick I absolutely hate it. Now some people would go ahead and breathe in this guys face giving him all the germs they currently have in their sick body but not me. It doesn't matter that I just brushed my teeth my eye doctor is a nice old man and I really don't want to make him sick so I do the only logical thing I hold my breath. Piece of cake right? Wrong. He took a really long time. Do you know what it's like to sit in a chair with this nice old man in your face shining a bright light into your eyes when you are sick and you're holding your breath till your face turns blue? It's torture absolute complete torture! And then he says now I'm going to look in your other eye. And you have to go through the same process all over again. Aagh! Then he pulls out the machine thingy that goes on your face and starts flipping lenses in front of your eyes and saying this one or this one. When you have a bad headache your eyes take longer to focus. So he flips them back and forth and your poor sick eyes are struggling to keep up. By the time you are finished your headache is 10 times worse than it was to start with. Are you laughing yet. The entire experience was true but told in a way designed to make you laugh. I even find it amusing now that I'm feeling better. ;-) We didn't have church yesterday because our parking lot is completely covered in snow and ice not to mention it is impossible to get into the parking lot with a vehicle as the sno plows went through and the opening to the parking lot is completely stopped with a cork of snow. Anybody want to fight two feet of snow? Neither did our church folks... The majority of which are older people who have trouble falling even when the ground is dry and flat. So mom and dad and I went to Richmond and got our prescriptions filled at Sears they were having a big sale on eyeglasses. So I should have my new glasses in 10-12 days. Yay! Anyway I got to go get supper ready. I'm going to make Chicken Fajitas.

Pictures from Tim & Shannon's Wedding

I'll let the pictures do the talking for this post. Sis. Becki here's the pictures you asked for. These are the best ones Zach got.

South Carolina, Wedding, Valentines Dinner

That is what my life has consisted of the last little while. We had a good visit with our family in South Carolina. Micah and I rode about 20-30 miles in the back of my uncle's truck the Saturday we were down. It was great we were in the mountains and he would go real fast and take the curves fast he gave us a real fun ride. Saturday night we all went to Uncle Wendy's for supper. Papa, Aunt Kim, Katie, Mom, Beth, Micah, Aunt Kathy, Vanessa, Jacob, Carter, Emily, Hailey, Addyson, Uncle Doug, and I. We went to church at Midway that Sunday. It was good to see everyone again. I now have people that claim me at three different churches. Farmville, VA (my home church), Palatka, FL (the Cox's church), and Midway, SC. After church Sunday morning we went over to my Great-Aunt Boot's house and cooked Mexican for lunch. We cooked Mexican food for supper Saturday night too. We eat Mexican a lot in my mom's family. Aunt Kim and Katie, and Aunt Terry and Rhonda and Uncle Doug were there also. We had a good time visiting and playing games together. We left for home Monday morning and stopped by Hamricks on the way home. Bethany and I desperately needed some clothes. I found two nice dress outfits for less than $50! I was happy! I got clearance things and one sweater that was regular price. One was a real pretty lavender skirt and jacket I got a sweater to go with it. The other was a blue green sweater and a matching skirt. I'm getting to be pretty good at finding deals at least for someone who doesn't really like shopping. (If I do say so myself) ;-p Anyway we got home safely and the guys were very happy to see us... (Obviously they were ready for something decent to eat after Zach's cooking) Really though we had things for them to eat while we were gone and Zach is a pretty decent cook. Wednesday was VLB service. Friday we had music lessons and did our house cleaning. Saturday e headed out bright and early for Tim and Shannon's wedding in Roanoke. We got there and got to visit with church folks for a little while before the wedding. Beau slipped out of the back where all the family was and we got to visit a little bit. Ruthie came in and insisted on sitting with me during the wedding. So I ended up with Ruthie on my lap the entire ceremony. I didn't mind one bit. I miss those kids like crazy. The wedding was neat. Francie was the perfect flower girl. Shannon and Bro. Billy Cox came into this song called "I loved her first" it was very sweet and sentimental and made my Dad decide I can never get married. I just reminded him if he wants grandkids he'd better let me get married and that changed his mind. Tim wrote a poem for Shannon and read it. It was mushy and had funny Tim humor in it. After they said their vows they took the church covenant as a couple. Then when they introduced them as "Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Cox" and they came down the steps this music came on. It said, "WEEEEEEEELLLLLLL" and they came down the steps then it said "You make me want to Shout" and they took off running down the aisle and into the foyer. It was great. Everybody liked that. Then we all headed over to the firehouse for the reception. The family came in after a they took pictures. Then we were swarmed with Cox kids and loved it. Abby was sure happy to see me. I was glad to see all of them. After the guys ate. Beau, Josh, Zach, Daniel, Critter, Eric, and Levi went out and trashed Shannon's car. Tim was smart. He left his truck which is what they took on their honeymoon out of the way. So when Bro. Billy and Sis. Deborah Cox and Eric went home Eric had to clean up the mess. They messed it up really good. Nate and Micah headed out there after a while. After a while of visiting Shannon threw her bouquet and Tim threw the garter. It was funny. All the girls went out there and out of everyone out there Bethany caught the bouquet. It was funny. Tim said, "Oh no Bethany caught it" and dad said, "Throw it back Bethany throw it back!" Then Tim threw the garter and that was hilarious. Dustin Washburn stayed up on the balcony where Tim and Shannon were because he didn't want to take any chances. Grayson went right down in front and stood there. Mike Weigand was trotting out there and Lorri stopped him. Then the cavalry came in Zach, Daniel, Beau, and Josh. That's when the fun started. Zach, Daniel, and Josh moved to the back and just stood there. Beau went and stood next to Grayson and acted totally disinterested. Then Tim threw the garter and Grayson leaped for it. Then Beau reached his hand up and caught it. Grayson insists that Beau stole it from him and mom says if you were watching it looked like Grayson caught it. Beau says he was just reacting to something being thrown at his head and grabbing it out of the air. I personally had a front row seat and Beau didn't take it from Grayson in my opinion. But enough about that. Next everyone went outside and waited for Tim and Shannon to come out. Tim stood in front of the window while he was waiting for Shannon and Dustin took a bag of the birdseed and threw it at him and hit him on the shoulder. We were on the ground and Tim was on the second floor. All I'm going to say is that boy has good aim! Anyway they finally came out and we threw birdseed all over them. Then Dalton Cox and Noah and Caleb started a birdseed war. I was just standing there minding my own business talking to Beau and Josh and those little stinkers ambushed me! I had birdseed ground into my hair and in my clothes and it wasn't even my wedding! Anyway we ended up standing in the parking lot visiting for quite a while. It's funny the first time we met them (other than dad and Bro. Jerry of course they already knew each other) was in a Shoney's in Chattanooga and we really visited with them in the parking lot. We have been good friends with them for 5 years and we still can't get away from parking lots. Maybe it's because we always say goodbye in parking lots... Anyway Sunday the gleaners had a Valentine Spaghetti dinner. We were raising money to send the gleaners to camp this year. Tonya, Steele, Sis. Gayle, TJ, and I worked in the kitchen and got everything done before hand. Steele and Tonya and I have decided that people who think church kids never have any fun are delusional. We have fun all the time. Just get a group of us together and we'll teach you what fun is! We even have fun when we're working! Dawn and John were able to be there Sunday so after we finished up and got everything straight they came over to our house and visited for a while. Anyway we had fun. Wednesday was VLB service. I've been working on getting the young people to take turns doing one service a month. I do the first one and then they take turns doing the second one. Zach did it this Wednesday. So I got to sit next to my "boyfriend" and enjoy the service. I know just about now people's eyes are popping out of their heads. I'd better explain. He's so cute I've known him for practically his whole life. He loves me. Don't worry my standards haven't changed, you can all breath a sigh of relief, he's four. His name is Layne and he likes to sit next to me every time he comes to church. He says that I'm his girlfriend and he's going to marry me. He'll grow out of it in time. Anyway this weekend is couples retreat and Mom and Dad headed out this morning. Well I'd better get going.

A Quick Trip

Yep that's right we took a quick trip. If any trip can really be called a quick trip. It came about like this. Aunt Kim decided to drive over to South Carolina for the weekend. So she called mom up and asked her if she could come down for the weekend as well since it's been almost 2 years since they'd seen each other. So mom loaded up the van and Bethany, Micah, and I and away we went. We left Thursday afternoon after mom's hair appointment and will be staying until Monday morning. Yesterday we visited with Aunt Kim and Katie and then we went over to Vanessa's to visit with her and the kids. We had fun playing with all the little ones again. Emily was glad to see me but Hailey took a little while to warm up. We have come to the conclusion that every time Hailey sees me she thinks her mom is going to leave. When she realized her mom wasn't going anywhere she was quite happy to go play with her cousins. Today we plan to have supper with Uncle Wendy, Uncle Doug, Papa, and brad. Of course by we I mean Mom and us kids and aunt Kim and Katie. (her other four are in Touson) We are going to cook mexican and play games. We have a pile of games with us. Sunday will be church in Midway then lunch with Aunt Boots and Aunt Terry. Then Aunt Kim and Katie will be heading back to Arkansas. We are planning on heading home on Monday morning and stopping in Gaffney at Hamricks. I love that store. Sometimes you can find some really nice things there for pretty reasonable. Tuesday Micah has a dentist appointment and then Wednesday is VLB and saturday is Tim and Shannon's wedding. And I'll get to see Beau and Josh for maybe 5 minutes. 5 minutes is better than no minutes. Anyway that's about it for now.

Nothing Comes to Mind

Have you ever sat down in front of a blank computer screen and just stared at it. Trying to figure out what in the world to entitle what you are about to write. Inevitably I find myself writing something stupid as a title. So instead of trying to come up with a decent title I decided to write exactly what was in my mind.... nothing! I have found it is hard to concentrate on blogging when my little sister has my favorite movie on in the background. You would think that as many times as I've seen it I would be tired of it. I'm not! The Princess Bride still holds my attention. The Princess Bride always reminds me of sitting in the Cox's living room with all 13 of us kids and the 5 Muse kids and watching it over and over and over again. We introduced that movie to them. Even Beau and Joshy love it! Nate can imitate the preacher saying "Marriage, marriage is what brings us together today..." He does it perfectly just like the guy on the movie. A long time ago we made Nate promise that if Tim ever got married he would say it at Tim's wedding. Bethany just put it on so if I become distracted and misspell a few words and use bad grammar you know why! Although technically I've never been the best speller or very good at grammar for that matter. No my subject has always been and will always remain math. That grand subject that always makes sense. Two and two will always equal four. I don't really remeber much of what has been going on lately. Mammaw and Pappaw have been sick and Dad has been having trouble with paracharditus again. Mammaw and Pappaw are feeling much better now but dad is still under the weather. He didn't do anything to cause it to flare up. He doesn't normally have problems if he doesn't overdo it. Anyway we got Fireproof. It is a pretty good movie. It's got a good story and it's very well made. I like it. It made it to my top movie chart. Along with Facing the Giants, The Princess Bride, and The Last Sin-Eater. They are all first-rate movies. Well at least I thought I liked it until Micah decided he wanted to be a firefighter after watching it and Beau went and joined up as a volunteer firefighter. I still like the movie. Anyway I didn't really have much to say. I guess this has been a rambling post. Sorry everyone maybe next time there will be something more interesting to read.

Catching Up...

Well I decided it's time to rise to the occasion and catch everyone up on what's been happening around here. I returned home to Virginia on December 15th and immediately jumped into a whirlwind of play practices and dress rehearsals as our program was on the 21st. Our play turned out really well considering I didn't see my lines until the 13th! We had a great time doing it and we had minimal mistakes. We had my grandparents and Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Diane over for Christmas dinner. We had a good time visiting. The Saturday after Christmas we had our Baldwin family Christmas. We had a good time with our family. The next day we had church and then during the afternoon we began preparing for the Cox's visit. They came in on New Years Eve. We had a great time with them. We had our watch night service that evening. Sister Betsy preached a good message. I always enjoy hearing her preach so much. All the Church folks were happy to see Beau again. Evidently he was missed. They stayed all day New Years Day. We played football and cards. That night after the little ones were all asleep Nate, Bethany, Micah, Daniel, Joshy, Zach, Beau, and I watched the Sin Eater. That is a good movie a bit scary but a really good movie. We ended up not going to bed until maybe three the next morning. The next day was sad. Goodbye time. We always hate to say goodbye. I came really really close to going back to Florida with them. Sister Betsy wanted me to. Dad told me to go pack and Brother Jerry said they wouldn't leave until I was ready. I was heading up the stairs when Mom thought of Mammaw. She's really getting feeble and she's not been feeling well lately plus she really clings to me since I've been gone so much lately. So I ended up staying. The really big news concerns one of my closest friends. Tonya Sandy. Steele Williams proposed on the 29th! Tonya told me all about it. He fixed breakfast for the whole family and he put two napkins at her place. If any of you know Tonya you know that she uses lots of napkins. Well she always opens her napkin up like a book before she uses it. Steele opened her second napkin up and wrote, "Marry me Tonya" on the inside of the napkin. Then he put the other one on top. Well Tonya only used the one napkin. Everyone was pretty much done and she still had only used one napkin, so Steele takes grape jelly and smears it across her face. She picks up HIS napkin and wipes it off. He smears more on her face she is kind of aggravated at him and grabs the second napkin and opens it to wipe her face and goes speechless. When she recovered she said yes then he got down on one knee and did it "properly." I still can't believe it Tonya is getting married! Yay! It's so exciting another upside is that Brother Williams won't try to hook me up with Steele anymore!!! Hurrah!!!!! Tonya saw Steele for the first time at our regional Snowtubing youth trip 3 years ago. When she first spotted him she said, " Charity! Who is that? " She was so funny. Steele started back at Liberty this week He is doing an intensive or something like that. Tonya doesn't start back at Longwood until this coming Monday. Steele has been driving back and forth from Lynchburg to Kenbridge all week. Monday morning Tonya and I went with him. We went shopping and got lost and had a few experiences that only Tonya and I can get into. It was great. Then we picked Steele up when he got out of class at about 12:30. We went and got lunch and headed back home. Steele let Tonya drive his corvette with only her and I in it. I spent the night with Tonya and we hung around at the shop Tuesday. Then she and Steele took me home. Then we decided to go with Steele again on Wednesday morning. We hit the mall again and Macy's was having a huge sale. Tonya got two coats. They were normally $100 apiece and Tonya got them for $25 apiece. She got one for her Mom and one for her. I normally just look. But i found a really cute blue jean jacket that is really good quality for $15 it is normally $60. So i got it. Mom loves it. I looked but I couldn't find one her size. Mammaw looked at it and said, "You got it or $15? I would have snagged it too!" I thought she was so funny. We did quite a bit of shopping and then we picked Steele up got lunch and headed for Farmville for church. It was Mom's WMB service. She talked about being Faithful servants until the end. It was good. Today Zach and Beth had eye exams. So I made supper while Mom was gone. I made Roast Chicken, Home made Rolls, Greenbeans (canned from our garden this year), Mashed Potatoes, Baked Sweet Potatoes, and Salad. I made the rolls all by myself. It was the first time I made rolls by myself. Usually I help Mom make them. Zach was so funny. He loves rolls. I was looking at the pile of fresh baked rolls and adsmiring them. I told Zach, "Look at the rolls! Aren't the beautiful?" He responded, "Yes, and they taste beautiful too. They're almost as pretty as you!" I guess it's true that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Because my brother usually doesn't say stuff like that to me unless he's really happy with me. Anyway I'm sitting her typing this post up and watching the College championship game. Go Gators!!! Josh, and Zach, and Beau got me hooked on Tim Tebow. He's a great player and has a good Christian witness. I'll be a Gator's fan as long as he's the quarter back. Anyways this has been an exciting game and I'm going to finish this post up so I can concentrate on it. Goodbye! Oh everyone repeat after me, Go Gators!!!!!!