Last day at home..

Let's see...since my last post, we lost electricity for about 4 hours, got it back, packed a lot for college, had Emily over for the night so she could sleep in air-conditioning, and slept...a lot!

Fay wasn't all that bad, but we do have a ton of yard trash.  Plus, it keeps raining around here, so I'm not sure if our yard will ever be dry enough to mow again.  ;)  Today is my last official full day at home which is kind of surreal to me.  I'm heading off at 12:30 PM to get my stitches out, and then off to get a facial (late birthday present) with my Mema!  I'm so excited...I've never had  a facial, so I'm sure it's going to be relaxing and fun.  

I was going to have dinner with Kristen tonight, but looks like she is actually having Bible study.  She didn't know if it was going on and doubted that it would, but the girls can come...I'm bummed that I won't see her, but believe me, I understand the importance of having Bible study when your girls can have it...;)

See all you later!

Brit

Faayyyyyyyy.....

So we've been experiencing the wonder of Fay for about the last 12 hours, and my oh my, it's been....boring!  ;)

Apprently the more intense stuff came by at about 9:00 AM this morning when I was still asleep.  As soon as I woke up, however, there was some awesome wind and rain outside.  I'll post a picture and possibly a video.  I recorded a special video just for YouNews on winknews.com, so we'll see if it makes it on TV.  Not sure if it will, though, because there is actually a news crew in LaBelle covering the storm!  I'm guessing that a few 84 mph gusts puts us on the map...

No serious damage for us so far, other than our shed being torn up.  Our power is still on, though other households in our neighborhood haven't been quite so lucky.  We'll see if ours lasts, as we're still in the most intense part of the storm.  

Hope you all are safe wherever you are!  

Mamma Mia, here we go again!

Haha..I just posted my title without a blog accidentally.  Oops!

Yesterday was fun!  Mom and I went to Ft. Myers in the morning hours to do some errands, and then went to Daniel Dipofi's 2nd birthday party.  He is so precious, and we had a great time.  After that, Mallory, Rhonda and I went off to Ft. Myers to catch up on each other's lives.  After eating at Bar Louie, we went to see "Mamma Mia!" at the theater.  It's amazing, you should go see it.  We all rarely spend time together, so we had a great time reminiscing.  

Today is....the video scavenger hunt!  I'm so so excited about it...I'm going to try and take pictures while we do it and post some of the craziness.  Emily, we'll miss you, but thanks for letting use your camera!  :)

If you guys don't mind, please keep me in your prayers.  Tomorrow I go to the plastic surgeon to get my mole removed once and for all.  I'm not too nervous, I just want to get it over with, and hopefully all goes well so that I can get my stitches out the day before I leave for college.  Haha...

Hope you all have a great week!  

Brit

Perspective...

Yesterday evening was not a fun time for me, as I found out that the Winterwonderslam tour is coming to Ft. Myers on November 16th, which is very likely going to cancel our show of the "Rock What You Got Tour"...I was, and still am somewhat, disappointed that it may not work out, but then I watched the Steven Curtis Chapman interview on Good Morning America and boy did that give some perspective to the situation.  Yes, the concert being canceled is no fun, but my life is so blessed in so many other ways.  We've had 3 amazing concerts in LaBelle in less than  a year, which is something that just a year ago, I would have never dreamed of.  I've got an incredible family, the best friends you could ever have, shelter, food, finances for college, a terrific church...the list could go on forever!  Just one of those moments where I needed a little light in the situation.  They happen pretty much every day...;)

Anywho...I saw the most amazing sunset tonight as I was driving home from Praise Band.  Speaking of Praise Band, I'm really excited to play "God of This City" on Sunday.  Anna and Leslie sound great on it already, and Sunday will surely be even better!  Back to the sunset, I tried to get a picture with my camera on my phone, but my phone died.  So...once I got home I ran inside, got my camera, and my dad took me out in the jeep to try and get some pictures.  By the time we got to my Mema's house, it wasn't nearly as beautiful as it had been...but still a gorgeous Florida sunset.  With my awful camera, the pictures don't do any justice to what it actually looked like, but oh well.  Oh Florida...

My God sees a life beyond the chaos...

I am so thankful for my precious Lord.  Today was definitely not my day, but He once again turned it around and taught me a lesson.  

I went to work this morning planning to spend my time going over the concert rider with Pastor Benton since we are long overdue in getting this one approved.  As it would happen, nothing went as planned, because an older woman at our church passed away and I was assigned the duty of scanning a ton of photos to put into a powerpoint for the service.  Thank goodness for Stephen, who helped me out with it and ended up doing half of it himself.  I was able to get through about two pages of the rider, when I had to leave to go to a doctor's appointment.  

The doctor was running super late, causing me to miss out on bowling with the youth group.  Plus, good news did not come at the doctor's office...I have to get my mole removed yet again, and this time by a plastic surgeon.  More shots and even stitches to look forward to this time.  Oh, and did I mention that I need to get it done before I leave for college?  Eek!

After all that fun, I got home and was just totally exhausted.  I went through my clothes (checked off one item on my seemingly never ending list of things to do before I got to college...), and then began to just sit back and think about how crazy these next few weeks will be.  Then...the blessings began to be poured out!

Most people know that I've been kind of freaking out lately that I wouldn't find someone to go the John Mayer concert with me.  I inherited tickets, and was so stocked about the show.  Well...I'm happy to announce that Chelsey can go, and I'm looking forward to a great time.  We haven't spent nearly enough time together lately, and it'll be a great time to talk about how college is going thus far!  (Concert talk reminds me that we need to order our NOJ tickets ladies...).  Once that burden was lifted, I had this awful feeling that I had not done my devotion for like three days!  I mean, I've read through the Bible, but not really spent time with God.  So...I sat back with my lovely book and Bible, and dug in.  And you know what I found?  A whole chapter on attitude.  Ha!  I'm just going to post a short excerpt from the book below, and I think you'll catch on to how great God is to put this in front of me tonight..

"To counteract our humanness intruding on our attitudes, we need to 'throw off our old sinful nature and our former way of life, which is corrupted...Instead, let the Spirit renew our thoughts and attitudes' (Ephesians 4:22-23).  It might sound simplistic, but isn't simplicity what we need when we feel out of control?  Just like God to know that."

There is about..all of that chapter that I'd love to post here because of how it changed my outlook about these next few weeks, but I'll spare you.  

I know that my life is going to be insane over these next few weeks, but right now, I'm okay with that.  I'm okay because God knows the limits of being in a human body.  He's felt all the feelings I'm feeling now, and on a much larger scale.  God has blessed me with so many things, and instead of feeling anxious about the future and how in the world I'm going to get things done, I need to just let it go.  He has a wonderful plan for my life, and things will work out in His perfect timing.  

Now I know that I may have been repetitive in this post, but I'm just overwhelmed with the fact of how great our God is, and had to share it.  I'm so thankful, and hope that this encourages you all, as we ALL have busy lives, and lots of changes to come here soon.  "Take heart, for I have overcome the world..."

Love,

Brit

PS...I thought it was funny that after all this time of listening to AO's new CD, "Colors and Sounds" that the lyrics from some of the songs hit me in the face tonight.  If you haven't really listened to the CD, go do it now.  That's where I got my title for this blog...just thought I'd add this in.  

Beach!!

Oh the sibling love..

Beautiful beach!

Oh how I love Sea World...I want to grow up and be a trainer again!

I'm finally home for more than a week.  Not too long though, until I move to Orlando!  Ahh....

Last week my family went for vacation.  Sunday-Tuesday we were hanging out at Cocoa Beach.  It was super fun, but now my back and legs are super burnt.  The water was FREEZING!  We had a great time, and then left for Sea World Wednesday morning.  There we had a great day playing around, and now have passes for the whole year.  I love the fun pass deal, especially since I'll be living really close to Sea World here in a few weeks.  Watching the "Believe" show inspired me once again to work at Sea World being a trainer.  Just so that I can swim with the whales of course...

Yesterday we also went college shopping.  I got my bedding, a hamper, dishes, and other stuff that I need to live on my own.  Matt and I ordered my books (it was so expensive..but we bought most of them used on Amazon), and ordered my parking permit.  Today we went by and picked it up and then opened my SunTrust account.  Busy busy getting ready for this year.  I'm so excited, yet anxious to make sure that all my ducks are in a row before I leave.  I'm so excited that God is speaking to me about starting a Bible Study with my dorm!  We went by my building today and the area is so beautiful.  There are like a gazillion spots outside that are perfect to have study.  Please start praying now that we would have girls excited about it and that God would show us what book to use.  

I'm excited to go to work tomorrow, considering that I haven't been there for two weeks.  I think that's a record.  :)  Speaking of Bible study, when do you want to get together, Emily?  We HAVE to finish our book before move-out time comes!  

Hope everyone has had a fantastic week!  

Brit

Oh what a week...

Lauren, one of my favorite kids from the week.  My bunk mate!

Be amazed...4 hoop houses within each other

Miss Mimi, Kathryn (Lauren's twin), and Jaylin

Me and Becky

So my internet fast is over, and a few days short.  I stayed off all week at summer camp, and it was a great time to do it.  For one, I had little to no free time, and it was just the perfect atmosphere to refocus.  No TVs, very little cell phone use, and no computers.  Needless to say I got to spend time with some wonderful people catching up, and I played lots and lots of board games.  :)

I just returned from Summer Camp last night, and had such a good time.  I miss the kids, but I really miss the female camp interns.  They were so much fun the whole week, and I was reunited with my sister!  If you haven't heard the story, there is this girl Beth that apparently looks a lot like me.  Since we have similar names as well, we are mixed up ALL THE TIME!  She's super cool, and we had a great time hanging out all week.  She's killer at all board games...it's kind of ridiculous.  The kids were all great this week.  We had some interesting ones that caused some issues, but overall they behaved very well.  Some of the boys had some serious issues, so Beth, Ketia and I had to do 'boot camp' to get them to clean their rooms.  By the time we were finished with them, they were begging to clean...:).  The guy counselors stood back and watched in amazement.  All they needed was some tough love.  Haha..

We leave tomorrow for Cocoa Beach until Thursday for a family vacation.  Although I'm excited to have more time off, I'm also looking forward to getting home for a while.  I've got lots of work to do before I leave for college...one being pack!  I'll leave with some pictures from summer camp this week, and maybe even a video or two from the kids.  

The first video is of Foster dancing with Mrs. Lapp.  He's got some serious anger issues, but could be so hilarious too.  The second one is of Destiny when she teased me about our rooming situation.  Moments like these made camp more than bearable.  ;)

Brit