Thoughts of Thanksgiving, and a few other things.

Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving? I had a really nice holiday with my family. My mom allowed me to do all of the planning, and cooking, again this year. I prepared most everything in advance, then cooked it the next day, which saved a HUGE amount of time in the end! The people I babysit for were running in a race that morning, so I was able to spend a few hours with their kids! We kicked back and watched the Macy's parade. Then when I got home, Mom and I finished everything.

My Brother, Ben, and I went to see the PBR (Professional Bull Riding) in Lexington, at the Virginia Horse Center, Saturday night. It was AWESOME!!! I am not really a "sports" person... we have always watched football ( I shall not mention the team!!) and Nascar, but I get rather bored with watching guys chasing after a ball, and cars going around in circles! Now Bull riding, that's my style! You never know what the bull is going to do, or how long the rider will be able to stay on. One would think that staying on for 8 seconds would be the easiest thing in the world, but in that instant, it becomes an eternity, even for those that are watching. It is such a victory for those cowboys, when they stay on for the short, yet seemingly long 8 seconds, then jump off (or in some people's cases, fly off!) and await their score. I took quite a few pictures, unfortunatly the lighting wasn't very good (further proving that I need a detachable flash!) and my sport setting would not cooperate, so the pictures turned out pretty bad, but you'll get the idea. I hope to be posting them in the next few days, then it will be back to our regularly schedualed beach pictures!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and didn't get too trampled on black Friday!

Thanksgiving Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is only three days away. I can hardly believe that it is already here. So, I thought that I would take a moment and write a few lines. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love everything about it, and I have SO much to be thankful for, yet so often I take these things for granted. Sunday evening we had a service filled with songs of thanksgiving, and testimonies of praise to God. It was such a blessing, and so convicting. I was humbled by one testimony in particular, of a man giving thanks to God for his every breath...WOW! I don't think I have ever thanked God for giving me breath. I thought that I might share a few things with y'all that I am very grateful for this year.

1. My salvation...with out the Lord, I would be nothing! And it is only by His wonderful merciful grace that I am alive.

2. My family...they are everything to me, and I know that I do not tell them often enough, but I love them with my whole heart. They each have talents and gifts that make our family unique, and I love them for that.

3. My country! God has given us an amazing country, full of freedoms to make our voices heard. Unfortunately, if we don't stand up for those freedoms, and elect godly men and woman into office, we will lose them.

4. The healing that God has done to my Dad's eye! He has given him almost perfect vision in his right eye, and it has been so encouraging.

5.My church family. When we travel, we are in a lot of good churches, but there are a few that make you wonder WHY they invited you to come. It is those churches that make me appreciate my church family even more.

6. friends. God has blessed me with amazing friends, ones that i know I can go to when I need to talk or need encouragement. My friends are like family to me, and I love you all!

7. My mom. She has taken so much time to try and teach me to be a godly woman of faith, and how to be a good wife and mother one day. She has been such a good example to me, and I pray that one day, I can be just like her! I LOVE YOU MOM!

8. Our soldiers...they risk their lives everyday, for people that they don't even know. They are true red white and blue Americans, that are not afraid if they offend someone in saying so. Thank you, for serving our country so faithfully, and for putting your life on the line to protect me. I am eternally grateful to you, and for everything you do to keep our country free.

9. The Bible... the greatest love letter ever written. I often take my copy of God's word for granted, and I am very ashamed of that. There are so many people in the world who do not have a Bible, or even have one in their language. I am so very grateful for all of the men who risked their lives to transcribe the Bible.

10. last but not least...an education. I am so grateful to my parents for taking the time to homeschool my brother and I. We have seen so much of our country, and we would have never been able to experience that if we had gone to public or even Christian school.

So as you can see I have many things to be thankful for this year. I would love to hear what you are thankful for. Leave me a comment.

Beach Trip part 2

These pictures were taken shortly after we arrived at the beach house. After we unloaded the car, and said hello to Poppa Keith and Grandma, Ben and I headed for the beach. It had been three years since we had last been at the beach, so we were very anxious to get out there. Poppa Keith and Grandma rented the same house that we stayed in three years ago, so that was nice. We were one lot back from the beach, so we could see the ocean from the top deck. In the morning you could see the fishermen as they headed out for the day.

This is the house we stayed in...it's called The Patterson.

This the view we had from our top deck!

Poppa Keith

This was the path that we took to get to the beach.

I loved this sand sculpture, whoever did it is very talented!

This is the only picture that Ben would let me take of him.


Stay tuned...more pictures to come.

Beach Trip Part 1

On our way to the beach, we stopped at Dennis Anderson's shop. For those of you who do not know who he is, he is a driver in the show Monster Jam, and drives the car, Grave Digger. Dad loves to watch this show, and is a fan of Dennis Anderson, so we decided to stop. You don't realize just how big they are until you are standing beside them!

This is one of the Grave Digger vehicles, that stands out in front of the shop.

At this point, we were getting really excited, cause we were almost there!

Part 2 coming soon!

My First Photo Shoot!

I just did my first photo shoot on Tuesday, with three of the most adorable kids...I am a bit biased though, cause I just happen to babysit these cuties! They all cooperated until Gabe decided to pose himself, and do silly picture instead of the serious ones that I preferred! All in all I got some really cute pictures, and am pretty satisfied with my first shoot.

I love the way this one turned out...they are such cuties!

This is another one of my favorites.

Garrison

Gabe



Moriah

The Peaks of Otter

Sharp Top

This is one of my favorites!

While Kelly was with me, we went to the Peaks of Otter. We had a picnic lunch, and walked around getting some picture. It was a beautiful July day.