Week 15, A Shower, Some Sun, and the Good Ol' Days

Week 15 was a very exciting one.  I began the week by co-hosting a bridal shower for my good friend, Sara Griffin, with her Mom (Marcia) and older sister (Megan), both of whom I am also happy to call friends!  I was so honored to help out with this shower--I love the Griffin family, and I felt like I was a Griffin gal that night!  Sara and Scotty are SO ADORABLE, and I am just completely thrilled for them both.  Sara has patiently waited and trusted and obeyed God her entire life in this area, which has just been incredible to even witness.  So, enough sappy stuff--check out these pictures!

After the shower was over, I was "working for the weekend", so forgive my lack of boy stories this week.  I do feel like I'm forgetting a funny story, but I just can't think of it!  I was focused on one thing--getting to the beach with my sis-in-law Laura!!  We left after the workday on Friday, and headed down to Burgaw, NC--home of the sweetest, cutest, most loving Grandma in all the world--GRANDMA JAN!!  We were greeted with some good old fashioned "southern comfort food"--fried pork chops, butter beans, rice and gravy, and strawberry shortcake for dessert....needless to say, I am scared of the weigh-in coming on Wednesday!  We just relaxed, chatted, and laughed the rest of the night away :)

The following morning, we woke up to fresh coffee, scrambled eggs, bacon, grits, and biscuits--GEEZ!!  After that "light" meal, it was time to put our bathing suits on!  Off to the beach we went, where we didn't have a care in the world--it was so amazing.  We kept just repeating, "Why don't we do this more often??--this is SO NICE!!".  I love the beach (despite my hatred of being in a bathing suit).  I feel so connected with God there--seeing, hearing, and soaking in His creation.  I've also found it impossible to completely relax at home--there's always something to be done, and I feel like I'm wasting time if I'm not doing it.  So, it was a very much needed mini-vacation, and I was so thankful that Laura was with me!  After spending the afternoon in utter relaxation, we headed back to Burgaw to take Grandma out to dinner.  We went to one of the literally 2 restaurants in Burgaw, and it was surprisingly good!  We all ordered seafood to complete our beach themed weekend!

We came on home Sunday after breakfast, because both Laura and I had prior commitments--hers was sadly work-related, but mine thankfully was not!  I met up with my best friend Leslie and our mutual friend Sierra at Starbucks.  The three of us, plus one more girl, Kelly McNeill, used to be a "crew" of sorts back in high school.  We may or may not have had t-shirts made...<_<.....>_>......anyway, too bad KellyMac lives in NY, because it was so much fun catching up with Sierra.  She's hoping to move back soon, so hopefully we'll get to see a lot more of her!  Speaking of potentially moving back here, that brings me to the next leg of my "good ol' days tour"!  Another old friend (and former flame--ha!) was back in town for a much more serious reason.  He is now the proud boyfriend of my other sister-in-law, Becky Catchings!  He flew out to have a nice date weekend with her and to see her face-to-face for the first time, after months of long-distance angst (he lives in Tijuana, MX and works in San Diego, CA for goodness sakes!).  Anyway, it was so great seeing him again, and from all accounts he had an amazing weekend with his dear Rebecca :)  So, we're certainly hoping to see more of him in the coming months!  Here's a picture of the happy couple:

 The week ended on a very happy note as dear friends of ours learned that their little boy, who is not yet one and had a seizure during the week, had a perfectly normal EEG--thank God!!! <3