Going Home!

I hadn't been in my house in Dyersburg since Jan. 31st 2008. I had been back to Dyersburg since then, but for some reason or another, I hadn't been able to go home. I forgot how nice it was to be there until I pulled into the driveway and into the garage. Portia knew exactly where we were. She bolted out of the car and into the loving arms of Hershey (the family dog). My mom was so happy to see me and even made me a wonderful dinner and dessert. I was even able to have dinner with my father and hear about his new job. It sucks only having one vehicle for us to use because I would love to drive to Dyersburg on a Friday and stay until Sunday. I miss my church family very much. It turns out that Andrew's car needs a new cable. As soon as they order the cable, it should only take a few hours to fix...if Andrew can help his dad. That means another Dyersburg trip on a weekday. I was so exhausted when we returned. All in all, I say that it was a good trip for our little family of three. Andrew was able to figure out what was wrong with his car and spend some one on one time with his dad. I was able to be with my family for a short while, and Portia got to have some major play time with Hershey. Hershey will probably sleep for a few days now after playing with Portia. Herhsey is getting a little old for her antics.

You Can't Stop the Beat

Most of my blogs are about random things that are on my mind, not actual updates on life. I decided to for my one reader I would update.

I am trying to learn how to cook. I can throw something in the microwave and boil stuff but I am trying to learn how to cook healthier meals. Last night I tried to make fish. I should have known that it wouldn't have turned out right. It's in my genes. I can't think of a single time that my mom made fish and it turned out right. Sure she could make fishsticks, but I wanted to really bake some fish. I did make some killer teriyaki chicken and rice about a month ago. I even grilled some chicken on the George Foreman grill a few weeks ago that turned out really really well. The biggest compliment Andrew can give me is that my food was good. I am trying really hard to get the timing right-sometimes it's good and sometimes not.

Work is going really really well. I had the biggest turnout EVER for my Caregiver Support group. We had eight caregivers!! I know that that's not a huge number, but seeing as I only have eleven in RCP, that's over half of my clients. I had eight teens. I never have teens there!!! I had seven children. The only problem is that we don't have enough space for everyone. That's a wonderful problem for me to have though. Churches around here would be more that welcome to let us use their facilities. VOCA is going good too. I started out with 11 children and I'm now down to 8. Two moved away and one was pulled out by his father who wants to sweep the sexual abuse under the rug. Not cool! The children are getting restless with coming to the center all the time. I am struggling with trying exciting ways to keep their attention.

Married life is wonderful. We have been married a little over 2 months, but it feels like longer. Not because the 2 months have drug on, but because we were together for so long before hand. Yesterday was our 6.5 year anniversary. You might as well round that up to seven. Andrew is taking one class a week in Selmer. The class is taught by a high school teacher and they are doing the same stuff that her high school class is doing. Andrew hates going but I'm grateful that it's so easy. Once again we are doing the one vehicle thing. As far as getting to work, it's not a problem. It is a slight annoyance when Andrew is off work but I have to have my car or I want to surprise Andrew at work and I can't because the car is with him.

I watched Facing the Giants last night. I was hesitant to watch it for several reasons. I hate corny Christian movies and books. They always have the same story line:
a. There's someone with a problem-either a Christian struggling thinking they don't need God's help or someone isn't a Christian
b. There's always a love story mixed in.
c. Everything is always solved by the end.
In real life there are constant struggles. God might really show you what needs to be done with one area, but your life isn't perfect yet. That's how these movies portray it.
With that said, I really really enjoyed the movie. I loved how they really portrayed that when it rains it pours. In my life, nothing is ever going right. When one thing happens, a million things happen. For example, Andrew and I got back from the honeymoon. Things should have been perfect. The day we got back, we lost our dog for over 24 hours. Finally found her, found out that we had to pay a lot to the insurance company to add Andrew, we also had to pay for school. I had a wreck, Andrew's car broke down, my father lost his job, my father also had to have heart surgery. Who knows what's going to happen next. The movie reminded me to praise God in the good and the bad. God always provides for me.

Being Adults

Andrew and I joined Dixie Hills Baptist Church on Feb. 15th. That was exciting for several reasons. I have always attended church, but I haven't really been able to choose what church I would like to attend. As a small child my family attended Graham Heights Baptist Church in Memphis. It was a very small church. I have very fond memories of that place. As an adult now, it seems funny to me that my family would continue going to such a small church when Memphis is full of such amazing church. This particular church was in the ghetto. When my family moved to Dyersburg, we visiting a lot of churches. They finally decided on Hillcrest Baptist Church. I was not happy with that decision, but what say does a 9 year old have? I wanted to attend First Baptist which had a nice girl (Amy Dyer) and doughnuts on Sunday mornings. At Hillcrest, I hated attending it for probably about 4 years. I would fake having an upset stomach so I wouldn't have to go. The girls that were my age were mean and cruel because I wasn't one of them. I was baptized at Hillcrest by my grandfather (who also married me at Hillcrest). When I was in the youth group, I had no friends that attended the church and I decided to do something about it. By the time I graduated high school, most of my best friends attended Hillcrest. I believe that Hillcrest has a lot to do with falling in love with my husband. Through youth events, Andrew and I learned to pray together and nothing is sexier than watching the guy you love worship the God he loves. Hillcrest has a very special place in my heart and it will always be my home church. When I moved to Bolivar I was determined to find a great church. I would drive to Jackson or Memphis if I had to. I finally realized that I probably wouldn't be as diligent with going to church if I had to drive an hour. Billy Graham probably couldn't get me to church every Sunday. I visited First Baptist Bolivar a couple of times. Unfortunately, everyone at their church was over the age of 40. I needed someone to be my friend, not my substitute mom. When I decided to visit Dixie Hills Baptist, I walked into the classroom and there were so many younger couples. Most of the couples have already started their families, but they were all very nice and friendly. The community atmosphere was so refreshing. I felt that I had found my new home church as soon as I walked in the door. It had that home feeling like Hillcrest had, but smaller. I had to slow my horses and not count my chickens because Andrew hadn't had the chance to visit the church yet. I got involved with the Sunday School and Discipleship Training class. I can't remember the last time I was in an all women's group and was actually discussing the Bible. I actually started to cry during the closing prayer at Discipleship Training. I knew that God had brought me to Dixie Hills and I was going to make some good friends. After Andrew and I were married, I prayed that he would love the church as much as I did. Luckily, he loved it and hit it off with the music minister. While DHBC is not perfect, it's a great place for us to worship and to get involved in the community.

Obsessions

I have currently become obsessed with reading people's blogs. I will read anything about anyone. I don't think I'm a stalker, I just enjoy reading about different people and seeing how they live. If my friends have a list of blogs that they follow, I follow them too. I have 12 blogs bookmarked for me to check daily. Some of the blogs are from people I know like Steph, Jenn, Jessica, the Westmos. Some are people that I know of but I don't really know and I have never been friends with like Amber Niblock Shorter, Shalaine and Gavin, Brandon Reed. Some of my blogs are from people I don't even know and will most likely never meet like Amy Grant, the Cake Wrecks blog, and something called Daddys Blog. I found a website where Blogs are nominated for an award called the Bloggies!! It takes you to these awesome blogs that are nominated for different things. If you want to read a blog about fashion or entertainment news go to such and such blog. If you are interested in asian art go to this blog. If you are interested in photography go to this blog. I love it! I check my friends' blogs daily in hopes that they might update them. You would think that I would be this crazy about Facebook, but I'm really not. I enjoy looking at photos but I don't stalk anyone's walls or wall-t0-wall conversations. Blogs intrigue me.

Can I Gush?

I would like to gush for a moment about how happy I am. For so long (Not really THAT long) I have been lonely here in Bolivar. I now I have someone to come home to. He's not just ANYONE to come home to, but he's my person. It's so wonderful to have someone to talk to face-t0-face and someone who actually cares about what you are saying.
In the shower, we couldn't place the shower organizer on the shower head like normal people because the shower head can't hold the weight. Because of this problem, we are having to put the organizer on the wall. We hung up a heavy duty hook, held up with a water-proof command strip. We then hung the organizer on the hook. It has fallen down twice. The first time we put the organizer up, it held up for a good 3 months. The second time, it was only up for a few days. Andrew came home from work this morning with another idea with how to fix this problem. The wonderful thing about Andrew is that he will keep fixing this problem a million times if he has too. Andrew is completely satisfied with cuddling on the couch watching our one channel. He understands that even if I am asleep, I have to wake up at 10:00pm to watch Steph on WBBJ. Andrew will wake up with me and make his way to the living room because he knows that it's important to watch Steph. Andrew doesn't have a problem with the fact that we have a vanity for a bathroom underneath our carport right now. He understands that it's a part of my job, because the vanity is for a client and we didn't have anywhere else to put it. I hate that he is working night shifts. The hardest part is sleeping alone and having him sleep during the day on my days off. I feel as if we are missing quality time together. I now have a constant movie watcher companion and someone else to walk the dog in the morning.

WHEW!!!

I am so glad that the wedding is over. I enjoyed the planning and the event, but I really just wanted to get it over with and have the memories. My wedding was absolutely beautiful. Never in a million years would I have dreamed about actually having my dream wedding. I knew that it would be nice, but never anything that would have taken my breath away. Through the love and care of many MANY people, the wedding was wonderful. We had people letting us borrow things and working night and day to make it a special day for us. While the rooms were wonderful, the true beauty was due to the fact that people were helping us that had no reason to. They must have seen the desperate looks in my eyes. By the wedding day, I did not want to answer anymore pointless questions. I didn't care if the grandmothers started walking down the aisle 3 minutes after 3!!! I truly enjoyed spending time with my family. I didn't get to spend as much time with the out of towners as I would have liked, but it was special just the same. Andrew was able to spend time with Chris Moser and Dan. I wished we could live closer to both of those guys.
I wished that my wedding day wasn't so rushed, and I didn't get all the pictures that I wanted. But at the end of the day, those were the only negative things that occurred. Andrew and I chose to see each other before the wedding. I was so thankful for that. The whole wedding party had fun hanging out and taking pictures before the wedding. Seeing Andrew really calmed my nerves. I am extremely thankful that I was able to seen Andrew's expression the first time he saw me up close instead of down an aisle. We had so much fun at the reception that we almost forgot to toss the bouquet and garter. We also had to leave earlier than what we wanted to because we wanted people to still be there to throw birdseed at us. We had a wonderful honeymoon in Gatlinburg. I am so glad that we are back to work and trying to get a sense of normalcy. I love being Mrs. Hampton!!

Thanksgiving Tidings

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I love Thanksgiving. You aren't expected to give any presents. I enjoy just being with family. Does anyone else still sit at the kids' table? I am 22 years old and about to get married. Why am I still sitting at the kids' table? Does having a wedding band on my finger graduate me to the adults' table? Oh no, graduating from college, having a career, and having my own house still keeps me at the little table. Of course, the youngest child at the table is 16. Eventually we will all be married and have to have Child's Table 2 for our children. We will probably still choose a movie. Maybe this year it will be Anne of Green Gables or The Trouble with Angels. Those are always classics. Don't forget the ever available musical where we quote every line. It's amazing to me that eventually, I will be the one sitting at the adult table watching my children and my grandchildren enjoy the Thanksgiving meal. Maybe I will have a 22 year old granddaughter sitting at the kids' table not ever wanting to grow up.