Running the race

"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start."

John "The Penguin" Bingham

In the spring of 2007, I started running, mainly to try to lose weight, because walking just didn't get my heartrate up enough. I would run on the levee by our house. It's so beautiful and peaceful up there, and I really came to enjoy running and ran my first 5k in February of 08. I was so proud of myself. A few years ago, I would've laughed if you told me I'd run a 5k. Shortly after, I started having so many problems with my feet, arches, and ankles hurting. I was also having some other health issues, so I had to quit. Later that year I found out I had Hashimoto's, an autoimmune thyroid disease, which explained the joint pains. Thank God for a wonderful endocronoligist who actually listened to me and payed attention to my blood work. He put me on medicine and got my levels down.

Around May of last year, I decided that before I died I wanted to at least run a half marathon. Don't you know that same week I had that thought a friend called and asked if I wanted to run a half marathon with her! I really wanted to but ended up being unable to because I was trying to get over mono. The past 2 1/2 years have been really difficult for me. But I've definitely learned to appreciate my body and all it does for me. I think we tend to take it for granted until it's taken from us. Well, I started back running last week and am really proud of myself. For me, I've had to learn that the miracle is that I started not that I finished. I do still have a desire to run a 1/2 marathon and have my sights set on one in October. Please pray that my body will cooperate with me, so I can keep up my running!

If there's one thing God's taught me through all of this is that we are stronger than we think and can do more than we ever imagined. Whatever it is your striving to accomplish in your life, just know that with God's strength you can make it!

"I have fought the fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7

All Grown Up

A few weekends ago, we went wedding dress shopping with my sister Caitlin, whose getting married next June. It was just my mom, her and I for the first 2 stores. Her best friend, Carley joined us later. The first place we went was Bridal Boutique, which happened to be where I got my dress from. We first walk in, and there is the "pedestal" with all the mirrors that you stand on when you try on dresses. I wanted to get teary-eyed becasue I remember standing there when I had found "THE" dress. It was an emotional moment for me and my mom. I told myself I couldn't start crying yet, it was only the first store and she hadn't even tried on any dresses yet!!! We really had so much fun. I'm pretty sure she found "the one". It's hard to believe that all my siblings are growing up. Thomas is driving (his own vehicle) and has a job. Danielle recently informed me she will be driving in 6 mos. (Permit only-thank God!) I never minded there being such an age gap between us until I moved away. It's been hard because I feel like I'm missing their "growing up" years, since they were still quite young when I got married. I'm really glad, though, that they do still include me in their life!

Silas' sister, Ashley just turned 20, also. Her mom threw her a surprise tea. It was so much fun to have an adult tea party! Mrs. Joy's friend, Mrs. Dory, did a "Tea Story" (for lack of a better term). She used various tea pots as symbols of how we are and should be as women. She also included some of her testimony. I just wanted to cry through the whole thing. She was so anointed, and I know everyone was truly blessed!


Caitlin and Carley

The Tea- Mrs. Joy did such a great job decorating.

Ashley

The Girls

All of this makes me think back to that time in my life. Always wondering, how would my life turn out? Who would I marry? Where would I live? What would I end up doing? I sort of feel as if I'm on the other side, although I know I have a lot of years left to go. It's really a good feeling to actually begin to see "the plans God has for you" take place. I still look forward to what God has planned for Silas and I as a couple (and a family, one day) :)

4th of July Weekend

We had a very busy weekend, but it was so much fun. Saturday started with a 50th birthday party for my dad. My aunt and uncle were in from Houston, also. My dad's not used to being fussed over, so he kept saying we were "just wasting time and money". But you only turn 50 once, right? It was also my in-laws 30th wedding anniversay, so we had them over for dinner later saturday evening. What an accomplishment! We enjoyed some good stories and a few laughs from their wedding day. Sunday evening we had a BBQ at the church, and then headed up to the levee for the fireworks. It was a good weekend spent with good food, good family, and good friends. I hope we all can remember to cherish our loved ones because life is short.


Yum! Chocolate Doberge'


Mom & Dad

Make a wish!

The in-laws.

We set up a pool in the parking lot for the kids. They loved it.

Me, Jen and Grace. It's funny, a few years ago it was just the two of us. I guess we're "growing up" :)

Me and my little brother. He actually drove ME for the first time in HIS jeep. Such a cutie!

The girls. (Cadie Russo, Jen Anzaldua, Megan Huff, Caitlin Badeaux, Me, Danielle Badeaux)

Our group on the levee. There were a lot of us because the youth from the Church in Central came. They're a really neat group of kids, and it was good to see them all again.

Me and my sweetie

Youth Camp

I spent this past weekend with about 20 teenagers. I know, sounds scary, huh? I was a little nervous because I'm a "little kid" person, but I've definitely changed my mind. It was our church and Bro. Donnie Shaffer's church from Central. This is their 4th year doing this camp together. Even with only 12 hrs of sleep over the 3 days, being outside in the heat most of the day, overflowing toilets, and broken air, I had an amazing time. All the kids were so awesome, and I enjoyed getting to know them. I had so much more fun than I expected. God truly moved in their lives and mine.


These are the girls from our church (Cadie, Caitlin, Megan, and Danielle). We were all broken up into two teams, the blue and the red. Josh was our team captain. We were all on the blue team except Cadie.




This is one of the first challenges. Whoever pulled all the tissues out first won, and that would be the blue team :)

We played Pie-in-the-face bible trivia. Get the answer wrong and you get pied (shaving cream on a plate, not an actual pie). I wasn't getting the answer wrong!

As you can see, the kids had a lot of fun canoeing.

On Friday, we did a relay race. This is one of the challenges.

They had to hang 10 coathangers all in a line. Go Megan!

Harvest Church Youth

We had such an awesome time of worship.

The bonds of friendship.

Crawfish Boil and Early Father's Day

I've really enjoyed setting up the blog. I'm just going to have to stay up on posting stuff. Before I knew it, a week had passed since the last post. I've been, shall we say, "rebelling" against the whole Facebook thing. My family and friends keep pestering me to get one, but this blog has been a compromise :) I was so surprised the other day when I got out the tub, Silas said, "Look babe, I got a facebook page!" So my husband has succumbed to the peer pressure!

This past weekend we had a crawfish boil with our church family. It was hot, but we set up in the garage, which had a window unit.

My dad "manning" the crawfish pot. (Josh was taking a break!)

The one good thing about not eating crawfish is you get to watch the babies!!! Everyone laughed because I'm so white, and she's like 10 shades darker than I am.

Tell me that's not the cutest thing you've ever seen!

The guys were throwing the football and hit the power line, which knocked out the electricity and all of the houses on Josh and Jeanine's street! It was back running before too long.

We celebrated Father's Day with Silas' dad on Sunday. I'm very grateful to have such wonderful in laws. We always have a few gut wrenching laughs, mostly because Silas and his dad have the same sense of humor and just feed off each other. I usually end up laughing more at them than whatever their laughing at :) (Silas says their actually usually laughing at me!)

Silas and his dad cooking the steaks. Yum!

Mr. Pete opening his gift, which was 2 knee pads. He can be a little difficult to buy for :)

A little something extra:

Going through difficult seasons is tough. God's been re-teaching me to lean on Him. We can't do it on our own, though we always seem to try, don't we? I've learned you never know what people are going through or struggling with, and that maybe I need to keep my eyes open and be a little more compassionate, forgiving, and not quick to make judgments.

Fortunately, I have my family to keep me smiling. :)

Our 4th Anniversay

Silas and I celebrated our 4th anniversay this week. I'd been thinking about starting a blog and figured this would be a good starting point. Time has really flown by. We have grown and still enjoy each other's company. I love that he's my best friend, and I get to wake up next to him each morning. We've had our share of challenges, but Silas' sense of humor seems to get us through a lot! He's really been a trooper with all my health issues (and He's the one with the chronic illness!) We lead a fairly simple life: To work, come home, eat dinner, tv night line up, to bed. Yes, we're boring :) Our 10 month old cat, Allie, manages to keep us entertained. God has truly blessed us. There's never been a time when our needs have gone unmet. We were able to buy our own home a year and a half ago and just purchased an 05 Altima last month (whoo hoo, no more little blue truck!).

We went to Natchez last weekend for a getaway. It was so much fun. We didn't do much, but that was the point. It's hard to believe that after 4 years we still have "firsts". When we pulled up at the hotel, I realized we had never stayed at a hotel together. We haven't taken many trips together, but in the past, we've stayed mainly in bed and breakfasts. My favorite thing we did was the carriage ride around the city.

On the Riverfront in Vidalia
On the bluff across from our hotel
We stayed at the Natchez Grand Hotel