Thursday, December 27, 2007

Less then 2 weeks!!!

Wow these past few weeks have flown by. I realize that I haven't written in my blog in over a month. I apologize. I want to at least write something once a week, but these past few weeks have been crazy.

What have I been doing?

Buying tape, stalking people at meijer and walmart so i can steal their very large empty boxes, using those empty boxes to pack, selling things, cleaning the empty shelves, trying to make our somewhat empty home look like a home and last but not least enjoying my last few weeks with my dear family and friends.

How have I been doing?

I've been doing pretty well. Besides packing up there have been a lot of other things going on. My Grandpa hasn't been doing the best and has been in the hospital for almost a month now. That has been tough. I am very close with my family and it's been hard not living closer to them. Also a couple weeks after my grandpa was admitted to the hospital my Great Grandma Sheets passed away. This has been hard, but I rest assured knowing that she lived a long, wonderful life and she is now spending eternity with our Saviour! :)

Just a couple things I wanted to share and then I'm off to bed. I've been thinking a lot lately about my Grandpa Norris and the amazing life that he has lived. This guy doesn't know a stranger at all. Eric and I went to visit him a couple of nights ago and couldn't remember his room number so we ended up asking the receptionist at the front desk of the hospital. Her response was, "That James Norris, I should just write his name and information down on a piece of paper and keep it here on my desk. He is our most popular guest here in the hospital. :) That's my grandpa. I hope that I can show love the way that he has and continues to do despite his rough situation. No matter if he has stomach problems, a blood clot, amnesia, hallucinations, strokes, internal bleeding... he still shows Christ to others and prays continuously for the lost people in our world. :) What a blessing my grandpa has been to me. :) If you read this grandpa, I love you so much! Thank you for being an example of Jesus to me! I will never forget the things that you have taught me and the unconditional love that you have shown to me.


(I will try to write more later this week. Please pray for us because tomorrow is our last day to pack everything up. We are getting the Uhaul on Friday and moving all our stuff Friday and Saturday. I can't believe we are moving to Poland in less then 2 weeks! How exciting!!!)

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Thank you Mr. Stephen Zirkle!

This is one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time. Check it out and maybe even make your own! Just click on elfed below and enjoy!


Thank you Mr. Stephen Zirkle for sharing this with me! :)

Monday, November 19, 2007

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Where has the month gone? I'm still looking for October! Eric and I leave in only 51 days!!! I have been packing and packing and packing. Most people that know me, know that I HATE to pack. I can never figure out if I should take the brown flip flops or the green flip flops or hey they're small why not just take all of them! :) With having that much trouble with shoes, I'm sure that you can imagine how long it takes me to pack what outfits I want. Ugh... it really is a week process for me and that's only if I'm going to be gone overnight! :) Just kidding.. well... kind of.

With that dilemma, I'm sure you can imagine how hard it is for me to pack 2 suitcases that are supposed to last me for an entire YEAR... and on top of that, I have to stuff things in there that remind me of my home. YIKES! It's been interesting to see the pile of stuff that we want to pack grow from a laundry basket to half of a closet! Now don't get me wrong, I'm excited! This is an adventure to me and there is something exciting about knowing that you only have 2 suitcases with their zippers about to explode for an entire year! :) The part that isn't exciting to me is that horrible feeling you get in your gut when you're sitting in the airplane about to take off and you just know you forgot something! I can already feel that now, and I haven't even packed yet! Oh well... the most important thing that needs to arrive in Poznan, Poland is myself and my husband.Well, just wanted to share that with you all. Eric and I are getting ready to eat so I better get off here. Have a wonderful Monday and if I don't post before Thanksgiving, have a wonderful time eating and being with family! :)

Shelly:)

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Lots to do

Homecoming was a blast. We crammed 19 people and 2 dogs in one house. It was craziness, but so fun! It's always hard leaving everyone, but especially hard this time knowing that we won't see most of our friends for at least a year. (check out my pictures from homecoming on my facebook).

We are starting to pack stuff up. Eric and I have been trying to box and label our things at least one night every week. We are trying to make it fun and not get overwhelmed. It's really weird packing up. I feel like we're moving to another apartment in Reynoldsburg not another country.

God is good. We have a little over half of our money raised. Everyone has been so amazing and faithful! This weekend we are going to Bel Air, Maryland to speak in Eric's home church. We're excited but nervous. We will be speaking 6 times in one day! WOW!!! Please pray for us.

Well, I'm off to play cars with little Austin. I've been doing some baby-sitting and it's been a blast! Everyone have a great Wednesday.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

more to come on our weekend at onu homecoming. :)

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

unconditional.love

It's amazing how God teaches us lessons. Right when we think we have some great truth down, He shows us we still need a little work. He takes our pride and slowly starts to brush it off revealing our nakedness and our imperfections.

Yesterday started as a pretty ordinary day for me. I had a lot to do and not much time to do it in. I was quickly rushing around in the morning and headed off to the thrift store to drop off some old clothes and household items (we've been cleaning out all of our stuff, that's another post though).

When I arrived at the thrift store I jumped out of my car and quickly made my way to the front of the building. Before I could make it inside I noticed a man standing by the door. His torn shirt, stained pants, hole filled shoes, and unkept hair disturbed me a little and honestly I went a little faster past him, just because of my own uneasiness. I went in and asked the cashier where I could drop off my bags and she told me to pull my car around to the back. Knowing that I would have to walk past the man outside again I tried to put on my best "act like everything is normal face". As I opened the door his head came up and my head went down. I heard him mumble something about sparing some change for a bus and I slowly turned my head and said sorry and walked away. I only made it about half way to my car when I looked down and saw the word agape written on my wrist. Agape, unconditional love. I wasn't showing this man unconditional love. Soon the verses in Matthew 25 started resonating in my head:
I was hungry and you gave me no meal,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
I was homeless and you gave me no bed,
I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,
Sick and in prison, and you never visited.'

With God reminding me of these words I quickly turned around and started walking back toward the man. Except for one thing was missing... the man. He was gone, in a matter of seconds he was no where to be found! I turned back around and I have never felt such disappointment and heartache. I surely denied God himself of something. I treated Him as if he was nothing. I tried to fight back the tears but they just kept coming. I felt so ashamed.

As I got in my car and drove around to the back of the store I noticed a man walking alongside the road. It was him. I pulled my car over and waited for him to see me. As he walked past my car, I rolled my window down and motioned for him to come over. He saw me and I could see the embarrassment, and shame all over his face. I wonder if he could see the embarrassment and shame on mine? I could tell that he had been rejected before... the way he hung his head and avoided eye contact made it obvious that he had. As he came to my window I got out some money and handed it to him. I told him that I would give it to him but I needed to tell him something first. Those eyes. I looked him straight in the eyes and told him that Jesus loved him. He looked away after I only got out about two words. So I said it again. The second time he looked at me and I felt as if I could see straight in his soul. I could feel his pain, disappointment, shame, hopelessness. This time when I told him, he stared straight at me and slowly closed his eyes with a single tear sliding down his dirt stained face. He quickly said thank you and walked away.

I don't know what that man will do with that money. I just know that I had to do it. I'm not advising everyone to give money to homeless people because I am sure that a lot of that money gets spent on bad habits. I'm just advising people to love and allow God to love others through us. I'm also reminding everyone to not turn their nose up at people that may look different then us. I say this not just to others, but mostly to myself. This story would not even exist, if I did not struggle with this very issue of unconditional love. Everyone needs Jesus, whether you have it all or you've lost it all. Everyone.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

sorry it's been so long.

I know it's been forever since I've posted. We have been so busy this month... well, this year! :) Just to be honest, sometimes I look at the calendar and pray that I will become ill just so I can stay home and start reading my long list of books while sipping my hot green tea. :) Unfortunately, I am healthy and very capable of conquering the activities on my calendar. Also unfortunately, all of the activities that are on the calendar I look forward to.

This past weekend was nice. We were surrounded all weekend by family and friends. I felt so loved by the family members that opened up their houses to us and allowed us to gather with other family members and friends.

Speaking of feeling loved. Ever since our "missions secret" has gotten out I have been amazed at the love that I have been shown. Eric and I have now spoken in 5 churches and at ever single one of those churches we have met people, whom we do not know, yet who have promised to pray for us, told us how proud they are of us and most importantly have shown us Jesus. I just want to say thank you to all of you who have supported us. I don't mean financially, even though I am VERY thankful for that. However, more important then finances we have had people who have prayed for us and encouraged us. Without that, we would not be where we are now. Thank you.

Well, I wanted to post before we leave for the weekend. Eric is getting home early today and we are heading off to Tennessee. We have a free two-night stay in the Smokey Mountains and we decided to take advantage of it before we head off to Poland. We are looking forward to spending time together alone. It's only for a few days, but we are very excited. I hope you all have a good weekend. Try not to get swept away by the storms that are supposedly circulating around the Midwest. :)

Friday, September 21, 2007

I've been wanting to post for a while now but haven't had the chance to do it yet. I am feeling better and recovering from my surgery. If you want to know what surgery I had just email me and I'll tell you. :)

This past weekend-week has been crazy (I feel like I say that all the time...ha-ha). On Friday night Eric and I met some friends and headed over to the young adult camp-out. We didn't end up spending the night but we stayed until midnight and had crazy fun playing night time corn-hole, roasting marshmallows, and just chit-chatting around the fire.

Saturday, Eric and I slept in and then got up to clean the house just a little before we headed off for the craziest Buckeye Party ever. We went over to The Meyers house and had such a good time. I can honestly say that I maybe watched about 1/2 hour of the entire game. I was too busy talking to Mindy and laughing at everyone else that got really excited when the Buckeyes scored. :) Around 5pm on Saturday, Adam, Abbey, Jon and Annie stopped by to pick up their car, go to the restroom and be on their way home from vacation. I didn't get to visit with them for long due to prior commitments, but I did have a good 1/2 hour with them.

After they left Mindy and I headed back over to The Meyer's house and finished watching the game with them. Around 8pm, Kara Decrastos called and said she was finished with the wedding and was heading over to my house. So I got to the house at about 9sh and Kara and I stayed up till about 1am and then headed to bed.

Sunday, we all got up for church and accidentally missed Sunday School (oops). We had a great service with Pastor Marty. He talked about being the salt to the unsaved world. Sunday afternoon we went out to eat with a few people after church and then Kara and I headed to the Thrift Store. Unfortunately, we didn't have as successful of a trip as Mindy and I did a few weeks earlier. I only managed to find one thing and Kara nothing.. although she almost did grab the yellow sweater on her way out. :)

Sunday night came too fast. This was the night that we were to speak in front of our home church. I wasn't nervous until I realized how many people I knew at church. Little side note: Eric and I realized that we do much better speaking in front of people we don't know as well, rather then our good friends. Speaking of friends, our friends made a HUGE line right in the front row Sunday night. They were all smiles and giggles, however they managed to be pretty good... or so I thought. I will tell you that I did see out of the corner of my eye two signs. One read, "Go Chicky (Eric's sign.. don't ask..ha ha) and the other "You go girl". Those were held up by the lovely Miss LuAnne and Miss Lisa. HA HA! Now I said that my "front row friends" were good, however at the end of the service we sat down and my friend Mindy handed me a mysterious note. I flipped it over and all I could see were tally marks and the word UM across the top. I discovered that Mindy had counted individually how many times Eric had said um and how many times I had said um. Eric won. HA HA! :) It was really funny! Thanks Mindy, I'm so adding that to my scrapbook.

Well, I think that is all for now. Oh yeah, I would add some pictures but I forgot to take any this entire weekend. I'm so mad at myself. :(

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Off.

I know what you're thinking... Shelly is posting at 6am did Eric pray that God would wake her up again? The answer is no. I am going in to the doctor for some medical reasons. I won't be around to blog for a few days. Please pray for me as I recover. Everyone have a great Wednesday... (it seems like I always post on Wednesday's.. hm.. weird).

Love,

Shelly

ps. don't worry.. I'm okay! :)

Friday, September 14, 2007

7:30am.

Do you ever have those days where you are just really excited to wake up. I usually don't, however, today I did. Every morning around 7:30am, out of my half open eyes I see Eric walk around the bed and come to my side. He usually says something like, "Bye..love you" or if he's late, "Bye... gotta go, I'm late, love you" then I see this dark shadow slowly leave the room. Still not sure if this is Eric leaving or me falling back asleep. Well today, the dark shadow never came, Eric left, but the shadow never came. Instead, I tried to close my eyes and go back to sleep but all I could think about was hair dye, cleaning out dressers, looking for winter coats, mailing my special package, and hearing more about missions. Now, I know that I've lost a few readers because you're probably thinking... who gets excited about hair dye and cleaning out dressers... haha!

Just a few minutes ago I got off the phone with Eric. You're never going to believe what he just told me. First let me give you a little background information. One thing that I have always loved about Eric is his dedication to God. It never fails that EVERY morning he always has quiet time with God... I'm sure there are some mornings where he misses... but maybe not. :) I also know that Eric prays for me everyday, he may not always tell me, but I just know. Well just a few minutes ago when I called him we talked a few minutes, I told him what I was going to do for the day and I hung up. However, right as I was hanging up I could barely hear a muffled... "Shelly"... then it was too late because I had shut the phone. OOPS! So I dialed his number again and said I was sorry for hanging up and he said.... I just wanted to let you know that I prayed for you today. I thought to myself that's weird that he didn't just send that in an email with a little smiley face. So I said, "oh yeah, what about?" I should have known.. He replied, "Well I asked God to wake you up when He wanted you up and to make you excited about the day. " I paused... and replied, "Eric, please don't ever pray that again". HAHA!

Isn't that funny how God answers our prayers. That is a true story. It was so funny. After Eric told me about what he had prayed for and I told him not to pray that again I told him I was just writing a blog and the first sentence just happened to say.... do you ever have those days where you wake up really excited. :) You know I think God has more of a sense of humor then we think.

Well, I need to get off here so I can spend some time with the BIG MAN who decided to wake me up excited! :) Have a great day... and remember... be excited about your day, even if it means you will be cleaning out dressers. :)

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Busy.

Judging by the title I'm sure you may assume that I am busy, however what you don't know is that I've been run-around-like-a-crazy-person-busy. Thank goodness busyness doesn't always have to be a negative thing. My busyness has been good!

Well we made it through speaking at Marysville Church of the Nazarene. Surprisingly, I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would have been. I will admit though that when we first got up to speak I thought to myself... "Run... don't look at anyone just run". Thankfully, common sense has been instilled in me, so I decided to stay. It was really scary and exciting to be apart of that service. It was weird to here them say we have some missionaries here from our area and then say our names. Weird. This coming Sunday we are speaking at our home church. Hopefully it will be as good of an experience as Marysville was. Our friends from church said they were going to hold up signs for us and ask all kinds of silly questions. I will die if they do. HAHA

Aw, I just washed Lucas and he is just sitting here looking at me like "yeah i know I look good". hehe We went for a walk today and he took a little dip in the pond! He loves swimming!

There was so much fun stuff that went on last week and this week that I want to share it with you all. First on Thursday I got to go and work for a little while at Eric's parents house. I started working on laying the carpet in the bathroom downstairs and I started painting the cabinet and the mirror. It's fun! On Friday night we had some out of town visitors come and stay with us. Adam, Abbey, Jon and Annie all went on vacation together so they wanted to know if they could spend the night on Friday and then head off for vacay the next day. So of course we said yes. Plus, on top of that Laura Lynn came over from Cinncy. We seriously had such a good time with everyone. We ended up staying up till about 4am (at least Abbey and I did). That's what happens when you put 4 girls in one room... they talk. :) It was so nice to hang out with all of them.

Saturday Eric and I scheduled a work day at Eric's parents house. We got there at about 1:30 and stayed till around 8:30pm. It was such a long day.. but a good one. We worked and worked and worked some more. I did a power-washer while Eric did all kinds of hard stuff. Needless to say we ended up going to bed at 9:30 that night. It was nice. I don't think I've gone to bed that early since middle school when that was my bedtime. HA! :) Sunday was just as much of a crazy fun day. My friend Mindy (Spencer) Jones came to church with us Sunday morning and we had a good time. After church we decided to make a trip to Dublin to run some errands and then stop by the thrift stores. I actually found a few shirts there that I am really excited about. They were like $2 each! SWEET! I love thrift shopping. Luckily, we ended up making it to church right in time. After church we went out to eat with a bunch of friends from church and had a really funny time at DQ! LuAnn about got us into a fight with some Browns fans. HAHA (She was wearing a Steelers jersey and these people were seriously glaring at us out the window!)

Monday, Eric and I continued the daunting task of packing and cleaning our our garage.. we are no where close to being done. :( We had a good time just being together and looking through yearbooks and old things we hadn't seen in a while. Tuesday we had a Deputation Service at the church for the Sidle family. They are missionaries in Zambia. They did an awesome job. After church Nick and Mindy came over and we had a really good time laughing and telling stories. I won't say what the subject of our stories was about. HAHA! Some things must be kept in the Slonecker house! HAHA That brings us up to today. As I mentioned above I just got back from walking Lucas and now I'm just getting ready for tonight. Eric and I were invited to a cookout with our Bible study class. We are really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, with us keeping so busy we haven't been able to meet as many people at our church as we would like to. Everyone that we have met at church has been so friendly and been such an encouragement to us. :)

Well I should get off here and finish getting ready. Have a super Wednesday. Enjoy some fun pictures from our crazy weekend and week. :)









Tuesday, September 04, 2007

I love Labor Day!

With everything going on lately, Eric and I decided to take a little weekend getaway! Eric's parents just bought an AMAZING house and happened to be going out of town this weekend, so we got to pretend like we were country livers for a little while. :) It was fun! We did lots of fishing, riding on the Gator, playing basketball, shooting guns, swimming in the pond (well, more like jumping in the pond than screaming because I was terrified a big fish would eat me). Not only did we get to spend a little time away from everything but Tim, Trina and Claire came to visit. We had fun showing them around the house and hanging out at Bob Evans. On Monday we came back to Reynoldsburg. It's amazing how small your apartment looks when you spend a few days at someone else's house. :)

Monday we drove all around and managed to go to Chipoltle, 2 Half Price Book Stores, Cold Stone Creamery, and Barnes and Noble. We also watched The Burbs and ate Donatoes pizza. It was a fun weekend of books and eating.... just happens to be some of my favorite things...not to mention it was with some of my favorite people. I had such a good time seeing little Claire. She has gotten bigger and sure is so cute! :)


I can't believe that today is already Tuesday! Tomorrow evening Eric and I have to speak at Marysville Church about our missions assignment. I'm a little nervous, but trying not to be. Actually, I was trying to think of what I was going to say and I was reminded of when all this mission stuff started to happen. How confusing! So rewarding now, but very confusing at the time. I remember when I wrote this post, What do you desire and I was really struggling with selfishness, which was keeping me from accepting my call to missions. I still struggle with selfishness, honestly I probably always will. I guess that's what comes with being human. I do know that God has changed my heart a lot. This weekend my brother was asking me about our call and I started to remember all the struggles that I had and all the selfish desires that were within me. Wow!

Please pray for us if you remember. We actually are speaking at three different churches within the next three weeks. We want to make sure that God does the speaking and we do the listening. I don't want people to hear my words. I want people to hear Jesus and to see Jesus in us.

I'll try to update more regularly. It's just been hard with so much stuff going on lately. We've been trying to get as much time with our friends and family as we possibly can. I can't believe that we will be leaving for a year in less than 3 months! AHH!! :) I'm ready.. well as ready as I can be.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

real quick...

Wow, two posts in one day!! :) Especially amazing since it's 12:40am!! YIKES! I have a dentist appointment tomorrow morning at 9am clear across town. :( Not looking forward to that.

Well, I just wanted to let everyone know about our (Eric and I) new website. Eric created it and he is such an amazing web designer (he would make fun of me for calling him that..hehe). Anyway, this is what we are going to use while we are in Poland for a year. It has lots of neat-o things like an about us page, our ministry page, blog, support us, and contact information. We don't have our address in Poland yet, and probably won't until we actually get there. We will hopefully be able to eventually add a photos section where we can add pictures of our apartment, city, etc... There is also a link where you can sign up to receive updates as we add new stuff. :) I really hope you guys check it out. I already added it on the right hand side under links, but here it is too just in case you can't find it:

http://ericandshelly.info

Hope you guys enjoy it! :) I had better be heading to bed now so I can be nice and chipper tomorrow morning as I get my teeth drilled into!! YIKES!!

Love ya all,

Shelly

PS. thanks for all the previous comments on my last entry. all of your encouragement is greatly treasured and appreciated!

My thoughts

I wanted to post something today since I haven't posted in a while. I couldn't really think of what to post so I decided to share todays journal entry with you (I write in a journal everyday, usually just prayer requests and me talking with God.).

August 21, 2006 -12:50pm

God, I ask that you would give me peace. I need you and need your comfort right now. There are so many things going on and I feel like my attention is being drawn away from you and away from your peace. I know I can't do this on my own anymore. I need you. I need your help. Father, I'm not a public speaker, yet I'm already signed up to speak in 3 churches. We have to raise $20,000, yet I can't find a job. I'm in love with that little fury, black and white thing that we've had for two years, yet we have to give him away. Help! Father when you provide for all these things I will give you the praise. I say when instead of if because I know that you will provide for me, you already have! I ask that you will give me enough peace so that I can rest in your arms. I will rest!

Expecting great things,

Shelly

Monday, July 30, 2007

132,480 minutes and counting...

Sorry that it has taken me FOREVER to update this thing. There has been so much going on. Let's see since I last wrote.... I have had a gazillion interviews, jammed at two different concerts, hung out with friends, attended Women of Faith, had an AMAZING week with my sister and niece, lots and lots more job hunting and went to the dentist! It's been a little busy! :) I know I'm missing something there! Oh, I know what it is, we found out that we are moving to Poland (yes as in the country, not as in Poland, Ohio... that's what the dentist asked me today..haha) in November. Actually, we leave 3 months from today!

So, needless to say we have been CRAZY busy! There is so much stuff that has to be done. Finally, last night I just had to sit down and step out of my situation and start prioritizing things. I also had to realize that things don't get done in one day. A lot of times it takes months to plan things. I also have been stressing out because I have been job hunting for a WHILE now. It's really hard to get hired though when you are only going to be around for another 3 months. Of course I don't volunteer that information, but if they ask deep down in my heart I know I have to tell them.

Well, that is enough babbling for one day. I wish everyone a Happy Wednesday. Eric and I are eating some Stromboli tonight (thanks Christy for the recipe) and heading to church.

Please keep us in your prayers as we have a million things to do and only approximately 132,480 minutes (this is how many minutes till take off....ahhh) to do them in. :)

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Happy Birthday to my baby! :)

Just wanted to give a little shout out to my baby! Today is his birthday! I love you Eric Ryan!

Actually, on a funny note... today Eric and I went to a Sunday School class pool party. Let me just tell you at the party Eric got a little wet! HAHA The guys plotted against him and threw him in the pool with all his clothes on! I managed to get his wallet and Dennis grabbed his glasses! It was really funny! One of the ladies remembered to bring a camera, so I will be posting pictures as soon as I get some! :)

Random quote: This is my new favorite quote regarding uni-brows... "so you know your eyebrows got married, right?". From the show The Parkers.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Festivals!

I was just looking back at the past month and Eric and I have gone to 3 festivals and tonight will make 4! I guess you could say we are festival junkies! :) Tonight is the Jazz and Rib Festival and I'm really looking forward to it. We are going with some friends from our small group, ONU friends and possibly Alicia! :) I've never been before but I've heard that it's really fun and relaxing!

Well to give everyone a little update. We have been in contact with Poland (yes, as in the country) regarding mission work. Eric and I have prayed a LOT about it and are feeling so far that this is where God is leading us! We actually spent the evening yesterday huddled on the floor at Barnes and Noble with each of our noses in books about Poland trying to learn and read as much as we could. That is a GREAT place to go to find out information about traveling or different countries. We are getting excited!

Just a few days ago we found out that they (missionaries in Poland) are wanting us to come as early as November! YIKES! We are waiting now to hear back from Kansas City (missions headquarters) as to whether that will work out or not. So if you remember, please say a special prayer for Eric and I as we are trying to decide the best location that God wants us to be at! :)

On a totally different note. Last night and today I have been thinking a lot about how far God has brought me over the past year. All you faithful blog readers remember all the struggles that I have had with agreeing to mission work, to wanting to have a baby, to just being content with who I am. God has really been working on me. Right now my biggest passion is wanting to do missions! I am just so excited about it that I get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it. While I do still want kids, I am really content being single. It wasn't until I talked with my friend Jenny and realized that it's okay to not have kids right now. Eric and I are still young and there are a lot of things that we want to do and enjoy doing kid-free. So needless to say, that is the biggest thing that God has helped me with. I can honestly say that I'm content (at least for a day or so.. hehe). :)

Well I need to get off here. I'm going to meet Alicia at Easton to get coffee and walk around. Everyone have a great weekend! Eric's birthday is Sunday so that will be exciting! :)

Monday, July 16, 2007

vacation.

We made it back to Ohio late last night. We had such a good time at Sunset Beach, NC. It was a little warm, but I can't complain! :) It was nice because we were only a couple blocks away from the beach! We were a little far from all the shopping and restraunts, but it was kind of nice to not be tangled up in traffic!

I had tons of fun riding the waves, laying out, shopping, renting a Harley, eating, playing domino's, fishing, experiencing Krispy Kreme, and last but not least driving! :) We stayed up till about 12 everynight and one night we stayed up till about 3am! I hadn't laughed that much in a while! HAHA! Here are a few pictures from our vacation.





Saturday, July 07, 2007

My week!

HEY EVERYBODY! :) Well today has been a crazy day. Eric and I have been running around like crazy trying to do laundry, clean the apartment, get some groceries and pick up a few things for our vacation. My parents are going to Myrtle Beach and Eric was able to get off so we are going along with them! YIPEE! :) Also tonight Kara and Landon are coming to visit! I'm really excited to see them! I haven't seen either of them since my wedding.. which was over two years ago! Craziness!

Well just to update you on what has been going on the last week. On Tuesday Eric and I went to Red, White and Boom downtown Columbus with some church friends. We had such a good time. It was craziness there. I actually heard that there was approximately 1/2 million people there! CRAZY! It was by far one of the best firework shows that I have ever seen! Here are a few picture s from the night.









On July 4th Eric and I went to Cincinnati to visit Tom and Laura. We had so much fun! It's fun visiting with people that really know you. When we got to Cincinnati we ate some lunch, played with Antwone (hehe), and then headed down toward the river. Once we got to the river we rented a four-person bike and had such a blast.



We ended our fun day with trying to have a cookout but got rained out! This is a picture of Tom and Laura trying to save our charcoal! HAHA :) We ended up going back to Tom's and eating at his place!! :)
Well I'm off, Kara and Landon just called and said they were on their way! YIPEE!! :) I'm sure I'll have more pictures to post later! Everyone have a super weekend!

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Don't hate, appreciate!

Sorry I know you all probably hate me. It's been like FOREVER since I've posted last. There has been so much going on lately and I haven't really remembered to blog.

First, a couple weeks ago I said I was going to a wedding in Wisconsin. I did end up going and had a great time. It was really fun to hang out with everyone. :) I shared a hotel room with Laura, Nadia, and Annie and we had such a good time. I also had a really fun time driving with my fellow diva, Laura and our diva pimp, Tom. :) That ride would not have been the same without you two! Here are a few highlight pics from the trip! :)

Well last weekend Eric and I went to Indiana to see my brothers ordination service. :) We had a really good time visiting with family! Here are some pictures from that.

These are for you Laura! :)


Sorry I know this has been a really long post! :) I hope you all enjoy the pictures! Well I better get off here. Eric and I are heading to Cincinnati to spend the day with Tom and Laura! YAY!! :) I'll write more later! Happy 4th everyone!