2013: I'm Still Standing.

I started 2013 like this...

The only thing I still have in my life from these photos is that watch... that girl, she doesn't even exist anymore, she's a different person completely.

Let me show you what got me through this year, alive & still standing...

And so many more...

Endlessly thankful for amazing friends and family. Always.

Is This You? And I want some shrimpss."

Sometimes you just need a night out with friends...

A night of laughing and being crazy...

We definitely go that (and more) Saturday night!

The Crew :)

Love <3

CU Friends

Way back in Senior Year of High School I applied for a job at the local Credit Union. I had no clue that the job would take me through college, teach me many, many lessons and introduce me to some of the best friends a girl could ask for. Honestly, leaving the Credit Union in Feb of '09 was like closing a chapter in my life. The Credit Union was good to me, so good to me. 

And speaking of those best friends, let me introduce you to a few.

Heather is the sweetest person I've ever met. 

Ever.

I love her to pieces.

She is absolutely adorable!

And she has amazing taste in fashion, home decor, you name it.

Jenny will {guaranteed} make you laugh. 

Laugh until you cry.

Or until you can't answer the phone at work b/c you're laughing so hard. 

She also likes to scare you {for ex. by hiding under your desk}.

Kim is the most diverse, well rounded person I know. 

She's always up for anything.

And she is also the most dependable person I know. 

If I had to move a body, I'd call her {kidding of course, but you know what I mean}. 

I've drank countless glasses of wine with these girls. Made it through hours of work by being entertained by them. And generally made it through life by having them around. 

I am so thankful for them!

This week we got a chance to meet for our normal "sushi" date. 

And this fun guy, my ex-cubicle mate, came along too... Felici!

Thankfully he sat through all of our craziness and girl talk. 

We devoured sushi & hibachi and laughed endlessly.

And took awesome photos {note Kim's face}

LOVE YOU GUYS!

****

And since I'm talking about friendships from DCCU, I cannot leave Faith out of this post. 

Faith and I despised each other in High School.

She was one of my brother's best friends, but we couldn't stand each other.

Really, I don't have a clue why. 

But when I moved offices to be closer to JMU, I was scared to death because I moved to the office where Faith worked. Thankfully, work gave us an opportunity to actually get to know each other. 

And we became best of friends in just a few short weeks. 

We now laugh about how we didn't like each other, as we share chicken tenders or a good drink ;). 

I thank God for bringing us together so we could be friends.

I do not have a clue what I would have done the last few years without her.

Reading a poem at my wedding

Singing "She Ain't Right" at my Wedding Reception

Not Just a Coincidence

This is a tribute to all of those things people call coincidence...

Those things that remind me that God has a plan...

Those things that some people just brush off...

When Ang wrecked, one of the first on the scene was Amy Caracofe's dad. 

His own daughter had died a year and a half earlier...

On the exact same road in a car accident.

He understood our pain. He came over many times. He just understood.

One week before her accident, Ang gave a persuasive speech in class.

The topic: Organ Donation.

My grandmother suffered a stroke in early December...

We went many days with doctors telling us this would be it...

She wouldn't make it much longer.

Finally, they just stopped giving us timetables. 

We all knew... she was holding out for Christmas.

She was holding out for just one more Christmas on earth with her family

She was holding out for Christmas... the day she was born. 

She died late in the evening on Christmas Day 2009.

Its no coincidence that my best friend from school ended up being Lindsay.

The girl who's boyfriend I asked out on the first day of sixth grade.

Yep. We love telling that story.  

God has a sense of humor, doesn't he? 

I remember Angela coming home and telling us about her awesome teacher.

She admired this teacher... She was so inspired by her. 

It's no coincidence that this teacher got a part-time job one summer...

At the jewelry store where I work. 

It gave me the chance to come to know.

To be inspired by her.

To become friends with her.

And in God's perfect timing, this all happened the summer before Ang's accident.

Thank God for his perfect timing. 

Thanks Priscilla for your inspiring words. 

God's perfect timing also brought another amazing friend into my life. 

This time through Priscilla. 

 Valerie followed her heart and moved to our small town for love.

I'll never forget her beautiful voice singing at our wedding.

I'm so thankful for Valerie's understanding. And her wisdom.

She's been where I've been. She can relate.

  Her writing always reminds me to find happiness in this imperfect world.

To find joy in this crazy journey we call life.

God's Perfect Timing can be witnessed in my relationship with Andy.

We've been best friends since Junior year of High School.

Everyone either: 

a) asked us if we were dating

b) said we should date

OR

c) assumed we were dating

 We would cringe every time and say $&@^ NO

God had a plan.

We fell in love four years later. 

When we could actually understand what love was.

When we were ready for the crazy journey God had planned.

If you wanna hear God laugh, tell him your plans.

Looking Back...

As I browsed some old photos of Andy & I, I started thinking back. How Andy & I got from best friends to dating is beyond me...

We were awkward. Like Middle School Dating Awkward. We were 20 but seriously acted like we were 12. Now, when people ask how we met, we just reference that we went to school together forever, were best friends since junior year of High School and started dated junior year of college. We seriously gloss over our awkwardness... every time. Sometimes I laugh when I think about it. Sometimes I cringe. I think one day, I'll just "gloss" over it to our kids too. Unfortunately, our friends and family know all about how awkward we were... when they bring it up I cringe {and change the subject}. I mean it took months for us to tell admit to people we were dating {it was no secret}. That was after the few months it took for us to admit to each other that we were in love. seriously. awkward. 

Thankfully, our awkwardness ended...

July 4, 2008 - a few months after we started dating

July 17, 2008: My 21st Birthday

August 16, 2008: Lindsay's Wedding