Live the message in 2009

Today at church our message was about surrendering your life to Christ in 2009 and living out the message of Christ to others so they may see Him. That our lifes might reflect that of Christ's more and more! The passage was Ephesians 4:1-7 and I would encourage everyone to read it and meditate over it as they prepare for the New Years Resolutions. What better resolution to have than to live a Christ like life in 2009! It is a daily surrender to Christ and giving up control over all areas in our lives and allowing Him to do His will in our lives. I pray that I will truly allow Him to do His will in my life and that I will be obedient to His call as I start applying for jobs in this new year!

I am feeling a little under the weather today thinking that I might be coming down with the stomach bug that is going around, I sure hope not though. I did not go to Sunday School due to not feeling well and was able to watch Dr. Charles Stanley (FBC of Atlanta,GA) on tv. His sermon was also one that tied into ours at church this morning and talked about being on fire for Christ. He used the analogy of how to have a fire in the fire place it requires wood and as a follower of Christ we need the Word of God. Daily be in God's word and ask Him to reveal what He wants you to hear to you!

I leave you with a song that we sang at church today, "Surrender" by Lincoln Brewster

I'm giving you my heart, and all that is within

I lay it all down for the sake of you my King

I'm giving you my dreams, I'm laying down my rights

I'm giving up my pride for the promise of new life

And I surrender all to you, all to you

And I surrender all to you, all to you

I'm singing You this song, I'm waiting at the cross

And all the world holds dear, I count it all as loss

For the sake of knowing You for the glory of Your name

To know the lasting joy, even sharing in Your pain

And I surrender all to you, all to you

And I surrender all to you, all to you

Oh how I love Christmas!!

Christmas was full of many fun and exciting activities with family and friends! Christmas Eve we went to my grandma's church for the Candle Light Service. I always look forward to this as an opportunity to start Christmas off right remembering the birth of Jesus. After the service we went to Hugh, Carolyn, Beth and Michael's house for their annual Christmas party! It was full of GREAT food and fellowship with friends and the family! My cousin Michael loves the movie "A Christmas Story" and had it playing when we walked in the door and then we continued to watch it for a lot of the 24 hours. While at their house a lot of friends came over and Jordan aka "Hickory" decided that we should all go Christmas Caroling so at 11:30 we all headed out to go Caroling, our line up was Silent Night, Joy to the World, and We Wish You A Merry Christmas! I will have to say that the guys did a great job as they carried the singing of the group, while driving from house to house we had a throw back of 80s and 90s music. We were all hoping we wouldn't catch Santa Clause cause we didn't want him to skip over our houses!

On Christmas morning we woke up and ate Breakfast with Jr., Marion, Bunny, Anne, and my parents. Emily and S didn't come down till later in the afternoon. Marion fixed a great breakfast and it started the day of eating! This morning before heading back to Hugh and Carolyn's I went to play with our friend Andy and Sherrie's new baby Emma. She is two months old and is absolutely PRECIOUS! I loved holding her, she was full of smiles! Back at Hugh and Carolyn's we hung out with the family, ate another meal, and opened some more presents. There I was entertained my little cousin Syndey who is 3 she sang, played the piano, and played with "sparkles" she is an adorable little girl and boy is she smart! Later in the afternoon we headed to Bettie's house and hung out with the family there for a while. She has set up a white Christmas tree with all UNC ornaments, I LOVED this tree and she told me she was going to leave it up til UNC loses, that means I can still enjoy it in March! :) To end the night of Christmas celebrations we went to Anne and Bunny's we opened presents finally with Emily and S and then had a wonderful dinner. We all just hung around with each other after and enjoyed the company of family. Before heading to bed I made one last stop and headed to hang out with my cousin Beth, we just sat around and talked cause we were both so tired but as always its tons of fun to be with my cousin.

It was a great and busy Christmas! I hope that all of you had as good of Christmas as I did!

O Come All Ye Faithful

This Christmas my favorite song has been "O Come All Ye Faithful", this is a wonderful Hymn that reminds me of why we truly celebrate Christmas. As much as I cherish and love spending time with friends and family as well as giving gifts Christmas has lost the focus of what it truly it is. Christmas is about the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I encourage everyone to take time out this Christmas and reflect on Jesus and the wonderful things He does in your life. I know without Him my life would not be complete! So as the song says, "come let us adore Him and give Him all the glory for He alone is worthy!" The awesome thing is that He is just as worthy of our praise over 2000 years later as He was on that Christmas morning in Bethlehem.

Here are the lyrics if you would like to reflect over the meaning of this song...

Verse 1:
O come all ye faithful
Joy - ful and triumphant
O come ye O come ye to Beth - lehem!
Come and be - hold Him
Born the King of angels

Chorus 1:
O come let us a - dore Him
O come let us a - dore Him
O come let us a - dore Him
Christ the Lord

Verse 2:
Sing choirs of angels
Sing in exultation
O sing all ye bright
Hosts of heav'n above
Glory to God
All glory in the highest

Chorus 2:
We'll praise His name forever
We'll praise His name forever
We'll praise His name forever
Christ the Lord

Verse 3:
Yea Lord we greet Thee
Born this happy morning
Jesus to Thee be all glory giv'n
Word of the Father
Now in flesh appearing

Chorus 3:
We'll give Him all the glory
We'll give Him all the glory
We'll give Him all the glory
Christ the Lord

Verse 4:
God of God
And light of light begotten
Lo He abhors not
The virgin's womb
Very God begotten not created

Chorus 4:
For He alone is worthy
For He alone is worthy
For He alone is worthy
Christ the Lord

Verse 5:
Highest most holy
Light of light eternal
Born of a virgin a mortal He comes
Son of the Father
Now in flesh appearing

I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas surrounded by the love of friends and family as well as Jesus!

Christmas Traditions

I just love Christmas and all the traditions! Last night my uncle Hugh, aunt Carolyn, cousins Beth and Michael, and friends Josh and Kim came up to go downtown. We love going and looking at all the Christmas trees, decorations, and participate in all the festivities downtown. It was a fun night and we also were able to celebrate Josh's 20th birthday with cake back at the house after a great Italian dinner.

Today my parents and I went to Emily and S's house for brunch with them and S's parents. Emily did a great job preparing the food and it was all DELICIOUS! She is a great entertainer. After brunch we went shopping and then to see Justin, Chantry, and baby Lillianne. We all just can't get enough of Lillianne, so we all passed her around however she was able to be cozy and sleep the whole time. They have become part of our "extended family" and we love being able to spend time with them.

We also went to see the live nativty which is a Christmas tradition that helps to remind us of the true reason of Christmas and the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus. It is such a neat way to see the Christmas story and the miracle of the virgin birth reminding me how amazing God is! Its so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of Christmas and it is good to take time out to remember Jesus's Birth and how He has saved us from the darkness of this world!

We ended the night by looking at Christmas lights and watching some of the bowl games, can't wait for the UNC and VT games within the next few weeks!

Pictures of 2008 Events

The family on Thanksgiving

These 4 girls were my roomates and best friends throughout college and I do not know what I would have done with out all of them! Freshman year we formed MALL (our initials) and became the best of friends. Then last year Ashley came to school and we now make LLAMA and I am so thankful for them all.

The cousins minus 3 on Thanksgiving...it was so warm this year we were able to eat outside!

In November we welcomed Emily and S's best friends Justin and Chantry's baby Lilliane into the world, she is such a sweet baby!

During the summer we enjoyed many Beach Music Concerts so we were so excited to be able to go to one during the Fall at the Winery...it started out a cold morning but turned into a fun day!

Freshman year I met Thomas and from the first day we became each others Brother and Sister. He is the BEST big brother and I am so thankful to know Thomas, he is always there for me and is a ton of fun to be around! I was also able to be the "team mom" for many of Thomas and friends intermural sports.

Dad and I both love our TARHEELS however for some reason when they play VT I just can't seem to get him to stay tried and true to the Carolina Blue!

Olivia turned 8 while we were at the Beach so Leslie and I woke her up early for the sunrise and breakfast for her 8 year old initiation...we are very excited for some strawberry pancakes!

My yummy birthday cake!

Cousins waiting on dinner at the beach, what a good looking family!

My 21st birthday...

Leslie and I on the beach

More on 2008

This fall was full of fun VT and UNC football games, both teams finished up with great seasons! I was so excited to see UNC back in football and I told everyone they would be back soon :) I was able to go to the UNC vs. Boston College game and it was quite possibly one of the best games I have ever seen! My family and I traveled to Charlotte and Chapel Hill for VT games, away games are always so much fun roadtripping with everyone. While in Charlotte for the game we were able to see our old house, go out to eat and shop at some of my favorite stores, fall in love with my favorite city all over again and also go to FBCC! I love being able to go back to FBCC and worship there with all of our friends who we grew up with. I sure wish we got to go back to Charlotte to visit with our friends more often!

This fall I also finished up my classes at Longwood and am now officially done with college classes! What a great feeling! However it was a little bitter sweet knowing that never again will I live within a 5 minute radius of all my friends again. I made great friends friends from both Longwood and Hampden Sydney! Now we will all be spread out from California, Conneticut, Virginia and wherever grad schools and jobs take us all. I am so lucky to be blessed with these wonderful friends and to have such great memories to cherish while I look on to many more. It was hard telling everyone "bye" so I just said see ya later.

Back in August I had the opportunity to go back to teaching Youth Sunday School, this truly has been such a blessing for me! Not only is it a time for me to be able to witness to the youth and teach them about God and being a Christian even when its not seen as the "cool thing" with their friends and family but I get so much out of it. God has used this ministry oportunity for me to be able to draw closer to Him and to dive more into His word! I also love getting to spend time with my group of girls, they are such a fun group. We had a Breakaway Disciple Now weekend this fall where I was able to build relationships with the girls. The topic of the weekend was REALationships, having Godly relationships with our friends, boyfriend/girlfriends, family, and the church. Doug Compton was our speaker for the weekend and was fantastic. A group of students from Liberty also came and were the leaders and they were a wonderful group that lead us in worship, skits, and break out Bible studies. They were such a fun and nice group, I loved getting to know them and serving the youth along with them. They did a great job connecting with the youth group and they all really enjoyed getting to hang out with them. We also did a scavenger hunt and I have to give a shout out to my girls the "THUNDERBOLTS" who came in 1st place! :) On Saturday night we had such a sweet time of worship and walls were broken in the youth group and we all drew together praying for each other. Words can just not describe this weekend besides AWESOME and AMAZING! This weekend also led me to rededicating my life to the Lord. I have also been able to help with several children's ministry activities at church and have loved being able to be a part of that ministry as well and all the things that God is doing in the life of our church.

So I caved in...

Well, I have been enjoying following the blogs of my sister and others so as I sit here during Christmas break I have caved in and am making my own. Not sure how often I will post or if I will stick with it but I will give it a shot.

2008 has been a wonderful year but once again has flown by! So much has happened so I will try to recap it for you all.

During the spring semseter I completed my Partnership Semester at Buckingham Primary School. I worked in a 2nd grade classroom and absolutely loved it! This was my second time working in a 2nd grade class and I will have to admit that grade sure is a lot of fun, now I am pretty set on wanting to either teach 1st or 2nd grade. I had a great mentor teacher who was also a Longwood graduate, I learned so many great skills from her! While I was there I had the opportunity to teach many lessons and even create a Teacher Work Sample with a unit on Egypt. I had a very small class but the students were a lot of fun and very well behaved. I am getting spoiled by having such great classes!

Summer time held lots of wonderful memories and events! The week after I got out of school my great aunt and uncle who are like another set of grandparents to me took me to Myrtle Beach. I met Anne and Bunny in Kernersville at the Festival and we stayed in a car dealership parking lot in the camper the first night, what a fun adventure. It was such a fun week of soaking up the sun and enjoying all the attractions the beach has to offer! While there they took me to my first show at the Carolina Opry, I thoroughly enjoyed it. We ate many good meals, shopped, ate the BEST ice cream at Ocean Lakes, and of course rode the golf cart often. I will always cherish this trip with them and look forward to going again next year!

My parents and I spent Memorial Day visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Simpsonville! It is always a lot of fun to be down there. I think we played more basketball that weekend than I ever have in my life. We went downtown one night for dinner and messed around the shops, it is such a neat city! We spent Sunday at Freedom Weekend Aloft riding rides, playing games, eating food and then enjoying the Natasha Bedingfield and Huey Lewis and the News concert. I never knew I would love Huey Lewis and the News so much, I am now a huge fan of their music. It was a beautiful night to spend outdoors listening and dancing to music with family.

This summer I had the opportunity to be a "nanny" again for three families. I love being able to spend my summer days with the children! It is so much fun. We spent many days outside playing, going to the pool, attending functions at the library, making food, and many other activities. I really miss these families when I am away at school. They have each become like extended family to me. I have so many memories from each family and also could probably write a book about all the cute things that the kids say!

I celebrated a big birthday this July as well and turned the BIG 2-1!! Can't believe I am getting to be this old, time sure does fly. It seems like I should still be growing up in Charlotte, having lemonade stands and making bands with the Riviere girls. To celebrate my 21st birthday the family started the day at Chateau Morrissette, it is such a pretty place with great food and wine.

After spending the afternoon there we headed to NC for a cookout with friends and family as well as my cousins taking me out to Red River.

My parents and I spent a week at Ocean Isle Beach with my uncle Emory, aunt Linda and the kids. Hugh and Carolyn came down for a few days at the end of the week. Also while there for the week one of my good friends I grew up with in Charlotte was able to come down from Wilmington for the night. It was so nice getting to catch up with Mark for a while and hear about all of his adventures, I am sure that one day we will see him either as a news anchor or the President of the US! I love getting to spend the week at the beach with my cousins. It is always filled with much laughter and fun!

I will put pictures up later and continue with the 2008 update but for now I better focus on getting Christmas 2008 ready...