Catching up!!

Wow - its been a LONG time - a whopping 3.5 mos since I've blogged. All I can say is that its been a CRAZY-AWESOME-BITTERSWEET-FLEW BY LIKE EVERYONE SAYS WHEN YOU GET OLDER summer. While I sit here watching the prime time emmys and enjoying a smokey glass of pinor noir, let me see if I can catch up....

June was full of travel, vacation(!!) and beautiful celebrations of holy matrimony (the Crouch's & one of my best friends ever, Mr and Mrs Logan Bryant)! We had the opportunity to reunite with dear friends - Heather, before moving to the great state of Texas, Court & Tim, and our many dear friends from CU - and finally enjoy a full week of summer vacation after 5 long summers of internships (let me be clear - very important internships which I'm more than grateful for - just also grateful for a full week of summer vacation now!!).

July was painted with even more travel AND lots of events at church. We had the opportunity to host a church block party in my parents neighborhood, see Mandisa in concert and be Staci and Clinton in a take off of What Not To Wear skit for women's VBS, and act out bible stories at Kids VBS. {Ok - so it may not sound like a lot - but it was. Lots of lines to memorize...} We had the opportunity visit Nicks' family and celebrate the 4th in fireworks over the USS NC in Wilmington.

August was a very special month - we celebrated our 1st anniversary!! We treated ourselves to a weekend in Ocracoke, NC at a bed and breakfast and a very relaxing weekend at the beach. Monday night of our anniversary date, we thawed our tasted like freezer wedding cupcakes and ate them very quickly. In early August, we visited Nick's family again and had the opportunity to visit with his uncle who had a stroke - thankfully now he is home and continuing rehabilitation of his entire left side of his body which was paralyzed. Nick and I also got to partipate in history - Campbell's first football game in 58 years during the last weekend of August. We had a large CU reunion full of tailgating, football game, Buies Creek late august heat & humidity, and celebrating friendships.

The bittersweet part of the summer came in mid August when my dearest grandfather went to be with the Lord. In the 1980s, he received a hepatitus c tainted blood transplant during a surgery - back then, it wasn't tested for... The liver disease took its toll on his body and his liver finally gave up after 25 years. Thankfully, the Lord let him experience this life with us before bringing him home. He was a very special man and so dear to my heart. The sweet part, my comfort, hope and peace is that he is in Heaven and that I will see him again. Praise the Lord.

September has started off as a whirlwind, primarily at work. September 30 marks the end of the government fiscal year - so as you can imagine - there is a LOT to do closing out the current year and starting up the next fiscal year, in addition to planning the next 5 years... Its a crazy twisted illogical cycle of events that makes up this government. My mentor explained it the best to me, the forefathers created the government to be illogical and imperfect for a reason - to keep any one person from overthrowing it. It makes sense, is facinating, and keeps me employed. Additionally, I love NASA. For the budget we get, we do the most amazing things - like send people to SPACE!! Its just fascinating!

In the next couple of days I will try to post a picture storyboard to accompany this overview of summer events.

Plus, the emmys are done now and its time for bed. Goodnight and many blessings.