i love going on vacation, and i actually love coming home, but i really really can’t stand unpacking. seriously, our suitcases are still wide open in the middle of our bedroom floor. no, i’m not proud of this, but i figured that if i blogged about how horrible the bedroom looks right now i might actually try to do something about it before i go to sleep…. maybe anyway.

the worst: laundry. the worst thing about going to mexico is that is is hot and humid, and no matter what, you have to wash everything you brought because even if you didn’t wear it, somehow it got a little damp just sitting in your hotel room. needless to say, if my friend jen saw my laundry room, her eyes would sadden and she was once again say, ” ooohhh laurreeennnn….” because she feels sorry for me. (btw, she does laundry everyday so this doesn’t ever happen at her house. i’m trying to get her to rub off on me)

i did have a wonderful time! i don’t feel like we were gone as long as we were becasue time just flew by, but i loved every second of it… can’t wait til our next vacation…. we need to go ahead and start planning now…

read this post. really. read it first.

so last september david, rich, and ben went to a church out in california called bethel just to visit. they received a ton of prayer, and one lady in particular was praying hard for david and i about our technical “infertility.” she said to him, “i keep hearing 10 months from the Lord. i don’t know what that means. i just keep hearing 10 months.” so david received it and said thank you and got on a plane and flew home. three weeks later the woman calls david on his cell phone. “hi, this is cathy from bethel. i usually don’t call anyone i pray for, but i’ve still been praying for you and your wife and the Lord keeps reminding me of 10 months. so i just want to put you in remembrance of that.” 

so david and i went to see all sorts of doctors and (to make a very long story short) had decided last week that we were going to start the process of IUI or in-vetro. the fertility doctors said that david and i had a less than 2% chance of ever getting pregnant on our own.

so our first appointment was scheduled for July 1. we had to get some sort of genetic test done in order to begin the process, and this test was like $300. so, being the cheap-skate that i am, i decided that i really didn’t want to pay $300 if i didn’t have to and made myself take a test an hour before the appointment.

i closed my eyes (and covered them with my hands for extra measure) and prayed. “Lord, if this test is negative, it’s okay, cause you are the most important thing to me and you are all that matter and i really will be okay.”  so i took my hands away and looked down at the test…. and i literally rubbed my eyes again because i really did think i was seeing things.

i picked it up and stared at the two lines as they both appeared, telling me that i am pregnant. and then i sobbed like a child. i buried my face in my hands and sobbed uncontrollably while thanking the Lord for His faithfulness and grace. david, on the other hand, literally thought someone died when i woke him up bawling hysterically and waving a pink stick in his face. when i finally got out the words “i’m pregnant” and he saw the test, he laughed and cried at the same time.

then we realized what day it was. it was exactly 10 months later: July 1. 

i’ve heard it said that miracles happen everyday, and most of the time i just shrugged it off as being cliche. but it wasn’t until i actually witnessed a miracle in my own life that i began to grasp that God is so much bigger than all of this. no matter what i do to try to control situations, His timing is always going to be more perfect than mine could have ever been. oh how He loves us!

this is breakthrough! many of you have been so faithful in prayer for us and this situation, and from the bottom of my heart, i want to say thank you. the Lord heard you… and we feel so blessed beyond measure for each one of you and your hearts. 

“faith is being sure of what is hoped for and certain of things unseen.” Hebrews 11:1

i was enjoying some lunch the other day when i realized that all the people out there who invented food oxymorons are geniuses. what exactly are food oxymorons you may ask? at least two different ingredients, one considered good for you, one considered bad. example: chocolate covered strawberries. this also includes the way that you cook the healthy food to make it an unhealthy one, which is a lot more common, such as curly fries from arbys.

here is why i think these inventors are unbelievable: these foods make you feel both good and bad about eating them, so the good + bad equation = neutral. you can eat as many chocolate covered sunflower seeds as you want to because they cancel each other out. 

raisinettes, eat your heart out.

and i was really doing it in order to avoid the shock that everyone will go through next week while i’m in cancun. yep. ya heard me. cancun. 

tonight i’m going to the miss sc preliminaries. one of my old college roommates is miss anderson, and i’m convinced that this is her year. last year she got 1st runner up, so the only direction for her to go is up, making her miss sc. unfortunately every year i’m somehow gone for the actual pageant, so i figured at least i could see her do her talent. 

good luck, amber!

considering i didn’t get any “no way, don’t do it” responses, i actually did go and buy a new nintendo ds. i was searching on ebay for a used one, then figured out that the prices that people were paying for used ones were really only $10-$20 cheaper than just buying a new one… then i got an idea: gamestop takes game trade-ins.

so i promptly took david’s old games from the wii that he doesn’t play anymore and took them to gamestop. long story short, i “made out like a bandit” according to the gamestop employees. i got a new metallic rose colored nintendo ds and brain age 2, all for less than a new ds alone. then i went back on sunday and got animal crossing. i’ll let yall know what i think once i’m done training. 

p.s. my friend rosanne is so excited… she says all she wants to do is lay out on the beach in cancun and play animal crossing with me. i’m game.

okay so recently i’ve been pondering the idea of purchasing a nintendo ds… you know, the updated gameboy. preferably in pink, to make it more girly of course.

here’s a few reasons why:

1-it’s cute (duh)

2-my friends christy and rosanne swear by them. they’re sisters, and they play this one game called animal crossing (which i’m still fascinated as to why it’s so fascinating… if that makes sense). if they sit in the same room, they can go into each other’s systems and mess with their characters’ living situations. for example, rosanne went and dug holes two feet apart all over christy’s backyard… just to be annoying. the point of this game? i’m still unsure. i think it’s a glorified version of the tamagotchi pets from years ago:

anyway, they have so much fun with this game, that they actually got their mom into it as well, and now she has a nintendo ds and loves it. hmmm…

3-i love the nerdy brain games. you know, where you get random letters and have to figure out how many words you can make with them in a certain amount of times… my friend chris has this game on his iphone, and whenever i’m around i borrow it and basically run his battery out. so it would be saving him battery time if i got a nintendo ds, therefore i would be making a contribution (or lack thereof) to those around me. that brain age game that you can get for the nintendo i think would be my favorite. i get antsy just thinking about all the cool little games within that game that there is. whoever came up with the clever little commercials featuring liv tyler and carrie underwood is a genius.

4-i would have something productive to do while david played playstation 3. 

5-and last but not least, according the the brain age website, “Brain Age² is designed to give your brain a workout. Increase blood flow to the prefrontal cortex!” i’m doing it for my health people!

so…. what do you think?

for cancun. well… actually the mayan riviera, which is 30 minutes away from cancun, but it’s all the same to me. our friends gene and rosanne have this free timeshare at a resort there, and the condo has two bedrooms, so they said all we’d have to pay for is the flight and our food. um… how could we refuse?? 

david and i went to the mayan riviera for our honeymoon, and while we had a great time, it rained every single day. it was sunny for about 3 hours one day, and i took all my pictures then because i didn’t want to be reminded of the dreary rainy part. so anyway, david promised he would take me back, and hopefully it would be nice weather. i’ve been praying for this ever since we bought our flights and it was official. 

can i tell you how excited i am? i know that there are exactly 16 days until we leave… and i’ve already started planning what all i’m going to pack. i sent this pic to my friend rosanne the other day titled: i’m ready!

so this past sunday at crossroads we had our pastor and the pastor from summit church do a lil switcharoo and speak at each other’s churches. so summit got steve, we got jason malone. one of the things he talked about was literally loving your neighbors in your neighborhood, and i felt kinda bad that i didn’t really go out and really meet my neighbors immediately around me. david and i are closest to our neighbors across the street, steve and carole, who are older than our parents but sooo much fun, and david goes on motorcycle rides with steve every once and awhile. but i’m getting off track. all that to say, they are the only ones we really know and i was trying to figure out how i could meet our other neighbors and be friends with them and show them jesus. you get the drift. well… i think the Lord just gave me a reason. not in the way i would have wanted it, but a reason nonetheless:

evidently my dogs’ “constant barking is disturbing my neighbors’ right to peaceful enjoyment of their home” according to my home owners association. i not only got a letter mailed to me, but someone also stuck the another copy in my door just in case i didn’t open the first one i suppose. and i have to admit, i was really upset last night. and embarrassed. and sad.

and then david came home and reminded me what this was all about. this was our chance that we’ve been waiting for to love on our neighbors. our dogs bark. it is annoying. and we need to apologize to our neighbors for not trying to correct the situation earlier and assure them that we are taking the steps to try to control the situation. and actually thank them for letting us know of what is going on. and show them jesus by the way we live. after all, that’s what it’s all about right? 

i was reminded this morning that the Lord always answers our prayers, and He really does listen to the desires of our hearts. the real question is… are we actually looking for the Lord’s answers in situations like these? this situation could have easily turned into something bitter, but after taking a step back and seeing that the Lord was hilariously giving me an opportunity, i am excited to see how it will all play out. so many times we automatically react to things instead of taking a deeper look… only to find that this is our chance to show jesus to someone. so all of this to say, look for the Lord in every situation… and take the chance to love thy neighbor.

i had fun. david had to stop and take a picture because he couldn’t believe he actually convinced me to get on this thing… and honestly neither could i.

i walked in the door from church this afternoon and david said that all he wanted was for me to ride to landrum with him on the back of his motorcycle. after i informed him that i didn’t have a helmet, he showed me the one he went out and bought me yesterday while i was out of town. so. i actually did it. and while i had a death grip on him the first 20 minutes, i finally calmed down for the rest of the ride. it was a beautiful day to ride, and i really did have fun.

so. i thought i’d let you see this mile marker in my life… no pun intended.

yes, this was a while ago, but like i said earlier, i just now loaded all my pictures onto the computer. but i love these girls… we all go to crossroads, and every now and then we get together to go eat a big dinner. it’s usually someone’s birthday… and we love helping them celebrate with some good food! some people are missing in this pic, but i had to share it. it’s one of my favorites.