The pictures in my slide show are ones that I have taken in Tahiti, Ireland, Hawaii, and on 2 different trips to Australia. I love landscape photos and have been blessed to be able to capture photos of some of the most beautiful places in the world. Enjoy!

About Me

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Constant thinker and dreamer...just a girl livin for Jesus who wants to make a difference in the world.

I'M ENGAGED!!!

So I know I talked about it in the last post, but here is how this whole thing went down.  Kudos to Gregg because he really had me fooled!  :)

Gregg tells me that we have dinner reservations for 7:30 on Saturday night, March 19, 2011.  He asks me if I'm feeling up to going out to dinner and after the week I had had, absolutely!  So he tells me to get dressed up and so I did.  On the way to get into his car, he takes my scarf off of my purse and blindfolds me so I have no idea where we are going to.  After awhile of driving, he is taking all sorts of curves and turns and I get completely lost.  Yes, I'm the person who tries to figure everything out.  So after about a 45 minute drive, we end up at Jamie's parents house.  Of course I don't know this until I walk in the door, Gregg takes off the blind fold and everyone yells SURPRISE!!  :)  Best surprise EVER!  So i'm completely in awe at this party and honestly didn't have words.  So after we hang out and talk for a bit and have some snacks, Jamie tells us its time for cake.  So everyone goes into the living room except Jamie, her mom and Gregg. I'm sitting in the chair as they bring the cake out and I go to blow out the candle when Jamie starts yelling at me to read what the cake says.


I'm so nervous that I completely did not see the "Will You Marry Me" on the cake.  WHAT!!!!!  Just as I realize what is going on, Gregg is on one knee in front of me asking me to marry him!  OF COURSE!!!!!  So with my closest church family watching, Gregg proposed to me.  The only way it could have been more perfect is if my family could have been there.  Wow!  I was freaking out and kept saying "are you serious???"  hahaha  Well it just so happened that after he proposed, within about 5 minutes, someone across the lake from Jamie's parent's house, was shooting fireworks.  The timing couldn't have been more perfect!

So after a month of planning and with the help of Jamie, Gregg was able to pull off one of the most important days of my life.  The next one will be coming up on September 10, 2011.  :)  That day, I will marry my best friend and love of my life.  I can't wait!

My ring.  Isn't it classy and beautiful :)

You never know what life will throw you...

So wow, in about 45 minutes it will have been a month since I have blogged.  And I could not stress enough how much change has happened in this one measly month.  So my last blog ended with me having the MOST amazing night worshiping with Kari Jobe in Evans, GA on the night of March 11, 2011.  Fast forward a few hours from that event, and you'll have the start of the best and worst 2-3 weeks of my life.  I say best, because my life changed incredibly for the good during that timeframe, and I say the worst because it was also the sickest I have ever been in my life.  March 12th marked the day that Gregg was to move to Columbia from the beach.  So I wake up the morning of the 12th in THE best mood EVER!!  See last post.

To make a long story short, I ended up in Drs. Care the afternoon that Gregg moved into his apartment.  I'm in so much pain, that I'm literally throwing up and I can't figure out what is going on.  The nurse tells me I might have a kidney stone.  So $216 later (they couldn't verify my insurance on a Saturday apparently) I'm sent on my merry way and told to go to the ER later if it doesn't get better.  Well it didn't.  So about 8 hours later, I found myself in the ER for about 6 hours.  Final verdict.  A kidney stone.  Not only a kidney stone, but one that I will probably not be able to pass.  So after some extra scripts of pain meds and some iv injected morphine, i'm sent on my merry way again to deal with this at home.  I had a followup appt with a urologist that following week and I find out that not only do I have a kidney stone, but I have 2 of them and will definitely not be able to pass them.  Seriously?  Worst luck ever.  So the nurse comes in and tells me I have to have surgery the next day.  I leave the office almost ready to have a panic attack.  I've never been put under before.  It honestly was my worst fear.  So the next day I go into have the surgery (on my birthday of course) and find out that I have to pay like $1000 up front.  Ummm hello!!! I have insurance!!!  But they don't care.  So after having a mental breakdown, I leave the urologist's office in tears, in pain, without having surgery.  So I go home and find another urologist who would see me that same day.  I head to Dr. Fairey's office (they were able to get me right in) and explain everything.  Next thing you know, I'm being wheeled off to surgery.  Happy birthday to me!!

Not so much.  Thank God for Gregg though.  I would have never made it without him.  I ended up having a lithrotripsy and had the stones broken up. Recovery was horrible as I was really sick from the anesthesia.  The next few days were horrible as well.  I ended up having a stent put in that ran from my kidney to my bladder.  Honestly, after the surgery, that hurt worse than the actual surgery.  I ended up having that taken out the following Tuesday morning.  That night, I started getting so severely sick that I didn't know what was going on.  I ended up in the ER again that following Thursday with a really bad infection that I seriously think I'm still trying to get over.  It honestly was the worse time in my life and I never want to be that sick again.  But Gregg took care of me the entire time, which I know was extremely stressful for him and having to deal with going to the Columbia Fire Academy everyday.

But in the midst of all this, I GOT ENGAGED!!!!  Gregg had planned to throw me a surprise birthday party on Friday, March 18th, but since I had surgery the night before that wasn't about to happen.  So with Jamie's help, Gregg was able to plan a birthday party and a surprise engagement for me that got moved to Saturday, March 19th.  Even though I was still really sick, it was the best night of my life.

I'll save the actual story for the next post.  :)  So long for now!