BOOM! BOOM! POW!

Well, I haven't blogged in almost a month. Who would have thought I would be worse at blogging in the summer than during the school year. Let's see.....

I had one of the best birthday's ever this year. I literally celebrated for a week: dinner w/ my parents, lunch & shopping w/ grandma, dinner & a romantic evening with Michael, my best friends from college spending the day with me, a road trip to Charleston w/Michael & a 4th of July/bday party with my closest friends. One of my favorite things about birthdays is not celebrating me, but spending time with friends and family. The Lord really reminded me this year how blessed I am to have such wonderful friends & family! I love them so much! Here are a few pics from all the festivities...

Dinner at Pewter Rose w/ my Carolina Girls :)

Michael & I in Charleston - he packed a picknick lunch for us.Setting off fireworks on the 4th over the lake.

Kendra made me the most delicious rasberry chocolate cake ever for my bday

Watching the fireworks...

Since the 4th of July & my bday the rest of my life has been consumed by swimming. My swimmers just had their state championship meet last weekend. We swam so well!! It was such an answer to prayer. We were somewhere around 90% best times for the meet, had numerous top 8 & 16 finishes, and finished 14th as a team overall at the meet. 14th may not sound that great, but I couldn't be happier. We are a very small team, about 35 swimmers age 14 & under (15 qualified for the meet, 11 swam at the meet), and there were over 35 teams represented at the meet, many of whom are double or triple our size (or more). However, the most important thing to me was the attitude of our swimmers. They were positive all week long, worked hard, stayed motivated & motivated one another. To me, that is way more important than just swimming fast, and the Lord was so kind to answer my prayers in this area in particular. GO ATOM! WE GOT THAT BOOM! BOOM! POW!

Sophia had an incredible meet, starting with a 14 second drop in the 400 IM & a 5th place finish!

Finally, Michael & I went to Florida for 3.5 days to see his family. We had a great time eating, shopping, seeing his friends from home & going to the beach. I was able to meet his dad & younger brother for the first time. So I have officially survived meeting the parents :) I leave for Orlando on Monday for my last swim meet of the season! It should be a blast, but I will be glad to be able to spend some quality time at home when all this traveling is done!

Three Little Birdies On My Doorstep...

Summer is in full swing, and I am determined to take advantage of every minute of it. Here are some pics chronicling what I have been up to so far.

#1. My aunt & cousin came to visit for a few days. It was great to see them. I haven't seen my cousin Zach in over 10 years....that just seems ridiculous to me. We didn't do a ton, but honestly, one of my favorite things is hanging out w/ family. I appreciate it now more than ever. Speaking of family - we got great news on mom's results from the lumpectomy. She is completely cancer free & will not need any radiation or additional treatment. Praise God!

#2. My parents took me do dinner @ Red Rocks in Birkdale for my bday dinner. It was delish!

#3. Pops in the park is awesome!

#4. I swam in my first long course meet ever since my senior year in high school (9 years ago). I won 3 medals. My swimmers won many more.#5. My swimmers are also extra awesome b/c they surprised me after practice today w/ a bday cake & when I walked out to my car, they had decorated the whole thing. I love those kids!

#6. I went down to SC w/ K Star to get fireworks for my 4th of July/Bday Party. They are awesome! And I found some ridiculously large sparklers....my fav! I promise Kristy, I will save 2 and we will light them together. Wish you could be there Saturday!

"Let Me Check My Schedule..."

School is out for summer, as proven by my very sad looking classroom on the last teacher workday.Last Saturday & Sunday I watched Lyric Freas while her parents were in Charleston with my parents. I had bought sparklers for us to play with but poor Lyric was exhausted and put herself to bed at 7:30. So instead, Kendra, Renae & I played like we were little girls & kicked off the summer in perfect form - sparklers, beer, brats, & roasted marshmallows! yes & please!

I was chillin' at Michael's place today (aka The Mannex - thanks Zachy) and Tyler said "Let me check my schedule... just as I thought, nothing on the agenda today!" That quote from Mr. Levan pretty much sums up my life right now. Although I have enough to do over the coming months, it is nice to be able to schedule things when I want to do them & not feel stressed out about the things that I have to get done, knowing that I have plenty of time to get it done! I do however, want to make sure my time this summer is spent wisely & not wasted. I plan on doing lots of reading - "Respectable Sin" with mom, an undetermined book with Michael, finish "Nicholas Nickleby," some other classics, & of course spend lots of time in the word. I also plan on collecting starfish......
I also got my hairs did. I got bangs cut for the first time in about 3 years - I'm having to get used to hairs on my forehead, but I likc the cut. Mad props to my hairstylist Becky. She never does a girl wrong :)

It's Official

Kim-e's wedding was this past Saturday! It was so much fun to see her get married; she is the 2nd of the 6 Ashley Forest roommates to get married (2 down, 4 to go as Marcy said) and her wedding came 5 years after the first. It was a beautiful wedding & reception at Carmel Country Club. So it is official, Kim-e is married & I'm thrilled for her. ....here is the proof (in case you didn't believe)I also have one more thing to prove to everyone. I've been saying that I have a boyfriend named Michael, but have yet to produce any hard evidence of such things since I managed to erase all the pics of the two of us off my camera. However, I now have evidence in the form of pictures. So for all of you who thought I made him up......

NEXT-itude

Last weekend I attended the Next Conference put on by Sovereign Grace Ministries in Baltimore, Md. The conference used to be called New Attitude & sometimes I get confused about what to call it. Either way, it was as incredible as ever. The theme of the conference was Jesus. Well "duh!" you might say, it is a Christian conference after all. But let me explain, the first message by Josh Harris was on Christ's preeminence. Followed by DA Carson on Christ's incarnation, Kevin DeYoung on Christ's life, CJ Mahaney on Christ's death & 2 messages by Sinclair Ferguson on Christ's resurrection & return. (you can download all the messages for free from the website) It was such a refreshing time, which is what I was praying for. As I learn more and more about my Saviour, my love for Him continues to grow. I am so amazed at His complete power and sovereignty coupled with His love for me and willingness to become both fully God & fully man and suffer complete seperation from the Father on my behalf. One thing I am also more and more aware of is what it meant for Jesus the Son to be forsaken by God the Father. Jesus Christ had always known communion with the Father, even in His time on earth. He suffered seperation from the Father on my behalf when he was put to death on the Cross - that is the punishment that I should know, but because of His mercy, I to can experience communion with God the Father. And Praise be to God! not only did he die for my sin, but he conquered sin & death so that we can live in freedom & faithfully await His return.

One of the other things I love about this conference is spending time with people from my church as well as seeing friends from other churches aroud the country . I was really looking forward to spending time with some of the girls from bible study and the Lord was so kind to really grow our friendships during this trip. I feel so much closer to these lovely ladies and am so thankful that they are in my life.

Here's a few pictures from the trip....all 3 that i took...

Got a 'lil cap'n in ya?

I don't even know what's going on in this picture....

because its tradition, we took our self portrait...

SURPRISE!

On Thursday of this past week Michael surprised me when I came home from swim practice....
and I was almost a jerk about it.

We had planned to hang out on Thursday after I got done with practice. However, I wasn't expecting him to be over until about 7:30. I left the pool in enough time to get home & showered before he came over. While I was on my way home, I got text from Michael asking me when I would be home because "he got done with things early and was already over at the house." My internal reaction was "dang it! why don't you tell me when you are gonna change plans! I need to know these things in advance."

So when I got home, I yelled to Michael (he was in the back of the house), "I'll be down, I have to shower," and ran upstairs, showered, put on some sweats & a t-shirt....no make up....barely brushed my hair (he's lucky, I know). When I walked into the kitchen, I saw the following: Michael in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on parsley potatoes, steaks on the grill, a salad on the table on the back deck, candle lit & wine poured. Needless to say, I felt like a jerk for having a bad attitude in my head...and to add to it, Michael said he knew that would be my reaction. However, we had a LOVELY evening and I'm so appreciative that he put all the planning & effort into the evening....especially since he is notorious for not being the best cook. Dinner was delicious and the company was perfect.

I would love to put up some lovely pictures of Michael & me from our weekend (we went to the drive in movie theater in Belmont - I highly recommend it) but I'm an idiot & accidentally erased all my pics on my camera. So you'll just have to keep guessing what we look like as a couple ;)

Heartless

I'm a big American Idol fan. However, I was not so passionate about anyone in the top 3 until Tuesday night. I think all of them have great voices & are fun to listen to, but I was getting kind of bored with it all, until this happened.....

@ Yahoo! Video

Thank you Kris Allen for making me believe in you. You got all my votes on Tuesday night and now you are in the final two. One side note to all you ladies falling all over Adam & Kris and screaming like wild banshees for them: a. Kris is married, don't try to be a home wrecker (and his wife is beautiful, you don't stand a chance anyway); b. Adam is gay. You also don't have a chance with him.

Finally, I played Kris Allen's version of "Heartless" for my 1st period class, most of whom groaned and said it was not even close to Kanye's version of the song. At which point, I proceeded to school them and drop a little music knowledge on their hip hop infested brains. What they don't know, is that half of the hippity hop they listen to steals their hooks from classic & punk rock songs. Lil Wayne's newest song "Hot Revolver" samples Greenday's "Basketcase." For the love, Sean Kingston sampled Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Mak'er" (which really bothered me, by the way, b/c he ruined an incredible song). Now don't get me wrong, I love me some hip hop, but it is not the only genre of music, nor is it exclusive from other forms of music out there. Just recognize fool!