Maroon and White!

I was asked to sing at Mississippi State University- Meridian's graduation tomorrow...

held in the Riley Center...

My very first time to ever sing on that stage...

and this will be my view (packed with people, of course!)

Can you say EXCITED??

Abby H gets HITCHED!

Even though Saturday was a nasty, nasty day with TONS of bad weather all over the south, the night had a beautiful ending! My friend, Abby, got married and everyone had a great time. I love the picture above. That's Christina, Sara, Abby D., Abby H., Hallie and Jessica. We were all friends in high school. The whole night was nothing but a big reunion for a lot of people that haven't seen each other since High School graduation.

Abby and I have been friends for a long time... like 1st grade I think. I remember spending the night at her house and playing with Lucy and L.J. (her dogs), and having her dad draw us breakfast menus on Saturday mornings. If they had cereal in their house, he'd draw a bowl of cereal, or a piece of toast, or an egg, or milk, etc. Whatever they had to offer, her dad would draw it perfectly on paper. We would wake up and choose what we wanted, then we were off on our bikes to ride the ins and outs of West Hills Elementary and Northwest Jr. High School. We always had so much fun together.

There were several things that I loved about Abby's wedding.

1. She looked so fabulous and so fun!! She's a fun person and her dress suited her perfectly!

2. She asked me to sing in her wedding, and as I was sitting behind the piano during the prelude, I saw that they had their pianist and guitarist play "Heavenly Day!" One of my absolute favorites!

3. I'm a music lover. She had four songs in her wedding. I sang one, there was a duet, and then she had two other soloists sing. I was introduced to two knew songs and I loved them.

4. Their first dance was to Cory Smith... oh I love him, too!
5. Everything about her wedding was fun. Her dress. The table cloths. The food. The Lanterns. The band. So fun, so Abby & Robert!

(look at those awesome centerpieces)

Abby's Cake...Robert's Cake

6. THE PHOTO BOOTH... enough said!!
Congratulations Abby and Robert! Your wedding night was so much fun... just like the two of you!! I wish you the very best!

Jennifer and Frank tie the knot!!

March, April, May & June are always busy wedding months. A friend of mine got married in March, two of them in April, two in May and then another in June. I was asked to sing in two of these weddings and had the best time. Jennifer and I met in Middle School I'm pretty sure. We've been friends for a long time. We got really close in Jr. High and the beginning of High School because we also attended the same church. Jennifer was always really sweet. She lived with her dad growing up and had a set of twin siblings (brother and sister) and then a younger sister. They were always really close and so funny to be around!

Skip a few years and enter the 9th grade!! Jennifer meets Frank. A sweet, country boy that goes to a different school but they fit perfectly together!! Frank likes to hunt and fish, and Jennifer, even though she was a girly girl, would spend her weekends with Frank everywhere he went!! The summer after we graduated from high school, everyone went their separate ways. I stayed in Meridian and Jennifer went to Ole Miss because that's where Frank was and that's where she wanted to go to school. I'm pretty sure that Jennifer and I ran into each other, um, maybe once, through our college years in Meridian.

**Side note: Everything was held outside at the Marascalco home; the rehearsal dinner, wedding and reception. The picture above is the back of the home. It was beautiful! Sorry, the picture just doesn't do it justice! They also have a big barn close to the orchard where the rehearsal dinner was and Jennifer had some of her bridal portraits made there. The picture below is her sitting in the loft of the barn... how beautiful is this?!

After nine years of Frank and Jennifer being together, they are looking forward to the rest of their lives together! Jenn & Frank, everything about your special day was PERFECT. Thank you for asking me to be a part of your wedding celebration. Happy beginnings!!

Leadership Lauderdale

Hey Ya'll!!

Long time, no blog!! I know... I'm going to get better at this. Things just need to slow down for a bit first!

A few weeks ago, I was honored to be asked to be a guest at the Leadership Lauderdale Youth Banquet. Leadership Lauderdale Youth is a program for 11th grade students to learn about the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens.

Several of my youth participated in this program this year and I was so proud of them. They each had to bring a guest and they had to stand up (in front of probably 200 people) and tell who their guest was and what habit best described their guest.

I was Shelby's guest and she said some really sweet things about me and why I fit into the "Put First Things First" category. We had a great time learning about the service projects they worked on all year and just watching them be "leaders" that night made me smile!!

(we even wore matching shoes, hee hee!)

Thanks for a great night friends!! I'm proud of ya'll!

Ready to Follow??

...Because we've got a lot of ground to cover in this post!

First things first: I'M BACK!! It's been forever since I blogged about something that was worth reading. I'm glad that things have fallen into place for today so that I can have a few extra seconds to share with you.

With that being said, here we go...

How incredible was your Easter weekend? Oh, mine was phenomenal!! Please let me explain this picture. One of my youth had a little happy for me whenever I came to church on Easter morning! I have mentioned to them several times that I don't like to eat fried chicken with my hands. I just prefer to use a fork. Well, one of them was looking out for me when they found this great find of "Wing Tongs" so that I don't ever have to get messy!! How cute :)

I also got to see my sweet friend Mary Kathryn from Washington, D.C. She was in Meridian seeing her family over the Easter weekend and she stopped by our church Easter Egg Hunt!

Spending time with my family was the highlight of my weekend, for sure. We had such a great time chatting and eating great food, and of course, hiding easter eggs. It's been YEARS since we've had an egg hunt in our family because we haven't really had any younger children in town... but this year, the egg hunt was back on and the little hunters came out in full force!!
and these just happen to be 3 of my very favorite people: my sweet cousins...If you're my friend on Facebook, you saw that I mentioned in a status update about a pair of shoes. Well, these are the ones! They were lucky enough to be the Easter shoe choice for 2010 and i thought they complimented my outfit perfectly! Plus, I can wear them with a lot of other things, too!!

Oh, and since Spring is here, it was high time that I set aside a night to clean out my closet and transfer the spring and summer stuff in. I'm pretty sure I just cleaned out my closet a few months ago. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate!I told you that I had a lot of cathing ya'll up to do on this thing, so here's my favorite thing for the week. This candle is AMAZING!! A friend of mine in Jackson has a huge candle like this and it burns all of the time. Because I wasn't sure if I wanted a really big candle, I was in Francesca's one day and picked up a little 4 scent sampler pack. This scent is by far the best!! You can get them at Francesca's or Anthropolgie I'm pretty sure. LOVE!!! I'll be at a Leadership Banquet tonight and will be missing Idol and GLEE!!!!!! So, I'm pretty sure that I'll be up until the wee hours of the morning trying to watch both of these shows. We'll talk about our opinions tomorrow!! Until then...

Technology

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a new when it comes to Skype!! I never EVER imagined that I'd be using it. I'ver heard a lot of people say that they use it to talk to people that are out of town, or out of the country, but I'm using it for a totally different reason.



One of my friends in class recently moved, and our professor has given her permission to have "skype dates" with us through my computer so that she can listen in class. WHAT?? I couldn't believe it. So, as I'm blogging about this, she's looking at me on her laptop in Tupelo and listening to our professor in New Orleans.



I recently imported all of my facebook friends on skype and you can't imagine how many of them are using skype. It's crazy!! How many of you skype??



Also, I've had an incredible Easter weekend and can't wait to post pictures for ya'll!! I hope you had a great weekend and that you're Monday is off to a fantastic start!!

A Little Bit of Everything...

Remember those tulips from two posts ago??

Well look at 'em now!

and remember this post on Idol about my favorite male contestant that was going to win hands down? Well... I've changed my mind. I'm loving Lee!!

And who is upset about DWTS? I mean, c'mon... Kate Gosselin?? She'll never survive another week. It makes me feel bad just watching her try and move on the dance floor.

On the other hand, I think that Maks and Erin are my favorite couple. I think they're both just really darn cute and I think they have a good chance at winning!

I just got back from a fabulous weekend in Tupelo and if you'd like, you can click here and read about my experience!

If I may, please let me encourage you to pray for a beautiful weekend. We're having our big church Easter egg hunt on Saturday and there's a chance of showers. We NEED great weather!!

I Loathe My Wavy Hair!!!!!!!!

Can I please tell you that one of the best things in life is going to the "beauty shop" and getting a good haircut. I look forward to that time the minute I schedule an appointment.

If you're one of my few faithful readers (ha!), you know that I'm going to Trinidad in May. TRINIDAD!!! Hot. Humid. NEAR THE EQUATOR. You get my drift?? I'm getting ready for some FRIZZ action with my head of hair.

I just sent my hairdresser a text and said for her to mentally prepare herself for what will be taking place at her station tomorrow. Not only am I going to get my final haircut before the summer (I basically live on the road from camps, to VBS, to day trips, etc... I'll be needing to pull this mess up!) but I want her to experiment with some products to see if I get these natural waves to turn into some curl. This having to wash, dry AND straighten every morning isn't going to cut it when I'm in 100 degree weather in a few weeks!!

If you have wavy hair, how do you get it to curl and STAY curled??

Blooming

It's not spring to me until I've seen these...

I LOVE Tulips and this is the first year we've ever planted any!! I'm so glad that they are blooming!!

Happy Wednesday!

Playground for Jesus

(Please click on the collage to make it bigger)

I spent my whole day Saturday along with tons of other people from our church, and many other people from the community partnering with Keep America Beautiful to clean up the neighborhood around The Wesley House.

Not only did tons of people pick up trash, spread flower seeds, plant flowers, spread mulch and take unwanted furniture from people's homes, but we did some MAJOR work on the Playground for Jesus. If you're not too sure what the Playground for Jesus is, please let me give you some background.

This past summer, the Sunday School classes of our church were challenged to go outside of the church walls and do something for the community in the name of Jesus. One of our classes had the idea that they wanted to raise money and create a safe playground for the children in our community that go to the Wesley House and live in the surrounding areas. Between $40,000 and $50,000 later, the basketball court was poured, a fence was put up, mulch was brought in, a pavillion was built, a new playset was donated, and the whole project started coming together.

So this past Saturday, we spent the whole day getting the place ready for the dedication ceremony and fun day that will take place from 10-6! I hope that you will take a few hours out of your day this coming Saturday to go and see the great things taking place in the East End community!

I'm Getting Another Stamp...

...passport stamp that is!!

I'M GOING TO TRINIDAD IN MAY!!!

I've been praying for another mission experience like I had last year in the Dominican and this one just fell in my lap!! I'm really excited and can't wait to see what's waiting for us when we get there!!

Show Us Your Life- D.R. Style

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner Blog is hosting a "Show Us Your Life" Mission Trips blog carnvial today. She usually hosts blog carnivals about your weddings, your baby showers, etc., things that I've yet to experience. However, I'm excited because I get to participate today and link my blog on hers so that other bloggers can read about my experiences!

My one and ONLY mission trip so far was to Sabeneta, Dominican Republic. I experienced so many "first time jitters" like, um... applying for my very first passport, flying for the first time, going out of the country, etc. But I had SO much fun.

One of the things that made this mission trip so fun was that I got to travel with people that I enjoyed being around: my co-staffer and Associate Pastor, Matt, my friends Neil, Amanda and Ben and another pastor in our area, Justin. These people made the trip interesting, hilarious and helped me make some of the best memories of my life thus far!

Here is a part of our group (minus Matt) with the Missionaries Jose and his wife, Yoannia and their babe Isaii (far left) and those two adorable twin girls and their brother were with their mother at the house church we attended one of the nights we were in the Domincan.

I experienced PLANTAINS...

and GOAT. yep... I ate it and it was pretty good!

The only time on the trip that I was in a state of panic was at the market. People bring EVERYTHING (from bananas, to cows and pigs, shoes, underwear, jewelry, etc.) and they sit it all out on tarps and beg you to buy. It was such a sad experience.
This is Amanda and me whenever we were about to leave the market. See the smile of relief. Actually, this was right next to these men who kept saying things to us in Spanish, and was also trying to sell LIVE birds. Their poor legs were tied together... talk about pitiful!
One of the main things we did in the D.R. was prayer walking. We walked to all of these different neighborhoods and prayed for the people in houses, listened to the missionaries share the gospel with them in Spanish, played a little baseball and basketball, and just tried to share God's love with so many people. The main barrier was that we couldn't speak Spanish. However, we all serve the very same God- no matter what our language may be- and sharing His love is what we are called to do!