Along for the ride!

So here is some exciting news...MY BROTHER IS GETTING MARRIED!!!! On Saturday Dec. 3 he proposed to his girlfriend of 3 years! She is a wonderful women who fits so well with our family! I love her like a sister. So as the next 11 or so months will continue there will no doubt be plenty of wedding planning coming in and out of our house and I am interested to see it happen. of course I will help where asked, but for the most part I am just along for the ride. Sometimes the fun of life can be experienced from the passenger seat. :-) I am so happy for them both and am excited about the 11 months to come.

Oh Deer!

Our backyard is kind of creepy at night! It backs into some woods and at night you can't see very far into the yard depending on if the driveway lights are on. I am always terrified about seeing something (or someone) out there(our back door does not have curtains or blinds)! Well it finally happened, last night as I was going to bed I decided I wanted an extra blanket so I went back down stairs to get the one off of the couch. Turning on the light for a brief moment to grab the blanket then turning it off I turned around and stopped dead in my tracks. My heart skipped a beat or two until my brain processed what I was looking at! A beautiful Doe was standing in our yard staring at me through the door! She quickly ran off, but as she did another one came and stood there. I stood motionless as we watched each other for about 10 minutes! I couldn't believe it, it was the closest I have ever been to a deer and there were two of them!!!!!! After the second deer ran off I stopped holding my breath and just though for a moment! How beautiful God's creation is! These deer were magnificent, so graceful when they ran, a masterpiece of wonders!

I loved the feeling of just standing still and admiring God's handy work! I think we should all do it more often! After all God made man to have "dominion" over the other creation (Gen.1:28). Part of that should include appreciation, and that appreciation should lead us to Praise the Creator! I am going to make a point to stop and "watch the deer" more often! How about you?

A Spoonful!

I collect spoons, the sentence sounds weird, but it is a common thing to collect. My parents (or maybe some other relative) got me started on it before I have any memory of it. However I LOVE it! sometimes you get spoons with some very interesting stories, and sometimes they are just fun to look at. My collection is not very big, I have 47 spoons in all and varied about where they are from; 5-England, 2-Tanzinia, 1-France, 1-Jamacia, 1-Holland, 1-Cannada, 31-America, and 5-I have had them for so long I don't know who gave them to me or where they are from.

Well, my family and I were talking about jewelry that is made from fancy spoons and my Dad said something to the effect of my "Baptism Spoon" would make a pretty piece. Of course the first thing out of my mouth is "My WHAT!?" My Dad then starts describing a spoon my Grandmother had gotten me from England when my Aunt lived there [please note I am talking about my Dad's side of the family, not to be confused with my Mom's side which does have an Aunt currently living in England]. Mom said it wasn't a "Baptism Spoon", but an "Anointing Spoon". Well I had no idea, I just knew what country it was from, so I went to my old friend Google. Turns out it is a replica of the Anointing spoon used to anoint the Kings of England, the original one is with the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London. 

It is so cool to find out fun facts like that. It adds to the fun of collecting stuff! All of my spoons have a story whether or not I know all of them is irrelevant, the point is when I find their stories, it makes them more special! It's little discoveries like these that makes life's adventure so cool! Hope everyone has a Great rest of the week and finds something to make their Adventure more memorable! God Bless. <3

My Collection

British Anointing Spoon Replica

Memories

Visiting grandparents as a kid was a BIG deal! We were living in the northeast and it took 2 days to drive down to see our family! typically we would spend about 2 weeks with each set of grandparents. I have a lot of good memories that have stuck with me from those trips, but some of the things that I remember the most is things that we did EVERY time we went to visit! Like when we would go to my mom's family, Grannie had these tv trays that Colin and I used when we were there, and spending the night with Aunt Amy watching cartoon network til we fell asleep and shopping with Aunt Ronnie. Then when we would go to my dad's families we play with Linkin logs, the light bright and watched TONS of movies. There were two movies that I watched EVERY time we were there! My visit was not complete until I watched those movies. One of them Thumbelina! I don't know what it was about that movie but I couldn't go visit them with watching it! I really loved it! One of the girls at our congregation recently got a copy of it and it made me think about it! Well, today I was at Best Buy digging through the $5 movie bin and there it was at the bottom of the bin! I was so excited!!! Well I said all this to make this observation: Objects seem to hold memories! Have you ever thought of that, some things just have a story! For example, I watched a lot of movies when I was a kid, but none of them have the story that Thumbelina has! Sometimes it's just very simple things for us. for some people it is a teddy bear, a picture, an outfit! What holds special memories for you? What object do you have or had that has a story that just wouldn't be there with out it! Just a small thought I had! God Bless! <3

Blog Stats

I have noticed that my blog stats have gone up a bit since I posted the link in the Digging Deeper FB group. I am sorry I have not posted anything in a while, but I promise I am working on an article. I am writing it bits at a time due to my studying for a few tests. But I will post it soon! And thanks for checking on my page every once in a while! It's nice to know that I am not talking to outer space all the time! :-P God Bless! (John 3:16)

New Blog

I decided to revamp my blog. It was getting difficult to continue with my "Story of a girl" theme because I was running out of ways to finish the sentence. Here is the new direction. It is simple and more traditional blogging. I will post when I feel like posting and the post titles will be just whatever fits the post. As for the name, I haven't thought of a new name for my blog, I might go back to "Story of a Girl" or I might not, but for now I will leave the verse up! It is one of my favorite verses because it really makes me think about our God and how he cares for ALL His creations. It always makes my mind go to Matthew 6:25-33. How wonderful that God is so involved in His Creation that he named each star!! Well that's my spill for the change. God Bless!

...at PTP.

One of my favorite places in the U.S.A is The Great Smokey Mountains! I don't know the exact reason, it may be because I have such found childhood memories here, or perhaps the fun I had here at CYC in my "youth group" days, or perhaps it is the general beauty of God's creation here. What ever the reasons, I love it here. This weekend I got the chance to come to my favorite U.S. location for one of my favorite events: PTP (Polishing the Pulpit)! This seminar goes for a whole week, however it has a sort of "kick-off" weekend. Alisha and I got the chance to go this year and it has been wonderful! It is full of so many wonderful lessons, and you often find yourself in the predicament of wanting to go to more than one that are going on at the same time. That's when you have to remember that the lessons are begin recorded and you can go and buy them on a individual basis or order the whole set (which is a little bit pricey for a college student), however luckily for me our elder-ship purchases the whole set for our congregation library. So I can always go back and listen to the lessons that i did not go to (as long as someone else is not borrowing it). All in all it is a wonderful weekend that I believe every member of the Church would enjoy. 

     An additional bonus of this weekend is the fellowship! You get to see people you normally don't get to see, it is sometimes hard to find them, but is so great when you do. You meet new people, and learn about events going on in other congregations around the country. It is a sweet reminder that we are not alone in this world! For me PTP can be described by Acts 2:42 ~And they devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.(ESV)~ The context of this verse is the the day of Pentecost after the 3,000 souls were saved. For those of the Body who have experienced this event, does this verse not fit perfectly! It is Christians coming together to devote themselves to listening to lessons about God's word, spending time with each other (both at the convention center and around the town) and sharing time in worship the LORD God with one another (which we will get to do in the morning). I hope to get the chance to come back and experience this Acts 2 weekend next year, and get the opportunity to experience other Acts 2 weekends in the near future!

****I got the picture from Google.com and I do not claim ownership of it. There is no copy write infringement was intended. If you would like more information about Polishing the Pulpit please go to www.polishingthepulpit.com

...and Nancy Drew.

Today, Alisha and I went to the library. I wanted to go to find The Hunger Games, but they did not have it. So I began looking around and found my way to the Nancy Drew section. Now I am sure that you are expecting some tale of early childhood reading, but alas that is not the case. I actually hated reading when I was a kid. I only grew to like it when i was in Jr. High, so I have no childhood story about my favorite Nancy Drew story. However in the recent years i have been on a mission to collect the original stories. At the Library they have the 75th anniversary printing of some of the stories. When reading the back of the books i noticed they talked about "She's back to her original self" (or something to that effect). and i became curious about what that meant about my collection on yellow books. Turns out that the "famous" yellow spines are not the original texts. The original stories were published in the 1930's and were revamped in 1959 to be more relative to the new generation. I found this information on the website linked on this blog. I particularly want ya'll to read the part about Carolyn Keene. It's fascinating! :-)
http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com/history.html

...at North River.

Wow. two posts in one day!

Colin spoke at North River nursing homes today for their 4pm services. He did very well, and all the people there were happy to have us. I love talking with older people, they are so fun to listen to. One man was telling me about a text he had gotten from his family that one of his grandchildren had been baptized, he was so excited. There is also a couple, the Blacks. They are so sweet, Mr. Jimmy lives at a different nursing home but you can still see the love between them! Mrs. Faye was telling us how Mr. Jimmy used to sing to her all the time! I hope one day to have a husband that i can share my life with the way they have shared their life! :-) Just makes me want to smile!

...on 5th Sunday!

Sundays are wonderful! We have the chance to come together and worship our Lord with our brothers and sisters in Christ! However, there is one type of Sunday that holds a special place in my heart; 5th Sundays! At Northport we have a special routine for 5th Sundays: We have normal Sunday morning worship, a fellowship potluck, then a 12:30 afternoon service. While the fellowship meal is great (both in food and company) I particularly enjoy the 12:30 service! It is lead by our young men of the congregation. It is a chance for them to practice their leadership skills! It is for our men from pre-school on up! And the boys get very excited about it! My favorite is the younger ones who go up there and lead "Jesus Loves me" and "Blue skies and Rainbows" It's so sweet! :-) And nothing is sweeter than a child's prayer! (They always pray exactly whats on their mind) So as long as Northport continues this wonderful tradition I will always get giddy as a school girl about 5th Sundays!

...and the simple things!

For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, I enjoy the simple things in life. With all the technologies and other things in the world, sometimes people lose sight of the little joys. Here are a few of the little things that get me excited!
1.) Watching the cartoons I watched as a kid
2.) Coke from a glass bottle.
3.) Singing Disney duets in the car with my brother.
4.) Seeing stars at night
5.) Rainbows
6.) A good Bible "debate"
7.) Old movies

These are just a few and are not in any kind of order! :-)

...and blogging

I have found that blogging is harder than I thought it would be. I don't easily come up with things to write about. Perhaps things will come to me when school starts back and such. so I think for now i will post some pictures that I have gotten off of Google.com.

Magic Koi Fish From Avatar: The Last Airbender

Typed "Bible" into Google and got this :-)

I Really liked this Rose!!!

I got this picture to put on a FB event It was a Midnight Devo

TANGLED!!!!!!

Colin Morgan as Merlin From BBC's "Merlin"

I Do not own anything, No copy write infringement intended!

 

...who went to Harry Potter

I was a little disappointed, not in the quality of the movie, but in the off screen entertainment! There were not very many people dressed up as I thought there would be! The few that were dressed up where confined to Hogwarts uniforms, Bellatrix's, and Dobbies. There are a few honorable mentions however: A Death Eater(mask and all) who came and just stood next to us for no apparent reason other than trying to be creepy. There was one Dobby that i thought was quite creative, this particular dobby had a knife in them, some might think "morbid" but I don't know it was an idea! Last but not least, Harry Potter was there....and he had prescription HP glasses! So there is the scoop on what I saw at the HP 7.2 Premiere!

...on the 4th!

Yesterday was the 4th of July...Duh! As a whole the day wasn't very exciting. Dad and I weren't planing on going to fireworks because of the rain, so I played the Wii(Colin would be proud of my game choice; Star Wars :-P ) and Dad played Age of Empires. I even made dinner: Italian seasoned chicken with Angel Hair noddles and Garlic Bread! (YUM!) Well about 7 dad said the rain had let up and wondered if I wanted to see if we could find a spot on the river. So off we went! e found a nice spot on the Northport side of the river and set up. After we were there for about 30 min, I sent out some text messages and Jessica joined us! So there we were three people and a van when dad said "that looks like Nathan and Maggie's car" then "that looks like Jeremy" So calling Jeremy we find out that we all had the same idea so our little party joined their little party and we became a slightly bigger party! I tell you all this to say, don't knock spontanious things, they seem to always work out for my family! :-)

....that went to Walker County!

     If your from Alabama you probably know most or all the jokes about Walker County. I however try and get up here as often as I can, and there is a very good reason  for that: That's where the Fullers are!!! Kelsey and I have been friends for about 6 years! We met in the Jr. High class at Northport Church of Christ, I walked in to class one day and the person I usually sat next to wasn't there. I wasn't sure what to do. I was still VERY new to Northport. While looking around the room to see who looked less scary my eyes fell on a blond girl in a long skirt and she was giving me the "come sit by me" gesture, so I sat down. Mr. Wayne, the teacher, came in at that point and was excited to see me sitting next to this girl, telling me that I would like her because she was home schooled! I smiled and started talking to this girl who had asked a stranger from the north to sit by her, learned her name was Kelsey and she was the oldest of 5 and the rest as they say is history!
     To this day I don't know what it was all those years ago that connected us! We were very different in personality, but we clicked! Let me tell you, I'm glad we did! That small little hand gesture that Kelsey gave me was the start of a friendship that will very unlikely end! I can't imagine what my life would be like if Kelsey and I hadn't talked and I never got to know her family and vice-versa. Have you ever had that friend that you simply can not live without? That friend you think of as a sister (or brother) and they know all your little secrets (and then they stick around :-P)! Anne of Greene Gables called that special friend a "Bosom Friend" David had a friend: Saul's son Jonathon: " And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul."(1 Sam. 18:1) I love the wording here, the idea of knitting souls together is very cool! I defiantly feel like my soul is "knit together" with Kelsey's. David found his "Bosom Friend" and I'm so glad I have found mine, have you found yours yet?

...who feels so grown up :-P (part 2)

Wow new record, two posts in one day! so as a second part of my "all grown up" blog posts i want to share some of my interests and things that probably aren't so "grown up" but i really don't care!

1. I still watch Disney channel and Nickelodeon.
2. I love Rocking out to Disney music
3. I think Cartoons are an excellent TV choice
4. Stuffed animals are the bomb digit!
5. I love eating PB&J sandwiches for a snack
6. Mario is my hero
7. My favorite shirt is my Pickachu shirt
8. I still like listening to Backstreet boys and N'Sync

:-P whos says we have to grow up all the way!

...who feels so grown up :-P

Okay so this post's title is kind of a joke, but kind of not. My 19th birthday was this past week and the "perk" was getting to open a checking account of my very own (for some reason it's 19 at the bank we use) wanting to get it going I went this morning. Now when you have a birthday how often do you get the question "do you feel any different?" or "how does it feel to be...?" you mostly get them with milestone birthdays like 10, 16,18, and 21. But to tell you the truth I've always had the same answer...same, i usually don't feel different on my birthday, or really in the weeks that follow. I am still the same old Caitlin! Now that's not to say that I haven't "grown" in some way or another since say my 10th birthday, but do I feel different at 19 then I did at 18....not really! So back to my point about the checking account, I feel no different today than I did last Tuesday! So there's life for you! :-)

...who watched a Gypsy wedding.

     TLC has a new show called "my big fat Gypsy wedding" some of the culture differences are so shocking they seem ridiculous to us! For on thing, according to the show, the dresses can weigh an average of 300lb. That's twice the size of most Gypsy girls. And the average age of marriage for girls is 16. However there are some...refreshing qualities in the Gypsy culture; Although they get married at such a young age, divorce is rare, and Gypsy girls are FORBIDDEN to live with any one (other than parents/family) before they are married. Most of the time, when a girl gets married, most of the time it is to her FIRST boyfriend. Conventional dating customs are frowned upon.
     These qualities are refreshing when you look at today's society where the divorce rate is high and girls date over and over til they find "the one" I just thought it was interesting that a society that has a reputation for being immoral and wild (i am not saying that they are saints) keeps to strict, conservative dating and marriage traditions.

...who had a little reminder

I had a little reminder of humanity at work last night. I was on head set, and was very frustrated, i had dealt with sassy people, who whisper into the mic, and diesel trucks. Those are my least favorite...it's like listening to  a bucket of bolts rattling in your ear! anyways i can usually tell which trucks are diesel, well here comes a diesel pulls up into the camera view and i turned on the mic and there it was good ol bolt rattles in my ear. The guy driving the truck began his order and the the only word i could make out was "three" now that could have been one of two things; "number THREE" or "number six, THREE count" so to make sure I got his order right I said "I'm sorry sir was that a number 3?" he then replies to me " I'm sorry *engine cuts off* my truck is kinda loud, yes a number three". Well that just made my night 100% better! His little gesture of courtesy made me remember that not everyone on the planet is all bad, and that made me think about the souls that each person has and how God sent Jesus to die for each soul (John 3:16). I believe that God sends us little reminders everyday, it is our responsibility to keep our eyes and hearts open to see them. Hope everyone has a good day! <3

...who taught Bible class

I help with the 3yr old class on sunday mornings. It's fun, I get to learn to teach while see how the children respond to diffrent things. Well this past sunday the normal teacher was out of town so the job fell to me to teach teh lesson of te Lost sheep. I have never taught a parable before, i was kinda nervous. Mom gaver the idea for the craft and I used teh craft to havr a game. For the craft the kids made a little sheep with glued on "whool" and everything, so for the game i hide a sheep that i had made the night before in the class room and the kids had to find teh lost sheep. :-) they really seemed to like that. I think I am getting pretty good at teaching bible class, I don't think I'm ready to take my own class, but I feel confident that I might be soon!

Well there is a post that will not be interesting to most people, but I felt like posting it! Hopes everyone has a Blessed day!

...who started a blog

OK, so here it is, a blog of my very own. I have been pondering the decision to start a blog for a while and decided to go ahead and start one. I think it will be fun, I will be able to share stories and thoughts with my friends and family with as much detail as I want, with no worries about character limit! Now to the name, it came from a Nine Days song of the same title. The lyrics of the song go "...who cried a river and dried a whole world..." The blog title is set as an unfinished sentence, and with each post I will finish the sentence. So lets give this venture a try and I hope y'all enjoy my blog.