while I'm home alone

Only 48 hours until Aaron is home, and they cannot go by fast enough.

This trip to camp seems so much longer even though it's only one more night longer than the last one.

I am ready for him to be home and stay home.

I have been having a good time here though. One of my best friends, Amanda, has been awesome enough to spend the night for two nights. Just knowing there is another person in the house makes me feel so much better. 

Last night, she wasn't here, and I heard every tiny noise. I may or may not have opened every closet checking for bad guys...

I know some people love "alone time," but I am not one of those people.

Anyway.

Aaron says they are having a great time at camp and that he is really enjoying getting to know the kids that went. Plus, they are in the beautiful North Carolina mountains. He sent me this:

And this:

Because I love bridges...

I'm glad he's having a good time.

Tomorrow night I get to see Bensen and Keyen and then hang out with my parents. Before I know it, it will be Friday.

Right?!

a weekend recap

Whew.

The weekend is over.

Last week being the only week in like month that we were both home for seven straight days, was busy.

Aaron worked a lot. He had a lot to do since he is out of town for two weeks in a row now. He's my hero.

We did get to enjoy a few evenings at home, which makes the long days worth it.

On Saturday, we left Penny with our awesome neighbors and made the drive to Fort Caswell, NC for a wedding that Aaron had been asked to do. Neither of us had ever been to Caswell, so it was a fun road trip.

And, I got to see my first lighthouse!

It was only in passing, but still...

The wedding was on the fort overlooking the water.

As close to the beach as I've gotten this summer.

After we did a quick run-through of the wedding on Saturday morning, Aaron and I set off to find a local restaurant for lunch. We ended up in Southport at a place called The Pharmacy. It had decent reviews on Yelp, so we tried it.

The decor was super cute.

Aaron trying the tomato bisque.

That afternoon, the wedding was short and sweet (and hot), and then we came back home.

Sunday we finished up one of our last mornings doing three services at Journey (for now). Just one more week and then we will drop down to two services on Sunday for a few months. We are adding two services on Saturday evenings as well, but I'm just beyond excited for a shorter day on Sunday.

Sunday night we went to Adventure Landing with a big group of Middle School students. Of course, we had just as much fun as they did. Putt-putt and laser tag are fun for grown-ups too!

Aaron looks angry and I look like my eyes are closed. (Hey- it was dark and glow-y in the laser tag room...)

random thoughts

Hi.

I know I'm slacking off on the blog when Aaron starts to get after me. He asked me the other night why I hadn't written in so long.

I don't really know, other than that I've had a lot on my mind lately, but none of it seemed "blog-worthy."

I have so many jumbled thoughts that may not be interesting, but here we go. I mean, I just need to blog something...



One:

Aaron came home on Saturday. That was exciting, but now I only have three more days with him until he leaves for another week. Whenever a separation from Aaron is on the horizon, I'm a little mopey. I'm trying to look on the bright side, the pros of him being gone, but I still hate it when he leaves.

I'm sure it will go by fast. My friend Amanda is coming to stay with me for a night or two. I'll probably swing over to visit Bensen and Keyen one night. And Penny and I might have a sleepover at my parents if I really get tired of being home alone.

Then, Aaron will be back. He gets home next Friday, and we turn around and leave for Tennessee to visit my grandparents on Sunday afternoon.

So ends our whirlwind of a summer at the close of that trip.


Two:

Today I stayed home from work because they are installing carpet in a lot of our rooms and I couldn't really do what I needed to do anyway. I cleaned the house instead. I think sitting down on the couch in a clean house after working hard for four hours is one of my favorite things. Does it take anyone else four hours to clean? Just me?

Keep in mind, that's when I'm cleaning alone without Aaron's help, and I'm really cleaning. Not just feather dusting and Clorox wiping things down. I can't imagine having to clean anything bigger than our townhouse. At that point, I may just pay a convenience fee for someone else to do it.


Three:

Aaron is officiating a wedding on Saturday for some friends on Oak Island. I've never been there before. I guess the wedding isn't technically on the beach, but I'm hoping we will at least be able to see the beach. I haven't been to the beach all summer, and it's making me a little sad. I know I've been like a hundred other places so I really can't complain. But I miss our yearly trip to Myrtle Beach with Aaron's family.


Four:

Oh! This is exciting:  my little brother got engaged! See how bad I am at my blog recently? I didn't even get around to posting about that. So, yes, my brother Tyler and my future sis-in-law Sarah got engaged a couple weeks ago. We are SO excited for Sarah to finally join the family soon. I can't believe my brother is getting married!

Aren't they adorable?:

Five:

I read Romans 8 this morning, and found some much-needed encouragement. I thought it was time for a change in our chalkboard anyway.

pros and cons

I have a love/dislike (I felt "hate" too strong a word...) relationship with Aaron being at camp...




I love that he is hanging out with kids and leaders doing what he loves.

I dislike eating alone. And watching TV alone. And sitting alone. Etc.

I love that he is learning how to be a better leader.

I dislike having to take Penny out every time during the day instead of sharing the responsibility. Especially at night when it's dark out.

I love that he is being a good example to some kids who may not have very many good examples in their life normally.

I dislike having an empty side of the bed.

I love that when he comes home on Saturday I will be so excited to see him that it's almost worth missing him.

I dislike having to wait until Saturday for him to come home.

I love that he is getting to have conversations with lots of people this week and having a chance to be unplugged from reality.

I dislike not being able to talk to him as much as normal. He's busy and has no cell phone service.


I love that this camp is only three nights and two and a half days.

I dislike that when he goes to camp in two weeks it's for four nights and five days.


I love that he's where he's supposed to be this week.

I dislike that I am not with him. 




But I'm where I'm supposed to be too.


I love camp week. And then again, I don't like it so much. No, wait. I do like it just fine.

You get the idea.

about our college dorm party

I'm not one who likes too much of a mess. Every once in awhile, I'll let the laundry pile up for a day or two. But then, it drives me crazy and I put it away. I can't stand for the couch pillows to be in a disarray. You know, stuff like that. 

Aaron could probably tell you that I am always (hopefully, nicely) asking him to pick up his clothes off the floor or clean up his study or put something away.

However, this past weekend when I went to stay with Aaron one night at camp, and we decided that we would have a college dorm party.

After the campers went to bed, we went out and bought snacks, watched Netflix, and made a big mess.

Well, as much of a mess as we could in one night. And I decided not to care.

Here's the aftermath:

Every once in awhile, it's fun to be messy.

At least for one night, mind you.

about Aaron's busy days

It's been a busy week.

Aaron was asked a few months ago to speak at a local kids' camp by his friend Jeremy. Jeremy is also a children's pastor, and he, along with a few other churches, host a summer camp called Triangle Kids Camp. It's at Louisburg College, which isn't far from where we live.

Aaron agreed, and this week he is speaking to about 75 kids and 30 leaders. 

It started Wednesday evening and will finish up on Saturday morning. I went with him on Wednesday night and then we both came back home. Yesterday, Aaron moved into one of the dorms while I made the trip back and forth. It was the first night in a year that we had been apart I think!

Tonight, my parents are keeping Penny so that I can stay at camp for the last night. I guess I'll get a glimpse of what living in a dorm would have been like.

I'm a proud wife indeed. I love his heart for kids.


I'm sure he'll be ready to crash on Saturday, but only for a couple hours. He's in high demand this week, and he's the DJ/MC at a wedding of some friends on Saturday night. He's excited because he had downloaded some DJ software on his computer when it was free in the App Store or something. You never know when the App of the Week might come in handy I guess...

We have a couple normal days after that, and then he leaves again for camp. This time it's the one and only Camp KidJam with our kiddos from Journey. He's gone Wednesday through Saturday, and Penny and I will be on our own. Thankfully, I get to go see him for the day on Friday.

It's a crazy, busy summer! Especially for Aaron!

a birthday post for Penny

Our sweet puppy turned two on Monday!

It's weird because we didn't actually meet Penny and take her home until September of that year, so her birthday seems like it should be that day instead. But, her actual birthday is July 8, 2011.

We aren't crazy, and we didn't have a celebration or anything, but we do love Penny and can't believe she's already two.

She sure has developed into her fun personality a lot this year. She went to school and learned some things. She went swimming for the first time in Florida, and quickly realized she was terrified of water. She loves to play, but she is becoming more and more happy to just lay on the couch. She knows so many words (outside, car, crate [unfortunately], toy, treat, bed, "Aaron's home," "Whitney's home," etc.)

We definitely don't know what we would do without her.

Happy 2nd birthday, Penny!

about our Disney day trip (part 2)

Again, a warning: this post is probably boring unless you really care about Disney World.



So my last post left off with our Fast Passes for Splash Mountain. Since we had a couple of hours to kill before we could come back to ride it, we hopped on the Walt Disney World Railroad to go back to Main Street and head to Adventureland.

Adventureland holds another favorite ride:

We got to ride in the front of the boat, even!

The park was still surprisingly empty. We got some ice cream and enjoyed this view again:

Per Aaron's request, we stopped at the Country Bear Jamboree on our way back to Splash Mountain.

We rode Splash Mountain in the back row, which was fun, and then grabbed Fast Passes for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Then it was back to Tomorrowland for a couple things...

Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor

Stitch's Great Escape

The park was getting a little more crowded now. We ran into a bunch of parade traffic on our way back to ride Thunder Mountain.

It was finally time for a little nap, so we headed into the air conditioned sanctuary of the Hall of Presidents.

After being reminded of America's fun history, it was 4pm, and the nice people at Be Our Guest had encouraged us to check back to see if there were any cancelled dinner reservations since we had never eaten there for dinner. It is booked months in advance. And wouldn't you know, it really was our lucky day. There were cancellations, and we were seated right away. This was turning out to be a day for the books.

We not only got to try "the Grey Stuff" (it's delicious, you know...), but we also got our picture with the Beast. 

• Our photo with the Beast was also taken by an official Disney photographer who gave us a Photopass so we could later download our picture online. Unfortunately, not 20 minutes later, it fell out of my back pocket into an automatic flushing toilet. I sadly watched it flush away unable to do anything about it. Epic fail.

I will say that after eating at Be Our Guest for dinner, we are more than happy to only eat there for lunch from now on. It's half the price and just as fun!

After dinner, we moseyed around Tomorrowland again. Aaron researched how to score high on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and got a ridiculous score.

I think I only got 7000. :(

No trip to Magic Kingdom is complete without the Carousel of Progress and the Peoplemover (twice).

Then, since we had done everything that we wanted to do someway somehow, we headed to the castle for the last show.

I LOVE HER.

It started to look like it might rain, if you can tell from the sky. We meandered into one of my favorite shops on Main Street right before the downpour. We were safe and dry and entertained by this awesome glass blower guy for the next 30 minutes until the rain stopped.

It was time to find our place for the special 4th of July fireworks next.

I love the castle at night.

And here are a few of about 50 fireworks pictures that I took. For 4th of July, it was a 360 degree fireworks show, so they were all around the park.

They were beautiful.

Since we had done everything that we wanted to in the park, we decided to opt out of staying until the 1am closing time. We had a long drive ahead of us, and it usually takes an hour to get from where you are at the fireworks back to where you parked your car.

We headed for the exit, but couldn't resist the five minute wait time to see Mickey.

It was time to leave then, and we decided to take the ferry instead of the monorail. It was good choice. What a pretty way to say goodbye to our favorite place. 

Until next time, Disney World.

Last note:  we seriously have no idea how we lucked out with such an easy day at Magic Kingdom on the only week of summer that every kid is out of school and the day before a national holiday. Jesus must have known we needed a relaxing park day. It will probably never happen like that again.