Home Sweet Beach

Walk outside your front door smelling the ocean air! Keep walking for about 5 minutes and you will see the waves crashing on the shore! Walking hand in hand with your feet in the sand!


The truth behind our new home is that we LOVE it!! We have been able to walk on the beach everyday! And our goal is to continue to walk on the beach everyday! Boy oh boy does your feet and calves begin to ache, but it is soooo worth it!

While at the beach you might as well go visit other beaches! Right? We headed to Destin to shop a little and walk on the beach at the bay. At the bay we found huge hermit crabs! I'm talking HUGE! Forget the little free ones you get at the stores; go grab your own big one! Check them out!


Yep there are real creatures in these shells! Are we allowed to kill the crab so we can keep the shell?
Todd just loves it here! And let me just tell you that living without this crazy man is not a fun thing to do! So Toddy Dearest NEVER again will you leave me! I miss your face too much! OK maybe it's the way you always make me laugh at the dumbest things!

We live in Panama City Beach only a 2 minute drive to the beach! When you live blocks from the beach a few things are different in your daily routine. Like when you come back from the beach you need to wash off the sand....well we have a shower outside our door to do that! And a towel! Plus I have started the no shoes in the house rule and I follow it, but my husband, well he's a slow learner.

1 more week in MO

Sadness and excitement and busy busy busy has been my motto for the last 3 weeks and now I have one week left in Missouri.


Today is my last day at Bass Pro. My shift is the closing shift, now usually on your last day of work you would think, hey I'm going to head out early....well lucky me I can't slack or anything because I am closing and my responsibilities include loading up the money safe and locking before we leave. Therefore no leaving early by any means. But that is ok because after work a few of us from work (I like to call them my work friends) are going to Garfields for one last blast. Now I love my work friends. Everyone is so nice and cool and they always make me laugh. It really made it easy to go to work when you have a lot of good friends there! I am so looking forward to my last day of work and really the "after party" is going to be my highlight of the day....well besides talking to Todd on the phone!

- Ben if turning 50 on our birthday this year! Yes for those that don't know, I share my birthday with my favorite Father-in-law!!! I'm really glad that we will be able to celebrate his birthday in Florida...well a week late but it will do! -

Tomorrow is my last day in Branson. My father-in-law Ben and brother-in-law Clarke are helping me move. Which shouldn't be too hard since everything is packed up (I say everything, which really means, I have a few more things here and there that I need to throw in a box). The only problem I foresee is the weather forecast of RAIN! that could put a puddle in our plans, but never to fear I have one more day to by a tarp at a discount!


Then I will stay with my sister Crystal for the weekend and party it up with her and Hales and Roscoe and whoever else decides to drop by their house! I am going to miss my sister. Even though we don't see each other much now it's nice to know she's around. It's like when we lived in the duplex, I would see her rarely but we always knew where we were.

Then it's off to my folks for a week! My dad will be gone most of the week on business but I will be staying with Mom. I hope to get all the family time in that I need so it will last a few months. Cabool is really a town I love, not because there is tons to do there, but because of the people and their love. I'm excited to be able to spend a week with Mom, Dad, G'ma Mac, Rance, Eliz, Logan, and everyone else. We will go to the cabin and roast marshmallows!!! And I will go to the shop and smell the pretty flowers everyday! And I will play with Logan until he can't play anymore!

And a trip to Cabool is not complete until I have a few photo sessions in place. I just hope I can get everyone done in a week. This will really be my busiest week for photography so far....maybe it has to do with me not working a "regular" job or maybe because I will not be available for photos in MO until October? Either way, I'm loving it!!!

Dreams

As most of you should know, Todd and I are moving to Panama City, Florida! And we are excited and a little sad to leave. Todd is already down there training and finding us a place to stay with hopefully enough room for our visitors too!! I am doing the packing here, which isn't too bad, I really thought it would be worse, but I'm surviving. Since I am alone, with no one snuggling in bed with me, I have time to dream and think. Here are a few dreams I have had lately....now these are weird but I thought they were shareable!

Dream 1
I find out I am pregnant and instead of me telling people, I think I can hide the "pooch" for a while. Like my "plan" is to not even tell Todd until I am comfortable and have everything "figured out." Unfortunately, the next day my belly is as big as a 7 month old preggo belly...so cat is out of the bag.
And I wake up.....and pee my pants b/c I don't know what that means....however I try to reason it. (note: I am NOT pregnant...promise)

My Interpretation of Pregnant Dream:
I had just got done doing maternity pictures for my good friend Tara. Her belly is adorable and huge and I was staring at it in photoshop....which means it was huge on my computer. AKA big belly on my mind. My other thought was that everyone I know is pregnant right now. I could list everyone but I won't...however I can honestly count 10 off the top of my head. Wow that's a lot of baby presents for me to start saving up for! lol

Dream 2
I was packing up/loading the truck to leave for Florida (not too out of the ordinary since that is going to happen sooner than later). I sit down and daydream....and realize that I am actually leaving Missouri again. I am leaving my family again. I am leaving my friends again. I am leaving all 10 of my friends that are about to have new babies. I am leaving my comfort of knowing where everything is, what road to take to get to whatever store I want to go. I am leaving being 2 hours away from Cabool and my family. Leaving what I have known for 26 years. And I am leaving right after my 27th birthday. So I sit there and think of all this that I am leaving and I start to cry. (let me say that I have not cried about moving to FL yet) Then *in my dream* I think about the beach and the waves and the white sand and the boats and the sharks and the crocs and honestly I get a little excited and nervous. I'm going to live in a place that I have never seen. But in all the sadness I am honestly excited and looking forward to start a new adventure with my love. And I start to get happy again and the tears are not of sadness but of joy. Tears to know that I am about to partake in a new way of living, a new life with sunscreen applied daily and relying not only on Todd but fully on God. I dream that He is going to be closer to us than ever before. I don't dream that I wish that, I pray for that.

Then I wake up....and realize that that wasn't just a dream about my daydreaming but reality and that my dream were my thoughts. There is no interpretation of my dream because it is true. I am sad to leave. I am crying on the inside and need to start crying on the outside. I am extremely sad to leave yet extremely happy to go. I really can't explain it, I know some family and friends must think we are crazy to relocate so far away, but truth is we want to do this to try to find "our town," to find our "home." At work we have this book called "14400 reason to be happy" and after we made the decision for Todd to take the job and for us to move, I read the one reason that I try to apply to my life each day: "open minded uncertainty" is a reason to be happy. Just think about it. We don't know what to expect in Florida, but we are keeping our hopes up and we are ready for whatever God throws at us.

Please keep us in our prayers as we press on with our decisions that not only affect our lives but the lives of those we love! Thank you for being understanding or at least loving us unconditionally no matter what our address reads.

Hanalei Church

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it.
Psalm 96:11 I have been wanting to share this really cute church with you since Hawaii, but just never got around to it. Lots of photographers photograph this church in Hanalei, Kauai so I thought I would take a stab at it also. It's a simple church with their doors wide open all day to welcome people. From time to time I wonder how many people actually do go in, not just to see this cute old church, but go to rejoice His name and come out with a different outlook on life.