Dancing in the street in a place that feels like home PART II....

So its been a while since I have posted but this one will be worthwhile! This past weekend I went back to Gardner-Webb for homecoming. It was wonderful lots of fun things went on...I got to see friends I hadn't seen in a while, and my girls of course. This pic is of me, Mason, and Katie Grace...but I also hung out with Micah, Elisa, Jessica, Lauren Shirkey, and others....

I love these girls a ton! I had a great time with them this weekend as I always do. The longer I am friends with them the more I know how blessed I am to have them as my friends. They make me laugh and smile, and some time cry happy tears. After talking to them and finding out what was going on in there lives it makes me happy to see my friends happy and enjoying the college life. They are always a encouragement to me.

I also got to see friends that I started out with when I was a freshman. I always love seeing them it reminds me of all the great memories we had while we were students there. When we all get together it seems like nothing ever changed. He we are on Saturday at the game...can we say GWU Billboard much...

These girls are great! It was great to get to see them this weekend and enjoy each others company and talk about how  our jobs or what's going on in our lives. It's just awesome but also a little weird to be acting like grown ups.

So homecoming....what does it mean?? For me it means returning to see old friends and current friends as well as remenicing about the things we used to do when we were at GWU as well as telling my girls about it so they can experience those things. I love the fact of returning back to some where that feels like home. Some where that is comfortable but just fits. The problem that I always find I have at these things is I want to spend time with my friends I haven't seen in a while but also give most of my time to my girls. Its hard even now to figure out to mesh both together. I had that problem before I graduated on how to mesh the things I took from college with my new graduated life. I guess maybe I am just at a crossroads who knows.

So all thought this title is similar to another post it is also different with things that happened this weekend:

-Danced in the Street

-Ate yummy food

-Watched a moive

-Went to the homecoming dance

- Went to Cook Out

-Went to the football game

Like I said a fun filled weekend...

Anyways I can barely hold my eyes open...so it is oft to work.

Excited and Nervous...but I didn't get here alone...

        So tomorrow I start my new job at Truliant this is my first big girl job since I graduated college. I am truly excited to be doing something besides staying home all day. But I am also nervous...I know they picked me beacause they think I am the best for the job, but I am nervous b/c I don't want to do anything or forget anything that might screw it up. It's not that I don't believe in myself I do, but I still have those nervous butterflies.
      I will say lately my friends and family have been encouraging me not to be nervous that I was going to be great at this job. When expressing the nervousness to my friend Katie Grace last night she was as always encouraging to me not be nervous and  gave me some words of wisdom straight from God out of her devotional :
" You need not fear the future, for I am already there."
These were such wise words from my friend who I love dearly and they did calm my nervousness and all along with some other things she sent me I cried tears of comfort.I preceeded to tell her about some verses in my bible that I had read over to hopefully to calm my nervousness knowing that Jesus was looking out for me and that's how I had come to be in this job otherwise I wouldn't have been if not for his plan. I told her that I had read over Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 that talks about a time and place for everything to happen and then I read over my favorite verse Psalm 119:76  that talks about God comforting us with his love just like he said he would.  Later on as I went back I found a passage in my bible that said something similar that I had from a previous sermon to what Katie Grace had sent me. So in turn I shouldn't be nervous b/c God is with me and is looking out for everything tomorrow that will go on. So I will not worry any longer...

Also I wounldn't have gotten here with out some awesome people in my life...my family,my friend, my Church family, and certain others...yall all know who you are...
THANKS FOR BEING SO ENCOURAGING....with out you none of this could have ever happened...from my college graduation to me now having a job...
Thanks!!!
Until next time...

In the South College Football is a religion...

So first I got a call from my sweet Gardner-Webb girls this week. It made my day to hear from them and surprised me when my phone rang. I miss them dearly, but get to see them soon they are always an encouragement to me!! :)
Here is a picture of  KG and Elly while they were talking to me, Mason and Lauren were there too but are not pictured...

In my house and all my life football has been a big part of it...particularly college football. I would dare to say that I went to several games when I was in my mother's womb. My mom also has pictures of me at Clemson games as a toddler and even after my brother was born my Mom has pictures of us at Clemson as kids my brother in his little Clemson onesie and me in my Little Clemson cheerleading outfit. As we got older we would go to the games and even when we weren't there Saturday's in our house were and are generally during college football season...our Saturdays have been consumed with football.Even now for the last couple of Christmas' we got bowl game tickets to see Clemson play in different bowl games.

Here is a recent picture of us at the last one we went to It's the Music City Bowl in Nashville,TN we won.... 

It's just always been apart of my life...even when I was looking at colleges I chose not to go to the first school I looked at because they didn't have a football team my thought was "What do they do on Saturday's if they don't have a football team?" The answer I got was that they went to soccer games...somehow my brain couldn't fathom that. When I did finally choose where I was going to go college I chose Gardner-Webb University...for other reason but one being they had a football team. Most of my college Saturday's in the Fall were spent going to football games to support my team. I made sure I was in the student section there early for the games and try to be on the first or second row with my friends. Now that I have graduated I spend most of my Saturday's watching football with my family or attending Clemson/ Gardner-Webb games. I have always enjoyed the game of football and I get very emotional but I love the game of football...and will continue to do so until I die...as the saying goes:

"In the East, college football is a cultural exercise.

On the West Coast, it is a tourist attraction.

In the Midwest, it is cannibalism.

BUT IN THE SOUTH, COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS A RELIGION."

 – Marino Casem, Alcorn State University

Until next time here's hoping you are cheering on your team this Saturday and enjoying college football!!!

I am restless...till I rest in you God....

So it's 12:15 am on a Wednesday morning...and here I sit in my bed not able to sleep. I sit here listening to "Restless" by Audrey Assad...somehow it seems that God is soothing my soul tonight with this song.
It seems that I have been restless lately in my walk and in my heart. Somehow that is being soothed tonight by God's love and this song

Restless by Audrey Assad:
You dwell in the songs that we are singing
Rising to the Heavens, rising to Your heart, Your heart
Our praises filling up the spaces
In between and frailty and everything You are
You are the keeper of my heart

And I'm restless, I'm restless
'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You
I'm restless, I'm restless
'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You
Oh God, I wanna rest in You

Oh, speak now for my soul is listening
Say that You have saved me, whisper in the dark
'Cause I know You're more than my salvation
Without You I am hopeless, tell me who You are
You are the keeper of my heart
You are the keeper of my heart

And I'm restless, I'm restless
'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You
I'm restless, I'm restless
'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You
I wanna rest in You

Still my heart hold me close
Let me hear a still small voice
Let it grow, let it rise
Into a shout, into a cry

Still my heart hold me close
Let me hear a still small voice
Let it grow, let it rise
Into a shout, into a cry

And I'm restless, I'm restless
'Til I rest in You, let me rest in You
I'm restless, so restless
'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You
Oh God, I will rest in You

With a ocean breeze blowing and sand between my toes I find the path leads me to my family...

So the title this time leads to my weekend once again....
I went to a family reunion at the beach for the Lowe Family...the tree would look like this
                  Thomas Lawerence Lowe - Ida Hutchison Lowe:
                            My Great Great Grandparents
                         Gano Harold Hall - Ida Lowe Hall:
                                My Great Grandparents
                      Russell Cole(R.C) Lee Jr. - Betty Hall Lee:
                                      My Grandparents
                    Russell Cole(Rusty) Lee III - Beverly Cato Lee:
                                          My Parents
Anyways I got to help my Mommaw finnish putting together the scrapbook I got to see pictures I had never seen in my entire life of my Great Great Grandparents and even my Great Grandparents that I had never seen. Over all it was a great weekend.


I was very lucky when I was born I had all 4 of my great grandparents on my Dad's side. The last one passed away when I was a College Freshman so growing up I got to know all of them. The one person I want to talk about though is very special to me and that is my Great Grandmother Ida Lowe Hall or as we called her Nannie Hall. She was a special lady she raised 5 children...4 girls and 1 boy. She loved to cook and she certianly loved her family. My Nannie Hall was a mere 5'1 and a very small lady who married my Papaw Hall who was a towering 6'3" at the age of 19. She loved to bake and cook for her family and she was most happiest with everyone of us around her. The originally lived in High Point,NC and eventually moved to a farm in Level Cross. I loved spending time at there house it always smelled of cookies and homemade goods, fresh grass and flowers and the smell of there house in my memory I remember these. I loved this little short old lady she was my great grandmother who had strength and stamena, and wasn’t afraid to love you. She always gave you a hug whether you were family or anybody that’s just the way she was. I like to think somewhere deep down that she is where I get my giving spirit from to love others. She was a Christian woman going to church every Sunday till she passed away. Sadly when I was in the 4^th grade she was diagnosed with non hodgskin lymphoma and couple months later died from the cancer and she fought it to the very end. I love that I got to know her but I also hate that she didn't live longer. I have found after I went to college that I love to bake and so did she I never really got to bake with her I dream sometimes that I am cooking with her in her kitchen teaching me how to bake those cookies just like she did and make them taste great. I spent a lot of Sunday's as a child with them at there house and have very found memories of those days. The smell of  fresh grass,flowers and freshly baked cookies always takes me back to her kitchen somehow where she gives me a hug and cookie and tells me to go play out in the yard. I love looking at these memories it takes me back to a place and time...back to my Nannie Hall's arms.


I like to think that she would be proud of the woman I have become...somewhat like she:
strong and confident
loving and giving
with a love of her family
and a love to bake...
until next time...

Dancing in the street in a place that feels like home...

So this post is dedicated to my Gardner-Webb Girls...

These girls in this picture are the one's I spent most of my weekend with and what a great weekend it was so much fun.they all put smiles on my faces and are like my little sisters and some of my best friends. We did lots of fun things this weekend one of them having to do with the the title of my blog today.

Just to mention a few: we hung out, chatted for hours, watched the movie "The Holiday", made puppy chow and dinner, we went to cookout twice, jammed out to music in the car and in the dorm, we danced in the street to Lady Gaga at one a.m., we worshiped at church, went to walmart, went shopping at the outlets, and we bought and traded silly bands (I know we are all in our 20's so it's a little funny).

The weekend for me was not only a reminder of why my college years were so awesome, but also what great friends I made and still have here it was very theraputic for my soul. I love these girls with all my heart and soul. If I was having a bad day or needed to talk then they were there to brighten my smile and listen to what I had to say, and vice versa I have tried to do that for them as well. 



It was great being back this weekend as the last post said in a place where my heart feels at home, but also it was a little weird. After living in Greensboro for the last four and half months it's as a friend said you feel as if you have one foot in one place and the other one in another. Being back on campus was a weird feeling because I felt like I had left my heart in Boiling Springs but yet it's here to in Greensboro too. It feels though now that I am back home that once again I have left my heart there. It was just different going back to visit now that I have graduated. I still have that feeling of not knowing where I belong or where I am ment to be. Being there with those girls I don't feel that as much as I do when I am here, but who knows why I feel that way when I am on that campus or around them. Maybe I just feel more at home there, but I also have learned more about myself from my college years at Gardner-Webb. I learned to love my body more to be happy with who I am no matter what people tell me. I also learned through an experience I had at GWU that I shouldn't beat my own self up and that by doing that I was breaking my own heart in the long run. From that experince I learned to love myself more than to worry about the past, and that hopefully that will help me in the future. The lessons I gained from my years there are worth there wait in gold to me everyday. The weekend was a great one over all and I end it with a the dedication I started with at the beginning of the post.

To my Gardner-Webb Girls: may you know how wonderful and beautiful you are inside and out,may you know how much you make me smile and how much you make my heart proud to be your friend, may you know how strong you are and how that show's me I can be strong.may you know that the love you show me allows me to love people more in return. I treasure your friendship and I love you girls!

When your heart longs to be somewhere that feels like home...

So tomorrow I am going to visit the University I graduated from to see some friends. The reason for the title is because for the last five years of my life it has been my home. Boiling Springs felt like home it still does my heart still longs to be there just my heart longed to be here in Greensboro when I lived there almost as if I was home sick. Now that I live in Greensboro I am homesick for Boiling Springs. Maybe it's because my college years are over but some how I don't think it's that.Part of that place helped me become the woman I am today but it also helped me to grow in my faith and develop friends that will last a lifetime. The memories I made there were wonderful and this trip for me really is a chance to return to see the girls who are like my little sisters, and of course my friends. I miss them the most that is what I really am going back for. I am excited to see them and see how they are doing. Until then my heart will still be longing  to be somewhere that feels like home even if I am only there for the weekend...

Going to the Chapel and there going to get married....

So on this first day of September there are lots of things going on this coming weekend...
This weekend my beautiful best friend is marrying the love of her life...I am so excited for them. Allthough I am not married and all three of my best friends are it doesn't discourage me. It actually makes me happy and encourages me. It makes me happy to see them happy and have found men who love them for who they are. I also said that it encouraged me...and that's the truth allthough I have great examples from my Grandparents,Aunts and Uncles, Parents, and Family friends....they are all older than me I didn't get to see what there relationship looked like when they were younger. So the best examples for me are my three best friends and there husbands/future husbands. I can see through them how a man is supposed to treat and love a woman. I can also see what a great example of a young marriage looks like and allthough each is different for each couple it is still a great example. I do sometimes miss the fact that they all have someone in there lives even though I don't....I know that I will find him one day just as he will me but I will wait paitently till that times comes it's just another thing that's appart of God's timing. This weekend though will be a lot of fun as weddings always are. Until next time hopefully I will be boquetless...

What Doesn't Kill Us Makes Us Stronger....

So my post today isn't about me it's about something that is closer to my heart. That is the city of New Orleans and the people that live there. On this day...today...5 years ago Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and the City of New Orleans head on. I at that time in my life was a freshman in College I had just started my first semester at Gardner-Webb University and had always been intrested in weather. I thought that Hurricane Katrina would be a bad one just like Hurricane Fran had been for the state of North Carolina when I was a child. But little did we know how bad...no one could have known that it would be aweful and that the levees would break. I had my first incounter with the devestation of Hurricane Katrina when I was working as a Summer missionary in Topsail Island in the summer of 2006 we ventured to Gulfport,MS with the youth that we had been working with that summer seeing the devestation for the first time was just mind boggling that all this stuff was here and then with this natural disaster was just gone. I helped put new sheet rock and mud the walls of a house that trip. As I venutred back to school that fall I was determined to not forget so that Spring I ventured back to the Gulf with a group from GWU during Spring Break 2007 where we continued to help rebuild. On this trip we venutred to St. Bernard Parish to gut a house that had water up to the roof. To see the devestation was just crazy the couple's house that we gutted got out just as the water began to flood there house they lost dog but got it back, both the husband and wife were rescued off of roofs in their neighborhood. To see the devestation and the fact that they had lost everything pictures dishes simple things like clothing never to be able to get those things back. We helped to clear there house till it was down to the studs of the house. We then gathered and prayed with the couple that healing would be renewed and they thanked us which caused me to tear up. I also visited the 9th ward while we were on this trip to see the devestation of where houses once were was just heart breaking. When we left I knew that the city had my heart and that I was destined to return several more times. That included the following Fall of 2007 then again at Christmas of that year, and then that Spring Break 2008 was the last time I was there. The last time I was there was very memorable for me I truly felt like the city had my heart and that God was calling me to help this city and even work with Disaster Relief ministry. I met on my last trip Ms. Ruth who's house we worked on and was about one of the sweetest women you will ever meet she even offered her home to us if we ever were to come back a need a place to stay. This picture is of me, Hannah, Natalie, and Ms. Ruth

There is also something that I happened to catch with my camera that last time I was there while we visited the 9th Ward it was different than the last times because lots of things had been cleared out. It was mostly now stoops and foundations. My heart even though far away thinks about the people who are strong who still reside in the city and on the Gulf coast. This picture symbolizes that:

Like the quote says "What doesn't Kill us makes us stronger". Until I get back to that city on the Mississippi....Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Trying to fly when your grounded in Concrete

"Somedays I feel like I can fly that I could take on the world then others I feel like my feet are made of concrete and I can't move." - Me

Every August for the last five years I have packed my life up to go back to school. Now that I have graduated I am not doing that this year. I feel a little lost during these last two weeks knowing that some of my close friends are moving back to school. I feel that pang again that I talked about last week. I just feel like I don't know where to go from here it would have been easier if there was a transition period. I feel like that quote somedays I do feel like I could fly that I could do anything and that everything is possible. But there also those days (I say that b/c they are usually several days in a row) where I feel like my feet are grounded in concrete and I am not going anywhere. It's almost like the age old statement "where do I go from here" whoever said this was a wise person. I feel that way not that I can't fit in here I do my family is here and some of my oldest friends who know me better than anyone. I just feel like I am a little out of place I just want to find myself somewhere else not here...It's hard to fly when you are grounded in concrete. The song by Rascal Flatts called "I'm Moving On" resonates with me:
I've dealt with my ghosts and I've faced all my demons

Finally content with a past I regret
I've found you find strength in your moments of weakness
For once I'm at peace with myself
I've been burdened with blame, trapped in the past for too long
I'm movin' on


I've lived in this place and I know all the faces
Each one is different but they're always the same
They mean me no harm but it's time that I face it
They'll never allow me to change
But I never dreamed home would end up where I don't belong
I'm movin' on

Like the line says I never thought that would be true..but it is...
Until I learn how fly with my feet on the ground...

You Want to be an Apple at the Top of the Tree...

“Girls are like apples...the best ones are at the top of the trees. The boys don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just get the rotten apples that are on the ground that aren't as good, but easy. So the apples at the top think there is something wrong with them, when, in reality, they are amazing. They just have to wait for the right boy to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree." - Pete Wentz

So I found this quote on the internet today by Pete Wentz (who is in the band Fall Out Boy). I thought what a great quote how true this is. I have tried to be most of my life one of those apples at the top of the tree in which I think I have succeeded. I have also tried to be a good woman who stays true to her values and doesn't try to be shall we say a rotten apple. Although I have known some rotten apples in my day I also have known some that turned out to be rotten on the outside yet have a good core. Anyways the quote being true to form all the great apples are I feel at the top of tree and with my three best friends being great examples of apples at the the top they all three have found boys who will climb to the top of the tree to find them. I one day hope that a boy will be willing to climb to the top for me. Until then I will wait at the top enjoying the view and sunshine!

Keeps Me Turning Home...

I find that since I have been home for the last three months that something about my home town just has a place in my heart and that the memories are hard to forget. Your hometown and the memories here are part of your past which is something I  don't care how hard you try to get rid of will always be with you. Since I have been my past has seemed to catch up with me. Not that I tried to forget it I didn't it was just on the back burner while I went to college and found my way. I recently did dinner and played games with my group of friends that have been together since I was in middle school. There are 3 guys and 3 girls including me. As I sat there playing games with them I realized even though we had grown up and gone our separate ways a part of each of us was still with the others. Its nice to have that I feel that way to about my memories and friends from Gardner-Webb too. Like the title and one of my new favorite country songs says:

"I don’t know no town/Like the old town/Even when the miles are many/I feel like I’m still around/Deep inside me/Like rings through an oak tree/Yeah, there something ‘bout a Sunday when I’m gone/That keeps me turning home/

and another part of the chorus says:

"And I don’t know no friends/Like the old friends/I never seem to laugh now/Like I did with them/But deep inside me/A piece of history/Yeah, I hear their voices even though they’re gone/And it keeps me turning home

Like the song says these things like my hometown and my friends keep my memories/past fresh in my mind.
They keep me turning home!

Moving Forward in Life

As of tomrrow I graduated college 3 months ago. All though it seems like just yesterday that I graduated from college and even began college. It's funny how things change in your life. Right now my days consist of looking for a job and running errands, along with other household chores, and such. Some how I can't help but feel that pang to go back to college. I don't know if its because I miss my friends or that time in my life. My college years are technically over and that seems weird because for the last 5 years of my life that's what I have done after summer I have gone back to school. My other thing is that I feel like I have that pang b/c where as at school I knew everybody had tons friends and had people who I wouldn't say needed me but were a big part of my life on a day to day. Now that they are not I don't really know what to do about that pang. The only thing I can say is that where I know that I am who I want to be...I also don't know where I fit in this point in my life. God will guide me to where I am supposed to be and I will eventually feel I fit some where!! Until till then good night!