My very first blog

This was the very first bolg I wrote on MySpace. Thought it did an ok job of catching people up!

Just a little update for all of you who aren't all the way up to date and who care enough to actually read a blog (that can't be very many ;^) Let's see....I finished up at Faulkner in May of 2002. I had a whole set of plans from there.....absolutely none of them have panned out. But, that's been ok. I ended up moving up to Lineville, AL where my parents lived, just to "figure out what I wanted to do." I ended up meeting a wonderful man there, joining a wonderful congergation, and getting a job that I loved. My parents actually ended up moving from Lineville in January of 2004. Since Louise had gone to Faulkner in August of 2002 and Leigh had gone in August of 2003, that left me in Lineville alone with my wonderful man, church home, and job. That's when I got my first little apartment by myself. "Little" doesn't even begin to describe it, but I loved it! Once again it seemed that life was on track and I had plans again. Fast forward to July 15th, 2004. Since I was working night shift, I was at my apartment with Louise (who was staying with me for the summer) when the phone rang. Since I didn't have caller i.d., I rarely answered it and didn't on that day. Then my cell phone rang. I tried to get it but didn't get to it in time but saw that it was my dad. I dialed my voice mail and listened to my message...that message changed all of our lives. In short, Daddy was telling me that Momma had been taken to the hospital and they didn't really know what was wrong. I immediately called him back and told him that we were on our way (to Chattanooga, where they were living now). I did have the presence of mind to call Tim who did have the presence of mind to tell me that he was going to drive us. I don't remember a whole lot about that trip. When we got to Chattanooga (an important side note here is that Leigh at this very time was in Hawaii, half way through her two week trip) they had Momma all hooked up in ICU. It was then that they informed us that my Mom, who just the day before had worked and attended Wednesday night services and was a healthy 45 year old, had suffered a stroke. She had absolutely no use of her left side at all. She was totally helpless and that's exactly how she looked all medicated and with tubes sticking out of her everywhere. We collectively decided that it was for the best not to tell Leigh who was celebrating her 19th birthday the next day, in Hawaii. Mom was in MICU for three days, then moved to a regular room for a week, and then moved to Siskin Rehab hospital where she would spend the next four months (and Daddy and I would spend most of our time the next four months) of her life. When they took her over there by ambulance she didn't even have control over her own bathroom functions. She couldn't even smile. When she WALKED out a few months later, she was doing most everything for herself and had even taken and passed her driving test! It was amazing! She is amazing and there is no doubt in any of our minds that God truly blessed us with the nurses, doctors, and pt's at Siskin...they are amazing and we are forever in their debt! Oh yeah, not telling Leigh and letting her find out accidently over the email in Hawaii....not a great moment in our family history! Helping Mom get better pretty much consumed the next six months of all of our lives. Let's see we now skip ahead to 2006. In March of 2006, I had one of the greatest and most thrilling experiences of my life as I got to spend 2 1/2 weeks in Greece. It was amazing and not a day has passed since I got back that I have not thought back to how wonderful that was. It's a good thing...I would need that to get me through the next bump in life. So, I get back from Greece, Momma is a lot better, and once again I feel like things are on track and I can safely resume my plans. (I know, you'd think I'd learn but, you'd be wrong!) On April 22nd my life totally changed once again. The man that I had built my life around and had every intention of spending the rest of my life with decided that that was not to be. (I'm going to leave that at that) This time I didn't react so well. I pretty much just worked and went to church services. That was it. My family and friends were wonderful, as always, I just was going through something that I needed to get through. Until June of 2006. That's when, after MUCH prodding, John and Denise Rice, convinced me to come out and visit Backwoods. I did and, very much like the same thing that happened when I went to camp for the first time in third grade, I was hooked immediately. I ended up staying out there for at least part of four weeks of camp and I think I visited every week. I have no doubt that God knew EXACTLY what I needed. Through camp came three of the most important things that helped me get through the whole Tim thing and all the changes that came along with it. That was Brint, Shanon, and Bambi. Friendly aquaintences for a few years almost immediately became lifeline friends. Now we come to present time. Let's see...I'm working with Montgomery 911 as a fire dispatcher. I work about 60-70 hours a week, I am an active member at University CoC, I work out at the Y and much to the suprise to ANYONE who has ever met me, I have actually learned to like almost love it. I know, it's crazy! That's pretty much it for now. I know it's not a lot, but I'm in a transition phase. I'm not exactly sure what I am transitioning to, but I look forward to finding out. The best thing about my life is that I know for sure that God is there for me all the time! He amazes me. Plus, I have learned two very important lessons. One, STOP making plans! I mean take a hint! Two, I'm not living from bad thing to bad thing anymore with the good times just filling in the in betweens. From now on I am living from good thing to good thing, no matter how small or how large and I will just get through the little bad times in between! OK, I'm pretty sure this falls into the category of short story or book instead of just blog but, I just wanted to catch everyone up. (I should put something totally random and funny in here just to see if anyone actually does read this far....honestly, I would have given up half way through! thanks for being such a dedicated friend to read to the end!) Thank you to every single one of you who has played any role in the last decade of this crazy life, you have definitely made my life evrything good that it has been. God has truely blessed me more than I could have ever asked.

prayer requests

Please keep the family and friends of Cpl Kenneth Armstrong in your prayers. Cpl Armstrong was a detective with the Montgomery Ploice Dept who was killed this morning in a vehicle accident while on his way to a burglery call. Cpl Armstrong was only 32 years old and leaves behind a wife, who also works for the city, and two young children. He had only worked for MPD for three years. I know I sound like a broken record but, please take the time to keep these people who protect us in your daily prayers. This includes all police officers, firefighters, ems workders, and military. They all put their lives on the line everyday to make the world livable for the rest of us. They are overworked,underpaid, underappreciated, and I can't imagine what any of our lives would be like without them. Please also remember the MPD. This is our third officer that we have lost in less than a year. That is a very high number when you think that, that is three fathers, husbands, sons, and/or brothers, not to mention friends. Becasue of what we all deal with everyday, it really does bond us together and make us a family and losing three members of your family in less tha a year is tough. Thanks so much and God bless.


And, please also remember the Hicks family and the McSween families. Our God is so good and there is no time where that is more obvious than now, when there are so many terrible things happening. How do people that don't have an active relationship with God, even get out of the bed in the morning?

Car Woes

So, my plan was to get up around 8 yesterday morning, shoewer, pack, go hang out with Meli until around lunch then leave to come back to Montgomery (about a 4 1/2 hour drive) and be back in time to rest before I had to be at work at 10:30. Well, things started to go amiss from the plan when I left Melissa's the night before, around 9ish. I decided to go see Nicole sionce she lived right down the street. It was when I went to leave her house that I noticed that I had a flat tire. Now, don't be mistaken when you see the word flat. I don't mean real low on air, I mean FLAT! Well, Tom had already left for work so I decided just to sleep there and worry about it in the morning. There wasn't much I could do after 11:00 anyways. Well, God love him, when I woke up Wednesday morning Tom had taken my car, had the tire patched AND brought us Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. I was SO happy and not too far off of my plan. Now, Gin Gin's house (where I was staying) was about 5 miles away. SO, off I go to pack and to go to Meli's. Well, not so much, evidently. The tire was flat again by the time I got there. Just my luck. So, a very nice man from the Children's Home comes over and helps me put on my spare. I go to Melissa's for a very short time and then I'm on my way to Quitman (going at the blazing speed of 45 mph!) because PaPa knows a tire guy who can probably get me a good used tire for a reasonable amount of money and pretty quickly. Well, for times sake I'm going to move this along, I finally left Quitman at about 10:30 (e.s.t.) last night with four NEW tires and $300 poorer! You've got to love life! On a much more serious note, Meli seemed to be better but please keep them in your prayers!

Coming Home

OK, so (after a little pressure from some friends) I decided to give this a try (for my few friends who don't keep up with me through MySpace and Facebook). I got to come home (to Valdosta for all of you who don't know that) today. I work night shift so, obviously, I sleep during the day. Well, when I woke up around seven on Friday I had 18 missed calls. Most of from which were friends and family here in Valdosta. I knew something was wrong and dialed Gin Gin to find out what it was. That was when she told me that Melissa had, had some complications on Thursday and Janey had made her enterance on Friday morning. For any of you who don't know who Melissa is, she has been my friend longer than any of my other friends. Our parents went to school together and then we started school together in pre k at Georgia Christian and graduated together in 1998. I love her and she married John Hick, who I love just as much and feel like I've known just as long. I wish that this blog would help me put into words how I felt at Janey (their daughter)'s funeral today. At that moment there was nothing that I could think of that I wouldn't have done to take their pain away or just ease it. Anyways, I left work at 4:30 this morning and got here about 20 mins before the service was to start. I love and miss all of "my people" here and that longing was even more severe today. I love my home and am so thankful to have people like John and Meli in my life. I hope you all remember them in your prayers.
OK, this was a lot for a blog, I know I got a little wordy (is that even a real word?). But, I had a lot to talk about since this was my first one AND so much is going on. We'll see how this blog thing goes.