Tragedy in the South

      The south has been rocked by the number of storms and tornadoes that went through on Wednesday April 27, 2011.  Wednesday morning I woke up at my dad around 6 to the sound of high winds, rain, and the tornado siren.  Luckily, a tornado did not touch down where I was at the time, but the wind damage across the town was a sight!  Power lines laying across the roads, huge trees uprooted everywhere I looked, trees lying on houses, roofs of buildings ripped off, and no power anywhere.  Several states were hit across the south, but Alabama was one of the worst with over 200 deaths, and more than 100,000 people out of electricity!  Our whole county is expected to be without power for 7-9 days, and most of the surrounding cities are as well, and will probably be out even longer.  So my family fled the state to go stay with family until the power comes back! Once we reached power Thursday night we finally got to see the news...and all the devastation across the south!  Tuscaloosa, Alabama was one of the worst places hit out of all the states.  A huge EF4 EF5 tornado a mile wide ripped through Tuscaloosa, missing the campus, but destroying the residential areas right next to campus and traveled on the ground for 80 miles.  The Tornado had wind speeds of up to 200 miles per hour and left Tuscaloosa looking like a war zone. To give you an idea of how rare these tornados are, the amount of  EF5 tornados that occur in the U.S. is about one every 2-4 years!  15th street was wiped out along with the mall and MidTown on Mcfarland Blvd.  Please pray for Ttown!  Right now there are 39 confirmed deaths and 571 people missing in Tuscaloosa!  

It is a tragedy what has happened across the south so please keep us in your prayers. 

 Roll Tide!! 

This is the Tornado in Tuscaloosa...

Happy Easter & Weekly Gratitude!

Happy Easter! And Congratulations to all you who have completed Lent! Now go and enjoy whatever it is that you have been passing up for the past 40 days!

Now for a little Weekly Gratitude!

Thank you Marley, my precious puppy, for endless kisses, love, and play!

Thank you Mom and Abbie Grace for movie night watching Tangled!

Thank you Sara Gruen for writing the book Water For Elephants, even if it is keeping me up all night reading!

Thank you God for the baseball teams win in the first round of the playoffs!

Thank you Carrabbas for dinner with friends!

Thank you to 2 of my closest friends for a reuniting lunch!

Thank you Mom for fun Easter Egg dying!

Thank you Easter for candy and now being able to wear the color WHITE!

Thank you Disney for the amazing movie African Cats and thank you AJ for taking me to see it!

Thank you Jesus for dying to save me and wash away my sins!

Thank you God for this day that we can be reminded of you sending your son to die for us, and how much you love us all!

Confessions of a candyholic.

So I have to admit that I did not stick to giving up candy for Lent as planned.. Yes, i'm guilty.  I was doing quite well, actually I was really proud of myself up until 2 weeks ago.  I was in Auburn with my best friend and like usual it was late, we were hungry, and we bought a bag of Cadbury eggs!  I wasn't even thinking about my lent commitment I was just enjoying each little chocolate easter egg I popped in my mouth! It wasn't until the next day I realized what I had done. I woke up and saw the empty bad of eggs and remembered! I'm NOT supposed to eat candy! oops:) Oh well, I thought, i'm not catholic anyways! I did make it pretty far, I mean I was 2 weeks away from Easter anyways! So since then I have been allowing myself to indulge in candy whenever I feel like it!  I will try again next year:)

Weekly Gratitude!

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles." 
— Audrey Hepburn

I am extremely grateful for everything and everyone in my life! So that is why I enjoy participating in these Weekly Gratitude blog posts! Its a nice time for me to sit and reflect on all the wonderful things from the past week! And it makes me excited for all the great things that are in the weeks to come!

Thank you UA housing for an awesome dorm room!

Thank you God for blessing me with 3 amazing roommates!

Thank you Urban Outfitters & Mom for cute clothes!

Thank you AJ for good movies, games of solitaire, and all the love in your heart!

Thank you April 15th for my 17 year old brother!

Thank you Mom for Lemon Ice Box Pie!

Thank you AJ for your home-run ball!

Thank you Lord for the baseball team Seniors and Regional Champs!

Happy 17th Little Brother!

Happy Birthday to my little brother Preston!!! Well, not so little anymore, he is turning 17! I don't know how he is 17 and about to be a junior in High School!! And, when did he get 7 inches taller than me?! We are two and a half years apart and I have been taller then Preston pretty much my whole life, but not anymore! The race ended when I was in 8th grade where I got stuck at 5'6 and he continued on!  But, no matter how tall he is, he will always be my little brother!

(Note: The 2 pictures on the right I have heels on haha so the picture of us on the left is a more accurate example of how much taller he is than me these days!)

Weekly Gratitude!

Oops! I meant to make this post yesterday but I got busy and forgot so I am just going to post it now because the past week has been awesome and I am definitely Grateful!!

• Thank you Amazon for my new book Water for Elephants I cant wait to read it! 
• Thank you rain for washing away some of the pollen!
• Thank you Eli for every funny thing that comes out of your cute little 6 yr. old mouth!
• Thank you Eli Young Band for an AWESOME concert!
• Thank you RODEO! For an amazing weekend with my best friend in Auburn!
• Thank you Sunshine for staying out all weekend!
• Thank You Susie for letting me stay with you all weekend!
• Thank you Cadbury Eggs & Tangled!

Boy, how times have changed!

Yesterday I turned on the T.V. and the Andy Griffith show was on.  Nothing else I was interested in was on at the time so I just watched some of the show.  I used to watch the show with my dad when I was little so enjoyed sitting down and feeling like a kid again watching a show from "the good ole days."

 In this particular episode there was a young boy who got his bike impounded by the Sheriff for riding it on the sidewalk.  Later the boy returned with his father to the jail to retrieve his bike. The boy cried and pitched a fit while the father tried to demand for the bike back.  Sheriff Andy finally said according to the law that since the boy is to young to go to jail then the bike must stay impounded for one week.
The boy then cried and yelled and said they could just lock his dad up and put him in jail so he could get the bike back.  He explained that his dad is tough and can handle it.  The father looked at his son then at Sheriff Andy and said you know what...give me that bike because I am going to sell it! The boy screamed and cried in his protest.  So Sheriff Andy suggested that they should handle this father son issue in private, and that there was a "real nice woodshed outback" and they are welcome to it. haha So the father said yes that would be a good place to go.  Sheriff Andy's son Opie asked, "Dad is he going to get a spanking?" Sheriff Andy said "Yes son I believe he is."

Wow how times have changed! These days it would be completely politically incorrect to say that! Haha now me and my siblings got spankings growing up and when we did we certainly deserved them even though at the time that was not what we thought!  Its just so strange how these days you can't even discipline a child in public without the risk of being accused of abuse.  It is interesting to watch shows from that time and see how different our world has become.