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You Might Be a Redneck if...

You try to live Top Shot out in your backyard with an axe and a bbgun. Well, I got home from work mid axe throwing contest: Jarod vs. Kyle vs. Zach.

I had to give it a try. I was horrible.

"I'm an axe man"

Beard brothers.

Will Smith should have sang a song about Pace...

...what what? You remember that Will Smith Jam - "We're going to Miami...(girls in background - Welcome to Miami).." Immortal. Well...if not, than here is a less allusion-based intro:

Thanksgiving in Pace with Drake and Rachel and Easton and Kathy and Kyle

Okay, maybe Pace isn't hot-spot-worthy enough to elicit a smash hit from a television/movie star rapper, but it was the site of my first warm weather Thanksgiving. Kyle, Kathy, and I made the car ride down to meet baby Easton and hang out with his parents. We visited the beach, spied a weirdo Santa at the mall, played a Logo game that I almost won, ate turkey, met the Overstreets (awesome crowd), and just hung out with the Wades of Florida. Easton seemed to get a kick out of me stealing his nose, which was a highlight of our adventure. OH and how could I forget, Rachel took some awesome engagement shots for Kyle and I. She posted a few of them already on facebook. : )

Speaking of camera action, here are some of the shots I took:

A mountain man at the beach.

Dorks.

I have developed this skill of taking pictures of people all looking different ways. I don't tell them to do it. I can just capture it. A rare gift. : )

Easton - covered up like a body guard does a celebrity outside a courtroom.

Silly Rachel with her precious bundle.

See, I am a master. How candid.

The gang.

I had to catch a shot of him later back at the Wade house...when he was awake. Yo, Easton!

"The Art of Racing in the Rain"

What an amazing novel. I finished reading this book on the 15 hour drive down to Florida for Thanksgiving. I couldn't put it down. The novel, by Garth Stein, is beautifully written and uniquely told from the viewpoint of the family dog, a plot device that could have turned out too disney-esque and kitschy, but didn't.  Stein succeeded in creating a realistic and sentimental narrative in the voice of Enzo. Enzo is owned by Denny, a race car driver who falls in love, builds a family, and faces great trials on the track and within his family. Enzo loves television - his main form of education- and racing and his family. Throughout the book, Enzo uses descriptions of great race car driving in comparison to living life. He repeats a motto instilled by Denny: "The car goes where the eyes go," a mantra focused on the idea that within a man's mind he creates his own destiny. It is what a man focuses on that shapes his life.


There is a similar mantra at church. The words you speak with your mouth, the words that come from your faith, will come to be in your life. Speak and believe. The same idea rests in "the car goes where the eyes go." Where a man's eye is set, so in that direction his life will lead.

Psalm 42 paints it in a different metaphor: “ As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” When an animal is thirsty, that thirst leads them. The need for water leads them to seek water. In the Psalm, the soul thirsts not for water, but for God. So, when we long for a closer relationship with God, if we keep our eye on Him, we will seek him and meet him.

Life is a race and where our focus lies is where our race leads. Hebrews 12: 1-2 states: "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Running the race with our eyes focused on God will lead to peace and salvation. Denny raced with eyes focused on not winning, but on being a part of the course, on giving up his egotism and becoming one with the car, on overcoming each marker and each turn until he did finish. Enzo explained, “In racing, they say that your car goes where your eyes go. The driver who cannot tear his eyes away from the wall as he spins out of control will meet that wall; the driver who looks down the track as he feels his tires break free will regain control of his vehicle.” If a man focuses on failure, he will fail. If a man focuses on triumph, he will succeed. If a man focuses on God, he will live as a faithful servant and prosper, even at time he fails. Another one of Enzo's quotes: “The true hero is flawed. The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles - preferably of his own making - in order to triumph.” Or the true hero has to have faith in God to over come those obstacles...as I would add.

The book has many many beautiful quotes and is definitely worth the read. Melissa recommended. : )

Sunny Florida, here we come...

Sooo excited about thanksgiving, about meeting Easton, about seeing Drachel, about 77 degree weather, about our photo shoot, about a week off of school, and yes even about the road trip down there.*Big Smiles*

Going to see this handsome fella. : )

I spent yesterday baking so we could have some snacks to bring with us and I would grade my success with ...maybe a B-. I am not the master baker; I leave that title for Briana. I try, but with hardly any luck. I attempted to make oatmeal cookies (from the Pioneer Woman cookbook), peanut-butter and jeally bars (from Martha Stewart), and chocolate-chip banana nut bread (from a Pillsbury cookbook). The cookies turned out a little  hard, the peanut-butter and jelly bars really really sweet, and the bread a little crisp on top. Not too too bad, but definitely not put-a-picture-on-the-blog worthy.

I am so excited to get our engagement pictures done. I didn't think Kyle and I would ever find the time - we kept just putting it off, not even planning a day to do it really, so when we finally made the plans to spend a week in FL, I thought - well that might be the perfect time. Rachel, a definite master photographer, is going to snap a few shots for us so we can finally make our save-the-dates and get those sent out. I am bringing some props - an old suitcase, a bouquet of dried flowers, a few crafty hearts, some books...and I hope to get some helium balloons while we are done there. I want the pictures to look easy breezy beautiful ...with a cover girl and guy...but I don't want them to look over staged. In that mindset...here are a few engagement shots I liked...

Mustaches are in...

...hopefully forever. ; )

Kyle and I got new tattoos and they are AWESOME! Just wait until we do the same sort of pic in our wedding get-up. Priceless.

Kyle borrowing my mustache...I need a better close up of Kyle as Mario. : )

Purple, Purple, Purple

Now I am in love with purple. I have decided, with the help of Cassie, on "Rose" (that's the first purple pictured in the dresses below) as the color of the Bari Jay bridesmaids dresses. Cassie and I went to see them in person and even though "Rose" sounds like pink, its actually a dusty purple color. Very vintage. Very pretty.

 Now, I am just looking for pictures of purple wedding color combos for inspiration...

This picture has the best representation of the purples I like. So pretty!

Dear Contestants

If you are my favorite - whether you are a singer, a designer, a chef, maybe a dancer - you will probably, on a positive note, not be kicked off first, but you aren't going to last until the finals either. Some where in the middle. That's where it will happen. I will be rooting for you, believing you are definitely going to make it until at least top 2, but, nope. Doesn't happen. Maybe Heidi finds your clothes boring. Maybe you overcook some shrimp. Maybe the rest of America doesn't like you. Maybe you get stuck with a Russian dance that just doesn't cut it.

Oh well, the television face time might just be enough. : )

....

Well, then again, you did make this...

Girl Date with Cassie

My friend Cassie from college lives in PA now and I live in VA, so we decided to meet in the middle, as she so eloquently put it, and have a girl day date. We started in Annapolis - at the mall - then, we walked around the harbor area, took some artsy pictures, ate some sushi, and had some awesome real frozen yogurt. Around mid-day, we traveled to Bmore to check out some possible bridesmaid dress, which really didn't take that long at all, and decided to go to Federal Hill to entertain ourselves.

We looked for Dangerously Delicious - the most amazing pie shop in all the world - but it is out of business now. : (   So we wandered into a book store where we learned that there was a book festival happening in Mount Vernon - best piece of information of the day. We drove over with love in our hearts for free festivals, especially those of Baltimore. We shopped for books, ate the most delicious vegetarian food from a Hipster food truck, and had a truly 1975 moment while listening to "Hey Jude" performed by a Beatles cover band (there were hippie girls dancing with hula hoops and bubbles!). It was AWESOME!! Definitely the best part of the day. We also had a personal poem written for us on the spot. Pretty great.

Once the book fair ended, we traveled to our "Cheers bar" of college - The Phoenix. I had a bit of a hard time staying awake on my 3 hour drive home, but I had an awesome day none-the-less! Hooray for Cassie Cortese! (Can I put your full name in my blog? Hmmm....not sure)

Enjoy some fun day photos. : )

Cassie posing for an me. : )

I'm not as great with the modeling job.

Oh Yogurt!

Charming Annapolis, MD

I made friends with a grasshopper.

The oldest building in MD....and two great friends.

Most delicious vegetarian grub ever!

The Yellow Dub-Marines!

Yep.

Our poets.