FUN!

I guess you could say I'm a little bit of a romantic. And by a little bit, I mean definitely. I'm the girl who sees everyday situations and can't wait to share them with that special someone, who is incredibly excited for the day when she gets to look at her little ones and tell them how she met their daddy, and to be patient because anyone God has picked out is worth waiting for. I've prayed, waited, and wanted my husband ever since I started encountering those lovely Christian couples that show through their faith that God's true love is worth waiting for. 


NOW. That being said....

I spent the weekend in San Antonio, Texas at Six Flags with this lovely group of people, minus Daddy who was of course taking the picture. We rode an insane amount of rides, walked from one end of the park to the other what felt like 3 million times, (it wasn't...), and did the obligatory standing in lines that took what felt like hours, but were really just very very long groups of minutes. WITH the obligatory standing in lines, comes the encountering of what we've lovingly dubbed, the "Theme Park Couples." 


You've seen them. The cute ones that snuggle up to each other in line, hold hands as they skip through the park, and comfort the squealing girlfriend on the way up the roller coaster hills (whilst the rest of us are thinking "honey,  you're on the ride. There's no going back now.") Of course, this prompts much yearning & longing & "oh I can't wait to bring boyfriend to a theme park!" from the group of 5 single girls who are running around screaming their heads off on the kiddie rides :D


But as I'm at home after a very long road trip, and thinking about all the memories and fun, I'm actually MORE thankful that I went with my family, and that boyfriend hasn't quite shown up yet, which sounds  weird and a little bit different from my normal attitude. I rolled across parking lots, screamed more than the little kids on the Bugs Bunny rides, and danced dorkily to music from passing carnival games. I didn't worry about my hair, clothes, or who was going to see me at the park... not that I worry about any of those as much as I should anyway, as Rachel can so easily testify ;). I'm happy and thankful that I was able to have simple, easy, God given fun. I guess in essence, this is the closest Bethany has gotten so far to saying "all right Lord, it's Yours and You can have it. Right now I'm single. Let's do this." 


God's said no to a lot of things in my life recently. It's painful and it's disappointing, but in the back of my head there's a little voice called Hope that gets more and more excited. That's the little voice that knows that God's not going anywhere, He's not letting ME go anywhere, and even though I don't know what the next turn brings He does, and He enjoys bringing me joy and holding on to me when the ocean gets stormy, or I let myself fall a little bit to hard and come crawling back after I've hurt myself. 


So there it is! Who knew a weekend at the theme park could turn into a life lesson? Coming home with laughter, joy, no voice, some bruised limbs, and a new appreciation and thankfulness with the family and wonderful best friend God has given me. 

The Awkward Middle Part...

Every little girl wants this. They grow up thinking that one day they'll be introduced to a handsome prince that loves them and reminds them of the way Daddy loves Mommy....then they grow up and pretend to be independent but deep inside is still that little girl that yearns to be swept off her feet by her Prince Charming no matter how hard she fights against him. People want a happy ever after, and they want the road there to be nothing but smiles, butterflies and smooth sailing. 


But people forget about the awkward part in the middle. And what does that mean? 


It means that in order to get from "Once upon a time...." to, "...and they lived happily ever after" you have to get through the part where Cinderella runs away and Prince Charming thinks he's lost her for good. 


Allow me to demonstrate. 


It takes Harry Potter seven INSANE books to achieve his happy ending and end married with a family.


Sleeping Beauty ends up with her prince, but first she sleeps for the equivalent of her lifetime. 


In order for the Little Mermaid to get her happy ending she loses her voice, her family, and almost watches the love of her life marry another woman. 


More biblically....


Jacob pursued Rachel, only to find out on his wedding night that his own father in law had slipped her older sister Leah into his bedchamber. "So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, but they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her." - Genesis 29:20


Ruth finds Boaz ONLY after leaving her home, her family, and the grave of her dead husband, and traveling to a land where she's not even accepted all for the love of her mother in law.


And most importantly: The Gospel.


Through the Gospel we receive redemption in Christ; the opportunity to stand before the God of the Universe with a clean slate, because when He looks at us He sees not our sin but the blood of His beloved Son. But in order for Christ to achieve that, He had to endure excruciating pain, humiliation, and a criminal's death. He had to break the very BONDS of death, in order to ensure that we would be set free of them forever. 


So to sum up what I'm saying...not even in our fairy tales & stories, are love & relationships completely smooth sailing. It's hard and sometimes it looks like the entire world is ending! But I guess my encouragement is, if it still looks like that, then it's not the end. And if it's not the end, then God's not done with us yet. And our plans for our lives pale in comparison next to His. 


It's kind of like choosing a day at the playground when you could have spent the day at DisneyWorld. It just doesn't compare :) 

Where did summer GO?!

Well...the last thing I remember was stepping off a plane from Florida, and then I blinked...and suddenly we're halfway through July! Well, almost. Seriously. I don't know where my summer went. 

My family & I spent the last week at my Mamaw's house, helping out with her church's VBS, which was absolutely wonderful and which sadly I don't have pictures for yet. I got to help out in the nursery, which meant that I got to spend an entire week with 6 lovely children that were absolute dolls to play with. 

And our theme for the week? 

No matter who you are....trust God.

No matter how you feel...trust God.

No matter what people do....trust God.

No matter what happens...trust God.

And no matter where you are...trust God.

Suffice to say I needed reminding just as much as my kids did. 

So now that I have 5+ VBS kids songs stuck in my head (with hand motions of course!) I sit down with a calender & I look at the remaining time i have at home with my wonderful family. 

This coming week I'm babysitting the lovely twins Blake & Megan, whom will tie up my mornings and my energy in more ways then one. Afternoons will involve packing and getting ready for college, becaaaaausseee....

the week after work my little sister's best friend Dasha arrives! Which means that my family will be entertaining and traipsing all over the grand state of Texas, which HOPEFULLY includes a Fiesta Texas visit that I will be able to drag 1 of my friends to ;) 

After THAT I'm off to Georgia for Alumni Reunion, my little sister turns 16 (AH!) and we leave early for a wonderful roadtrip through Savannah, Georgia, which ENDS with my family depositing me at Columbia International University for the fall semester...

WHAT. JUST. HAPPENED. 

Needless to say, I can't wait for all these wonderful happenings to occur! I'm still working on my summer bucket list, and although a FEW items have been crossed off as done (and a few have been crossed of as not happening...there's no beaches that I want to walk on in Texas...) there still needs to be some lovely things that need to happen. 

And all of this happens with me STILL humming VBS theme songs. Of course ; D

Item #2....complete! JuneBugs in the making.

2 down, 74 to go! 

Item #2: Take one photo a day for an entire month. 

FINITOED. We're gonna pretend that's a fancy word for finished. Maybe I made it up. That seems to be a trend! 

Well. Technically I still have one photo to go, with the tag #friend, but that will be completed as soon as the sister friend pulls into my driveway. But other than that, I actually buckled down and took 1 photo a day for the entire month of June! Sometimes they turned out pretty stupid, but for the most part it was insanely awesome to be able to document my month & then go back and look at it :) 

SO. The highlights of my month! 

DisneyWorld was definitely a highlight. But since I've pretty much already written about it, that's all I say. Disneyworld. Beautiful. Got to see Kartwright. Awesome memories. The end :) 

The best sister friend turned 19! One year left of teenagerhood, and I got to spend the entire weekend with her. Lovely lovely times and some pretty laughable memories :D

My Charles Martin liking has become....well, rather obsessive. Not that I'm complaining. I've been incredibly thankful to have several afternoons to just sit around and catch up on my reading! Most of which includes Sherlock Holmes (official book nerdness) and this wonderful writing man ^. I've been happy. And have Kartwright to thank for introducing me to him!

We got to go to an Astros game, and got WONDERFUL field level seats because we bought Faith & Family tickets. Jordan Schafer, my new favorite player since *cough* Hunter Pence decided to leave *cough* was a short distance away. Thankfully Patricia kept me from running onto the field and embarassing myself in typical fan, Bethany fashion ;) After the game we got to watch Third Day, live & in concert and they were great! We left just in time to watch the sun set behind the Houston skyline, which  MIGHT be one of my favorites in the world. Oh. And I thought I saw Hunter. (I didn't. It was a letdown.) 

And FINALLY, the complete highlight of my month were THESE lovely beauties! World, meet Bonnie, Clyde and Smalls my snail. They are just fish, but have come to hold a very special place in my heart, and will be making the college trek (somehow) with me in the coming month. I LOVE THEM. The only downside is, you can't really cuddle with a fish. so that's a party dampner. Also, when I tried to remove them from the bag they got stuck. I saw their lives flash before my eyes. GOODNESS. But they're okay now :) 

so, that was my June. To be honest, I'm COMPLETELY thrilled for the month of July.

Oh. And to end. God has taught me so much in this past month. He has revealed areas of my heart that I previously thought were locked, loaded, and already fixed. Once again, He has shown & promised me that He is NOT done with me. Thank the Lord for such a wonderful Savior :)