Girl's Night Traditions

Girl's Night. It's a pretty standard phrase in my vocabulary. We girls love to get together and hang out! It typically involves food, renting a movie (that we usually don't watch), talking, laughter, and general craziness! It's almost October which means it's almost time for our annual Halloween Girl's Night! Urban Legend is the scariest movie we've ever watched together and I'm pretty sure that we're still scared for life from it. So we generally go with something pretty harmless when it comes to the scary factor. Something involving a mystery, not a gorefest! But this year, Rach's hubby, is going to be home the night of our planned girl's night and wants to watch our movie with us. And he's doing the choosing. I don't know what he got (Rach says he already bought it...) but I'm pretty sure I'll never go outside after dark alone again and will probably have a new found fear of the shower and/or woods!

Last year we decided to forgo the movie and go take a haunted hayride near Rach's house instead. Mistake. I'm pretty sure we scarred ourselves for life and will forever be afraid of chainsaws in dark woods (then again, who isn't afraid of chainsaws in dark woods?).

This year will also be the first year that Megan will be big enough to trick or treat. We're pretty excited to take her out and about for it. She may or may not freak out and hate it. But it will be alright. It's just one more fun tradition to add to our line up.

Happy Birthday, Nessa

This is me and my buddy, Nessa. She's super important today (along with everyday)! That's because it's her birthday! She's 23! We look sorta weird in that picture. It's because we were snowed into our dorm room back when we weren't 23. I think we were 21. But we're cool so instead of getting wasted like everyone else on campus, we put green face mask on, then put tea bags on our eyes and laid in the floor of our dorm room listening to creepy night sounds that were supposed to be relaxing (but weren't). So because she is awesome and 23 (like me now), I thought I'd make my post for today about some of our memories together!

When I first met Nessa, it was my third semester at Concord, and her first. Her roommate was one of my close friends and we immediately hit it off. That's because she was Baptist. Kelly (her roommate) introduced us and we shook hands. When Kelly and I left the room to go over to my room, I told her, "She's Baptist.". Kelly was baffled as to how I could possibly know that from our 2 minute meeting. She laughed at me when I told her it was because of her handshake. But later when we went to Walmart (where else do you go on the first night of the semester at CU?) with Nessa and some other friend, Kelly asked and sure enough, Baptist! Once we realized we had that in common, we found about a billion other things that we both loved. Including eating brownie's in batter form while wearing pajamas!

I can say with 100% assurance that Nessa and her friendship is what got me through my Sophomore year of college! I don't know what I would have done without her! We went through a lot of crazy things together! The first night that she went over to my dorm with me, she was wearing shorts. It was January. And snowing. I educated her on quite a few WV (she's a Florida native) things that mostly had to do with winter and what the guys with the orange stripes on their shirts jobs were! When we decided that taking a trip to Florida for spring break was the best idea ever, she educated me on the Floridian things that I needed to know! I still haven't managed to take that trip to her house in Florida with her, but I've spent plenty of time at her family home in the mountains of WV! Her family is kinda like my family and vice versa!

One more memory and I promise, I'll stop! When Nessa and I got stressed out, we did one of two things: A) went to the dock at Pipestem and laid in the sun or B) drove wherever the road took us. One day in April was a driving kind of day and the road took us to Bristol. We turned on the music (old school country, if you care) and sang and laughed all the way there. When we got there we had no idea where we were going or what our plan was, but we found an adorable little restaurant with decent (but pricey) burgers and ate there after wondering the charming streets of Bristol for a while. We drove back to school in the dark and hoped to goodness that we didn't get lost on the way! It was a super fun night even if it did almost break the bank!

So all of this was just to say,

Me and Nessa on the plane to Florida for Spring Break!

(I had to throw this one with the three of us in! Me, Nessa, and Dana

on the day of our college graduation!)

Happy Birthday, Nessa!

I love you and am so glad that you are a part of my life!

Love, Erin

Adventures with Corn

The first time I visited the Milton corn maze was with my family last fall. I found it online after talking about how we'd all like to visit one. To my surprise, the entire family was up for going that same afternoon so we just dropped everything and did something spontaneous (which is a big deal for us!)! We had a great time getting lost in the acres of corn! When you go to the maze, you can choose from different "passports" to help guide you through the maze. We chose the interactive one which made us do crazy things like sing "Jingle Bells", and turn a certain number of degrees left and right. After you finished the action correctly, you would get the direction you should go in. I think it took us about an hour to get out of the maze. We then got to enjoy a wagon ride back to the parking area. It was one of my favorite recent family memories!

This past week, I decided to take my youth group to the same place. It's about a 2 hour drive so leaving after school on a Friday evening didn't get us there until about 7:30 by the time you added in potty breaks! The entire day it had been raining but we were glad to see it start to let up as we got to the maze. We armed the kids with flashlights and jackets, split up into two teams, and entered the maze, fully expecting to be out within an hour. The worked out great for the boy's team. Not so much for the girls. That maze was MUDDY! We slipped and slid for all of two hours before finally escaping the depths of the cornstalks! I think the girls started saying they were hungry around question 2 of our "scripture passport". Olivia even considered "eating her way out". We got lost on question 3. We got lost on question 7. We gave up on question 8 and called the boys to send help. There. I said it. We gave up!

But even after all of that, we still had a really good time. It wasn't the first and I know it won't be the last time that a event with the kids doesn't go as I plan it, but that's alright. Sometimes going with the plan isn't nearly as fun as going with the flow!

Note: I'm not sure that I'll do it again with the kids, (not because of the venue, more because there's just no predicting fall weather and who wants to take tired, wet, muddy, and hungry kids through a corn maze?) but I think my friends and I are planning another trip there in a couple of weeks. If you're looking for some family fun, I'd definitely recommend it!

Check them out here:

http://www.cooperfamilyfarms.net/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Corn-Maze-at-Cooper-Family-Farms-of-Milton-WV/142902055728992

Oh, What a Difference...

"Like a blind man I wandered, so lost and undone. A beggar so helpless without God or His Son. Then my Savior in mercy heard and answered my cry. Well, oh, what a difference since Jesus passed by! Since Jesus passed by...well, I can't explain it and I cannot tell you why, but oh, what a difference since Jesus passed by."

I work at a daycare so everyday I hear a LOT of things come out of kids mouths (Yes, parents, I know lots of things! :P). Sometimes what they say is funny. Sometimes I am shocked to hear what they say. Sometimes they amaze me with what they know. And then sometimes, they just bless me all over and melt my heart! Tuesday was one of those days. The heart melting kind! I'll get back to why the daycare is relevant here in a minute but first you need to know some things.

The little girl on the left is my baby cousin (Don't tell me she's not a baby. I'm in denial. Leave me alone.). I've watched her grow up and been there for a lot of the big moments in her life. I was never more happy to be there for a moment in her life than I was in the week that this picture was taken. It was Vacation Bible School week and she was in 1st grade. Just 7 years old. I had a big and wild class that year and had never been quite so stressed in VBS before. But Thursday morning made it worth it all. I had the privilege of leading 5 sweet children to the Lord that morning, including my baby girl.

The picture to the right is that afternoon when she was given a Bible after being saved. Looks like the same little girl, right down to the missing teeth, but let me tell you, she was different. In the first picture she was an adorable little girl with a cute grin and dimples. But she was lost, without Jesus. In this picture though, she was still that same adorable kiddo, but now, she has the best gift ever given living in her heart, Jesus.

Back to the daycare. Tuesday, we were talking about prayer in worship. Stevie, my coworker, asked the kids to name some prayers that God had answered for them. My girl, Cassidy, and another little one raised their hands and both of them gave the same response, "When Jesus saved me!". Like I said, they melted my heart right then and there. I realized something about them though. Cassidy was saved over a year ago. The other little girl was only saved about 2 weeks ago. But when I looked at them and the smiles that lit up their little faces I saw the same thing. They were both thrilled to death to have Jesus in their hearts. I'm so glad that the joy of knowing Jesus hasn't faltered in either of their little hearts. I think about what Jesus said about the little children. You have to be like a little child to enter into the kingdom of God. Their boundless joy is one thing that we adults could definitely use some of. So here's my prayer: Lord, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation!

What Should Have Been a Post About a Corn Maze

This was going to be a post about a corn maze trip from last year. I was just trying to find the pictures to go with it. But instead I found this. And all of the other sob inducing pictures you'll find below. This is Elizabeth. She was around 1. Her hair stuck off of her head and made me laugh. Now she is five. She's in Kindergarten. And she's smarter than me. *tear* Where in the world has time gone?! I'll just devote the rest of this post to a few pictures I found that make me feel really old. They may make you feel old too. Sorry about that in advance.

Trey. I think he was one. We liked to dress him up.

Often in girl clothing. I'll save that post for when he's 16.

Michaela was 10. Addi was 3 months. Michaela

wasn't wearing more make up than me. Addi didn't have

as much hair as me.

Cassidy. Around 4. Why was she on a cell phone?

Guess she already had a better social life than me!

Will was so little. The dimples kill me. Still.

I don't even know how old he was. Four?

The real question here is why does my hair look like that?

And where is my make up?

Jack was 6 years old. In my very first VBS class.

There were 13 of them. They're in middle school now.

Gosh, he was adorable!

Ari was 9ish. We were making cookies for the preacher.

She's in high school now. And wears her hair down.

With products in it.

Just one more...the saddest of them all...

I don't know when this was. I really don't care

when this was. I just know it's my butt and thighs. And they were a

whole lot skinnier than they are now.

Whoever took this picture is going to be "forked".

You've reminded me of times past when I was skinny[er].

Stupid size 9 jeans. You're nothing but a memory.

Sisters

Look to the left. That's my best friends and I. You're looking at three of the weirdest (we prefer the term "peculiar") girls that God ever created. And you're looking at three of the most blessed girls that God ever created. Julie Beth and I have known one another since she was born. The memories and experiences that we have shared are countless. Sarah and I haven't known each other quite as long, but we may as well have. We have just as many memories! They're, as cliche as it is to say, my soul sisters!

The three of us are infamous for our tendency since we were teenagers to take long drives to absolutely nowhere. They seem totally pointless to most people. But they're some the best memories of my life. We have a rule for these drives though. "Nothing said [in secret] in this car leaves this car!". It's our time of fellowship. We talk all at once, over top of each other and still somehow manage to understand everything the other two are saying. We change the subject often. We laugh. We cry. We sing. We help each other through the latest crisis'. We tell our deepest, darkest secrets. We talk about how great our God is. We ponder the mysteries of Heaven and share the latest "pots of honey" that we've found in our Bibles'. I'm pretty sure that half of the time we are "driving" that God is really driving the car. Otherwise, I'm not sure how we'd survive as involved in our conversations as we are (don't panic anyone...we really do pay more attention to the road than it sounds like!)! Something that started out when we were all around 16 years old has carried on way longer than any of us ever imagined it would. We used to solve the problems of the world on our drives when we were just kids.

When you grow up and go to college or get a job, you tend to lose your childhood friends. That's happened to us. The kids that we hung out with growing up aren't around anymore. Some are married. Some have moved. Some we've just drifted away from. But at least for now, the three of us are as close as ever. We've made some new friends that don't replace the ones we've lost, but are just as important to us (you know who you are!) Time marches on, and inevitably it will march on for us one day as husbands, careers, families, and whatever other plans God has for us come to pass. For now though, we have this time. For now, we have the chance to make the memories together that we'll treasure forever and ever. And for now, we're content in so much as God has given us.

Bonfire Night

Note to Reader: I've been gone a long time. A really long time. In the past year I've become a youth group leader (boy is that material for a future post!) student taught, graduated college, substitute taught, and started a master's degree. Life has finally started to settle into a comfy routine for me so I hope that this time around I can manage to keep up with this crazy thing I call my blog! Bear with me! If I don't post, yell at me. Please. Help me!

Sitting around a bonfire is a pretty common place for my memories to occur. I can't tell you how many great memories I have that involve fire. Logan and Debbie's hair, Peter and the blanket monster, singing around the fire, melting pop cans...the list goes on and on. I made another memory around a bonfire last night.

A bonfire. Not the bonfire from the night we're

talking about but one very similar to it from the past.

Debbie had the Sr. BYF (technically since I'm the Jr. BYF leader now I'm not Sr. BYF, but we pretend whenever I don't have a Jr. BYF event at the same time) over to her house for a bonfire last night. Her rule is no roasting anything (that developed shortly after Logan caught someone's hair on fire) so we had pizza instead. Before it got dark, the boys and younger girls played basketball leaving Debbie, Sarah, JulieBeth, and I mostly to ourselves around the fire. We talked and caught up a bit on life since the 4 of us rarely get to talk these days. After it got dark, the younger kids came over and we all moved in closer to the fire (it was really cold for mid-September!). We talked for awhile longer and eventually started singing some of our favorite church songs. Anyone who knows the majority of us knows that singing is basically a staple in any church event we have. It's what we do.

Then suddenly out of the blue, Debbie says, "Alright, I have to teach you girls (the girls is typically Sarah, JulieBeth, and I) something." So naturally we say "Okay." The next words from her mouth would have shocked us 10 years ago. They seem like a normal thing to say now. This should sufficiently prove to you our insanity. She says, and I quote, "I have to teach you to play your noses in harmony!". So like any "normal" 20 something year old girls, we immediately do what she is doing and "tune up" our noses, laughing all the while. I unfortunately had a cold that didn't permit me to properly "play". Later after I went the the bathroom and returned with a "clear" nose, I announced it to the girls and Deb and we proceeded to tune up again and play "Amazing Grace" on our noses. In harmony. It was a proud moment.

The younger kids were staring. Ari asked, "Did you guys just play Amazing Grace on your noses?". "Why yes, yes we did!" we replied proudly. I couldn't see in the dark, but I'm pretty sure they were rolling their eyes and shaking their heads at us. But that's okay. One day they'll look back and remember the night the older girls entertained them with nose harmony (not to mention the "scary story" Debbie told about the night her and Letha first began to play their noses in harmony in the creepy James Woods) and they'll smile and realize that they too were making memories!