yay for the Buddy walk! wait, where'd our buddy go?

What a wonderful Sunday funday this was. Any day I get to spend a whole afternoon with my P. Sawyer is always the best day ever. This particular day was just icing on the cake, because I got to hang out with her family, too! A little over a month ago, she invited me to walk in the 2010 Greenville Buddy Walk with the Pineros gang in honor of her sweet little brother, David, who has down syndrome. They've been participating in this event for years and years, and I was so pumped when she asked me to tag along!

I had never heard of the Buddy Walk until she told me about it. Shame on me, because it was so much fun and it really is a wonderful cause! I hope I get to be a part of this for a loooooong time and maybe even get to be more involved than just the walk. What would I do without great friends like Melanie Joy Pineros (better known as P. Sawyer) to always push to be a better person than I already am? I'd be willing to bet that she probably doesn't even realize how much she influences my life for the better, which is just proof that she's one of the best people on the planet. How blessed am I that one of the best people on the entire planet is my very best friends? Blows. My. Mind.

 sibling love.

 the sweet Pineros family. team DAVID, of course!

 lookin' gooooooooooood.

 look who walked right in front of us! yay for seeing the Owens/Long family!

 oh, oh, it's magic.

 how sweet is this?

 David getting his medal for being AWESOME.

 see what I mean? totally awesome.

 showin' off his bling.

 cutest. puppy. in. the. whole. world.

 these crazy cats were dancin' FOOLS!

 P. Sawyer, you so fierce.

 what pretty friends I have.

 meet my best friend David.

 our balance-the-cup-on-our-heads act. we'll be here all week.

 "let's take a normal one." umm, come again?

 fuh-hiiiiii-nally. Hales & P. Sawyer do LIFE. :)

oh you know, just the usual.

Check it out for yourself.  The Buddy Walk is something that everyone should get involved in, whether you know someone who has been affected with Down Syndrome or not. Happy Down Syndrome Awareness Month, everyone! :)

there's nothing better than you and me together workin' on forever.

So Kenny Chesney's new album is pretty good. There are a few songs on it that I don't particularly care for yet, but a lot of them have the potential to all be my new favorite songs. There is one song called "Where I Grew Up," and I must make a confession: I burst into tears during the last verse when I listened to it earlier this morning for the first time. Don't worry, they weren't bad tears. They were actually as good as tears get. Here are the lyrics that got me all choked up (uh-uh huh):

See, I gained a little on Father Time

When me and her had our first big fight

I said some things, I made her cry

She packed all her stuff

The boy in me said let her go

But the man in me said pull her close

It was time to find out which one I was

Standing in the doorway holding on to love

Two nights ago when Teesh and I were talking on the phone, he said something I didn't like (I don't even remember what it was, so it must've been uber important), so I hung up on him. He called me back three times over a period of about fifteen minutes before I finally answered his call. I wasn't mad any more at this point, and the main reason that I didn't answer the two calls before was because I knew I had been a big baby and I didn't want to admit it to him. I also thought that he may have been upset with me for hanging out. Much to my surprise, I answered the phone (in my best pouty voice, of course) and Teesh answered back with a chipper "HEY!" Ummm, what? I don't know why Jesus blessed me with someone with such a relentlessly forgiving heart to spend the rest of my life with, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

The verse in Kenny's song was exactly what Teesh and I talked about that night on the phone. He could have easily gotten mad at me and not called me back like we both used to do when we were in high school.  He was a boy and I was a girl who were selfish and dramatic, and it's amazing how just a few short years and a whole lot of experiences turned us both into a man and a woman who love each other for who we are and always talk through things, no matter how big or small they are.

It's so exciting to see the Lord working in both of our lives to get us ready for marriage. We've both still got a long way to go, but the best part about it is that we're doing it together. There's no one else in the world that I'd rather go through life hand-in-hand with. Sappy as it may be, no one could ever love me better or more whole-heartedly than my Teesh does. :)

"The bonds of matrimony are like any other bonds - they mature slowly."

-Peter De Vries

not too much is better than a day filled with sweets.

 a sweet husband-to-be.

 my sweet family.

 lots of sweet treats for Teesh to take home.

our sweet (and stunningly beautiful) wedding cake that is officially designed and ordered.

 sweet tea to help wash down all the greasy goodness at Tanner's.

a sweet late-night snack.

 my personal favorite sweet in the whole world.

 we both had a sweet tooth that needed to be satisfied.

 

this sweet even put Will and his grumpy self into a good mood.


"It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all." -Laura Ingalls Wilder

I'm with the A-Team.

 yay for both of us being engaged! and double yay for fiances that spoil us rotten!

 what's an engagement without a small group celebration with B. Davis' favorite sweet treat?

 ladies and gentlemen, meet the A-TEAM. these girls seriously complete me. seriously.

 thank you, self-timer, for allowing us to capture all of us being together.

showin' off her BLING! niiiiiiiiiiiiicely done, Jacob! ;)

It never fails. I always leave small group with a renewed spirit and the best encouragement that anyone could ever get. There really is no way that any of these girls could know how much they really mean to me. Heck, I can't even wrap my own mind around how much I need them! All I know is that it's a whole lot.

My heart is overwhelmed with love and thankfulness and it's all because of Jesus blessing me with these things through them.  The way he speaks to me when we're together is almost too much for my mind to process most of the time, but the wisdom I walk away with after we meet is proof that I must be getting something. I could go on and on forever and ever with things we talk about and ways we celebrate with each other and all sorts of other incredible things, but I'll keep it short and simple. These girls have my whole heart, and I can't imagine a life where they're not in it with me.

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out.  It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being.  We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit."  -Albert Schweitzer

sun stand still.

I woke up this morning so excited to go to church. Not that that's unusual, but today I was extra excited because Elevation Church's own Steven Furtick was gracing us with his presence. Heck yes! He recently wrote a book, and though I haven't ordered it yet, I can promise you that I will be purchasing it soon. Like tomorrow soon.

The inspiration for his entire book came from Joshua 10, a story that I had never read before I heard about his new book a couple of weeks ago. The story is incredible. Something that every single person on the face of the planet should read and live out daily. In case you've never read it, here it is, starting with verse seven:

So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. The LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you."

After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, who defeated them in a great victory at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah. As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the LORD hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.

On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel:  "O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon."

So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar.

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!

Crazy right? I'm going to go with a yes.

My favorite quote of the entire sermon was this: “If the size of the vision that you have for your life isn’t intimidating to you then there’s a chance that its insulting to God.” That's tough to swallow, especially if you know you're living a life less than what you have been called to live. All too often we simply survive through our days and complain about it the entire time. The only problem with that is Jesus. Not only are we called to be agents of change, but, more importantly, that's what we were created to be. To step out in audacious faith and rejoice when people ridicule us for doing things they think are wrong or don't make any sense. We were MADE to worship Jesus and draw others to him.

I have a lot of things that I pray for on a daily basis, some of which I sometimes catch myself wondering if Jesus will ever take those burdens away from me. Those are my sun stand still prayers. Today, I stood up with most of the congregation and admitted that I need the sun to stand still. Strangely enough, just several hours later, Jesus swung the door wide open for me on one of those prayers. This one, in particular, is one that I've been praying since I first started praying when I was just a little girl. It didn't come without tears (and lots of them) either, but after several hours of marinating on the whole ordeal and allowing the voice of Jesus guide my thoughts, what I need to do is pretty crystal clear.

The cool thing about everything is that although he calls us to do these sometimes outrageous things, he promises that he will always fight for us, just as he fought for Israel. He knows we'll be scared, and he gently (and sometimes not-so gently) reminds us that there's really nothing to be scared of. Pastor Steven reminded me today that fear, in itself, is not bad. It only becomes bad when we let it have the last word. Brilliant. And so encouraging, especially for the task that Jesus is preparing me to do.

Take God-sized steps of faith. Pray God-sized prayers. Have faith in the Faithful One, not in myself or others. Stop surviving and start living an abundant life. Celebrate what God has already done in my life and anticipate what he's going to do next. Watch him turn mistakes into miracles, time after time. Cut the meaningless crap and just live like Jesus did.

Those things are what I want to be known for. I think it's time I make it happen.

tough day for Tiger football, perfect day for good company.

I got to spend another day in Clemson, also known as my favorite place in the world. It all began when I was just a teeny tiny little thing, dressed up in my teeny tiny little cheerleader outfit going to games with my Grandpa and Grandma. I'm orange and purple down to my core, and it only gets worse and worse with every year that passes.

I love football and chicken fingers and Jack Rogers and $5 nachos and sneaking into games and walking down the street just to pass a hundred people you know while you're on your way to your destination and Clemson orange and pearls and watching drunk people trip while they're walking up or down the bleachers and screaming until my throat gets scratchy and reminding my competitive fancy that it's just a game and ridiculously dancing to the music that plays during timeouts and frozen lemonades and Dabo Swinney and the most exciting 25 seconds of college football and looking forward to seeing the same people you see every week from August to November and running into people you haven't seen in years and hearing the Tiger Rag played every two minutes and having to parking a mile away from the stadium but loving it because that means I get to spend extra time holding Teesh's hand and so many other things that I could go on and on with.

Today was filled with all of those things. Oh, the bliss. :)

 

 I love my Allison!

 how is it possible that this is the Sydney that used to torment her big sister and me when she was a wee little girl? blows my mind.

 my precious Pagerina who I miss veeeeeeeeeeery much. ain't she purdy!

 our traditional girl picture. oh, how I love these beautiful ladies! :)

 yay for seeing Alicia! it had been waaaaaaaaaay too long since the last time I hugged her neck.

 Allison jumped in as I was swatting a bee away and I nearly knocked her drink out of her hand. thank you, Teesh, for capturing the moment. :-P

 reunited with our favorite couple!

 David Brooks, you are the peanut to my butter. :)

 win or lose, there is no place I love quite like I love Death Valley.

 surprise run-in with Evan? I'll take it! 

 

goodness gracious, I love me some Whitney Black! this is my most favorite Clemson girl in the entire world.

 Teesh did the blind man dance with me! Court Bourt, I know you'll appreciate this as much as I did!

 I love that I get to see seeeester and Lizard so often now that they're at Anderson. they make me oh so happy. :)

 in case you were wondering (or, perhaps, forgot), this is my FANCY! andddd I cannot wait to marry him! :-D

Clemson girls, best in the world.

October 16th can't get here soon enough.

the day my B. Davis became a soon-to-be DeGarmo!

Tomorrow is the four-week mark for my sweet fancy and I being engaged. I always knew that it would be one of the most exciting times in my entire life, but until it actually happened, I had no flippin' idea just exciting it would be. It really is enough to nearly blow your mind, and having your friends and family there celebrating with you only adds to it.

When I heard the news about a week and a half ago that Jacob was proposing to B. Davis on October 1st, a surge of uncontainable excitement ran through my whole body for like five minutes nonstop. She and Jacob are absolutely precious, and all of us have known since the very beginning of their relationship that they were just two peas in a pod who would most likely end up together forever.

I think I got so excited because I could legitimately empathize with every emotion that I knew she was going to have. It's a feeling like no other, and knowing that she was going to be on cloud 239874897342905823 as soon as she saw him down on one knee in front of her tickled me to death. I'm tellin' ya, there is nothing in this whole world like it. That kind of joy is something that honestly can't be explained, and for one of my dearest friends to get to experience that just pumped me up! As usual, here is documentation of this wondrous evening, start to finished. I couldn't be more excited for my sweet, sweet friends who have just entered into the most thrilling experience of either of their lives to date!

 the evening began with P. Sawyer and I putting on our brand-spankin' new bracelets. oh hales!

 then the ATEAM came over to pre-game with some yummy KFC. nothing is better than a family dinner.

 next, we all hopped into the vehicles and headed over to Jacob's to let the festivities begin.

 patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for the beautiful couple to arrive. my girls are the best girls!

 these two ladies make my heart so full with joy it's not even finny.

 the gang's all here! so excited to celebrate with our sweet friends.

 YAY!!!!!!!!! the future Mr. and Mrs. Jacob DeGarmo have finally arrived. just look at those huge smiles!

 no one deserves happiness more than these two incredible people!

 reunions with Drew are ALWAYS the best part of any day. the only thing missing here is Charlie's third angel. he's all the way out in Seattle, and BOY do I miss him!

 add another tally to "ENGAGED!" in the small group of ABS. we love our Amber (better known as B. Davis) so much more than words could ever say!

 what would a Hales/P. Sawyer moment be without a picture like this? this is quickly turning into a tradition, even though we never plan it. there is only one way to describe it: SOULMATES!

 come May 2011, these two fabulous people will be Mr. and Mrs. DeGarmo! YIPPEEEEE!

 there is some SERIOUS blingage in this picture. quick, everyone shield your eyes!

 P. Sawyer, B. Davis, and Hales. sing it with me now...'cause we're the three best friends that anyone could have!

Anna, Amber, and Melanie may be our names by birth, but that's pretty much it. we prefer Hales, B. Davis, and P. Sawyer. oh hales yes we do!