just trying to update the blog from the iPhone...our big splurge!!
they've proved to be very useful (for me at least, ricky mostly just
plays his fishing game)!

summer adventures!

wow, this summer has been so much busier than i anticipated, but better than i had hoped! i thought i'd post a recap, since i just never seem as caught up with friends as i want to be!!

we kicked things off by moving into a new house and gaining and endless to do list of fun and not so fun projects. a couple of days later i got to take kids to camp up in the mountains of chattanooga, one of my favorite trips yet! i loved that once i got there i got to stop being the assistant and just got to hang out with our students. here's a picture of the wonderful group of leaders i got to work with:

i got to go up to nc to visit libs, check out her new digs (yeah. i'm a poet now), and find her stunning wedding dress! highlight of the weekend was definitely just sitting outside a coffee shop with her just being us. laughing and crying and making absolutely no sense to anyone but each other.

then it was off to the ozarks! ricky's first trip to one of my favorite vacation spots ever. it was an awesome few days with the bram fam, including a pontoon boat that was driven more like a waverunner, go carts, fishing, the best view to a fireworks show we will ever have, fireworks with my brother (always an adventure!), and listening to my dad's commentary on the bachelorette. totally worth the 24+ hours in jolanda the honda. but i totally failed at taking pictures...oops.

in the meanwhile, i got paid to go to six flags and go rafting with teenagers, we celebrated a ton of family birthdays, literally pulled trees out of our gutters, dog-sat a normal sized black lab for a couple of weeks, and had some fun times with friends. the next big thing was the middle school mission trip to dallas! what a week that was! 105 degrees everyday while we were doing vbs outside, but the little kids were so precious (ricky is so lucky i didn't bring any home) and it was incredible to step back and watch our students reach out to them and love them. lot's of cool "God moments" as we called them. i was a little better about pictures for this one:

after a week of getting close to no sleep on an air mattress, i was ready to be home! i got so lucky and missed the bus ride back to atlanta! thanks josh and katie for getting married on the 18th so i could avoid that misery! we had a blast spending time with all of ricky's best friends and the wedding was beautiful!

we wrapped up the summer with a long weekend in jacksonville, relaxing and getting beach time with some friends. it's been a great summer, probably my favorite outside of my yl summers! but i would be a big fat liar if i didn't admit that we missed young life camp every single day! i'm convinced that nothing holds a candle to it. we're so blessed to be near family, friends, jfbc, sweet tea, & the sec! we're counting down the days until football starts, until we get to travel back to our arizona family for jeff's wedding, and until libby's big day! no sign of life slowing down, but we're loving it!

it's official. longest. post. ever. and somebody's demanding my attention.

tar heel state

i get to visit libs this weekend in north carolina! it'll be a really short trip, only one night, but i'm pumped for my first time in the state (i want to say i've visited all 50) and for some quality time with libs and ruff! and i'm going to help libby find the wedding dress of her dreams!

more updates to come! i'm trying to be a more consistent blogger! but i wish they weren't called "blogs"! isn't that an awful word?

macdonald update!

WOW! it's been quite a while since we updated! between email, facebook, twitter, skype, and all the different means of communicating through technology, it gets hard to keep up!  so the people who read this blog have probably been updated on our lives in some other way already, but i will post on!

ricky and i are homeowners!! here are a few pics of the house...minus any of our stuff (the furniture/accessories in the pics were staged)

we never thought we'd be able to buy a house so soon, but among the housing market, some really good timing, and God clearly showing up, it happened!  we placed an offer right when i got back from the spring break middle school choir mission trip and closed on the house right after we got back from libby's graduation (and engagement...so exciting!  now ricky and i have all our siblings engaged/married within two years!)  then we moved in right before i went to student life camp with our middle school students.  busy times!  we love our house and are starting to feel more at home and hunter loves his new yard.  we also now have an endless list of projects, but it's been so fun!  and it's such a good feeling to know that we'll be staying put for a few years...we're ready to slow down on the big life changes for a while and just enjoy where we are.  this summer we'll get to go to the ozarks with the bram fam, see ricky's best bud josh get married, i'll go to dallas for a mission trip with our students, visit libs in raleigh, and hopefully we'll get to sneak away to a beach for a few days!  a fun summer ahead, but we'll always miss serving at lost canyon, especially this time of year!  we definitely have lived & continue to live blessed lives!

happy birthday!

happy birthday to laura and susan!! i love you dearly & hate that i'm not there, but i promise i'll make it up to you! i'm blessed to have incredible friends in my life who know exactly who i am, can make me laugh and cry (often at the same time), and encourage me to just keep swimming when life doesn't make sense. and by the way, it doesn't make sense that kansas and georgia are so far away from each other. obviously, we are bffs...as in forever...but i can only hope that i build frienships like ours in atlanta someday...but really i'd rather you just move here instead! here's to fun trips and a cul-de-sac in our future!!