Jason bought me a big bran new camera bag! Its a present for shooting my first wedding, so I’ll feel professional – isn’t that sweet?

Da front – notice the two pockets in the front? Oooooooh ahhhh

Opened up – but wait, where its the storage? Just those two pockets?

The real inside! More oooooohs and ahhhhhs

IT COMES OUT! Oh my goodness, this bag is so awesome.

Check out the back of this bag! Room for Marla too!

I had Owen in the empty spot and took photos with my point and shot but then I couldn’t find the connecting cord for it… so Owen too this blurry photo becasue I packed the flash and hate his default flash. I have so much room to grow! The tri-pod fits on the side too! Such a fun bag! Thank you, Jason.

I just tracked my new Harvey Seat Belt bag and its on the truck. I should be receiving it today!

Clean floors. I spent most of the morning cleaning my floors and the crown modeling that goes along with my great old house. AND the cleaning supplies I used both came from the dollar store. Cheap and clean.

Lunch at Boba House today with my friend Kelly. Bubble tea! Great vegetarian food! Perfect summer treat. Oh Kelly brought me a hippo cookie at work last night, which was such a great surprise.

Refinding my church in California podcast. Im currently listening to the Women bible study series and my friend Jenna is sharing.

My roommate Dana is currently in Thailand and I love everytime I receive an email from her hearing about the work she is doing. She recently posted some photos and its so neat to see becasue I’ve been where she is.

My new friend, Greg let me borrow a really great lens of his to shot the wedding on Saturday giving me a little more confidence.

And started to reread some of my favorite Elisabeth Elliot books and thought Id share some quotes I partially like:

“Be still, and know that I am God.”If we have once shut up long enough to know this, we have, at least in that moment, been ready to obey. But it is the being still that is so hard for us. It often takes illness, loss, suffering of some kind, isolation and loneliness. Only when we have come to the end our own resources, when few distractions are left to us, does it become possible to be quiet.

The quality of our lives is transformed not only by our initial response to thirst but also by the daily answer of faith to whatever a day holds. If we have, perhaps through some small incident, come to a new knowledge of our own sin, we then recognize him as Savior. In our sorrow we learn that he is the Comforter. In perplexity he shows himself as our Counselor. Our weakness gives us occasion to call on him as the Might God, Strength, Fortress, Deliverer and Refuge.

Heres an interesting idea, meeting someone on the internet is like meeting Jesus. Now bare with me that you think I’m sorta crazy. Well, my handful of friends who I have met on the internet in some fashion who read this might not think I’m so far fetched (or maybe you do). The others of you who are thinking I’m off my rocker who do have a relationship with Jesus – have you met him? This thought process came from me listening to a sermon from my church back home and Mark asked the congregation to think what they believe it will be like to met Jesus. My train of thought went to, well I have conversations with him and close to him but I imagine that when we met it will be a much different sort of relationship, more intimate. Like meeting someone on the internet, you share emails and maybe even phone calls before meeting them. You know them but not the full extent you can know a person. Id have to think that God would allow such technology happen for reason only He really knows. I have made great friendships that started differently than a typical relationship does, just like ours with Jesus. I don’t know where I’m going with this, but I thought it was an interesting connection my mind made. You are welcome to tell me Im crazy but I want proof why.

I took this photo a week ago at my new church. I just now uploaded it, that is so not like me. I usually always upload, maybe not post right away but always upload. I have oddles amout of wedding photos for a pretty wedding that was on a farm to share soon too.

If you been around me much at all, you know my love for Harvey Seatbelt Bags . They send emails once a month tempting me and I always forward them on to Jason as a hint. Strange how seatbelts folded into a cute bag pull me in. And its the same design really, just different size and colors. Today I got an email from them with huge letters in red that said SALE. That word that many times is deceiving, but I clicked anyways. Ladies, it is truley a sale! My first Harvey bag is $40 cheaper than when Jason bought for me years ago. Ive been eyeing a baquette for a while now, and was going to ask for it for my next birthday (its what Jason gets me, a new bag) but its a steal! So I just ordered it because last time I saw a purse I wanted on Harveys site, I waited to think over it a bit and then when I went to order it was sold out. I wasnt letting that happen again at such a good price! If you have been hearing me singing Harvey Seatbelt Bag praises over the years and been wanting to check them out, do so now. Get on thier great sale they are having and get one for your very own!

I feel like a lot is going on in my life that I haven’t written about here. With a lot going on, I think that has a part of the reason I haven’t written as much. Other half is my creativity is been going other places than writing, namely photos. Which takes me to my first piece of things going on with me – Im taking photos for my first wedding in a few weeks. Im excited and nervous at the same time. This is the main reason Im taking more photos than I normally would, practice practice practice!

Jason and I have started going to what we call “new church meetings”. The back-story is the high school pastor at our current church is leaving in September to start a new church. Being he is still on staff through the summer, he isn’t started true church services just yet. The community of people who have expressed interested in joining the new church have been meeting on Sunday night. Its just a time to share whats going on in our lives, some worship and prayer and build a community. Its been really a sweet time so far and Im getting to know people who I probably never would of at our current church. It will be sad to leave some of the youth in the fall (who do not know Im leaving yet), but I do believe this going to be a good step to take.

My house is under construction. I will try and refrain from being too whinny about this. Basically, the new landlord is all about improving the house – yay! But this means I give to live in construction – boo! This past weekend there wasn’t working water and currently not all the outlets are working. The mail box has been moved and the mail doesn’t come everyday. The construction people are well, frustrating to say the least. We do have a pretty freshly painted house, which I am thankful but that process was painful. My roommate who is here left me for the summer for Thailand so we cant rant together about how loud it is to live in the house. I really cant wait till its all finished (and I get real internet at home again).

There are few other things in the works of changing or happening in my life, but they are just ideas/talk/in the process I just don’t feel like sharing them just yet. Nothing too earth shattering, just nothing I feel like sharing with the internet just yet. You are welcome to ask me about them anytime (just not on my blog).

Yep, three years today! For those of you who follow my flickr and saw this photo your day has come. In May Jason and I went to his coworkers home for a BBQ (or to grill as they tell me). As we drove home we realized were near the part of the highway that we thought “our” Burger King was on. It was on the very exit that his coworker lived off it! All this time we never thought that BK really existed, since we never could find it. It was a lot of fun for us to park the car in the very spot we stood three years ago tonight. For those of you who dont know what we are talking about, Jason posted this on his blog shortly after we started dating. I thought Id post it along with the BK photo to celebrate today.

Jason: I have a friend from college name Kari. Kari and Alisa are friends through a fan message board for the band Caedmon’s Call. After following the link from Kari’s blog to mine, Alisa asked Kari about me and Kari told her to email me to say hi. Alisa tried to be mysterious and coy about who she was but I had seen pictures of her (gorgeous!) from Kari and knew immediately who she was. We emailed for about a month, then decided to talk on the phone. We spent six weeks emailing and calling, marvelling at all of the things we had in common and making each other laugh profusely. Alisa lives in Alabama but had already arranged to meet up with some friends in Charlotte, NC, for the weekend of June 12th. I was really excited at the thought of meeting her, having fallen for her charm, intellect, and sense of humor. I had made only one other friend on the web and had never met them, so the thought of meeting her was strange. The weekend before the trip, my feelings got stronger and stronger for this girl whom I had never met and I stayed up all night Saturday night thinking about her and praying for guidance. Sunday morning came and I called her before church, my stomach in knots.

Alisa: Well, one Sunday morning (which was odd to me because we always talked at night), he called me saying he needed to talk to me about a girl. I was thinking ‘I don’t want to hear about another girl’ but listened cause we had become such good friends and I cared about him and what he was going through and enough trust in me to talk to me about something important. And he goes on to say how great she is da da da and I said “You’re not giving me enough to go on to give you advice.” He went on a little more about her and I’m like, ‘This sucks I don’t want to hear this but I will cause we are friends but apparently my crush on this guy needs to go away.’ then THEN he said “Alisa, you need to know, I’m talking about you.” I was a bit speechless. (And he keeps doing that to me, leaving me speechless.)

Jason: While I’m glad she was speechless, her silence was deafening. She sort of hinted that she might have possibly felt the same way, but didn’t say much. We spent the next week talking a little about dating but never coming to a conclusion, mostly due to the fact that we had never met. We were both excited about seeing each other that Saturday. When the next weekend finally did roll around, I met up Saturday morning with Alisa and her friends Sarah and Brandon, the most awkwardly touchy-feely- couple on the planet. They left to run some errands and Alisa and I sat in a Barnes & Noble talking and finding our rhythm, which came quickly. We spent the whole day off and on with Brandon and Sarah, having a lot of fun with them, but I was dying to hang out with Alisa alone and talk more about our feelings for one another. I didn’t want to do it in a Barnes & Noble or a restaurant or anything like that, and as dinnertime rolled around and we waited for a table at PF Chang’s, I was getting a little frustrated.

Alisa:When we met, I spent the whole day SO unable to read him. I thought he saw me and changed his mind, to be honest. Brandon and Sarah couldn’t read him either. I was upset during our hour and half wait to eat at PF Changs because I was tired and hungry, so my emotions were even more so out of wack. I, who can’t flirt to save my life, flirted as much as I knew how to flirt that day. Nothing. I didn’t know what to do. He even asked me what was wrong at one point and of course I wasn’t going to say, “Well apparently I’m not what you want, so I’m dealing with that”. I kept thinking how awesome he was, even if I was at a friendship level, I’d be blessed to have him in my life. After dinner he drove with me (two cars) to Susan’s, where I was staying that night, which was about 1 hour and 1/2 away from where we were. And we got lost, we pulled over to call Susan and relook at the directions. We pulled over off Hwy 311 in the middle of nowhere (so it seemed) NC. In that Burger King parking lot at 12am, something happened. He was worn out. We both were. He leaned against my trunk the look more closely at the directions and I rubbed his back, my only thought being to know how to help him feel better. We just stood there for a while, talking a little. He asked if I was cold. I said yes. I leaned on his shoulder. We stood there for a while then he pulled his arm out from under my leaning on it, which made me fall into him and he put his arm around me and then we just stood there in a hug for a long while.

We finally realized it was the wee hours of the morning and Susan was waiting. We made it to Susan’s and talked to her for a little bit then Jason, who still had to drive 45 minutes to Greensboro, got up to leave (after Susan making some PMS comment). I thought it might one of the last times I saw him (I didn’t know what the plans were for the next day) and so I walked out with him. We talked, hugged and stood there for a while. Made plans for the next day to hang out. Then we were just looking at each other. He said “You have three seconds to tell me not to kiss you.” I just smiled at him… his 10 seconds of a 3 second count down was SO cute. And then he kissed me…

Jason: Then I kissed her. It was the kind of kiss poetry is written about. The kind symphonies are composed about. The kind a thousand ships are launched for. The kind that sends chills up your spine, curls your toes and makes you forget that you’ve ever kissed another person.

Alisa: It wasn’t bad.

Jason: There’s the story! I’m very happy and can’t wait to find out what the future holds. Commence commenting.

(on our way to Mike & Kari’s there was some nice lighting coming into the car)

So, I had all the intention in the world to share with you all everyday all the fun filled activities that I did with my parents this past week. The days were so fun filled that there was little time or energy in the evening to post about it. Though I did post the photos from each day before moving onto the next. Usually if Im not over here blogging, Im uploading on flickr, which is part of the reason I started to post photo of the day here. All of that is beside the point of this blog post, which is to share with you the past fun filled days with my parents!

Day 2: Biltmore! SO. GREAT. I mean, I didn’t think it wasn’t going to be great, I just really enjoyed it. My parents loved the gardens (the was a game all week – pointing out flowers and their names and origins…). We took the behind the scenes tour, which was great. See, I cant stop saying great. If you haven’t been to the Biltmore, go!

Day 3: After a long but really fun day in Ashville, we took it easy and stuck around town exploring the parks. It was neat to explore places I had been too but haven’t really taken the time to get to know. Id love to go back and just sit in those parks, taking photos, reading or people watching. My dad was very much into getting to know the history of the Guilford Courthouse Park – which actually was neat. Love the history my city holds.

Day 4: We hung out in downtown for a little bit, bought some gifts for people back home. Then headed over to Replacements, LTD and checked out all the amazing dishes they have. Dad took a little nap in a chair while mom and I explored. I got a neat old coffee pot which I will have to take a photo and post. I hope to find more information on it sometime. I cant believe that is only 2% of their inventory. 2%! We later went to Mike and Kari’s for good old fashion North Carolina BBQ. It was so good as always and it was fun to introduce my parents to my friends here.

All and all it was a really good time that went by really fast. It was sad to see them go, which talking with friends who lives states away from their family whom they are close to never gets easy to leave. Im trying not end on a sad note, but its hard since they left early this morning. Im so thankful that I was able to show them my new city and why I love it here.

They actually landed last night, but we just had a few salads and a late night of walking around downtown. I didn’t bring my photos for the tour of downtown sadly. Today we went to church this morning to which my parent got introduced to many people. Fun to show them off, feel like I know a lot of people when I really don’t. After church I drove my parents around town showing them some nice houses that were twice as big as their home and half the price. They just might think of moving here after seeing that (not really but thought about it). Then we went to a Grasshoppers game and then got some desert at the Melting Pot. Enjoy some photos from the game!

My parents are coming tomorrow! And there is a 20-30% its going to rain a few days while they’re here. That’s not my idea of a good time, but Im gonna look on the bright side that it wont be too warm for them. Im looking forward to being a tourist around town. Showing them my town and my favorite places and people that make me love it here. Also checking out those restaurants and places I just haven’t checked out becasue I do live here, now I really have an excusable reason.

Scott made me a few years ago Ed on DVD. For whatever lame-crazy reason NBC wont release Ed on DVD. I have made up with they them a little since bringing into my life, The Office. Last few days Ive been watching Ed while Ive been home getting ready for my parents to come. Why is it they always cancel the best shows? I mean, Ed had a great few seasons and the story really couldn’t go on forever, but of course we all wish we it could. Ive missed Mike and Nancy, Carol, Molly, Warren, Phil and of course, Ed. Im a sucker for a show in a small town I guess. Just really been enjoying Ed now that Gilmore Girls are gone (forever) and Office is gone for the summer.

Summer is officially here. I went to a graduation. Humidity is a live and well. The bright crisp colors of spring have toned down a bit. I hope this summer will be good, by that I mean, zero car issues. Im all for a tune up or oil change but no more of this leaving me on the side of many of roads like Gwen did last summer. Jason and my three year anniversary will be coming up soon too. With my parents coming, all planning has been focused on that, so we haven’t really talked about what we want to do to celebrate. Surprisingly, Im happy summer is here and look forward to what it might bring.