Change again.

Have you ever just sat down and thought about all the things in your life that have changed? I was doing that today, and here's what I came up with...

Life seemed really simple when I was 12 and we were living in Indiana... My dad had been a pastor there for 9 years. This was all that I knew. I could tell you how to ride on your bike from my house to the church in town. I knew it like the back of my hand. The one thing I remember is, us kids would ride into the church to do our school work, and on the way we had to cross over railroad tracks. It wasn't the part that you could just ride over though, you had to get off your bike and walk over the tracks. Well, I was so little that I couldn't carry my bike and walk over it too... So, my big bro Mike would carry my bike for me, while I made the huge effort to walk over the tracks that came up to my knees (or so it seemed). For some reason, that memory has always stayed with me. I love my brothers and sister very much... We were all each other had growing up... boy, I miss those days.

So, obviously I've grown some since then, I could carry Mike's bike now :)

Mike is now married to Kristy, and has three precious little ones, and one on the way! The day he went off to Bible college was probably one of my hardest days, I was always close to Mike, he's so easy to talk to... whenever we went to theme parks, Mike rode with me. Shopping? I usually tagged along with Mike cause I knew he would look at cool stuff, and he would let me touch something if I wanted to :) He always called me a goon. Mike and I are the one's who have a preppy streak through us too... Mike and I also share a passion for music, we both love acapella.

Matt was the one who stepped on my kitten while he was playing basketball and killed it. :) Matt was the quieter one, usually with Nom when we went to do things. He's the mechanic in the family now. He's married to Corena and they have three of the cutest boys on earth. I hate being so far away and not being able to see Mike and Matt's kids grow up...
Matt's cool now... he likes alot of movies that I do, and we have alot more in common now that we've grown up. Matt would give me his left leg if I asked him for it... he's such a sweet, handsome guy.

Opey on the other hand, is hilarious. He's married to Renee. They are a cool married couple. Opey loves to have things nice, see... Mike and I rubbed off on him about the preppy thing. To Op, if you can't pay top dollar for something, don't get it until you can get the nice one. Op is a tractor salesman. And man can he ever sell those things. Opey is like Mom, he has a very tender heart. Op cries when he hugs me, cause he misses me. We share a love for contemporary music. By the way that reminds me that he has my cd's! Aurgh! Opey also comes and visits me in TN... I love that. I want everyone to see my house!

Naomi is my sister. I only have one, and she's the best you can have. She's the reason I chose to write all of this. Yesterday she went to Bible college. My sister is 24 and not married. I'm so proud of her for making this step. If anyone doesn't like change, it's my sister and me. We were so close after all the boys got married, we did everything together. She would make me buy something more ladylike and I would get her to get something more updated. We evened each other out. We would go to movies together, I would take all her "returns" back to Walmart... I can honestly say, when Phil asked me to marry him, one of the first things I thought of was my sister. What would Nom think, would she be upset, happy? I was the one who didn't want marriage. I wanted to have a career and go to college, now she's the one who's in college and isn't married. I miss our talks, and how close we were. Don't get me wrong, we're still close, it's just different now. And we both know that. I can read my sister too, I know when she's upset, or if I did something wrong, and she can do the same to me.

All I can say is, growing up has changed alot.

Alot of change came for me when I met my husband. I had never felt needed like he needed me before. I saw him almost everyday for the first year that we dated. If I didn't see him, or even if I did... we were on the phone every night. He was the first one I said hi to in the morning and the last to say good night. My husband is my best friend, maybe that's why things changed so much for me and Nom. Phil (that's his name) came in my life at a time when I didn't expect it. He quickly stole my heart. I wanted to be with him all the time. I had never felt this before. I wanted him to know my family, and my family to know him. :) He was afraid of my brothers, and I loved that. (that is what big brothers are for) Although, it was hard for my family to know him, or to know him as my boyfriend because he was so different then people we knew. He grew up totally different than I did. I like that though, because there are things that I learn from him, and things he learns from me. On June 26th of last year, I married him. One of the happiest days of my life. But it also came with a huge amount of change. I now live in Tennessee, I attend Temple Baptist Church, and work at Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance Company. I live 9 hours away from all of my family. What I once knew as everyday life; seeing my family, SMI, Friday nights with Nom, tractor pulls, Bethel, piano... all of that has become an occasion for me. I must say though, with all of the change life has brought me, God has been with me each step of the way. The nights I cried myself to sleep because I missed my family so much, God was right there giving me grace to wait till the next time we got to go home. Life is easier now, I still miss my family just as much, and miss Illinois. But God has given me peace to be here. This is where he has Phil and I in this point in our life. It may not always be what we want, but God will give contentment to those who ask Him for it.

Mondays...

Today has been crazy at work, they have decided to put me up front by myself, so I am driving myself nutty trying to get all of my work done, then have customers coming in by the minute. It's so wonderful! ;) Um, yeah... so my birthday is in 16 days! I'm going to be the very young age of 22.

Phil is getting ready to start school, his first day is the 31st of August... yup my Birthday!!!!!!! :)

Um, nothing much new to say... Mom and Nom came down for a couple days, that was fun... I got to see Nom for a while and spend some time with her, she will be busy at school but I'm so excited for her.

Natalie, my friend from England is coming to visit us for two weeks in April :) I'm very excited about showing her everything. She has no idea... She's my age and we get along great... you can tell by my phone bill... one call to her for 30 minutes was almost 50.00... she got her phone bill, it was 1.40 in american money. LOL She'll call me from now on... :)

Church is great, all the college kids are starting to come back, so I'm getting excited about seein all of "my girls". I went to Hayley's on Saturday night to play games with her. I was there till 11:30 playin Golf. If you don't know how to play that card game, you should find out cause it's fun...

Oh! I got my cartilage pierced for my birthday... it's cute but kills. The only bad thing is that my hair is getting long, and when it's down, you can't see it! :( Oh well...

Okay, I'm done rambling... :0) Good day!