Little Moments

Last Thursday Brad Paisely came to play at the O'Connell Center. Dave and I had tickets in the second section, straight out from the stage. Pretty exciting, huh? Well, little did we know that it was going to be even more exciting than that! :) As we approached Gate 1, there was an outside stage set up and a DJ asking for people to enter into a contest to win FRONT ROW tickets to the concert. All of the sudden, everyone Dave and I were with, including Dave, begin shouting my name and pointing hysterically at me. A few seconds later, I was entered into a singing contest with one other girl. We each had to choose a Brad Paisley song, get up on stage one at a time, and sing our best. The audience would vote to determine who would win. She chose to sing "Online" and I chose to sing "Little Moments." It was actually pretty fun and for a minute I wished I was a really talented musician/singer and could do this for a living, but God didn't bless me that way. :) However, he did bless me with the loudest applause and I won the FRONT ROW tickets. It was awesome. I have never been so close to the stage before. We could literally touch the stage and I even got to touch his hand. :) I never realized what a talented person he is. Not only is he the lead singer of his band, but he is the lead guitarist as well. Dave and I were definitely impressed. Even though you couldn't be there to enjoy the show with us, we hope you enjoy the pictures! :)

Brad with the red guitar!

Brad with the blue guitar!

Brad had many more guitars that he used as well. He is in to guitar fashion. :)

Check out the video below. This is one of my favorite songs!

Catching Up --- Woman's Retreat

So, I have come to the conclusion that blogging is a lot like scrap booking. Once you get behind, it feels impossible to catch up. Here is my attempt to catch up a little...

Last weekend I had the amazing opportunity to attend a Woman's Retreat put on through my church. It was such a wonderful time to get away from the day to day stresses of life and relax with a bunch of girls. So, last Friday, Kristy, Emily and I piled into Kristy's car and set out for Live Oak, which is where the retreat was. We have the directions in hand and get on I-75 headed North. We get off at the exit we think we are supposed to take and head west, just like the directions say. Twenty minutes later, we are in Fort White. Well, for those of you who are familiar with the surrounding area of Gainseville know that we were WAY off the track to Live Oak. After driving 40 minutes thinking we are headed towards Live Oak, we realize we are now an hour away from our destination. :) Here are some pictures from our driving adventure...

Emily and I posing at a free pregnancy testing center in Fort White. :)

We stopped here thinking we might ask for directions, ummm... maybe that's not such a good idea. :)

Yes, we have a GPS! No, it doesn't work! :(

We decide to make a "Pit Stop" and ask someone for directions.

Kristy and I posing at the "Pit Stop."

We finally got directions and arrived at the retreat an hour late. We didn't miss much and we had such an adventure getting there. God really wanted us to make some memories along the way. :) We can't argue with that. It was a great weekend and we had so much fun being together. We spent time with God and fellow shipped with others, we took nature walks, went canoeing (Emily has those pictures!), line danced, and drank some Starbucks coffee. What more could we ask for? I think the biggest thing I learned was that, yes, we all have trials and struggles going on in our day to day lives, but how often does God protect us from things we don't even know about? He will never give us more than we can handle and trusting in Him is the most important thing we can do.

Me, Kristy, and Emily saying goodbye to the beautiful nature of Camp Weed and our Woman's Retreat Adventure.
Until next time ... love to you all! :)