In The Middle Of NO WHERE....

My parents and I were heading to Newton, Iowa to visit the family. I got to see my GREAT grandparents. That's right, four generation family right here. Haha! Well the car ride seemed to go on FOR EVER! 

Mostly, by the time you reach Iowa, it's farm land and almost empty road ways. I will just let you know that we all had a fun filled weekend with the family and celebrated my Great Grandpa's 80th Birthday! Whoo whoo! The rest of this blog is filled with pictures, and I will explain EVERYTHING that is happening, just so you do not get confused, plus I am subtracting a lot of "Junk" pictures from the good ones.  (You'll see)

Definition of Junk- The bad pictures of nothing, the "walk infront of you when you take a picture"pictures.

So on our drive to Iowa, we stopped somewhere to get food, and saw one of the first startings of Wal-Mart! It was 3 times smaller than Wal-Marts now! Couldn't believe it, hints why I took the picture of Wal-mart.

 

So now I entroduce some family members!

It's CJ! I can't spell his first name correctly so I put CJ. :) He's one cute little boy, always ready to smile for a picture!

 

This is Makayla, she's six months younger than me.  (You can tell she took this picture  hints- the arm)

 

This is Makayla's brother Grant. (I don't have a picture of their younger brother soo.... there is another kid named Garrett who I should have had a picture of.)

 

This is Braylee with her cousin. These two are a hoot! They had fun throwing apples from the apple tree. And eating so many skittles forcing two little kids to go crazy before bed time!

In this picture is a blanket, but can you find the dog? This big eared chichi (chihuahua) fits in so well, that it almost got sat on!

 

 

 

 

                                           There's the dog! Was it where you thought it was?

 So the next day we headed off to Sunday church. I ofcourse bought a new dress and this is what it looked like. And I almost fell down the steps BUT I didn't which is a plus.

My Favorite Air Force Man! His name is Andrew, and he is my uncle which makes it awesome because he's awesome! So I finally got to meet him and here he is!

This is.... Okay, I forgot his real name but the name I called him by was Mustachy, cause he's got a cute, fully grown, natural mustache! Famous cat right here!

The other cat I thought was cute cause it sure knew how to pose for some pictures!  Let me tell yah, I fed them and when I did, I went back inside and got ready to leave and came back and saw this HUGE fuzzy cat, and... he had paws that were reaching in and eating cat food? Somethin wasn't right...  so I touched the glass door and it turns around... come to find out it was a Racoon! Oh, it scared me to death but I was more excited that I saw one 2 feet away from me AND he couldn't eat me sooo, I had the best of both worlds on that one. :)

This was the trip where I finally got to see my GREAT Grandparents for the FIRST time. So this is my grandma. She is so wonderful to be around and always had a smile on her face!

 This is my GREAT Grandfather, he sat down with me and talked to me about the wars he had been in and all the cool experiences he remembered! I was so interested that I wanted to write down the stories but, lucky for me I wasn't near any paper or pencils. And we celebrated his 80th Birthday!

This woman, is not just my mamaw, but she is the next generation down. She always has to figure everything out before it even comes close to happening. Some times I have to tell her to relax so she doesn't get to busy making plans! But I love her!

 

 

After visiting Iowa and family, the next place we were heading to was.... CHICAGO! Which is going to be on the next blog filled with all kinds of adventures! I will try not to post every picture I took because it was close to 500. Oh before I forget, we stopped at the famous Iowa 80 Truck Stop! Which had a restruant, several fast food places, gas station, huge gift shops, showers,coffee shop(My favorite) , dentist office,etc in that place! I suggest that if you go through Iowa, go visit the Iowa 80 Truck Stop! 

                                  

 

 

A Girl Stuck In Her Insecurities

Definition of Insecure:
              Lacking Self-Confidence

WARNING:This Blog is Just About What the Title Says, So If You Don't Want To Read This I Understand. :)

I am a girl, obviously, and I do get emotional. There are just things about women that make them who they are and my biggest issuse is not having a lot of self-confidence. It is natural for women to feel this way because of their expectations or the world view. With me it's both my expectations and what the world thinks.  It is a really bad habit to care about what the world thinks of how I look and how I am supposed to act. So in this blog, I am going to list all the things that I am insecure about and hopefully get them off my chest to feel a little better. 

1}Bathing Suits:  OOOhhhh Yeah, This is definitly number one. Summer is wonderful, till I have  the nerve to wear a bikini! I have those emotional days where if I look on Facebook and all these girls have nice fit bodys and skinny with their cute swim suits, I always would sit there and think, if I could just be that skinny my life would be much better (And eat so ice cream:). I would be happy and wear any bathingsuit that looked great on me. But in theory, I have a muscular body,but it's when my thighs rub together and when you run with shorts, it creates fire! Nah, it just gets annoying. My friend and I went running the other day and her thighs don't rub together, but mine do, so by the time we got back to her house from running, she was fine, sweaty but fine. Where as I, I was ready to put some ice packs on my legs because of the burning with my thighs rubbing against eachother . I try to tell myself that It is a way of life, and God created me in his own image, but sometimes I wonder why can't I look good and feel confident in a bathing suit?  (This picture Is not of me- Credit goes to Google)

2}Pimples on the Face: Every or almost every girl freaks out about pimples, they are natural and they are annoying. There isn't much to say about the pimples because I am sure everyone has been there before so i will skip to number 3.

3}My Muscular Body: With my muscules comes my body. I am never comfortable in my body. I always try to tell myself this is how you are gonna workout and you gotta look this skinny and  I have tried different ways to get skinny, But truth be told I can't get to the weight I want to be. I'm not confident in myself that I will ever get to look the way I want to look.  It's just one of those things where after trying then giving up then trying then giving up, you lose motivation cause you feel like you will never get there. Sometimes, you just gotta keep that motivation level at the same place for a long while,  and that is something that is also hard for me to do.

4}Singing:  I have to admit, I get shy singing infront of people because I am insecure about what people will think about my singing. It isn't the best or probably not even good. That is just how I feel about myself. I would like to take vocal lessons to maybe enjoy myself more knowing that I have somekind of technique in singing, but after watching Danielle Bradbery win the voice and making me cry when she sings because her voice is amazing, it kinda tells me that maybe God doesn't want me singing infront of people, it may not even be what I am called to do. ( P.S.- If you have never heard of this girl, look up some songs she has sang. She's a country artist with a great voice!)

5}My Emotions:  I must have some major emotional problems since I am very sinsitive. I have to admit, I wish I was no where near the sinsitive state of mind BUT I am smack dab right in the middle of it. For me, insults or mean comments about myself really stick to me like glue and add on to my self-confidence. It takes a great deal of strength to not listen to what some people tell me about how I look and am. Sometimes it's like fighting with the Devil because when people tell me "Oh you should do this" or "Oh you should definitley do that" It stays in my head and messes with me to where I do anything to fit in somewhere because I feel like I won't be accepted by just being me.  I have prayed about getting stronger about this issue and maybe not even really have this emotional problem anymore.

Even though my father and I don't really talk much. I don't really let him in on anything that I think. It is also a bad habit to keep everything in, so that one day I burst with emotions. As a girl you really take in what your parents say whether they believe it or not. I especially take my father's words and comments to heart and repeat them over and over in my head. It isn't a great way to do things but no matter good or bad comments about myself it sticks with me. I even tell myself bad comments that hurt myself the most. I am very insecure and I am working on it, I have to stop beating myself up over the tiniest things, and who cares what other people think? You worry about you and I will worry about me. So to the ladys out there that may have somekind of insecurity, I am here to say I am here with you and we can all trust in God to help us become better, more confident women in this world.
Thanks to everyone for the support and for reading this blog!

The White Witch of Weasels

It says in Emma's Book of Thoughts : Thou shall not hurt thy enemy, thou shall just outsmart them. (I made that up by the way, so if anyone wants to prove that is correct, it's just my sleepy brain typing so late at night) For purposes, I have used awesome names to keep things more interesting.

{I am going to tell you a story. In the town of Emmaville, there is a witch that walks the halls of Doe Bank, and for the past few days now, Sally has been looked down at and certainly has been manipulated by someone who is a full grown adult at this girl's work. It seems as if no matter how hard she tries to be nice, the evil White Witch always wants to be up in the girl's business and in a corner where the witch feels the need to push Sally around instead of doing her job. :) God knows that for the gal, it is extremely hard to be nice to the White Witch, I mean it's not like she is frozen... yet.  Unfortunatley, since the White Witch has almost made her cry, She is probably  no big fan of the White Witch.

Even though the annoying witch is way older than Sally andthe witch is being respected by her, she does not need to act like Sally's parents, She has two great parents and she does not need some strange person telling her stuff when that person does not know her. }
... Yeah, lets face it, no Southern Girl is gonna let some woman make her feel bad. Being a smart, mature person that I am, I will be kind and pray for her. I will speak to her in the up most respect, and I shall pray for her.  But my thoughts are mine, and I am not perfect, I will just try to be the Nice person that I am. :)

{The evil Witch has not succeeded with trying to get Sally fired, thank goodness, but if  God gives Sally kindness and a strong heart, I am sure two years will pass by and Sally will not have to see someone so mean and hateful towards her ever again. Hopefullythat White Witch does not push Sally's limit of calmness, because those Georgia Girls have only one line and once that line is crossed everyone should probably pray at that point.Sally just thinks it is sad that an older adult wants to start something. Goodness, has anyone told Ms. Witchy that Sally was not born last night?  }

 

{If it wasn't for Sally's job and the wonderful friends that she has made there she probably would have confronted the White Witch, but since she would rather not lose her job, Sally will just have to share how she feels on my blog.}  What I should say is wwaayyyy different than what I want to say.  It is really sad when someone talks all nice to your face and friendly but then they go behind your back and talk the most hatefullest stuff you have ever heard. It drives me up the wall.

 {Well lucky for the Witch of Emmaville,  Sally won't stay there longer than two years because there is no sence in being stressed over an adult that obviously has no respect for the young folk. It's like playing pin the tail on the donkey. It's just like that saying "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." Actually for me, I am a very sensitive person ( I hate it personally) and the words actually hurt, I just learned to make this face at the people who have to be near me that don't like my presence. Amen, God bless you, this is my job, not the social drama society.  Heeee Haaawwwww!

Sooo to get rid of all this anger towards The White Witch, I have drawn a picture of her.  Isn't she just witchyy! :)

Here are some other White Witches you may know!

Motivation May Only Come To Me Once

 I woke up early, took some donuts to the Futon House for them to have breakfast before VBS;The next thing I know I am going on a three lap walk with Sophie around the "hood" (Not really a hood, just my abbreviation for neighborhood) and I must have not felt the excercise because an hour later I took it upon myself to run THREE miles. Either way Sophie was cheering me on and keeping me motivated! I love her! She loves to be outside and be goofy. Sometimes she begs me to pick her up and carry her half way, she's so cute that ofcourse I of all people give in to this craziness! I know that without her I would most certainly be lonely and bored this Summer!

 Let me tell you, It did not take more than a minute to motivate me to lose a few pounds when I weighted my self. Some call it their "Winter Coat", I like to call it an Un-needed Hoodie. :) So hopefully this one time motivation can last me a few more months! I just have to say for my lunch today I ate some strawberries with toast and strawberry jam, and it was AMAZING!

On a different side of things, It has been more than six months since i have moved my room around a little just to not be so boring all the time. This is what it is looking like so far! Very hot pink, very feminin. Although, some of you are looking at my walls saying "Man, she needs to put something on them or paint them!" Well I hate to say it is because I am lazy but another reason is... I ain't got tha money, honey!

For the rest of the time after 2:00PM, I worked and now I am finally home and spending time with my Sophie. It has been a hard days work,now I am going to finish up today's blog then read for a bit!

Since I washed my sheets, Sophie was keeping my bed warm by blending in with the bed. Atleast you know she's super clean!

A Day Of Celebration

Today has been a very eventful day. So just incase I bored you with all my information of what happened, feel free to just look at ALL the pictures I have taken. :)

Sophie and I enjoyed our run/walk around the neighborhood three times. The sun was bright, the sky was clear, and there was a cool breeze. Sophie loved the breeze so much that I just got lucky enough to get her in this fantastic photo where she is jumping up and the wind just blew her ears back. This has to be one of my favorite pictures of her. Can't beat it! #Priceless!

 

I went to Barnes and Noble to get my Summer Reading book, but the good Lord was on my side and they did not have any more of "Sophie's World" books left and they were ordering some more of them. Lucky for me I have to wait and read that English book a little later in time and I am totally okay with that. On the other hand I happened to rome into the great teen novel section! Lucky me! Long story short Iwalked out of the store with a newly bought book called "Forever Summer" by Alyson Noel, the E in Noel has like two dots over it, and I'm not that brilliant to figure out what key that is so, it will stay like that. :)

 My dog and I finished our excercise for the day and hung out in the sun for less than an hour. I happened to notice that I am probably the world's whitest person so I try to not blind people with my whiteness, therefore I just lay out in the sun for atleast an hour every now and then. I would hate to know someone suffered from a bright blinding light coming from my white skin so cheers to dark tan and skin cancer...

 

 Sophie has had a little bit of a wild side here lately, she absolutely loves the grass and the dirt. These two pictures are dedicated to her because all she did the whole time we were outside soaking up the sun, she laid in the grass and dug in the dirt. My little girl who has pink beautiful toe nails, is a mud-diggin,grass-playin doggie. Ofcourse it just means she will have to soon take a bath... and I know how that goes.

 

 

 

 

Soon after i get dressed at my house I am ready to head to the Fulton's! One of their son's was celebrating their birthday so we all showed up and hung out! Mabe Babe is this beautiful little girl in the picture. I was so glad to hang out with her and play some basketball. Always seeing her smile as she does the most goofiest things I have ever seen just makes me laugh. She has a wonderful personality, and I could never meet a little girl more awesome than the baby Fulton. :) (Mabe Babe is a nick name of hers, not her actual name, for those of you that were probably questioning.)

 

 

 

 

This girlie is probably one of the most outgoing, loudest people I have ever meet. She is so amazing in getting people to smile and have fun. She is also one of my favorite girls. Even though back a few months ago, she had accidentally locked me out of my phone, I survived and we both learned our lessons. She's my soon to be a tween little country girl! And she wanted me to give her a piggy-back-ride, so being the wonderful person I am I did what she wanted. God has got her going in a great path!

My next young lady, her name is Patience. She's a teen and let me tell yah, this girl knows what she wants and how she wants it done. When i tell a joke and no one gets it, she gives me this look that basically says, " Emma, I don't understand what you are talking about" kind of look in a joking way. I'm greatful to know this young girl because I know i needed to learn to have some Parience in my life, Oh look! There she is!-----

In this picture though, Patience is picking strawberries out of the Fulton Garden!







I decided that I would help her pick strawberries, and let me tell yah, those strawberries have to be the best tasting strawberries ever, because we picked them.:)  Later on we had a few helpers towards the end of our picking and I would like to thank them for their help! After a while i honestly wanted to sit down in the dirt and pick the strawberries, but every girl knows that nice jeans that kinda cost more than ohh I don't know $20.00 , I was pretty confident that I was not going to sit in the dirt in my nice jeans.  But I had a wonderful time spending it with Patience!





Afterwards Patience and I were cuting the tops off the top of the strawberries and rinsing the dirt off of them. I think we both were beingserious when it came to having knifes in our hands, because if we were to look away from our hands  while cutting strawberries, we probably would not have any fingers after today, haha! Just kidding!

 

Close to the evening of the day we had everything ready for the birthday part and was hungry! All of us were ready to eat as much food as we could! We had some taco salad, which was the bomb! There were chips and HOT salsa, I obviously was not listening when someone said the RED one was hot. It was also the first time ever that I had Mint Sweet Tea!!!! I definitly LOVED IT!!! Oh and we ate outside and enjoyed the sunshine!



 

For dessert.... Duh Duh Duh Duuhhhhhh, Home-made Ice Cream Peanut Butter Cake!!! Actually it's called something like Peanut Butter Panic , I honestly do not know why, maybe because it was so good that if you were allergic to peanut butter you  had to have a bite because it was amazing! Mrs. Fulton has outdone herself every time she makes a home-made ice cream cake. I fall inlove with the ice cream cakes every time it is someone's birthday, sad part is, this was only my second time eating this famous home-made cake. Can not wait till the next birthday!!

And last but not least, to end the night we had a "Professional" show us some fire tricks! (Not to ever do at home obviously) It was a great day that God had given and the sunset and relaxed atmosphere was wonderful. I loved every minute of the celebration. God is such a wonderful God and he has so many great plans for my life, plans that I can't even begin to think of or imagine. I'm going to end this post with a thank you for taking time to read my post of my day and I hope you continue to read them as they come!

Four Days In Waiting

There is only four more days till my Golden Doodle comes home from Florida! Everything is ready for my new little dog! I'm so excited that I can not stand it! She is flying in to Louisville, KY and my parents are picking her up and bringing her here to Indiana! I sit here wishing I could go pick her up but, I have to work on Thursday so I guess I will have to wait and see her when I get home. She is mixed between a Golden Retriever and a Poodle. I'm just glad she won't shed everywhere(that's the Poodle part), but she is HUGE(that's the Golden Retriever part).

I am not sure how my little Toy Poodle, Sophie, is going to act after the new puppy is in the home, but hopefully by bringing in  Bentley (the new puppy) Sophie will learn how to play with toys! Since Bentley got all kinds of treats and toys, my parents thought Sophie should have her own special toy and doggie nail polish! (Sophie has to share the nail polish though)

 I have to admit, I do not know how well this "Painting a New Puppies Nails" is going to work. I'm sure Bentley is going to fight me over who is going to get painted, Me Vs. Bentley. On the bright side I am really hoping that Bentley is as photogenic as my little Sophie is.

On a different note, I have a really bad feeling that Bentley is going to be a mass distruction and chew on everything in sight. Which will create a very angry father, therefore creates a half funny half worried daughter. :) With puppies comes the chewing stage which is what all the toys are for, but as for every dog owner knows they always go for the base boards in the house. She has gone through Puppy Bootcamp, which is basically a little bit more time before she comes home, but she will be trained to ring a bell when she wants to go outside and to behave atleast half of the time.  Puppies will be puppies. :)

Bentley should be extremely good at running, so Sophie and I can not wait to have another running partner!