Sweet Southern Pearl

Two years ago today, I adopted the Black Pearl. I had just moved back to Boone for my last semester of grad school, and at the time I was driving a silver Focus that I absolutely hated at first. It was hard to go from the sturdy Jeep Grand Cherokee that I used to romp in the mud with in high school and early college to a little lightweight Ford Focus. I was used to being high up and having an Infinity Gold sound system and having four wheel drive (I think my Myspace bio still says something about four wheel drive being essential to life 😂).   My first year in Boone, my mom and I traded cars and I drove her Escape to the mountains and she took the Focus. My dad was actually at the Ford place getting a new car when I spotted the Black Pearl. I wasn't looking for a new car -- but it certainly would be nice to have my own car that would make it up the mountain, because the Focus would always die on the way up, which is why my mom and I traded 😂😂😂.  So we were there, w...

This morning in church our pastor talked about the 23rd Psalm. That passage has always been comforting to me, but has meant so much more since the passing of my grandmother and uncle. I remember sitting with my grandma on the day that she left this earth, reading Psalm 23 to her over and over again. It was meant to comfort her, but it comforted me also. It was a time of great despair and questioning and depression for me.  We read the 23rd Psalm to my uncle in his last days. Same thing - it comforted us all. It gave us all hope. It will always remind me of two of the most precious people I've known and lost.  Psalm 23 is meant to comfort us, and here are some notes I took this morning: Whenever I hear the word "mountains," my ears perk up now. I haven't always loved the mountains, as many of you know. But my time in Boone was a mountaintop experience both literally and figuratively. The following year was a true valley experience. We have to have b...

This verse always gives me chills: The Lord doesn't promise us a pain-free life, but what He does promise is that He will provide comfort in our pain. And like a mother going through the pain of childbirth, the pain in our lives gives way to rebirth and joy and new beginnings. I can think of so many examples of this in my own life - dark situations that I had to go through until the "groanings" gave way to something wonderful and different. The one at the forefront of my mind today, though, is my little cousin Connor. I got to spend some quality time with him today, and I love that kid.  Connor was born right before my uncle Kenneth passed away last year. Kenneth battled with cancer, and it goes without saying that my family experienced some very dark days during that time. No one could ever, ever replace Kenneth. Not in a million years. But besides the comfort of knowing we will see him again one day, there was also the joy that came with a new baby ...

One of my New Years Resolutions this year was to work a lot harder to be in constant prayer. To avoid only coming to God in prayer when times are hard or when I need something. To thank Him for the little things that I take for granted. To take time to tell him that I trust Him. On Sunday night our pastor spoke about prayer, and I took these notes: The sermon motivated me to try even harder to talk to God more throughout my day. It's so important to remember that we have constant access to God. And that nothing is too big for Him to handle. And that He wants us to cast our cares on Him! And that nothing that we worry about seems unimportant to Him.  Just some thoughts for today, on my last day of summer break ( booooo )!  eBa

Most people who know me know that I'm pretty obsessed with fashion (like to a fault), but that I really have a shoe fetish. And many people know that a few years ago in graduate school, I decided to channel that shoe fetish into something productive and start writing a memoir about events in my life through the shoes I was wearing when they happened. Sometimes I use this as an excuse to buy new shoes - because more writing material, right?  I can justify it sometimes... and that's just what I did a couple days ago in Macy's in New York City. The nine floor Macy's that I was SO EXCITED to go into for the second time in my life. So here's the beginning of the story of the shoes I got at Macy's: I don't think I would've ever seen them had we not had to go to the bathroom so badly. Literally the four of us - Joellyn, Ashley, Carol, and I were running  through the men's section, then the shoes, searching for a bathroom because t...

I just found this and realized I never published it. I started this post in mid-June. it was right before school got out for the summer. All I had on here were the pictures. So I'm gonna take a guess at what I was going to write about them.  Here goes. So apparently two of my gel nails peeled off and I thought it was necessary to share with the world that I put glitter polish on those two nails so they wouldn't be bare. (I was at work when I took this picture. Getting so much done, obviously.) Emotions were running high. That day, one of my students wrote this on my board: I chilled with Emery. I went to Bath and Body Works and *accidentally* bought a lot of stuff in summer scents to kick off the upcoming break. This stuff is LIFE though: And I believe this is the last outfit snap I took in the Andrews staff bathroom: Funny --- today --- a month and a half later, I went to Andrews...

So on Thursday evening (July 30th), I drove to Boone, went shopping downtown, and then met my family at the apartment that my brother lived in (that we had both lived in for a year together, and he lived in after I left) because they were packing it up and he was moving out the next day. We all had dinner at our favorite Mexican place and then me and my brother went back to the apartment while my parents and sister went back home to HP. I spent one last night in that apartment, that had been a vital part of my life in Boone and growth. So many memories... Driving home the next day, I cleverly used voice-to-text to write the following. I have not edited it - I think unadulterated "word vomit" is good sometimes. Especially in times like these, when life is overwhelming in good and hard ways, and you just need to get it all out. ....................................................................................................................................... It was jus...