Hmmmm

It's been a very long journey since the summer ended and to be honest... I want my summer back!  Moving back to Florida has taught me a very valuable lesson in planning and thinking things through.  When I decided to come back to Florida, I didn't really have any other place that I really felt called to be.  I loved my church, I loved (and still absolutely adore) my friends, they wanted me here, and so I thought, "Why not?"

My family here wasn't entirely excited about me coming back, assuring me that the economic situation of this city was not one that you move here for.  But I didn't listen, I had made up my mind and I didn't even think about it... my next thought was I need a place to live.  Leah was awesome and found this perfect place for us and that was that.  But when I actually got here and began to try to figure out my life here, I realized that maybe this wasn't the right choice.  The economy is in fact, bad... and everyone says, it's the national economy, but NO, no it's particularly bad here.  Everyone is looking for a job.  I am overqualified for the jobs I am applying for and there is nothing that can pay what I need to live.  So, needless to say, I have been stressed.  There are so many job opportunities back in Texas right now and I may have to go back sooner than I want to, but I guess it's finally hit me that I have to grow up and be an adult.

My week and a half trip back to Texas was extremely helpful.  I got to reconnect with people I hadn't seen all summer and other people that I really wanted to see and I felt refreshed and more prepared to come back to Florida.

I can thank my wonderful friends here for making my time here bearable!  Friday night, we all went to the beach and played volleyball, then football, then everyone ran into the ocean with all our clothes on and played in the waves, which was frankly a little terrifying because it was so dark.  Then we went back to our place and ordered pizza and hung out.  Saturday after church, some of us went to Cici's Pizza then Cara and Tara came over and we watched Heroes (my latest addiction).  The girls spent the night and Leah made us homemade donuts for breakfast and brought us lunch after church.  It was really a wonderful weekend and I'm so thankful for that.

I just feel like I'm in a very weird place right now.  I'm not gonna lie, I sure don't like it.  There is so much going on in my life that I'm certainly not gonna blog about, but the only way to describe the way I feel sometimes, is Damaged, which is a horrible way to feel.  But I hope and pray that God will use this time to bring me closer to Him, that He will teach me and use me here to His glory and that I will have a positive outlook!

Welcome to the World Brannen Ruth Weathers

Here she is

With her daddy :)

   With mom and dad

  Little Asian baby!  Definitely got her mom's eyes!

I'm so already in love with her.  I can't wait to meet her!!

So camp totally sucked me in this summer.... hence my lack of posting. And this post is going to be short because it's almost 1am and I still haven't gotten everything ready to move. This summer was wonderful. I'm sad to see it go, stressed about getting a job in Florida, hopeful for the future, missing some wonderful Texans already, and I haven't even left yet. Me and my mom are packing my Mustang and leaving tomorrow for a wedding in Louisiana. THEN we're driving to St. George's island on the West coast of Florida, THEN to Ormond Beach to move me into my new duplex with Leah (!), THEN I'm driving mom to Atlanta, THEN I'm driving back to Ormond Beach..... THEN bills are due like the day I get back... Oh and I won't have a job until then. This reminds me of America's Funniest Home Videos and there's this little boy who has a loose tooth and his parents are about to pull it out until he burst into absolutely heart wrenching sobs. His mom tells him that loosing his baby teeth is a part of growing up to which he replies in sobs and tears, "I don't wanna be a grownup!" Well I don't really either right now... that is all. Hopefully I will have more cheerful things to say later

So there's so much that has happened, but not enough time to get online and actually write about them.... or maybe it was that I didn't make any time to get on and write about it. In any case, I haven't written in over a month. I turned 23, put my chihuaha Harvey to be put to sleep ON my birthday (lovely welcome into adulthood), drove to Ft. Worth to see Paige marry wonderful Jason, visited Baylor (and bought my future niece the cutest BU cheerleading outfit ever), went to Faith's 4th birthday party (my Belle barbie doll was a huge success), officially cleaned out everything in my room from my childhood, and started another summer of Prude Ranch Summer Camp.
It's been a lot of fun so far. I forgot how much I really love Texas things-- BIG diesel trucks, cowboy hats, boots, camping out, hobo packs, spurs, horses, rodeos! Counselor orientation went very well and our group is really close. We have a really cool animal life habitat by the arena now that houses two calfs, pokie the adult duck, 9 ducklings (I named the black one Beauregard), 2 piglets, 2 donkies and 1 baby, and a 2 week old goat. We rode a lot and I forgot how much I enjoyed that too. I still really miss my wonderful Floridians, but I have begun to realize that I make my home wherever I am. I think that's why I could see myself living anywhere. I'm excited to see all of the places I will go!
So my sister-in-law is due in August, my brother was not set to get back from Iraq until October... but now it looks like he'll be coming home late August! He will probably miss his daughter's birth, but he will get to meet her much sooner than first anticipated, which makes me soooo excited for them. And he got promoted to Captain a couple of weeks ago and I'm very excited for them as they start this new adventure in life. I also believe that I be pretty much the best auntie ever so that's all exciting.
Well first session is almost over and I have a very busy day tomorrow, but I did want to catch all of you up with a little bit of what has been going on. I hope that everyone is having as fun a summer as I am!

Ormond Beach, Je'Taime

I flew out of Orlando on Tuesday for Atlanta. I was definitely drained from all of the packing and leaving my wonderful friends, but everything went smoothly on the flight and all 3 of my huge bags arrived immediately after the belt started moving! Praise Jesus, because I've had some trouble with that in the past. My Aunt Suzanne and Aunt Shirley picked me up from the airport and we stopped at THE original Chickfila Dwarf House to pick up some lunch before heading to the house. We drank my Aunt Suzanne's famous sweet tea, chatted, and relaxed for a while but the "less drowsy" formula dramamine I took for my flight made me REALLY sleepy, so I took the kind of nap that is really hard to come out of before we had dinner. Then we waited around until my mom and sis-in-law pulled in from Texas at about 12:30am.

The next morning, we met the whole family at a BBQ place known for their amazing ribs. When our waiter heard that we wanted to buy some BBQ sauce to send to my brother in Iraq, he gave it to us for free, which we all thought was really nice. My Uncle Sam and Aunt Linda met us too, and I realized how much I love hearing my uncle talk. He has one of those true, deep, story-telling, Southern voices. He sounds a lot like Shelby Foote, a major civil war historian who I could listen to forever. It's the kind of voice you envision Robert E. Lee having. I love it! My cousin Jennifer left Sarah, who turned one in February, with us to spend the night and can I just say that we had a blast! My other cousin Franklin and his wife Amanda, who is due like NOW, came over for dinner and we all played with Sarah outside. It's so beautiful and green right now. Sarah loved Hannah (Adam/Krista's doberman) and Krista even let me take a picture or two of her, growing belly and all. We even got to take a peek at Franklin and Amanda's nursery, which is adorable and gave Krista some ideas.

Thursday, mom, Krista, and I drove to North Carolina and we spent the entire 8 hour drive just talking. Obviously, I would much rather have Adam here to be with Krista, but this has really given us a chance to get to know each other and grow closer which has been so nice! Friday was Krista's sonogram and the woman who does it was looking at different things and measuring stuff and then she goes, "OH, this is a money shot!" and points out to us that baby Weathers is, without a doubt in heaven, a girl. I can also assure those of you who caught this weeks Grey's Anatomy that all of her organs are growing inside her body. Oh, and she also has ginormous, Angelina Jolie lips apparently. That night, we watched Amazing Grace, which is an incredible movie that I recommend to all of you. It's about William Wilberforce, a British politician who helped end the slave trade and it's about the actual song. It's a great historical representation as well as a genuinely good movie. I own it so you can borrow it, but definitely see it!

Saturday was the most fun! We went to Baby Swank, a shi-shi baby place in Wilmington where Krista found her crib bedding as well as furniture. That night, we went to Mike's Farm, which is kinda like a homemade Cracker Barrel, only even better. They serve you family style and you only get one choice--fried chicken, pork, green beens, corn, mashed potatoes, biscuits with ham, and the best mac n cheese I've ever had in my life. The farm is also an actual Strawberry farm and they're in season, so for dessert we had delicious strawberry shortcake and strawberry topped cheescake. Needless to say, we were completely stuffed after our delicious meal!

Today (which was Sunday when I first started typing) I made chicken tacos for lunch while they measured, we ate, then painted pink stripes on one of the mocha brown walls in her nursery. We had cereal and popcorn for dinner while we watched August Rush.

I knew that I would be having so much fun, and I have so much to look forward to still, but I really miss my Floridians. I feel a bit stalkerish, I'm always texting Cara, Leah, or Lindsey, finding out what everyone is doing, etc, etc. I'm looking forward to being back too! Sorry this is ridiculously long and void of pics. I will adjust the latter and exacerbate the former soon!