Pumpkin Painting on the Patio at Chick-fil-A!

We had a really fun, super cute, and very successful event at Chick-fil-A of Waynesboro last monday. We had originally planned on carving pumpkins on our patio. Bethany and I (neither one of us having children) were really excited about fall and being outside and just thought it was simply the best idea, until I told my very wise mother of our plans. Mama Ram said "Don't you think pumpkin painting would be much better ... and safer?"

Looking back on the event now I can't even imagine giving all 150 kids who came knives to carve pumpkins. And I feel pretty confident we would still have a patio covered in pumpkin guts and seeds. Believe it or not the paint stayed on our table cloths and in the plastic containers we provided. Moral of the story... paint your pumpkins! Kids were able to paint the pumpkins all by themselves, and they were adorable in their Halloween costumes! Our Cow even made an appearance in her princess costume.

It really was a great family night. Jay and I are loving seeing the community enjoy several of the events Bethany and I have planned. Jay and I have a huge heart for people and for families (not really so much for chicken actually...). Our continual prayer is for our little Chick-fil-A of Waynesboro to be a place where people can come for family time or fellowship or just encouragement. We want to love our people so they have a desire to love our customers and our community.

I took lots and lots of pictures, but here are a few of my favorites:











Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween :)

New Best Friends.

When we rented a lake house in Clemson with our college friends we brought Bella along too. She got to spend the weekend with Leigha & John's dog Tobey. I had been asking Bella for weeks if she was excited to meet Tobey (and yes, I talk to my dog... and yes, I realize that is a little crazy.) Of course Miss B didn't answer me, but when she did actually meet Tobey, they were instant best friends.
All pictures courtesy of Niemann photography :)
Bella once again decided the lake is the best place in the whole entire world, and she still doesn't understand why we don't live there.
Bella girl and Tobey ran, and swam, and chased each other so much that Bella slept through the entire ride home. It was either that or she was in deep depression over leaving Tobey....
And if you were concerned about how they would remain best friends from states apart, don' worry because we already have 2 more play dates scheduled for the coming months.

Off to Boston for a girls weekend with mom & to watch the Tigers play. Happy weekend, sweet friends!

Our Clemson Crew

I know say it all the time, but we are blessed. Blessed with some of the best friends in the entire world. Seriously. So many good memories. We made more of these memories last weekend at our Clemson Crew Lake Hartwell Fall Reunion Weekend!

Several of the Cast of Characters:

Katie & Aaron, The Soon-To-Be Shoultz

Me & Jay, The Hawkins :)

Brandon, Jarrod Carr, Adam May, and Will Anderson {being classic will}

Katie & her precious daughter Kamdyn Kelly

Nicole & Cody, the newlywed Simoneaux's

Brandon & Haley, The Blakes

Steve & Jaclyn, The Spanglers

John & Leigha, The Niemann's {and Tobey!}

What We Do:
We watch the boys [and Lauren} play with fire.
It always happens. The most mature, and responsible of men get together and find a way to involve throwing flaming tennis balls or jumping over fire pits or throwing vases... the list really could go on forever...
We take lots of pictures.
.... and make the guys takes lots of pictures of us :) {we have tailgaiting photos / this same photo every year since freshman year}
We enjoy being outside and being together {and missing our good ole' college days}
And we eat lots, and lots, and lots of yummy food.

This is Our Clemson Crew and we're blessed to have such sweet, God ordained friendships.

A Two Year Celebration!

Jay and I were blessed to be able to get away for 4 days and celebrate our 2 year anniversary last week. It was wonderful to have time just to ourselves! We both love to travel and thrive on new experiences and on seeing new parts of God's creation. We knew this anniversary trip would have be a shorter one so we decided to drive down to the Outer Banks.
We rented a condo on the beach and it was perfect! This was our view off the porch.
We visited the wright brothers memorial and museum at Kitty Hawk. It was neat to see where the first flight took place and to think back on our engagement airplane flight :)
We climbed to the top of the Cape Hatteras Light House. Its the tallest lighthouse in the united states, and y'all that is 256 steps. Now, for this terrified of hights girl it was a big accomplishment. We got inside the lighthouse and climbed about 5 steps and I looked at Jay and said no way in heck I am making it to the top. The stairs were not enclosed and you could look over the railing straight to the bottom. My sweet, encouraging, and oh so practical husband says. "Katherine, we paid $7 and i will walk behind you and you will make it to the top."
And we did make it to the top and the view as gorgeous. The far point if the actual Cape Hatteras.

We had fun remising on the many joys and challenges and accomplishments of the past 2 years. We both agreed that there is no way that we would have ever imagined our lives to have turned out quite like they have... but thats the fun in the adventure, and the security in knowing that God is in control of our every step.
We took lots of sunset pictures and enjoyed being outside. The beach in the fall is the best.

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" -Jeremiah 29:11

This is my favorite picture from our trip. I love this sweet man that I chose to walk beside for the rest of my life. Marriage is a challenge for sure, but I love my Husband, and I love my God more, and my heart desires to honor and please them both. God has prospered our lives and our marriage. He has promised a hope and a future and we are excited to see what that future holds together. So bring on the adventures! We have lots more memories to make as we continue our little journey into year three.

A Quote.

I found a quote today that I had written down a long time ago and I felt like I should share...

"The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you."

I don't know who said this or where I heard it. All I know is that I read it again today and was reflecting over the past couple of years of my life, and I realized how true it really is. God's will for our lives is to walk with him through the joys and the pain, and the mountains and the valleys. And His grace is enough to provide and to comfort and to protect. And when we're walking with Him we can't escape His loving grace. So simple I know, but for some reason I needed to hear it again this week. And for the millionth and one time again God provided grace and truth.

Happy tangibly grace filled weekend!

Mom's visit & a little touch of fall to our home!

I LOVE fall. Definitely my favorite season. I love the colors and the changing leaves. I love that I married my sweet husband in the fall. And I love college football, and apples and apple pie! And my list could go on and on, and on... with that said, i just had to do a little bit of fall decorating to our home. To be honest we have invested very little in the decoration of our town home. We have been in Virginia for 4 1/2 months so far and decorating our rental property has simply not been the focus. I keep telling myself one day soon we will have rooms with walls that belong to us that I can paint! And paint them orange if my heart desires ;)

For now I am content decorating my little mantle for fall. My sweet mama bought me a few cute fall decorations and helped me mix them with a few things I already had.




Mom and Jay and I also went to a pumpkin patch out in Nelly's Ford, VA. as you may have originally guessed, this pretty little pumpkin house is about the only thing in Nelly's Ford. They had lots of pumpkins and lots of beautiful mums. I did lots of wishful thinking about a garden and a yard and then I remembered God that again God is teaching me patience and contentment though not yet being a home owner. A few of our great finds and they are all straight from God's creation. Each one is so different. And here is where they now reside as a center piece for our kitchen table. (now all that kitchen table needs is a fresh, hot apple pie... my simple, delicious recipe will be posted in the coming days!)
And my sweet mama. I love our times together! She is so wonderful, and I feel blessed to have her support and to have her only a few hours away! Thanks for coming for a visit mama :)

How are you enjoying fall?

Psalm 19:1

"The heavens declare the Glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His Hands." -Psalm 19:1

I saw this rainbow when I pulled into chick-fil-a after 12 hours of work at the hospital. I snapped this photo with my phone so the quality isn't great, but hey thats life. It had just rained and God brought a huge smile to my face and reminded me that He is huge, and beautiful, and in control.

Football & Family

It is staring to feel like fall! Bella and I are loving the cool weather for our morning walks/runs. If only fall could stay forever and the weather would never change into the cold, miserable, freezing, never want to leave the house season that we call winter. God must have a reason for that season, so for now we are enjoying the beginning of Fall... and FOOTBALL! Football is huge in our family.... Jay and I are even competing on a fantasy football team! It was kinda bittersweet to not be in Death Valley last weekend for the opening Clemson game. My #78 is a senior this year and I am going to try and make the journey from our new virginia home down to as many games as I can.

Since Jay and I were unable to make the first Clemson game, it meant we were able to make it to UVA vs. Richmond Spiders game. My cousin Wil is the kicker for Richmond, and they were playing only 30 minutes from good ol' Waynesboro! It was wonderful to see family and to see will make 2 field goals and 1 extra point and 2 kick - offs! Here is our #13 practicing before he made a 30 something yard field goal!

Lots of RED for the Spiders!


Jay and I also got to travel the James river on sunday for mom's side of the family's reunion. It was the 70th year! My sweet Grandfather was one of 7 kids, and so for 70 years all those kids and their families get together over labor day weekend.

It was a beautiful day to spend catching up with family!

a much needed update from w'boro

Its been awhile. We've been busy... I know we have b/c our fridge is empty and I just finished 5 loads of laundry this morning that had been staring at me for about 3 weeks. I am thinking back over why we have been so busy and it all seems blurry. Pretty sure our lives have been Chick-fil-A, Chick-fil-A, a little ER hospital nursing, Chick-fil-A, Bella girl, and oh yeah, more Chick-fil-A. Sounds pretty miserable probably to most, but hey, its our lives and we are loving every crazy minute of it.

Things at the Chick are going wonderfully! We are busy, and we are meeting lots of people in the community, and we have the most wonderful employees ever. I am biased I know, but they are really great, and they are ours, and I love all 70 of them.

We have been trying lots of new churches up here in our new home town and want to find one that fits us. There have been lots of really great ones but we want to feel like we try several and allow the Spirit to lead us to the right church family for us. We went to Church on the Hill last weekend... its really on a hill, and 2 our high school guys lead the worship band, and their Dad is the Pastor. We loved hearing our guys play guitar and worship, and their Dad is a great teacher. He referenced the following verse:

"Now He who supplies the seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God."
2 Corinthians 9:10 - 11

I love Corinthians and I love this verse. It doesn't really apply to us in the monetary sense, but it definitely does on a people basis. God has supplied us with the most amazing employees and friends to love on. Jay and I spent so much time praying over the people that we would have in our store and God has blessed us with increase! Our heart is to grow our people, to love them, and serve alongside them, to support them in life, to challenge them to be better, and to provide a work environment that is enjoyable to come to. We are in the growing people business and we'll leave the growing the business and all that other stuff up to the Lord. I truly believe that the Lord blesses His children with increase so that as believers we can be a blessing to others with a spirit of generosity and joy all for the glory of our God.

That is my prayer today... that the Lord would give me a continued spirit of generosity and joy in daily life and in every obstacle I and sure to be faced with. How has God blessed you with increase?

I have an increase in laundry now that I known a very large cow suit that needs frequent washing! Off to make my sweaty cow smell clean and fresh :) Happy Friday!