What's your post about?

That's what Clay told me to name my post. 

Well… good things and sad things always happen.

We spent last weekend at the beach with Matt, Elise, Trevor, and Kate, some of our dearest and bestest friends. We went to Pensacola with Matt and Elise last year and had a hoot and a half, so we were excited to be able to do this again. We basically sat out on the beach, or ate and ate and ate. It was magical. We also got to have brunch with the wife of the late Larry Butler, Kenny Rogers’ producer. It was pretty surreal, especially looking at an actual Grammy and autographs and pictures and all kinds of records and whatnot on the walls. My personal favorite was an autographed page of lyrics from Johnny Cash and Julie Andrews.

JULIE ANDREWS! IN THEIR HALF-BATHROOM!! If you didn't know this, Julie Andrews reminds me of my mother, and my childhood. So everyone should watch this and sing along: Watch me!

Anyway, here are some of my favorite pictures from our fun trip. We had such a great time. Thanks to Sam Ritchie and Kellie Crumpton for buying me the disposable cameras for my honeymoon 3 years ago that I ended up using on this trip. 

But the sad part is that Trevor and Kate are moving to New York. Like, today. Like, they literally got in the truck with Bella and drove away today. We love them. But Kate got accepted to the Master’s program at Pratt. So she has to go be an amazing master of art history and arty things. We love them. That’s why we gave them Bella. And she gave us wieners. WIENERS!

God is so good. My last couple of posts were a little heavy on the "people are telling us we shouldn't go to Scotland because my eye is falling out and I wrecked little Yaris," and some readers got all mad and wanted to revolt. Let me just tell you how God is making everything SO CLEAR.

• Medical bills are almost paid in full. Just chest x-ray here, eye exam there, 'roids, 'roids, 'roids. The only big one left is the bloodwork, but it is FARRRRR less than what we were expecting. One bill literally has 85% of the original cost mysteriously cut by something called "insurance discount." AND I made the full amount ALMOST ON THE PENNY in overtime last pay period.

• Parents told us not to fix little Yaris because she's going to them in August. Not a pretty gift to give your parents as a thank you for raising you but really. She's not as bad as that station wagon that we drove in Georgia.

• With some very generous donations from our church and family, we were able to pay the down payment on Clay's degree to secure our spot without touching our savings account. Even with all the medical bills, we haven't touched our savings and have continued to press on toward having a significant chunk of money for our visas. I can't tell you how much this blows my mind. I've monitored our bank account for weeks now, and I don't know how it's all happening, but God is miraculously working everything out for us. THIS IS HUGE.

Faith. God isn’t making it super easy, but He’s making it very clear.

However. If anyone has some expert advice on the following, please, by all means, butt into my life:

• Cheapest way to move our things to Scotland (take on the plane, ship, mail, etc)
• where to live, and where to live while we’re finding a place to live
• finding me a job in Scotland
• finding a cheap train ticket from Manchester to Leuchars
• anything else really that you would like to tell me in general

because no, I still don’t know any of it.

I'll leave you with this funny little story. Remember last time how I said my pupil was all weird? Well. I went to the rheumatologist today and he told me my sluggish pupil was the result of possible scar tissue, and then he said, "Are you taking any dilating eye drops? Nooooo, I'll let your eye doctor tell you what to do." Soooo, being hasty, I pulled out my dilating eye drops, popped one in, and then things got reeeeeeaaaallly crazy. 

Do you see it?

aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Shouldn't have done that. Whoops. 

Carm