The craziness continues...

Well tonight concluded our, me and my sister, week at VBS as the three and four year old teachers. It is definitely bittersweet. I am exhausted yet feel so fullfilled and uplifted in God. These kids have been amazing and kept me on my toes. Of course there is never a dull moment with one three or four year old, but 15 three and four years old...well you can understand how exciting my week has been. No matter how frustrated I became or stressed out I got seeing the kids faces and seeing and being told how much they are enjoying VBS truly made me feel like I was meant to be teaching these kids this week. They all learned from us as much as we learned from them, even if they are only 3 and 4. I learned to laugh and love everything around me. Appreciate having the opportunity to go to church freely and worship an amazing God. I learned not to sweat the small stuff because honestly in the end, it doesn't matter. All that matters was that the kids had a blast and they wanted to be there to learn and to be with us. Here are a few more pictures of our amazing week learning more about our God with the most amazing kids ever!

Tomorrow I go to pick up my wedding dress!! I am SOOO excited! I can not believe it is actually happening. Tomorrow night there will be MY wedding dress hanging in my house. I know the wedding is still 5 months away but I am having my bridal pictures taken while it is still warm outside. I would not do well trying to take pictures with my teeth chattering the entire time. It just makes the wedding seem even more real and like it is actually getting closer. It still feels like it will never get here. I can not wait to marry Chris and start our lives together as husband and wife. We have been together for almost 7 years now and I know he is the perfect man for me. He is going to be an amazing husband and I am the luckiest girl in the world to be blessed with a man who loves me for me, even all my flaws. He is a Christian, believes in God and basing our relationship on a Godly foundation. I am truly blessed to have him in my life.

Saturday my family and I leave for vacation. My mom, dad, sister, grandmother and my moms step-dad are all going to Orange Beach. We also have found out a hurricane is suppose to hit there tomorrow night so everyone please pray for a safe trip and clear weather. It is going to be so much fun. We have not took a family vacation since I was in the 10th grade. It is not only our first vacation in a long time but our last as me still an Auten. From now on we will be taking family vacations with my future husband coming along as well as me being a Hughes. This vacation is going to a great time to spent with my family and a great time to be with my sister. My sister is my best friend in the whole world and my biggest fear about getting married is losing her. We do everything together now and I am so use to constantly being around her. I know she loves Chris as Chris loves her but of course once we get married it will be different. We will be in two separate houses with two different lives. I know we will continue to have a great relationship with one another we will just have to work a little harder to keep it going.

Uplifted in God

This week starts the VBS at our church. It started last night and goes through Thursday from 6 to 8 each night. We have classes for children starting at age 3, a youth class and even adult classes. Let me take this opportunity to invite everyone out to our VBS! We would love to have you all join us! My sister and I have taken on the task of teaching the 3 and 4 year old class. We have always been known to have a lot of patience (Emily definitely more than me) and therefore always volunteer to teach the younger children. When teaching the younger kids you can always expect the funniest, sweetest, and most stressful things to happen all at once haha. Just a glimpse into our time last night includes: 12 three and four year olds at one time!

During story time our children were so excited to shout out the answers to the questions asked (I was so impressed with the childrens knowledge of the Bible). The teacher in the story room brought out a belt and asked the students what this object was. Of course all the kids shouted "BELT!" The teacher then began to talk to children about how we wear a belt in church, it is called the Bible. She brought out a Bible and showed it to the children. "Boys and girls, I know you can't read yet but one day you will be able to and I hope you all decide to read the Bible. (Hold up Bible) Do you know what this is?" Child: "We don't know...we can't read!" Next we went to the activities room. In order to get the kids from room to room we designed the "hand holding train line." First line the kids against the wall. Have the children hold the hand of the person in front and the person behind you. One teacher at front of the line other at the end of the line. Of course this method takes time to master with 3 and 4 years olds, but was the best method we could think of. If you have never worked with younger children, they tend to want to run away from the group so staying in a simple line doesn't appeal to them. The theme for our VBS is Bible Boot Camp. The student were given "dog tags" to decorate. The students were given foam stickers to decorate their tags. Of course the majority of the time was spent pulling og the white paper to get to the sticky part. Our dog tags were definitely unique; covered in fish, seaweed, random letters and animals. We then went to games. We took the kids outside and the "game drill sergeants" gave each child a bottle of bubbles. They also have three large bubble wands for the children to share (By the end of our game time we have managed to break two...). One of our children simply took their bubbles and dumped them onto the ground. Other students did not understand the concept of holding there bubble container up while they blew through the wand...which resulting in wearing more of the bubbles than were actually blown. Other children liked the taste of the bubbles, managing to lick the bubble wand and/or lick the bubbles off the ground. Other children were obviously champion bubble blowers, standing in their designated spot blowing bubble after bubble beautifully and without help. Chris even came out to help with the bubble blowing, although like the children, managed to wear more bubbles than he blew due to having difficulties opening bubble packets. After games Chris and Cory Becker took the four boys to wash their hands while Emily, myself, and one of the moms took the 8 girls to the bathroom. The bathroom in itself, with 8 girls, is an adventure. Three sinks, eight girls, lots of soap, paper towels, and of course potty breaks. I do believe more soap and water ended up on the floor than on the hands of my girls. And yet again some of the girls liked the taste of the soapy water from the sink. We then moved on to refreshments. We lined the children up and by this time had halfway mastered the idea of the hand holding train line. We walked into the "Atlas Mess Hall" and seated the kids. They were given red fruit punch along with white and chocolate cream filled cookies. Each child was given two cookies. I was shocked to see that the red punch actually stayed in the glasses and not in the laps of our children or floor of the church building. We soon found out some of the kids like the inside of the cookies more than the actual cookie. Other kids had more of the cookie on their mouth instead of in their stomach. The older kids had fruit roll ups but we opted out of giving each child their own. Instead I tore pieces off for each child. After snack we went to class time. Each child has their own coloring book with Bible verses of what we are learning this week. The kids did a great job staying on the two designated pages they had to color for the night. One of the kids decided the taste of the crayons was better than actually using them to color with. We then ended the night with singing where it was announced that the class with the most kids by the end of the week, the teachers would receive pies in their faces. At this time I think our group is in 5th place. One of the little girls came up to me, tapped me on the knee with a very serious look on her face and said, "Ms. Sarah, I don't want a pie in my face." It was all i could do not to laugh as I explained to her that Ms. Emily and I would be the ones receiving pies, not her. She simply looked at me at said, "Oh...." Then quietly returned to her seat. All in all it was an amazing night! At least with the threes and fours there is never a dull moment and I can not wait for Day 2!!!

During VBS, as with other church events, it is easy to feel uplifted! I have been inviting anyone I can think of and truly hope they all show up. I want to continue having this feeling of being uplifted and closer to God even after VBS is over! Life can be stressful and tough and is constantly throwing obstacles at you. Through God anything is possible. When I am closer to God I feel like I can do anything I set my mind to. It is also amazing to have the feeling that someone is always there at your side with you no matter what. God will never leave you! We just all have to remember not to leave him in the process of life!

Realizing how blessed we are...

Through the stress and strain of wedding planning comes alot of meaningless arguements. It is a tough, yet fun, time in our lives. However, sometimes it can be hard to take the time to stop and looked at how blessed we are. An arguement over what song to play or what microwave to buy seems selfish and small when you think of all the things going on around us. We found a few months ago a guy we went to school with was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He had surgery to remove the tumore and seemed to be getting better. Just yesterday it was found out that he had an infection in his shunt. The shunt had to be removed immediately and signs that he had a stroke have also been present. They are unaware of exactly how he is because he has been in and out from what we understand. We had special prayers for him tonight at church, as we have said our own prayers as well. I know God hears our prayers and that anything is possible through him. It truly has made me feel how truly blessed and lucky Chris and I are. Our families are healthy. We are healthy. I can not imagine going through what this family is experiencing. Everyone needs to take the time to look at life and find the blessing instead of the burdens and troubles. Many times in life we all look at the negative parts of life instead of looking at the positive and even sometimes simple wonderful things that are in our life. Just being able to walk down the street is a blessing in itself. Our God is amazing! He knows everyones troubles and triumphs. He will listen as long as we take the time to talk to him and let him in our lives.

Life goes on

We have 176 days left until our special day. It seems to be speeding by. When we first got engaged we had over 300 days. In the last week Chris finally had an off day and we went wedding band shopping. When Chris bought my engagement ring he also purchased the band so now it was time to figure out what he wanted. It was so much fun and yet felt so unreal to be picking out his wedding band. It was weird looking at a ring on his finger. We also continue to look up songs. There are so many songs out there I feel like we are getting "song overload." We have a pretty good list set right now we just need to narrow things down a little further, which is the hard part.

Now another matter has come up in our wedding, if we didn't have enough to deal with, now one of our groomsmen is moving to Colorado. Clayton is Chris' roomate right now and one of his best friends in the world. They have been living together for about the year and a half considering they lived together in their fraternity house and now in an apartment. His oldest brother lives in Colorado and he went to visit him last week and obviously fell in love with it. He applied for a job, did a phone interview, and got the job. Now Monday he will find out how soon he has to arrive in Colorado. Right now it all seems unreal. With the two of them living together the matter of the apartment has to be resolved. Their lease was to go up middle of this month but they are suppose to give her a 30 day notice, which they didn't have at the time. Hopefully their land lady will be understandable and let them out of the lease instead of having to renew it for another 6 months. Chris would be unable to live there by himself and not many people are looking to move out to room with him at the moment. I have been so use to seeing Clayton almost every other day for the last year and a half. He is more than Chris' friend and roomate, he is my friend and like a brother to both of us. Since Clayton is accident prone, we have been through alot of things with him in the last year a half, which includes wrecks and a very scary couple nights in the hospital after a boating accident. We also have been there to see him through girls he has dated as well as him recently getting back into church, a true blessing. Not only have we been there with him, he has been there with us. He has seen us fight and argue. He was one of the only 4 to know when and how Chris was goin to ask me to marry him (the other 3 consisting of my dad, Chris' dad and another friend). We have all been there to laugh and cut up at all hours of the night. I can't imagine having him hours away from us, especially when so much is going to be happening in the next few months that I need him here for. It is going to be hard simply calling him to say "happy birthday" instead of simply walking into their apartment. Once he leaves I won't see him until the day of our rehearsal dinner. After the wedding I fear I won't see him ever again. With him living in a completely different state on the other side of the country, a plane trip away, it will be nearly impossible for us to see each other often and for him to be apart of mine and Chris' life. I am extremely happy for him and he deserves this job. At the same time I don't want him to go, which in return makes me feel selfish for wanting him to stay. I am not just losing Chris' roomate or a friend, I am losing what feels like a member of my family. As much as Clayton may hate to admit it, he is going to miss us too :) Hopefully things will work out better than I anticipate. For now we continue to plan as normal. At the moment I am trying to push the idea of him moving out of my head and concentrate on planning our wedding and life in general. I know God had a plan, for Chris and I as well as Clayton. I can't step in the way of God's plan for Clayton, which could turn into the best decision of his life. I wish nothing but the best for him in everything he does.

Fourth of July Weekend

Well this weekend was 4th of July weekend. Exactly one month from the 4th Chris and I will celebrate our 7th anniversary together! Seven years ago I never imagined we would be in the midst of planning out wedding. Going into this weekend I wanted to spend as much time with my family as possible. I know I am not being kicked out of my family but it will never be the same spending holidays at home again. Next year I will have a husband, two families to juggle and later children of my own. Since the 4th was on a Sunday my family and I got up and went to church. After church my dad grilled chicken for lunch and soon after we all hopped into the pool for an afternoon of fun in the sun. Chris was at work, as usual, and he quickly found out he was having to work over. (As a side note: I am so proud of Chris. He has worked a full time job for almost the past year and gone to school. He is tired a lot of time but rarely complains. I know he has been working to afford for us to get engaged and now to afford our lives together. He is an amazing man that I was lucky enough to grab up.) Around four in the afternoon I left to go spend some time with Chris' family at the park, even though he wasn't going to be able to get there anytime soon. I love my future family in law but it is hard juggling my family and Chris', especially without him around. I am lucky that I feel right at home when I am around Chris' family when he is not there. They treat me like a part of the family and have for many years now. Chris finally texted me and informed me he would be able to get to his families gathering about 5:30. I told everyone to try to stick around for him to be able to see everyone. It has been hard on him, working full time and living in Florence. He doesn't get to come home as often as he would like, mainly due to his gas burning truck (poor thing haha). We try to rotate driving to and from our homes to each others. However, it does make it hard when he comes home to see his family when that time is also my time at home as well. We do the best we can to see everyone as much as possible, it is just hard figuring out right now. Chris spent some extra time at his parents house while I headed home to go hunt down firewords with my family (another past time that will be weird to experience with a husband next year). My dad cooked steaks and Chris came over for dinner. We sat around talking and then my family watched a movie while Chris headed off to his friends house to celebrate the 4th. Don't get me wrong with this post, I am highly excited to start my life with Chris as husband and wife. I have just always been a daddy's girl and a home-body who over thinks everything that changes in her life. It is just going to be different, yet amazing, to experience holidays beside my husband while still juggling my family and my in-laws at the same time. Just sometimes hard to let go of my "little girl" days.