lean on God in all times

this weekend i lost my cousin to a car accident. he was alone & forutnately no others were hurt. officers reported that he was in the other lane & over-corrected. the driver side hit a brick mailbox & it was said that he died on impact.

peter was only 17. a senior in high school -- graduating this may. he had plans to study psychology at the university of north georgia, where his older brother is currently attending. they planned to get an apartment together & experience college together. they were the greatest of best friends. peter also has four sisters. each very close to him.

i got the phone call saturday morning at work. i just remember the urgency in my mom's voice. you could hear she had been crying & by the way she was whispering, meant she didn't want my younger sisters to know yet. i wept & kept asking "what?" like what she was saying was a cruel joke. M & i immediately headed over to be with my aunt, uncle, & cousins. they live only 10 short minutes from us & as we are about to turn into their neighborhood, we saw the tires marks & the empty spot where a brick mailbox use to stand. he was that close to home.

death is something i hope to never be comfortable or familiar with. but that means it will always hurt & never seem fair. i remember when my grandmother & maw maw pasted away. they were much older & each sick. they had already prepared for death. so when the time came, everyone was ready. it was still hard but we were able to prepare & know they each lived a full life. but peter's death is nothing like that. i think about how young he was. how he hadn't even touched the surface of this world. how his parents & siblings will forever feel incomplete. how this feels like it is a dream & we will see him again for the holidays. it is all so shocking & unreal that i don't want to accept it. it really hurts that M & i are the closest to them, yet we never made an effort to visit them since we got married. it makes you realize what you have & what's important.

but you wouldn't believe the amount of support & love they are receiving from family & friends. peter was such a well liked young man. he always had a smile on his face & could turn any situation into a good one. he was a fabulous man of God that had an impact of many people's lives. i know he's smiling right now, looking forward to the day he will be reunited with the ones he loves.

we love you peter.

spring giveaway

i'm over at Miller Memoires being a part of a HUGE spring giveaway!

check it out!

friday's letters {16}

dear abby i never thanked you for spending the night with us last weekend. spontaneous slumber parties are the funniest. *for those who are wondering, abby is my 12 year old sister. she's a ham & growing up to be quite a beautiful young lady with so much personality. i love that chick. 

dear payday you make this friday so much better. who doesn't love a payday? that's right, no one raised their hand cause paydays on friday's are the bestest.

dear hookie day this week in my personal & semi-professional {yes, i'm working on becoming a pro at playing hookie} i think they {the greater power that creates holidays} should create a national hookie day for people like me. taking wednesday off was refreshing & having M playing along by my side was the highlight of it all.

dear daylights saving time i love that you make the days seem longer. we've been able to stay out in the yard till 9pm with plenty of sunlight, but the other night i was so pooped i went to bed early & found myself being kept awake by the light. that shouldn't be right. also, losing an hour of sleep that first night really sucked. but i'm choosing to forgive you.

dear M it's our 8 month anniversary today. time flies when you're having a good time ;)

dear gym M kept pushing me to renew my membership once it ran out. he said you made me happier or something crazy like that. i thought i'd be able to keep myself accountable at home. you know, pull out the yoga mat & all my julian dvd's. but nope. maybe rode the bike a few time. did a pushup here & there. then i finally did it -- realized M was right. you do make me happier, so i renewed my membership & have visited you everyday so far. 

dear google reader wish i knew why you were retiring. not that it would change anything, i just like to know everything. but, seriously it is a bummer you are going away. fortunately i have a bloglovin account, so follow along if you haven't already.

dear friends yes, you. thank you for reading & following along. you're my favorite & i want you to know that i appreciate your comments, emails & love. if for whatever reason we aren't friends, send me an email & let's get to know each other. seriously!!!

happy friday!

-L

linking up with ashley

latley {10}

lately we've been eating a lot of chick-fil-a. what can i say? it's delicious! i shouldn't be defending myself… it's that good. lately it seems like spring is actually on it's way. a couple days it's been in the 70's -- yet i still wear a beanie. it's been a lot of phone calls. scheduling appointments. while simultaneously figuring out classes & making sure i get to work on time. in short, there's never a dull moment. i do love this life. lately kodi's been on a teething kick. been finding evidence in various places of the house. she also discovered how much she loves our bed. every since we changed our springy mattress to the glorious memory foam, she decided the bed would be hers. i roll my eyes. i also got my gym membership back. gone everyday so far. my body's trying to tell me to slow down after yesterday's body sculpting class. but i refuse. i gotta sculpt my non-curvy flat-ass body {don't even get me started on my chest. or lack there of. wish there was a class that improved said area. if you know what i mean).

but now i have to run by M's classroom because he forgot his t-shirt for track pictures. if i don't leave now i'll be late. #storyofmylife

xoxo
-L

what have you been up to lately?

update

last post was friday which feels like ages ago. we've been trying to catch up on a few things over here -- sleep for one thing. we both took today off {almost sounds romantic}. we figured we needed the extra day together to simply relax. it's currently beautiful outside. sun shining, wind slightly blowing, the ducks & geese are in the yard, & the water is calm.

 just got back from petsmart, where kodi & maggie tagged along. naturally we stocked up on goodies for those two munchkins. even stopped by redbox & picked up a movie to watch... well, any minute now. gonna curl up in bed with the man of my dreams & probably be really confused by the plot. anyone seen looper? previews alone make it seem like i'm going to be asking a lot of questions {M hates it when i do that}.

i hope wherever you are, you are having a wonderful wednesday!
xoxo