Hip Hip Hooray!!

Well I want to start out by saying that my cousin Dustan went to clinic today for the second time this week and today we got some GOOD news! On Tuesday when he went to the clinic his leukemia cell count was way up and obviously thats not good, they had said that they needed it to go down otherwise his body wouldn't be able to take it much longer. Let me just tell you how good God is.... today when he went his cell count dropped and let I remind you this is without taking chemo or any kinds of meds!! Last night I was told that at church they had a prayer meeting and that they had prayed that his counts would go down and guess what?? He answered our prayers. This is just one of the many things God has planned for him!! I am so excited, joy and happiness is just bubbling out of me right now!! Other then receiving that wonderful news today I have been running around town quit a bit. My sister wanted to set up a lemonade stand today in front of my moms store so I took her to get all her supplies, then I did some stuff for my mom like go to the bank and grab us some lunch. After that I went to the store to get some ingredients, so I can make some Strawberry Bread... if it turns out good I will have to post the recipe! I also tried to get in contact with some people that work at MTSU and that was impossible, so I have been on the internet forever trying to answer all my questions... p.s. NOT WORKING!! Later I plan on making that yummy bread and going to work out with my friend Kelly. We are going to try out the Co-Ed weight training class. Im sure after we leave there we will come back to my place to hang out. *Also as a side note if you need some one to clean your house I could be your gal! You could email me or call, whichever is fine with me! :) If you have some neighbors that is looking for someone let me know! (laurajean20@gmail.com and 519-9840)

~ The picture above is Dustan, I thought I would add a picture so you guys would know who i was talking about! This was taken about a month ago and already he looks tremendously better!! He has his color back and some really cute hair!! :) Oh ya and you can kinda see his shirt it says I BEAT CANCER... we also have red bracelets that daily remind us to pray. Thats the kind of faith that we have to have!!
~The other pic is of my sis. she is wearing the shirt and you can see it a little better.... the number on the shirt is his num. from b- ball and it also has his name on it.

My FAVORITE time of the year... FLORIDA!!!

Ok so as most people know my family, which consits of me, mom, dad, nick, and mattie, plus Kyle all went to Florida!! We had a special treat this year because my grandparents(my moms parents) was able to come with us. We all had so much fun together! I am just going to run through the days that we were there.

~Saturday night Kyle and I went to spend the night with my grandparents so we could get up and ride with them the next morning. When we got there we ate and watched a movie. Later my grandparents went to bed, Kyle and I tried that and slept for about a hour and then we both woke up and couldnt go back to sleep!! We found a movie to watch and stayed up until about 3:30. I fell asleep and as soon as I shut my eyes it was time to get up again.... We all got up at 4 drank some coffee and headed to waffle house to meet my parents.

~Sunday we were on the rode until about 12:30-1:00 and then we hit FL. air!! We unpacked all our stuff and grabbed some chairs then headed down to the beach. When we got back to the house we took showers and went to eat at a place called Red Bar, it is my families favorite place to go. The atmosphere is neat and the food is amazing!! After we left there the women went shopping at Walmart to get some food for the week... lets just say by the time we got back we were ready to go to bed!

~Monday we woke up, ate breakfast, put on our swimsuits and then went down to the beach.... our cars we packed full of stuff to carry! The beach was like 2 min. away... i mean walking distance, but with all that stuff we defiantly did not want to walk. haha. We stayed there for the majority of the day and then came back got some showers and then went to eat at a pizza place that was really good! After we left there we went to the big huge mall in Destin, we didnt stay there long, but long enough to have some fun! I almost forgot but I do believe on this day the boys... Nick, Kyle, and my grandfather went Parasaling. That night I think we had some virgin margaritas and chilled out.

~Tuesday Kyle and I went down to the beach and everyone else went shopping and site seeing. I would much rather spend my days on the beach and my nights out and about, but thats just me. We has tons of fun down by the beach by ourselves it was very refreshing to be able to talk about some things and just relax with no one around! :) I LOVE HIM!! Later that day we got really hungry and hot bc Kyle forgot the umbrella so we called my mom to come get us and then we allll went to the pool and played some volleyball and my sis and I had some relay races in the pool with some diving sticks... it was fun and tons of exercise!! When we were finished there we went to the house and got a shower. That morning while my mom and I were running we found this gazebo thing, so that night we went there to take a few pics and then went to Outback to eat and then went to Baytown to watch fireworks and they were having family night too so there was tons of stuff to do.

~ Wednesday... other known as our last day! :( We all went to the beach and spent all day down there and then came back took some showers and then went to take some pics on the beach. Kyle and I had our date night and went to Rosemary Beach! We had so much fun! When we got there we stoped on the side of the rode and took some pics and then we found a place to eat. It was very nice and romantic!! Afterwards we drove around and just spent time with each other. We came home and then cleaned so the next morning we could get up and go.

~ Here is a pic. from Rosemary Beach!

All in all we had a extremely good time, but we needed a lot more time. Unfortunately we had to leave earlier then usual bc of my moms store, she doesnt like to leave it for long periods of time.

Let me just say every morning we all had a very good breakfast!! My grandparents ROCK they made sure our tummies were full for the beach! :)

*I have tons more picutures I would love to share, so I put some up on flickr and on facebook and soon to be on myspace! I hope you enjoy! :)

Looking Back....

Last week my family, Kyle and I all went to Florida (I will have a blog up soon about our time there) and now have been back for 5 days. Things have been busy, busy, busy which I love! The friday and saturday that I got back i was able to babysit Jack and Emily and as always we had so much fun. My sister usually always comes with me and they love her! I think it may be bc they can play more with her.... she is almost 11 but still a little girl at heart she will play and pretend as if she was 2 years old. haha but then she can turn around and hang out with me as if she is 21, plus she is absolutely BEAUTIFUL... she is pretty much perfect in my eyes! :)
Sunday was a interesting day I woke up and got ready for church as usual and then Kyle came to pick me up and during Sunday school I had left the room to give my mom the offering and roll of the class, while I was out there my grandmother looked pretty bad ,and I say that in a respectful way, I asked what was the matter and she said that my cousin Dustan and my aunt had to go home bc he wasn't feeling well. My heart sunk when she told me that, I went back to class and wrote Kyle a note to tell him what had happened... the whole time all i could think about was if he was ok. When class was over we went into the sanctuary and were told that as soon as church was over our whole family was all going over to Dustans to read scripture and pray. Even though my heart hurt for Dustan I was still able to worship.... it was actually one of the best worship services in a while. We all ended up marching around the church. I think we defiantly let the devil know that he is not going to win this fight for Dustans life!! He has the whole church fighting with him and hundreds of other people, some our family knows and some we dont.
After church we all went over to my familys house and sat in a circle, held hands and prayed. As soon as we did he automatically felt better! God is so good!! We had a great time eating lunch and just spending time with family. Hours later Kyle and I headed home to do some things for my parents and that night we ended up going over to Michael and Adrians house.
We all had a great time. We ate, played with Cole outside, took a walk and then came in to play some cards and eat dessert! While I was there I got a call from my mom saying that my uncle and cousin Dylan had to leave Church and go home bc Dustan was having the chills and problems breathing. As soon as they got there Dylan started praying for him and again like earlier that day he felt a lot better. You see the doctors told Dusatn on Friday that he only had 2 more days to live, but our God has BIGGER and BETTER plans for Dustan. We believe that Dustan is completely healed and the devil is not very happy! haha it just amazes me how God works sometimes! :)
As for today I am obviously just chilling this morning and sipping on some coffee, but this afternoon I will be helping the lady I babysit for clean her house! I am super excited because I am hoping to babysit and clean houses for some extra money.... ( i ended up not taking the job at Starbucks).... so anyways I know this is a little longer then norm. but I just wanted to share a little bit about whats been going on.

Having Fun in the Neighborhood! :)

Last night Kyle and I got the privilege to babysit Cole for our first time! When we first got to Michael and Adrian's house Cole automatically knew what was going on so when he saw us he kept saying bye bye... bye bye. ha. I thought it was hilarious that he knew we were staying! They snuck out while we pre occupied Cole by playing with some toys. After they left we all played, read books, and watched a little baby dvd... i forget what the name of it was maybe God Loves Me, but anyways he loved it! After that we tried to feed him some supper, he wasn't super hungry but he ate a little. When he finished we went out side and played on the play set, he loved the swing.... he looked so peaceful! Then we took him for a walk around the neighborhood in his little red car. We came home and gave him a bath, lotioned him up and put on his cute little pjs. Kyle read him some books and then I put him to bed. When he was sleeping Kyle and I cleaned up a little and watched Cheaper by the Dozen. Michael and Adrian came home and i believe they had a fun night, we all watched some funny videos on you tube and then me and kyle came home and chilled out on the couch. Kyle and I had such a fun night and I hope we get to do watch him again! (hint hint ;)!) Although we get to see him fairly often its always fun to have that special one on one time.

~I posted a few pictures, there are tons more then this so maybe i can get a slide show up soon!:)

man oh man

These past two weeks have surprisingly been very busy, I cant complain though its better then having nothing to do at all! Last weekend a few of my girlfriends and I headed down town to the CMA Fest, we all had so much fun and saw so many of our favorite performers! The next day was filled with fun as well... I was finally able to give some attention to my hair! I got it trimmed and highlighted blond... my fav! Then we all went to my cousins birthday and when we left there we went to the drive in to see Kung Fu Panda... it was so cute! I almost forgot I also found out that I got the job at Starbucks!! Its so exciting although im nervous at the same time because I have a feeling its going to be really hard to remember all those drinks!!

This week was Camp meeting at Faith is the Victory at some of Kyle and my friends church. We were only able to go Monday and Thursday, but it was AMAZING!! Such great things are about to happen in our family and I can not wait!! We have been waiting for the manifestation of the miracle that Dustan has already received! We know that he is healed and we believe it with all our hearts. God has already spoken his word and Dustan has been using his faith to step out and walk even though the doctors say things should be diffrent!! I LOVE IT!!!

On Wednesday of this week I was able to spend some time with my grandmother... we had so much fun together!! She took me shopping, to get a pedicure, and then we went out to eat. The next day we woke up and had a cup of coffee and then got to cleaning her house.

My family plus Kyle and my grandparents are alllll going to FLORIDA first thing in the morning!! We are all so excited to be able to do some relaxing on the beach! Kyle and I are spending the night with my grandparents tonight and man is it going to be fun!!

I will put some pics up when we get back from FL.

Kings Island

Last Wednesday my family and Kyle headed out early in the morning to Cincinnati Ohio's theme park Kings Island. It was a blast!! When we got there the first ride we rode was Drop... personally I think this is the scariest ride out of all of them, so we wanted to get it over with first. I think we almost rode every ride, but time got the better and 8:00 came really fast. We left the park around 8:30 and stayed at hotel there in the area. They had a hot tub at the hotel so later after we were all settled and got some food in our tummies we headed down to relax!! I absolutly love hot tubs.. I want one so bad!! :) The next morning we got up bright and early and headed back to TN. We were all SUPER tired when we got back to the house so Kyle and I layed down and took a extremely long nap, afterwards I think we went to his house if i remember correctly. I am looking forward to going back to Kings Island soon, my mom was able to get 6 tickets before we left for 16.99 a piece since the water park was closed so hopefully me and Kyle will be able to take a couple of our friends next time!
The first picture is some of us on the first ride drop... super scary!! The second picture was on the ride called the Beast, my dad and I are the ones in the picture and the the shadows are Kyle and Nick.