Year 30

Happy 31st Birthday to me...I have had a great birth"month", well "week" ok... Day!!!
Tonight I was able to go to dinner with my dear friend Stacey P and my momma!! We went to dinner at "On the Border" one of my favorite places!!! So we sit down and Stacey quickly says okay so "Happy Birthday" now I have a task for you....I thought oh no, but here is what she had me do. I had to think of 30 things I had done in the past year that I was proud of, she said I could have my whole life since I hadn't had to do it before, but I mostly stuck with the last year. So here is the list:

1-5 year cancer SURVIVOR

2-Chaired Cabarrus Co. Relay For Life

3-Maid of Honor in my best Friend's Wedding

4-Paid off Eddie

5-Went to the Dominican and planned a 2nd trip

6-Bought a digital SLR

7-Conqured my fear of driving in downtown Charlotte

8-Promoted to Teller Services Supervisor

9-Became a certified VITA tax preparer at work

10-Saved Money

11-Lived 30 full years

12-Bought an iPad

13-Did a thirty-one fundraiser for a friend who had a liver transplant

14-Worked on growing my hairout

15-Got a new tattoo and one touched up and added too

16-Went to see Courageous with my dad and other movies

17-Went to my first Panthers Football Game
18-Saw Clemson beat Auburn at Clemson!! Go TIGERS
19-Went to Florida 2 times, saw some cousins for the 1st time in years
20-celebrated 6 1/2 years at SECU
21-Seen Stacy P, 2 times in one year
22-Kept in touch with Amber
23-Took Olivia to her first concert
24-Got to watch a drag race from the Top of the Tower
25-Participated in UNCC's Relay For Life
26- Made New Friends

27-Sponsored RoElvis in the Dominian Republic

28-Went shopping at midnight

29-Made Home made macaroni and cheese

30-Went to a club and stayed till 2am when they closed down.

Then she made me make a goal for the next year. My Goal is to read more and travel more..

Here's to another Awesome year!! 

-Kim :)

Goals

Just a little post.

This weekend I met with a friend to catch up over Starbucks, not to really go into details and divulge all of our conversation, the topic of what am I going to do once I finish this.. Well , I said, you know I am almost 31 and I still don't completely know what I am called to do in this life and where I see myself in say 5 years. So as we were talking I said sit down and make short term goals, start with a week, a month, 6 months, a year, 5 years. I said you know you can make these goals, but you may not always succeed at keeping them. Although they are goals and we would normally like to keep the goals, you may not always be able to do that, but at least with goals we are not aimlessly going after something random. So where does God fit into all of this, He should be the center of our goals. To be completely honest, my goals this week consist of this... Pray daily, read my Bible daily, and read a book. Not that I need to be reminded to pray daily, but that is my goal to spend some quality time in prayer this week with my Savior, and for those that know me well, know I am not a reader so I am going to try and finish a book I have been reading for awhile and begin a new book this week..

So I ask what are your goals for the week??

Soli Deo Gloria

Kim :)

Photography

There are probably a lot of things you may or may not know about me.... Two things I'll share with you tonight are....:

One.. I absolutely love clouds and taking pictures of them and the sky when the opportunity arises.  I think it comes from Psalm 19:1 "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork."  

Two.. I enjoy taking pictures, and want to learn more about catching great moments so that people can hold on to them "forever" if you will. I by no means wish to do it professionally, but want to learn more!! I recently took a step in that direction and purchased a Nikon Digital SLR. Since then I have been taking more pictures trying to capture some great moments. This past weekend I went to a pool party at a friends house and took quite a few pictures, well over 100 of the kids jumping in the pool and other moments I thought would be fun to capture. I also was able to go out one evening and catch some neat pictures around our house of some plants, clouds, and flowers! I thought I would share a few of those here with you... 

Clouds at Sunset

Kate coming with a rock to clean off...

Will eating a pickle!

Will jumping in the pool off the diving board!

Will and Olivia on the diving board!

Just a neat looking picture, I thought!

I'm back....

So I am here again, I will try to blog more often, hopefully things have slowed down in my life just a little for now. I have finished another successful year for co-chairing Relay For Life in Cabarrus County. I have enjoyed doing this the past three years here. I will still definitely be involved in the event, because I absolutely love it and what it does. I cant help but think that I am one of the statistics that RFl raises money for. I have met so many wonderful people over the last few years that have now become lifelong friends!!!
This past year has been tough, with losses to cancer. I know of 2 ladies who were once on the committee who lost their battles with breast cancer, a very committed team captain lost her mom to lung cancer, just days after Relay, and our neighbor lost his wife to I believe ovarian cancer. There are so many in this world with cancer, this is why I RELAY so that we can put an end to this crazy disease that takes so much from each person who has eer been diagnosed. Although we talk so much about what we loose, I want to say what I have gained....

I have gained things that I would have never had I not gone through my trial with cancer. I grew closer to Jesus, my friends, and family. My zeal for life has also increased, meaning that I completely understand how quickly it can be taken from us, and we need to live each day fully.

So that's what was on my heart for tonight. Thank you Jesus for my trial with cancer and that i have such a passion to find a cure and to help those who are battling cancer now.
:) :)
Kim :)

Lala

Riding down the road heading to see family for the weekend! I am excited to see them. Its been awhile sad to say but I generally only make it down here 1 or 2 times per year.

It has been an interesting last half of the trip we stopped for a potty break @ McDonald's and I was gonna get a frappe dad a tea and mom a coffee... Well after standing thee in the chaos around me I asked when I may get my order and after the guy FINALLY started to make the coffee for the 3rd time I asked for my money back... When I came out empty handed we figured out we had been there for 17 min and still nothing.. I got my money back and we continued on our way..

Now were about 25 minutes away!!

Later..

Home

Well I am home. We got back to NC around 8 Sunday night an hour later than we were suppose to.. It was a mess in Philly, US Air was trying to get people to catch the next flight out so that some of the crew members could get to Charlotte. I am not sure of the reasoning, but I thought it was kind of rude and not very customer friendly.. But because of the mess we were late taking off and then we had to wait till there would be an opening for us to land in Charlotte, putting us an hour behind... Although, I wasn't really ready to come home till we were back in the US, after sitting on the plane for an hour waiting to take off I couldn't wait to land back in Charlotte!! Once we landed we unloaded and waited for the luggage, collected it and headed towards good Ole MP!! Dad picked us up, we dropped Alicia and Buddy off at their house, said goodbye and headed back across 49!! HOME finally!! Mom was happy to see me and I was happy to be home. I unloaded the dirty laundry and grabbed a nice HOT shower!!

The rest of the week was great and I am still trying to process all that I saw and had the opportunity to do while I was gone.. I plan to blog more about it as I do..

I did want to share a little more about the Dominican Church we went to .. Here is what I wrote in my journal. On the way to the church I shared my cancer story with Dr. Pons and those sitting around. She said she wanted to cry and then said "God is Good." I said Yes, He is!! Who would have thought 4 1/2 years later that I would be on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. It is still quite surreal that I am really here!! El musica es muy bonita!(The music is very beautiful.) We sang "Este Es El Dia", This is the day. It was wonderful hearing worship in another country and language. God is not the God of just the US but over the entire Earth. What an AWESOME GOD we serve!!! I wish I knew more spanish should I could understand the pastor. Looking around everyone is zoned in on him. He seems to keep everyone's attention, I have a feeling he is preaching Truth, all the people here seem genuine!! When they were singing praise to God, I felt like I could see their hearts on their faces, and it was a heart that loves JESUS!!! The pastor would ask questions and the congregation would respond, He preached from John 9:1-12, His first question was, What is the best gift someone can give you?
The closing song was "I am a friend of God" "Eres mi amigo fiel, eres mi amigo fiel, eres mi amigo fiel, tu amigo soy. The congregation was singing from their hearts, what a beautiful time of worship! Thank you Jesus for allowing me the opportunity to witness and be a part of this. I can still hear them singing in my head. They were so passionate about what they were singing...

More later..

San Juan Day 3...

Today was yet another great day! I am loving this even though it is hot, muggy, and not in great conditions. It is amazing how God can prepare you for things that you would normally have a hard time with...

Today we went to a place that was RIGHT on the Haitian border. It was poverty unlike I've ever seen before. I didn't go in the houses but I imagine that they quite possibly have dirt floors, no running water and their bathrooms are outhouses. The place we set the clinic up at was their church building. It did have a dirt floor and the "stage" was a mound of dirt with boards around it to make it stay.. It had 4 windows, 2 doors, and nothing other than the 4 walls. The drive up to the place took about 45 minutes on a dirt road that was in very bad shape. There were times that I wasn't sure the bus was going to stay on the road. Once set up we starting seeing patients. We broke for lunch and ate lunch and then played some with the kids. We did the "Hokey Pokey" with them in Spanish and the Chicken Dance. They liked the Hokey Pokey better. Juan Ernesto also preached and from what I was told 4 people asked Jesus into their hearts, they then sang a song, I'm not sure what it was though, but it was a special moment. We then saw patients until time to go and head home.

I'm still trying to process everything I saw and express how much it makes me thankful for what I have back in the states. But I know that God is completely sovereign and I am right where I am suppose to be and they are right where they should be. At day two of going out to the campo clinics I have been changed and been more blessed by these people than they will ever know. Every smile, sweet look and precious little child's face will be engraved in my heart for ever. Thank you to everyone who has prayed, sponsored, or encouraged me about this trip!!!

I will post more pictures when I have time.