babies, babies!

So many babies!
My co-worker just had her second, a daughter named Melisa.
My oldest cousin Brycie and her husband Alan just had their firstborn, a daughter named Avery-Jade Marie Powell. She is SO cute:)
My second oldest sister, Lacey, and her husband are having their first born this Wednesday!
Clayton Andrew Haker. I think he is going to be SO cute as well:)
Technically, Clay will be my first nephew, but Jaymes already has so many nieces/nephews that I'm already an aunt. That's only "technically" though because they all live in Canada except for one that lives right near me! And to her I'm already Aunt Ally:) exciting.
Lots of baby buzz, and I see the Lord's timing in each of the baby's births. My aunt/uncle/cousins had planned on visiting my cousin Brycie for the weekend, and no one knew that it would be baby time!
The Lord is good:)

greetings&salutations!

Well, here I am!

Jaymes, Finnley, and I

I have officially joined the blog world. Not exactly sure why, because I don't exactly have that much to blog about, but everyone else was doing it. So here I am..giving it a try!

The name I have chosen for now is "on our way." In life, we are ON OUR WAY to the future..duh. As humans, we are always on our way to the NEXT thing. The next activity, the next step, the next program, the next chapter of our life..the list goes on forever. My thinking behind being on my way is: I'm on my way to being a college graduate, a hard working employee at (hopefully) an extremely high-paying and awesome job, a better friend, a fiancee, a wife, a homemaker, a mother, a better Christian..that list could go on forever too! All of the things that I am "on my way" to are so important, but i think that the most important is being a better Christian. Even just being a Christian in general is important, because we're on our way to a life of eternity and everlasting joy in Christ, but it isn't just a one time commitment, it is an everyday, conscious decision to build a relationship with Christ and with people around me.

To begin, I guess I'll tell you a little bit about ME. I am in my third year at USF, majoring in Business Management - yay. Hopefully I will be done spring 2012, so I can graduate in May 2012! The sooner I get done, the sooner I can marry the most wonderful boy in the WHOLE world! Well maybe..if he starts bringing home some major bacon (not THAT major..you know what I mean..) then mayyyyybe we can swing it so that we'll be married before I finish school. I've gone back and forth with that, actually. As everyone knows, we have been together forEVER. Since 8th grade! Very long time. We actually just celebrated our 6 and a 1/2 year anniversary. Very fun! And it's been hard to watch so many people around us getting engaged and getting married because we've been together for so long it seems like we should be married right now! So, we're always scheming..trying to figure out how we could make things work..and the like:).

I have NO idea what I want to do when I grow up career-wise, but I know that when I have kids I will want to stay home with them atleast until they start school. But I'm so far from that point it's almost silly to talk about! I enjoy fashion and decorating, but it doesn't always come naturally to me! I don't look at a room and automatically see 10 ways to spruce it up..but I wish I did!

I am currently in the discovery phase of my spritiual life.. I am exploring different books of the bible one at a time, currently in 1 John, which is really wonderful and I am enjoying it! Next I will probably finish out 2 and 3 John, and then move into 1 Peter, then James, and then Isaiah. That is my goal for the next couple of months. The Bible that I have has NIV and The Message side by side, which I really love. Many people don't like The Message (which is just a modern translation of the NIV/KJV/etc bibles) but I really do because when I'm reading the NIV side, if I don't understand something I can jump to The Message and get a clearer understanding of what it means. You can't use The Message for scripture memory though, so for that I'll only use the NIV side.

It's weird to look at the calendar and see that we are halfway through September already, which means we are halfway through the year! The holidays are coming up, which although they are extremely exciting, I think I will enjoy them even more when I have my own house or even apartment to decorate and get festive with.
I definitely know I will enjoy having my own house for food alone! I love to cook, and don't do it that often at home, but when I do I love it! I can't wait to cook dinners for my future husband, and cook WITH him..

Speaking of future husband, Jaymes and I are currently training for a "Bike Across Florida" trip this October that is put on by Idlewild Baptist Church. My parents and many people that we know are going too, so we're looking forward to it! The farthest training we've had so far is 34 miles, and the trip is going to be about 200 +/- miles. Woo!! My mom and I, along with my friend Alex are training for a Women's Half Marathon, which will take place this November, it will be our second half-marathon and I'm hoping that I do much better at this one! Last year it took us 2 hrs 26 min to complete the entire 13.1 miles, so we'll see how it goes this year. I started WAYYY too fast, which made it VERY difficult to complete it strongly!

Well, I can see that I am a rambler, but I guess that's what blogs are for, and this was somewhat of an introductory blog anyway..I do love reading up on other people's blogs (when I know them of course!) so I figured there must be someone who would want to read what I have to say! And I think it will be a good place for far-away-family members to come to and catch up on what's going on in me and my family's life!

Birthday Shout-Outs to: My future mother-in-law Kimbo :) and one of my bestest friends, Laura Brown:) love you both!

~Allyson