Our Weekend {Cousin Edition}

Thursday afternoon, my and my brother's cousins, Rachael and Seth stayed with us for a few days. We had so much fun and I always enjoy being around them! Here is a brief description of their personalities...

Rachael (9 years old): She is very intelligent, sweet, funny, laughs A LOT, uses creative wording with her sentences, enjoys playing American Girl Dolls, and is very go with the flow (she said the same about me!).

Seth (7 years old): This boy is hysterical. He is hilarious, random, spastic, likes to do whatever Drake (my brother) does, finds it amusing to harass our chickens, and is 100% boy.

Let the fun begin!
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Friday,

was probably our busiest day. That morning started out with some ooey gooey and oh so delicious cinnamon rolls. At lunchtime we went into town and ate lunch a teeny sandwhich shop called Granny's Doughnuts & Sandwiches. Let me pause here for a second. This little shop has the best croissants and doughnuts...EVER. Let me tell you, the doughnuts are bigger and even better than Krispy Kreme (it has to be pretty good for me to think it's better than Krispy Kreme) and I know the name of the shop sounds silly (Mom and I originally had no intentions on ever going there until somebody told us how wonderful it was), but it is delicious!

That afternoon Drake took Rachael and Seth down to the woods.

^Can you guess what they found and collected in the woods?

In the evening we went in our backyard...

^You can't say no to that face

...and also took a ride in the back of my dad's truck around the neighborhood

^We made our own individual home-made pizzas and watched The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Saturday,

was the day they had to go home. Before they were picked up though, we were amused yet again by our backyard.

^Photo compliments of Mom

I always thoroughly enjoy having them come and stay with us. There is always non-stop energy abounding, laughter, and so many things to do.

It is so weird, because I can vividly remember posting this video of them on my blog two years ago. Whew, time flies!

Farewell Rachael and Seth, I miss you both already and can't wait to see you again!

Belated Beach Photos! (Fiiiiinally!!!)

Folly Beach, SC June 12th - 19th

My birthday picture

Seth and me in the ocean

Cake that we would be having later...

Mom

The condo we stayed at!

Make a wish!

Horse and buggy ride

The Crab House!

Good-bye Folly Beach, we miss you!

I'm Back!

Well, we got back from Folly Beach, Saturday evening. Although we had a GREAT time there, it feels great to be back home again. I would tell you guys what we all did, but I have it in slide show version instead. Unfortunately though, I can't get the slide show on here, because the movie button isn't on here anymore! If any of you know if there is a way to find the movie button, please, please, please let me know.

We have had quite a busy week. Our church's VBS started Monday, and it is ending tomorrow. Instead of it being in our church though (because it's Kyle Petty's barn), it is in Becky/Renee's yards (they go to our church)! They live in a humongous  neighborhood, and their yards are very spacious. In fact, they are only two houses down from each other! Our theme this year is Joseph in Egypt. I absolutely, wholeheartedly, LOVE helping with this. I have a shop in the 'marketplace.' The people who have a shop in the marketplace have to act as if they actually live in Egypt. My shop is beading hair, doing eye makeup, and 'shaving' the boys (with a dull butter knife and olive oil!). My character's name is Jamilia and I believe in 'gods.' With some of our characters believing in the 'gods' and not the one true God, this gives the kids a chance to stand up for what they believe in and witness to us (even though in real life we all, of course, believe in the one true God).

I am so excited for this coming Friday, too! What is this coming Friday? My birthday party, of course! My actual birthday was this past Sunday (it was another great one!). My birthday party theme is Anna Gray's 14th Birthday Lake Luau. For supper, we are going to have chicken and pineapple kabobs, cantaloupe and watermelon kabobs, strawberry and banana kabobs, pasta salad, baked potatoes, and cupcakes. My grandmother was sweet enough to let us use her lake front house/pontoon/sea doo for my party. She LOVES girls too! She raised two boys (my dad and his brother, who has passed away). I will definitely make sure to post photos of my party.

Speaking of my birthday, I should tell you all how we celebrated it this passed Sunday at the beach! First off, my uncle Grayson and I both share the same birthday (Mary - Kate and Ashley and I do too!). So Sunday morning, we started off opening gifts.

From my grandparents I got: three pairs of earrings, a super cute pocket book, a fashion hat, Clinique makeup remover, and makeup remover pads.

From my aunt and uncle: An itunes gift card and some money

From my parents: My second ear piercing (I got it two weeks ago as an early b-day present) and my room makeover (we haven't actually 'done' the makeover yet, but Mom and I are going to shop for the stuff sometime soon).

After we opened our gifts, we went down to the ocean for a few hours, I got sun burnt (on my face, shoulders, back, ears, legs and arms) and then we went to Sticky Fingers for supper. So yes, it was a great birthday for both of us!

Hope you all have had a great week!

♥ Happy Blogging ♥

Last post for a week

Hi friends! This is the last time I will be posting for a week. Why? Because today we're.......GOING TO THE BEACH!!! Yep, that's right, the day has finally come for us to go to Folly Beach which is connected to Charleston. We will be staying until next Saturday.

I woke up at 6:30 this morning and  have been getting ready since about 6:50. Everyone else isn't ready yet, but they should be in a few minutes. It takes us about 4 to 4 1/2 hours to get to Folly Beach from here (Thomasville, NC). We plan to stop by Bojangles for breakfast, Fazoli's for lunch (can't you just tell how healthy we are when we travel..LOL!), and then from Fazoli's, Folly Beach is about 20 or 30 minutes away.

We are SO EXCITED about going this year with our whole family. My aunt, uncle, their two kid (Rachael:8 Seth:6), my grandparents, and then my mom, dad, my brother, and me. Even though the ocean front condo we stay in is small with the WHOLE family, we still thoroughly enjoy each other's company and being around each other.

My grandparents were even nice enough to pay for EVERYONE to go! They have treated us to go to the beach since I was 7. Pretty generous, huh?

Well, when I come back, I will have LOTS, I repeat, LOTS of pictures to share on here! Maybe even a vid....maybe...if.....Mom's camera doesn't act up.

Blog to ya later! ♥

Almost here....so close......

What is 'almost here' and 'so close?' The beach! Whoo hoo! We will be leaving Saturday morning for Folly Beach connected to Charleston. It is such a beautiful place to vacay. Aaaah, the pier, salty water, sandy/salty smelling air, sunsets on the horizon....everything.

One of the things I really look forward to, is mine and my uncle's birthday! Yep, we both share the same one. Mary Kate & Ashley and I share the same birthday (June 13th) as well. Last year, I got American Idols Live tickets from my fam. Boy, was I excited too! I totally did NOT expect to get them.

This year, for my 14th b-day, I'm going to get a mini room makeover and possibly, maybe, hopefully a second ear piercing. My mom and I are going to talk to my dad about that one. I'm crossing my fingers that he will give the ok.

Anyway, back to the beach (I always somehow manage to get off track when I'm posting about something specific).........................................

We are planning to do the horse and buggy ride again. Everyone enjoyed it and the price was halfway decent!

I honestly don't know what my favorite thing to do at the beach is. I enjoy boogy boarding in the ocean, taking walks on the beach, shopping downtown, etc etc etc.

Haha, I remember about 5 years ago at Folly Beach, we had a waiter at a restaurant named Slappy. Don't know how I remember that, but I do.

Where do you like to vacay?

Memorial Day!

Hi friends! I hope you all had a great Memorial Day on Monday. We definitely did! My brother went with a friend to a Memorial Day celebration, and my parents and I went to Wet n' Wild Water Park with a family we are good friends with.

Our friends and the three of us arrived at Wet n' Wild around 10:30, found a seat by the wave pool (it was extremely crowded!), got our stuff situated and then Beth, Breanna, and I did one slide. We waited like, 20 minutes JUST to get a tube to go down the slide. It was worth the wait though!

After we were done with the slide, we went back to the wave pool and were in it maybe 10 minutes. When we got out, guess what?

IT STARTED RAINING, THUNDERING, AND LIGHTENING.

Noooo! The forecast did call for scattered thunderstorms, but I mean, it started POURING.

Luckily though, we got a rain check (which means that we can go back with the family another time for free).

Here are some pictures of us at the Wet n' Wild though..............

Beth, Breanna (middle) and me eating lunch in the parking lot

Daddy, (red swim trunks), Mom, and Beth and Breanna's parents

Haha! We couldn't resist having this picture of us taken by that hot, little purple dune buggy parked right beside our van!

Being Silly =)

We don't have any photos of us actually 'in' the park, but I DO, however, have a good bit of pics of us at their house..............

So when we left the park because of the storm, we headed on over to Beth and Breanna's house to hang out for the day.

We watched a movie (which I can't remember the name of), danced to Alejandro (a song) about a million times, had supper, talked, and had a downright great time!

Beth and me being goofy

My french manicured nails *(compliments of Wal-Mart and my mom putting them on)*

Beth playing with Jen.

Our feeeeeet! My foot (on top), Beth's foot, and Breanna's foot

Breanna and I (ignore how bad I look, I wasn't wearing makeup that day!)

Beth playing on Jen again

Breanna

Beth with their adorable kitty, Rascal!

That's it for Memorial Day. We went to the zoo today and took a lot of pics too, so I will hopefully have those posted tomorrow or Saturday, =)

♥ Happy Blogging ♥

Down in the South

Have you ever been to SC? My mom grew up down here in the kawntry and the fam and I come down here to visit for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and once during the summer.

It's so peaceful out in my grandparents neighborhood.....the scent of magnolias, the sound of active little birds, it's just so......peaceful.

I love it each morning when I wake up in the tiny little guest bedroom, and I wake up to the sound of lawn mowers and birds chirping. Love it, love it, love it!
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We have been pretty busy down here too. Yesterday we went shopping for probably 4 1/2 hours. My grandmother bought my mom a whole new WARDROBE of clothing (and oh my gosh, she tried on sooo much clothing, we spent a good 1 1/2 just watching her try on outfit, after outfit, after outfit, AFTER OUTFIT).

I noticed something after we went shopping too, everything that I got was pink. A pink hoody, a pink spaghetti strap dress, and hot pink soffe shorts. I guess you could say I like pink?

On Monday, we learned how to make chocolate meringue pies (which were VERY tasty, I must say). Whenever people would say that the meringue was made of 'egg whites' I ALWAYS thought it was the 'white shell' of the egg. But Monday, I learned that it was the liquidy goodness inside of the egg.

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We're going to be traveling back home today. We will probably leave around 1:00 or so (it takes us 3 1/2 hrs. from SC alllll the way to Thomasville, NC).

Hopefully this evening I can post a few pictures of the trip.

Hope you all have had a great week, and blog to ya later!

♥ Happy Blogging ♥

Life at the Smith House

Wow! Time sure does fly by. It seems like yesterday we only had four weeks of church left; and today was our last day.

As a bunch of you know, my dad has finished up at our church (he preached there) and he is going back to teaching at a christian academy high school in August. We didn't decide to leave Antioch (our church) because we were mad at anybody or because we were 'excused' from the church. Here's how it ALL started out.......


Back in May, my dad got a call from the principal of HPCA to see if we wanted to have an exchange student to come and live with us. He told us that he was from South Korea, that his name was Sung-ji (if that's how you spell it), that he was currently up in Canada, and that he wanted to come down to America because #1 it was too cold in Canada for him and #2 his sisters lived in New York and he wanted to be closer to them (close as in what, 15 hours away!!!). At first, Mom and daddy decided on no; but then they started thinking about it and decided on yes.

It was kind of funny; because back in either January or February, Mom and Daddy went through an adoption/fostering class because we wanted to adopt a baby. We also did NOT want a teenager to live with us either. That was like an OUT for us. So getting a baby kinda turned into getting a teenager from South Korea (I forgot to mention, but Sung-ji is 16).

Before the idea of getting Sung-ji, my dad had always really missed teaching. He also heard word that when some students at HPCA were interviewed, they brought my dad's name up a lot and talked about him being a good influence on them.

Sure enough, the principal had a spot open for my dad; so he brought it up to board and he got the job!

Daddy will start back teaching in early August (I'm pretty sure) and we will be getting Sung-ji August 11th. It will be quite an experience having not only another teen in the house....but another boy in the house. Who knows how it will turn out...maybe it will be pretty cool and fun....maybe we will have a countdown chain waiting for him to leave...;).

Hopefully you can see the actual 'reason' my dad decided to finish up at Antioch. It was all on a good condition. The deacons weren't mad about any of it when my dad told them about him going back to teaching; they completely understood.

I really should have posted this in 'parts' sooner than this; but I just haven't thought about the actual 'posting and writing' part until today.

~A.G.~ :D :O :)

Pool Days....

Ahhhh, what a great time we had at the pool earlier this evening. My dad took my brother and me to the local pool we're members of, while Mom cleaned the house before we leave for Greenwood, SC tomorrow morning. Before we arrived at the pool this evening, I expected there to be a nice size crowd there like there always is.

But, to our surprise, NO ONE except the two lifeguards, and a lady working there were there. So my brother and I got the pool to ourselves tonight! It was like having our own private pool complete with two diving boards and two lifeguards. What a luxury that would be. LOL!


My mom, brother, and I will be back from G-wood on Saturday. My dad won't be able to come with us because he has to do Wednesday night church and plan his sermon for Sunday...unless he's already finished it.

I hope you all have a great Monday and rest of the week. :0)

4th of July Pics (Finally)...

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great 4th of July. I know we sure did! We went to my MeeMaw's lake house to celebrate. We road on the sea do, played in the water (for me about 30 sec.), had a cookout, and ended on watching fireworks from the lake on her pontoon. Here are the pics...enjoy!



Drake, MeeMaw, Daddy, and me!



Daddy



Mom


Me


MeeMaw and me riding on the sea do


We didn't really get good pics of the fireworks because it was so dark out. We did the best we could though. They looked WAY better than they look on here...trust me. :)




~A.G.~ :D :O :)