Giving my life to the only one...

Its an (almost) full moon right at the moment. For pretty much as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by the moon. That is still true. I have been out at our lake house today washing bed spreads and doing school work. The weather was spectacular (mid-70's) and the sun was out in full force. This evening I was able to see the sun set on one side of the house and see the moon shining brightly on the other. It was truly God's creativity- what an amazing artist.

Anyways.. every time I see the moon lyrics from a contemporary Christian song called Starry Night by Chris August. The chorus says "I've given my life to the only One who makes the moon reflect the sun... every starry night, that was his design." God's total and utter creative is just simply Awesome. Absolutely amazing.

This picture was taken on my phone and does not do it justice. But if you can imagine me is the other side of the point with shades of hot pink and orange as the sun was setting. The moon was already out in full force with the clarity to see the crevices and craters. It was reflecting off the water that was a blue-ish color on this side of the point and was a vivid orange-ish-pink on the other side. Just awesome.

Oh Sweet Summer Time!

I love the summers... I love the LONG evenings, bright sunshine, family time, celebrations, cook outs, spending time on the lake (or any body of water for that matter) and some what relaxing and slower pace. This summer I have not been up to anything in particular... but I have LOVED every minute of it! Here are some pictures of the fun....

Tubing....

Having fun!.....
Spending time with friends and family on the boat...

Friends having fun tubing...

Intense sunsets... and boats waiting for 4th of July fireworks...

Perfect sunsets at the lake....

Cadie stealing the ball and never giving back....

More beautiful sunsets...

Spending time with family, including the greatest niece in the world...

Seeing TONS of rainbows.... like this one when I went to my parent's house at the very beginning of the summer....

Next up is vacation up at the mountain house! Excited about getting to MUCH cooler weather for a week, spending time with some friends while there, and seeing Baba and Jack who are flying out for a few weeks from Seattle.

I am so blessed....

It is well...

Life is an endless roller coaster. The scary drops, the exhilarating ups, and the times when it seems we are just creeping along not going up or down... just a plateau in life. I am definitely in an exhilarating up right now. I don't know how life could get much better! I know I have said that before.... but I am way to blessed not to say that! I have an incredible family who support me constantly, greater friends than I could ever deserve or ask for, I serve an awesome God who loves me despite my faults... I could not be more blessed or be happier!

I am crazy in love with life... now why it is great, this summer when I was struggling, all the time. If I did not have the hard times, I would not know how great the good times are. If I did not have the lows, I would not realize how out of control and powerless I am and, thus would not see how in control and totally powerful (and awesome) God is.

Life is Good. In fact, Life is great!

The Lake! (and at sunset it is even better!)

The unexpected... a rainbow during a break in the rain.

The Mountains...

My life long dream of being an architect slowly becoming my reality!

(This is my arch + Health people during our tour of the ORs at MUSC last week)

Deventer day 2

Today we spent the whole day in Deventer. As I mentioned in the previous post, Deventer is a pretty small town, but it is a bit bigger than we realized. This morning we made our visit to Deventer Hospital. We had been told it was walkable... it was walkable... but it was about 5-6 km... or about 3-3.5 miles. We walked over there and got pictures of the outside, but did not go inside. Lindsay had already been told they would not give us a tour, and since we, as Americans, seem to stick out like sore thumbs, we decided not to try to get inside. From the outside though, the facility was very different from American facilities and was more of an architectural statement than any hospital in the US I have ever seen. We decided we had gotten our exercise for the morning, so we caught the bus from the hospital back to the train/bus depot. From there we walked back into town. (the hospital sits on the very edge of town... on the opposite side of town from where our hotel is) We stopped and got a quick bite to eat while we were walking. After lunch we came back to the hotel for Lindsay to get some work done and I took a nap. After a little break, it was back out for some more walking around and sightseeing. The city is such a cute little town with picturesque views, cobblestone/old brick streets, classic dutch architecture. So despite that there is not much to do here in terms of big museums or what not, we have loved walking around and looking in all the shops and windows. Plus the weather is SPECTACULAR!!! The highs have been between 70-78... so the weather is great and the cool breeze through the alleys and streets feels wonderful! Tonight we had dinner a cute little Italian cafe. In typical Deventer fashion, we sat outside overlooking the street/walkway. (In the city proper, there are very very few cars... so all the roads are one way and are more like big sidewalks that periodically have cars on them but mostly just serve the pedestrians and bicycles). It is fun to people watch and just sit back and relax! It is a slower, relaxing pace. The servers are not eager for you to leave. People have drinks before their meal, and then slowly have a 2 or 3 course meal, and then have drinks or coffee or tea after dinner. It is a wonderful break from the fasted paced world of the US. We are back in the hotel now (it is about 915pm here) and about to split a bottle of wine and watch a movie. We have the windows open and periodically the street performers come by the cafe just a few doors down and play the accordion and clarinet. It is wonderful to hear the music! Such a treat!

In the morning, we will get up, check out of our hotel, and head to Gronigen. We will sight see in Gronigen tomorrow afternoon. Monday, Martini Hospital in Gronigen has planned a day of tours, meetings, etc at their facility, so it will be a total work day. Monday afternoon/evening when we finish at Martini, we will catch the train back to Amsterdam for one last night together before I head back to the states and Lindsay spends a few more days in London.

As we will be traveling tomorrow, please continue to keep us in your prayers.

I will post a few pictures in another post once I get them off of Lindsay's camera!

Bit of an update....

In the beginning of the summer I had so many plans and things to do with all the "free time" I was going to have away from school. Needless to say, much of those things have not gotten done but I have had one of the best summers of my life, if not the best summer of my life.

I spent most of June working on research stuff for work and studying for the LEED exam when I was not at work. June was also when we went to Blowing Rock for our annual family vacation. It was a great week of relaxing!!! The weather was spectacular. My dad had to be out of town for the first few days, so it was great for my mom and I to get some great mother/daughter time in. She and I did lots of things together, but one night for dinner, we went to my favorite restaurant of all time so that made it extra special! That night I also had one of the best meals I have ever had!!! At the end of the week, one of my great friends from grad school came up for the weekend. She is from Texas, so she had never been up to the mountains of the east coast. It was fun to go up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, see the Cone Manor, and of course eat at some of the great restaurants around town! One night we went all out and had dinner downtown at Bistro Roca and then went to Gamekeeper (my favorite restaurant mentioned above) for dessert and drinks. It was great to have her up there and a fun way to end my vacation!

After that week, I really had to buckle down and really cram for the LEED exam. Leading up to the exam I was really nervous as I had been taking practice exams and not doing very well. The night before the exam, I had studied all I knew to study and could recall the information, but still did not do well on the exam. When I crawled into bed, I prayed and told God it was up to him because I had done all I could do. The next day, I had a weird peace about the exam. I went, took it, and not only did I pass, but I got 100% on one of the sections!!! I am glad I studied for and took the exam, but it is one thing I am VERY happy to have behind me!

The next weekend was the weekend of the 4th of July. We celebrated the 4th with family and friends. We also celebrated my dad's 60th Birthday! It was a special day since it was not too long ago, his doctors said he probably would not make it that far!

After the 4th it was back to reality and back to work. I have thoroughly enjoyed working this summer. I only worked about 30-35 hours a week and with great people. It was a fun environment to work in and there was a real camaraderie amongst the group! While I was happy to be finishing work last week, it was also somewhat sad that this great group of people that I spent my days with was moving on. Luckily most will still be in Clemson for the school year with a few of the recent grads opening the next chapter of their lives!!

This week I am enjoying a few days at home in Columbia/at the lake house with my family as well as seeing Debbie and the kids. Thursday morning I will head back to Clemson to celebrate Lindsay's graduation. She has been such a great roommate, I hate to see her leave and move, but I am so happy and proud of all that she has accomplished!

Then, the big, unexpected trip of the summer, starts Monday. Monday I leave for EUROPE!!! I will only be gone about 10 days, but it will be a great trip and a great opportunity. I am going with Lindsay T, the friend of mine who came to the mountain house for part of our vacation. She was awarded a HUGE honor of an AIA/AAH Fellowship. So, some of the award covers travel for her to go study and do research. So, I am tagging along with her for the ride! We will spend half the trip in the UK and half the trip in the Netherlands. We will visit London and Oxford in the UK and then Deventer and Gronigen in the Netherlands. It should be a great, once-in-a-lifetime trip and I am super excited about it! I will be sure to do a post with pictures from our trip!

I get back the night before school starts, so I will have to hit the ground running and ready for the crazy semester that lays ahead. I have faith that it will be a good semester and that I will be prepared and ready for whatever comes my way! I am excited of all that is happening right now in my life. I can honestly say that I am happier than ever before and just excited about life!

Here are several pictures from all the adventures!!!

Last night at the lake... gotta love the sunsets off the dock!

Sarah Boyd on Saturday night! She is almost walking and is now9 months old!