Life at the Beach

As I sat at the beach I started writing this. I was sitting in a beach chair, with my hat on, eyes closed, just listening to the waves crash against the shore. Now, I know I am very fortunate, but at that moment I never felt more grateful. There are serious problems in the world today, I was worried about what to get at the Beach Club for lunch. I was also fortunate enough to watch Beth kick some serious butt at tennis, in what turned out to be a 3 hour and 15 minute, easily the longest match in Sea Oaks history. As I sat upstairs at the tennis house, I got to meet all of the ladies of the neighborhood. Every one of them telling me how nice my mother in law is. It's true. I always knew this, but couldn't believe how every single person she has come across couldn't say enough good things about her. I clearly have the best mother in law on the planet, who created the best husband this girl could ask for. We clearly have it made.

I know in everyday life you can get caught up in this inner poor me battle. Comparing your life to everyone's life around you. I do this all of the time. It's a horrible cycle. Sometimes you just can't understand why people, who aren't good people, can have so much and you try to give so much to others and feel that you have so little. After sitting at the beach last weekend I realized I have so much more than any of those people even know they are missing. My grandma had this philosophy on life, and I don't think I truly could understand it until that moment. Yes, we want to be in a place at some point where we can give our kids everything we have been given. We want to pay it forward, because we have been able to do so many things. But, I don't think they would even know the difference. If we are able to pass on the kind of love our families have, they are going to have more than most people on the planet. And that, my friends, is a life worth striving for!

Here are a couple pictures from our trip:

The Williams family never misses a good Happy Hour! We spent Friday night down on the patio at the beach club, meeting people from all over the country who get to spend their winters here. Of course we did this with a Cape Codder in hand! It was an absolutely amazing weekend full of family, fun and plenty of rum!

Tell me...what are you thankful for this week?

A Mini Family Reunion

Jay's brother, Josh, came into town a couple weekends ago. It was really nice getting to visit with him. He was just stopping through on his way to, what sounded like the bachelor party of the century. When he was hear we decided to go site see, and do something very Atlanta. What's more Atlanta than Coca-Cola? We went down to the new World of Coke and saw all of the exhibits, and tried Coke from all over the world. Here's what we saw...

Jay and Josh were more than excited to see an old Five Alive carton. We saw the original trucks they used to deliver Coca-Cola in. The bottle on the bottom right is from the state of Georgia. When the first started shipping in bottles across the country, each state had it's own original bottle. We saw the safe where the keep the secret formula. We tried different coke products from South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and finally finished with an ice cold original Coca-Cola from right here in the US. Now, I have given up caffeine for lent this year, but I think God will forgive just that one three small cups I had!

Apparently Coca-Cola was the official sponsor of the World Series, and the World Series rings for quite a long time. They have a couple of rings right there in museum. Of course the Sox are being represented twice in that photo, and a replica of the can after the 2007 World Series. I just loved all of the old signs, and bottles from all over the world. I can't believe they were able to keep all of those artifacts intact.

I thought it was perfect to end Josh's trip on this note. Josh and Haley go way back. He is her partner in crime, and she prefers to spend time with him more than anyone else. She wouldn't get out of his chair, so he used her as a pillow. She was completely content! Can't wait for him to come back! Now, if we could just get that baby brother to visit...

Attitude of Gratitude - Part 1

Why is it always such a long time in between posts? It's getting ridiculous. You would think I have nothing going on, and haven't been creative at all, when truth is I have been so busy I have been forgetting to take pictures and blog about it. So here we go. I think it's a great time to start something we will call "An Attitude of Gratitude". 

Do you ever have those Sunday mornings where you feel like you are so compelled to get up and go to church? And not just go, but rip your husband out of bed from his peaceful slumber to make the early service? I had a calling on Sunday morning. I couldn't sleep past 6:30, clearly a sign of getting older, and just felt like I was being called to go to church. Now, I wasn't planning on ripping poor Jay out of bed at 7:45 am on a Sunday morning, but apparently I am lacking on my quiet getting ready skills. He reluctantly got out of bed to join me, as long as we could stop by Starbucks on the way there. Who am I to deny a man his grande white mocha with an extra shot?

Since we just moved to Roswell we haven't really found a church that feels like home yet. Or so I had thought. We had gone over to North Point Community Church just once before. Now, when I say this is a huge church, I really had no idea how big until the end of service. They are trying to add one more service to the four they already have in place. In order to do that, they need an additional 1500 volunteers on Sundays. And no I didn't accidentally type an extra zero. This will allow an additional 4000 people to attend a church that currently has about 22000 regular attenders. The numbers are truly staggering. Now I am sitting there listening to the sermon about volunteering. We are studying how God provided bread and fish to the masses during his healing. The basic message was, God doesn't care about your abilities, He cares about your availability. He wants your time and focus so He can help you become the person you were meant to be. It really got me thinking. 

I think I try to go into most new situations with a sense of "this is what I have to offer". I think when you're in business and you're interviewing for a new company that's your biggest selling point. What can I do for you? I think this is the opposite of what we need to do for God. God knows what we are capable of, He just wants your time.I feel like I am constantly pleading with Him, asking Him to make something happen because I have put all the work in and feel like I deserve it. I think Sunday's service was a humbling experience. How I plan on going about work, life, marriage, volunteering has completely changed. I think I need to go and see what it is that my marriage, my job, and my life needs, and ask God to mold me into making that happen. This has got to make my life more significant than only doing the things in which I believe I am capable of. A great man once told me that being significant is what you should strive for in life. Being significant in someone's or a group of people's life is much more rewarding than anything else. 

So, today, I am grateful for the fact that I couldn't sleep in on Sunday morning. I am grateful for a life lesson I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I am also going to be grateful if I can start working with the kids services at North Point and find a connection among a very large group of people.

What are you grateful for today?