Vacations & Traveling

I have traveled the country from east coast to west coast and loved it all.  I have met online friends and made life-long friends in traveling. 

I was born in a small town in South Georgia called Folkston.  We left there when I was still small and moved to Brunswick.  I attended school thru second grade in Brunswick schools.  Half-way thru my second grade year, we moved to Mt. Pleasant where I lived until I got married. 

In 1998, I moved to California and lived there for a year before I decided that I had enough of the weirdness and moved back to Georgia.  Stayed home a few months and then moved up to Oregon, Ohio.  It snowed the whole 5 months that we lived there.  I decided that I didn't like that either and came back home to Georgia once again.  It's a good thing I never sold my house here, since I always end up back here anyway.  Growing up I always wanted to travel and get out of Wayne County.  There is nothing there, and nothing to do, and just not where I wanted to be.  Yet, I always end up back home. 

In 2007, I left Wayne County and moved to Appling County and have been here since.  It's smaller than Wayne County.  There's even less to do here, and absolutely nothing "fun".  This is now where I call "Home".

My first trip in a plane was to San Antonio, TX.  That is a beautiful city and I would love to visit again someday.  We were there for a week and saw lots of stuff and visited River Walk, which was completely and totally amazing!!!  We also visited all the usual sight-seeing places.  The one place I wanted to see so bad, The Alamo,  bored me to death when I actually got to go.  You can't talk in there, have to be careful what you touch because it will fall apart.  Just not what I was expecting. 

Since that trip, I have been to Niagara Falls, crossed the Canadian border, drove to Warren, NH to meet my friend Anne and her kids in person, been to dirt track races in Meridian, MS, car shows in Charlotte, NC, NASCAR races in Charlotte, NC and Daytona, FL., two cruises to the Bahamas with my sister, which was awesome and much needed! 

Cruising is a great vacation for a great price.  If you have never been to Half Moon Cay, Bahamas, you should go.  The water is beautiful, the beach is amazing and you can sit under a clamshell to keep from getting blistered while you read a book or take a nap on the beach.  I did both.  There was food all day everyday.  Any kind of food you can imagine!  I tried new foods at the urging of my sister who is a total "foodie".   On the second cruise, we did the Chef's Table.  I would probably say that was the most amazing food I have ever eaten in my life. 

Of course my favorite vacation was to Panama, Central America.  It was gorgeous there.  We stayed at the Gamboa Resort and did the excursions where we got to feed the monkeys and went thru the rainforest on the overhead tram thingy.  We saw real live Toucans.. ya know like the ones you see on the cereal box! We saw the mean monkeys and sloths, and crocodiles and all sorts of trees and had fruits that we had never had before and met lots and lots of people.  I learned from that trip that if I was gonna go out of the country that I needed to learn the basics of the native language of the country that I would be visiting.  After you have been on an airplane that long, you can expect to have to find a restroom when you finally land and get thru customs.  Spanish word for bathroom is banos.  That was the first word I learned when we landed. 

I'm ready for my next vacation and thinking it will not get here soon enough.  I just have to decide where I want to go for this one... I'm thinking I wanna go across the big pond and go to England and see where my ancestors came from. 

LORD, DRAW ME CLOSER TO YOU!

So, lately I just don't feel like I can get close enough to God.  I have downloaded books and I have started two different reading plans for reading the Bible.  I'm not one that can just do it on my own.  I have to have the structure of a plan.  I'm a night owl so I do my reading and studying at night before I go to bed, as that is when it's easier for me to focus.  All the kids are in bed and there are no distractions. 

The Bible says to pray without ceasing.  I have noticed that I'm praying more than I think I ever have.  Standing at the kitchen sink washing dishes, riding down the road on the way to work or home from work, while riding my 4wheeler on the dirt roads.  I try to pray anytime I can.  Prayer can be done anytime.  It can be aloud, silent or written in a journal.  God just wants us to talk to Him, to include Him in our lives.  There are so many times that we should go to Him, and we just don't take time to.

One of the studies that I'm doing is by Joyce Meyer: Promises for your Everyday Life - a Daily Devotional.  I'm not usually a fan of hers, but I am enjoying her daily devotional.  The other study is called the Discipleship Journal's Book-at-a-Time Reading Plan.  It is designed to read thru the Bible in a year. It started out in Genesis and it's 3 chapters and then a chapter in Psalms at the end of each day.  Sometimes, I will stop at 1 day and sometimes I read more than one day.

Right now, I'm reading about Jacob & Esau.  They were twins and were pretty much rivals from the beginning.  Always in competition with each other.  Selling birth-rites to the other one. Always one jealous of what the other was doing or what the other had or would have.  Things are like this still in today's time.  People can't just be happy for you if you have something, they tend to be jealous and they will do their best to destroy you and take your happiness from you and/or just make your life plain miserable.

I know that I need LOTS of work to get me to where I need to be.  I feel like that at my age, I should know much more than I know.  I mean, I was raised in the Pentecostal church after all.. I'm not sure why, but I have a hard time retaining information.  I guess that is part of the ADD (self diagnosed from the internet research- going to doctors ain't my thing), I tend to get distracted really easily.  My nursing student daughter will love that fact!   

I am back to listening to nothing but my Christian music, even while I'm at work all day I have my Spotify on my Praise & Worship music, I feel like if I surround myself God, then I will have an easier time.  I have to do everything I can to keep myself focused.  Even down to my t-shirts.  I know sometimes my way of thinkin' is crazy, but I do whatever I have to do make sure I am doing right.  I have even noticed that my mouth has improved in a huge way! I am not having to watch myself so hard to make sure that I do use the profanity.  Anybody that knows me, knows that is definitely one of my shortcomings.   I'm not one of those who can live both worlds.  I am either in church and living right or I'm completely out.  Ain't no riding the fence for me.  Can't have it both ways.  Either you live totally for God or you will be spewed out.  The Bible says so, ain't no lukewarm in Heaven. 

If you are reading this and you are a Christian, please keep me in your prayers that my heart and my mind will be opened and that the information and Love of God will flow in and that I will understand what I'm reading and learn and retain.  I wanna be like a sponge and soak up everything that God has for me!