A Year of Changes

Ok, I know it's been nearly a month since I last posted...and lots of events have occurred since then, so rather than trying to play catch up on the last month I'll just give a quick synopsis:

We had lots of Christmas gatherings. I baked a lot of cakes and pies. We discovered that my Red Velvet Cake is out of this world, and I now have to make it every year for Christmas. Christmas was spent with the family and we all enjoyed our time with one another.

New Year's Eve was spent at my Uncle's house in South Carolina. ALL my Mom's side of the family was there (which equals about 40 of us with all her brothers and their kids and their kids). My Uncle Barney grilled a feast of oysters, ribs and BBQ beans and lots of other stuff too. We sang karaoke and I'm pretty sure I woke up all the dogs for about 20 miles around. "Happy juice" and karaoke make for an interesting New Year's Eve...

New Year's Day we were still at my Uncles' house, and he and my Aunt cooked up the traditional Southern New Year's meal; no superstition left out. We had our pork for health (ironic, huh?), hoppin' John for good luck, collard greens for wealth, and cornbread for happiness (I believe that's what it's for...we never could decide on what it was really). We all overate (as usual), and the New Year was started off right...with family.

Now that you're all caught up, I'm back to writing about what I really wanted to say. With 2010 comes many changes in my life. One of which, involves our family. All of us are going on "new adventures" this year. My Dad's got changes coming in the next month or so, my oldest brother, James, will be moving to Moultrie in May to begin his new career as one of the internal med doctors at a practice there (and he'll be taking my 2 little nephew away from us!), my other brother, Blake, will begin a career as a lawyer, and I'll be starting my own job...with my own income. LOTS of big firsts for our family!

This year also brings with it GRADUATION!!! This is my REAL graduation...the graduation that means I can actually get a JOB graduation. It's a big deal. Come May, I'll have my Master's degree in Speech Language Pathology, and I'll be hunting for a "big girl" job as well. I'm excited yet nervous all at the same time. I'll also be moving away from Georgia after graduation as well. South Carolina is looking promising for the time being. It'll be a big change for me. I'll start paying my own bills and being self-sufficient for the first time in my life. After 24 years, Daddy will no longer be my source of income...and that's really a little scary to think about! I think I've got a lot to learn about what living in the real world really means...and all the costs associated with it! Daddy's got a lot to teach me, I do believe...

Spiritually, I've finally reached the point where I know it's due time that I reconnected with my Creator again. I've pretty much put my relationship with God on the back-burner for the past 2 years really. I've said the occasional prayer, VERY rarely spent any time in the Word...and I've never felt more distant from God. God has continued to send me overflowing blessings even though I've just ignored Him, and He deserves more from me. My friend, Lindsey, inspired me to really get back on track with Him. She issued a challenge to go on a journey with her this year. A spiritual journey. A journey to reconnect with God and read through the Bible in 2010. Though I am going to do my best to read through the Bible with her, my real task for this journey for myself is to simply get back to a point where I'm actually spending time with God again. If the end of 2010 rolls around and I haven't read through the Bible, but I've spent time daily with God and learned lessons from Him, and changed things in my life to be more like Christ, then I'll count that as a success, nonetheless. My freshmen year of college was the closest I've ever been to God. He was truly my friend then. And I miss that. I'm ready to get back to that point. So, I've got someone to hold me accountable now. I've now written it in blog world...so I can't slack off. I hope to grow with God this year...and post about all the things I'm learning from Him in the process. That's my goal. My only real goal. (Okay, besides losing weight...as usual). But this is one that is vital for my eternity.

So, here's to 2010. May it bring many welcome and joyous changes.

Happy New Year!