Ma'am do you know why I stopped you?

  How many of my readers have been pulled over? How many were pulled over for speeding?

  I was 17 when I got pulled over the first time and I cried the whole time... I had three friends in the car and (mom and dad if you're reading this please let this be one of those times that it's funny later (now) )about 3 cases of beer in the back of my truck.. My friends Tarah, Briana, and Jenny were riding with me to Yoakum,Tx where I had a few friends of another friend's. I had a little Mazda truck that had jump seats in the back, so we loaded the beer into a long cooler and put the jump seats up and covered the cooler with a blanket so Jenny and Briana could sit on it for the trip. That was a blessing in disguise... We had the radio up loud and I set the cruise control to 80 mph in a 70 mph zone. I was also driving with no shoes on because the truck was a standard and it was easier for me to use the pedals.

  So I see the blue and red lights behind and safely pull over and stop the vehicle. While I was waiting for the officer to come to the window, Tarah was teasing me about not wearing shoes and how much trouble I was going to be in with my parents. That's when I started crying... The officer came to the window and asked me the questions and I got out of the truck and so on, the whole time he didn't check the backseat and find the beer... I was crying and apologized and he said he had to write a ticket because of how fast I was going and sent me on my way... 

  Looking back now, I see how stupid my actions were and what I did wrong.. How did you get your first ticket? Is there anything you think was funny about the stop? 

Galveston

Recently (in May), hubby and I went to Galveston for a night... We never went on a honeymoon in almost 9 years of marriage, so this was like a little one :)  I love the beach and it had been quite a while since I had been... So we dropped the kids off at their Nana's and made our way down south... 

When we arrived we went straight to the dolphin sighting tour and headed out on the water. Hubby wasn't exactly thrilled with going dolphin watching but went along because I wanted to go (he may not admit it but when he saw the dolphins he was fascinated). We then checked into our hotel room and got ready for a romantic dinner. We ate at a semi-fancy restaurant over-looking the beach and I had quite a few mimosas (and since I don't drink very often I was pretty lit lol...) Once we were done, we walked across the street to the beach.

Let me tell you how soothing the beach was/is for me. By the time we walked onto the beach, the sun had set and a big, bright, beautiful moon had begun rising over the gulf. I stepped into the water and raised my arms like a bird and this weight lifted off of me. I felt as though I could fly. I yelled into the strongly blowing wind (it gave me goosebumps) and let it all out. Anger, anxiety, pain, disappointment... Everything.. I cried sad and happy tears that needed to be shed for whatever reason and let them go... I wasn't worried about bills, kids, my own mental health, my non-relationships with my brothers, my still-being-mended relationship with my parents... None of that was there; just the moon, the ocean water, God, and me... 

               (The lights on the horizon line are huge ships we had seen while dolphin watching)

When I looked up, my hubby was playing in the water.. He was carefree as well and had a huge smile on his face. After the traveling and excitement of the evening we were asleep as soon as we hit the pillows... We visited the beach once more, the Moody Gardens Aquarium, and then headed home. 

For those few minutes the night before, I wasn't a wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend, or family member. I was just a girl, with the wind surrounding her, who was just living in the moment with nothing holding her back. Life is hard, complicated, sad, exciting, happy, and joyful but as Godly creatures we need to alway carve out a little time for ourselves and just be.

What is a place you like to go to just be?

 

Bastrop, Texas

 The not-so-little town in the burnt up pines.. Such a sad time for my hometown! Labor Day weekend 2011 was a very upsetting time for my home sweet home.

 I didn't necessarily grow up in Bastrop but I still consider it home. My parents moved us to Bastrop over winter break of my sophomore year in high school. Man was I mad! The town was boring and I had no friends there. My first day at the high school I tried to be invisible. A wonderful girl named Heather came up to me before classes started and very insistently convinced me to sit at her table with all of her friends. Some of them became my friends as well. I made a ton of bad decisions in high school but hey who doesn't?

 My husband also grew up in Bastrop but he really grew up there and can walk through downtown and tell what a few buildings used to be, yeah he's a little older than me but... He knows how much that town has grown.

 The Labor Day fires of 2011 devastated my little town, and it all started from the spark of a power-line onto some very dry   pine needles. Hundreds of people lost their homes, belongings, business, and vehicles. From my parents' back yard we watched the clouds of smoke billowing up into the beautiful Texas blue sky and at night we could see the sky light up a baby orange like the burning of the South in Gone with Wind. 

 The town has since begun healing and rebuilding but ask just about anyone you see at the WalMart or H-E-B and they will tell you about the tension and not-knowing during the time so many  (maybe even themselves) were evacuated. One of the things I am thankful for is that the whole community pulled together to help each other and there weren't any horror stories such as those from the dome in Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina hit... 

What are some of the ways you have helped your community? If you haven't helped yet, now is a good time to start!