a beautiful day.

This is where a spent yesterday...


It was 70 degrees yesterday and when it's January and it has been a winter filled with snow, ice and lots of cold any day with temperatures over 55 degrees sounds fantastic. It was an absolutely beautiful day and it was taken advantage of. I EVEN WORE SHORTS!!!!! It was a much needed day of peace and refreshment in the beauty of the outdoors. And today is also going to be 70...if only it wasn't Sunday.

So this is pretty crazy and random. Not sure what I would think if I wondered up on this. How is it possible to drag a piano from your house to the ocean and nobody notice?

It's only been a week?

It was a week ago today that my friend and coworker Becka, died. It has been the longest week (really season) in the life of this church. I was talking to someone yesterday about Becka's death and I mentioned that it had been 6 days and then I had to stop myself and think about that because it felt like it had been months. It was an exhausting and trying week. As a staff we are still very much grieving, but we are also having to have those tough "who is going to pick up which part of her job" conversations and I hate that. It feels as if you are moving on and I don't want to move on yet. I don't want her name to come off everything. I was handing a family a ministry sheet on Sunday and circling this group that meets close to where they live and as I did that I noticed that Becka was the contact and I had to scratch off her name and email and add mine. Those types of things are not okay with me. Multiple times a day at work I have those moments where you go "Wait, surely that didn't happen." You know what I am talking about? Those moments where you mind is trying to catch up to reality, or grasp it?

I have been impressed with how our body at Grace and our staff have responded in the wake of this tragedy and I really do hope to see God bring some good things out of this. My biggest prayer is for the kids and Shane....for the tough road I know they are going to be on for a long time.

This is Becka and I in December in our tacky Christmas attire. It's blurry, which makes me sad, but I still like it.

a very sad week.

This past week was a tragic week in the life of my church and community. One of my favorite staff members; a coworker, a friend, a young mom of 3 kids, died suddenly from complications with kidney stones. I want to write more about this and all that it means, but that is really too hard right now, so here is the write-up the church sent out to the body.

Dear Grace Family,
We are deeply saddened to announce that Becka Etheridge Mullennix, our dear friend and staff member at Grace, passed away this morning due to complications related to a kidney infection. We know that Becka is in the presence of Jesus right now, and we ask you to join us in praying for her husband, Shane and three children, Daniel, Amy and Mitchell. We are all deeply grieving over this huge loss to our church family and community.

The funeral for Becka will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, January 22nd at Grace in Snellville. Visitation with the family will be held in the High School room after the service.

The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Young Life Southern Gwinnett (memo line Becka Mullennix).

We know that many will want to show love and support for the family over the coming days and weeks, and we will provide information about the best ways to help as soon as possible. If you are 'Facebook friends' with Becka, you may want to honor her family and friends by posting your sentiments on her page.

May the Kingdom Come,
Buddy and the Grace Staff

Clemson Girls Weekend 2011

There are a lot of days where I miss Clemson. It was truly one of the greatest times in my life and I think that it always will be. I love that place; the campus, the school, football games, but most importantly, the people. I was BLESSED with the most amazing group of 20 or so girls to do life with while I was there. Many of them have moved to other states and gone on to other things (I was in this category for the last 3 years or so), but a small remnant still get together once a year over Martin Luther King weekend to fellowship, catch up on current life and reminisce about old life. This past weekend was the third annual Clemson girls weekend and the first I have ever been able to attend. I was only able to be there Friday and Saturday, but I enjoyed every minute of that short time.

Here is the Whole Gang: Left to Right:
Me (of course), Stephanie Roberts Watts, Kristin Retallick Irwin, Angela Holder, Rachel Hinson Edwards, Sandy Pirkle Anfin, Kristin Boynton Beaufort, Jennifer McElveen Foster, Sarah Prothro

Sandy, Me, Stephanie. They both just had their first child in April.

The old roomies (minus Tifany, who was at home with her new baby) Sarah, Jennifer, Me...2 of my favorite people on the planet. I loved every minute of living with them.

Jennifer and I. Seriously, she is one of the world's best people. I have met few people that care more about others than she does.

The sunset over the lake. I miss Clemson sunsets...there is nothing like them.

Bowman Field....I played a lot of frisbee on this field. It is a favorite Clemson spot.

The whole group again in front of Tillman

wielding a snow shovel.

Today, I did something I have never done before...I snow shoveled a driveway...my driveway. On Sunday night Atlanta got hit with the "Arctic blast of 2011" and the entire city has been shut down ever since. There was 6-8 inches of snow and all the roads are iced over. There is no milk, bread, produce or RedBox DVD's left in all of suburban Atlanta.
I came home today from my sister's house and turned into my driveway to go into my garage and got stuck halfway up. I backed down as far into the street as I could and hit the gas to try again and still could not get up. I did not want to leave my car in the driveway, so I decided something must be done. Here is what my driveway looked like before...

This was my instrument of choice.
Yep, it is an ACTUAL snow shovel. You might be wondering why any good Georgian would actually happen to have one of these lying around. It just so happens that my roommate's old roommate moved to Minnesota and as a parting gift some friends gave here this lovely snow shovel, which she loved so much she forgot to back and it has ever since been gracing the closet of my current home. It is actually covered in signatures and sweet little parting notes. Today it earned its keep because I have been watching people for days clear their driveways with tiny little garden shovels and I guarantee they wish they had this bad boy to do the duty. So, thank you Avivah...your shovel came in handy.


Here is a photo of the halfway mark.....

And since I figured my roommate would also appreciate being able to get into the garage, I went ahead and did the whole thing....though you can tell which side I started on...it seems I was a little lazier with the left side. But I was sweating and my arms were getting tired by then, so I did the best I could. Just for fun...here is the sign at the front of my neighborhood.

Well, and here is Cali playing in the snow.

More baby bassett photos

Sweet little Amos Boy

The cutest picture EVER! The end of Harvey's yawn! He looks like he is smiling!

Amy with Amos...he is her favorite.

Off to a good start?

This is a soon to be restaurant right around the corner from where I work. There is a banner like this on each of the 3 sides of the building.