The Brother I Never Had

I remember being little and always wanting an older brother. I just thought it would be so cool to have a big brother who would look out for you and teach you all about life. I really always wanted one. Well, I have about the closest thing this only child could get to a brother. Drew and I truly treat each other like siblings. The other day I texted him about how I was grateful for him, and he texted me back saying he was grateful for our "siblingship" too. I decided I liked that--siblingship! 

Anyway, we have the best of both worlds, in my opinion. We each get an additional "sibling", have the relationships siblings can have, but we get to ship each other back when we get sick of each other! Just kidding...but really :) He's a great big brother, and when he got for real serious about Alli, I was excited for him. I kept thinking he was going to propose while I was in Australia, but fortunately for me, he didn't! About a month ago, Drew texted me to let me know he was proposing! Well, of course Alli said YES, and Saturday night, Graham and Casie threw an engagement party for them. 

Graham, Casie, Drew, and Alli. I so love the siblingship Drew, Casie, and I share. 

This one makes me laugh so much! 

(We were trying to explain to the lady taking the picture how to take the picture.)

Please note G in the background. Hahaha.

Umm, how stinkin cute are they?!?!

love. 

So, fun/random story about this sign. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that about a year ago, I found my biological cousin on facebook. Well, long story short, I added him and he accepted my friend request. That's about it. Last week, I saw that he got engaged, and that he and his fiance had a chalkboard sign with "she said yes" written on it that they took pictures with. So, I decided to make a chalkboard and write this on it. It ended up being a GREAT prop for pictures and conversation starter. So, dear cousin who I don't really know, all credit to you and your really cute engagement sign. I'll admit that his was cuter than mine, but my idea came to life in less than 24 hours. I'm assuming his idea was much more planned than mine or he has good female friends that help him out. Whatevs. Still cute. 

I've watched Drew date a few girls, and Alli seriously is the best fit for him out of all of them. She is a beautiful woman of the Lord, and she just goes with him perfectly! I cannot wait to see them tie the knot in March, and I especially cannot wait to see all the things that God does in and through them! 

Paw Paw

10 years ago today, my sweet Paw Paw, the world's greatest grandpa, left this earth. Even though I only had him here for 10 years, they were 10 wonderful years. I definitely didn't fully appreciate him until after he was gone--funny how that always manages to happen. But, I'm so grateful for the man that he was, the hard worker that he was, and the loving grandpa that he was, even if he showed his love in ways different than those around him. 

I'm the only grandchild on this side of the family, and I will one-thousand percent admit that I was completely spoiled from both my grandpa and grandma. My grandpa wasn't the softest man in the world, but I'm told I was one of the only things that made him smile. :) Let's just say we had a very special relationship, and I still miss him lots. 

I decided to take a walk down memory lane and look at pictures of Paw Paw and me from over the years. There were SO many of my parents that I wanted to post, but I figured if I did, that credit card of theirs that I have would probably be gone and I didn't want to risk that :)

This was one of the things I loved most about my grandpa. We'd ride that "tractor" for HOURS, with me on his lap. My grandparents lived on a huge farm, so he'd let me steer and I absolutely loved it!

Apparently white hats and black and khaki plaid were totally in fashion. 

Random fact about Ashton...I had red hair as a baby. No lie. 

Christmas 1995

I think this is the first time Paw Paw saw me.

Anybody else remember those awful velvet dresses that everyone loved? I can't believe my mom let me wear that in public. 

The bed-head hair started real early in life. 

So, I love this picture for a few reasons. I love how Paw Paw is looking at me, smiling, not at the camera. He has a great smile on his face, which was pretty uncommon. I also LOVE that Christmas sweatshirt I'm wearing. Can I please resurrect that thing and wear it at our Tacky Sweater Party this year? I might win tackiest sweater. Goodness, that thing is awful. 

I'm pretty positive this is the last picture we ever took. What a great man you were, Paw Paw, and I'm glad that your legacy lives on. 

recent favs. no shame.

You don't really experience summer until...

...you get a really bad sunburn.

And boy, did I get a really bad sunburn this weekend. But, as Chelsea said, it's the "price of a good weekend". And it is. I'll take my awful sunburn for the wonderful weekend that I got to have.

On Friday, I headed to the loveliest village on the plains for one of my seniors to visit Auburn and to spend some time with one of my bestest friends, Caroline. It was also Auburn's first home game, and we got tickets from one of my dad's friends from college, which is always a fun experience. We hit up a lot of the local favorites, from Toomer's Drugstore to Momma G's and so many more. I do love that town, and it was so good to spend some time with some wonderful people.

Our view...props to Dad's friend, Johnny, for being awesome and having great seats. 

Caroline is the director of Aubie. She's that cool. And apparently on Saturday she was on TV twice. Yeah, she's pretty legit :)

All decked out in our orange and blue...and the beginning of the burning of the skin. 

Fortunately, Auburn won, but it was too close of a game. We went into overtime and won with a field goal. In the words of Johnny, "We stink." This year is definitely not going to be a repeat of 2010. 

We taught Jamie the tradition of rolling Toomer's Corner. 

SO grateful to have this girl in my life. 

It's always fun for me to see some of my worlds collide. Although Caroline is from Augusta, she was already at Auburn when Jamie moved here, so this was the first time they've ever hung out. It was so good seeing them hit it off and get along so well! 

On the way home, we stopped at an Australian cafe in Atlanta. And I scored myself some of these bad boys. Mmm, so excited to have some Australia back in my life. 

In other news....on Saturday, I was sitting in Caroline's apartment just talking with her and Jamie. My phone rang and I'm calling it my first "big girl phone call". It was my friend Hannah, my roommate from last year and one of my good friends from high school. The second I saw her name, I knew what this call was about. 

SHE'S ENGAGED! 

I had the privilege of watching Jonathan and Hannah begin dating, round two, around this time last year, and watch them get into a comfortable phase all during the spring of this year. They've known each other for years, they even dated back in high school, but this time it was different. Jonathan is graduating from Southern in December, so the two of them are ready for the next step in life. I'm so excited for them, and as surreal and weird as it seems, I can't wait to help one of my best friends plan her wedding. When did I get old enough to say things like that?

New favorite song..."My Dear" by Bethel Music. Check it out!

Miscellany Monday!

Today, I'm linking up with carissa of lowercase letters for Miscellany Monday!

1. I'm absolutely loving these hydrangeas I got on sale at Kroger the other day. Hydrangeas are my second favorite flower, and I just think they are so beautiful! 

2. I'm also enjoying these two Downton Abbey season three previews I've found on YouTube. I'm looking forward to the U.S. premiere in January!

3. I'm so loving these temperatures! Yesterday was one of the most beautiful days Augusta has had in a long time, and I'm hoping fall is on its way. Days like this make running almost seem fun...almost.

4. We talked about walking in the Spirit yesterday with the high schoolers. That requires its own post, but just check out Romans 7. Really, really good stuff. 

5. I'm really excited that this movie comes out on DVD tomorrow. If you haven't seen it, go and buy it. Really it's that good. I'm so excited to watch it again!

6. I'm heading to Auburn on Friday! While I'm not expecting much for the game (they're playing ULM who upset Arkansas in overtime on Saturday), I'm excited to be in the loveliest village on the plains with two of my favorite people. I'm also excited about hopefully going to World Market and seeing the Australian things they have there! I'm missing some mint slice!

7. Last but definitely not least, it's this lady's birthday today! Casie is a huge blessing in my life, and I'm so glad that I got to see her and celebrate a little with her today! Happy Birthday, KC!

Fill-In-The-Blank-Friday!

Head over to the little things we do to join in on this week's fill-in-the-blank-friday fun!

1.  My favorite grade in school was     my senior year of high school. Seriously the most fun I've ever had in my school career. Our whole class was really blessed to have such a good year   .

2.  My favorite teacher was  ooh, this one is tough, but maybe Mrs. Dawson, my French teacher      because,   she absolutely loved the subject matter, she cared about us, and she gave us a passion for the French language, even if we were forced to take the class like I was :)    .

3.  The highest level of education I have completed is    my high school diploma; I'm currently getting my Bachelor's of Science in Early Childhood Education .

4. School lunches for me were usually     a mixture of lunches from home or school lunches until senior year when we could leave campus and go out to eat for lunch .

5. The amount of money you'd have to pay me to go back to high school would be   not a lot, honestly. I can 100% look back on my high school career and say that I loved it. I loved my friends, my teachers, and the time I spent there. It really was a good time.  .

6. A few things that will always remind me of going back to school are:   tax-free weekend, school supply sales, new tennis shoes and new jeans  .

7.  The first day of school was always   better than I would have imagined. I never had an awful experience, and it typically was good to see everyone after not seeing them for the summer   .

Oh Hey, September.

It's officially September. What in the worlds?!?! This year has FLOWN by, and so has the month of August. I've been home for just over a month now, and I can barely believe that. As much as I miss Australia, I'm so grateful for all of my sweet people here in Augusta that mean so much to me. 

Probably our last swim of the summer! 

Got to see this girl...TWO WEEKS EARLY!! 

Spent some time at my favorite high school with my favorite curly headed best friend watching their first home football game! 

My current favorite picture of this boy!

Sweet Harris!

Mills seemed to be a little more photogenic :)

Some of my lovely senior ladies! 

Yay for a new bedspread! It's the little things. 

Nacho Mama's with some more of my seniors! 

Brownie making with this boy--so fun :)

Happy Labor Day, friends! Enjoy a day of rest and relaxation!

WBC

I have a deep love for my church. Warren is a huge part of who I am, it's where I serve, it's where I'm invested in, and it's where I constantly see God doing big things. One of the things that I love most about Warren is that we are a very mission oriented church. I've had friends from other states who have heard about Warren's reputation as a mission minded church. I remember one year we had teams on every continent except Antarctica. I think that would be the same for this year as well! :) Anyway, going on mission, fulfilling the great commission, and sharing the Gospel is HUGE for us. Here's our mission statement, as said by our Pastor in last week's sermon:

"The mission of Warren is to glorify God by making disciples and multiplying disciple-makers."

I just love this. It shows me that God is doing great things through us because of where our focus is. I could continue on and on about how much I love WBC, but I'll just let you watch this video instead. It's pretty great. 

Missions at Warren