a night out with my favorite boys...

This past Sunday was AMAZING!!! Remember a few blog posts back when I told you that Chase had bought me tickets for the Brad Paisley concert? Well the time had come to cash those suckers in. I have to confess something before I go any farther. I am in love with country music. It is what I grew up on and what I will always listen to until the day I die. Yes I do listen to all other types of music (even rap thanks to my camp staff this summer) and I enjoy other types a lot; however nothing makes me more happy than a good ride in the car with some country blaring on the radio. Anyways back to Sunday. Below are just a few pictures that I captured while we were at the concert. I sang the entire time and had the best time I have had in a long time. I just live concerts. I am surprised that I still had a voice the next morning.





The line we had to wait in. It was incredibly long but well worth the wait. We got there at 4. The pre show started at 430 on a cute little side stage, then the main concert with Jarrod, Blake, and Brad started at 7. It was a long night but oh so much fun.

 Chase and I chilling in our seats in between Blake and Brad. He is so great for putting up with me at concerts. I get a little excited and like to sing loudly and take tons of photos. We had pretty awesome seats, and along with my great zoom I could capture up close and personal pictures of the singers.

 Another view of where our seats were thanks to Chase. Notice the tarped platform to the left in the picture. I had no clue why it was sitting there until about 30 minutes into Brad's performance. During one of his songs he began to walk out into the crowd and ended up standing on that platform. I about died right there in my seat. Of course I took many pictures.

 Out of all the pictures I took I believe that this one is my favorite. I only had to zoom like two clicks to get this up close shot, which makes it even more real. Ah I still cant get over how cool this concert was. Thank you Chase Smith for such an amazing anniversary gift. He is way too good to me.

Well that was my weekend. i am still recovering from the lack of sleep, but it was well worth it. I am now looking forward to the release of next years concert dates of my favorite artists. Maybe this can become an anniversary tradition? I would be perfectly fine with that!!!

I hope all of y'all are doing well. I know that I am very busy these days and I am sure you are as well. Know that I pray for all of you who follow my blog, and I hope that you will do the same for me. I am currently in the process of getting opportunities lined up for next semester and the summer. Nothing is set ins tone yet about what I will be doing, but I ask that you continue to pray that whatever happens is a result of what God wants to happen in my life. He is so good and I love him more and more each day. Look out in the next few days for a post about what I am up too in my Bible Study this year. It is pretty great and I want to share it with everybody. Love y'all and I hope and pray that your journey is blessed.

there is a difference...

This semester I am taking a class called World Prospects: Population, Food, and Hunger. It is a class about third world countries and how their populations are expanding, yet their food is not, and what we (America) can do about it.I took it originally because I needed an easy general education course. However after I walked out of the first class I knew God had something in store for me through this class and that it was going to challenge not only my mind, but also my heart. The class is taught by this little old man who has traveled the world many times over and has thousands of stories and souvenirs to share. Not a class goes by when we do not get the chance to meet another family from Africa, or touch a native plant from the Philippines.

Our assignments in this class other than our tests are all what our teacher calls "out of class experiences". We have had to write family value papers, find our ecological footprints, and analyze the millennium development goals. I have learned so much and it has only been 5 weeks. The two big out of class projects though are to do 15 hours of community service, and write a grant proposal for a service project that will help a developing country. I have not yet decided what to write my grant proposal on, but I have a few ideas. The real reason I am writing today is to talk about the community service.

I had a really hard time deciding and finding where to do my community service hours. There are so many possibilities through NC State to be involved in and I was slightly overwhelmed. Then one day in class we learned something that sealed my decision. My teacher spent one whole lecture explaining the difference between aid and development. Aid is something short term (like disaster relief) while development is more long term (like teaching skills). One problem in developing countries is that developed nations are only providing aid and not development, so the developing countries are not getting better.

It was then that I decided to do my community service at the food bank in Raleigh. Yes the food bank provides short term aid in the form of food. Yet they also provide long term aid in the form of programs and government intervention. When people come in to get the food they are directed to programs that can teach them life skills and get them back on their feet and walking in the right direction. Every time I go in and give a few hours of my time I leave with a deep feeling of contentment knowing that I am helping provide development to many people around Raleigh. Just to be able to spread the kind of love God gives to everybody all the time every day just makes my heart happy.

Yes this post was kind of boring and not super exciting, but it was something that has been on my heart and my mind for the past couple weeks and I felt like I needed to share it with everybody. There really is a difference in the kind of service you can do for people. It is like that old saying, "You can give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, or you can teach a man to fish and he can eat for a lifetime." How many fisherman will you create in your lifetime?

I love you all and thank you for listening to my heart. I pray that all is going well and of course that your journey is oh so blessed!!!!

a very special day...

Guess who turned 21 this past Tuesday?!?!?!?! No, not me...Chase!!

I just wanted to wish Chase a happy belated blog post birthday. I have been busy the past couple days with school and birthday stuff that I was not able to get around to the blogging world. His birthday was fun though. Since we were not able to go home for the big occasion we celebrated here in Raleigh Sara and Chase style.

We began the afternoon at the DMV office where chase renewed his license and got his "under 21's" off. He is officially official now :) Then we went to Dick's Sporting goods because mom had send him some moolah to spend there. He ended up getting this awesome north face sweatshirt (Ill have to take a picture later and show it off). We ate dinner at Ruby Tuesdays (cause that is how we roll) and then went back to campus to take some pictures and open gifts. I got him a cool neoprene laptop cover. He liked it and thank goodness it fit his laptop because I had no idea what size it was. The greatest surprise though were the cupcakes. I made Chase carry around this cooler all afternoon but he was not allowed to open it. When it was finally time he was so excited to sink his teeth into the yumminess. I also thoroughly enjoyed them as well.

Anyways that was his birthday and I am so happy for him. I cant believe we are growing up. It is all happening WAY TOO FAST!!! Slow down a little bit life would ya? Thanks that would be much appreciated.

That is all for today. I have a couple more blog ideas in mind that are very important and I want to share with you but will have to wait for a later time. So keep a lookout for them in the very near future. Praying that all is well with your souls and of course that your journey is blessed!!!!