a whole lot of living and a little bit of love...

Sunday August 21st marked a special day in the lives of Chase and I. We were excited to celebrate our three year anniversary together! Although we have known each other since sophomore year of high school, I am blessed to have been able to have the opportunity these past three years to grow and nourish our relationship together as a couple. A lot of people say high school relationships don't last. However if you have God firmly rooted in that relationship, the tables are turned and anything is possible :) I am so glad to have Chase in my life. For our anniversary we celebrated Chase and Sara style...simple yet full of surprises. The pictures below will give you more insight...

We went to a soccer game after church (I meant to get a picture of us looking cute but I totally forgot) and it was so terribly hot. I got sun burnt pretty bad. But it was still a whole lot of fun being with friends.

Then we went back to Chase's room to cool off and rest before our adventures that night. I indulged in some Little League World Series...

...while Chase worked on a little bit of homework that needed to be done.

After a quick change and some much needed "pampering" from being all hot and sweaty we headed out to dinner. Before we ate we traded gifts. We only really do gifts on our anniversary, birthday, and Christmas (although Chase likes to break the rules sometimes and surprise me...but hey I'm not complaining!!!) so I was really looking forward to this. I had been thinking a long time about what to get him. But first it was my turn. Chase got me tickets to the Brad Paisley concert in September. I have been a little down recently because I have not had the chance to go to a concert in a long time, so this was the perfect gift.

I got Chase a SPROUT watch. If you have never heard of them you should really check them out. They are made out of all recycled materials and they come in all sorts of different colors. Chase had been wanting a watch for a while but couldn't make up his mind, so I took charge and picked one out for him. Needless to say he loves it and it looks really good on him.

We then went out to eat at our favorite place in the world...RUBY TUESDAYS!!! The food is so good and relatively cheap which is perfect for two hungry college students.

After a little shopping for Chase to get some new athletic gear we made a trip to the frozen yogurt shop. Can you say Yummy? I could eat this stuff all day long.

We finally finished up the night with a movie together. We chose Captain America. Yeah I know its not an "anniversary type" movie, but Chase and I had watched a few chick flicks together recently so it was time to change it up and little and watch something with some action. It was very good I must say.

I loved our day together and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for us. Chase is such a great Godly man and I am honored to have him in my life. God sure knew what he was doing when he sat us down next to each other in class that day in high school. Sorry if you are sick from my sappy post, but I just had to share. That's what blogs are for right? Stay tuned in the next couple of days for what went on this past weekend. The adventure and fun never stops in the Bumgarner household!! Until then I pray that everybody is doing well and that your journey is blessed.

i am alive, well, and back on track...

I am ALIVE...
Yes I do realize that it has been 15 days, and little over 2 weeks since I have last posted. And yes if you truly know me you would know that bugs me. However, these past two weeks have been so jammed packed full of "stuff", I have had little time to do anything extra with my time. I finished up the summer with a trip to Alabama with some of my passport friends and others to a retreat to wind down the summer. It was simply amazing and loved every minute. I also learned that I can drive absurd long amounts of time on the interstate without getting tired. It is something i thought would never happen since whenever I am a passenger in a car ride longer than 30 minutes I am out for hours on end. Two days after the retreat I moved into my apartment in Raleigh where I will be residing for the next two years while I finish up school, and four days after that I began classes. I love it here in good old Raleightown and I am so glad to be out of the dorm. Here are a few pictures of the place...




the dining room space

the kitchen (my favorite spot in the apartment :) )

bathroom

crazy colorful bedroom which I love

...side note : those wall hanging were handmade by my mom and I. I saw some like it on Pinterest and fell in love. They were super simple. Get canvas and put painters tape down to make a design then paint over it. So simple and so cute. I love them.

I am WELL...

I am well in the sense that I am content with life and have succeeded in integrating back into the real world. I still think about camp from time to time, and I really cannot wait until this summer rolls around, but right now I am in school mode and that is a good thing. I am proud to know that I can shift from one life mode to another without any big problems. Yay school and yay camp...just not at the same time.

I am BACK ON TRACK...

How am I back on track you might ask? I am finally getting into a normal schedule and routine again. That is one of the big things I love about school and camp both...schedules!!!! I love to know when and what I am supposed to be doing. It makes me feel...I don't know...important, or in charge. Anyways, the past couple of weeks have had no real routine to them. Wake up whenever, do whatever, make it up as you go. I am not that kind of person and I am so happy to be back to a time when I have a schedule of classes and work in front of me. It makes my OCD a happy camper!!!!

That is all for now. I have a special post coming out in the next couple of days that is really near and dear to my heart...so be on the lookout. I hope everybody is doing well that your journey is being blessed daily. Love yall so very much!!!!

a simple friday...

Yesterday was a special day in our family. My niece turned 6!!!!! Bryson and Bailey are two wonderful kids and I am so happy to be able to help them grow and learn. To celebrate we ate pizza (cheese of course!!!) and ate chocolate cake. Presents were also in the line up. She received many gifts but her favorite had to be her easy bake oven. Who knew something so simple could keep a child entertained for hours on end. It was so cute to watch her do her thing.

After all the festivities ended at her "party" we cleaned up and headed back home. However we came home with two more passengers than we left with. That's right, we got to take the munchkins with us. They were so excited, but truthfully I think I was the person who was most excited. I love these kids and they always make me laugh. Mom and Dad had to work so it was just me and the kids for a fun filled day. Thank goodness the weather was not scorching hot like it has been the past couple of days. After some cartoons we decided to venture outside and take some pictures with my new camera. This one below ended up being my favorite. Just look at those smiles, I love them so much.

We have a creek at our house that is not too deep, but perfect to walk around and explore in. When I was younger I would spend hours in there just looking around and playing. Now I get the opportunity to watch the kiddos do the same thing.

After lunch we had a special treat. We had been cooped up around the house all morning and we were itching to get out. So off we went to the main street ice cream parlor "Good Ole Days". This place is cheap but oh so good.

Finally, we rounded out our afternoon with a good long stay at the park. Between the giant slide, swings, another creek, and the play set everybody was greatly entertained. It was so relaxing and i laughed so much at all the stuff they came up with to entertain themselves. My personal favorite was "who can make the biggest splash in the creek" contest. Good thing I have leather seats since I drove home 2 sweaty and muddy children.

We are now all back home cleaning up and resting. I believe a dinner outing is in our near future and then a nice movie on the couch cuddled up with my two favorites. I love how some of the most simplest of days can turn out to be the most fun. I would not trade this day for anything in the world. Did I mention how much I love these kids already?!?!?!?!?! Anyways...hope everybody is enjoying their happy Friday and I wish you all a great weekend. Love you all and I hope and pray that your journey is blessed :)

hello real world...

So this post is long over due. I have now been back home from camp for almost a week now. I got home Saturday night and have been enjoying family and friends ever since. I also have been catching up on all things real world such as sleep, news, pop culture, and books. I must confess, while all of this stuff is great and I enjoy getting back into the swing of real life things, I find myself often thinking about camp and the summer. Like Tuesday night I was watching TV and it dawned on me that I should be dancing to Firework or the Cupid Shuffle. Or yesterday I had a burger for lunch and I found myself thinking about how I should be having a sandwich. It makes me laugh every time something like that happens. Camp really did change my heart and perspectives on things. It was such a great experience and I am already looking forward to next summer and all it has to bring. I have one more camp thing to do before I am totally thrusted back into real life. It is a program called Seh la Vie. It is a "detox" of sorts for all people who have worked in missions or camp this summer. It helps you take in and process all you have learned and experienced this summer and gets you ready and prepared for life outside of the camp bubble. I am really looking forward to it. It should be a lot of fun and I think i will learn a ton. I leave Sunday and will return Wednesday so please keep me in your prayers.

On another slightly related note I wanted to give you a quick update on Bible reading. I was not able to get a whole bunch of reading done at camp, but I got a good bit done so i am proud of myself. I am now finished with 2 Samuel, Colossians, 1&2 Kings, Jonah, and Philemon. They are all superb books and I am really enjoying this entire process. If you have never done this, I highly recommend it.

One last note before I leave you for today. Yesterday I made a big purchase with part of my summer paycheck. I gave in and bought myself a "big girl" camera. I have been wanting something more than a point and shoot for a couple of years now, but never had the money or the nerve to make that expensive of an investment. However yesterday I had both(along with some Target gift cards) and I finally got what I have been wanting. I love my new Nikon and I am sure it will get used enough to pay me back over and over. To test stuff out, Chase and I had a mini photo shoot in the front yard yesterday evening. Mom and dad bought me mini tri-pod that can bed around things and I LOVE it. It is going to come in handy I can already tell. I will leave y'all with a couple of my favorite photos from yesterday. Enjoy and as always I pray that your journey is blessed :)

on the glider...like the barn in the background

my favorite of the day I believe
just me being me

you might think i am crazy but...

I have realized since being at camp this summer that I am in love with letters. Like old fashioned, snail mail, pen and paper letters. Over the past several weeks I have received letters, cards, post cards, and notes from all sorts of people. Friends and family mostly, but some I have gotten from bible study groups or people in the church who I don't know really well but they still can find time to love on me and send me their best wishes. I love mail time. Just the suspense of whether or not there will be an envelope with your name on it or not. Call me crazy but I think the idea of sending somebody a letter is so cool and I am going to try to make it a point to start sending out more letters to the people I love and care for. So watch out people, once I get home and can pick out some cool stationary, you might just be getting a little something from yours truly :)

On another note camp is going GREAT!!!!! Spending time with the staff and the different campers each week is so rewarding and so much fun. The sad part is there are only two weeks of camp left before it is time to pack up and go back to reality and real life. It will be fun to see everybody again and get back into the swing of things at school, but boy i sure am going to miss camp life. I see why people keep coming back to work at Passport every summer, its just so amazing that you never want to leave.

Ill leave you this time with a picture. All of the staff spent their free time yesterday in Savannah, Ga. We went to Tybee Island for a while then walked around river street and ate dinner at a great place called Tubby's. Before we went to eat though, we took so photos down by the river. This one is of most all of the girls on the team. It was actually cool enough outside that we were all not sweaty and in tee shirts for once. I love this photo. It shows the love and coolness of our team and I love that. Enjoy your week everybody and I sure do hope and pray that your journey is blessed :)

you know your a Passport Staffer when...

So these past few weeks of camp have been a blast. I am been so busy keeping up with everthing that is going on, but having the time of my life and wishing the summer would last just a little bit longer. I have settled into a pretty good weekly routine of being a Passport Staffer, and this past weekend I noticed there are certain things we do as a staff that sets us apart from other people. I thouhgt I would share with you the top 10 ways to tell if you are a Passport Staffer.

10- Dancing means jumping up and down and acting silly and crazy...not that other stuff people call dancing.

9- 4th meal is always a must since you eat at 5 everyday for dinner

8- you carry a first aid kit in your backpack everywhere you go.

7- free time equals nap time

6- you have a massive pile of friend requests from campers that you can't accept untilt he end of the summer just chilling in your notification window.

5- you try to take really cool pictures so they will be chosen as photo of the day.

4- you eat sandwiches EVERY day for lunch.

3- your tee shirt matches all the other staffer's tee shirts.

2- you become a master at "side-hugging"

1- it feels weird on the weekends when you are not wearing your camp nametag.

Hope you enjoyed my little countdown. Camp is going well and I am loving it. I only have 3 weeks left and it is all going by so quickly. The staff is so wonderful and awesome. I love spending time with them and learning the tricks of the trade from them as well. As much as I am focusing on camp I am also thinking about the fall as well. School starts in about a month and I am actually looking forward to it. I am feeling good about my schedule this semester and I am moving into my new apartment as well. Many good tasting goodies shall be made once I get all settled in :) Hope everybody is doing well and that summer is going great. I am keeping everybody in my prayers. I hope that everybody's journeys are truly blessed :)

18 days....

Has it really only been 18 days since I last posted? It seems like 2 months have gone by since I have had a free moment to sit down and write. In these past 18 days so much has happened!!! First off I had some training down in Wingate, NC. Four Passport teams were there and it was such a blessing to get to meet everybody and learn the ins and outs of Passport life. That is also where I got to finally meet my team face to face for the first time. They are such an incredible group of people and I cannot wait to spend the next 6 weeks with them. We traveled down to Mercer University for more training and final set up for camp on Tuesday. I love this campus and the chapel we are conducting camp in. It is so breathtaking, bot HOT. Training week was very hectic. Lots of info being thrown at you from a billion different directions and so much stuff to get right before campers arrived. Our team is very small, only 10 of us...but we survived and bonded really well together.

Finally on Sunday the campers began to arrive. It was so much fun to interact with the middle schoolers and high schoolers and learn all about them. I was behind the camera most of the time during the week, but that did not stop me from still having some cool conversations with some really cool kids. Did I mention camp was fun? Because it was. I had one major stress out moment during the week, but I was not surprised about it. My computer is having trouble burning the DVDs for daily videos and it stopped uploading clips. I was so worried I would not be able to finish my closing video. However after an hour on the phone with our video coordinator Mark (who is the best ever!), mostly everything had a solution and I was able to continue on with my stuff.

Over all the week was AMAZING. The next six weeks are going to be tiring but oh so much fun. Next time I will catch everybody up on the different mission sites we are working on. Being able to go to all of them everyday to video is great and it allows me to see the progress happening.

I am still trying to keep up with my Bible reading. Currently I am a few days behind, but that is OK. I am still finding quiet time each day to read a little bit. It will all work itself out in the end. I sure hope everybody is having an amazing summer and enjoying their "downtime" from normal activities. Whether that is camp, no school, or a vacation form work, take the time to relax and be still and listen for God. He is always there and ready to tell you something cool. Please continue to pray for all of us Passport staffers as we try to shine God's light to all of these campers. I hope your journey is blessed!!!!