Still Thinking About Monark

Two of my favorites! :)

Some of the young people... I say "some" because I still remember us calling for a certain individual to join us in the picture!

The Ministers

This shopping trip happened Monday. I had the day off from work, and all of us girls planned to make homemade pizza that day. We had an amazing time in town... starting off at Longhorn Steakhouse (the waiter liked us so much he gave us free dessert)! Then we got all the supplies at Sams and piled back in Christy's truck with half of the groceries piled on top of our laps.

*insert iPhone pic here* ;)

Pizza!! Yay! (It honestly was really good! Thanks to Christy's pizza dough recipe)

And then it stormed super hard that day leaving limbs everywhere. (And leaving me drenched from head to toe because I had left my car windows and I had to dash to the back of the campgrounds to roll them up.) This picture was taken when our grounds keeper was cleaning up the limbs with some boys and the supervision of his adorable grandson. :)

Any-whoo...

I've been really wanting some change in my life lately, and it looks like it's about to happen in about 40 minutes....... maybe! :P I have an interview this morning for the same bank, but different location. An opening came up at CBT in my hometown, so I applied for it and I'm trusting that I'll get it. If I don't, at least I know that I have tried, because I've been really wanting to get a transfer to this location for a long time. Not only will it mean that my work is within 5 minutes walking distance, but I will work earlier hours, and work less Saturdays! You can't lose there! :D

-MarLeahJoy

Nature's Gardens

Tuesday turned out to be a very unhappy day for me. Not because of any one persons' fault but mine. I was allowing my mind to brood over some things (some being my desire to travel, need for change, etc.), and I just let the circumstances that brought about those feelings rule my day. After work I really just wanted to go somewhere in solitude. I tried one park, but it turned out that a weird guy thought he would come up to my car, asking about what year it was, if it was made of metal, and proceeded to thump on my car to see if it was. So, I promptly left, drove to Diamond and began looking for the sign I had seen earlier for the Diamond Grove Prarie. 

I finally found it and had to circle back around to it (my brakes had just gone out that day — yeah, just really not my day). :P

But, the events of the day wasn't nothing that a little walk in the Prarie and a little talk with God couldn't solve. 

You can't see this at all, but off in the distance there was someone out there doing hay... Ah, such a peaceful evening in the country!

All happy after spending some time outside, even if I did almost step on a dead snake and do a flailing-arms-dance coupled with a few squeals D:

This last picture is actually from Wednesday. I set out after work to find another conservation area that I haven't been to in a few years. I still didn't find the same exact place before I had to go to church. So I'll be back to look for that place again! ;D

-MarLeahJoy

Oregon

The little bit of traveling I have done this summer was great... But...

I think I've finally learned to be content in my daily life. 

Last night I was listing off all of the things coming up that I'm supposed to do with people and camp meetings to go to -- on top of our family vacations already planned. I was kind of like, "I don't know, Momma, that's a lot of going and doing. I don't want my life to be so busy that I'm never home with a little quite time."

That's a break-through statement for me, because I've always felt the need to be out on some new adventure. High school and college had me all pent up, dreaming of some big backpacking trip in Yosemite. I was constantly on Pinterest, drooling over pictures of kayaking, sky diving, and all the craziest overseas trips. There's nothing wrong with doing any of those things occasionally, but in my dreams I was hoping to be doing something ALL THE TIME. 

But now, at this point in my life, I've realized that I have so many things planned, and they really don't give me the fulfillment in life. I've even surrendered my dream to travel overseas this year. When the right time comes, it will happen, but I don't need to go out of the country this year, next year, and every year to follow to live a happy, contented life.

I'm also realizing that money doesn't save itself! :P And traveling constantly doesn't always keep the savings so high, unfortunately.

Before I get to the pictures, though, I have a disclaimer...

These pictures are practically only of me and my friends. I didn't necessarily branch out and take DSLR shots of everyone at Oregon. Lol! However, I was using my GoPro a TON during the whole trip, so when I get around to making a video, it will be a little more all-inclusive :)

Heather, Katelyn, and I took a little walk up a nearby road from the Jefferson, OR camp meeting one afternoon to snap a few shots with the aid of tripod and remote. :)

So this is practically my goal to get shots like this with my friends when three or more of us are together... but it normally ends up with them getting anxiously tired of me fixing everything to make it look as perfect as possible. But we survived a pretty good session of it this time I would say! :) 

The Oregon coast was a lot different than I ever would have expected. They told me it would be cold, but it really wasn't that cold. And it was a lot more beautiful than what I thought it would be (for being a cold coast) :)

This is one of my favorite shots! Love you, Karissa and Kate!

Heather and I were practically together non-stop on this trip and never got annoyed or tired of each others' company. Hmm... I guess we're maturing a little ;)

Mecia, Katelyn, MarLeah, Kelsey, Heather = our little hashtag we use for Instagram (#mkmkh)

Mecia, unfortunately was missing from our little group on this trip, but we wrote the hashtag out in the sand anyway :)

A little side note... I {finally} learned how to do a cartwheel this summer! You don't know how I've always yearned to be part of the cool club people who could just pull off a cartwheel anywhere and everywhere they wanted to. :D So excited! :P

Kelsey's vehicle finally decided to show up at the beach! So here's our almost complete #mkmkh group!

Someone was riding a bike on the beach, and I hadn't ever stopped to think about how you would have to have a really thick tire like they did to be able to ride on the beach. Learn something new every day, I guess :) A beach bike... :) I like that :D

**so proud of myself for blogging once again within a weeks' time! ;)

-MarLeahJoy