Apologies

I'm sorry for my random leave of absence. Have you ever just felt like the sky is about to drop out at any given moment? Yes, that's my life has been like since October. But I promise you my friends, this week will be full of updates of what's been going on in my life, and I hope you all will enlighten me with what's been going on your lives as well. Until the next moment that I can post, here's a preview of what's to come....

Around the desperate hour of 2 am:
"We knew it was going to be hard. No one said walking with Christ was an easy task." -Nate
"Why aren't we normal, why can't our lives be normal? Why such problems?"- me
"Define normal and I'll answer your question." -Nate
"Fine. But I still don't feel this stuff happens to anyone else, but us. It's always us."-me
"Ha. Have you met anyone like "us" before?" -Nate
"Never." -me
"Exactly! That's why it's "us." Have you met anyone as real as us? Anyone who remains strong in like us? We'll pull through. We always do, kiddo." -Nate


See you all soon!
I've missed your lovely selves!
xoxo
-anya:)

What I Do Instead of Homework

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

80's rocks meets Christmas,
meets MB, Nate, and I,
I approve.

Happy Birthday MB!

We celebrated MB's birthday a few weekends ago, 

with a 30 pound lasagna, 

a homemade scrapbook, 

a giant piece of cake from Ganache, 

and loads of laughs! 

To think that 20 years ago, 

God created this amazing girl and graced the world 

with her warm heart, sarcastic sense of humor, and 

Christian love for all people. 

So blessed that God placed her in my life! 

The unwrapping of the present! 

It took 5 minutes just to unwrap it, no lie! 

Why, you ask? 

Let's just say, I really like wrapping presents ;) 

But when she got to the actual present it was totally worth it, 

for inside was a scrapbook of all our memories. 

It was just as much fun for me to make, 

as it was for her to unwrap. 

Nate gets the camera and this is what happens. 

My "I'm gonna kill you face, put my camera down."

he's a beauty all right. 

my beautiful sister all dressed up for our

birthday celebration. 

Nate being... Nate.

The ridiculous piece of cake we got for MB :D 

It was incredible. 

Ganache never fails to deliver amazingness! 

It was a fabulous and fun night that will not soon be forgotten. 

Happy Birthday to my sweet best friend! 

FITBF!

Once again, it's fill in the blank Friday's, courtesy of this beautiful little blog! I would love to here what you're fill in the blanks are, feel free to share, friends!

1.   The most spontaneous thing I've ever done was      last year, I went to dinner with a stranger, someone I had never actually sat down and talked to or really knew but happened to be in my musicology class. I was really sick last February and Nate couldn't get dinner with me, but this girl randomly asked if I wanted to go out to eat with her. I agreed to go, even though I had no real idea who she really was. As random and out of my element it was to not plan out the details of this, it was worth the weird dinner adventure with this girl. Low and behold, this girl is MB :) sometimes spontaneous things are the best things for you.

2.  The best gift I've ever received was    the love of Jesus Christ and the all the blessing He continues to give me. 

3.  A time that I was truly and genuinely surprised was      My senior year of high school, I auditioned and was accepted into a band that was going to be conducted by the famous composer, Frank Ticheli. Dr. Burns was the judge and thought I needed the experience. Lucky to have him on my side haha

4.  I can't leave the house without        my cell phone, chapstick, and Bible  .

5.  My favorite day of the week is      Sunday    because      I get to spend all day at my favorite place in the world, Lawndale. Starting off with playing in early service, then off to Panera Bread with the best friend and our orchestra buddies, then off to contemporary service, then Sunday school and lunch! All day, but I'd have it no other way.

6.  Something that can always make me laugh is      Sometimes, Nate and I will look back on ridiculous things we've done, by the time the story is over, we're all bent over cracking up. We're such spazzes sometimes. 

7.  My perfect day would include       waking up to the sunrise before heading downtown to watch the people open up the shops on Elm Street. Coffee date with my loves and soaking in the arts and antiques of downtown Greensboro. Maybe hitting up Chapel Hill for a basketball game that night, of course. Followed by a dinner at my favorite restaurant on Franklin Street (and Carolina will win of course.) An alternative perfect day: last month's roadtrip to Boone, perfection at it's finest. 

The Three Stooges Go To Boone (again!)

At the beginning of October, Nate, MB, and I, headed up to the mountains for some quality time with Oma, Opa, and some beautiful fall leaves. The fact that we have the opportunity to just get up and go on a roadtrip is really a blessing. God really had a hand in this trip, making it possible for us to finally have a clear weekend to go up to Boone. Praise God for making things work.

 We headed out bright-and-early Saturday morning (well we were supposed to leave bright and early but Nate's alarm didn't go off... so we just left early-ish.) Hyped up on coffee we headed up the mountain with the windows down, singing David Crowder Band tunes, eating pringles and sour patch kids, and laughing until our sides hurt.

We accidentally took a wrong turn, despite our mountain driving 

experience. However, this wrong turn quickly turned into a beautiful 

chance to see the Blue Ridge Mountains. The dead-end road we ended 

up on directly looked out over all the mountains and it was so worth the

detour we ended up taking. We even got to see some dear and look at 

some beautiful mountain houses. I'm glad I don't actually know what 

I'm doing when it comes to giving directions. We wouldn't have wound 

up on this pretty route if I did :) 

always an adventure, always.

We took the parkway out to Moses Cone to enjoy their 

anniversary celebration. There were so many people there 

but it was the perfect day for all the artisan events. 

Just look at that blue sky! 

We took The Maze trail through the woods and down to the 

apple orchard to have ourselves a picnic. 

Talk about a table with a view. 

There were so many people around who came to ride their horses 

around the property that day. Nate, MB, and I took advantage of 

the chance to meet all these beautiful animals. 

Our next stop was Rough Ridge, 

off the back of Grandfather Mountain. 

Nate had the brilliant idea of not actually taking the trail but 

taking the cascades instead, which were rather slippery. 

Long story short... little traction on shoes equals failure 

to actually get up the slippery rocks. 

So Nate just pulled me up instead. 

It was an experience, I can say that, 

talk about a trust challenge. 

Here we are at the first outlook of Rough Ridge. 

Just look at those mountains! 

God is so apparent when you're surrounded in 

such magnificent beauty like this. 

Second outlook of Rough Ridge 

(it's important to stay on the trail so you don't 

get in trouble with park rangers, not that we're 

speaking from experience or anything... heehee...)

From the view of the third outlook, 

you have a clear shot at the Viaduct and the 

Swinging Bridge of Grandfather Mountain. 

The outlook consists of a huge rock that's roped off 

to prevent falling. It was glorious and a mighty fine 

hike to get up here, but it was completely worth it. 

We stopped by King Street on the way to Oma and Opa's. 

This is always one of our favorite things to do while up in Boone. 

The Bead Box holds great entertainment for us, with their handmade

hats and scarves. 

The shop next store was full of vintage clothing, sungalsses that 

made you feel rather trippy, and lots of secret compartment hats 

and jackets. I could never imagine why anyone would need 

secret compartment in their hats... oh wait, it's Happy Appy, 

that explains that.

And soon we were off for a night with Oma and Opa

and an amazing dinner! Lasagna that weighed thirty pounds, 

that's A-Okay with us! 

We had Oma in histerics while playing our 

"translation game." 

Basically Nate speaks in German and I "translate" it. 

AKA, I say in English what it sounded like he said in German, 

not the actual translation. But because Oma speaks German 

and knew that while Nate was talking about teddy bears 

and I was talking about hot dogs, that we were way off our rocker. 

But it gave us all an amazing laugh, it had been a long 

time since I had seen Oma laugh that way.

There's so much love in this family. 

So much God. 

I would not trade this for anything in the world, 

the happiness we all bring to each other is incredible, 

and the love is something that you can't get out of anything else. 

So blessed beyond measure. 

We kicked off the night with some accordion dueling. 

Opa loves to hear us play, so we pulled out both accordions. 

It was a great night for some polka music, 

(I'm glad my grandparents don't have many neighbors,

they would not be happy with our loud "music")

Roadtrip to Boone #2 was a great success, 

I'm a lucky girl to have two amazing best friends, 

two incredible grandparents, 

one pan of left over lasagna, 

and one awesome God.