My Graduation

I still can't believe it myself that I've already turned 18 and have graduated from high school. How time flies by....

Here are a few of my Senior pictures that my sister, Brenna, who is our new photographer, took. She did a really good job; I was happy with how the pics turned out.

This was what my post card invitations looked like.

   Brenna also took my cap and gown pictures. I wanted to go with something totally out of the ordinary so I went with a hot pink cap and gown.

   I had wanted my graduation to be more of a party and to have it outdoors and make it really informal. So I had all of these big plans-- I would give a speech, but not walk down the aisle; (I don't like to be the center of attention, which is what would happen) we would do a few games and just make it really fun. I wanted to do my graduation before my birthday, which was March 14, so I could say that I graduated when I was 17. We ended up doing it a week after on the 19th which was okay--we wanted our family to be there for our church's 1 year anniversary which was on the 20th as well.

Weeks before we had started working really hard out side to get it ready for the big day-- Dad cut down trees, ( one of them almost fell on our house, :) ) and made a bench out of the stumps and two trees we cut down. (Those things were heavy, we all had to lift them!) We also picked up sticks, got up all the leaves since it was after fall/winter. We made a little flower garden area where the trees had been, the kids painted a butterfly on one of the stumps, and we planted flowers and put mulch around them--we worked hard!

Well, a week before my graduation the weather forecasts called for a lot of rain that weekend. There went my outdoor graduation; I would have to do it at the church. I was really upset about it and it took me a while to get used to it. Looking back now I looked pretty selfish, after all it turned out great anyway. So with help from my Dad and Mom we made the best of it and it turned out to be a wonderful graduation party.

I set up a special table with all of my favorite things. I had one of my baby blankets, my quilt that my mom made, and my horse blanket. Can you tell that I love horses? I had my favorite childhood books, part of my collection of antique books (I just love books--old and new), my two albums that my Mom has put together through the years, and my Florida report I did for 7th grade and my Bible--my favorite book of all. Above the table I hung a few pictures, (ones with my cap and gown and one with me and my old horse, Sugar Rose), and the poem I wrote.

I wanted to do hot pink and navy blue chevron.  I love the decorations that I picked out. My favorite part was the hot pink chevron straws. I still have some left! :)

I think I had about 50 people come to my graduation. The first part was kind of like a ceremony except we played a game. We played, "Are you smarter than a homeschool graduate?" Then Dad had me quote some scripture from Proverbs. One of the things God has blessed me with is hiding Proverbs in my heart. For some of the verses in Proverbs, if you start reading a verse I can sometimes quote the rest of it. God has just allowed me to hide several verses in my heart that have been a help to me, but it's from reading Proverbs a lot. One year I committed to read one chapter in Proverbs a day and because Proverbs has 31 chapters, I could read Proverbs in one month. So you can read Proverbs 12 times in one year.

  Yes, I did give a speech and boy, was I nervous! Talking in front of people is not my thing. I got through it though, but not without crying through part of it.

After that they showed a video that Mom put together with pictures and the song, "All Along" playing in the background. She also put cap and gown pictures from my K5 graduation my High School graduation. For the latter we tried to copy some of the poses from my K5 grad.--one of Dad kissing me on the cheek, one with Josh kissing me on the cheek, a few different diploma poses and one of Mom and Dad kissing me on the cheek that we copied from Josh's cap and gown pictures That was neat.

 I wanted Bro. Nye to give the charge, so that was sweet. He did a great job and it was a blessing to me.

After that Dad did get me to walk down the aisle. I didn't want to but he tricked me into it! :)
Then He gave me the diploma, Mom gave me a hug and Dad announced the new High School graduate.

For the snacks I wanted my favorite dessert--a chocolate chip cookie cake. Mrs. Cheryl Frazzetto made it for me and on top of that she did two or three trial runs before hand. She did such a great job decorating it and it tasted really good. I also had my favorite soda, drink, salty snack and fruit which were: root beer, peach tea, chips and peach salsa, and chocolate covered strawberries. Several ladies from our church brought in a lot of the snacks; that was so thoughtful of them.
 
I was also able to have a lot of my family come- all of my aunts, a few cousins, an uncle, my Grandpa, Aunt Robin from Michigan, my Mam-maw, my Aunt Florence and Uncle Chuck, and both Grandmothers

My Aunt Tay, Logan and Chloe were able to come the day before and spent two nights with us. I'm so glad they did. Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Robin and Mam-maw came Friday as well but they stayed in a hotel.

My Aunt Robin was so sweet, she paid for me and Brenna to get a pedicure that morning! It was our first time and it was fun. I picked out a pink/coral color and Brenna picked out a blue. I would definitely do it again--my toes needed it.

The Macenas brought Grammy in Saturday for my graduation and they stayed through Sunday afternoon. Pastor and Mrs. Judy, and Mrs. Sodrel  from our home church came, but they were stuck in traffic and were only able to make it for the snacks!

I got a lot of presents, money and gift cards, that was so sweet of everybody.

It truly was a great graduation.

What am I going to do now, you ask? Well right now I am going to stay where God has me and continue teaching Sunday School, working in the nursery and singing. While I'm doing that I am going to continue learning how to be a homemaker, and also learn sign language. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I can't wait to see what  God has for my future, serving Him!

VSIBC

 A lot has been happening at our church these past four months. I would like to share with you what God has been doing at Victory Springs Independent Baptist church.
 
 In January we had our Friends and Family Day. We reached our goal of 80 and even had 1 more in our morning services, having a total of 81! Our special speaker was Dr. Scott Caudill, who is the president of our mission board. After the service we had chili and hot dogs for everybody.

 That afternoon my Dad and our good friend and fellow missionary, Bro. Nye, went to visit a gentleman who was in the hospital. He had never been to our church (his wife came) but Bro. Nye and my Dad got to lead him to the Lord in that hospital room. Praise God!

 In February we had our first Valentine's banquet with the theme being "I Love you to the Moon and Back" It was a very romantic setting.

 We had around 20 couples.  Our special speaker for this event was Pastor Flowers from Jacksonville.

 Our good friends Tabitha and Tricia came for a visit so Josh could take Tabitha to the banquet. It was so sweet-- Josh came in a little late because he just got off of work and was bringing in the food that we had catered from Bev's, and he came in bringing flowers for Tabitha!

 Since Tricia came with Tabitha she was so sweet to help serve for the banquet. John, Emma and I were also able to serve and Brenna had the privilege of taking the pictures. We had fun as well.

 Mom and Grammy went down for ten days to St. Barths so Grammy could see her Mom, Ma-ma, and so Mom could say good-bye. (When Mom got sick in St. Barths she had to go back for medical help and two months later we flew back as well so we could be with Mom, and of  course, ended up staying in the states. So, Mom had never really gotten to say could by.) She was able to be a witness and had the opportunity to pass out a few tracts. It was good closure for Mom.

 

At the end of February and for all of March. Bro. and Sister Nye came down to help our church; they borrowed a camper and stayed in the church parking lot. Bro. Nye taught soul winning in Sunday School, taught the men's Bible study on Monday, went soul winning with some of the men, and was able to preach for us a couple of times. He and Sister Nye went visiting for my Dad a lot throughout their stay. It was such a blessing for us, and for them, to be here.

  In March, I had my graduation at the church which I will post more about later. I still can't believe it myself that I'm already 18 and have graduated from high school!

                     I was so glad that a lot of my family from Ft. Myers came to my graduation.

 On Sunday of March, 20th we had our church's 1 yr. anniversary.  We had 92 in the services!
Pastor Strange, our preacher from our home church--Winkler Road, was our special speaker for the day.

 We also had our very first Children's Choir out of our Junior Church sing. Josh led the singing, and since Brenna and I helped in Junior Church, we sang with them for more support. We sang ''What a Savior"  with Callie singing the verse as a solo. They all sounded so good!

 In Junior Church we had Bubble Gum Sunday. They did bubble gum games and at the end they all got gum. They have lots of fun back there. All the kids just love Mr. Josh. It's sweet.

 After the services we had pulled pork sandwiches from Sonny's. Everyone was so sweet to bring in all the drinks and things. The Frazzetto's were so sweet to get all the food together, decorate and set up, and serve like they did for Friends and Family Day.
 We also had a bounce house for the kids. They just loved it.

 Bro. James tricked Josh into wearing this orange vest, saying that it came with the bounce house. It was funny! Josh had a good time helping all the kids get into the bounce house.

  On Easter Sunday there were two souls saved in the services!

 We also had an Easter Egg Hunt which was divided into two sections, one for the Nursery and one for the Junior Church. All the ladies were so sweet to bring eggs and candy. We ended up having a ton of eggs. Some of the kids even had two bags full!

                                            We had about 15 kids participating in the egg hunt.

  Last Wednesday we had Evangelist Dave Sommerdorf as our speaker and had him bring the Marine Corps Vette. We put it in the local newspaper ahead of time announcing that it would be at our church. We had several visitors come and the ones who didn't stay for the service at least got a gospel presentation from the video that Bro. Sommerdorf passed out.
  I was in the nursery during the preaching, but several people said that the preaching was phenomenal.

 On Thursday, Bro. and Mrs. Nye had to leave because there was a church that they needed to go and help. It was sad to see them leave. We miss them already. They were such a blessing to our church.

 We have had a lot of stuff going on in these past 3 months alone, and we are excited to see what God has in store for Victory Springs Independent Baptist Church.