In Honor of the Royal Wedding...

One of my favorite songs - Goin' to the Chapel. I used it as my ringtone for months before my wedding day. :)

Congrats to William and Kate :) Hope your marriage is pure bliss, as is mine.

p.s. I have to be honest - isn't it almost disgusting how much attention this event has received? Think of all the more important things they could be reporting on the news. CRAZY!

LOVE is Here...

Well, I mentioned in my earlier post that I'd probably share one of my favorite Tenth Avenue North songs for Fave Song Friday. Here it is - playing over the music player now! I originally wanted to share their song You Are More with you. Look it up and check it out. I wasn't able to add that one to my playlist, though.
The song Love is Here is also one of my favorites of theirs, and it seemed pretty appropriate for Easter weekend.
Easter is, without a doubt, one of my favorite holidays. It means new life now. It means new life for eternity, thanks to our Savior who became sin for us, was buried and sealed up in a tomb, then rose again after three days time and lives TODAY. RIGHT NOW. Love is HERE with us. It is within reach. We just have to believe in Him. It is so simple, yet it seems so hard for some people to grasp.
If you are reading this blog today and do not know for sure if you died right at this moment where you would spend eternity - let me help you! I was blessed to have someone share that with me, and I would love to share it with you.
Christians are the only people who have the privilege of serving, worshiping and praying to a God (capital G) who is ALIVE. He's not dead - He's risen, as He said. Visit the tomb today and you will not find a body lying inside. He is alive and well, Friend! Accept Him today and experience His Love. It is HERE NOW.

Hope everyone has a sunny and happy Easter!

~Britt

The Dragon 2011

Here's my amature video footage - ha! Enjoy!

Cruisin'

What a weekend we had! I love summer vacations – can’t live without them. But something I love almost as much is the occasional springtime mini-vaca. Josh and I were invited by friends of ours from work to spend a couple nights in Knoxville/Gatlinburg, TN. They have a Corvette and we have a GTO, so we planned to go cruisin’. Naturally, we jumped at the chance. It’s always nice to move out of the “normal routine” for a few days and shake things up a bit. We had an absolute blast. 

First, we stopped in Knoxville to catch a Third Day, Tenth Avenue North concert. It was so much fun and so encouraging! Loved the live music. Excellent. (Perhaps I will share one of my FAVORITE Tenth Avenue North songs with you for Fave Song Friday.)

While we were in Knoxville we ate at Ye Ole Steak House. It was delicious, and I could kick myself for not taking a picture of our steaks. WOW. You’ve never seen steaks so big. Seriously. And they had the best sweet tea I’ve probably ever tasted, second only to my momma’s. Check them out sometime if you’re down that way. (Or UP that way, depending on which direction you’re traveling from.)

After a nice stay in the Hampton Inn, downtown Knoxville, we drove to US 129 a.k.a The Tail of the Dragon. If you’ve never heard of this road, Google it. It is 300-some curves in like 11 miles. CRAZY. I thought for sure I’d get car sick, but thank goodness I didn’t. I got some video, which I will try to post maybe later, but it doesn’t even begin to show the curviness…also, a cop got behind us, but it was still fun. LOL

Once we made it through the Dragon, we stopped at a motorcycle resort/restaurant to check out the “Tree of Shame.” Basically, it’s a tree with hundreds and hundreds of pieces of scrap from motorcycles that have wrecked while navigating the Dragon. Kinda sad; kinda funny, too. 

Tree of Shame

Josh says he wants to take his Buell next time. Yikes! (A Buell is a sport bike made by Harley for those of you who, like me, know nothing about motorcycles) p.s. I bought my first Harley Davidson shirt on the trip. Does this make me a biker chick? Nah. Gotta ride first, and my hubby wants to master the art before he lets me on the back, which I greatly appreciate. After that, I will be the classiest biker chick you’ve ever seen.

We headed down to Gatlinburg after that – did a little shopping and ate at a fantastic Italian restaurant. I believe it was called Best Italian. It lived up to the name, for sure. That night, we had every intention of driving up to Pigeon Forge to ride go-karts. We hopped in the GTO and headed that way, only to be stopped in traffic and make it to Pigeon Forge 4 hours later. YES – 4 HOURS LATER. If you’ve ever been to the area, you know it is approximately 5 miles between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.  Needless to say, we had to make our own fun. We laughed ‘til we cried. It was aggravating to say the least, but we did have fun getting to know each other better away from work. No go-karts that night after all. Maybe next time! Later we found out the traffic was due to a hot rod show they were having in Pigeon Forge. Can you believe it? Craziness…

We had a nice drive back home to good ol’ WV on Sunday morning. Got home, washed cars, mowed grass and made it to church for the evening service! Great way to end a fantastic weekend.

Favorite Song Thursday? {AND Friday}

Hey, Kids!
I am going to be out of commission starting tomorrow morning, so no blogging tomorrow for my typical "Favorite Song Friday." I was thinking, how about you all comment and share some of your favorite songs. Any genre - let's hear it!

AND - Special thanks to all of you who have started following me! It just encouraged my heart to see that "followers" number go up each and every day. I'm still not quite where I want to be, but I know the blog will keep growing! I have started following some of you all as well. Forgive me for not getting to ALL of your blogs just yet. I have been so slammed lately at work, it's been wild.

Have a wonderful Thursday and enjoy the weekend, as I will be enjoying mine to the MAX.

~Britt

The Things You Do...

Well, it is Favorite Song Friday once again - hard to believe it! I am a big fan of oldies (as you can probably tell from my playlist) One of my favorite groups is the Temptations. It's hard to decide on favorites, because I love all of their songs, but today I am playing "The Way You Do the Things You Do." It is just a fun song to enjoy and take us into the weekend. With that said - hope yours is fantastic!

Of Shoes, Tumbles, Brothers and Missions...

    What a weekend and start to a new week we’ve had in the Shackleford household! Not only did we have the usual weekend rituals taking place, but also were dealing with my brother’s upcoming departure for basic training. Somewhere in the midst of everything, I managed to fall down my stairs at home. I am good at finding time for such things. This time, mind you, it had nothing to do with my being clutsy. I promise. You can ask my husband – he will verify that it was my shoes that did the dirty work.

So cute and yet so dangerous...

 

    I had been looking for some cute, silver flats for some time and finally found some – at WALMART – for three bucks. I *love* finding good deals. So great. I had worn them several times within the last couple weeks since I bought them. But Saturday it rained. Apparently my shoes had some sort of soft, almost fuzzy-feeling stuff on the bottom (which I never noticed) that didn’t like the wetness. Add to that my jubilant entrance to the stairwell and you have BAM. A bumpy trip from the tippy-top of the wooden stairs to the landing. That wild ride resulted in the most gargantuan bruise of the century – shaped like a heart – on my upper left hip. (Thought about posting a pic but – YUCKO.) Other bruises developed, too…on my leg, behind, back, etc. And you can imagine the soreness that followed. Honestly, though, it could have been so much worse. No broken bones, no concussions, no coma. I think I’ll live.

    We had a great time that evening with family, regardless of my ensuing soreness. Daniel had a good time, and that was the main reason we had gathered. Had a great dinner and spent some time together with family from out-of-town. Even snapped a few pictures! Here are just a couple...

Me, Daniel, Josh - never a dull moment.

Best parents and brother EVER.

 

    I have known for months now that Daniel would be leaving. I did a great job saying goodbye to him Sunday night, but when I walked out the door to leave, reality set in along with a few tears. Not too bad, though. We talked and texted all through the day Monday and Tuesday as he traveled here and there, catching planes. Then Tuesday when he texted to let me know he was almost to the base, reality set in again and I cried MORE. I think it’s that unknown feeling – not sure when he’ll be able to use his phone, if at all. But the overall feeling I have is excitement for him. This will be one of the greatest experiences of his life and will help him grow and mature, not only physically, but mentally and spiritually as well.

    Now we have made it to “hump day,” the mid-point of the week, and it is time to start Missions Conference at our church. I look forward to this each year. It always is interesting and encouraging to see missionaries and all they have been accomplishing for God throughout the world. What a blessing, and what a kick in the pants for me to see how much more I could be doing and NEED to be doing for God. Join us at 7 PM Wednesday-Friday, 6 PM Saturday if you’re in driving distance – Victory Baptist Church, Scott Ridge Road, Beaver, WV. Hit me up for more info if needed.

Busy life, full of adventures…more to come!

p.s. Thank you so much to all of you who met me through the linky party and posted sweet comments and thoughts! I am thankful for that information and excited to learn more about each of you and your blogs as well. Please keep in contact!

CALLING ALL BLOG PARTY ANIMALS!!

Ok, Bloggy Buddies – I am new to this blogging thing. I have made several posts, but I am still learning, still excited about making my blog bigger and better. I have never done the “party” thing before, so I am eager to see what it’s all about! I am interested in getting more followers and more people interested  in my blog. My posts are totally random. Often, however, they are about different areas of my life where I feel God is teaching me something. And, BOY is He teaching me a lot. One thing I do on my blog is have “Favorite Song Friday.” Every Friday, I post about one of my favorite songs (this could go on forever…)! So, if you are interested in learning more about me – please check out “It’s an Adventure” and follow me!

p.s. If you have any tips or ideas for me to make my blog better, I am open to all ideas. I would love to hear from you.  

When Answers aren't Enough There is Jesus

Got a question? I may or may not have the answer. I know someone who does have the answer, though. God does. But sometimes He doesn’t give us the response we’d like. Maybe it is yes; maybe it is no. Maybe the answer is wait. This Friday’s favorite song is so wonderful – great words – a great message. I enjoy music, not only for the beautiful sounds, but mainly for the words and how they are put together. That is why I love writing. It is such a challenge to put words together in such a way that they convey a feeling – not just a message alone. I am not sure who wrote the song “When Answers Aren’t Enough,” (I should look that up) but I know it has spoken to my heart! Truly, when the answer you get from God (or anyone else, for that matter) is just not what you hoped for, HE is all you need.

PS! Please pray for my brother, Daniel, this weekend and throughout the next 5 months. We will drop him off at a hotel Sunday night. He will leave Monday morning and fly to D.C., then Missouri for 9 weeks of basic training. We will see him for his graduation from basic, then he will continue with his Military Police training until September. He is excited to get started, and we are happy for him. We will miss him tons, though. Appreciate the prayers!!!