"Talking to J.T"

Monday, January 18, 2010

Permission was given for me to blog about this from my daughter.

Rachael has a new interest in life. Its talking to J.T. For months now, when we ask Rachael what she is doing, her response seems to be the same each time, "talking to J.T." After many months of being asked from others at our church, "who is J.T." or "is it "J.T.Wilt", I have been requested to introduce Johnathan T. McNeely.

(Johnathan is the one in the middle surrounded by all the girls..lol)

Rachael met Johnathan at Word Of Life Camp in July of 2009. He is from Lake Wales, Florida and is a member of Trinity Baptist Church in Lake Wales, Florida. Johnathan is 16 years of age and a junior in high school. He became a close friend to my daughter during her week at camp. After returning home, he became friends with Rachael on our face book page. This was the beginning of the end for me and Jimmy accessing face book very much.

Rachael and JT (as she calls him) began chatting on FB every night. They rarely missed talking with each other and our house was filled with random laughter each evening coming from our daughter. We never knew what was being said but it sure did make our daughter smile:)

(Rachael, JT and Leann at WOL 2009)

As parents, we became interested very quickly in who our daughter was talking with and not long after the conversations began on FB, we were introduced to Johnathan over the phone. He seemed to be very respectful, nice, and somewhat shy. More importantly, he was saved and his family saved and attending an Independent Baptist Church. Soon, Johnathan and Rachael started discussing our upcoming trip to Disney World in Florida (which I just recently posted about) and they began to discuss a way of seeing each other again. Johnathan's mother soon called and invited us to spend a day with them at Universal Studios while we were in Florida. So the arrangements were made and Rachael began anticipating the day she would see JT again.

I had asked Rachael several times after being introduced to JT by phone if she liked him in a "boy-friend way" and she always gave the same patent answer. "Mom, I do not know him that well and we are just friends."

We were to meet JT and his family on the last day of our Disney trip. Unfortunately, Jimmy became ill and was unable to go, so Tyler Odell stepped in and took his place. We met JT, his mom (Sheri), dad (Glenn), big brother (Cody), little sister (Courtney), and best friend (Eric) at Universal and enjoyed the day with them at Halloween Horror Nights. We had a very good time and enjoyed talking with their family. We got along great and at the end of the day shared hugs and said good-bye.

(heading back to our cars after a long day at Universal)

left to right: Eric, JT, Tyler and Rachael

After arriving back in North Carolina, the chatting on FB sooned turned to talking on the phone. They have not missed a day since we returned home from Disney and on Rachael's 15th Birthday at midnight, Johnathan asked her to be his "official" girlfriend. He sent Rachael a diamond cross necklace and pair of earrings for Christmas and continues to talk with me and Jimmy about any plans he tries to make for them to see each other.

Recently, his family has invited our family to spend time with them in June while they are camping in the North Carolina mountains so we are making arrangements to meet with them. Rachael has also agreed to attend the Wilds Teen Camp with his youth group in July and then they both will attend WOL camp again this summer.

Some may ask, "do you really expect this long distance relationship to work?" or "is it smart to encourage your daughter in this relationship?" Jimmy and I have discussed this many times and we both have come to the same conclusion. She is 15 and boys are going to be part of her life. We would rather her get to know the heart of a boy rather than it solely be based upon a physical attraction. We feel that this is what the long distance relationship is doing. They are learning about each other's hearts without seeing one another daily. Some say, it is her first real crush and "summer love" and maybe they are right. I don't question it anymore, we just monitor it and do what we think is right as parents.

Jimmy and I are sure of one thing. The Lord brought JT McNeely and his family into our lives for a reason. It might be for spiritual growth, new Christian friendships, trials, or lessons to be learned but we are trusting the Lord in all of it.

We pray every night that the Lord is preparing a Godly husband for our daughter, whomever it might be. We are NOT rushing this and know that Rachael still has years of undecided plans. That is why we cling to Isaiah 55:8-9.

In the mean time, we'll just continue to hear, "talking to JT."

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Missing Disney!

I have been trying to find the time for several months now to blog about one of the BEST vacations we have taken together as a family. I seem to have finally found the time to post all pictures and gather my thoughts. I warn you, it might be the longest post in history!

In late September of this past year, our family scheduled a week long trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. We had 7 nights and 8 days of absolute continuous fun, great weather, and good health! (until the last night), "sorry honey, you caught the cold crud and was unable to attend Horror Nights at Universal with us!"

The day we departed from Greensboro. We were so thankful we were able to get decently priced airline tickets!

Landing in Atlanta, Georgia to change plans. Pouring down rain and storming. Was praying the weather in Florida would look better.

Beautiful, sunny Florida!

After arriving at the airport, we were taken by courtesy bus to our destination at Disney's Pop Century Resort.

We decided to lounge around the resort for the remainder of the day and get a good night sleep for our big day tomorrow. Our first stop would be breakfast at Chef Mickeys and a visit to Magic Kingdom!

Chef Mickeys was great! I highly recommend it! All the Disney characters such as Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and others come and visit your table. We were able to take pictures and because we were celebrating my birthday, Donald brought me a birthday cupcake and danced with me!

Dancing with Donald!

My birthday Celebration Cupcake. I would receive many more of these during the week we were at Disney! They love to celebrate!!

Taking our picture with Mickey!

Our picture with Donald!

Our time with Donald was extra special. If anyone knows my husband well, they know that my husband does a fantastic impression of Donald Duck and sounds just like him! When Rachael was smaller, she would laugh until she got the hiccups because her dad would talk to her in Donald Duck language! I believe the Sizemore children and Stephen Pollard have seen the Donald Duck in action before and loved him!

Taking our picture with Minnie!

I would love to post all the pictures we took but there we so many of them. We do have them on our face book page so feel free to visit and view them!
We enjoyed all aspects of Magic Kingdom and rode every ride even the smaller ones for children. After all, when you visit Disney, you must become a child at heart to thoroughly enjoy everything it offers!

One of my favorite rides at Magic Kingdom!

Kissing my prince in front of our castle!

The O'dell family was at Disney World the same week as us so we were able to enjoy time together with them as well and make some special memories. Here we are riding Splash Mountain with the O'dells. Frnt R: Tyler and Rachael. 2nd Row: Jimmy and Taylor and Mark and 3rd row: Angie and Stephanie.
Mr. Jimmy is holding a sword that lights up and was the comedian for our ride! Great Memories!!!

Our next visit was to Disney's MGM studios where we started the day off with a showing of Beauty and the Beast.

There were rides such as Tower of Terror, Aerosmith's Rockin Roller coaster, and much more. One new attraction was the taping of Disney's own American Idol Show. This was great fun and we enjoyed watching each of the contestants.

Taking a scenic ride together with the O'dells.

Getting ready to ride the crazy, fast, Aerosmith Rockin Roller coaster!

While at Disney MGM, we ate at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. I also recommend this place to everyone. We had a blast and the staff is hilarious. I will tell you they are strict about table manners and will correct you for bad ones!

Our host, Michael. He was such a nerd and a cut-up! We miss Michael!

We are heading over to the Caribbean Resort to have dinner at 1900 Park Fare. This is also character dining with Cinderella and her evil step-mother and step-sisters. We rode a boat from Magic Kingdom and the view was gorgeous!

Caribbean Resort. I would love to stay here but we would need to budget for this one and save some more money! This place is absolutely one of the pretties resorts on Disney.
Arriving for dinner!

There are always plenty of people waiting to take your picture! One of my favorites of me and my "baby"

Jimmy, Cinderella, Rachael and me!

The evil step-mother who was a little "too flirtatious" with my husband!

One of our next stops was to Animal Kingdom. We enjoyed looking at all the different animals and also riding all the different rides they offer. We rode Mount Everest and I have to say, it scared me more than any ride I rode for the week. It definitely gets your heart racing!

The top of Everest!

Our boat ride at Animal Kingdom!

One of our favorite highlights for the day was the Jungle Parade at Animal Kingdom. You must take time to see it. Get there early and get a front row spot! It was a great parade with lots of participation and fun!

At the end of the parade, one of the floats broke down in front of Mickey who was at the end so we were able to enjoy Mickey dancing for over 45 minutes. We were laughing because the more he danced, the more he got into his dancing and was showing off some pretty good dance moves!

There are so many wonderful memories that were made and I will treasure each and everyone of them to the character dining, rides, shows, and time together with friends!

There are so many more things I could say and pictures I could post of our time at Disney but I don't want to spoil it for the rest of you. If you are blessed enough to visit and I pray you will be, I recommend Disney to everyone! Just remember, when you step off the plane, or arrive at your destination by car, put your Mickey ears on, leave the world behind, and just RELAX and ENJOY!!

Where Have I been?.....

December 8, 2009

Many of you may wonder, "where has Angie been with her blogging?" Well, to answer that question is simple for me. Life got very busy and it was easier to put the blogging to rest while I placed my concentration on more difficult tasks that needed to get done.

When things slowed down enough to where I thought I could return to blogging, my mind was blank. Not with things to blog about, but my password to get to my blog. I tried so many times to get back to my blog with no success. You may say, "well its easy, just enter your email address and they will send you the password." I did and a new problem began. See, around this same time, my email address was changed and so each time I asked for my password, they sent it to the old email address so thus the journey began to recover my password. I have to admit, I didn't try very hard because some days were harder than others. Try to email google and get any help! That was an undertaking of its own. I really had just about given up and finally, today, I received an email from google stating they had changed my email address in their records and were sending my password information to the new email address. So, here I am. Back to reading everyone's blogs and actually being able to post comments. Thank-you Lord for patience!

Our Visit to Asheville

August 16, 2009

Catching up with some short post. Wanted to get these pictures on my blog from our recent trip to Asheville. We went with friends and saw MercyMe Concert at the Biltmore House. It was very nice and we enjoyed our time staying at the "Brown Inn."

We had a great weekend and some of the pictures are posted on our facebook page so be sure to check them out. Here are some of the pictures as we were leaving to come home.

Jon and Rachael

Backr: Seth, Hayden
Frontr: Wilson, Rachael, Emily & McKinley

Getting ready to leave Asheville to come home.

Friends for Eternity:)

GOOD NEIGHBORS!

July 20, 2009

This past weekend, we received a special act of kindness. Our neighbors, Brian and Andrea Sizemore, along with their two children, Tanner and Alex, came to our home to help "dig" potatoes.

This was the first year that Jimmy attempted to plant potatoes. (We are still learning about farming.) He only planted 3 rows so we could see how things went and make a decision on whether or not we would do it again next year. I happy to report that we yielded lots of potatoes. Enough to keep us from buying them for the rest of the year.

Alex and Tanner had their special buckets and went to work. They were so cute and hard workers! Tanner seemed determined to find lots of potatoes. Alex dug potatoes but enjoyed squishing her feet in the mud as well! Brian and Andrea are pros at digging potatoes and taught us a lot this year!

Brian was nice enough to bring the a turn plow (did I say that correctly?) and he and Jimmy went to work turning the potatoes again to see if we could fine more!

Afterwards, we treated our help to soda and cookies! Andrea, I hope we paid our help enough so they will want to come dig potatoes next year! Yes, we will plant again!

Galations 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.