Made to Love has been moved.

To anyone who's reading this blog: I've have made the decision to move my blog over to WordPress. This decision has been up in the air for a while, it was a matter on me learning how to navigate the site - and I really love the interface of the WordPress app for the ipad. It makes navigating a lot easier to learn in my opinion. :)

Without further ado, I give you my blog's new address: laurnmichelle.wordpress.com . Easy to remember, just one word different from this one. There's is also a new entry posted as well. 

Enjoy & I hope to see you over there! :)

To my PawPaw. ♥

Dearest Paw Paw,

Bill Smyth (October 17, 1930 - April 12, 2013)
with his lovely wife, Frances.
What a wonderful couple.

We love you. I'm so very grateful I had you as a grandfather & being a part of your life. A man of few words, but when you spoke it was with such wisdom. A man after God's heart. A loving husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. You had such a sweet, gentle spirit. I will always remember those wonderful times I spent with you & Nanaw both.

Memories you left behind:

♥ Remember during Christmas when you told us to find the moving nutcracker? The only moving nutcracker. Haha, I thought you meant one other than that. You were such a tease.

♥ Your hugs when we would leave your house to go back to ours. Two arms, hugging me tightly.

♥ Wrigley's Double Mint Gum. A smell I will always associate with you - just remembering the smell as a little girl in your truck & in your hugs.

♥ You loved to hunt (even if he didn't kill anything) & enjoyed spending time outdoors. As you got older, you enjoyed reading, playing FreeCell, and watching the San Antonio Spurs.

♥ You were constantly tended to by "Mother Hover", your loving bride of 60 years. What example the two of you were (and are). She even continued to hover over you 'til your last breath. You were so blessed to find & live a life with a wonderful, God-fearing prayer warrior like her.

♥ You & Nanaw have given me a wonderful example of what a godly marriage should look like - passed down to my parents ... and one that will someday be past onto me & my husband.

♥ There are so many more memories, so I will keep this list open as they come to mind. But for now ...

Though it's only a short time til we see you again, I will still miss your love, wisdom, and teasing.

I love you, Paw Paw. One day I will see you again. Say "hello" to Jesus for me.

With love,
Lauren

P.S. We'll take good care of your bride. :)

Bill & his wife with two out of 3 children (my dad on the left, my aunt on the right, my uncle wasn't thought of yet). 1-2-3-awwwww!

Celebrating his 50th birthday.

What a sweet couple. ♥

My PawPaw & Nanaw, mom, dad, and me - with my brother on the way. :)

Indy Trip 2013 - Spring Break

I've been back for a week now, but I'm finally getting around to blogging about a wonderful time in Indiana. :)

For a few months now, I had been planning a trip to visit my friend, let's call her "Christina" , a misplaced Texan who left almost a year ago to attend Purdue University. This was my first time visiting a friend in another state. 'twas a neat experience indeed.

Day 1 [Saturday] - Arrived in Indianapolis Airport at 3:00 pm, welcomed by Christina, and made it to Lafayette by 5 pm-ish - what a cute little city. We saw the movie Oz with some of her friends that evening - AWESOME movie by the way. I would love to see it again. :)

Leaving my mark in the leftover piles of snow - as often I could.. :) 

1 out of 2 snowmen made in Indiana.

 Day 2 [Sunday] - We went to one of the churches she attended, which was quite similar to Community Bible Chuch only smaller (hehe). After church, we had lunch with a family she's really close to and have house is built on a bunch of land. Bunch of land + laser tag = sooooo much fun! :) Our boots were not so fond of the terrain's condition from the snow melting - "squish squash" ... "ewww".

"Pew pew pew" - Laser Gun

Building a snowman OVER 10" ... it was 18", but still progress. One day I will build one even taller than that. Also, I guess some of the Indiana natives thought I needed a little help building a snowman. :P

 Day 3 [Monday] - We walked Purdue's pretty "little" campus, visited a few shops in the area, enjoy coffee/fudge/girl talk/relaxing at Greyhouse Coffee, and enjoyed some pizza with one of her friends at Mad Mushroom for dinner (Why is the mushroom mad? He didn't look mad at all - maybe he's bipolar? Who knows ... ). That night, we were able to skype with another friend who wasn't able to make it to Indiana - even though we were able to see her face, it still wasn't the same as hanging out in person. Oh yes, and how can we forget the short 4-person Skype to FaceTime with my guy? What fun & interesting times. :)

The "Clapping Circle" at Purdue University - so cool!
"Echo ... echo ... echo." 
 

Left - statue of Neil Armstrong. "Who is he?" ... just kidding.
 Right - Stepping in Neil Armstrong's footprints.  
"This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

Of course, we had to take a picture with a giant No. 2 pencil. In the words of my friend, "I think I can pass the test now". :)

Top-left: Pappy's - a diner stuck in time from the roaring 20s.
Top-right - Lunch, consisted of a swiss burger & hot fudge malt (I pretended that the bun was gluten-free)
Bottom-left - Fudge. Decisions, decisions ...
Bottom-right - My selection? Mint Chocolate & Pappy's Blend. Delicious! :)

.

Enjoyed the Mocha at Greyhouse Coffee - Lafayette's version of Local Coffee.
We even enjoyed a little bit of fudge with our coffee. 

Day 4 [Tuesday] - We drove into the Indianapolis area & visited the IMA (Indianapolis Museum of Art). Later that evening, I had a opportunity to meet, bowl, and hangout with a few of my friend's Indiana friends. 

Top Left: Obvious sign is obvious. Top Right: Colored windows in the entry way of the IMA. Beautiful & fun to look out of the different colors. Bottom Left: Gimwale dolls from the Ntwane people of South Africa, or premature Daleks. (That's kinda why this picture was taken.) Bottom Right: The original LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana created in 1970 - other versions have been made. For me, this was just awesome to see especially since I have never seen any of the other versions yet. The original is always better than the copy. :) 

Day 5 [Wednesday] - My last day in Indiana. :( However, it wasn't a total disappointment after seeing a light dusting of snow on the ground that morning. I was finally able to make my first snow angel - though after making it I was quite ready to get back into the car where it was warm. While I was waiting for my flight to Tampa (my connecting flight), I watched the little snow flurries fall gracefully from the sky one last time. They were so pretty, but I was ready to get back to Texas.

I enjoyed seeing my friend & the snow, but I am sooooo glad to be back in a warmer climate. :)

Stop & Smell the Mountain Laurel

First crochet project is complete! 
And on top of that, one very happy birthday girl. :)

Seeing the joy on a girl's face as she unwrapped her blue & purplified gift was absolutely priceless; but I couldn't stop there. Inside the woven satchel, she found a lock-and-key diary along with some gel pens (seriously, what little girl wouldn't love gel pens? I know I did around her age). Her smile just got bigger & I was quite blessed knowing that she would enjoy the gift (after the time I put into it).

Or, maybe it's stopping to smell the grape-like fragrance & beautiful purple blooms of Mountain Laurel as you pass by. One of my favorite smells this time of year by the way. 

 "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ." - Ephesians 1:3

Just like the little girl pulling another gift out of the purse, we discover these little blessings & smile with joy knowing how much our Father loves us. We are chosen by God to receive salvation - every one of us. We are adopted by God to be his children. We are forgiven by God - and are commanded to forgive others ("Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others." - Colossians 3:13b, NLT). We have the power to do God's will. We have the hope of living forever with Christ.

God as my friend.

This topic has been on my heart & mind for quite a while now, but I've never known how to tell it, much less how to start it. So, here it goes ...

For most of my life, I've always seemed to struggle with friendship - always on the outer circle, no matter how much I tried to fit in. I felt as if I was never truly accepted into the group. I know what you're thinking right now, "This is just a blog to make us feel sorry for her." - Wrong! Currently, I am quite happy with my friendships right now. I'm just not done ... anywho ... Sunday evening at a benefit concert hosted by my church, I heard the song "Friend of God" performed by Philips, Craig, & Dean live and the lyrics kind of hit home with me. No matter who has or will walk out of my life, God will always be there as a friend - He always has & always will. That's quite reassuring.

"For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God." - Romans 5:10-11 NLT, italics added. - what a sacrifice our God has made for us!

"Draw close to God and he will draw close to you ..." James 4:8a

I love what this verse tells us and reassures us of God's promise to us. He longs to have a close, an intimate, relationship with us. I don't know where you may stand, but for me ... something  inside me longs to spend time with my Heavenly Father - when I don't, I can feel it. There's a difference in my attitude throughout the day. Just like with friendships here on this earth - you need to spend time with others in order to know who they are as a person. What kind of friendship would you have if you didn't?