"FayetteVegas"

Everytime I come back it feels like I haven't been here forever...but I was just here for Christmas! However, I haven't been here during this time of year for almost two years! I forgot I was gone last summer.

It wasn't that I wasn't looking forward to coming home for a little bit, and I was DEFINITELY looking forward to the cruise, I was just going through the motions of getting things done to get back so much, that I felt like the whole ride home God was telling me to calm the heck down.

I worked Saturday and Sunday so I didn't do quite as well with the preparing in advance thing as I had hoped. In fact, I did really poorly when I decided to go to dinner and a movie with friends when I got off work on Sunday night instead of packing. But I don't even care, it was so worth it. Toy Story 3, SO CUTE. I felt like a kid the for 103 minutes and it was glorious. It was so well done and everyone sitting around me was cracking up too. So worth the distraction!

Anyway, I didn't get home 'til midnight and was up too late which always flusters me when I'm traveling the next day. I have learned that traveling, at least since I've gotten back from Turkey, really flusters me. I think I forgot what it was like before it was a really stressful experience. I should really, really work on that. I'll start practicing with my cruise in a couple of days.

Anyway, I got off late on Monday and was all kinds of worried that I'd fall asleep driving...not to alarm anyone, but cars really do put me right to sleep, whether I'm riding or driving. Risky, I know. However, my friends who saw my status asking to be checked on delivered very nicely. Rob had burned me an audio book called Stuff Christians Like by Jon Acuff. I really suggest you checking it out, I cracked up. Go to stuffchristianslike.net The website called it a "satirical grenade". I would agree with that.

So really it turned out to be a very pleasant drive! The laughing made it go quickly and it was peppered with random fun phone calls (I just used the word "peppered"!) and as I drove into Fayetteville I came in on the back roads and it was BEAUTIFUL. Whenever I picture this place in the summer I see red...red clay, dead trees, DRY but it was so LUSH. Everything was covered in green and I came in through fields and pastures and the setting suns and I really felt like God was saying, "Ok Caitlin, it's time to be quiet". I was so concentrated on what was going on before I left with friends and work and packing and what not that I forgot there was a reason God was bringing me home for a week before the total rest and relaxation of thecruise.

It's hard to explain without getting into too much detail but there are some things I feel like God is ready to...stip off of me so to speak so that I can get to know Him again in a way that doesn't depend on anyone else. I think for a while my relationship with God has been contingent on my relationship with other people. I feel like He's asking me to come back and look Him in the face instead of everyone else's. Does that make sense? I can just see it since I've been home...in the time I've gotten to spend with my family without the distractions of any other old friends being home. In my lunch with Melissa, my old small group leader, who I LOVE. My late Father's Day date with my dad...mind blowing! He had me thinking of so many things I've pushed to the side, it isn't even funny.

Yes, the cruise in four days is going to be so fun and so relaxing and I just about can't wait. But it's also going to be riddled with distraction and hussle and bussle and I really think God is calling me to relax in Him NOW. I'm learning I don't really know how. But I'm so thankful that He knows the ins and outs of me so well that He knew I'd never figure it out going straight from school to the cruise without a second thought. He dragged me all the way back to FayetteVegas (As Ryan Day calls it) to remind me how much I need Him.

Isn't God cool like that?

I just realized how boring this post was. I apologize. I think it's because I'm a little bored too. I apologize.

I'll post some pictures instead.

Brandi Carlile Concert in Jacksonville

SO GOOD.

Look up her new album, Giving up the Ghost and listen to "Dying Day" SOOOO GOOD.

To celebrate summer and the end of summer classes, we had a Ladie's Night in Jacksonville at the Cheesecake Factory. So fun!

I love our porch :)

And all the people who visist on it :)

Roommate pictures! Debrah and Charry!