Story of my life

As I sit here in this beautiful Bed & Breakfast called Main Street Inn in Tarboro, NC, my heart is struggling. I’m struggling tonight. There, I said it. My tears are flowing and my emotions are running wild.

Hello – It’s been a long while since I posted here. My name is Jordan. I am a lot of things in life…a friend, a sister, a daughter, a niece, a grand daughter, a lover of life, a doggy mom, etc. Yes, a lot of things.

I’m visiting friends in Tarboro, NC where they are currently running an inn – just for the time being. They recently moved from Charlotte and ended up making a move to a small town in one of the most (if not, the most) poor counties in North Carolina. There are tree lined streets and beautiful historic homes on one side of town, yet on the other side, there are people who are financially burdened. In the middle of this town is a beautiful historic 7,000 square foot home which has been restored to welcome visitors from all over the nation. The vast ceilings and classic hardwood floors lead to open bedrooms with plush fabrics and beautiful marble bathrooms perfectly dressed for any weary traveler looking to escape the busyness of life.

I’m am spending my second night with these sweet friends of mine. Newlyweds, I might add. They have been married for a little over a year and are incredibly precious. My friend, “S”, and I met at work. She is a committed follow of Jesus Christ. One who sticks to her word, studies daily, and speaks wisdom. She is the epitome of a Proverbs 31 woman. One that I look up to and ask her for advice and words of wisdom regularly. Something that I love the most about her is that she speaks of her husband with such respect, love and adoration. She hangs on his every word, trusts him with her whole heart, mind, body, and spirit, and will follow where ever he leads. Her husband, “B”, on the same token speaks of how he loves how his wife smells, what she wears, how she looks, dresses, and acts with the same love and affection. Yes, they are newly weds, but he and she realize how lucky they are to have one another and how blessed they are to have God at the center of that relationship. They both pursue Him first and each other second. Watching gaze into each other’s eyes is heartwarming, listening to them laugh and goof off gives me hope. Hope for my own future.

As mentioned above, I am many things. One of those many things is single. I know, I’m not the only one. In fact, I’m one of thousands…no, millions…of people who are also single.

It’s tough being single. Yes, I know marriage is tough, but it’s a different kind of tough. It’s being tough together. It’s going through life with your best friend by your side knowing that even if he/she doesn’t like you today, he/she will love you for always and will always be on your team, no matter what. Being single is tough because no matter how many friends you have or how supportive your family is, there isn’t that 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and twice on Sunday type of support, love, commitment, and walk. I know my family would drop everything to help me out. I know they love me more than I will every know or understand until I have children of my own one day, but it’s a different kind of love. There is no denying that.

As a single woman, I’m not waiting to live until I meet the man God has designed for me to meet and marry, but I do yearn for that relationship. It’s something I pray for every day. As I watch my friends love one another so well, I’m so happy that they are so perfectly in love in God’s grace, but I also yearn to have that same love. To feel wholly complimented by another person – notice I didn’t say completed. God completed me – someone I can be 100% myself with and he loves me anyway. Someone who I can tell stories with of our experiences with one another, someone to have the adventure of life with and someone to grow in my faith with. Isn’t that what we all want?

So, even though it may be a challenge to find that person and the tears may be flowing. Pray. Stay faithful to who you are and what you want. There is no beauty in settling.

Come on, we will stay faithful together.

Love

“If you want something to last forever, you treat it differently. You shield it and protect it. You never abuse it. You don’t expose it to the elements. You don’t make it common or ordinary. If it ever becomes tarnished, you lovingly polish it until it gleams like new. It becomes special because you have made it so, and it grows more beautiful and precious as time goes by.”

~ F. Burton Howard

It’s pamper time!

After all the time that has passed, I decided that it was time for my girls and I to get our nails “did.” 

Wait…was that terrible? Okay, so it was. We got our nails done. More specifically our toes. Our toes were soaked, scrubbed, exfoliated, rubbed, then painted and we had SO much fun! 

I chose a bright spring/summer color. Orange!

Please ignore the bruises on my legs…the coffee table apparently got in my way, multiple times.

Heather came along with us to get her nails done and she chose a wonderful color that I’m going to have to try in the near future. It’s a creamy white…

It makes me think of New Orleans, which is where I’m headed in mid-June, so get ready for some crazy stories!

Today, I’m thankful for friends. People who support me no matter what. People who I choose to be my family, and in a lot of ways are closer than family. Friends are people you choose to be around even when times get rough and they choose to stick around. I’m grateful to have friends like I do.

What are you thankful for today?

 

The Day of Gibbs

Apparently the thing I was thinking about when I woke up and as I was hanging out at my apartment by myself were one in the same. It was my little guy, Gibbs.

This morning was an early morning again. That meant that my alarm clock was going off at 3:45am. Yay! Ok…so, not really yay. The “Yay!” part comes in the fact that I have a job to get up early for instead of not having any job at all.

Anyway, this is the little guy cuddled with me this morning. He loves to help me wake up gently in the morning.

 

He was just so cute snuggled up with me that it was super hard to leave this morning, BUT I had to.

On my way to work, I figured I would take a picture of proof that I was up and on my way to work that early.

 

See…I told you so!

Tomorrow morning I get to sleep a little later. 6am, here I come!

Night, y’all!

Sunday Fun Day

My little guy, Gibbs, woke me up early this morning. No earlier than I anticipated him to wake me up, but it was nice to snuggle with him in bed.
Oh wait, I have neglected to tell you that Gibbs is my 4-legged baby. He is a Schnoodle and I love him to bits. We love to snuggle on Sunday mornings.

 

Take a look at my picture and take a guess as to what I did this morning. It’s my favorite part of the week!

Run! Ballantyne

Today was a BIG day for our Y community. We had our 9th annual Run! Ballantyne 1 mile fun run, 5K, and 10K races. Last year we had 1,700 runners. Up from about 900 runners from the year before.

Our goal for this year was to reach 2,000 runners.

We were down to the wire, but we made it! We broke 2,000 runners! The actual number is still being tallied, but we made it! We reached our goal!

Take a look…

The JROTC from Ardrey Kell High School presented the colors.

We were able to even do a little line dancing! Watch out…it’s the Cupid Shuffle!

It was a long day of constant movement, but we had a great time providing an excellent experience for all involved. We were there for approximately 6 hours from set up to break down and every minute was worth it.

God blessed us with beautiful weather and no injuries. With over 2,000 participants and countless volunteers, we were truly blessed.

Early Mornings

Today was an early day. I had to be at work at 5am today, so I had the privilege of seeing the sun rise. It was a beautiful morning and it turned out to be a nice day. I always love seeing the pink, blue, and purple in the sunrise, however I don’t like seeing power lines in the sunrise…sorry for that.

As I was on my way to work this morning I began feeling grumpy for having to be up so early. When I say early, I mean that my alarm clock went off at 3:45am.

Yes, that early.

When I began griping about having to be at work so early, I began thanking God for my job as well as having a short commute to work. I also began thanking God for the fact that I can drive to work, rather than walk, and for the woman I work with at 5am because she is always so chipper in the mornings. She is a pleasure to work with and I appreciate her.

When the sun came up, I decided I wanted to take a picture of the sunrise to remind myself to be thankful for the sunrise and all that it brings. The fact that it mean the start of a new day and new opportunities is amazing.

What are you thankful for today?

Photo of the Day

Guess what I did today? I took a yoga class.

Okay, okay…I know that doesn’t sound like too much fun to everyone, but I run a fitness facility and I rarely get to participate in the classes and exercise opportunities that I would like to.

So, again, I would like to say again…I took a yoga class! I’m very excited about it and I’m still sore.
A good sore, but sore never-the-less!

Gratitude

Not to long ago, a friend of mine said she is taking a picture a day. I got to thinking about this daily photo and I realized that there are so many things that pass me by on a daily basis. What am I doing to celebrate all of the little things? Because you know, the little things make a difference in the big things. 

Don’t you think that we need to focus a little less on the big things, and a little bit more on the small things? I mean, think about it, do big things happen every day? Nope. So, when you think about it, it is the small things that make a difference. 

So, I have decided I’m going to join her in taking a daily photograph, no matter how simple, normal, or seemingly little that moment is. It is all about the moment. The here and now.

These photos are going to show the things that I’m grateful for that are in my daily life.

Today, I’m grateful for my dog, Gibbs who is on the left, and his “cousin,” Murphy as they cuddle with me on the couch.

Now, what are you grateful for?

Sadness

Today, children of elementary school age experienced a tragedy. Some lived, some died. I’m not going to say much because there isn’t much to say beyond, pray.

Pray for the children whose school no longer feels safe to them.

Pray for the children who have lost fellow students.

Pray for the teachers who have lost colleagues.

Pray for teachers who lost a principal, leader, encouraged, and who was a positive light for the school.

Pray for a community which has been devastated by death, horror, confusion, anger, and sadness.

Pray for a country who needs to support each other.

Pray for our President who has the power to make decisions which can change the future of this nation. May he not use the sorrow, pain, and furry of this outrage to pass laws.

Pray for peace.

Most of all, pray for the families who have lost children, and may all of those souls be gather around their eternal Father. The One who has given us life and The One who can take it away.

Finally, pray for the family of Adam Lanza. While I know that he is not a popular person and one that I absolutely despise. One who I do not respect, do not care for, and do not understand. Pray for his family, as I’m sure that they are just as confused, stunned, and heartbroken as the rest of the families who have lost a loved one.