#44, #53, and #79

GO ON A ROADTRIP TO SEE THE SUNRISE AT THE BEACH

BUILD A SANDCASTLE

STAY UP FOR 24 HOURS

This adventure came on a whim. I was telling JIvey how I had some stuff to do on the list before the summer was over. She needed to see the sunrise also and said, "Let's go do that this week." Huh? Me? Do something spontaneous like that? No way. Now, some people would argue with the spontaneity of the trip since we didn't just pack up and leave but I think I'm going to disagree. When it comes to making decisions, I think everything to death and then still have a tendency to default to someone else for input. It's a bad habit, I know.

JIvey also asked another friend, Amanda if she wanted to go. She's more spontaneous than us so it wasn't a surprise that she joined us. JIvey and Amanda had a meeting at church Thursday night so I met them there. After making sure we had all of our stuff together, we went to a Waffle House close to I-85. We stayed there from about 9:30 - midnight and then headed on the road. Since my list said that I had to go on a roadtrip to see the sunrise, we tried to plan the trip just right. We wanted to get there in time AND try to avoid paying the cost for a hotel. I mean, I had to stay awake for 24 hours (NOT a smart idea for a road trip, by the way). The whole trip was about 4 hours or so. We had a riot. By 4am, we were deliriously hysterical. Between a pirate patch, water gun and cheeto fangs, we could have been mistaken for being under the influence. There are definitely pictures around that I'm hoping do not see the light of day (hint, hint, JIvey).

...

I didn't build the sandcastle until after the sunrise but I wanted to wait to talk about the sunrise. It was shocking to discover how absolutely ridiculous I felt when I was building the sand castle. The feeling only lasted for a little while but I realized how much more fun it is to actually build a sand castle with someone ... preferably kids. It looked horrible at first. After spending some time on it, it really started to come together. (hmm, certainly some sort of lesson to be had there. but I'm going to press on). It was not something that would be competitive in a sandcastle building contest but a couple of passersby took pictures.

Now for the sunrise... I really don't know if I have the words to describe the feelings I had when I watched the sunrise... It was inspiring and beautiful and I felt so at peace watching it. The pictures can't even capture HALF of its beauty.

It's been about three weeks now since we went to Tybee to see the sunrise but I was just talking to my 'kids' at Stage12 about it the other day. The lesson was about trusting in what you can't see (God) based on what you can see (all that He created). We talked about how everything somehow connects back to something God created. I'm not sure how the flow of the conversation went but I remember telling a young girl Elissa how wonderful it was that God had the whole sky to paint. And that's exactly what I saw that day on Tybee. We can paint a picture on a billboard if we want to but anything we do will never compare to the awe and wonder of a God who can paint the sky.

I am so looking forward to having that experience again. {sigh} :)

TASKS #44, #53 AND #79 ... COMPLETED 7/24