Year 25

Year 25 (due to not having a consistent computer or camera, please bare with all the iphone pictures!)

I started my first women's Bible study at FBNM. I was the youngest person in there by atleast 10 years but I quickly fell in love with that group of women. We did Beth Moore's Esther study.
The week after my 25th birthday, I headed to the Clegg family vacation in Tennessee. Dinner shows, Titanic museum, hiking, fresh mountain air and everyone but Rachel was able to come.

 Me and my Winceline. 

 Best parents a girl could ever ask for

 Baby Moses/Winnie/Winceline/Wincebarb

 My peanut

 Me, Winnie and D'Lynn outside of the Hatfields and McCoys Dinner Show

 Me and my D'baby. This girl is my mini me, my heart. She's got the biggest, gentlest heart and I love her to pieces

Somehow, I don't have the pictures of the car museum or any of my pictures with Heather or Joshua.

While we were in Pigeon Forge we celebrated Caleb's 13th birthday. 

 Ya'll this kid is such a ham. Probably the product of being the youngest of 7 kids in a family that definitely is not lacking in personality. 

In September, Heather and I drove to New Orleans to go see Legally Blonde the musical at the Theatre where Rachel worked. 

 We met up with Rachel at a Mexican restaurant beforehand for some much needed sister time over chips and salsa.

OCTOBER

I went to Bayfest with Dara and my "siblings". This was taken at the Luke Bryan concert.

Heather and I drove home to Brandon for the day to take Clegg Family pictures. We haven't had family pictures taken in years. Literally.

Emily Tate did such a wonderful job of capturing our family. I will cherish these pictures forever!

 Heather and I dove into Mom's old tshirts... and a ridiculous assortment of scrunchies ala 90s. 

 Mexican date with my favorite.

DECEMBER 

I went home for 2 long weekends over Christmas and New Years. Much needed time with my family and dearest friends. 

JANUARY 2013

January is kind of a blur. On January 14th, I was on my way home from work. It was getting dark fast during rush hour traffic and just started drizzling. I had just come to a complete stop when a guy rear ended me at 35-40 mph. Crushing me between his SUV and the SUV in front of me.

I had been driving Heather's Corolla and Winnie had my Echo back home. The trunk was in the backseat of the car. My air bag didn't deploy and the seat belt didn't lock. I bit the steering wheel. Hard. I was out of work for a month due to injuries, the biggest being a 24/7 throbbing headache. 

I started my second Bible study, Beth Moore's David.

FEBRUARY 

Lil man Coach and I were able to spend some much needed time at home while I was recovering. 

My "normals" came to visit me for the weekend. The plan was for the beach but it was one of the coldest weekends we had all "winter".

MARCH

I went home the first weekend in March to see Poppa and siblings in Fiddler on the Roof

I donated my hair. 

We went camping on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

 Poppa made his famous cobbler.

APRIL

My cup runneth over. People who know us Cleggs well know that we are all different and unique... But we are all absolutely alike. I can't thank God more for blessing me with 6 siblings. I am the person I am because of each of you. Y'all aren't just my siblings but you are my best friends. Who else is that blessed?!  happy siblings day!! Love you all a million sour skittles... Or a million Reese's Easter eggs.... Or both. "Put togethah" we are pretty fantastic.

The normals came for another beach visit. It was definitely better weather that time.

This sweet lil man celebrated 4 years with me.

I went to New Orleans for the weekend to join BRYTE on their trip. We went to a youth play at the Theatre Rachel used to work at and then spent the next day exploring the French Quarter.

My mom with one of the hats in the prop room. So precious!

I went with the Rockin and Rollin crew to the drag strip in MS.

It was good Honey time.

We also went down to Florabama to catch the tail end of Mullet Toss... no pun intended.

Honey and Colin

I bought my first ever new car. Meet Lola!

MAY

Another weekend trip to New Orleans to visit Grandmommy and have some girl time shopping with my mom, Rachel, my Aunt Linda, my cousin Val and her kids.

Me and Val

 My sweet KK

 Momma love

 My EmmyLou

 More momma love

My D'baby

This sweet guy drove 5 hours to spend the day with me. One of the best days of my life. At that point, we hadn't seen each other in 2.5 years.

Winnie's graduation

It's almost impossible to get him to take a "normal" picture.

But I won. ;)

 My grandmommy, the kindest, sweetest, most gracious person I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Lots of hiking, climbing and exploring going on in North and Lower Alabama.

JUNE

Had a road traveling weekend with these 2 fellas. We went to MS on Friday night to see D'Lynn in Cheaper By The Dozen. Then drove to Gadsden to spend the weekend with Johnathan's mom.

 My sweet Thespian with her happy.

 We do date nights different than most people and I love it! Trails, old cemeteries, huge live oak tree, Chinese takeout, action movie and Bible study.

Caleb came and spent the weekend with me.

Ridiculousness

Steak N Shake
then a movie night

That Saturday we went to the Pensacola Naval Aviation Museum(more pictures of that to come).

JULY

I went to Gadsden for JP's family reuinion.

JP adopted Belle

Went to Brandon for A Night of One Acts

 This sweet man asked me to spend forever with him.

"...I found the one my heart loves." Song of Solomon 3:4
I love you (this) much, because when two fists come together, it's the size of our heart. And I love you with all my heart

AUGUST

 JP's birthday dinner at Pintoli's.

 Happy Birthday, JP!!!

 Felix's Fish Camp

JP's mom came to Visit. We spent her last night here playing mini golf, enjoying some TCBY and going to The Wharf in Orange Beach.

Here's to Year 26. :) I think it's going to be a wonderful year!

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Village Park Preserve

One of my favorite things to do on my days off is to go exploring. One of my "go to" places is the Village Point Park Preserve across the bay in Daphne.

A couple weekends ago, JP and I went back to Village Point. It was supposed to rain off and on so our trip to the beach didn't seem worth the time on the road.

 My hiking, history loving companion.

 The first direction that we headed was to find the primitive burial site... It was primitive alright. It was a dead end at a swamp. :)

 Our first "stop" was at the Bayfront Park. They have a building there that is used as a meeting place for rent. There was a large family reunion going on, so we only made a swift stop at the gazebo and pier.

 View of the bay and downtown Mobile from the end of the pier.

 We headed back to Village Point by way of the boardwalk. Yes, that says do not feed the alligators.

 If you look reallllllly  carefully, you can see the only alligator we saw for the whole walk.

 One of my new favorite places. Its a small trip of beach that you can only access by going on the boardwalk. We were the only people there. It was so nice and peaceful. Considering making it one of my new beach spots because it is much closer than Orange Beach/Gulf Shores. You can see downtown Mobile way off in the distance.

 On the way back towards the D'Olive Cemetery, we took a side trail at the Gazebo to go to one of our "spots". We have been here once before to the Live Oak and wanted to get some more pictures.

 This tree had fallen at some point and had rooted in 2 places.

 Here is the Live Oak. It is absolutely beautiful. They have it completely cased in to protect the tree and roots.

 I think next time we might need to bring a picnic. There are several picnic tables that were built by the boy scout troop who redid the trails a couple of years ago.

 The D'Olive cemetery

 Little raccoon buddy!

 We took the "turtle trail" back to the parking lot. Below are 2 of our snapping turtle trail mates.

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3 years ago today I showed up at BAE systems for my first day of work. 
I had been told it was an office job but when I got there they asked me where my "tools" were. Much to my surprise, and absolute terror, I was hired to be a scaffold builder. I remember taking a deep breathe as I strapped on a borrowed harness and tool belt and made my first trek onto a ship. I was in a completely different place in life than i ever expected, scared to death of the unknown and still trying to keep up a front that everything in my life was "ok". 

Though I had no idea why God had places me there at the time, He showed me how much of a blessing in disguise it was. It didn't provide much financially but it provided enough. I learned I was physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally stronger than I ever realized, I fell in love with boats, I learned about skilled shipyard trades and terms which helped me get the job I have today and I met a blue eyed, blond haired, gentle hearted JP. I think the first thing he ever said to me, weeks after I met him, was that he could tell I was struggling and whatever it was he would be praying for me and that "His grace is sufficient". So thankful for a Father who gives unlimited amounts of strength and for learning "it's ok to not be ok". 

Transparency is so much easier than keeping up a front and didn't make me weak, it made me realize the magnitude of His love and grace.

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MARCO

It's a "tradition" of sorts in our family to play Marco Polo. Whether it's through text messaging, phone calls or walking through the door to our parents house, we have the tendency to call out "MARCO" to inquire as to who is there and where they are.

No one has called "MARCO" for where I am in the blog world but I am still here. I have actually really missed it. I don't know how consistent I will be but I do plan on blogging to journal and document special memories. Life is good. I am still working as a recruiter for a marine and industrial contracting company. I love my job, the people I work with all along the gulf coast, and that I spend my days getting to help other people find work. It's stressful, but I am beyond grateful. I am still living in Mobile. I have found a church but it is in Pascagoula, MS. It's a little bit of a drive on the interstate but I am enjoying it. I still plan on staying in my women's Bible study group in Mobile when the next class starts.

I adore my family. Nothing has changed there. ;) I am going home this weekend to the beloved BRT to watch a Night of One Acts. D'baby wrote a one act play and will be performing in it.

Coach is still my perfect lil man.

I found out last fall that my eczema is irritated by being allergic to my sweet pup. I can in NO way ever consider getting rid of him. At that point, I had already had him for 3 years. He just got his first summer haircut. He was unsure of the clippers. And not the least bit excited about it. Except note the adorable tongue licking action when he saw I was giving him a treat. Poor thing didn't know what was coming. The shorter hair seems to be helping some of my allergies. Coach looks like a dalmation mix with the shorter hair, black spots everywhere. 

I have spent the last few months with weekends consumed by trips here and there and/or moving. This sweet man now lives in Mobile, so no more 5 hour long distance relationship. Makes me(and my gas budget ha) much happier.

There's my little sum up of life. Is anyone else still out there reading? MARCO....

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