Joyful July

I can't believe it's already the middle of July.  I think July is my favorite month of the year; it just seems like it's the epitome of summer.  It has one of my favorite holidays, the 4th of July, it has my mom's birthday (which she seems to cleverly stretch out as a month-long celebration), and it's the month we always go on vacation to northern Michigan...which is my absolute favorite small-town slice of heaven on Earth.  Today, this month is even sweeter knowing that another bestie of mine, M, will be getting married next July!!

After 7 months of classes, thousands of dollars, and many flight hours my brother finally has his pilots license!  I'm so proud of him because this is something he's always wanted to be, and he's finally achieved it.  It's funny how both our professions for the time being kind of go hand-in-hand.  We confuse our parents by talking in aviation terms around the dinner table.  His color-blind deficiency will prevent him from being able to fly commercially, but he can still fly during the day time and take passengers.  He eventually wants to own an airport.  As much as I love and trust him, I will be waiting awhile to get in the front seat with him...

Blogger won't let me flip that picture, but one of his friends, Lauren, made him a cake to celebrate the occasion.  She got super creative and put little gummy worm bits to make runway lights and runway strip lines.  Genius!

Life has been weird lately.  I've been kind of going up and down through a series of emotions...I'm not sure if it's the fact that all the summer weddings and their festivities are over or what, but I've just been feeling like there's a void as of late.  I guess I didn't realize how excited and happy I was to be so involved this summer seeing all my great friends, old and new, from near and far and now that it's over it's a little sad.  It's back to reality which isn't always fun to accept.

Sometimes I feel like there's so much I want to do and accomplish in life, but I can't quite get the ball rolling despite my motivated efforts.  After so many job rejections or failed dates I guess it just gets overwhelming when you feel like you're in somewhat of a holding pattern and want to be elsewhere.  I know I need to not just think, but truly believe, that patience is the key and all the right paths will be made straight when the time is right. 

I don't want to end this post on a debbie-downer vibe, so I will post a couple pictures of beautiful northern Michigan where I will be exactly one week today.  A much needed retreat from southeast Texas.

 From the hills I want to build my future house on..a girl can dream

A reallllly old picture.  Matt & I built this teepee on our old houses' beach.  We were very proud of it at the time

The bays from the air.  We stay at the bottom of the peninsula

Sand dunes at the national park...this is the side everyone climbs up and runs down

And this is the other side of the dunes that face Lake Michigan..beautiful!