How The Bush Grows

Last night a group of us girls from Shades Valley got together for dinner at Surin 280. Britney is moving from Florida to California and was stopping off in Birmingham so we all decided to get together to wish her off well on her next journey in life. It was so nice getting to catch up with everyone and see what they have been up to and where life has taken them. It was also very weird but in a great way to have a baby in the mix too. It was so nice getting to hold Meg’s sweet little Jack during dinner. He was perfect and did not fuss one single bit. It still does not feel like we are old enough to have jobs, houses, husbands, and babies but I guess that is what happens when you get older.

Last night was so much fun. My sister called last minute saying that she was going to meet my grandparents for dinner so of course we jumped on that bandwagon real quick and joined them for some yummy Mexican food. It was so nice get get to spend some time with my Gan Gan and Paw Paw and visit with them for a bit.

It was a last minute thing that worked out so perfectly and I just worked out that we were able to drop off the big Mercury at my parents too. Now this is the car that I have been driving around town since my wreck two weeks ago.  Now don’t get me wrong, I was very grateful I had that car to drive for free but I will not lie…I did not share one tear giving it back. It is like a limo and VERY VERY hard to park parallel downtown. We were looking at it next to Eric’s car and it is even longer than the Rover. Crazy huh…

Happy Birthday Felicia! I hope you have the best birthday ever! Last birthday as a Selerno so enjoy. To celebrate this special day we all headed on over to Tanner and Nicholes for some yummy dinner and cake. (Thanks for cooking for all of us Nichole.) Felicia would not let me take any pics of her so no pictures of the birthday girl. Only pictures of everyone else enjoying the cake…

Well…I know we sound absolutely nuts but we got two new cars! I know…I know…We do realize that this is Eric 4th car since Christmas but this car swap all started out when I totaled my car two weeks ago. I was driving down I-65 S when it started pouring down rain. The water build up plus the oil coming to the surface caused my car to hydroplane. I was in the far right lane when it happened. I spun around 4 times before hitting the guard rail in the center of the interstate. It was so crazy. It only took a matter of seconds but seemed like it was forever. I can see how people can become Christians right before they die and really mean it. I was just screaming “dear god please save me” over and over and he did. I walked away with out a single scratch! I was very shaken up but perfectly fine. So I had to get a new car and both Eric and my Dad were very insistent on me getting a very safe car. Eric and I decided that I should have the nicer car of the two of us since I drive so much and Eric only drives a couple miles a day.  But I did not want to drive his Lexus since it was too sporty so we decided to put it in Auto Trader and if it was God’s will it would sell. And low and behold 3 hours after posting it we sold the car. I guess God was watching out for us again…So I got the newer car. It is still a used Volkswagen Jetta but it is only a 2008 and has low miles. And Eric decided to get a nicer car that was older and had lots of miles since he will maybe put 1,000 miles per year on his car. We searched high and low for cars. Every night since the wreck we were very consumed with searching for the best deals. After a week and a half of looking we both feel we got the best deal possible that we could find. It took some negotiations but we got to where we needed to be. We took this otherwise negative situation and turned it around for good. We have two new cars to us that we are both extremely happy with and our monthly payments are A LOT lower. I am alive and we are saving some money so all in all I guess it worked out.

Tim’s family church had a bridal tea for Kendall this weekend. All the members of the church got together to meet the girl that was marrying the little boy Tim they had witnessed grow up. It was so nice to get to meet all of Tim’s parents friends from church and hear all the stories of from when Tim was little. It is crazy to think that in less than a month they will be married!

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Today was a very special day. It was the opening for the Dream Center and to celebrate the church coordinated the One Prayer Workday to be the same day. We started off the day by joining our small group and heading down to help finish one of the Habitat for Humanity Houses that Church of the Highlands was sponsoring in the Woodlawn neighborhood. Eric and I were kind of nervous about this project since neither of our skill sets is building houses. But you know God…he always has a much better plan that us. When we showed up we found out that my job would be cleaning the inside to get the house ready for the family to move in and this is one of my skill sets thanks to the crazy clean freak father I grew up with. And Eric was assigned to laying sod which he did quite often growing up due to him working at the golf course with his dad. I think this is just a small example about the “Body of Christ” that Pastor Chris is always referring too. If you just make your self available, God will take care of the rest and put you in situations where you feel comfortable and can serve to the best of your potential.

After wrapping up at the house we went on down the road a ways for the Grand Opening of the Dream Center. To kick off the opening they had a huge garage sale, kids carnival with a Noah’s Ark Moon Bounce and horse rides, food, music and fellowship. The Center which is a remodeled old firehouse is very beautiful.  It was just so neat to see all these people from church hanging out and loving on the people of Woodlawn. I am so excited about what God is doing down there and in the downtown City of Birmingham. Since I work downtown and drive around these streets all day it will be so nice to witness first hand the change I know will happen!

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Happy Birthday Kacie and Emily! Today is their 21st birthday so to celebrate last night Tanner and Nichole hosted a big birthday party for them. (For those of you who don’t know Kacie and Emily are Nichole Bush’s Twin Sisters.) It was nice getting to spend time with them and the rest of the Bush family. It was funny because all of Kendall and Steve’s friends from growing up were there. It was very interesting getting to catch up with all of them and see what they have been up to since the baseball and cheerleading field days. “Club Tanner” was a happening place…a dance off even happened between Michael Daniel and Tanner! We didn’t get to stay too long because we had to get up early for the One Prayer Workday.

This summer has been really bad with Digby’s allergies. He has been chewing and scratching himself to pieces. So after fighting it for a while the vet said that we needed to shave him. I was very nervous about this and how he would look. But we LOVE it and so does he. He feels so free and runs around like a little puppy. And we love not having to pick up all of his dog hair around the house. Plus he does not scratch or lick and he smells good too! We will shave him every summer from now on. It is just so much easier for all of us. We were just how surprised how skinny he ended up looking. Digs is a chubs and the shave made him look like he lost 10 pounds. Check out the cute pics of my little man below…

This week was very exciting. I have not gone to get groceries in well over a month due to the move…and our pantry and fridge was very bare. So I made my grocery list, pulled up my couponing websites, printed a whole bunch of coupons and then hit up Publix to stock our fridge. I had to blog about this because it was my best trip yet. I saved a total $140.00 once I get my $20.00 worth of rebates in the mail and only spent $73.00. It was the first time my coupon savings were more than what I actually purchased so it was super exciting for me. Now we have lots of food and will not have to go back till next month hopefully!

Today was going to be a very lazy day with nothing to do but it sure took a turn for the better. This morning I spent a couple of hours reading. It was so nice getting to catch up on some books on my “to do” list. Right now I am finishing up reading Boundaries by Henry Cloud. It is a VERY great christian book about how to establish healthy boundaries in your marriage, at work, with friends and family. I think it is a must read for everyone no matter what walk of life they are in. Later that day Kyler and Felicia stopped by to see the house and view their wedding reception hall in the town center. It was also an exciting day because Lindsay, my friend from Auburn, ended up coming in town from Dalton. Both Dana and Lindsay just got a house recently too so we all went furniture and accessory shopping. It was so much fun going to all the little nick-nack stores and browsing. I was hoping to get a couple pieces of furniture we are still needing but ended up walking away with curtains for the guest bedroom and blue candles for the living room. It was just so nice getting to catch up and spend some quality time with the both of them.

Later that night Eric and I headed on over to Gary and Susan’s house to celebrate Tanner and Bella’s birthday. It was very special since Jillian was there. She has to work so much in Auburn and does not make it to too many family dinners so it was great getting to spend some more time with her. After dinner I met back up with Dana and we went out on one of our drives. Since we turned 16 we have loved to spend hours in the car just driving around and checking out neighborhoods and back roads. While we were out exploring Tanner and Kyler came over to watch the UFC fight with Eric. Eric had a great time watching the fight, eating pizza, and getting to spend quality time with his two brothers. Since all the wives, fiancees, nieces and nephews came along it is very rare that the three of them get to hang out just them. So I know they all enjoyed their bonding time.

All in all it ended up being a pretty packed, exciting, and fun filled day. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store!

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