new blog site...switch your links!

Hello blog-readers...thank you for your faithful support and comment-making on this lovely sight. I truly appreciate it :) However, I am following the trend of my husband and my good friend carly...and I am moving on to wordpress. So I hope you all keep reading!!

MY NEW BLOG: annabaur.wordpress.com

So Much Fun...So Little Time!

So I feel like I haven't blogged in a while, but it is probably just because a lot has happened since my last post. So this one is going to be a bit of a hodge-podge of days and adventures, but that's life, right!?

So to begin: Mikey and I had a great time at Baillie and Mike's and Sarah and Billy's joint Engagement party. Chris and Kathy Cannavaro hosted it at their beautiful house. There was grilling. There was eating. There was a fun engagement game to see what couple knew one another best. And afterwards, there was (my favorite) GAMES! It was so great to take time to focus on the newly-engaged couples and their happiness. They are truly wonderful people, and it was a blessing to share in this special time in their lives!!

More recently, my wonderful friend Rabun, who is from hannahan nearby but whom I didn't meet until I was at Clemson last year and we lived on the same hall, came home for spring break!! It is always great to see her and her boyfriend Cameron. They are some of Mikey and my favorite people in the world, so it was lovely having them for a whole week. And to make it extra special, Rabun's family had just gotten two dachshund puppies, twins from the same yolk sack! So she brought them over to play with Oliver. They all got a long really well, but one of the puppies, Dixon, was having some bladder control issues...I think the pictures will explain it all...

Good Dixon:

Devious Dixon:

And last night, Mikey and I headed to Lauren's house for Chelsie and Robbie's engagement party. They even provided entertainment when the happy couple performed the SNL skit they did for "Genesis's Got Talent" last year! It was, as always, hilarious!

Living Wide Awake

For the past week or two, I have been reading an absolutely AMAZING book, Wide Awake by Erwin McManus. It has really been rocking my world and radically changing the way I view my life and the world around me. He challenges us to dream bigger than we think possible. To not be afraid to stand up and work for what matters. And to be willing to each work in our own unique ways. I was talking to Mikey last night, after many days of thought and speculation (not that those days have stopped), and it occured to me that over the past few years I have grown up a lot, but not really into the person I dreamed of and thought of becoming. I have grown up like most people do. And that's not what I used to want. I told Mikey that the biggest way I've changed is that I used to think all of my quirks, the things that make me uniquely Anna, were cute and wonderful and everyone loved them. It never occurred to me, even past the years where most pre-teens and teenagers start questioning themselves and trying to fit in, that my differences could ever be a bad thing. I speak differently than a lot of people because my family always emphasized learning and grammar. I love medicine and science. I always loved going to school, learning new things. I didn't ask myself if I was taking on too much with five Bible Studies a week, leadership in a number of clubs, school, and ballet. I just did what I could do...filled up my hours with work, and I loved it! But somewhere over the past few years, I lost that joy, or at least parts of it. I started wondering if people liked me less because of my differences. My enjoyment of school became a thing I thought I needed to downplay so I wouldn't stand out so much. I lost sight of who God created me to be in a huge way. And as Philip McCart, the youth pastor at Northwoods said this morning, quoting the great philosopher Popeye the Sailor Man, "I've had all I can stands. And I can't stands no more!" I refuse to keep taking the path my heart and mind started taking unbeknownst to me. I refuse to keeping questioning who God made me to be. I refuse to stop dreaming dreams too big for this one human being. I refuse to stop learning and growing and reaching. I refuse to not enjoy school, everything I learn, every test of skill and knowledge. I refuse to give in, to stand for what the world has told me matters. I am who God created me to be, and to my dying day, I will dream and reach farther than humanly possible because it is God who works in me to his glory!!

A Night on the Town

This past Friday night, Mikey and I had a great time with some friends. I had to work until 9, but right after our meeting at The Little Gym was over, Sarah and I raced to A Dough Re Mi in Mt. P to see Mikey and his cousin perform. Christopher, one of Mikey's cousins, is in a band called Campfield, and since he and Mikey used to play together all the time (and he knows Mikey's unbelievable skills at the electric guitar), he asked Mikey to play in a few songs. There was also this wonderful violin player that was so good! The pizza was delicious, and even though the restaurant was not quite what I was expecting, it was so fun! Oscar and Maria, Chad and Melissa, Sarah and Billy, and Mikey's other cousin and Aunt and Uncle were all there! It was a great time, and it was really fun seeing Mikey enjoying playing the guitar for the sheer joy of it :) he said he felt like a new and improved version of his old self because of playing with Christopher in his band and starting softball this week. I can't wait to go to the first game!!