Because He is God: Pin your heartbeat against my heartbeat and we'll see how well we rhyme

Oh my gosh. Time for an update much? In my defense, I've had a pretty crazy week. But before I start...look at the beautiful flowers from Pike Place! I LOVE the flowers there...and wish I was a Seattle-dweller just so I could buy flowers there without having them die before flying back home across the U.S.

It's been ridiculously warm here for the past two days. It's sad that by "ridiculously warm" I mean upper 80's. What has HAPPENED to my southern heritage? In my defense, we live on the third (and top) floor of our apartment building and let me tell ya, they aren't kidding when they say that HEAT RISES. We've been sitting around with ice packs on our heads and necks. Yeah. It's uncomfortable. So here I sit, in the dark (to avoid the heat that lights produce), with a fan blowing on me, updating my blog.

Kristen almost had her baby last week! She started having serious contractions and went to the hospital and everything. Turned out, the baby wasn't so ready to come out. So the doctor gave her a shot to stop the contractions. But the day should be soon - her due date is June 14th, but nothing's saying it won't be sooner! Benjamin Joash is the official name. Cute. Can't wait to meet another nephew! (I head down to Waxhaw July 23rd.)

So. Tragic week. On Friday I found out that my best friend's eight week old niece died suddenly. She'd had heart surgery two days after being born because of a heart defect she developed in utero. She survived the surgery and impressed doctors with her progress. Somehow, still unknown to Laura and Myers (her parents), the baby, Gwen, developed some kind of infection supposedly unrelated to the heart condition. (Which I can understand, would make the sudden death even worse.) Anyway, I called my BF and talked to her about it. Literally about two hours later, I found out that the same friend's little sister had a hiking accident and died from a tragic fall. Two totally unrelated deaths in one family, within hours of each other. So horrible. So needless to say, a road trip to either Harrisonburg, VA or Chattanooga, TN was in order. It turned out that me and the two other parts of the Fab Four could all make it to TN. So...that was that.

The trip was for an awful reason and many tears were shed and lots of conversations about why, I don't understand, about how life is shockingly short, how the TRUTH is that Sweet Marie is praising God with her dad and her niece, Gwen. Us four girls are timeless and experiences like loss and the support we give bring us always closer together. From NC, to VA, to TN, to MI.

Me and Dan left Tennessee on Thursday and once we got to Knoxville, we decided to head East on 40 instead of North on 75 to "surprise" the Brewer clan for a day and a half :)

Here are some pictures of the trip...

Walking Bridge. Never gets old.