A rough day at the doctor's office

Want to know what has happened in my life as of late? Man, was Friday a rough day...

Holly and I went to the doctor to get a physical. Everything went fine until I got my blood checked. I sat down and the nurse prepared to draw my blood and I looked away as she stuck a needle in my arm. I sat there looking around the room feeling o.k. until it started to hurt a little. It felt like that needle was in my arm forever! I finally asked the nurse if was done but while I took one glance at the needle---and that was it.

I started to feel dizzy and I told the nurse I was blacking out. The room started to spin and my vision slowly started to turn dim and dark....then I was gone. I had passed out. I don't remember too much but only feeling like I was in a very, very deep dream.

When I started to come to, I slowly started seeing light until everything came in focus. I awoke on the floor lying on my back. The nurse's faces flooded over me and one was holding my legs to keep my blood flowing. It took me a minute to realize where I was and what had occurred.

Man, that was the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me! It felt so strange. I never thought I'd faint getting blood drawn, or ever faint at all in fact. That's never happened before and I have had plenty of shots in my lifetime.

After I had rested a little bit, I sat up and all of the sudden I started feeling sick. And boy was I sick. It's a long story, but I ended up being asked to be layed back on the floor and I couldn't stop throwing up. I had the roughest drive home, as Mom came to pick me up. The nurses checked my blood pressure and everything and said I was fine. I think one of the reasons I was so sick is because skipping breakfast usually affects me and I wasn't allowed to eat before I entered the doctor's office.

Goodness, all of this over getting blood drawn!

After I took a long nap I felt a lot better. It really put me behind time as I had much to do and lots to pack before we left for the beach Saturday. Because of it, I had to miss a good friend's surprise birthday party and ended up packing until like 2 a.m. and staying up until we left for the beach at 4:45 a.m. What a day!!

I am glad all of that is over. Fainting really was a weird experience. My Mom tells me I could never be a nurse...What's really odd is that Holly had to get a shot Wednesday in order to volunteer for the hospital, and she passed out as well!! Ha, we both fainted in the same week. It must run in the family.

On a good note, my family and I are now enjoying a relaxing vacation at the beach with our grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin. This is our 8th annual trip. How I love the beach!!

I will write more about our trip later. It's been wonderful so far.

Road Trip to Alabama

Last week my sister and I enjoyed our first road trip. We stayed Sunday to Friday with our Great Aunt and Uncle in Auburn Alabama and had such a great time.

*The first day we arrived, Aunt Ruby Lee and Uncle Tony took us by the Auburn stadium and for a tour of the college---a place I never thought I'd see. It felt kind of weird to be in "their" territory since our family are huge Alabama fans, but it was still neat.


We look so tiny

Before dark Holly and I went walking around the neighborhood with Aunt Ruby Lee. I love taking walks so I enjoyed that. We were able to see the sun set and also get a good work-out :-)


*The second day we spent the day at their vacation home out on Lake Martin. Oh, it is gorgeous.






Aunt Ruby Lee and Uncle Tony took us on a boat ride not too long after we had arrived. We were able to see some well-known huge rock titled "Chimney Rock" (because one part of it is shaped like a chimney) where people enjoy diving and jumping off into the water. Uncle Tony said that on the weekends scores of boats line up around to witness people dive off the high stacks of rock. We actually got to see a young girl and guy jump off of it. It looked dangerous to me. Uncle Tony did say there had been tragic accidents and even death occur in result before. It was pretty interesting.

They then took us to a place near the water to see some eagle's nest. We didn't see any eagles but it was still neat.

We all went for a swim in the lake. The water was so clear and refreshing. Aunt Ruby Lee took Holly and I for a ride on the wave rider, which was really fun. I have never rode one before...


* The third day, I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and quietly tip-toed downstairs and out the back door without waking anyone up, and headed down to the dock. The water was so peaceful and the air so calm. The fog slowly brisked above the still waters. I could hear roosters faintly crowing in the the background while several fish jumped out of the water and a Blue Heron flew across the lake in front of me. I really enjoyed spending some special time with God as the sun slowly rose--just Him and me.



Later in the day Aunt Ruby Lee and Uncle Tony took us to the gym with them. They are very fit and go to the gym at least three times a week. It was huge and had tons of things to do. Holly and I worked out on some of the machines and walked a mile on their track upstairs. We sure got a workout!

*The forth day Aunt Ruby Lee took Holly and I shopping. Later we went to see a comedy, which was really long and pretty funny, except for some questionable humor. But besides that, it really was hilarious.


*The fifth day we went back to the lake house to spend the day at the lake.



We relaxed, swam, took a boat ride, read, tanned, went for a walk, etc. It was a lot of fun.

*Friday morning we said our goodbyes and headed home. Thankfully, God protected us to and from our destination and we didn't even get lost!!

So, we made it home and the kids were SO happy to see us.


Amber had been counting down the days :-)

So, after we greeted everyone, we threw our luggage in the trailer and a few hours later we were traveling back to Alabama to visit our Grandparents. It was great to see everyone and I really wish we could see them more often.

Saturday Holly and I had the privilege to have lunch with our good friend Jason. We met him at a Mexican restaurant and were able to chat a little while.

Sunday we visited our Great-Grandma Taylor and had a lovely time. Holly brought her violin and played a few hymns for her and Amber and Autumn sang. It amazes me because Grandma will be 90 years old this year and is so weak, but she can still praise the Lord. The music really touched her. Tears started flowing from her eyes and she started praising God with all her might. It was a precious sight.

We left home Sunday and finally unpacked our bags.
It was a full week but such a nice one. I am so glad we were able to stay with our Great Aunt and Uncle and visit everyone down in Birmingham. I love all my family dearly. I thank the Lord for watching over us and blessing us with such a great time with loved ones. I just hope it's not too long before we see everyone again!

Birthday shout out to a good friend

Happy Birthday Jeremy!! I hope your day has been a great one. We are grateful to know you and blessed to see your love for the Lord.

Happy Birthday!!

It's over---finally

*Huge sigh of relief*

It's finally over. I woke up at 5:45 a.m. this morning, left the house at 7:00 a.m., drove to a school 45 minutes from here and sat down for 4 hours to take the A.C.T. test. On a side note, you may be surprised to know that I have never walked through the halls of a public school before in my entire life until today, so I can now officially say that I have.

I was told the test would start at 8 a.m., but we didn't begin until 8:25, which I'm guessing was because of late students. Also, I arrived at about 7:40, so needless to say I sat in anticipation to start for longer than I would have liked. The neat thing was that on a bulletin board in front of me contained a huge poster with the verse Philippians 4:13 written in huge letters--I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It also contained a lot of other posters that read things such as "Rock the World For Jesus," "WWJD?" "So You Wanna Change the World? What Are You Waiting For?" and other ones. I wasn't expecting those in a public school....

I sat there and read that verse in Philippians over and over and basically meditated on it.

I can...through Christ
I can do....through Christ
I do can do all...through Christ
I can do all things through Christ.
I can do all things through Christ
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!

"I can do this through Christ..." I thought. Notice it doesn't say, "I can do all things." But instead, "I can do all things through Christ." I can do anything with His help!

I am grateful for God's blessings and help on the test today. I know it was His grace that helped me and I am thankful He answered my prayer. I have studied since April for this test. I have asked for God's help and I did the best I could do today, so whatever my score is I shall be happy because I have done all I could do.

I have to say next to prayer, a huge help in being prepared for the test was taking practice exams from the A.C.T. For Dummies book I bought. They are formatted just like the real A.C.T. test that includes even answer documents so you can practice filling in the correct answer. I sat down in a quiet room, timed myself, and took the test for 4 hours straight just like the actual A.C.T. under similar conditions as the test itself. After time was up, I checked my answers and was able to see what I needed to improve on and such. I did this twice, and I can't stress what a tremendous help this was to me. I have learned so many tricks and techniques that I was easily able to sit down today and work on the test while keeping up with the short amount of time I had because I had practice doing so before hand. So if anyone reading this needs a good tip for the A.C.T., this was a big help to me!

I am sooo glad it's over! It feels like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders and now I can finally enjoy my summer. I am now anticipating to receive my scores. I give God the glory for helping me today and now that those dreaded four hours of my life are gone, I hope I will never have to do it again.

Thank you so much for all who prayed for me!

This is what I've been up to lately....

Please pray for me!!

Beside the brook

Hello, my name is Brooke. Welcome to my blog!

I previously blogged at www.homeschoolblogger.com/iloveyouGod, where I wrote off and on for over a year. I decided it was time to move, and thus why I am now here. It's nice to have a place to share my thoughts and things going on my life. I mostly do that in my journals, but I enjoy blogging as well, so I am happy to have a new place of my own where I plan to write regularly.

As I was choosing a blog title and theme, I wanted to corporate something in concordance to my name and to the Bible. So, I looked up the word "brook" in God's Word.

I found:

Proverbs 18:4--The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the well-spring of wisdom as a flowing brook.

But my favorite was Psalm 42:1--As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

What a beautiful verse!! I just love it. God really is the only thing that will satisfy us. We need Him more than we need water, and my soul longs after Him.

So, in concordance to this verse and to my name, I have made my blog a "brook" theme. My dear sister, Holly, made the beautiful banner at top for me. Don't you just love it? It couldn't be more perfect.

In conclusion, I am happy to start blogging regularly again, and I hope people will stop by to read. I shall now leave with a little "poem" I wrote about my life in harmony to my name. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you shall return for future posts.



I am a Brook

I am flowing on a journey that is continuously in cycle. I am never in one spot and God is always with me through all life's travels.

My waters are calm, quiet, content and peaceful only when I am fully satisfied in my Savior. When I am content in my Creator, my life gently flows in peaceful harmony even through the darkest nights and deepest pits.

I thirst after God and he fills me with His love and grace. I overflow for love for Him in return and desire to spill and pour out to others His love.

I am steady, following God, and continually traveling down the stream of life while striving to flow beside Him and become more like Him. But sometimes my path branches off and away from my Lord and I begin to wander in another direction.

I begin to drift from Him and I feel so far away. The woods in which I reside begin to hide me from my Father's face and I wonder where He is.

I become dry, depleted, and dehydrated. When once I was overflowing, I now trickle down to a few drops. My life becomes cluttered with things of the world in place of things of God and become clogged that I cannot flow as freely. My waters become murky and peace and serenity are far from me.

I feel empty, drained, and overwhelmed with thirst. Nothing satisfies my longings.

Once I turn my eyes back to Christ and turn from my ways, He begins to fill me with His grace. It pours down upon me and floods my empty stream. His mercy begins to rain down on top of me. He cleans me, unclutters me, and I begin to grow again. He helps me to flow back into the right direction that points to Him and I begin to flood over with purpose, gratefulness and joy.

His waters are the only thing that can fill the deep hole and stream within my heart. Only He gives me purpose to keep going. And only He can quench this thirst that runs deep within me.

I am His brook, and He only fills me.

Welcome to my new blog!!