(You) got to have faith!

The grandi-howards have crab feasts for all their family to come to two or three times a summer. All five of their kids came today and some of their kids and some of their kids. Joe also invites some of his old friends. I pigged out on Trader Joe's cornbread and Popeyes spicy chicken. I got to show off my ring to all my "cousins" (Joe calls me his granddaughter since I have lived here longer than anyone else). heh. Being a part of a big family looks like a lot of fun. I hope my siblings and I get together lots of times after we are all married and have children. I look forward to that.

One thing that I love about living with the Howards is getting to talk to so many interesting people. These are people that I would never strike up a conversation with normally... like Joe's old high school friends and people that taught under him when he worked in the schools around here. It is so much more interesting then talking to people who are my own age! I love talking to people older than me. They are so much more interesting and have so much more to offer me then my peers do. I feel like time is well spent talking to people like that. I also enjoy being just old enough to carry on a somewhat interesting conversation from my part. I can talk about school and work and what I am doing. It is great. I really have enjoyed living here! It has been a huge blessing.

Oh and I bought a new music cd at Covenant Life today. It is incredible. It is called Come Weary Saints. Some really meaty praise music. I'm really feasting on it. Also, on my playlists recently have been igrace hymns cds (not the prettiest voices to hear singing - but the words are such gems). Mr. Howard and I were discussing how great and uplifting and convicting old hymns are today!! I love them. And of course GT and the Halo Express... I just bought them all on Cd (all 7 of them) and I have been listening to pure scripture for the past week in song form. It is incredible. I have felt so encouraged all week at school. A couple "bad" things happened at school and I was perfectly content and unfazed. I claim it was the music I was listening to this week. I think it has a huge influence on my life.

And thanks to Mr. Howard for the great pointers on how to make my wedding invitations look more classy. I will probably be trying some of those tips. Woohoo.