Our stay-iversary ! Check out Huntington, WV

As promised in my HomeTown Girl post here are some pictures and things that we did in our 24 hour break from life! 

We began with dinner at Backyard Pizza and Raw Bar! Love it! Locally owned! I am HUGE on atmosphere! I will take an awe inspiring atmosphere with mediocre food any day! I know, weird, right? This though is not at all mediocre food! This is atmosphere + amazing food!!! Great pizza and beer menu! The dessert menu looked awesome as well, but I was stuffed on breadsticks with cheese and pizza! I had the Memphis pizza and my mouth is still warring thinking about it! 

After that we wandered through the streets back to our car and watched them set up for Chili fest the next day. 

Saturday morning started with brunch at Bittersweet Coffeehouse. In case you've never seen me post about it it's seriously, without a doubt my FAVORITE place in Huntington (after ReBUILD of course). Atmosphere, again, gets me every time! Amy does a magnificent job with the brunch and Rita and the coffee drinks are out of this world! I had a S'mores Chata and a S'mores Waffle. I've been craving them ever since! I don't want to at all down any place, but I'm not sure why you would ever choose a national company when you have this local coffee shop right here. It's that good! The best part about Bittersweet is that after you drink your coffee you can walk right over and do some shopping as they are housed with A Southern Company.  Super cute stuff! I already have a dress picked out for a Christmas party we attend every year! Tomorrow's Saturday....make plans NOW to get to their brunch! 

Next up was the Chili fest. It was about a bazillion degrees outside, so I didn't eat chili. I left that up to Paul or baby daddy (as he was referred to in the last blog which he totally loved 🙄). I still enjoyed walking around town checking out the stores and always people watching! We wandered around down to Heritage Station and in a couple of stores there. Ok...let me say this...because I'm typically very real and honest....I don't get why Heritage Station isn't full and overflowing with people hanging out there? Birds of a Feather is a super cute clothing store. Sip is a neat little wine bar. Full Circle Ceramics (don't go in if you are offended by profanity....I am not) just opened. Brand Yourself has awesome local  tshirts. River and Rail is over there. I know there are other places. These just pop out at me.  Plus there's that cute little courtyard in the middle. Let's open our eyes Huntington at the unique little spots we have around here. We left there and headed back to our car to move down the road a little bit to do some tailgating before the Marshall game. 

We headed down to tail gate and had hopes of attending the game, but we had to head home to the three yr. old instead. 

We picked up the three year old and headed to our last stop of the weekend for dinner, Fat Patty's. Baby Daddy's favorite place to grab a burger in town! 

The rest of Huntington had the same idea as well! 

So this was a glimpse into our little stay-iversary in downtown Huntington! I love every single part of this community! I'm super thankful and super blessed that I still love being with this man after 26 years! Happy #26 again, baby daddy 😘

Hometown Girl

Have you ever wanted something so badly that you begged God for it to happen? Have you ever begged God desperately for something to happen only to be met with a NO?

This is the story of my life. I was born in Huntington, West Virginia 44 years ago. As far back as I can remember all I ever wanted was to leave here. I had it all planned out. I was going to be either a fashion designer or a fashion merchandiser. I have all of the drawings from my childhood somewhere to prove that I was going to make it big and blow this joint. You see my dreams were far too big for this tiny town. There was no reason for me to stick around here. New York City-that’s where I was headed-that’s where the dreams would come to life. I stayed around all through high school and graduated from Milton High School. I am a proud member of the class of ’90. I began a little detour from the plan as I walked across the graduation stage 6 weeks pregnant. September after graduation I married my baby daddy and I did get to blow this joint, but only to Roanoke, Virginia (baby daddy is now 47 years old. He's gonna love that name now).That was not exactly the dream. Although, I did at least get out from West Virginia. I couldn’t hardly even say that name without gagging and rolling my eyes….you think I’m being dramatic? Uh no! Not hardly…..

At 18 years old I was out. You would think that I would have been happy right? Wrong….I was greeted by adulthood with generalized anxiety disorder and massive panic attacks. I couldn’t drive. I couldn’t stay alone. I had a year old baby (our girl was born in February of 91) -+and was a prisoner of my own home. Baby daddy basically lost his job because of me. I’ve been a lot to deal with since day 1. He was so busy taking care of me that he couldn’t work. No one really knew what was going. I didn’t really have any friends at this point in life and who wants to go around bragging that you can’t leave your house. The care of me was really up to Paul and he couldn’t keep me and a job. So we packed up and moved…..guess where we headed back to? You got it….back to the hometown. I couldn’t even be filled with dread because I was in such horrible shape I would live anywhere to get help. My mom, step dad and grandmother lived here (I am a 5th generation West Virginian) and would be able to help me get to the places I need to go. They would also allow baby daddy to get a job and get back to work without worrying about having to take care of me. 

We got back here and got settled in. Paul found a job. We found a little house to rent in Barboursville and a about a year and a half later we bought our first house in East Pea Ridge. It was nice little “fixer upper”. Help! We made it the home of our growing family for 5 years. In that time we added the boy and baby girl to our tribe of children. We moved into a new home (another fixer upper…HELP! Why did we do this to ourselves).  It was a little larger and it accommodated the needs as these kids kept growing. About 5 years after that move, we made the move to where we are now.  FINALLY, a ready to move into house! Thank you, Jesus! Baby Daddy already said he wasn’t moving if it wasn’t in “move in condition”. Through the years and through these moves my mental health began to improve. I could drive! I could stay home alone! The panic was not disruptive to my life anymore. I just kind of lived life during these years. Enjoyed my husband. Enjoyed my kids. Enjoyed my church. I didn’t really pay too much attention to where all of this living was taking place. After homeschooling for a bit our children went to a Christian school. All of our friends were church friends. I didn’t work outside of the home. I wasn’t a daughter of Marshall (although I think if I weren’t so old I’d like to be now. I’m super proud to live in the city that’s the home of Marshall University), so I had no real ties to the community.  I was happy, but not because of where we lived. 

Then that inner “I hate this place” monster woke up again. And it came back with a vengeance. Paul and I were on a 20th anniversary trip in Charlotte, North Carolina (because that was THE dream city). I remember sitting outside at a restaurant talking about what it would take to live there. Paul owns his own business…..why couldn’t he just pack it up and do it in Charlotte?......Our boy and baby girl were still in high school at this point. Baby Girl made us promise not to move till she graduated high school. So, I figured we had like 5 years left to go. In my head I figured if planned a bunch of trips then we’d be gone all of the time and it wouldn’t even be like I lived here. Two years after I’d made all of these plans God stepped in and said “Good try! Now let’s do things My way”. 

I got very sick. Truthfully, I should not be here writing this, but God decided there was more He wanted me to do. I figured that if He left me here I needed to get busy doing what He wanted me to be doing. I got involved in the Brown Bag Ministry taking food to girls on the streets. I started spending a lot of time in downtown Huntington. At some point along the way I began to fall in love with her people. The people no one really sees. I began to learn more about her problems and the uphill battle she was facing. I wanted to do something. I wanted to help….inside I’m thinking “Help? This city? These people? NO! This is the place I want out of.” Baby daddy and I began doing prayer walks over the city. We began taking date nights that ended up sitting in a car praying over buildings. Inside I’m thinking “What are you doing God”? I began going to Community Leaders Prayer Breakfasts. I began to fall in love with the people leading our city. I sat in prayer meetings listening to our mayor talk about the good we have going on around here. Baby daddy and I even began a non-profit to help our people. 

I also began to explore around here a little bit. I found some pretty cool stuff that our city has going on. I went from falling in love with our marginalized people to falling in love with our city officials to actually falling in love with this city! I have no idea how it happened, but it did and I’m ok with it!  I find myself wanting to tell everyone about all of the good that’s going on around this place! Baby daddy and I just celebrated anniversary #26 on the 8th of this month. We really needed a break from our life, so we got a baby sitter for our two foster girls and we did a “stayiversary”. You know like a staycation =). We didn’t want to travel too far and we didn’t want to spend too much money…..also I’d rather spend any money that we were going to spend locally. I can’t wait to come back next time and share all that we did around town. But until then let me leave you with this……

I am a Huntington HOMETOWN GIRL and I’m proud of it!

Love Like Jesus

Dang....I just suck at trying to keep a blog up to date! I promise that my friends and I are going to do a much better job at this! Right friends 😊! 

So much has been going on. I don't even know how to update. When God called my husband and I to build this community we had no idea what we were doing. Uh...just to be real....we still don't know what we're doing. We are just trying our best to follow God and love our city. 

Some (most) days the needs overwhelm my mind. The needs of people I meet. I needs of the buildings we have (they are four abandoned buildings that need as much love as my city needs). It's hard to watch everything that happens around you. You want so desperately to just wrap everyone you meet in your arms and love them. But the needs are great and I get overwhelmed. Which is a perfect combination for satan to enter in my mind.....this week this was my thought pattern.....What's the point? Why are we even doing this? We're not making a difference? Nothing's being fixed. No one wants to help. I CAN'T DO THIS ALONE! But then God says ....you're right! YOU can't do this! YOU can't make a difference! YOU can't fix anything! BUT I CAN! 

He reminded me that He has given me one job! One calling. One mission with this community.....LOVE LIKE JESUS! Not judge. Not fix. Not make things perfect. Only LOVE! So that is what I will do! The rest I will leave to Him!

“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.”

Romans 12:9-10 NLT