Blessed Beyond Measure

May your days be many and your troubles be few.

May all God's blessings descend upon you.

May peace be within you may your heart be strong.

May you find what you're seeking wherever you roam.

May you hear my prayer for you.

I know that I am way behind but hopefully this will catch everyone up to speed! :)

The last week of July some of my family came to visit for a few days. It was awesome to get to spend more than a day or two with them! The hardest part of moving away is the part of not being there when family members are born, celebrating birthdays, watching them express them selves through their hobbies or comforting them a visit! This is something John and I both struggle with. This is why we feel like the time we do get with our family we have to make the most of it! I am so blessed to have family come here to see us! I am thankful we live somewhere with plenty to do and have amazing views of God's handy work! The visit included: My Uncle Mike, Aunt DeAnna, cousin Erin, her boyfriend Brian, cousin Amy & Justin and precious baby Jack, cousin Halie and my wonderful mother!

During their stay Erin & Brian got engaged! We went down to the beach before sun set to take some family photos and they went on a walk! I wish them nothing but the best! Erin is very dear to my heart and has spent her life overcoming barriers and has done it poise, strength and great faith! She is living miracle and she inspired me to look at the world differently. I thank God for allowing us more time with her! We have all prayed for a man to sweep her off her feet and Brian you do that. I thank you Brian for being nothing but patient, loving and supportive of Erin! We may be a little crazy as a family but we truly love and support each other!

Thank you Lord for an amazing family. Even though I may not live close, we love each of you and we are always thinking about you!

Sorry no pictures on this one! I couldn't get them to upload :(

Up, Up and Away!

John's 26th Birthday Celebration!

July 10, 2011

Home-made Too Much Chocolate Cake!

For John's 26th birthday I wanted to try and surprise him with a little something exciting. However, this was a little hard due to the changes in our work schedules and all. I knew John had been itching to go parasailing so I knew that is what the exciting something would be! So I wanted to surprise him Sunday morning with this. I ended up telling him a few days before because of all the work scheduling changes. After me calling my heart doctor to get cleared to partake in parasailing it was on. Sunday morning we had an appointment at 11:00 AM.

Upon arriving and getting all the paper work out of the way, we grabbed our life jackets and headed down to the shore to wait on the banana boat. We had never rode a banana boat behind a jet ski before...it was lots of fun! We shared the experience with 3 young people vacationing from Illinois and Texas. Once we arrived on the boat we began to get harnessed in as we made our way further out in the ocean. The other group of 3 went before us. We were so glad the waves weren't rough because both of us were scared to get sea sick. As we watched the other group go I started to get extremely nervous and of course John was as calm as could be. Once they were lowered down we made our way to the back of the boat to get into position to be attached to the rope. I was in front and John was right behind me. As we began to ascend my nervousness grew and John was loving it! Once we were at the peak of 400 feet the view was breath taking. We could see for miles and miles. We could spot the Tanger outlet, the part of the Gulf State Park that was damaged by the forest fire, and the peninsula of Gulf Shores. Even though we were gliding through the air the wind around us was calm and peaceful. I at times had to pretend that I was in a plane to keep my nerves under control. I was gripping my harness for dear life. On the descent they dunked us in the water a few times! Once we were back on the boat I wanted to do it again. The experience for me was nerve-rackingly breath taking. I am glad I was able to experience this with John. I believe he had an amazing time!

Getting ready to take off!

Up, Up and Away!

Dunk!

* I love celebrating birthdays with the ones I love. I am so very thankful for the life God has provided through John. He is an amazing man and I nothing but excited to share many many more birthdays with him. I can't wait to see where this journey takes us!*

A few days before John's birthday we made home-made salsa! We are growing..well attempting to tomatoes and 3 different types of peppers! We had about 5 serrano peppers that we needed to do something with so we made salsa! We used 3 large tomatoes (not from our garden), 5 serrano peppers, half of a white onion, parsley and spices!

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." ~Erma Bombeck

Megan Koonce

Family and Freedom

This may be long winded but we have had a lot of little exciting things going on and I want to share a few of those things! So here we go...

John's parents came to visit on Wednesday, June the 15th and stayed till the 19th!

John's sister Angie, her husband Ronald, and our nieces Destinee, Desiree, Wynter, Hannah (Wynter's friend), and Whitley came to for a short but sweet visit on Friday, June the 17th. All of them were traveling to Orlando, Florida to take the girls to Disney World. This was the first time that Angie, Ronald and all the girls were here together! We had 11 people in our house with blow up mattresses through out the living room! It was packed but we had a blast!!! We spent Saturday at the beach! And of course enjoyed some great food! We were sad to see them all leave. The hardest part about living in Gulf Shores is not being close to our families! We cherish all the time we get with them..and we are grateful they make time to come visit.

(Dinner at DeSoto's Seafood)

*The same day our family arrived I found out my brother (John) and my sister in law (Katy) are expecting a baby girl! Our family is very excited. The due date is the first part of November!*

Fourth of July- Independence Day 2011

John and I both had the 4th of July off! Two of John's co-workers came over to hang out and eat before we headed to the beach to claim a spot for the firework show! So we decided to try a few new recipes. I made homemade potato salad that turned out more like mashed potatoes! It had great flavor just wasn't pretty to look at. We are in a burn ban and with the recent forrest fire in Gulf Shores we decided against grilling. So we broiled southwest hotdogs!

We found a great recipe that includes: crushed tortilla chips, mayo, shredded cheese, salsa and chill pepper that you place in a sliced hot dog wiener and broil for 3 minutes! It is a great way to add some flavor to hot dogs. In my opinion it makes the hot dog eatable!

I also made a "flag" cake out of a white cake and frosting with strawberries and blueberries.

After a late lunch we headed to the beach to get a spot for the firework show. If you don't go early there is no where to park and even worse no where on the beach to sit! We got to the beach about 6 and enjoyed God's beautiful creation and great weather until the fireworks started at 9PM. The firework show was over about 9:40 and we made it back home at 11:15 PM. Yes, it took that long to go less than 5 miles...we love living here but we don't like the traffic!

John & Megan July 4th 2011.

John 8:36

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Awakening

I made this blog page a while ago and never started to blog. After seeing my friends Christie and Haleigh update theirs with what is going on in their everyday lives I have decide that I can't be left out! It is a creative and relaxing way to express everyday life for John and I here in Gulf Shores. Our lives get so hectic and because of that we sometimes forget to share life's little moments that make our day! God is providing so many opportunities of ministry here and our day to day is getting very busy but we love it! I will try and keep you up to date with the ministry events of the Pier 59 Project. And of course, a diverse array of updates on our ever-eventful life! I hope you will find it enjoyable!