One Day You Will...

Today at church, Scott and I sang this great song by Lady Antebellum, an up and coming country group. The song is called "One day you will"... a great song about dealing with and overcoming adversity. Since this was our last Sunday in a series on Job, it seemed like an appropriate song. I thought I would share it with you guys...some of you could use a "pick me up" I'm sure.




One Day You Will...Lady Antebellum

You feel like you're falling backwards
Like you're slippin' through the cracks
Like no one would even notice
If you left this town and never came back
You walk outside and all you see is rain
You look inside and all you feel is pain
And you can't see it now

[Chorus]
But down the road the sun is shining
In every cloud there's a silver lining
Just keep holding on (just keep holding on)
And every heartache makes you stronger
But it won't be much longer
You'll find love, you'll find peace
And the you you're meant to be
I know right now that's not the way you feel
But one day you will

You wake up every morning and ask yourself
What am I doing here anyway
With the weight of all those disappointments
Whispering in your ear
You're just barely hanging by a thread
You wanna scream but you're down to your last breath
And you don't know it yet

[Repeat Chorus]

Find the strength to rise above
You will
Find just what you're made of, you're made of

[Repeat Chorus]
One day you will
Oh one day you will

I hope you enjoy. By the way, I give Lady Antebellum 5 stars in the Carmen rating system. Every song on their album is amazing. Get a copy!

The joy of animals...

It has been a bad year for the Ledbetters/Copelands in terms of animals. First, my childhood dog, Belle (a beautiful golden retriever named for Belle from Beauty and the Beast) got to the point where my parents had to decide to put her down. Then my cat, Gorbachev, was killed by a coyote in my back yard. A couple of weeks ago, the dog that my sister and I adopted from a sorority sister at Auburn also had to be put to sleep. Gracie was a mutt in all sense of the word, but it was if she KNEW she was given a second chance at life and she never gave us or my parents a moment's trouble. She was only 9 years old, but we think she had cancer.

My sister Megan called me on Saturday and told me that my parents had put our childhood cat, Mada, to sleep that morning. Mada was given to my sister on her 15th birthday (June 10, 1995) by her boyfriend, Adam (Mada is Adam spelled backward.) Mada quickly established herself as my mother's cat. Whenever my mom sat down, Mada was in her lap, contentedly purring. She brought my mother (and all of us) much joy throughout the years. She was 14 years old and was in full kidney failure. (side note: I'm sure glad they don't put people down when they are in full kidney failure!) :)

After Gracie died, my mother and I were commiserating on the phone and tearfully my mom says, "Why do we put ourselves through this?" At the time, I couldn't agree with her more. I had just lost Gorby and was grieving him and Gracie. But the thought of life without domestic animals doesn't appeal to me. When I've had a horrible day at work with humans, I know that my animal family will love me unconditionally and cheer me up. There's nothing like being the greeted at the door by slobbering tongues and wagging tales... they always bring a smile to my face. With all the problems that animals bring,(i.e. immobility, unclean house, "accidents", vet bills, and short lives to name a few) they also bring a pure and simple joy. And I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I mean, how could you not love these faces:






Long live pets!

The big 3-1...

So today is my 31st birthday. And I have to say, it's been a little anti-climatic. How could it go anywhere but down after the week and a half I've had...

Last weekend (mother's day weekend) I left from a conference to drive to Chattanooga for what I thought was a weekend to celebrate Mother's Day. Scott met me up there and everything seemed pretty normal- that is until my mother says "hey, we are going to dinner tonight..." (which should have been a clue- why go out when your father is a gourmet chef?- we NEVER eat out at my parent's house...)

So we leave my house and mom says she needs to drop something my her best friend's new lake house and she wants to show it to me. We head down to their house, and when I walk in there's my little sister, saying "surprise, we are going to have a birthday cookout for you here!" Then they proceed to show me around the house... in every room a different couple pops out: first Alison and Garet (friends from college), then Joy and Alex (friends from college and work) and then Gina (friend from LIFE.) It had all been orchestrated by Scott for months to get me and my best girlfriends together. We cooked out and just talked all night. It was so nice to just relax with old friends in a great atmosphere... check out Joy's post about it here.


Click on the photo...it cut Garet off!









This past weekend we spent time with friends, saw Angels and Demons, went to dinner at Grits Cafe and adopted a new cat! Meet Rasputin (nicknames to be determined, but probably Raz)



He's the new addition to the Copeland household and he's fitting in perfectly! What a great birthday week!

Spring in Macon

I've posted about this before , but there are few places in the world that are more beautiful than Macon, GA in springtime. Now, Macon's Springs usually begin in early, early March and ends in April - then the oppressive summers hit. This year, however, we've actually had a spring and it's been wonderful (minus the pollen, of course.)

Here are some images from our spring... First: POLLEN




Next, Cherry Blossoms from the cherry blossom capital of the world!







Next, scenes from the Copeland home.










For the rest of my "Springtime in Macon" pics, see my new set on flickr