and it's summer..

I'm getting kinda sick of this whole "time flying by" thing.. I never believed it when people told me that it happens, and now.. i do. It's scary and exciting, a bittersweet deal. I can't believe my Junior year, the best year, of COLLEGE is over, DONE. I'M A SENIOR, OH MY GOSH. it kinda freaks me out. okay, really freaks me out.

let me do a quick reflection on the year for ya:

-first time in college being single
-moved into an APARTMENT...finally!
-met SO SO many new people
-tried two stepping...fell in LOVE with it (went almost every week)
-played lots of sand volleyball
-won FIRST place family at Welcome Week
-got plugged into a church, finally!
-did pageant steering committee (reception committee head)
-met MORE new people
-went to lots of fun concerts
-got a 3.7 gpa in the fall (made Dean's List)
-planned and helped out at a lot of awesome CAB events
-Earned the honor of being chosen for Who's Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities.. SO blessed!
-Became a College Younglife leader, best decision ever.
-went to Destin, Florida for Spring Break and had the time of my life.
-Was on Cru Knights steering committee (awards/judges committee head)
-Junior Class Stunt Night co-director (we won!)
-found a new love for bowling
-I turned 21!
-Got a new boyfriend that loves the Lord with all of his heart, such a blessing.
-and somehow, by God's strength managed to get a 4.0 in the hardest semester of my life, Praise Him!

It was, in ALL honesty, the BEST year of college yet! I'm so thankful for every one of my friends that helped make it that. I can't wait to see how God uses me this summer in my internship, and I already have so many fun things to look forward to next year, my SENIOR year!

-I was asked to be in the Miss MHB pageant this fall
-CAB events
-STUDENT TEACHING!!!!! (4th and 2nd grade)
-Crusader Knights 2012 assistant director

Eep! So exciting! :) God is so SO good to me, and I am SO thankful.

the heart of life is good

Hey friends!

So, I'm getting better at this whole "blogging" thing again.. maybe because i have time now, ha.

This weekend was so joyful! :) I spent the weekend with one of my best friends, Brooke! She lives in Deep Ellum, kind of a rough part of downtown Dallas... an experience for sure! I am just so so blessed by her friendship! It was a spiritually refreshing weekend with her, so thankful for that!

I've finished 3 of my 4 classes.. all A's so far! :) last final tomorrow morning, fingers crossed!
Graduation is on Saturday, sad to see some of my friends leave UMHB, but nonetheless so excited for where God leads each of them! It's scary that my friends are graduating and getting married and stuff.. but its REALLY scare that in one year, ONE YEAR i will be graduating college.. WHEN THE HECK DID I GET SO OLD?!

I don't really have much else to tell you, other than life is so great right now! I am so so so blessed and just simply overwhelmed with joy right now. I seriously have the best friends, boyfriend, and family a girl could ask for, and if i could stay in this exact moment forever, i'd be alright. :) God is so unbelievably faithful, and so good to me.



SIDENOTE:

My sweet friend Nicki posted about this little blog. It's called the Little Things, and it has a list of all of life's little things that we should enjoy,

such as this one (which I happen to LOVE)

Check it out! Click here :)

oh the busyness..

sorry i haven't posted in FOREVER... life got real crazy, real quick after spring break.

So, let me catch you up, like always:

1. SpringBreakOhEleven. BESTWEEKOFMYLIFE. I went to Destin, with Younglife :) it was awesome! Lots of crazy fun memories, and lots of God's presence, sooooo amazing! :D I am so thankful for every person that went on that trip. AMAZING.

2. StuntNight- so this year, I took on the role of junior class co-director with Mr. Chris Whitehead. For those of you who know nothing about Stunt Night, it's a night where each class gets to put on a 20 minute performance (dance, video, skit) relating to a central theme. This years theme was video games, and juniors had action games, so naturally, we went the zombie route. Long story short, we won, and it was incredible. Such a wonderful process, and wonderful people.

3. I turned 21! This is a picture from my birthday, with my best friend. I got to celebrate with my roomies and my co-YL leader Jen, and some other friends. It was a happy happy day! :)

4. So, since i kinda introduced you to a "neat guy" in my last post, let me explain. I have a new boyfriend :) His name is Coley and he's super great. He challenges me to be more like Christ, everyday :)This is a picture of us at formal. I don't really wanna get all sappy on here, but Spring Formal was one of the best nights ever. We got to dance and hang out with all of our best friends, and it was just great.

Oh, P.S.. He's playing the role of Jesus in Easter Pageant next year.. yeah, I'm a proud girlfriend :)

5. I got an internship at FBC Allen for the summer as a Children's Ministy intern, and I am super pumped about it! I get to hang out with kids and tell them about Jesus all summer.. two of my favorite things, combined! :) I had so much fun hangin out with those kids last summer, so I can't wait to see what God has in store!

So, that's the main points... but school has kinda consumed 75% of my life lately (which is pretty normal, i guess..not like i'm in college or something) but i can see the light! I have my finals next week, and then life will be super great! Yesterday was my last day at Raye-Allen with my sweet first graders and my incredible mentor teacher, I was so sad to leave them. I'm student teaching in the fall, that's extra scary.. I'm graduating in a year, that's even more scary. I'm not quite sure how i feel about this "growing up" thing, but I guess I should start getting used to it...

:) love.

2 more days! :)

So, i'm terrible at blogging this semester... so busy, but i am loving it.

The past weekend was just wonderful. I went to Ft. Worth and visited some of my best friends from high school at TCU (gofrogs!) I got to just lay around the house and watch cake shows, say yes to the dress, and those wonderful wedding videos online that Nicki got me addicted to, ALL night on Friday. We were being such girls and it was so fun. :) I'm so blessed to still have great friendships with people from highschool.

Saturday we went shopping.. it's become an addiction.. and it's really bad for my wallet. but then I got to go to a pretty cool worship thing at a dnow and see a pretty neat guy. it was great. :) The band was The Chris Allen Band.. youtube them, they're great.

Sunday night we had our meeting about SPRiNG BREAK '11. to say i'm excited would be an understatement. it was crazy, unstructured, and scatter brained.. but it wouldn't be YL if it wasn't :)

This week has been extra stress in the 5102.. lots of midterms, lots of nursing tests for my roomies, accidentally missing class, applications out the wazoo, stunt night practices, cab events, it's just been one of those weeks. I made some pretty papers with Bible verses on them to put on our door so we see them every time we walk out and calm down a bit :) it's lovely.

I'm just so glad that I only have to survive 2 more days, then I'm peacin' outta Texas and hitting the beach! :) LIFE IS GOOD.

Ps.. current song obsession: This is the Stuff-Francesca Battistelli (look it up!)

YOU are stronger.

Hello friendsies :)

SO the past week of my life was completely consumed with Crusader Knights. No complaints, it was absolutely worth every minute. :) I cannot even put into words how absolutely amazing it was, and it just warms my heart everytime i think about it. just beautiful :)

I keep saying Thursday was the best night I've had in college, but I feel like I've said that a lot lately. Needless to say, life is good :)

Everyone keeps saying "aren't you glad you get some of your life back now?".. welp, Stunt Night practices started tonight, and I'm directing the Jr. Class.. therefore life=not back. :)

God is really working in my life and teaching me how to follow Him, and His plan instead of asking Him to accept and bless my plans. He's also teaching me to rely on Him for things as simple as my basic needs, like housing for next year (the dreaded housing process is next week).

It's tough to fully let go and let God do work in my life, but He is stronger, SO much stronger.

I borrowed the Jeff Johnson CD from Jen, and I have listened to it non-stop. Obsessed. and BEYOND glad that Jeff Johnson is coming to lead worship at UMHB's Revival this year! :)

I'm just simply loving life right now, through its busyness and its struggles, somehow I have found peace and joy, and its wonderful.

it's cold outside.

yep, Today is Wednesday.. and class is cancelled. UMHB is like in this funky stage of cancelling class on Wednesdays.. (totes not their fault).

but anyways, I have a story for you.

I got up at 6:15 this morning, like normal, got ready for class, had breakfast and Jesus time, scraped the ice off my car in the 19 degree weather, and went to class at Raye-Allen Elementary, which usually takes about 10-15 minutes. At this point, the roads were fine, but I had a feeling they'd get worse. While I was giving on of my first graders a math benchmark test, another intern came in the room and said her teacher told her to get home. Therefore, my teacher kicked me out cause she wanted me safe. The walk to our cars was comical, we all kept slipping in the parking lot. We all scraped the ice off of our cars, sliding in the process, and as I was about to leave, I noticed all the precip that landed on my windsheild while I was scraping my classmates' cars, froze.. so I had to rescrape mine. So in the process of getting out of the car, I slipped on the ice, and fell.. hard. I twisted my ankle, it hurts, but its part of life.. and as clumsy as I am, I'm used to it. So after that embarrassing moment, I had to drive back...which is the point of my story.

I texted a few friends before I left Raye-Allen, so someone knew I was on the roads in case anything happened. I love the support I have from the people at UMHB. No one EVER neglects a prayer request and I'm so thankful for that. I'm especially thankful for those who prayed for me and the rest of my classmates this morning. I am always amazed by God's power. :) The drive took me at least 30 minutes. It was the scariest drive I've ever made, my tires were slipping everywhere, and I saw flipped and wrecked cars around me, but I knew I had God's protection over me. I made it back safely and got to take a nap, somewhat. But I got up to call work to see if I still needed to come in.. I do, unfortunately, so there was no point in going back to sleep. I'm a little nervie about going to work, but I'll be okay.. God is good.

Monday night, these really cool guys came to UMHB to show their documentary called "Beware of Christians." They did something awesome a few summers ago and are showing the world. It was incredible! If you go to UMHB and didn't get to go, I bought their dvd, so we can watch it sometime! but if you don't go to UMHB, I encourage you to watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2-5Yjy6UAA

It's the trailer for their movie. You can book them to come to an event for you or order their movie online at www.bewareofchristians.com
It's worth your time, I promise!

Stay warm people!

happy life :)

So this week was anything but normal, to say the least..

My drive home on Sunday was alright, til "I Hope You Dance" came on the radio, and I started crying like a little baby.. Idk what it was, I never cry in songs.. I guess just realizing how much I'm chasing my dream and how God has worked everything out in my favor kinda got to me. I'm growing up so fast, and it scares the crud outta me.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal, besides the fact that i had 8 hours of sleep, TOTAL between sunday and monday nights. 13 total if you add Tuesday night.. welcome to my life.

Wednesday, there were rolling blackouts all over TX.. made for a real whacky Wednesday, UMHB cancelled class, after I already finished my class, but such is life. The rest of the night was chick flick night with the roomies, and it was wonderful. :)

Yesterday was a good day at work :) (The picture is me and little Savannah, she reminds me of the beauty of life, everyday.) Me and the kiddos did a "snow dance" because we wanted it to snow realllyyy bad! and lo and behold, Last night, it SNOWED! :)

Jill and Ben and I went to the basketball game, watched the guys annihilate HPU, then drove to walmart.. in my Mazda. I've never driven in snow before until last night, and I have to say I'm SOO proud of myself. :) We were greeted back at campus by a huge group of friends in the parking lot of the apartment complex, so we parked and joined in on the snow day riot! It was quite possibly one of my favorite times I've had here at umhb. There are a few (okay, a lot of) things in this world that make me turn 5 again, snow is definitely one of them.

Today, we all woke up around noon, since UMHB cancelled school and I didn't have to work, and Jill, Audrey, and I went to lunch and Hobby Lobby. I have so much fun with them! Now, we're catchin up on cleaning and jammin' out to some fun music :) Life has been so wonderful lately, I love my roomies SO much :)

God is doing HUGE things in my life, and I'm so so sooo thankful for that. I've finally let go, and I'm letting Him take care of me. It's amazing. SO MUCH JOY