major shout-out action...

Today is March 30, 2010... also known as my older sister Ashley's 27th birthday.  This is a girl that believes in "month birthdays" so this is also the 30th day she has celebrated her birthday.  She received the nickname "Princess" at a young age and has lived it out to the fullest ever since.  In spirit of going big or going home for her birthday, I will now give a list of 27 reasons why I think she is the most absolute fantastic sister and best friend ever.

1. She decided on day one of my life that she loved me and wanted to be the best big sister ever.  Even when I went through a phase of biting ONLY her, she still refused to bite me back or be mad.
2. We shared a room when we were little and played a flashlight game every night before we went to bed.  (Our dad's a fireman.. flashlights by the bed are MANDATORY.)
3. We tried to figure out the absolute most you could love someone and told each other that every single night... whoever said it first won.  It went a little something like this... "I love you more than infiniti universes could fill." 
4. When I was little, everything she played or did was instantly cool.  I wanted to be just like her.
5. She was very intuitive to this and would tell me which toys were "cool" so I'd want to play with them which left her the ACTUAL "cool" toys left to play with.  (Big sisters have to teach little sisters manipulation some way.)
6. We played Barbies together in our own fantastic Barbieland until a very embarrassing age.  It was our secret.
7. She finally moved out of the room with me to the room upstairs which was a very big deal.  My mom bought us intercoms to put by our beds so we could still talk every night.
8. We made a lot of fun home videos which consisted of talk shows and music videos.  She was obviously Mariah Carey and I was her fantastic back-up dancer.
9. When I went through a phase where I took arguments to the extreme of slapping, she rarely ever slapped back.  This could be either because she was terrified or just a fantastic person.  (And apparently I was always kind of violent...)
10. All of my friends thought she was the coolest ever.  This of course made me cooler.
11. She never went through a phase where she thought she was too cool to hang out with me. 
12. Poor thing was never very good at hiding her diary... always giving me something to do when she wasn't home.
13. We've always been able to share clothes and shoes... even today.  Gotta love that.
14. She drove me to and from high school for my freshman and sophomore year... and of course made sure I had a great very first day of high school.
15. She helped me get a headstart on my clerical skills at a young age as I took messages for all the boys that would call for her... and she wouldn't even care if I tortured them a little.
16. When I was old enough to get a boyfriend, we double dated. 
17. Our bond grew even deeper to know that we would always have each other's backs no matter what... and would take each other's secrets to the grave.
18. She got her cosmetology license so she began cutting and coloring my hair for FREE.  I always knew allowing her to chop off our Barbie's hair would pay up eventually.
19. She made the fantastic decision of going to a college only 20 minutes away... allowing me to visit as much as I possibly wanted.
20. When it was my turn to go to college, she transferred and we both went to Sam Houston State... which resulted us in being able to live together again.
21. Somewhere along the way, she became a second mother to me and always made sure that I was taken care of.
22. We even took a Biology class together in college.  I went to my lab on Monday and she took my answers to her lab on Thursday.
23. She has always made sure that I approved of her boyfriends.  Once I didn't, he was outta there.
24. We became very dependent on one another for decisions.  It got to the point of texting pictures to one another before making any kind of clothes/shoes/purse purchase.
25. She gave me the honor of being her Maid of Honor on the biggest day of her life, marrying my fantastic brother-in-law. 
26. Even though we've lived about 4 hours away from each other for over 2 years now, we still talk practically everyday and know everything that's going on in each other's lives.
27. I know without a doubt that she will be my very best friend until the end.

Happy Birthday Sissy!  I love you more than infiniti universes could fill!!!

a trip to an alternate universe...

So this weekend was in the very most uneventful.  I have decided to blame it all on what happened Thursday night.  We had a birthday to celebrate which happened to be one of my very best guy friend Curtis'... and he had decided that we should do just that at The Magic Time Machine in Dallas.  Now you may be like me when I first moved to the metroplex... had absolutely never heard of this wondrous place called The Magic Time Machine.  That is when I began to hear all about this place where characters from movies or TV shows were the ones that took your order and served your food and the decor made the place seem more like an adventure than a place to eat your dinner.  (Oh yeah... I definitely stole that last line from their website.)  I still had not actually had the opportunity to go after living here for 2.5 years so needless to say, I was beyond excited.  I had absolutely no idea what we were in for.

Here is a little disclaimer first off: You may have visited this wondrous place previously and have had an absolutely different experience than ours.  We still have not decided if it was just the group of people we were with, the Magic Time Machine itself, or the combination.  We will have to return on our own to answer that question. 

Back to our evening...
It all began when we walked into the older looking building and realized that it seemed as if we had just waltzed into someone's house... an individual that decided to decorate the entire place while they enjoyed some illegal substances.  And for some reason, it made everyone begin behaving as if they had also had some fun with these substances.  The hostess began walking the 14 of us to our table which happened to be located at the back of this time machine... which consisted of us walking through quite the maze of craziness to get there.  We landed at a large table placed up against the psychedelic background of Charlie Brown and his friends along with a large pumpkin that held the booth next to us.  This is when we realized we had entered a completely alternate universe.

Belle (from Beauty and the Beast, of course) walks out to greet us and inform us that she will be our server that evening.  I was seriously disappointed because I had my heart set on Captain Jack Sparrow... but I knew it wasn't my birthday so Belle would have to do.  She explains the menu to us which consists of the Roman Orgy Feast.  (We're not quite sure how the name of this meal is supposed to tie in with this wondrous place being the #1 children's restaurant, but whatever.)    It's quite the medieval meal where it comes with a whole lot of meat, fruits, and sides all family-style.  It's what the birthday boy wants so we all agree.

Belle explains that she will now take us to the salad car (which is indeed a salad bar inside of a car).  She walks us through the entire crazy maze a DIFFERENT way and this is where her un-princess like ways begin.  She complains that it took us about ten years to get there and walks away telling us she will see us next week.  Not really sure where she is getting her Disney Princess research, but she may need to re-look.  We get our salads and I am way convinced I'll never make it back to our seat on my own so I wait for others to follow them.  Some of us had ordered potion drinks which were delivered to us in different fun colors with bubbles and smoke galore coming out of them.  Our feast is delivered shortly after which included a song/chant from Belle, the Mad Hatter, Gilligan, and Lilo.  Belle begins handing out ribs, brisket, an ENTIRE chicken, potatoes, corn on the cob, and a ridiculous amount of fruit.  The boys are in absolute heaven.  For some reason, 2 of the guys decide that no silverware is allowed for their medieval meal and eat the entire thing with their hands.  (I'm telling you, the place made you instantly act WEIRD).  Dinner included trying to figure out who was going to eat all that food, a visit from a balloon lady which made Curtis the best/craziest looking balloon hat ever, a visit from Gilligan who did not care at all about his character or pretending to act like him and spontaneous silent moments where the whole group found themselves dancing to the music.   

After dinner is of course... BIRTHDAY CAKE.  Luckily Katie and I had come prepared for this and brought our own delicious cake from the Swiss Pastry Shop.  (Who even knows what would have been served from that place.)  Curtis had told everyone in the entire place it was his 23rd bday (just a decade short) so the Mad Hatter, Belle, and Lilo returned to deliver the birthday cake adorned with candles that made the shape of a roman numeral 23.  Cake time included the same 2 boys that used no silverware for dinner decided to not even use hands for cake, Belle explaining she could blow her diet for some cake as well, and more spontaneous dancing among the group. 

The evening was winding down as Belle delivered checks and take-home boxes to everyone.  The inappropriate princess stood around explaining that we should all feel free to write as many zeroes on the check as we feel led to... which led to her grand exit consisting of a COMPLETE un-princesslike inappropriate attempt at a joke about a particular piece of fruit that was in a take-home box.  (I will not repeat this comment here due to wanting to remain a family-friendly page.  Let's just say, this comment would definitely get her kicked out of the castle.)  We took this moment to hurry and say our good-byes and attempt at getting the heck out of there.  We happen to walk by Captain Jack Sparrow where I request a picture with him and more inappropriateness occurs... but at least you know to expect that from him.

We then escape the alternate universe.  And all that to say, of course the rest of my weekend was uneventful.

back to the basics...

I have to be really honest in the fact that ever since I graduated from my Master's degree, that not a lot of things have turned out like I had planned. Funny how that always works out. I thought that God and I had talked and had it all figured out... I would graduate... get a fantastic full-time counseling job that would count towards the countless hours I need for my license... stay in Fort Worth... get married and have 2.5 kids with a house and white picket fence... and all would be right in the world. Okay honestly we didn't discuss the marriage and fence, but I was SURE we had discussed the job. Well here I am... 3 months later... and no fantastic counseling job to be found. Oh sure, I apply and am rejected often... don't you fret about that one. Instead, the Lord had an absolutely different plan in mind. He has decided to keep me in that place of not quite where you want to be, but not exactly where you were before either. Fortunately that place for me is getting to spend some pretty fantastic amount of time in a kindergarten classroom. That's right people, I'm a part-time kindergarten teacher. I have gone back to the beginning. Why not start over if you can't continue? It's working for me. I am blessed by eleven kids everyday who probably teach me more than I could ever teach them.

The theme of my life these past three months seems to be getting back to the basics. Not only am I starting over in my 'education' life, but I feel at times like I am having to re-learn biblical principles that I so pridefully thought I already had down. There is nothing like a time of transition to really test your faith and trust in God. This has certainly been a time that I have had to really had faith in God's sovereignty and provision in my life. On days where I can not possibly understand the circumstances that are occurring, I just have to trust in His perfect will for my life and know that He will never leave or forsake me.

Through this time, I have been trying to look at the blessings that God gives me everyday. One of the greatest blessings that I have been able to take a part of is the women's bible study that occurs at my church every Tuesday morning. This is something that I would never be able to participate in if I had a full-time job right now. There were different classes that you could choose from and I instantly knew which one I needed to sign up for... 'Calm My Anxious Heart' by Linda Dillow. I mean HELLO... it's like they knew I was coming! The whole study has been so amazing as we've learned about contentment, trust, and faith in God. Something our wonderful bible study teacher said yesterday that rang so true for me was that 'You can not trust someone that you don't know. Cling to the Father, you are safe. It's going to be hard if you don't know Him very well.' It came at such a significant time for me because not only am I trying to trust so much right now, but also I have been trying to focus on WHO God is... His attributes and character. I want to know my Maker, Father, Lover of my soul. Truly knowing and understanding WHO He is will make the rest that much easier.

Like I said, I just seem to be getting back to the basics.

a welcoming (back) of sorts...

So here I am... blogging again. I attempted the whole blog world about two and a half years ago but there was a small thing called grad school that for some reason just kept distracting me. Not sure why but when you have to write a million papers for school, you don't really feel up to writing "for fun." Anyway... quick fast update to bring you up to speed on my life....

I graduated.

Told you it was going to be quick. There's this thing called time that I have now that I didn't even know existed for the past two and a half years of my life. So I'm figuring out who I am and what I like and who I want to be. A reevaluation of sorts.

If you know me at all, you know I have a ridiculous addiction to coffee. Hence the theme of my blog. Even if you don't enjoy coffee (which is not something I completely understand), I invite you to "come grab a latte" with me as I share anything and everything that I deem worthy or entertaining as I figure out this next journey of my life.