spring is springing...

The weather is in the 70's and the sun is shining.

There are fresh flowers in our apartment. 

My nails and toes are bright pink.

Spring clothes are ALL over the stores begging for me to buy them.

My allergies are suffering.

Saturday night even our time will spring forward.

I can hear the pool calling my name.

It is officially Spring, my people and I could not be more excited!

monday musings...

1. At some point on Saturday my voice left me.  Thank you allergies.  As soon as I walked into work today, the fantastic boss asked how I was and when she heard (the lack of) voice, she immediately asked how she could help me get things done quickly so I could go home.  Blessed.  (And the fantastic reason why I'm able to be sitting here on my sectional at this moment blogging to you... because usually my Mondays are RIDICULOUS.)

2. I'm pretty much in love with the new phone (just in case you've been dying to know).  Granted I still only know about half of what the thing can do... or let's be honest, about a third... but it's pretty much A-MA-ZING.  No buyer's remorse here, ladies and gents.

3. So the sissy talked me into coming down for Houston Rodeo Cookoff and Mardi Gras Barn Bash.  These are two HUGE events that her and her crazy friends go to every year that just happened to fall on the same weekend this year.  After looking at the calendar, I made the mistake of commenting I didn't have anything going on.  BOOM... she told everyone involved I was coming.  It actually worked out fantastically because I've never been able to make Barn Bash before which is the Dad and Mary's big event of the year.. and he just celebrated a pretty big birthday.  Done and done.  From Thursday through Saturday, my life was full of... crazy friends, barbeque, fried oreos, wearing everyone else's clothes even though I had brought my own entire closet, a fancy hotel, eating lunch on the beach in the most fantastic weather ever (SHRIMP poboy at that!), the purple blonde train, my first Mardi Gras King cake, staying in the girls' Mardi Gras decorated apt, being in the Mardi Gras parade, and TONS of laughter and fun.  LOVED it.

4. It's getting pretty close to the end of the Bachelor season.  And I really have no idea who I want to win.  But I definitely have a prediction of who I think WILL win.  Chantal.  Let's get real here... she just screams future bar owner's wife.  And those other 2 don't.  This has been a weird season and I'm just not really sure how I feel about it.  DUH.. I'm super into it.  Monday is our girls night... the roommate and I get Chick-fil-a and head over to our friend's house to watch the drama go down.  And by watch, I mean scream at the TV like they can hear us.  And when we get real stressed, we eat cookies.

(By the way... this picture's outfits equals HOT STINKIN MESS.)

5. Friday the roommate is having surgery.  At 6:30 AM.  Didn't realize it was this early when she asked me to take her.  Hmmm... I predict much coffee will happen that day (courtesy of the person making me arise at that ridiculous hour of course).

6. On my drive this past weekend, I saw with my own eyes that they are now widening Highway 287.  If you're not aware, this is where my car accident occurred almost exactly 2 years ago.  I gave much praise to Jesus when I saw that construction.

7. To tweet or not to tweet?  Now that my excuse of not having internet on my phone is null and void, I can't decide.

8. Shopping for a wedding dress with a friend this weekend.  SO EXCITED.  Talk about an ultimate girls day. 



Now I must go prepare for my evening of Bachelor Brad and highly emotional girls trying to pretend to decide whether or not they should forgo their own rooms for a fantasy suite.  Hot darn... it's going to be a good night!

i love you valentine's day...

It's no secret that I'm a single girl.  And obviously this past Monday was Valentine's Day.  Which could result in a recipe for being a distraught mess.  But luckily I am an absolute sucker for all holidays period so no bitterness here.  (And it definitely helps that my favorite color is pink and I'm pretty much obsessed with chocolate... how in the world could I hate this day?)  So as I noticed that some people would try to gracefully skip over asking me what I was doing to celebrate this day full of love, I decided that I would share what exactly that looks like...

First of all... DUH we had to have a party.  We invited some of our favorite girls over and threw ourselves a night of a ridiculous amount of delicious sweet treats, punch, wine, and girl talk galore!  Much laughter was had all night long... especially with random conversations provoked by a love themed truth or dare deck of cards.  It was an absolutely hilarious girls night in full of friends that I truly treasure all of their friendships.  Even though we may all be in different stages of life, I know that the Lord has placed them in my life to challenge and encourage me in this season.  And also, what better way than to see them do those future seasons well before I get there?!  Seriously love them.  And complete picture fail on that night which is about the saddest story ever.

Sunday morning was so sweet to find some delicious treats from some of my fantastic people that work with me and some of my super fantastic families.  I can honestly tell you that receiving homemade cards from precious little kiddos NEVER gets old.  Pretty much love being able to put up the new ones in place of the old ones for that season in my cube.  Adorable.

On the actual Valentine's Day, the roommate and I decided that it was only fitting that we skirt out a little early.  I headed on home and found a sweet little giftbag from her waiting on the table with this in it...

Could she be a better Valentine?  I think not.  We then headed to AT&T because I had decided to buy myself my very own Valentine's gift.  That's right... I've converted to the cult. 

Not only that, but I've committed to a new metroplex number.  I feel like a new person.  It made me a little anxious but also felt a little freeing. 

After that, we headed to Chuy's and met with a girl that works with the roomie for a Valentine's dinner.  We were running late due to my Valentine's gift to myself so poor girl had been waiting on us alone.  The whole Chuy's staff had corralled around her and become her instant friend... thus, giving us the hardest time when we showed up for leaving her waiting on Valentine's day (OF ALL DAYS).  We laughed and talked and ate and had good times.  After a couple of hours, we headed our separate ways.

The roommate and I then changed into comfy clothes and headed to another friend's to watch one of our all-time favorite shows... The Bachelor.  What better show to watch on the day of love than the one where they are pursuing it to the ends of the earth?  In the most dramatic way ever?  LOVE IT.  We eat it up like flippin candy. 

So that my friends, is what my Valentine's Day looks like.  I showed up the next morning to work to also find out I had won the Valentine's Day contest at work to be granted another box of candy of my choice.  I've had so many sweet treats that they are coming out of my ears.  I feel like this holiday was more ridiculous for me than Christmas this year.  Desserts are my downfall so I'm glad to see them go as much as I love them.

Farewell Valentine's Day... until next year.

the best icepocalypse super week ever...

So it all started on a Tuesday morning around 5:30 am when the roommate screamed from her room, "NO WORK!!!!!!"  We had all heard on Monday about the 'winter storm' that was coming our way ready to break records and we were severely warned to take it seriously by every single weatherman on all of the channels.  But let's be honest here... weather 'people' (for PC sake) are a BIT dramatic and we happen to follow a school district policy that seems to thrive on being the only open school district when all others are closed.  So obviously we didn't have much hope on schools being closed... thus, work being cancelled. 
Usually I prefer to not be awakened at that ridiculous hour, but for this particular event... I didn't seem to mind.  Because you see, Tuesday mornings are a big event at church so I knew a lot of people were anxiously awaiting to hear confirmation from me that we were indeed CLOSED.  Even though we had all heard the scary sleet and snow storm threatening to break all of our windows at 2 in the morning and our ISD had indeed announced the fantastic news, it's always good to hear straight from the horse's mouth.  And in this instance, I was that horse (as much as I never thought I would refer to myself as a horse... ever).  So I slid out of my bed and somehow wrote as much of a coherent e-mail as I possibly could at 5:30 am without any kind of prescriptive eyewear and then stumbled right back into bed.  Completely oblivious to what was about to occur in all our lives for the next 4 days.  

Thankfully the news told us all about it.  24 hours a day.  Sometimes they did not even show regularly scheduled programming because they thought it was more important to broadcast on the ice that insisted on never melting and some other event that was going on in the metroplex.  Oh yes... the SUPERBOWL was in town.  Have I not mentioned that yet?  Straight disaster.  Because what happened next, my friends is straight craziness.  The whole metroplex was ICED up like it never had been before.  (Well maybe it had... I forget all of the weather reports now.. my memory is awful.)  But school became cancelled for Wednesday... and then Thursday... and then Friday.  Seriously?!?!  It became straight crazy ridiculous.  Cabin fever broke out all over the metroplex.  Facebook status updates went out of control.  People were excited about not having to go to work but so not excited about being stuck in their house.  And I agreed.  I mean seriously... have I mentioned lately that we don't have cable?  So what did we do?  Funny you should ask...

TUESDAY...
We obviously thought this was going to be our only day off.  So naive.  We decided to take full advantage like any 25 year old girls would without any children or 'real' responsibility looming over their heads... and lay around ALL DAY LONG.  Besides cooking dinner, we never left the sectional.  We discovered stupid day-time TV that comes on regular network channels.  We of course still flipped between that and the news... it was like a must of the ice storm.  By 5, we were a little over the shows so we decided to put in a movie.  We got about 15 minutes into it and realized that the official news were on and heard that they were starting school closings for the next day... and boom... we were back to watching TV.  And officially finding out that we were out for the next day.  SCREAMS ALL AROUND!  Pretty sure there was even a decision to stay up later and watch late-night TV because we didn't have to wake up early.  I'm telling ya... we're wild!

WEDNESDAY...
Slept in.  Duh.  But today felt different.  Besides us waking up to a rolling blackout, there also just felt a need to be a little bit more productive.  You can only lay around like a bump on a log for SO long.  So I instantly jumped in the shower.. began some laundry.. cleaned up the room a bit.. picked up the kitchen and living room... and realized I was out of things to do.  The roommate was also feeling the need to be productive because while I was doing all of that, she had decided to brave the bitter cold and ice by heading out to our apartment complex's gym.  After slipping and skating down there and trying not to die, she discovered no electricity because of rolling blackouts so she had to carefully maneuver her way back to our apartment.  When I realized that we were headed back to the sectional and the timeframe of day-time TV that was on at that point, I insisted that we PLAY Family Feud rather than watch it.  So we did.  And then eventually turned on the TV later on... and then we cooked breakfast for dinner... and our friend James came over.  (Yay for seeing someone else for the first time in 48 hours!)  The news told us that school was officially closed for another day.  What?!?!  We could feel the cabin fever starting to grasp us.  We knew that things needed to occur the next day such as my sister heading our way from Dallas... our friend's birthday needing to be celebrated with a cake... needing to pick up things from the office since work had not happened in a few days... JUST NEEDING TO LEAVE THE APARTMENT.  Yup... cabin fever had hit.

THURSDAY...
Cancelling of the dentist appointment.  (Sorry Dr... I may have cabin fever but I don't trust the ice enough to head your way.)  I knew I only had a few hours to stop by our closed office to pick up some things so I began to bundle up in as many layers as I possibly could and started my con of the rommmate to go with me.  I didn't know how to drive in ice and certainly didn't know how to de-ice my car.  I tried to make it sound enticing that we would be LEAVING the apartment and could go other places too.  It wasn't as difficult as I thought and she started layering up too.  We began our trek out into the icy wonderland and thanks to google, I was prepared for my drive on the ice.  Still terrified, but ready.  We stopped by the office and chatted it up with EVERYBODY.  (We hadn't seen people in days!)  Then we headed to Target and tried to remember how to behave appropriately in public.  Afterwards, we awaited for the sissy to arrive and as soon as she did, we waited (not so patiently) as she sat on the couch for the requested 15 minutes before we braved the bitter ice cold again to head to our favorite mexican restaurant ever... Pasado's.  We then headed over to the boys' apartment because we refused to let some silly ice storm hinder us from celebrating Ryan's birthday.  So cake and ice cream (nevermind that it was FREEZING outside!) was served all around.  School was again cancelled for the next day and it began to snow... VICTORY!

FRIDAY...
We woke up to beautiful REAL powdery snow.  (I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure that the weatherpeople used the word powdery even though everyone insisted on making fun of me for joining in on the use of that word to describe the snow.)  We grabbed ourselves a laundry basket and played in the snow!  And since this post is getting ridiculously long, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

And then we went to downtown Fort Worth for ESPN craziness.  Where my toes froze (like for real).  Apparently taking a break in Starbucks doesn't constitute what we went out there for according to the boys so we had to stand in the cold and try our hardest to get on TV.  So I stood in the midst of the crowds and yelled for multiple reasons... fame AND warmth.

That night the sissy, roommate, and I headed off to our first Superbowl party thanks to the sister's not-real life (courtesy of her job) at Billy Bob's.  We knew that it would be cold without our million of layers, but we had friends to meet... Blake Shelton and Uncle Kracker just to mention a few.  And word on the street was that Blake was bringing his lady Miranda along.  (Sure enough... the street did not disappoint.)

 

Needless to say, Friday was a FULL day.

SATURDAY...
Warmth and rest.

SUNDAY...
Remember that certain event that was in town?  Yeah... the Superbowl.  After church, the sissy, rommmate and I headed to the huge spaceship of a stadium because my sister's not-real-life had granted us tickets to tailgating AND the party plaza.  Oh yeah.  Should we have gotten wise and sold those ridiculously priced tickets to all those people scrounging around the stadium with massive amounts of cash in their pockets?  Probably.  But then we wouldn't have gotten to experience that PRICELESS event. 

WHEW!  Can I just say that you are probably as TIRED as I felt at the end of this particular week just by reading this SUPER long post.  Major props to you if you even read this entire thing!  Thank goodness it officially seems like the weather is back to normal and starting to warm up... although I am not complaining at all about the days off.  I just miss having not to wear fifteen layers everytime I go outside...

my mom rocks more than yours...

So today is the first day of February.  And this is a very special day indeed.  And not just because north Texas decided to have a bitter cold winter storm and we were blessed with a snow day... AKA no work and school for the entire metroplex.  Which equals tons of relaxation on the sectional and snow on the ground.  ALWAYS fun.  But no, no, no.  That is NOT the only reason this is a special day.  It's actually super special because the most important lady in my life was born on this very day... the mom. 

My sister just happens to be in town this week for work and as we were laying in bed the other night chatting, we somehow started to talk about our fantastic mom.  Growing up we lived in the oldest house in our town so we didn't have central air or heat.  During the winter, we used deerborn heaters to keep warm.  Don't know what that is?  Oh that's probably because we don't use them in this century anymore.  Here's a quick peek of what one looks like...

Well we weren't allowed to keep these on throughout the night because the dad is a firefighter and that is SO obviously a fire hazard.  (Enter old school electric blankets.)  So every morning my mom would wake up at the buttcrack at dawn and turn on the heaters in the freezing house.  By turn on, I definitely mean light fire to it.  But let me just say, my mother is the most cold-natured person I know.  (And apparently I have inherited this wonderful trait from her... thanks mom.)  So that way when the rest of our family would wake up, the entire house would be warm and ready for us.  She did this EVERY day.  When I think about it now, I don't know how she did it.  Except I kind of do.  Because she's awesome.

Another thing my sister and I chatted about is the fact that when we got a little older, my mom got a job that was about an hour and a half commute away... one way.  So obviously it took her that same length of time to get home too... and sometimes a little longer when factoring in traffic.  However, that never seemed to effect our family dinner time.  She put a lot of importance on all four of us always having dinner together every single night... and that's with her cooking the dinner.  So she would drive to work, have a full day of work, drive home, and then cook dinner for our family.  EVERY day.  Sure there was the occasional night that we would go out to dinner.  But that was very rare.  We were the house that had home-cooked meals every night that friends were constantly asking if they could come over and eat.  And you know why?  Because my mom is fantastic.

So obviously these are just TWO things that make up about a million of the reasons of why my mom rocks.  But they give you a pretty good idea of who she is and why I love her.  And not because she does awesome things for me, but because she really does encourage me to hopefully one day be half as awesome of a mom she is for me and my sister.

We love you Mom... Hope your birthday is as fantastic as you!!!!!!      

the weekend recap is back...

I'm bringing back the weekend recap.  It is time, my friends.  Especially after the fun weekend that I had. 

It all started with Thursday (even though it's not TECHNICALLY the weekend) but we had a conference for work so the fantastic girls that I work with that make up the children's ministry team all piled up in an SUV and headed out for a fun-filled day.  Can I just say that I absolutely love these girls and feel absolutely blessed by them every single day?  I do realize that it is a rare thing to be able to work with people that truly care about you and pray hard for you in not just your ministry, but also personally.  Love you Jen, Tiff, Nita, and Emily!

Friday night the roommate and I got to have dinner with a great friend from seminary that we have not seen in FOREVER.  You would have thought she moved to Canada, but nope... just Dallas.  It's always a good time with friends on a Friday night at Chuy's.  It's pretty much our favorite.  Loved catching up with her and hearing all the fun things going on in her life!  Major fail on not getting a picture with her.  We'll just have to have dinner before another year passes again.. for more reason than just that of course!

On Saturday was a wedding of 2 dear friends of mine.  To say I was excited for this wedding was definitely an understatement.  It's been so much fun to see this love story happen from the very beginning since Jason was a friend that I met at seminary and I met Stephanie as soon as I started working at the church.  I immediately told Jason that I thought he should ask out the cute, sweet girl in the office and am so glad that finally 6 months later, he did!  Granted I don't think I can take credit because I really don't think he was listening to me... I'm pretty sure it had more to do with the fact that she's absolutely precious.  Now they are officially the Nolen's and I could not be more thrilled for them to start this journey together as they follow where the Lord leads them as husband and wife!

Sunday definitely ended with a HUGE nap.  And now here it is already Wednesday... and I'm fighting a bit of a cold.  Pretty lame.  I'm trying to knock it out pretty quick though because this weekend, the sissy is coming to town and that always means good times ahead!  She's going to be in the metroplex for a WEEK which bubbles me over with enthusiasm... even though it is for 'work.'  So get out of here cold... I have fun plans in my future!

it's a cubed life after all...

The other night at dinner, a hilarious conversation occurred between myself, the roommate, and another friend about working within the "walls" of a cubicle.  There are just particular things that occur in a cube that you may not even really understand unless you've worked in one yourself... although it may still be pretty entertaining to hear about.  Here are a few favorite (or not-so-favorite) things that come along with a cubed life that we came up with that are beyond ridiculous, embarrasing, and amusing to say the least...

1. The lack of privacy.  Can we just state the obvious that although there is the 'illusion' of privacy... that you indeed have NONE?  Instead you are in one giant room with mini padded walls that make you feel like you have your own space, while you still can hear absolutely every conversation around you.  That doctor's appointment you have on Friday?  You better believe Susie down the row knows about it.  The humiliating phone conversation you just had where you definitely teared up in the middle of it?  Sweet Debbie next to you is now e-mailing you to ask you if you're alright.  Let's just be honest... sometimes it's best to just walk far far away from the cubicle and make your phone calls there.  Your car with the doors locked is always a good option.  It'll definitely save you some dignity (and maybe even some explanations).
2. Speaking through the walls.  We've all done it.  How can you not?  It seems silly to pick up the phone and call the person in the cube next to you when they can hear you just as well talking regularly out loud.  The best though is when you talk to someone in a cube near you and don't know that they're not there.  Enter the awkward no response zone.  Just because they're not there doesn't mean that all the rest of the people around you aren't there.  They're just pretending not to be at this point for your sake.
3. Annoying sounds.  It's pretty much inevitable that you're going to hear this at one point or another when you can hear the entire office happening all around you.  Noisy feedback from an office phone because of someone's cell phone ringing (or vibrating for office ettiquette).. someone deciding to listen to music or maybe even their voicemails on speakerphone outloud.. a random tap-tap here or clicking of sorts.. all great examples.  It's even more unsettling when you realize it's coming from yourself.  You become a little more hyperaware of the noises you make when you realize that absolutely everyone around you can hear you (and may be annoyed by you) so when I started realizing a noise I made after finishing a project or transitioning to something different... you can imagine my surprise.  And when I say surprise, I mean more like I was horrified.  I was definitely less than pleased with myself.  Who wants to be the girl that makes the annoying sound everyday?  No worries.. I'm getting that in check quick, fast, and in a hurry!  Please forgive me, cubemates.
4. Lack of real walls.  So I definitely am not complaining about the fact that I have built-in bulletin boards all around me which is pretty fun, but I did receive a pretty cross for Christmas that I thought would be super cute to hang in my humble abode of a cube.  But alas, no tack is strong or sturdy enough to hold that cross.  Epic cube wall fail. 
5. With no real walls, there is no door.  So you certainly don't bip in and out of your cubicle through your DOORway, but instead we'll call it what it is... an ENTRYway.  And with this entryway, there is no real way to shut people out.  Don't get me wrong... I love people and I LOVE visitors in my cube.  Why in the world do you think that I insist on there never being anything in my visitor chair?  (Well I don't like clutter, but that's besides the point...)  But when your back is to the precious little entryway MOST of the time, it can create an easy way for people to scare the ever living daylights out of you when you don't know that they are dropping by.  But then again, that's usually only when they're TRYING to scare you.  But I guess that's a whole different story though...

So I'm pretty sure that I probably missed a gazillion hysterical things that occur on a daily basis working in a cubed life... but as crazy, hilarious, and distracting as it may be at times, I so enjoy that crazy little invention called a cublicle... and am proud to call it my own!  It also pretty much rocks that I'm surrounded by an awesome group of girls to call my cubemates.  Seriously could not have picked more fun peeps to share fake walls with to talk through everyday! 

a new year of faith...

Wow.  I haven't even posted THIS YEAR so let me first just say what is only appropriate... Happy 2011! 

I cannot tell you how many posts I started and deleted that last week of 2010.  I felt like it was such a week of reflection for me because obviously it is such a time where you feel like since you're about to begin a new year, you kind of need to reassess and figure out what that new year really needs to look like in your own life.  Well at least that's what I did.  And by all means, I definitely still don't know what that looks like obviously.  And obviously I didn't feel like I could articulate it well enough to actually publish one of those posts.

What I DO know that is I'm believing God for this year.  My complete faith is in HIM.  Whatever that may look like. 

I trust in you, O Lord... My times are in Your hand.  Psalm 31: 14:15

the divine romance...

Last night as I was reading through Psalm 118, verse 8 resonated with me:

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in a man."

Being single at 25, people immediately seem to ask you questions about your status.  If they are genuinely interested in whether I am content in my singleness, my answer is usually it wavers like a rollercoaster.  There never seems to be any kind of explanation for the highs or lows and they both seem to come on pretty quickly.  My current state is a bit of a dip so I would like to preface that there are thoughts in this post that I am NOT proud of.

As I parked my car in the parking lot today and began to walk into work, I noticed someone parked in their vehicle in the parking lot as well.  I immediately thought in my mind if he ever considered setting me up with other guys in his life or if he ever wondered why I was single.  Then I went to the thought that he probably just felt sorry for me.  Or the reality that I wasn't even a thought in his mind.  Finally the Scripture that I studied last night and this morning popped into my mind to comfort me that it did not matter if anyone even wanted to hook me up with someone's brother's uncle's cousin... because taking refuge in the Lord is SO much better.  As I continued walking into the building, I thanked the Lord for his sweet reminder that His love is far greater.

At the end of the day, I packed up all my things and told 2 friends I work with that I was headed out to go to the Phil Wickham Christmas concert that night.  One of the girls began to ask me if I was getting all dressed up and if it was going to be a date thing.  I immediately laughed it off and made a joke that she should know me better than that.  As I was walking to my car, I tried to debate on whether or not I should be flattered that she thought that I was the kind of girl that went on dates all of the time or discouraged that I apparently wasn't that fun of a single girl that she apparently used to be.  As my corrupt mind tortured me again in the ridiculous parking lot, the Lord calmed my heart and and brought that verse to my mind once again.  How silly I felt to have to need another reminder such a short time later, but I am so thankful for God being so gracious with me.  Even through my negative attitude and discontentment right now, He is constantly showering me with His presence and reasons to desire Him rather than a relationship with a guy.  

It seemed perfect that I ended the night at the Phil Wickham concert.  He was a musician that I was introduced to while I was in college at a retreat that was actually named after one of his songs Divine Romance.  It was such a sweet time in my life because it was when I was first getting to know the Lord again and really starting to understand what it meant to have my own real relationship with Him.  This song will always remind me of that time and in a way could be deemed 'our song.'  It only seems fitting to end this post with the lyrics...

The fullness of Your grace is here with me

The richness of Your beauty’s all I see
The brightness of Your glory has arrived
In Your presence God, I’m completely satisfied

For You I sing I dance
Rejoice in this divine romance
Lift my heart and my hands
To show my love, to show my love

A deep deep flood, an Ocean flows from You
Of deep deep love, yeah it’s filling up the room
Your innocent blood, has washed my guilty life

In Your presence God I’m completely satisfied       

Lyrics by Phil Wickham 

lazy sundays lead to...

THIS.

reflections...

Since we have just celebrated Thanksgiving, it is of course very common to reflect on what you are most thankful for.  Over this past week, I've really taken the opportunity to think over my life and this past year to count my many blessings. 

Nothing about my life right now meets the world's standards.  I am a 25 year old girl that is single and has a part-time job in ministry surrounded by families.  According to the world, I should either be career-driven or family-driven.  My statistics show I'm neither. 

I've got to say that this has probably been one of the weirdest years of my life.  I've been stretched and changed... hopefully for the better.  I've been forced out of my element and challenged to think outside of the box pertaining my expectations of my life.  I feel like I've come so far in these twelve months, but I know that I have so much further to go.  The Lord certainly has been gracious and merciful to me throughout the entire process... especially through my doubts and questionings.  Following hard after Him this year has been at times just that... hard.  But time after time He would remind me of His amazing love by granting me my own personal moments with Him to let me know that this path is all worth it.         

I still don't know where I'm going.  And honestly I feel like I know less of that than I knew before.  But I think the Lord is breaking me of the world's standards of myself so I can find myself in Him rather than the world.  And honestly, finding myself in God's plan rather than fitting God into my plan has been so much sweeter.


Thank you Lord for your patience with me.  I know that I am selfish in my plans and my flesh is weak, but you are strong and sovereign.  Thank you for loving me and showing me your wisdom and guidance in my life.  I want YOUR name to be written all over my life, Lord. 

counting thru the craziness..

1. My sister came to visit for an entire weekend with the only agenda of hanging out with me.  Victory.  There is no documentation of this in photos.  Fail.

2. Peanut M&M's are like crack to me.  Once I start, I can't stop.  Maybe they're more like Pringles.

3. Thanksgiving is next week.  WHOA.  Wasn't I just laying out at the pool for the summer?  Hello winter white skin.

4. I completed one of the first Tuesday series that I was in charge of without the whole thing being a complete disaster.  Sigh of relief.

5. My mom will always be a fantastic sounding board and give the best advice around.  Hands down.

6. The amount of times and volume that my own and the roomie's alarm clocks go off in the morning probably wakes up the entire apartment complex.  As we peacefully sleep.  Thank you Jesus that our fire alarm hasn't gone off. 

7. I have never ever been oh so excited about decorating my apartment for Christmas.  Get out of here Thanksgiving... I'm ready to go to that Christmas tree farm that I've only ever heard of and put beautiful ornaments on my 2nd ever real Christmas tree.  THRILLED.

8. It confuses me how much I absolutely love Taylor Swift's music, but don't particularly care for her as a person.  Interviews with her make me cringe and I think she tends to be more on the immature side.  But at the end of the day, I love to rock out to every single song on every single one of her CD's... immature lyrics included.  Inner conflict, I tell you.

9. I just began Beth Moore's Believing God with a group of girls.  Never been more excited to meet with a group of girls to talk about Jesus.  I've missed me some good girl time.

10. This is a sad attempt at a blog in order to catch up.  I apologize.

the fog...

Wow... where the heck have I been?  I'll tell yah... walking around in a fog. 

It began when my sweet dentist decided that there was a major need to extract my two left wisdom teeth from my mouth instead of what I went into the office for originally.  Awesome.  I'm pretty easy-going and tend to have this complex where I am very agreeable to doctors.  I consider them all-knowing and don't tend to ask any questions whatsoever.  This complex is so bad that I had to convince the roommate that not even the dentist knew that the wisdom teeth would be pulled out that day before I came in.  (So I've been known to show up to doctors for a procedure that I wasn't super aware of... big deal.)  Obviously this little event cancelled out my weekend plans of a fun trip to Canton.  I was of course bummed but too doped up for the let down to sink in.  Then Saturday night, I began to sneeze and never stopped until some point on Monday.  Enter cold medicine and a really long day on Sunday due to working at a church on Sunday mornings plus our Trunk or Treat for Halloween.  Thankfully I work with an amazing team of girls that forced me to go home for a nap before the actual event started.  It probably had a lot to do with the fact that I looked and acted like a zombie. 

Now that I'm actually coming out of the fog a bit, I feel like I should process the last week of my life here..

1. Having wisdom teeth pulled immediately instills a huge fear in me of dry sockets.  It's looking like I'm in the clear, but it does still haunt me a tad bit.  I accidentally drank through a straw the other day and almost had a stroke when I realized.  I'll be glad when the ten day mark is over. 
2. Apparently I'm more blunt while medicated.  I've been told by three different people to keep the meds going.  I don't know whether I should find this humorous or insulting.
3. A lot of baking occurred on Saturday.  While my roommate and I had both been instructed by different doctors to "take it easy" (the roommate had herself a serious sinus infection)... we decided to 'BOO!' everyone we know.  Haven't heard of this?  Apparently you don't live in my sister's neighborhood because they are the only ones that have.  You leave a fun Halloween treat with a note on someone's door, ring the doorbell, and run away.  Some candy is totally acceptable, but we decided it wasn't acceptable for us.  We pulled out all the stops... Halloween funfetti cupcakes with candy corn pumpkins on top, Halloween funfetti cookies decorated with cute Halloween sayings and jack'o'lantern faces with candy corn, rice krispies with fall m&m's in some and candy corn in others, and brownies.  Ridiculous.  Still have no idea why I got sick...
4. A lot of The Office happened.  So obviously that meant a lot of laughter.
5. I cooked my mom's enchiladas.  HUGE DEAL.  This is one of my all-time favorite meals that my mom has always made that I knew required a LOT of time and prep-work.  Well the roommate decided that we needed to make them because she's had them and loved them (DUH!).  I was intimidated.  I was scared.  I made it happen.  At 25, I feel like an adult thanks to being able ot re-create this meal of my mother's.  

Now that it's officially been 7 days since the wisdom teeth event, I am super looking forward to a weekend that has absolutely nothing on the calendar.  Hmm... saying that makes me wonder if I should have suggested the dentist to wait until this Thursday.  Nah... that would have taken all the fun out of it..  

fried food and a ridiculously tall man...

So if you are from Texas or visiting Texas, something you need to put on your must-do list for next fall is to visit The State Fair of Texas.  It's pretty much the most Texan thing you can do.  My parents failed me in this area and I had never even heard of the state fair until I moved to the metroplex three years ago and went for the very first time.  However, I was obviously new to the fair along with the other rookies with me, so we did not get a full-out fair experience.

What is a full-out State Fair of Texas experience?  Well let me just tell you since I went this past weekend and had one of my own.  It includes...

1. Not only just seeing Big Tex, but taking a picture with him.  For those of you that don't know about Big Tex, he's just about the tallest cowboy you've ever seen in your life... and he's there to greet you at the fair.  Sure he's a bit creepy and his legs get shockingly skinny as they reach his boots, but he's Big Tex and a staple of the state fair.

2. Riding the HUGEST ferris wheel in all the land.  Yes, I used the word HUGEST for a reason.  It is that enormous.  To the point where you feel like you can see your hometown from the top... which is five hours away from Dallas.  Plus, it's always a bonus when the fair decides to shoot off fireworks while you're at the top.


3. Watching the pig races.  Oh yeah.. you definitely read that right.  There is an arena where we all gather together to cheer on the marked pig of our section to run the fastest to an Oreo.  To which lots of cheering ensues.  Don't mind me while I hold pride in the fact that my pig won all of the races.  Boo yah.

4. Someone in your group riding a crazy carnival ride to test their gag reflex.  And of course losing one of their possessions in the process.  Luckily it wasn't an iPhone like another poor soul on the same ride.  Never a good feeling when you see that crashing down to the concrete.  She'll probably never ride FireBall again.

5. And the last but most important thing about the state fair... FRIED FOOD.  And lots of it.  I'm not talking your regular fried food either.  They fry absolutely everything there... including butter.  You can't question their methods, you just have to try them.  Our group's choices?  Fried Snickers, fried caramel apple, fried grilled cheese, fried frito pie, fried margarita, fried corny dog, fried ribs... along with the usual fair treats like cotton candy, funnel cake, hot dogs, Texas burgers, and LOTS of lemonade.  The ridiculous thing is that we probably didn't eat even half of the choices they offer.  (I won't post a picture here, because there are some things that just don't need to be photographed.)

So go ahead and get excited for next year's State Fair of Texas... you only have to wait 346 more days until a fun-filled fair experience.  Yup... it's a big enough deal that they keep a countdown on their website.  Duh it's a BIG deal... it's Texas.

the car is parked...

So obviously the theme of my life this past month is getting in my car and driving south every single weekend.  Well the weekend is upon us and it's the first time in five weeks that I will not be doing that exact thing.  This makes me relieved and excited for many different reasons that I will list out here (mainly because I'm too exhausted to not do a listing post).

1. I had a dream (that I will deem a nightmare) the other night that for some reason that randomly popped up, I had to go to Houston again this weekend.  When it starts to jack with your sleeping, you know it's not good.
2. I'm pretty sure my car would not be able to handle it.  Ever since THE accident, I have driven precious little Solara that was so graciously donated to me from the sister and bro-in-law.  A little history on Solara?  She was my mom's car before she was my sister's (which was back in the high school days)... so needless to say, homechick has been in the family for a while.  She deserves a break.. I'm going to need her to not explode spontaneously from overuse.
3. My laundry.  It's gotten a little out of control to the point that last weekend I actually packed dirty clothes just to do a load of laundry once I reached Houston.  That may be TMI, but just being real with you.  It is time to do some catch-up.
4. I miss what Fort Worth looks like on a Friday and Saturday.  Ok so that's a little dramatic, but there is some fun stuff going on in the metroplex and I need to not miss it.  I like to be hip with the hop and missing out on things bums me out.  Luckily the state fair goes on for an eternity, so that will not be missed as of this Saturday.  Thank you, Big Tex for sticking around for me.
5. My cute polka dot matching bags are kind of on their last leg.  I feel like they're breathing a sigh of relief at the ability to stay up in their cozy little spot at the top of the closet this weekend.  I shall let them rest in hopes they'll come out looking brand-new in time for Thanksgiving.
6. I love my bed.  So if you have ever stayed at my sister's, then you know you are not going without comfort by sleeping in her guest room.  But there's just something about your own bed and your own bathroom and your own everything.  That you just love.
7. Doing absolutely nothing.  Having no plans.  Laying around on my sectional.  Glorious.
8. Gas is not free.  I'm not sure if anyone else realizes this, but when you have to purchase that much gasoline in that short amount of time... the realization certainly sets in on a deeper level.
9. I have done my duty.  Four weekends in a row should prove to anyone that would love to give me an excuse for why they cannot visit me in Fort Worth for one single weekend that an excuse is just that... an excuse.  If I can do it for four weekends, they can do it for one.  So I am challenging all of them.  YOUR TURN.
10. I'm tired of driving.  Especially by myself.  After the second time, it gets pretty boring.

So with all of that said, I am going to enjoy my weekend in FW to the fullest.  Whether that is laying on my sectional to hanging out with friends to living it up at the state fair... as long as it is here, I don't care.

the other five days of the week...

I don't like that my last few posts have just been weekend recaps.  As it may not seem, my life does continue throughout the week.  Hard to believe, right?  Here are a few random things about my week...

• Cake balls done right are just about the most delicious dessert on the planet.  Drops of heaven in your mouth.  Thankfully I have a recipe that makes fantastic cakeballs in my possession due to the most awesome cook from my church.  I obviously don't know who's the most awesome cook at my church, but I just figure she deserves the award because she brought these cakeballs into my life.
• I can be very lame if I am tired.  This just reminds me that I am getting old.  I used to be able to pull an all-nighter and then still have tons of fun all the next day.  Apparently those days are gone.
• Ribs, cheesy mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and homemade ice cream cake is like offering a feast to boys.  If you don't believe that guys receive love through food, just serve them this dinner. 
• The roomie and I have each other's backs.  Whether that means rolling out of bed to deliver potatoes and straws to their place of business or sacrificing their evening to help a sister out with some kids, we're down.  (Don't try to understand it.)
• There are pine cones in a glass bowl, a lit pumpkin spice candle, and harvest M&M's in a pumpkin dish on the coffee table.  There is a pumpkin with gourds next to it on the brick by the fire place.  There is a sign that says 'Autumn' and leaves all along the mantle.  There is a rod-iron pumpkin decoration on the dining room table.  It is officially fall in our apartment.  Thank you, unexpected exchange gift card from Hobby Lobby.
• A good night is being able to grab some yummy take-out and watch my favorite show on tv.  Call me simple, call me shallow... just don't talk while the show is on, please.

Hope you enjoyed the proof that I do go on living between the days of Monday through Friday.  But since it is Friday, I am about to pack up my belongings... and you guessed it, head on down south.  Be back later with the infamous weekend recap.

i'm tired...

For all things insanity, it just so happened that I am traveling down to the Houston area 4 weekends in a row.  Halfway done.  All the driving makes me tired.

The air mattress my sister and I were both sleeping on Friday night decided to do the most awesome thing... deflate in the middle of the night.  If that wasn't bad enough since I may not have completely noticed it in my comatose state, my sister decides that it is necessary to loudly announce that we were now sleeping on the floor.  Thanks for the update, Ash.  Sleeping on a deflated air mattress with someone else makes me tired.

I did a lot of things packed in 2 days... drove to Galveston, hung out with family, went to the movies with the family, checked out Barnes & Noble, headed back north to meet up with my mom at my sister's, went to Fairfield to meet up with other family at a down-home cooking restaurant (that my sister swears we used to eat at all the time to which no one else remembers), go watch my godsister the Rangerette dance at their college football game, and then drive back to Fort Worth.  It may not seem like alot to you, but all of that makes me tired.

When I don't get a chance to set up all of my nursery classrooms during the week, I get to church by 7:30 am to get them all situated before we pray as a team at 8:15.  Waking up at 5:45 am after getting home late from a road trip makes me tired. 

I am currently reading Francine Rivers' new book which is absolutely fantastic.  It's a book that is worthy of the 'not able to put it down' status.  Or the 'it makes me wish I didn't have a job so I could read all day' status.  Staying up late to read makes me tired.

I was summoned to jury duty in downtown Fort Worth at the criminal justice center at 8 am on Monday... with 587 other people.  They were still short jurors even with that ridiculously large amount so we were all automatically picked.  I sat in the most massive room I've ever seen waiting for the jury bailiff to call my name for my court assignment.  Right when she did and I was about to fill out my questionnaire to report back the next day at 9 am, that particular case got cancelled.  Hallelujah.  Waking up at the butt crack of dawn to report to a jury room in the middle of downtown and listen to 588 names being called makes me tired.

We decided to throw our friend a surprise birthday party tonight.  However, communication lines were crossed and that friend apparently already had plans.  This led us to go back and forth on what Plan B should be, which resulted in us to heading to Wal-Mart at 9:30 pm to do something we could have done hours before.  Trips to the store after 9 pm make me tired.

Tuesday morning is Ladies Day Bible Study at our church and I run the childcare for that event.  Which is HUGE.  It makes me anxious in making sure all of the pieces have come together and everything is set before anyone shows up.  Getting to the church in enough time to do this on Tuesday morning makes me tired.

The aforementioned birthday party for friend is tonight at 8:45 pm.  Knowing that I am going to an event that doesn't start until that late already makes me tired.

I think I'll go rest now.

down south is where I stay...

Starting this past weekend, this next month is going to be a whirlwind of traveling.  Mostly down south.  I swear it seems like those people are trying to force me to move back down there just to save on gas.  But I'm holding strong.  This past weekend began all of that craziness and let me just tell you what exactly that weekend looked like...

1. Starbucks stop for the road trip down.  This is a necessity.

2. Lunch with two of my Huntsville girls at my all-time favorite Huntsville deli.  Can we get a HOLLA for Five Loaves Deli?!  Yes, they love Jesus... yes, they have an amazing grilled chicken sandwich... yes, they serve sweet tea... yes, the place is precious.  It was the perfect place to catch up on Hannah and Heather's lives.  Love these girls and it just makes me miss living in the same town as them all the more. 

3. My Nana gave me the newest Francine Rivers book.  Have I told you how amazing my Nana is lately?  Because she's pretty much the best. 

4. Jeans shopping with Jen.  This is my favorite.  With her gone from Fort Worth now, I didn't think this would ever happen again.  But alas, there we both were in the same dressing room avoiding those crazy people that work at the Buckle.  We both walked away with a fantastic pair (pairs for some people) of jeans.  So fun.

5. Tons of shopping with the sissy.  We tend to do this often when we're together.  For the record, this shopping was for other people and food for the shower for those other people.  (Besides the one pair of jeans, of course.)

6. Dinner at Rudy's.  When my sister found out that I'd never eaten there, she almost ran 12 cars off the highway to get me there.  Although they so rudely were out of what I wanted to order, the food I did get to enjoy was absolutely delicious.  So glad that I finally got to try out the place that I hear about all the time.

7. Hanging out with the brother-in-law.  Between viewing all million of their Chicago trip pictures, thinking through his best man's speech, and chatting about his new business.. it's always good times to hang with him.  Love having a brother. 

8. Lunch with one of my high school besties.  I haven't seen her in FOR-EVER so it was so fun to be able to catch up and celebrate this next chapter in her life of welcoming a baby in the world.  So sweet.

9. Decorating and dinner with my sister's crazy friends that are now my friends.  Yup, I take ownership too.  It's always an adventure with those girls and it was fun getting to gear up for Kourt's big day together.  The first season of Glee was invited as well.

10. Baking my arm in the oven.  That's right... I made the brightest move of my life and pretty much laid my arm on one of the oven's racks.  It took Chris to make a noise before I actually made the same noise in realization that my arm should NOT be touching something that hot.  My reward for my brilliance?  TWO second degree burns.  That's the one with the fun bubbling and blistering.  Grossed out?  Yeah, me too.

11. Monkey bread with the girls.  Was it worth the damage to the arm?  I sure as heck hope they think so. 

12. Breakfast with Jen.  Do I absolutely love that she lives a subdivision over from the sissy's house?  Duh.  Am I so super glad that I got to see her twice this past weekend?  Of course.  Do I still hold bitterness towards Spring for taking her away?  YES.

13.  Kourtnie and Sean's shower!  It was the whole reason for the trip and it turned out so super cute.  I absolutely loved the fall themed shower... decked out with more fall decorations than Hobby Lobby, a cowboy boots cake, bales of hay, pumpkins, and tons of delicious food.  Loved it.  Love them.  Love the fall.

14. Clothes swapping with the sissy.  I came home with a romper.  I just like saying that word.  Not really sure how I feel about it or if it will ever make it's public debut.  Right now it's just living in the closet until I can make a final decision.

15. Starbucks stop on the long late drive back.  Duh.

All in all, a pretty fantastically fun weekend.  And now it's Monday.  Which means tomorrow is Tuesday.  Before you know it, I'll be headed back down south again.  Good times.

so blessed...

Yesterday was an incredibly rough day.  My mom sent me an e-mail this morning that not only encouraged me, but challenged me to really stop and looking at the blessings in my life.  As I sat there and did that this morning, I came across a lot of different thoughts of reflection...

• I have people in my life that not only love me, but pray hard for me.
• I have a mother that is my biggest fan and cheerleader.  I know that she will always be there to cry with me and to smile with me.
• Not everyone gets to have their best friend as a roommate.  It's true friendship at it's finest. 
• I get to work in an environment where everyone around me loves the Lord and wants to serve Him the best way they can.  It's an incredible place of support and love.  Let's be honest... it's not everywhere that you leave work upset and return to a desk that has a super sweet card and a cute vase of flowers.
• I am able to have an intimate relationship with the God of the universe.  And rely on His strength and comfort daily.
• I have family that truly knows my heart and would fight to the death for me.
• I have been presented an opportunity to serve families and kids by loving on them and learning more about our Lord together everyday.
• I have a sense of humor and know not to take myself too seriously.
• God is sovereign.  Terrifyingly so, as Matt Chandler put it this past week.  Not an article of dust can move without God being in control.  How amazingly comforting.
• We are not made to be comfortable in this world.  The Bible even says that our souls should be yearning for what is to come.

All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 

Matthew 11:27-29

just call us wacoans...

An organization that will always hold a piece of my heart is Sigma Phi Lambda.  Main reason being that this is where I was pulled into a community of girls that loved God and desired to follow hard after him... right at a time where I needed it most.  I will be forever grateful for the Lord placing Phi Lamb in my life and for all of the girls that loved on me and taught me so much.  I had the honor of serving as an officer for this fantastic organization my senior year of college, along with four other amazing girls.  Our officer core had a bond that year that has outlasted our years at college and stands strong even through the distance.  

(circa 2007)

Three of us live in different towns in the metroplex and one of us lives in Temple.  We decided it was only appropriate to have a long overdue day of fun together.  (If you've done the math already, that means that one of us was not present and of course GREATLY missed.  Love you Hannah!)  We looked at the map and decided that Waco was going to be our location of fun.  And with that, this Saturday because a full-fledged day of us living it up in Waco to see all it has to offer.

When Andrea and Chelsea arrived to my apartment, we all piled in Solara and headed west.  Christine had done her Waco research and found out that Buzzard Billy's was the place to meet for lunch.  Located on a river that shall remain nameless here (because I never took the time to find out the name), Buzzard Billy's was a cajun restaurant that required you to cross the bridge over the swamp to walk in.  Authentic atmosphere... gotta love it.  We all ordered our cajun meals (besides Chelsea of course since her go-to meal is always chicken tenders) and immediately caught up on each other's lives.  And caught Christine up on all chat that occurred in the car ride over... funny how quick little inside jokes can be started in just a one-hour car ride.  We completed our time at Buzzard Billy's with a must-needed picture with the buzzard itself.  Against all wishes of Andrea.

We still had an hour before our movie so we contemplated where in Waco we should tackle next.  Driving through downtown and heading towards Baylor campus, a particular girl got it in her head that we should take random silly senior pictures somewhere.  Between intense searching of visitor parking on campus, major complaints about the heat from the rest of us, and the beginning of an apparent allergic reaction from another of us... this girl got her wish.

After this detour, we headed on to our movie at the Galaxy.  We decided to go see what we thought was a chick flick about a couple being long-distance.  Didn't quite expect the Rated R-ness of it.  Whoops... so much for keeping it classy.  Made it all worth it just to hear Chelsea's ridiculous gasps throughout the entire thing anytime something less than wholesome occurred.  And Justin Long is still adorable in my book.

(They are less than enthused about this picture.  But I don't care.)

We ended our day at the most amazing place in all of Waco.  It is a little bit of paradise that has been planted right next to Baylor campus which can also be known as Common Grounds coffee shop.  To say that I am obsessed with this place is putting it mildly.  It is an absolutely adorable coffee shop that has tons of cute seating inside and cute seating outside in their huge backyard complete with a stage.  The even more fantastic thing about Common Grounds?  Their cowboy coffee.  Pure amazingness.  Best iced coffee I've ever had in my life.  Why is it so amazing, you ask?  This coffee is created with their secret sauce.  As Andrea put it perfectly, it's got to be crack.  Which of course reminded me about why I was so glad that she got to share the Common Grounds experience with me.  She truly understands the addiction.  And luckily everyone else seemed to love the place as much as me.  We even made our way from sitting in the backyard... to enjoying the a/c in one of the rooms... to sitting on the swing on the front porch.  We obviously enjoyed our time there.  And will hopefuly return very soon.

(Look at the pure joy on our faces holding that coffee.  Pure joy.)

(Bands play here.  Cute and fun.  I love it.)

(We much welcomed the air conditioner on the not-so-cool fall day.)

(We not so much welcomed the odd stranger that insisted on sitting and staring... while eating his Taco Bell.)

(I feel the need to explain that she's drinking hot chocolate.. in a sweater.. in 100 degree weather.  She's cool(?) like that.)

(They also have a swing.  It's like they know me there.)

(It maybe could make the move to Waco worthwhile... just maybe.)

(I'm obviously in love.. and a little ridiculous.)

After getting the second cowboy coffee to go (yes it is that good and yes I am that addicted), Christine returned us to Solara and we headed our separate ways.  It was very sad indeed but we will always have Waco.  Oh, and Huntsville.  Whoops.. that cowboy coffee has got me all confused on where my loyalties lie...