Girls are Spaghetti

A New Year

I think it is very important to remember to take time to reflect on and appreciate the past so that you can clearly look forward to the future. I’m very thankful for my life and everyone in it! I am extremely blessed by the Lord!! Here are a couple examples of how.

Highlights of 2012:

• Meeting and falling in love with boyfriend Jeff 
• Getting to be neighbors and working with my best friend Callie
• Having classes with my friends Chelsea and Bethany….and watching them graduate with their masters
• Watching some of my oldest and fondest friends (Josh, Molly, Eric, Adrian, and Ashley & Caleb) tie the knot
• Camping in Catalina with Brandon and Gabby
• Spending my birthday in Palm Desert on a quadruple date weekend
• Getting to work for Community Life and getting to know the staff
• Playing flag football with the #winning girls
• Going to Yosemite for the first time (most beautiful place ever!!)
• Spending the holidays with my family and watching my 4 year old brother ride his motorcycle (he was made for motorcycles!)
• Getting to know Jeff’s family
• Closing out New Year’s Eve with Jeff, Justin, and Kylie seeing Kevin Hart at Staples Center

Upcoming in 2013:

• The end of graduate classes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Traveling to England to see Callie and explore the world
• Starting practicum
• Whatever else God has in store :)

This is the night I met my dear friend, Kylie. It was at Yule in 2007, my first year at CBU. I remember when we went to pick her up at APU and she looked so pretty! My first thought was “great, I have to hang out with someone prettier than me all night!” I was a pretty insecure little freshman, but I was working on it. So in the spirit of working on it, I got past myself, reminded myself that looks are not what’s important in life, and we hit it off! Our dates that night were best buds, and all they did the whole night was reminisce! So when they went into the grocery store to get firewood, Kylie and I bonded over trying to sneakily change our outfits in a public parking lot. We spent the rest of the night making up moments to reminisce about and rubbing it in to our dates what good friends we were! We were pretty funny :)

From that night, we were with each other through break ups, in late night adventures, line dancing, Disney twin dates, trips to see Jimmy Kimmel & Ellen & America’s Got Talent, rooming together, graduations, Knott’s Scary Farm, and quadruple dates. Even now we spend time doing fun things and clearing up misunderstandings because we care about our friendship. Since Yule was just this past weekend, it reminded me of this night. Obviously I cut us out of this photo, because the whole photo is not whats important, what is so special is the friendship that came out of this moment right here. 

Thankful for our friendship Kylie! Just wanted to share a sentimental moment :)

This weekend I had the honor of witnessing my forever friend, Miss Molly Miller, tie the knot. This girl and I have been friends since the moment she was born! We were always complete opposites, I was a total tomboy and Molly was the girliest girl you’d ever meet. She was the only person I would play Barbies with. We spent summers playing on the trampoline with the hose, trying to terrorize her brothers, attempting to make jam just from looking at the ingredients, wearing our goggles upside down, and watching Shirley Temple movies. She’s been my Palm Springs buddy every Easter; we’ve shared our lives together. I couldn’t have been more proud to hear everyone speak about the amazing woman that Molly has grown into and see her so happy with her husband. Though I’m sad that the time I get with her continuously gets smaller, there’s a reason that we’re forever friends. Love you Moo 😊

Then I made them into a door hanging! I’m not quite sure how to make these doors cute, but this at least helps!

Got creative last night and made these pinterest inspired cardboard flowers happen.

I just want to say, if my hair could do this. It would ALWAYS be like this. the end.

Girls and Puppies

We saw this cute little guy in the pet store today! Here are some actual things that came out of our mouths:

“I don’t need to go to England, all I need is you!”
“You would go great with our masters degrees”
“Our lives we’re ok until this moment, now they are great!”
“At least now I can die happy”
“That’s it, we’re moving into the pet store to live with you!”
“You distract the clerks, I have the dog and I’ll make a run for it”

Honor

The last two weeks at Sandals Church we’ve talked about honor. When I originally think of the concept of honor, I get this picture of myself standing tall, much like the stance of a super hero. It’s a picture of me being honored, but it turns out the world actually doesn’t revolve around me, weird right?!

We’ve been talking about honoring others. And we haven’t just been talking; we’ve been honoring others as a church. Last week we honored a local pastor who was instrumental in the birth of our church. He came to the church and we gave him a gift, and did the traditional standing, clapping and cheering. If you know me, you know I hate clapping. I think I just feel that it gets kinda thrown around, we clap for everything! I don’t want to do anything in life if I don’t mean it, so I’m a selective clapper. (This is probably a dumb little attitude to have on clapping, but it’s just where I’m at now). The point is, this was something worth clapping for. This week, we honored educators, another thing worth clapping for. Then Sandals Church staff hijacked the stage and we honored our Pastor, Matt Brown, and his family. I didn’t even hesitate to stand and clap and cheer. I am so grateful for all that this family has done to build Sandals Church. This church is a spiritual reality check every time I am there. I appreciate this church and am proud to be led by a pastor who has been so authentic and honest in his faith. I am in no way saying that he doesn’t make mistakes; I am saying that I have observed him to be honest and humble in repentance and the freedom that comes from Christ.

What I have seen in honor is this: to honor someone else is to honor Christ, and it requires that you make yourself humble. It’s quite contrary to my initial vision of myself!

John 3:30 NASB ”He must increase, but I must decrease.”

While I have been recovering from getting my wisdom teeth pulled last week I spent most every waking minute watching all 5 seasons of Friday Night Lights, all gratitude to the lovely Amanda Holder. I gained some things from this experience:

1. A love for Texas, I’ve had the impulsive sense to move there multiple times this week

2. A love for Texas men (or the scripted ones on the show), they are manly, they play football and they say “yes sir.” I love that!

3. I gained a country accent for a couple days……

4. A desire for my future sons to play football

I just loved this show! I love sports and all the character qualities that they instill in a person. Watching this show made me miss all my memories of playing soccer. I’m very grateful for my experiences and I wish they had never had to end.

I love our time together :)