Sweet summertime

From Round Rock...

The summer is flying by! I have already been home from school for a month, and it feels like I have only been here for a week. I started my job as the second youth intern at Central, and I absolutely love it. I get paid to do fun stuff all the time...and fulfill other random requests, but I don't mind that so much. It comes with the territory. On Wednesday nights, the youth group does regular worship from 7-8:30, and then from 8:30-11 there is an activity planned. It is so cleverly called 7-11. Last week was Gattiland, and I left with an awesome foam bow and arrow! I was excited. This week is messy games night, and while I am more excited about watching, I have a feeling I won't be allowed to leave without getting somewhat disgusting. We have also started having meetings for the mission trip to Alaska. Being the planner that I am, I am sooo looking forward to getting the "What To Bring" list! I love packing for trips. It makes it more real that I am actually going somewhere cool. We also are leaving for Youth Camp this Friday! I haven't been since 10th grade, but this time I will be going as a sponsor instead of a student, so that will be an interesting change.

This weekend I traveled to Denton to visit Kristen E, and might I say we had a lovely time! Despite the sunburns anyway. I will go ahead and share a funny story...

We went bowling, and I was discussing with my niece, Amanda, what we would be if we could be "made" into anything. Of course talking about the MTV show. Kristen E. apparently missed that part of the conversation and this is what happened..

Amanda: "If you could be made into anything, what would it be?"
Me: "Ummm I would say a drag racer."
Amanda: "Kristen what about you?"
Kristen: "Oohhh, chocolate!"

Oh, Kristen. I love you so much.
That is all. Have a blessed week :)

So close to the end...

From College Station

It has been quite some time since I have posted, and for that I apologize. Well as the title indicates, this semester is almost over. The last full week of classes is halfway through, and then "dead" week and then finals. I wouldn't exactly say that "dead" week is an appropriate name, seeing as it is the time when everyone stuffs their brains so full of information that dying wouldn't even be an option. I just thought I would share some of my summer plans :)

-I will be working at Central as a youth intern alongside my dear friends Allen Frans and Justin Kellough, and I simply can NOT wait. It's something I have been praying about ever since Allen asked me back in October, and I feel like it's exactly what God wants for me the summer.
-Because of this fabulous job, I will have the opportunity to go to North Pole, Alaska, on the annual World Changers mission trip. I have always wanted to go to Alaska, but it will be even cooler getting to go and serve others rather than just for a vacation.
-Since Kristen E. will be staying in Denton this summer, I'm sure I will be making many trips up there to visit her as well!
-Almost every year, my family goes to a place in Hunt, TX, called River Inn. It is probably my favorite place in the world, simply because it is so peaceful and beautiful. I haven't been in a few years, so needless to say I have been more than ready to go back.
-My sister, Kerry, will be graduating in May. I am so excited for her and even more excited because in the Fall she will be joining me at Texas A&M as my new roommate! This summer will be filled with trips to Target and Bed Bath & Beyond I'm sure...

That's pretty much what my summer will look like. As for next Fall, I am very much looking forward to what God has in store. Have an awesome day :)

God is Merciful

From Denton...

Today I was reading my weekly e-mail from James McDonald, which is a small devotional sent out once a week. Today's was over the Lord's mercy and his Holiness- truly understanding how Holy Christ is, as we continue to grow in an intimate relationship with Him . Something that James McDonald said was a great illustration of a growing relationship, growing in understanding and in knowledge and I wanted to share!

"The bigger the trials get, the more I know I need God.

The more I need God, the closer I am drawn to Him.

The closer I get to Him, the more I sense His holiness.

The more I sense His holiness, the More I realize my own sinfulness."

That illustration is something that I have truly been experiencing this semester as the Lord has been challenging me through different trials and situations. I am so grateful for His mercy as He breaks me down and shows me how much i truly need Him and the grace only He can give. God has shown himself to be bigger than anything here on this earth and I can't wait to continue getting to know my Savior more and more each day. The Lord is so good!

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." -Philippians 3:10-11

Road Trip to Round Rock!

From Denton...

Since last semester I had been wanting to take a trip home and bring a bunch of my friends with me to meet my family (if they hadn't already) and to experience the lovely Round Rock/Austin area! I finally found a time to do so and ended up taking seven of my WONDERFUL friends with me back to RR last weekend and we had a blast!

Five of my friends (Michaella, AJ, Lizzy, Corey, and Kip)met me at my apartment around 12:30 on friday and we decided that we all wanted to ride together so we all crammed in my little, but comfortable, honda civic. I rode comfortably for the 3 hour trip because I was driving but the rest of them enjoyed snuggling up in the back seat and we had a great time jamming out and all the road trip type things that you do. Once we got to RR we stopped by the house, said visited with my parents, then headed off to CHUYS...yumm :). Chuys was the first place I wanted to take everyone because it is a well known tex-mex restaurant which originated in downtown Austin and is so very delicious. After that, we hung out at the house played pool, and had a dance contest until catching a movie at the dollar theater. We decided to see The Book of Eli which was very good. I was not sure how i felt about it at the beginning but once it got going i was hooked. Late friday night, Kelsey and Seth finally got in and then we crashed!

Saturday morning we slept in until about 10:00 or so with RR Donuts (arguably, the best donuts in the world) , pigs-in-the-blankets, and fresh strawberries sitting in the kitchen waiting for us.

Around noon we all left the house and headed to our first stop in Austin which was the 360 bridge look out! We hiked up the cliff took some pictures, hiked a little bit more to take more pictures then finally headed back down. It turned out to be such a beautiful day and the view was just awesome!

After 360 bridge, we made our way to Mt. Bonnell...we hiked up the concrete stairs and hiked around for a little bit and enjoyed the incredible Austin view! Around 2:30 we made our way to South Congress, downtown, to eat lunch at Home Slice Pizza then stopped to get a cupcake at Hey Cupcake...DELICIOUS!! We strolled around south congress to stop in some thrift stores then made our last stop to the drag to go to Toy Joy and Buffalo exchange!! We ended the night with a fantastic dinner at the house...my parents grilled fajitas!

Sunday, we all woke up and went to church, had sushi for lunch, took blue bonnet pictures, then headed back to Denton. On the way home we stopped in Waco to eat dinner and my best friend blake and his good friend jaclyn joined us since they go to Baylor! It ended up being such an amazing weekend! The Lord has blessed me with such incredible friends who have hearts to serve the Lord and love others...God is so good!

Lessons learned...

From College Station...

This past week was pretty tough. Filled with lots of ups and downs. A week ago today (last Sunday) I heard about an organization on campus called Project Sunshine. Their mission is to host activities for kids with special needs, usually things they don't normally get to do. Things like a mini-prom, basketball games, carnivals, trips to the zoo, etc. As soon as I heard about it, I immediately fell in love with the idea of being a part of something like that. I went to the informational the next night and signed up for an interview 2 days later (Wednesday). The application process was fairly simple...basically I just had to answer why I wanted to be a part of the organization. My answer was truthful, stating that I believe that every child is a gift from God and is precious in His sight and should be shown the same amount of love, if not more, than a child without disabilities, and that it is our calling to show the unconditional love of Jesus to those who need it the most. I felt like my interview went very well. I was very honest in all of my answers, and the girl interviewing me seemed like she could tell this was really on my heart. After the interview, she told me to come by their cubicle on Friday morning to pick up my letter saying if I made it in or not. I left not feeling too worried about it, because surely they only denied the people who answered things like "I just want something good to put on my resume". Fast forward to Friday. I got my envelope, and I opened it as soon as I got on the bus. It was like the letters got smaller and smaller as I read...

"Thank you for applying to Project Sunshine. Unfortunately, we cannot offer you acceptance into the program at this time. Don't let this discourage you from applying next semester."

I felt like crying right then and there. I felt like screaming at God at the top of my lungs. I felt confused. Angry. Hurt. Inadequate. For the first time in a while I felt like He had really put something on my heart to be a part of. Some way I could serve Him tangibly. And then to pull it out from under me? Of course I was upset! All the questions came flooding into my head. And then they all were silenced with one voice...

"Be still and know that I am God..."

That was so hard for me to hear. I wanted to be still, but something inside of me kept talking back. It took me a few minutes, but then it all became so clear to me. My plans may not always match with God's plans. Let's be honest...my plans RARELY match with God's plans. How silly of me to think that I knew what was best, and then to blame God for not doing it my way. God revealed to me that although we may have all the right intentions of doing something, it still may not be in His timing. "No" may simply mean "not now" or "wait". I have recently been asking God to provide money for my mission trip to Alaska this summer, since I have not had the best of luck finding a job this year. Project Sunshine cost $50 to join. Who knows, maybe it's God's way of providing that extra $50 I had been asking for. On a better note, I did have a job interview on Thursday, and I will hear back about it by next week sometime. I'm really putting all my trust in God with this one, because if I don't get it, I'm really going to have to have a ton of faith to believe that He will provide a way for me to pay for this trip. Please pray about that.

I leave you with this applicable verse.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5

Long time no post!

From Denton...

It has been almost a month since I last posted and I did not think I would go this long without blogging but indeed I did. However, I am going to work on blogging more often :).

I am finally back in Denton for the semester. I went from going to Round Rock to Houston, back to Round Rock then to New Braunfels, back to Round Rock then to Denton, back to Round Rock then to Belton, back to Round Rock, then finally back to Denton all in about a month. It was a lot of traveling but very much worth it because I got to visit my mom and dad's side of the family and be a leader at Disciple Now in Belton, TX which was an incredible experience and God blessed my heart.

I am currently coaching an upward basketball team with one of my dearest friends, Jordan, and we are coaching 3rd and 4th grade girls. They are precious girls and it has been so much fun. We have had four practices and our first game was today. Although I was a tad nervous, it turned out to be a blast and I am more pumped up than ever to get back to practice. The neat thing about upward is that it is geared towards having fun and sharing the Love/Gospel of Christ and not so much the winning aspect. Therefore, they do not keep score or make many calls on fouls and things like that. The not keeping score part turned out to benefit us today because we had our lunch served to us (or however you say it) so it kept them from having low spirits. We hand out stars at the end of each game; each girl gets a star and they all represent different things like most Christlike, best offense, best defense, best effort, and sportsman ship. It was such a blessing to see how excited they got when we announced which star they got! The girls had such great attitudes throughout the whole game and I know they are going to have a fantastic season!!

School starts back up on Tuesday and although I am not so excited for the 'school' part I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things...I will feel more productive since I have spent the last few days hanging out, sleeping in, and watching too much television.

I hope everyone has a blessed week!!

Trip to San Antonio

From College Station...or Round Rock, rather.

This Saturday was my 20th birthday! To celebrate the occasion, my parents and I, along with my boyfriend Chris, took a trip to San Antonio. We stayed in a hotel right on the Riverwalk, so that was very convenient! Saturday night we went to a wonderful Italian restaurant called Zio's. I would highly recommend it. We spent most of Sunday at the zoo. I hadn't been in quite a while, so it was extra fun! Over all, I would say it was a very successful trip, and a good getaway from the craziness of Christmas shopping.

Have a wonderful Christmas week!