The Best of 2008

2008 has been a wonderful year! I was thinking the other night, reflecting over this past year, and how great of a year it really has been. And what's even more amazing, every New Year's that I can remember, I have thought the same thing--God has blessed me with so much more than I ever imagine, much less, that I deserve. So, I have decided to do a "Top Ten of 2008". These are special moments and events, and more importantly with people, that have meant so much to me this year.

10. Football season, not necessarily all of the scores by the end of the game, but the memories made as my last UGA football season as a student.
9. My (becoming more frequent) visits up to Chattanooga with amazing friends that are becoming more and more like family to me.

8. My 22nd Birthday in Athens with some of the best friends a girl could ask for :) And more desserts than I should have eaten-haha!

7. Being a senior at UGA (Which wouldn't have been possible without my finding a major so I can graduate on time!!)
*This one is two fold...Senior year comes with the excitement of what's coming next, but also loving and appreciating my friends in Athens more than ever (Like going to see Wicked and Matt Wertz when I found some free time)

6. Blobbing in the thunderstorm and weekends during the summer in genereal
...Well, this picture of from another blobbing, or blabbing experience, which was equally as fun and thrilling...
5. Being a leader for a D-Now Weekend and going on an incredible mission trip to Washington DC with Crossroads
4. Seeing two amazing, Godly women become a Mrs.
-Alex (even though I don't have any pictures with just her :( ) become Mrs. Walker :)
and Emily's wedding was such a fun celebration of seeing her and David come together as husband and wife!3. Working at camp with so many wonderful other people on staff and seeing kids coming to Christ at camp
2. Getting baptized at camp in front of my parents and camp family...the story is incredible how it all played out, but that will come in a later post for sure :)
1. Charlotte being born--What an amazing blessing in my life and I know for everyone that knows her

Words can hardly describe how much this year has meant to me and how blessed I am for each of you that read this blog (all 4 of you haha) to be in my life. This year has been what it means to me because my friends and family...God is teaching me more and more about true love that can only been found in special friendships and all the fun that I have had with each of you have brought me to appreciate each of you that much more. Thank you for being apart of my life in 2008 and I cannot wait to see what God has planned for me in 2009--I mean, it'll be a big year since I'll be graduating and moving to only God knows where...prayerfully Chattanooga though!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Ohhhh We're halfway there!

This Christmas break has been as close as perfect can be :) I'll try to give a short (ish) recap of this past week and a half since my last post (hence, the title of my post, because I'm halfway through my Christmas break):

Saturday through Tuesday, I forced myself to stand behind the watch counter at the mall for Fossil. I have been doing Fossil watches every Christmas, some Thanksgivings, and some Mother's/Father's days since my senior year....in high school. So for 5 years (probably 2 years too long), I have done pretty much nothing for 8 hours a day during the holidays, but it's all worth it when I get that glorious check in the mail :)

Also on Saturday, my 87 year old grandmother (more commonly known as Mimi) flew in from Mississippi and she got to meet her great-grandaughter (my niece, Charlotte) for the first time! :) She was so excited to she "Lil Miss" as we like to call her. Katie and Lee were with his band for a few days at Universal Studios so my parents and I got to keep Charlotte until Christmas Eve, when Katie and Lee came as soon as they could to see their much missed daughter. It was so fun to have Charlotte around the house--she's crawling really well by now, babbling a whole lot about a whole lot of nothing and can walk when you hold her up with your fingers; My heart hurts I love her so much!!

After Charlotte left with her mom and dad, I was relieved of standing all day from working at a mall (never again will I work for Fossil...I can't take the boredom anymore), but Mimi was still here :) We went to the Candle Light Service at my home church (one of my favorite parts of Christmas, hands down) and had our traditional homemade pizza for dinner.

I woke up on Christmas morning to presents from Santa and a delicious breakfast of monkey bread. Later that afternoon, Kirby and Daniel came down from the Cleland household in Chattanooga. (Thanks for sharing them, Anna! You get them back in a couple of days!) We mostly just vegged most days--which is wonderful. It's been for-e-ver since I've been able to do that without some sort of guilt in needing to do something else instead. I'm reading through the whole Chronicles of Narnia series and I'm about halfway through The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which is the 5th book out of 7...granted they're only like 200 pages each and on a 5th or 6th grade reading level--but it's so great to read through them as a believer and trying to see C.S. Lewis' relation to the Bible through the books.

Sadly, Mimi had to go back to Mississippi, but what a HUGE blessing to have her around the house for the holidays. We're so blessed that she is still able to come out to visit us--oh! And I forgot, she and I (along with Kirby and Daniel) made our traditional trek to Dairy Queen so she could enjoy a banana split (predictably, I got a strawberry blizzard) and we also got to look at Christmas lights--some more ridiculous than others...This guy pays around $800 on his electric bill during the month of December--WHOA!

Hopefully, the remainder of my break will include lots of time with friends from high school because I have only met up with one so far. I still don't know if I'll have time to make it up to Chattanooga, this break is going by faster than I had imagined!! I'm grateful for the relaxation as well as staying busy enough. I tried my best to keep my post short, but again, I failed. ha! And PS-I mailed my application to work at CVP again this summer :)

Labor of Love

This break has been so wonderful and I haven't even officially been on break for a whole week yet!! It feels like I have though, mostly because I was in Chattanooga this time last week, came back to Athens for finals, home to Marietta for a night...woke up on Thursday to drive to Chattanooga, where I got out of my car into Forrest's truck to ride up to Nashville for the Andrew Peterson concert (Ah-may-zing. Absolutely amazing), came back to Chattanooga waaaay past my bedtime (It was 2:30 because I got into bed, 3 before I feel asleep). Then, I woke up on Friday to come back to Marietta to babysit my precious niece for the afternoon (gasp for air from exhaustion!)and then woke up this morning to work for Fossil for 8 hours (ugh)...which is what I'll be doing for the next 3 days-standing behind a watch counter, bored to tears, but getting paid :) But after I get off of work each night, I have time with my Mimi (87 year old grandmother) that's in town visiting and Charlotte is in town until Tuesday too while Katie and Lee are in Disney World with Lee's band. Whew, what a first week of break!

But the real point of this blog, a huge reality that God has been teaching me these past couple of weeks: Jesus was a human being. Okay, so I know that this is something that we hear Sundays in church is that Jesus was fully God and fully human and doesn't sound like too huge of a revelation. But what my mind has starting to wrap itself around is that being human means that, much like you and I, Jesus got tired, even at times exhausted, and needed to sleep. He thirsted, and needed to drink water. He had to bathe. Jesus experienced emotions. He was tempted, but the most incredible part is that he didn't give in. A song on Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God" album is Labor of Love (one of my all time favorite songs). The talks about how "It was not a silent night", the night that Mary gave birth to her son, Jesus. The song goes on to say:

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love

Listening to this song, I'm reminded that Mary was in pain when she gave birth to Jesus and that just because Jesus was fully God, the other part to remember is that he was fully human. Being in labor (from what I've heard at least) is so painful and exhausting and Mary's labor was no exception. When I think about Jesus in the flesh, I almost picture this superhuman life--never tiring, never needing or wanting anything except for performing miracles. God has been showing me through so many different ways that Jesus had physical, human needs and most importantly--he died in a method that many other humans, usually criminals, died....but even bigger than that, the biggest thing to see in all of history, he died on that cross in pain for our sins. Jesus died a painful death that he in no way deserved, but did on our behalf to reconcile our eternal relationship with God. That was a labor of love in the purest form.

Hellllooo Christmas Break

I just officially completed my second to last semester of school-EVER!! WOOHOO!!! Even though technically, I'm taking an Independent Study class that I should have started, hm, like 2 weeks ago? I'll find time for that later. In the meantime, I'm too excited about surviving my 21 hour semester!!

Hilights of Fall Finals 2008:
-Falling at of my chair while studying
-Having my last few days of classes canceled so I could bum around
-Not really stressing too much about my grades :) (but I still studied plenty, Dad)
-Making a gingerbread house with Kathryn
-Going to the Camp Christmas party in the midst of Finals
-Celebrating with Ms. Brittain (my adorably sweet "old lady")
-Studying at Starbuck's for 5 hours straight
-Realizing that I only have to go through the agony of finals one more time :)

Things to Look Forward to during Christmas Break:
-Andrew Peterson concert
-Babysitting Charlotte for a few days
-Making some mola working for Fossil
-Reading a good book (to be determined...)
-My Mimi flying in to see our family for a week
-Getting a banana split with my Mimi (it's our traditional date)
-Rest and Relaxation :)
-Candlelit Christmas Eve service at church
-Spending Christmas with the fam (my favorite part of the break)
-Nicole and Luke getting married!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Hopefully having some visitors from Chattanooga come to Atlanta
-Hopefully going up to Chattanooga to spend time with friends (specifically, time with Kasey)
-Not being in school :)

The weekend I've been looking forward to since August

This past weekend is one of those weekends that I'd looked forward to, well, probably since the day that I left CVP at the end of the summer. I had two finals on Thursday and got out of Athens as soon as I could to get home to Marietta. After sleeping in on Friday, I made my way up to Chattanooga and felt even more at home when I made the turn onto I-24 to Chattanooga. I stopped by la Casa de Cleland before meeting Jerry at Big River for a delicious lunch! I had never been to Big River before, but ordered what most everyone had reccommended-a cheeseburger :) SOOOO good! And to finish off the meal, I got a slice of pumpkin cheesecake (Camp paid for the meal, which is why I didn't have to think twice when the desserts were listed off-YUMMMM) Even better than the meal was the conversation. Jerry had planned to come down to UGA this fall to meet up with me and J-Frank, but it was at the very beginning of our Fall Break so timining just didn't work out. We caught up on my semester, how settling into their new home was going, and the main focus of the conversation-this summer. (That's a whole separate paragraph...) I made my way back to Anna's house, gave into my food coma and took a nap, and when I woke up, it was time to get ready for the night! We borrowed some tacky Christmas attire so we could go over to the Rocha's for their Christmas party (my first ever Tacky sweater Christmas party!!) before going to Sticky Fingers for dinner with friends from camp that were already in town. We felt so bad for anyone that wasn't sitting with us at the restaurant becauses we were SO loud. What did you expect when you get 14 people that are like family who haven't seen each other in over 4 months?! It was so fun just to catch up and see all of their faces, knowing that they were sitting with me--I just couldn't stop smiling!!

Saturday was equally as wonderful, if not better than Friday. After trying to sleep in (I think this semester has trained me to always wake up at 9 am, at the latest), Mrs. Cleland, aka my Chattanooga mom, fixed us some breakfast before we headed out for a day of shopping. The "I don't really care" car headed to the Dollar Tree to pick out our White Elephant gifts, then of course to Rock Creek. Megan Stephens came to pick me up so she and I could have one of our heart to hearts on the drive to camp. Having the Christmas party at camp was such a wonderful idea and it felt so festive with all of the decorations! I was on emotional overload from seeing so many wonderful people...I never wanted to leave!! It was such a blessing to see so many people that I count as my extended family. I couldn't help but smile with every conversation that I had!! The crowd trickled down to only a handful of us, so we decided it was time to leave. We basically shifted the party from camp to the Cleland's where we ordered pizza and hung out until nearly 2 in the morning.

On Sunday, we woke up to make our way to Red Bank Baptist where Dr. Dooley gave a sermon on "How the Grinch Almost Stole Christmas"--such a wonderful sermon! After church, I went to McAllister's to celebrate Chris Raynold's birthday. His mom even surprised him with a delicious, chocolatey cake!! Soon after lunch, I hopped in my car and made the trek back to Marietta. I took an hour or two break at home with my parents before going back to Athens to face the last of my finals....We had a tribute to our elder's that we've been visiting all semester and I still have two finals staring me in the face for tomorrow. So, I can't avoid it any longer--time to study.

Charlotte's crawling!!

My niece is crawling!! Charlotte has always been incredibly precious, but now that she's on the go she's just even cuter! Here's a video that I took of her last weekend at Katie and Lee's house. She wouldn't crawl towards us at first, so you'll get to look at her waddling boo-tay from the back. :)


And here's a video from the side...she loves my watch so I put it in front of her as incentive to get it. As soon as she reaches her goal though, she's done. haha Isn't she adorable?!?

This story again??

This weekend has been so fun, fairly restful, and completely unproductive in any aspect of school...all together a great weekend. :) It was so great to dress up for Semi Formal on Friday night and hang out with girls from the sorority and really enjoy the social aspect of being a sister. But that is not the point of this blog, instead I'm going to talk about our Sunday school lesson from this morning.

I was surprisingly in Athens this morning for church (a rare thing that I'm not out of town over the weekend!!) and was excited for the chance to go to Sunday school and church with some friends. After some snacking and catching up with friends, the college minister told us to open up our Bibles to John 4. When I first heard this, I honestly thought, "Again? Really?" John 4:1-26 is the story of the Samaritan woman at the well that I'm sure a couple of you have heard a time or two. There are plenty of stories from the Bible that life long church goers are bound to hear on several occasions, but this one in particular is one I have heard more than a handful of times. My second summer at camp, "Backpack Jack" shared the story of the woman at the well every week on the night of Tacky Prom. This summer, Jerry shared the same story on a weekly basis as well. Add on to that the times that I have heard a lesson taught about this woman's encounter with Jesus at Crossroads or my church at home...I was beginning to this that I had heard every aspect of this story that I could have heard. And then I caught myself in that thought, realizing that I was limiting God's ability to teach me something!! Silly me!! This morning we talked about sharing our faith in everyday situations, the ones that we see as mundane and when we often think that we are too busy or are going to embarrass ourselves by asking someone how we can be praying for them or to share the Gospel. Yes, that was wonderful encouragement to hear this morning, but the lesson that was really imprinted on my heart was to not limit what God can teach you, even when you think that you "already know everything"--ha! What a crazy idea....Just a word of encouragement to each of you this Sunday afternoon (or whatever day you might be reading this on), no matter how familiar you might think something is, don't let that limit what God can teach you in that moment.

Sonic

You know those certain songs, particular smells, or even just being somewhere in particular that brings back memories? Well, my roommate, Kathryn, and I went to see our friend's dance recital and decided that our dinner wasn't quite filling enough...So of course, we made the easy decision of going out to get a little night time snack and after much debate, we picked Sonic. "America's Drive In" will always remind me of my summers spent at Camp Vesper Point. As soon as we pull into the car slot to order, I start rambling on and on about the countless times over the past three summers that a bunch of the staff would pile into a car and turn up whatever music we wanted (simply because we can and don't have to listen to our "Christian music only" soundtrack, not that Christian music isn't absolutely wonderful, but change is good too). I, of course, ordered my usual strawberry limeade and as I slurped up my drink, I continued to talk my roommate's ear off about girls nights both in and outside of camp, explaining what blabbing is ;) and everything else about CVP that came to mind. I'm glad that God gives us little things like Sonic that spark memories about something as special as camp....I needed something like that on a cold, rainy day like today. And to have even more memories to look forward to as the annual camp Christmas party is quickly approaching! :) I wouldn't be surprised I if ended up at the drive in with my best friend Kasey and a hand full of other's from this past summer in just over a week! Until then, I might have to stop by Sonic for "Happy Hour" to have more recalled memories.

Family hugs

My routine of updating my blog has been thrown off and I apologize to the 3 people that read this! Between school, Thanksgiving break, and more school, I've barely had enough time to sit down in front of the computer and write about anything remotely interesting or thoughtful. But, I will do my best to recap my much needed and very much appreciated Thanksgiving Break. It's a little lengthy...so strap in.

Last Friday afternoon I headed to Marietta and went straight to visit my mom at school so I could see her spunky group of 2nd graders. We shaving creamed the desks to clean them before the week long break from school and they had SO much fun! I wish I had brought my camera because over half of them wrote "Thank You Kristin" in the shaving cream because I had to run by Target to pick up an extra can so they would have enough--so precious! Soon after that, my mom and I packed up to make the 3 hour trek up to Knoxville, TN (home to Kirby and Daniel, partial home to Daddy Dave). Kirby and I had a Girl's Night In together (Our dad was sick so mom took him back to "The Cave" and they went straight to bed after eating.) It was so wonderful to talk openly with my sister, my best friend, about whatever came to mind. There is just a peace that I have when I with her and wish that she and I could spend more time together. Saturday was spent shopping :) Me, mom, Kirby, and Daniel (what a wonderful, patient husband Kirby has--he came around with us girls all day and even helped me pick out some jewelry for Semi Formal!) Sunday morning, I went to Kirby and Daniel's Sunday School and service before meeting our parents for finger-lickin' good barbeque :) Before we left, I took pictures of my Land Rover (yes, my Land Rover) that my daddy is taking apart and is restoring.

My mom and I made it safely back to Marietta and let the relaxation begin! I forced myself to put aside all of my books, my laptop, and binders for the week and rested! I turned down hanging out with some friends which is something I rarely do, but really felt like it was so necessary for me to rest to my full potential. I read most of a wonderful book, The Shack by William P. Young. That book will be worth a post of it's own after I finish it...but please, if you get the chance--read this book! So encouraging and enlightening for my faith and my view of the Trinity. My mom and I went shopping and I bought interview clothes (crazy!) Now I just need to get an interview to wear the outfit too.....Still praying hard and feeling led to Chattanooga! :) On Thursday, I helped my mom cook most of the Thanksgiving dinner because she was sick after catching it from my dad.

Friday morning, we all packed up and drove to Athens for the weekend. My parents and I met up with Katie, Lee, and Charlotte to eat out at one of our family's favorite restaurants to celebrate mine and Katie's birthdays (her's was this Saturday--she's 28 now!) Saturday, I woke up early, bundled up, and headed to my last UGA football game as a student. After going to home football games for the past 4 seasons, it has never rained...until my last one! It was cold, wet, and rainy--and we lost. Georgia Tech, 45--UGA, 42. It was a rough game to sit through and watch, or rather stand through to watch because I made the mistake of sitting down once and this was the outcome (with my roomie to point it out):

This past week was so wonderful and restful so dragging myself back to school was kind of rough this morning. I only have 6 more days of classes for this semester with Semi Formal this weekend to look forward to and the CVP Christmas party the weekend following!

I titled this post "Family hugs" because this past weekend reminded me how special a hug from a family member is. Hugs are great from anyone, especially friends, but they're especially wonderful from family members. The warm feeling and security that you feel when you embrace a family member is so unique and I am so grateful that I was hugged my parents, sisters, brother in laws, and licked by my Mitzi over my break! :)

The Guilt in being a Busy Body

Friday morning, I packed up my belongings to head back to Marietta for week long break from school!! For some odd reason, the University thought it would be a good idea to give us kiddos a week, 10 WHOLE DAYS off from classes for Thanksgiving break. (Not that I'm complaining :) As a true procrastinator, combined with my inability to pack light, it took me quite a while to get everything together that I would need for a whole week away from Athens. Unfortunately, I had to pack more than just clothes...I had to pack the dreaded homework for the break. Don't get my wrong, this break is a huge help with my excessive amounts reading, studying, and everything else in between from my 21 hours of school work, but I still have that looming feeling of guilt. I have always enjoyed being busy and honestly would get bored if my color-coded planner didn't look like a rainbow threw up all over the pages, but this semester has pushed me towards crossing the fine line between busy and insanity. The few moments that I catch between meetings, studying, etc. to breath, I have this overwhelming feeling of guilt because I know that there is so much more that I could and should be doing rather than taking a nap or watching tv. As I was planning out my days for this break (yes, I wrote out plans for each day so I knew what I needed to be doing...I may or may not have OCD), I had to bring myself to realize that this is in fact a break. Seriously, this semester has trained me to not know what relaxing can do for my sanity because I stay up until at least 12:30 or 1 AM most every night and even then I will read for classes in bed until I fall asleep. I get bored when I don't have lot listed on my "To Do's", but I'm learning a hard lesson for me this break--and that's simply to take a break....Well, at least some of the time.

Another wonderful weekend with friends :)

One of these days, I promise my blog will be more than just updates!! But for now, I'll stick with my old habits because this past weekend was just too great to not talk about :) I'm seriously trying though to cut back on my rambling, so I'll try to list as best as I can.

Friday: After taking a test (boo), I went home to volunteer for at my mom's elementary school by helping my mom around the classroom. Before too long, Anna Cleland made it to Marietta and we got in the car to head to Auburn. We took my mom's handy GPS, which lead us onto a dark and foggy two lane road rather than keeping us on the interstate. We finally made it to Auburn in one piece though...and were starving! We got dinner at Zaxby's with Brady Gray and headed over to Cate Gilmer's house. It was so fun to catch up with Cate Gilmer, especially since she and I are in very similar places in our lives right now.

Saturday: We all woke up early to get ready for the game and headed out. Anna and I looked like quite a pair in our "divided" attire (I, of course, was wearing read and black...Anna on the other hand was supporting the Auburn Tigers). We met up with Anna's cousin, Natalie, her husband, and their son Jack. They walked with us to the library where we met up with Jonathan Franklin!! Jonathan has been a lifelong Auburn fan but is a freshman at UGA, so he was a little confused what color to wear...he ended up cheering "War Eagle" as far as I know, a bad judgment call if you ask me! :) We made it to the stadium and Brady even found 3 tickets together so we all braved the wind and the cold to stay through the whole game! I got cold enough that I even took up Brady's offer to wear his blue and orange jacket!! I know, I'm red and black through and through, regardless of the color that I'm wearing. After the game, we went to her cousin's house to enjoy some great food and even better company! That night we all hung out and I got to stop by my past Co's house, Cameron (from my second summer). It was so wonderful to meet up with her and catch up!


Sunday: We wake up, not early enough to see Cate leave :(, but then we head back to Marietta. Anna goes back to Chattanooga and I get to catch up with my parents before going back to Athens for lots of homework and studying. I did get pictures of my niece, Charlotte that Katie and Lee had taken by Lee's sister Beth. So she's growing up so fast!

Warning: Birthday celebrations may cause sugar rush

My birthday celebration this year was more than I could have asked for! It really was such a blessing and God's way of reminding me how wonderful my friends and family truly are and how much I appreciate them all being in my life. So here's a condensed version of how wonderful my birthday was:

Wednesday afternoon: Cookie cake at the Leadership small group I'm in with 5 amazing other students and Kristel who leads it. The cake said "Thanks Jesus for Kristin and Megan"--God's done some major healing in Megan's life; so it was thanks for Kristin being born and Megan's healing :)

Wednesday night: Stephanie (a great new friend that's a member of mine and Cara's small group that we lead) baked me a yummy cake!! It had fun, pink candles and was so delicious...so delicious in fact that we sat at the table and ate straight from the cake plate....let's just say there wasn't much cake left.

Midnight: Kathryn Brown decorated the whole apartment for me!!I had literally just gotten out of the shower and walked out of my bedroom door to find this all over my door--I almost had a heart attack! haha!
Thursday (actual birthday) morning: Kristel takes me out to stuff my belly with yummy Cracker Barrel breakfast...I had some yummy french toast, eggs, bacon, and hot chocolate!

Thursday afternoon: I bake some pumpkin bread for Cate and Brady for this weekend...and while I'm baking, I discover that Kathryn had also made me a yummy Funfetti cake!!
Thursday evening: I meet Jessica, Jenna, Chandler, and Kathryn for a very filling dinner at Outback! Apparently I have a very popular birthday because at least 10 other people had the birthday song sang to them! Not even kidding!! I mean, it is almost exactly 9 months after Valentine's Day...We had some ice cream from the birthday celebration **In case you're counting, that's dessert #4....**

Thursday evening, part 2: After I finished dinner with these lovely ladies, I meet Cara, Nicole, and Jamie for dessert at Last Resort. After talking for a while rather than deciding what dessert we wanted, we ordered our desserts...except Jamie because she doesn't like sweets?!? I love her just the same, but could never understand her tastebuds. And when the waiter was bringing over my cheesecake (YUM!! It was raspberry cheesecake, in case you were curious), the girls start singing Happy Birthday...And at Outback, I think the whole restaurant was burnt out on hearing Happy Birthday so many times they didn't pay attention--that was not the case here! Pretty much the half of Last Resort that we were sitting in joins in to sing me Happy Birthday!!! lol I turn red as a brick! The picture below is right after the fact and I was laughing so hard out of embarrassment! I am not used to that kind of attention!!
I got some really great gifts from these girls too--a super cute scarf, a beautiful picture frame, a candle, and of course heartfelt cards. And some smuggled truffles from Jessica...so including the truffles, that is total of 6 desserts for my birthday--Can you say sugar rush?!? SIX DESSERTS!!! Oh goodness....

But I just feel so loved and could not appreciate the time I spent with my friends. And I loved getting every phone call, text, and facebook post from all of my super thoughtful friends throughout the day! Birthdays are so much fun :) The birthday I like even better than my own is Jesus'...and now that my birthday is over with, the Christmas season can officially begin in my mind!

22 Favorite Things since I'm 22 TODAY! Hooray!

Since today is my birthday, I decided to blog a list of 22 things that I love :)

1. Jesus Christ and having a relationship with Him
2. My wonderful, loving parents
3. My sister, Burger and Dearie and the looks/questions I get when I call my sisters Burger and Dearie...and say "Ich liebe dich!"
4. My amazing, fun, and wonderful friends from camp, Athens, high school, and anywhere in between
5. Camp Vesper Point (I could probably list 50 things about CVP that I love alone)
6. Blobbing/Climbing to the top of the Iceberg
7. Driving boats on the lake
8. When it "feels" like the season has changed
9. Christmas traditions--Eating Italian meals with the family, the candlelight service on Christmas Eve, opening presents with the family, and still having Santa visit
10. Drinking hot chocolate when it's finally cold enough outside
11. Enjoying Starbuck's just because
12. Reading a really good book (like Harry Potter!) outside
13. The number 13 :)
14. All of my campers from the past 3 summers
15. Coming home after being away for a long time
16. Baking yummy treats for friends
17. Chattanooga and all of my great friends that live there (prayerfully, I'll be a neighbor some day!)
18. UGA Football and all that that entails--getting dressed up for games, tailgates that start at 8 am, and of course, winning!
19. Being a senior in college and getting ready to graduate
20. Vera Bradley anything
21. My color coded planner and crossing something off when I've finished a task
22. MY BIRTHDAY! :)

I'll have a fun post later telling you all about all of the fun things I'm doing with friends to celebrate my birthday! Thanks for all of the birthday wishes in advance!!! I love you all dearly!

Reality Check

One of my many classes this semester is called "Career Development and Community Involvement" and a HUGE part of my grade for that class is a portfolio. One of the many parts of that portfolio is a "budget planning for the future". On Friday night (yeah, I do homework on Friday nights, I'm cool), I was looking up the average income for a recent graduate working with Children's ministries, Chattanooga apartment cost, and everything else that will need to be paid to make a living. That alone was a huge and much needed reality check that I will be paying for things on my own. I have been so incredibly blessed to have my parents pay for school and housing costs and pretty much everything else while I have been in school, and I'm ready to be more independent. But it's a scary thought to much a dollar number on my independence! I am definitely looking forward to taking the next step and starting a whole new chapter in my life. This semester is coming to a close, I'll be turning 22 this week, and graduating in less than 6 months! Woohoo!!

Perfecting the life of a vegatable

After vegging around all day (literally ALL day), I pulled my lazy behind off of the couch to go to my wonderful friend's surprise! bridal shower! :) Nicolie was so surprised to see everyone standing in the doorway of her house that she just stood there! haha It was so much fun, playing wedding shower games and snacking on delicious food and enjoying some really great company. :)

Now to rewind just a bit, this week we have had philanthropy events galore! We had a barbeque at the house on Tuesday night and I was so excited to go to Crossroads afterwards because I didn't think that I would make it with the stuff going on at the house. I went back home, watched the.....outcome of the elections.....(that's a whole separate blog. Please don't take that as a negative comment, I have a lot of thoughts on this, but I will be praying for our country and our new leaders. I love this country and nothing will chcange that) then stayed up until 3 am to work on a literature review for a class. But not to focus on the details, why I really was back tracking was to tell you (the 4 people that read my blog :) about the wonderful conversation and connection that my friend Stephanie and I had last night. Our small group went out to eat and Steph was bringing me back to the apartment and a conversation about our pasts came up. She and I had such a freeing and encouraging conversation to see that we both have experienced very similar situations in our struggles in our faith, with worldliness, and of course relationships. It's so funny how you can view people certain ways and think of them as completely different from who they really are (good or bad). It's so refreshing to see friendships grow and we can make connections that we never would have seen coming. God is SO good!

Things to look forward to hearing about: my weekend with Charlotte and my mom, my 22nd birthday (1 week from today!), and going to Auburn next weekend!

Couldn't be better

I'm going to try my best not to ramble in this blog-short and concise is what I'm going for. But sooo much happened over my amazing Fall Break that I really want to keep my grand total of 3 readers updated. So here we go!

Friday: Woke up so that my daddy and I could continue our tradition of carving our pumpkin for Halloween! After digging through the attic to find our pumpkin carving tools, we picked out our design and got started!

Before going under the knife:

And after :)

After finishing that, I was on the road again on my way to Chattanooga. Chris Raynolds and I met up for a late lunch and walked around the art district in Chattanooga and watched the crew teams from all over practicing on the river. Chris tried spitting on the rowers, but someone with more class talked him out of it. Then I made my way to my home for the weekend, the Geyers! It was nice to catch up and wait for some trick-or-treaters to come...and when they did, oh wow. A mom driving a truck dropped off her kids in front of the house and one of the girls was dressed up as dead Hannah Montana!!!! What?!?! Oh. My. Goodness! After recovering from the shock (and laughter from the shock), I headed to Olive Garden to meet up with Megan Stephens and SURPRISE-Rachel Carleton!! I could not explain how absolutely wonderful it was to spend time with two of the most special girls from this summer. To finish up the night, Rachel and I went to the Rocha's to watch the classic, Mighty Ducks 3 and snack on some cake with some really great people.

Saturday: Megan, Rachel, and I woke up at the Geyer's to the smell of biscuits, pancakes, and lots of other yummy breakfasty foods. Drinkwine and his fiance, Allie, dropped in for some breakfast and catching up. It was so fun to be surrounded by great friends from camp! To enjoy the perfect fall weather, David, Emily, Megan, Rachel, and I got together snacks, a blanket, and a soccer ball and went to Coolidge Park. While the others kicked around the ball, Em and I enjoyed the weather and really great conversation.
We got to stop by Baylor to see the Girls' soccer team crush Brentwood Academy (6-1) in the state tournement before going over to Todd's to watch a not so awesome game that the Bulldogs played against Florida. Megan and Rachel had to leave before the game ended though :( After the rest of the crew eventually left, Todd, Reilly, and I relived some great camp stories and ate an always fulfilling at dinner at Amigo's.

Sunday: I slept in (a rare thing these days) before going up the mountain to meet Alex, Forrest, and Chris for great Chinese food and even better company. Alex and I looked through pictures from her best friend's wedding from the day before-It was so fun to look through the beautiful pictures and catch up with my beloved Co! I stopped by Rembrandt's to see my friend Al, who I always seem to miss out of spending time with in Chattanooga, and get a turtle frappe that was SO good! Then it was on the road again, headed to Marietta to stop long enough to enjoy some soup for dinner a la Mommy Mardis, and back to the reality of school work and another week at school.

So much for short and concise...but it was such an wonderful and blessed weekend to see great friends. It's so wonderful to feel real joy by spending time with true friends and enjoy our time together. As I have said so many times before, I am constantly in prayer that my gut feeling is right that the Lord is leading me to Chattanooga after graduating to make it my home. Weekends like this past one only make me crave a life like that to become a regular thing.

I'm a Georgia Voter!

After standing in line today for 2 1/2 hours in the chilly afternoon, I became an official Georgia Voter! Hooray for me!

One step closer to a more informed voter

My wonderful friend, Nicole, sent me and a few other friends a link to this very enlightening blog. I am so ready for this election to be over with simply for the fact that I am tired of the mudslinging and malicious statements that people are making. I pray that people in this country make an educated vote, especially when it comes to issues like abortion.

Amazing weekend!

Weekends make the week worthwhile for sure! I mean, last week was amazing and this past weekend was the cherry on top. :) After getting dinner with a high school friend and watching Grey's while sipping on a Pumpkin spiced latte with Elizabeth Cox on Thursday, I was ready to go home the next morning. Friday morning, I was surprised by a phone call from my oldest sister, Katie, that she and Charlotte were down the street and coming for a quick visit! This was very exciting because 1) I got to see my sister AND my adorable niece 2)it was a surprise visit, which surprises are always fun and 3)they live about 30 minutes away, which doesn't sound far, but can seem far away when you're school takes over your life.

After driving through torrential rains and singing in the car, I finally made it to East Side Elementary so I could read to my mom's 2nd grade classroom. Since many of the same students moved from 1st grade to 2nd grade with my mom, I fortunately was not asked who's mom I was (a usual question when I've come to visit in the past). One girl did start giggling when I said that I was 21--almost 22 in just over 2 weeks!! I sat down to read them a book and when I finished that one, they asked for a second, and then a third! It was so fun to read to them and be around such fun loving kids again!! So that night, my mom made yummy chicken chili and I watched Ocean's Eleven with my parents.

Saturday, my dad and I went on a bike ride (whew! It was a little bit different from my cycling class...ha!) and it was so fun just the same! I did some homework, lounged around, took the dog for a walk, and cleaned up before another family dinner. Then I got to hang out with a high school friend before going to bed. Oh--and how can I forget the INCREDIBLE football game that my Bulldogs played against LSU!!! Go Dawgs! Now ranked #6 in the BCS...The Georgia/Florida game is a pretty head-on, even match for this next Saturday...

And on Sunday, I went to Sunday school with my parents (everyone there is so great, I'm so glad that my parents get to have fellowship with some great people at the church...and they were all excited to hear I was a Georgia student after the game on Saturday!) We went to our usual Sunday lunch at Atlanta Bread Company, picked out a pumpkin that my dad and I are going to carve on Friday morning, and the 3 of us went shopping before Daddy and I had to hit to road to get back to business.

It was a wonderfully "fall-y" weekend with my parents and just the right amount of refresh that I needed to give me a boost to make it through this crazy week before Fall Break. And speaking of crazy week at school, I need to go to bed so I can wake up in time for class! One of these days, I'll learn how to do a short blog...but until then I hope you can put up with the "blah, blah, blah" and ramblings.

I consider myself almost famous now...

I know that this might be a little bit overwhelming with all of the blog posts I have from this week, but there's just so much going on this week since my life isn't totally consumed by school this week!

Here's a video that I took of Andy Davis...who is an amazing performer! I had only heard a couple of his songs before, but I will definitely be listening her him a lot more! I know the lighting isn't great, but Andy's playing "Brown Eyes" which is now one of my new favorite songs!

And here's another wonderful video from the concert last night. Matt Wertz's drummer and guitar players left the stage and it was just him on stage. He played a lot of great songs, but this is one of my favorites...It's called "I will not take my love away"--Enjoy!

Oh, and did I mention that we were like 2 people away from the stage and super close to the center of it all?!? They probably could have sweated on me...

And just to brag a little bit, we got to meet Andy Davis, Matt Wertz, and some of his band members after the concert! This is me and Jessica with Matt Wertz!!!!

The guy with a black shirt is one of Matt Wertz's guitar players--It was his birthday!

This is me and Andy Davis!!! I consider myself almost famous for a very short time. ha!

FREE TIME!

Let me tell you that at first when I wrote the Title for this blog, I started singing the "Free time" cheer from camp. Lame, I know. (Or I'm just really cool...?) So after the past three weeks of craziness, I'M FREE!!! Week 1, I was sick with the black lung (well, upper respritory infection+sinus infection+ear infection...ick!) Week 2, Presentations galore (3 group presentations in one week! Eek!) Week 3, 2 tests, a midterm, and 2 projects due, not to mention to usual quizzes, etc-Ugh! I feel like trying to type out emotions is harder than you think...so instead I used "ick", "eek" and "ugh" to describe my stress! haha

And now this week---NOTHING! God knew exactly what I needed after all of that! So after Wicked on Sunday, I vegged out on Monday night, went to see The Duchess (wouldn't recommend it...not a great ending) last night, and tonight I'm going to see Matt Wertz and Andy Davis in concert tonight!! Woohoo! Tomorrow night is dinner with a friend from high school and then actually going to a sorority social (#2 of the whole semester!) before going home to Marietta to rest for the weekend.

Now I just need to remember to stay focused on school long enough to make it to Fall Break...then my birthday...then Thanksgiving...and then Finals! Small steps, one at a time. :) I am so grateful that I get a week of fun free time with friends (whoa, that's some good alliteration) to hold onto my sanity!

Fall, Football, and the Fox--Oh my!!

This weekend was busy, busy and fun as ever!! After staying up until 3 am on Thursday night studying for my last test of the week that I had on Friday, and I only got to wake up to more studying! But finally, I finished my test and was free for the weekend! :) So my roommate and I headed off to Old Navy for some retail therapy before coming home to make some pumpkin bread. I'm super big on tradition and I never let myself make pumpkin bread until it feels like fall and last week finally felt like fall. So it was time to make some yummy pumpkin bread!!

When the bread was almost done, Reilly Liner made it to Athens after sitting in quite a bit of traffic from Chattanooga. It was fun to have a friend from camp in town, especially one that loves Georgia football so much! And so glad that we won too! After the game, Reilly beat me in Mario Party (I was pretty upset considering this was only his 2nd time playing...and I don't remember the last time I've lost that game!), had dinner, and then fell asleep at 10:30 from exhaustion!!
Sunday morning I had to rush off to sit through Initiation for the sorority before going to Atlanta. Jessica, Kathryn, and I made it to Atlanta in time to have a fun dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe!! It was so fun to have a nice dinner in Atlanta with good friends before we went to see WICKED!!!! Oh. My. Goodness. I LOVED it!!!! I had listened to the soundtrack for weeks prior to going so I would know the words, but hearing the songs on my iPod couldn't do justice for how incredible it was in person!If you don't know what Wicked is...it's the story about Glenda and the "Wicked Witch of the West" before the "Wizard of Oz" happens. Glenda and Elfaba went to school together and were friends...okay, so when I explain it doesn't sound as cool as it really is. You should see it though. I just loved it!!!
And to make the weekend even better...I ran into Hannah Jordan!!! She was a camper of mine and Hannah Venable's from our first week of campers from CVP this past summer! She was one of the 11 (!!) campers that we had down in the Hole and such a GREAT girl!!! I was sooooo excited see her, I was bursting with excitement!

And now...back to school. At least I don't have anything big due this week or any tests :)

Stories to look forward to later this week on my blog: 1) The fight outside of my apartment that Reilly witnessed. 2) My visits with my 95 year old lady for a class, Ms. Rena