I just wanted you to remember.

I went to Marietta this weekend and it was more than what I could have asked for.

My weekend more or less started on Thursday because Taylor Huddleston came to stay with me for the night! After the excitement of my new car, I rushed home to clean before she and I went to dinner with Nurse Lynn at the Terminal. We enjoyed the cool air outside and each other's company...it was just so much fun to laugh and have "adult" conversation...something that seems to be a rarity in my life.

Friday was just a fun day at work that flew by and before I knew it, I was on the road to Marietta. My dad was traveling to go to a Rover Rally, so it was just me and my mom until Kirby, Daniel, Felicity and Sully joined us. I spent the evening playing with Felicity and the puppies, catching up on missed TV shows (thanks Hulu!) and running some last minute errands with my sister.

I "slept in" on Saturday before a MASSIVE shopping trip with my mom. Of course I bought some essentials from Gap and H&M, but my biggest purchase was my new 15 inch MacBook Pro. After my Dell crapped out, I knew it was time for a new computer. I have had virus issues really from day 1 with my now 5+ year old PC so I opted for an Apple. I still haven't gotten everything transferred, but I'm working on it. Once it is fully updated, I think I will really enjoy it. All of these new things make me feel so spoiled! (The car was a gift, but I have been saving up for a new computer and phone for a while, just to justify that I'm not that spoiled from my parents.)

But the highlight of my weekend was seeing high school friends. I will admit to sort of falling off the map with them for a while, but after some apologies and conversations, we're on our way to a mended friendship. Life happens and things get busy, but I really do value my high school friends for knowing me "back when" and seeing how different, yet similar we are after knowing each other for 8-9+ years.

Alexa said something to me that really stuck. We were playing trivia at Suburban Tap like we used to do every Wednesday of Senior year before Bonnie and Brian came. I was talking about how I felt bad for being nonexistent, but I really did love seeing every one. Alexa told me she just wanted me to remember how much I liked hanging out with high school "fwends" and that's true. All it took was me seeing them to remember how great that group of friends was. We were together all 4 years of high school and stuck with each other trough thick and thin. I wish I could say that we were still just as tight knit today as we were then, but some of us have drifted and changed for better or worse. But who we were is something we can't change and you know, I really don't think I'd want to change what we had for a second. I'm looking forward to getting more of the group together around the Thanksgiving holidays for another walk down memory lane.

My brand new stuff

Here are some pictures of my almost finished with being decorated apartment...AND my brand new to me car!! If you're curious, it's a 2008 "Barcelona" red Rav4 (I wanted red, my dad wanted Rav4, so this was our compromise!) There are just over 10,000 miles on the car which is ridiculous!! I love it sooooo much! (Can you tell? ha!)

Bathroom (duh)

I still have a few more frames I want to hang and I need to rotate out some old pics for new ones, but you get the jist.

My sips 'n strokes painting made the cut for the living/dining room!

It's a little hodge podge, but I like it. It's finally starting to feel a little bit more like home. :)

And here's Ruby? Roxy? Still figuring out her name...Suggestions?

Lots of room for a "UGA Alumni" sticker

Okay, I had to do the cheesy "I have a new car" face/picture. But seriously, I am so pumped that my key has the lock/unlock buttons on there now...I've never had a car that's done that before!!

I know that all of this is just stuff and that in the bigger picture, stuff really doesn't matter. But it's kind of nice to have really great stuff for the little time that I'm on this earth.

For Sloan

Saying that this post is overdue is an understatement. But thankfully, Sloan called me out and here I am, on a Sunday night at my work computer (more explanation on that to come) typing out a belated blog post on my life.

Some highs in my life:

-I finally moved into an apartment at the foot of Signal Mountain! I will dedicate a WHOLE post to that this coming week with pictures and all!

-I bought a new phone--a Samsung Captivate. I could not do it justice, but I LOVE this phone. I am on my phone 24/7. Whether it's texting, phone calls, checking emails, or looking something up (or playing a game), my students consume most of my phone time so I decided to get a phone worthy of using so much.

-School is in full swing for the kids and I think I'm finally starting to get into a routine. As I said in my last post, this is a 24/7 kind of a job so I do breakfasts at least 3 days a week, but get the chance to go back to the apartment to nap if I will be with students until sundown. I love the flexibility.

Some things that I wouldn't necessarily call lows because life has been great, but some realities I've been facing:

-My job is hard in the way that life is hard. I am living life with these girls and life gets a little bumpy from time to time. Think back to middle school; everything was a big deal. I hear about the "she said, he said" tiffs, but I also hear about the divorces that these girls are going through or have gone through, the heartbreaks of boyfriends, the questions when something in life happens that just doesn't seem to make sense. Those are the moments in my job that I realize I need God the most. And so do they.

-Ministry is not a job for the weak of heart. I'm still the new kid around here and I mess up more than I want to admit to. And I have to learn to step up, apologize, and learn from my mistakes. That's a harder pill to swallow some days than it is for others.

-Making time for friends my age/realizing that my weekends are more like Fridays (sometimes) and Saturdays (sometimes). Being back in town for Sunday mornings can make for a tight weekend schedule if I ever want to get out of Chattanooga.

I am planning on getting a new laptop AND new car in the next few months, will be settled into my apartment AND my office at the church hopefully by the end of this week (maybe even get my TN drivers license too?), and will never plan on being caught up on sleep again. :) I am so blessed and that's definitely not a statement that I say lightheartedly.

I just realized late last week that September 23, 2009 was the day I packed up and headed north for Chattanooga so that makes me an official Chattanoogan for a whole year now. This past year has been the CRAZIEST of my life but the fact that this is where God has me now, it's all been worth it. I've learned more than a blog post could do justice and I never would have put myself where I am today. It just all goes to show that God's plans are bigger, better, and more perfect than my own. He's taught me so much about trusting Him through the thick and thin, and all of this just points to the fact that He is calling us to glorify Him through our circumstances. (Could I sound anymore "youth leader-y"?!)

My next post will contain pictures with more regular "life" details and I just might even get caught up on reading all of your blogs too! Thanks for your patience and I promise (it's in writing, so I can't take this back!) to become more regular once I get a new laptop and internet at my apartment (because otherwise, I have to stay longer at the church to use my work computer and their internet!)

It's okay to be exhausted.

I'm going crosseyed from sitting at the comptuer all day. But I've maxed out on work for this week...so why don't you leave, might you ask? Simple. It's 5:30 and I don't want to sit in traffic, especially when it's been around 100 degrees the last month or so.

Here's a snapshot of possibly one of the craziest weeks of my summer:
Sunday: Church, Church day at CVP, Carolann's Big Birthday Bash
Monday: Pack up from dog/house sitting, work, house hunting/dinner with Erin K. & Erin S., spend the night with Hannah (my twin :) because I'm homeless
Tuesday: Paperwork to become FULL TIME--Yahoo!, clear out and work on high school room until 6, with a calendar meeting and lunch with some errands for the HS room sprinkled in the day, dinner with Daddy and Carolann, see Inception a second time to unwind
Wednesday: 2 hour Youth staff meeting at 8 am, errands, luncheon for a co-worker that just finished her chemo!, work on the high school room until 8 pm, study Systematic Theology (That's right...13 hour day.)
Thursday: Sign a lease for an apartment!, high school room, sit in front of a computer working on calendar and informer, sort through reimbursement forms, and catch up with Ell who stopped by.

a of all) I'm impressed if you actually just read through all of that rambling.
b of all) The only reason I'm doing this is more or less to remind myself that it's more than okay to be EXHAUSTED at this point in the week.
c of all) I'm ready to be all moved in.
d of all) I can't believe school just started today for most of my students. That will probably help with my craziness.

I'm most excited because I get to go home now (Marietta home) to get my hair tomorrow/see Felicity and Kirby and relax!! Then, back to craziness on Sunday, getting ready to move in on Tuesday, hopefully with a new phone that won't die after 2 phone calls/day!

Never Homeless

Well, here I am--Homeless yet again. And this time, I feel more homeless than ever. I think it's mostly because there has been continuity in my life so to live a normal life with no where to go back to somewhere I can call "my own" has thrown me off. I was housesitting for the Harwood's, but they had to come back because camp had ended and they had to get ready for the school year to start again (which starts tomorrow for them, how crazy is that?! Sitting in a classroom in 100 degree heat seems a little weird to me.) I housesat for a family in the church, but they came back early, thus leaving me homeless.

Something we talked about on the missions trip in New Orleans is how we, as members of the body of Christ, will never be homeless. So often, people that truly are homeless are not only living life without a roof over their head, but are also living life without a community. As a person in the church--and when I say church, I don't mean First Presbyterian of Chattanooga, I mean the church as a whole, the body of believers--I have been beyond blessed with friends that have willinigly took me in time and time again and that's such a great example of Christ's love. It's so neat to see Christians actually living out love in what seems so small to them but is so big to me--they are sacrificing their norm to open their homes and their lives to me. I have a long list of people that I know would let me in, even if I called at 11 PM and I pray that whenever I do have a place to stay that people know they can call on me in the same way.

So thank you to all of you that have housed me--whether for a night or 3 to 4 months (Liners, Taylor and Harwoods!) And don't worry, I don't plan on never settling down. Keep your fingers crossed for an apartment to live in by the end of this week for me and Erin...and when I say keep your fingers crossed, I mean pray!

Girls Just Wanna Have FUN!

Right after I got back from the middle school missions trip on Saturday night, I had just enough time to make it to church on Sunday morning, have lunch with the potential new youth pastor, take a nap, go to Mystery Tour (Sunday night summer events for the youth), unpack and repack to go on the 8th grade and high school girls trip on Monday morning!! Yes, it was just as exhausting as it sounds. Well, the girls trip was tiring in a different way because it was 2 straight days of shopping. It was the girliest of girly trips.

Justin Bieber and Wavin' Flag were the only things we listened to on the way down to Atlanta. We had lunch at Atlanta Bread Company and dessert at Yogli Mogli before getting mani/pedis and checking into the hotel in Buckhead. All 9 of us stayed in, ordered pizza, watched the Bacherlorette Season Finale (I still love you Chris L!) and What Women Want while munching on sour worms, starbursts, and other sugary snacks.

We slept in Tuesday morning, played in the pool and eventually got ready to shop. First stop: Lenox. Carolann and I spent majority of our time in Banana Republic and Ann Taylor Loft. The girls were ready to move on, so we went to Perimeter. I became personal shopper for one of my girls at Forever 21 and picked up several things for myself. After a ton of discussion, we decided to go to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and just split several appetizers and entrees and of course some cheesecake! We were stuffed. I mean, uncomfortably full. So we headed back to the hotel to show off our purhcases and lounge in PJs for the rest of the night.
Wednesday morning moved a little bit faster than the day before because we had to drive to Dawsonville, Georgia to hit up the outlets! Let's just say I spent a lot of money this weekend, but mostly on cardigans, scarfs, a couple of skirts, and earrings so I consider it an investment for this fall and winter....Right? Right.

Have I mentioned that this is my job? My job is to hang out with girls, swim at the pool and go shopping. This can't be real life. Well, not for too much longer because they will be in school and I will become somewhat more predictable in my scheduling...at least until 3 pm every week day. :)

Digging a Hole

Every time I start thinking about writing a post on here, I get overwhelmed by how behind on blogging I am and put it off even longer...thus digging a hole. A big one.

Most of my stories consist of 13/14 year old girls because that's who I spend 90% of my time with. Other life happenings are extremely less humorous and almost equally as time consuming, but are instead about life's little details like finding a real place to live in Chattanooga, figuring out my new phone plan, and planning stuff for the fall for work (please notice that I say work and not internship! I still can't believe how great God is in orchestrating things for me to be the Girl's Middle School Youth Leader at First Pres!!! And to save myself a blog post, it's basically more of what I've been doing this summer--planning stuff and hanging out with the middle school girls while talking about Jesus. AKA the best job ever. Also, the closest thing to being a camp counselor year round as I can get.) All of that to say, I love my life. And I have a love/hate relationship with the fact that I barely have time to stop and even write a blog post because it's so time consuming to sit down at the computer.

Here's where I've been the past 2 weeks...I am trying to make my excuses for not blogging legit.

• New Orleans, Louisiana on a missions trip; me and 24 leaders and middle school students from the youth group served at a homeless shelter. Mostly moving boxes from the sweltering attic and serving meals, but oh my goodness that will be a whole post that I will do...tomorrow? Hold me to that.

Did I mention it was ridiculously hot there?

• Girls Trip to Atlanta; that's right. Right after the missions trip, we planned a trip for our 8th (almost 9th grade) girls and high school girls to go on a shopping trip for fun to Atlanta! Pictures on that later, I haven't uploaded them quite yet!

All of that to say, I've had reasonable excuses for not posting. The kids start back to school next week, so my life should become considerably less hectic...or at least more predictable!