Breathe. Just Breathe.

My goodness... I can't believe it's been this long since I blogged. So basically this semester has flown by. I can't believe it's already dead week and finals are less than a week away. This semester has been one of my favorites so far. I love my social club. I seriously can't tell you how thankful I am that I rushed it. All of the girls are amazing, and no matter how bad my mood is, they always brighten my day. I've made so many memories this semester with them that I can't wait for the next couple years.

In October Seth and I celebrated our one year! I am so thankful that God blessed me with such an amazing man. He always makes my day better every time I talk to him. This past week was a pretty rough one. I had a ton of homework, I was getting sick, and it wasn't a good time. My friends tried to cheer me up, but it wasn't working. But Seth came up that weekend, and the second I saw him all my problems seemed to disappear because he was there. This weekend really helped me get ready for finals and I'm so excited for my future with him.

Moving on... I know you guys don't want to read about the mushy gushy boyfriend stuff. School is going well. I'm ready to be done with all my finals and start new classes. I have a final this Sunday night, then three on Monday, and I'm done. Then for the rest of the week I'm working multiple. YAY! I got a new job for the Christmas season... haha I'm working at an outdoor skating rink, which my boss is crazy and can't keep anything straight, but it's extra cash right? So now I'm basically working four jobs. Gotta love it. ;)

Oh and I've started making my plans for this summer.... and guess where I'm going!?! :) EUROPE!!! I got accepted into OC's Study Abroad in Europe, so for 6 weeks I will traveling with some amazing OC people, and some of my closest friends. I am so excited. The only downfall is, my parents want me to pay for it all myself, which I'm going to try, but after talking to the financial aid office, my dream became a lot more achievable. :)

Needless to say, my life is going pretty well right now. God has blessed me way beyond what I deserve, and I am so thankful. I'm trying to get my life back on track with him and all the pieces are starting to fit together.

One of the verses that is helping me make it through this week is Deuteronomy 31:8 "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

Song of the Day: When we Stand Together - Nickelback

Here are some pictures highlighting the semester. Maybe I'll have more later. :)

Pi Zeta Phi celebrating Homecoming!

Playing in the rain with some of my favorite Pi girls :)

Working at Habitat for Humanity.

My mom and I at OC's Lighting of the Commons.

Fall Banquet :)

πΖΦ (Pi Zeta Phi)

These past few weeks of my life have been pretty crazy. When I wrote my last blog, Rush was just beginning. But now, it is officially over. I'm am now a member of Pi Zeta Phi (Whoop Whoop!!) Our plant is the Tree, and our mascot is the Bear Cub. We have an official verse which is Psalms 1:3. "She is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever she does prospers."

Last week we had interviews and such for club. Then Friday after chapel all of the people that rushed had to run to their mailboxes to see if they got a letter from the club. I don't know about you, but for me that was nerve racking. All I could think about was getting so excited about opening my mailbox, and I wasn't gonna have a letter in it. But no worries, there was one there. On the letter we were told to go meet our club somewhere on campus, and when I got there, everyone was super excited. We went out to eat, and we met for inductions later that night.

Wanna no what we did at inductions? We had chicken sandwiches in the caf, and we went to see Lion King in 3D. And let me just say it was such a blast. :) Then later that night we found out who was in our families, and my family is by far the best.

This past week was Greek Week. Basically my family divided the 3 littles amongst themselves, and we had to do whatever they told us to do. Okay, we didn't HAVE to do it, but we did anyway because that's what makes it fun. (I have to say that because of the Hazing laws... haha) So anyway this is my big. I'm so thankful that God blessed me with her. All week she was super excited about club and she didn't give me that many crazy things to do ;) I love her!

So all this week I've been going to chapel, eating lunch, and hanging out with my family every night. And it was such a blast. I'm so excited to see what God has planned for our club and our family this year. He definitely blessed me with the best bigs and other cubbies ever.

Here's a little taste of what my week has been like.

This is from the Scavenger Hunt Monday night.

Softball Championship!! (We Won!!)

We went to Build a Bear together :)

We love ice cream :)

And finally last night we had our final dinner so now we are "officially" members of Pi. :)

I know this blog has been pretty long, and it's definitely full of excitement, but let me just tell you how much God has been working in my life. I had a talk with one of my fellow cubbies a couple nights ago, and I just opened up and told her a lot that's been going on and how I've been struggling with my faith lately. Which I have. I haven't wanted to go to church, study my Bible, or even pray. But God purposely put her in my family so that I would be able to talk to her about anything. It was so amazing to be able to open up to her and for God to speak through her to me.

So I'm really anxious to see what God has in store for me this year, because I know it's going to be amazing.

Peace out.
Mighty to Save

A New Beginning.

It's the middle of September which means that school has started. So far, it's been pretty great. I'm adjusting to the change of this year. Who knew things could be so different? Coming back this year was amazing. I got to participate in what I saw all the upperclassmen doing last year. What you might ask? It's that slow scene where one girl sees her friend across campus, they scream, and run to each other and give each other the biggest hug ever.

It's moments like these that I live for. I've been able to catch up with friends that I haven't seen since May. I've started new friendships, and I've gotten a lot closer to friends that I wasn't so close with last semester.

With the coming of the new year, also comes the many decisions that I will have to make this semester. One of which is what Club I'm going to rush. Rush week started the first week of school, so all the sophomore class has been doing the past few weeks is class, homework, rush events, and maybe sleeping if we're lucky. There are so many clubs to choose from. For girls alone there are six. Six may not seem like that many, but at OC they're all so closely related, it makes it hard to choose. So to help us choose we go to multiple rush events over a course of three weeks and try to determine which club we'll fit in best.

Another decision I have to make is what I want to do for next summer. OC offers multiple study abroad opportunities, internships, and mission trips. Or I could work my butt off and save my money, or just relax. Of course, the last one isn't an option, but I like to think so. I'm waiting for God to help me determine what he wants me to do this next summer. I just hope he shows it to me soon.

So that's a little taste of what's going on in my life. I have a ton of Wishing Well stuff going on as well, which I'll try to update you about soon. But for now you should come to our event this Friday at 8 in the Forum at OC. It's a free concert performed by Jessa Anderson. It's open to the public and even being advertised on Air1. So you should come.

Here's what she sounds like!
Song of the Day:
Fireflies - Jessa Anderson

This is the Stuff...

It's been a little over a month since I blogged last... I guess that means nothing is on my mind and nothing is going on. lol

All in all my summer has been pretty chill. I've been working all day, then I'll go work out, then go home skype someone and go to bed.

Recently I've been meeting with my Co-director for Wishing Well so we can plan some of the things we are going to do this year. And might I say, it's going to be pretty amazing. Well, at least I hope it's going to be. We have some pretty awesome plans and I'm super pumped to see what happens this year.

But, it's all in God's hands.

I honestly can't wait for school to start. I haven't felt like this since I was in elementary school. lol I move back into the dorms on August 17th. Which is only 21 days away. Then classes start in 32 days. I honestly can't wait.

There are going to be so many things going on this year. I'll have classes, Rush, Wishing Well, boyfriend, friends, and so many other things. I'm so excited to see how fantastic this year is. But I definitely miss all of my friends, and I'm really happy that I'm going to lunch with some of them today :)

Anyways this is my life at the moment. Boring but exciting at the same time.
Song of the Day - This is the Stuff - Francessca Battestilli

Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today

Six years ago on Sunday, I decided to give my life to Christ on Father's Day. As cliche as it is, I thought it was a great Father's Day present to him. Since then, a lot of trials and obstacles have come into my life. Some of which have pulled me away from him, others have brought me closer.

At the moment, I'm still on my way back. Moving was one of the biggest obstacles I've had to overcome. When we first moved here, we couldn't find a church that we all could agree on. I wanted a close youth group just like my old one. I wanted an amazing youth minister, just like my old one. And that was the problem. I wasn't open to change. I wanted things to be as close to my old church as possible, which was never going to happen.

So I decided that I just wouldn't go to church, and unfortunately that continued for a long time. I would go to church, but I wouldn't care that I was there. It was just something I did, it wasn't something I wanted to do.

But things are changing, and God is definitely moving in my life.

Yesterday Jessica Hatcher passed away. She was a girl that went to my high school. I never knew her until I saw her in the parking lot one day, and I couldn't figure out why she was bald. Finally the pieces came together and I realized she was the cancer victim that our school was raising money for. By the end of my senior, her junior year, she beat the cancer and things were going great. When I went back to my school to visit this past year thought, the cancer had come back. And unfortunately it took her life last night.

There wasn't a time that I saw her that she didn't have a smile on her face. She's an excellent example of how God wants us to act. No matter what obstacles are thrown in our path, we should be happy because we have God. He's the one we can always rely on, when everyone else bails on us.

She truly will be missed here, but we all know that she is in a better place and she isn't suffering anymore.

She has opened my eyes to realize how limited our time is here on earth, so why should we waste our time worrying about who's dating who, and what the next big thing is? We should be focusing on what is important, like all the people out there that don't know a thing about Christ. "Go therefore into all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." The verb in that is GO. Jesus told us to GO and tell the whole world about him. So why are we sitting on our lazy butts and not showing Jesus' love to others.

We should be helping those in our communities that are less fortunate. We should be helping those in other countries that can't even feed their own families. We should be helping. Not basking in all our worldly goods.

Okay I'll step off my soapbox now. But really, what are we doing?


Song of the Day: Give me Your Eyes - Brandon Heath

Breathe.

This summer so far has been pretty laid back. Compared to last summer, it sucks, but I still have faith that it will get better. Basically I'm just working my butt off this summer to save my money because I'm very bad at that.

I'm working on campus, babysitting, working at a church, and taking any other opportunities that come up. On top of that I'm trying to make time for my friends and boyfriend so that I can actually enjoy my summer as well.

So far, it's working out. I wish I could just sleep until whenever, go to the lake everyday, and enjoy my summer, but I'm afraid I'm out in the real world now.

On a happier note, I've actually started going to church again, and I really enjoy it. I didn't realize how much I missed it. I was bummed that I didn't get an internship for the summer, but I think God was trying to tell me that I wasn't ready for that yet. I needed to figure out where I was with my relationship with him before I tried to start guiding a bunch of confused teenage kids.

But I'm excited to see what's going to happen next summer.

Some more good news, I got my ear pierced :)

So this may have been a very pointless blog, but it's the best I could do with my boring life ;)
Song of the day: Breath - Anna Nalick

The past few days

I've had a rough last couple of days. I ran into my ex-best friend at Wal-mart the other day, and I couldn't get the guts to even go into the store because we haven't talked since like August. If you don't know me very well, I can't handle it when people don't like me, or if we have a problem. I like to fix things. So needless to say this has bothered me ever since then. I thought I was over it, until I saw her.

I called my friend and made her come to Wal-mart with me just so I wouldn't have to go alone. Not gonna lie, we handled the situation pretty immaturely, but it was the only way I was going to make it through without completely breaking down.

Yesterday I met her mom to get some of my stuff that I've been trying to get for awhile, but we've both been so busy it hasn't been possible. All day my stomach was in knots because I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I knew I was going to cry. There was no avoiding that. So adding to the stress she was late getting there because she had to find my stuff, so that only made the knots and butterflies and everything else going on in my stomach even worse. When she finally got there she just had a huge smile on her face and said she was so happy to see me.

We started talking about my first year of college, what we've both been up to and so on. Then we started talking about what happened between her daughter and I. She doesn't understand it, and I still don't. She asked me if I'd prayed about it. I said I'd tried but that just wasn't the answer I wanted. She said that she's the same way. She doesn't like to wait for an answer she just wants to fix everything herself. At this point we kept going on about some minor details about what could have happened and of course I lost it. I felt as if I lost my other mom in all of this mess.

She had done so much for me last year. She made my prom dress, bought stuff for me, took me to the lake, let me vent to her, gave me advice, and let me stay at her house all the time. I honestly thought she was going to hate me when we met. But it's the polar opposite. She said she thinks about me often and that I'm still like a daughter to her.

Last night I went to church with my little freshman and we had a praise night. It was just what I needed. I haven't had that in so long it's crazy. Then she and I talked after and it really helped a lot. She said she understands how I feel and she wants to know what happened just as much as I do.

I'm sorry this is such a depressing post. Just thought I'd let you know what's happened the last few days. I've been kinda quiet lately cause I'm trying to figure things out.

I guess we'll see what happens.

Song of the day:
Mighty to Save - Hillsong