Snow and SSMT!

So, I was wrong. It snowed.

So pretty! Although, I wish it had held off a week until I had started student teaching so that we could have gotten a snow day out of it!

I also wanted to say that I'm really excited because I've decided to do Beth Moore's scripture memory team for 2011!! Basically, you memorize two verses a month for the whole year, and you comment on her blog as you do it. I've done some scripture memory before, but never anything extremely structured. I'm really excited to start this as I begin student teaching. I feel like this could potentially be a pretty stressful semester coming up for me, so I think that it will be beneficial for me to have a bunch of scriptures to recall and pray thorough throughout my days at school. I am excited about having 24 memorized by the end of next year!

I'm a huge Beth Moore fan, and I LOVE her books and her blog. I've read her blog for a few years now, but I've never participated in any of the stuff she does on there. Information can be found here if you are interested in doing this also. AND she will host an event in January of 2012 for those who complete the year! So, I would encourage you to do this with me, and we can go to the celebration together next year! :)

Merry Merry Christmas!!!!

Be near me Lord Jesus,

I ask thee to stay,

Close by me forever

And love me I pray,

Bless all the dear children

in thy tender care,

and fit us for heaven,

to live with thee there.

Merry Christmas from an almost- snowy South Carolina!!! (but more about that later!) Last night at church, we sang Away in a Manger like we do every Christmas eve, and one thing I noticed about the new Lutheran hymnal is that the last line of the song says "fit us for heaven" instead of "take us to heaven" like everyone usually sings it. (Does anyone else pay that close attention to away in a manger lyrics, or is that just me?) Anyway, this slight change in wording really made me think about what this song-- and Christmas-- really means. Fit us for heaven... this is my prayer for today and this entire year: that we can truly absorb the weight of the birth of our Savior whose purpose is to fit us for eternal life and we can respond to his spirit accordingly.

Now, some pictures from our Christmas festivities:

Christmas Eve

Christmas morning... Sarah rockin' the plaid!

Sometimes when I don't know what to give people, I get them something that I can enjoy with them... hence The Office DVD's for dad!

One of my fav gifts... Jack Rogers flats!!!

Grandparents were lucky enough to receive these for Christmas... my senior pictures! ha, NOT my idea... that was all Mandy.

**Please note my mom's "ADPi Mom" button that she got in her stocking. Perfect for football games... and Christmas lunch apparently.

Some things never change... such as the granddaughter's spots on the floor for Christmas presents!!

Other traditions not pictured include: Christmas breakfast with the entire fam, everyone enjoying being serenaded by mine and Beth Ann's melodious piano playing (I consider this a gift to our moms for all those lessons they paid for... Christmas is all about giving back, ha!), and matching pajamas. Also, here's a picture of my personal favorite gift that was given this Christmas:

Lila liked Beth Ann's Ugg boots so much that she asked for a pair for herself. Ha!

Our Christmas festivities were broken up by the threat of snow. Everyone felt the need to go fill up their cars with gas... since we all drive so much when it gets icy out? We'll see if we actually get a white (day after) Christmas. I have my doubts... but at least we've got a bunch of Office dvd's to watch if it actually happens! Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

Not much has been going on since I got home for break, hence the lack of posts. But today was pretty festive! First of all, Mom, Sarah, Beth Ann, Aunt Ann, Lila, and I all baked Christmas treats at Lila's house. We learned that 5 people is just too much for Lila's tiny kitchen. But here are some pictures:

Aunt Ann, Mom, and BA with the microfudge

Sarah made cracker candy

Beth Ann and Aunt Ann made haystacks (also, I just noticed... please check out Mandy's headshot on Lila's fridge!)

Aunt Ann made Sandies and I made candy cane cookies... unfortunately, most of them didn't exactly turn out like candy canes

... but this one did!

Then, the granddaughters tried to get one picture, but Sarah wouldn't cooperate (typical!)

Now here's a Christmas card picture!

Therefore, we have a bunch of pictures that look like this:

Finally we did get one with Lila and her granddaughters!

OH, and Mom made handbell shaped sugar cookies (typical) for the choir, but unfortunately, no pictures of those. Anyway, holiday baking was a success. Then, Sarah, Emily and I had some last minute holiday shopping to do. That was unfortunately not as successful. Never, ever again will I go Christmas shopping the day before Christmas Eve.

We sat in this line to get out of the Best Buy/ Target parking lot for an hour. An entire HOUR to travel like 200 feet from our parking space to the exit! Never, ever, ever again!!!! I have a quality video taken during our time waiting that I cannot figure out how to upload from my phone to computer. But if I ever figure it out, y'all are in for a treat!!! Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!

Summer 2010

Anyone who regularly follows my blog probably thinks I'm crazy for posting my "Spring Break" post in December, which I'm now about to follow up with a post about my summer. Honestly, this is a post that I had every intention of writing back when I started this blog in August, but I just never got around to it. As I got back into the "PC Bubble," everything about my summer, which involved nothing PC-related, started to seem irrelevant, and I quickly put those memories on the back burner of my mind. Last night, however, I came across my "camp bag," which actually is a J. Crew shopping bag filled with all my camp stuff-- cards that people from home sent me, bug spray, towels, sweet notes from my campers, etc. and it made me miss it SO MUCH that I've decided to share it here on my blog! PS- sorry in advance for this being an incredibly long post!!

Ok, so I'm not even sure where to begin. Let me start by saying that I have never, ever been a "camp person." This is probably obvious, if you know me, but it's important information. I actually attended camp as a camper one summer of my entire childhood. I went to Lutheridge as a 7th grader for Campfirmation with my church, and I loved it! But I guess I didn't love it enough to go back, because I never did. (May I just pause and say that I'm counting my blessings that I didn't own a digital camera back then, and therefore have no pictures to document my 7th grade trip to camp!)

So, exactly a year ago, when I was home for Christmas break during my junior year, I started thinking about what to do for the summer. I prayed a lot about it, and I started looking at camps, mainly Lutheridge because that's the only camp I kind of knew. Well, Sarah decided that she wanted to apply there, and contrary to Mandy's belief, Sarah and I decided that it would be best for both of us if we worked at different places for the summer. So I started looking elsewhere. I went to the elca website, where they have a directory of camps that you can search by state. So I thought to myself, "Hmm... I don't want to go anywhere mountainous because I don't want to hike..." so naturally, I chose Florida. Why I chose FL? I have no idea. It was random. But I applied and got a job at Luther Springs, a camp that I'd never heard of and knew absolutely nothing about.

So May came around, and it was time to head south for the summer. I loaded up my car with everything I thought I'd need at camp

(including these sweet monogrammed Chacos) and headed to Florida. I will never forget my drive down there. It was the scariest, yet most independent thing I've ever done in my life. Even though I've been "on my own" at college for 3 years, I've always known someone; I've always been an hour away from home, and I'd never gone more than a month or so without seeing my parents. I'd never driven more than like 2 hours or so alone, and suddenly the reality of me being at least 7.5 hours away from almost everyone I know was pressing in on me. So I called Emily and freaked out a little bit, wondering what had possessed me to peace out to Florida for an ENTIRE summer. It poured rain for the majority of my drive down there, which was actually kind of dramatic. It made it like a movie. Except, the rain was so terrible that I couldn't see anything and I already had no clue where I was going. Tricky. When I finally made it down to camp, my first realization was that I wasn't at the beach. I know it sounds dumb, but when you think Florida, don't you think beach? I do, and I found myself right in the middle of the state, nowhere near the ocean. My second realization was that I was the only person who didn't know another person there. Sweet... I was the random girl. Which, I mean wasn't that big of a deal, but there were only like 14 staff total.

So I spent the next 2 weeks doing training. Building fires, large group games, team building exercises... basically everything I love and am awesome at! (NOT!) At this point, I was seriously questioning my abilities to suck it up and do this for an entire summer. But then camp started. LOMF (Lutheran Outdoor Ministries of Florida) does both residential camp (Luther Springs) and day camps across the state of Florida. I spent the majority of my summer onsite, doing "typical" camp stuff- arts and crafts, canoeing, "hiking" (it was Florida...), campfires, and worship. Over the summer, I found myself in many situations that I would typically avoid....

... such as this.

But then something crazy happened. I grew to love it. Quickly, over the 9 weeks of camp, I fell in love with this place

and these kids

and of course, the people I worked with. Whom I have now spent 45 minutes trying to find a picture of. Apparently, we all sucked at taking group pictures this summer.

I'm not going to act like I turned out to be an awesome counselor or anything, but I truly did LOVE my job and LOVE my summer. I made about a billion melty bead crafts. I canoed many miles through alligator-infested waters (it wasn't as intense as I like to make it sound). I got to visit 3 Floridian towns on day camps. I spent my 21st birthday with ten 8- 10 year olds. And it was fun. I saw through little things how God used experiences I'd already had to prepare me for things that came up over the summer.

Before I went to Florida, I chose this as my theme for the summer:

"Trust in the LORD and do good,

so you will live in the land and enjoy security.

Take delight in the LORD,

and He will give you the desires of your heart."

Psalm 37: 3-4

I saw the benefits and experienced the contentment and joy that resulted from trusting in God and following where he led me. Because of the wonderful people I met, experiences I had, and places I saw, the theme of my summer evolved into:

"The Lord fills my life with good things" Psalm 103:5

Christmas Card Drama

So every year, the Christmas card is a huge source of controversy in this house. Mainly because Sarah and I can never agree on a picture that we consider to be good of both of us. Well, this year was no exception. We took a bunch of pictures in front of the tree, and then my mom gave me her camera to go online and make a card. Well, I sat down in the living room, and said, "Sarah, come over here and help me with this." She didn't. So I ordered the cards. AFTER I had placed the order and went to give my mom her credit card back (keep in mind, Sarah was sitting in the room the whole time I was doing this, showing it to my mom, getting the credit card, etc.), Sarah freaked out and wanted to see the card that she "didn't know" I had made. She is not happy with my decision. That's actually an understatement... she's stomping around our house demanding to know if we can cancel the order. Dramatic. I would post the picture for you here, but since it has become so controversial I will not. Sarah has threatened to get me back with the Christmas letter. So, don't believe any lies that you may read about me in there. Just a heads up.

Amazima

So usually the things that I post on my blog are more "scrapbook-y" type things or stories that I think others may find funny or just random things I like. I read other people's blogs that are usually more substantial or have legit messages to them, and I read one the other day that I have literally NOT stopped thinking about since I read it.

It is a blog of a girl named Katie who lives in Uganda (as in, permanently.) She left America- her family, her friends, a boyfriend, college- EVERYTHING to follow God's calling to adopt 14 children from Uganda. She is 22. That's right... at 22, she singlehandedly mothers 14 children. She started Amazima ministries, which provides education, food, clothing, medical expenses, etc. for hundreds of children. Nothing I have to say is as important, meaningful, or compelling as her message.

Please, please, please check out this girl's blog, specifically this post. I pray that it moves you as much as it has moved me.

Prayers for Patterson

Today I'm asking that anyone who reads my blog will take a minute to read the story of my good friend Katie and her son, Patterson.

When my family moved to SC like 11 years ago, one of the first families that we met were the Shumperts. Katie and Anna quickly became 2 of mine and Sarah's Zion favs. They used to babysit us, and eventually, we ended up asking my mom if they could "watch" us looooong after we really needed a sitter. We just wanted to hang out with them all the time! So then, once we were like middle school-age, Katie went off to college, and bless her heart, she would let Sarah and I come and stay with her at school every once and awhile. We thought this was seriously the COOLEST thing ever!! I'm sure the last thing she really wanted was for these 2 middle school girls to be all up in her dorm room on the weekends, but she would let us stay there and take us shopping and stuff. It was so much fun! I'm forever indebted to her for putting up with us when we were that age and wanted to hang out with her always!

A couple years ago, Sarah and I were in her wedding, and this past April, she had a son, Patterson. Patterson has a genetic heart condition (which, honestly, I don't fully understand and would probably butcher with my explanation.) The bottom line is that he had to have surgery a few weeks ago, and they have been in the hospital ever since. This was supposed to be a relatively "easy" surgery from my understanding (I guess as "easy" as baby heart surgeries can be), but a lot of complications have arisen from the situation. They have been in the hospital since before Thanksgiving. This would be a hard situation to go through anyways, but I think that going through it during the holidays makes it even harder.

So, please please pray for Katie, her husband Dave, and most of all, for Patterson's healing. You can check out their caring bridge site to read their story.

Have a wonderful weekend!

The List

So I'm currently reading/ almost done with a book that I am absolutely obsessed with! It's called The List by Marian Jordan.

If you're a girl in college, or really anywhere in the 20- 25 age range, I would definitely recommend this book. I can absolutely relate to her... I am the queen of making plans (not saying I'm awesome at sticking to them.) I have to have my planner on me always, and I've been known to write out my entire day by times that I'm going to do each thing (I kind of stopped doing this, though, when Sarah made fun of me because my planner looked "like a hair stylist's book")... hater. I'm guilty of having my "life list" as well. I think that I've probably had the same "plan" since... oh, high school? This book points out how we put so much of our hope and identity into our desires for our lives, and when our lives don't go exactly as planned, we tend to freak out/ break down/ lose our identity. Here's a quote from the book that I like:

"I spent many empty years pursing my List, believing the lie that if I could just attain all the little check marks, then I would be fulfilled. Here's the truth: There is never enough. There is always just a little more to be accomplished, achieved, or acquired. The dogma of our time tells us that through consuming, we will find happiness: consuming relationships, consuming possessions, and, ultimately, consuming glory for ourselves. Ironically, the secret to life is not found in consuming but in being consumed-- consumed by a passion for God and his glory that overflows in our lives like a mighty rushing river."

I love this book because it challenges me to seek Christ and His desires for my life first, instead of pursuing my own desires. This book has pointed out to me where a lot of my own hope has been misplaced, and where it should actually be placed-- in the Lord.

Anyway, I can't say enough good things about this book! It's so optimistic and encouraging, and it's a very quick read! I'm almost done, so if anyone would like to borrow my copy... just ask! Have a fabulous Friday!

These are a few of my favorite things (Christmas edition)

19 Days until CHRISTMAS! To celebrate this and the beginning of exam week, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite seasonal things!

1. Dove Peppermint Bark

Seriously, this is the BEST stuff ever. Dark chocolate and white chocolate and peppermint... I wish it wasn't just available at Christmas!

2. Starbucks Caramel Apple Spice

I have been LOVING these lately... best Starbucks drink, hands down (well, except for Pumpkin spice lattes...)

3. OPI All-a-bordeaux the sled

It's on my hands and toes right now... love it!

4. Seasonal episodes of Friends, such as, "The one with the holiday armadillo"

5. Swoozies. The entire store. I went in there the other day and wanted one of everything. Specifically, these:

Ok, so technically these aren't "Christmas-y" except that they could be given as a gift. I know that I've mentioned my love of stationery on the blog before, and I'm especially loving these monogrammed Lilly notecards. I love writing little notes to people, and I NEED THESE (mom!)

Ok from this list, I think we can realize 3 things:

1. I make lists obsessively.

2. Every list I make seems to have candy, starbucks items, nail polish, and stationery on it. I promise to try and vary my interests a little bit.

3. I haven't studied at all for my exams.

Merry Christmas!

Spring Break '10!

So in honor of the fact that I'm getting ready for student teaching and the fact that, due to student teaching, I'll never get to spring break with my friends again, I thought I'd post about our last spring break trip together. Spring break post... December... makes sense, right? (I just really hate studying for exams.)

So about this time last year, we decided that Spring Break '10 was going to have to be our BEST trip EVER... it would have to be awesome enough to make up for the fact that Megan and I would miss Spring Break '11 because we would be taking our spring breaks in March or April with our kids, instead of at the end of February like crazy people PC likes to do. See, every year Spring Break has been the coldest week of our lives. 2 of our years in college, it has actually snowed during "spring" break. So, we decided that the only way to avoid this would be to peace out of SC and go somewhere more tropical. We found this sweet deal on a cruise (only like $300 a person!)

We were sooooooo excited about our cheap tropical getaway, and we couldn't wait for hot, pretty weather so we could get TAN!!

News Flash: it's still cold in the Bahamas on March 1st. It's also their windy season.

So windy, in fact, that our boat didn't even get to go everywhere it was supposed to due to high winds and rough seas. We spent 3 days in Nassau. We did EVERYTHING you can do there. Twice.

Did you know that if you go to Atlantis on an "excursion," you can only go into the "aquarium" (aka lobby)? Just a heads up.

Impressive... SO worth the $15! (not)

We tried to lay out...

... but it was just wayyyy too cold and windy!!

So we enjoyed some indoor activities.

We also loved all the meals and buffets. I mean, it's not like we were spending any time in our bathing suits, after all. Have y'all ever heard that cruise lines supposedly match you up with people to sit with at dinner? Well, I have, and I'm really interested to know what Royal Caribbean thought that we had in common with these people...

Interestingly enough, once we returned to land we realized that one of our own dinnermates is practically a celebrity!!!

(The girl 2nd from the back left in the group photo is coincidentally a Hydroxycut model... too bad we didn't know at the time, otherwise we would have DEF asked for diet tips over dinner... it would have also given us a whole lot more to talk about.)

Also, that group picture represents the 8 people on our cruise that were under the age of like 75. Because you wanna know who sails in late February/ early March? Old people.

Other highlights of the trip include:

- The time the plumbing on the entire ship quit (including sinks, showers, toilets, everything...)

- The fact that our room was on the very bottom floor of the ship... the combination of the location + the rough seas= nights of us barely being able to stay in our beds due to all the rocking!

- The quality entertainment/ shows... especially Megan's personal favorite, the magician. Let's just say this boat was in it's last year sailing, and the performances reflected that.

All in all, we paid $300 for this trip. I'd say we got what we paid for... don't get me wrong, even though it was SO NOT our dream vacation that we had planned, we did still have fun. We just had fun inside... at the buffet... with the 80 year olds.

And the waiters.

Happy December, everyone! Good luck on exams!

Mandatory Friend Christmas at A3!

So tonight was our 2nd annual "Mandatory Friend Christmas Party" at A3 (we have to make these things mandatory so certain people don't try and peace out on all the Christmas fun!) And if anyone HAD peaced out, they would surely have missed a fabulous time. The girls of A3 all gathered to cook dinner and eat together (which is something that we assumed/ claimed we would do ALL THE TIME senior year when we got a townhouse)... it was the second time we have done this. Ever. Let's just say we're not as domestic as we'd hoped. BUT our meal was fabulous... we had hot spinach dip, creamy chicken pesto with bowtie pasta, salad, and rolls! And for dessert we had red velvet whoopie pies (made by me)! A3 can definitely pull ourselves together in times like this and turn out a great meal! So we sat around, ate, and exchanged Secret Santa gifts (everyone's favorite part!) We all received Lilly items from our secret Santas, except for Nancy, who got the Glee Christmas CD (which we've all enjoyed) and coasters and a candle. Special thanks to Megan for my monogrammed Tervis and Lilly notepads!! I'd hoped to get a Christmas picture of all of us, but none of us were looking our cutest. So unfortunately there are no pictures to accompany this blog. Overall, this year was so fun and much more successful than our First Annual Mandatory Friend Christmas Party!

Just to give a little comparison, the whole reason why we had it at our townhouse instead of going out is because we can never all agree on a restaurant. In '09, we had our First Annual Mandatory Friend Christmas Party (FAMCP) at a Chinese restaurant in Greenville that Emily was DYING for us to go to because it was "soooooooo good!!!" Since it was a restaurant that none of us had ever been to before, except for Emily, no one could complain beforehand. All we knew was that "they have hibachi and Chinese food and it is SO cheap!" I love hibachi, and I love cheap. So we didn't need much convincing. So Emily drives us there, and when she pulled up at an old Ryan's-turned-Chinese-buffet, I knew we were in trouble. We all went in and paid our like $8 or whatever, and we were overwhelmed by the massive amounts of Chinese food, hibachi items, sushi, ice cream, and rando assorted desserts. Oh, and rolls. Luckily, when Ryan's closed, they must have left the rolls behind, because this Chinese restaurant was well-stocked! ANYWAY, so Emily and Megan loved it, and Nancy and I did not. We did like the rolls, and that was like all we ate. (Now you're seeing why we had to make FAMCP "mandatory") SO after we did the gifts, Nancy decided that we should take some of the rolls with us. So we got 2 plates full of rolls and sneakily put them in our gift bags when the little waitresses weren't looking. Because if you took any food with you, like in a to-go box or whatever, you had to pay 8 more dollars, and I was NOT about to pour any more of my money into this place. Yep, I'd say that this was the low point of my junior year... stealing Ryan's rolls from the Chinese buffet. So, after the fiasco that was FAMCP, we couldn't all agree on a restaurant to go to this year.

I'll leave you with this:

Our one picture from the night (now you see why we didn't take more)... me, Nance, our matching Patagonias, and some of the messed up red velvet whoopie pies. Lots of red in this picture.

Merry Christmas from A3!