Sunday, March 27, 2011

honesty.


disclaimer- this post contains information that is heart- related.

today was a busier sunday for me.

not only did i get to sing at cornerstone, i had a recruitment workshop [insert smily face about that one...]. i also went to walmart, found i had a low tire, went to two gas stations, and made my way to the dorms to work on IJM stuff.

next week is our big fundraiser. we are having a day at town creek park with games and local bands to raise money to free a slave from sex trafficking. it is going to be really awesome, so if you live in auburn [or near auburn] come and support the International Justice Mission and everything we are trying to do.

any who,

while on my errands today i had a convo with mom. she is such a wonderful woman, with the greatest advice and wisdom i could ever ask for. God has truly given me so much in her...

but i feel like i have to be honest with myself.
this semester has been wonderful... truly i have learned so much and experienced a great amount of things... but i am at a place that i have not been in quite some time. and if i am honest with myself, i found this angst inside to be a wrestling match with God to accept His timing and His promises.

I always ask the Lord to give me clear, open and closed door situations in my life. that way, i have no doubt as to what he is doing. i believe God wants us to pray specific prayers. ones that are direct. He already knows our hearts, so why not just be honest with him.

and i was. and then i became disappointed with His clear, closed door answers.

i am being honest. and this is part of the depths of my heart. and i am not sure what has compelled me to share this for the world to see, but here it is.

i am so sad that God took Jessica away. i am lost in a confusion as to why he would take her home right now. i know He is a just God, and i know there is a reason he needed her home. but yet, honestly, i am hurting.

i had all these feelings of invincibility to these type of situations. i always felt i was stronger than that. pride comes before the fall right?

i am working through this. daily. as much as possible. in the word, digging around, soaking in what my heavenly father says. it is part of the relationship. about growth.

when i am honest about today, uganda just yelled at me the whole time. first, the choir from Uganda at church. then my IJM friend had on a mocha club t-shirt [it sponsors kids in africa]. i had to describe a place for an article, and i could only think about Buloba. i got a text from Lauren, who went to uganda with me, and Simon is in Auburn. i had no clue.

i know his plan is perfect. i know he gives and he takes away. i know he has great things in store for me because he tells me this in his word. i am supposed to be light in a dark place [brian, thank you for reminding me of that...]. i know that if i continue to press on toward this goal, i will glorify him with my life. because it isn't about me, it's about him.

and honestly, i feel better not that i threw that out there.





Saturday, March 26, 2011

happy weekend.

well my post did not make it friday, but here it is for saturday instead!

today was a very "domestic" day for me. i woke up late at around 11... which i have not done in a very long time. i ran 6 miles. then i began the work in the apartment. i cleaned and cleaned and did laundry and my sheets. then i ran errands and visited friends. yesterday i went out to emily's house and she taught me how to make "christmas bread", which is just like a cheese braid, or whatever you want to call it.

it's amazing. a sweet bread with a sweet cream cheese filling and icing to top. it is amazing. i really enjoyed the time with emily and ella! now i can take my new baking skills home and wow the fam... obviously it was a hit at 6305.







so about the thing i said i would post about... those devilishly good cookies.

they heaven in cookie. i mean it combines two of the greatest things... chocolate chip cookies and oreos. i saw this on food gawker and HAD TO TRY THEM!

so here is what they look like....







because, as you all well know, i am addicted to peanut butter, i used the last of my crunchy pb
in a couple of these bad boys.

basically, all you do is make the recipe on the back of the tollhouse chocolate chips bag and buy
a thing of double stuff oreos. and you are SET baby.
take and oreo and cover it with the cookie dough, bake it at 350 for about 13 mins... a little longer
depending on the oven :) and enjoy the goodness.

if you want pb, just stick a dollop on the oreo.. and then cover. it gets a little messy, but believe me
it is worth it.

ENJOY THEM! they are amazing.

hope you enjoy the rest of your rainy/ sunny day! i got cleaning, running, and baking points today.
that is impressive.

not onto a movie... i heart TiVo...

Thursday, March 24, 2011

wrap up: SBXI

i never finished posting everything from spring break. and this morning i woke up a little earlier to do some homework, only to find the homework wont load on my computer... gotta love technology. so i decided to finish up my post on spring break.

as you saw earlier we were in vermont for the week. here are some more pictures that i left out.

this was at the ben and jerry's ice cream factory. this was sitting on the counter... and i honestly thought it was real at first.... but payton helped me out.

see? how clever

rachel and caroline. they are beautiful girls. inside and out.

this is pickin' and lickin' marty. if you were ever on a vermont trip, you know what that means. he is the pastor at east randolph baptist church. awesome man of God right here.


while in Boston... i found this little stand in the middle of Quincy Market. it was beautiful and i had to take a....which i am sure i was made fun of about.


had to stop at fenway.... got a hat. hopefully terry and david wont disown me for that... :)


subway in boston.

almost died while taking this photo.... the yellow ones don't stop.


clever idea... and still looks nice. but if i did that here in Bama... might catch a few weird looks and remarks about being a quote "Red Neck". I dono... maybe

favorite part... boston. lil italy. it's amazing

tj odom. fearless leader of our group through boston. he was a champ. hooked us up at the right places. especially harvard. and the dinner. yes sir i will see you in boston again.

l.o.v.e

I love payton. he was like my little brother while we were on the trip. most of my pictures are of him bc he was just so photogenic. obviously by the photo above...

he is a sweet heart and i am really excited about seeing what he does with his life. he is going to do great things for the Lord. here's to you pay pay! dead koala strikes again:)

______________

i have a wonderful post planned for tomorrow! a happy happy happy friday post no doubt. i made the most amazingly sinfully addicting thing in the universe. i know that sound extreme but i have witnesses to testify to it. i will share with you the wonders of my new favorite thing to bake. be excited.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

gather. share. nurture.

wednesday we spent the morning at the vermont food bank.
we started off building boxes and packing food in those boxes.





we packed about 400 boxes of food. those boxes included sunshine veggies, yams, mixed fruit, cereal, evaporated milk, some tomatoes, oats, noodles, and peanut butter. we lined up assembly style and went from there. the boys helped restock our areas while we packed all the boxes.



after a break we sorted food that has been removed from the shelves of grocery stores. it was a little different, but interesting to see how much food we throw out that is perfectly good. it's awesome seeing what we can do and how many people we can feed.

although the people were not christians, and the organization was not based off of their love for the Lord, we were able to be the hands and feet of Jesus yesterday. we could put the love of Christ in those boxes, WITHOUT putting tracks in the boxes (STUART DAVIDSON).



i love this trip so far.

today is ben and jerry's. and burlington.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

vermonters.



for spring break i am leading a small group of students from first baptist church montgomery to vermont to do mission work. this includes three junior girls, two sophomore boys, and two senior boys. there are five leaders, of which i am the youngest.

it was weird getting packed for spring break this year. all my friends were packing for the beach or Tampa, while i was making sure i had long underwear and snow boots. i have been wanting to do something meaningful and different for spring break, now i am doing just that.

i am sitting on my bunk bed in the calif retreat center in washington, vermont which is located right outside of barre. it is white. everything just about. snow all over, and very, very, verrrry cold.

but beautiful.

we have been doing service work the past two days. this includes a lot of driving, but the suburban s and holding up just fine.

here is a little recap on the first full day we were in VT.



we woke up really early to work at a soup kitchen tuesday morning, and fed 50 people lunch. it was a really awesome time...

then we went downtown and kinda shopped around. this is where i found these bottles and this AMAZING and SWEET looking peanut butter jar! ahhh i wanted it, but had no clue what to do with it.


after a quick trip to the grocery, we went to the church at east randolph, VT and chilled before talking with marty's friend. it was a really neat time for everyone to get to know each other, and the Lord and why we were there in the first place.


you could say some people were sleepy.


last night mrs. julie, marty's wife, made amazing pancakes, which i had not had in ages. they were sooo unreal. i think i ate 4 or something. and not to mention we had real vermont maple syrup. we also went sledding and snow mobile-ing around a field. it was cold, but a fantastic time.

well i think i am going to take a snap [short-nap] before we go out again today.

this morning we worked hard at a food band in vermont. it was so awesome, and although i am not sure how many boxes we did, but my arms are sore. ha.

well until tomorrow!






mission: date to formal 2

so this is really late, but i needed to post about formal this year. why? because it involves baking of course.

first of all, our formal this year is held the same night as 4 other sororities. which means you have to ask way ahead of time to ensure you will have the date you want.

so i didn't know how to ask the person i wanted to ask. i normally do something with food, because, let's face it, who doesn't want food and a date to formal?

so here is what i decided on, with the help of my unsuspecting formal date...




they are the yummiest thing. a combo of peanut butter, pretzel and chocolate. here is the recipe. i found them on foodgawker with the help of my awesome formal date.

he did not know i was going to ask him, but did know i was going to try these little creations out on him. so i met him at the library, with goodies in hand. inside the box of these yummy things was this note...




and then on the back....


well, he was pretty excited and said yes! i am really looking forward to it. he is going to be a fantastic date [if you read this stud, no pressure]. this formal could be my last one. next spring i may or may not be interning somewhere and could miss formal. so you could say it's going to be memorable.

enough with formal stuff. i am about to post about VT.


Wednesday, March 2, 2011

a day off.

yesterday Ella's mom Emily asked me if I wanted the day off. I told her no, but she gave it to me anyway.

so i got to sleep in today! until 7:20. and then I ran 3.2 miles. which i have not done since Christmas Break...

i haven't had a morning like this all semester. it was weird waking up and it being sunny outside, it's normally dark when i head to the gym. it was nice seeing sara this morning before she went to class. it's also nice being able to sit here and not do any homework for a few minutes.

I just found out mom and dad are going with the siblings on choir tour this year. and where might they be going this year....only CHICAGO. and guess who gets to stay in auburn and take classes while they are there....ME. oh well. I am very glad they get the opportunity to go and enjoy the city and share the gospel through song. but i will miss being there with them.

lately i have not been able to conjure up any insight for my blog. my insight has been channeled to other venues. but this morning i have searched deep down to find something to share... so here it is.

a word we here so very often in our lives. we use it probably every single day. it is the word COME.

Come here...come over....come sit down...yada yada you get it. it is a command. i use this command with Ella. I use it with the dog.

but someone else uses it a whole lot more.

Christ tells us to COME TO ME ALL WHO ARE WEARY.

COME TO ME and I WILL GIVE YOU REST.

COME FOLLOW ME AND I WILL MAKE YOU FISHERS OF MEN.

COME AWAY WITH ME.
COME TO ME.

Jesus commands us to COME and He will bless us or grant us peace and understanding. He knows where we stand and where we need to move...TO Him. I always picture a Dad holding out His arms when a child is hurting saying "come here sweet heart and I will fix your heart." how comforting it that?



As you come to Christ, and take His yoke upon you, He will fill you with my very Life.

That is a promise. God makes promises He keeps.

Come to him with your weakness, and He will restore your strength.

The Word is full of promises like these. I am so grateful that our Father welcomes us with open arms. Our hurts and anxieties are lifted and we are restored within His arms. I am thankful for this.

Just a thought this morning.



ps. mission date to formal post is coming up soon!