Some things I LOVE!

Thought I'd try to make this a happy post...I have a list of random things I love and thought I'd share...(I'm sure you guys...all 2 of you, probably don't really care, but thought I'd share anyways). Some things I love...
1. shopping for school supplies/the beginning of school
2. the smell of spring time w/ the windows open throughout the house
3. the feeling after I've just got done jogging
4. boating
5. sleeping in on a Sat. morning and then going to brunch
6. having friends over and playing games
7. babies
8. sweet tea
9. Red Elephant's Rebecca's salad
10. when I babysit kids and they imitate their parents
11. sleeping with it freezing
12. the sound of rain while falling asleep
13. helping someone
14. learning how to do things around the house
15. attempting to cook...notice I say "attempting"

What is a friend...

What is your definition of a true friend? In the past year or two I've had some great friendships, had trouble with some friendships and strengthened some friendships. It wasn't until recently that I decided that being a friend is something you have to work at in order to keep. There's a lot of give and take...and if there isn't, don't expect much out of the friendship. This week has been one of the most difficult I've ever experienced in my life and honestly, the only reason I got through it was because of three things....being in constant prayer, God's strength sustaining me and FRIENDS! My friends were there for me...every night, making sure I was ok, calling, listening, handing me Kleenex and just praying. I was on the phone w/ one of my good friends earlier this week after I had received some devastating news and she asked if I wanted her to come over or meet her and some other friends for dinner and my immediate response was, "please...you don't have to do that...I know you are super busy w/ school and work and you have too much on your plate." I didn't even finish my sentence before she interrupted and told me to just "stop right there!" She assured me there's nothing else she'd rather be doing and whether or not she truly meant it, she put those words into action and called some of my friends up and they came over and were "just there for me." This past week God has really shown me what true friends are and has provided me strength and encouragement through them. Not only have I learned what true friends are, but I've learned what it takes to be a true friend and how I want to act towards others to show them how much I care. A friend is someone who genuinely cares about you, who prays for you, encourages you, listens and is just there...no matter what! So to all of you "friends" out there...THANK YOU!...You guys have helped more than you know!!
Pics always make a post better :)

Does that make me CRAZY?!?!

Does that make me CRAZY?!
Ok..so on a local radio station they do a segment called “Does that make me crazy?,” where people call in, tell about their weird habits (or sometimes normal habits) and ask, “Does that make me crazy?” SO..I figured I’d tell you guys mine and see what you guys think!
Does it make me crazy when…
1. I vacuum a rug and have to go back w/ my hands and make sure the fringe is
straight.
2. Have to break out a new piece of paper just because I made a mistake and refuse
to scribble it out
3. Have to have coffee every morning except weekends?
4. Refuse to eat things that have sour cream or onions in them?
5. Have at any given time enough clothes in my car to have a complete outfit no
matter what season it is
6. Can’t talk and write at the same time?
7. I forget someone’s name upon being introduced because I was so concerned w/ what
I was going to say
8. Freak out if I’m a minute late to something but am totally fine w/ being 15
minutes early
9. Literally have to walk away when I hear someone smacking b/c it makes me so angry
10. I refuse to shower once it gets dark b/c I’m scared someone’s going to break in
and I won't hear them b/c the shower is going
11. Lock my bedroom door at night
12. Have to have my box fan on before being able to fall asleep
13. Feel the need to yell at someone that litters, isn’t wearing their seat belt or
has a child roaming freely about their motor vehicle
14. I still can’t have my food touch (yes..even at 23, I’m still THAT picky)
15. I literally freak out when someone asks me to look in their eye for dirt or see
a picture of an eye
16. When I run I have to have 3 things: my ipod, gum in my mouth and chapstick!

Feel free to share your quirks so we can all determine if they make you “CRAZY” or not! hehe! Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday...I LIVE for the weekends!

Summer is right around the corner!

Being a typical college student, its only natural that around this time of the semester we all get tired, stressed and ready for SUMMER (and I am no exception)! This summer will actually be the first time since I was 15 that I haven't had a summer job and to be honest...I'm really not THAT disappointed! I will be taking 4 classes this summer, however they'll only go til noon Mon-Thurs for the first 6 weeks of summer and then the last 6 weeks I'll only have to go on Mondays and Tuesdays. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to leaving school at noon and going to the beach, taking a nap, basically doing ANYTHING I want! However, if there are any mom's out there that read this or anyone that needs a house sitter, I DO house sit and I DO babysit and would be willing to take on one and/or both. In the next 3 weeks I have: 1 paper, 1 taped interview and 1 presentation this week, 1 presentation, 1 outside 30 min. interview to conduct, and 3 papers next week and finals everyday the following week. Needless to say I WILL be busy in the coming weeks and will be ready for a much needed break! Also this summer, one of my best friends is getting married (in CHICAGO) and my friend Brooke and I will be vacationing...scratch that...attending her wedding in July, along with helping throw another wedding shower at the end of July AND serving as one of the leaders on our NEW Young Adults small group that our church plans on starting in the coming months. I'm definitely looking forward to all of it! Summer time HURRY UP!

After all these years...

As some of you may already know, I'm currently attending FSU P.C and am majoring in Communication. Well, this semester I made a lot of new friends (I literally have these 4 or 5 girls in almost every one of my classes) and we are always cutting up. In two of my classes there are literally 5 Megan's...one of which I've become good friends with. I knew from day 1 that she looked really familiar, but I just assumed she was a few years younger and maybe I'd just seen her around high school or GCCC...well, after talking and realizing we were the same age and attended different high schools, we figured there wasn't any way we could've known each other prior to our classes at FSU. Tonight we had an FSU Faculty vs Students basketball game (which was hilarious by the way...our professors did the half time show dancing around to "All My Single Ladies" just imagine 60 year old women dancing around to that...HILARIOUS) anyways, if we went we all got extra credit in our classes b/c our professors were in it...so myself and these 4 or 5 girls decided to go (Megan being one of them) and this afternoon before the game she texted asking if I was going to be there b/c she had a surprise for me. I told her yes but that I really didn't like surprises and would like her to just tell me what it was. After continuously refusing to give in, she told me I'd just have to wait til the game tonight. So...I see her walk in the gym and immediately I see that in her hand is a picture and I can tell its one of those big ones from your elementary school days. So she brings it to me, I open it up and standing right next to one another is Megan and Megan! WHO KNEW?! I asked her how she found it and she said she just stumbled upon it at her parents house this weekend and I asked how she knew it was me and without hesitating she said, "because you look EXACTLY the same!" Now, maybe I'm just in denial but I really hope I don't! I decided I'd post the pic and let you guys judge for yourselves....so let me know! Don't hate on my outfit too bad, ok?! That's all for today! Until tomorrow....

A weekend of "firsts"

Well, my weekend was full of friends, fun and firsts. To start off my weekend, I was house sitting all last week and went Friday morning to let the dog out.Well, when I was coming out of their house I unfortunately caught the next door neighbor (a guy in his late 40's) running around his car, flapping his arms up and down and making a loud squawking noise...I didn't know if I should just turn around and act like I didn't see him or keep walking to my car...but it was too late...he saw me and just played it off by saying, "yeah..just doing my daily duty of trying to keep these ducks away)...I only saw one duck and it wasn't really even near him (CRAZY MAN)! Then...I went up to my friends' Kresta and Joe Michael's lake house (first time since its been done) and just relaxed on the patio (it was beautiful) and we (Kresta and I) got JM's truck stuck in sand..(again, first time I've ever gotten a truck stuck in sand). Saturday I ran 3.5 miles for the first time ever (and I'm paying for it as I write this..my legs are killing me) and used a saw cutting tree thing (have NO idea what its really called) to help a friend get the moss out of their trees (great arm workout by the way). Then, Sat night I had friends over and we sat around my dining room table (first time I've had people sit around my table...I live alone so I never get to eat at a table w/ people) so it was really nice and it was my first time not burning brownies...they weren't great...but they weren't burnt :) Then today was my small groups first time being in their new Family Life Center...so we played volleyball and did some team building activities (which were fun but took way to long). All in all it was a great weekend! Hope you all had a great one as well! Enjoy your Monday...I literally have to psych myself out for Mondays on Sunday nights!

Some things I've learned...

Ok...so in the past month or so I've learned a few interesting, funny and educational things that have, in some cases left me perplexed. Here are just a few things I've learned that I previously didn't know or had a different understanding of what they were.

Here's what I've learned...
1. The word Cathartic does not actually mean relaxing, tranquil or
therapeutic (which is apparently what a lot of us thought it meant...but you'll
have to look it up yourself...and people commonly mistake its definition and use
it with a whole different meaning).
2. There is a food called mustard greens?
3. If someone is in your yard and they aren't wearing an LHPD uniform, they
probably aren't LH police (read previous post for further explanation).
4. Never leave your garage door open...(a wild dog might come in and scare the crap
out of you (its true..happened to me this past weekend)
5. Never trust someone who's sitting in a motorized wheelchair (in your driveway),
trying to get you to believe that their wheelchair won't go forward after just
having proven that it can! (another crazy person I've encountered recently)
6. 7 out of 10 young adults (ages 18-30) who went to church in regularly in high
school said they quit attending by age 23 (that's absurd)!
7. Be patient, now I say I've learned that in the past month, but really God has just
been dealing w/ me a lot lately in this area (whether its when I'm behind snow
birds in traffic or just life in general)...Everything is done in HIS timing!
8. Not to look at the past and wish things were different and not to look toward the
future and hope for certain things but to realize that in the here and now (if we
are looking for opportunities), God can and will use us!...My youth pastor always
says, "are you going to wait until God says go or go until God says wait?"
9. This is something else I've really battled with...If we say we our christians and
only love those that are like us or nice to us, what credit is that to us?...Even
friends of mine or people from my past, I love but the second they are mean to me
or offend me, I immediately find myself (my sinful self) wanting to be mean back
to them or rude or ignore them...and although they've done this to me...I am
constantly having to pray "God...make me and my attitude, that like yours...help
me to love this person NO MATTER WHAT...and to show them your love"...-this has
been without a doubt the hardest thing for me lately!

So there are just a few things I've learned in the past month!
This next month is about to be crazy...I'm finishing up this semester (full of presentations, papers and finals in the next few weeks), still working 2 jobs, and getting pumped up/preparing for our new Young Adults ministry that we're starting (May 14th at LHUMC)! I'm sure it will all fly by but just the urgency of completing everything by the deadlines is a little stressful!
Real quick, I also wanted to share w/ you about a book I just finished reading that absolutely rocked my world and my views of Christianity, the church, Jesus and my selfish and simple ways. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you read it (I've read it and am about to read it again)...it's written by Francis Chan and is called Crazy Love! I highly recommend it...its an easy read and will leave you questioning what you are doing for God, knowing what he's done for you and wanting to change how you live and view others, God and our purpose here on this earth!
That's all for now! Oh..and I thought I'd leave you with a picture I took a few years ago and one of my favorite quotes. "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else." C.S. Lewis

I'm NOT a morning person, but....

Well, hello there! This is my first blog and I must say, I can probably already tell you what you're thinking! "Why would a single, young woman have a blog?...I mean really, what could be so interesting that she thinks she needs to share it with others?" Well, I'll tell you that in the past month or so, I've had some strange things happen to me and after sharing them with some of you and hearing you guys suggest that I should blog about these things, I decided to take your advice!
So...I'll start off by telling you something odd that happened to me about a month ago. It was a Friday morning and I woke up thinking "did I just hear my doorbell ring or did I dream that?" So after a minute or two of contemplating whether or not I should go check it out, I decided to wrap myself in a blanket, run to the door and listen to see if I could hear anything. After a second or two of not really hearing anything, I looked out my front window only to find my house and street were surrounded by LH police...(now, I don't know what time it was but I could tell from the little bit of sunshine that came through my window it was early, and for those of you that don't know this yet, I am NOT a morning person!!!) SO...anyways, I ran back, got dressed (well, I was still looking pretty rough) but anyways, and went outside to find two officers coming from my back yard. I asked them what was going on and after telling me that they had been ringing my doorbell and banging on my door for about 10 minutes, they said they were chasing a suspect on foot and he jumped my fence and ran into my back yard. Then, (this is where its just down right dumb) one of the officers got real close to me and said, "now honey, if you see someone walking around your house and they don't have a LHPD uniform on, you need to holler real loud!" Now, I know I'm not a morning person, and looking as young and raggedy as I did, one might think I was incompetent of completely understanding what was going on, but give me a break people...a 5 year old would know that!! So...I told the officer I would and eventually went back into my house, looked out into my backyard to find 2 officers in it, an officer on the roof of the house across from me, one on my roof and one on the roof caddy corner! All that to say that after looking at a clock and realizing it was 5:30 in the morning and eventually watching as the police drove away, I finally fell back asleep, only to wake up later and think, "really, how could that police officer have thought I was that dumb?!" In the end, the suspect was caught, I now have a crazy story to tell and will definitely be considering getting something to use as a weapon (maybe a bat?!) so you better watch out!!! :)