How did I get here #1

I would start by apologizing for not posting in over a week, but it's my blog...and only 2 of you care anyways.

SO...onto more important business. I said I want to start going back and telling you all two about times in my life when I've had these WoW moments. You know...the kind that make you step back and go "how did I get to this place?" Mostly they are good, although I suppose they could lend themselves to being negative.

ANYWAYS-I though I was going to go back and post some big ones from before...and I still will soon this time next year when my life slows down. In the meantime...I had one of those moments this week, and there's no time like the present.

I got restless in Dothan early this week and headed to SIFAT to go hang out with the kids at the TP (trailer park). When I went up that way, I had no idea how much would be going on, but it made my time there much sweeter.

1st, the TP was awesome...I love the kids, and the counselors came out too, so it was great. Afterwards we did the slums for all of the field training students currently on campus learning some ApTech stuff. Then Thursday, I cooked breakfast and lunch for 20ish people. Sweet labor. I loved it.

But here's the WoW moment. Thursday night (I almost left...but I'm so glad I stayed), the Guatemalans came out for a cookout and friendly game of soccer. We were all kicking the ball around (OMG...I love soccer even though I'm not very good...I know I don't have any blog stalkers, but if some of you wander over and happen to be from Nashville and want to kick around a soccer ball with someone who has the skill level of a 4 year old...I'm your girl) , getting ready for dinner and having a great time. We break up the game...get in a circle...and pray. Suddenly I realize how AMAZING it is that I am standing in this circle, thinking about the baby calf that was just born in the next field over, with a Kenyan guy on one side of me, a kid from Jasper, AL on the other, a couple of guys from Haiti across from me, Guatemalans, Mississippians (is that a word), Floridians, a Filipino woman...and someone I used to think I loved was saying this beautiful blessing over the food, and I found myself happy for the love in his life, and unbelievably amazed at where God has brought me.

All I could think was "How did I get here?"

And the only answer I got was "I have plans for you."

*The picture is me cutting privet at SIFAT...Seriously, I love that place.

I PASSED!!!!!!

I passed the praxis....I Passed The Praxis....I PASSED THE PRAXIS!!!! I passed....I Passed...I PASSED!!!!!
I PASSED THE PRAXIS!!!!!!

I made a 140...I needed a 136....This is probably the worst I've ever done on my test in my entire life. Definitely the worst I've ever done on a test I studied for, or I should stay studied like a CRAZY person for. But, I don't even care...I PASSED!!!!!!!!!

I did better on middle school. I made a 183...I needed a 150 to pass. So I'm SET...I'm gonna have a job!! YIPEE!!!!!

JOY!!!!!!!!!!!!! YiPeEE!!!!

If I could bottle up the feeling I have right now I'd be a stinkin' millionaire. And no, it's not love. It's just joy...and it's good. This huge weight was lifted off of my shoulder in the word "bye." It doesn't take much. There is contentment in knowing that things are taken care of. There is peace in acknowledging the love and living without it. My life has been so freaking amazing.
There have been about a million times in my life when I've thought to myself..."How in the name of bob did I get to this place?" I'm going to start writing about those things. Focusing on the blessing and not the ridiculous. Some cool stories to come, as soon as I sort through the memories!

Love.

Roomie #1 Got Hitched!

Callie got hitched, and here are the pictures to prove it. They're all out of order, but I just don't have the patience to sit here and fix that this morning...so know that they are backwards...Without further ado...the beautiful bride and groom!!!

Aren't they just the most beautiful couple you've ever seen. The reception was a blast. A lady from Wild Horse came and taught us some line dances. Callie had her Nashville friends and family make pie and bring to the reception. The pie, fruit and cheese trays, and biscuits with peach preserves were amazing!!

Seriously...this was the most beautiful wedding I've EVER been to. This is what was up front. That's it. Just this simple table and cross. I love it. The seats were dark wood (you can see in the picture below. Attention was paid to every little detail (in true Callie style), but was just so simply beautiful

There was a little iron gate on either side of where you walk in with the little flowers around it. Callie did all the flowers herself, even the bouquets. Right before the wedding a lot of friends went up with Callie to pray. It was a great way to bring the focus back to the Lord (we all know girls can get a little caught up in weddings). Really starting with that moment, the Lord was completely present in the wedding. Even the reception started with one of the groomsman reading a passage of scripture! What an amazing couple...and what a beautiful start at life together.

This is my favorite picture of the weekend. As we were getting ready for the wedding Katie eye got swollen! HA! She was freaking out...half a benedryl and some eye drops later it got better...it was great!

Breakfast at Pucketts Grocery was AMAZING. They had the best biscuits, and everyone elses food looked pretty great too. The roomies Katie put together a cookbook for Callie, and Larn got her an adorable little apron from world market. Now I'll share my favorite recipe from the book.

"Katie's famous pizza: www.papajohns.com"

The old roomies at breakfast! What a good weekend!

Absent...

So I know I've been absent this week. It was a hard week. Saying goodbye and SIFAT sucked. I'm going to miss them all so much...it's even a little bittersweet that I can't hide in the closet from my stalker anymore. The only benefit to leaving SIFAT was that I got to head up to Nashville to see all of the roommates and watch Callie pledge her life to Eric in marriage.

It was the most beautiful wedding Ev-ER! Hands down. I'll post about it later this week.

Finally, I'm back in Dothan. I observed at the High School this morning...ran into sought out the old boy, and realized that he's super unfriendly. I guess that was mistake number 1 today. The teacher I observed for didn't teach, so I didn't last very long there. Now I'm going to get a short nap, go for a run, then study, Study STUDY STUDY! There's a chance I'll get the results of the praxis on Friday...otherwise it'll be next week. NERVOUS! I was told today that I may have only needed to get less than half correct. I'm praying.

More interesting posts to come...(well...interesting if you're into my friends weddings)

Birthday suprise!

So when I got out to the trailer park on Thursday Mayra RAN out to my car screaming "STOP STOP...HAPPY BIRTHDAY" "How in the world did you know it's my birthday?" "NATE TOLD US IT WAS LAST WEEK...He said to make it special...I'll meet you at the shed" Then she took off. She showed up at the big shed with a lime soda that she bought me for my birthday, and then chelly showed up with this miniature cookie cake she made for me!!! I was so excited. Some of these girls have had hard shells to crack, and for them to feel warm enough around me to buy me a coke and make me a cake made my birthday better than I could have imagined it. The Lord sustains me...and on my birthday it was through these precious kids!

This is the good stuff from the party. You can see my half eaten desert, lots of cupcakes and funfetti icing. The kids were HYPER!!!

Chelly started the icing fight that ensued after we made the cupcakes. Apparently I should have said "You can't smear icing on your friends face" but I don't anticipate these things very well. It turned out fun though...she started the fight, and amazingly got the least amount of icing on her.

This is the lovely Brenda...She went absolutely INSANE with the icing, but you've gotta love her anyways. It took her a while to warm up to me, but I think that this week, we were cool...FINALLY!

This is me with the girls at the end of the day. We had a great time decorating cupcakes, eating them, having icing wars, and playing kickball with some questionable rules! I'm so thankful for these kids! I'm gonna miss them so much!

Magazines...

First of all...my birthday turned out fantastic...and there will be a post shortly with pictures of the impromptu party. In the meantime...here are my thoughts on friendship.

I wish friendships worked like magazine subscriptions. I should actually probably back up and say I DO think they work a lot like magazine subscriptions, I just wish it were more clean cut.

Seriously...humor me for a moment. We subscribe to magazines we like. Currently (if I were not so cheap) I would subscribe to USA Today, Woman's World, and Southern Home and Gardens. Now you'll notice USA Today is a daily magazine...Woman's World is weekly and Southern Home and Gardens are monthly.

Now. There are plenty of magazines that I used to want to read but don't now. In Bolivia I wanted to read PEOPLE-all.the.time. I have no clue why. Never before and never since.

Others, I've outgrown. Seventeen is one example. When I was in High School I had a subscription to 17. Now you'd be pulling teeth to get me to read a whole issue.

When I get tired of a magazine, I unsubscribe...but even with the ones I have NO DESIRE to ever subscribe to again...there is always the option of picking it up and scanning through it in the checkout line...and you know what...even the ones I don't like will occasionally have something on the surface that causes me to scan it in the check out line.

SO What does this have to do with friendships you might ask? Here you go.

Some friends I want to hear from daily...When I'm dating someone they fall in this category, other really good friends fit here too. Other people I only want to hear from weekly, and more than that I get annoyed...but weekly is good. Finally there are people I can only take about once a month, even though I LOVE the time we have together once a month or so.

There have been people who have only been a part of my life for a short time, and others I have outgrown.

The problem starts when your friends don't feel the same way as you do about the magazine subscriptions. I wish you could just call up your friends and cancel the subscription. Please note that canceling the subscription has nothing to do with not wanting to be friends anymore. Chances are I still want to pick you up at the checkout counter and skim through the highlights while I'm in line. And every once in a while, if something catches my eye on the cover, I may even want to invite you back into my life for a period of time.

I just think things would be easier if they were as clear cut and emotionless as magazine subscriptions.

*Thanks to Marie for the conversation that helped to develop this post.

Birthday....

This is by far my favorite birthday present...Save maybe the dress I haven't picked out. My grandma sent me this fabulous little letter box from Potter Barn FULL of amazing goodies. Several boxes of Milano's...some Betty Crocker chocolaty things...Dunkin' Donuts coffee...some cappucccino mix...some great trail mix...bubble bath....and cheese straws. It was pretty exciting. I'm not gonna lie.

In other birthday news:

I baked my own birthday cupcakes for other people to eat...

I made my own lunch (which was mighty tasty)

I watched a movie by myself...

I went to the post office...

And now i'm getting ready for the trailor park...which will be fun!

And I had a birthday epiphany...what I've learned in my 23 years on earth:

"Some people can be trusted...and everyone will let you down"

Church

Want to know why I can't find a church? Because when I do try to go around here, I pick ones that are ridiculous.

Sunday morning I seriously debated going to church...I didn't want to drive to Birmingham (which is where the closest decent church is), but I've really just been craving church. So I decided to go to this church that I'd been to with N. before. I remember it being a little charismatic friendly, so I thought why not?

It started out well...I sat beside a guy a little older than me who invited me to go to church with him later that night (I didn't, but it felt good to be asked) and the music was great. People dance in the aisles, and raise there hands and shake and all that fun stuff...I liked it before because it's cool to be around people who worship differently than me. It still is. I like that part of it.

On to the not so cool parts of the church.

1.) I should have known we were off to a rocky start when the preacher hadn't even thought about starting to preach at 12:00! NOON people...everyone else I know was just getting out of church. Still...I can deal with that...I just wasn't prepared for an afternoon marathon of church.

2.) and this is the biggy. The pastor said some stuff that was CRAP! Just ridiculous. Here are some quotes from the sermon...

"The Holy Spirit is our Verizon wireless networks...it follows us around like all those people on the Verizon wireless commercial, making sure we never lose connection"

WHAT??? Seriously...where did this come from. He said the Holy Spirit gave it to him right before he started to speak...maybe he did...but maybe we can just stick to the Word?

"The Holy Spirit is like google in your stomach" (Why the stomach?!?!? IDK) followed by "Pat your neighbor on the belly and say 'google's in there'"

*Let me just insert here that if my sheriff friend had patted my stomach, I might have left.

"The Holy Spirit is our own personal GPS system"

and finally...and my favorite...

"The Holy Spirit knows everything...even how to fix a backhoe"

So much for that church....too bad I really like the concept of it, and the fact that it is crazy diverse, and the fact that most of the staff are recovering addicts of one kind or another.

I hope when I was furiously writing down these quotes, the guy beside me realized it was because I thought they were silly...not because I thought they were so insightful.

Geeze......

I just lost 89 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. WHAT IN THE WORLD! I've been so excited to see this movie ever since I found out Jarred had it upstairs. It just seems to be one of those classics that everyone needs to watch.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I JUST WATCHED THIS WHOLE MOVIE. Wow...

I don't even know what it means...I'll leave you with some memorable ridiculous quotes that I looked up.

"Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?"

"What are you gonna do...bleed on me?"

Man: "She turned me into a newt"
Sir Bedevere: "A newt?"
Man: "Well...I got better."

If someone out there understands this movie please explain. If not, I'm going to redeem myself by watching something better...like Wall-E

Thoughts for today...

I found this quote on a piece of paper in my room. I think it's Rob Bell...

"Because this is always about that...How do you cut through the clutter to know what you really want...or for me right now, why I really want it? How do I know my motivations to make sure that this isn't about that and that about something else still until I'm making decisions to please other people, or prevent loneliiness, or look good. And besides that, is it pleasing to God if I make decisions that are based on these motives? What motives are pleasing to the Lord? I want to love Him and serve Him...What does that mean in the context of my life? Can't I do that anywhere--while surrounded by anyone in anyplace doing anything? Or is there some specific road map I am missing?"

Scratch that...I don't think it's Rob Bell anymore...I think I wrote that...in response to Rob Bell maybe...Anyways...I'm glad I found it. Food for thought.