Revamped Spool Rack

One of my favorite things to do is garage sale-ing and antique hunting. This Saturday morning I hit up a few garage sales. I was pretty disappointed (I have an ongoing list of items I am searching for) and only bought one item. I found one of these vintage spool holders for $1.50. My mom keeps her thread and bobbins on one at home, so I was very excited when I found it. I am hoping to have a little craft corner in our sunroom next year where I can set up my sewing machine, store fabric and just have a permanent place for all the house's craft supplies. So, I thought this would be a perfect little addition. I decided to spruce up the original wood and painted the rack a sea foam color with gold edges and post tips. I used acrylic paint and ended up painting about 4 layers to cover the wood. I apologize for the terrible quality pictures, but I actually sold my camera recently (hooray!) and am in limbo while I am waiting to buy my next one. When I get it in I will try and remember to take a not-so-terrible picture of the final project!

I am very happy with how it turned out. I was nervous at first, but I am glad I decided to paint it! Have you been garage sale hunting recently? What are the gems you are looking for?

A Year in Review: 2011

A few weeks ago my blog celebrated it's second birthday. It's fun to look back on last year's year in review and see how much life has changed. Well, folks, here is year number two!

April/May: I ran my first half marathon in May, celebrated Easter at home with family, and took a trip to OKC with my friends before we left for summer.

Summer: I spent my summer working at a local paint your own pottery studio in my home town, venturing on up to Minnesota to visit my grandparents who live on the Chippewa Indian reservation, my family and Hayden took a vacation to the Destin beaches, and spending sweet time with my friends and family. Oh, and who can forget this was the summer that Sheppy became a reality?

Acceptance: after a semi-stressful wait, I was finally accepted to A&M and became the newest Fightin' Texas Aggie! This has probably been the highlight of my year so far.

Falling for Autumn: Football games, Ring Days, date nights, camping trips, more football games, Young Life leadership, baby showers, and an invitation to work at Pine Cove Ranch for the second half of summer.

Holidays: For the first time in my college career I was sad to be leaving my college home to go back to my hometown. I suppose that means I found where I fit? We took some trips to Nebraska, visited my parents alma mater, celebrated the wonderful Potato's twenty-first birthday, and rang in the new year!

Spring Fling: Intramural games, concerts, more Ring Days, The Well's Project, meeting my new Wyldlife team- my SFAmily, meeting the most adorable little guy: Shepherd Christopher, antique hunting with my momma, Easter celebrations, more half marathons, and busyness piled on top of busyness!

And now we are here. I am a week and a half away from finishing my sophomore year of college and my first year at Texas A&M. I can't tell you the ways I have changed within these past months, but I do not think I have ever been happier. It's exciting to look towards the future in eager anticipation of the wonderful things to come!

Now all we need is to get E&A a little closer so I can snugs with this guy all the time! :)

Lovelies

Here are a few of my favorites from around ze interwebs:

Is she not just the most regal looking lady you've seen? I love the neutrals with the bright red color popping out. This photo gives me inspiration to not look homeless every day of my life. Time to limit your wear, Patty shorts!

I am now obsessed with Great Danes. I am trying to convince my parents that we need to have a new family member, but they don't seem too keen on it. What is interesting is that Great Danes are the one dog I think are cuter as adults rather than puppies!

Grace. That's about all I can say about this. I miss this. And I miss my dreams. And I miss the freedom!

If there is one image that I go back to day after day, it's this one. Scalloped edges=to die for. And you cannot go wrong with buffalo check. This room just inspires me more than anything. 

I've taken a short hiatus from running, but that hasn't stopped me from going outside! I go on a walk every day (except on Monday!) for about 40 minutes, and it's just one of my favorite times. It's peaceful, it's quiet, and it's a great time to just let my mind unwind (hey there Mr. Rhymes!) Not to mention the weather is gorgeous and my neighborhood is bustling and beautiful!

1.2.3.4.5.

Darkness

I am rereading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller for the first time since probably my sophomore year in high school. It's definitely taking me quite a while to unpack what I have been reading. And it definitely is much more meaningful/relevant to where I am in my faith now than it was 4 years ago (I have done a lot of growing up!)

"[...] and how hard it is to love light and how easy it is to love darkness. I like to think that I do things for the right reasons, but I don't, I do things because I do or don't love doing them. Because of sin, because I am self addicted, living in the wreckage of the fall, my body, my heart, and my affections are prone to love things that kill me. I could go through the motions for a while, but sooner or later my heart would testify to its true love: darkness."

If that isn't a testament to my life, I don't know what is. I can try my hardest to live in the light, but I fail miserably ever single day. My heart's true love is darkness, and I have to ask constantly to change that. I can see it everywhere in my day to day: picking unnecessary fights with Hayden, stressing myself out over the littlest things, unkind thoughts, quiet irritability. It's everywhere. All because my heart is focused on the wrong thing. So it's been my goal to now make the conscience effort to push towards the light. Only enveloping my heart and mind in the Lord's love and dwelling in His presence will shift this. The sin nature I have etched so deeply in my heart can easily cloud my thoughts, but I pray that the Lord will open my eyes to this and help to guide me to the light, to Christ. Lord, teach me to love the light. What is your darkness?

Life as of Late

I feel like my poor little blog has been neglected.

Team Big Truckin', my boyfriend and his roommates' intramural basketball team, made it to the third round of playoffs after winning zero games in normal season. Story of an underdog, no? They were the 61st seed team, but managed to zoom pretty far, even beating the #4 seed team. It was sad for them to lose, but they had a great run. You've probably never seen a fan section like the Big Truckin' fan section. At least 6 girls were in attendance, with the last game topping over 12 girls. Let's just say the 12th Man was out in full force that night. WHOOP!

I had my first Wyldlife clubs, events, middle school lunches, team meetings, team dinners, etc. I adore my team. I just can't put into words how wonderful these next two years with my SFAmily are going to be. Also, I went to do my first contact work last Wednesday.  Contact work is where you go and see the kids in their community, aka school lunches. (Incarnate evangelism is the way we do things in Young Life. Jesus didn't make people come to Him, He met them where they were. See John 1:14-- He made His dwelling among us!) I met a few girls, got a few girls phone numbers, and even got to pick one of the girls up for club the next Monday. I am praying the Lord will provide me the courage and the ability to form sweet relationships with these girls. There are some broken kids in this community. I see these kids dealing with things that I would never have dealt with in middle school. Not even in my entire life. Pray for these kids' hearts to be opened and receptive. They have so much potential and so much to live for, they just cannot see it yet!

One of my good friends Calvin got his Aggie Ring one weekend, so I was lucky enough to present his ring to him! We had a fun time and finished out the night eating Laynes (you cannot go wrong with that!) One year until I get mine! Whoop!

All of the roommates (and Jonathan) except for Bryan have their rings. When Bryan gets his next fall they are hoping to have a house ring dunk. I am so excited!

We ran into Matt and Katie on the way to pick of Calvo's ring. Matt just got his that day too. I am pretty sure it made his life! :)

I got to go home for Easter weekend and spend time with my parents. We ate pizza, laid out by the pool (while my dad built a double decker retaining wall... he cannot sit still!), hunted Easter baskets, dyed eggs, and got my mom ready for beginning her first yoga class. Most importantly we celebrated the most important day of history. One of my favorite hymns, The Lamb, says it best: "Worthy is the Lamb whose death makes me His own. The Lamb is reigning on His throne!" Love it.

Seeing my friends on study abroad trips/about to go on trips makes me itch to go! (I'm talking to you, Madi!) A study abroad next summer would certainly be ideal, but with only upper level biology courses left in my track, I am not very sure that's even a possibility. But it's definitely an idea I would love to entertain! Likewise, I am yearning to take a trip to Israel. I am doing a One Year bible reading, along with going through Romans with church, and I just hope that one day I will be able to walk where these stories took place. Bucketlist item for sure!

Secondly, I am considering switching my major from Molecular Biology to just plain ol' Biology. For no reason other than I don't want to have to take the number of labs that MBio makes you take. Pondering.

This Friday is a Jillian Edwards/Johnny Stimson concert in College Station for the Wells Project. It's part of the commitment tour for the 10 Days next Fall. Check out http://10days.cc to see if they are coming to your city! Also, commit to the 10 Days while your at it (top right corner). The whole purpose is to go 10 days one week next fall without drinking anything but water. Whatever money you save by not buying coffee/milk/sodas/etc can be donated to the Wells Project in order to dig wells for people groups who do not have accessible clean water. The location of next year's wells has not been announced, but as soon as it is, I will let you know. Imagine walking 5 miles a day with a 40 pound jerry can full of water because that's the only way you can live. Let's change that!

Emily and Shepherd are coming to visit Aunt Jill in College Station! I am so excited to show her and my family around my city and just hang out with them. Counting down the hours!



Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to his power at work within us, to Him be the glory forever and ever! [Ephesians 3:20]

SFAmily

Thursday night I was finally placed on my Young Life team- SFA Wyldlife! I am so incredibly excited about our new SFAmily and how close we have already gotten. Tomorrow is my first real club as a leader. We are actually having a cookout at the park, so it's not quite a normal night. I have been waiting two years for this day to come and I could not be more excited. Placement night here (and pretty much any YL) is a pretty big deal. We were picked up in a limo and driven to this outdoor ampitheatre in downtown Bryan where there were some funny skits, great music, and most importantly, reveal of our new teams! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the night!

 Kailie, one of the girls from my small group!

 Me and my girl TQ. She is one of the 5 girls that I am living with next year. She was placed on A&M Consolidated High School. So excited for her, and so excited to see how the Lord will use her!

 Another future roomie, Megan! She is on Hayden's Wyldlife team, Jane Long. They were all dressed up as country-folk. I am so thankful for this girl!

Shelby, me, MB, and Megan. We got 4 out of the 6 girls in a picture, but have yet to get the whole group together!

These are the girls from my small group all year. We were the only three to get placed, and i am so happy for these girls. Lauren on the left was our leader, Kailie is a leader at Consol and Brooke gets the oppurtunity to start a brand new YL club at College Station High that is opening in the fall. I couldn't be more blessed to have lived life with these girls for the past 8 months!

SFA WYLDLIFE! Jennifer, me, LC, Marc, and Robert. Already loving my team! 

Tiffany and Meghan are two other girls in my small group from this year. They decided not to go through with training, but they came and supported us at placement night. You guys are tha bomb!

 One of the new girls on my team, Jennifer! We had the opportunity to be on the same mock club team in February, but I am so excited to get to know her better and spend all our time hanging out with middle schoolers. She has such a sweet heart and is absolutely hilarious.

The new girls: LC, me, and Jennifer! Love them already!

The brand new SFA Wyld Life team! They were dressed up as the Hunger Games characters (which, oops, I still haven't read/seen!)

This is about to be an incredible season of life for me and I cannot wait for these next two years. I know it's not always going to be easy, but this new community of people could not be a better group of people to lift each other up. Dedicating at least of 15 hours to Young Life is a huge commitment, but I know that the work here is all for His Kingdom. I am so thankful the Lord has allowed me to be used in this organization, and I cannot wait to see relationships built!