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!

Instagram Weekend

This weekend was a tiring but incredible whirlwind.

First up, Gattitown lock in Friday night. I stayed up all night (crazy for me!) and hung out with some middle schoolers. It was absolute chaos, but I loved every minute of it. I didn't get home and get in bed until 8 AM Saturday morning, and then slept soundly until about 12:45. I have a ton of studying to do, so I couldn't waste my entire day sleeping. Pictured is my friend and one of my roommates for next year, Megan. She's hilarious! She is a current leader at Jane Long Middle School. We were on "girl's room" duty around 5AM that morning so we made makeshift beds to rest. It's pretty safe to say we were incredibly delirious. Just ask Calvin about my feeble attempts at doing the Wobble in my craziness. It wasn't pretty!

 I went on a walk around my neighborhood per usual when I started getting dozy studying. I figured some fresh air would help to wake me up and get me back in study mode. A street over is a guinea hen hang out. Real talk. These guineas just roam the streets and meander through the allys. I got pretty close to these little guys before they got too scared. This yard has one of those yellow signs in it that says "Guinea Crossing". Only in College Station, folks.

While on my walk, I also say this little guy singing away in the trees. He looked so happy and was certainly enjoying the beautiful weather. Not to mention his picture perfect pose.

This morning I ran my second half marathon, the Armadillo Dash! I hate to say it, but I didn't really train at all for this, which I could definitely feel while I was running. This half wasn't nearly as fun as my OKC one last May, but it was still a good experience. I beat my last race time by ten minutes, which was my only goal. So I consider it a success. This was both mine and Hayden's second race. His mom and sister ran today, too.

No sleep Friday night and the half this morning have left me achey and exhausted. My knees are throbbing, and I am currently walking more like a duck than the normal. My little achey limbs! I have three tests this week so there is no time for a nap, but on the bright side, one week and it's spring break for me!

I hope everyone has a great start to their week!

Oh, an update on roommate situations. I found out this morning that the two girls that were thinking of living with us are signing! So that makes 6 Young Life girls in one house. It's going to be awesome. I am so blessed!

You Do You, pt. XI

I cannot tell you how excited I am for these next few months.

Young Life placement happens on March 29th and I am feeling more strongly than ever that the Lord is calling me to this ministry. I have been thinking about where I would want to lead, but the more and more I think about it, the more I have been praying that the Lord places me where I will have the most impact. I have been leaning towards Young Life Capernaum which is Young Life's ministry for kids with special needs as well as towards Wyldlife (middle schoolers). However, today in a leadership forum with 3 YL schools in the Brazos Valley made me reconsider Young Life again, too. I cannot wait until I am hopefully placed and get to become part of a team and love on some kids! I also cannot wait until I have my own team. I have seen from many of my friends here and in Norman how much your team becomes your family, and that is something I cannot wait for, either. Being surrounded by all these different leaders today gave me so much to look forward to. I literally cannot. wait.

Along with that I am about to be placed on a team with The Wells Project (please go read about it, it's an amazing organization!) where I will get to know and spend time with people who have incredible hearts for Jesus and for this mission.

The Lord has been revealing my place here at A&M over the past little bit and I am so thankful and astounded by His provision and grace. Many nights I have asked Him to reveal my purpose here at A&M and to surround me with a community that lifts me up and sets me in the right direction. My YL small group, future roommates, new teams I will be placed on, Pine Cove friends that will be made, and the people who have been with me from the start of school in August have all been huge blessings. So thank you, friends!

What I'm Diggin' No. 2

Let's start with my jam for this week.... it's a tie between this Sara Bareilles cover of Little Lion Man (make sure to listen starting around 2:35) and one of my favorite winter songs, rightly named The Winter Song. November starts tomorrow (crayyyy!) so it's right about time for me to bust out the Christmas tunes!

I have a hard time eating my green vegetables, so when Emily told me about spinach smoothies she makes, I gave it a try. Let me tell you. They are wonderful. I can't even taste the spinach. In order to prevent my strawberries/bananas/kiwis/pears from going bad (I make about 2 smoothies a week) I precut all my fruit and freeze it--- an idea I first saw here. I will put up a quick recipe in the next day or so.

I really, really, really, really hope that one day I can see the Northern Lights. Apparently on October 24th there was a huge light show stretching from Canada to Arkansas.

This might be the most wonderful thing I have ever read.

It's about time for wooly sock weather. This whole board makes me giddy. I can't get enough of my maroon and grey striped socks. These things rock. Wonderful wooly goodness when my toesies get a little frozies.

The Holiday was being played on the Lifetime channel yesterday afternoon. Need I say more? Yesterday was just asking for me to be a lazy bum all day.

Playing broom ball and scavenger hunts (or duck calling) with a ton of friends from Young Life in Brazos valley.

An interesting article from National Geographic about Food Arks and their importance as we keep climbing in number. Current population of the world as I type? 7,000,054,385. Yes, a seven, not a six.

And lastly, I love me my ENO and hanging out in it with this guy!

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. Isaiah 40:28

Happy Fall, y'all.

It's October, my favorite month of the year! Here's a look back on what I was doing one year ago this month. It's crazy how much things have changed. But I couldn't be more happy with that change.

 Hayden came up for the first weekend of October to visit me. We went to Turner Falls and just had a wonderful time in the beautiful Oklahoma autumn weather. Can I tell you how happy I am that six hour trips are no longer necessary? Blessed, blessed, blessed.

 One thing I do miss about Oklahoma? The evident change in seasons. The color changes, the cooler weather, the awesome sunsets. It has been different experiencing one hundred degree weather in College Station a few days before October. I feel like last year I was already rockin' long sleeve shirts (one of my favorite things) a few weeks into school. 

If this picture isn't an all-encompassing autumn picture, I don't know what is. These are two girls I miss quite a lot. Trying to find a great group of girls to live life with has been my biggest struggle thus far at A&M. I am thankful for my roommates and my boys that I hang out with, but I am also trusting in the Lord that he will provide for me lasting friendships. If you think of that in your time of prayer, do you think you could lift me up?

I am training for Young Life again this semester because the programs at A&M and OU are pretty different, but I am totally OK with that. I will be placed in a small group that meets every week here soon, so I am confident that I will build relationships with the girls I meet there. One thing the Lord has been putting on my heart is being in pursuit of those people. I can't just sit around and wait for them. I kind of feel like a freshman all over again-- but I am strangely alright with it!

One happy/exciting/amazing/WONDERFUL update for you all- the little peanut that is to be my sister's new baby is officially a boy! You know this little guy is going to be the most spoiled thing in the world--- rightly so!

Thanks for sticking with me in my small hiatus from the blog. It's been pretty busy around here studying and running everywhere. However, I would say that the studying has been paying off, at least for one class. I made an A on my first organic chemistry test-- one of seven people in my 100+ class. Not to toot my own horn, but toot-stinkin'-toot! I feel like my blog is a place I can relish in my achievements, right? Now to just keep up those grades and raise all my other ones!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend spent with the people you love!

Last night we had a Leaders Night Out date for all of the Young Life leaders and trainees. We ventured out to Arcardia, OK to a place called Pops. It has HUNDREDS of different old school bottled drinks, with all different labels and flavors and colors (some of my favorites: Banana, Lenonade, Birch Beer). I settled with a root beer, but not any old root beer. I got a fair trade certified Maine root beer with a really neat label that looks like a mix of a moose antler and the squiggles I like to doodle. I also got a triple grilled cheese with cheddar, american, and provolone. I don't think I need to describe the heaven I was in.

Once we sipped and sat for a while, we headed back towards Norman and stopped at Blazer's Ice Rink in South OKC. Here, I played broom ball for the first time. It was really fun, and really funny to watch people make fools of themselves falling all over the place. Until that person is you.

Here commences my embarrassing tale:
I wish I could say I fell going for the perfect shot that ended the game and won it for (the DOMINATING) trainee team. But, I am not that cool. I was just walking across the ice towards the other goal when my feet slipped from underneath me and I landed flat on my back. While it was probably really funny to watch, the second I realized I was back-to-the-ground I felt my body screaming at me. People helped me up, but I could not put any weight on my left leg. I started hobbling over to the edge of the rink and wanted to cry. I could not walk last night without intense pain in my left-lower-middle back area. All night I tried to pretend it didn't hurt so I didn't seem dramatic... but the second I got into my room I let the tears flow. Shoot! I thought last night I had bruised my tailbone, possibly even broken it, and took 3 Advil and went to sleep. Getting up on my bunk bed was no painless task. All night I could feel it hurting, but just tried to sleep it off.

This morning I woke up and could actually stand/kind of walk on it, so I am pretty sure it's not broken. But it still hurts like a ^#&%@! to walk on it. But I am thankful it isn't like last night.

Tonight I am supposed to go ice skating with my floor, but I am kind of nervous. Me and the ice aren't quite bff's right now.

Tonight I began a journey: an 8 week training to become a Young Life leader, hopefully for middle school aged kids in a program called Wyldlife! Hayden is a team leader in College Station for one Jane Long Wyldlife team (he's a big deal...) and kind of convinced me that it would be a great way to invest in relationships with some really awkward middle schoolers. I am really excited to begin this training, because I know I am going to meet some great people and build lasting relationships with kids and leaders alike. I wasn't a big fan of Young Life in high school. I have a great deal of respect for the leaders for Tyler because of how hard they worked to impact the lives of some of my fellow classmates. YL was a big social gathering in Tyler, one where people interrupted (often) the messages that were given. This lack of respect irked me, so the times I went were limited. But I am excited to take on this challenge and see what an amazing mission YL has.

Our message before training started tonight was geared towards what we should get out of Young Life, about creating a lifelong journey rather than one that only lasts in college. Our speaker tonight's main focus was that of God's word. He said that the biggest regret he had as a team leader in 1973(!) was that he never fully took in the importance of the word. One of my favorite things he said was this:

"We have copies of the Bible available to us every way we turn, in our own Bibles, even on an "app" on our iPhones and iPads. We have more access to the Bible than has ever been in the history of the world, yet we probably know it the least. Some people in the world would die for just a copy of the Book of John. A copy to pour their lives into live out."

I know this isn't a revolutionary thought, but it was thought provoking and powerful to me. My challenge to myself is take in the word and not just read it, but meditate on it and absorb it. To become a sponge for the word, and for it to guide me in my life.