roids. granny bowling. rainbows. mooses.

sooo, i thought id take this time to catch yall up on life! sorry i havent posted in a while. life has been crazy. well... last weekend was a great time of relaxation. friday/sunday, me & val got to go to the first baseball series of the season! it was a glorious weekend with great weather. perfect for baseball. AND it was $1 hotdog night. that makes it even better. whats a baseball game without franks?? 

friday night some of us got too go bowling. what a fun time! we had competitions to see who could bowl the best. round 1: regular bowling. round 2: granny-style bowling. [which i DOMMED by the way]. round 3: lightning round. you were eliminated if you couldnt knock at least 5 pins down. almost won that one! fun times with fun people.

i had a ton of work this week in anticipation for this weekend- it was a whirlwind! but got to take a break from things to have an unforgettable dinner with my girl, emily windham. i cant begin to tell you how hard we laughed that night... about nothing! basically, we got tickled & laughed so hard that we cried. this was all at the expense of our poor waiter, who had to put up with us giggling all night. it was so great. 

this weekend i also received my new nalgene in the mail! now if you know me, you know how much i adore mooses. wellll.....

need i say more??

thursday i headed home for a wonderful weekend. thursday i got to have some amazing quality time with my man. we enjoyed a night at olive garden. we made good friends with out waiter, creeped out a waitress, & got like... 20000 mints. then i was treated to my favoriteee: sweet ceces. it was soooo good. great night. =]

friday was a big day: i had my second interview with orange ltd.. 

i was kind of nervous because i wasnt sure how it was going to go.  when i went, i ended up loving it! i was so pumped! in which, i got a call back today... and officially got the job! praise the Lord. He is always so faithful! such exciting news. 


but the funnest part of the weekend was One Weekend, which is a disciple now for my home church. me & ang had the most amazing 8th grade girls. it was a great time. so Jesus-filled and God-ordained. we had an amazing time of deep conversations, laughing, crying, and craziness. wont forget a minute of it!  

thankful for such amazing people, amazing time learning in the Lord, and amazing experiences. there. whoo. yer caught up now. enjoy.

due timing.

what a perfect title for this season of my life. not only my life personally, but the things i hear from other peoples' lives and how the Lord is working in them- He is the perfect Orchestrator. whether it be good times or bad; seasons of doubt or seasons of blessing and joy, He divinely carries out His plans.  


i was reminded of one of my favorite verses [and aptly, characteristics] about the Lord today in my quiet time. psalm 73:23 [you should read verses 23-26 for a good read, btw] talk about how He "holds me by my right hand". this is an assurance all through Scripture that He will never let go. His right hand is His strongest hand, and He upholds His child with it. what a beautiful and promising image. again, He is faithful. 


verse 24 of psalm talks about how He will "guide us with His counsel and  afterward take us into glory". this ties back in with due timing. last night at small groups, we were talking about the story of david and saul [to read the whole thing, check out 1 samuel 24:1-22]. saul at this point had already attempted to kill david to keep him from obtaining the thrown the Lord had appointed david to someday have. [like the Lord would let that happen to His anointed. can i get an amen?] anyways, in chapter 24, the roles have suddenly reversed. there was a point in which david could have taken sauls life, but knew it wasnt his place or the time to do that. so he resisted killing a man who had already tried to kill him. talk about being humble! but we were talking with the girls and one of them said the most incredible, God-breathed thing:
"david couldve even thought that the Lord wanted him to kill saul then because it seemed like perfect timing. but david had to know God's character enough to know it wasnt the time for sauls reign to end yet." a junior in high school. all i can say to anyone who ever doubts the Lords work in the young is 1 timothy 4:12. 
but david had to be so close with his Savior that he would have discernment in timing.


everything has a season. and the Lord is preparing us and is ready for us to venture through that season. what makes it the hardest is not being prepared and not resting in the hands of the One who can truly handle the things we go through- whether good or bad. as verse 26 of psalm 73 says, let God be the strength of your heart and portion forever. let Him be the judge of good timing. and be in an intentional, intimate relationship enough with Him to know what that timing is. 












some fun things from the weekend i wanna share: 

i got to go to a superhero-themed/dance party. SO much fun. 

we were quailman/quailgirl. so matchy matchy.

the flowers i got when i came back to knoxville. amazing. =]

treasure.

the topic of this blog was born from a very random and seemingly shallow comment made last night between val and me. not shallow in the sense of unimportant, but shallow as to it not having deeper meaning to me until i had my quiet time. the Lord blessed me with giving my body the exact amount of rest it needed last night so He could wake me up an hour before my alarm and spend time. time of just me and Him. what a sweet and rare time to have, especially sense probably half of my day's thoughts and remarks are about having nap or getting adequate sleep. He takes care of me. and knows i can function today on one less hour of sleep because i started the morning resting in His Word. but i digress...


the "shallow" comment: valerie and i got to go to a free brandon heath concert last night. we suddenly had an urge afterwards to recreate what we made in my last post. [they are heaven, after all]. val suggested to me to change the recipe in a slight way. when we bit into them, there was an immediate difference in the composition and taste of the turnover. val stated "they were amazing before. but now theyre the best". that had me really thinking. i woke up to that thought. it makes me step back and refresh my views of things. the life we have on earth is all we know. so to us, the little perks are what we deem amazing- a good book, an amazing sunset, time with friends/family, finding love. these are all great things in and of themselves. but we as believers and followers are given the best. the best in every sense of the word. now, in being in Him, He makes all things we view- those good books and love- mean something. the Gospel is the best. the world we can not yet imagine this side of heaven is the best. and nothing beats the best. it was so refreshing and humbling to remember that. life was normal before, but now, being transformed and renewed, we are our best because of Who resides in us. we are a mere shell and means of transportation to let the Holy Spirit work in the world and share the Gospel to everyone. 


the verse He led me to this morning was aptly fitting to this lesson. 2 corinthians 4:6-7:
"for God, who said, 'let light shine out of darkness,' made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 
something i learned today was that in bible times, people kept their most prized possessions in old, seemingly unattractive clay jars so as to not draw attention to the outside appearance. what was important lied on the inside. that is us. the beautiful image of the Gospel is within the most undeserving vessels. but that is the God we serve. He allows the clay pots to hold His treasure. i cant think of a thing more beautiful. He makes us His best. will you give your best, then?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3132/2565646758_07031fcaff.jpg

heaven.

i hope everyone had an amazing superbowl sunday. my favorite things about the superbowl are surprisingly things that have nothing to do with the actual superbowl. this year, at least. [go colts!] i love the food, friends, and commercials. here is what me and val prepared for the party. you MUST try. we have nicknamed them heaven. but theyre actually called peanut butter s'more turnovers. 

this is the 1st step. yum...

about to go in the oven...

what it looks like on the inside.

ready to go to the party!

i hope that you try these real soon & discover the best dessert everrr. 

happy february!

im not one for usually being all about valentines day. i believe adoration and love should be shared all throughout the year, and find it a bit cheesy to feel like you have to give flowers and chocolates to someone one day of the year because youre supposed to. if anything, make what you do on valentines day creative, not corny. dont get me wrong, i never mind getting flowers or going on a date. i just dont want anyone to feel obligated to do it. if they do it other times during the year, then i know its sincere. =] 


phew. anyways. ive been unusually into little fun valentine things. maybe its the domestic part of me coming out. i got some cute little valentines at the drug store and wrote little notes to my small group girls and tucked one of the valentines in their notes. & since im such a fan of chocolate. and this time of the year allows me to get away with it. because "its the holidays". and to watch movies that are mushy gushy because you can. its the season.

so i say to you, enjoy the little things. make this time fun and creative. take pictures and be with friends and make fun things and eat those fun cherry-flavored heart-shaped suckers. and give away valentines. something as little as that out of the blue can brighten someones day.