Seattle

TOMORROW I will get up realllly early to go to the airport and start my journey to Seattle! I cannot wait to see a new city [and state for that matter]. Even better, I get to spend time with some really wonderful people that I've missed dearly and bring in the new year with them!

Happy New Year!
See ya next year, Knoxville!

Fort

In my last picture update of break, I somehow forgot to add pictures of our fort! How could I forget something so epic? Anyway, I told Morgan I would post pictures of it since she and I live the same life... and she also made a fort recently. Anyway, Nicole, Lindsey, and I decided we should build a fort to watch movies in one night while we were at the guys' apartment. They were just as excited about the idea as we were... they just aren't as good at showing their emotion. So they told us we could use their furniture and blankets, but they would not help us. They thought it was SO funny to just sit back and watch as we failed. Okay, ours was not that bad... it just had room for about, oh, 2 people in it. So finally the guys had seen enough of our struggles and decided to step up. They tore our fort apart completely! and started from scratch. They brought out the ropes (or whatever those things are) and jumper cables, etc. If we had had the same supplies, we could've done just as well, I'm sure!

The engineers taking over.

Eric stole a pillow from under me and when he heard my head crash to the ground, he felt bad and tucked me in.
So sweet.

The finished project. And everyone made the picture except for Eric. He's sitting just to the left of me.
Note the Christmas lights inside the fort.

Let all within us praise His holy name. Christ is the Lord, that ever, ever praise we.

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning;
Jesus, to Thee be glory given;
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Merry Christmas!

I'll be like Chelcie and let the pictures do the talking... Be sure to check out her blog for our awesome "go faces." I'm too embarrassed to put them on mine.

A lot has happened since I last blogged. I LOVE breaks from school and I LOVE Christmas.

We've had lots of game nights, and I think this game is a crowd favorite. P.S. I'm not really a giant even though that picture says otherwise.

I helped do some Christmas decorating at Red Saile. What better way to hang up huge colored lights than getting on the roof with some duct tape? Shout out to Dane for being the one to actually get on the roof (and provide the lights)... and then not be able to get back down. :)

Sweet Becca had the wonderful idea to have a pie party! So fun and so delicious.

I enjoyed some Tennessee basketball with Dad, Olivia, her best friend Rylie, and my best friend Matt! It was good to spend some time with him before he left today to go home before he leaves for Rome. I barely missed seeing my future husband Dane Bradshaw. Apparently he was sitting right behind us.

I enjoyed some wonderful coffee and sweet conversation with Morgan at Starbucks yesterday. It was just what I needed before I had multiple mental breakdowns that afternoon/night.

Last night we had Christmas at Gana's (my mom's mom), and tonight we are having Christmas at Naple's with Granddaddy (mom's dad).

This post...

...is entirely dedicated to

MY BEST FRIEND
"Rob Bob"

the day two of the my favorite people finally met

disregard Nicole's head... oh, and my face

we really need more pictures together so I can stop using this one

even though I secretly like it

I'm gonna miss this

Matt is about to leave for 4 months to study abroad in Rome. I could not be more excited for him about this adventure and what he's about to experience. I don't think Matt has any idea just how much he is going to be missed while he's gone.

Who am I going to text all day every day? Who am I going to call when I'm upset/freaking out/"just being dramatic?" Who is going to dominate me in WordFeud every.single.game?

Matt,
I am so excited for you and can't wait to hear about every detail of your trip. I will miss you dearly, my friend. Praying for you daily. I know God is going to use you so much in these next 4 months. I love that you are so eager to see what He has in store for you and your main focus for this experience (and for your life) is growing closer to your Savior. I truly admire you for that and cannot wait to hear and see how God reveals Himself to you in new ways and makes you more like Him while you're gone. Have a wonderful time, contact me daily :), and come home soon!
Love you, best friend.

I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

-Psalm 16:8

Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.

-1 Chronicles 16:11

I've had this image saved on my computer ever since I saw it in an email I got because it just makes me really happy. I've never known what to do with it besides look at it occasionally... Why not put it on my blog so at least a few more people can see it!

Warms my heart. God is so good.

Snowed in 2010. Wooo! Feel like that's blog worthy, but I don't have much else to say.
Today my crazy friend made us (Nicole and me and Scott [not pictured]) WALK to Long's in the snow. Okay, okay it wasn't that bad... but it was slipperyyy. We had quite the crowd there, and Nicole and I were really outnumbered! 6 boys:2 girls. You'd think one of them (especially Carter since he's trying to learn how to be a gentleman) would've bought our meals/milkshake. Kidding.

Nicole says hi. She promises to blog soon. Don't believe her.

This is for you, Morgan.

(and I'm still waiting for yours dedicated to me)

Like I already mentioned, the 1505 Christmas Formal was so so so much fun... and I had a stellar date, which made it that much more fun!

shout out to Allison for helping us get ready


shout out to Chelcie's pockets
and shoutout to all our moms for letting us wear their dresses

shout out to our hot dates

shout out to the best date there

I wish there were more pictures, but we were too busy dancing the night away. Oh. Forgot to warn you that I look like a ghost in every.single.picture.

And another picture stolen from Chelcie...
this is how we asked:


Can we do it again this weekend?!

Well, it's officially Christmas break for me, and that, my friends, is blog-worthy.
I don't want to find out my grades. Gross.
In honor of Christmas and December and my friends- I have been listening to December by Melodime (featuring Karli Mansfield) on repeat over and over and over for the past 3 days. It is incredible. Morgan Hankins, I know you'll read this... You will love this song. Buy it. Everyone.
That itself was blog-worthy.
Formal pictures to come soon. It was so so so fun. I had a GREAT time and a GREAT date.
What a wonderful weekend it was. While I was not studying like I should have been. Oh well, it's over now! I'm half way done with my college career. Scary?
Shout out to my dad who bought me tickets to Washington so I can see my awesome friends for New Year's! I can't even wait.
Shout out to Matt who's leaving in 5 weeks. I'm gonna miss you, friend.
Shout out to my newest friend, Dane. Tomorrow is our one week anniversary of being friends. He's getting a shout out today because I am wearing his hat that I accidentally stole from his car. Really, it was completely unintentional. Too bad he thinks Farragut girls can't pull off camo hats. I'll prove him wrong. Kidding.
Shout out to those of you studying for finals- good luck! The end is near!

For those of you who like to procrastinate like I do,

For those of you who find ANY excuse to take a break from studying, for those of you who are fellow blog-lovers, for those of you who refresh your blogger dashboard every 5 minutes in hopes of a new post (okay, maybe that's only me)... here's something for you to read that's not your textbook. Sorry it's so short- just finished my first final, gotta get started studying for the the next!

1 down. 3 to go. Unfortunately I thought I only had two more, but turns out I have a C in a class I've made ALL As in- all three tests and the paper. Someone explain to me how I have a C, please. Guess I'll be taking the not-so-optional final. No worries, I only have to make a 36. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. At all.

Constantly reminding myself of the wise words of Christine- "you don't need an A to get into Heaven." Thank goodness for that.

I am really bad at studying. And I really like this picture that Chelcie took of us "studying" in the library yesterday-

Clearly getting a lot accomplished!
That's out friend Morgan at the bottom left.

Today Chelcie ran out of gas so we went and bought a gas can and filled it up... then went to try (key word) to then pour the gas into her car. Unsuccessful. She said, and it is true, that there was more gas all over us, the side of the car, the gas can, and the side of the road than there was in her car, but somehow it started... and made it to Weigel's.

Now we're sitting at Panera, once again trying to study. We figured it just wasn't meant to be for us to go back to bed after donuts like we had originally intended.

I was just reading Olivia's blog and saw this:

Fast forward to the end because you'll get the point... anyway, this led me to think about the formal this weekend. Jamie, Chelcie, and I asked the guys in a much less creative way. Oh well, we still all got "yes"s despite the countless hours of waiting for a response. Good thing boys usually do the asking- it wasn't even a big deal and we were still freaking out.

I've never actually met Olivia, but she is Anna's sister and I love love love her blog.

I really don't like studying, and I'm really bad at it. So even though I said I probably wouldn't blog much this week, that might actually mean I'll blog a lot- it's a great way to procrastinate and I refresh my "blogger dashboard" every fives seconds but people don't blog that often so I figure I'll just blog myself if I have already read everyone else's!

Tonight my small group is having a progressive dinner, and I'm super excited... even though it means I'm going to have to go home and FRANTICALLY clean when I get out of class. And I have a paper due tonight... don't know when I'm going to write that (that's what I was attempting to do before I ended up blogging- much more important)!

While I'm sitting here blogging, Scott is skyping me from his western civ class so I'm awkwardly waving to him, Jamie, Chelcie, and Melissa... the girl behind him is staring at me. I FEEL FUNNY.

My home for the week. Please come visit.

Only posting this because this girl and this guy

are bothering me about blogging.

TTS- time to study

WHYYY...

... are plane tickets so expensive?!?

I just want to spend time with these wonderful people.

That's all.

Mom, Dad- Christmas is coming soon! :)

Update on the past week and a half of my life...

I know, I know- it's been a while...

Thanksgiving was wonderful and such a great reminder of how blessed I am. Also a reminder of how strange my family is. Gotta love em. My mom invited this new lady at her work to come to our Thanksgiving lunch at Aunt Cindy's so we picked her up and on our way my mom was telling this lady who all would be there. This is when I really realized how weird it is.

"So you know it's not my family, it's my ex husband's, but they're every bit as dysfunctional as my own. Ed and I are compatible. Delaney's an only child. Well... sorta. She has a half sister- Ed's other daughter. With his other ex wife. Olivia's a wild 7 year old."

and she continued to go on about Milt, my cousin's fraternity grandfather, and all the other random people that could possibly show up.

Today I went to the mall to volunteer at the Angel Tree like I have every year for as long as I can remember. People watching on Black Friday is always entertaining. Chelcie and fam came and visited for a little while, and then I went and met my mom for lunch. My car is pretty much completely out of gas. The light's been on for a while and the needle's at E. So my plan was to get my dad to drive my car... but he still hasn't. Meaning I'm either stuck at his house or going to have to buy my own.

The other night Nicole and I made buffalo chicken pizza. It called for GORGONZOLA, PARMESAN, SMOKED CHEDDAR, MONTEREY JACK and bleu cheese, but we decided just to use cheddar and jack. We substituted ranch dressing for the bleu cheese and used a rotisserie chicken and pilsbury dough instead of making our own. It was really good. Just ask Beezy. He came over to have some and loves my blog so I figured I'd give him another shout out. Something else he really loves is Hannah Montana.

Matt is leaving for Rome ridiculously soon and it makes me so sad to think about, but I am so dang excited for him. What a cool experience! And he promised to call every day (ha). I don't think he realizes yet just how much he's going to miss me!

Chelcie called me when she got home from the mall to see if I had gotten my acceptance/rejection letter from the Education program. She told me she had gotten in so I was a little nervous to hear my results. As I was dialing my mom's number to ask if it had come in the mail, I received a call from her and answered by saying, "You can open it." Turns out that IS why she was calling... so she opened it, read it to me, and I got accepted!! So now Chelcie, Nicole, and I are all in the Education program at UT and scheduled to intern in the Fall of 2012. We're growing up too fast, folks.

I probably won't be blogging a whole lot the next few weeks because I really need to be studying for finals. Yuck. And spending as much time with Matt as possible before he leaves me!

I'm blogging from my dad's computer or you know there'd be a picture. Another problem with my dad's computer... it doesn't spell check for me as I go like my computer does. So forgive any typos seeing as there are probably even more than usual!

The blog about what I'm thankful for will have to come another time because there's so much! and this post is already way too random.

Go read about our new Japanese grandmother on Melissa's blog. This time Melissa didn't make the story up... promise!

God.is.good.

I've been preparing my first ever Young Life talk this past week because I'm speaking at club tomorrow. Public speaking is one of my biggest fears so I've been a little nervous. Honestly not too bad yet, but I know that I will be freaking out come 7:00 tomorrow evening.

Today the sermon at church was about facing your fears... we heard a guy share about how he overcame his fear of speaking in front of people when he was asked to give his testimony at a men's retreat.

Pretty much every week at NorthStar I feel like God is speaking directly to me through Scott... and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way. It's amazing.

--Okay, I wrote all the above yesterday but never published it... so now I'm going to continue but it's today- the day of the talk! Ahh. I'm still not too terribly nervous, but I just did it for Chelcie and it was harder than I thought it was going to be.

Continuing on the "thankful" theme... I am so thankful for God speaking through Scott at church yesterday about facing fears. Because God has given me this privilege of talking to these kids, I am confident that He is going to speak through me tonight. I am confident in the fact that it is not my words, but His.

I want to blog more about yesterday's sermon sometime... I'll post the podcast link when it's up! but for now I need to keep going over my talk and study for my test tomorrow!

Thankful

Have I mentioned recently how much I love my small group? Because I do... a lot. The girls in there are just so encouraging, loving, and nonjudgmental. Most importantly they have a huge desire to be more like Christ- and it's so great to have a small community of believers with the same goal. Then we have Paulette to lead us and teach us. She is the wisest woman I know, and I just learn so much from her. I cannot express how thankful I am for this group.

I'm sitting here preparing my talk for Monday and just reading through verses that I've read a million times, I am overwhelmed by the love of my God. Thankful for those reminders.

Last night after small group I went to the guys' soccer game. Jamie met me there and brought me clothes to change into (I was still in my interview clothes). So thankful for this sweet friend and her being willing to do that for me. Even more thankful for her being at Sharp Top with me this weekend. I wouldn't have made it without her. She was so encouraging all weekend... and just seeing her smile would remind me that I was not alone. This was a reminder of how grateful I am that we get to do ministry together at CAK- it has grown so much since this time last year. Even though our ministries look completely different, we are in it together... and that is such a blessing.

Then Jamie and I went to dinner and Chelcie joined us. Thankful that she's going through the application/interviewing process with me and thankful for her blog yesterday that reminded me that I am not even close to big enough to mess up God's plan. He has it all under control.

I'm getting ready to go to lunch with my best friend Matt. Thankful for a chance to finally get to spend time together. Especially since he's leaving me so soon. Thankful for our friendship in general that started so randomly and has grown so much just in the past few months.

Later today I get to hang out with the other wonderful person in the above picture- Nicole! Thankful for no Wednesday night classes so that I can spend these afternoons with her. And even more thankful for her friendship.

Also so thankful for all the encouragement from so many friends yesterday before my interview.

Praying this week for discernment about spring break plans. Also praying for God to speak through me to these high schoolers on Monday night.

SHARP TOP

Sharp Top was incredible. More than I could have ever hoped for. God is so good. I loved spending time with these awesome sophomore girls and spending time with the west side leaders. It was great to get away to such a beautiful place for the weekend. The weather was wonderful- a little chilly, which made the half coffee/half hot chocolates that much yummier. These girls have captured my heart.