Happy birthday, Matt!

How cool that my best friend gets to spend his 21st birthday in Rome?! Sad that I don't get to celebrate with him (and he missed mine too!).

Wishing you the best birthday yet, Matt! Hope you feel so loved. Miss you like crazy!

(We REALLY need to get a decent picture of the two of us so I can stop reusing the ridiculous ones!)
96 days!

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I WANT SUMMER!

For many reasons...
-no school
-pretty weather
-shorts (even though I don't really like wearing shorts [Jessie]) and t-shirts
-Matt being back
-being tan





This weekend of wonderful weather is just a little tease... getting me all excited and then it's supposed to snow again this week. Really? And Florida in just a few weeks will get my hopes up again. Only 98 days til Matt returns, so that means finals will be over very shortly after! That's not that long, right?? And spring break is even sooner!

four day weekends

Even though Tuesdays take a lot of caffeine and snacks to make it out alive and Thursdays are pretty long too, I'm already loving not having class on MWF. Going for 12 hours straight on Tuesday doesn't seem that bad when you have all day Wednesday to recover... and you get to end the day with One Tree Hill. Chelcie and I have also discovered that walking to Panera after our 8 o'clock class (we respect people that have eight o'clocks more than we do those that don't) makes the day so much better. Especially when we can convince one of our wonderful friends to let us catch a ride to the hill. It's also nice to catch a ride to grab a quick dinner and then back to our night class on Tuesdays (thanks Dane for loving us so well!).

P.S. world: Dane and I are NOT dating. Just to clear that up! :)

Anyway, since my schedule this semester allows me so much free time (in between classes, going to CAK, club, Sarah Moore Greene, church, small group, etc-- okay, maybe not so much), I really want to manage my time well. I want to be intentional- in my time with the Lord, in my relationships, in my ministry... I want to start with the most important- time with Jesus. I want to focus on that, be intentional in that... and I'm hoping that through that everything else will start to fall into place. I know I didn't mention school because to me that seems so trivial, but I even want to manage my time well with school. Actually do the readings, participate in discussion (only because it's 25% of my grade in one class... shoot. I hate talking in class), take good notes, just stay on top of things... and this semester, because of my crazy packed Tuesdays and Thursdays... big news people- I don't think I'll be skipping many classes. This is good/weird/big for me (kidding mom... I've never skipped a class).

Let's see how long this mentality lasts.

Let Your love take me deeper
Pull me closer to where You are
All I want is more of You.
When You call I will follow
At the cross I surrender all
Jesus I belong to You.

10 ways to LOVE

I saw this on Stacey's blog and thought I'd share it here.

1. Listen without interrupting. (Proverbs 18)
2. Speak without accusing. (James 1:19)
3. Give without sparing. (Proverbs 21:26)
4. Pray without ceasing. (Colossians 1:9)
5. Answer without arguing. (Proverbs 17:1)
6. Share without pretending. (Ephesians 4:15)
7. Enjoy without complaint. (Philippians 2:14)
8. Trust without wavering. (1 Corinthians 13:7)
9. Forgive without punishing. (Colossians 3:13)
10. Promise without forgetting. (Proverbs 13:12)

Chelcie and I survived our first Tuesday of the semester. 12 hours on campus. 8:10 am (but actually a little earlier for parking/walking time)-7:45 pm. For me this entails 5 classes... 2 breaks. Let me just warn you, by 8:00 pm on Tuesday nights I am going to be exhausted and grumpy. As Chelcie said when we left our last class, "We finished our marathon day! High five!" As I was going through the day, I kept saying it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated, but now that I am here sitting on my couch, I realize just how miserable it was. I was super hungry and in a terrible mood when I got home. And pretty much all day. The rain probably didn't help my mood. Thanks to Dane (bffflwb) for giving us a ride to Scott's and back to class! That helped out lots.

Sunday night after dinner we all went back to Red Saile to hang out and I made EVERY person there take a picture with me... so here they are:

Here's to missing Matt and wishing I were in Rome where it's actually above freezing.

Here's to HeyTell for working via WiFi so that I can still talk to him more than I thought I'd be able to.


Here's to having a schedule again- the best part of that is that starting today Jessie and I are back on track for out Panera dates. :)


Here's to friends that will still watch Disney movies with me.


And best of all, here's to my sweet friends Abby and Andy who just got engaged!! Congrats to you both!

(picture stolen from Jennifer's blog)

This post is really just so that I can finally have some pictures instead of just boring words for whoever chooses to look at this!

SNOW

I feel like I need to jump on the bandwagon and blog about the snow like everyone else! What? Snow in Knoxville?! I think that someone moved Knoxville up north without telling me because never can I remember having so much snow in such a short amount of time. I have loved the beautiful winter wonderland... I hate cold weather, but my love for this white fluffy stuff cancels out that hatred.

Tell me why UT was closed like three times while we were ON WINTER BREAK and then we had to go to class in the snow today... Silly. My road was SO snowy and icy. So this morning all my roommates and I piled in one car (that doesn't even belong to any of us) and headed to campus. It was really precious that we all carpooled on our first day. In the snow. I wish we had gotten a first-day-of-class (after the break) picture together!

Here's to the snow!

I love that all my friends are back in town! I had small group yesterday, dinner for Melissa's birthday, and went to the basketball game so I got to see lots of friends! :)

Side note: Matt safely arrived in Rome and I miss him already!

I'm lacking on the pictures lately... Sorry! I need to get on that.

I ask that anyone who reads this will again join me as I continue praying for the Campbell family that I previously blogged about here.

Rick Campbell passed away this past Thursday. He was the father of my best friend from middle school, Ashley. He was also the pastor of the first church I ever attended. This family has truly had a huge impact on my life and making me who I am. If it weren't for them, I don't know if I ever would have met the Lord. It is because of Ashley taking me to church and Rick speaking Truth into my life that I ever began having an interest in who Jesus was and what He had to offer me. I cannot express how grateful I am for them and the Hope that they offered me.

Rick was an incredible man of God, and as hard as it is to no longer have him here with us, I am so excited that he is in the presence of our Lord forever.

This family is so strong, and I know that their faith will not be shaken. It is amazing to see how the Lord is sustaining them in this time and how they are giving Him all the glory even in the midst of such heartbreak.

I pray that the Lord will wrap His arms around Deborah, Ashley, and Sarah. That He will comfort them and give them a peace that can only come from Him. And I thank Him for blessing me with the privilege of knowing this family and getting to spend so much time with them from my 4th grade to my 7th grade years.

Seattle Part 2

This is the second half of my trip. We traded in Lindsay, Kevin, and Anna for Annalise. Thanks to her for the pictures this time. This was the part of the trip that I pretended to be a boy for a few days- shooting guns, riding ATVs, kayaking, and watching lots of football. I'd pick all of that over shopping any day. :) It was a blast. Even though I don't know if my muscles will ever forgive me.



Jesse and Jack's property on the bay (it is NOT a lake)







We went kayaking only to find out that the water was FROZEN. Not easy to kayak through and nearly impossible to turn around in! But it was beautiful.



They taught us how to play Settlers of Catan and we were naturals.

Models?

Ignore the outfit... All my clothes got ruined after kayaking. I need some practice. And I obviously need some practice with my gun-shooting form too.









We learned that some trees just don't lite... even after dousing them in diesel.

Part 1 of my trip to Seattle

The first ever Starbucks!



Pike's Place Market




Gum wall

They couldn't believe I had never had it... Greasy, greasy, greasy

beautiful Seattle skyline including the Space Needle

riding the Ferry to Bainbridge Island where we spend New Year's at Jesse's house

Thanks to Anna for a lot of these pictures!