Oh HEY makeover.

Let's just say that the past week has been full of interesting makeovers.

1. My computer- Miss Mary Mac- got the Christmas present of new software. Aka I saved everything to my external hard drive and got better software so my computer would run better but while transferring everything back to the mac I somehow lost pictures and music. SAD FACE. Don't worry. My FLI buddies gave me good tips on the music thing so I recovered all my favorite stuff. The pictures? Well one of my projects will be reloading and re-editing everything from the semester. I'm planning on making a book from the semester. Probably on snapfish. I'm thinking about working on it for a month or so then when I see a good sale I'll BUY it. Normally I'd scrapbook...but...we'll see. :)

2. My mouth. Yay oral surgery. Let's just say my mouth is uncomfortable but the pain killers help. But...I have this "fun" retainer I have to wear the next 3-6 months...however long it takes my mouth to heal. Oh my goodness. If you had a hard time understanding my speech before...well...it's like relearning how to talk...haha. Oh well. Can't wait for this phase of teeth stuff to be over. I swear the teeth people in my town have had WAY TOO MUCH FUN with my mouth. The end.

Things I'm learning: patience, patience, and patience. :)

(I would totally add pictures...but...let's just say I can't find them in the way it's been organized...haha)

Paint a Picture

I thought I had a clear picture of what I was going to do when I get home. I haven't even been home 24 hours and I'm already panicking about everything that I felt God was laying on my heart. It's like I'm about to paint a picture. I have all the tools, a blank canvas, and inspiration. The hardest part of art for me is actually starting on a piece of art. Something about those first few strokes and the placement of them. There's something beautifully intimidating about the whole process.

That is where I am. I am at the place in creating a piece of art that scares me half to death yet thrills me at the same time. At the same time I realize that sometimes during the process of creating, you can get another idea, find a different medium to use, and even take a completely different direction that you actually started out with. Everything I want to do now that I am home from Focus is an idea in my head-my inspiration. My semester at Focus gave me the tools. The next few months and even years are my blank canvas. Here comes a new work of art. I'm just praying God leads me. I'm praying God leads every stroke that is my action.

John 3:30 "He must become greater; I must become less."

A Wedding

i caught the bouquet...decapitating half the roses in the process :)

Immediately after graduating from FLI, my family and flew my home state of Texas. I have Aggie pride in my blood and I dearly miss spending time at the family house in the Caldwell country. (My grandparents have since sold the huge farmhouse, which really wasn't a farmhouse, causing tears from all the grandchildren.) One of the reasons we are here is to celebrate my cousin's wedding, the other is to celebrate Christmas with the Elsik clan. I love it.

Anywho. Seeing how my cousin's wedding turned out, has further solidified my desire to do something with wedding planning. I remember 3.5 years ago when we were visiting for my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary when Laura first saw a candy display for wedding favors. You better bet she used that idea at hers. Her wedding was gorgeous. She was gorgeous. It was wonderful.

Since facebook is constantly changing it's layout (I swear the creators of it are A.D.D.) I figured this might become a better place to update on my life. The end. Here are some pictures from the wedding. :)

yay marriage!! I've always looked up to this woman :)

panther. all the girl cousins minus the bride

mi familia. we clean up nicely.

getaway car!!! we got to decorate it.

all the girl cousins!!!
(caitlin, ashleigh, meghan, briana, laura)

elsik men!!!
(austin, uncle gene, pop, uncle scot, dad-steve, trey)

cake.

chapel.

first kiss as man and wife.

see. beautiful wedding.

Us. Minus Laura. Plus we're all single. :)

There's a glimpse into the beautiful event. Seeing my cousins kind of made me sad we didn't grow up with them in Texas. I'm thankful for my life though, and glad for the opportunities I've had to visit them. Oh life. :)

High Altitude Can No Longer Be An Excuse.

Well. Currently I'm sitting in a hotel in The Woodlands, TX. This morning when I looked outside I discovered why it's named that. HELLO TREES EVERYWHERE. This makes me miss Colorado. Even though I just left, I already miss the fact that CO doesn't believe in real trees. Just pine thingys that I may have complained about the first month I was there. Anyway.

I have officially graduated from Focus Leadership Institute. I cannot put into words what this semester meant to me. I'm gonna have to do a TON of journaling just to begin to process the whole experience. Right now I'm emotionally drained from the past month of events, saying goodbye yesterday (I seriously was the first one to leave. Not my style. I hated it.) and now being reunited with the family in a small hotel room. We'll be okay. Tomorrow my beautiful cousin is getting MARRIED. So excited for that.

My dear friend Sarah made us cds from the semester. I just heard Long Live by Taylor Swift for the first time, and let me tell you. It completely encompasses this semester.

I still remember this moment
In the back of my mind
The time we stood with our shaking hands
The crowds in stands went wild
We were the kings and the queens
And they read off our names
The night you danced like you knew our lives
Would never be the same
You held your head like a hero
On a history book page
It was the end of a decade
But the start of an age

Long live the walls we crashed through
All the kingdom lights shined just for me and you
I was screaming, "long live all the magic we made"
And bring on all the pretenders
One day we will be remembered

I said remember this feeling
I passed the pictures around
Of all the years that we stood there on the sidelines
Wishing for right now
We are the kings and the queens
You traded your baseball cap for a crown
When they gave us our trophies
And we held them up for our town
And the cynics were outraged
Screaming, "this is absurd"
'Cause for a moment a band of thieves in ripped up jeans got to rule the world

Long live the walls we crashed through
All the kingdom lights shined just for me and you
I was screaming, "long live all the magic we made"
And bring on all the pretenders
I'm not afraid

Long live all the mountains we moved

I had the time of my life
Fighting dragons with you
I was screaming, "long live the look on your face"
And bring on all the pretenders
One day we will be remembered

Hold on to spinning around
Confetti falls to the ground
May these memories break ???

And you take a moment
Promise me this:
That you'll stand by me forever
But if God forbid fate should step in
And force us into a goodbye
If you have children someday
When they point to the pictures
Please tell them my name
Tell them how the crowds went wild
Tell them how I hope they shine

Long live the walls we crashed through
I had the time of my life with you

Long, long live the walls we crashed through
All the candlelight shined just for me and you
And I was screaming, "long live all the magic we made"
And bring on all the pretenders
I'm not afraid

Singing long live all the mountains we moved
I had the time of my life
Fighting dragons with you

And long, long live the look on your face
And bring on all the pretenders
One day we will be remembered

(Dr. Del Tackett praying over us before we left.)

I'll have more to say later. But for now. It has been the most amazing semester of my life and I wouldn't change a single moment of it. :)

Click here to listen to "Long Live"

Eight More Days of Mountains

We have only eight days left at Focus Leadership Institute.

This means there are only eight days left of Bri living in the mountains.

Then? A week in Texas.

Then? Back to the mid-west for another 2.5 years.

Yet, I'm excited.

I love the people here and I love what I have been learning.

Now? It's time to apply it.

So back to NIU I go with a head and heart full of knowledge.

So my verse for life continues to be:

John 3:30

"He must become greater; I must become less."

Love

"All the commandments in Scripture reduce to Christ's Great Commandment, and the Great Commandment reduces to one concept: love.

God is in love with His creation. The creature has something of the Creator in him, and God has loved us from the beginning. Even when the creature turned his back on Heaven, yet God loved him: 'I made you, and I will carry you. I don't hold anything against you. Let me rescue you.'

The history of the world reduces to this: you're being pursued by love. He courted you; He followed you; He loved you. If you go to work or school or church, He is there. If you go to the edge of the universe or to the borders of hell, He is there. If you go deep inside yourself, He is there. In the dark of the night, in your depression, He is there. On your deathbed, when you don't want anybody to leave you, He is there. If you look behind you or before you, He is there, waiting to be allowed entrance into your life.

In the economics of eternity, God paid a great price. If we only better understood the cost, we would also better understand our worth."

Margin by: Richard A. Swenson