Day 20: A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel.

Take me back to Prague.

Day 19: A picture and a letter.

What? I don't even know the purpose of this one. But here ya go none the less.

Day 18: Your biggest insecurity.

I don't know what kind of picture to put with this. But it's kind of funny so I'll put it there. My speech is my biggest insecurity. I mumble, don't speak loud, pronounce words wrong, and pretty much have a lisp until June. But you know what? I don't really care at the same time. I've been working on it and I've gotten better. Plus with waitressing-you have to speak loud and clear. Practice practice practice. :)

Day 17: A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently.

FLI Fall 2010. Love me my Jesus, FLI, and mountains. :)

Day 16: A picture of someone who inspires you.

I just love Peggy. God has totally used her in my life :)

Day 15: Something you want to do in life.

I would love to visit Sydney, Australia someday. :)

Day 14: A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.

My parents and sister. I love them so much. :)

Musica

Day 13: A picture of your favorite band or artist.

I'm kind of obsessed with Needtobreathe. I got to see them in Denver. They were so completely wonderful. I found out they're touring with TSwift this year. Not sure how I feel yet. I just want them to come out with a new album. :)

My favorite though, is probably David Crowder Band. I just love them. Their lyrics and the overall sound and just the FANTASTIC creativity that shows through in their music and videos. So good. I think I've seen them 4 times now? Oh goodness. God has blessed me through the music He's given them!

love mountains

Day 12: A picture of something you love.

I love God's creation. It's so beautiful. Beyond amazing. So fantastic!!!

So you live together??

Day 11: A picture of your roommates.

Above: Our last day at FLI!! Below is the picture we took the day before official movie in at FLI! We all learned so much this semester and it was true joy to live with these women!!

Above: Prom!!!!! Julie=Most professional. Janae=Best sense of humor. Me=Most artistic. Annalee=Looks best in yellow!!

Above: I love this pic of us. :)

Above: Okay, technically I never OFFICIALLY lived with these two...but every single time I've gone back and visited Taylor, I've stayed in Amy and Heidi's room!!!! So I consider them my make-believe roommates! Plus they've both stayed at my house and I've stayed at Heidi's!

Above: During J-term and second semester of my freshman year-Jenny, Leigh and I lived it up in the 3man on 3EO!! I do have to say, I learned a lot about myself through living with them. I do wish I could go back and be a better roommate to them. :/ Love these women.

Above: Leigh came during J-term of our freshman year!

Above: Jenny and I were roommates my first semester of college!! I love her so much!

It's crazy the people God puts into your life. The things you learn about yourself. I think my biggest struggle was learning to be selfless and actually SERVE the people I lived with the way Jesus did. It's a huge learning experience. I love college!!

(Okay I made this "day of pictures" up but I don't really care. I want to honor these ladies!!!)

raaandom

Day 10: A picture of the person you do the most random stuff with.

Miss Allie Joy is one of my favorites! Some of my best memories over the past couple years have her in them. :) There are many time we were in the art building super late hours!! I think one of the most random things we did was this: we put the top down on my convertible, went to walmart, bought potato salad, potatoes, chicken, etc, drove to the old kmart parking lot, and had a picnic. It was lovely. :) I love her!

L2

Day 9: A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.

I love my best friend sooooo much. She is simply amazing.

LOL (no but seriously)

Day 8: A picture that makes you laugh.

I love this picture. It was the beginning of a beautiful semester. It's a picture that makes me laugh...even though Julie hates it and our 4th roomie isn't in it. But seriously. Janae and I are huge fans and every time we see it, I think we smile. I for sure crack up :D

Write it Out

Day 7: A picture of your most treasured item.

Oh my goodness...I thought about putting my Bible...which is super important to me...but I decided that something else might capture this better. I picked my journal!! I've had the same one since I graduated from high school and the pages are almost full. I re-read it a couple months ago and it was crazy just seeing the transformation God has done in my life. It's a great reminder about what should be important in my life and the fact that Jesus NEEDS to be the center. :)

(also my Bible is in the background so I once again kinda got around the rules. haha)

Let's Trade

Day 6: A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day.

The girl has crazy stories from volunteering on a regular basis. Enough said. :)

Memory

Day 5: A picture of your favorite memory.

The 4 pictures above are from my baptism that happened in 2004. I was a crew camper at Eagle Lake for 5 weeks and on the last day, I was baptized in the camp lake! It was amazing. I learned a lot that summer about trusting people, and more importantly, trusting God. My favorite moment was when all the other crew members were praying over the 3 of us who were baptized. During the prayer, the sun started coming up over the mountain. It was like we were basking in God's glory!! Love it. :)

(And now for reflections after what was talked about at church this morning!)

Oh my goodness. So Saturday night I decided I was going to post this on Sunday. I posted it then headed to church at main campus and found out the sermon was on baptism!!! It was so amazing. Like seriously. One of the things that really hit me was the wording of being baptized verse getting baptized. I always say I "got" baptized, but really, I was baptized almost seven years ago and that action of baptism needs to define my life. I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior and he needs to be at the center of my life!! When I was baptized, that became another defining moment in my life as to how I live it. I publicly declared my love for Jesus and I always need to be letting my love show for Him. There was a time at the end of service where we went to different places based on our reactions. I went and prayed and here is a little bit of the things I prayed for: a burning desire for God's word in my life, the inability to fall asleep at night until I've read His word or prayed for the things of that day, etc. I want to be a burning fire that people see Christ in. I'm just going to keep running to Jesus.

Epic Nights.

Day 4: A picture of your favorite night.

Warning: I'm cheating. I have many favorite nights.

Above: Murder Mystery Pick-A-Date my freshman year of college! My name was "Amanda Angry"-Hello punk Bri. Later that night my roomies and I got back to our room and guess what? It was COVERED in cereal. The roommates might have started a pranking war the week before....

Above is a picture of my bestie Allison and our dear friend Christine. Any night with the 3 of us on an adventure is epic!

Above is my bestie and I. I think we were just going crazy taking pictures on the local college campus...but it was seriously hilarious. I have a favorite night with her that involves popping a tire on a scooter and staying up till all hours...but there isn't a picture. :/

The two pictures above just crack me up. It was the last hu-rah that my sister and I had before she went back to Kentucky and I to Colorado. Highlights: she broke the car, sunset pictures, sketch theater, $3 night, seat covered in plastic, and the worst movie ever. Sooooo amazing though. :)

The two pictures above are from the Prom we put together at FLI the night before graduation. The top picture is my dear friend Ashlea and I-seriously she is soooooo amazing. The second picture is of two of my roomies (Janae and Julie) and our neighbor Joy. Throughout the semester we had random dance parties that included us trying to learn the dance to "Written on my Heart" by Plus One. This is us performing it at prom. HILARIOUS!!! Love these women. :)

I feel like I'll edit this 30 day thing to my liking. Aka some of them are weird. Like, why would I post a picture of "something you wish you could forget" on day 21?? Not happening. Anywho. Enjoy the next 26 days!

LOST

Day 3: A picture of the cast from your favorite show.

So confession...I have many favorite shows. Let me name my favorites: Friends, Glee, Lost, and The Office. I think my favorite favorite is Lost though. I really want to re-watch the whole series. That might take a year though....

Hey Soul Sister :)

Day 2: A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest.

This picture is about 3 years old...but I still kinda love it a ton. This is my little sister Caitlin!! Yes, we're sisters so that means for the past almost 20 years she has been there. It doesn't matter if she has been bugging me, encouraging me, making me laugh, or just being generally amazing-she's pretty fantastic.

I love her SO SO SO much. The past two years have been hard because she's off doing something awesome meaning I'm the one that's home alone. Her heart is so big!! She graduated high school and started volunteering full time with a Christian organization in Kentucky. She wants to be a Spanish Teacher and I secretly hope that she will direct musicals at whatever school she is teaching at. :) Talented sister. I love her so much. :) I already said that. But really, I do.

Here's to you: Lil' Sof Sof, my Star, Kmae, baby sis. :)

Thirty Days.

Basically. I'd rather do the 30 Day Photo Challenge on my blog rather than on facebook. So here we go!

Day 1: A picture of yourself with 10 facts.

1. I love Starbucks. End of story.

2. I am not a morning person. There is something about night that I absolutely enjoy. Although sunrises are pretty fantastic...

3. I have lived in five states: Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana, and Colorado.

4. I'm studying visual communications (graphic design) yet I want to have a job in all of these areas: Event planning, interior decorating, stationary/invitation design, floral design, and maybe house staging.

5. I want a peacock feather tattoo. Why? Peacocks have a lot of early Christian symbolism that I am absolutely fascinated by.

6. I pronounce many words wrong. Including: Italian.

7. My favorite color is green. Although a lot of my stuff is blue (phone, computer, purse, to-go coffee mug, clothes) and half my wardrobe is black or purple.

8. I love the Czech Republic. (I'm a little less than 50% CZ and I went there 4.5 years ago on a mission trip. Hoping to go back this summer!)

9. I love wearing scarfs.

10. I'm striving to keep Jesus at the center of my life. :)

I'm pretty sure one of the coolest things about God and his love for us is the GRACE involved. What is grace?

Grace is: "the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings."

I have learned a lot from watching other people's lives unfold. People who loved Jesus, but just cannot handle the grace that comes with giving your life to Him. I hate the feeling of not being good enough. We've all had that feeling. Sometimes you feel like you're not good enough to be in a relationship, sometimes you're not good enough for a job, sometimes you feel not good enough to be in a friendship. What breaks my heart is when people think that they are not good enough for God. WHAT?! You are a precious son or daughter of God! God's grace is enough for you and his love is more than anything you can fathom!

I love the song, "Amazing Grace". The lyrics are phenomenial. I get choked up whenever I hear the song. God's gift to us through His son, Jesus, is amazing. It's an amazing thing full of grace and love! I'm not sure why I'm so pumped about God's grace right now. I just feel so loved by my creator.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

When we've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

You might be wondering why I put in the picture at the top...frankly I love it. We had a huge blizzard the other night and the results were gorgeous. I love nature and all things that are straight up made by God. Well, I went outside to play in the snow and my mom took pictures while I was doing it. My favorite moment was when I fell straight back into a snow drift. I opened my eyes and realized I was pretty much buried in the snow! It was like a snow hug. I was laughing not only because I was almost completely covered, but because I was having a flashback of a ski trip in Colorado. On this trip I wiped out and ended up buried in a drift like this above. I laughed SO hard that time too. Something about being "hugged" by the snow makes me fall so much more in love with Jesus. :)