15,000 Words.

Oh mylanta. Half of me can believe, while the other half cannot. This semester is almost over. I'm beyond excited about it though. Do you ever have an idea in your head about what something will look like, and then as it's happening you're like, WOAH HOLD ON. That is my semester. Not what I expected.

As I put on here some pictures from the past 3 months, you'll see I've captured some moments, but missed quite a few. I've had 3 friends get married, even more get engaged, joined a bible study, switched churches, etc. Plus it has almost been a year since I graduated from FLI. Crazy. So. Here are your visual highlights.

Rehearsal Dinner!

Jessica got married on September 24th!

My fake sisters. Shena&Kendel. Love them.

BRABI!! This is Abi. She is my twin. I love her to death.

Annual Family Trip to the orchard!

Shep had a birthday...we all went to an orchard and picked apples...Kendel and I took pictures:)

David Crowder. :) Jessica and I went to one of his final shows on the 7 Tour.

Happy Halloween!!

BRABI cooked!

This frisbee made my day. And........confession.........my lazy self still hasn't mailed it...almost a month later. Horrible I know. I have it in the box and addressed and everything...

My cousin visited!!!

My life long friend was home for Thanksgiving!!!

My dad told my sister and I to pull on the tree while he tried cutting it down...apparently we got two trees in one!!!

She's been home for nearly a whole semester. :)

I've been thinking about blogging more...but part of me is becoming more introverted and journaling more about what I've been learning about God and myself in life. I'm also considering making this blog private and only giving the link to people who ask for it. For so much of my life over the past 5 years I've been such an open book to people. And slowly I'm starting to see the value in more personable friendships. Thoughts?

Where I've been.

It's crazy.

During the past couple weeks I have been super reflective about where I've been the past 4 years. Oh mylanta. Like seriously? It's been crazy. But completely amazing.

God is so great.

Bridal Shower!!!

My dear friend Jessica is getting married in September and I had the sweet joy of helping plan a bridal shower for her!! How'd it go? Wonderfully. Take a look at the food that Jess, her mom, and I put together! Jess and her mom did the favors while I attempted to do a decoration type thing...which turned out very interestingly.

I took an old mirror and put wine bottles with tall candles in them on it. There were also tea lights surrounding the bottles! It looked awesome until the fan started to blow the candle wax everywhere...

Basil plant favors!!!

My dad's Tex Mex salsa recipe.

Carrots and dip.

Sausage bites in the back as well as FRESH bruchetta in the front.

Caprese salad skewers. I couldn't stop eating them.

The spread.

Strawberry cheesecake bites. Literally the easiest thing ever to make. I literally Stumbled upon the recipe!! YUM!!

Coconut Rum Cupcakes.

Overall it was a blast putting everything together-even designing and making the invitations. Mmhmm party planning creativeness.

Show Me Your Glory

So, I've listened to this song before...but never really LISTENED to it. I went to the Jesus Culture conference last week and it was like a brand new song. :)

Listen

I see the cloud, I step in
I want to see Your glory as Moses did
Flashes of light, rolls of thunder

I’m not afraid, I’m not afraid

Show me Your glory, show me Your glory
Show me Your glory, show me Your glory

I’m awed by Your beauty, lost in Your eyes
I want to walk in Your presence like Jesus did
Your glory surrounds me and I’m overwhelmed

I long to look on the face of the One that I love
Long to stay; in Your presence is where I belong

Oh how we love You, oh how we love You
Oh how we love You, Jesus

It's been an insane week. :) In a good way.

My bestie turned 21!!!! I drove into the city to hang out with her and some of the people she's on project with. Before we got all classy and went out for the night-we spent some quality time catching up on life. I cannot express how much I miss seeing this girl! I pray we never live more than 5 hours apart ever again. But we know how God works. :)

I have to share this: when we were leaving the Signature Lounge of the Hancock building...it wasn't raining. 5min later there was a TORRENTIAL downpour. Second time this has happened when I have visited her in the city!! 21 of us had ended up going out for Allison's birthday-and we were all huddled under a building awning. Then the more adventurous of us kind of just faced the fact that we were going to get wet and just danced in the rain. THEN all of us were booking it to the subway. The girls were barefoot-some wearing the guys jackets. By the time we got on the train we were SOAKED. I'm pretty sure that 90% of the people who attended agreed that celebrating Allison's 21st was better than their own.

She is such a blessing.

Waiting for the traaaain.

Just silly awesomeness. :)

Ready to hit the town!!

Friday night some of my friends got married!!! It was one of the most beautiful weddings I had ever been too. The food was AMAZING and I'm pretty sure I danced for 3 hours straight.

I love Kendel :)

Mary=GORGEOUS BRIDE

I just walked downstairs and found an envelope addressed to our family. No return address. I could tell it had been opened already so I looked inside. Someone had folded the a Target gift card into a typed note that pretty much said our family was being prayed for in our time of need with my dad not having a job. It's completely anonymous. I started crying. Why? It made me think of all the times our family has been blessed by someone.

I feel so blessed.

My family feels blessed.

In high school my dad's job situation got a little rough-making our family's financial situation a little rough. Then with all my school transitions things have been rough financially for me. But-God showed up and blessed me through so many people inside the church body-and those who don't even love Jesus but believed enough in me to support me financially to go to FLI. BLESSED.

Our car situation has been craaaaaazy the past couple years. Two of our cars are from families in the church. Long story with the one, but the other was just from a generous heart. BLESSED.

Now that I'm writing this I guess I don't really have words for how thankful I am to belong to a church body whose members meets the needs of those who are in need. Not even just by my immediate church though!!! Over the past couple years I've met people from other churches in the community and it is AMAZING to see how no matter where you go-you can still come together and worship the same God!! BAH. Baffles my mind. I love it. A community who is trying to live like Jesus did.

[I would like to apologize for the ramble randomness of this. I have a migraine right now and am hurrying to finish before I head to work.]

Blessed. Thankful. I want to give back.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS BLESSED MY FAMILY!! Your prayer, financial gifts, time, and friendship is just sooooo wonderful. :)

Oh my goodness.

The little artsy crafty creative portion of my heart is like BURSTING.

Gotta open that door.