good friends, good memories!

This past saturday David came down to Riverside for his last visit before making his official move to arkansas on Wednesday. We spent the evening with our wonderful friends Kyle and Malorie in our wonderful tradition of double date at Olive Garden night! We always have such a great time with them and it was a fun evening of good food and good laughs. But don't worry Olive Garden, this isn't the last you've seen of us... we love you too much!

has it really been 6 months??

I can't believe that it has been 6 months since the last time I blogged! Sadly, this is just one thing that shows how wrapped up in myself I have become and am currently striving to prioritize my life so that Christ is my main focus and my motivation for everything in my life. Many, many things have happened in the last 6 months here are just a few:

I turned 28 this year... yes, i can't believe my late 20's will be coming to a close in a short year and a half!! but I like this age. I am comfortable and content at this age and i'm not sure what 28 is supposed to feel like, but i definitely do like it! This year I got to go to disneyland for my birthday! it was one of the best birthdays i've had in a long time!

let's see what else...

I started dating this wonderful guy.

but if you've seen my facebook you already knew that. :-)

God has blessed me with David. We have quite the journey ahead of us as he has taken a position as Minister of worship at First Baptist Church of Clarksville, Arkansas. Yes, you read that correctly. He is moving to arkansas! He is very excited to be able to serve at great church and do what he loves to do so much (that would be music, he is extremely talented). I am very excited to see this unfold in his life. It will be very hard to be so far away from him, but no matter what comes our way we pray that God will be most glorified! Please keep us in your prayers!

Another major event of the past 6 months was graduating from college. For those of you who know me, also know that school has been a very long on and off journey, very much a love/hate relationship. But I finally was able to finish up this chapter in my life. I have a feeling that school is far from over for me... more on that later. graduation was a wonderful day. I had my family and wonderful friends here to celebrate with me and I was most thankful for all of their support!

I was also able to do some really fun things this summer. Two of my favorites were going to a couple of concerts with Nikki.

We got to see Coldplay in ivrine... which was AMAZING!

We also went to see Kings of Leon... twice... back to back. They were really great nights, and awesome concerts!

All in all, these past 6 months have been filled with good memories with our amazing friends and necessary trials that motivate a crucial communication with God. God in all of his grace and mercy is working on my heart to change me so I can grow to become more of the woman he has called me to be. I am excited and challenged as we enter the last few months of this year to really strive for godliness and seek his wisdom.

Hearts and Faces

This past sunday was by far the most eventful and unique of Sundays i've ever experienced. After finishing practicing the first song in the worship set, we noticed a crack in the wall right behind us, we then noticed this nice trail of water flowing down the wall onto the carpet on stage. The baptistry behind us was overflowing and cracking and we started to freak out a bit. This flurry of activity ensued as some of us began to move all sound equipment off stage incase the wall gave out and the rest of us found trash cans to begin taking buckets of water out of the church, cause the drains just were not draining fast enough. We spent a while doing this and most of us were pretty wet by the time the water level had gone down low enough. It was crazy! We ended up having to play and sing off stage right at eye level with the congregation which was actually really really cool. Thanks to the quick thinking of some of these guys the damage was not as bad as it could have been. Can you imagine a wall breaking and baptistry water rushing out in the middle of a service!! Anyway, it was an amazing sunday. Love hearing the sound of the congregation praising God and we had a wonderful meal together afterwards. It's why it's my favorite day of the week. 

I was one of the last people walking out of the church after Pastor Jeff preached. The view was pretty cool. 

Wireless Electricity!? I kinda like the idea

(This lightbulb is powered by wiereless electricity)

I ran across this article recently. It talks about the innovative work being done with wireless electricity. That would mean no more batteries, or chargers. Things wouldn't die on you anymore because they would be receiving their electrical charges wirelessly. "The world is about to be cured from it's attachment disorder", that line made me laugh... crazy! I like the idea of no more cords and wires! I just wonder how long it will be before this is an everyday reality in our world. 

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/132/brilliant.html

Making Rummaging Possible...

On Saturday FBC Norco was having a rummage sale to raise money for the mad amounts of people heading out into the ends of the earth to tell the good news, the news of the gospel. The amount of money needing to be raised is intense, but there is faith, and willing hearts, and there are also good ideas for fund raising. This rummage sale was one of those good ideas. Setting up for the rummage sale turned out to be quite a task. No one was expecting the large amount of items donated!! It was crazy!!! Everyone kept saying it over and over, "i never imagined we'd get so much stuff!" It really got everyone excited, but as the afternoon wore on, we started realizing how much there was to do!!! Thanks to the work of resourceful and organized people, everything was done and sorted and priced (we even managed to attract some early shoppers while set up was going on) and we had some very brave men holding down the fort through the night protecting our treasure cove. It really was fun working with my very cool church family on such a fun event. It was a lot of work but i'm sure we'll all agree that we are united in hearts and desires to set God on display through the extraordinary and mundane.  Here are some pictures of all the stuff we had to sort through. 

at first, this was incredibly overwhelming!!! so many clothes!!!! but soo cool! 

sure enough, little sorted piles starting popping up.. it was on it's way! 

everyone was trying to organize all the items to make it easier to look through

i thought it looked pretty dang cool!! 

The Lone Roadtripper.

During spring break I drove home to see my family. I only drove because I waited too long to buy a cheap flight. As much as I love to travel, I do not enjoy driving, but my family is sooo worth the drive. So I hopped in the car, armed with a full tank of gas and snacks and my ipod on shuffle and made the dreaded drive. Driving for seven hours alone on the 5 gives you a lot of time to think and sing and find ways of entertaining yourself, safely of course. So after doing my thinking, and always doing my singin, i started snapping random pictures (while i kept my eyes on the road of course) so that I could see what I took when I got home. Here are some that turned out ok... oh and p.s. it was an amazing week at home. Saw some of my friends (shanny! i wanted to see you and brooke!), hung out at home, slept with my dog at the foot of my bed. couldn't have asked for a better spring break.

My survival necessities. 

all alone. no sign of life. just me and the road. 

The beautiful sunset... I really like this one. 

a lot of times... i was bored. just me. da da da. 

I  LOVE cruise control! love. it. 

AHH. almost home!!! yesss! 

i was determined to not stop my shuffle the entire trip. I listened to 146 songs (maybe skipped a few songs). and ended with the ever amazing Diana Krall

Dance crew... again.. still so good!

I had earlier posted about this dance crew that continually blew my mind... and then the video got pulled from you tube. so sad... this is another clip of that same group on the same night as the previous video (which if i ever find again i'll post it) . I like the other one better, but this one is still pretty dang good. Amazing athleticism, incredible how in sync these guys are. My favorite part...watch what the guy sitting indian style does at the end... pretty sure I sat there with my mouth hanging open for a while when i first saw this. (p.s. there are a few "micheal jackson" grab moves in the middle of the video. Just a warning.)