Busy as a Bee

I never realized how hard my last semester of college would be. It seems that I always have a million things to do and no motivation to do them. I never really experienced senioritis in high school, but I have gotten my fair share of it this semester. I am taking a class right now called Leadership Communication. The majority of the curriculum for the class consists of us raising money for an organization called Project Search. As a class, we set a goal to raise $15,000 to help fund technology needs for Project Search. Currently, we have raised just a little over $11,000. This class has almost been the death of me many times during the semester. It is a really hard class because there are 27 students who are all trying to work towards the same goal. Although this class has been difficult, it has taught me the importance on relying on others. I believe God gave us the gift of friendship and companionship because it is almost impossible to do life alone. Individually, it would have been impossible to raise $11,000 in less than two months. However, uniting together has caused us to be a force for the good. Despite school and work, I really have done some pretty awesome things the past month. I have traveled the past three weekends, and it is finally nice to be able to stay at home this weekend. I would say that it is nice to be able to sleep in my own bed, but I sold my bed on craigslist to get a bigger bed, and I have not had time to get a new one. However, my couch is super comfy. I am pretty sure I have already put this verse on my blog, but I absolutely love Exodus 14:14 "The Lord will fight for you. You only need to be still." I have came to realize how true this verse is in my life the past month. At times sitting still is the hardest thing to do. Being a communication's major, when wrong is done to me, I want to argue about it. However, sometimes it is best to sit back and let the Lord defend me. His ways are always better than mine.

Weekends are the Best

After my rant from last week, I thought I would write a more happier post. The past two weekends I have done some really new, fun, and exciting events. The first thing that I did was I participated in my first 5K with my friend Levi. The weather was perfect for it and it was so much fun! I plan on doing many more. The course was through Milton's boardwalk, so the scenery was gorgeous.  After we ran there was an "after party," where they served us snacks and had live music. I even ended up getting a medal for getting 3rd in my division. I had no idea that they were even going to present medals, so it was a cool surprise.

The next day Hillary and I went to the Bayfest concert in Mobile, Alabama. When we left it was somewhat sprinkling; however, we had already decided that rain or shine we were going. The first thing we did in Mobile was go to Target so I could buy a rain jacket. Then we went and ate lunch at a local BBQ restaurant. After lunch we headed over to Bayfest to get our tickets and wait for the festival to start. By the time we made it to the gates, we were soaked and looked like drowned rats. However, about thirty minutes before Dustin Lynch (Hillary's dream husband) started to play, the skies cleared up and it was beautiful. His concert was awesome, and I really enjoyed watching the ASL interpreter. After his concert, we went back to the car and changed into dry clothes. We then went and watched Daughtry preform, and his concert was so entertaining! About 30 minutes before the concert ended, it started to sprinkle again and then on the way back to the car it became a down pour.  By the time we left we were soaked, but it did not even matter because of all the fun we had!

Starting out completely dry

Drowned rats!

Dry again thanks to the sun 

This past weekend I worked at a haunted house in Destin. I was dressed in a black morph suit and hid in a room that was full of fog and a green light. When people walked by, I would jump in front of them and scare them. As crazy as it sounds, I had so much fun working the haunted house. I'm not even going to lie though I was still creeped out by the haunted house even when I knew the people in the costumes. I absolutely love the month of October. It is such a fun month because of all the fall activities like smores at Amy's house and yummy food, such as candy corn :)

Black morph suit=not being able to see or breath very well

Destin <3

Food for Thought

Sometimes Christians can be their own worst enemies. If the Bible can be summed up into one word, it would be the word love. God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us. Jesus demonstrated love when he walked the earth and went through agony and the most gruesome death because of his love for us. As Christians we are called to be Christ followers, and sometimes love is the farthest thing from what we show to those around us. With the exception of +Gracie Scott and her sweet family, it is very rare that I see this love reflected. Myself included, Christians are not reflecting the love of Christ but instead are reflecting greed, judgement, hate, and hypocrisy. The reason why I am on this "soapbox" is because of an incident that happened a few weeks ago at work. The restaurant that I work at on the beach, has a room called the VIP room, which is a private room with a table, chairs, and a t..v. A lot of times customers will have small Birthday parties or meetings in the room. A few weeks ago a church group came and stayed in the hotel and ate breakfast during one of the mornings they stayed. When they came down for breakfast, they acted as if they owned the restaurant by not waiting to be seated and just sat themselves and then complained when they had no silverware. They were very needy and demanded a lot of attention, thus taking away attention that us servers could devote to our other tables. When they left, they did not tip any of the servers and there was at least 60 members in the group. What made matters worse was the pastor insisted that him and his family sit in the VIP room away from everyone. This does not reflect the love of the Lord. Jesus did not put himself above his people but instead walked with them in love and even visited their houses!  Unfortunately, many of my coworkers want nothing to do with Christianity or God in general. I honestly can't say I blame them after this incident. This situation only confirmed why they wanted nothing to do with Christianity. Why would they want to be apart of a religion where they belittle people and are rude to them? Why would they want to listen to someone preach to them who would not even sit in the same room with them? Why would they want to listen to people who have "Jesus loves you" on their shirt but showed no love at all? As a Christian, this made me ashamed and dissapointed in our generation of followers. Why have we allowed ourselves to get to this point? Are we as Christians turning into Pharisees instead of disciples? Are we content with knowing the Word instead of living the Word? Are we too busy arguing about trivial differences instead of ministering to those around us? Are we judging when we should be loving? Myself included, Christians can be our own worst enemies. We scare away the same people we are trying to minister to because we focus more on ourselves than those around us. Jesus was homeless, incurred much mocking, pain, and suffering for us. He showed love,compassion, and sympathy when people needed it the most. Are we doing the same for His children?

Verses for the week: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. Who, being in very nature God,did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature  of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!" Philippians 2:3-8

No Time to Breathe

This semester of school has to be the busiest one throughout my college career. The classes that I am taking are not too hard right now, but they do take up a lot of time. The internship that I am doing is a very humbling experience. I have never worked in an office environment and it is very different than the customer service positions I have held. I am such a busy body, so I find it very hard to sit still for nine hours behind a desk (yes I even have my own desk). I almost look forward to trips to the dumpster or the water bottle refill station because I am getting a chance to stretch my legs. However, the people at the office are very kind and uplifting. This is the first place I have worked at where Christianity is the dominant religion in the organization. It is like a breathe of fresh air when being in the office. Along with my internship and school, I am still waitressing. My coworkers at my restaurant jobs are also really awesome to work with. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful people to work with. Although work keeps me busy, my coworkers make it fun instead of something to be dreaded. In addition to my coworkers being a blessing, as I have expressed before, my friends are the best of the best.They have made the time outside of school and work something to be enjoyed. This fun time even includes +Gracie Scott's 6:30 a.m. cycling class at UWF that I attend every Tuesday. I am so thankful for my life and finally feel that I am truly living instead of just going through the motions!

Verse of the week: "If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." Psalm 139:9-10

Jaclyn and I last time I went to Chipley

On the way to Destin for our girl's day!

Night out with some coworkers :)

Start of Something New

As I started classes last week, I couldn't help but think about how bittersweet this semester is going to be. I cannot believe that I graduate in December. It feels like just yesterday I was a scared little freshman going to Chick Fil A with Hillary almost every night to escape the craziness that was in our dorm. Now in three months I will be finished at UWF. As sweet as not being in school sounds, it is also very bitter. I realized that I wasted a lot of time worrying about exams and other assignments instead of focusing more on the people around me. My goal this semester is to be more focused on lifting my classmates up as opposed to focusing so much on myself. Also, I am somewhat freaking out because I have no idea what I am going to do after I graduate. I know that I want to go to an interpreter training school for sign language but that is about all I know. As strange as it sounds, I almost like this feeling. All throughout my life I have been a planner and organizer. It is somewhat refreshing to not know where I am going to be in a year. I look forward to spending many hours in prayer seeking guidance for this decision. My specific prayer is that wherever I am led to next, I will be a light and example for God's glory. It does not matter so much the place but what I am doing in the place that defines my life.

Verse of the week: "For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation." Psalm 100:5

Also I would like to give a shout out to my friend Thomas who took me to the shooting range this past weekend.

The homemade wreath Kalee and I made for my front door. For neither one of us being crafty, it turned out pretty well. 

Best Friends

I just want to dedicate this post to Lana and Hillary. After spending a weekend in Destin with these two, I must say that they are absolutely two amazing young ladies. They are truly beautiful from the inside out. We started out our trip to Destin with hopes to go to Big Kahuna's. However, the weather had different plans. Saturday night we kicked off our mini vacation by going to Hard Rock Cafe and the movies. The next day we went and got our nails done, shopped at both malls in Destin, ate at the Melting Pot, and had a night walk on the beach. The next day Lana and I went to the beach and went and got piercings. Then we met up with Hillary for lunch after her physical therapy appointment. Unfortunately, after lunch we had to head home :( Eating at the Melting Pot was definitely our favorite part. The server we had was awesome and the whole experience was memorable. This trip was definitely something we all needed before school started. As I was saying before, these girls are awesome, and I could not imagine my life without them. I am so blessed to say that I still have remained friends with Lana even after moving to another city. We have been friends for about seven years, and I love her dearly. Hillary is also another blessing in my life. When I started UWF, I was nervous about sharing a room with a complete stranger. However, God sure knew what He was doing when he paired us up. Hillary has became a sister to me. She knows me better than almost anyone,and I could not have asked for a better roommate. Without her, I could not have made it through college. I could go on and on about how thankful for the two of them, but I will save them the embarrassment :) Here are some pictures to show how wonderful these two really are:

Verse of the week: "A friend loves at all times..." Proverbs 17:17

Lana and I with our matching jackets

Hillary thought she was too cool to get one.

Nap time after shopping! 

Lana and I after we got our different piercings. 

Industrial piercing! 

Lunch at Fudpuckers

Rainbows

The other day +Julia Veit came to visit me in Pensacola, and we went to the port in Pensacola after we ate dinner. As we were walking down to the port, it started to sprinkle on us. When we started on our walk, the skies were blue (as you can see on the left);however, by the end of the walk, it started to rain (as you can see on the right).  Fortunately, Julia captured a picture of the weather we endured along with the beautiful rainbow that starts in the blue sky. As I look at this picture, I can't help but think about how this is a perfect illustration of life. Sometimes life is going great (blue sky), but then circumstances occur and any minute it can turn to not so great (gray sky). However, there is always beauty in the darkness (rainbow). In life we should strive to find the beauty. We should realize that it is not always going to be gray skies. These circumstances come and go just like the weather. Life is all about perspective not circumstances. Thankfully, our God sees beyond our circumstances.

Verse of the week: Though sorrow may last through the night, joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5

Julia and I with our milkshakes from Tin Cow

It decided to rain on us after we left Target

Eating lunch at Petrella's

Julia was freaked out by the man staring at her in the picture

TCBY. We get pretty excited about food.