what do you want to know?

A week recap:

Highlights

1. Finally ate at the cheesecake factory. It was amazing. I had the snickers bar cheesecake, yum!
2. Church Saturday night was amazing. One of the best sermons I have heard in awhile. Laura already gave kudos, but PF talked about God-thoughts.
3. Acted on a God-thought and had the most incredible conversation with my mom about Jesus. She is totally seeking Him. I was floored. My mom's salvation is near. It is one of the impossibilities I'm praying for this summer.
4. Spent some good time with my sis for the weekend.

Lowlights

1. My sister and I went to get pics done at sears for my mom's bday and father's day. It was so stressful and took forever. The people working there were, well untrained, unprofessional and never got our pics right. We will see how they turn out.
2. Lacey moved out. Pilar moved in (thats not a lowlight), but i couldn't sleep last night cuz it felt so strange to have a different person in my room.
3. My fingerpolish is chipping and i don't have fingernail polish remover. Its annoying.
4. There is something going on in the spirit realm. The last 4 close friends I have talked to are struggling, dry, low, or have just been feeling kinda numb lately. This isn't technically a bad thing, because there is always a battle before a victory, but its still hard and got some people down. Something is going on so we need to be interceeding and delcaring God's grace, sovereignty and power over whatever it is so we will know how to pray and encourage one another.

My summer verse: "For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment." Luke 1:37 (Amplified bible)

Moving on out

Well my room is about half empty. It makes me sad, but Lacey has most of her stuff packed up. Even her bed is gone because she is house sitting the rest of the week and then going home Sunday. It makes me feel like i should be moving too, but i still have 3 months. My new roommate will be moving in some time next week i think. She will be a lot of fun. She is going to work as a bartender this summer. I have known her since my freshman year and she was the only other senior athletic training student although she is not graduating until dec. We are living very different lifestyles right now, but we both need more of Jesus so I'm sure we will get along. I have no idea what this summer will be like, but I have a feeling it is going to be an adventure.

I still haven't found what i'm looking for

I should not be blogging. I need to be studying, but there was something in me that just took control and now look; here i am blogging. I have to keep it short and sweet. Casey's wedding festivities were amazingly fun and amazingly tiring. It was like one big party that lastest 4 days. Lots of food, no sleep and lots of people. Lacey is home! I'm so thrilled. I have the best roommate ever. I ordered a custom bag from timbuk2 and I should get it this week. I just ate a tasty BBQ hamburger with an awesome dinner and tomorrow is already my "friday". Now I must hit the books.

Wedding Bells

Well tonight is the big kick-off. In case you are unaware Casey, my best friend from home, is getting married this week. She is marrying her HS boyfriend Scott who I have known since we were 14. Strange isn't it? So it turns out people claim I'm responsible for this wedding because Casey moved to Ridgefield her sophomore year in HS and I introduced to her my friend Scott. The rest is history. But its kinda weird that I knew them when they were a "high school" couple and now they are tying the knot. So what does all this mean? Well...

Tonight = the bachelorette party
Thursday = the rehearseal dinner
Friday = wedding
Sat = Brunch with the wedding party

For me it means: a haircut, highlights, pedciure, manicure, a pink dress, pink shoes, seeing old HS friends and yes there is a boy I'm supposed to "meet". Casey and Scott are trying to set me up at their wedding. Ridiculous, but I agreed to it. His name is Mark and he went to college with Scott. They tried to set us up before, but we were too busy with school. He is coming to the wedding so I guess I'll meet him there. Expect absolutely nothing to come of this..unless i catch the bouquet. HA! I feel like i might regret even mentioning this on here. So if you think about it just pray for the rest of my week with my family and old friends. It should be fun.

**Be the Christian you say you are** ** What you believe is what you do, not what you say**

When its 95

This is where I want to be

thanks!

I just wanted all my friends to know that you are incredible and i had the best 23rd birthday ever. It was lots of fun, so thanks for celebrating with me. And kudos to steph who swallowed half a piece of sushi, well done friend. I hopefully got rid of the shopping bug that I caught because I have definetly done my share of supporting our economy the last two days. I came away with 2 new jackets, 3 shirts, a new purse/bag, a wedding present and a graduation present. I still might look for a watch, but its kinda nice not to be tied down by time. Now I need to catch the cleaning/organizing bug cuz my room needs help.

its been a long time

Wow, the last time i was here was april 25. yikes that was forever ago. well i don't even know what to say, graduation has come and gone. no real goodbyes or see ya later, it just kinda ended. I'm fairly confident that college friends will always be college friends. If i think about it too much then i get sad and then i might cry so....anyways. Arizona was amazing. A 5 day backpacking/camping trip into Havasu Canyon was beautiful. The waterfalls were incredible and the adventures were memorable. Once i figure out how to post pics on this thing i will. Maybe i can figure it out. It was definetly relaxing and beautiful.

June 11 is the day. I finally registered for my national certification exam after procrasinating for about 9 months. Its so scary and i'm so nervous cuz this is the "test" of all tests. This is the whole reason i went to college the last 5 years, to become a certified athletic trainer. I have to study all my textbooks from the last 4 years of college and try to remember it for an all day 3 part exam in Cheney, WA. I'm feeling like thats about a 5-6 hour drive from here in eastern washington. Yikes i'm nervous. 4 weeks to study my brains out. Now that it is summer all my friends want to play, ironically i'm the one who has to study.

My last tuesday at fox

Pretty normal day. I'm trying to remember all the things i wanted to get done this week before school was offically out. I feel like there are a million little tasks to keep me busy, but i'll probably end up forgetting to do half of them. We ended our Sex BS ( sex bible study ;) ) tonight with a fun potluck. I can't believe we started it at the beginning of the year. It went by so fast. What a journey of 7 months. Honestly everyone should do it.

I'm still replaying the phone conversation with my now "boss" at Nike, trying to convince myself the phone conversation was not a dream and I am working at Nike. Its weird that this is all happening to me. I'm trying to plan so after i quit my current job but before i start at Nike my sis and i can road trip somewhere fun. I don't know if it will happen, but it would be really cool.

Well i don't have much else to do. So if todays over then there are only 4 days left. I better make a to-do list.

Guess what?

Already a GREAT day = a marionberry scone and carmel latte at coffee cottage, walk with Beth K and a job at Nike! Can it get any better?

quickly

Its totally hitting me. Its crunch time in a good way and i'm blessed that i don't have to really worry about much besides graduation and vacation. Not classes, finals, or moving out. Kudos to y'all who are doing it all. The beach was beautiful and fun tonight. This is my last week at Fox, whoa! Lots to do tomorrow, Nike might call and only 6 days left.

7 days!

I got my cap and gown today!! I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited i just can't tell you. And now the countdown begins. Are you ready?

god heard me!!!!!!!!

I'm so totally excited right now. God is awesome, I love Jesus!!! Ok so last night coming home from church I started talking about this whole Nike thing with God. I still hadn't heard back and it has been almost a week since they told me I would know, so I figured i didn't get the job. Despite that I told God that I just wanted to know either way. If I didn't get it, I wanted them to miraculously decide to call me and tell me instead of just leaving me hanging and if for some reason they hadn't hired someone yet I wanted to know that too. I asked Him to close this door for sure or show me it was still open. I didn't want to be stuck not knowing either way.

THEN...

This evening I got a message from them saying that the interview process had been delayed and that they still had one more interview, but they would decide on Monday. She wanted to know if i was still interested in the job and told me that she enjoyed meeting with me a couple weeks ago. There is still hope! God hasn't closed that door. I'm excited about it again cuz its still possible. So reassuring to know its in God's hands and not mine. I can't take the credit for this one. All for his glory...

Ways to contact B.F. #50

Calling one of the 3 phones in W. house. Dang, who actually uses that phone to talk on? When i find you i'm going to hug you.

I had to

I had to buy the Yellowcard cd because it was the number 1 cd i heard all week when I was in MS and now it takes me to my happy place. Music is cool like that. Memories. Well whats new friends? Easter weekend was fun. I worked, dyed Easter eggs and had an awesome dinner with the 'rents Sun. evening. Graduation is so close. If i was normal then this would be the last week of classes. I do have a presentation on Thurs which is like my last "assignment" i guess that gives me something to look forward to being done with. I feel like it is anti-climatic, but I might cry when I walk across the stage and see my grandma. I'm the first of her grandkids to graduate from college (but the second youngest in front of my sis) and she has been asking me about it for the last four years every time i see her. If she is crying I for sure will be. I get teary eyed thinking about it, yikes ;). I found an old journal that I started when i was at Linfield, but knew i was coming to Fox. It basically was that spring, summer and 4 years ago when i started Fox, its crazy. I had no idea, what at journey. Well soon I shall be rendevousing (is that a word?) with bitty cent, if i can ever get a hold of her. Where are you?

Ways to contact B.F. #36 blog about her

its the weekend, but not

So its so strange cuz its my weekend, but nobody elses. And even though tomorrow would be optimal hang out time everyone is leaving for the actual Easter weekend cuz its also a 3 day weekend. Ok, that might have been confusing. I'm trying to be productive, but i'm just so unmotivated. Plenty of things i should do nothing i really want to do.

ps MS spring serve pics are on facebook, just a few

the one

well just the one about spring break. Once we landed in MS we had to drive about 3 hours to Pass Christain and we arrived pretty late in the dark and yet you could see there wasn't much there. We attempted to find where we would be staying, but with no luck we pulled into a church parking lot and slept in the car. Seriously my whole serve trip in 3 vans with our stuff for the night. sweet! welcome to MS. Most of us were so tired from not sleeping the night before cuz we were up at 3am Portland time, but yet i still couldn't sleep much cuz the sleep i had gotten was sitting up; from the plane to the car. But we survived, slept a few hours til daylight and then found breakfast. Meals for the week were in this big tent called God's Katrina Kitchen. Cuz it was spring break they fed mostly all volunteers, but this tent has been providing free meals bascially to whoever needs it. Its pretty cool. Our sleeping arrangements ended up being slightly better than the vans for the rest of the week. We slept in the abandoned cleaned out Pass christian library. There was just one big room with mattresses (PTL) on the floor. This was the main headquarters for Campus Crusade.
Every morning the group leaders would get work requests that had been filled out by the community and our team would go do whatever they needed. Our team was split up most of the time doing different projects. We did some yard clean-up, gutted a house ( basically just involved a sledge hammer and crowbar) and put on a new roof for a family. The roof project was our biggest project. A car full of girls showed up at this guys house, knocked on his door with hammers and a pitchfork in hand and tell him we are here to give him a new roof. I can't imagine what he was thinking at the time because i think it was obvious we had no idea what to do. But heck we climbed up on the roof and started ripping of shingles. That is what we are supposed to do right? Well our team completed it from start to finish with the help of a campus crusader that acutally knew how to put on a new roof. It took us 3 days and it was great to bless this older couple George and Margaret, well not that old. The entire inside of their house was destroyed, they were starting to rebuild from the wood framework and George was the one doing it, so being able to give them a new roof for free was a big deal. About 10 people from our team did the roof while the other five took the 3 days to gut a house that had not been touched since Katrina, 7 months ago. All i have to say is, a really really really stinky fridge, everything was garbage from all the stuff to all the walls and the lady wasn't coming back. The house wasn't bulldozed because it was being donated to the historical society. Kudos to my fellow team members because they cleaned out that house.
Being there was strange cuz the city was destoryed and there was not 1 normal looking building in the entire city. The only things that showed life were all the fema trailers. We drove threw the worst hit parts of the city right on the peninsula and all that was left of those homes were the concrete stilts they were on. Some sites only had staircases that were left. No damaged house, no evidence of a house just a dozen stilts where the house used to be. crazy. i have pics but i definetly left my camera in MS in the rental van. hopefully its in the mail. it will take decades to rebuild the city and thats if progress isn't slowed by other hurricanes this summer. one of the locals was saying he has lived through 18 hurricane warnings. Sometimes you stay, sometimes you go, nobody was expecting the magnitude of katrina. One of the houses we gutted flooded to the cieling of the 2nd story and it wasn't even on the waterfront. A 30ft wave surge pushed through the city by 180 mph winds, can't really imagine the size of this storm. All you could see was that nothing was left.
Some of our team, including me didn't want to leave cuz the people their need so much help. You could just pick one family and there would be enough to do for years. Now imagine thousands of families. It was hard to come back and jump right back into school. Thats pretty much all that i can tell you. I mean there are tons of tidbits here and there but thats the big stuff. I know what i did and experienced but i don't know what it all means yet. I'm glad i went. Met some cool people on my team and came away with some new friends.
I'm not going to blog about it cuz this is already tooooooo long, but if you want to know about a highlight of the trip for me not included on this blog, ask me about the Waffle House, brittney or the 7 travelers. Same story, different reminders. :)

wait for it

I have been feeling the pressure to write about my spring break in MS doing hurricane relief, but i'm just not there yet. I haven't processed everything that happened and what it was like being there. It was intense and the city was destroyed. I know God is teaching me a lot and I will have more to say later, but i wanted you to know it was good and i'm home safely. There is so much I could talk about and as I figure out what it all means to me and to the Lord I'll let you know. For now life as started up full steam ahead with my senior thesis due this week, graduation stuff and the last school "to-do list" i will have to write for awhile. whoa here comes life...

Dead man walking

I look beyond the empty cross
Forgetting what my life has cost
And wipe away the crimson stains
And dull the nails that still remains
More and more I need you now, I owe you more each passing hour
The battle between grace and pride I gave up not so long ago
So steal my heart and take the pain
And wash the feet and cleanse my pride
Take the selfish, take the weak,
And all the things I cannot hide
Take the beauty, take my tears
The sin and soaked heart and make it yours
Take my world all apart
Take it now, take it now
And serve the ones that I despise
Speak the words I can't deny
Watch the world I used to love
Fall to dust and thrown away I look beyond the empty cross
Forgetting what my life has cost
So wipe away the crimson stains
And dull the nails that still remain
So steal my heart and take the pain
Take the selfish, take the weak
And all the things I cannot hide
Take the beauty, take my tears
Take my world apart, take my world apart
I pray, I pray, I pray
Take my world apart

I MUST DIE..."I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." Gal 2:20
I MUST GIVE UP..."Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matt 10:39

I MUST BREAK..."The sacrfices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God you will

not despise." Psalm 51:17

I AM THE SACRIFICE.."No, I insist on paying the full price...I will not sacrifice a burnt offering that costs
me nothing." 1 Ch 21:24

broken

Satan is terrified by humility. hmmmmmm.

Bombs are dropping while you're shopping!!!!

Portland was fun. Lacey and I went to hang out for the day on Sunday. I bought some Reefs for half price at Nordstroms rack and also tried on the bridesmaid dress I will be wearing for my best friends wedding in May. It is definetly pink. Its cute sure I guess, but its still a dress and its still pink. I need to go tanning.

There was also the largest peace aka anti war, anti-bush protest I have seen in portland. It totally closed down the streets. It just kept going and there were tons of people marching. There were people chanting and yelling and holding their signs. One woman had a a megaphone and was yelling the above statement. There were people dressed up as the prisoners at Guatanamo Bay, orange jump suits with black covering over their head, who were stopped in the middle of the street. They were hand cuffed and some were standing and some were kneeled. There were like 6 of them I think and the word "Why?" was written on them. It was a powerful statement. Anyways, i felt bad for the poor drivers cuz they just had to wait and we are were in the middle of downtown by pioneer courthouse square so there were lots of cars.

Just so you know my opinion:

Is President Bush a christian: sure
Are christians perfect: no
Has he done minimal good for our country: yes
Is he a bad president: absolutely
Do I pray for Him like the bible says to pray for our leaders: yes
Am I against the war in Iraq: absolutely
Would I go to jail for my opinion: I don't know. Would you?

Christians will have to take a stand. Its been the prophesy of our times and generation.
Would you face persuction for the Word of God? I was wondering if you were going to China if you would smuggle in bibles at the risk of jail and who knows what? When i think about if i would do it, my world gets rocked cuz i would intially justify saying no. However the more I have been thinking about the reason I would say no, I realize that my faith is pointless and worthless and for lack of a better word s---, if I would say no. Think about it cuz I want to know if our generation is ready to say something.