Free Fallin'

A short Skype conversation the other day stirred up something in me and I just felt the need to write about it. Last year, through circumstances that I didn't understand or like at first, God brought one of my best friends into my life. He blessed me with the wonderful opportunity to room with Evan Tubbs!!! :) We really didn't know each other very well, but I got to move into 301B in Nutt Hall with her a few weeks into my freshman year! And, not to sound cheesy, but that was our start to a beautiful friendship! haha.

Evan and I went through a lot together last year. I think I can speak for both of when I say that God knew that we needed each other and He was so gracious to pair us up the way He did. We have so many memories together--some funny, some sweet, and some just plain random! lol. When I first came to school I was shy, unwilling to break out of my shell, and miserable. But you can only be shy for so long with Evan around! haha. She makes things so fun and she was so good to make me go places and get me to do stuff that I wouldn't have done before. She's a big part of that change in me and how I love to meet new people and try new things now!

Also, we discovered that we share a love for a few of our favorite things and people!! One of those people being our dear John Mayer, of course!! Oh yes!! We loooooove our John! How could we not?! He sings our theme song from last year--Free Fallin'! :) And then there's our "Noonday song" by Train, "Hey, Soul Sister"! We always had to listen to this as we made our way through the crazy lunch hour traffic just to get across the street to the BCM. Not really sure why we never walked, but we always had fun riding over there together! Oh, and Evan has a hidden talent!She's a crazy awesome rapper! lol. She wrote a couple about Taylor and me one late night during finals week and recorded them so we won't ever forget them. Those are the nights I miss the most...just chillin' in our room, being weird, talking about the most random things, running to Walmart for "a date night with our two favorite guys, Ben and Jerry", watching "The Newleyweds" before bed, having snowballs thrown THROUGH our open window, standing on the beds singing and dancing, cutting the guys' hair, drinking "little hugs", almost killling ourselves as we tried to get up on Evan's lofted bed, doing our dancing workout video, fighting over a certain sweatshirt ;), baking in the kitchen downstairs, and talking for hours before bed! We made so many great memories last year and I will miss that so much this year!! But I am so thankful for last year and that God allowed us to become roommates and best friends! I looooooove you Evan Tubbs!! :)

More Than Survivors

This summer God blessed me with the awesome opportunity to work as a camp counselor at Camp Solgohachia in Solgohachia, AR. I got there the last week of May for two weeks of training and then camp started on June 7th with our first group from El Dorado. They were precious!! I couldn't have asked for a better group to start the summer out with! The kids touched my heart and I am convinced I was more blessed by them than they were by me! They were so open with us and I was amazed and encouraged by the willingness of some of the girls to share their hearts and their struggles with all of us counselors. It was a great start to the summer!!

Change

So...my family just left for Kansas City and I'm at home finishing up my packing and getting ready to head to Russellville tomorrow. My mom's been busy all day getting everything they needed ready for the tournament and she just got home about two hours ago. I've been home packing so we haven't seen each other much. She walked by about 30 minutes ago and said "Can you tell I'm pretending you aren't leaving for college again?!" I just laughed. Well, she and the boys just left to pick up Claire and my dad and head to KC. First my brothers came in, hugged me and said "See ya in two weeks!" (sweet, but not a big deal..we only live and hour and 15 minutes from each other!). Then...my mom came in and....surprise, surprise....she cried! "I just don't like this! I don't like not having you home! I'm glad you love it and I would really hate it if you didn't but it's just sad that you're leaving!" Lol. I'm glad to be loved and it makes me happy that I'm missed and I DO love being home and I WILL miss my family! BUT...Tech is where I'm supposed to be right now and I couldn't be more ready to get back up there!

So...why am I posting about and where am I headed with this?! I guess my little moment with my mom just made me think back over this last year and about where I was this time last year. I was the one crying!! Of course she was too, but I was BAWLING!! Like a baby!! lol. In fact I cried myself to sleep every night for the first two weeks of school! I hated not being in Little Rock with my family and friends. I hated not really knowing anyone at Tech. I hated having to meet new people, go to new classes, have a new schedule, live in a new town...I hated change.

I guess to some degree I still don't love change, but I've learned to not only accept it, but to embrace it! I think that God puts change in our lives so that we don't get too comfortable. Not saying that God wants us to be uncomfortable, but I know that for me, change always takes me back to Him! When I was miserable those first two weeks and I didn't know anyone, God was my Rock. He was my best friend. He was the one thing that was constant in my life! No matter what changed--my home, my friends, my food, my bed--God stayed the same!

Going to college last year and leaving everything familiar to me was hard, but God brought me through it and taught me SO much!! I couldn't be more thankful for the people He's brought into my life and the hard times He's brought me though and the great opportunities I've been given! So I guess my main thought here would be that change may be hard and seem like and obstacle at the time, but look to Christ in the situation and what it is that He's trying to do. And you may not be able to see His plan at the moment, but know that He does have one and it's WAY better than any plan of ours could EVER be!! :)

BEACH!!!

This summer has been filled with adventures which will take me many posts to tell about, but my most recent adventure was a trip to the beach with Laura Mitchell, her mom, her grandparents, and Nana Gay! :) We got to spend a week in Gulf Shores, AL. We layed out a LOT, got a little bit of sunburn (hehe), played in the ocean, and shopped. We had a great time and it was a good end to the summer!

Funny Story: Laura and I spent the first day laying out a little bit, but mostly we swam in the ocean. The water was really clear and the waves weren't too big so we got a raft and layed across it sideways and mostly just talked and lounged around. A couple of times we saw some pretty good sized fish jump up out of the water a couple yards away from us. We thought it was cool and talked about it for a minute, and then went back to our other random conversations. A few minutes later I noticed this weird feeling like something was brushing across my leg...and then I felt it again...and again...Laura and I turned and looked at each other at the same time and then looked down in the water (it really was like something from a movie. haha) and saw that we were surrounded by HUNDREDS of little fish!! I'm not sure if you would even clasify them as fish. They were more like minnows...but anyway, they weren't doing anything to us but it felt like a bunch of little fingers poking us all over. So we proceeded to run (as well as you can in the ocean) back to the beach and wait for them to pass by. They eventually left so we returned to our position on the raft. We talked about it for a little bit and decided they were probably smart fish (because fish swim in schools!! haha) and were swimming away from the big fish and they just figured it would be safe by us because the big fish would be afraid of the humans. Yes, in our minds fish have just as detailed thoughts as humans! :) Over the course of the day this happened a couple more times and we just got used to it. We would wait it out and then go back out. When it was time for dinner we went back up to the condo to shower and get ready to go out to eat. Laura took her shower and then I went to take mine, and when I did I had a little suprise in my swimsuit! Not one....or two.....but THREE little dead minnows fell out of my swimsuit!!! So gross!! lol. I quickly called Laura in to look and then Miss Patsy took a picture of me holding my fish! haha. So what's the moral to this story, you ask?........Fishing poles aren't actually necessary for fishing! :) hehe.

the end.