I love this

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/12/2009_in_photos_part_1_of_3.html

Check these out. They are really great.

Where have I been the past...oh I don't know, month and ahalf?

Nowhere. I'm just a slacker.

I feel like I could just copy and paste Charlotte's post about a recap and apologizing for being MIA the past few weeks. But here I am now!!

A quick recap of what I've been up to....hm, alright, these will be randos for sure:

-Changed my major from TESL to Spanish, but I still have the TESL minor. This was a big deal
-Been running lately to prepare myself for the race on Dec. 5th....and I've actually enjoyed running and improved! It gives me energy.
-Dressed up with my friend Kimberlee as our friends Alli and Gentry for Halloween
- built a LEGIT fort. I mean, it was awesome and took up my whole room.

-Spent a beautiful weekend in Chattanooga (love of my life) with some great camp friends. I got to see Anna, Kristin, Rachel, Drex, Greyson, and others. It was really a great weekend. Being at camp during the fall just made me realize how great life is and the amount of blessings we have from the Lord. Just the beauty of His creation is blessing enough, then He lavishes more on us. How wonderful!
It's been a good fall so far. I am loving the weather lately and the things that fall brings- scarves, pumpkin spice latte, jeans, bonfires. You know, the regulars.

Enjoy this weather! Be joyful today and show someone love, because we have been filled with love and grace from the Lord- let's pour that back out on someone else. Be joyful today and realize the blessings you have. I know I don't do this near enough. Thank you Lord for fun and friends and the little things about life.

Roadtrip: Because it's what college kids do.

Last Thursday night, Kimberlee, India, and I made our way out of town to enjoy some of the greater things in life: Nashville, shopping, Dave Barnes.

It was an epic trip. I love just being able to decide that day or a few days before to do something random with no schedule. Love it.

We headed to Nashville around 4 so that we would have time to shop before Dave played. Of course we hit up Gap, gosh I just love that store. And thankfully so do Indi and Kim cause we spent over an hour in there. After visiting a few more stores, we grabbed dinner real quick (as quick as one can when they are craving chilis and must go there), then realized that it was 8:45 and the concert starts at 9.... We then proceeded to run, yes RUN through the mall to make it to our car on time to get there.

Success.

The show was great. Dave was lookin good, and singing good, as usual. Matt Wertz made a surprise appearance- no complaints about that.

AND on top of that I saw great friends! Allison Little, JT, Jordan, Katie Lewis, and J Paul. It was a BIG DEAL seeing Katie. Gosh it had been over a year! How crazy is that. Dave Barnes just brings people together- that's all there is to it!

Tribute to my little sister

You may or may not now that I have a little sister, who I probably shouldn't call little anymore because she is 16 years old and looks older than me. But, in my eyes she is still my little sister. Now, when we were growing up, we each had things that we loved. Things that we collected. Mine was teddy bears. Figurines, stuffed animals, everything. I loved bears. Now Meredith, my little sister, loved pigs. I know, i thought it was weird too, but she loved them. Until she was probably 11, she had pig things all over her room and everything. I think this love of pigs stemmed from her love of Charlotte's Web, with Wilbur the pig in it. Anyways.

(Don't think this is going to be a sappy blog...just wait)

So she loves pigs. Alot. Here's where the irony starts. We all know about the sickness that is going around seemingly everywhere. SWINE FLUE. Swine, as we know, is another name for pig. So this could be called pig flu. Well, my little sister who spent so many childhood years being obsessed with pigs......HAS NOW BECOME ONE!!

Yes, that's right. After two visits to the doctor, days of a temperature, and im sure lots of grumpy behavior (that I thankfuly didn't witness because i was in Jackson) she has been diagnosed with swine flu.

I LOVE the irony of life. Absolutely love it.



*Note: I know that swine flu is not a joke. But this is funny. Don't be offended anyone!

Pictures from Honduras

I have definitely slacked off when it comes to updating this. Forgive me! I was sick over Labor Day Weekend and this last week of school has been pretty busy. But Sunday afternoons are good at being open for me. I told myself that if I finished my homework for Monday and cleaned the kitchen that I could update. So here I am!

I had promised this post would be dedicated to pictures. So without further adieu, here we go!

Side note

This is a rando I just thought of:

8:00 class=not so great

BUT

a huge cup of coffee and learning from a sweet little old man teacher who genuinely cares about special needs children and changing the school systems to accommodate their needs= pretty great

Part 1: Just doin what I love

So, what do you get when you combine 3 american girls, 2 body guards, 8 sweet children, and 1 "papa" interpreting between all of us? A great time in Honduras. Legit. I LOVED being there.

Well, as you saw in my last post, camp was THE BEST. But my summer adventure did not end there. (I know, how can it get better right?) I got home from camp on a saturday night and flew out at 6:00 am 1 day later to meet Kimberlee and Indi (two close friends from college) in Honduras.

From the moment I got there, I loved it. The smallest mission trip out of the country I had been on before this consisted of probably 15 people. So going with just me and 2 other girls was different but SO refreshing. A completely new experience. I arrived in Tegucigalpa (the capital where we were working) before lunch and headed straight to one of the neighborhoods to deliver medical supplies. That's just to show you that from the moment I got in the country, I did not stop feeling useful for the purpose that the Lord sent us there for- to love on the kids and just be there to serve them and help.

Since this post would literally be 12 pages if I told you every detail (and I know some of you love me but not THAT much), ill just hit the main points of the ministry and good times we had while in Tegucigalpa.

From my experience bullet points are the easiest to read/ most enjoyable (and they dont look as intimidating as a straight up paragraph).

Memories (or mems as I like to call them):

-One of the first things I see in the city is, believe it or not, a Chilis. Life is good.
-Working with a week old orphanage with only 8 precious, love needing children
-Visiting 3 neighboorhood schools/centers near by and getting to help with lessons for the children
-Seeing, from our balcony, a huge mob of protesters in front of the president's palace. legit.
-Painting, cleaning, and fixing anythings, and I mean anything that needed some work (even a baptismal).
-Having about 12 awkward pictures taken of me throughout the trip. Compliments of Kimberlee herself.
-Going grocery shopping and desperately trying to communicate the words "peanut butter" and "cookie dough" to the Hondurans working at the grocery store
-Improving my spanish BIG TIME, on account of me and kim and our papa were the only ones probablly in the 10 mile vicinity that could speak both english and spanish.
-Playing soccer with the little neighborhood kids, and getting beat.
-Taking the orphanage kids to the zoo....and seeing monkeys loose just chillin
-Spending hours daily with Julia and Eduardo(our body guards)
-Listening to (hours) of 90's cheesy music with Julia and Eduardo. I dunno why...rando.
-Leading a women's conference on saturdays for girls and women in the neighborhoods
-Taking part in a baking class learning from the women how to make pastries and sweets
-Sharing my testimony at church to well over 70 people (It was SO great. I love telling it)
-Going to chilis multiple times. It's better in Honduras than U.S. Believe it.
-Wearing Hawaiian shirts and sneaking down to the lobby to find things....then setting off the fire alarm...yeah...
-Going to a bilingual church in Honduras
-Praising the Lord in Spanish
-Eating lunch at our papa's house. Listening to him and gaining wisdom from his life experiences and testimony.
-Loving on children- legit this was the BEST part. They needed love and care. That's why we were there. To serve them and love them.

Well, you made it through. The Lord did GREAT things through me and in me while I was in Tegucigalpa. I am so thankful that He called me to be there this summer. It was an awesme 2 1/2 weeks. Doing ministry beside close close friends is something special. I wouldn't trade it at all. It is going to happen much more often. that's for sure.

Stay tuned for next post which is dedicated to...Pictures!!

A big part of my heart is at CVP

Cvp is the camp in Soddy Daisy, TN (right outside Chatt) that i have worked at the past two summers. I LOVE it. There's just something great and right about spending a month or so on the lake, in the mountains, with kids, loving on people and praising the Lord. I love camp. That being said, I feel like some pictures could do a better job at showing camp than my words. And i just love pictures.

this is the Union crew that worked this summer and last. I am SO thankful to have grown close to them.

This is me and Kelsey's (my sweet co) first cabin together. They were FUN girls.
ME AND KELSEY :) She was SO encouraging. We were able to open up to each other ALOT and grow close to each other by loving on our girls and spending time in the word together.
Kristin Mardis. I love her. She makes me laugh so much and is a great friend to me. She's probablly, no, definitely my favorite college grad so far.
This is a typical ho down night. All dressed up in the typical things. Lookin right. Feelin right. Dancin. You know. Ho down night is THE BEST. It is so much fun. Many mems made on nights like these (cha cha slide, dumb group dances, Amos Moses, counselor dance, our calves killing us after the night is over, rice krispie treats. you know). This is why I miss thursday nights at CVP. ho down.Oh the dock. I love the dock. This is waterfront orientation. And this is only a few of the kids. The waterfront is where it's at. Thanks to Kristin, Clay, and Ryan. They are the best waterfront staff. Seriously, i would like to be sitting on the side of the dock, swimming, or blobbing with friends right now. I miss this.

This is what camps all about. Fun times. Fun friends. Just living life well in the summer. And spending a crazy amount of time with the Lord. That's the best part for me. This was a GREAT kick off to my summer. Mems were made. Good times good times.

I'm just so thankful that I am still close to so many of the people I have met at camp this summer and last. It really is a family. And one i like to be a part of!

The honduras post is next, so keep checkin back for it, it's gonna be a good one!!

Home again...and again.

Has it seriously been two months almost since my last update? Unbelievable. They shouldn't allow lazy, uninteresting people like me to blog.

So, many things have happened since my last one (that was about my blog and time in Honduras). I'll need several posts to be able to fully tell about my summer from end of June til now. Well I got home from Honduras on July 15th, and I got home to Union on the 17th. I feel at home at my parent's house in Memphis and here at school. It's nice to have to comfort places- something I feel like I haven't had in a while.

Things are good but weird here. Know that. I am thrilled to be back with close friends. But this semester is going to be interesting. And it scares me some, for many reasons. But for now, Ill leave you with the hopes of a few more updates to come about 1.)Honduras 2.) Time home in Memphis 3.) Family and , 4.) Life at home at Union.

Pictures always make things more interesting... so here's all I've got for now. I want more of this in my life. It makes me feel like everything is going to be ok and that I can just slow down and be me. I dont know why. It's just beautiful.

For the time being you can find me here:

Look:

http://esperanzapoi.wordpress.com/

As some of you may know, I am flying to Honduras on Monday to meet up with Kimberlee and Indi (2 girls from college, and dear friends of mine) to do missions work overseas. I AM PUMPED. They are both down there already and are waiting for me to arrive. I could not be more excited.

So, until mid July, you can read about the Lord's work in our lives in Honduras at the link above. Either myself, Kim, or Indi will be updating it regularly.

I am so thankful that the Lord has so faithfully led me to go on this trip with my close friends and I am looking forward to getting there Monday. I am also nervous because I will be flying alone for the first time. And I just left camp, so it's going to be a weird adjustment at first. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store!

LIfe update from beautiful Chatt town

Well, it is a Saturday away from camp and I had a break to update a bit.

Camp has been amazing so far, which I knew it would be, but I think i had forgotten how MUCH i love it and missed it.My camp friends are excellent, so encouraging, and SO fun. I laugh all the time when I'm around them. It is such a blessing to be surrounded by such great girls and guys. Love them.

The Lord has just filled me with joy as I have been in Chatt these weeks. I've had such a good time. And I think I am becoming more myself as i go along, that sounds weird but thats what it seems like. I am going to be sad to leave.. but I also know that the Lord wants me in Honduras as well. It's going to be/already is a great summer.

I got to talk with my co, Kelsey Bull alot this week about our faith, struggles, and what the Lord has taught us. It is crazy that the Lord brought us together all the way from Memphis and Ohio to Chattanooga to be together in a cabin loving on girls. I am so grateful.

This weekend in chatt has been great so far. I ate Panera for lunch with camp friends, then Mark and Shawn came up here (yay!!) from their camp in Georgia and we went to the Aquarium and got starbucks and talked about life. I had missed those dear friends. Weird that we are going to be juniors. Then we went to RockCreek down under and looked around then they headed back to their camp. Now i am resting( MUCH needed). Dinner tonight at Amigos with camp buds. A good weekend for sure.

I miss Memphis, but I love Chattanooga. I miss Leo, luckily I got a picture that said "Leo" today while we were out- so funny.

I shared my testimony to the whole camp last week, it was good to tell it again. I love sharing the Lord's work in my life. I think hearing peoples testimonies tell ALOT about them. Alot.

Well, it's about nap time. (much needed).

Summer rocks.

Chatt town

Well I have been in beautiful Chattanooga since Saturday now just chillin with Kirk and her roommates before I head to camp tomorrow. It has been a ton of fun so far! I am so thankful I was able to ride up here with her and stay here for the weekend before camp starts.

Exciting things/ randos that have happened thus far on my journey:

painted the living room, alot
became obsessed with quesedilla makers
went to a Presbyterian church, where I saw Caleb Park... that was very interesting
went to Wal-mart 4 times in 24 hours
slept on a futon
went on a midnight bike ride
listened to some old school rap
met some great Chatt people

I am looking forward to getting to camp tomorrow though and seein all my old friends. I really love Chattanooga.

Adventure starts tomorrow... well Tuesday.

As all of my friends have gotten ready and headed off to their summer trips and adventures I think it's about time for me! I leave for CVP tomorrow morning and I am beyond pumped. Though I am leaving tomorrow, staff training doesn't actually start til Tuesday. I am riding up to Chatt with my good friend Kirk because A of all, it will safe money and B of all my car has been iffy this whole year (as most everyone knows). Not having a car at camp will be so freeing! And it will encourage me to spend more time with the other staff-which is good!

So, I leave in the morning. I am really excited. I was just talkin with Katie and Allison yesterday (they are already up there) about how I can't wait to join them and be doin the whole camp thing. No makup, no worries, no clean hair. It will be pretty much the best.

I have been praying that the Lord will help me be free of distractions and able to completely able to focus my attention and affection on Him. I know that I will have to take active steps in order to keep from being distracted and preoccupied by other things though- I know the Lord will give me the strength to do that!

Pray that:

The Lord will use me how HE desires
That i will be free of distractions and that my mind will be at camp
That i can build strong real relationships with the staff
that the hearts and minds of the girls in my cabin will be open and pliable to what the Lord has to teach them.

I can't wait to get out there to good ole soddy daisy! And I am just about packed- it's a good feeling to be packed ahead of time- I just hope I haven't forgotten anything! Here's how it looks so far...Pretty concise I must say.

On a random note, I am officially 5 foot 3 inches today. An improvement from my previously recorded 5'2 1/2. This is a big deal peeps. BUT, with that new found knowledge came 3 battle wounds- 2 shots and 1 finger prick. 3 hurts on my body, none for that dang doctor!
Final Score: Doctor-3 Amy- 0

Peace out!

Summer is kinda weird...

Well today officially starts summer for me. I finished my last exam this mornin at 8:30 then packed up my car and what not. That took me about an hour, since I was packing it by myself with the occasional help of Chloe' and Ty. Then, I took the kids to eat at Zaxby's as a last day of babysitting fun. Next is where the bad part of my day starts... So, it's no secret that my car struggles to get through daily life normally. And today was just a classic example of that. It had been overheating lately-typical summertime behavior for her, so this week the fan has been staying on an abnormal amount of time. Then, when I pulled into the driveway at the kid's house, it leaked a bunch of stuff. GREAT. So i call my mom and tell her, blah blah blah. And right at that instance I start to feel very faint like I might actually pass out. This is due to lack of hydration and packing my car up. I've been feeling dizzy ever since. And I didn't get to take the kids to the pool.

All this to say, summer is weird. I mean, don't get me wrong, im so glad to be out of school and headed off to summer adventures. BUT, it's weird. That's just where I stand.

A of all, it involves saying goodbye to alot of college friends that you know you won't see til next fall. this is sad.

B of all, it involves worrying about money and the fall-atleast for me, since I won't be having as steady of a job this summer than i normally do during the school year.

But I am still really excited about summer- camp and Honduras, probably equally. It is going to be an adventure. And i have so many friends who are going off doing similar things- Char in Texas, Katie in North Dakota, Ruth all over, Gracie in Texas.

So summer is great. But weird.

That is all.

This whole post is basically dedicated to Chartown

So I have this best friend. Her name is Charlotte Anna Hill. One of my most favorite people. We met in Pre-K because we took ballet together- if you can imagine that. We've been close ever since. So many memories have been made together as well- I love this girl.

SO, maybe you're like, "K, cool. She's great but why the complete post dedication?"

OH, FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK!

It is her BIRTHDAY!!! The 20th one to be exact. We have been friends for like... 15 years. That blows my mind. I am so thankful for our friendship and her involvement in my life. Last night, during a game of "hot seat" (where you can ask the person in the hot seat any question and they must answer it) I got asked who I thought the most influential person in my life was overall. I answered Charlotte. Not only because she is my best friend but because I look up to her the most out of anyone and value her opinion the most.She is an amazing girl. For sure.

And she will be spending her summer in Texas. Which is sad but I couldn't be happier for her! What a trust in the Lord to follow is guidance in leading her there and go with a willing pliable heart. She is great.

thankfully, i got to see her yesterday at ECS graduation( yes, we gave been done with highschool for 2 years- how weird).
Here we are! Both wearing purple-how cute. Which just made me think- we used to have purple outfits in ballet back in the day- oh wow.

Anyways. I love this girl. So shout out to Char and Happy Birthday!

New Addiction

FelicityI love this show SO MUCH. And it's all thanks to my best friend Charlotte.

So me and Kimberlee watched episodes 1-8 on saturday from 4:00 that afternoon til 3:30 in the morning, with one dinner break and one putt putt break. And let me just say that was a great way to spend a saturday.

This show has it all. it's like real college life. No joke. Straight up. It's the perfect amount of drama but without being over the top or fake. I really do love it. And so lucky to get it as a gift from my friend. I think finals week might just be dominated by us watching this show obsessively. Im ok with that. I think all but one of my teachers, if i showed them this show, would be ok with it too. Haha.

It's so hard not to over analyze the show and be all symbolic about it like- which character is which of my friends and things such as that. I know it's silly, I just love the show.

Next to One Tree Hill, this is the best show I have seen.

No lie.

The many faces of Amy Holden

So, this weekend I was not just Amy Holden. Let me list out for you the many facets of life I chose to embrace this weekend:

1.haistylist
2.toga designer
3.champion bowler
4.witness in a police report
5.bargain finder
6.awkward friend
7.negotiator

And each of one of these has great stories to go along with them!!

1. my lovely roommate Brooke Laws had a party Saturday night that she needed to look HOTT for. And, since her hair is about down to her butt(not really but that girl does have some long hair), she needed me to curl it for her. And might i say it looked great!

2. This party she attended wasn't just any party, it involved TOGAS! So i helped wrap her up in her toga. So presh.

3.this one basically speaks for itself. A bunch of us went bowling for Mark's birthday last night from 12-2. So much fun. And I was a champion...in my own heart atleast.

4.Ruth had a wreck Saturday while we were driving to the oh so marvelous flea market. it was sad. but we are fine and so is Ruth's car. Yet I am still a witness in the report. I felt somewhat important.

5. I always love bargains. And i always love food. So finding food for a bargain is the ultimate. I went to Moe's and got a whole meal for $1.54. I know. Incredible.

6.Well everyone knows im awkward. Best capture of this was last night, while bowling, after Stephen and Kim did a victory kiss I said, "it's great that we have a group where friends kiss in front of friends". 5 minutes later, after I bowled a strike, I offered my cheek to kim for a victory kiss...then to Stephen. HA. He kindly declined.

7. So, despite popular belief, I might be good at business deals. That is vague. And thats ok. Ha. It's not sketch, for the record.

I have too many bruises to count!

Soccer has been beating me down lately. It is the most fun thing I have done in a while, but I am in constant pain!

A of all, i have a MASSIVE shin bruise that is now light purple and won't go away.
B of all, I have multiple arm bruises (who thought, arm bruises in soccer, really?!)
C of all, I have blisters (said in a funky spanish accent) on both of my fee
And last of all, and this has nothing to do with soccer, I have some kind of thorn stuck in the bottom of my foot. Ouch. Legit.

BUT, it's all worth it, it has been so much fun playing soccer lately. and we keep on winning! Another game tomorrow-that's what's up. Im pumped.

Side note, Phil Wickham and Charlie Hall did a concert, which was more like a worship session, tonight at school. And it rocked. It really was such a sweet time of worship and praise. I love seeing classmates and friends worshiping the Lord like that- it was good.

Just now, I showed my roommate Tip my thorn foot and she said we would need to do minor surgery and, I quote "dig" it out. I am not a fan of that at all. But it's hurting really bad... So i am going to man up.Ok, so it looks lame and small but it hurts much worse than it looks!!!


It's time :(

A Jumble of Goodies

It's FRIDAY!!! Which is really exciting. I have nothing too interesting going on in my life to post about, so i'll mention these three randos:

1. I love my little sister meredith. She is cuter than me but I am ok with that. We're champs.


2. I painted this last weekend, as a break from writing my paper and it turned out cute! Even though it only partially matches my room. I still love it. (P.S, Char if you're reading this- your art skills have flown past mine. Hence this painting. You win at being good at art :) Where's Jb when we need him!?)


P.S I know it's backwards. It says love, faith, hope in Espanol.

3. I have a soccer AND a softball game tonight that I am pumped for!! We won our last game 3-2, so tonight should be alot alot of fun.....I have no picture to show....




WEEKENDS ARE THE BEST!!! (said in a nacho libre voice).

Paper break. Much needed.

So I have a 10 page paper due on Tuesday for my TESL 220- Phoetics and Language Acquisition class. It's going to be a really interesting paper on infant language acquisition and language delays for children. BUT. It is also frustrating to be sitting in bed all Saturday working on it. And I want it to be good and accurate. Not rushed together. We'll see how it goes. I started it this afternoon and have roughly 4 pages done...but I needed a break. Hence this post. :)

Thoughts in my head:
- i love augastana
-i wish this cold would go away, it's been with me since Monday and im not happy about it
- our room smells most likely because of somethin gone bad in the freezer but Brooke insists its a dead mouse...none of us want to confirm that..because that would involve finding the dead mouse...
-i need to spend less money probably
-i need to pick out my classes for next semester and NOT freak out because they will probably be hard and demanding
-i dont read my bible enough
-febreeze does a sucky job of "eliminating" odor
-i think i might where my peace sign necklace everyday from now on because i am liking it alot lately
-i have nothing to do for dinner tonight. Suck.
-my bed is made and that is weird
-also the news is on in the other room, which is weird
-my sister is laying on the beach right now-oh to be married and travel to fun places just because
-I AM GOING TO SEE HANNAH MONTANA MOVIE TONIGHT-highlight of my day most likely
-i should paint

That is the randomness of my life. Now for a quick paint break before attempting to finish up this dreaded Saturday stealer!

I don't feel like studying, reading a book that's due soon, starting a paper that's due soon or sleeping, so now I blog. An update was needed anyways...

Well, hm...

The Fray has been on my mind lately, which is not a bad thing by any means at all. I love their new cd. But, one song sticks out. Here's a glimpse of the lyrics from it:

Some things we don't talk about
better do without
just hold a smile
we're falling in and out of love
the same damn problem
together all the while
you can never say never
when we don't know why
time and time again
younger now then we were before
we're falling apart
and coming together again and again
we're coming apart
but we hold it together
hold it together, together again

Just words. Anways, I am overwhelmed and exhausted lately and I absolutely hate it. I am not a fan of the situation I am in, in any way. A of all, people are judging me and not liking me because of decisions i've made and B of all I have so many opinions of others and thoughts of my own rolling around in my brain that nothing seems like the right thing to do, but everything seems like it could be the right thing-and that makes no sense. I am just wanting to quit. I'm 19 years old-that's it. I have so much time yet so little. By trying not to rush i am rushing, by trying to make a decision, I can't make one.

I have work to worry about, school work, friends...


Oh my. I need to sleep.

Listen up!

Good song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpWQfVrqETA

It makes me happy. Oh so happy.

not sure what to put here

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 10:22

my GIRLS

So today, we awoke and thought "let's lay out!" This turned out to be an excellent decision, not only because of the warm weather, tanness, and sun, BUT ALSO because of the great photo op it allowed for. I felt like I was at the beach for a while today, and that makes me happy. Good start to the day.