Gotta love friends

I have the best college friends ever. Let that be said first off. Now that we are all juniors, things are changing, people are growing up, making plans, going places. You know how it goes. Well this past fall was actually the last semester we would all have together before a of all) Kimberlee goes to Washington DC for the semester (our own little city girl journalist) and b of all) ALLI GETS ENGAGED. yea. a big deal.

So how did we celebrate? Oh you know, just a little best friend photoshoot. Check them out!




















Katie is the tallest brunette, Alli is the tallest blonde, Ruth is the middle brunette, India middle blonde, I am the shortest brunette, and Kimberlee is the tallest blonde.

We are friends.
The end.

Welcome Kimchee dear

Shout outs are a pretty standard trad for my blogs, and most peoples I would venture to say. Tonight I have a special person in mind as I begin this celebratory shout out.

KIMBERLEE HAUSS
My close friend, dare I say one of the closest, has begun a blog. And I am SO excited about it! She is THE BEST (nacho libre voice). But really. She is an adventurer, a scholar, a beauty, a great gal. We've been friends since she came to ECS(our highschool) in 9th grade, and now, thankfully, we are at the same college. She is a very big, though small in size, person in my life. So, welcome Kimberlee. I look forward to reading about (and hearing straight over the phone and skype of course) all about your adventures while you are in D.C. AND I cannot wait to visit you my presh! I won't make too many mems without you here and I will hold off on Felic til you return to me safe in my arms.

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.

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!!

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.

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.

Guess who's back!

MY ROOMMATE!!! yay.

She was in Quatar for 2 weeks over the break with a few friends from camp.

So glad to have her back :)

Too bad....I'm headed back to Jackvegas tomorrow. Alas, a short reunion of roommates.