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!!