Buttons

I would love to be here: I have a large obsession for buttons and this place seems perfect!

I think I could be in there for hours :)

Enjoy!

Thankfulness

So I know that Thanksgiving was last month and now everyone is looking forward to Christmas and the end of the school semester but I have recently been thinking about how thankful I should be for everything I have. So in order to help me do that I'm going to do my very best (no promises) to post 5 things every day that I am thankful for.

*My mother who is always there and ready to help me out with anything. She is very kind and I take her for granted.

*My father who loves his daughters a lot and supports them in every way.

*My sister who is always so helpful and full of advice. She's always ready to listen. She is also encouraging me to become a healthier person and helping me find the right way to do that.

*My friend Laura. I have known her for the longest of anyone that I still talk to (other than family) We have been friends for 5 years or so now and she is one of the best people I know. We drift apart but always seem to come back and get close again :)

*My wonderful boyfriend Josh. He is better than any guy I could have imagined. He is so patient and understanding and nonjudgemental and supportive. He lets me be me (bad mood and all) but helps me and encourages me to work on becoming a better person that I am happy with.

That's my list for today. Somehow ended up to be all people. Oh well! :)

In other news...finals will be over on Thursday!! I will be off of school and work for a whole month. I plan to do lots of crafts and after Christmas I'm going to go and spend some time with Josh. After I get back I'm going to try to find a second job to help out with the stressful money side of life :/

Then next semester should be good! Chemistry (the majority of it is online), 3D Design, Piano 1, Costume Design and Production and then I'm doing an independent study with the costume teacher. I'm going to be her assistant and help her with anything she needs help with when it comes to the spring play!

I'm greatly looking forward to this next semester and hope it all goes well :)

Enjoy!

Me and Josh

A friend performed at the Skinny Improv this summer a few times for open mic night. He's very funny by the way.
This picture was taken when a bunch of us got to go and watch him.
I like it a lot. :)

Christmas Time...

Is unwantingly approaching too fast. Starting a few years back I all of a sudden stopped liking the winter season and along with it all the holidays. Thanksgiving and Christmas have never really been my favorite because of being so picky. I always hated going to the family dinners (or lunch) because I would never eat what everyone else was having and all of my family felt the need to say something about it.

Every single person. Every holiday.

It became very annoying and I didn't want to go anymore. But a few years ago I stopped enjoying Christmas music. It bothers me how it is already being played on the radio (so I hear) and I don't like all the decorations. I think it is a waste of money. I don't think it is appropriate to put them up until after Thanksgiving and not until December. Companies spend too much money on all of it and so do we as families.

*

*

Now, don't get me wrong, I love when I spend money on the people I'm close to and I get to see their excited faces when they open their gift. But honestly I could do without. I have everything that I need to survive. That I would ever need to be entertained or happy. So I don't understand why people feel the need to buy tons and tons of gifts for each other. Maybe things are not like that for you. I'm sure for bigger families its one, maybe two gifts per person. But being raised as mostly an only child (although I love my sister so much!!!) has spoiled me and I fear that I will be spoiled for the rest of my life. From my mother that is. (I love you mom!!)

I know she means well and I have to remind myself about how excited I get when I buy people presents...she probably gets that excited too and that is why she does it. :)

(Mom, I didn't say all of this for any particular reason. Please don't return the gifts you have already got me ;)

Basically I think I'm a big Scrooge. The music, the lights, the snowflakes hanging from the street lights as I drive down the road. It all bothers me.

And the fact that hardly anyone celebrates the holidays as they were originally intended bothers me too.

*

*

In other news...I'm very happy today! I'm enjoying the day for what it is and trying to embrace it :)

I know it probably doesn't sound like it with the whole speech I just gave :/

*

Life is good.

School is school but it will be over soon! 30 days after today, including the weekends!!

I'm finding things to do to fill in my time and make me more productive :)

My friends are great.

I'm really starting to appreciate them more and more every day. They are always there for me and willing to listen.

I love my family.

My mom and I have been getting along really well lately. I'm trying to watch my tone (not sure how well I am succeeding) and she is being very patient with me. We've been spending more time together and she has really been helping me out doing different things. I plan to see my dad sometime this week and I'm excited about that. My sister and I have been sharing outfits and clothing ideas we like or want to try. It's so much fun being able to talk to her about fashion!!!

Josh is the best!

I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have a guy that is so patient and understanding and forgiving. I don't know how I got him but I did and I'm gonna do everything I can not to let go! :)

Enjoy!

Change...

It's weird to know that things are going to change but they haven't yet. I can't help but to be overly anxious about it knowing that it is just around the corner but still not quite within my grasp. But I'm starting to realize that I need to enjoy and embrace my life as it is now. To see how lucky I am and to take advantage of the people in my life and this chapter of things that I am doing. And to not get too caught up in what is to come. To love the here and now because that is all that we know we have.

A friend of mine, Marissa, posted a note on facebook last night talking about how our lives change. And how we can get so caught up in what we are doing in our lives currently that we forget all the fun things that we experienced in the past. Things that have helped to make us who we are today. "Life is taking me where it wants to take me. I'm just sitting in a car without a destination too busy watching the road to look out the windows and enjoy the scenery."

I think she is so right...we can be so busy or even not too busy but the things we do make us tired and we don't want to do any more even though we have the time, that we can miss out on so much. Get caught up in school and work and not enjoy our friends and the excitement of being young.

That's my thought of the day.

Enjoy!

*A little update on trying to keep away from dairy.

It's going better than I expected but not as good as I had hoped.

I tried soy milk the other day and it was okay but it was the vanilla flavor, not the original which I think I will end up liking a lot more.

*I found a plain black XL mens shirt to make leggings out of! But I have not done it yet. The shirt is now in my crafts drawer and will most likely stay there for a while :(

Funny though because the day after I found and purchased the t-shirt to make the leggings out of my mom told me she had just ordered me 4 new pairs of leggings!! And she had just taken me to Sam's Club and bought me two pairs of plain black ones the weekend before. So now I am the proud owner of 8 pairs of leggings! I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them all but I'm excited and very much a happy camper!!!

*The move did not/is not happening. Well..not to that house at least. A few problems came up and the landlord and I decided that we were both okay with me not moving there. No big deal. Bigger and better things have shown themselves and I'm more excited than ever!!

*I signed up for my class for next semester. I'm taking Chemistry as a hybrid class. That means the majority of the class will be done online but I will meet my class and teacher at the school on five different Saturdays through out the semester to do labs. I think this will be perfect for me because wanting to go to class is a big problem for me. I DO go but I never really want to. Also, this will give me more time to work. I plan to be working full time and no longer living at home next semester.

*My sister suprised me last night and had created a blog for us to share fashion stuff on. I think this will be a really fun/cool way to get ideas from each other and keep in contact in a different way.

*I got to hang out and catch up with my friend Laura last night. She brought along her new baby girl and she is just the cutest thing! (Other than my nephew of course!) I've known Laura for about 5 or 6 years now and we have not seen each other too much lately so it was nice to catch up and talk for a while!

*There are 36 days until my classes and finals are over!!

That's all I can think of for now :)

I'm trying to do better about blogging so bare with me.

Enjoy!

Hello again!

So I have officially decided that I am horrible at blogging. It has been over a month since my last post and I'm not sure why. Partly because I don't feel like anything in my life is worth writing about let alone sharing with other people so they can read it.

But today I felt like typing. Sharing. Posting. So that is exactly what I am going to do!

If you know me you know that I enjoy dairy products. A huge glass of milk is always nice in the evening to help fill me up before bed. (Dinner is usually small and earlier and I go to bed late so a big glass of milk is perfect) And with as picky as I am when it comes to my diet and having such a limited diet, cheese is very commonly found with most of what I eat. But as of lately dairy and I just haven't been getting along. So I have decided I'm going to try to cut out as much dairy from my diet as I can. This is going to be hard though because as I am sitting here I'm trying to think of the foods that I like and eat that do not consist of dairy and I'm having a hard time coming up with much. This is very sad. I know. And I want to improve my diet so I think this is a great way to help me.

Now, I'm not going to say "and I'll post later on how I'm doing" or anything like that because I can't guarantee that I will :)

Onto other things.

I have been reading a lot of sewing blogs lately and have found some pretty interesting ideas that I'm excited to try.

As the weather has been getting cooler I have been thinking about how I wish I had a few more pairs of leggings to wear. I love wearing them with dresses or skirts and boots but I also wear them under my jeans sometimes if it is really cold outside. I love to sleep in them too! But I don't have enough money to go out and spend $20.00 on a pair...or a few pairs since that is what I am wanting.

So I was so excited today when I found a tutorial on how to make your own leggings. I thought they were super cute and as soon as I finished reawding it I wanted to rush home today and make some!! I especially love how she added the buttons on the bottom. I'm the biggest fan of buttons and have a good size collection of them so I have a feeling I'm gonna add some cute ones to my leggigns that I make!!! :)

Again, if/when I get around to making these, I will do my best to post about it and share pictures of my new creations but no promises.

In other news...

I'm moving out! I'm greatly looking forward to this moment that has been in the making for far too long. A lady that I work with owns a cute little one bedroom house in the central part of Springfield close to downtown and she knew that I was looking for a place to live and asked me if I would like to move in there. I will tell you right now...it is not perfect. But what first place out on your own is? I'm very excited and the excitment is building because there have been a few delays. But things are getting worked out and all is well! I hope to be out on my own by the end of next weekend. I know things are not going to always be easy or fun. I know that it will be challenging but I am looking forward to it because I will learn and grow from this experience.

Enjoy!

A little update for you!

Things have changed quite a bit again since the last time I posted:

*Josh moved to Kansas the weekend before school started to live with his mom and step dad so he can work hard and save some money.

*He got a job and started last week!

*I drove for the longest amount of time I have ever driven and did it alone a few weeks ago when I went to visit Josh. It is about a four and a half to five hour drive and I've done it twice now.

*School has started and things are going fairly well. I'm taking Art and Experience (it's kind of like an art history class but we do other stuff too), 2D Design which is a lot of fun so far...challenging but thats good for me, Intro to Literature - a lot of reading and a challenge but again..it's good for me and I'm learning a lot already. And finally I'm taking History 130 again but this time I'm doing it online..its seems to be going much smoother so far! :)

*I'm living at home again and that is going so-so. My mom and I get along but we also have our moments where we don't get a long whatsoever. I'm trying to learn to handle these situations better and treat her with more respect because I love her and I know that she loves me.

So that's most of what is new.

Other than that I had an amazing talk with my sister last night that I will share but I feel it deserves it's own post entirely so I will share all of that later this evening.

Enjoy!

Dresses...

That I love and hope to attempt to make one day!

This blogging thing is hard to do...

Don't get me wrong...I enjoy it. It's nice to have somewhere to go to when I want to write and share my thoughts and people have the opportunity to read them if they want...but I wish I was more consistent about how often I blog. Only problem is that I don't know what to blog about.

I enjoy my life. Nothing too exciting happens too often though. Occasionally my friends and I will take a day trip to somewhere...we will go to Branson, or go to the lake or the river...but nothing that I can seem to write about.

Random side note:

I want to start journaling. I feel like it will be really neat to look back when I'm fifty years old and read about the things I did. To see it in my own handwriting and to be able to show it to my children.

Back to the point:

So I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm going to try to find stuff to blog about. I hope this works.

But for now I want to share some pictures of things that I want to attempt to make and stuff that I just think is super cute!

Enjoy!

It's been a while...

since I have written on my blog...again!

Much has changed.

Much hasn't.

It's summertime and usually that means having fun and relaxing and not going to school but still working. But for me, this time at least, I'm working 15.5 hours a week and taking 7 credit hours of class...History and Chemistry {BLAH}

The good news is that I have taken both of these classes already and so they should be fairly easy...just a review. Yes, you are correct, I failed two classes last semester and have to retake them in order to get my AA.

Of the things that has changed:

I now live on my own!

Well, kinda. I live with a roommate and learning a lot from that in itself but I am enjoying it a lot. I moved really close to downtown which is where I work and go to school, so everything is really close.

I was given a bike by the parents of a good friend of mine. I plan to start riding it to class and work very soon. I just need to buy a bike lock first!

My sister came to visit Missouri!!!! I was so thrilled when my mom suprised me with this news. I wasn't able to see her for very long but it's okay because I know she had a lot of other people to see here other than me. Plus, I've been to Utah to see her 2 times in the past year so I can't complain too much!

I have a boyfriend now {it's weird to say that} His name is Josh. He is one of the roommates of my best guy friend, Chris. He is a sweetheart and such an amazing guy :)

Here is a picture of us when we took a little day trip to Branson:

What else? What else?

Oh! I cut off all my hair! I'll put up before and after pictures of that soon. And I pierced my nose. I like it a lot. You can kinda see it in the picture of Josh and me.

I've also decided to work on the person I am now in order to become a better person that I am more happy with! I've made a list of goals and am going to do my best to improve little things about myself each day. I just have to remember that if I don't succeed in something one day I can't give up. I have to just try it again the next day. I'm looking forward to challenging myself!

That's all for now. Pictures of my hair {before and after} later. And who knows! Maybe even other good stuff to come too!

Enjoy!

People...

seem to be very interesting creatures.

I've noticed more and more how fake people are.

I don't like this.

I have always had faith in people. It doesn't matter to me if it is someone I have known for a long time or someone I have just met...I trust people until they give me a reason not to.

Doing this has never come back to bite me in the butt until a few months ago...and it seems to be happening again.

Now, I'm not for sure if it is currently happening but if feels like it.

It really saddens me that even when you feel like you can trust someone..you never really know if you can or not.

Someone last semester told me to not trust anyone until they have given me a reason TO trust them...until they have proven that they are worthy of my trust. But I'm not sure how to go about doing this. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt more often than not. So to go about changing my thinking 180 degrees seems a bit hard.

But nonetheless, I am working on it. Unfortunately.

People...

Enjoy!

One Day Without Shoes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlz3QKHJBac&feature=player_embedded

If you go that video ^ up there you can see what today is all about!

Today is One Day Without Shoes (put on by TOMS shoes)

Basically this is to help promote the fact that millions of people go without shoes every day and because of that they can get serious disease and infections.

This is something I am passionate about so if you read this today and would like to join the over 80,000 people who are pledged to go barefoot then please do!

Even if it's only for an hour of your day.

Enjoy!

I'm a slacker and I know it..and for this, I am truly sorry...

Hello world!

Long time no hear...from me that is. :)

I'll be honest. The reason I haven't posted anything lately is because:

ONE - I'm still getting the hang of having a blog and so I'm not always sure what to write

TWO - I've be so busy that I haven't really had the chance to be on the computer much and in the past when I did blog it was because I was already online.

What have I been busy with? You may ask...Well let me tell you!

*I am currently taking 16 hours of class (technically only 13 because I am no longer going to my History class...I'll explain why if you ask but I won't go into it on here..or maybe I will. Not sure yet.)

*I am working on the Spring play at OTC. We are doing Arthur's Stone, Merlin's Fire: The Making of a King. We currently have 15 hours of rehearsal a week. That is soon to become more!

*I also have my job that I work at five days a week. I am there about 19.5 hours a week.

So if we add this all together we get:

47.5 hours a week of doing stuff!

Now, don't get me wrong. I understand that many people work that much a week and some people work even more than that. But I'm not used to it so cut me some slack please :)

As for the rest of my time. I've been doing a lot of thinking and wondering.

About life.

About myself.

About my future.

About my friends.

About my family.

About what truth is.

About how to find truth.

About how to love.

About why people are the way they are.

About differences.

I see myself growing, learning and changing a lot every day.

I just have to say "Thank you" to my dear friend Chris for helping me process all these thoughts and ideas. For letting me bounce things off of him. And for letting me just talk. Even when what I say doesn't make sense.

Enjoy!

Day -1...

So yesterday was very busy and I didn't get a chance to post. I do apologize.
I had a wonderful birthday! Thank you to everyone who I was able to spend time with and to everyone who sent me birthday wishes.
I had history class at 10am (blah) and then went thrifting/flea marketing with 2 good friends and found some really cute dishes and a pitcher/glass set. I'll put pictures up sometime soon but I'm very happy with my purchases! :D
I had to work from 3:30 to 8:30 and that was a bit boring but my friend Mallory came to visit me the last few minutes I was there so that was nice. Then off to play rehearsal I went. Got done about 40 minutes early there and enjoyed a nice talk for about an hour with my good friend Chris. Went home, Facebooked it up for a while and then my head quickly found the pillow!
While I was at work I got to chat with my sister for a while over Gmail. We kind of decided what we were going to do while I'm there visiting her over Spring Break....lots of sewing! I'm so excited about this.!!!! I'll try to remember to take pictures of the things we make and my time there so I can post them! :)
Today is BEAUTIFUL outside and I'm so excited to get out of class to enjoy the suns warmth!

Enjoy!

Day 1...

You know, I'm kind of getting sick of the idea of having a routine. I just want to be able to do what I want when I want and not have anything holding me back but knowing that I can always come home and my family will be there for me. I'm assuming that this feeling sprouted from today in my Sophomore Seminar: Travel Through Life and Literature class. We took our first test today and one of the questions was about a monologue from the movie Easy Rider.
The monologue was given by George in the last campfire scene and he is talking about freedom.
George and Billy are talking and George tells Billy that many Americans don't want him and Wyatt around because they represent freedom. Billy says "...That's what it's all about" and George responds with "Oh yeah, that's right. That's what it's all about. But talking about it and being it...that's two different things. I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Don't tell anybody that they're not free, because they'll get busy killing and maiming to prove to you that they are. They're going to talk to you and talk to you and talk to you about individual freedom but they see a free individual, it's going to scare them."
I know that if most people didn't live their lives in an orderly way we would have chaos and nothing would get done in our communities but I want to spend some of my time free. I want to travel and come and go as I please. I want to meet people, spend time with them, talk to them, learn their story, their life, learn who they are. I want to see things. Lots of things. Everything.
In that same class we also just finished a book called On The Road by Jack Kerouac. I loved that book and if you haven't read it I would suggest doing so.
Well, approximately twenty more minutes until I'm officially 20 years of age.
Sleep well world.

Enjoy!

Day 2...

Today was great. Church was wonderful. My cousin came with me and after we met his mom and they bought me lunch at Mexican Villa (again I know but it was still great!!) I also got a huge bag of Reece's Pieces from them! I've already opened them!! :D
My mom was kind enough to go wash my car, after I cleaned the inside, without telling me! Now I'm doing homework and cleaning my room. Mom bet me 5 bucks that I wouldn't get it clean before midnight...I'm gonna win!
Rehearsal starts tomorrow. It officially started last week but we only had one rehearsal. So this week starts rehearsal 5 nights a week. I'm gonna be tired and a bit stressed but it will all be good!
Exciting news: I got an e-mail today saying that someone would be in contact with me sometime this week to set up my phone interview for the internship that I applied to in Oregon for this fall!!!!! Only about one month until I find out if I got it or not.
Now for something birthday related:
I thought I would look up some stuff about the year I was born: 1990.
*On the Top 100 Hits of 1990 number twenty was "Don't Know Much" by Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville. I thought this was kind of funny because I have the cassette tape with this song on it!
More later (tomorrow probably) because I only have 20 minutes left to finish cleaning my room...I'm gonna get that 5 bucks!

Enjoy!

Day 3...

So tonight was great! I met about 7 of my friends at Mexican Villa (one of my favorite places to eat in Springfield) and had a great time there! Then we all went downtown to The Albatross (a hookah lounge) and got two hookahs. That was a lot of fun too. After that we went to Andy's and I tried a Cookie Casanova but instead of nuts and caramel I got peanut butter...and instead of vanilla custard I got chocolate. It was really good but REALLY rich!
I also opened my birthday presents from my mom today. She got me two long dresses from Old Navy, two short sleeved cardigans to go with them, a skirt and button up shirt. I loved the dresses SOOO much and even wore one for tonight. My mom also paid for me and one of my best friends, Mallory, to go and get a pedicure. It was the first time I'd ever done that and it was really nice. I chose a pretty shade of bright green and I really like it!
After dinner, my other best friend, Karissa, gave me my present. She made me some BEAUTIFUL white rose stud earrings and got me the movie "500 Days of Summer". I'm excited to watch it!
As I was getting out of the car at Andy's, though, I saw Karissa's card that she made me sitting in my passenger seat. At the top it says "Happy 20th birthday Chelsea!" I started thinking, "I'm going to be 20 on Tuesday!!!" That means I will no longer be considered a "teenager". I haven't personally considered myself a teenager for about a year or two now but I know others have. Not trying to say that I think I'm really mature and know a lot about life or anything like that because I know that's not true. I know that I don't. But I just didn't really think about still being a "teenager" once I was in college. I was just eighteen or nineteen.
20. Twenty. The big 2-0.
I'm not sure how I feel about it. I mean, yes, it is exciting.
20. The start of a new decade for me. I've been alive for twenty years (almost).
Buuutt...20. Twenty! TWENTY!?! I don't know how to describe it. It just feels weird.
Some people say that age is just a number. Some people say that age really does matter. I don't know what I think about it. But I do know that I don't think I've ever sat and thought about turning a year older this much. Hmm...well all I have left to say is in 3 days I will be twenty...and I'm kind of excited about it :D

Enjoy!

Day 4...

So I thought for today's blog I would post a few pictures from my birthday last year. A friend of mine, Joe, and I celebrated our birthday's together because mine is the 9th and his is the 10th. We got a bunch of people together and rode down to the Branson Landing. We went to eat at Garfields, hung out on the landing and drove down the strip. Then came back to my house and had cake.

Joe and Me:


The Group:

Well, it's late and I've had a SUPER long day.
I'm gonna go enjoy some sweet sleep...

Enjoy!

Day 5...

Ha! So I know I said I would post something every day...and technically (to me anyway) I still am. Even though it is Friday because the clock has passed 12...it's still Thursday to me! So here we go.

I've decided to tell you a little about myself for this blog. I'm not sure if any of it will be interesting or not but since I just jumped right into blogging and didn't share much about who I am as a person I figured I might as well do that now.


*My name is Chelsea Loren`. I love my name. Thanks mother and father.
*I love Jesus. I am thankful for Him loving me.
*I'm trying to grow in my relationship with the Lord but it is a struggle. I am human and He understands that and continues to love me for who I am and thinks that I am beautiful...inside and out. It's a good reminder to hear that as a girl.
*I am short. Only five feet tall. I get made fun of a lot because of it. But I enjoy the jokes and don't take any of it personally so no worries.
*I have freckles. Not right now (in the winter) but in the summer they come out of hiding. I love when people have freckles and are proud to show them off.
*I love to dance. I took clogging for 5 years and jazz/hip-hop for 5 years growing up. I miss it. I don't think I could do it again though.
*Walking in the snow at night alone or walking in the warm rain are two of my favorite things to do.
*I enjoy people watching. One of my favorite hobbies.
*I don't do it much but thrifting is another favorite hobby.
*I love the feeling of the warm sun on my skin. Sometimes after I've come home before I go inside I'll park my car so the sun is on the drivers seat and lay my seat back and just close my eyes and absorb the goodness the sun joyously gives away while listening to my music at a really low volume. So low that I can barely hear it.
*I would say that I am very old fashioned in many areas of thinking. Dating, clothes, cars, houses, music, movies are all better how they used to be back in the day. Way before I was born unfortunately.
*I want to move to Oregon in the near future. I hope that if it's supposed to it will work out. If not in the near future then sometime in my life.
*I love the sound of peoples voices. It doesn't matter really what pitch or if it is a male or female speaking. I love hearing how people pronounce words. The order in which they place them. The fact that they are willing to open up to the world a little and share what is on their mind and their heart.
*I love realizing more and more each day that people think differently than I do. I'm learning how to accept this fact and work with it and enjoy it.
*Ever since high school I have been very uncomfortable around people. I don't do well in big groups. If I am around or have recently been around close friends who I am myself completely with I will usually speak out and seem fine. It takes me a while to warm up to people and have the courage to speak what is on my mind but I am still usually uncomfortable about the situation.
*I love being introduced to new music. I love hearing new and different ways people express themselves.
*I enjoy being challenged mentally.
*I learned one and a half years ago that I enjoy doing hard physical labor. I like the feeling of being covered in dirt and sweat and not caring what I look like so long as I'm being productive.
*Going along with that I will say that I hate the feeling of sweat in the summer when I'm doing nothing but sitting still. It irritates me greatly.
*I've learned that situations are only awkward if you allow them to be. I'm learning to enjoy "awkward silences" as others might call them. I think of them as "unexpected silences". They are sometimes needed.
*I like being unique. I'm thankful to the Lord that He made each and every person different. I like doing things in a way that people wouldn't usually expect them to be done. I like catching people off guard. Keeps them on their toes.
*I've noticed the past 6 months or so that I am growing and changing a lot. I don't know if everyone goes through periods in their life that are so noticeable like it has been for me. I don't know if I will ever go through something like this again. I hope I do. I'm enjoying seeing myself change and being able to verbally say what it is that I am learning about myself and about life.
*I greatly enjoy sewing. I hope to go to Africa one day and teach people there how to sew. I think it would be amazing to get to work with women who have gotten out of sex trafficking. But I'm willing to take anything the Lord has planned for me.
This has been longer than expected. I could keep going but maybe I'll just save the rest for a rainy day.

Enjoy!

Day 6...

So I said I would share something every day until my birthday. (I'm not sure I said this..but I meant something birthday/me related.) I was thinking about it and trying to figure out what I was going to share..maybe my favorite birthday - I can't think of what that would be. The best present I ever got - not sure.

So I guess I'll share some more pictures:

I also love Elvis...here is a cool Elvis cake:
That's all I guess! More tomorrow :D

Enjoy

Day 7...

My birthday is in exactly 1 week! I'm very excited to be turning 20 years old and would like to celebrate it by sharing something different every day until then. I don't know what I'll be sharing each day but this is giving me a reason to blog every day for at least a week!

I love peacocks and have for a very long time...so here are some peacock cakes that I liked:

This one is just adorable:

A lot of thinking...

So there seems to be a lot of things going on this week that are making me think a lot.
I truly enjoy being challenged and having conversations that make me think and make me have to research the subject.
 On Monday nights I go to house church with 8-10 people and I really enjoy it. We've been reading 1 John lately and the conversation on Monday night became very interesting. We started talking about predestination and salvation and if we believed that God has our life planned out for us already and if we believe that God chose certain people to be saved and not others. This has been something that has been bothering me ever since. I've done a lot of thinking and researching and talking to people about it and I'm continuing to ask people what they believe. I'm not 100% sure what I think yet but I enjoy hearing peoples opinions about different things. I tend to be the type of person that has a hard time looking outside of my point of view and that is why I always ask others for their opinions...to see different perspectives on the subject.
I've been talking with one of my best friends about it a lot and it turns out that her boyfriend is actually researching and doing a study about it right now. She is starting to come around to the idea of believing in predestination salvation and sees going through this now (trying to figure out what she believes and what is right) is a test to prove to God our faith and trust in Him.
I also decided I wanted to find out what a friend of mine thought who has some different beliefs than I do. It was really interesting talking to him. He said that the bible talks about free will but also says "Many are called, but few are chosen"...he says the bible contradicts itself and we have to choose what we believe and what we don't believe. He said that if one believes God has chosen hell for oneself, then one could live as they wanted even though they wouldn't ever truly know for sure if they were predestined for hell or not.
 Another thing that got me thinking was my history class today. We started talking about the government and if they have too much control over our lives. If doing the whole "big brother" thing was wrong...having cameras to take pictures if you run a red light, etc. We also started talking about population control and if the government has the right to only allow us to have 1 or 2 children. To only allow certain people to have children; adults who are sex offenders, mentally retarded, living off of welfare, etc. wouldn't be allowed to have kids. It made me think of a book I read last semester and a play I saw last summer called The Giver. If you haven't read it I would suggest it to you...it's a quick easy read but has a lot of juice to it. It takes place in the future and the people live where the government has control over basically every aspect of their lives. They don't mind it though because they don't know any different.
I would suggest looking into it...
I would love to hear your thoughts on one or both of these subjects so feel free to comment!

Enjoy

hmmm..

I'm not really sure how to describe the past few days. I realize that I haven't posted anything lately and I do apologize for that. I really didn't have much going on other than church, procrastinating homework by hanging out with friends and a little bit more of hanging out with friends (some thrifting was thrown in there too!)
I love my friends so much but I honestly think that I need to cut down on how much time I spend with them...not because I don't want to be around them anymore but because I need to work on prioritizing and making sure I get the things done that MUST be done before I have free time to play and do what I want. I know that this is going to be really hard for me to do but I honestly need to change this part of my lifestyle. Plus, I think that when I start spending a little less time with them, I will appreciate the time that I do have with them more!
I am currently reading On The Road by Jack Kerouac for one of my classes and it is making me want to go on a road trip SOO badly. Honestly, I HAVE to go somewhere over spring break in March. I plan to go to Utah to see my sister, brother-in-law and new nephew but we will see how that plays out.
I'm also struggling a bit with feeling fully accepted. I feel like that statement is something you would hear come out of a 14 or 15 year old's mouth but I randomly have spurts in my life where I get this feeling majorly. I feel like I'm in the way and very bothersome to people. I know that this isn't true but I can't help to feel like that.
I had a discussion (a little bicker, if you will) with a friend the other night and he was telling me that he didn't rely on other people to make him happy. Now, I wasn't sure if I should take this as an insult or not but I think I kind of did because afterwords I started thinking about it I realized that I do that. I count on others to always be there for me talk to, confide in, get advice from, etc. But I can't do that anymore...I think that's another reason why I want to try to spend more time alone, so I can learn to rely on God to make me happy, not other people.

Enjoy

My blog..

I've been thinking about what I want my blog to be...when I started it I was going for a "daily journal" type thing...but now I think I want it to just be a random collection of thoughts/picutres/journaling/ideas.

My birthday is coming up (in a month) and I asked my mom for this bag:

I'm excited about it because I've been wanting a messenger bag that I can put my lap top in...and I love lots and LOTS of pockets....always have..and it has a TON of pockets! I think I will be a happy camper.

It should arrive Tuesday..I can't wait.

I'm at work and I'm bored so I'm gonna go paint my nails!

Enjoy..

My list...

So I've been thinking a lot the past week or so about things that I wanna work on and change in my life. I was thinking about it more tonight while I was working out and decided I would put it on my blog so it is public and maybe that will make me actually follow through with these things. So here it is:

1. I want to read my Bible and spend time in prayer every day
2. I want to work out 4-5 times a week
3. I want to have at least one juice a day (we just got a juicer and it is REALLY fun/cool!)
4. I want to work on not complaining
5. I want to go through my closet and get rid of anything I don't wear/use
6. I want to save as much money as possible (meaning I don't go out to eat/shop/etc..) and only buy things that are an ABSOLUTE necessity
7. I want to learn to spend time alone and be good with it
8. I want to start waking up early enough to give myself PLENTY of time to get ready for the day
9. Because I want to do number 8 I need to start going to bed at a decent time too
10. I want to be organized and productive, not lazy, when it comes to my school work (even though it is my last semester)

...that's all I can think of right now..I might add more later...

It happened...

Today was the day that we put Simba down...I didn't get near as sad about it today as I thought I would...I think maybe it's because I didn't know what time it was going to happen so I just kept myself busy all day...here is a picture of my beautiful cat that is no longer with us:On a brighter note...I saw two more pictures of my beautiful nephew, Ethan, today! Ah! I think I'm in love...for real!

Today was surprisingly a lot better than I thought it would be. I had a test in my History class that I didn't study for and I know I failed it but I don't really care.
I got to catch up with an old friend and get some great advice from her about the 1 year internship in Oregon that I'm applying for.
I got to talk theatre for a while with the other people in charge of the Spring play at school. I'm assistant stage manager and props mistress (along with another girl) and I'm starting to get REALLY excited. I haven't done theatre since high school (2 years) and I miss it a lot!
I had work..which is always boring..but then I went and hung out with my cousin. We are only 3 months apart in age but are complete opposites. We have never really hung out outside of family functions and tonight was a little weird but it was fun. I really hope to hang out with him more and get to know him on a deeper level.
Then went and worked out. I did 20 minutes on the elliptical and 20 minutes on the bike. My friend Mallory and I went together (which always makes it easier) and we had a great talk during it all!
I'm going to be ending this not-so-horrible day with a little time with Jesus..then off to sleep!