Well, it's been a while.... a little over 5 years. I feel the need to start writing again. Much has happened in the past 5 years! Where do I start? Stay tuned!

Welcome, Suzanne!

So I officially have a new roommate! My dear friend Suzanne officially moved in yesterday.... I am so happy! Chris was a very nice guy and a pretty good roommate- but I was never comfortable with living with a guy, no matter how innocent it was. And now, not only do I have a female roommate, but one who is my friend, and a Christian as well. Yay! Suz is wonderful.... I haven't even lived with her for 24 hours and I came home to a thank you note on our kitchen island, expressing how thankful she is to have me as her new roommate. She's so sweet! I can't wait to see what's in store for us this year!

Besides for having a new roommate, I'm also so thankful to have a day off of work tomorrow! I took off at just the right time, too- this weekend is supposed to be gorgeous weather! :) And I get to spend it with a lot of wonderful friends, as well. There's a good Friday service at our Church tomorrow, and a bunch of us are going to T.G.I. Fridays afterward... then on Saturday night, we're throwing a birthday party for Will. I've been notified I'm the designated cake-baker... so I'm looking for a delicous chocolate cake recipe. If you know of any, send them my way! :)

After the party, I'll be driving home to K-town to spend Easter with my family. I believe it will be my parents and Britt and I, along with my Aunt Darel and Uncle Bob and cousins Dee and Ry. Yay! I love Aunt Darel, for many reasons, one of them being that she always brings delicious appetizers to functions (read- wonderful delicious crab dip, spinach artichoke dip) so I'm really looking forward to Sunday! And I'm excited because I get to wear my cute new spring dress- it's a white dress with a crochet overlay, and I have a turquoise top to go with it. I love it. :)

But most importantly, I'm excited for Sunday to celebrate my Savior- he died, so that I may live. I'm forever grateful for the sacrifice he made for me. I'm not the same person because of him, thank God! And anyone who wants to know more can come to Covenant Fellowship's Bridge course- a 10 week introduction to Christianity. Held at Covenant Fellowship Church, it meets every Wednesday night from 7:00 to 9:00ish. The course begins April 14, you can register at www.thebridgecourse.com if you would like to attend!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend... enjoy the terrific weather! :)

To all my wonderful friends :)

I'd just like to take the time quickly to thank God for all my wonderful friends! You are such a joy and a blessing to me. I don't know what I would do without you all! Your wisdom and caring and encouragement and the million other things about you all are such a gift to me.... I only hope and pray I can be a blessing to you all as well!

THANK YOU, FRIENDS! :D

Crazy busy

I know I haven't written much lately, and I'm sorry! I've just been crazy busy the last couple of weeks. In fact, I can't even write too much now (I'll try more for tomorrow) but here are some of the highlights of the past month, in a nutshell:

1) Chris is moving out, Suzanne has moved in! Yay! Suz is my friend from CFC.... it will be such a blessing to have a female, Christian friend as my roommate! I haven't experienced that since college, and I miss it terribly. I'm so excited!

2) Finally got to visit Brian and Mary and little David! He's so precious! Babies are such a wonderful gift... it was so nice to catch up with Brian and Mary, I miss them!

3) Celebrated a ton of birthdays this month- cousin Dee on the 2nd, best friend Kayte on the 9, friend Steph on the 11, sister Beck on the 16, sister Britt on the 23, friend Will today, (and new 2nd cousin Audriana! Born today! Congrats Sherry!) and cousin Nikki on the 31st. Whew!

4) Work changes- My only coworker Lauren has decided to stay at home with the baby, so this is her last week. Due to the economy, we won't be able to hire a replacement until September... and that's not even definite. So I'll be busy with work again!

5) Signed up for the NEXT conference for Memorial Day weekend! It sounds like so much fun! I'm looking forward not only to hearing the messages, but the fellowship with all my friends from CFC! I'm rooming with Kayte, Alexis, and Melissa, some of the best girls ever! I can't wait! :)

Ok, that's some of the big stuff.... tons of little things have been going on as well, but I'll leave that for another blog... I'm exhausted and headed off to bed!

Not your average woman

I think it's important to really know yourself. To know who you really are, what you like, what you dislike, what you truly value and believe in, what your goals and dreams are. It's especially important to know this when you're apart from someone else. You need to really look at yourself when you're alone, because it's all too easy to let someone come along and influence you to be someone or soemthing that you're not.

That said, I have been trying to really come to know myself. And one thing I am quickly realizing is that I'm not an average woman. Not at all. Nor am I an easy woman to understand. In fact, I can almost be contradicting in some of my behaviors and thoughts.

So, how am I unusual? Here are some examples.

1. Most women love roses. They want roses for special occasions. I think roses are boring and plain. Lilies, especially stargazer lilies, are my favorite flowers to receive. They're stately and elegant... powerful too. Lily of the Valley is actually quite poisionous... for some reason, I like that. The flower demands respect, it needs to be handled with care.

2. Most women like diamonds. I don't prefer them. Pearls are my favorite gem. They're a testament to patience and perserverance in the midst of trouble. An ordinary piece of sand that is a nuisance and an irritant to the oyster, over time, is changed to something beautiful and precious. Something worthless is now priceless. It reminds me of my Christian walk. I started out as an ordinary piece of sand. Through God's patience and work, he transforms me into something beautiful and precious. I like that.

3. Most women want an engagement ring, and a big one at that. Quite frankly, I really could care less if I got a ring. I'm not kidding. A big expensive ring is worthless if it comes from someone who doesn't really love me. I'd much rather have a man who loves me and respects me and have no ring and live my life poor, than to have a big expensive diamond ring, and tons of fancy things, and have a man who cheats on me and lies to me and doesn't treat me the way I should be treated. And if I get an engagement ring, I would like it to be small. It needs to pass what I call "the pocket test." If the ring gets stuck when I'm trying to put my hand in my pocket, it's too big, and I don't want it.

4. I would prefer a small intimate wedding rather than a big lavish one. The idea of eloping (although I want to be married by a pastor, no JP business) actually rather appeals to me.

5. I would prefer to rough it out camping than go to a beach for vacation. Not that I don't ever want to go to the beach, I like the beach. But camping and being around the woods and the nature that's in it appeals to me more than the ocean. Give me squirrels and racoons and spiders and snakes any day over crabs, sharks, jellyfish, and sandfleas.

6. I know more about my car and how it works than most men I know, let alone any girls. I can change my own tires, I check my oil, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, window washing fluid. I know the parts of my car so if something breaks down I have a general idea what may be wrong when I open the hood. I know how my engine works and can explain the difference between internal and external combustion engines and 4, 6, and 8 cylinder engines. And I like knowing that.

7. I really enjoy tinkering and fixing things. At college, my roommate clogged the sink by accidently pouring grease down the drain. I took the sink apart and removed the clogged and fixed it. I re-caulked our tub at college because the orginal caulk was all moldy. My current apartment bedroom door literally fell off the hinges because the wood in the hinge was so rotted, and I fixed it myself by sawing off a piece of a dowel rod and pushing that into the hole in the orginal wood, and then screwed the door into the dowel rod. I put together much of my own furniture, thanks to the massive coleman tool kit my Dad got me, along with my drill. I even have a table-top vice. That I have used, by the way. More than once.

These are all some of my unique aspects of myself that although they aren't ideal feminine traits, I love them about myself. They make me, me. And I'm not completely anti-feminine. I hate leaving the house without makeup. I don't need a lot of makeup, but I am honest enough to know that I look better with at least some light makeup on. I'm vain about my hair... I love it. I LOVE shoes, like most women do. I love to dress up in beautiful dresses... I like to dress well in general. I love accessories, be it hair accesories such as my polynesian flower (the maintenance guys at work love that) or my many scarves, or my big colorful costume jewelery. I love animals... of course the cute cuddly ones, but even the creepy things not many people like, such as spiders and rats and things like that. In fact, I decided that my perfect first date would be something involving animals, like going to a zoo or helping out at a shelter or something.

Some other things about me that I've realized lately- I'm not photogenic. This is more disturbing to me because both my sisters are about as photogenic as you can possibly be. Which of course makes me look even worse. But that's life I guess. Another thing is that I love to eat. I have a sweet tooth of ridiculous proportions. I love to hang out with friends and socialize, but I definitely need my space as well. Hanging around the house just reading and watching movies with people I love is one of my most favorite things to do. I can quote movies and sing all the songs from animated movies and broadway shows after seeing them only once (a trait I share with my sisters... it's entertaining to see us all in action! Ask us to act out the Swan Princess sometime... it's a riot!) Also, I love to bake. Not only so that I can eat my delicious creations, but because I love to share them with others and see the delight it brings. I love to serve. My whole family does, I'd say serving is our greatest spiritual gift. Also, I enjoy working out, but strength training is my preferred method. Basic cardio sucks.

There are a million other facets about me that I could list here, but that takes away all the mystery and besides that, I've made my point. The posting above describes a unique, interesting individual, who's worth getting to know, who's worth becoming friends with, who's worth loving. We all need to take a good look at ourselves and see who we really are, what is is that makes us uniquely us. Because if we don't know ourselves, we can't love ourselves, and if we can't love ourselves, how can we expect anyone else to? And isn't that one of the biggest things we all want? To be loved? Especially for who we really are?

Get to know yourself this week. It'll be worth it in the end.

Busy February!

Bah. I know I've been so behind in posts, and I hate that and I'm sorry! I was just really busy/stressed for a lot of February.... with the bad weather, and lots of events for Church, and looking for a new apartment. Well thankfully, I spoke the truth with my roommate Chris, and explained how I felt about the situation (living with a guy) and that was why I didn't want to live with him anymore, and that I would like to stay in the apartment because I was here first and I love it. Chris was very forgiving and kind about the situation and has graciously agreed, so I'm staying in my apartment! Yay! And Suzanne (my friend from Church) loves it and is moving in with me! So come April 1st or so, I'll be having a new roommie! :)

Some things going on with Church- I have a mentor now, Theresa, whom I love, we get along so well, she's so much fun. We finally got to meet up for chai lattes (both our favs!) at the Cream and Sugar Cafe in Wayne (highly recommend it, by the way!) and really got to talk. Also, both my community groups and my Grow class have been keeping me busy. Early in February, I had planned a service project with my Mon night CG. We made tons of various homemade baked goods (cookies, brownies, rice crispie treats, ect) and packaged 6 different boxes with the assorted baked goods, as well as valentines candy and homemade cards. This was actually supposed to be for our fellow singles groups. However, the huge snowstorm on the 9-10 made that impossible, so we improvised and took 5 of the care packages into the Church on Tuesday, to be a blessing for the Pastors, the staff, and all their families. The 6 package was taken to the city team. So it was nice to be able to bless and thank our Pastors, and now, we'll get to do this again in the future, and hopefully this time get it to our fellow singles groups.

February also brought many surgeries for my friends, so I've been making meals and goodies for some people throughout the month. And while my friend Will didn't have surgery, he's in law school right now and is super busy and overwhelmed with all the classwork, and the many other obligations he has. So last Friday, I took chicken stir fry, fresh bread (with olive oil and cracked pepper for dipping) and homemade apple crisp over to Will (and his roommate Chris) and had dinner with them. Chris is actually the leader of my Tues. night community group, that's where I met both him and Will. It was really nice to enjoy the meal and fellowship with them... I'm already planning more meals to bring the next couple of months!

It's looking like March will be just as busy... for instance, this coming weekend holds two birthday parties and a baby shower! Friday night is Kayte's birthday party (my best friend at CFC) while Sat afternoon is my cousin Sherry's baby shower, and Sat evening is Suzanne's birthday (my soon to be new roommate). March is ALSO my cousin Dee's birthday (the 2) Becky's bday (the 16) Britty's bday (the 23) and my cousin Nick's bday (the 30). Not to mention, Kayte just became engaged to my dear friend and Mon night CG leader Jason, and I was asked to help plan Kayte's bridal shower! I'm so excited for them both. Come to think of it, January/February brought a lot of engagements at Church.... 4 different couples became engaged in the span of a couple weeks! And that's only ones I know of.... there are probably more than that. So that means this summer will be busy as well!

Speaking of summer, I cannot wait for it. I booked the beach house at OC New Jersey again for the beginning of the summer, June 5-11. It's not quite as warm, but it's such a steal! So much cheaper to rent the house, plus it's before the official season starts so there aren't any crowds, and the restaurants and shops haven't raised their prices yet. We had a great time last year, I can't wait to go again. The only bad thing is that Beck won't be with us this year. :( She won't be home again until September, because she's in our friend Christina's wedding, which is Sep. 25. Coincidentally though, that will also be at OC NJ, so we're going to rent the beach house again for that weekend. Although knowing Catherine (my landlady, she owns my apt building and the beach house) she'll let us stay that weekend for free. I love Catherine, she's the best landlady ever!

Ok... I think that's most of the updates from February. Stay tuned to see what March brings! (And hopefully, it's not more snow!!!)

!@#E$@ SNOW!!!!

I hate snow. I hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it

LOATHE ENTIRELY......

I found a poem by this girl Emily M. It's perfect. It says,

"Dear Winter: SUCK IT."

AMEN!!!