The Four Days of Christmas

I had a wonderful Christmas this year. :) There were four parties in four days, and each day had it's special highlights. Here's a few of them:

Wednesday, 24th, Christmas Eve:

• Family Day!
• We made our feast together that afternoon and opened our stocking presents at random times
• Took a break for the first Home Alone movie in our Home Alone marathon :)
• Set the mood for our dinner - setting the table with the fancy dish set used for only this date every year, candles flickered through the dimly lighted room, and manheim steamroller played in the background
• Dad reads the Christmas story right before we dig into the yummy food. This year our ham balls took on a little different form - Nice work, Mo. ;)
• Then the whole family cleans up together!
• Off to the presents! - I got a Precious Moment - the Christmas one that we get every year, but this year I thought it was especially beautiful :) I also got some "Greek lookin'" decorations with nice sayings on them - I especially liked the "Live well, Laugh often, and Love much" one, because in honor of the significance behind the title of this blog, I want to start collecting things that say Live, Laugh, and/or Love. My other favorite gift was this sweet leather covered Franklin Covey planner. It's the perfect thing for me - I've already started to fill it up!!
• After goofin' around with our presents for awhile, we watched Home Alone 2. Ah, great times, great times. :) It'd been quite awhile since I've seen these movies, and they're just seriously funny!!
• Then our parents went to bed, and... Mo, Chris, and I were nearly there ourselves when a random idea came along... but since it happened right about midnight, let's move on to Christmas day 2!

Thursday, 25th, Christmas Day

• During the first hour of the day, Mo, Chris, and I are bundled up and sledding in our backyard. We even snowboarded, made a snow angel, and actually ALL went down the hill on ONE sled a few times. My favorite was pausing for awhile laying on our backs lookin' up at the beautiful night sky. It was so clear, and the stars were so bright! :)
• Our little mid-night adventure didn't end there. We made a human Christmas card for Mom & Dad. With Morgan's new camera, we took pictures of ourselves forming human letters on our living room floor. Most of them took two of us to make the letter look the best, except for Chris' "T," hehe. Unfortunately the printer was acting up, so our plan was postponed to later today. More details to come... :)
• Oh yeah, there was some sleep
• Then this morning Mom, Dad, and I sang in the choir at church. It was a beautiful Christmas morning service. There was a neat poem read about the fruits of the Spirit. :) And after singing "Go Light Your World" with the choir, I had it in my head all day. I also got to talk with two of my old L-S classmates who I hadn't seen in awhile, that was great. :)
• Then it was off to the community building for the Rozendaal reunion. Soup and sloppy joes were the traditional items on the menu, plus super yummy salads and desserts!
• Then a bunch of us ladies played Skipbo. The game lasted quite awhile... and then Great Grandma pulled off a win with a sweet streak at the end! That was fun!
• I took a nap this afternoon, and I spent lots of time consolidating my random lists and condensing them into my new planner!
• Then it was time to fix up our "human letter spelling" gift. We got the printer to cooperate, and then spelled out "MERRY CHRISTMAS" and hung the letters with yarn across the stairway. Plus we put "We Love You" on the cute picture of us kids that we took right before our sledding adventure. :)
• But then Mom & Dad said they were going to bed... how to get them downstairs. Finally, a loud, frustrated whine and "Charlie peed down here again" exclamation got them curious enough to come looking. Our poor dog Charlie, sorry to stick the blame on you, hehe... but atleast we got them to notice our gift on Christmas!
• Then we cuddled up on the couch to watch Home Alone 3. :) NIGHT!

Friday, 26th, The Day after Christmas

• Today I talked with my parents about packing for Greece. It got a bit stressful...
• My stress was relieved when I bought some Skype credit to call up my friend Janet in Greece! :) It was soooo good to talk to her. :) I can't wait to see her in a few weeks! I asked her a lot of the big questions that were stressing my parents out. (yeah, just my parents mostly, since I'm not as anxious yet as I "should" be).
• I also made up a short letter to send out soon to all of my supporters with an update about my leaving date, my address in Greece, and my commissioning service details.
• This night was the party with mom's side of the family. Cousin Sam & her husband Jer brought cousin Emily with them to to spend Christmas with us. It was great to see them!
• First thing, I got to show everyone the T-shirt quilt grandma and I made! It's nearly done!
• We had our traditional lasagna, salad, and jello with marshmellows meal. :)
• Then we opened presents. A few stockings for all the grandkids were first. Grandma always wraps 5-10 stocking gifts for each kid with that many different kinds of wrapping paper. Then she'll hold up the type of paper we all have to find to open at random times. Ah, memories, hehe... It's starting to lose it's excitement as we get older, but traditions like these can't help but make you smile with the memories. :)
• We always exchange names, and this year Sammy had me. She got me some cute jewelry, but what was the coolest is that the necklace said Live, Laugh, Love!!!! And I hadn't told her about my new idea to collect things that say just that. :) Grandma also got me a nice shirt and some sweet guitar chord/scale charts. Now how am I gonna get my guitar to Greece....
• The rest of the night we played the games "In a Pickle" and "Hilarium." Good times.
• And of course we had our traditional pistachio dessert, mmmm. I almost forgot to mention the apple cider and amazing chex mix and other goodies that kept our taste buds occupied all night. :)
• Another great Christmas party! :) One to go...

Saturday, 27th, Birthdays!

• I slept in! But unlike on Home Alone, I didn't have a plane to catch, so it was all good. :)
• Today is my Aunt Sherry and my cousin Heather's birthday. :)
• This afternoon I spent time scheduling dates with all my friends for the week to come.
• I also finished reading the sweet Christmas story "Gideon's Gift" by Karen Kingsbury. It's part of her Christmas red glove series she started and finished a few years ago. I received these short stories as gifts over the consecutive Christmas' when they first were published... and now I thought it might be fun to re-read them this Christmas.
• I also had some fun conversations with my friends on the phone and facebook
• Finally, it was time to go to the last Christmas party - Dad's side of the family
• We had a yummy meal including chicken, ham, salad, beans, peach jello dessert, almond bars, and... probably something else good I'm forgetting
• Before the meal, I helped filled the personalized glasses with ice, juice or water by the freezer... like every meal at grandmas. :)
• After the meal I helped dry dishes and count silverware, hehe... while the younger kids were playing ping pong. Ah, I love it...
• Present opening time! The ones who do the most opening are Grandma and Grandpa. Allow me to explain... The tradition of the past several years has been for gma & gpa to give us $20 at Thanksgiving to buy ourselves a gift with by Christmas. Then we wrap it up and bring it to the Christmas party... and we give it to them to open and see what "they got" for us. Then we explain our gift, give them a hug, and get some more money. ;)
• This year I bought myself a sweet Greek cookbook with lots of stories about Greece and Greek cooking mixed in between all the recipes.
• Afterwards there's more sweet treats and hanging out... This year it included a birthday cake and homemade ice cream in celebration of birthdays!
• And albeit a bit silly to share, I was thrilled by the final event of the night... my 2 year old twin cousins had me help them go potty on the big potty! hehe. I was so proud of them, remembering to wash their hands and flush the stool and everything... :)
• Before I went to bed tonight, I started to read some random books off my shelf that I either hadn't read or haven't read in awhile.

Overall, what a wonderful Christmas!!! :)

Today was pretty great too... I really thought a lot about the sermons I heard (I posted about them on my other blog). I also watched "Becoming Jane" with Mo & Mom, read some more, and took a nice long nap. Then... I have deeeeefinitely stayed up to late - but it was all for a good skype conversation with a great friend, and of course, catching up on this post about my fun Christmas celebrations.

I've got a big week ahead. Thanks to my planner I have goals listed, plans made, and a schedule to follow. We'll see how well it goes. :)

So much to update!!

Wow... I'm behind on blogging about all the good stuff going on lately. :) Haha... it's funny how I can rarely start a blog post without saying that. Anyway...

I've really enjoyed the last couple of weeks. Exactly two weeks ago I gave another presentation about my summer, this time at the Sully Christian school. Then I went over to grandma's house to finish arranging my quilt blocks for the massive T-shirt quilt we're making together. And that afternoon I made the long, familiar drive up to NW IA one final time before my adventure to Greece.

The weekend was GREAT! I got to see nearly everyone (and more!) on my "must see" list. There was another special trip to the little town of Nora for Christmas caroling, and then on to Spink for the famous Spink burger. Then it was time already to start saying good-bye to friends. I prefer to call them "cya laters" actually, it's just that this time the "later" will be a bit longer than usual. :) The weekend was chalk full of precious visits with friends, including watching my favorite high schoolers in action at their Traveling Nativity, and hugging my apartment roommates at their sweet Christmas party. I could easily type forever about all the joyous details of each minute of my weekend, but I haven't given myself enough time... :(

Last weekend was another great one. My sister made it home safely from college after her last final, and then last week Friday my whole family (+ Jaden & Trevor!) went out for a very nice meal at the Depot restaurant in Grinnell. I had a lamb chop... mmm!! And my sister and I split an amazing piece of cheesecake for dessert. The next morning Morgan and I went to get professional massages in celebration of her finishing another semester so well. That felt great! That night I went caroling with my church family, we had a nice meal after, and then a bunch of us went to Kristin and Steve Lewis' for games - telephone pictionary and Catch Phrase! We had a blast. We also planned to meet again to start a Bible study. Also, on Sunday morning I got to sing with the choir, and the Holy Spirit prompted me to lead a prayer for our Pastor after he gave a great message about willingly saying "May it be" to God, just as Mary told the angel after he explained she would be giving birth to the Son of God!! :)

This week has been great as well. On Monday I had another Greek lesson with Voula, and we gave eachother sweet holiday treats. On Tuesday I got a lot more cleaning and organizing done in my room. And then on Wednesday the Christmas celebrations began! I would love to share more fun details about all of my Christmas activities so far, but now I need to get going to my 3rd Christmas party. Hopefully by Sunday at the latest I will have made time to share the exciting stories of my "four days of Christmas!"

I'm so thankful to be celebrating Christmas with all my friends and family!!! :) :)

Yesterday, Christmas day... marked exactly 3 weeks from my flight to Greece! :) Keep preparing me well, God!! Thanks for all of the provision and encouragement so far!! :) :)

Living a Life Of Love

It's been far too long since I've posted to either of my blogs. I guess those goals I set up for myself were somehow intimidating... haha. It's more like I have been busy doing too many fun things, and I haven't given myself time to sit and write about it. But I desperately want to get a post on my smileMEDs page again, so hence my rule of posting everything here first, I wanted to start flushing out what I might try and say on that post before I come back here hopefully later today and give update with more thoughts about what I've been up to lately.
I'm constantly sifting through the stuff in my room and coming up with more and more stuff to give away. I just gave 20 or so hangers a lighter load - nothing! And I boxed up another stack of books that I decided would be best in the hands of someone else who might want to read those words instead of taking up space and distracting me from more important priorities.

As I've said before, I'm praying God will help me strip away and travel with a lighter load, because with less stuff around me, I can better focus on the task in front of me: to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ - his complete self emptying on the cross in order to cover my sins with his precious blood, so that I may have life - and life to the fullest measure of joy for the glory of our awesome God!

I'm also going to post Acts 20:22ff, because I've been meditating on those words lately... and it's especially important to me because it's Paul's words as he is traveling to Jerusalem and he is saying good-bye to his friends who don't want him to go because they know there will be great trial for him there and they probably will never see him again. As I have already started saying good-bye to friends before leaving for Greece, it hits home. Anyway... I've got to post my smileMED now, hehe. :) I'll hopefully be back on here later today.

Sleepless in Sully...

Oops...
I have not gotten near enough sleep in the last week, and now my health is paying for it. I don't have much of a voice left today. I haven't even been on this blog to update since I made such good plans last weekend! Hehe... oh well, here I am now for a quick update before I hit the sack!

I had a BLAST last Saturday. I had a great time with my family, and then I hung out with some wonderful friends. First on the list was traveling to a South Dakota town with called Spink with Ryan, Chelsea, and the Spidahls. On the way, we sang a new Christmas carol every 5 miles, and in between time we took turns updating everyone on what we've been up to. It was a blast to share, be encouraged, and SING! Then we arrived in Spink - population 8! There's a great little restaurant in an old house that we ate at. It's one of those places you just HAVE to go to atleast once. :) AND so was the next stop of the night - an even SMALLER town called Nora - population 5. In this town there's this cute old house with the main room filled with an organ, a couple pianos, a ton of chairs, and a packed room full of people singing Christmas carols! THIS was so fun! Anyone who can play an instrument is invited to help lead the music... and even I got to play the jingle bells and the piano awhile. I even ran into some of my friends from the Maurice congregation there. I had a wonderful time, so much so that I'm hopefully going back again this weekend... :) It's these simple, yet uniquely beautiful things of life that just... make me SMILE and bubble over with warm fuzzies and nostalgic feelings. :)
The night was far from over after this great adventure. When we got back to Orange City, we said goodbye to the Spidahls, and we searched three dorms and the Christmas formal dance for our friend Andrew. We finally found him a few blocks from the college visiting with other friends. It was so great to see him again! Andrew and Chels had just gotten back from their Romania Study Abroad this week... I missed them very much...
Then we went back to West Hall and sang great classic country hits, bluegrass songs, and old hymns with Ryan at the guitar. I absolutely LOVE doing that. :) At this point it was already past midnight, but of course I just had to stay up a few more hours into the morning to look at some of Andrew's pictures and hear some of his stories from Romania. Fun times! The others hanging out all night in the West "living room" even shared their sparkling juice with us... mmm!

Wow and that was just last Saturday. I said I would try to be quick... I guess I'll just bullet point the rest so I can go to bed super soon...

• Said goodbye to MO after breakfast Sunday morning
• Went to the candle light service at my church Sunday night - very well put together... my church family members of ALL ages encouraged us with singing, memorized Scripture, and a thoughtful "children's message." I was blessed. :)
• I don't even remember everything from my eventful Monday, but I a couple of the highlights were confirming my registration into Greek language school, going out for coffee with my grandma & great grandma, and finally nailing down the rest of the details for my great gift idea for all of my friends and family members for Christmas.
• Right before I went to bed I got to talk to my friend Andrew from Canada who will be going back to serve with Hellenic Ministries full time soon too. Yeah!
• Yesterday I spent a lot of time cleaning, doing laundry, and coming up with helpful suggestions for Andrew's newly designed webpage. I really enjoy editing things. :)
• Today I had a phsyical... woot woot, so exciting...eh. I figured I should try to make sure I'm as healthy as I can be before leaving the country. :)
• My other grandma took me out for lunch at the Coffee Cup! I had the Dutch lettuce salad which made the Des Moines Register's list of top 100 things you should eat before I die, hehe. I also split a very yummy peace of pumkin pie with Grandma. Have I mentioned yet that I have an extreme weakness when it comes to anything pumpkin... cheesecake is my other worst dessert weakness!
• This afternoon I got a few more things on my to-do list crossed off, from calling friends to set up dates for my one last visit to NW IA this weekend, to sending in receipts to HM for recent expenses... LIKE MY PLANE TICKET and MEDICAL INSURANCE for GREECE!!! :)
• Then tonight I hung out with my mom getting groceries, making a great supper (ham steak, rice pilaf, and snap peas!), and going to grandma's house to continue working out the design for my T-shirt quilt! So fun! :)

I have also been making more preparations in my head lately for leaving the country in less than 40 days... I tried looking up tips for traveling light. I also go through a new corner of my room each day and make a box full of stuff to give away. Yesterday it was more stacks of books! Today it was a few more T-shirts, jeans, and coats... which yes I still like, and they still fit, and... they're nice and all. I just don't NEED as much as I've got!

Alrighta, that's a quick catch up on my story for the week...

I should do some more editing for Andrew now... but I really need to sleep, or I don't expect my voice back anytime soon, and I have another presentation for a Christian school chapel on Friday! NIGHT!

Over-due...

Confession - I haven't posted on this blog awhile.. because I was at 18 posts on my other blog, and like 22 on this one... and I was trying to play catch up. Now my other blog has 21 posts, and this one 22 (make that 23 after I hit Publish Post to this one...), but I had to write on here too...

because... I NEED to state boldly and plainly what my distinct purposes will be for each blog. The ideas have been there... but they've been trapped in muddy water for the last couple months yet, lol. I do want to keep both... even if only for the reason that I love both of the site names I've come up with, hehe.

oh, and I've figured out why it's so hard to keep them distinct for me... it's because I feel like my "encouraging" life and my own "personal learning" life are too hard to separate!! I can't separate the encouragement I want to pour out from the own encouragement God reveals to me through my own life experiences each day!

Nevertheless... I still think it's a valuable goal to regularly attempt to draw boundaries and define purposes - with an allowance of grace to fudge the lines every now and then.

So, here we go:

:) L.O.L. :) blog:
Purpose: Telling my "Living Out Love/Laughing Out Loud" life story as it is being lived out
Boundaries: None... Can "no boundaries" be a boundary? Eh, yeah, I think so, LOL. ;) What I mean by this is - I think this is the blog I will give myself the freedom to be as much "diary-like/stream of conciousness typing/thought sharing/A.D.D. posting" as I want to be!
Posting goals: As often as I have the energy and opportunity to type!

:) M.E.D.s blog:
Purpose: A thought-full, purpose-full sharing of what God is teaching me lately with the distinct thought in mind to encourage others with my story
Boundaries: I need to have posted about whatever I write at this blog in some form on my other blog FIRST. In "writers terms" I'm saying - I need to have "free written/first drafted" these thoughts before I attempt to reflect on them enough to share well with others
Posting goals: Minimum of once a week. First reading through all of my L.O.L. posts since my last smileMED post, and then summing them up as intelligently, creatively, and concisely as my writing skills allow!

YEAH! Okay, that was fun. I'm proud of myself. We'll see how these new boundaries and goals go! :) Now, again, I'm tempted to go back and report on all the goodies of these last few days - like brainstorming how to gather young people in my area to meet in a small group, encouraging Bible study... like my awful Thursday night where my throat closed up all of the sudden, I couldn't swallow, and I had to fall right asleep without finishing the stuff I needed to do to prepare for the next day, like how God helped my presentation Friday morning to go so well - and I even was fairly well over the awful sick feelings of the night before, and how on my long drive up to NW IA I watched the movie Definitely Maybe... and how it makes me reflect so much on my own life and love story. Of course I don't "condone" or "like to watch" all of the details of some of the characters' in this movie's immoral lives... but I do still appreciate the journey of life the characters go through!... AND THEN!... I got to listen to my sister sing with Sophie and Josh squared at the HUB while playing cards with my parents and grandparents, indulging in a yummy "swirlie - equifvalent of a blizzard," and running into old college friends... :) and last night I got a wonderful sleep - after laying awake forever trying to make my own music and thoughts play loud enough in my head to distract me from my parents' snoring... and this morning had a fun little chat with my parents and g-parents in the hotel lobby... and how now I've had this precious time to catch up on my blogging. :) And I'm looking forward to the day ahead - eatting Chinese and going to the movie "four christmases" with my family... plus NW's Vespers concert in the chapel tonight... aaaaand...

that's enough "dairy-like/stream of consiousness typing/thought sharing/A.D.D. posting" for this post, lol. I think I'm getting off to a good start with my purpose and "boundaries" for this blog. ;) Until next time... :D

Life moving on...

This morning I got to visit my friend Tessa, and see her new home. It's a nice duplex on the East side of Pella, just a block from her work friend's house. I'm so excited for her and her husband RJ! The emotions I go through when I hang out with her these days surprise me...
I'm seriously overflowing with joy and happiness for my friend, but I gotta admit, I thought I might have to battle more jealous feelings than I actually have! So, yeah, don't get me wrong, this is a super good thing! It's really beautiful when the lives of your friends keep moving on. Sometimes it's challenging when they're at different points than you on the journey, but I've definitely asked God to help by filling me with peace, patience, joy, and love, and he has most certainly blessed me to overflowing! I almost have to chuckle at myself when I think over my life these past couple years... because I myself was at the point of helping re-paint a house, and then finding a home to move into, and then dreaming about the future, and... all of that good stuff. God had different ideas in mind than I had been trying to plan for myself, and I can honestly say it has definitely worked out for the best and filled me with more joy and peace than going through with my own plans could have... it's just... "funny sometimes how things don't work out," ya know... but (to finish quoting one of my old fav chick flicks): "it's funny how they do!" :)

BIG week! :)

Last week at this time I was playing piano in my college choir room, working out all of the chord changes for Morgan's competition last weekend. OH, what a blast that was to be a part of! :) And she won! OH HAPPY DAY!

Wow, I really wish I would have taken advantage of more opportunities to sing with my sister. I wish I would have taken the time to write more songs. I hope that I'll have the opportunity to sing together with her more in the future. It brings me great joy!! :)

Other FUN happenings of this past week included...

...going with my sister to a college play, Terror Texts (terror stories from the Old Testament!)

...going to an Episcopal church service where I worshiped with college friends and professors and pondered scripture from Matthew 25

...going to Disney on Ice with the most animated Disney friend I have. ;) (It was really cute how excited she was! And the show itself was pretty impressive, I must say. I always have thought watching people do amazing tricks on ice was pretty cool. Oh, and we went out for Blue Bunny afterwards... SO good, and I just LOVE the smell of that place. Seriously! I know I'm a dork, but that JUST ABOUT gets me more excited than the taste of the yummy ice cream.)

...singing with my old college choir. (I absolutely love to slip in during their practice when I'm in the area. This is one of the things I miss most about my NWC days...)

...visiting with some of my favorite NWC friends and professors, and even a few of my classmates back home on their break from seminary

...watching some great movies with friends and family... like The Guardian, The Visitor, Reservation Road, and my all time favorite love story to watch this time of year: Serendipity.

...sending out another wave of update letters about Greece to more friends and family!

...discussing getting a young people's Bible study going in my church with some of my favorite friends in the area! :)

...squaring away even more details for my return to Greece - money things, buying a plane ticket!, etc, etc...

...finishing all of my "reading through the Bible" devotions (I had actually finished reading the Bible straight through a few months ago, but got behind on my supplemental readings I was trying to do with it)

...getting Thanksgiving traditions rolling with the big Rozendaal reunion Wednesday night which involved incredible food and fun games of Skipbo

...visiting great grandma (for the last time in her "airport house") with Mom, Mo, and Charlie for more reminiscing through old pictures, cards, invitations, and programs from special events. :)

...and spending today, THANKSGIVING, with my wonderful mom, dad, bro, and sis. We went to church, ate incredible food (thanks for the good cookin' mom!), watched a good movie, played some games, relaxed, and... made plans for the rest of the weekend together.


I'm so so so blessed. What a fun week! And this week ahead is quite jam packed with good things too. I'll continue to do my best to record the details on this blog. :) Off to sleep now!

Fun days... :)

I drove up to NW IA again yesterday, that's why I didn't have a chance to post. I had such a full day: packing to leave for 4 days, 2 hours of Greek lesson, a visit with an Orthodox priest at a Greek Orthodox church, a visit with one of my students from my high school leadership class last year, a LONG CAR RIDE up north, a practice for NC/DC with my sister Morgan and a bunch of friends, and a LOT of piano playing and music dictation to determine chords (so fun!),...oh, and plus a great late night chat with a friend who let me sleep in her extra bed last night, I heard her neat summer love story. :)

I enjoy marathon days like that. :) :)

Today has been great too. I slept in, showered in the dorm (wow, that brings back old memories, hehe, I don't miss college bathrooms!), and caught up on lots of e-mail communication. Now I'm going to keep practicing and getting ready for a fun re-enactment of the "Oh Happy Day" scene from Sister Act 2. Should be loads of fun! Hopefully I have a chance to catch up on more blogging at some point tomorrow. :) I started to get into a pretty good rhythm this week, I hope to keep it going! :D

More letters!

Tonight I am busy again sending out more and more letters to friends that I haven't shared all of the details about my return to Greece with yet! :)
I've determined today that my departure date will be January 15, give or take a day or two... :)
I'm still busy trying to get all of the details in line, and I'm getting more and more excited!! :)
There's just so much I want to accomplish before I leave! Keep giving me the grace, strength, and wisdom to complete your tasks for me, God! :D

PRAISE the LORD for providing for all of my needs. The money I need to live and work in Athens for a year keeps steadily flowing in, and I am very humbled and grateful. :) And have I not yet mentioned how much of a privilege it is for me to have this "excuse" to stay in contact with so many people who have had such a positive role in my life, be able to share what the Lord is doing through my life, and then be a mutual encouragement for each other. Ah, I am truly loving it and soaking it all in with lots of giddy joy!! :D God, you're awesome. :)

Communicating...

Communication...
It can be so challenging sometimes.
Trying to understand the complexity of thought in your own mind...
and then express it with words - audible or written; pictures - real or abstract; song - traditional or new... or some other creative communication...
AND THEN try to make another complex mind understand the expression of thought you've made...
Yeah, I could say more about this, but my communication skills are failing me tonight...

STUDYING!

Wow...
I am absolutely loving this chance to study before I go back to Greece. :)
I've been reading about Greek history and the Orthodox church.
I've been learning the Greek language... :)
This is all so fun and interesting to me! Yet it's also so overwhelming, because there is so much I want to know and understand, but not enough time to learn it all.

I have so many goals it's ridiculous, lol... This is one thing I both love and hate myself. God, please give me the wisdom and strength to accomplish what of our goals together should be a priority... daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and indeed, for my entire life. :) HELP me, God. :D
Thanks! :)

More sharing!! :)

This week has already brought me two very special opportunities to share more of what God has taught me...

On Monday night at the end of my "extreme makeover - Body by God" class, I felt compelled to share the words I had memorized from Philippians 3. :) It fit perfectly with the encouragement we'd already heard that night. Thanks for prompting me God... This was the most antsy and tingly I'd felt about the need to share it yet, hehe. I love how you work and move through me, Holy Spirit. :)

Tonight, I got to share my summer story with a special group of high school students in my town. :) I went through 90 pictures to share my stories and experiences and life lessons... and I even taught them a song, and they sang! Yeah, seriously, they did! And they sounded pretty good too! ;) It was a great time... and I'm thankful for their leaders' encouragement and invitation to share.

Thanks for using me, God! :) Let the opportunities keep coming!!!!...

Stuff...

I have more STUFF than I need...
so why is it that when I sift through the stuff in my room... I'm so reluctant to let go of a lot of it?
Well, I know one main reason why...
I tend over-analyze everything to death... like, what if I could use this again one day, or what if my grandkids would stumble across this one day and be able to use it for their history project, or what if I'm just too darn stubborn to "throw away" the special memory I have attached to this object...
Blah, I'm silly...
I so deeply want to purge myself of excess "stuff, clutter, clothes, etc..." and even give a bunch of it away to bless someone else who may really need it! God, help me, please!!!! Help me throw off everything that hinders and distracts... so that I can run more freely and fully after all that you have in store for me. HELP, HELP, HELP! Thanks... :D You already are helping, I know...

Full of life!

I find myself constantly full of life and thought... but unfortunately lately I have been having trouble reigning it all in! I have all these new ideas and goals and dreams and pleasures in learning and new insights and blessed moments... but I'm feeling inadequate at communicating it all to what it fully deserves.

The moments when I feel like this... which are seeming to happen more and more frequently, I find complete comfort and peace in the fact that God knows and understands me way more intimately than I know myself. God cherishes my every thought and experience way more abundantly than I do. I mean, wow, God CREATED me and takes DELIGHT in me... God loves overwhelming me with love... :) Loves loving me so I can share love... :) :) :) and again and again I'm brought back to the glorious, beautiful truth that God IS LOVE... God.. IS!!

...and now, yet again... I'm feeling paralyzed to say more even though I feel like I have soooo much to say. :) God's also overwhelming me with understanding - revealing more and more of who He is as I long to know more. :) :) And that reminds me that it's actually good and perfect that I'm having a bit of trouble trying to contain God with my words alone, hehe. How about... Praise the Lamb, Jesus, my Savior, God... thank you for smothering me with your love, taking my breath away so that all that's left is you breathing your life in me... :) :) :)

:) LOL... :) :) Have I convinced you yet that I have a beaming smile on my face? :) I made my teachers so frustrated with all the smiley faces I tried - no wait, I succeeded! - in peppering my "serious academic" papers with... I didn't mean it as disrespect against conventions, appropriateness or authority... I guess it's just simply hard to contain myself... hehe ;)

Ah, I know what I want to do... sing. I need to sing. I need to play the piano and sing... :) Yup. :D Too bad it's really late, my family is asleep, and the church building starts to feel a bit too creepy at night alone if I didn't atleast enter while it was still light, haha. Believe me, I know... been trying to conquer that fear in my frequent visits recently. :) I hope the janitor doesn't think I'm crazy yet, sorry Rod, lol. ;)

So... by the grace and help of the Holy Spirit living in me... I'm hoping to reign in my focus and goals and thoughts soon so I can be the most effective witness possible to the amazing love, grace, joy, and peace that I keep being filled to the brim and uncontrollably bubbling OVER with as I walk through each moment - from the most mundane to the most unique - of my life. :) There's still hope that eventually I'll establish a regular routine of blogging and figure out (or, I guess the challenge is more: sticking to!...) a clear purpose for each of my blogs. :) For now, thanks for patiently traveling with me through the randomness!

Now to go appreciate the beautiful gift of sleep... :D

The Great Wedding...

So... I've had a couple of re-accuring dreams off and on for the past several years...
and it involves a wedding and a large celebration gathering...
:) I'm just now starting to cherish this dream as the beautiful picture of Jesus Christ and His bride, the Church. :)
I am at the celebration in my dream... on the most beautiful beach in the world (after I visited Tulum in Mexico, it has usually been that beach...until now that I've been to some gorgeous beaches in Greece, hmm... hehe) and we're having the best party ever. :) And what's so special about it for me is everyone is there... everyone that I have ever known or who has ever been a part of my life in some way, is there. And I just spend all day reminiscing with amazing friends and experiences... and making new special memories at the same time.
I wonder if "heaven" will be like that... :)
Well, as I am sending out support letters to nearly everyone that I can think of who I care about and want them to partner with me in an amazing work of God... I count it a privilege to already be entertaining that piece of heaven - encouraging and loving all of the friends and people God has blessed me with as a part of my life! :)

God, wow, you're so good. :) I'm so excited to continue knowing more and more of your awesomeness! :) :) :)

Great Weekend!

Okay...
So I'm still really bad at this whole blogging thing, haha.
Oh well. :) I'm back for a bit!
I had a GREAT weekend. :) Tessa's wedding was beautiful, and it was so much fun to be a part of. I especially enjoyed our pretty bridesmaid dresses and flowers and the whole ceremony - from the worship songs at the beginning, to the praying around the couple after the lighting of the candle at the end. :) The reception was quite fun too - especially the yummy honey-glazed ham, cream-filled cake, and goofy dancing. I didn't get the bouquet in the toss... but I suppose that's just as well. Frankly, I think it's just completely best to be single right now, and let God be my romancer. :) He sure is doing a great job. For starters, all I've got to do is look out my bedroom window at the beautiful field and sunrise each morning... :) God is such an awesome creator! :) So RJ and Tess made it safely to their paradise honeymoon destination, and I pray they have a wonderful time!! :)

Another fun part about this weekend was singing in church with my sister Sunday morning! Oh, I miss singing with her so much. :) We sang, "I Will Glory In My Redeemer" - a great song we sang together to audition for praise team last year. I'm excited! I will get to play in church again in 3 weeks. I'm looking forward to sharing a song I wrote - Bless Me, Indeed!, and a fun piano arrangement called "Sing Praise!" :)

Yesterday I also got to have a good grandma dinner and coffee time, plus I read more of the really great book, "The Shack," and I talked to a bunch of friends online!! :)

Today has been super too! I am well on my way to working out details for going back to Greece. My application is done, and my references all have their forms to send in in the next few days. Then I'll start talking with the Hellenic Ministries office about exactly how much I need to raise to get there, and dates, and... other stuff like that. In the meantime, I am enjoying catching up with friends, organizing my things here to give away or sell so I can leave without so much to manage left behind me - throw off everything that hinders, right?! :) AND, God has even provided me with a job until I leave for Greece. The situation works out great for both me and them, I'm so excited to get started with that in the next couple days as well. It will be good for me to have a bit more of a routine. It helps me stay focused and more productive. :)

Well, I am going to get back to uploading pictures to my facebook website now. It had been awhile! I still didn't even have my pictures up from the summer, ah!! :)

Until I post again... :)

My Best Friend's Wedding...

So... the next couple of days will be full of events surrounding my best friend Tessa De Cook's wedding. Tomorrow happens to be both the decoration time, rehearsal, AND her birthday on top of all that. Tonight I was privileged to just chill with her family, eattin' pizza hut pizza, talkin' life, lookin' at pics of their possible new house, and watching a movie appropriate for the occasion: Made of Honor. :) As another chapter of her life changes, I pray God will bless her richly!! :) What a joy it is to share special joys with your friends. Now... I pray I fit into my bridesmaid dress after all the yummy foods I've been eatting lately!

Yeah! :)

Yeah! I feel quite proud of myself. I switched my main profile account in a matter of minutes, woohoo! :) I am going to try my darndest to manage two blogs... lol. Silly me, when I haven't even been able to manage one for the last... long time. But anyhoo... check out smilemeds.blogspot.com soon too! :)
I really really really will try to post more soon! :)

Switching Accounts

Alrighta... I'm about to hit this blogging thing full force! :)
In the mean time, I'm trying to get all tricky and change e-mail accounts on myself... so we'll see how this goes. Hopefully it doesn't mess you followers up at all. Danielle... and Lynnette. That's you right now, hehe. Alright, off I go... I've got a TON of goals for myself tonight. This should be the least of my worries, but I love preoccupying myself with challenges such as these! :)
Here goes! :)

A LOT to catch up on...

Well well well...

It's been nearly four months since I last logged onto my blog. For anyone out there who checked this often to look for an update from me while I was gone this summer, I apologize. I spent very, very little time in front of a computer. And when I did, it was mostly to e-mail people about important details for a big plan change that happened in the middle of my trip. Soooo... I have a LOT to fill you in on. :)

First, some thoughts I've been having...
Frankly, I haven't figured out if I can make this blogging habit a regular thing or not. You see, I journal all the time - I filled up two big ones this summer. But in my journal I am incredibly A.D.D. It is seriously like my mind spilled out on paper. I go from recounting days events, to random thoughts, to prayers, to... who knows what else. I have to develop a distinct purpose for this blog... and then actually get in the habit of doing it... before this space will be fruitful for me or anyone who would actually be interested in reading it! Otherwise it will just turn into another "have to get done" thing in my head, and no one will really ever log on and spend precious time reading my long posts anyway.

So... there we go, that was already a glimpse into my randomness. I just need to dive right in and start telling stories! Here's the problem... I'm going to have to put it off again, because right now I need to go work on a letter to my church consistory. If I come up with anything profound to say in that letter, maybe I'll post it for you later. This is so weird to me... who is this "you" I'm even posting for? Am I the only one that is actually ever going to read or re-read my own old posts and laugh anyway? Well, who cares. At this point it is still worth it to me I guess.

I have been blessed to be a blessing.
God, help me be a special blessing to someone today. :)

ALL DONE!

I just turned in my final paper about beauty.
Now THAT is beautiful! :)

Yesterday I went to a junior high youth group luau party, and I got to wear my skirt I got in Trinidad! I also used the last of my HUB @ N-DUB money to buy some tasty treats for me, Aaron, and Julia. :) AND... I applied for a job as an admissions counselor here at NW. I think it's the perfect job for me, so I really hope it works out. But even if it doesn't, I trust God has great things in store for me next! :)

I am going to go play piano awhile now to celebrate! :)

Good-bye schoolwork!!

SOOOOO much has happened since I last posted. I wish I remembered to more often.

Anyway... I had the most amazing choir tour over spring break, I traveled to Denver for an incredible piano teacher's conference where I got to watch Lang Lang, the best piano player in the world, perform!, I had a ton of fun helping out at the middle school retreat at a camp near Okaboji, and I went to a student leadership conference at Willow Creek with my favorite high school student leaders! :)

God has blessed me so much in these past months... and now my time at NWC is nearly over. Such a bittersweet feeling...

I have one paper left to write... one last college paper... wow.
Funny feeling! :) GOOD feeling!

I'm so excited to see what God's going to do with my life next! :)

12 Days of Birthday!

Yeah! I am soon going to take Aaron out for his birthday, and give him my unique birthday gift: "The Twelve Days of Birthday." Hehe... you see, I'm going to be gone to New York on a choir tour for the next twelve days, so I put together a special little package/note for him for each day that I'm gone. Woohoo! I'm really excited to give it to him.

I can't wait to be on tour! I really really enjoy them, even though it does mean way too much time in a charter bus with a whole lot of people. :) I like people though, so it works out okay. :)

Now I best go continue to get ready for my date...and make sure I'm ready for my late night of paper writing to finish up my midterm assignments before we leave on tour tomorrow, ah! :)

Until I post again... :D

I am so blessed!

I am the happiest woman in the world... for a million amazing reasons. :)
Turns out I don't have to work at Disney World to be a princess. ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day...
the first one in a LONG time that I haven't had a sweetheart to celebrate it with... I don't want to let that get me down, though! :) I am truly enjoying my life and all of the wonderful friendships I have!!! God has blessed me SOOOO much!

I am disappointed in myself that I didn't write out a whole bunch of wonderful Valentine's Day notes to all of my friends... the truth is, that would take me forever, because there are so many people that I love and care about! If I have any complaint recently... it's just that... I feel helpless to share all the love and joy that I want to! I want everyone I know and love... even my newest friends... to know how much I care about them, and appreciate them in my life! I also feel like I'll never be able to take as much time as I want to thank God for all that I have been blessed with! I have always loved to journal about my days and how I saw God at work... Now I am behind almost a week, and I am scared to start again, because I'll want to catch up on the past week and thank God for all that has happened, all that I have learned, and all that I am so incredibly thankful for... but that just takes me SUCH a long time... and I can't do it all if I want to get a healthy amount of sleep. :( I am always so tempted to keep thinking about yesterday, and all that I wish I could remember, reflect on, or wish I could have accomplished... instead, I just need to keep reaching out in each moment... and seize every opportunity I have right in front of me. :)

God, you're so good! :) Thank you for opening my eyes to see you, my ears to hear you, and for giving me the strength and courage to follow you. Please continue HELPing me with this! :)

:)

I love how God weaves people's lives together. :)
I am incredibly thankful for friends...
I am thankful for joy...
...for life.
...for peace.
...for beauty.
...for sooo much! :)
...for rest and sleep too.
I am going to go sleep now.
Thank you, God, for another wonderful weekend!

Live Out Love

I am finally startng a blog!
I hope to fill it with Living Out Love and Laughing Out Loud stories! :)
This is probably the shortest post I'll ever write... bye for now!