Catching Up

 A blog post?! I'm not dead?! Nope...just really busy and really boring. Since it's Friday I guess I'll do a little Confession Friday to catch everyone up on my not so exciting life.

I confess I still get on blogger 2-3 times a week and read blogs like crazy. I just never have anything interesting to say!

I confess that Jake and I graduate in approximately 3 weeks and we have no idea what we're doing with our lives. None whatsoever. The trip to Africa is still in the air, as well as jobs and house hunting (eek!), and Jake possibly going to grad school. Decisions, decisions. When did we become such adults? I'm just waiting for God to start closing some doors and pointing us in the right direction.

I confess that I had one class cancelled today so I just skipped the second one and came into my job at the church early.  I'm definitely ready to be out of school and working.

I confess I'm typing this at work.  This job is so laid back and amazing.  I get a to-do list and when that list is done I hang out and answer the phone if it rings.  I've gotten a lot of homework done today and now some blogging!

I confess that two jobs and school doesn't leave a whole bunch of time for doing things I want to do like seeing friends, reading, going to visit my family....it's a rough life.

I confess that I started training to be a server at work last night and I was so nervous I felt sick.  Definitely not as bad as I thought it would be. I didn't spill anything and it was actually pretty fun.  There were like 4 people being trained and we all got free training meals so we had a big family dinner afterwards :)

I confess there are pregnant women and babies just about everywhere I look and baby fever is getting the best of me.  I just want a little one to cuddle with.

I confess that I also love getting a full 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night which makes me ok with waiting a little bit longer to have a baby.

I confess that I hate these stupid Wonka pictures but this one made me laugh. I just have to laugh at people that drive so stupidly and then end up like one car ahead of me.

I confess I've been watching a lot of The Hills on netflix lately. It's just so addicting.  No matter how many times I've seen each episode I just find loving it.  Guilty pleasure.

I confess that I kind of love that blogger tells me how many views each post gets but it makes me feel like there's an awful lot of creepers that need to follow me and comment! :)

Well...that's about all I've got. Who knows when I'll post again? I'm going to try to get back into this blog so hopefully my life gets a little more interesting :)

This will not be a happy post

I know I've been absent from blogger world for awhile...I've been reading blogs, I just haven't felt that I had anything to blog about. However, my heart is so full of a thousand different emotions right now and I don't know where to begin.

About a month ago, I stumbled across Katie Davis' blog. Warning: reading this blog WILL change your life. God is continually using her experiences to break my heart. I started reading through from the very beginning and quickly showed Jake. Within about a day we came to the same conclusion; we can't just sit here and not DO something. So we started looking into trips to Africa, first to Uganda just to visit Katie's ministry and let her know how God is using her. After talking to a few close friends, we started looking a little bigger. We're currently in the process of filling out applications with Africa Inland Mission to go somewhere over there for 6 months to work with orphans.

We're not sure where God wants us or for how long or what we'll do when we get back. Life's just one big question mark now but it means we HAVE to put our trust in Him. Today I had a rare day off (which I should be spending studying...but I haven't done much of that) so I decided to spend my afternoon reading more of Katie's blog. I read all of her posts from 2010. Challenging stuff. God is using it to majorly convict me.  I found a statistic from UNICEF that says there are between 143 and 210 million orphans in the world. Please don't just read that as a statistic. That's about half of the United States population. Orphaned. Alone. 143 to 210 million individual children. They aren't just a statistic.

I also found a statistic that said approximately 16,000 children die every day from hunger-related issues. 1 every 5 seconds. Katie blogged about Matthew 25 and Jesus separating the sheep from the goats. "...And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you sick of in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.'

There's a little bit more to the passage but I think you get the point. Eternal fire = Hell. I can guarantee you Jesus did not say these things lightly. He fully meant just what He said. And all my head can think is "What am I doing RIGHT NOW? How am I picking up my cross and following Him in this moment?" Yeah I can say I'm going to Africa in January but how am I serving Him and the least of these today?" I'm not saying I have all the answers but I know I need to DO SOMETHING. In the time it's taken me to write this post dozens of children have died. That's not ok with me.

The best Jake and I have come up with is selling the excess we have (our tv, our blu-ray player, xbox, clothes and shoes we never wear, etc.) and giving the money to Amazima (Katie's organization) to help feed orphans in Uganda and reach them with the gospel. I'm writing this to bring awareness to her agency, to the need, and also to hold us accountable. Already as I'm writing this we're talking about how hard it will really be to live without the excess comforts of this world but how can it not be worth it? I don't want this post to sound in any way like we're trying to draw attention to the "good" we're doing. My best deeds are still filthy rags. We're going to prayerfully consider where God is leading us and what He plans to do now that He has so drastically changed our hearts. Please pray for us, as well.

Day F - Fast Forward Five Years

Hm...again...I'm not really sure what to do with this one. My plans never work out the way I intend them to...which is ok with me because God's plan has always been better.  It just makes me hesitant to plan things because I feel like that's just asking for God to laugh in my face and change everything :)

But in the perfect Katie world, here's what it would look like in 5 years. I'd be 27 years old...hopefully have at least one kid...maybe a toddler with one on the way or a newborn :) I'd be a stay-at-home mom and Jake would be doing a job that he loves that would pay the bills but of course if I need to work to make ends meet, then that's what I'll be doing!

Really the future is all just so unknown. Other than knowing I'd like to be a mom by then, everything else is up in the air. I have no idea where we'll live, what we'll be doing, or how close to our families will be. It's scary and exciting at the same time. My life has never been so open and unplanned. As a planner that freaks me out. But it's also so cool to know we aren't going to necessarily be tied down to anything. I'd love to live close to both of our families but I don't know if that will happen right away or not.

Basically...it's all one big question mark. God knows and I'm content with that. Besides, maybe Jesus will come back before then and I'll be on the new earth...which would be way more awesome than ANY of my plans!

Day E - Explain to me why

I really have no idea what to do with this day...I guess I'll just kind of ramble about things I don't understand. Boo.

Explain to me why....the weekends seem to pass so quickly and the school days seem to pass so slowly. I don't get it. I'm still all for 4 day weekend and 3 day school weeks...

Explain to me why....gas is so stinkin expensive?! Or why we haven't found some kind of alternative, cheaper way to get from one place to another. What about teleporting? Apparating? Harry Potter anyone? Bah.

Explain to me why...money is so important in the first place. I hate the control that money has on my day to day life. Boo.

Explain to me why...Britney Spears is still performing, singing, doing anything in public. She was good back in the day...then she went crazy...know when to quit, Brit! (I admit I added that last line just because quit and Brit rhyme.)

Explain to me why...the nights you get the most sleep are the mornings when you feel the most tired. I slept SO well last night for so long and I feel exhausted today. No idea why....

Explain to me why...people in this town drive a constant 45 mph no matter what the speed limit is. I get tail-gated on some roads and then I'm passing people left and right on other roads. Makes no sense to me.

Explain to me why....some of the teachers in "helping people" professions can be so heartless and un-caring. It baffles me...you're obviously a teacher because you could never work with real clients....

Explain to me why....I have to go to work tonight instead of staying at home and reading?! What the heck?! Buhhh.

So if anyone has any good explanations for these I'd love to hear it :)

Day D - Did you know?

So as a pre-teen/young teenager I watched a lot of Suite Life of Zack and Cody...and I loved it. I am not ashamed. But there's one episode where the blonde girl (name? Idk?) goes on a double date with London and her date has to annoying announce random facts by saying "Did you know....?" in this super whiny know-it-all voice. So that's what this day made me think of. So here's so random useless facts that I got from here.


-Only one McDonald’s in the world has turquoise arches. Officials in Sedona, Arizona, thought yellow would clash with the natural red rock.

It's true!

- Walt Disney's famous "logo" signature wasn't really his; it was designed by a staff artist.

- Napoleon was a big fan of suspenders; he even had a pair decorated with bumblebees, the symbol of his native Corsica. *I found this interesting because my grandpa was also a big fan of suspenders :)

- In 1897, Indiana tried to pass a bill stating that pi is equal to 3.2, as opposed to its truly infinite value, but it never became law due to intervention by a Purdue University professor. 

- Pearls dissolve in vinegar.

- Turtles often bury their eggs in alligator nests. The mother alligator guards her nest so well, it ensures the safety of the turtles as well.

- Before Bob Ross became a TV painter, he spent 20 years in the U.S Air Force and retired with the rank of master sergeant.

I wonder if he put the other pilots to sleep with his voice?

- To assemble the Wizard's wardrobe for The Wizard of Oz, MGM costumes shopped at thrift stores to find clothes that projected "shabby gentility". In an incredible coincidence, the previous owner of the coat they purchased was Wizard of Oz writer L. Frank Baum.

I don't know if that last one is true...but that's crazy if it is :)

So there you have it. Totally random, probably pretty useless, maybe true facts...haha. After a long, stressful Monday, it was nice to read such mindless things :)

Day C - Credit a Friend

So I'm really bad at doing this ABC blogger thing every day...more like once a week. And since I know none of you really want to hear about my boring weekend consisting of work and homework, I'll just get to it.

I've thrown around ideas about who to credit but I really liked Adrien's idea of crediting her husband. So I'm dedicating this post to my amazing husband :)

Jake is my very best friend in the whole world. I tell him everything. He's there to laugh with me or hold me when I'm crying. He puts up with my craziness (because I'm pretty crazy) and he's still so in love with me. We've been together for six and a half years and we're so completely different from who we were back then but we've grown so much together. It seems like some couples who have been together for years and years grow apart over time but we've grown closer throughout the years. I understand him so much more than I did even a year ago, let alone six, and I know he knows me better...sometimes I think he knows me better than I know myself.

Our very first homecoming together :) October 2005

He was there for me as a friend through my first and only break-up with a boyfriend. He was there when my family moved from an hour away to 3 miles away from his house. He introduced me to his friends but let me make friends of my own, even though he warned me strongly against some of the friendships I formed. He graduated high school with me. He started college with me. He was there through thick and thin, through friendships that came and went, through tough decisions that had to be made. It's hard not to be best friends with someone who has been there with you through so many changes in life. Besides God and my family, he's been a constant in my life for over six years.

After prom junior year - 2007

So I'm just going to brag on Jake a little bit more :) Here's some really great things about my husband:

- He is SO hard working and dedicated. I'm such a baby when it comes to working and I have to have some free time to relax and not work. He can (and has) work 70 hour weeks on very little sleep and still find time to spend time with me. I don't know how he does it but I really appreciate it!

- He is the financial person in the relationship. His major is finance so it makes sense, right? He pays bills, manages our accounts, and makes sure we're going to have enough money to cover the next month of bills. He's constantly telling me not to worry about money but he will also be honest with me when we have to go without something because we can't afford it. Paying bills would stress me out but he takes care of it and I have never heard him complain about it once. And we've only had a bill be late once or twice in the last year and a half :)

- He is so outgoing. He's such a social person which compliments my personality well.  If it were up to me we'd stay in every night watching netflix. I enjoy people once I'm out and with them but he's my motivation for getting out of the house in the first place. I'm a lot more extroverted than I used to be because he makes me want to be. He pushes me to be more social and outgoing and I'm appreciative of that :)

- He is very considerate of other's feelings. I'm the one involved in human environmental studies and I've taken way more classes on relationships and things like that but sometimes I swear he is way more sensitive to other people and their feelings than I am. He can be really sweet when he wants to be :)

- He strives to be a godly man and leader of our little family. I know one day he'll make an amazing, godly father to our children. He may not do it perfectly all the time but it's something he really strives for and I respect him so much for that!

- He's just so great! Haha...of course he does things (leaving clothes everywhere, never putting his dishes in the dishwasher, etc.) that drive me absolutely insane. And our relationship is NOT perfect and I don't want to give any impression that it is. We're both human. We have had many ups and downs in our relationship. But I could not ask for a better person to spend my life with. I get excited when I think about all the things we still have to look forward to in our relationship and there's no one I'd rather do those things with :)

Playing DDR in our own way :)

Graduation :)

Engagement pictures!

Love him!

So there you have it. I'm sure you're all puking right now ;) I hope everyone is blessed enough to marry their best friend :)

Day B - Blogger Blast

School has started, I'm starting a second job next week, and I've officially sucked at keeping up on this ABC blogging thing. Oh wellll. I've been avoiding this day because I don't really know what to do but I also can't skip to day C so I guess I'll doing something quick and lame and give some fellow bloggers a little shout out! All the other ABC bloggers have had such cute blogger blast ideas and mine's kind of lame but...oh well.

There were two blogs that led to my decision to start blogging. Amy and Cassie. They both posted a link to one of their blogging entries around the same time. I did start secretly stalking you for a little while Cassie!

I decided to start this little blog and soon found Sarah, Adrien, and Kim through Cassie's blog. Beth also started blogging shortly after I did and I found her through a facebook post. There's a few other followers and people I follow mixed throughout but these girls are MUCH more faithful bloggers than I am. You should check out their blogs sometime :)

It's been a slow and somewhat steady start to the blogging but I know one day I'll appreciate every meaningless thing I write down now...and I owe it to all my fellow bloggers for helping me realize that!