remember...

...'george smith'?

yeah, neither do i. he stood me up at my party. or...maybe that is because i didn't ask anyone.

but here is a shot of some friends and i at the party.

apartment

my favorite place in my apartment would be....

the kitchen table!

our living room is not much further away, but some how we always meet up at the table to have our 'talks'. not bad 'talks', but good 'talks' that knock some sense into me. the girls have been there to knock the sense back into me and while i have just cried at the table. but they have always brought it back to the Gospel and pointed me to Him. the roommates are great and it is amazing to see how the Lord brought the three of us together in these specific stages in life. i love them.

love,

pump it up...

it's been awhile. my bad.

since the last post, i got older. another year older to be exact. hard to believe that i am now 20+7. and some how i still don't feel settled in life.

anyways, here are some pictures from this past week.

this is my friend chen and it is her first fall in america. so she got to experience pumpkin carving!!!

this was mine. his name was seymour.

and this picture. my heart still hurts a bit. my family drove 5 1/2 hours each way to see our precious and ferocious tigers play the huskers. let's just say the huskers showed them who's boss. it was still a great time with mom, pop, and the bro even if the tigers didn't pull off a victory!

and this would be my halloween costume! i am a fitness junkie! i've got the towel for the dripping sweat, the weights, the bike, and my number for the chicago marathon. who's ready to work out?!

a few of my favorite things...

...about columbia!

1. i love seeing the town show up for home football games! the tailgating, the spirit, the black and gold...and the football.

2. hot air balloons! i am not sure why columbia has been a popular town for them, but they are! a few years ago, my brother and i had the opportunity to jump in one and take off across columbia! it was so fun! here is a picture of our balloon...if you look really close you can see us in the basket!
3. downtown. this area has been spruced up a lot since moving to here several(and i mean several!) years ago! but i enjoy meeting friends downtown for a meal or for coffee.

4. my family and friends that are here. i would not have been able to say that about 22 months ago. the Lord has provided for me while being here in giving me the support and community that i need. especially after what i had just come out of from being in poland. He knew what i needed in being here.

one of my favorite pictures...

...ever!

seriously, it has some pretty great people in the picture and some pretty great memories were made where this picture was taken.

patsy, jessica and myself

let me give you some information about this picture:

1. it was taken in march of 2008

2. my parents were visiting me

3. it was taken inside a castle courtyard of nicolaus copernicus

but i wanted to focus on the person in red, patsy. she has been such a blessing to me over the past four years of my life. we have experienced a lot together. we have cried together, ate together, traveled together, laughed-so-hard-we-cry together, moved together, and lived life together. we have learned a lot from each other and learned a lot about the Lord in our experiences.

patsy has a pretty big step ahead of her starting tomorrow. so i just wanted to ask for prayer for my dear sister and friend as she starts this journey but also for the days, weeks, and months ahead in this process. i pray that she feels the Lord around her during this time and can experience His peace.

love and peace,

south of the mason-dixon line

this past weekend i made a trip down south. to ar-can-saw to be exact.

i got to visit with my friend patsy and to get away from columbia. i was needing to clear my head. funny thing though, i came back with my head stopped up from allergies!

i realized a few things during the trip:

1. the drive is super long.

2. i sound like a yankee down there.

3. i really miss friends but oh so thankful that i can make these quick trips to see them.

in other news, i have been super crafty recently and this next project i have to really do some thinkin' about. i have this old window that i would like to restore a bit and somehow use it as decoration. but i just don't know how to work with it or really what i want done with it. so i will keep thinkin' about it. suggestions are welcomed.

well i am off to chug some OJ and take some benadryl. sweet dreams!

156 days 'til...

...CHRISTMAS! hard to believe isn't it?

if you know me, you know i LOVE the cheesy christmas music. i normally start listening to christmas music around september. strange, i know. and the movie 'elf'...one of my favorites.

but in other news, this weekend at put-in bay, ohio, it is christmas in july! i am also going to be making an appearance at the cleveland indians game on friday night. i have been told that that night at the ball park, there will be fireworks set to christmas music!

i will also be visiting my long lost sister/friend, jessica. we lived together in poland. she saw the good, the bad, and the ugly of me while living there. she is awesome. it was with her that i learned community 24/7. i wouldn't trade anything for that time while each of us grew on our own, with each other, and with the Lord. precious times. hard times, but precious.

jessica and i canoeing in finland. hard to believe this really happened.

i think ohio knew i was coming.

or maybe this is jessica's weird way of getting me to stay there. she wants to trick me into loving ohio with the christmas theme! hmm....

reunion weekend

so i was able to take a four-day weekend and see a ton of people.

the first person i saw was my good friend stacy. her and i went to college together. and yes, it is a rough picture of us because the sun was SO bright!

next up...the three amigas! it was so great to see each other and spend time with one another drinking TONS of coffee and TONS of talking!
patsy took us to see the boyhood home of johnny cash.

i got to see a lot of people during my visit. i saw another family that had lived in poland the same time i did. and i also got to see volunteers that had come over to poland while i lived there.

it was a great trip. the three amigas are already trying to think when we can see each other again.

take me out to the ball game

so a few weeks ago i was able to attend a cardinal's baseball game. it...was...amazing. really, it had been several years since the last time i was able to experience a baseball game and it was just as great as the last time i remembered it.

so here we are with a great view of the field. and you can see where they have mowed an arch into the field.
and in this picture you can kind of see the arch.

and here is the crew. we were pumped for the game and the cardinals allowed us to bring home a victory!

oh and a side note. on the way home from the game, we got to see meteors fall across the sky. it was so impressive.

and they call it...

...puppy love.

so this weekend i am house/dog sitting. her name is sophie. a cutie for sure!

i just wrapped up a 4o hour week and i am feeling it! so sophie will help me relax this weekend.

in the next week i will:

-finish house/dog sitting

-work 26 hours

-go to a cardinals game for the first time since 2006

-breakfast with a friend from college in st. louis

-pick up my old roommate from poland(who is an american living in ohio) at the airport in st. louis

-road trip to arkansas with the old roommate to see our other third

-reunion with several different people in arkansas

it will be busy, but well worth it all!

my girl...

...liz!

(not really sure why i have a funky looking eye.)

liz came into town last weekend to visit my bro and i! she is pretty much amazing, beautiful and super fun! the bro and i knew her from sbu so it was great to be able to spend the weekend with her and just enjoy the beautiful weather we had last weekend.

my favorite event of the whole weekend was going to jeff city to see the movie "singing in the rain" on the capital lawn! it was such a beautiful evening and a cute movie. i had never seen it before and would watch it again any day!

liz, don't be a stranger now. get yourself back up here ASAP! or better yet...MOVE HERE!

just some thoughts...

so i had a friend call me tonight for some prayer concerns with her family and the unborn baby. and i gave her some song lyrics that have been piercing me recently that go like so...
"the love of Christ passes knowledge. the love of Christ eases fear."
just the lack of knowledge of what is going on with this baby and what will happen, but His love is bigger than any understanding that our human minds can comprehend. and His love is the only thing that can calm our fears. paul writes in philippians 4:6-7 of some unrest of a few people in the area and says to them: "don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything. tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

just something for us to chew on as believers in Christ. when there are fears or uncertainty, where is hope? where is our peace? do we pray? or do we run?


ps. tonight on my walk( by the way, i love being able to go out an enjoy an evening stroll with the pup who is normally begging to go on a walk!) i saw a baby deer! it was so beautiful. i had never seen a baby deer up close! and seeing the beauty reminded me of the scripture in psalm 42:1 that says 'as the deer longs for streams of water, so i long for you, o God.' OH that is how i want my heart to feel, but i am so full of junk in my heart. but the Lord is gracious and good to all. praise Him!

pps. when you think of it...pray for baby gamble. pray for the family to see the love of Christ.

ala and nina

for the past month, we have hang out with our friends ala and nina as much as we can! these girls have been so great to jessica and i. i am thankful for their friendship.

they went with us for our tattoos...

...came over for mexican night...

...and birthdays.

and we even taught them 'the' dance.