Day 185: Best friends think alike

Today, my best friend and I exchanged Christmas gifts and we both made each other scrapbooks!! What?! She made me a black and white scrapbook since the beginning of our friendship and it is absolutely incredible!
So thankful for her!

Day 184: It's Starbucks weather

With how cold it has been outside, we thought it was a perfect day to get some warm drinks!! Hot Chocolate and Chai Lattes:) 

Day 183: I love my scanner!!

I'm a total nerd. I love my new scanner I got for Christmas. In all my education classes, we receive many cool worksheets and resources that we can use in our future classroom. However, after all these classes, I have way too many full binders, and most of the stuff in there is useless. So, I did some cleaning out. I scanned everything I thought I could use in my future, then I threw everything away!! And it felt great!
So, I spent all of today doing this:)
Next up, pictures!

Day 182: Les Mis Soundtrack

We loved the movie so much that we ran out and got the soundtrack!! And we can't stop listening to it!!

Day 181: Les Miserables

On Christmas Day, we went to see Les Miserables....little did we know, it had been sold out for 3 weeks. So, we decided to go the next day.
Les Miserables is by far the best movie I have ever seen.
If you haven't seen it yet, I won't ruin it for you, but it is a MUST SEE.
I absolutely cannot wait to see it again!!

Day 180: MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
This is what we all woke up to this morning:):) Lots of presents under the Christmas tree! We are so beyond blessed. 
After opening up the Christmas presents and we were cleaning up, I looked around my living room at my family and realized that that was what Christmas was about. Your family coming together in one room to celebrate Our Savior. 
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!! 

Day 179: Christmas Eve lights

Our tradition every year (mostly for the girls) is to look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. So, that's what we, girls, did! We found a few fun houses in some different neighborhoods! All of a sudden we stumbled upon this BEAUTIFUL house on the lake. Their whole yard was covered in lights! This is just a portion of the whole yard!!
So so so beautiful!! 

Day 178: Baking for friends

My sister and I made some puppy chow and mini Hershey's pies! We love baking for others around Christmas! This is the season of GIVING! 
But,
We saved a stash of puppy chow for our family and it's already gone!
That stuff is addicting. 

Day 177: Nail Time!

Oh I just love coming home! Getting pampered by my sister is AWESOME!! 

Day 176: HVY Reunion

Some of my best memories were with these girls, and all the people I grew up with in youth group. Tonight, we came together at our youth minister's house and had a Christmas dinner and played games. It was so great being back with everyone. I felt like I was in high school again. I LOVE where I am now, and I love all the new friends I've made. But, it was such a wonderful feeling being with all of my old friends again. 
This is a picture of two of my wonderful friends: Kimberly and Bonnie. We may not keep in touch like we used to, but we have so many memories together that we could never break apart. 
It was just so great seeing everyone!!

Day 175: Crochet FAIL.

This was my first attempt at crocheting a beanie....obviously, it was a fail. It fits like a helmet!! So, I had to take a bunch of rows out and start from there...in the next picture, you'll get to see my finished product. But, I was MAJOR bummed out with this one. 

Day 174: PUPPY ZONE!

To cheer us up after our car wreck, my best friend picked us up (with her girls she nannies) and took us all to Puppy Zone. Here is a picture of Sarah with a sweet, sweet puppy.
Just look at that face!!!

Day 173: My poor car:(

So...uh...yeah, I think it's a goner. 

Day 172: First car wreck.

Monday, my sister and I got in a bad car accident on a rainy day. Although it wasn't my fault, my car is totaled. Nobody was hurt, and we can only thank God for that!
This picture represents who God had His angels protecting on this scary day. 
I can't thank God enough for taking care of us. 

Day 171: HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY, JENNA!

Although my best friend's birthday was November 12, I just now got her presents together so we celebrated Sunday night! I painted this canvas for her...which was EXTREMELY HARD for me to do, considering I'm a UT fan, NOT a Kentucky fan, but I knew she'd love it!! I also splurged on this blue hoodie! She's a hoodie girl so I knew it was perfect!
Happy late Birthday, J!!

Day 170: Newtown respect

 On December 14, 2012, tragedy struck in Newtown, CT. The day after all over the country flags were flown half mast. This is a flag at one of the McDonald's near my house. This is the best picture I could to represent all the respect shown from everybody around the country. 
I feel like nothing else needs to be said. 

Day 169: My first meringue pie!

With a little bit of Grandma's help, I baked my first lemon meringue pie! I was so excited! It tasted delicious!! 

Day 168: Trip to Sewanee

When I went to visit Grandma, we decided to take a trip to Sewanee, University of the South. It's such a sweet area. We ate a little restaurant and then walked around the campus and took pictures. 
This is a picture of us on campus!
The picture below is the finished product of my scarf!! YAY! 

Day 167: My room at Grandma's

Every time I spend the night at my Grandma's, this is the room that I stay in! This was my dad's old room growing up...it obviously looked a little bit different when he was growing up, but my sister and I always stay in this room. 
Brings such wonderful memories looking at it. 

Day 166: Scarf in progress

This is my scarf in progress. Now, as you can see, the sides are uneven and coming inward, so I ended up taking a few rows out and starting over. You'll see the scarf in a later post! 
I'M SO EXCITED. 

Day 165: I'm learning to crochet!

After seeing all my friends crocheting, I decided it was time for me to learn! So, Sumner tried for a long time and I FINALLY got it. I'm not very teachable, but I finally understood! More projects to come:)

Day 164: Letter from Momma

I got this letter in the mail from my mom a couple days ago...and every time I look at it, I smile! I LOVE getting letters. Knowing she was thinking of me just meant everything:) It absolutely made my day.
I can't wait to be home with my family!!

Day 163: Cookeville Rescue Mission

Today was such a great, yet exhausting day! Sumner and I shopped for our Angel Tree girl all morning! We got her some great gifts!! So excited. After that, we took over Brittney and Jared's bell ringing shift at the mall! We rang the bell for Cookeville Rescue Mission today for a couple hours. For the first hour, there was live music!! SOO fun! Two older couples were dancing together the whole time. It completely melted my heart!! The best part was when little kids would come and put change in our buckets! Love it!

Day 162: My sweet practicum teacher

Today was my last day with my awesome 8th graders and Ms. Anderson. I would've thought it would be bittersweet leaving; meaning that leaving that class would be sad but it would mean Christmas break! However, it was mostly just bitter.  I grew to really love those kids. I enjoyed every moment when I taught them! Seeing that "lightbulb moment" makes everything worth it.
Every morning I looked forward to seeing Ms. Anderson and those 8th graders! I got more experience than I could have ever imagined!
God truly put me in the perfect placement.
Our goal now is to get me to student teach with her! That would truly be incredible!

Day 161: Be Holy.

Tonight during Late Nite Praise, we sang a lot of beautiful, powerful songs to God! But, one line stuck out to me (I honestly don't even know the song title). As we sang it, I ran out of the room, found a marker and paper and wrote down this line. It hit me hard.

"I choose to be holy, set apart for You." 

Wow, this is powerful.
We are given the CHOICE with how we are going to be. Every single morning we have to die to ourselves and CHOOSE to be holy. It may a difficult path to take, but this path has God holding your hand the whole time! This path leads to eternity with our Father.
This line also says we are "set apart for You." To me, I read this as, we are SET APART from the world. We are not supposed to fit into this world. So, we set ourselves apart for God. This means not watching all the things the world tells us, not saying things the world tells us, not conforming to this world (which is mentioned in Romans 12).

It is my goal to pray this prayer every single morning when I wake up. I believe the power is prayer is extremely powerful. 
I choose to be holy, set apart for You, God. 

Day 160: My Evaluation Lesson

My prayers were answered! God has His hand over my class today! My evaluation went INCREDIBLE! The lesson was better than I could have expected. I got many positive comments on my evaluation form. My teacher told me numerous times how wonderful the lesson plan was, and that she even wants me to student teach for her. These are huge compliments!! I'm not telling you all this to brag on myself....but to brag on GOD. I know that teaching middle school is God's plan for me, and I am so grateful that He is helping me through my lessons!

This picture is a tree with the three different branches of government on it. One of my students draw a tree on the board, and in each of my classes, after we took notes, I split the class up into 3 groups. Each group was given a branch and I handed them 5 slips of paper. They were to write 5 important things about their given branch.

Day 159: LAST lesson of the semester!

Tomorrow is the big day! My day of teaching AND evaluation! I seriously can't wait, but there's a  part of me that is extremely nervous! I just want these kids to LEARN from me. I truly want to be able to teach them!! This lesson is about the Three Branches of Government!
Prayers are appreciated!

Day 158: Streams in the Desert

Today, I just became overwhelmed. The semester is ending, it's time to buy Christmas gifts, there's bills to be paid. And I have a lesson on Wednesday that I'm being evaluated on with my 8th graders. Needless to say, I just couldn't handle it anymore. Instead of breaking down to a friend or breaking down by myself, I broke down to God. I fell on my knees and just asked for help. 
He showed me this book, which has been covered up for years. It's a 365 daily devotional. I opened it up to today's....(well, I thought it was today's). It was perfect.
It talked about finding a quiet place. finding time to meditate with God. One of my favorite lines said, " Strength is not found in busyness and noise, but in quietness." I love this. So many times we just GO GO GO because that's all we can do in our schedule. We think that slowing down or stopping makes us weak or lazy. However, Jesus spent quiet time alone with God all the time. He cherished them time with His Father. In the midst of our loud, busy lives, we MUST find the time to be alone with God. 
I needed to hear this today!
But, later, I realized that I read the wrong entry....I read December 4th's entry. God KNEW I needed to hear that RIGHT THEN even though it was the wrong day.
However, today's entry (December 3rd) sits perfectly with my soul, too.
Lately, I've felt lonely. I've had pity parties. I've wondered why friends don't call or text. I've felt so alone.
This entry talked about how Jesus is our Eternal Friend. It made me smile reading this. It gave me JOY in knowing that I am never truly alone. I loved this line: "We should never be satisfied until we have come to the place where we know the Lord Jesus in this way - until we have discovered He is our eternal Friend- continually, under all circumstances, and constantly ready to prove Himself as our Friend." 
So, anytime you are feeling lonely, take some time to strengthen your FRIENDSHIP with our Lord and Savior! Unlike our friends on earth, Jesus will absolutely NEVER leave you and will NEVER disappoint you! 

Day 157: A Christmas Story!!

I bought my most favorite Christmas movie today!!! I'm so excited:) Tonight, Elf, The Grinch and Four Christmases were on so I'm saving this movie for a special day! Ah, I can't wait. THIS movie puts me in the Christmas spirit for sure!

Day 156: It's the season of GIVING.

Christmas isn't just about receiving presents, decorating your house, and listening to Christmas music. It's about giving. It's about volunteering your time and money. It's about giving pieces of your heart away. It's about sacrificing time with your friends to spend time doing stuff for other people. (It's even more awesome when you can volunteer with your friends!) 

Today 5 of us from the UCSC went to White House, Tennessee to help with Christmas for the Children...Wow, this is an incredible program. They find lots of children who are in need, and who may not get many Christmas presents, and they give them $100 and pair them up with an adult to go shop in K-Mart for Christmas presents for themselves. There was almost 200 kids! We took huge charter buses to K-Mart and busted in and started shopping. I was paired up with this girl in the picture, and God was absolutely the One who paired us together. 
We both LOVE pink and Justin Bieber and clothes! It was such a fun day! I couldn't believe how quickly we bonded. She got a bag full of CUTE clothes that she picked up, along with a stuffed animal maker and some boots. They also got their picture made with Santa Clause!
It was an incredible, life changing experience. I truly mean that it was life changing. I've been so consumed lately with myself because of school and all the stress. I needed a day where I focused my WHOLE day on one little, precious girl!
This beats receiving a present any day!

Day 155: Day 30 of No Makeup November

It's November 30, which mean it's the last day of No Makeup November. This has been a very eye-opening experience! Although I don't wear makeup a lot, I do wear makeup to cover up "flaws" and make myself look prettier especially when I dress up. 
I thought this month would end differently. I thought I would feel empowered and totally confident and never want to wear makeup again.
But, this is not the case. Turns out, other girls have felt the same way.  Satan has attacked us because he knows we're about to end this month and go into a whole new month, with makeup. He put acne on my face and dried up my skin. All I wanted to do was cover myself up this week.
I've learned this is going to be a process. I plan to wear makeup. But, I don't plan to use it excessively, or to cover up the imperfections on my face...because God truly did make me flawless, so why try to cover something up that is already beautiful.
I have learned that I am beautiful. I am confident in what I look like. However, every day is different. I am thankful that I had the UCSC girls to encourage me along in this journey!
God truly is the Ultimate Creator and Comforter! 

Day 154: Final Lesson Plans

After weeks, days, hours and hours and hours, I have finally completed all of my lesson plans for the semester! This is my final lesson plan project for my Social Studies content class. It has 4 lesson plans chocked full of concrete actions, maps, timelines, songs and lyrics. It is about 70 pages long! Hopefully, I'll get to use this lesson in my own classroom of 8th graders!

Day 153: Refrigerator Snowman

To be festive, one of my roommates Ariel placed this lovely Snowman in our fridge. Every time the door is opened the Snowman starts talking to you...and it freakin scares me EVERY TIME! Even though I know it's in there. I love this little guy, and he cheers me up....but he still throws me off every time. He will sing you a song about shutting the door to keep the cold in! Love it:)

Day 152: Jesus Christ is President

I saw this awesome car today! It was a beautiful reminder of who is truly in charge. 
So many people lately have been so distressed about Obama being reelected, while others have rejoiced because they think he is going to save our country. 
Everybody just needs to breathe. 
I'm not getting into anything political here! Whether Obama or Romney had won, Jesus Christ would still be our Lord and Savior! Whether you agree with our President or not, we still must turn our eyes to God because He is what our lives should be about!
We are not living in our true Home right now. These matters are so trivial compared to our eternal life with God. If we are putting all of our attention on politics, then we have just taken our attention off of God. If God is our number one priority, everything else will fall into place.

Day 151: Christmas Decorations

Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday!! For many reasons! One of those reasons is the decorations! So, in my room I hung up some colorful Christmas lights and a mini light-up Christmas tree! 
It always feels so festive in my room now!!

Day 150: Family Photo Shoot

We're sending out Christmas cards this year!! So today we had a family photo shoot! After a ton of pictures, we have chosen this one as our favorite :)
We don't like to get super fancy. Just something simple to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Hope you enjoy!

Day 149: Christmas Vacation!!

Tonight we watched one of Dad's favorite Christmas movies....Christmas Vacation! So...obviously Dad was very excited when we watched it :) Let the Christmas cheer begin!

This is easily one of my favorite pictures ever.

Day 148: Birthday, Grandma, and Christmas Tree

Okay...I'm breaking my rules. But, today was too eventful to put only one picture up!
Here is my brother blowing out his candles! Today was his 19th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CALEB!!!!

A couple of the cousins had left by now, but here is a picture of the grandkids with Grandma! Me, Sarah, Grandma, Caleb, and Leanne! Such a fun Thanksgiving!

All night long the girls have been decorating the house! Here's our lovely tree:) The majority of the ornaments on the tree are homemade ornaments that we created when we were younger. Some are falling apart, but we never have the heart to throw them away. This tree holds so many memories! 

32 Days until Christmas!!

Day 147: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

This should be on a Thanksgiving advertisement! My Aunt Ann with her sweet potato casserole. DELICIOUS. This picture definitely reminds me of Thanksgiving!! 
I'm thankful for my family and this wonderful food that we were blessed with! 

Day 146: To Grandma's House we go

We've loaded up the car and the girls headed to Grandma's! We are ready for a 3 hour drive!! Sarah took a little nap and jammed to some music, while mom and I got to catch up for a few hours. It was a great drive!

Day 145: Sister Reunion

After weeks of being apart, we were reunited. Shockingly and out of character, we took a LOT of pictures together. This is one of the best ones. 
We sent pictures to each daily as a countdown to when we'd get to see each other. We're pretty much best friends.

Day 144: Pumpkin Bread

Sumner and I both LOVE pumpkin bread!! So, when we saw Pumpkin Bread mixes half off in Lifetime, we had to get a couple! So, we made one for our sonflowers' group and one for Ms. Kara, who hosted our incredible girls' retreat! It was just a small thank you for everything she's done with us since she's started working at the UCSC.
It was ALMOST the best pumpkin bread I ever had. haha. Ok, that's not true...but we still did a pretty good job!

Day 143: Cracker Barrel with Ash

Finally, after months and months, Ashlei and I got to go to Cracker Barrel (with our lovely friend, Regina)! When she lived here, we used to go all the time and have long, wonderful conversations about boys and how our life is going. She is so encouraging and it's always a blessing when I get to spend time with her.
Also, this is our usual picture. We can't take a normal picture. Smiling is lame.

Day 142: WAY past our bedtime

In my earlier years of college, I would stay up until 3 or 4 every night. Now....I try to go to bed around 10 or 11. Waking up for a 7:45 practicum is TOUGH if I don't get a good night's sleep. Sumner's the same way! We're kind of like old people. At the girls' retreat, we stayed up until after 2:00! So I had to post a picture of us being rebels. 

Day 141: Girls' Retreat: In the Raw

For our girls' retreat, we did facials! It was a wonderful spa night. We 5 girls chose the oatmeal mask. Little did we know, our faces would like someone threw up on them! Taking it off was extremely difficult, but after all was said and done, our faces were pretty smooth:)

Day 140: BREAKING DAWN PART 2

Tonight was the end of the wonderful Twilight Saga. We don't care about you haters. We love this series, and it a part of our life has ended tonight!! 

Although I have extremely mixed feelings about the movie, it was a very good ending!

Here is mine and Bree's last picture at a Twilight "midnight" premiere!

Day 139: CHAMPIONSHIP SHIRT!

Tonight, I got an Intramural Championship shirt for Flag Football! This is the UCSC girls' 4th year in a row as champions!! Awesome, right??

P.S. I didn't actually play flag football...or earn this shirt at all. Court just had extras so she gave me one...HOWEVER, when people see me wear the shirt, I will wear it like a true CHAMPION.