Sleepless Nights

I can't sleep. I have a class in 7 hours, and I just can't go to sleep. I think it's because I had like four cups of coffee today. It rained all day, and I was so cold, that it just seemed like the right thing to do. So four cups later of the right thing to do and I'm up at 1am looking forward to what may be a sleepless night. So much for my resolve about getting 8 hours of sleep. My roomate had an RA interview the other day and she was telling me some of the questions they asked, and one that really struck me was, what grieves God the most about you? So I really started to think about this and pray about what God gets sad about when He looks at my life, and I think I came up with a huge struggle I deal with, almost daily. I see in my life, a pattern of discontentness, which shows itself in many differant forms. I look at myself, I look at my life and I always want more, because I'm not happy with what I have. Pray that God will break my heart of this. That I will be content with what God has given me, and where he has put me.

Pics from Best Day Ever!

Best Day Ever!

Today was one of the best days ever. I awoke to my alarm at 6 am, and joyfully sprung from my bed, took a shower, and returned to my room to get some homework done before my 8am class. After class I went to chapel, which was AMAZING. Worship was amazing. The Lord really used it as a time of reflection in my life. Then I would have had Critical Thinking Problem Solving (Yuck) but it was cancelled!!!!!! YEAH, always happy when this happens. So I came back to my room and messed around for an hour, then went to Dr. Simons class......yeah, yeah, blah, blah. Then went to lunch and sat with some friends who saw us down there, and we decided that we would go to Vasquez Rocks, which is like the Valleys little version of Joshua Tree. So, Kelly, me, Brandon, Brandon, and Joe go back to our dorms to change into our "Rambo" clothes as I like to call them. In the chaos of changing into my running shorts, tank top and red bandana, I hear my phone ring. And guess who it is? Derek from Mission Springs. See, I applied for a summer counseling position at this Christian Summer Camp up in Santa Cruz. Well I hadnt heard anything from them in a long time, so I was starting to get really worried about what I was going to be do over the summer. So Derek offered me a counselor position for Frontier Ranch which ranges from 4th-8th grade depending on the week. IAM SO STOKED ABOUT THIS! God is sooooooo amazing, just as I was looking for other jobs for the summer he drops in my lap the one I wanted all along. But, the day gets better! So I get off the phone with Derek and finish getting my Rambo on, and then we head out for Vasquez. It was such a nice day, 82 degrees, sun shining, slight wind, just amazing. So we get into the park and notice this hug production crew is inside, and we see signs that saw "Las Vegas". We really didnt think anything about it at first, because stuff is being filmed all the time by the college. So we hike around for like an hour, get dirty, get cut, fall down, you know all that good stuff. Then we walk over to where they are fliming and one of the production assistants, Brain, meets us out there and tells us that we can watch but we have to be quite. They were filming the NBC televsion show "Las Vegas", which I dont think I've ever seen, but it was cool to see them filming an actual episode which is going to be on TV. About 45 min into watching them filming I ask if we could take pictures with the stars, so the PA (Production Assisstant, thats right, I know the lingo) radios over to someone else and all the sudden the main guy on the show, who is really hott, it waving at us. So we wave back and giggle, like the little immature girls that we are. Then about 10 min later he starts walking toward us and introduces himself, his name is Josh, and we say hi and tell him who we are. Then we get a picture with him, and he notices that Kelly and I are twins. Then he talks to the guys about basketball, and then he left. That was a very cool part of my day! I met a star! Then we went back to school and went to Spring Sing, a school wide talent show which was just the funniest thing ever! I cant even pick a favorite act, because they were all soooo good. There is soo much genuine talent at our school. Its such a witness to an amazing God which gives poeple these gifts. And now I sit here blogging about my amazing day. Yep, God is good!

I Resolve.......

-I resolve to get AT LEAST 8 hours of sleep a night
- I resolve to not take 5 hour naps........its such a waste of time
- I resolve to be a better steward with my money
- I resolve to try my darnest to read my Bible everyday
- I resolve not to gossip........in any form
-I resolve to encourage people in Christ, instead of tearing them down
- I resolve to go to my 8 am class no matter what!
- I resolve to be more organized
- I resolve to keep my room clean
- I resolve to blog more often

Remember these shows?

My roomate and I have been thinking about all the old tv shows we use to watch when we were kids. Here is our list so far (Tell me if you think of anymore)
- Boy Meets World (still one of my favorite shows)
- Hey Dude (with Ben Stiller's wife)
- Salute your Shorts ("Camp Onawana always in our hearts")
- Bug Juice
- Christy (not too many people remember this one)
- Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman
- Family Dubble Dare
- Clarissa Explains it all (I LOVED THIS SHOW!)
- The Secrect World of Alex Mack (she had this mysterious chemical dumped on her)
- The Adventures of Pete and Pete ( the mom had a metal plate in her head)
- Dinosuars
- Are you Afaird of the Dark?
- Doug
- Perfect Strangers
-The Smurfs
-The Wonder Years (one of the best shows ever made)
- Saved by the Bell (Zack Morris was sooooooo dreamy)
- All That
- Bobby's World
- Rocko's Modern Life
- Growing Pains
- Legends of the Hidden Temple!!!!!!!!
- AHHHHH!!!! Real Monsters
-Blossom
- Wild and Crazy Kids
-Bill Nye: The Science Guy (I watched this show faithfully and it still didnt help me with biology)
- Tales from the Crypt
- Eerie Indiana- I bet no one remembers this one- it only ran for a year
- Unsolved Mysteries (Loved this one too)
- What Would you do?
- Highlander (I use to wacth this with my brother, which made it the coolest tv show ever!)
- Sweet Valley High (TWINS)
- Flash Forward
- Major Dad
- The Babysitters Club
- The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo
- Ready or Not
- The Famous Jett Jackson
- So Weird
- Figure it Out
- The Torkelsons
- Early Edition
- Supermarket Sweep (hahahahaha)
- Big Wolf on Campus
- Road to Avonlea

Yeah, I watched WAY too much television

See the Art in me!

I love breaks like this when I have a week to do some of my favorite things. And one of my absolutely favorite things to do is to draw,paint, use oils, pencils, anything that creates art! I'm not as good as I would like to be, and as I once was, but its just a fun thing to sit down and to create something. Here are some of my favorite pieces that I've done!

We live in a sick world.....Thank goodness for a good God

I am reminded of the words of Tom Cruise in the movie "Jerry Maguire", "We live in a cynical world, a cynical world". How true this is. Just by turning on the tv, or picking up the newspaper, we see how evident this is. I was reading some stuff on the internet today and came across a story of a young college girl in New York who, after leaving a bar, was raped, strangled, and the body left on an abandoned road. The next story was about a man who was using MySpace to prey on young girls, posing as a young man himself, and then asking to meet them somewhere. How truly sick is this world? Just when you think its getting better you hear something like that. Seeing, hearing, and expierences things like these have been a real struggle for me. To know that there is a good and loving God in heaven who deeply cares for his poeple, and yet lets horrible things like this happen. I dont understand. And you know what I've figured out, I'm never going to understand. Bad things happen, and even worse, bad things happen to good people. But does that mean that God is no longer good? Absolutely not! Will I accept the good and not the bad? Absolutely not. My vision of this life is so circular, I see the here and now, the immediate effects of the situation. God sees so much more, so much more than I can understand. And I'm okay with that, I'm alright with not understanding his reasoning behinde horrific events. Because all I know of God tells me to trust all that I do not know, and to rest in that. For that is truly the best place to be. In Genesis,when Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, but then ends up becoming Pharoah's right hand man, and meets up with his brothers who come begging for food, he speaks to this theme. As his brothers kneel before him begging for mercy Joseph speaks and says," Do not be afaird, for am I not in God's place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring about this present result". How reassuring is this? That although horrible things had befallen Joseph he was right where God wanted him to be! Thank goodness we have a truly good God!