Versatile Blogger Award!

Apologies to all of you wonderful blogging friends for being MIA this week!  I have been super, super busy with working, volunteering, finally finishing up my med school application, and preparing for a family vacation...aaaaahhhh!  And thanks to said vacation, I will likely be around very little over the next week, but I'll give a full update upon my return :)


Before I check out, I just want to THANK Chloe from Trying to Throw My Arms Around the World! She has one of my favorite blogs to read, and she just gave me this lovely blogging award! :)

So the way this works is:

{1} thank and link back to the giver of the award

[2] share 6 things about yourself

{3}pass this award on to other versatile bloggers you have recently discovered

[4] contact those bloggers to let them know they won

:)

My 6 Facts

{uno} 

I am currently attempting to learn medical spanish.  Ever since my husband starting learning Spanish and becoming awesome at it a couple of years ago, he has been bugging me about learning it.  Well, after our recent trip to Mexico I decided to bite the educational bullet, starting with medical spanish.  I figure I'll be more interested in this AND use it more, so picking up conversational spanish should be easier down the road....I hope.

{dos}

I LOVE ice cream.  It is a very unhealthy addiction.  In high school, I would daily eat about 1/3 of an ice cream container.  And I felt no remorse.  I've learned a bit more self control as I've aged, but I can still down some dairy like nobody's business if provoked to do so :)

{tres}

I do not have a favorite color. I used to claim pink because I was/am a rather girly individual, but I can no longer constrain my vast appreciation for colors in general.  I really, really love sherbert orange...I think it is gorgeous.  I am also a big fan of most greats and teals.  Orange and purple have a special place in my heart thanks to my devotion to Clemson University.  I mean, really, I'm just not too picky.

{cuatro}

I am a chronic over-analyzer.  This often gets me into trouble when I think WAY too much about some things...like the best way to enter a pool, or the best position to put your steering wheel in when parking, or...there are just too many things.

{cinco}

I cry more in movies when animals get shot than when people do.  I know this is a very controversial allegiance, but it isn't that I care more about animals than human beings.  I just know that the horse did not CHOOSE to ride into battle.  And, therefore, it seems totally unjust for the other team to take the strategy of shooting the horse rather than the rider.  The rider was informed.  Plus, I know he's just an actor.  That horse might really believe it's been shot.

{seis}

I danced ballet for 10 years, and I miss it like crazy!  My senior year of high school I had to go to physical therapy when my knees started acting up.  After that, I just never really got to dance a lot anymore.  Up until that time, I took about 5-6 classes a week (+rehearsals about half the year).  My ballet teacher was an amazing women who loved God, loved her students, and loved ballet.  She taught us so many valuable lessons, and she gave us the opportunity to make ourselves great...to persevere and work hard...to make something beautiful.  Sigh.  I love ballet.

And now for the really good stuff....

The award goes to...

Cole at Letters from Coco

M at Life and Times of Mrs Blimes

Anne at Bibelot

Mandy at 2 Sweet Things

Congrats, guys! :)

great quote

I have an irrepressible desire to live till I can be assured that the world is a little better for my having lived in it

-Abraham Lincoln

a test, an anniversary, and a zumba-experiment

In one word or phrase...relieved. and expectant. oops...two words! but both are much needed.

I'm dreaming of you...long hair. You are so elusive. It has been months, and you have still not arrived. At least I'm getting closer and closer to you. Perhaps this long wait will help me to never take you for granted once you've arrived!

Song on repeat...Kingdom Come by Elevation Church. It is such a beautiful song with such wonderful words. Check it out. Check, check, check it out.

Gotta write it down..."Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed" -Proverbs 16:3

Lesson learned...no amount of worry or preparation can really prepare you for a big moment. In this week, I got some major test scores back AND celebrated my second wedding anniversary. I thought I was prepared for both. And both still blew me away. The first, with such huge relief. And the second, with such sweetness and with so many great memories. Aaaahhh...thank goodness life isn't always what we plan or prepare for!

Picture to frame

taken by Cameron Leslie, who we ran into while on our anniversary date night!

He was doing a photo shoot downtown and was nice enough to snap a few photos of us as well!

Highlight of the week...watching Last Comic Standing with my amazing husband. There is nothing like laughing your head off with your best friend to make the world seem right.

Weekend to do list...

1. Go to the BEACH! :) Don't worry, I'll lather on some hearty spf before facing the rays.
2. Zumbathon on Saturday morning! woohoo! I just started Zumba this week, and I really enjoy it. I can't wait to dance off those calories for a cause!
3. Group date night. These are probably some of the best nights ever. Can't wait.
4. Having our missions team take over the main services at church this weekend. We're showing video from our trip to Mexico, performing a really powerful drama, and sharing our experiences and our heart with our whole church! What an awesome opportunity :)

snakes!

So this morning I woke up to my friend and neighbor Eryc calling to tell me that there was something in our yard Mikey and I might want to see.  Snakes hatching in our hard!!!  Having far more curiosity than Mikey, I jumped out of bed, brushed my teeth, and headed outside...only to find Eryc and our neighbor on the other side staring at a small hole in the ground.

We eventually discovered that what looked like a hatched snake egg was actually an eaten snake egg.  And there were four more healthy eggs in a small hole.  We had to decide whether to let the little baby snakes live or whether to kill them.  Our street has a creek/ditch along our back fences, and we have a lot of cotton mouths...very poisonous and very mean! So we decided it was wisest for Eryc to dispose of the remaining eggs.  I felt so bad.

THEN, after he'd dug them up and whatnot, Eryc found out that cotton mouths give LIVE BIRTH! So we likely killed poor little good snake babies.  There is always the possibility that they could have been dangerous, and with all of the young children on our street, we didn't want to risk it.  But still! I just hate that anything had to die.  At least now we can feel just a little bit safer! I'm not sure how I'd have felt walking out in the yard one morning only to find tiny snakes everywhere...even if they weren't poisonous!

anniversary weekend miscellany

(1) ain't love grand? Thursday through Sunday, Mikey and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary! We went out to dinner, went to the beach, went to a pool party, watched good movies we've been wanting to see, walked around downtown, went to the park, and celebrated father's day with our families! It was such a fun and FULL weekend.  And it was a WONDERFUL way to celebrate two years of being hitched to my best friend, my live-in rockstar, and the man of my dreams.  Happy anniversary, Mikey!!

(2)  taking group jump pictures is tough work.  We tried to take a group shot jumping into the pool when we were swimming and enjoying the summer on Saturday, and it took multiple attempts.  I just realized that the best one where "everyone" is in the air is missing Mikey...he's just a little splash in the pool!

(3) Shutter Island is excellent! It was slightly disturbing, and I couldn't watch some more spooky parts...BUT it was very interesting and had a great twist ending.  I was enthralled the whole time.  Edge-of-the-seat level cinematography :) 

(4) Does anybody know when "How to Train Your Dragon" comes out on DVD???  I have been really, really wanting to see it since it came out.  Now, I'm just waiting on pins and needles for any news.  I am so out of the movie loop apparently.  Has anyone seen it? Is it truly as wonderful as I've heard??

I hope everyone has an excellent week! Head over to Carissa's blog to join in on the miscellaneous fun if you're interested! Just click on the button below :)  And be sure to congratulate her on the newest addition to her family! :)

boundless

Lately, I've been thinking a whole stinkin lot about the hugeness of my Savior.
And His grace.

And His love.

For me.

And I am blown away.

We were singing this song the other night at church:

Your love is deeper than any ocean

Higher than the heavens reaches

Than all the stars in the sky

Jesus, Your love has no bounds

Jesus, Your love has no bounds

Your love is deep

Your love is wide

Your love is great

Your love is high

Your love is all we ever need!

Your love is all we ever need!

And God, once again, reminded me of the HUGENESS of His love for this world.

Not just for me.

But for you.

And for the people you love.

And for the people you don't even like.

I thought of this world being like a snow globe.

And I realized that I normally think of God's love in this world being like the snow.

It's lovely and beautiful.

It could settle on anything, but it still leaves some parts of the little snow-globe-world empty.

Then I started thinking maybe His love is like the water.

It fills up every empty space, leaves nothing uncovered.

There.  That sounds more right.

And then I started to realize that if God's love is the water, then He just touches the surfaces of the world inside the snow globe...He doesn't permeate every part.

So I realized that it is not where God fits inside the snow globe.

God's love IS the snow globe and everything in it.

His love is everything.

Whatever the tiny homes and people and things are made out of...its God's love.

Whatever is surrounding their little lives...its God's love.

The sky, the water, the grass...God's love.

Everything.

God's love is everywhere.

It is higher than the heavens.

It is deeper than the oceans.

It is not a sprinkle that touches our world in some places.

It is not a blanket that rests on top of our whole world.

It is IN and AROUND everything.

His love has no bounds.

There is nowhere I can run to escape from it.

There is nothing I can do to remove myself from it.

It permeates my life and this world.

(Romans 8:38-39!)

Now that's a love I can believe in.

And trust in.

And give my life to.