Burning with passion

My heart is burning with passion for my Savior. The past few weeks I have been overcome with His love for me. This semester I have just been going along, living each day for myself: planning my wedding, working, and going to school. My Savior desires so much more for my life. I have been reading the book of Isaiah lately and today came across one of my favorite verses...

"Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts." ~Isaiah 26:8

This is my desire. I want my entire life to be about His name and renown. Every minute of every day--should be His.

acid reflux sucks!

I must be a true Ashlee Simpson fan...suffering with acid reflux right along with her. It sucks.

3 more days until Matt & I see Ashlee Simpson in concert! Wow--I'm so freakin excited!

Not too much has been going on lately.

Matt called his doctor & got some new medicine so hopefully it will help.

Matt & I decided to go to Charleston for our honeymoon. We were planning on going to New Orleans but we figured we wouldn't have much time to do all we wanted to and it would be cheaper to go to Charleston. I'm excited. I love Charleston!

I am so tired of classes and schoolwork. I'm so ready for this summer...so I can get married and play with little kids all day!

My family (minus my brother) spent Easter afternoon at the Parks' house eating and talking wedding plans. We had a nice time. Things seem to be going very well with all the family stuff. And Matt's mom is buying us a really nice bedroom set for our wedding present!

Today I signed up for a free 14 day trial of Napster and it is super-dee-duper.

That's the end of tonights blogging.

Isaiah 53:5-6

"But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

--Isaiah 53:5-6

Wow--nothing else needs to be said.

is there anyone out there?

So, as you can figure, I have a million things to do for school but I'm sitting here updating, just like any other college student would do. I feel like writing bullet style today.

• I went to David's Bridal with Kelly this afternoon to buy her wedding dress. It is geourgeous and she looks like a beautiful princess!
• Kelly's gonna borrow my tiara for her wedding--I'm excited that I get to share it with her!
• This wedding planning stuff is a whole lot funner now that Kelly's engaged.
• Paul Edinger is one pretty cool kid.
• Spring Break went by super fast and I feel like I didn't do anything but sleep (which really is the truth).
• Sleep is my idol.
• Matt finally went to the doctor and got a bunch of medicine, but he's still sick. Boo!
• I have been drinking lots of Light Hawaiian Punch lately. Yum!
• We had a sleepover at the "club" (aka gym) last Friday and it was tons of fun. Tamica, Joce, & I got to play lots of silly games!
• My mom bought me a new cookbook and I'm really excited about it! Matt is excited too because now I'm going to cook for him.
• I've been baby-sitting more and I'm so glad. I really have missed it. I'm going to keep Caleb, Sarah, & two of their friends all day Friday so that will be an adventure. Those are some crazy kids!
• My desire for learning how to surf has come back. I really want to go to the beach and take lessons. That would be freakin awesome.
• I wish I was going to see Maroon 5 tomorrow night in Charlotte. But it's all good because in two more weeks I get to see Ashlee Simpson!
• I'm upset because I cannot find the wheels, trucks, & hardware for my skateboard (I took them off a while back). I really want to skate and don't want to buy more!
• Last Friday I went up to the Charlotte Coliseum with my mom to watch Duke & UNC in their practice rounds for the NCAA tournamant. I thought it was pretty cool.
• 75 days until my wedding! Woowee!
• I want people to comment on my blog.

Think I should go do some schoolwork now? Guess so.

the laziness of this week

It's spring break & I'm being totally lazy. I didn't have to work today, but of course I woke up at 7 am anyway. Dumb internal alarm clock. I was able to go back to sleep around 8 and slept until noon. How nice. Then my mom & I went to go make my final invitation order. Yay! Everything's coming together. (uh oh! as i am typing this a little tiny bug is crawling on my screen! now it just flew away! haha!) Okay, back to today. I then went to my parent's house to do a little laundry. I headed to church around 3:45 pm to babysit Robin & Missy's kids. We had a nice little time, especially when Lexy & Sarah decided to dump all of their goldfish in their cups of water. Cute kids. Then it was time to work nursery. I hung out in the baby room for a while--totally overstaffed with 5 adults and 2 babies. We talked about school accredidation, the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, the Amazing Race, playing pranks on husbands, and acid reflux. What fun. After a while I headed down to Robin's office b/c my payroll paperwork had somehow gotten misplaced & I needed to re-do some of it. So Robin & I sat in her office for a good long while just chatting & watching funny videos on the internet. And Robin was wearing her 'nigga shoes (Saucony) tonight...she cracks me up! So, I definitely got paid for doing nothing. Hey, it's cool.

I have this urge to buy something on ebay. I used to be such an ebay addict. I miss it. Ebay is superdeeduperwonderful! Okay I'm a dork & just bid on the latest Jump Little Children cd. It came out last year but I've been slack & still haven't gotten it. Just found it on ebay for 8 cents. Holla!

I've decided that there are three things I really want to do before I die...
1. hike the entire Appalacian Trail
2. go backpacking across Europe
3. work in an orphanage in Africa

Yeah--hope those dreams become reality one day.

Ahh! That bug is back!

Okay, I'm off to watch Will & Grace. Love that show.

This is Matt's dad flying his apache in Iraq. 

Here's the chocolate fountain I'm having for my wedding!  

Spring is in the air!

Everyone is getting engaged!

Congrats to Paul & Kelly!

(and everyone else)

Spring Break!

I've finished my SCWK 432 paper and now it's officially spring break for me! Woo hoo! I still have to work at the post office & Westminster nursery but that's not much. I had the most horrible day yesterday and I'm so glad I don't have to worry about school for a few days. I still have a lot of schoolwork to do over break, but I'm not worrying about it now.

Monday afternoon my Mom & I are driving to Columbia to meet with my caterer. I'm excited about that. I also ordered my wedding invitations this past week. I like them a lot.

I just want to go to sleep now. I'm going to go turn my paper in & then take a nap before going to the gym. My poor roomie, Kristi, has only gotten 9 hours of sleep total this week. Those crazy art professors are about to kill her.

I've been learning a lot about covenants in the Bible lately--through my Old Testament class and Jeff Ferguson. Growing up Baptist, I never really knew the importance of the covenants that God made with those in the Bible. It's exciting for me to look at these as I'm about to enter a covenant marraige. My mom and I were discussing last night how marraige is so much more than signing a piece of paper for the state, but it is a covenant with God and the person you are marrying.

I may have found a job for this summer. Robin Madden & this other lady at church want me to watch their kids this summer. That'd be cool. I like keeping kids during the summer because you can take them places and do lots of fun stuff.

Guess that's it for now. I'm headed to Bancroft to turn in my paper.

it's march already?

Where did February go? I have no clue but what I do know is that my wedding is in 95 days! How scary is that?! We still have so much to do and so little time.

Today is Matt & my 10 month anniversary. That's not really that long considering we're getting married. Some people still think we're crazy for getting married so soon, especially since I'm still in school. But when you know, you know. And that's how it goes. My friend Meredith & her fiance have been dating 7 years and they are getting married in November! Now that's some patience!

I just finished the first half of my english exam. It was a killer. I'm dreading the discussion part on Thursday.

I have recently become more and more aware of my stubbornness. Never in my life would I have said that I was a stubborn person, but I'm 'fessing up to it now. Matt & I have these dumb arguements over dumb little things (example--how much water to boil when making macaroni, whether to go to bojangles or not, etc.) and through these arguements I have now realized I am extremely stubborn. Both Matt & I are both stubborn & sometimes won't take the time to listen to the other person--we just keep arguing our point. We always resolve it within minutes and it becomes a laughing matter, but still...it kills me that I am as stubborn as I am. Guess this is what marraige is gonna be all about...learning new things about yourself and dealing with them!

So, I am hardcore dieting & exercising for the wedding. I've decided I'm gonna lose all this weight for the wedding & then after the wedding get fat again. Wanna know why I'm gonna get fat again? Because Matt & I did our budget the other day & it's gonna be extremely tight...therefore we're gonna be eating lots of ramen & macaroni & cheese. There go the carbs.

Wanna know something funny? I can't go a single day without spilling something on me. Let's see...Thursday=ketchup & eggs at Waffle House, Friday=syrup at my house, Saturday=honey mustard at Longhorn's, Sunday=honey mustard at church...but I don't think I spilled anything on myself yesterday or today (yet)! Yay! I'm a big girl now! :)

wedding stuff

Many of you keep asking who my caterer is and stuff. So, why don't you just check out her website. http://www.southerngourmetcatering.net/home.html

And if you wanna go to my photographer's website go here. http://www.carolinadigitalphotography.com/

So that's my wedding. And the food is gonna be real good...and I'm gonna have a chocolate fountain! Heck yeah!

raindrops on roses

It's been a great weekend. Very busy but fun.

Friday morning I went to work & then headed home to spend some time with my family and do laundry. I ended up spending the entire rest of the day with them, which was great. After Matt got off work he came over to my parents house and we ate pancakes for dinner. Yum!

Saturday I had to work the nursery at Westminster from 9 am-12pm. We had four kids--two fourth graders, a six-month old and a one-year old. The babies were great and so adorable. Then Matt & I headed to Pineville for lunch & shopping at Old Navy. We went to Rafferty's for lunch which was good but a little expensive for us being that we're on a really tight budget. Then we went to Old Navy & I got a few things. Later on we headed to Columbia with Matt's mom & Aunt Karen (aka Crazy Aunt Karen) for dinner with the Army Aviation Association, Jimmy Doolittle Chapter. Matt's mom was invited by some friends in honor of Mr. Parks. The dinner meeting was held at Longhorn's. Oh yeah, it was delicious. There was a speaker there, some guy who talked about helping Latin America. Out of his 45 minute talk all I understood was that many Latin Americans live in extreme poverty and are illiterate. After the meeting we headed back up & I came home and went to bed. I was pooped.

Today we had church & the college luncheon. I really enjoyed college luncheon because Matt & I sat with two families with young children. We had a lot of good conversation and the kids were adorable.

Then tonight we had Financial Peace where we learned about insurance. I'm still a little boggled by it all. I'm so ignorant about all of this stuff. Then we had our engaged couples Bible study with Jeff which was wonderful. I always enjoy spending time with Jason, Christen, Matt, & Stephanie. It makes me feel good that other couples are going through all we are.

So I'm sure this is the most boring entry ever.

Right now I feel pretty distant from a lot of people. I am so busy and it seems like I don't have any time just to hang out with anyone anymore. I miss spending time with people. Sometimes I feel like nobody wants to hang out anymore just because me & Matt are engaged. Yeah we're getting married but I still want to hang out with everyone else. I want to hang out with the girls without Matt. I want to hang out with my roomies. It just sucks because we are all so busy.

My dad is still searching for a job. It's been almost a year. That is so discouraging. I can't even imagine how my dad feels. He got two more rejection letters yesterday and sent out two more resumes. He didn't get one job just because he doesn't have a masters in social work, even though he has 22 years of experience working in the social work field. That scares me.

Matt & I have all of these random thoughts for our future. I am now realizing that I will have to go to grad school. We may stay here & I can go to Winthrop for grad school. We may move to Tennessee (Nashville or Memphis) & I could go to UT. That would be incredible. We may head down to Florida. We have no clue. We are definitely open to anything though.

Okay, I guess this is a long enough random entry. Bye for now.

I'm back!

I've decided I'm gonna update in this thing again...as well as myspace. Here's the lowdown on me...

Only 100 days until I get married.
I'm thinking about going to grad school (University of Tennessee maybe?).
I love being a social work major.
I'm now working in the nursery at Westminster and Forest Hill.
My room is a crazy mess & I need to clean it.
On Saturday I'm going to Columbia with Matt & his mom for a Doo Little Raiders dinner.
I've been working out with Joce at Impact Xpress Fitness and it's a lot of fun (Holly & Tam Tam are going there too).
Matt & I are apartment searching.
I gave up french fries for Lent.
I really want to cut & dye my hair but I'm gonna wait until after the wedding.
I'm going to see Ashlee Simpson on April 2nd.
I ate both boxes of my girl scout cookies and now I feel deprived.
I need to do laundry real bad.
I've been a huge slacker this week.

Guess that's it for now.

what hotties! and yes, that is Jeremy Camp!!! 

hot girls! 

holla! 

Haning out at the Bobcats game 

Wedding shopping!

Today I tried on wedding dresses. Wow! That is crazy yet really exciting! I tried on some very simple yet elegant ones as well as big fru fru ones. I'm definitely a simple girl. I found one that I really like, but of course I'm gonna look around some more before I decide. We went into the Bridal shop on Celanese and got bombarded by this short chunky little Korean lady who said she used to design clothes for Brooke Shields. That lady was hilarious but after a while she gave me a headache. When I was trying on one dress I made the comment that I have no boobs, so her she comes "I've got some for you" and hands me some pads to stick in my bra. It was funny. Anyway, the dress I really like I found at the Bridal and Formal Gallery on Charlotte Ave. And the ladies there were extremely nice and helpful. So, I had a fun afternoon of wedding shopping with my mom.

182 days!

Me & Matt 

BIG NEWS!

In 187 days I will be getting married. That's right, Matt & I will be getting married on May 28th at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Finally, we have a for real date! And the wonderful thing about it is that his dad will possibly be able to come home for the wedding! Yay! So, to all our friends, mark your calendars!