Thanksgiving 2012

I know I am little late, and Christmas is only 13 days away... Yes, you heard right, 13 days! I don't know where the time has gone, but I am thankful it is going quickly because the faster Christmas comes the sooner I get back to the place my heart holds dear: Honduras! I will be going back to Honduras the day after Christmas, and it has been an interesting journey, but I will save that for another time. You should check out my album on Facebook with some of my art, and consider purchasing one for a Christmas gift! The money goes towards funding my trip and the work I will be doing when I'm there. Thanks!

Now back to the Thanksgiving. Here are some photos from this year:

My grandma is cuter than yours..

...and the Thanksgiving presentation begins...

Singing our Thanksgiving song, props and all.

Girl cousins!

Love this woman

Love this girl, and she is engaged!! so excited!

Cupcakes

I did some baking recently, and have decided to become a baked goods decorator... just kidding, but I did have a lot of fun making these cute cupcakes.

What you need:
-Cupcake mix
-Icing
-1 bag of mini marsh-mellows
-sugar
-Ziplocs
-food coloring
-chocolate chips


Make the cupcakes, ice them, then comes the fun part.

Cut the marsh-mellows in half diagonally using scissors. The inside of the marsh-mellows will be sticky.

Place a couple of spoons of sugar in each Ziploc, along with two or three drops of the food coloring. Shake until all the sugar is covered and you have the color you want.

Dip the sticky sides of the marsh-mellows in the sugar. Now you have your petals.

Place the petals on the iced cupcakes started from the outside and working your way in. Place the flat side of the marsh-mellow on the icing. You can put from chocolate chips for the center of the flowers as well. 

 There you go! They are cute AND they taste yummy!

ENJOY!

Hablo español!

Today, someone I met in Honduras this summer messaged me on Facebook. It said "hola Maria como estas hablas espanol verdad?", which means, "Hey Maria (what they call me in HN), how are you, you speak Spanish right?" Well gosh, of course I don't speak Spanish, well only a little bit and not very well. But what did I say back?- "Si, hablo espanol." Much to my surprise, I have been able to keep the conversation alive and he actually understands what I am saying! WOOHOO.

This may not seem that great to you, but this is just the encouragement that the good Lord above knew I needed this week. I have been a little anxious lately because I am not fluent in Spanish and man do I want to be. I go back to Honduras in December (52 days away, eek!), and I really want to be able to speak to anyone I come in contact with. This is hard when I get 100s on everything in Spanish class and feel like I'm not learning anything at all. But behold, my month in Honduras this past summer has helped me out in the end, because this guy understands what I am saying. Hallelujah.

Engagement: Michael and Diane

I just LOVE these two! This is the first engagement session that I have done, and it was such a blast! I loved shooting these two, not only because they are examples of the love of Jesus and what it is like to walk in faith, but they are just so beautiful! Here they are:

I'm a sailin' machine

Have you ever had that serious adrenaline rush where you are terrified and completely pumped at the same time? That's how I felt when I went sailing yesterday. My roomie (not really my roomie anymore because my grandma is my roomie now, but I will always refer to her as my roomie), Clair and I took the 420 out into the river midday. After some struggles getting the sails and lines all straight from the last person who didn't put it away correctly, we were pretty frustrated. Comments were made that we might start 'cursing like sailors'... yeah, we thought we were pretty pun-ny too. We made it off the dock and were FLYING. I have never traveled so fast in a sailboat before. And I have only crewed once in my life. So with my lovely skipper, we went up and down and up and down the river. And we were hikin' out like so:

It was a blast and there were many times when my facial expression went from laughing to a look of straight up terror when I thought we were going to flip. Needless to say, I survived and had a BLAST.

My Strange Addiction

I wouldn't necessarily call it an addiction, but it sure is getting pretty close. I really don't go shopping that much, but when I do, I really go for it. And not usually at the name brand stores- I am a wannabe thrifter. Goodwill is my favorite store. Some of you are probably really grossed out right now. I don't care. I'm all for hand-me-downs that only cost $3. Yesterday, I did my weekly goodwill trip. I got a cart this time. When you see someone at Goodwill with a cart, you know they are legitimately shopping. Legit shopping at Goodwill doesn't really happen often with kiddos my age. Most people go to find something for a $5 prom or an 80s party. But not I. Half of my wardrobe is from that glorious place. I was only slightly embarrassed to have a cart full of clothes when I saw a bunch of Bishop England students shopping for 'tacky tourist' day of spirit week. I got about $800 worth of clothes for $50! I was so excited that I told everyone I saw yesterday. And then went a step further and showed them all of my purchases. Here's what I got because I just can't wait to tell you:

Gap jeans

Gap jorts

Roxy shirt

J-Crew jacket

J-Crew shirt

Old Navy dress 

$435 designer dress (with tags still on it!)

Gap dress

Marshall's dress

Old Navy vest

Talbots sweater

Theme shirt

Anyways, that is all I have to say for now. Bargain shopping is the way to go, people. Do it. 

When it rains it pours

Yesterday was an interesting day for my family... Something went wrong for every member. My sister got in a car accident on the way to school. My brother went to the doctor because he is really really sick. My mom's phone broke and she is phone-less. My dad started a small fire in the kitchen after work. So basically I better watch out- I'm next!

Answered Prayers

Disclaimer: This is going to start out kind of like a pity party, but hang in there for the end if you can.

If you know me well, then you know that I have been praying for quite some time for one particular thing- that thing being community. After transferring to the College of Charleston during my freshman year, I had a pretty good first semester and met a lot of really awesome people. Unfortunately, despite a very small few people who have remained constant in my life from that semester, I didn't have a strong sense of belonging with any of the people I had met. I wondered what was wrong with my personality and why people didn't want to hang out with me. I tried making friends, hanging out with people occasionally, trying to keep in touch, with no success. Realizing that there wasn't anything wrong with me, I turned to God for some assistance (which of course should have been my first thought). I have been praying for almost two and a half years for a community of people who love the Lord and will love me too. I asked some people to intercede for me in prayer as well.  As I mentioned in my last post, I recently started going to a new (to me) campus ministry at CofC in hopes that I would finally connect with someone! This past weekend we had a retreat in Garden City and I was a little nervous going into it without knowing many people AT ALL. One of the talks this weekend mentioned the part in John 15, where it is written that God is the vine and we are the branches and apart from God we can do nothing. After two and a half years of praying and abiding, my prayers are finally bearing fruit. AMEN to that! This past weekend was an emotional one, as I connected with and grew close to so many people who share with me the common goal of living like Jesus did and being bold in faith and love. I made so many friends and I can't wait to continue to share my life with them. Thank the Lord He came through, because I got tired of telling people that I have no friends... ha.

I am so so encouraged today, and I know that the Lord hears and answers. Even though I doubted often and was beyond discouraged at times, the Lord didn't fail me when I didn't give up. He knows all of the desires of my heart, and I desire daily to love Him more and love others with the love He has for me.

Keep on praying y'all!

Things been happenin, y'all

So recently, some exciting things have been happening in my life. Since I like lists, I will make one for you to tell you all of them (there aren't many, so don't get too excited yet).

1. I have recently started going to a new campus ministry (new to me) and have been meeting some awesome new people. Yay God for answering my 'community' prayers!

2. We won our intramural volleyball game two nights ago after a serious comeback, so that was exciting... kinda.

3. I get to go on a retreat this coming weekend and I can say it has been a LONG time since I have been on a spiritual retreat. I AM PUMPED.

4. Last night one of the girls I love dearly at the children's home I worked at this summer in Honduras chatted me on facebook! I was just about to sign off when her "hola, como esta" popped up at the bottom of the page. I'll admit to you that I immediately started crying. Crying has been a recent reaction to anything I see or hear related to Honduras.

5. Today I starting working on my plans to return to Honduras in December! I am so beyond ready to be back there I can barely stand it.

6. I am taking two health classes this semester, one of them being global health. I am loving this class, as it gives me an excuse to look up facts and statistics about foreign countries all the time. I bet you can guess which country I choose every time.... I'm sure my teacher is beginning to see some bias, although I like to think of it as a centralized passion for a particular geographic area, people, and culture. :)

Side note: Yes, I did just use a smiley face in a blog post and I am not ashamed.

Side side note: I also do not apologize for the last three numbers all being about Honduras. It's a great place, y'all.

7. I AM EXERCISING AGAIN. This deserves all-caps because this is a huge deal. After leaving my previous college where I played collegiate volleyball, I went on a "no-exercising" streak that lasted about...uh... 2 years? Due to my college aerobic class (yes, I take aerobics for college credit...) and playing volleyball for the CofC Club team, I am slowly getting back to normal. And by normal I mean not having an asthma attack walking up three flights of stairs.

8. I got to get dinner and reconnect with a friend of mine two nights ago after a long time of disconnection. So thankful for that rekindling!

9. The girls I nanny got a puppy a few weeks ago and I love her. Her name is Chloe and she entertains me when I am babysitting until 12:30 AM. She is such a little white fluff ball!

That's about all I have for the moment. With that being said, I've been feeling good about Romans 8:28 lately. Sometimes I really doubt that verse and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Be encouraged and know that the Lord really does work all things for good for those who love Him.

A month of celebration

I don't think any family has more birthdays in one month than mine. My dad, grandma, uncle, two of my cousins, and I celebrated our birthdays this past month. When you are in a family that likes to celebrate every occasion, this leads to a lot of family parties. It has been a fun and busy month, and I actually feel popular for once in my life thanks to all these get-togethers. Here are some memories I captured this month: