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:

At A Loss for Words

A few weeks ago, I got to shoot my first proposal and it was awesome! I was so excited and so nervous at the same time. I was NOT supposed to be seen. I was on the beach, it was windy, my umbrella was broken, it was trying to turn inside out, I was trying to hold a camera. STRUGGLE. But it was so exciting to see two of my great friends walking hand-in-hand down the beach, totally and completely in love. My heart was melting the whole time! When they reached "the spot," I snapped about 100 photos and grabbed my stuff to scurry away as fast as I could to head to the surprise engagement party after. (I barely beat them there!) Here the some of my favorites:

The fun begins...

...actually not so much. Today was my first day of classes. I thought I would humor you (mainly myself) with a list of things that brought me joy and pain today.

1. I got out of my car and the first person I saw was my Econ professor from last semester whose final I failed and whose class I barely came out of with a C... Should I have been embarrassed? Probably not, but I turned as red as a tomato.

2. I saw my first trip of the semester within 30 seconds of walking out of the parking garage. I love the uneven sidewalks of downtown when I am not the one tripping...

3. I witnessed my first "rough night" conversation between two very hungover sorority girls.

4. I heard the usual "did you go out last night" and "where'd you end up last night" questions at least 5 times on my short walk from the parking garage to my first class.

5. I saw three girls, who had to be freshman (no one else would put themselves through this torture if they weren't freshmen who didn't know), wearing 5 inch heals and mini skirts to their classes.

6. My history teacher is French. He has an accent and pronounces 'renaissance' in a way that will melt your heart. He also cracks corny jokes, which is the best.

7. I couldn't tell if my Ethics teacher was a boy or a girl, due to the shave head and mohawk. It was a girl, and her name is Ornaith. I actually love her now.

8. The girl next to me threw her water bottle in the trash can when I wasn't expecting it. She startled the whole class, but of course, I was the only one who let out an embarrassing squeal. That surely was an icebreaker, as everyone got a good laugh out of it!

9. I didn't know a single person in any of my classes and it reminded me of how popular I am............

10. I found out my Public Health class is all presentations in front of the class. There isn't anything that gives me more anxiety than speaking in front of my class. GREAT.

Let the games begin! 

Big spendinnn

Not really big spending, but I like how legit that sounds when you sing it slowly. haha. Friday was a big day for me! I bought my first car. For the past 4 years I have been driving my moms car and she has been driving one of my grandmother's cars. This summer, my sister got her license and just screwed everything up- thanks sis! So we were short cars and then my grandmother's car that we were borrowing went into the shop for two weeks and I was stuck at home a lot without a car and it was just terrible. Needless to say, we needed a car. My parents and I had talked for a while about me saving up and buying a car, and the time finally came. We had been looking for a few weeks, but we kept coming back to the same car. So on Friday, I went on down to the dealership, slapped a down payment on that baby, signed a million papers, and now I own a car. Woop woop!

Meet Chiquita:

Yes, I did name her after a word we used all the time in Honduras. It means "little one." She can remind me of all my ninos chiquitos in Honduras.

Calendar Girl

Yesterday I made this great and easy calendar that works with a dry erase marker. I went with the girls I nanny and gathered all of the supplies. We made it all the way home before the inevitable happened- Kelsey stepped on my poster frame and put a large crack in it. Thus, my project was delayed a day and I had to go purchase a new frame! I saw this on Pinterest of course, and here's the pin. Here's how you can have one of your own:

What you need:
- a poster board frame from Target or Walmart
-35 paint sample chips from Lowes or Home Depot
- white card stock paper
-sharpie
-spray glue
-masking tape
-fabric of your choice (optional)

1. Remove the contents from the poster board frame so that you have the cardboard insert. Using spray glue, cover the cardboard with your fabric. (you may choose to use paper or even just a regular poster board)
2. Lay your paint chips into 5 rows with 7 in each row. Create a header for the name of the month (leave it blank) and the days of the week out of the white card stock. I also made a notes section because I had some extra space. (I used a paper cutter to remove the words from each or my paint chips so that the name and number weren't visible for the final product).
3. Tape all of the paint chips and paper into place. (You may also choose to use the fabric glue again).
4. Assemble the frame back together and there you have it!

There is a lot of freedom in this, so be creative!

halfway through trimming the words off of the paint chips

Sorry for the blurry pictures, I had to resort to using my phone!

Me encanta Honduras

I couldn't wait any longer, so this morning I woke up and finished my Honduras board like I talked about in this post. Here are the pics:

 

the finished product!