Probably Similar to That Time I Saw the Queen...

"Notice the speed of the motorcade:

No faster than a grown man with a gun can walk."


Nice.



There's a lot of excitement out there today. My first class was dismissed early so that my professor could go home and watch President Obama's inauguration.

Obama just got out of his car in the parade to walk and people are losing their minds...

An article which my Uncle brought to my attention:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/article2141868.ece

Oh, for the Love

Oliver, one of my roommate's cats (the one on the right), is standing on me right now, kneading my muffin top. I wish he knew how rude it was to point out people's trouble areas. It is a little inspiring though. I gained 8 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's. Eat much? Just saying... Also, funny story. When I was working at The Write Touch (a stationary, gift, and wedding invitation shop in Houston), a woman came into the store after lunch one day and began the longest stream of one-sided conversation I have ever heard. I walked through the store with her and went back and forth to the front counter to set her things down. When I began to ring up her sale, I kid you not, she reached across the counter and put her hand on my stomach and asked me how far along I was... I honestly...just could not find the words to tell her anything. I am rarely completely speechless, but homegirl just let all the air out of my balloon in one swoop. It wasn't even a question, just an assumption that I was. And she touched me! Reached over a barrier and put her hand on me. Is there an unspoken rule about strangers being able to touch pregnant bellies? I wasn't pregnant, just for the record. And I'm not a big girl, so when I gain weight it shows every time. I went to the backroom after she left and did a quick evaluation. My co-worker was doubled over, breathless, and crying when I told her what happened. I was not amused. I can laugh about it now, but I still don't ever wear that blouse. Too bad; it looks good on the hanger.


I want to paste the last two devotionals I've read (yesterday's and today's) from God Calling. It's my roommate's copy so I don't read it consistently. But if it's lying around I'll scoop it up. If you've never checked it out, I highly recommend it. It is Holy Spirit breathed and inspired and I take something away from it almost every time.


January 17:
"Silence. Be silent before Me. Seek to know, and then to do My will in all things.
Abide in My Love. An atmosphere of loving understanding to all men. This is your part to carry out, and then I surround you with a protective screen that keeps all evil from you. It is fashioned by your own attitude of mind, words, and deeds, towards others.
I want to give you all things, good measure, pressed down and running over. Be quick to learn. You know little yet of the Divine Impatience which longs to rush to give. Does one worrying thought enter your mind, one impatient thought? Fight it at once.
Love and Trust are the solvents for the worry and cares and frets of a life. Apply them at once. You are channels and though the channel may not be altogether blocked, fret and worry corrode, and in time would become beyond your help
Persevere, oh! persevere. Never lose heart. All is well."

January 18:
"Pray daily for Faith. It is My Gift.
It is your only requisite for the accomplishment of mighty deeds. Certainly you have to work, you have to pray, but upon Faith alone depends the answer to your prayers--your works.
I give it you in response to your prayer, because it is the necessary weapon for you to possess for the dispersion of evil,--the overcoming of all adverse conditions, and the accomplishment of all good in your lives, and then you having Faith, give it back to Me. It is the envelope in which every request to Me should be placed.
And yet "Faith without works is dead." So you need works, too, to feed your Faith in Me. As you seek to do, you feel your helplessness. You then turn to Me. In knowing Me, your faith grows--and that faith is all you need for My Power to work."


Meditate on those and take much away, my friends. And then go get the book.
I've been struggling this new year to have my quiet time. For whatever reason, I haven't worked out a schedule in this new house and have therefore been off my game, so to speak. I honestly struggle so much throughout the day when I have not spent time with the Lord. All of my awfulness comes pouring out in abundance and I end the day frustrated and chastising myself for my hateful attitude and unsettled heart. I know the cause of my frustration, but then the next day I don't take even a few minutes to converse with God. The extent of my disobedience amazes me sometimes. And not in a good way. This past week I have made a huge effort to change this and have almost established a schedule. Classes kick off on Tuesday and I think that will really help.

Holy Birthday Cake, Batman!

I thought I would be a little creative and change up my blog.

I'm happy with the end result. I'm surprised how long it took me though! I need to practice html code more. I had to find a template online because I couldn't remember a lot of things. So here's my tribute to Spring, which will be happening in approximately 2.4 weeks. I love Texas!

[And I think birthday cake sounds divine right now!]

We Moved!

Now that we are in our new house and our internet has finally been set up, I will try to keep things up to date! (Ha! Yeah, right!)

So, since Christmas I have been busy [with the exception of the last several days, which have been devastatingly un-busy]. Classes start again on the 21st, so I have been on vacay for about a month and a half (sigh, such a hard life. Right after Christmas I came back to Austin and started packing up the old house and moving things over one car load at a time. I think the seats in my SUV were folded down for about 3 weeks straight. I finally cleaned out the back of my car and set them back up on Sunday. The moving went pretty smoothly and then for the next week or so I unpacked everything into the new house. I hung some framed pictures on the wall in the entryway and living room yesterday so it's feeling a little more put together. I'll try to take and upload some pictures of the new house. I haven't had batteries for my digital camera in over a year (at least). We're also working on a day for a house-warming party, so if you're in the Austin area, keep an eye out for our e-vite.

Also today I tried to pull a cactus out of the ground. I didn't know it was a cactus until it was too late. That was painful. I'll probably have to dig it up along with the little berry trees that are right next to it. I'm hoping to clear the front beds out and put some flowers and maybe some tomato plants in. The front of our house needs a little spice. It is easily one of the ugliest houses on the street...but not for long!

Take care friends!

Re-dial

I love Christmastime. I just love it! Love me some holiday songs, hot chocolate, wrapping presents, warm jackets, a nice fire in the fireplace, and unbiblical metaphors from pastors who make stuff up to sound good. Just kidding about that last one. That actually really irritates me. Here's what happened:

My brother and I went to the 11 pm Christmas Eve service at one of the largest churches in Houston. Doesn't matter which one, I won't be going back for several reasons. The worship leader was camera mugging way too much. He would actually look for the camera with the red light and then start playing to the camera. I hated that I kept judging him, but he was more interested in his face on the big screens and seeing himself up there than he was on the words he was singing. It was so incredibly distracting. Also, the seriousness and the messages of the songs we song were turned upside down when they were immediately followed by really silly-stupid videos that were supposed to be entertaining. The reason of Christmas was completely lost. The worst part was the teaching. The pastor was saying things and making up metaphors that I don't think can be found in the Bible. I can't remember some of the things, but I just kept thinking: "Um, hello? Have you read the Bible?" Am I wearing my "I'm stoopid" face? This is a MEGA church (I mean several thousand attenders), and this is the kind of teaching that people are receiving? No wonder everyone and their mother is jumping into a seat there. It's a sugar-coated wonderland that is full of garbage. Where's the truth? Where's the conviction? Where's the honest devotion and adoration of God? I keep thinking that maybe I should email the pastor and ask him to please explain what he said with references from the bible. I haven't had constant internet connection since I left Austin, but maybe I'll take time and do that...

On another note: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a great movie. I actually walked out of the theater trying to remember where the I was. (Answer: Brandon, Mississippi). It was just that good. I'm not even sure what was so magnificent, but it really just takes you through a good story. And for once lately, the previews didn't give away the good parts. There was also a preview for a new Gerard Butler movie. Love him.

Hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas!

Hold the phone! Another update??

Today, I pulled out the big guns. The Big Bertha of kitchen blenders. All 26 lbs of it. I don't know why, but this blender is so un-believably heavy. But I suppose it's worth it. Mine is white, but this was the only picture I could find on google. I never use it because as I mentioned before, it weighs as much as a toddler. But it was a fun day. I made my Secret Recipe Peanut Butter Cookies and some Snickerdoodles that I changed up a little bit. I've never made Snickerdoodles before, but hello! These are delish. They should be making an appearance at the class Christmas party, but there is a slight chance that my roommate and I (mostly I) will devour them before Thursday ever comes along.

I know myself well enough to know that I can't leave the peanut butter cookies out. So I wrapped them up as soon as they cooled and threw them in the freezer. Those things are like crack (I'm supposing- they have a very addictive quality).

Sweet dreams Blogland.

Holla back East Side! It's ya fave girl: E-money

I AM the worst kind of blogger out there. This time around it has been closer to a year since I last updated. Bad. So very bad! If I believed in New Year's Resolutions I would make updating my blog a goal. As it is, I will commit today, Sunday the Something-something of December, to be a better blogger. (Laugh now, it will be 3 months before I think of this again).

I am so very thankful for the year 2008. You could not pay me enough money to re-live it, but all-in-all, I think it was a good year. Not an easy year, you understand, but I think I can look back on it all and say that it was full of lessons, hardship, loss, and growth. I'm looking forward to 2009. It seems silly, but I'm hanging on to the idea that a new year will mean new things and that I will be able to move on. And blog-land, moving on is important. I feel like I've been standing still for so many months now and the world is moving on. But I think I'm ready to start moving now too.

SPEAKING of moving: We're moving! I think everyone knows that now because in my excitement I have told the entire world. Now that finals are over and I can detox from stress overload, I'm going to spend the next week packing and getting things ready. We're crossing over from the East side. I think I'm actually really going to miss it. It's forced me to be more aware of my surroundings and give more thought to safety. It's really not a bad area of town, just different. Actually I'm going to miss it a lot. We've had some good times in this house... We've had the chance to meet and speak to a lot of interesting individuals.

I'm also going to be baking in this next week. I was thinking that maybe I would make a plate of cookies for each house of friends. We'll see if I get that far, but I did already buy the plates, so I guess that's some incentive...

This Christmas, or after Christmas, my family is going to Mississippi. We chose to forgo the trip at Thanksgiving because we were all too busy, so we are making room in between Christmas and New Years. I'm trying to think of fun things my family can get out and do instead of sitting around watching TV while in MS. Thus far I have come up with the following list:

-Bowling


That's it. I was also thinking maybe ice skating, but I don't know if they'll have a rink out there. Anyways, something to think about over the next few weeks...


I know this post is getting long, but I was just re-reading my last post and had a few thoughts. 1) Still broke (broke) [Not really. God has blessed me. But I did end my relationship with Kanye]. 2) God is still preparing me for ministry. Even though the girls' ministry didn't work out the way we had hoped, God still worked in that and revealed much. I don't know where or what I'll be doing in the future, but I know that career-wise, I will probably do something service oriented. If God sends me back to Africa, I will probably pass out from excitement. My heart beats for that place and it would fulfill one of the deepest desires of my heart to see all of those beautiful faces and the red dirt there again.

Is it weird that I get anxious before I post something? Obviously I don't do this often enough...