Monday, August 28, 2006

Adopt Max!

I have a new love in my life. His name is Max and he's an adorable lab mix 3month old puppy. Taylor, Lauren, Katie (and me) saved him from death on Saturday. They were having a pet adoption at Lowes on Saturday and one of Taylor's professors was running it. They started talking and the lady said that they needed people to "foster parent" the dogs for a week or so and then bring them back and hopefully find them a good home. So of course we couldn't resist the cute little puppies! Now Max temporarily lives with the girls at their apartment. He is so adorable! He loves to run around and chew on his bone and he's a big cuddler. He fell asleep in my lap the other day while I was doing homework and stretched his paws out all over my papers. Anyways Max needs a good home. He needs a yard to run around in, owners that love him, and people that can afford him. If you know of anyone who wants a dog, please let me know! Help Save Max!

Monday, August 21, 2006

schoool

So Boone. Oh how I love it. Here are some updates on what's been going on in the past week:

- Moving in the Teaching Fellows freshmen was exhausting but fun. They are a good bunch and I'm excited to get to know them all better.

- Ashley and I went on the Crusade Bible Study Leaders retreat and we loved it! It was at Cherokee Cove, this really gorgeous retreat center about 45 minutes from Boone nestled in the middle of an amazing view of mountains! We had fun hanging out with the other leaders and the Staff and we learned A LOT more information about leading a Bible Study. We have agreed to lead one for the girls in our dorm. Be praying that God would show us who to reach out to and invite and that girls would come and want to get involved and grow. The food at this retreat was also amazing - it was really gourmet and not your average camp food. Unfortunately we had already eaten pizza with the freshie tfs before we left so when we got there and they had dinner we had no room for the delicous roast, green beans, shrimp, bread and much more that was set before us. I did however manage to have room for the Bananas Foster. Yum Yum!

- I've spent lots of time at Lauren, Taylor and Katie's apartment. It is tre cute and very welcoming. We've played my fav game Balderdash twice and had some freshmen girls over one night. I've enjoyed getting to see my girls again!

-I had a little incident yesterday. Okay so it wasn't so little. I was on my way to pick up Lauren & Taylor before church and was driving up the very large hill to their apartment. I reached for my phone in my purse to call them and tell them that I was almost there and of course my car veered to the right cause I wasn't looking and I hit the cute little landscaped brick wall. I somehow (Godthing) made it to the top of the hill and into a parking spot where I then saw that my front right tire was completely blown out and torn up. hehehe. So the rest of the day after church was spent calling AAA and getting that taken care of. And then today after work I went and spent my precious money on a new tire - I would much rather have bought a purse, clothes or something else. Anything else but a tire. Oh well.

- I love my new job - more on that later. But it is so much fun and the kids are adorable!

- Tommorrow is the first day of classes so I need to go organize stuff and get ready for that Have a great evening!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Boone!!!

I'm here......I am really and truly in Boone, sitting in my room with the lovely Ashley. Our room is adorable. Really it is. And it's so comfy and welcoming with our couch and super neat entertainment center. Everyone else is going to be uber jealous. I got to see Lauren and Taylor today - we had dinner at McDonalds and then we went to Walmart. It was just like old times again, us being loud and talking and saying funny stuff. I love them! I missed them so much!
Ashley and I finished unpacking tonight and now we're just chilling and relaxing. Actually I'm quite tired and we have to get up early tomorrow so I think we're going to get some shut eye soon.
More to come.....when I have time......which could be never.
Freshmen move in tomorrow - yay!

Monday, August 14, 2006

Tonight is my last night at home. Tommorrow morning, bright and early at 7am I will be leaving Raleigh for a while. Not sure when I will be back home. I'm sad to leave Raleigh and a lot of people but I'm overall VERY EXCITED to go back to Boone. Even though I hate packing. Side Note: I have way too much stuff. My entire car (Nissan Altima) is packed down with stuff and then we are borrowing a truck from family friends for my futon, fridge, and even more boxes and stuff. I'm a pack rat. But this year when I packed I could at least picture where everything is going to go in the room. The beauty of not being a freshmen (cause I'm so far removed ha!). My roommate, Ashley, and I keep calling eachother every so often saying how many hours till we get to be roomies! We are going to have a spectacular year - I can feel it! Well I'm off to get some sleep before the early morning. More once I am there tomorrow!

Friday, August 11, 2006

Beachy Keen!

Just got back today from the BEACH!! Every year my family and two other families we have known for a long time get together and go to Holden Beach, a nice quiet beach about an hour north of Myrtle. We rent two houses, have plenty of beach time, eat great seafood, I read good books, watch movies, and have a blast! Sybil had been coming with my family for the past 2 years and we were even lucky to have LaBranda come for the first part of the week - it was so much fun to have my girls (missing amy!) all together before we all head back to school!

don't you love the bay watch run?

at our house.........Paradise Isle
chilling on the double rocker
no of course I wasn't looking away from the road.....hehe

The lovely Sybil in the car on the way down


Thursday, August 03, 2006

Vision Check

Aaah today was my last day of babysitting. So relieving and satisfying - this family is a godly family that made me feel very appreciated and whose kids I loved! I spent the whole morning as a jungle gym because for some odd reason 2 year old Grady saw me as a climbing post. I was sitting on the couch and he would come and put all sorts of pillows on me and then climb and jump on me. I might have a couple of bruises but overall it was hilarious and I have to say, he's my favorite so I didn't mind too much.

Then it was on to more errand running. I have never been so sick of shopping before. Yes, I shopping lover, said it - I am sick of shopping. I feel like I have been in every single Ross that exists in Raleigh and every Target & Walmart. And don't even ask me about bathroom rugs and mats and finding them in corresponding colors and sizes. My room looks like a tornado hit as I try to bring some order to it with packing for the beach and then this thing called repacking for college. Aaaack - I hate packing!

This afternoon I had my yearly eye doctor appointment. I really didn't want to go because I had to reschedule it about 3 times and my eyes seem fine to me. Well I sucked up that bad attitude and went through it anyways. I did all the stupid little tests - side note: when I was younger I was deathly afraid of one of these machines. It's the one that gives a poof of air to your eye. Well many years ago my oh-so-nice big brother Keith told me that when the poof comes a needles comes and pokes your eye. So of course the ever trusting little Julie believed him and when it came time to go to the eye doctor and do that test, I became a ball of nerves. They had to get the receptionist to come in and HOLD ME DOWN while they did the test. No I'm not bitter, I've forgiven him of that. haha. Ok so then Dr. Moser gets to the "what's the smallest line you can read" and "better at one or two, two or three, etc". I mean really, how the heck am I supposed to know which one is better - half the time I think I just end up guessing and hope that my answer will stop the endless questions. Oh well, my vision is as sharp as ever, though my right eye is becoming a little bit nearsighted. Which is supposed to happen, because I used to wear glasses and contacts but about a year ago I stopped wearing them and they said my vision had improved and was perfect (it's from all those carrots I eat).

I was driving around later, thinking about my afternoon at the eye doctor and how even though I didn't think I needed to be there, I needed my vision checked. I think that's how we as Christians tend to act. We think that everything in life is ok, but most times we need our vision checked - our spiritual vision. If we don't see things the way that God does, we need a check-up. For instance, the whole point of our middle school girls summer bible study is to see yourself the way God sees you - as a beautiful person inside and out. The problem is not that we are ugly people. The problem is that we look at ourselves through the world's eyes and the eyes of our friends, the media, the opposite sex, etc. To really have a changed life we have to change our outlook and the way we see - we have to see through God's eyes.

I also was thinking about how so many times God reveals things to me in the little moments that I would not see if I was thinking with my selfish, julie-centered mindsight. Or how many times I realize these things after something occured and saw that I missed out on something special. For instance, with all of my errand running today I probably saw about 5-6 cashiers and receptionists. I would ask them how they were doing, pay for my items, and leave. As I was leaving the eye doctor I chatted for a couple minutes with the receptionists about babysitting and Appalachian. As I left my heart had a light, easy feeling. It was then that I realized that reaching out to those around me isn't as hard as I make it. It can be as simple as small talk, a smile, a simple "have a nice day", or a helping hand such as holding the door open for a mom with a stroller. While I may miss many of these moments because I can only think about myself, I am thankful that sometimes God throws a day like today in my path to wake me up and show me how much He is at work (haha world changers theme) in the world and in my neck of the woods in particular.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

The Pink Spoons: Coming to a stage near you soon!

So, the fun of working with middle school girls. At some point in this lovely summer a couple of the girls where talking with Sybil and I and we decided to form a band called The Pink Spoons. The Pinks Spoons because Sybil and I are part of a very secret underground spoons (the card game) league that started in 10th grade. And Pink because it's our favorite color.
Whenever we get bored at Bible Study or wherever we plan out songs and such for the band. Oh let's also note that I am not in the band, I am the manager. According to certain lead singers and also my best friend, I am tone deaf. But I'm okay with that. As long as I get 60% of the income. Haha.
Monday night was our very last summer bible study. We had a little suprise for the girls but first we did our study as usual. That is after we stopped talking about the Pink Spoons. Somehow the topic came up and boy did they run with it. We have a lead singer, a drummer, a guitar player, a manager, and a ton of Groupies (the sporks).

Some song titles:
Leave room (for Jesus)
Whatcha Name
Sketch
Happiness in a Can (the caffeine free diet coke song)

And they we started to come up with some lyrics for Whatcha Name. The music video involves a boy and girl walking down the halls of the 3rd floor at church. It's really stupid but hilarious.
We told them that we'll have auditions for more band members in a couple of weeks. They got all excited and into it and we had to stop and remind them that this is just a joke, that there will never be a real band, that this is just for fun. Darn. :(

But if we did have a band called the Pink Spoons:

- our t-shirts would be black with hot pink sparkly spoons on them that are like stick people (or should I call them stick spoons?)

- we could sell those little spoon rings, except they would be hot pink of course

Oh the life of dreaming. On another note, while at World Changers, Joel introduced us to some very fun music. The album is called Too Much Free Time and it's by Ross King & Chris Tomlin. Here are some samplings:

Foot in My Mouth
I was braggin' to a friend of mine
how I ran over this cat,
I said "His name was fluffy, cause I read the tag..."
"right after I squashed him flat"

She said "Fluffy? My cat's name is Fluffy! He was my best friend."
I said "No, I didn't say his name was Fluffy!"
"I said his name was... Twinkles"
here I go again...

(chorus)
I got my foot in my mouth,
guess I should watch what I say,
I got my foot in my mouth,
it's prob'ly better that way

There's more, but I can't find the lyrics. You'll have to hear this sometime. Very hilarious!

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Quotes

So recently I have been reading Shadow of the Almighty, the Life and Testament of missionary Jim Elliot as documented and gathered by his wife Elizabeth Elliot. It's so inspiring. Here are some quotes from it and from a couple of other books that I've been perusing through:

“There is a within a hunger after God, given of God, filled by God. I can be happy when I am conscious that He is doing what He wills to do within. What makes me tremble is that I might allow something else to take the place my God should have….I tremble lest in any way I offend my Eternal Lover.”

- Jim Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty, pg 68

My soul is night, my heart is steel,

I cannot see, I cannot feel.

For Light, for Life, I must appeal

In simple faith to Jesus.

“’Every hour I need Thee.’ My love is faint, my warmth practically nil. Thoughts of His coming flicker and me tremble. Oh, that I were not so empty-handed. Joy and peace can only come in believing, and that is all I can say to Him tonight. Lord, I believe. I don’t love, I don’t feel, I don’t understand, I can only believe. Bring Thou faith to fruition, Great Harvest Lord. Produce in me, I pray.”

- Jim Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty, pg 70

Life requires countless “little” deaths – occasions when we are given the chance to say no to self and yes to God.

- Elisabeth Elliot, Passion & Purity, pg 72

“Even when I’m feeling most alone – on that moonlit night, in the middle of the candlelit supper, when the phone call and the letter don’t come – can I be ‘full of joy, here and now’? Yes. That is what the Bible says. That means it must be not only true, but possible, and possible for me.”

- Elisabeth Elliot, Passion & Purity pg 81

“I protest. Women expect too much of me. I can hear the howls of protest from the women. ‘Men want to play around. They lead us on, try to get what they can out of us, deceive us,’ and so on. True enough. Which is exactly why I beg women to wait. Wait on God. Keep your mouth shut. Don’t expect anything until the declaration is clear and forthright.”

- Elisabeth Elliot, Passion & Purity, pg 100

“All I want in life is a camera with endless black and white film, a paint set with hundreds of blank canvasses, a piano to write my own music, and a plane ticket. It sounds like a lot, but how much is it compared to everything most people have. I was never a princess. Growing up, I wanted many things but never received them. Desire is not selfish. I desire many things, but I don’t get them. Desiring is part of dreaming.”

- Rachel Joy Scott, from an undated journal entry

And of course I have to add this comical one from a good friend of mine at Appalachian:

Cinderella is proof that a pair of shoes can change your life.

- Laura McFall

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

I need a new title for my blog. Julie@ASU was too boring and hmm.... is just temporary. Any suggestions?

Sunday, July 09, 2006

summer pictures

Impact: One of my girls Natalie and I
on the lake with Sarah & her dad

some of my precious Palm Tree Princesses!

don't you love her 70s hair?

suprise birthday get together at burger king for syb.......we had all these cute disney princess party stuff


Fireworks at the fairgrounds
So, LaBranda, Sybil and I went to the NC Arboretum & Gardens on Sat and yes took fun pictures together as we all wore jeans and white shirts......corny yes, but fun and incredibly hilarious, OH YES!

Anna's Briday Shower @ mi casa

Cute little gazebo picture

sybil can never stop laughing sometimes

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Summertime!

Wow! I can't believe that it's already July! Aaah! It seems like I just got out of school yesterday - okay not really. But it has flown by! So many things have been happening:

*Had my teaching fellows discovery trip where I went all over North Carolina touring public schools with other NC Teaching Fellows. While this trip was exhausting (we stayed at 5 universities for a total of 6 nights) it was a great experience. I got to know a friend that I met through Lauren a lot better (we were bus buddies) and really enjoyed getting into some elementary schools. Some of the schools were excellent and inspiring and others needed some improvement. All of the schools welcomed us in so well with food (which we quickly gobbled up), presents (that had their county school system logo all over it of course), and hospitatlity. At one of my favorite schools we even had a 2nd grader as our tour guide - he was precious!
* Working at church is going great - I absolutely love it! I am there most of the time and especially was before Impact. Impact, our youth camp, went well. I had a group of 11 rising 7th grade girls and they are so much fun and a blessing. It amazed me how much they looked up to Sara (my co-counselor) and I. One of the girls wanted my advice on so many things - it really flattered me even though I sure don't have all of the answers. We saw our girls grow together as a group, make new friends, and really experience some great times of worship and take in some awesome teaching from Brian Frost & Leon Tucker. I really enjoyed having them as speakers - everything was so practical yet wise and very biblical. Needless to say it was a super week and I was completely exhausted when I got home.
*My babysitting jobs are going good - I work about 2-3 days a week from 9-1 for different families. Its kind of chaotic not having a "steady" job but it's been a good lesson in trusting Christ to provide. Right when I think that I'm about to go near broke and spend all of my money He brings another job or opportunity into my life. How amazing His provision is!
*My favorite part of the summer has been hanging out with friends. God has given me some amazingly loyal friends! 3 of my girlfriends and I are particularly close. Amy, LaBranda, and Sybil are girls that I hang out with a lot. We were all great friends in high school and then went our separate ways for school this past year. When we came back it was amazing how quickly we went back to being the best of friends. I love it so much!

Summertime!

Wow! I can't believe that it's already July! Aaah! It seems like I just got out of school yesterday - okay not really. But it has flown by! So many things have been happening:

*Had my teaching fellows discovery trip where I went all over North Carolina touring public schools with other NC Teaching Fellows. While this trip was exhausting (we stayed at 5 universities for a total of 6 nights) it was a great experience. I got to know a friend that I met through Lauren a lot better (we were bus buddies) and really enjoyed getting into some elementary schools. Some of the schools were excellent and inspiring and others needed some improvement. All of the schools welcomed us in so well with food (which we quickly gobbled up), presents (that had their county school system logo all over it of course), and hospitatlity. At one of my favorite schools we even had a 2nd grader as our tour guide - he was precious!
* Working at church is going great - I absolutely love it! I am there most of the time and especially was before Impact. Impact, our youth camp, went well. I had a group of 11 rising 7th grade girls and they are so much fun and a blessing. It amazed me how much they looked up to Sara (my co-counselor) and I. One of the girls wanted my advice on so many things - it really flattered me even though I sure don't have all of the answers. We saw our girls grow together as a group, make new friends, and really experience some great times of worship and take in some awesome teaching from Brian Frost & Leon Tucker. I really enjoyed having them as speakers - everything was so practical yet wise and very biblical. Needless to say it was a super week and I was completely exhausted when I got home.
*My babysitting jobs are going good - I work about 2-3 days a week from 9-1 for different families. Its kind of chaotic not having a "steady" job but it's been a good lesson in trusting Christ to provide. Right when I think that I'm about to go near broke and spend all of my money He brings another job or opportunity into my life. How amazing His provision is!
*My favorite part of the summer has been hanging out with friends. God has given me some amazingly loyal friends! 3 of my girlfriends and I are particularly close. Amy, LaBranda, and Sybil are girls that I hang out with a lot. We were all great friends in high school and then went our separate ways for school this past year. When we came back it was amazing how quickly we went back to being the best of friends. I love it so much!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

I'm home!!! Got back yesterday afternoon, unloaded some stuff and then it was off to a meeting at church. I feel so special because I have a cute little desk at church that's all mine - I decorated it with pictures, cards and special verses. Already I have a lot going on with church as far as events and things to do. I am so excited about it all!
On Saturday I'm going back to boone for Keith's graduation and then I'm going to a Lake in Georgia with Lauren for the rest of the week. That should be very relaxing and fun.
Well I need to do some laundry and more unpacking . Bye all!

Sunday, April 30, 2006

The end of my first year is quickly approaching. Just 3 more days and I'm done! I can hardly believe it. This year has been great and I don't want it to be over. :(
Summer Schedule:
- May 3: come home
- May 6: back to boone for brother's graduation
- May 8-12: Lake in Georgia with the wonderful roomie!
-May 12-13: back to raleigh with the roommate
-May 14-20: Teaching Fellows Discovery Trip
Finally home for good!
Summer: Middle School Intern at Providence Baptist Church, lots of babysitting
June 26-July 1: IMPACT (youth camp that I am a counselor for with church)
July 15-22: Holden Beach with the fam
Lots of other crazy stuff that I can't remember.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Well I realize it has been a while. I tried to put some pictures up the other day and hit submit but I guess it didn't like me cause they didn't show up. Oh well. Things are pretty much winding down from me. Tomorrow is my last day of classes. I have an English final tomorrow, my math exam on monday, and my child dev presentation next wednesday and then I will be home for good. This Thursday I am coming home in preparation for Joy Prom which I can't wait for. Joy Prom is my most absolute favorite day of the year. It's even better than Christmas or my birthday. I love it that much!!! I'm going to be at church most of Friday and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Then on Saturday I am helping LB and her family move to their new place closer to church! Yay yay! My other family is going to be closer to me! Now I can go over all the time and see them! Except for the stupid dogs - taco bell dogs are lame.
I really can't wait for the summer! I have some babysitting lined up and I'm excited to get to know the kids. And then I'm going to be at church doing middle school stuff! Yay! Yay! Yay! I love middle schoolers and I am pretty much in love with Student Ministries so I am incredbily excited about the summer.
Just tonight I was thinking about Impact and how much I love it. It's like my favorite week ever.
Oh so today was an extremely klutzy crazy day for me. I killed my ankle at the gym because I had this blister on the back and was wearing short socks with my tennis shoes. Well the blister got worse and then it bled all over my sock and the back of my shoe. Gross I know. Then later I was leaving to go to dinner with Lauren and we had been teasing eachother about leaving someone behind. She was locking the door so I walked down the hall and said "I'm leaving you" and stuck my hands out so that they were touching the walls and blocking the hallway. She came up and was being all kung fu at me and was just going to kick my butt but then I turned around and she accidentally kicked my hand. It hurt but I made it.
After dinner we were leaving and walked up the 3 little stairs and of course I tripped on them. It was pretty hilarious as I almost fell to the floor but did a run and catch myself. It was great. Kind of like last week when I was late to Sociology and I was running up the stairs in a skirt and my flip flops. Completely tripped and skinned my knee on the no slip grip stuff on the stairs. I had to go into the little office and Taylor asked the grad student for a band-aid. He went "aww does someone have a boo-boo"and I had to say that it was me. Good times good times.
Currently my lovely roommate is asleep. She was upset about something so I gave her Mr. Bear because he is the perfect comfort in just about any circumstance. He's soft, cuddly, huggable and doesn't talk back.