The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. -Psalms 18:2
The ball, dropped in Time Square in New York City, is suspended there to remind us before we pop the champagne, or sparkling cider and celebrate the new year, to stop and reflect on the year that has gone by. To remember both our triumphs and our missteps, our promises made and broken. The times we opened ourselves up to great adventures or closed ourselves down for fear of getting hurt cause that is what New Years is all about- getting another chance. A chance to forgive, to do better, to do more, to give more, to love more. And stop worrying about what if and start embracing what would be. So when that ball drops at midnight, let's remember to be nice to each other, kind to each other. And not just this one night, but all year long.
I think that this just about sums it up. We are about to enter a new year. The year of 2012. It's a new start. We have had a whole year to do some amazing things. This past year has been one of my biggest. I graduated from high school, went off to college, got a job, lived on my own. This past year for me was a year of first and a year of last. THIS, has been a big year. But your year and your life is only as big as you make it. As we enter into this new year, try and make this one bigger then the last. Make it a year that you will never forget. Don't focus and obsess so much on the little things, yet enjoy them while you can. Make resolutions that you can keep, and actually do them. Live a life full of love and happiness, with the people more important to you by your side. Let this year surprise you.
Happy New Years everyone! May this be a year that you never forget. ♥
I grew up living off of Disney movies. My mom worked in the local Disney store in our mall, and I was that little girl who was sitting in the huge arrangement of stuffed animals watching the movies they played on the the big screen TV. Put any Disney movie in, and I can pretty much recite every word, every line, every song and every sound throughout the whole entire movie. I am a Disney kid.
Growing up with those movies, I grew up wanting to be a princess, specifically Snow White. I even had a Snow White doll that I carried around with me everywhere and at one point in my childhood I would never put her down or go anywhere without her. Snow White just had something special and unique about her. She was beautiful, had all the friends she could ever ask for like the dwarfs and all the animals, she had that love at first sight thing going for her, and minus the evil step-mother, she had the perfect life that any little 4 year old would want.
Every princess has her prince. Snow White had Prince Ferdinand, Cinderella had Prince Charming, Aurora had Phillip, Ariel had Eric, Belle had Adam, Jasmine had Aladdin, Pocahontas had John....and well you get the picture. I looked at the Disney princesses as a little girl, and imagined the moment when my Ferdinand would come riding in on his white horse, my Charming would search high and low for me, my Phillip would slay my dragons for me, my Eric would make me want more in life, my Adam would show me how to love the unexpected, my Aladdin would show me everything the world has to offer, and my John would never give up on me no matter what. I wanted that prince to come to my rescue more then anything as a little girl. I grew up waiting for that prince, hoping that he would come. But as I grew older, I began to realize that stuff like that doesn't happen in the world we live in. That guy you think is cute most likely won't be your Prince Charming, you won't fall in love at first sight and he won't be riding a white horse. I've had my heart broken and at times I've given up on that theory that I put together as a little girl.
On this day 20 years ago, my dad became my mom's prince for the rest of her life. My mom wore a pretty dress, looked like a princess, and they showed all their friends and family in front of God just how much they loved each other. She was Snow White and he was Ferdinand. When I look at them, the marriage that they've created and the love that they have for each other, I continue to have confidence in that theory that I've placed in the back of my head. I have faith in that prince that's out there for me somewhere, and I've realized that I just haven't met him yet. Too many people now days give up so easily, and I think that it's important to not give up on things like love. It's too special, rare and valuable to just throw away like a used napkin. So don't give up hope and stop searching, because you may just miss that person who is searching for you.
Have you looked at your calender lately? Did you notice that it now says December? DECEMBER?? Where did 2011 go? It feels like only yesterday that I was getting off work, and having all my friends come over for a party on New Years Eve, and now it's December 8th. I guess as you get older, time flies by a whole lot faster.
A lot has happened since the last time I wrote on here. I am officially on the list and making/collecting money for my trip to Guatemala over spring break. I'm so excited! Passport came in and everything. :) Thanksgiving has come and gone, giving me an amazing week to hangout with the family, visit people and reconnect with old friends. We just had a small, quite little Thanksgiving with just our family and my uncle. Besides watching the gazillion football games on TV, we spent most of the day watching the amazing movie, Lonesome Dove. (I now understand why all the boys at church love it)
And now, it's December and it's dead week and finals. Where does time go? I feel like I started school last week, but now I only have a week left. BAH. It's been stressful the past few weeks due to projects, papers and tests, but it will be all worth it when it's over.
Only 8 more days, 3 tests, and 1 portfolio until I can be home for a month, for Christmas, New Years, my birthday, to be with friends and family, and to just be home.
Life has just been so busy lately. Never would I have thought that I could have so many different things going through my mind at one time. BAH! I need a break.
I kind of got one last weekend, by going and working the Journey with my dad for dad's weekend. And let me tell you, that's exactly what I needed. Getting away from school, the campus and the people here was something that I needed more than anything. Even though you usually work your butts off on the Journeys, it was so relaxing compared to school. I loved getting to see everyone that I have missed so dearly over the past months and just being able to serve others was such a blessing in it's own. By far the best dad's weekend. :)
While these weekend come about, you begin and continue to create memories that never really leave you. I've created so many memories on these weekend, making new friends every time and getting the chance to catch up with old friends as well. Between the laughter, tears and heart-to-hearts shared with one another, by the end of the weekend, I never want to leave. I feel like throughout your whole life, you receive numerous opportunities like these weekend to create such memories and friendships. They stick in your heart forever.
About 2 weeks ago now, I had my first tripper meeting for my mission trip to Guatemala over spring break this next year. I'm super excited to go do this but at the same time I'm a little nervous, because I'm the only newbie going on this trip. The pastor of the church that we help at and the lady who runs the whole organization was able to come up and meet us, hang out with us and talk to us about the trip. They are probably some of the nicest people I have met in my life. After we were given the run down of what we would be doing on the trip, the people who had gone before were given the chance to talk about the trip and what they thought about it. As they all went around the circle, the things that they were saying were just about word for word what our youth groups tells our church about our mission trips to Lodge Grass. They talked about how the kids love on them, always giving you hugs and kisses and asking for piggy back rides. They talked about how you go there to love on the kids, yet they love on you more then you ever expected. I had to hold back the tears as my mind went though a million flash backs from Lodge Grass.
All the memories I created over the years in Lodge Grass are just like the memories I create on the Journeys. They are meant to stick with your forever and I believe that they always will.
I miss you guys. ♥ Forever in my heart you will always be.
I do believe in fairies. I do believe in fairies. I do believe in fairies!
Well....Tinkerbell and the pillow pet fairy that is.
The past few weeks have been quite stressful. Between my computer killing itself, a gazillion tests, huge long papers and big projects, I've been some what of a stressed mess. I lived in the library.
At the end of last week, the end of all the craziness for now, I received a package notice, not knowing who it was from. When I picked it up, it was from my mom! She, being the wonderful and loving woman she is, sent me a pillow pet. A little monkey. Not gonna lie, made me pretty happy. I made a joke saying that the "pillow pet fairy" knew I was all stressed out and thought I could use a little cheering up. So Marcel the Monkey was added to my pillow pet family.
Today, almost a week later, the exact same thing happened. The pillow pet fairy strikes again! A little unicorn is now apart of my family. Eunice the Unicorn again made my day.
I sure do love my mom. ♥ She really knows what to do to make me happy and smile when I'm down. Maybe, if you're lucky, super good, and believe, the pillow pet fairy will visit you too :)
The members of my current pillow pet family:
Mr. Evil Doctor Porkchop (aka Porky) the pig, Gerald the giraffe, Marcel the monkey, Eunice the Unicorn and Hammy the pig (who is currently living with Jessi up at UW)
Yesterday as I was getting ready to head to class in the morning, I decided to turn on the TV to see what was on. the first channel I flipped was playing a show that brought the biggest smile to my face.
YES THAT IS RIGHT. Good ol' Scooby-Doo and the gang helped me start my morning. As I watched this episode to Scooby-Doo (which wasn't one of the original ones...boo...) a million memories rushed back into my head. The Saturday mornings of waking up early to catch every single episode that they played. We had all the books and comics that had been made, and we knew all of the stories like they were our own stories and we were actually there.
As I grew older, I began to catch on to all the stories. Daphine would always get lost or kidnapped. Fred would find her. Shaggy and Scooby would always end up finding food and eating it all in 5 seconds. Eventually there would be a chase scene where the monster would chase everyone around the area. Fred would create a trap. Velma would figure out the mystery and who was behind it. The monster would say "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids." as their mask got pulled off.
Even though I always knew what would happen, the show never got old. Oh how I wish I could go back to those days.... :)
Fav song of the moment: Something Beautiful by Needtobreathe.
"Hey now, this is my desire: Consume me like a fire, 'cause I just want something beautiful to touch me- I know that I'm in reach, 'cause I'm down on my knees, waiting for something beautiful."
Being up at school for just about a month now, I'm come to realize that decisions are pretty much everything you do. It's not that I didn't know that decision are important in your life, but it's become very clear to me over the past few weeks. The classes you take, if you're gonna do your homework now or later, who you're going to hang out with, what you wanna eat and where, how you act and much more are just some of the few things that you have to decide every day. It's hard. Who knew that going off to school would mean that you make EVERY decision for yourself. Oh wait....I did. I just didn't except it to be like this.
Growing up is harder then I thought it would be. You aren't in high school anymore where your teachers give you pretty much every answer and make sure you're caught up on homework. YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN. Your decision start to effect your classwork and how your day goes.
The biggest decision I'm having to make at the moment is whether or not I'll be going on a mission trip to Guatemala over spring break with the youth group I joined up here in Pullman. It's such a awesome opportunity and would be an experience of a life time. Traveling half way across the world to teach kids about God's love and helping out a community in need. Something Beautiful. The only thing that keeps coming into my head when I think about this mission trip is Lodge Grass. Not being able to go this next summer breaks my heart every time I think about it. But I think that this mission trip would be a good exchange for not getting to go to Lodge Grass. Some more prayer should show me the right choice. Either way, it's something beautiful that's worth waiting for.
I thought that going up to school was going to be hard then ever. Leaving home, all the things you're use to, your family and friends, your hometown, isn't something that people really want to do. I was going to a place where I don't know anyone but a handful of people, and I am having to make new friends. At first that wasn't the easiest thing, making new friends. But it got easier as the week went along. Now, at the end of the week, Jordie and I have our "crew" of friends who we hang out with pretty much every day. :)
(Ellie, Jordie, Justin, Jamie and Collin)
We've had a week full of fun, classes and new experiences. Classes started on Monday. I'm done by noon every day but Tuesdays, which is soooo nice. Monday/Wednesday/Friday I have History, Psychology, and English. My history class is just plain weird.Tuesdays/Thursdays I have Gened and Geology. Both are either extremely boring or just plain weird. Awesome. haha
Wednesday night we had Cougfest, which is a big concert that the school throws for us. Augustana came and played. The only song I know by them is the song called Boston. I love it! ♥ Every other night Jordie and I have hung out with the boys, having movie nights, bus adventures to Wal-Mart, had spaghetti nights, made cakes and brownies. I've taken up pool, and I have a feeling that by the end of the school year (or maybe even next month if I'm lucky) I'm gonna be a pro!The weekend came quicker then I think any of us expected. Homework had to be done, movies were watched and a big storm came around to end the weekend.
So far, I like college and I think I'm gonna like it :)
I have found nothing "good" about goodbyes. As my friend Josh Alvarez would say, the good should be changed to lame and stupid so it would then be lameandstupidbye. Because in my mind that's what it is. All the goodbyes in the past few days have brought nothing but tears, and sadness.
I was doing totally fine until the last Sunday, the Sunday of the boys journey. I had been going strong all weekend long, thinking about the whole moving thing from time to time but never grasping the concept completely. I was getting to see and hang out with all of my wonderful friends who I have missed dearly over the months. I was excited to see Tim Schmitt and ask him all about his weekend, and I hadn't even thought about the whole saying goodbye part yet. Then Jake Nielsen came up to me and gave me a hug. The look on his face was just so incredibly heartbreaking. I thought to myself that he's going through the exact same thing as me right now, except he's not just moving a few hours hours away but half of the country. The tears started to roll down me cheeks as I handed out hugs to others and they told me how much they were going to miss me and how they will be praying for me.
The next few days after that I spent most of it packing my room up and making my rounds saying goodbye. It's hard to think that it's not just see you later, but that it might not be until Thanksgiving until you see them again. The fact that all your best friends are going to different schools as you, and all of your break schedules are different, making it just that much harder to see them. The tears though didn't start to come again until my dad came in on my last night home, gave me a hug and started crying as he told me how much he loved me and how much he was going to miss me.
Your parents are the worst when it comes to saying goodbye. You know they're going to cry, which you know will only make you cry and so on and so forth. As my parents dropped me off today, they did good, holding the tears until right as they left. And as the goodbyes start coming to an end, you start to say hello to new things. Your dorm, your roommate, the RA, the people in your hall. But all of these hello's might not be what you expected. My dorm is tiny. Being cramped in a corner is not really what I had in mind. The food is nothing like my mom's cooking. I've only been gone a day and I miss it already. Random people will come up and just start talking to you and NEVER stop. But you start to make new friends and the hello's get easier and easier.
One day I'll have this hello goodbye thing down, but I know for sure that it's not today. Maybe one day, but not today.
As the days in my countdown grow smaller and smaller, I start to realize that my time here at home is running out. T-Minus 9 days.
So this morning, I had this gut feeling that it was just going to be a horrible day. And I hate it when I wake up to those feelings. It just puts me in a bad mood from the start. It probably didn't help that I had to be up at 5am and be at work by 6am this morning. I have never ever EVER been to work that early. Plus, I didn't get off work till 3pm. It was going to be a long day.
A few hours past, and my dad showed up with a coffee for me, because he knows that I'm no morning person and coffee would help with my attitude. ;) As the hours went on, it only got better and better. Working in the evenings at the gym, you get all the grumpy people just getting off work. Working in the mornings, everyone is still in a really good mood and all happy. The hours ticked by faster then I expected and I was soon off from work, headed home to go get ready to get family pictures taken. The picture people were about an hour behind, causing everyone to be grumpy. I just wanted to be done so I could go home. Then it happened.....
My brothers tackled me as my dad blindfolded me and led me outside where I was then put inside a car. I had no idea who I was with or where I was going! The car kept driving around, making two stops and picking people up. I thought I had a pretty good idea of where I was but where we were going and what was happening was a different story. The car finally stopped, I was led inside, sat down and the blindfold was taken off. Four of my best friends (Katie, Amanda, Ashley and Erin) had planned a surprise going away dinner for us since Erin was leaving this Thursday and I leave in a week. The Red Robing staff then assumed it was my birthday, sang to me and I got free ice cream. Let's just say our waitress was pretty boss. The activities following dinner included drawing pictures with sidewalk chalk outside some of our friends homes, drawing on their cars, and creeping on them during their bonfire.
So after all, my day turned out being quite good and my gut was wrong. :) I love my friends.
It's amazing how when something like someone passing away can change how you look at life completely. You tend to draw closer to those around you, because you have that fear of them leaving you as well. One single person, and their life can change a whole group of people completely. Yesterday, my family, myself and 350 other people celebrated a young man's life who did just that; he changed us all.
R.I.P. Elijah "Eli" John-Robert Barr ♥ 1989-2011 Never have a met a man with such love and passion for others no matter what like Eli had. He cared deeply for other and was concerned about their lives and well beings, more then his own life. His life was a living miracle. Born with a genetic disease called Hurlers, he was only told to live a few years after born. Eli was a miracle, and lived another 17 years instead, becoming the oldest survivor of this disease. he survived two bone marrow transplants, a stem cell transplant, back surgery and two heart surgeries throughout this time. He never, never, never gave up, and he told all of us to do the same. His love that he showed everyone else is inspiring. Everyone was his friend, and if you weren't you soon would be. He was an angel's soul living here on earth, teaching us important life lessons that we will now live out in our own lives.
Eli was one of those people who loved to talk to you and get to know you. Everyone has talked to him at least once. He wasn't afraid to voice his opinion to people. Ask Sammy Sosa, who Eli once gave batting tips to when he was honorary guest at a Cub's game. We know that once we get to heaven, he'll be there at those pearly gates to great us with conversations ready. His love for animals was as great as his love for people, and he claimed that one day he would own his own zoo. I know that up in heaven right now he's finally got that zoo he's always wanted. He hugged everyone, even if he knew you or not. Personal space was not an issue with him. The love and care he showed to everyone is that perfect example of how we all need to love one another. Eli, you have taught us how to love and you showed us how to be a light for other people. We thank you for that. You, my friend, will be greatly missed but this isn't goodbye. So until we meet again, Shalom.
Dedicated by the High School Beach Trip 2011 in Seaside, Oregon.
The name is Ellie. I'm 18 years old, the oldest kid in my family. I graduated from high school this past June, completing 4 years of my life that went by so fast, I'm still trying to figure out how it happened. Now as my summer has flown by as well, the real count down begins.... T-Minus 12 Days. 12 days from today, two weeks from Wednesday, I will be leaving for college. 12 days from today I will be living in my new dorm up at Washington State University, home of the Cougars, in good ol' Pullman, Washington. This is a huge new step in my life that will be taking place, and I'm not quite sure what to think. I know I'm excited, but at the same time I'm scared and a little nervous/anxious. But that's normal right? That's how every incoming freshman feels going into college, or even high school. It's something we haven't experienced before. But the real stress of this all is the getting there. You have to buy SOOOOO much. I mean you have books, you have things for your dorm, and the list just goes on and on and on. My mother and I went out the other night to start shopping for my dorm room and the major issue that came up for me was what kind of bed spread do I want. Do I want just a solid colored one, or maybe a patterned one? But then the question of what color comes into play as well. And I'm one of those people who can't buy anything else until that gets picked out because everything has to match and coordinate. You'll be happy to know that I did come up with something. Went with the solid color of dark blue and a nice teal with polka dot sheets. Add some fun and color to the tiny little dorm room I'll be living in. But don't even get me started on books....that's the next thing I'll concur.
