Snow & Self Portraits

So much has happened since my last entry. It's funny how fast time goes when you're enjoying yourself. And I've definitely been enjoying myself.

February 9th I turned 18. I got to go to a Bethany Dillon concert the night before with my sister, my dad, and a good friend of ours. It was incredible. It was actually a college conference at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, so there was a session where a speaker gave a message. It was really good... totally relevant and I'd been thinking about what he'd said prior to, so that was neat. Then there was an amazing session of worship led by Shane & Shane. That was a blessing through and through. Voices reverberated around me, mixed with my own and created this sweet, sweet sound for Jesus. Mmm. I love times like that. Then there were the concert sessions, which were fabulous. David Nasser spoke for a little bit as he's on the Vision of You tour with the Shanes, Starfield & Beth. He's quite an interesting guy. What he said was also very, very relevant and in line with what had been said before. He talked about meeting needs and showing the love of God, something I've been striving to do myself lately. I wrote in my journal as soon as I woke up the next morning so I wouldn't forget what he said. It rang so true to my heart. After the show we found Beth getting her PJs out of a suitcase beside the tour bus, so we even go to talk to her for a bit.

The next day we mostly lounged around... the road trip the night before meant no sleep until 2 in the morning. But it was totally worth it. That night my sister, the same dear friend as before, dear friend's dear boyfriend, and I had a good convo at Starbucks. It was great to just talk with people and enjoy friend-time. Sunday after church my family and I met up with my friend, Lizz, and her family and my friend Rosa at Olive Garden and had a wonderful time with lunching. Mm... that was good.

That week next week, I went to school on Monday. Then there were two snowdays, so I babysat all day and made a good amount of money. A really, really good amount of money. But on Wednesday I realized I had a fever and started feeling sick. So Thursday I stayed home. Friday was a half day at school, so I went in for that and ended up bringing Lizz and Rosa to my house for lunch. Lizz spent the night and the next day we went and picked up my lovely friend Blair. For my birthday present she wanted to take me to my favorite restaurant and pay for it. So we went and met up with Rachael, another friend, and ate at my favorite "mama y papa" Mexican restaurant. The food was delicious, I had an awesome time. I even got sang to (again! they did that at Olive Garden, too.) and one of the waitresses shoved whipped cream up my nose! ha! That was an experience...

And that brings us to this week. I still felt sick during that weekend, so I tried to sleep off the sickness on Sat. afternoon. Didn't work. Stayed home all day Sunday. Again Monday. And Tuesday. I went to the doctor Tuesday for a check up and to get a shot, and had them look at me. She said if I feel my sinuses to call and she'll get me medicine.

And today there was a snow day. I was so glad... I'm feeling a bit better today, but having another day to rest before plunging back into school and rushing to make everything up was wonderful. I got some homework done, took some portraits out in the snow [see the one attached to this post], and got some photos up on facebook that I've been meaning to get up for weeks now. So it's been a good day. Tomorrow I'll be back in school with medicine in my system and we'll see how it goes! =)

Whew. Now I'm exhausted of typing. I'll have a new post soon about my BFS year. Because I can cross off some things! =D

the delay

Well, I got up at 6:48 am like I'm supposed to. I got dressed, ate my breakfast, studied for my government test, and walked out the door with the fam to go to school. We get there and the parking lot is almost entirely deserted. Turns out I had an hour delay. (Why? I'm not really sure... maybe because of the cold? It's about seventeen degrees out... not a lot of snow on the ground, though.)

So here I am, doing a few little things here and there to pass the time because I don't have time to go back to sleep before I have to leave. Unexpected delays... they're really something.

But I have enjoyed my time here. I got to read my engage the journey passages (we're in Job... read chapters 35-37 today. Great book, really. It's amazing what you can learn when you just read. Simply amazing.), watch a video, check my facebook and e-mail.... all that good stuff.

And now I listen to Bethany Dillon, my favorite artist. I've missed listening to her... my family will only let me listen to her CDs for so long without complaining, you see. I just don't get fed up with really good music, but I guess they do. So I humor them. Sometimes. *wink* The completely awesome thing is this-- February 8th I get to see Beth live again. That's the day before my birthday, so I'm super excited. It will also be concert number 10. Doubly exciting. I can't wait. I can, however, order the tickets... I need to do that.

I'm seriously considering going to Brazil this summer. My youth group is taking 15 students to Brazil for about 10 days in June. I've never been out of the country before (well, to Canada when I was about 5 years old, but I don't really remember it...) and I've never been on an airplane. So it'd be a big deal if I were to go. The more I think about it, the more I want to go. I'm a little nervous about it, yes, but... I don't know. It's like God's been preparing me for this for awhile now. And so I may just have to move, first to the meeting on Sunday. Then to the next stage and the next until I find myself being blessed by helping missionaries in Brazil. [I will admit, though, that I was bummed when the internet reminded me that they speak Portuguese in Brazil and not Spanish. I was practicing my Spanish... saying things like 'can I take a picture of you?' and such. Ah well, it's one of three languages fairly widely spoken there, so maybe I'll get to use what I've learned the past 3 years after all. =P]

Ok... I'm off to school now! Have a good day, one and all.

BFS Updates

I thought I'd take this time, the end of week one of 2008 approaching quickly... to update my blog with my big, fun scary year updates. I need to remind myself of what I'm supposed to be working on [and anyone who may be reading this... I might need a push now and again!]

The Big...

I've been keeping up with Engage the Journey and it's such a blessing to me! Reading what everyone is gathering from the text each day is incredibly helpful and causes me to think more about what I've read and how it applies to me. We're currently in Job, reading about a man who suffered so much and still remained faithful, and it's just amazing to see what could happen in my own life and how I can be better.

As far as getting my work displayed at Starbucks goes, I grabbed a card at my nearest place and am going to e-mail soon to see what I'll need to do to make that a reality. It's exciting and big, of course, so I'll keep you updated with what happens. =)

Walking my dog hasn't started yet... it's been so cold! But tomorrow it's supposed to be warm so I may just have to go for a little walk to start myself off on the right foot.

The Fun...

My sister and I keep talking about the South Carolina trip, which is great because I'm excited to do that. Since we have friends there, it'll be fairly reasonable for us to just go. So that'll be this summer sometime, if all goes well.

My blog has, obviously, been started and I feel like I'm doing fairly well with updates so far. As time goes on, the frequency of the updates may dwindle. But as long as it doesn't get too far down, we'll be good.

The next thing I want to do on the fun list is get my Bethany Dillon website up and running again. It drives me crazy that it's just sitting there! Unfortunately I've got some things that I really need to do first, but I'm hoping that I'll get some time this weekend to work on it and get the second half finished and talk to my co-web about helping me fix a few things that need tweaking. =)

The Scary...

I have been accepted to two schools so far-- the University of Evansville and Hallmark Institute of Photography. I need to call someone at the admissions office of Antonelli College because that's a real possibility for me at this point. The chances of me affording Hallmark are slim and I need to decide what I'm doing before it's too late to do what I really want to do. So if you would, pray for that. I need a clear decision made soon, so I'm hoping it'll just hit me like a ton of bricks soon. I feel like I may know... but it's barely there. I have to act if I'll be able to finally decide. Wish me luck... =)

I've been looking into area photographers to see about second shooting a wedding. There are a few that I may be able to ask, if nothing else. This goal may be harder to meet than some of my others, but what's the point if you don't have something to really reach for, right? =)