He Deserved It.

Over the past couple of months, I have been involved in a Thursday [early] morning Bible study with some of the girls from Freedom Church. For the past four or five weeks, we have been reading through a series called A Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers (who is an excellent  author). The first book is about Tamar, who was married to the first son of Judah, whose name was Er.

If you haven’t read the story, Er was a man with a very wicked heart. He went through life, living however he wanted. Fairly soon after marrying Tamar, he was struck down, and died. Just died right there on the spot because of his wicked heart and actions.

As I was reading this, I really didn’t feel bad for him. In fact, I kind of decided in my mind that he totally deserved it. He had wickedness in his heart; therefore, he deserved to die. But, after about five two seconds, I came to the realization that I deserved it too. That story seriously made me all the more grateful for the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. It still blows my mind every day that he loves my sinful self enough to save me and call me His own.

Wow. What an awesome God.

May I Just Say…

I LOVe my church! Seriously, I LOVE it! Here are some reasons why:

1) Life change happens EVERY week. It never gets old!

2) The staff and partners at Freedom will stop at NOTHING to reach people far from Christ.

3) Freedom Church is a place filled with love. At Freedom, people are welcomed as they are, and accepted as Christ accepts them.

4) Everything at Freedom is done with excellence. No mediocrity, no exceptions.

5) We seriously have the best band in the history of bands.

6) People are actually EXCITED to be there! People get upset when they have to miss a Sunday. This speaks for itself.

7) IT IS EVIDENT THAT GOD IS THERE, AND HE IS AT WORK !

The WHOLE Story

Well, actually this is only half of the story because I was mostly asleep.

Today was an awkward day. I got up, cleaned my room entirely (vacuuming and all), got ready, and went off to school. While I was at school, I realized that I really didn’t feel well, and I should have just stayed home and slept, but it was too late for that. I dragged my feet through Spanish class, and started feeling much better in Physics when I got to wire our electric house. I have decided that I should probably be an electrician because I enjoyed making circuits entirely too much. I held on through the end of the day, and then came home to an empty and quiet house. I was exhausted and sniffly, so I checked e-mail/ Facebook/ Twitter and then curled up on the couch and began to watch episodes of the office on hulu. I watched somewhere between 1 and 1/2 to 2 episodes, and then I apparently fell asleep.

When I woke up, Mom and Mitchell were standing over me, and asking if I wanted dinner. I was confused, so I just told them no. Then, Mom told me that she had been trying to call me on the home phone and on my cell phone. That confirmed the fact that I do not hear things when I sleep. Also, I was informed that the pizza guy had been standing at our front door (which is a glass French door) and was trying to wake me up so I would come get the pizza. It really creeps me out that the Papa John’s guy was watching me as I slept on the couch. It would have been terrible to be him in that moment, though. He had no idea what to do with that pizza, and I was not waking up anytime soon. I just find that hysterical.

On a different note, I got an acceptance letter from Anderson University. That was fast! I applied about a week ago. So, we shall see. I’m touring it in a week, and that should help me with the decision.

Apply and Wait…

That is currently the story of my life. I applied to 5 schools. I have been accepted to one (Young Harris) but it is not one that I am very interested in. It’s too bad, because they offered me a hefty scholarship. Something like 17,000 per year…ish. give or take a bit. I just finished my applications for the other 4 (KSU, Georgia College & State University, Berry, and Anderson University), and I am just waiting to hear back. Should be soon. I must say that I am very relieved to be finished with the application process. Now I just have to see where I’m accepted and decide where I want to be. Here’s my pickle:

GCSU is my #1 pick. I am in love with that school. Unfortunately, it is the farthest from the fabulous city of Acworth, and we all know how much I love my Freedom Church. If I couldn’t make it back every Sunday, I would definitely be bummed.

Then there is Berry. Berry is about 45 minutes from home, but here’s the catch: I don’t want to go unless I am accepted into the WinShape program. If I could get in on that goodness, I would totally be there.

Anderson is one that I just decided to apply to. I didn’t even know that it existed until about 2 weeks ago. I have checked out the website, and I am going to visit on the 14th, so we shall see. Upside: it is only 2 hours from home, and if I couldn’t make it home every weekend, NewSpring is an awesome church that I could go to.

Of course, there is always KSU. KSU is a good school, but it’s kind of my last choice. I really would rather go somewhere else. I like adventure and spontaneity, and I don’t think that I could get the whole “experience” being in Kennesaw…25 minutes from home. I love home, but I want to see the world outside of Cartersville and Acworth.

Let me know what you guys think. I am putting some serious prayer into this decision, because it is pretty much going to be life changing. Plus, if I end up in SC and do not like it, I cannot get my HOPE scholarship back when I come home. I don’t even know. If you have opinions, please LET ME KNOW! Feel free to add more schools to my list of places to apply. I need all the help that I can get.

My Life Is Average

This is only going on my blog because it’s a little too long for Twitter. haha.

This morning, I drank an entire bottle of water on my way to class. After sitting in English for about half an hour, I realized that I had to go. You know, after an entire bottle of water, that tends to happen. So, I got up and walked out of class, down the looong hallway, and into restroom. On my way back, I passed my professor walking the opposite direction down the hallway. I was confused, but I said “hello.” He responded with “You inspired me.” lol!

The Beautiful Jess May

Last night, Jess wrote a blog post about me, so I am flipping the scenario around (in a similar format). This blog post shall be entirely dedicated to the wonderfulness that is Jess. I love Jess because she is simply amazing! She loves reading, snuggling, wrting (Which she is very good at by the way. Check out her blog at www.thezippitybookshelf.wordpress.com), being a hopeless romantic, wearing plaid, Frank Sinatra, Jane Austen, chocolate, coffee, and fall weather. (Yes, we are very similar individuals…except for the excellent writer part. Her writing is much more engaging than mine, so definitely go read it). She is only 14, but she shows maturity far beyond her years. He relationship with God is a beautiful thing, and I only wish that I had understood things at her age the way that she understands them. Jess never ceases to amaze me. Some people never come across a friend like Jess, and I feel very blessed to know her.

In Other News…

1) I got my car back

2) I got a Flat Stanley in the mail, and he is going everywhere with me this week

3) Spanish 3 is wearing on my nerves. I think I want to vacation to PA where you can drive for miles and never see a single person (besides maybe a few Amish people walking in a field)

4) I’ve been riding Sky a lot. It’s going well.

5) I LOVE FREEDOM CHURCH!

Reference Books

I love them. Reference books (and handbooks), I mean. There are not many things that I enjoy more than learning new things. I’m currently working on expanding my reference book collection. According to me, a reference book can be anything from a dictionary to The Original Girl’s Handy Book. Seriously the “Handy Book,” as I like to call it, has so much useful information in it. My favorite common reference books are probably rhyming dictionaries and thesauruses. They go hand in hand with my obsessive love of words.

Speaking of words, my dear aunt sent me a link to the most fantastic website.

It’s : www.savethewords.org

On this website, you sign up, and adopt words that are so unused in our everyday conversations that they are slowly becoming extinct. Spellcheck already thinks that they do not exist. Here are some of my favorites:

frutescent: relating to or having the characteristics of a shrubbery

queritate: to ask

supellectile: relating to furniture

Go check it out!

Yous Guys

Today was our first day of off-campus senior lunch. We decided to have a picnic since none of us have any money to spare. It actually turned out to be the best decision that we could have made, and we had much more fun than we would have had at a fast food restaurant. It was an interesting and very cultural experience. haha.

The six of us (me, Evan, Erin, Kathryn, Kendall, and Will) piled up in two cars, and drove over to Dellinger. There, we feasted (seriously, there was so much food) on PB&J sandwiches, mac n’ cheese, fried mushrooms, cold grapes, tiny pies, and country time lemonade out of a cute little pitcher. Really, it would have been picturesque if not for the green pond, the goose poop-covered gazebo, and the geese honking at us for food remnants.

The highlight of the picnic was probably when this older (and very sweaty) guy rode his (purple) bike onto the bridge that leads to the gazebo. He looked kind of sketchy, so I was pretty much just sitting there praying that he wouldn’t kidnap us. Kathryn, and her un-cautious self (I love you Kathryn) decided to ask this sketchy old man to take a picture of all of us sitting on the cute little picnic blankets. Scary. He took a couple of pictures, and proceeded to tell us his amazing weight loss story in an accent that must have come out of “West Side Story.” Seriously, he said “Yous Guys.” Yeah. He lingered for a little while (talking nonsense) and then went on his merry way. It was the most bizarre thing that happened all day. We couldn’t help but laugh after he left…and then we continued laughing for the rest of the day. It never ceases to amaze me how easily amused that we are.

The Thrill

I love the thrill of horseback riding. Seriously LOVE it. Being with Sky never gets old. It is different every single time, and that’s probably why I love it so much. You will never have two rides that are exactly the same. Every time you ride a horse, you grow closer together as a team. There is always room for improvement, and there always seems to be new things to learn.

Today, we jumped for the first time. I totally wasn’t expecting it. Ms.Cathy just asked if I would like to see if we could do it. (I thought I was going to have to wait until September’s jumping clinic) Of course I responded with an extremely enthusiastic “Ummm…YES!” The first time around, we approached too slowly, and we really didn’t leave the ground. (Imagine that…Sky being slow? That never happens!) The second time around, we approached the jump at a canter, but she ended up picking up her feet really high, trotting over the jump, and clipping the rail with her front feet. The third time was like magic. I was anticipating that click that would tell me that we hit the rail, but it never came. (Biggest adrenaline rush ever!)  We popped over to the other side, and Sky was so excited. She wanted to keep going so badly! It was cute! Needless to say, she is an adorable “jumping pony.” I was so proud of her today!