iPhone Dump: Edition 1

If you have an iPhone, or any type of picture taking phone, I guess, you know that it’s slightly more tempting to just carry that around, as opposed to a real, legit camera. Fortunately, I always have my camera in my purse, for those Kodak moments, but unfortunately, I tend to reach for my phone first, before my camera.

That means that my iPhone is currently holding 775 photos on it, along with 24 videos. No lie.

Yes, I do realize that is a bit ridiculous, so I felt the need to do an iPhone dump. Where better to do it than the blog? Consider this Edition 1, as there are more picture dumps to come.

My purse is about 8967 pounds too heavy. The other day I unloaded it to clean it out so that my shoulder could return to normal. Seriously, I have purse hoarding issues. Look at all this crap in my purse! If it really is true that the state of your purse resembles the state of your life, than I'm in big trouble.


I've been a proud owner of three Chi's in my lifetime. However, I've always failed to notice this warning. Did you know this product could burn your eyes? What's unfortunate is that the only reason this warning is necessary is because someone tried it. Stupid.


Right here we have my very favorite lunch dates, Micah and Naomi. I can almost guarantee that every other Friday, which is MOPS Friday at our church, I get to have lunch with these two at Chick-Fil-A. Love it. We missed Courtney and her girls last Friday!


I saw this treadmill circuit workout in Self Magazine the other day and decided to try it last night. Since I've been running, I thought it would be fairly easy. Boy was I wrong. It was a killer workout. Thank you, Jillian Michaels. Do you make anything easy?


My poor roommate, Bethany, can fall asleep on pretty much any car ride. This was on our way home from dinner and bowling Friday night. She was wiped. (No worries, I took this picture at my apartment when my car was in park.)


You never know what the game, Quelf, might make you do. Bless Ben's heart.


This here is a car in the Florida Walmart parking lot. I almost lost my breakfast upon the initial sighting. Seriously? I think everyone took a picture of it. Gross.


Have you met Bob Harper? Would you like to meet Bob Harper? It's no secret that I would. Hence the reason for the picture and the buying of Extra gum. I'm pitiful.


Scarves. I love them. Yes, I do. This was the scarf display in TJ Maxx. Bliss.


What is this, you ask? My guilty pleasure. A peanut butter sandwich, with strategically placed M&M's, warmed up in the microwave for 12 seconds. It is deadly. And amazing. Just try it. You're welcome.

The Hardest Thing?

Tonight at Bible study, Greg, my former youth pastor turned missions pastor, presented a question to each of us.

What is the hardest thing God could ask you to do?

It took me about 2.5 seconds to formulate and write down my answer. I knew immediately, because it’s something I think about often. It’s something I truly wonder if I could give God a resounding “Yes!” to.

My honest answer?

Serve God single for the rest of my life.

Yes, to me, that is the hardest thing God could ask me to do.

I know that my singleness is a complete blessing. I actually enjoy it. I really do. There are so many reasons I love being single. But I never want the things I love about my singleness to trump a potentially wonderful relationship that could bring God greater glory.

Please tell me you were as into John & Kate Plus 8 as I was? I mean, who didn't love little Aiden in his precious glasses? Of course, if you were as into it as me, then you watched their marriage plummet as quickly as I did. I was clearly sad when all of that went down because of so many reasons, and I'm not going to point the blame at anyone since I only know what the media will tell me, but I was sick when John, in one interview, was blaming his recent behavior on the fact that he just didn't get enough alone time, or time to be free, before he got married.

Seriously? Since when were we entitled to season to do what we wanted before we were given the responsibility to raise a family?

You see, we live in a culture where singleness is sacred.

People live and thrive in their singleness and think I’m the weirdo for living in the suburbs of Houston when I could be living the life downtown in the fourth largest city in America.

In my mind, however, I am living the life. I love my job. I love my friends. I love my family. I laugh a lot at the people I’m around. I love the free time I get. I love having very minimal responsibility and so on and so forth. There are many times I think, I am so glad I'm single right now.

But, I can see how singleness can become a trap that people don’t want to quickly pull away from.

I think, if not guarded and used correctly, singleness can become a very selfish thing.

I realize that Paul considers singleness a blessing and that it is a time of undivided devotion to the Lord. Undivided devotion. Without a lot of distractions. But, are we using it for that? Or are we just using it as a time to be lazy? To be selfish? To let the things of this world have our full attention before we really feel like we're ready to raise a family? Have we forgotten that God also told us to be fruitful and multiply? As much as God blesses singleness, He also gives His full blessing to raising families! No matter how your children may come to you, He is so for godly parents training children in the way they should go. Raising up generations to serve Him.

I am so grateful for Matt Chandler (among many other godly men), who encourage the single guys to be in search of a wife. Unless they think they’ve been called to celibacy, it’s biblical. I know so many truly amazing single girls and the one thing I keep asking are, where are all the men?

Of course, I do have a choice in how available I make myself, and if I'll choose to embrace a relationship that could potentially leave me heart broken or hide from love, but that's another post for another day.

I don’t think the Lord is calling me to serve Him single for the rest of my life. I believe He is the one who placed this desire inside of me to be a wife and mother, and I’m believing Him for that. What I guess I fear the most is how long, Lord?

If I have one desire in my future marriage, it is that we would serve the Lord better together than apart. That truly God would get greater glory from our marriage, than he would from our singleness.

If my singleness, for such a time as this, is giving Him greatest glory, then so be it. That may be a hard statement for me to make, but it's heartbeat. But oh, that I would live in purposeful singleness.

I’m convinced that Satan often uses our greatest desires against us. I can almost guarantee God’s placed this desire in my heart because it’s the one desire that Satan tries to use against me. It’s where he really loves to fling his lies at. Thankfully, I’ve learned to pin point those lies and throw truth back in his face, which is incredibly freeing. That alone has been reassurance that the Lord has not called me to a life of singleness. But rest assured, it’s still a scary thought.

Even though I desire for my life to be used for His greatest glory, giving a fist pump "Yes!" to a life of singleness? Well, he’d really have to change my heart on that one.

What’s the hardest thing God could ask you to do? I know that's an honestly hard question, but I want you to be brutally honest with yourself. And feel free to share it with us.

Expect More. Pay Less

Is it sad that I know the Target slogan by heart? I know it's pitiful. But I'm not ashamed. After all, you do get more, and you pay less. It's a win/win situation.

I know you're not here to hear me ramble on about my love for Target, so let me just get straight to the point...

But first, can I just say that y'all make me smile? Every comment was so sweet and I really wish I could give each of you a Target gift card. And although I'm no mathematician, I figured out the cost of that would be $1100 and well, I don't just have that kind of pocket change sitting around. But truly, the encouragement and sweet words encourage my heart more than you know. So, thank you!

With that said, the winner of the 2011 Four Year Blogoversary Target Gift Card is...

Ang Baylis!


As you can see, I did the random number generator. The result was: 22. Then, when I went to copy and past it onto this post, the 22 went away. I was very disappointed, but more importantly, it proved to me that I am technologically challenged. But, I promise it was 22, and if my counting skills are up to par, then sweet Ang gets the card!

I am so happy for her! She never ceases to encourage me with the sweetest words at the right minute. Not to mention that I've met her a time or two or three! One time she came to Tuesday night Bible study (from Michigan, of all places) and saw me but didn't come say hi. Shame on her! When she told me later she saw me, I told her never to do that again. To always say hi! She's a doll! Congratulations, sweet friend!

Happy Friday, y'all!

Happy Blogoversary to Me!

Today is Tuesday, January 18th.

This day means a lot of fun things.

For one, it’s Tuesday, and that means it is Bible study night. Beth Moore starts her new series on James tonight and it excites me to no end. This is actually the first semester that I won’t be attending the whole series, and although that makes me sad, I am committed to another Bible study that I do love, which makes it not so hard to miss.

Secondly, it is sweet Jaclyn’s birthday. She is Jen’s sister and I love her to bits. Not to mention that her children are THE MOST adorable and could entertain me for hours. Happy Birthday, Jaclyn!

But most importantly, and the reason I'm currently writing this blog post, is because four years ago on this very day in 2007, I started this here blog. Can you believe it? Four years! I didn’t think I’d blog consistently for a year, but here we are four years later and I’m still going strong, heading into my fifth year of blogging.

I have never really known how to adequately explain the blog world to people that don’t blog. When I say I’m meeting my “blog friends” for dinner, they look at me like I should take a .44 Magnum with me just in case one might be a serial killer. While I understand that there are crazy folks out there, I am certain that the people I’ve met in this little corner of my world have been some of the biggest blessings of my life.

I think it's so important to have real life friends that know and love you as well, but blog friends that become real life friends are just an added bonus.

I think a list is in order as I tell you some of my favorite things about blogging, some of the biggest blessings, if you will.

1) These ladies. I’m not sure why they continue to let me crash their parties and Bible study time, but whether or not they know it, they are each a huge blessing and mentor to me. What single girl is lucky enough to be surrounded by such wise, funny, and Jesus loving, ladies? I am so blessed by each of them. Some of my favorite memories with them have been our summer Bible study, our baking days, an overnight trip to Galveston to stay in the San Luis and many other fun times. Other fun blogging memories are San Antonio and Atlanta. And those are just a few fun memories! There are plenty more! I say often that by the time I get married or have children, I’ll be the most educated single girl on the planet. I love them. If it weren’t for this crazy blogging world, I’m not sure I’d know them.

Fun times in Galveston with Missy, Amanda, Heather and Debra!




Heather's birthday dinner at Pappasito's with the girls!

Although there are other connections, we pretty much all met through blogging. Who'd of thunk it? These girls are a huge blessing to me.

Hilarious times in Atlanta! Say Rafferty's!

Jen, Karen, Me, Kim, Robyn, Fran and Nikki!


2) Y’all! My readers! That sounds really funny to say, saying that four years ago two people read my blog. I never started this blog with the intention of “gaining readers”, especially strangers, but it is so fun to hear from y’all. To think that my words and heart resonate with some of you, is so humbling and the biggest blessing. I pray that my honest words and heart continues to encourage some of you out there. Especially you single ladies.

3) Reading some of my old posts. Yes, it is a blessing! I don’t go back and read that often, but when I do, I love to see even just through my blog, how the Lord has grown me, where He’s taken me and how my writing has matured and changed. Not that my style has changed (don’t know if I have a style), but just how He continues to strengthen my area of writing.

4) Writing! I really do enjoy writing. I may not be the best writer, or the most funny, or most witty, but it sure is freeing to me. I’ve always been a huge advocate of journaling, and this is just one of the many ways I journal.

5) Because inquiring minds want to know, and because I’m always curious, I think my favorite post so far has been I’ve Rejected Not One. It struck a chord not only in my own heart, but so many of yours. I consistently go back and read that one to remind myself that the Lord will not reject me and that He is ultimately in control.

There are so many other fun things about blogging that come to mind, but those are a few of my favorite. I think I’ve said it before, but it is worth repeating, this blog has been a more than I can imagine type of thing in my life. Truly, the Lord has used it to bless my ever loving socks off and I’m excited to see what He continues to do in this little corner of my world. I pray that when you come here, you not only see the real me, but you see Jesus. That’s my heartbeat.

Because I love y’all so much, and because you bless me every day, and because blogging is one of my favorite things, I’d like to give back to y’all just a portion of what you’ve given to me. So it feels only appropriate to have a giveaway. It will be a little bit like Oprah’s Favorite Things, except it will be Lindsee’s Favorite things, and I’ll only be giving away one item, as opposed to thousands of things to hundreds of people.

You ready for this? Everyone get your screaming faces ready…

One of YOU will be a lucky winner of a $25 gift card to Target!



AHHHHHH!!!! I know you're crying, and screaming and jumping for joy!

I know you’re beside yourself with joy! All you have to do is leave a comment, plain and simple. I’ll confuse myself if I tell you to tweet it and facebook it, so we’ll just make it easy on the both of us.

In some fancy form or fashion I’ll do a drawing on Friday, so be sure when you leave a comment to at least leave a way I can get a hold of you, preferably an email address, especially if you don’t have a blog!

Happy blogoversary to you and to me! I am so thankful for y'all!

These are my Confessions

Last night after I got home from visiting with my friend Allison, one of my very favorite people in the world, in her super adorable house, I got online real quick and read this confessions post by Amanda. I thought it was hilarious and brilliant so I decided to be a copy cat. Please note, I didn’t get home until after midnight, so it was very, very late. These are my confessions.

- I am naturally a very nosey person. I want to know anything and everything.

- I used to be a legit facebook stalker. In a way I still am (I mean, who isn't?) but it's calmed down a bit. Sometimes I get bored with facebook.

- What is all the hype about Johnny Depp? I don't find him the least bit attractive. Never have. And don’t think I ever will.

- I don't enjoy being around hyper-spiritual people. I think there's a difference between loving the Lord genuinely with all your heart, soul and mind and being hyper-spiritual. It seems somewhat fake. I do enjoy, however, being around real, genuine, Jesus-loving people.

- According to my last statement, apparently I am very judgmental. These are confessions after all.

- I've considered deleting the last two confessions about fifteen million times. Clearly, I kept them.

- Every now and then, I consider leaving my job to go teach because of the higher pay. I am human, after all. The love of my job, however, keeps me from leaving every time. : )

- I like shopping. Too much.

- Sometimes I think that if I forget about my school loans, they'll just go away and I won't have to pay them.

- I don't like going anywhere without make-up on. I think it takes me back to my days when I was on Accutane and had really bad acne. My self-image was poor and I fear it will all return at any moment. Hence the make-up.

- I'm very afraid I'll be taken away in an ambulance at my Sprint Triathlon during the first leg of the race, swimming.

- This may be TMI, but my body seems to hate anything "honey nut". I'll leave it at that.

- I stopped drinking Diet Coke (or soda in general) about a year and a half ago. However, this summer in Belize, Diet Coke was my only hope of caffeine. And I needed it, badly. I’m now back in the habit of drinking it once a week or once every few weeks, but I act as though I never drink it. It’s just really good.

- In training for this Sprint Triathlon, I am rewarding myself with two things: Diet Coke and Girl Scout Cookies.

- I’m afraid that after reading this, you may hate me. If you do, I’d rather not know. Insecure much?

Tall, Grande and Venti

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they say opposites attract, do they not?

I know in context that saying is more for opposite sex relationships, but I'm not so sure it goes for choosing your roommates as well.

You see, there are a few things you need to know about me, that you may not already know.

I am tall.

I have long legs.

I have school spirit.

So check me out.

Ha. Kidding!

SNL, anyone?

Anyway, moving along.

Very seriously, though, I am tall and I do have very long legs. If I told you my inseam, you might gasp. Jeans are the one item of clothing that I absolutely splurge on for the mere fact that it's next to impossible to find some that don't look like high waters on me if I don't pay a substantial amount of money on them. It's just the cold, hard truth. That, and well, I think a nice, perfect fitting pair of jeans is essential.

Another thing you need to know about me is I have a very short roommate.

While I understand that sounds very rude to say, it is again, just the cold, hard truth.

We both land on opposite sides of the spectrum. We're both the extreme, the exception if you will. And we willingly acknowledge this truth.

So imagine our hilarious surprise when this summer while at shoe store playing around, I put on four inch heels and Michaela was wearing flats. I looked like a complete giant next to her. (For the record, I would never buy four inch heels. The highest heel I own is three inches, and that was for my BFF's wedding.)

Please see for yourself...



Please note three things:

1) She barely comes up to my shoulder.

2) I am almost the height of the door.

3) And I could barely walk in those heels.



Very quickly after this picture was snapped, I asked her to pay up since she was taking a picture with a statue.

Thankfully, we have a third roommate that fits perfectly in between us which helps us raise the bar. Get it? AT&T? I really need to stop with the corny jokes this morning.

If only I really had a picture of us raising the bar.

For now, I'll just consider each of us the drink sizes at Starbucks.

Tall, Grande and Venti.

Those may not be the most endearing terms, but they portray a correct representation of what's living under our apartment roof.

Notice how Michaela is standing on her tippy toes.

I'm like the Mother Hen.

Since Starbucks is revamping their logo, and ditching the words, maybe they could just use us as sizes for their customers to point at? Hey, it could happen.

Happy Saturday!

Winter Retreat Top Ten

For the past year and a half I’ve been attending a Bible study at a church in my area called Remnant. It has really been a huge blessing to me because it’s been an outlet where I can go and get fed as opposed to serving and running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I love what I do, love it, but it’s hard sometimes, especially on Sundays, to get into the worship when I’m constantly thinking about what needs to happen next. That’s why Sunday’s are considered work days for me. Not to mention the fact that there are people my age there. It’s a wonderful balance!

I don't typically get to do more with the ministry than just go to Bible study on Thursday nights because of scheduling conflicts with my own ministry, so I was both excited and a bit anxious when I decided to sign up for the Winter Retreat at Camp Tejas this past weekend. I knew it would be a great opportunity for me to meet some new friends, but at the same time, I also didn't know a ton of people and that can be awkward. If I were really honest I'd just tell you that making new friends is hard. It takes work, but I happen to love people, so it's worth it.

With that said, here are my top ten favorite memories from the retreat:

1) Getting away for four days with a handful of people I don’t know, worshipping with some very gifted worship leaders and being taught God’s Word by some very gifted teachers. It’s nice to get away every now and then, and very necessary at times.

2) Last minute, Jared, the pastor of the group, called me to see if I could help co-lead a group. The girl who was supposed to lead it ended up coming down with bronchitis and was unable to go. Leading them was such a pleasure and my complete honor. It was a nice change of pace as compared to leading my typical high school or middle school students.

3) Being a part of Team Acne! There were four teams all weekend and each team was labeled and something people would typically be ashamed of. Hence the acne. The other teams were bad breath, braces and glasses. Go, Team Acne!

4) Sleeping on the top bunk. When was the last time I did that? I don’t think my climbing skills were up to par, but I felt like a little girl sleeping up there. I tried to ignore the fact that every time I went up I hit my head.

5) Nerd dance! To ring in the New Year we had a dance outside and all dressed as nerds. I revamped my outfit once we arrived because it was a bit chillier than I expected, and the dance was outside, but it was so much fun! I learned very quickly that night that the more I moved, the warmer I stayed. Needless to say, I never stopped moving.

6) My roomies! Martha, Cora, Anna, Sage and the girl who must not be named. Ha! Kidding. Sarah was my other roommate. We had a pretty good schedule as far as showers went, which is a must when six girls are sharing one bathroom. I love the facilities at Camp Tejas. They are so nice and very inviting. Our group stayed in the Four Seasons building and more importantly, the six of us took up residency in February for those four days. It was adorable!

7) Getting to do the Zip Line again. I was just at Camp Tejas about a month ago for our staff retreat and had a blast on it. I don’t love climbing up the tour that shakes as though an earthquake is happening every time someone zips off, but it is fun nonetheless.

8) Lying in bed at 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning laughing uncontrollably over Sarah admitting her very real stalker-like capabilities. Apparently I’m not as easy to stalk because of my unique name spelling, but homegirl is legit, y’all. She may know more about you than you know about yourself. Watch out! (I actually went to see Wicked with Sarah and Jared this summer, so I’m not totally creeped out by her, but if I’d of known that before Wicked, I may have second guessed that invitation.) Totally kidding, Sarah. Love you, girl!

9) While we were laughing (very late, mind you) about Sarah admitting to her stalker capabilities, sweet Cora happened to be taking a shower. However, she forgot her towel outside by her bed and felt bad interrupting our conversation to ask one of us to bring it to her. Bless her heart! I was laughing so hard. I could just imagine her standing in the bathroom dripping wet waiting for a break in our conversation. This may be one of those moments where you had to be there, but I was tickled.

10) Learning and applying what it means to live in a way unashamed of the Gospel. Our God is a God that saves. If I believe that with my whole heart, am I living like that? If not, why not? Powerful message that will take weeks, maybe even months, to process. If I believe and claim that Jesus is better, my response to that should be complete obedience and surrender to Him. But whoa, that’s much easier said than done. Praise the Lord I’m not on this journey alone!

I ripped a ton of pictures off facebook. And thanks to my friend, Caleb, I have a lot of good looking professional ones that didn't come from me!

How gorgeous is this?

Swinging during rec!

Team Glasses!

Team Bad Breath! How awesome is their flag?

Go Team Braces!

We took a "hike" one day and came across a neat campfire area where we proceeded to climb branches and trees. I, however, did the least amount of climbing when it came to climbing higher than I preferred. : )


Ryan showed us all up with his excellent skipping skills.


Here is Anna ironing Martha's shirt with a Chi. We are so thankful for the Chi and it's usefulness on both our hair and clothing.

Waiting by the bathroom one evening for worship to start. It wasn't as windy under the covering.

Kendrizzle!

Me and Anna as nerds.

Watching a bunch of nerds dance is hilarious.


I love these girls!

Cora and I sat on the bus ride up together and I was thrilled to find out that she has done two Sprint Triathlons in her time. Needless to say, I grilled her.


This might have been when the Backstreet Boys were playing. Or maybe N'Sync.


Team Acne girls after Mega Relay on Saturday night!

Me and my partner, Cody, for the weekend. So fun!

See how legit Caleb's pictures are?

Popping our zits!

Go Team Acne!


Happy New Year, sweet friends!