Where One Door Closes, Another One Opens!

After 3 1/2 years, Phi Lamb's door is officially closed. But, where one door is closed, another is open. It's such a bittersweet taste. This organization has meant more to me than I could have ever imagined or dreamed up. The girls have absolutely blown me away, and I have made friendships that will last a lifetime along with a mind full of memories.

From pledging as a freshman/sophomore, to serving as chaplain for a year, then to just being active and loving on these girls, hugging on these girls, praying with these girls, struggling with these girls, sharing my heart with these girls, crying with these girls and just plain laughing uncontrollably with these girls, I have loved EVERY minute of it. I would not take one minute back for the life of me. It has truly been my place of comfort and love from the minute I stepped foot on the Sam Houston State University campus.

I am moving back home to Houston once the semester is over to student teach in the Spring. I have no idea what is next for me. I'm growing up and it's a very strange feeling. I have so many emotions, but, know that I am more excited than anything to start this next phase of my life. There are so many things to look forward to, yet at the same time I will miss Huntsville and most importantly, the people here. (I NEVER thought I would say that! About the city, not the people!) I have actually caught myself calling Huntsville home, but that's exactly what it has become to me.

So, instead of recalling all my "lasts" I will look forward to what HE has in store for me. This life is a complete adventure and I love it.

To my Phi Lamb loves, I will miss you more than you know, or probably more than I even know. You have absolutely touched my heart and blessed my ever livin' face off. Keep seeking HIS plan for y'all. He really can do more than we can ever imagine if we seek Him with all we've got! I love y'all!! Huge hugs to all of you and TONS of love. I am praying for y'all!! And, you better believe I'll be visiting in the Spring! :)

Delta's! Sad that we're the last one's left...and we're leaving! :(

I love me some Angie and Hannah! CRAZY!!!

Surprise...it's your paddle!! :)

Yes, I look abnormally tall by these girls...or are they just abnormally short?! ;)

'07 - '08 Officers

Award Winners! :)

New girls...they're precious!

I love you all! You have blessed my face off!

A Belated Birthday Post

I am officially the worst daughter ever. I had every intention of writing a blog about my mom's birthday when I got back to school after Thanksgiving. Her birthday was that Saturday after Thanksgiving, so we celebrated that day, of course. Upon arriving at school, my brain went into school mode and time simply stood in the way.

I mean, how in the world could I forget to write a blog post about the best Mom in the USA?! You know it's bad when your mom calls you, herself, after checking your blog hoping for a post (I mean at least a picture, people!) and seeing nothing. And, especially after she has read a "happy birthday" post for every other friend and family member I know! She deserves her own post, and rightfully so!

Anyway, this is the belated happy birthday post for my sweet Mom who turned 51 on November 24th! (I know she just loves that I put her age! It's okay Mom, you're not too old to me!) The busy lady was literally gone all day doing various things. But, that night we celebrated as a family at Red Robin. The birthday girl called for a good hamburger, so that's where we ended up! (Although, after all that craving, she ended up getting a salad!) After eating we just relaxed at home, she opened gifts and I made a pie for her! It was mighty tasty!

So, Happy Birthday to the most caring, loving, patient, funny, sweetest, busy, unselfish of her time, most gifted at playing piano, loves babies like no other, silly, laughy and greatest Mom alive. I love you and hope your birthday was just delightful!

I'm Back!

As you can see...I'M BACK!!! And, I got EVERYTHING back.

I have never felt more relieved or excited. It was a process the past couple days, but, I am praising the Lord that I got ANYTHING back. Thank you to those who prayed for such a silly thing it seems like. But nothing is past the Lord, he can do anything.

Now that I have everything back, I can lay my head down on my sweet little pillow and sleep well. Because let me tell you, I think I MAYBE slept a total of 3 hours Thursday night with everything running through my head. I felt like the stupidest person for being trustworthy. I have most definitely learned my lesson!

I took these pictures and put them on my facebook so everyone would know it was truly me. (Even I thought I wouldn't get anything back!) So, I just had to share them with you lovely people out there. Again, thank you so much for your kind words and prayers. The Lord is good!

Now I'm off to the Library to get a paper done...school is ALMOST over! Come Thursday and I am a free lady. If you think about it, please pray that I would have energy and motivation to make it through this last week...because as of right now, I have NONE!

Much love to all of you,

Facebook Scam

I have never been more frustrated or upset in my life. (Okay, a little extreme!) But, I need everyone to hear me out.

Earlier today one of my good friends from school sent me a message about my password on facebook, it was a long story but I ended up giving it to her. About 2 seconds after I sent the message, I received another message from the same girl, laughing in my face, telling me it wasn't her and that if I didn't comply with the orders given, I would loose my facebook and email.

Immediately, I went to my email and was already aced out. I could not log in. After trying to change my email password I realized that who ever had my password, had already changed everything, including my birthday, so I was helpless.

So, immediately after that, I went to change my facebook password. I accomplished that and felt satisfied. Except, that I forgot something. When you change your password, it sends the new one to your email. What is a girl to do?

After negotiating with this person online, he finally changed my facebook account info to where I could no longer log on. I then logged on to my friends facebook, messaged myself (in which the hacker was now on my facebook), and sent him a message. In order to get everything back, he wanted me to do things I would NEVER in a million years.

So, needless to say, as of right now I have no email and no facebook. I have contacted both yahoo and facebook for them to deactivate both of my accounts. We will see how that goes.

If you are friends with me on facebook, please here this, if "I" send you a message, it is NOT ME. Don't reply! Even if I sound as sweet as pie.

Jennifer (jenthenewlywed) was researching a bit and saw that this happened last summer. A 20 year old boy in NY was doing this and it was happening at about 2 dozen colleges. He was put in jail for this, but then later realized. You can go here to read the whole story.

Well, I am off to figure this out and see what I can do. It is a miserable feeling because literally, me email is everything.

If you know anyone, or have any children on facebook, let them know about this. I hope this helps spread the word...

My Heart Is Full

It's officially Thanksgiving Eve, and I have a full heart! My heart is oh, so very grateful on this "day of giving thanks!"

Let me tell you what I am thankful for...

- I am thankful for my wonderful family and the laughter we share. I can only wait in anticipation for tomorrow as I know we will play many fun games and have many fun laughs with another family that I dearly love. (I am also thankful for Green Bean Casserole! Can I get an Amen?!)

- I am thankful for school. As hard as it is, and as much as I hate it sometimes, I am ALMOST done and will be officially a college graduate. Need I say more?!

- I am thankful for my wonderful friends that are scattered all around the COUNTRY this Thanksgiving day. As much as I would like them to be right here with me in Houston, Texas, I know the Lord has placed them where they are right now to bring glory to him. So, as much as I miss them, I am one BLESSED and THANKFUL girl for MY girls. Mrs. Louisiana, Mrs. Montana and Mrs. Africa I love you so much and am so thankful for you this week. Now if only I could give you a big hug....

- I am thankful for Phi Lamb and the many blessings that follow with this amazing organization. As my last semester is coming to an end, I am sad, yet thankful for all the sweet friendships I know I will have for life and for the person it has made me today. The Lord is all over Phi Lamb and I am so grateful.

- I am thankful for Matzke Elementary. I got all nostalgic today as I went back to go have lunch with my 2nd grade neighbor. I love that school. I also went to watch her Field Day. Okay, seriously a walk down memory lane...but I so loved it.

- I am thankful for face wash. Yes, I am weird. But I will have you know that I have NOT gone one night since like 7th grade that, no matter how tired I seriously am, I still HAVE to wash my face or I can just kick a good night sleep goodbye. I am anal about my skin. So, therefore, thankful for face wash.

- I am thankful for music. Seriously, what would we do without it. It touches my heart like nothing else. I love to sing. I simply LOVE music.

- I am thankful for Jesus and what he did for me on the cross. He went up on that cross thinking that I was worth it. And, that YOU were worth it. Are you kidding me?! I can't even comprehend that. But, it leaves me more than thankful for Him.

- And lastly, I am thankful for my story. I am thankful that the Lord has kept me single for the past 22 years. As hard as it gets sometimes, and as much as I wonder if he will ever bring someone along my path to serve him better with, I am thankful for this time. It is in my singleness that I can see who I really am and how satisfied I am in HIM. It is in this time that I have no distractions from him (although I say that and have plenty of distractions). But, it leaves me thankful for God and his faithfulness to me. He is faithful and DOES have a plan for my life...and I will choose to walk in that plan. For His ways are far better than mine and he seriously can do more than I can ever imagine (Eph. 3:20). So, I am thankful for my story so that ultimately HE will be glorified.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. Don't forget to reflect on what you are thankful for tomorrow. I love Thanksgiving. I love it because I love the Holidays...and this is only the beginning!!

Much love to all of you. And, I hope you know how thankful I am for YOU! Yes, you, reading this blog. It seriously has blessed me more than I ever thought a blog could. Thank you for all your sweet comments and encouragement this past year. I have loved getting to know each and everyone of you! (That is if we haven't met in person before!)

I'll leave you with a picture of me and my sweet Dad. A friend of ours took it this summer at a Father/Daughter night that we emceed. I just love it. Sorry for the quality...but it's a picture of a picture!! :)

Wedding Weekend With Many Surprises

This past weekend, 4 of us girls got all situated in Megan's (my roommates) Mitsubishi Endeavour and headed to Waco to have a wedding weekend. I don't want you mistaking this weekend with her REAL wedding weekend, which is 06-07-08, but, we did get some things accomplished! Go here to see some of her precious engagement pictures!!! Our main goal was to order our bridesmaids dresses and we did just that. Sigh of relief inserted here!

I have to tell you, though, that we had some strange, and I mean STRANGE encounters along the way.

Let me replay them for you in a list format!

1) Friday night we ate at Cheddars (simply divine). After we were told that we had to wait an hour to sit, we were surprised when our buzzer buzzed after about 20 minutes. No complaints here, though, I would gladly wait 20 minutes over an hour. So, we headed to our table, got situated, ordered our drinks and then we were surprised by a sweet waitress that delivered a huge cookie topped with ice cream to our table. Have y'all noticed that we haven't even ordered dinner yet and we are already on to dessert? Something is terribly wrong with this picture. We were so confused because they wouldn't give us many details. All they told us was that table 31 ordered this for us. WHAT?! Where is table 31? Who are they? Why did they do this? After much investigation, and quite frankly we were starting to get flattered (we are girls here), we realized that the cookie we received, was brought to the correct table (our table), but was meant for the PEOPLE BEFORE us. Basically, we got someone else's cookie, but they were already gone. That's when we were prompted to eat it or it would go to waste. We indulged ourselves and it was wonderful.

2) We stayed at Megan's parents house this weekend, and her Aunt Betty, so graciously, let us invade the back apartment all weekend and let us have it to ourselves. After much discussion we decided we needed to be up and going before 9:00 because some workers were coming to do a few things back there. I, needing to take a shower, arose at 8:30, hopped in the shower, blow dried my hair, all to find out we didn't have to be out of there until 11:00. Everyone else was awake already also, so we watched T.V. until we forced ourselves to actually start getting ready. Basically, we woke up at 8:30 for no reason. Oh well!

3) Waco, every year, has a huge warehouse, book sale where you can get paperback books for 50 cents, and hardback books for $1.00. Amazing. We went, looked around (some books were absolutely hilarious) and walked out of there with MANY books for cheap, cheap, cheap. Y'all, I got 5 books for $7. I even got Whispers of Hope by Beth Moore for $1.50. (some books were a little more, but seriously NOT bad!) Life was good.

4) Saturday night we decided to lay low since we had been going all day and we were pooped. So after some amazing hamburgers, and wedding crashing (not really, but we did drive by Megans wedding venue and there was a wedding going on, so we stopped and just watched from the car!) we decided to just watch a movie on TV. Y'all, we ended up watching Legends of the Hidden Temple and Double Dare. Talk about a walk down memory lane. I mean, do you realize how CHEESY those shows were, yet I was so intrigued back in the day. Some good laughs were had.

5) Sunday was the all eventful drive home. Seriously eventful. Have you ever tried to wash an apple while driving?! So, Hannah and I wanted to eat our apples but realized they hadn't been washed. She first had the grand idea of keeping the 2 apples in that flimsy plastic bag you get at the store and pouring water in that to wash them. She realized it was a bad idea when she had water ALL over her. Laughing attack #1. Then I had the idea of holding the apple out the window and pouring water from my water bottle on it. Did I mention we were driving on I-45 going 70 mph. You can only imagine the water I had dripping down my arm, the force of the wind, and the tears I had rolling down my cheeks. It was absolutely HIL-AR-I-OUS. Hannah tried it too which made for even more laughing. I really don't recommend doing this, but it was terribly funny. I will have you know that after both attempts we figured our apples were clean enough to eat, so we munched away.

If that wasn't enough for the drive home, you haven't met our highway friends. Now, I wouldn't necessarily call them friends, but they wanted more from us than we would ever dream of giving them. We passed these random boys while driving and at first they just waived obnoxiously. We waved and moved on. I guess they took this as "let's play a game!" So, they proceeded to pass us again, and again, waiving obnoxiously. I'm surprised they didn't get the point when they saw all of us just laughing and NOT waiving back. There car, or van I should say, was just too funny so we took a picture. We didn't think they saw that, but unfortunately once we passed again, they took a picture of us. Okay, seriously laughing now. Did I mention we were tired?! They were driving SO slow, so we, not wanting to, decided to pass them again. This time, they held up a sign. I will refrain from putting on this blog what they said, but you can only imagine what 2 boys would say. At this point we were, yes, laughing, but seriously just wanted to get home, and quite shocked I might add. After passing a few more times, and after a few more signs, we so happily made it back to Huntsville and were very grateful to say the least. I sure hope the rest of their car ride went well.

That was our weekend, an eventful one it was, but fun!!!

I am now sitting in the precious computer lab that I love oh, so much typing a paper that I love, oh, so much. ;)

I think the only thing keeping me motivated is the fact that: A) I only have 2 days of class and I'm out for Thanksgiving!!! and B) THE BACHELOR IS TONIGHT and I absolutely cannont wait!!!! I haven't missed an episode yet, and you better know that I am NOT gonna miss it tonight!!

On that note...I better get back to writing my paper!!! :)

Much love to all of you!!!!!

Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Sliter

As of tomorrow, Jessica and Nate, will have been married for one week!! We love them oh, so much.

Most of you know that I was the youth intern this summer with my church and Nathan was the other intern. Jessica is our Girls Ministry Director. We all had an absolute blast, but I still say that the summer seriously FLEW by. It was way to fast and was by far, my all time favorite job! Nathan and I had such a blast together, and I am telling you, the kid laughs as much as I do.

He and Jessica were dating prior to him coming down to intern with us, and they got engaged in July. Short engagement, yes. But, now they are headed to Ohio where Nate is a new Jr. High youth pastor.

We will miss them but know that the Lord has a plan of His own for this newly married couple!!

So, congratulations, Nate and Jessica. We will all miss you so much!! We love you...enjoy your new life together!!

The scrumptious cake...that I somehow didn't eat. Upsetting.

She was a beautiful bride!

Our summer staff!! We had TOO much fun. I miss them all, but love them dearly!!!

Blog Slacker

Hello strangers! At least that's what I feel like to y'all!! I have been such a blog slacker and I most certainly know it...but, can I just tell you what a time it has been?! Oh my. Absolutely insanely crazy. I am just exhausted, to say the least. You see, methods block is coming to a close which means pure heck (I'm trying to put it nicely!) until Dec. 6th roles around.

My schedule these past few days have consisted of: Getting up early, driving to Willis to be with my class, then heading straight to the computer lab to finish the next assignment due, coming home and scarfing dinner down, and heading to where I need to be that night (which by the way, is somewhere EVERY night!) I am pooped. So, my blog has been slacking.

I do have to say a few thank yous, though:

Thank you to those of you who prayed for Harvest. We had an amazing turnout. I think there were more people there this year than there has been in the past. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that we had it on a weeknight, but still, we are giving the Lord some praise. The weather was perfect (just a little chilly...but we loved that), nothing went wrong, and everything was smooth! So, thank you, thank you. If you think about it, just continue to pray for the seeds that were planted. And, give our Lord some praise, would you?!

Thank you to those of you that prayed for Jon, Sally and Jude. I am so happy to announce that they made it there smoothly and now they are just looking for a place to live. I haven't talked to her personally, but her wonderful mother is keeping us all updated and we are so grateful. I know they would still greatly appreciate your prayer's now as they make this huge transition! So, thank you to all of you who have prayed and left such sweet comments. I know she will be encouraged by them.

I've added a few pictures below of this past week (which was crazy!), but fun.

Monday my covenant group in Phi Lamb had a pancake night at my apartment and it was too fun. These girls are so sweet. I know I will miss phi lamb greatly when I leave in just about a month. It means so much to me! I will have you know that I made the pancakes myself. After about the first few, which were totally demolished, I got the hang of it. I clearly never make pancakes, so this was exciting.

Tuesday at TRUTH we talked about idols and sacrifices. Oh my. I wish you all could have been there. We've been going through Genesis and this week we were on Ch. 22 where Abraham sacrifices Isaac. This is a whole post yet to come. I am learning so much. As hard as it is to let go of things, I know I can trust the Lord.

Wednesday, Sam Houston played Texas Tech in Basketball. Coach Marlin vs. Coach Knight. Y'all....WE WON!!! Like seriously?! Amazing.

Yesterday I finally got to finish the movie The Ultimate Gift, after starting it last Friday. I am serious, if you haven't seen it, go get it. Y'all, it is so good. Such a sweet story.

Anyway, I have got to hop in the shower and be a bit productive today before me and some of the other bridesmaids head up to Waco with Megan to get some wedding stuff done. It should be fun, so I am excited! :) Wedding weekends are always a blast.

Well folks, enjoy some pictures (as always) of Harvest and our Pancake night.

Love to all of you! Oh, and enjoy the cold weather! I am so eating it up!! :)