Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

I totally started this post on Monday evening, and am just now finishing it. But seriously, I can't not share with you how wicked cool my weekend was. From Friday morning to Sunday evening it was chock-full of amazingness and craziness but I loved every minute.

I started the weekend by driving to Fort Worth Friday morning to celebrate my sweet friend, Jen's, birthday. On the way there I picked up Hannah in Huntsville and I was so thankful to have her along for the ride, not only because I adore her, but because in Corsicana the skies decided to open up pouring down what was oceans of rain causing me to pull over into a Jack in the Box (or Jack in the Crack as I like to refer to it) because I couldn't see one foot in front of me while driving.

Needless to say I was a little freaked and if Hannah would not have been with me, I would have been a puddle myself. Plus, driving four hours always goes by much quicker when you have companionship.

Once we arrived at Jen's apartment, we quickly changed into our eighties get up. Yes, you read that right. Eighties. Y'all, it was hilarious and so much fun! We then traveled to The Magic Time Machine in Dallas to eat dinner. I wouldn't say that the food was superb, or that it was even worth the money, but you pay for the entertainment and ambiance.

All of the waiters and waitresses there are characters. Our waiter was Mr. Incredible. How fun is that? Some other characters included Jack Sparrow, Steve Urkel, Waldo, Belle, Dennis the Menace, Indiana Jones and so on and so forth. Like I said, you pay for the entertainment, but it was fun!

Right after dinner we hurried over the the skating rink to go roller skating. Bless my heart, I'm not the most graceful on four wheels, but it was a blast. When I was in Phi Lamb in college we had a few skate nights and they were always the best, so to repeat it with these girls could not have been better. We only skated for about 30 minutes, but I think that was plenty of time!

By then we were exhausted and drove back for a night of chatting at Jen's apartment! We stayed up way to late, but what do you expect?

Saturday we washed all the aqua net out our crazy hair, then had a normal 21st century kind of day full of lunch at Tillman's Roadhouse, the cutest restaurant in the DFW area, dessert at Sweet Sammies and then pedicures. It was so nice and relaxing!

Unfortunately, I had to come home Saturday evening because of my duties on Sunday, but of course Hannah was with me which made the drive effortless. For three hours straight we talked, never turned on the music, and I'm pretty sure I dropped her off at her house more in love with Jesus. I'm not just saying that! I always, always look forward to our sweet conversations.

I pulled into my driveway around midnight and immediately fell in bed! Exhaustion won. But it was worth every second.

Hannah, Jen & Raven sporting their attire. If you can't tell, Raven was Madonna and she wins best costume, and attitude ever. Hilarious!

Here are some of the waiters!

Finally entering into the 21st century!

How pretty is this restaurant? So country, modern and chic. I loved it.

Me and Jen, the girl of the weekend!

I love these girls to bits. Truly.

This was in the outside eating area. Can we say adorable?

Hannah and Katie enjoyed yogurt...

While we enjoyed our Sammies. (Blue Bell ice cream smashed between two cookies. Yum!)

What's a girls weekend without a pedicture?

Sunday after church we had an end of the year lunch for our leadership team that always has me doubled over laughing. Because we are preparing for our summer, last years mission trip came up in conversation and I loved reliving our crazy time in Mexico. It makes me really, really excited for all our adventures this summer! I love these knuckleheads.

After lunch I went straight to a wedding shower for my hilarious and talented friend, Heather! She's getting married Saturday and I can't wait to see her in her dress. She'll be beautiful, no doubt! While there I declined an offer for a piece of cake since I'd just had cake and ice cream and they all thought I was crazy! One lady kept telling me I was that girl that rejects it and that's why I look the way I do. It was hilarious because quite frankly, I'm never that girl! I was just about to bust.

Straight from the shower I headed home to change for 15 minutes and then went to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants with my favorite senior girls, Alicia's. It was our very last meeting before they graduate. Sad day, but my fajitas cured any emotions I was feeling! Senior send-off is this coming Sunday and I'm dreading it. I'm going to try my hardest not to cry, but I love these girls! We had a blast and we had them share their favorite memory of small group and those were so fun to hear. They are so special to me!

A few of them came over after dinner for a while and we laughed and talked. I think that's what I'm going to miss most! Their joyful presence in my house. Okay, for real, stopping now. Needless to say, we had a great evening.

If you made it to then end of this post, bless you. I'm sure you're exhausted by now, which is exactly how I felt Sunday night!

Happy Wednesday, peeps!

You Asked, I Answer: Part 1

Because I'm the worlds biggest procrastinator, I'm just now getting around to answering your questions from the fun Q&A post. However, I didn't want to overwhelm you with all the questions at once (because let's face it, I can be pretty wordy) I've decided to do it in two parts. That means you get part one today and part two in 15 years. Kidding. Maybe. Enjoy, my sweet peeps, and I pray you're not too bored.

How do you deal with people trying to set you up just because they want to see you happy? Because this can be mega awkward.
Yes, I completely agree, this can be mega awkward. For me it all depends on who is trying to set me up! Some people I’d trust with my life, and for those I’m more than willing to be open to it. Many people have tried to set me up, but most times it amounts to nothing. I wrote about that here!

My question is...how do you stay so positive?
Let’s be honest here, I have my days. However, that’s just it, they are just days. As much as I think that being single desiring to be married and waiting is hard, I think that being married desiring to be single is harder. The joy of the Lord truly is my strength and how I know that my joy comes from Him is because it’s HIS fruit, not mine (Gal.5:22). The Lord has considered me worthy to be in a season of waiting and I don’t want to take that for granted. We all have our “thing” and this is mine. When I say I desire to be more like Jesus and fall more in love with him, I’m completely serious. I’ve come to believe that this time of singleness is such a focused time with minimal distractions (as far as boys are concerned) and I don’t want to leave this season the same I entered. Paul considers this an “undivided devotion to the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:35) and that’s how I see it too. It’s a blessing, not a curse! But I wait in hope for the Lord! He knows my desires. I remind myself of that every day. Sometimes every hour.

One last thing and I’ll move on, I surround myself with friends and family. Obviously I’m in the ministry which consumes 75% of my time, but when I’m not working, I call my peeps up to do something. I love me a good couch night every so often, but I also love me some people! People make me extremely happy. The Lord has blessed me with some amazing friends and family, which I am so thankful for. It makes singleness more than bearable.

I would love it if you devoted an entire blog post to your girl’s ministry!
That sounds awesome! But, what would you like to hear more about? I could go on and on about girls ministry until the fat lady sings. Okay, kidding, I’ve only got two “official” years under my belt, but still. What’s something you want to hear about?

I love the spelling of your name! So my question... is there any special reason your parents spelled it such a cute way? Seriously love it.
Growing up I was never a fan of my odd spelling, but now I love it! Reason being I could never get those cute little gadgets with my name engraved on it, they were all spelled wrong! However, there is no special reason my name is spelled different. No reason at all! The only reason I can give you is that my parents love to be different (in a good way) so they spelled all of our names in unique ways. My brothers’ names are Brien and Kevyn. See the difference? I love it.

Once you find your mate, which you will, have you considered writing a book? Seriously! I have always felt like no one out there can relate to what I am going through in terms of being a girl in her twenties with no kiss, no dates, no prospects...sorry...but now I feel like I do and I am sure there are other women out there who could use the encouragement. So, how about it?
First off, thank you for your kind words. I'm honored that you would think little ole me could write a book. I'll say this, I'm not against it in any way, shape or form. With that said, it would have to be a complete work of God because I don't feel equipped or worthy to write a book of any kind. I do enjoy writing, but I don't think I'm necessarily good at it. But if the Lord allows, or guides me in that way, I'd pray I do it in a way that only brings glory and honor to Him and Him alone. After all, He chose this journey for me, I didn't choose it for myself.

I love shoes...love, love shoes...what size shoes do you wear...and where do you shop for them?
Oh sister! I love me some shoes too. You should see my shoe collection. It’s pitiful! I’m a girly girl for sure. Anywho, I wear a size 10 (can totally fit into a 9 ½ at times) and honestly, I’m a bargain girl at best which most often leads me to Target. Sometimes I consider myself a slave to Target. Since I love them so much, and own so many pairs, my wallet could never afford all the expensive pairs. Granted, for things like my nice boots and other special occasions, I love me some Dillard’s and Macy’s shoe section, but most times you’ll find me browsing Target, Payless, TJ Maxx, Ross & Marshalls.

Do you ever have people pressure you to pursue guys your might be interested in?
I wouldn’t say anyone has pressured me to pursue them, what they have encouraged me to do is to be more open to dating them. Make myself available. Flirt. Yes, flirt. I’m not the brightest crayon in the box when it comes to flirting, and while I’m not the biggest fan, I also think guys are dorks and sometimes need a clue. But no, most times I hear, if he’s interested, he’ll pursue you. But, if you are wondering, I had a big ring debacle sometime last year and was strongly encouraged to take the ring I was currently wearing off of my ring finger. I obliged. I’m now ring less.

Happy Thursday & Happy Weekend! Thanks so much for playing along!

Celebration Station

Before I go on and on about my weekend, can I just say THANK YOU for all of your sweet comments on my last post? Seriously, I felt extremely blessed by all of your comments, emails, prayers and encouragement. One thing about the blog world that I love is that there are so many strangers out there who are walking the same road as me and it's nice to "hear" from y'all. I'm always curious how many single girls out there read this little corner and I hope and pray that you're encouraged and that God is honored in all my "single" ramblings. He has us waiting for a reason, I pray none of us will miss it! So, thank you! It meant the world to my little heart. I'm so thankful for y'all.

Anyway, onto my crazy fun, very social weekend! May tends to always be a more social month, and this sanguine loves nothing more than a full social calendar. This weekend was all about celebrating different people and every minute was delightful.

I started the weekend at Pappasito's for sweet Heather's birthday celebration! You can never go wrong with Pappasito's, girls or chocolate cake from Newks and we enjoyed all three. If you can imagine, we chatted the night away, then watched Heather open up all her fun gifts. She got some super fun things that I'm not coveting. After we stuffed ourselves we headed to Heather's house to play games, which turned into talking about how hard it was to raise little boys. Let me tell you this, I'll be nothing if not prepared when I get married and start having kids. Between my BFF's all being married and these friends, I'll be ultra prepared. And I'm loving it. We stayed at her house until almost 1:00 a.m. and then I crashed in my bed.

Can you believe this is the ONLY picture I took all night? Once Heather blogs about it, I'll be ripping them off her blog. The cake was delicious!

Unfortunately, I was wide awake at 7:30 and forced myself out of bed at 8:00. Blah. Since I was feeling energetic after such quality sleep, I drove myself straight to the gym and hit the treadmill for 50 minutes. Clearly my lack of sleep had something to do with that move. And although I'd like to say I literally hit the treadmill for that long, I actually treaded on it. Afterwards I would have loved to have tackled the thing. I was hurtin' for certain. You know what kept me going? Take a wild guess. Okay, yes, it was hearing Bob Harper & Jillian Michaels yell LAST CHANCE WORKOUT at me the entire time. Oh yes, yes it was.

That afternoon after a shower I headed to Loribeth, one of my senior girls, graduation party. Stop the presses, folks, can you believe I'm already attending their parties? It's too soon. The party supplied me with some more cake and junk food that I happily scarfed down because I'm certain I burned at least 7968 calories while treading on the mill.

Me and LB!

After I left the party, I headed to one of our high schools to see my other girl, Shannon, dance in her very last spring show as a Bailadora, which is what they call their drill team girls. It was a great, entertianing, yet long show! It didn't end until 11:30! Two late nights in a row and this girl was pooped. But, I would have missed the end for the anything to get to hug her neck!

Sunday after church the parentals and I drove up to College Station so my mom could see her youngest boy and feed him lunch. He has finals this week so my mom didn't think it was necessary that he drove home just to see her, so we went there. I always love taking those little trips because inevitably we laugh the entire time. This time we got tickled because as we were eating lunch at 2:30 with no one else in the restaurant, Kev and I were singing our heads off. Seriously, we're so obnoxious. And the same person.

The mom really wanted sweet potato fries so we ended up eating at Carter's, this little burger joint. Such a classy lunch! But folks, when mama wants sweet potato fries on Mother's Day, you get her sweet potato fries.

Right after Carter's we hopped in the car and drove ourselves straight to Spoons Frozen Yogurt. I know I've talked about Spoons on here before, but it's heavenly. It's a self-serve place, run by college students and I don't know how else to explain it except for the fact that you leave there feeling sick. We even got to enjoy eating it outside which was a fun little treat.

Moms yogurt didn't look to appetizing, but it was delicious!

YUM!!

After Spoons we went to Kev's apartment to grab a few things to bring home with us. He's actually done with school today so we started the moving out process a bit early. I always hated the moving out AND moving in process, but I've realized with boys there is a lot less stuff. Especially when he had a furnished apartment! The apartment, though normally clean and organized, was all empty and not so clean. Would you expect more before moving two boys out? I think not.

My mom got very silly the minute she put on Kev's cowboy boots. She cracks herself up. And us.

Here I am showing the fam a little kick box cardio move in one of Kev's over sized teachers he made for his impact camp.

Kev's been going to Blinn Community College for the past two years and has been a pseudo Aggie. But, this week he got accepted into A&M! I don't think I've ever seen the boy more happy and we're all so proud.

Kev likes to make fun of my when I "poof" my hair. But it's so necessary.

Mom was totally photo bombing our picture.

I hate that this turned out blurry, but we love our mom! We really missed Brien that day, but he was home sick in bed. We suggested that he stay in bed instead of sharing the germs, I mean love, with us!

Happy (Late) Mother's Day to all of you sweet ladies out there! I hope you all felt loved, appreciated and blessed on Sunday and had a great weekend. Where would our world be without moms? We'd be sunk.

I've Rejected Not One

As me and Jen loaded into sweet Karen’s car the Sunday morning we left Atlanta to come back to Houston, the topic of dating came up. To my surprise it was the first time dating came up the entire weekend and that thrilled me to no end. We were having far too much fun to dwell on the topic of any boy! I think her question was something to the effect of, So, are you dating anyone? or Are there any prospective boys in your life? And while part of me would have loved to have gone off in full detail about the amazing man the Lord had provided for me, I answered with a simple, Nope!

I wasn’t sure how much she knew about my story, so I went ahead and told her that I’d never dated anybody nor had I ever had a boyfriend. Karen is one of the most genuine; Jesus loving ladies you’ll ever meet and her response back to me was about what a neat testimony that was to the girls the Lord has allowed me to serve.

I completely agreed because more often than not, I’m able to encourage the girls when they think their life has gone to shreds because they either don’t have a boyfriend, or they’ve just been broken up with. I never want to dismiss their feelings, but I also want them to know that life is so much more than the boy next door. Plus, the fact that I’m living, breathing and thriving in life gives them a peace that they too will be okay even if it stinks at that moment. And that in all circumstances, God is still good, not because of what He does, but because of who He is. If that’s not a testimony for teenage girls, I’m not sure what is.

What Karen asked next is what I get asked often and which makes complete sense. She asked if I’d dated (as in gone on dates with different guys) and then just never pursued any of the guys further. My answer, yet again, was no. I’d not been on one date. I’d not even been asked on a date.

This exact question came up in my Q&A post in which Jenna asked, My question is such: is your 'never being kissed/taken on a date/no relationship’ due to choice or due to just never feeling like it was 'time'? (I suppose the latter would be choice as well.) In other words, have you rejected a lot?

Have I rejected a lot? I’ve rejected none.

Let me just say that if I stopped right there, and took a good look at my dating circumstances, I could get so depressed. What girl doesn’t want to be pursued? Asked on a date? Taken to a fancy restaurant? Hugged (or kissed, yes kissed) goodnight? It’s every girls dream to be swept away by her prince charming. Every. Single. Girl. Whether they admit it or not.

Let me also set the record straight that I’m not against dating whatsoever. I didn’t make some rule for myself when I was 10 that I wouldn’t date until I was 25. Nor did I make a rule that I wouldn’t date anybody except my husband. It’s just turned out that way. When people ask if I’ve ever been interested in anybody, I want to laugh. If you’ve been around me more than one hour, you probably know I’ve had multiple crushes at multiple times. I’m a girl. I like boys. Enough said.

However, the truth of the matter is, it just hasn’t happened for me. Am I depressed about that? Well, no. Yes, I’m sure the Lord’s holding a bottle of boy cried tears, and lonely tears here and there, but it doesn’t keep me down and out in the mornings. Do I know why it hasn’t happened? If I did, I could maybe tell you why the sky was blue, too.

What’s more clear to me now more than ever is that the Lord, for a reason only He knows, has guarded my heart and emotions from any boy. From my perspective, they’re just not interested in me. (That was really weird for me to type, but let me help you understand a little further why I say that.)

For instance, in the past year or so about three different people have tried to set me up with one of their single friends. Listen, I’m not against blind dates, nor am I against being set up. It’s been people that I trust and know and they know me, so why not? I’ve learned that sometimes your friends know more what you need than you do. It went as far as giving them my number, email, facebook, and so on. Pretty much any avenue they could get a hold of me, they'd been given. What came of it? Nothing.

I even met one of the guys at a party that a church here hosted. We chatted, talked, you know did the whole nice to meet you thing and that was it. If I said I wasn’t a little disappointed after that I’d be lying. Of course I was a tad upset, I’m human and I’m a girl. But it didn’t break me. The last thing I want to do is run some guy ragged myself just so he’ll ask me on a date. No ma’am.

One of the guys was all for meeting me, then a few weeks after he’d been given my number and information, he decided he wasn’t ready to be in the dating scene.

Do you see the pattern? They’re just not interested.

I don’t tell you this to gain any sympathy or to even have a pity party. I’m so over pity parties. (Until my next one creeps up on me!) What I do want you to know is that those boys not pursuing me is not a reflection of me whatsoever. It’s not because I’m fat, or ugly, or don’t dress cute enough, or am not outgoing enough, or am not godly enough, or whatever reason we girls can come up with. I truly believe it is the Lord keeping them from me and protecting my heart from them.

I don’t know why He’s chosen to protect my heart for so long. I do know that it’s His grace in my life. I do know He alone has spared me from many broken hearts. I do know that He is building in me something beautiful. I do know that He is sanctifying me through and through and molding me into the woman I am to be one day to my future husband. However future that may be. I do know that marriage is a legitimate desire of my heart that I believe He’s placed there and that He will be faithful.

I know that I have rejected not one date, nor has the Lord ever rejected me, my heart, or my desires. And He won't reject yours, either.

The Infamous Taco Ring

During spring break of my sophomore year of college, I took a day trip to College Station to visit my newlywed friend, Sally! Me and Joanna made the trek up there together (as if it was so far) because that week we were off, but A&M was not. It was perfect and the day was so much fun! That evening while we were waiting for her hubby, Jon, to get home she announced to us that she'd be making a Taco Ring for dinner that night. Immediately we were interested, because in that home, anything involving the word taco is undeniably delightful. We watched her make this intricate ring and then devoured it. Once I realized how easy it was to make, it became my staple meal in college. I impressed everybody with my cooking skillz by making this for them at some point. You see, I didn't quite get the spiritual gift of cooking, so I was overjoyed when anyone was impressed with this dish. It meant they were impressed with me. Ha!

Still to this day, seven years later, it is my staple. Yet I owe all credit to Sally for introducing me to said Taco Ring.

Last night on twitter I announced I was making the taco ring and it became quite the talk. And when I say it became quite the talk, I mean all of 3 people were interested in it, however, I decided it would be fun to put the recipe on the blog.

While cooking I used my handy dandy iPhone to take some saintlike photos so that you could see just in fact, what a taco ring is. I tried to be all Pioneer Woman like with my photography skillz, especially taking pictures while I was cooking, but I failed miserably. How does she do it?

Without further ado, here is my first, and quite possibly the only, recipe you'll see on the ole blog.

Ingredients:
1 Can of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
1 lb of Ground Beef
1 Package of Taco Seasoning
1 Package of Mexican Shredded Cheese

Extra Toppings Include:
1 Tub of Sour Cream
1 Package of Guacamole (Or you can make your own!)
1 Can of Salsa
1 Bag of Lettuce (If you want some crunch!)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375º
2. Thoroughly cook the ground beef as you normally would. Once cooked, poor out the fat accumulated and add the package of seasoning to give it some extra flair. I mean, flavor.
3. While you let the meat simmer, take the crescent rolls of out the package and separate them into their individual triangles.
4. Once separated, using the wide end of the triangle, create a star like shape connecting all 8 pieces on a cooking pan. Sprinkle the cheese around the middle once all the pieces are connected.

5. Take the meat and scatter it around the middle of the ring, then add more cheese on top. I say the more cheese, the better. You'll have meat falling over the edges, but don't be alarmed.

6. Once the meat is scattered, take the ends of the crescent rolls and fold them over into the middle of the ring, tucking them under and connecting them together. It's a hard technique, I tell ya. Hard.

7. Once all sides are perfectly folded over, place in oven and cook for 11 - 13 minutes. However, don't take me at my word, check the label before you do anything I say.

8. Once the crescent layers have all reached that sweet golden brown color, take out of the oven, let it sit for approximately 78 seconds, add extra toppings at your cost (I add ALL of them!) and let your taste buds have a little celebration.
9. If you're hungry, this feeds about 3 people. If you're not so hungry, it feeds about 4 which I think is the correct proportion.
10. It was only appropriate that I shared this recipe with you on Cinco de Mayo! I totally planned that. Except I totally didn't.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

May Day

Dear May,

Would you please stop creeping up on me? Every year I have a little panic attack on May 1st because I can't imagine that we're already in the fifth month of the year. Like really, where has 2010 gone? A few reasons May tends to give me hives are as follows.

1) I lead a small group of Senior girls. Do you know what that means? That means that I have all of 2 meetings left with them. It also means that we have to come up with some "end of the year" party and I'm not sure I can mentally wrap my mind around that. Do you get the feeling I'm a teeny bit attached? I'll just stop there.

2) It means that one month from TOMORROW I'll be 25. 25! A quarter of a century old. Really? I have my thoughts about turning 25 but I'll save those for a more appropriate date. But more than anything, I'm so excited!

3) After May comes June. June means camp in Florida. Florida means beaches. Beaches mean swimsuit. I'm cringing thinking about putting on a swimsuit especially after I just pigged out on Chicken Fried Rice and custard. Although I'm consistent to go to my step aerobics class at the gym, that's about all I'm consistent with! I need to step in up a notch or 20. I'm also thinking Shred might make a comeback. We'll see about that.

4) June means summer! And while I love summer I also immediately revert to the word insane. Not only is our weather stupidly hot and insane (I have theory that since we had such a cold winter we're going to have a really hot summer.) my schedule tends to be pretty insane as well. I get the privilege of going on every youth trip. Believe me, I love absolutely love traveling and going on all the trips, but add my vacation to that and I'm gone a little over four weeks from June to July. And that's just the trips! We still have a calender chock full of events all summer long. Hence why the word insane comes to mind. I always feel like I need another vacation after summer. (It's times like these I'm so thankful I'm single and don't have a family and children to care for and worry about, nor feel guilty about leaving. I know once I have a family these trips will be few and far between. I'm eating it up while I can!)

5) With all that said, I really do love May! It's always a crazy month, but a good, fun month. I have a few weddings, a handful of graduations parties, birthday parties and more. It's a very social month, and for this sanguine, that's a very good thing.

So May, I guess I'll welcome you in my little world, but would you please slow down?