Things Change

I once made a very strict personal rule that I would not include boys on my blog. In the past few weeks, however, I have discovered that if I continue to hold to that rule, I will no longer blog as there is one specific boy who is included in most aspects of my life, 

mainly because I am dating him. 

So I hereby lift my own rule. 

Please meet Adam:

 

I could probably commit an entire post to how wonderful this man is, but I can only lift my rule so far and still have a clear conscience. 

So, for now, suffice it to say he's really great. 

And now on to the real reason for blogging today:
 Easter. 


I love dy(e)ing Easter eggs. (Let's clear up the whole dy(e)ing thing. I've read it both ways. I'm gonna go ahead and choose to say dying since it includes one less letter. Moving on now.)

Adam and I dyed eggs with some of his
family last night and it was wonderful.

I think everyone was slightly shocked by how enthusiastic I was over coloring eggs. It only happens once a year, people! You have to be excited!!

This year, more than any I can remember, I have been so overwhelmed by the Easter season. As I sit blogging this Saturday night I am thinking on how devastated Jesus' followers must have been that first Saturday before Easter. He was dead. Everything He had proclaimed for 3 years went into that tomb with Him. He was a liar. How could the Son of God be killed by mere humans?!?

But Sunday was coming.
And I've never been more thankful for a Sunday.

This is going to sound beyond cliche. Just know I'm aware of that before I say it.

I love my life. I love everything about my life right now. That's why I'm not blogging. For the first time in a very long time, I am way too busy living my life to spend time on the internet posting about it. During student teaching I wasn't posting because I was emotionally and physically exhausted from too many things to list. Now I'm not posting because the thought of pausing for a few minutes to do an update on the past almost 3 months makes me cringe because it would mean pausing from any number of wonderful things I could be doing.

But today I want to just say this:

God knows what He's doing.

To be honest, three months ago I had my doubts about this. I couldn't imagine why in the world God would want to bring me here of all places. I couldn't imagine leaving my best friend. I couldn't imagine starting over again.

But God knows what He's doing.

Far more than I ever do. And I am so thankful for that. I am so thankful for Him.

Since I'm sure it will be awhile until I actually get around to a real update, here's some pictures spanning from New Year's Eve to this past weekend. Enjoy:

My Word: 2012

For 2011, I jumped on some bandwagon somewhere and decided to claim the year with a single word. And when I say I claimed it, what I really mean is that God claimed it, because, let's face it, I fought the word trust each and every day of this past year. But fortunately I serve a God who is much more persistent than I am on my worst day. I can't begin to describe to you how much I grew in trust in the past year.


The Lord continually placed me in situations where the only choice I had was to trust him. He took away all my other options.

In illustration of how much the Lord prepared me to trust him this year, let's look at my last act of 2011. Through a series of strange events (and by events I really just mean one singular event), I have never lived in a town apart from my immediate family. I have also never lived by myself. I have never been a classroom teacher. I have never moved somewhere by myself.

As of 6 days ago, I have now done all of those things. The Lord moved me to Broken Arrow where I am now a choir director for a middle school. I fully believe He carefully orchestrated my year so that my last act of the year would be one of full trust in Him even though I really have no idea what He is doing.

So now let's talk 2012.

I started thinking about my 2012 word around September. The word patience kept coming to mind, but I really really didn't want that to be my word. If I thought trust was a hard word for a year, what in the world would patience be like?

But then in my last wedding of the year, one of my dear friends (the bride) chose a word for each of her bridesmaids. She gave us each a card with our word written on it and a description of why she chose that word for us. I think we can all guess what my word was.

Yep. Patience.

I already knew that was the word the Lord wanted for me in this year, but Amanda's sweet card confirmed it even more. The Spirit's pretty great about reassurance, huh?

So that's my 2012 word. Patience. I will be patient while I wait for the Lord to provide healing and understanding in my life. I will be patient while I learn a new town and a new everything. I will be patient with my students. I will be patient in my relationships.

And when I say "I will be" what I really mean is "the Lord will teach me to be." Because, let's face it, patience is definitely not my strongest suit.

Every New Beginning Comes from Some Other Beginning's End

Well. Guess I stopped blogging. Guess a lot of things happened in my life.

How about a bullet-point recap?

• Finished student teaching at the elementary school
• Went to some OU football games
• Worked like crazy on my Teacher Work Sample
• Started and finished student teaching at the high school
• Was in my 5th (and last) wedding of the year
• Had Friendsgiving at my house, hosted by my beautiful best friend
• Applied for a job as a middle school choir director in Broken Arrow on November 8th
• Interviewed in Broken Arrow on the 22nd
• Got the job on the 30th
• Quit my job at the restaurant 
• Graduated from college
• Found an apartment in BA 
• Will move there on Sunday

Whew. What a crazy 3 months.

Now how about a picture recap?

It has been a whirlwind of a last semester. I am beyond thankful for everything that is happening in my life, even if it is happening a little fast. This will probably be the most bittersweet New Year's Eve I've had so far as I celebrate with some of my best friends I will miss so much. But I trust God knows exactly what He's doing. More to come on that, I'm sure.

This Past Month

Yesterday marked exactly one month since my recital. 

And what a month it has been.

It's been a month of dealing with hard things. A month of watching friends cry and being held by good friends while I cry. It's been a month of learning lessons I didn't want to learn and a month of getting way less sleep than my body demands.

But it's also been a month of trusting in God when it didn't seem possible. A month of love shown by really great friends. It's been a month of amazing growth through hard lessons and a month of knowing that I need more than 

physical strength to get me through a day.

So here are a few pictures from a month I'm sure I will never forget:

Amazing August

Now that August is almost over and I have officially done 

everything on my list, I guess it's time to update. 

1. Moved into my new rent house.

To say there have been problems would be an understatement.

 For the first 20 days of living here we did not have a shower, washer, outlets in our rooms, or keys to unlock the front door.

Everything is slowly but not so surely getting taken care of.

 We definitely have learned some 

lessons on what not to do when renting.

 I had my first friends over! 

(Shawn, me, Aaron, Cameron)

While these boys are simply wonderful, 

they cannot take normal pictures on the first try.

 Neither my room or car look like this anymore, 

but it has still taken awhile to get settled.

 That's probably because of 2 and 3 on my list.

2. Start my last college class.

Check.

Finish my last college class?

Will do on Sunday.

Pass my last college class?

Please, Chip, please!!! 

3. Recital Hearing

PASSED!

My recital is September 8th. 

4. See another best friend get married in Colorado

There are no adequate words to describe 

how beautiful this wedding was.

Or how much I cried.

 Ashley's been one of my best friends since freshmen year.

Allow me to be nostalgic for a moment:

I remember the first time I brought her over to my house to do homework. I told my mom all about my new friend and how I thought she was so cool and we could really get along. 

Four years later, I still think both of those things.

 Ashley, I love you and miss you, but know you're 

going to have such a fantastic life in Phoenix! 

5. See Sara Bareilles in concert.

Oh. My. Word.

Everything about this night was perfect. 

Sara was amazing. Beyond amazing. 

I would go again in a heartbeat. 

6. Start student teaching

And, oh man, did I start student teaching. 

I really do love it, but it's exhausting. 

I honestly never thought sleeping until 9 

on a Saturday would feel like sleeping til 2. 

So there's August for you. 

SUCH a wonderful month. 

Now let's get that pesky recital out of the way 

so I can enjoy the rest of my fall.

Rabbit rabbit

20 minutes from now it will be August 2011. A pretty big month for me. Let me bullet point it for you.

• Move into my new rent house on August 1st.
• Start my last college class on August 1st.
• Recital hearing on August 8th.
• See another best friend get married in Colorado on August 13th.
• SEE SARA BAREILLES IN CONCERT ON AUGUST 16TH.
• Start student teaching stuff on August 18th.

Soooo pretty packed month. Lots of blog material.
Everyone get excited.