21 days

the past week has been... eventful... to say the least. hanging out with the name twinners this past weekend was so needed refreshing! we rented chickie flicks, stuffed our faces with crepes @ the bville farmer's market, & went hiking in lost valley... we even did the bville thing and went to crystal bridges (insert trendy/artsy feeling here)

 

to cap it all off allison came to work/church with me... and we had a bomb threat. say what?! yes, that is correct... a bomb threat. nothing happened and it ended up being not a credible threat, but still... craziness! then we came back to my apartment only to find this...

you might be wondering... what is this? i'll tell you what it is, my water heater flooded my apartment!!! yes, flooded. like noah and the ark. ok maybe not that serious, but it seemed that serious when it happened :)

 

i was so blessed to be able to stay with my arkansas family, Maura's parentals, while my sweet little old apartment maintenance man fixed everything. i now have a new water heater AND professionally cleaned carpet (insert 2 fist pumps here).

 

we also had team day yesterday. the student ministries team spent the day together hanging out, playing games, leadership training, and talking about our team values. one of the best parts of the day is summed up in this next picture...

we (everyone but simon and garland) decided to have a little fun with the 2 crazies. the plan was simple but great: finley told everyone that i was in charge of the devo that morning. i then had to convince them that i was COMPLETELY SERIOUS about our team bonding and unifying through the ancient practice of yoga. we all died laughing because they totally went for it :) apparently i have a pretty good poker face? #whoknew

in other news... i am 21 DAYS away from going to Haiti and working with Mission of Hope for a week. insert excitement/panic-mode here. #bringiton



 



#blessed

one of my sweet, sweet heart friends got MARRIED this past weekend! it has been such a blessing to watch maura & mark date and now be married. they definitely have made God the center of their relationship.

it was a beautiful, DIY wedding that completely reflected maura's creativity. she, of course, was STUNNING! the picture above is of their first kiss a couple... ever!

 

one of the sweet blessings that went a long with the wedding is that my family was all in town to celebrate mark & maura. one of my favorite parts of the wedding was dancing at the reception with my brother, his girlfriend, & my two sisters. we had a BLAST!

NOT ONLY THAT but... two of my other heart friends came in town! shana boyd and julie hall!

 

shana and i hung out sunday afternoon. we talked for hours, stuffed our faces with hog haus burgers, white queso, sweet tater fries, & pumpkin froyo, and finally went to find our names on the arkansas graduate walk.

 

i get to spend this weekend with yet another sweet heart friend, miss allison berry. we have been friends since 6th grade... it all started when we decided to run for class pres & vp together as al(l)ison squared. yes she is my name twin, but other than that we could not look or be any different! allison and i have laughed until our sides hurt, cried on each other's shoulders, gotten on each other's nerves, loved each other, and been sisters for YEARS now. i am so thankful and blessed.

 

days until haiti = 29

days until turkey trot 8 miler = 36

overdue updates

so... a lot has happened in the past month or so since I've updated this thing. I won't bore you with the details, but here are a couple highlights :)

THE julie hall's bday was a few weeks ago and we reunited the OOC in Little Rock for a celebration... much needed!

today I got to see jenni austell and her new little baby girl, KJ! so blessed by this one and hate that she lives so far away... need to hug her neck more often

 

so there are also a couple new things to look forward to in October: 1. Maura Johnson becomes Maura Griesse, 2. BOTH Julie & Shana are coming to the forementioned wedding, 3. chillax day with Shana Boyd in B-ville, & 4. name twinners (Allison Berry) comes to Bville!!!

 

Also, just from here on in there are some things that will going on: a) cooking at least one new recipe per week, b) training for 26.2 ahhh, c) countdown to Haiti familias trip = 40 days & d) I'm going to try to update this thing at least once a week :)

stay tuned... and I promise this next month I'll be way better about this!