quote of the day

Me: "I'm going to be Mayor one day."
Amada: "I would vote for you! I don't even live in Rock Hill but I would find a way."
Me: "But what if I really was Mayor one day?"
Amanda: "Yes and we would have awesome Mayor Parties!"

Friday Favorites

It's been a while since I've shared some favorites, but today I have just the thing.  Props to my Dad who sent me this link from a photographer who took pictures of his furry friends jumping in a pool after the ball.  Awesome.

Year Reflections

As I watched the Come-See-Me Festival fireworks go off on Saturday night, I thought about last year actually. During this weekend last year, was the most stressed I'd ever been in my life and I'm pretty sure I'm still catching up on sleep. I had just started my job full-time, it was my first festival as a team leader (I had NO idea what I was doing...), I was teaching classes as a GA, I was trying to finish my thesis and actually graduate grad school. And just for fun, I brought home an 8 week-old puppy. I was just thinking about how great of a year it has been since then. Cali has made my life frustrating and for some reason STILL chews all my stuff. But she really is my favorite thing in the world and sometimes I don't understand how I can love her so much and how anything is that cute. I loved living with Brittany and Grace and I realize I could've never made it roommate-less without Cal there to protect me and eat all the bugs that Brittany would normally kill with her shoe. With Cali's help, I've met most of my neighbors and over the past year, I've grown to love this town even more. It's things like the festival that remind me of what a blessing it is to live in a good, thriving community. Not many towns are like this these days. It's annoying how much I love my job and the people I get to work with everyday and the fact that I can say that while working in a government job is crazy at best. Rock Hill is a small but great place to live and go to college, raise children, raise dogs, raise chickens, play sports, watch sports, go to church and play in a park. But even with all this stuff that I love around, it's good to get up out of here sometimes. And after these last 10 days, I need a vacation.

quote of the day

Stephen: "Are either of you going to Audrey's to watch Jane Eyre?"
Erica: "Oh is that with Anne half and half?"

quote of the day

Karen: "It's time to eat people! Not eat people. It's time to eat comma people."

quote of the day

Brittany: "Why are you being so professional?"
Savannah: "Oh my gosh, you're wearing new jeans!"

Caitlin: "Did you know something like 25% of men died on Titanic but like 74% of women survived?"
Savannah: "Chivalry died on the Titanic."

Caitlin: "Don't mind me, I'm just reading about the Holy Spirit."

Easter Thoughts

"The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” -John 10:17-18

What Jesus is saying in this verse makes him worthy of every bit of my praise and trust and obedience for the rest of my life, even if I never see another good day. I wish I had atleast a centimeter’s worth of this kind of obedience. I mean He had authority over his own life, but he was obedient to his father. I mean, what? He wanted us SO bad and loved and trusted His father THAT much to willingly die by his own authority? I want to depend on Jesus this much. To trust Him that much that when He tells me to do something, I can’t not do it. Easter is my favorite holiday. Sure because everything is so cute and colorful and I get fun family time, but the joy that surrounds Easter is what I’m all about. Celebrating the cross without all the decorations and presents and stress is awesome, and I like this verse for Easter. It's the holiday where we get to just love the crap out of the fact that He went to the cross for us and it was never in his plan to stay in the grave, to stay away from us. We don’t have to be like the disciples on Saturday, wondering what there was to hope for anymore. To be left with how Jesus was dead and left to think “what now?” Nope, we get the scriptures that tell the whole story, even the part that is coming and we get to celebrate it all. Jack read the first lines in Genesis in the children’s Jesus Storybook Bible in the sermon on Sunday: “The Bible isn’t about you and what you should do, it’s about God and what He has done.” Love that. He has done more than we deserve, more than we will ever understand, and more than we could ever pay him back for with any good we may do. Go Easter!

quote of the day

Telly: "I mean the Olson twins didn't turn out that great. They're still trying to figure out how to eat."