amy's wedding

From short hair to long hair, braces to straight teeth, and junior high to college, Amy has been there through it all. 

{Amy and I on a camping trip. She's 14 and I'm 8}

I have so many memories with this girl: camping at Wikiup, dancing in the rain at the beach, junior high group nights and events, princess parties, starbucks dates, and oodles of wonderful camp moments (like being a salter in her cabin). She even babysat for me and brothers one time.

  

Amy has been a friend, a sister, and a mentor for me for as long as I’ve known her. She is someone I’ve been able to talk to and share my heart with openly and honestly. She listens intently and gives advice and encouragement. She is always joyful and always laughing. Her smile lights up the room and she shows love to everyone she comes in contact with. She constantly points me towards Christ and is an encouraging example of a faithful woman of God.

I am so happy that she is getting married to the love of her life, and I am ecstatic to be able to celebrate with her! Amy is one of kind and I am blessed to have her in my life.

Me with Mr. and Mrs.Vanderveen :) 

Love this girl!!

 We clean up nice! 

 the brothers

I caught the bouquet, so I guess I'm next! I gave it Susannah to take care of :)

life group love

I spent my Thursday night with my life group having a going away party for Mackenzie. I am so sad that she is moving back home, but I am blessed to have gotten to know her these last six months. To celebrate we went to Ruby's on the pier at Huntington Beach and then had a camp fire and roasted s'mores down on the beach. It was such a fun and memorable night.

Kenzie and I with our toys

Heather, Natalie, and Danielle

Hannah, Mackenzie, and I

staying warm by the fire

s'mores made with reese's peanut butter cups. yum!

Can I just say how blessed I am to have these amazing women of God in my life? Because I truly am. I love these ladies to pieces! 

highs and lows

Here are my highs and lows for this last week!

{Sunday to Sunday}

Lows

1. Staying up really late finishing a paper Sunday night. It just starts the week off wrong. Thankfully I got a good grade on it. That makes it a little better

2. Missing life group and floor devotional. Both were canceled because of missions conference. I missed chatting and praying with my girls

3. I am really missing my mom’s home cooking. Spring break please come soon!

4. I have a busy week ahead with midterms and trying to get ahead on work since I will be gone next weekend

5. My TV shows all seem to be having season finales. It’s a small thing, but cliffhangers kill me!

6. I did a lot of slacking this long weekend in the homework department and now feel incredibly behind

Highs

1. Last Sunday I got lunch with Samantha at Panera. It was a good time of catching up, telling stories, and eating yummy food.

2. I got to go swing dancing with friends on Monday. I’m not very good and I was really tired, but it was fun to be away from school and with friends

3. Classes were canceled for missions conference. The conference was a nice break from class routines and homework deadlines.

4. I took lots of time to rest since it was missions conference and was sure to take a nap every day

5. I got to have two heart to heart talks with my lovely friend Amy K. I love sitting and talking with this girl. She is such an encouragement to me!

6. I had a shamrock shake in honor of St. Patty’s Day and I loved every bit of it!

7. Saturday night it was pouring down rain so my friend Nicole and I decided to rut outside barefoot and dance in the rain. We were soaked when we came it but it was exciting to see rain for the first time in awhile.

8. Yesterday I had lunch with Natalie and her family. It was fun to get to share a meal with the Grace family and get to know them better

9. I’m going home soon! This upcoming weekend get to go home to see the beautiful Amy V. get married! I am sooooo excited!

totally terrific thursday

Yesterday was an all around wonderful day. It had potential to be rather depressing since I’m recovering from a stupid head cold {bleh!} but it was actually a fun, successful, and encouraging day.

It started with two classes in the morning. Not terribly exciting but they weren’t bad.

After class I went and checked my mail and saw that I had gotten a card from my grandparents. First off, getting mail makes me so happy. I love getting mail! And to have it be a sweet card from my grandparents made it even better (:

Next, I went and bought candy in the bookstore. Fruity candy is my weakness. I’ve been craving mamba for days so I splurged. I then went and sat in the coffee shop on campus and got a ridiculous amount of homework done which was good since I haven’t done any in days due to being sick.

After that, I had a burrito with my friend and floor mate Whitney. It was such an encouraging time of fellowship just getting to know each other better. We also shared prayer requests for the week which was so great! Love this girl and we now have plans for weekly dinners (:

I then rushed off to church for a meeting focused around changes that need to be made to see our college group grow and really impact the college community at Whittier Hills. It was awesome to discuss with my peers and pastor about ways to improve and grow and to make plans for implementing these changes. This is so healthy for any type of ministry and it is cool to get to help be apart of it. I’m excited for what is in store for Elevate and the growth that will come from it!

Afterwards, my small group that usually meets on Thursdays went out for coffee. I love these ladies so much! They really encourage and challenge me in my walk with God and I am so thankful for that. So what started as fun chit chat soon turned into my friend Natalie and I interviewing each other to figure out if we would be compatible roommates. We’ve both been praying about what to do next year roommate wise and what God has in store for each of us. Nat’s going to be an RA and I’ve really felt Him encouraging me towards living with her so that I can be there to support her next year. So we decided that we would be awesome roommates and are giddy and excited for rooming together.

 {Me, Em, and Nat}

Natalie and I then came back to school and had a facial night with Nat’s current roommate Emily and watched Modern Family while our masks dried.

Today has been such an amazing day. It’s been one of those days that you just see God’s hand in every little detail and it’s amazing to see how He moves. God is just so good!