Crazy!!!

Well it has been a while! Heres a quick update:

December 7: Took LAT exam
December 13: GRADUATED!!!
December 20: GOT ENGAGED!!!!!
December 25: Christmas!!
December 27: Was in West Virginia with the Reed Family skiing and tore my ACL ... later while leaving the hospital, found out I failed the practical portion of the LAT exam (passed the written)
February 4: Had surgery on my ACL
February 9: Started physical therapy
February 14: Derek came to visit me for valentines day, still couldnt walk but he took me to the cheesecake factory for lunch
April 5: Went to Houston to see Wrestlemania with Derek
April 8: Derek gets offered a job!! (Moving to East Texas after the wedding)
April 26: Retook LAT practical portion
April 27: Finished my college scrapbook as well as started jogging/jumping again!

Whats Coming up?
May 23: lingerie shower
May 31: my 22nd Birthday!
June 6: George Straight/Reba concert at the opening of the new Texas Stadium
June 13: Wedding Shower
July 18: WEDDING [currently 82 days away! =) ]

Halloween Weekend!

This weekend has been really good. I completely finished my online class. so that's one less thing to think about! I also did all my other assignments for the rest of the semester. Now all i have to do is study for tests. So that's nice. The state exam is coming up in a month!!! I'm really anxious and nervous about it!

Thursday I planted some flowers in the front of the house! They're really cute, yellow!

Halloween was good. I only had one knock on the door but it was like 8-10 kids at once. But they were all really cute in their costumes! Some friends and my roommates and I all watched scary movies and hung out at the house. so that was fun to hangout with everyone since were usually in a million different places.

UNT won last night against Western Kentucky!! It was the football team's first win this season! so that's good for them! Soccer wasn't as fortunate! They played Denver for the conference title on Friday and lost 0-3. They will go to conference as second seed.

This time change thing has thrown me off today! I feel like its so late! I've been so tired all day! Well I guess I'll get some rest for tomorrow!

(p.s. Derek's pumpkin won the contest. His was pumpkin the evil looking one and I mine was the one with the knife and the stalk as the nose)

This week was UNT homecoming! Here are some pics from the bonfire:

Derek's dad, David, mom, Cathy, and cousin Mandi

Jack 'o Lanterns

Derek and I carved jack o lanterns! here are the pics:

New Update!

So its been quite some time since Ive updated... played softball with the mighty chickens (our intramural team) and went to playoffs!, Derek graduated, we went to NYC, i turned 21!, we went to lots of baseball games, attended some Texas country concerts, made an A in my summer school class, floated down the river in south Texas, and moved into a house. Here are some pictures of my room in the new house! Remember you can leave comments even if you dont have an account just put ur name at the end so i know who its from...

Spring Break

Wow! This is the first time I've had to sit down all spring break! I'm in Longview with Derek and his family watching the NCAA basketball tournament on the couch right now. This break started off with going to Galveston to go deep sea fishing, then to Canton to camp out at the ranch, and then we went to the zoo on the way to Longview, and finally to Derek's house for the rest of the ,week and Easter. Today we went and played tennis with Derek, his three sisters, and Matt! Derek and I were the undefeated doubles champions! Tomorrow we will get up and go to church then come back here for a huge Easter egg hunt and lunch with his big family. Then we'll to go Arlington to have Easter dinner with my family. I made a slide show with a few pictures! You can double click on the slide show if you want to save or view the pictures bigger in a different window!




FYI you don't need an account to leave comments just leave it under anonymous but put your name in the comment box with your comment so i can know who left it!

Balcony People

Today I sat down and read the book, Balcony People by Joyce Landorf Heatherly. I just wanted to share a few thoughts with you. I know this is kind of long, but it’s exactly where my heart has been the last few months and I really pray that it touches you as well.



There are two different types of people in our lives. There is the family, or friends, living or dead, who continually reach up, grab us, and pull us under. Freudian psychologists call these people “basement people.” The basement people of our minds pull us down with comments like, “You’re not gonna make it.” They tell us we can’t do such and such. They drop subtle or not so subtle hints about our inferior qualities, and thoroughly damage our personhood. Perhaps it was a mother or father who verbally abused you, or pushed your head under water by what they didn’t say. Maybe it was a teacher who said, “You’re so stupid, I can’t believe it!” and instantly, she or he became your basement person. To this day you remember drowning in their critical evaluations.

Then there are you’re “balcony people.” Imagine a balcony full of people who are not merely sitting there, but practically hanging over the rail, cheering us on!! These people are the ones inspiring you and making you feel that you can be more that you are. Just about the time you feel you’re falling in something or about to go under because of the basement people of you’re live, you look up, and there a balcony person is leaning over the railing shouting, “You can do it!!! I believe in you!” Their words give strength, courage, and a great surge of confidence, and you’re saved from frowning at the hands of the basement people. Who is the affirmer in your life, who by one small sentience or more, has changed and lifted your opinion of yourself? I encourage you to make a list of the balcony people in your life –and if you’re really ready for a challenge, whom are you a balcony person to?

The writer of Hebrews tells us to run with patience the race that’s set before us “since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands” (Hebrew 12:1) Ah, that “cloud of witness” in our balcony, past and present. What would we be without them? It only takes one balcony person to lift us up and restore our sense of well-being. You don’t have to go to Austria (my sister left today on mission trip to Austria). As close as our backyard there are hurting people who are desperately longing to have someone listen to them. There are people everywhere who, right at this time in their lives, need someone to listen and to be supportive. Often I’ve wondered how we could chance our world, the countless relationships that we encounter, and the agony over a lifetime if… if only we were balcony people to each other.

Lastly, the Joyce shares a story about her grandson, James, who was playing in the backyard one summer. All of a sudden there was a frightening noise coming for him down the street that he had never heard before—a big garbage truck rumbling down the street to pick up the curbside trash barrel. By the time the truck stopped in from of the house and put on its screeching breaks, James, who could not see the ferocious enemy, was panic-stricken. He looked up at Joyce and with his big blue eyes opened to their widest capacity he fairly yelled, “Hug! Hug!” And the look on his face screamed, “Hurry! Hurry!” She reached down for him and wallpapered his little body to her chest. It was a long time before he moved, and even longer before the color came back to his face.

It seems like the noisy pandemonium of this world is exploding all around us like cannon volleys. We are desperate to be hugged—to be rescued, to be home safe. We are shouting through our panic, “Hurry! Hurry!” What is the frightening noise in your life? Is it the noise of cancer, divorce, rejection, discouragement, depression, loneliness, or something so terrible it shouts but remains unnamed? For me its PA school. Most days I’m so worried and stressed that I’m not smart enough or I feel like I don’t have enough endurance to finish my re-reqs. That I won’t get in and I’ll be forced to work a job that doesn’t pay anything and has awful hours and I won’t be able to have a family and spend time with my kids…I have several friends that are negative and basement people that I'm still trying to figure out how to walk away from and still love them at the same time… Whatever is pounding loudly in your soul, let me be your balcony person. Let me hug you with my words. Let me wallpaper your soul to mine. Let me encourage you to sing God’s song, and let me remind you that that song in you is His idea. Hear me when I say the apostle Paul did not lie when he wrote, “Long ago, even before He made the world, God chose us to be His very own.” You and I are His children. I believe in you. I’m leaning way, way over your balcony railing; I’m waiving my coat above my hear, and I’m yelling about the frightening noises of your world, “I LOVE you! I BELIEVE in you and your abilities! You CAN do it! Keep at it! Keep on! God chose you before He made the world, and you know what? He’s here beside me; yes that’s right, He’s here, and He’s not sitting down. You are His child, He is your Father. His coat is off too, and we are both in your balcony cheering you on together!”