Overwhelmed.

This weekend will be interesting.

For the first time, OBU is giving us Good Friday off. :)

My roommates are leaving. I will be alone.

I am not going to church on Easter Sunday for the first time since probably 3rd grade. I somehow agreed to do child care at this church with this girl Amanda. I am not thrilled about this, but it's ok. I will have to be really conscious of making time for the Lord on my own on Sunday. It will be different. I pray God will use this time to teach me more about Himself... even though I won't be in a church setting. I pray that I am able to reflect on the meaning and the power or Easter on my own.

I did lent for the first time this year. I gave up all carbonated beverages. The first 3 weeks felt kind of like torture to me. I totally missed the whole point of the practice of lent. In fact, the only reason I stuck it out was because I was too prideful to back out of my commitment. However, the past 2 weeks have been much more fruitful. The horrors of not being able to drink Dr. Pepper has faded and I have had time to think about the meaning behind this all. I am glad I stuck it out, even if the beginning was a little shaky.

I have a ton to do in regards to school. Hopefully I use my time wisely over this 3 day weekend. I really need to stay on top of things before BF. Luckily, I love to plan, so I am ahead on my homework and paper writing thus far, but I need to make sure I do not loose steam between now and this weekend.

As much as I want to be productive over break, I really need to make time to be in the Word and be in prayer. I have been trying to ignore it, I have been getting attacked from all sides lately. Details really aren't important (and if you have talked to me at all you know bits and pieces), but I desperately need some peace.

So, if you don't mind, pray with me this weekend. Pray for me. Pray for my family. Pray as I begin to prepare for breaking free. Pray as I spend this Easter Sunday differently than I have before.

Bring on the sunshine

It has been a while. So I suppose I am do for a boring update, so bear with me.

• Spring break was wonderful. It was so relaxing. I didn't really do much once I got to Houston other than hanging out with DG during the weekend and Danica once during the week, but I am definitely not complaining. I got to see my cousin and uncle. And I got to sleep. Words cannot describe how wonderful it was.
• I came back to Oklahoma in the middle of blizzard. It was basically awful. Definitely not the welcome back that I was looking for. Luckily, my roommate Lauren was the one to pick me up from the airport and I stayed with her Saturday night and we came back to school Sunday. Coming back to a friendly face made it easier to be back.
• Sunday night, Lauren, Casie and I got to actually hang out. We ordered pizza and watched He's Just No That Into You. It was a nice was to kick off this last half of the semester.
• Getting back into the swing of things is a little difficult. I am not totally in school mode yet. We will see how this works out...
• In nursing lab today, we fed each other pudding and brushed each others teeth. It was truly ridiculous. No one could get through it without laughing hysterically. It was awesome. I wish we had a camera in there today!
• In April, OBU is holding this event called Up Till Dawn. It is a massive fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Hospital. Well, today, my friend Jenna (one of the co-chairs for the event) asked me if I would be a team leader for the event. Basically, I get a team together of 5 people including myself. In April, we go to the wellness center here with all the other teams and address a bunch of envelopes to people we know and send out letters asking for donations to this wonderful hospital! Of course I was more than thrilled to be a part of this! I am so excited. It is such a great cause. This hospital does so much for children with cancer. I would love to work at this hospital one day, actually. So anyway, be warned, YOU may be getting a letter towards the end of April. ;) oh, and if you want to know more about the hospital, check it our here: http://www.stjude.org/about
• Over springbreak, I started the Peasant Princess series that Mark Driscoll did. As of last night, I am half way done. I was pretty adequately warned about the shocking things in this series, so nothing has really caught me off guard. Due to that, I have really been able to enjoy the series without being distracted by the bluntness used. It has been really encouraging and challenging, even as a single person. I am excited to keep going with this. I feel like I have been learning a lot and looking at things I have already known in different ways. It was been really cool.
• Last but not least, my birthday is coming up. 2 weeks from tomorrow, to be exact. I am ready to no longer be a teenager! :)

Oh Springbreak

This will probably be the most chill break I will have had in a long time. This weekend was semi-eventful in getting to Houston, but other than that I am not planning on doing anything. Danielle and I had a wonderful time, and I am so grateful for that. I even got to hang out with Danica and Jeremy Sunday night. Then my cousin and uncle came Monday and left this morning, which was a blessing. My cousin is so fun these days. Other than that, I don't plan on doing anything at all while I am home. It turns out though that I have A LOT I need to get done while I am in town, and very little time to get it all done. It is kind of overwhelming. My flight Saturday is at 4, so I have to leave my house around 1, so I pretty much only have Wednesday-Friday to get everything I need to done! Yikes. and I haven't even thought about homework yet. Ha. Man, I really hope I can find enough hours in the day to get it all done. I have also noticed that I am pretty much sleeping constantly. It is insane. I will get like 10 hours or more at night... then nap for at least 6 hours throughout the day, then still sleep at night. I guess I didn't realize how desperate my body was for rest! It has been nice.

I have decided that staying at home is a good decision for me this break. I need to use my time here wisely, and I really want to spend time with my grandparents. This is a little bit of a different springbreak than I had initially envisioned, but I am totally ok with it. I think it is the break I need. :)

I just can't wait until summer (assuming I can find a way to get out of Oklahoma...)!

What a blessing

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God.

2 Corinthians 3: 4-5

This semester has gotten off to a really good start academically speaking! It has been such a wonderful blessing. I have been doing really well in all of my classes, and it is purely by God's grace. I have such a wonderful opportunity to boast in Him this semester. Last semester, I found myself in such a slump with my grades for so long. I had to work so hard to bring my grades up and I often felt discouraged. But this semester has been completely different. God is so faithful. To me, the most exciting thing about doing well in my classes is that I feel as though I definitely put in the work that is required, and by God's grace, I am able to produce the grades to back it up. I just feel like God has been sustaining me so much in my studies, and it is so exciting to see the fruit of my labor. I am so excited to be getting deeper and deeper into the nursing program. My application is due the week after springbreak and I should find out mid May whether or not I will officially enter the OBU nursing school. I feel as though I should mention, they have room for 64 students, and we only have 31 nursing majors in our class, so my chances are good, but it will be nice when it is all official.

I leave for Dallas tomorrow. Basically, I am pumped. Seriously. Springbreak will be wonderful. Here are some of the things I am extra pumped about:

sunshine. chacos. tan lines. snow cones. family. be2010. grandpa date. movies. sleep. frozen yogurt. GH with my gma. relaxation. joy. best friends. hnw. road trip. goodness I love springbreak! :)