Reoccurring Theme

Do you ever have those times where everywhere you turn the same verse from the bible or same message concept keeps reoccurring? I do. I also don't think that its coincidence.

I've been reading a chapter in Psalm and a chapter in Proverbs every morning. It was the day I was reading Psalm 19 and nothing struck me in particular so instead of pulling out a verse that impacted me I just recoded that I read it. I went home this weekend and Saturday night we were going to go to Willow Creek, a mega church near by, but the time didn't work out. Instead we decided to go to a smaller mega church closer to home. The message was about how the Bible reveals many things to us. The first point was that it reveals God's character. The passage to reference was none other than Psalm 19. Then Sunday morning rolled around and we attended our home church. The message was talking about The Voice of God and The Language of Truth. What passage did we read out loud? Psalm 19. This chapter reveals how we can get to know God better by the silent words from Him, the written words, and the redeeming words. I was pretty sure today's chapel would be about Psalm 19 but it wasn't. Hopefully I learned my lesson. If your reading this I encourage you to go take a few minutes and read Psalm 19 its a lot better than I originally thought. :)

Dear Mrs. Garmin

I love my GPS. We refer to her as Mrs. Garmin. She is a wonderful woman. There are many times where I am sure I would have been lost and broken down had it not been for her. Last night I drove my friend Erin to North Park University in Chicago it was an area that I was not familiar with but thanks to Mrs. Garmin I made it there and all the way home safely. She deserves a shout out so here it is. I would literally be lost without you.

"I have a nephew...he's new"

Welcome to the world Austin James Oler!!!! He is a healthy little baby boy and I think he's pretty darn cute! I was thinking today about how when you announce a baby has been born our society tends to follow with the weight and length. I have no idea why....are you seeing if its abnormally large? are we trying to tell something about the kids future? does someone want to know if their baby could fight the new baby? It just doesn't make sense to me. So....I have decided I won't post those details in my blog. All that needs to be known is he is healthy, and he has squishy ears which are my favorite. I am a very proud Aunt. As soon as I got the picture of Austin I made it the background of my cell phone, that way it would be easier to show everyone! I wish I could meet him soon but I think the soonest I would be able to is Spring Break which is the beginning of March.

Tonight my dorm had art night. I was inspired by a girl who was making something for her niece that I would make something for Austin! I made a little note thing out of paper and fabric. I figured it would be cool once he got older to read a note from his Aunt that she wrote the night he was born!

If your reading this and haven't seen a picture of him yet your probably wanting to so I will supply that now.

Aunt to Be!!!!

I can not believe this has not made my blog yet! I feel like a terrible Aunt to Be! My brother and sister-in-law are expecting the arrival of little baby Austin really any day now! The due day is Feburary 6th I believe but I've already been having dreams about him being born! I just realized that every sentence so far in this blog has ended with an exclimation mark! AWESOME! haha. It worked out perfectly that I was able to go out to the baby shower in New Mexico with my Mom and Grandma at the end of my Christmas break. It was so much fun going to a safari themed shower and then getting to go through all the gifts with Ayla the mother to be and organize them all! Again, I am shocked that I didn't blog about the trip to NM. I must have just gotten busy as soon as I got back to school.

The adorable cake at the shower!!! I LOVED it.

My wonderful, beautiful sister-in-law!

Grandma, myself, and my brother the father-to-be.

Thats me. In a hot air balloon.

Psalm 18:1-3

"I love you, LORD, my strength.
 ² The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
   my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
   my shield^[b] and the horn^[c] of my salvation, my stronghold.
 ³ I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
   and I have been saved from my enemies." Psalm 1-3

I was reading this beautiful chapter of Psalm and the first three verses really stood out to me. I absolutely love the words David uses to describe God. Its wonderful to meditate on these words: strength, rock, fortress, deliverer, refuge, horn of my salvation, stronghold. These words are SO powerful and such a great reminder of how powerful our God truly is.

Right.....then Left.

I would like to say I have become a fearless runner. Cold doesn't usually stop me (except today when its negative 100 out), rain doesnt stop me, snow doesnt stop me etc. If I let all these things stop me I would never do it! So I decided to go for my run yesterday in the snow. It was beautiful, and not too cold. I had not been running for more than 2 minutes when I stepped on a chunk of snow or ice under the new snow.....my ankle rolled and at first I was like oh crap...but I kept going. I usually have weak ankles and I roll them often so I am use to it. I decided to make the run a short one. Then this morning as I was climbing down from my top bunk...not fully awake I slipped on my roommates pillow and fell on my other ankle. It hurt wayyy worse.What does this mean?????

37 cents

Today I went bargin hunting with my friend Erin. We were looking for things to decorate her recently vacated section of her room. We were at Goodwill when I stumbled across this mug that I fell in love with! It has sooo become the story of my life. The best part was that it was only 37 cents! So now this is what I will be drinking my morning keurig brew out of.

1st week of 2nd semester= done!

No one ever told me what a wonderful feeling it is to come back to college as a second semester freshmen! I may still technically be a freshmen but in the previous semester I figured out so much! When you come back second semester you don't have to try and make friends. Your friends are pretty well established, you know that there will be people to eat with, you know who you hang out with on weekends and evenings etc. Its beautiful. You totally understand the layout of campus. So even though you may have classes in different buildings you know where they are. You understand second semester what syllabus shock is and how to deal with it I have found myself saying in my head...and out loud "its not all due on the same day (or tomorrow), and I will learn the things I need to learn before that assignment is due".

Now that I have officially met in each of my classes twice I thought it would be fun to document my thoughts. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I start my morning with Intro to Public Relations. I just last semester changed my major to Public Relations so this class should give me a really good feel for it and if it is for me. It definitely seems like it'll be challenging but it seems like it will be the type of work I enjoy. I then go to Intro to Life Calling. I think this class will be really relaxed and full of warm fuzzy feelings as we talk about Gods plans for our lives. I am planning on having a leadership minor so this class will help towards that! On Tuesday and Thursday I start my morning with World Civ. This is a humanities core class (I have to take it to graduate). I'm really not looking forward to it but a girl who is on my Malawi team is in it so that helps! After that I have Speech. I am a weirdo who does not mind public speaking. The professor seems like she is going to be a lot of fun and really wants us to feel comfortable as we gain more public speaking skills. Then I go to Old Testament with Wilbur Williams. He is awesome!!!!!! I have been really looking forward to taking his class.

Last night I went to a North Hall/South Hall info meeting for the Hodson Half Marathon! I think I'm gonna do it! It'll take lots of intense training but I'm excited. It has been an amazing blessing each day going to my mailbox. I have started getting support letters for the Malawi trip back! Generosity always amazes me. God is so good!