When Austin comes to town

When Austin comes to town life changes. We watch a lot less TV, we read less, we probably talk less, and just watch him. Being the first grandkid is a demanding job. You are pressured to bring a great deal of entertainment and good thing Austin seems up for the task every time. He is such a sweet little boy. Here are lots of pictures to detail the most recent visit.

Austin adores his "Papa". If he walks out of the room it takes him less than 5 seconds to want to go find him. I kept telling dad it must be hard to be a celebrity. 

He is a huge fan of suitcases. Mom got luggage for Christmas so Austin really enjoyed that. 

He got a cowboy hat from Grant which he is adorable in.We also FaceTime'ed Great Grandma Jean so she could see all of Austin's toys...and well..Austin.

A developmental specialist said that a toy that would really be great for Austin is various containers, puff balls, and pipe cleaners. He puts the puff balls into the containers and moves them to others and it is a great problem solving activity. So mom saved containers and I helped her decorate them (still not fully convinced it would be that great). However, he loved it! I think it was the thing that held his attention longest and he was the most quiet when he was playing with it. It was so fun to watch him learn that way.

Sometimes it can be exhausting being the life of the party.

I am pretty sure I could win awards with this picture. "Did you say Santa?!"What a sweet sweet little boy. 

Grace on Grace

Grace. The concept has been such a reoccurring theme in my mind this past semester. The word overwhelms me a little but in a good way. I see grace daily but it is something I have seen in very first hand ways this semester. I feel undeserving but yet I know because of Christ I am worthy. I feel so inadequate but I know with Christ I am enough. I know full well that my actions and my sin do not set me up in a place to deserve grace. Yet still my God is relentless and loving and incredibly gracious. He gives me so many beautiful gifts that I do not deserve. I am constantly in awe. My God does not let my past define my future. That is grace. Pure grace.

Christmas in college

We take every opportunity to celebrate the season. That often means dressing up like we are crazy and singing. This happened kinda  lot this week. Nbd that it was/is always one of the most crazy weeks of the semester. Maybe thats why I slept for 12 hours last night? Anyways.

This is now a tradition. We have an all hall meeting where we sing "12 days of Check-out" to our residents and dress up in crazy christmas gear. We then take it upon ourselves to parade around campus and encourage all those with their noses in the books. We quietly walk though the library and turn heads. We paused for this solid window pic. This is college right? This is also my job? 

My E1E ladies and our brother unit decorated Christmas cookies this week. The creativity was unreal. I love those girls. 

We then celebrated in the form of Christmas morning. For confidentiality reasons I will not describe this event any further. But it was a blessing. One of my favorite moments of the year. Again. So blessed by my relationships old and new that have been formed in this hall. When else in life to moments like this happen? So blessed by this community. 

Ok, well someone said finals are this week... so I should go figure out what I can do about that. 

Now this is college

I think it happened. I think I had my favorite class of my college life...the funny thing is...I think it was exactly how college was designed to be. The class was Student Leadership Practicum. The book we read was this:

The point of the class is to have student leaders talk about leadership, specifically from a servant leadership paradigm. The class originally was just me but as I talked about it with friends other people joined. There were 5 students and our professor. Four of us were RA's. Myself and one other were returning RA's and there were 2 new RA's. One was a TA in LDR-150. Our professor developed and ran the center for life calling and leadership until this year as he has transitioned into a new role. He has a crazy amount of leadership experience and wisdom. Each week we read a chapter of the above pictured book, and turned in a weekly report (which as RA's we already have to do). He didn't want to add extra busy work. ummm awesome. So we read a chapter and came together once a week to talk about how it applied to our leadership roles. He would ask us hard questions and every week we would leave feeling challenged and healthier. We would ask each other hard questions. It was honestly kind of therapeutic  It was awesome to be able to process the leadership aspect of being an RA with other RA's. What was our final you might ask? We went out to lunch at Casa Brava and our professor paid.

Seems too good to be true right? Maybe it should be but I don't care. It was such a blessing in this season. Isn't that how college should be?

East Village Country Christmas

I am a huge fan of the East Village. It is the only place I have lived during my college life and I like that. The East Village consists of my dorm (Beckett), South Hall, and the Lodges. We are located on the...you guessed it..east side of the campus. Each year we celebrate the lighting of the East Village Christmas tree. Here is my post about it from Freshmen year. It is crazy and awesome how much has changed since then. The fact that the first year when I went to the tree lighting I knew a handful of people and now so many of the people that mean the most to me were standing around that tree. My old staff, my current staff, my old residents, my current residents, other sweet friends. My heart was full. K. Now it can be Christmas time.

How did this happen?

I have no clue how it is already Thanksgiving break. But it is. So I have had to face that and move right along into it. This break is a little frightening...mostly because I go back to school and get on top of a really steep slide and can hardly find traction as a slide down to finals and the end of the semester. It will be vital that I remember to laugh and not take myself too seriously.

Anyways. Here are some break highlights so far.

I ran the 4 mile Fox and Turkey race with my dad and brothers. This was my third year. My race numer was 1229 and I always like to find a verse that goes along with that number to meditate on while I run. This year I picked Hebrews 12:29 which is pictured above. It was such a beautiful section of scripture to think about and what a perk that it talked about thankfulness!

I've gotten to hang out with this little guy! His giggle is unreal! He has such a big vocabulary now. It's hard to just not constantly hug and kiss him. Seriously. Look at that face. I am one lucky aunt. I feel for all those aunts with ugly nephews. It must be a hard job.

So maybe I got a little crafty. My black friday experience was filled with repurposing. I went to goodwill and found some incredible things. Two of those would be 1/4 zips which are just my heart song. The pj pants pictured above were a gift from my life coach and mentor Susy. She had bought them at goodwill and they were too short for her so she regifted them to me. They were also too short for me but I was not going to let that stop me from loving them. They are so adorable. Randomly this summer I saw a tutorial of how to make an infinity scarf. I then saw those pants and wondered if I could make it happen with them. I then googled 'how to make an infinity scarf out of pj pants'. Don't worry there is a tutorial for that. So I took it upon myself to tackle it over this break. I had wonderful support and encouragement from my mom and sister-in-law during the process. I was doing laundry, drinking tea, and sewing. Talk about being domestic. I am so in love with the result! 

My Version of Psalm 136

The other night in Covenant we created our own versions of Psalm 136. It was such a great exercise to challenge us to think about things that we are thankful for that are more than surface level or the classic answers. So here is mine:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

His love endures forever

Give thanks to the God of Gods.

His love endures forever

Give thanks to the Lord of Lords

His love endures forever

To Him who is faithful in placing me in the right place and will continue to do so.

His love endures forever

To Him who gives me strength for each day and does not withhold.

His love endures forever

To Him who is sovereign over our government

His love endures forever

To Him who provides in abundance

His love endures forever

To Him who is made great in my weaknesses

His love endures forever

To Him who places people in my life as beautiful gifts for the exact moment I need them.

His love endures forever

To Him who wakes me up each morning and meets me in new ways all day long.

His love endures forever

To Him who works in ways that I can not fathom

His love endures forever

To Him who does not let my past define my future and is abounding in grace

His love endures forever

To Him who gives me beautiful times of rest and laughter

His love endures forever

To Him who IS and gives me peace in the waves

His love endures forever

To Him who teaches me to trust an step out to Him.

His love endures forever

To Him who sent His son and gave us the holy spirit to teach me how to love.

His love endures forever

To Him who draws me near to abide in Him.

His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of Heaven.

His love endures forever. 

Yes please

This weekend has been exactly what I have needed in so many ways. This was the first weekend this semester that I did not have any major events planned. Originally my family had planned to come visit for family weekend but we decided that it did not make the most sense for that to happen and it was a really good thing! So with a whole weekend wide open what did I do?

Friday afternoon started with lunch with Emily and an afternoon nap with Steph. I got coffee and sat and watched music videos with Noelle for a little bit. After that Ben and I went to Matter Park and walked around. It was beautiful. We then drove around parts of Marion we had never seen and ended up finding a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Who knew?! We went out to dinner and then hung out at his house for a little bit. Then Emily and I went to go see Pitch Perfect. We drove to Muncie to see it which made it feel more like an event. That way we got more car/jam time. We loved the movie. The theater was super sketchy though. Like we were the only car in the parking lot after our movie got out and I had to ask them to turn up the volume. But its fine.

Saturday I woke up around 9:30, got my run in, and talked with Katie. That afternoon I sat in the Beckett Hall porch and drank cider and did work but also read for pleasure (I like a healthy dose of both). I went out to dinner with Katie and her family. It was so great to spend time with them.

Today (Sunday) we went to church, and then impulsively decided to go out to lunch at Casa Brava. And now our staff is sitting and doing hw in the conference room. I LOVE homework in community. Yes. Currently I am blogging. But I am doing homework as well.

Sometimes...

Sometimes they rip down your dream house on the week of your birthday.
Sometimes you can't be what you want to be.
Sometimes you can't be everything to everyone.
Sometimes you need a vacation in the middle of the day.
Sometimes the red cups from Starbucks just get you excited.
Sometimes the semester seems to have flown by.
Sometimes you just need to go to bed so you dont lose your mind.
Sometimes you buy Ghost Juice (sparkling grape juice) because it is on sale.
Sometimes you try too hard to figure out things too far in the future.
Sometimes you look at the waves for too long that everything looks like its moving.
Sometimes you need to apologize.
Sometimes you have to fight to be here now for such a time as this.
Sometimes you need to turn up the music and rest.
Sometimes you just need to remind yourself to rest.
Sometimes you need multiple temporary tattoos.
Sometimes you have to say no in areas you usually wouldn't and yes in areas you usually dont.


Always I need more Jesus. Always I need to remind myself of what He did on the cross. Always I need to reflect on the ways He has been faithful. Always I need to trust that He knows exactly what He is doing in every area of my life. Always I need to give him control. Always I need to surrender my intentions, plans, ideas to Him who is able. Always I need to remind myself that He has creatively designed me and His power is made so great in my weakness. Always I need to rejoice for the grace that is provided to me each day. 

21

It still doesn't seem real. How am I 21 years old? Crazy. Anyways. Thursday was my birthday. Never have I had such a wonderful birthday and I am very realistically thinking my birthdays to follow may never top this one.

First off, my parents came on Sunday and kicked off birthday week. They were in the state for a baby shower and came for church and lunch with me. Katie decided to celebrate my entire birthday week which was fine by me. She gave me a gift each day.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Then, on my actual day of birth I had a knock on my door at 7:30 with a balloon, card, and money for freshbrew from Kim. I then had a text to go to my window where some guy friends brought me breakfast and sang me happy birthday. My birthday could have ended at 8:30 AM and I would have felt special.

But it didn't stop there. I went to my first class and Kim had given a friend in that class a gift to give me.   I went to my mail box and I had a gift from Kim there as well. For lunch, Katie and I went out to Casa Brava. Then, in my afternoon class...again another gift from Kim brought by a friend. Unreal.

Kim made this and the yellow parts are Kenya and Malawi.

After that class I spent some time having coffee with Ben and had unit dinner with my girls. Keep in mind that all through out the day I was opening gifts that my parents had sent and dropped off. I was also getting numerous text messages, phone calls, and facebook posts. Seriously so great. That night we had covenant as a staff and we had pie and ice cream and did other fun things.

I got a lot of awesome books

I feel so blessed. So humbled. So thankful. and So loved.

Gems of Marion

This past Saturday I had the blessing of partaking in an activity that involved two of what I believe to be gems of Marion. I get frustrated when people say "there is nothing to do in/at ________(fill in the blank with town...school). Those kinds of people will most likely have that problem for the rest of their life no matter where they live.

Saturday night a few of us RA's went out to dinner with some of our brother RA's at Upper Crust Pizza. So wonderful. After dinner we decided to go walk around Matter Park which is right near by. It was a beautiful evening and there was an event going on. We ended up roasting marshmallows and taking pictures. It felt like a dream. Moral of the story? There are things to do in Marion.

Anything Could Happen

Anything Could Happen is the title of one of Ellie Goulding's new songs. I am a fan. Today I have been talking a lot about decision making. Laura this morning during our coffee date asked me how I made decisions and I went through the process that my brain went through in making decisions- ultimately knowing that God is sovereign. I continued to talk about various upcoming decisions with Steven and Kim. In all reality...anything could happen. The two big(ish) decisions that are on my mind are Reslife for next year...and what to do this summer. I know both of those things seem far away.. but yet they need to be decided on somewhat soonish. Next year...really anything could happen. Amazing things or things that make me want to run away.. I dont know. But one thing that remains constant is Kimberly.

This pretty new blog is props to that wonderful lady. I am so thankful for her. I don't say it enough. When I think about next year there are a lot of potential changes...but I know I will have my sweet Kimbo Slice. We are in this college thing together. I know that next year we will go on bike rides, we will have weekly dates, we will talk about blogs, and she will know me better than most people. For that I am so thankful.

Restoration

There is something in me that has developed recently. I don't think I have always been like this. I love to look at old things and think about what they were like in their prime or what they could be if they were restored. I have always been into finding potential...potential in people, potential in activities, in plans etc. I think that it has to do a lot with my maximizer strength. Things might be good but I want to find a way to make them great. I do this in relationships and in plans that I make. However, now I find myself doing it more with old homes, places, pieces of furniture.

Last year I was invited into a secret. There is an abandoned house on campus and it had a huge open yard, a beautiful tree covered drive way, a garage and out building. It looked like it would have been absolutely incredible during its prime. It is off on a part of campus that most people do not even know the school owns. More recently I came to know that there were 3 houses all in that same area that were all abandoned and the university owned them all. That yard became and escape for me. I was a way for me to retreat from campus. I didn't have to drive, I could be outside, it was beautiful, it was my little piece of heaven. There were times when I would bring my quilt, my homework, and other times when Katie and I would just go sit on the porch and talk till the sun went down. I would dream about what it would be like to fix the house up and one day live there. My most recent dream was to fix it up and live in it with 6 other ladies for my senior year. Just this week Mary and I had a few minutes to spare and wanted to soak up the weather so to that lawn we went. I was laying in the sunshine thanking Jesus for such a beautiful spot.

Here is Mary doing homework on the lawn on a beautiful fall afternoon.

Tonight my world was rocked. Ben and I were having dinner and he asked if I wanted to stop by the abandoned house (I swear it is not as creepy as it sounds). I said of course! As we drove past my hand covered my mouth and I gasped. Gone. The two smaller houses were leveled and the main house was all torn up. Definitely dream crushing. The yard is now filled with tire tracks. Broken glass and gutters cover the yard around the house. Ben had seen it earlier in the week and knew I would want to know.

There use to be houses here

Thankfully Ben had the great idea and asked if I would want a brick or a piece of wood from the house. For sure I did. So I picked a brick and some wood that I want to paint inspirational things on. So look out for that. Change is hard.

On another note there was a place I visited this summer that I never blogged about. It was an old insane asylum and had been abandoned for years. However, recently someone had caught a vision. They were turning it in to a whole community. The were creating incredible apartments with stunning hardwood floors, crazy cool spaces, and exposed brick and stone. They are getting cute stores and restaurants to move in etc. It was like a college campus but no college part. Talk about a dream! How awesome would it be to move here with a bunch of friends and live in close community? You just have to get over the fact that crazies use to walk the halls.

Ultimately I think I am drawn to these things because Christ is drawn to these kinds of things. He takes us, old, worn down, gross, weird pasts included..and makes us new. He repurposes our lives. He makes beautiful things out of us (as some songs might say). I feel so lucky to have a God with a crazy creative mind who pursues us and never stops working on renewing us.

Fall Break Review

Well it happened. Fall break came and went. I guess thats how it happens. It seems like this distant idea and before you know it...bam..its already done and gone. Anyways. I drove to and from the Chicagoland area with my friend Josh. He is always a joy to be around. We sang, talked, laughed. It was very restful to be at home. Naps happened. Good food happened. Sweet runs with my Dad happened.

 Here are some recaps via iPhone pictures.

The new Taylor Swift album came out. Red. Big fan. So I got to jam to that on the way home.

I introduced my mom to Bien Trucha. What a gem they both are (my mom and Bien Trucha).

I spent a good amount of time with these things.. books and hot drinks. 

 We love our Egg Harbor. It was a beautiful day, so we did not mind waiting outside. 

Oh my sweet sweet brother. 

iPhone pics

How did I remember what happened in my life before I had pictures on my phone? I swear in just a few short years my brain will be mush. This weekend I told a few stories where I referenced my phone to show pictures to support the stories. Now, as I look to post in my blog I had to go get my phone to look back at picture to see what has been going on in this crazy adventure of mine.

It has been great. Adventures are often occurring here in this college life I am lucky to live. So let me tell you the recent story via iPhone photos.

Kim and I went to Panera this Sunday to get homework done. She went to an incredible conference this weekend so I got to hear all about it! We also stopped by Target and that is never a bad idea. 

This Saturday was Beckett Hall day away! What a blessing! We spend the day relaxing, talking, drinking coffee, roasting marshmallows (sneaking away to buy brats with Emily), taking pictures, etc. It is one of my favorite days of the year. 

This Friday we went to a corn maze and then pursued pumpkin carving like it was our job. I am so grateful. It fulfilled a lot of my fall desires. Not to mention we also got Starbucks that night where I was delighted by a carmel apple spice. So just to recap..friends..corn maze..crisp fall evening..fire.. Starbucks..pumpkin carving. What's not to love?

Ben and I took it as our mission to harvest the pumpkin seeds. "No seed left behind." This was a two day process. We baked them and created various flavors. They are a hit. 

I have adventures during the week as well. I just don't take pictures as often. This is the longest that I have ever gone without going home. This weekend that streak will end. It'll be weird. Hopefully I will blog. 

Jesus is teaching me a lot about control vs. surrender... control vs. wisdom...I am thankful. 

I'd call it epic.

This weekend is one for the books. But hold on. Lets also use this time to reflect and document the happenings of last weekend.

Last weekend
Last weekend we had the blessing of going on Staff Retreat. This only happens twice a year but I'd lie if it was not a huge reason I am an RA. I love time with the staff and getting away together is just beautiful. This year we went to Steph Yoder's lake house 2 hours away. We left IWU on Friday and stopped for dinner at 800 degree Woodfired Pizza. That was...incredible. We followed up that meal with a little Starbucks.

We finally got up to the lake house and unloaded the van only to get back in it to go get groceries for the weekend and rent a movie. Oh and all during this we are jamming in the IWU van listening to top hits and singing our hearts out...like all girls should. I will always remember singing Johnny & June with Noelle. Anyways, we got back, put in the movie and went to bed after that.

Saturday morning we woke up around 10. We all kinda did our own thing. I passed the volleyball with Steph, and threw the frisbee with Emily. We had an amazing lunch and then sweet Bill the neighbor took us out on his boat...for like 4 hours. It was crazy relaxing and just a beautiful day. We came back to eat dinner and get dressed for our big square dancing event at Pokagon that night. We danced till we couldn't dance anymore.

We went back to Steph's and talked around the fire and fell asleep. 

Sunday morning came and Emily and Noelle made breakfast and we had a time of worship together and then spent time in solitude. In the early afternoon we packed up and headed back to campus. If I could only use two words to describe the weekend: joy and peace.

This weekend
That brings us to this weekend. Well it's homecoming so that added excitement and Emily was on court and won Queen! Ok, so friday Katie and I watched a movie and made homeboys (secret recipe). The parade was cancelled due to rain so everything was moved inside. Thats where we watched Emily be crowned. Then after all of that I went to a Jon Mclaughlin concert. That was great. Saturday morning Ben and I and Katie and Tim went out to breakfast and played the American Girl game, it was an all-american morning.

Katie and I took naps on Saturday afternoon and I did a bit of homework (not nearly enough). Saturday night was a little thing we like to call The After Party. This is the first IWU dance that I have been able to attend and lets just say it set the bar very high for me. So awesome. That wrapped up around 12...and we did what we have dreamed of doing for so long. We took the trek to Kokomo in the middle of the night to go to Dirty Dan's Donuts. They open up at 1am and serve fresh donuts. The line was out to the middle of the parking lot. It was in a super sketch neighborhood. We were all freezing. But the donuts were awesome. We got back to IWU at 3. Finally got to bed and we all woke up for Church this morning. If that isn't an epic weekend. I don't think that I want to know what is. 

Waves.

There has been a reoccurring theme in this semester and it took me till this weekend to see it. This weekend we had our staff retreat. I would use two words to describe that: joy and peace. On Sunday we had time in solitude which I have grown to love more and more. In that time I thought back to the beginning of this school year. During training our staff went to Splash House.

One of the highlights was playing in the wave pool. I will remember laughing till I thought I was going to drown, jumping over, into and under the waves with those girls for many years to come. I love metaphors and illustrations and  I took time in the wave pool to relate the wave pool to ResLife. I said "ResLife is like wave pool...we get hit with one event, one situation, and there is no recovery time before the next event (wave) hits. " If you miss a beat you are confused, choking on water and trying to keep your head above water. However, if you keep your head up, stick to the rhythm.. touch-touch-jump, you will make it over every wave. And when things start to fall apart (or swim suites come untied) we have each other (our staff) to help pick up the pieces and put things back together and get back into the rhythm of the waves. It is so encouraging to be bouncing around in the waves and look to the faces of the girls on my staff and know that we are literally in this together. They are right there smiling back at me rocking the touch-touch-jump rhythm.

Another big theme from this season of life has been constantly reminding myself to turn my eyes upon Jesus. And when I do that the things of earth will grow strangling dim in the light of His glory and grace. If my eyes are on Jesus I will be able to jump over the waves. It's the times that I get distracted and start to focus on the waves or something in the water or think about tomorrow that I get out of rhythm and start to choke.

This semester has been filled with waves. The waves have been fun, good things, but still waves. I am continually reminding myself to fix my gaze on Jesus face and not on the waves. I am so incredibly blessed by those in the water with me. His faithfulness never ceases to amaze me.

Recent adventures

Just a quick update. Like really quick.

Here is my flag football team. 

I had guests this weekend and they left me some treats.

 Last weekend Josh and I decided to drive to Bluffton in the middle of the night to get Katie. It's just one of those things you need to do in college. This is our awkward prom pose at a gas station picture.

Today Mary and I did homework outside in my favorite spot. It was beautiful. 

I am blessed.