Thankful

Today, I was walking around on campus and I saw a blind man walking with his little stick. (I don't actually know what it is called. Walking stick? Sure. Let's call it that. Then opened the newspaper. The front page story was about a student at OSU without knees and only has three fingers on her hands.
It dawned on me. I am SO blessed. I can see. My eyesight works just fine. I can walk. I am mobile. I am relatively healthy. There are so many things about myself I take for granted. I have 5 fingers on each hand, and 5 fingers on each foot. I am relatively normal. I can communicate. I have so many things to be thankful for. So here I am, expressing my thankfulness simply for the fact that I am alive and that I am me.

Today was also a fabulous day because I got to sit in on a Ballet 3 class. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed it. Words cannot even express. I love to dance. I'm so glad I'm taking more dance next term. :)
AND today was sunny and a whopping 64 degrees. This is odd mostly because it snowed like 2 days ago. WEIRD weather around my parts, let me tell you. At work today, I got to play outside with the kids and sit in the warm sun for a whole 30 minutes. HELLO, Vitamin D. And there were only 8 kids today, so I got to spend a lot of one-on-one time with them. Love those kiddos so much. They light up my life and they don't even know it.

In my Social Development class today,  I got like 4 of my classmates to play DrawSomething with me. YESSSS. Funnest game ever. Download it for free on the Iphone or Ipad. You'll love it, I promise. (AND play me! username daretobedifferent) We had a great discussion about this new KONY movement. Have you heard about this? We spent the reast of our 2 hour class watching youtube videos about this movement and invisible children.

I had a good day. Yes, a good day indeed. I'm off to bible study in the next 40 minutes or so. I made handmade goodie bags for each girl in my group and I'm so excited to give them to them!

How was your Thursday?

So I deleted my facebook...

Yes, it's true. I deleted my facebook.

This was a tough decision, as so much of life is now communicated through facebook. But after having it out of my life for only a few days, it feels so GREAT.

For me, facebook was something that pretty much consumed me. I had it on my phone, so I checked it when I woke up, at work, in class. TOO MUCH. It was bad. So I deleted the app on my Iphone. I deactivtaed my facebook. I love it. I wish I could keep it and have the self control to not go on it, but I do not. So deactivation was a must.

I'm really loving this. I miss the communication, but I don't miss the mass time waste I spent on facebook. I don't miss the need to pry into other people's lives and have them pry into mine. I feel so refreshed. Best decision, ever.

Have you ever deleted your facebook? What has your reaction been? Please share some thoughts with me! I'd love to hear from my new readers!

Life as of Late

My life has consistsed of a lot of athletic events as of lately. Gymnastics, basketball. Ya know the deal. I gotta say, I love being a Beaver.

So here is the evidence of such: (all with my roomers)

PINK OUT-note to self: I don't own pink.

Band

Gymnastics Meet-Pink Out. OSU vs. UCLA and CAL

Civil War Game-ignore my ginormous arm.
Please and thank you.

Beaver Belivers

OSU Vs. U of O

Final: OSU 73 UofO 74.

I've also done a smidgen of going out on the town. Loving life. Wearing heels. Acting like Ladies.

Aubrey, myself, and Rose @ Harrisons

Mine was yummy chocolate and coconut. LOVE

Love my roomie

Please ignore the obvy drunk man holding onto Aubrey cuz we look fab.

Fear is Just a Lie

Fear happens when we believe a lie. Satan is the Father of lies.

I do not want to beleive the lies Satan has put into my head anymore. I am done. God is God of light and truth, and I will go to Him when I feel the pressure of this world and the lies it feeds.

"You are not good enough, pretty enough. You don't work hard enough. You're not skinny enough. You don't make enough money. You don't dress the RIGHT way."

I don't know what lie you're believing, but I do know that God is greater. His promises are bigger. He is stronger than the lies of Satan. I hope this video encourages you as much as it did me.

Hives. Gluten. Swelling. Itchy. Benadryl.

These words have ruled my world for pretty much months. (Since October or so.) I started getting random swelling spurts, hives attacks, etc etc.
But it's getting worse, to the point where it is almost everyday. And it is becoming a nightmare.

So here is my vow, since it's on my blog, to go to the doctor and figure out what in the world is wrong with me.

I am beautiful. And so are you.

Here is some weird honesty.

I wish I weighed more. I wish I was taller.

Not what you hear out of most women, but for me it is true. I am a stapping 5 feet tall. AKA short. I work with elementary schoolers, and some of them are taller than me. And I'm their teacher. When adults come in looking for the leader, I blend right in. Yep. I'm that person. Yay me.

I weigh about 100 pounds. Details don't need to be disclosed more than that. I feel weird even saying that on my blog. But I wish I weighed more. Clothes do not always fit me the way I wish they would because I am so small and petitie.

So here is where everyone says, "But you're so cute and petite!" Yep, I am cute. Just what every 20 something woman wants to be. CUTE. Puppies are cute. Babies are not. Not 20 somethings. 20 somethings are hot things. But not me. I'm cute.

I'm challenging myself to read Psalm 139 everyday. God made me like this for a reason, and even if I don't always feel it or beleive it, I am beautiful, simply because God made me that way. I'd love for my readers to join in with this challenge too. If you take it, comment, let me know! I want to be praying for you and I want to hear how God is working through this.

As women, we need to stand up and recognize the worth God has given us. My mission is to be completly whole in the Lord. To know I am beautiful and special in my little own way. Maybe God made me petite (aka SHORT) so I can reach youth better. Or maybe he made me skinnny so that I can show others what a small person is capable of. I don't know. But I'm excited to find out.

Psalm 139

 You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.

¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Love.

I first heard this song during the superbowl. I am now obsessed. Literally. On repeat for dayyyys.