So, as you know, I recently moved. With moving comes the finding of a lot of old stuff that you had forgotten about. And then, I happened to get this handy dandy scanner. Trips are much more fun with others along...so I thought I'd let you join me in the walk down memory lane I took last night. As I look back, I realize that I've been blessed with solid friendships that have withstood the test of time and distance. I love it!


You know you have great friends when you can do things like this together.
This was our last home game our senior year...it happened to fall on Halloween, so all the seniors dressed up to march. Even our guys joined in...and they were thrilled about it. ;)

Junior year prom!

I think between the swim team and band is where it all happened. We were inseparable!

Senior year homecoming. We like to travel in large groups!

College days with new friends and old.

Hawkeye Marching Band...we stayed together through it all!

We've been all over together. :) It makes life beautiful to share it with ones like these!

Lovely ladies at our last HMB Band Banquet!

Go Hawks!

The gang from high school.

The four constant girls in my life...mom, daughter, and 3 godmothers!

This is my friend Scott and I about 5 years ago out in Colorado, where he lives. These last several months, we've been able to reconnect and after a hopeful repeat of my visiting him in CO, he instead came back home for Thanksgiving and his folks were kind enough to let me steal him for a day...

Fast forward five years...

I don't know about him, but I had a wonderful time. With some people, it's just easy to pick back up where you left off...same goofiness, same love of tossing a disc, same love for our Saviour...we were able to take a walk down memory lane as we went to an Iowa basketball game and then the next day walked around our old campus where we tossed the disc for a bit. Unfortunately, the ice cream place we both love was closed that day. But we made up for it by getting ice cream at the store. :)

These are the times that make life sweet...he's a good friend to me...and I was really sad to see him leave. God has been good to me with people like him in my life!

I have noticed lately that I have been great about pointing out things that are driving me crazy about my new place...such as the pilot light being out when I got home to a freezing house or the fact that living alone is deafeningly quiet.

However, tonight something happened and I just smiled. I found something that I completely love.

Each night a train goes by with its whistles blowing loudly for all to hear. And I am taken back to a peaceful time in my childhood when I would stay at my grandma's house where the trains would go by in the distance. I would lay there listening, thinking of all the adventures I could have if I were to get on that train but at the same time, how much I loved to be snuggled warmly in my bed at my grandma's house.

I'll get used to living alone...and it's always good to learn how to light a pilot light. But I am thankful for something here that I really love as is. :)

Some pics from the last few days...Thanksgiving with the Page's...and some teasers of my place. I am hoping later this week to get a brief narrated video of my new place up, so keep checking back...but for now, enjoy! :)

My two favorite "little people"...B & B.

The highlight of the afternoon. Uncle T's gift of a mini-fishing rod. Yes, we are a fishing family...my cousin warned my aunt that if Uncle T is seen standing for an extended period of time over an aquarium, that she might need to check to be sure he's not fishing in it with his new pole! :)

My cuz and his daughter.
Everyone's growing up!

Thanksgiving with my people.

Brenna and I now have a yearly tradition of taking a pic on the way home from Thanksgiving with something on our heads. This year, LJS. :)
Her face is hilarious in this one. I have no idea what she was doing.

The yellow kitchen. You will see this color several times in my house.
And yes, I plan to change that eventually.
But it works in the kitchen.

The living room area with my Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

My recently painted guest room..."Surfin' USA Blue". Yes, that is the reason for the color.

Going upstairs...with the green wall that is quite controversial. But hey, I like it. And yes, I have an addiction to books.

My room...and the newest addition - my desk! Yellow is not my color of choice, but for now, it works.

I confess, sometimes I wonder if God really knows what He is doing. Sometimes I wonder if He really cares about what is going on in my life when He's got a whole world full of people with problems far more serious than mine. But then, I have to stop and realize that the image of God I have is far too small.

Last night, I listened to a talk with a friend of mine given by Louie Giglio. He was challenging this skewed view of God. Isaiah 40:12 talks about how God measures the span of the universe with His hand. The vastness of the universe is beyond me...and yet it's tiny in comparison to God.

In reality, this makes me feel tiny. Possibly insignificant. I mean, God has to keep things moving...stars are constantly being born. He's got to keep our galaxy in order so that we don't burn up or freeze to death...but the mere fact that He does this very thing says a lot. And while He made all this beauty to reflect Himself and to bring glory to Him...we get the privilege of "discovering" it (as Louie says, I'm sure God laughs every time we "discover" something new). Just take a look at these pics from NASA to see some of the breath-taking views God has given us. These awesome sights ought to cause praise to pour forth from our lips as we begin to grasp, ever so slightly, how big this God is who loves tiny little us.


And incase we miss this somehow, He has placed a reminder in space for us. This is found in the center of the whirlpool galaxy above. Scientists may call it an "X", but see what you think:

The Whirlpool Galaxy is located 37 million light years from the earth. It is more than 100 thousand light years across. It is estimated that there are more than 160 billion stars in this galaxy. This picture was taken by the Hubble Space telescope.

Consequently, after watching this talk with my friend, I read in the Old Testament about Elijah and how God directed him to seek out this widow and her son as God provided daily for them. Sometime thereafter, her son died. And I can hear her anguish as she cries to Elijah, the man of God, asking why her son had died. And then having to entrust this same man with her dead son's body as God allowed him to be raised from the dead through Elijah. In all of this, as senseless as it seems, God had a plan. A plan to reveal Himself to this widow and her son.

Therefore, when I am tempted to consider God as "small"...I need to be reminded that He measures the universe in the span of His hand...that He is clearly evident in all I see around me...the hug from a friend, the snow on my face, or the laughter He gives...He is a big God who is concerned about the little things in my life and loves me intensely. As Brennan Manning would say, "My Abba is very fond of me." It's hard to believe in the tough times...but He's got a reason...a method behind the madness.

And that, my friends, is a reason to be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving.

After three months of waiting for God to show me where I was headed next...I am finally moving into my new place in Coralville in about 17 hours! :) Mom and I spent a few hours over there tonight cleaning carpets and imagining where things might go...and I have to say...I'm excited!

There are several little projects that I need to do such as finishing some tiling and painting...but that is the kind of stuff I really enjoy doing, so I'm actually looking forward to it. And I may be biased...but I think its really going to be cute when I get it all pulled together! :) Don't worry, pics will be coming... perhaps after the weekend when I have things put together a little bit.

Now...I still don't have a job, and therefore, that has officially become critical. I would greatly appreciate your prayers as I wait to hear back from a few jobs and send out even more resumes.

And if you ever find yourself in Coralville...feel free to stop by my new place!! :)

My niece. A girl after my own heart.

Anyone who keeps up regularly with me or this blog knows full well that it is the little things in life that get me all excited. Well, tonight was one of those nights!

Iowa is cold. After two years in Senegal and then two in SC, this is the first winter I've experienced in four years...and its not even winter yet! This morning as I left for work I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't have a hat to match my brown jacket and blue scarf...I got home from work this evening and lo and behold! There was this lovely blue hat waiting for me!

As you might recall, my French I class begins in six days...but who's counting! Tonight to my dismay, I discovered that Amazon was not going to be shipping my book for class until January...so, I had to make a run to B&N to pick up my book for class. If you've ever read the children's book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", these next sentences will make sense to you. So I got my book and then thought, "Well, if I have a book, I'm going to need a notebook to take notes in." So Mom and I got that taken care of...and then I thought, "Well, if I have a notebook to take notes in, then I need some new fun colored pens to write with!"

It doesn't take much to get me excited...and with the way the last three months have worked out (or haven't worked out, depending on how we look at it!), then it's clear that it's the little things that have kept me going. :) Praise God for the little things...without them, I fear the state I would be in!

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."
Proverbs 13:12

This verse has been running around in my mind a lot lately. I've been waiting for three months now to hear something about where God might have me next...there has been much hope deferred...but as a good Father, He is starting to put things in place in a way that is clear to me. And my heart has been renewed bit by bit.

Barring something unforeseen, it looks like I will be remaining here in the IC area at least until July...as I told you in a previous post. However, it looks like the first step has begun...I found a place to live. :) Praise God, it is exactly what I want and I fell in love with it immediately. So, hopefully I will be moving in sometime within the month!

I have many applications out in the area, no news there yet...but hopefully within the next few weeks something will come of all of this.

Thanks for all your prayers...and please continue! :)