*IMPORTANT*

Dear Everyone,


I just saw my new favorite animated movie. And you should all see it. No joke.


It's called DespicableMe. Heard of it? If not, holy cow. 


About five hours ago I had no idea such a movie existed, since I'm fairly sheltered when it comes to the world of tv/movies. Since I have no TV at college. But my bro showed me the trailer, and we went on a family movie night! :) Whoo! I'm SO glad I went. 


Anyway. I think it comes out on DVD in a week or so. And I am totally going to buy it. which is something I never do. My movie collection consists of: LOTR 1,2,3 all extended, The Day After Tomorrow, and The Proposal. All of which have been given to me. 


Seriously, people. Go watch the trailer. :) :) :) :) 

Black Friday

Alright. To get this out of the way, I love black friday.
I think it's super fun and enjoyable.


However, I'm very aware not everyone does.


I'm not one of those campout-at-bestbuy-for-wayyy-to-long kinda people. I'm not even on a mission to buy anything sweet.


I just like shopping. And there are so many sweet deals just walking around and finding them is fun.


Usually I go with my mom, we leave maybe at 4, or whenever we want. The best part of the whole day, though, is trying to spend the stupid $10 card that younkers gives everyone. You would think this should be easy yes? Wrong. There are sooo many exclusions it's an adventure in itself just to find something you half way want to use it on.


This year, my sister and I are thinking about hitting the stores at midnight. Havent really decided if we will or not yet...part of me is all for it! Other part of me is like, if I'm not gunna buy anything...and Christmas is soon, why go and tempt myself to buy clothes, and shoes? :)


Either way, shopping when it's dark out, and then sitting down for breakfast at mcdonalds when it feels like noon but its only seven, is totally worth it.


Heck, I might even get myself a scooter...I hear they're $15. Oh jeez. Gotta love black Friday :)

Thankful

So, with all my homework done, I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving break. Who isn't?
(Almost) A whole week of no homework, class, and eating at the commons! :)


However, it also makes me think of how unthankful I am. Actually it's pathetic, really.
So, I'm going to start a list of things I'm going to be consciously thankful for. Starting now.


List of things to be thankful for:
1. My Godly parents. Whom I love, but don't tell them enough.
2. My sibs. Whom i also love, yet don't talk to nearly enough.
3. America. Yes we have our problems, but freedom of religion and many other freedoms are often taken for granted that shouldn't be.
4. Dordt College. Don't roll your eyes or laugh. Yah, we may say it's lame to go here a lot, but lets be honest, we go to a college where we don't get criticized for praising God or praying before meals.
5. My friends. You're amazing. No matter if they're from Dordt, home, camp, or somewhere else, ya'll rock. I am encouraged daily by your smiles, conversations, and prayers. I hope I do the same, and if i don't, please yell at me. :) Nicely.
(now that the big ones are done, i shall move onto the more overlooked blessings)
6. Good food. Yes, the commons isn't the best, but it certainly beats starving to death and eating out of dumpsters.
7. Intelligence. I often feel really stupid. But college is meant to do that, I think. I'm not failing, therefore, I do have sufficient intelligence. I may not be the smartest, but I have come to be ok with that.
8. My laptop. Mac's rule. :) End of story. And I am blessed to have one.
9. Physical Health. I think...scratch that...I know I take for granted physical health. I could be in a wheelchair, have a billion diseases, but I don't. PTL
10. Iowa. :) Oh yes, I do love Iowa. I know many people don't. But lets face it. It is beautiful, and an awesome place to raise a family.


Those are 10 for now...I think I'll just keep editing my post as new thankful thoughts inspire me over this break.


If anyone even reads this....comment and tell me things I forgot. :)


11. The simple things in life. :) Such as making a horrendous mess in my mothers newly cleaned kitchen. :) Love it.
12. Chocolate/Sugar. But mostly chocolate :) Pretty self explanatory.

:)

Life is Rough

Sometimes life feels like it's crashing down on me.
But other times, life feels easy, simple and perfect.
Right now it's more of the first...

Something I really hate is when my friends are hurting and there is nothing I can do help.
A handful of my friends are really hurting, and there is nothing for anyone to do, but pray.
A guy from Evan (any many other of my friends high school) hung himself today in the school bathroom.

I didn't know the guy, but when I read those words, my heart dropped.
I know Evan was good friends with him.

Things like this just take my by surprise.  Why would anyone do such a thing?
I can't imagine life being so horrible that I would want to end my life in such a manner.

When I step back and think my life is hard or not so good,
I guess I should reconsider.

All I know is God is good, and his will will always be done.

Praying for Jake and MV. <3

Realizations.

So, I always knew I had awesome friends. But this past week has really brought out the reality of that statement.

As my life felt like it was falling apart, I was constantly reminded of obvious things I did not want to hear, but probably needed to.
1. First off, I  got a steady stream of reminders that God has a plan, and even though it seems really crappy right now, it will be a billion times better than any plan I could come up with.
2. Second, that even though this breakup happened, if God does want us together, He'll bring us back together.
3. I got plenty of 'keep your head up' 'your awesome' and tons of smiles and hugs.

I don't think I would have made it through the week without you guys.

Then even more, it was my birthday on saturday, and I got showered in happy birthdays and smiles. Plus enough candy and food to make me gain like 100 pounds. Yikes. But Yum :)

Looking back on the year and a half I've been here at Dordt, I see that God more than answered my prayer I prayed earnestly two summers ago. To give me awesome Christian friends in college.

People scare me to death. Making friends scares me to death. But that doesn't matter. God can do anything. And He has worked in my life in crazy awesome ways.

That picture is from my camp. We were supposed to draw or write all our 'giants' on the basketball court.  (we were talking about david and goliath that week) Then to show how easily God can wipe those giants away, we threw water balloons at our drawings, and all that was left was a pretty mesh of washed away sidewalk chalk.

God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. He won't fail me, I just have to get past the rough spots to realize those times were meant to make the end result better.

Lost.

Have you ever felt completely confused? Like totally and utterly at a loss for what to do next? 

yah, me too..

I'm beginning to wonder if planning any aspect of life is worth it. God can so easily turn you right around and be like yah, you thought you knew, but think again. Let me tell you, it's rough. 

I know I'm being a complete downer...and I need a better attitude. It will come...

Hopefully soon.

But here I go again. Waiting not so patiently for life to even back out. And get a sense of normalcy. 

Trusting God is hard. But shouldn't it be easy if we know his plan is 50x better than ours?

But, what do I know? I'm just an almost-20-yr-old. 

Life goes on.

With or without you.