blog make-over!

Go to Fabulous K's website to get a blog make-over!
She did Jessica's blog and its absolutely adorable!

||lots of things

I got a kitty cat!

I named her Chloe -- she's so precious, but she's definitely a bundle of energy!

She's still in the "i want to pounce everything that moves" stage.

I need to get her nails trimmed, I have claw marks all over my hands.

I got her from a lady off of craigslist and she told me "oh she's litter trained AND she doesn't have fleas"

yeah, she lied to me. about both! chloe was INFESTED with fleas. it was possibly the most disgusting thing. I had to sit there and literally comb them all out.

thankfully, they seem to be gone, and i treated the carpet with borax and they don't seem to have come back! lets pray it STAYS that way!

My parents got a kitty cat!

A week after I got Chloe (who was 7 weeks when I got her), my parents got a 4 week old kitty! They originally thought it was a boy, so they named her Josiah...and when they realized it was a girl, they changed it to Josie! She's very young, and she cries a lot, and she's NOT potty trained and they were having to bottle feed her for a while, but she's super adorable.

Her eyes are still blue-blue!


I got Toms!
My amazing boyfriend bought me some Toms (he got the grey version of mine). I love them, they're so comfortable ! The best part about Toms, is that for every pair of shoes YOU buy, Toms sends a pair to a child in need! Two for one, its incredible. They are canvas/vegan as well :)

Hannah's are gold, mine are red -- yayy.

I got flowers!!
Let's go Administrative Assistants! To celebrate administrative Assistants week, the staff took us out to Rio Ranch -- oh my goodness, the breakfast buffet is A-MA-ZING! I ate like a little pig, and enjoyed every second of it. Rae gave me some beautiful roses and a fun balloon! It's nice to be appreciated!!

the Ed suite girls (minus Christen)

my boss, Cindy Ann Pitts

jess and her display of yummy food

My little brother got to go to "prom"
Since he's homeschooled, they call it a "gala" but its basically the same thing. You dress up, go to some place, eat food, dance, have fun. They should've had an after"prom" just for fun!! This is his girlfriend, Taylor -- she's so cute.

and lastly...

i got in a wreck.

ugh. yes, i know its only been 3 and 1/2 months.

It was raining REALLY hard and i was in san antonio and i was very confused and i thought i was turning, and i then i realized i wasn't, and so i thought i was in the turn/straight lane so i was like "ill just go straight" and then halfway through tony yells "mia, its a turn only!" and BAM! the guy NEXT to me was in the turn/straight lane and i was in the turn only.

he hit me, it was pouring rain when we exchanged infromation.

i was very upset.

my door has to be replaced.

i cry everytime i see my car.

i dont want to talk about it anymore.

onto happier things...
well. i can't tell you :)

you'll find out soon enough.

||easters||

bella

my parents

bella & alyssa

mimi and the girls

happy easters!

i love easter...so much time with my family.

my favorite part is when we have our huge easter egg hunt.

and, i actually came [--] this close to NOT doing it yesterday!

thanks, mimi, for talking me into it :)

my rear is so sore from bending down, i'm so out of shape!

haha.

ALL the cousins...yes, all...line up at the door at our grandma's,

and we all RUSH outside to gather up as many egg's as we possibly can.

after we have exhausted the resources, we begin a rowdy game of smashing eggs filled with confetti on each others heads.

its hilarious.

my camera died before i could get pictures :(

on a sad side note, my mom hardly said two words to me.

there is a still a huge rift between us..

its really sad, and really painful because we were making so much progress.

i'm not going to end on that :)

so, alyssa (in the pictures above) is 5

and she is a mess.

she kept peeking outside to see where my aunts were hiding the eggs,

and mimi started teasing her and saying "oh, no, you're not going to be able to get eggs anymore, because you cheated!"
and alyssa started getting really upset and really defensive...

so then mimi's mom, my tia lupita, came in and said "well, maybe YOU'RE the one cheating mimi!"
at the moment, you could literally see the light bulb go off in alyssa's head...

her mouth dropped SO FAR DOWN and she says
"yeah, i didn't cheat! see? you're the one that cheated!"

hahahhahaha she jumped onto that so quick.

it was hilarious.

kids say the darndest things.

||happy one year||

happy one year tony :)
i love you so much.
it was an extremely difficult year,
and we went through a lot,
but it was still a ton of fun
and it has been so rewarding.

thank you for being my best friend.

thank you for fighting for me.

||chaos||

last night,
i went to bed with a heart of chaos.

i have been reading a book called Chasing Daylight (thanks becky!)
and i love it.
it has given me so much food for thought,
and a completely different perspective on things...
some of my favorite parts...

"...Jesus calls us to live a life of unimaginable adventure. It begins the moment we choose to follow him. It is no less than to pass from existence to life" (quotations mine)

"The present moment is where the past and the future collide, and within a moment there is monumental potential. Thats the mystery of a moment. It's small enough to ignore and big enough to change your life."

"The prostitute Rahab, in one defining moment, through one life-altering decision, began a journey that brought her everything she had lost and more than she could ever have imagined. At our worst, good is only one decision away." (that, quite frankly, blew me away.)

Well, that is only the first chapter! I know, good stuff.
The second chapter is on initiative.
Here is where I am struggling.
I referred to choices and decisions I am going to have to make in some earlier posts...
and throughout the past couple of weeks,
they've just been very present and foremost in my mind.
Well, while reading all of this, of course I'm thinking about these decisions!

So then comes the part about...we, as humans, can do nothing to thwart God's sovereignty.
Right. I agree with that.
So, whatever decisions we make....can do nothing to mess up God's will.
Ok, and now I'm just thinking "out loud" here.
So does that mean everything is predestined???
I mean, I fully believe God gave us free will.
But, if God knew we were ultimately going to follow Him...and THAT was his sovereign plan...and nothing can mess up his sovereignty...did we ultimately even have a choice?

And bigger plan aside, what about the smaller plans....
If we're following God, and if we're in line with God's will...
everything we do will coordinate with that, right?
McManus quite bodly even states,
"To put it crassly, when you are madly in love with God, you can do whatever you want."
That one stopped me.
Where does our human nature come into play at this point?
What about our sin?
Yes, when we're madly in love with God, our desires become HIS desires...
but we're not perfect.
Surely, there is going to be imperfect desire, and to act upon that desire would be sin,
and so....is that sin part of God's plan????

lfkjagjl;gjkl'agjalgjka;gjka.
yes, ^ thats my opinion on things.
and growing up in an extremely conservative household,
making choices that are out of the ordinary and could possibly ruin God's plan for my life
is WRONG.WRONG.WRONG. and all my upbring is SCREAMING at me,
to play it safe, don't go somewhere where you can get burned!!!!!!!!!!!

so then the next paragraph that gets to me is this one
"Those men and women whose lives you admire, who somehow seem to live life to the fullest, would probably be the first to tell you they are no different from you and me. It's not about talen or giftedness or intelligence; its about moving out of passivity into activity." (again, emphasis mine)
earlier, he stated it much more succinctly,
"just do something" and "take initative"

so....i'm going to bed last night...
and i'm thinking about all of this and i'm feeling so...
scrambled!!!
choices.choices.choices.choices!!!
ok, just do something.
its that simple.
i want the heart of God, and I am seekin God's character...
all i have to do is move.
easy enough, right??

so...i wake up this morning,
i shower,
i pray..."God...help me make sense of all of this!"
and God...
being a humorous God... :)
well, He gives me THIS in our morning devotional...
first line...BAM!

"waiting quielty is not what most of us do best. we prefer to be activitsts...."
WHAT???????????? GOD! this is not making things clearer!!
so, i read on, and you know,
its talking about don't take the easier path (believe me, 'just doing something' wouldnt be),
decisions are rarely instantaneous,
its against our nature to wait, and....
we must let Him take the initiative by preparing the way before us."
(ok, remember mcmanus is saying...take initiative...my devo is saying let God take initiative...can you understand why i'm getting conflicting messages here??)
the quote of the day says
"simply wait upon Him. In doing so, we shall be directed, supplied, protected, corrected, and rewarded." - vance havner

ok God.
what in the world are you telling me?
so...here is the deal.
I'm going to stop the chaos!
i truly desire the Lord's will in my life. I desire the passion of a life that is lived for Him.
and so I am cutting the world out.
for a week, I am not goin to watch any tv shows (other than the news),
or listen to any secular music (goodbye rihanna!),
or even read any books (other than school).
i'm going to pour myself into His word....
immerse myself in worship music.
and get peace.
peace that surpasses all understanding.

feel free to ask me how i'm doing to keep me accountable.
if i slip up, i'm going to start the week over.
i just want God.
thats it.