30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 30

Day 30: A Picture

This picture was taken last week at a ceremony honoring my dad's father, who was killed in Vietnam on March 19, 1969. The next year, MCLB Albany dedicated the mess hall to him, and this plaque was put on the building. A couple years ago, the base decided to tear down the mess hall and the surrounding buildings to erect new barracks. They once again asked my family if they could dedicate this new building to Floyd Milton Keefe. 

Now this same plaque will be on the new barracks, and it will always stand in memory of this grandfather that I never got the chance to meet. It means a lot to our family that they think highly enough of his service and sacrifice to put our family's name on a building for everyone on base to see!

My God is a God Who HEARS

I'm a dreamer. Literally. When I close my eyes at night, my brain takes me into another world. I have the most wonderfully vivid dreams. The kind where you wake up either laughing, scared to death, or wondering which is real- the dream or you waking up from it. Most of the time, I love these dreams. I always remember them, so they make for some awesome stories- like me and Sara being best friends with the Jonas brothers, or Wesley and Nathan serenading me. 


The downside to these dreams are the ones that make me wake up and wish I hadn't. For the past year, I have been dealing with dreams that center on my love for Caleb and how lonely I am without him. Because the dreams are so vivid, I can't shake them when I wake up. I remember how I feel in my dreams- how I feel when he tells me he loves me, how he never should have left, and how he'll spend his life making it up to me. I dream the most amazing and romantic moments, then wake up to find myself alone in my bed, crying over what isn't real. It is hard. It is depressing and hard to bounce back from, so I spend the rest of the day in a fog, not really seeing or hearing anything around me. 


A year of this has been one of the most difficult things to deal with, and about a week and a half ago, I completely broke down while getting ready for bed. I had just had another dream the night before, and it was a really bad one. The whole day, I had just been bogged down by it and couldn't seem to rise above it. Instead of just feeling sorry for myself and succumbing to sleep and, more than likely, another dream, I decided to reach out to someone. 


My Ivy. My prayer warrior. Whenever I need something, she is there. No judgement, not many questions, just an unconditional and immediate "yes" when I ask her to pray for me. On this night, I poured my broken little heart out to her, knowing she would say something I needed to hear. And she didn't let me down:


"The only thing I know is to tell you to stay in the Word. Eat it. Especially before you sleep....it's hard. So hard for me. I think that's when he tells us to take every thought captive...replace those thoughts with His truth. Satan will hate that."


I hope she doesn't mind me sharing her words! When she said "take every thought captive," I knew I needed to hear that. I grabbed my Bible and looked up the passage: 


"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Cor. 10:5)."


Ivy and I had this conversation early in the morning on March 11. I went to sleep a little while later, all the while repeating "take every thought captive," praying that my slumber would be different. 


It was. And now it is March 21- TEN DAYS later- and I have not had one of those dreams since. It has been glorious. Repeating those words, "take every thought captive," has been the best decision I have made in a long time. I am so incredibly thankful to my Jesus for taking away the dreams, even if it is just for a short time. Even if the dreams come back tonight, after I post this, I know He hears me. I know He loves me. And I know He sent me people like my precious Ivy to help me. 

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 29

You Ain't Never Had a Friend Like Me!

Day 29: Three Wishes 


Some of these topics really make you think, huh? If I had three wishes, what would they be? I know I should probably be awesome and use all of the to better the world, but humans are selfish. More than likely, I wouldn't use them (or at least all of them) for things like that. So here we go: the three things I would wish for right at this moment. 

1) Love. Of course, this is if these three wishes don't abide by Genie's "I can't make anyone fall in love with anyone else." Although that isn't really what I am going for here. This wish would be for love to come in my life SOON. If I could actually wish something, it'd be more specific, but we'll just be general for this post.

2) To be a famous and rich singer. This is my dream, so if I have 3 wishes, I am totally using one to make my dreams come true! Then I could use the money to buy things for my favorite people and charities and such.

3) To be able to eat anything and everything I want without gaining ANY weight! I love food. It isn't a secret. It would be awesome to be able to eat Chickfila, girl scout cookies, sweet tea, pizza, etc. without feeling guilty about eating unhealthy food. 

Now, I'm going to go search for magic lamps in hopes of finding my very own genie :) 

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 28

Day 28: Something That Stresses You Out


When I read the topic for today, I said "How much time do you have?!" I stress out about everything. It's really bad. So, I guess I'm just going to talk about something that stresses me out on a daily basis: school. 


I get stresses out by little things, but the mostly about school and where I am going in life. I stress about my homework, my TA work, getting a TA job next semester, my papers, etc. Basically everything that deals with school. 


I know that answer is really cliche, but as a grad student, there isn't too much else in my life! And I'm not going to discuss it further, because thinking about it will stress me out :) 

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 27

Day 27: Your Pets!

I am a HUGE animal lover. I miss my pets so much when I am at college. You may think it is crazy, but I know they miss me, too! So here are my three favorite animals.

This is my puppy, Buck. He was my 15th birthday present :) I love this dog more than anything else in the world! When I am home, he sleeps in my room. When I'm gone, he sleeps outside my door and pouts.

This is the adorable Little Bob. He is my puppy's best friend. He is half bobcat and has a tiny little broken tail. He wouldn't come near us until 2 1/2 years ago, when he got really sick. After my parents took him to the vet, he decided to make it his life mission to be an inside kitty.

My other pet is Butterball, who I sadly do not have a picture of on my new computer. She is around 14 years old and is a long, skinny, black thing! She belongs to my mother, and gets very jealous....she also doesn't like Little Bob very much!

And there you have it: my wonderful pets. I can't wait to see them!

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 26

Day 26: A Picture of Your Family

My family: my daddy (Mike), my sister (Marie), and my mom (Brenda)

This is my family on Christmas Day at my dad's parents' house. Our yearly tradition, after opening gifts, is to take pictures in front of their beautifully decorated tree in as many combinations as we can make- our family, my aunt and cousin, my dad/his sister/parents, me/marie/charlie/grandparents, just the cousins, etc. Sometimes it is a little annoying to have to smile so much after waking up waaaay too early to breakfast, but we always come away with at least one picture to represent our year.

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 25

Day 25: iPod Shuffle!

I am SO excited about this post! I love music more than most things, so I am happy I get to share some of it. Warning: I have a very eclectic taste in music, so you never know what will come next!

1) The Creation of Man- The Scarlet Pimpernel

- One of my many musical soundtracks. If you like musicals, you should look into it!

2) The Remedy (I Won't Worry)- Jason Mraz

- I love this song. And Jason Mraz in general.

3) No Good- Kate Voegele

- Kate Voegele won me over in One Tree Hill. This is actually one of my favorite songs from her!

4) There You Were- Jessica Simpson

- My sister loves Jessica Simpson, and this song is from her best cd.

5) Mad About You- Belinda Carlisle

- Awesome.

6) Lilacs- Matt Costa

- His voice is so wonderfully soothing......

7) May the Horse Be With You- Relient K

- I love them. There is just nothing else to say

8) BB Good- Jonas Brothers

- I got this from Sara.....I don't think I've actually ever heard it

9) Help Me Rhonda- Beach Boys

- I love the Beach Boys soooooo much. I am my father's child.

10) Hey, There Delilah- Plain White T's

- Sweet song. I like the story behind it!

11) Which to Bury, Us or the Hatchet?- Relient K

- Again, I just love them.

12) Unchained Melody- Righteous Brothers

- The Righteous Brothers are so amazing.

13) Fall Line- Jack Johnson

- Can I just say how much I love Jack Johnson? He has just become one of my favorites.

14) Sadie Hawkins Dance- Relient K

- This is one of my favorite Relient K songs. "Smile on my face and air guitar rockin!"

15) Only the Ocean- Jack Johnson

- Apparently my shuffle isn't awesome.

I'm not sure how many songs I am suppose to put on here, so I'll stop there. A little bit of my music to brighten up your night :)

30 Day Challenge: Day 24

Day 24: Something You've Learned

I have thought a lot about this post, trying to think of something profound to write that shows how I've grown as a person in the past few months. I wanted to write about dreams, and how the things we want, REALLY want, in life aren't always what God wants. That our dreams are not necessarily something we need to go after right this second- that sometimes we need to wait on God for the perfect time to go after what we want. I had all types of examples that I was going to use- like how Ansley wants to be Mrs. Justin Timberlake and how Sara wants to be an ice skating Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.

Then I changed my mind. I started thinking, completely unrelated to this post, about romance. I'd been watching tv and the people on the show were making these wonderfully grand gestures to win the people they loved. I started thinking about other times in literature and movies when people do things like that. Men like Michael Hosea in Redeeming Love (and the real Hosea, of course), who saves you time and time again. Men like the characters in tv shows like Greek, where they give up grad school across the country because they can't stand to leave you. Men like Odysseus who try for 20 years to get back to their Penelope (don't think about the middle of the book). All these men who are devoted and risk the embarrassment to show how they truly feel. I was just thinking, "I want that. I want that kind of love."

And then I realized that I DO have that kind of love. I have a love that is even greater. I have the "I created you, sent my son to die for you, and am building you a home in heaven" kind of love.

There is nothing better than learning that you no one will EVER love you as much as your Heavenly Father.

30 Day Challenge: Day 23

Day 23: Favorite Vacation

I have thought a lot about this post and what vacation I should write about for it. My family never took annual vacations or anything like that. All our vacations were either related to my dad's work, to the beach (rarely), or quick trips somewhere. So, here I go. My favorite vacation: my 21st birthday gambling trip!

I know, it sounds crazy. I am so not a gambler- I hate spending money and I have such an addictive personality that it is likely I'd lose my life savings (if I had any). However, since I love poker so so so much, my family thought it would be awesome to take me on a casino trip after I turned 21 and could legally gamble. We went to Biloxi for a few days of beach, yummy food, and casino hopping!

We got to our hotel and asked the woman at the front desk the best place to eat. She directed us to this AMAZING seafood restaurant where I got this delicious steak and shrimp meal. The next day, we headed out for a little history lesson in the form of Jefferson Davis's home. It was SO beautiful. I have plenty of pictures in my album on facebook if you want to see it. That night we hit our first casino- oh yeah. I didn't do very well playing the slot machines, but I did get a really yummy chocolate covered strawberry, so I think that was a pretty fair trade. Then we got a late-night dinner at ihop!

The next day we ventured to the beach. We got lunch from this place called "Shaggy's," which had the most wonderfully fresh catfish finger. Delish. After getting a little sunburned, we made our way to a different casino. This one had an Elvis impersonator show going on when we got there- hilarious! They also had all-you-can-eat crablegs, which are one of my sister's favorite things to eat. We played some more slot machines and I won five dollars and yelled "cash out, cash out!!" It was awesome.

The next day, on our way home, we stopped by the University of Mobile, a college I had never visited before then. A few of my friends went to college there, and I just wanted to see where they all lived for four years. It was so tiny, but so pretty! Loved it.

And that was pretty much all. It was a fairly quick trip, but I had an awesome time. Casinos are super fun. Seafood is yummy. Happy birthday to me!

30 day Challenge: Day 22

Day 22: Favorite City

When I think about the handful of cities I love, one stands out as the clear favorite: St. Augustine, Florida. One of my favorite place in world, hands down!

My first trip to St. Augustine was when I was in 8th or 9th grade. It was a Spanish trip, and I was only able to go because the slots hadn't been filled by older students. I was really excited about it because I was getting to go with my boyfriend, who was a year older. I never imagined it would become my favorite city.

If you don't know much about history, you probably don't know a lot about St. Augustine. It is full of beauty; full of a rich Spanish history. Everything screams "I'm centuries old!" I don't think I really appreciated it fully the first time I went. I loved wandering around on the streets and looking in the shops. Christopher and I ate at a little restaurant with a water wheel (this was the meal I discovered how much I love sour cream) and we went to the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum (SO COOL).

I loved this city so much that my parents decided a good present for my 18th birthday would be a family trip there. I was SO excited to go back. We did a lot of the same things I had done in my first trip, along with going to the fountain of youth and the castillo de san marcos. It was definitely one of the best birthday presents ever. We also went into a shop I had found years before that has maps of European countries and divided them into family areas. Remember O'Keeffe castle? Oh yes, we found the O'Keeffe's of Ireland and found our code of arms. It is yellow and green with a lion.

I can't wait until I can go back to St. Augustine. I haven't been since my birthday trip, so I am itching to go again. If I had the money, one day I would LOVE to live there.