My closest friends, Part 2

I started off with a closest friends post a while back and I had to end it halfway through because it was taking so long. So, here is the second half of my closest friends. I love every single person that comes into my life, but these girls I have grown closest to this school year. They care so much about me, get excited with me, cry with me, and laugh with me. When something exciting happens in my life, I want to tell these girls first. I am so thankful for them, to say the least.

God has truly shown himself in Jessie and I's relationship. We knew each other from high school cheer, but we were both on different wavelengths of life at the time. Different friends, different ambitions, etc. But, my junior year at OSU, Jessie and I ended up in a lit class together where our friendship truly began to blossom. We both started off our college lives on the wrong foot and wanted to run from the typical college life scene and focus our eyes on the Lord. Since then, she has become one of my best friends. She is the one that I will call and no matter what she is doing, she will drop it in a second to be there for me. And what is even more beautiful about her, is that she would do that for any of her friends. She is truly selfless and I have never seen someone genuinely care more about her friends than Jessie. I am beyond blessed to be one of them!

Darci is another cool story! We both knew of each other in high school, but never actually crossed paths. But, of course, among the thousands of students at OSU, Darci and I were ordained to finally cross paths and enter into a beautiful friendship. She is so bold, creative, thoughtful, and precious, to say the least. Sometimes I scare her with my craziness, but she embraces it and plays along with me. We have had some of the best conversations about the path God is leading us on, especially in being single women devoted to following the Lord and being patient in His will. She is also another one of my insanely selfless friends. The other day she was not feeling well at all, but she came over anyway to help me pick out an outfit for my hot date (she seriously has the best fashion sense). She inspires me in her passions and her discipline. I absolutely adore her.

I am seriously smiling as I am typing about this girl. Jill and I became friends a few months ago and pretty much immediately became besties. We laugh about absolutely everything together, eat popcorn extremely late at night after grueling workouts, stay up until 5am reading TFLM, jump on treadmills when we are excited, take silly pictures for hours, & I can go on and on and on. I can't quite put into words the insane freedom we have when we are together, but I do know that I wouldn't have it any other way. Aside from our crazy amounts of fun, we can talk about life and it's mysteries for hours. She is always so excited for my latest life update, and it makes me so happy to know how much she cares. I love you  Jillybox.

Merry Christmas

Today, I had an unexpectedly thrilling and love-filled time with a new side of my family. I got to meet my step-dad's son, wife, and two kids, along with a huge slew of other randomly assorted family members of theirs. It was unexpected because usually my brothers and I are at the lake house with my dad and grandparents on Christmas Eve, but there was a change of plans.
I have to admit, I was somewhat nervous to meet these new family members, and here's why:
Just a mere three years ago, Ron (my step-dad), lost his wife. She died suddenly in her sleep and she was only in her early 50's. It was very unexpected to say the least. Kevin is their son and he is married with two kids (one of which is the same age as my brother, Jake (14)). I don't know about you, but if my mom died and my dad was with someone else a year and a half later, I would say my wounds haven't quite healed enough yet to deal with that kind of change. I would probably be really judgmental of them and unexcepting. Ha. I actually hope I wouldn't really be that way, but in my mind that is how I expected them to be. Thankfully, I was VERY wrong.
I had a blast. Kevin, for one, is HI-LAR-IOUS. He was constantly being funny and making sure that I was having a good time. We all played dirty Santa, and no one was afraid to get dirty (haha! as most of us know, sometimes that can be an issue). After that, we played poker with a $25 buy-in. Therefore, the pot was $275 bucks. CHEYA! We had to split into two tables because there were too many of us to fit at one. We drew out of hats to see who would sit where. I ended up having to sit with everyone that I did not know, besides my grandma. But she's old.. so she doesn't count. The rest of my family was at the other table. I REALLY wanted to play with them because I knew I could be weird, crazy, funny, and *comfortable* with them. (Sigh, don't you just love being in your comfort zone?) But, God kinda through me for a loop, like He always does ;) Needless to say, I laughed a lot, learned a lot more about poker, and got to meet other souls of this planet that God created with a happy heart, just as much as He created me. It. Was. Awesome. (Side note: I ended up making it into the final 3 of the poker tournament. Ron came back and dominated though.)
To end this post, I just wanted to state how awesome God is. I was expecting to be a burden today. But instead He showed me--through His people--love, kindness, and acceptance. I know that Kevin, Sheryl, and the rest of their family won't know how much they showed the love of Christ to me today, but they did. And God knows that they did.

Grandma, I am excited to go to the lake tomorrow and see you and Papa for Christmas. You guys mean more to me than you will ever, ever, ever know.

Merry Christmas & remember the reason for the season: JESUS. God's gift to the world, because He loved us SO MUCH that He sacrificed His blameless, sinless, son in the HOPE that we would love Him, and glorify Him, and allow Him to be one with us. I can never be grateful enough.

my favorite things *inspired by "Oprah's favorite things"

I just had a stellar idea to post about my favorite things for each month. I was just going to do "my favorite things" for, well, everything. But, let's get real and admit that I probably have way too many favorite things. So, for the month of December... Here are my favorite things:

Starbucks Creme Brulee Latte. Oh my heavens, is this slice of heaven delicious. It's the perfect combination of sweetness and Christmas mixed into a precious little inspirational cup. You can't go wrong purchasing one of these during the holiday season.

Yes, yes, and YES! I didn't understand some peoples fascination with anything that had a mustache on it. Now I know why. These cute little cups are artsy, fun, silly, AND you can put coffee in them. Anything that can hold coffee deserves 5 leg kicks and fist bumps for me. Christmas gift, Mom?

Thick knitted headbands. These things are

perfect for the winter season. What makes them even more awesome? They are fantastic for good hair days AND bad ones. (Your's truly likes to wear them on bad hair days.) 

Tyler's scented candles are happy. My favorite scent is "icon" because it smells like mens cologne. But better!            

These are just a few things. I will be adding to this list later on. What are some of your favorite things?

SPECIAL POST!

I love being an older sister, even though I use to daydream about the joys of having an older sibling to look up to. For those of you who don't know I have two younger brothers, Jake (14) and Richie, whose birthday is today! He is turning 18. Wow. Growing up. Not little kid anymore. 

There's something so special about having a sibling or two. I will say, sometimes, Richie and I couldn't be more unalike. Even as we get older, we fight and argue and disagree. But, we always say I love you, and there is always an unspoken presence of "I'm so thankful for you"lingering between us. Here's to you sweet little brother. I'm so glad you have survived to your 18th year of life & I hope you know how much I'll always love you.

"Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God." Philippians 1:3 MSG

Love,

Big Sister