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Monday, March 29, 2010

She....

She was wise, the wisest woman I knew.
She was devoted, devoted to her family, her faith, and her ministry.
She was giving. She gave, and gave, and gave.
She was passionate—passionate about loving the unlovable.
She was easygoing, the little things never really bothered her.
She was interested. Interested in all kinds of people.
She was a friend. So many women considered her their best friend.
She was strong. So scared of needles, yet so strong throughout her illness.
She was optimistic… most of the time :)
She was respectable. I took to heart everything she said.
She was funny. She always made us laugh.

She not only was these things, she acted on these things.

She laughed—usually at herself.
She shared—time, money, prayers, insight.
She listened—to me, to the stranger down the road, to her husband.
She taught—taught by example: to love, to laugh, to be compassionate.
She cared—about the people who weren’t cared for.
She prayed—always prayed for even the details of my life.
She forgave—quickly, even the people who took advantage of her
She sacrificed—her life for less fortunate.
She encouraged—in the dark times, in the happy times, all the time
She loved—she loved me, she loved them, she loved Him—it was evident.

She was an amazing grandmother.
She was a blessing in my life. A friend to me for 20 years of my life.

She’s been in Heaven for one year, today.
She’s still being thought of often.
She’s still making an impact on many lives.
She’s still living through many people.

She’s celebrating.
She’s singing with joy right now.
She’s praising Him.
She’s talking to Jesus face-to-face.
She’s enjoying herself in every way.
She’s just flat-out having fun.

She is missed—by me, her children, her husband, her friends.


Friday, March 26, 2010

Things On My Mind On This Friday Afternoon.

A. Like my new blog layout?

B. I didn't set my alarm this morning and ended up waking up until 11:39!

C. I'm watching Oprah about unhealthy (overweight) people's eating habits. These people... I can't believe what they eat. Oprah says that America is going to die from golden-brown colored food (fried). I, on the other hand, am sticking brown-colored food (chocolate). So I should be good to go.

D. There has been an alarm going off outside my apartment for probably 3 hours now, and I'm almost ready to go find that car and beat it up.

E. Today is my grandmother's birthday. The first one without her here :( Mars and I were going to take her some flowers to her grave, but it's a cold and dreary day so we decided to wait for a better day.

F. It got COLD today. I didn't even go outside until 2:00, but when I went out there, it was much to my surprise that it was like 45 degrees when on Wednesday it was 70 degrees .

H. We had wayyy too much trash this week. Or rather, we haven't taken our trash in over a week. That's probably more of the problem. It stunk. Like, bad. Two hours later, we still have the candles going.

G. I have absolutely no plans this weekend. I'm making dinner with a friend, but I just planned that a little while ago and I have not another single plan until Sunday night small group.

I. I'm planning a wedding shower for my friend from high school, Haley. I'm really excited about it. Time to get addresses, invitations, and party supplies.

J. The new Awakening 2010 Passion cd is amazing. I got to actually go to Passion so that might make me like it even more, but I think it's pretty ballin' regardless.



Well that's about it. Happy Last Weekend of March!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Happy Things

I have to tell you about something that makes me happy.

I'm making it into a game--you can guess what these things are.

They are everywhere I look in Knoxville; therefore, I've been quite happy lately.

They remind me of home, of my grandmother, of my childhood.

They are beautiful: yellow and green, sometimes big, sometimes small.

I think heaven just might smell like them.

They were sold at Kroger this year for $3, and sadly I didn't have enough money with me.

I almost got some when I was home last weekend, but it was rainy and I forgot.

I would really like to display some in my kitchen, but I feel like I'm stealing if I get any.

I look forward to them each year around the beginning of Springtime.



What do you think they are?













Daffodils!!!


(And of course I wanted this picture to be this large. I completely know how to make it smaller because I'm so computer savvy, but I wanted it so huge so that you'd be able to get the whole giant daffodil effect--you do know we have giant daffodils, kinda like trees, here in Knoxville, right?)

Monday, March 15, 2010

SBX

Spring Break 2010 brought with it much relaxation. It wasn't the most exciting thing ever, but it was incredible. I got lots of reading done. I loved The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks and can't wait till the movie comes out. There were nine girls there but a few had to go home throughout the week, and best part--my dad came too!

I just added a few pictures to show the break...










Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Peeling Scabs Off Myself

This is a little excerpt from a story that I wanted to share with you. It was such an amazing little excerpt that I felt so inclined to type out the entire thing, so you can rest assured that it's worth your time reading it. It won't take long and I think you should catch on if you just read into the first full paragraph.

"Well, anyway, I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge lion coming slowly toward me. And one queer thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it--if you can understand. Well, it came close up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn't any good because it told me to follow it." (This is Eustace speaking.)
"You mean it spoke?" (Edmund)
"I don't know. Now that you mention it, I don't think it did. But it told me all the same. And I knew I'd have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it. And it led me a long way into the mountains. And there was always this moonlight over and round the lion wherever we went. So at last we cane to the top of a mountain I'd never seen before and on top of the mountain there was a garden--trees and fruit and everything. In the middle of it there was a well.
"I knew it was a well because you could see the water bubbling up from the bottom of it: but it was a lot bigger than most wells--like a very big, round bath with marble steps going down into it. The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe, it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me I had to undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud or not.
"I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast off their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe.
"But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that's alright, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.
"Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it, but as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.
"Then the lion said--but I don't know if it spoke, 'You will have to let me undress you.' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
"The very first tear he made so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling off the skin, it hurt worse that anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know--if you've ever picked the scab off a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is fun to see it coming away."
"I know exactly what you mean," said Edmund.
"Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off--just as I thought I'd done myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt--and there it was, lying on the grass, only ever so much thicker and darker and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me--I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on--and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. You'd think my simply phony if I told you how I felt about my own arms. I know they've no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian's, but I was so glad to see them.
"After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me--"
"Dressed you? With his paws?"
"Well, I don't exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or other, in new clothes--the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I was back here. Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream."
"No. It wasn't a dream," said Edmund.
"Why not?"
"Well, there are the clothes, for one thing. And you have been--well, un-dragoned, for another."
"What do you think it was, then?" asked Eustace.
"I think you've seen Aslan," said Edmund.

I couldn't stop thinking about it after I read it. What an awesome visual C.S. Lewis gave us! (It's from Chapter Seven of The Voyage of the Dawn Trader, which I have been reading over Spring Break.)

By the way, I love peeling scabs. But no matter how many times I try peeling them to make them better, it doesn't make them better, it just leaves a scar. But I do it over and over, thinking that this time, even if it usually doesn't help anything, it might help this time, and plus, I will still have the pleasure of peeling it. Weird? I know. I give myself scars that I don't even have to. But that is for another post.

Anyways, this passage showed me that no matter how much I try, I can't take off all of my nasty, thick, dark, knobbly-looking scabs and skin. But if I only let Christ do it, He will. It will be painful for a little while, but I will be set free with the stripping of my sin by Jesus Christ himself. And this is what I want.

Hope you thought the story was worth reading. :)

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Blog Paradin'

There's a blog parade over at Abigail's blog. She's a great blogger, a great writer, and you should check her blog out if you have a few spare moments! A bunch of people are linking up to her blog (including me) and you can look at those too... It's very interesting if you're like me and am slightly addicted to blog-reading.

She has a list of questions and I just choose to answer a few

1. What's your favorite time of the day, and why?

Well, I'd have to say that I love nighttime time. I'm a night owl. That's when I'm most alert. And I get the most done... Cleaning, homework, hanging out, phone calls... Whatever else I might need to be doing.


2. If health wasn't an issue, what food could you live off of?

Easy--chocolate ice cream and peanut butter. Mixed. Or separate. With every single meal.



4. What's one thing that you get teased about a lot?

Well, I get made fun of a lot. One semi-not-too-bad-thing was.. well this wasn't always exactly being teased, but in high school, everyone knew that I have this problem with my legs. If someone hits the back of my knees, (like the way people do to make you kind of fall down but not go to the ground) well, that makes me fall all the way to the ground. So in high school, everyone hit the back of my legs to watch me fall down. They thought it was funny. I didn't really think it was that funny, but I laughed to be nice.

5. If you could choose one movie, book, or TV show to spend your life in, which would you pick? What type of character would you be?

Definitely The O.C. I would be.... Well, I wouldn't want to be the characters who are actually my own age. I'd like to be Kirsten Kohen (the mom) in the first season. I'd change the outcome of her life through the seasons. But yeah, I wouldn't mind being her.


6. If you could have one talent that you don't already have, what would it be?

Well, if you've ever read this post, you know that I have no real talents at all. So, really anything would be nice. Singing would be a nice one. Being able to sing, and better yet, being able to know and remember the correct words, that would be my dream talent. Goodness, I'm getting excited thinking about it!

7.If money were no object, where would you go on vacation?

I'd go to Greece, the Greek islands in the Mediterranean Sea.

8. If you were an awesome singer, which genre would you sing?

I think Christian. That may seem like a boring choice. But really, I would LOVE it. Then in church I could actually sing loudly without people around me thinking I'm being disrespectful.

9. If you could have a $10,000 shopping spree to one store, what would it be?

I've had to think this one out. But, I think I'm going to go with Anthropologie because of things like this:

oven mits...


adorable dresses...


rugs...
And much more! That way I could buy some clothes, but also buy stuff for my house. I feel like if I spent it all on clothes, that would be a total mistake. I'm ready for this money to be coming my way. I have all of my stuff picked out!

10. If you could live in any point in time, when would it be?

Right now. I know that sounds like I'm a pris, but I would hate to live without cars because I realllly don't like horses. And then, there's always the era where they wore dresses all the time, and that seems fun, but really I like to wear my black capri sweatpants at least 4 days a week, and that wouldn't have been acceptable. I guess if I had to live in another time, I'd be born in like 1960, about the time my parents were born. But that would still be rough. No internet (for research papers in college, of course)? No cell phones? No free long distance? No laptops? I am thankful for when I was born.



11. If every outfit in your wardrobe had to be one color, what would it be?

Black. Most of my outfits already include black.

12. If you were one of the seven dwarves, which one would you be?
(Doc, Grumpy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Bashful, Happy, or Dopey)

Probably Bashful? No, just kidding. I may be the opposite of bashful. I would hope I'd be Happy. But for the past 3 weeks, I've been Sneezy, needing Doc. So, I'll probably just go with being Dopey. I feel like I am completely out of it lots of the time... Never know my plans or what's going on, forgetting my words or my schedule. So, sadly, Dopey.

13. What's the last album you listened to?

I never know the names of the people I'm listening to, nonetheless the names of the albums I'm listening to.... So good question. The last CD I listened to was the burned one that is in my car though. It has Jason Derulo's new songs on there, Over My Head and Ridin' Solo. I only know his name because I bought the songs yesterday on iTunes.


14. What's something we'd be surprised to know about you?

I'm taking my 4th semester of Portuguese. I'm actually about to leave for class!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Dear Jake...

Dear Jake,

Let's just start out by saying how much I admire your choice in women. I am glad that you were wise enough to go against everything that others were telling you in your decision process.

There were red flags. BRIGHT RED FLAGS. But those flags, those were only for the typical person, not you Jake.

I want to thank you for few take-aways that I got from watching you and Vienna.

1. Definitely go with the physical attraction over the emotional attraction when choosing a spouse. I always heard the opposite, but that was totally wrong.
2. Thanks to Vienna, I learned that "honesty" is always the best policy, especially when you think a woman is fat or that she is a not-very-nice-word.
3. People who don't get along with the same sex are people who you should want to spend the rest of your life with. I would love to marry a guy who doesn't get along with other people. That makes life more exciting! Cat fights, fist fights, tons of drama--that's what I want in a marriage. I mean, you never know, with a spouse like this, I could think we're going out for a quiet dinner, but end up actually witnessing a full-out fight as a result of "just being honest" about the weight of the waitress. How exciting!

Thanks for the relationship help, friend! I'm going to take it to heart!

Love, Melissa



Okay, on a less sarcastic note, Tenley, I'm actually glad you two aren't together. The only reason I wanted you to win was so that you'd beat Vienna. But really, I've seen plenty of men who would be a better fit for you. Plenty.

Spriiiiing Break!!!

One week till Spring Break and I can't wait! Spring Break couldn't have come at a better time, even though it is the first week of March, which is so not even Spring. But, it is a break, and that's what matters more.

I'm taking a trip to right around Orlando, Florida with a big group of lovely girls and a few boys (who are lovely as well). We're staying in two houses next door to one another, right on the lake and surrounded by orange groves.

My plans go as follows:
Wake up whenever I want to
Drink some fresh-squeezed orange juice
Most likely forget to brush my teeth because I won't get ready
Get a book and read on the porch while eating breakfast
Head to the pool with my book
With a book in hand, take a walk to George's (our neighbor down the road)
Meander on down to the dock and onto the boat, probably with long sleeves on :(
Hopefully not be the one driving the boat, but there is a chance of this happening
Sit (in the boat) on the middle of the lake reading and talking
Head back home to make a tasty homemade dinner for all 15 or so people with whatever produce is in season
Go to Twistee's ice cream (best soft serve in the country)
Watch a movie, talk to the friends, maybe a nighttime boat ride
Lastly, head to (hopefully a) bed, just to do it all over again

....FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK....

It might sound boring, but I couldn't be more excited!

School is wearing me out and I'm ready for some good relaxation time.

And, lastly, I'm excited about seeing the Florida sky.


This is the view that I'm going to see from the back porch...