faith wroughts crazy (and unexpected) miracles

This is my testimony of the last 2 weeks. That's really all I'm going to say for now. But seriously, God is a God of miracles...and they happen how you least expect it.

More to come!

27 Love Languages? Lets just stick with 7.

Yes, it was my birthday last week. And to celebrate, we celebrated love languages, one of my favorite topics of conversation. My roommates went to town and we had a love language themed party. How did we do this? We had stations for each sign set up all around the house. The question of the day: What is your love language? Have you communicated them to your friends/significant others?

Here are the signs:

Dedicate yourself to an act of service.

Have some touch time on the couch...

Write me a note of affirmation. I loved reading these later!

Spend some time in deep one-on-one conversation.

And leave a gift. Sign is kind of hard to see...to the right. ps. with my dear friend, Breana.


What are the other love languages you ask? The 2 that I added on...

#6 Chocolate. And yes, my roommates bought me a chocolate fountain for the occasion!

#7 Dancing the night away. You know I always go to town...

And if that's not love, here is the real deal. My friends. They are such a blessing to me.

Lindz and Kathy

My roommates Allison and Michele


The famous trio: Sarah and Kathryn. Miss you stokes!

Birthday buds: Ryan and I.

Pre-birthday crew in Alexandria.

Quinn and Adri
MJ serenaded me with a song from her uke. Love that girl.

It was a great birthday and I felt love in all 7 ways and more. I look forward to all that 27 has to offer. Thank you all for the birthday wishes. Hope you can feel love in the love language of your choice!

Putting Out Fires

Some days at work, all I do is put out fires. Meaning, I try to "nip problems in the bud" before they escalate into something chaotic. Lesson planning and grading often awaits me in the evening when I am not on the clock. During the day I spend my time putting out fires. Oh joy.

Like today, this is what I did:

• Spent 30 minutes at lunch teaching a kid how to walk into my classroom with respect and manners. Otherwise, he just goes CRAZY! Fire, out...hopefully
• Talked to the Dean of Students about a kid who hasn't fulfilled his detention yet for my class. He hasn't come yet, but hopefully fire will be put out.
• Talked to the football coach about 2 of my students who are struggling and need to fulfill their detention. Fire put out for one of them...
• Saw the JROTC teacher and told him about a student sleeping in my class...hopefully fire put out.
• Called parents and discussed student#1
• Ran into basketball coach and discussed another student who is falling asleep in class
• Talked to an administrator about a student who doesn't complete her assignments and is a little disrespectful.
• Held detention for 6 kids today...Fire put out, please?

Lets just hopes these fires stay dormant. I don't know how much of this I can take!

The Return to Deep Creek Lake

1.5 years later and I go back to the good ole' DCL with 15 wardees, lots of root beer, and bags of peanut butter M&M's. It was a blissful 36 hours, indeed. Especially since no normal "laboring" was involved!

Some of the crew...in reality the girl to guy ratio was almost even! Shocker.

Tubing fun with the one and only, Sarah.


Lindz and I.

The girls...and the "girls..." (if you know what I mean!)

Ryan, our fearless leader.

Massage trains occurred during BYU football lulls.

The BYU gang. We may have done the cheer...twice.

Michele and I with Eric, the birthday boy.

We love Eric.
I love Sarah.
And bears...
And the 15 of us that went on this trip.

So much fun for 36 hours! Now I am going to collapse from boating exhaustion. I love summer, and DC, and my friends. Life is so good.

The Hurriquake

It all started with an earthquake: the 2nd day of school during 4th period. Here's my reenactment.
To celebrate the coming of Hurricane Irene I dressed up as any 80s girl would: Like Cindi Lauper. Holla!

Oh the Legwarmers, the best 80s cover band ever.

The 1am photo with Melissa. I am not a night person. The frizz died down a little.

And to celebrate Hurricane Irene in full stride, what did Michele and I do?? Play football in the hurricane, of course.
And to celebrate Irene at full throttle, we attempted to build a fort with some fun friends, but we got tired and watched Inception instead; until the power went out for 24 hours...

To say it was an eventful week in DC would be an understatement.

House Living Rocks

Okay, so I moved. And it's so so nice to be in a home. In my 8 years as a single, I have always lived in apartments, condos, and townhouses but now I have moved up in the world. And to appease the demands for pictures of my new "pad," here you go!

The house from the street...


Our kitchen.

Entry way.
Part of our decor in our living room...

Our entire living room. It's huge! Plus, we have lots of couches where people can stay!

Our laundry room. It looks messy but usually we keep it pretty nice.

And here's our downstairs living area. The picture is a little ghetto cause I just took it on my phone.

It's been a great change. Great roommates, too. Come visit and stay with me!

The Welcome Mat

This is my part 2 of the recent post: "playing hard to get hasn't gotten me anywhere." Singles: You may find this useful. Marrieds: you may find this funny.

In Guatemala, one of the girls in the group called encouraging men "giving them the welcome mat." It has been my phrase lately and I am trying it out more and more. So far, no amazing results, but let me tell ya: I am getting somewhere and I feel good about where I am getting.

Basically what it means is you let guys know that you're interested in going on a date with them. It's not making a bold "I love you" statement or a move of desperation. No, on the contrary; it's just simply reassuring guys that it's ok that they can ask you out AND you're giving them an idea of what to do as well!

A potential conversation may unfold like this:

(After several minutes of small talk) Me: So, Joe, I hear you go swing dancing on the weekends. Joe: Yah, I do go every couple of weeks. It's really fun. Do you like to swing dance?

Me: I do. I really enjoy it. Next time you go, keep me posted. It would be fun to join you."
Now, depending on the guy it could go several ways. He may go with a group of friends every weekend, so it could just be me going with a group of people, which is still good because it at least gets me in a small group setting. Or if he's looking for a date, he may say something like this...

Joe: Well do you have plans next Saturday? Maybe we should go swing dancing? Me: Ummm...no I don't think so. I think that would be a lot of fun! Joe: Great. Let me get your number and I'll give you a call and we can talk details.

So of course that's the best scenario. And it has only worked out that way for me once in the last couple of months. But I'm trying it out more. The older I get, the less time I have to waste waiting for a guy to ask me out. Why not give him the welcome mat and let him know I'm interested in doing something with him? No harm done. And if he doesn't want to do that activity with me, he won't pursue it. But at least I gave him the welcome mat!

Who says girls can't do their part?

ps. There is no real-life Joe. In case any of you are wondering!