“Do you believe that God is near? He wants you to. He wants you to know that He is in the midst of your world. Wherever you are as you read these words, He is present…And He is more than near. He is active.”

-Max Lucado

Today was officially the first day of my sophomore year of college and the last day of my 2008 summer! Summer was great! I earned some money at my summer job, I took plenty of time to relax and enjoy free time, spent much needed time with David while he was home, and soaked in some sun! It was a great break and it feels good to be back at school. UCF was more crowded today than I’ve ever seen. Parking was a major painnnnnn but hopefully that will chill out in a week or two. I had two classes today: Statistics and Human Species. Both were pretty dull but I’m excited to have another class with Stel & Jen! This year will hopefully be exciting and rewarding. After this semester, I will be done with my general education courses and will be able to take upper-level Education courses. I’m way excited for those classes. I’m also really looking forward to rushing the first Christian sorority at UCF, Sigma Phi Lambda. God has clearly been telling me to rush and I’m very excited to see what He will do through the girls that I will get to know. I’m also very excited for college football to start. Can’t wait to make it to some Gator games and UCF games!  Plus, my birthday is on Wednesday! I will finally be 19! There are a lot of fun things coming up this semester and my only hope is that I can keep my eyes fixed on God as I continue in my education and grow as a person.

I hear You say,
“My love is over. It’s underneath.
It’s inside. It’s in between.
The times you doubt Me, when you can’t feel.
The times that you question, ‘Is this for real? ‘
The times you’re broken.
The times that you mend.
The times that you hate Me, and the times that you bend.
Well, My love is over, it’s underneath.
It’s inside, it’s in between.
These times you’re healing, and when your heart breaks.
The times that you feel like you’re falling from grace.
The times you’re hurting.
The times that you heal.
The times you go hungry, and are tempted to steal.
The times of confusion, in chaos and pain.
I’m there in your sorrow, under the weight of your shame.
I’m there through your heartache.
I’m there in the storm.
My love I will keep you, by My power alone.
I don’t care where you fall, where you have been.
I’ll never forsake you, My love never ends.
It never ends.”

-”Times” by Tenth Avenue North

I don’t think anything can make me laugh more than watching a baby crack up. I found a webpage on MSN Video with a list of 12 hilarious clips of babies laughing and doing cute things. It is so funny! Babies just crack up at the most random things and they keep laughing for a long time…it’s so cute! My favorite one is the very first one with the dog chasing the bubbles and I also love the one with the baby in the massage chair, shaking her booty to Shakira. haha! Check it out!

Laughing Babies

Today is my dear friend Jennifer’s 20th birthday! We have been friends for about four years now and I have loved every minute of it! Jennifer, or Jiffy, or Jilliloue, or Nezzypoo is basically a part of my family. She is honestly one person I can talk to about anything that is going on in my life and I know she genuinely cares about me. When I think about my friendship with Jen, I think of so many crazy and random memories. I think about being the best child care workers in St Pete, driving to high school together and eating the snacks my mom made, silly stringing certain vehicles, enduring hurricane after hurricane together, being Faith’s aunties, buying Jiggy and Mitch shirts, the summer school crew and ostrich rides, going to UCF together and meeting Triggy, Farly, and Villio and our dear friend, Marvin!! talking to our BFF SC, iam, thankz, will u write in my yearbook plz? hahah I love Jen with my whole heart and am so excited that she is now in her twenties! Happy Birthday Jennifer Leippert!! You are so spelical to me!

Jen’s 18th Birthday!

During high school, Jen would sometimes (always) take naps in my bed…
so I tucked her in

JEM We love each other. a lot.

Being weird during Yearbook..what else was there to do? haha

Prom 2006!

Happy Birthday Jennifer Leippert!! I love you!!

I just found this amazing photography blog of recent real life events that most people never spend much time learning about. It’s called The Big Picture by Alan Taylor and it’s a photo blog for The Boston Globe/boston.com. It’s description states “The Big Picture is intended to highlight high-quality, amazing imagery – with a focus on current events, lesser-known stories and, well, just about anything that comes across the wire that looks really interesting.” He has posted amazing pictures from events such as Olympic training to life in Iran to Outer space to the floods in Iowa. Check out this amazing photo and I know you will not be able to resist checking out his blog. This is just a crunched size version of his picture. This is located in Southern Chile, where the Chaiten Volcano is actively erupting and flooding nearby towns. This picture is a documenting an electrical storm breaking out right above the volcano; that lightning is amazing! Could you imagine capturing this shot?

Check it out, it’s www.boston.com/bigpicture/
The pictures will change the way you view worldly events and leave you wanting more!

I’m reading a book right now about a little girl that was abducted from a campsite and unfortunately, was killed by a horrible man. That breaks my heart to hear about cases like this. There are so many children who are considered ‘missing’ each day and even though it seems like the solution is out of our hands, there is something we can do. There is a thing called an Amber Alert, which is an emergency alert sent out to the community when there is a confirmed child abduction. Now, you can get these amber alerts straight to your phone when there is an alert in your area. Go to www.wirelessamberalerts.com and enter your phone number, and it should bring you to your cell phone service provider, where you have to set up your messages. The messages are free and are only sent to your phone when they are in the area of the zip code you provide. It honestly does not take long to set up the messaging and it could truly save a child’s life.

So, lots has been going on lately! My step-dad (Dave) was diagnosed with prostate cancer a couple of months ago and the doctor encouraged him to get surgery to remove his prostate (and the cancer). Dave had the Robotic Prostatectomy surgery at Celebration hospital with Dr. Patel (He has personally performed the most robotic prostatectomies in the world..people fly from all over the world to have the surgery done by him) last Thursday. He did really well and is recovering even better! After a night in the hospital, he came back home to rest and wonder what his biopsy results would be. He and my mom went to the hospital on Tuesday to find out that the cancer did not spread and he is cancer free!! We are elated and very excited that this situation is over! All you men out there, be sure to get your PSA tests and keep track of the numbers. If your PSA number is rising, it’s an indicator that you may have or develop prostate cancer. Check out this website for more information: http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/psa/test.html

In other news, my house was struck by lightning on Wednesday night in one of Central Florida’s first summer storms! I wasn’t home when it happened, but my mom described it as a loud crack of sound and a bright flash of light. My niece was upstairs waking up from her nap when the lightning struck and all of her electronic toys/mobile/swing started playing music and singing! Needless to say, she was scared! The lightning damaged a lot of appliances through out the house. I don’t really understand how it destroyed so many different things. It caused the garage door to not open (we had to replace it yesterday), the pool pump broke (we replace that on Saturday), we had to cut a wire on the house alarm system because it would not stop screaming (we replace that next week), some of the computers had some funky display colors (we were able to fix that), my TV is fried and won’t turn on (possibly get a new one soon), and it destroyed the sprinklers in the back lawn. All of these appliances are scattered through out the house..so random! Anyway, these damages are going to be pretty costly and we have to pay $500 for the deductible and hopefully insurance will pay for the costs after that. If you are a praying person, please pray that we will be able to incur these costs and the costs for Dave’s surgery, especially since he will be out of work for a couple weeks. Thanks!

Stay safe this summer! Stay away from lightning!

Story time. Tonight, Dave and I went to Walmart to pick up a few things on our way to Julie’s ice cream and board game party. We bought some ice cream, soda, and fruit. Most of it was packed in my handy green bag (which is ironically black). My green (black) bag felt a lot like my purse. I put the bag in the trunk and had Dave push the cart to an empty spot next to us. So, we left and drove to Julie’s house (a couple minutes away). I got out of the car, reached for my purse and got that “oh my gosh..where is my purse?” feeling and realized I definitely did not have it. Dave and I jumped back into the car and sped back to Walmart, while Dave prayed that my purse was still there. For all you ladies who have ever done this, you know that extremely nervous feeling you get when you go back to the location, wondering if someone has taken it yet, well that’s exactly what I was feeling. We were in the parking lot and people were walking SO SLOW in front of me and were in my way and it made me realize how slow people walk! So, we finally got back to the spot where we left the cart and there were no carts around! It was gone and I got so scared! We saw a walmart employee collecting carts near the parking spot and I jumped out and asked him if he had seen a purse. He said someone found it and dropped it off inside. HALLELUJAH!! Wooo!! We walked inside and a man handed me my beloved purse. Then, I was finally able to breathe again! It was so scary but God provided and protected me in my stupid mistake. It was so stupid because I still had my social security card in my wallet because I had to bring it into my new job last week. I could have lost it and all my IDs, cards, info, etc. My new (less than two weeks) digital camera was also in my purse and could have easily been taken out before it was returned. God seriously provided for me when he sent that kind person to return my belongings instead of someone who would have taken it and ran. I’m just so relieved! Thank you, God!!

I’m officially done with my first week of a full-time job at Wycliffe Bible Translators. I work as a data entry clerk in the Advancement department. My main task is to help organize/clean up the thousands of entries they have for the donations they have received from organizations and individuals. SO many people have donated to the cause of Bible translation and apparently, it’s very vital to have this information in a precise, organized, and clear manner, so that’s my job for the summer. I’m living the life of working 40 hours a week and waking up at 5:45AM. I honestly can’t complain! The job is great. The people are really nice and welcoming. I get to eat lunch with Dave every day. My tasks are not too challenging but they keep my mind sharp. There is prayer/devotional time every morning with my department. I get to listen to my iPod while I work (I listened to the tenth ave CD like 10 times the other day). I get my own cubicle! It’s cute! I like having something to do. Last summer, I literally wasted every day by not doing anything productive. This summer, I have responsibilities and have a regular schedule. I like that. Now, this is only my first week…ask me again in a couple of weeks if I still like waking up so early and having these responsibilities.

If you would like to learn more about Wycliffe or even donate to the cause of Bible translation, visit www.wycliffe.org