Last Day as a 23 Year Old

Tomorrow I turn 24.  Is there anything left I should do as a 23 year old? That only 23 year olds can get away with?  

This year has had a lot of changes and big things happen:

Being 23, I worked my first "real job" at the ACS.  I learned what benefits were, the importance of emails, time management and how much fun people are.

Chris and I dated "long Distance" (Tally to PC) and continued to date!

Margaret left for the Peace Corp

I ran my first half marathon

I spent a lot a lot of time at the beach house

I got good bonding times with my mom, dad and Robbie

Went to my first "show" Jimmy Eat World

I got SCUBA certified

Chris Proposed to me

I had the honor of being Katie's Maid of Honor and help her and Sean get married.

I got Annabelle

I moved to Louisville KY

I started a grad program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

What will 24 have in store? A wedding for sure but I'm excited to see what else...

Ben & Jerry's and SATC Night... Again.

&

It's my go to.  It always makes me happy, content and comforted.

Wonderful Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend:

Friday, after school, we went to Heine Brothers for a few hours to study.  We had coffee, shared a cinnamon role and studied as best we could... The excitement of the FSU OU game was hard to ignore.

That night, we went to a movie premier for a local film making group, Nadus Films.  It was the opening night of Grace Surpasses, a documentaryish drama about a family in Sudan. 

 The cool part about this event was that there was a live score! So the entire movie, a live band played the music.  That was incredible and was another "snaps for living in Louisville" moment.  The whole program was wonderful and reminded me how blessed we are here in the US and how much opportunity and need there is for serving.

The next morning we woke up early to we could watch College Gameday that was at FSU!  I made scrambled eggs and Chocolate Chip Pancakes!  I learned the secret is lots of chocolate chips, and to melt butter in the pan before putting the batter in :)

Here's anna by our yummy breakfast.  I tried to make a spear with the whipped cream... fail.

After watching college game day, I went on a run!  Perfect weather!

Then, we went to volunteer for Sojourn's Fall Festival! For 2 hours Chris and I set up plastic bowling pins and cheered local neighborhood kids on!  It was a lot of fun and there were some of our small group friends there so it was nice seeing them!

I studied for a bit in the afternoon.

Then, it was GAME TIME! Even Anna had an "I <3 The Noles" Bow on:

We went to watch the game with the Louisville Seminole Club again! This time, we were joined not only by Christin, but Taylor and Stuart as well!

It was an awesome game and I am SO proud of my Alama Mater and FSU Football program!

Today we went to the early service.  Again, I handed out bulletins, and Chris helped direct cars... bless his heart it started pouring!  Ah he was so wet!  Service was wonderful; we're continuing the PROOF series and talked about Christ's "Overcoming Grace".  Much easier to chew than last weeks "Outrageous Grace"!  

After church we had a study date at the Heine Bro for awhile, and then went back to Chris's apt and spent the day hanging and studying.

Perfect weekend

Go Noles GO!

There's nothing like Gamedays especially at FSU in Tallahasse, Fl.

Since I am heartbroken that I can't be at the game this weekend, I thought I'd post pics of some of my favorite pics from tailgating and games....

We're going to make the best of watching this game in Louisville KY.  We're joining the FSU Club to watch it at a local restaurant....

I'm pretty pumped!!

GO NOLES!! BEAT OU!

A Wednesday

Somehow Chris and I got lucky yesterday.  Between noon and 5 and then after 8 we were both free!  So what did we do?

We played frisbee golf! And took Annabelle!!  I think the highlight was really how awesome Annabelle was! We left her off her leash most of the time and she stayed right with us.  A lot of the course was in dense woods, but it didn't even phase our baby!

Mama's so proud of Anna!

Annabelle felt like a real explorer following Chris down cliffs to get our frisbees!

Anna was in Dog Heaven!

Later on that night after I had a solid 4 hour study sesh at the local Heine Bro Coffee shop and Chris had a 3 hour teeth waxing sesh, we came home and Chris cooked a wonderful dinner.  We even broke into our engagement party wine stash :)

We sat and enjoyed the meal and wine, and then spent the night catching up on all the FSU interviews and highlights.... Then we got sucked into the youtube black hole and watched videossssss.... Walmart people, Miss California craziness, you name it!!  

I LOVE when we get mid week chill time!

Church Home!

The difference between 2 weeks ago at church and this week at church is absolutely huge!  We went from not knowing but 1 or 2 people to walking into the building knowing 5 of the first people we saw, then sitting close to many of our small group couples.  

We began going to  Sojourn Community Church the second week I was up here.  After our second week up here I discovered our FSU friends, Taylor and Stuart went to Sojourn as well and were already plugged into a small group.  We planned on visiting that one as soon as our Thursdays were free (That was the weekend my dear KATIE came into town!) Our third visit I filled out a "connect card"  and within days was emailed by Todd asking us to join his small group, and I received a call from Linda asking if I wanted to meet up so I could ask her all of my Sojourn questions.  Todd joined her and Chris joined me and the 4 of us hung out for an hour one afternoon.  When we asked them how we could begin serving, they got us plugged into the Connect Team.  That next Sunday (Last Sunday) we showed up 30 min before the service started and asked to be put to work! I got to man the welcome table!  There, I got to know 5 or 6 sojourners very well!  Chris did parking so not too sure who he got to meet.  

That Thursday we went to our first small group.  It was an answered prayer.  There are 3 other couples there (all older than us) and a few single guys.  That night we decided to have a girls brunch that Saturday.  So Saturday, the 4 small group girls and I went to brunch.  It was neat getting to have such one on one time with them from the beginning.  I'm very excited about these friendships and I look forward to seeing how God binds us together.

SO, this Sunday when we walked in to serve, we knew people from serving last week, small group, and the people we had met through them! Ah God answers my prayers.

Sunshine

It has been cold and rainy and cloudy 4 days in a row.

I am in desperate need of sunshine and warmth!

Thank goodness I have Marianne Gregs Photos to look at to remind me what summer and happiness looks like!