what the heck?

today I have my first real big-girl job interview.

today I am thankful...

1. For good books

2. For friends that don't require conversation, but just their being next to you makes life better

3. For a having a sister that I can have a whole conversation with via eye contact.

4. For kids that make me laugh

5. For a 17-year-old boy that is brave enough to take swimming lessons, and even swim in the deep end for the first time ever

6. For mangoes

7. For parents who not only love each other, but who are also really like each other

8. For breezy summer evenings with perfect sunsets :)

"Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world."

-Ada Louise Huxtable-

anticipation.

Sometimes I think I enjoy looking forward to things just as much as I do actually experiencing them. Here are some people and places I'm excited about:

1. Tyler, Texas

I get to see my favorite boy this weekend, which is always fun :)

2. Wichita, Kansas

Wedding #3 for the Summer: Erin and Graham!

3. Pine Bluff, AR

I started scheduling swimming lessons for this summer. I already have about 4 planned and I can't wait to get started.

4. Chicago

Today I bought tickets for a music festival in Chicago during July... I'll be hearing Dave Matthews Band, Amos Lee, Ray LaMontagne, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, and Blind Pilot, just to name a few :)

(confession.... I'm maybe more excited about this than anything else happening this Summer)

5. Hot Springs, Arkansas

The lake! (Hopefully) lots of weekends of tubing, swimming, and playing.

I. Can't. Wait.

:)

unexpectedly expectant.

Through a series of unexpected events, I have found myself living at home with my parents.

My plan is for this to be a temporary thing, to move out and find a teaching job in the fall, but you know how plans are.

Not that I dislike being at home, or don't love living with my family, it just wasn't at all what I was expecting or mentally preparing for this summer. I just don't want to be that person; the college graduate that moves home "just for a little while" but ends up living with my parents indefinitely. Also, I basically have no friends at all that are my age in Pine Bluff.

At first, I was disappointed, and felt like this would be a waste of a summer. But the more I thought about the things that could potentially await me, the more excited I became about the potential of the freedom of living in my parents house.

No paying rent.

No buying groceries.

A summer job waiting for me (teaching swimming lessons, which I LOVE).

It was starting to sound not so bad. I made this to do list for the summer, and I'm starting to get excited about it :)

Write Letters

Cook

Create

Organize

Purge

Exercise

Reflect

Play

Scrapbook

Simplify

Travel

Downsize

Serve

I want to look for opportunities to serve my family, the people I most often overlook when it comes to serving. I want to get re-involved in the church I grew up in. I want to play and travel and make the most of this short season of my life when I am practically free of responsibilities.

So, although I definitely didn't see this coming, the Lord is opening my eyes to the adventures that await me.

I'm excited :)

deciphering me

For one of my job applications, I had to write down 5 adjectives that describe myself. To get some direction/ideas, I texted the people closest to me to get some suggestions :)

Some of them are really great, some are really funny, and some are just making fun, but I really enjoyed getting to see other's perspective on who I am as a person/future teacher. Also, I thought my blog should get to show off this little list too :)

Creative

Determined

Enthusiastic

Generous

Grateful

Loyal

Resourceful

Thorough

Adaptable

Steady

Devoted

Independent

Dedicated

Lively

Aesthetic

Judgmental

Faux Pas

Perfect< from my older brother, dripping with sarcasm I'm sure :)

Tenacious

Mellow

Supportive

[these are all from my mother... clearly she loves me]

Determined

Stubborn

Obstinate

Strong Willed

Irascible

reasons why I love being a girl

1. I can dress up with my friends no matter how old I am

2. I can talk about how attractive celebrities are and no one judges me for it

3. I can unashamedly love Taylor Swift

4. I can buy pretty underwear

5. I can wear skirts and high heels

6. I can giggle with my friends

7. I can cry at Disney movies and not be embarrassed

8. I can cuddle with other women

9. I get to do things like the sunshine box

let's risk the ocean

Disturb us, Lord,

When we are

too pleased

with ourselves.

When our dreams have

come true

because we have

dreamed too little.

When we have arrived safely

because we have

sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord,

When with the abundance of

things we possess,

we have lost our thirst

for the waters of life,

having fallen in love with life,

we have ceased to dream of eternity,

and in our efforts to build a

new earth,

we have allowed our vision of the

new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord,

to dare more boldly,

to venture on wider seas,

where storms will

show your mastery,

where losing sight of land,

we shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back the

horizon of our hopes,

and to push us into the future

in strength, courage, hope and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,

who is Jesus Christ

Sir Frances Drake