chipmunk sounds

Today my body woke up at 7 am. I was pretty excited and thought, "Wow, I'm going to be so energized by the time I get to class today." I guess that's what happens when you go to sleep at 11pm instead of the normal 2am. After class I came home, took a nap and woke up to my own mouth making noises! How silly is that? It sounded like I sounded like a chipmunk eating! Oh dear, the signs of getting older perhaps?

These are a few of my favorite things..

Looks pretty yummy huh? I've basically been addicted since I was 4.

Oh man do I love arts and crafts! This may be my absolute favorite thing! And what I love even more than making arts and crafts is to receive them! Such a fun thing to do!

FRIENDS. My, my.. where do I even start with friends. Is it weird to say I have had alot of great memories having to do with the show friends? Because I have. This show is the greatest and I can pretty much quote every word off of every episode and tell you the story plot or anything you need to know.

Tune in next time on.. "These are a few of my least favorite thing..." Love you!

I will wait for You.

As I was reading through Psalm 25 I noticed something that really captured my attention, "for I wait for you." Verse 20 & 21 say, " Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you." I went back to verse 4 & 5 where it says, " Make me to know your way, O lord: teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long." Instantly I thought of the Phil Wickham song and the lyrics that struck me immediately were, " I will wait for You there, down on my knees where I met You. Give You all of my cares, find a grace to hold on to now. I'm calling for You."
These different ways of waiting on God has led me to one simple thought: Wait on the Lord and rest in Him. Listen to Him. Put your hope in Him. Allow Him to speak to you. Never stop worshiping Him.

Precious Moments

When I was younger, one of my older sister's had a precious moments Bible and I would always look through it and look for a picture of the precious moment characters being Mary, Joseph, ,Jesus, David and other great characters named in the Bible. Although my blog has nothing to do with the actual precious moment figurines, I thought it would be fun to reminisce on a fun past memory.

Cute huh?

Since my last blog of being a newly engaged woman, God has worked is many great and mighty ways, hence the title, precious moments. One of the biggest blessing the Lord has given me is a wonderful group of girls that love the Lord. I believe God has placed them in my life throughout this sweet season of my life to show me more love and teach me the meaning of extended grace. I have always prayed that God would send me girls that loved me and were able to share life with me while being about to enjoy God as sisters. That's another thing God has taught me. "Enjoy God." Seek after His heart and enjoy it! But I'll get to that in a sec. These past several months of being able to watch movies, have sleep overs, late fast food nights, hugs, cries, and praying together- I feel as if God has blessed me with a community of sisters that surpassed every prayer that has ever been said. God continues to show me He knows me better than I will ever know myself.

 

Thank you Jesus, and thank you homegroup.

Another thing God has been teaching me is to enjoy Him. Seek actively after His heart and enjoy Him. I have been reading in Psalms and I go read Bible verses such as 8: 3+ 4 "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" and 16:2 " I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” These verses has encouraged me to not only try to memorize scripture but to actually WANT to memorize them so that I can be anywhere in the world and be able to say, "You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." These are the precious moments we are able to experience as children of the Mighty One. Wow. How great is our God.

I'm getting married!

Whoa, it's been way too long since I've last blogged! Whoops! Well a super wonderful night happened a week from today.. I got engaged! I will share the story here.

It was mine and Brad's year and a half anniversary March 10, and he wanted us to celebrate in the same way he asked me to be his girlfriend. That night Brad asked me out, we went over to our wonderful friend Matthew's house and him and his roommate cooked us dinner. So we went over to Matt's and he cooked us dinner, except this time, he definitely went the extra mile to make it look special.

This was on matt's balcony. It looked very romantic!

 Then Matt cooked us this delicious dinner and take a look at the wonderful chocolate molten cake! Geez, it was so yummy!

Then Brad and I headed back to his apartment, where I already expect candles and roses, because that's what was there when he asked me out, and again, Brad completely went the extra mile on this night.

Yes, this is what it looked like when I walked in, amazing I know. Well first we danced to a little Kenny Chesney, read Ephesians 5 and 1 Cor. 10: 31, which 1 Cor. 10:31 was a bible verse we went over when he asked me to be his girlfriend. It's also my favorite Bible verse. Then Brad did this sweet washing of the feet. He told me, "Joy, I want to serve you the way Jesus came to serve us." He wrote me a very loving poem that he had framed and had me sit on the couch while he was reading it to me. When he finished, he gave it to me. I looked at it, said it was very sweet then placed it down next to me, that's when he pulled out the rock. I was in complete shock and didn't even hear what he said when he was proposing because all that what was going through my head was, "Oh my gosh there's a ring in my face, there's a ring in my face, there's a ring in my face!" Anyways, he asked, I said yes! And we are engaged!

A prayer in the Spring

A Prayer in Spring

Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
To which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends he will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

fatigue syndrome

Blogging. Blogging. Blogging. Blogging has been slightly hard for me to do lately. I have no idea why, it's not that anything interesting hasn't happened recently because there have been some great things but just nothing I feel I want to blog about. Probably just laziness. Well here's some fun facts for the day..

• I made cookies before 10 a.m. today
• We're most likely going to have another snow day
• I wore my new scarf that Brad's grandma made me
• I have a countdown for the next Bachelor show
• and I love P90x

 Isn't is a lovely scarf? 

Well anyways, I've been going through fatigue syndrome due to all the snow days so I'm going to try and do something productive until bedtime. Maybe I'll read or do something fun with arts and crafts! Hmm.. I don't know but I will tell you this, it is very nice having my boyfriend back into my life. It was a very emotional time and felt like I was on a roller coaster the entire two weeks. My roommate said I went through the seven stages of death.. I sorta agree. Well that God that is over!

Goodnight friends and family!

well the weather outside is frightful..

Hi again! Well I just completed a fast which was extremely hard. I fasted for two weeks from Brad, facebook and tv so it is my job to catch you up with a few things! First, fasting from Brad was extremely difficult but the Lord was good and showed me many things and also allowed me to get closer to my roommates.. Here is one of the few pictures we took together..

Yes, we had tons of fun! This past week was a little insane with all of the snow! School was cancelled 4 our of the 5 days so I technicalled haven't gone to school for a week and a half!

This is the park right across my house, crazy I know. If you look really close into the picture, you can see people sledding. It's suppose to get like this again this week so hopefully the next picture will be of me sledding! 

Well after the two weeks were completed I went to Brad's house and found these waiting for me..

Aren't they beautiful? I loved them! We headed out to hang out with his family and had a blast! I made a homemade apple pie and we all ate delicious food together. Oh, here's my applie pie..

Can you see the little hearts I made in the pie? Well I know that was a little update on the past two weeks of my life but maybe next time I'll have a fun little story.. who knows! 

This has no title

"It is our obligation, as people created and owned by God, to give him the honor and glory that is due to him, to live and speak and act and think in a way that recognizes and acknowledges his authority over us. We are made by him, owned by him, dependent on him, and therefore accountable to him."

 - What is the Gospel " Greg Gilbert"

"I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

- Hebrews 8: 10

The verse and the quote may have nothing to do with eachother but I enjoyed them both! Have a happy night!

Why I chose to blog today

Well the snow was still here when I woke up today! So beautiful! I really just wanted to post this picture which is why I chose to blog today. I think today I'll leave you with some beautiful verses that I have been reading recently in my time with the Lord.

"He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power."  -- Hebrews 1:3

"Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another everyday, as long as it is called "today" that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end." -- Hebrews 3:12- 14

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." -- Hebrews 4: 15-16

Aren't they so wonderful? I honestly cannot remember a time when I was going through Hebrews and thinking, " Man, this stuff is so powerful and so necessary for me to know and try to memorize." My favorite verse out of all of these was the one talking about exhorting one another daily. That verse has been on my mind everyday since I read it and I feel this urge to try to encourage at least one person everyday. It's been kinda neat. Well hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It snowed in Denton today! In fact, the snow is still here and I'm hoping it stays... FOREVER! Just kidding. But I really do enjoy the snow. Anyways, I don't have much to say because I was planning on typing in some quotes I've heard at Church the past two weeks. Here they are..

" Doing external activities that have to do with God is not the same as loving, knowing and worshipping Christ."

"If we're not careful we'll begin digging for tools and not treasure." (on having goals but not wanting Christ)

"Jesus died while you were at your worst."

"The power of the gospel is the destruction to shameful memories."

"No one accidentally becomes godly. You toil. You strive. You work to find Treasure." (God)

"Sin destroys everything it touches. You were washed, sanctified, and justified."

Have a ridiculously awesome day!

7 slices of pizza

Well yesterday I came to Allen to visit and stay over at my friend Alyssa's house. Yesterday we did a little shopping which was pretty exciting and we played this really fun game called "Bananas." It's a bit like scrabble but, not. Today has been really grand. Woke up, watched some Criminal Minds, then 

Alyssa and I headed to Dallas to see Brad, his sister, bro in law, and world's cutest baby, Asher.

I'm super excited about this upcoming weekend because we may be expecting SNOW!!!! Yep. Texas and the crazy weather. Gotta love it! Oh! I also ate a whole box of pizza all by myself the other day. I know that was a little randomness right there but I was pretty impressed.

I would like to leave you with this wonderful verse that comes from the best book known to man. 

"He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power." - Hebrews 1:3 

Have a beautiful day!

TOMS (One for One)

Today was quite lovely. I woke up around noon, talked to Brad, and we decided to meet up at Logan's Roadhouse in Lewisville to eat lunch! I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for both of us to wear our newest addition of Tom shoes and take pictures of them.

I now have the white and red Toms and Brad has white, olive and brown. We are huge Toms fans.

After we finished our little photo shoot with our new shoes, we went our separate ways and headed back to our homes. Today was a rather wonderful day. My heart was kinda jumpy and I began reading in Hebrews- chapter 1- and it was so peaceful for me to take in. I wish more days were like this. 

Well, I'm pretty excited about tomorrow, my schedule consists of watching Sister Act and Madea Goes to Jail with my roomies. I'm pretty excited. I am a HUGE Tyler Perry fan and I think his movies are just great! I'm actually going to leave you with a quote from Madea Goes to Jail..

Madea: Cora do me a favor. 

Cora: What?
Madea: Put the shut, to the up. Okay? Shut to the up. 

Happy 2011!

It's been almost a month since I last wrote in my blog! This is what my december basically looked like..

 My sister's graduation...

After graduation, we headed towards Brownwood to see my dad's family...

We left Brownwood and my parents and I dropped Julie off at the Austin airport to head back home in NYC. My parents and I then headed home to Brownsville.

Here are a few good friends of mine from back home...

(Faith and Taylor)

It was such a great and relaxing break! I enjoyed being home seeing family and friends! I was able to eat lots of tacos, beans, yummy, legit tortillas and many slices of pumpkin pie! Ah, to live by the border means great food ALL THE TIME!

On December 31st, I flew back to Dallas to spend New Year's with Brad. We had so much fun and the following day, we decided to make a music video. Check it out by clicking here!

Well hopefully now that I'm back home, I will be blogging more often! Hope everyone had a wonderful 2010 and an even better 2011!