You know you have...

You know you have driven for too long when you close your eyes and can still see the road.
You know you have driven for too long when your knee aches from simply keeping it in the same position.
You know you have driven for too long when you cup your hands full of water to wash your face only to remember that you forgot to take off your glasses. True Story.

Yay! Megan and I are back! We made it safely from Washington to the Oregonian wilderness (6ish hour drive). We both enjoyed our time in Oak Harbor immensely. We can't wait until two weeks when we can go back and stay for a month without the worry of homework.

Hanging out with friends, picking out a christmas tree and spend the nights definitely completed the home visit.

PRAY FOR KEEGAN AND I!
Finals week is coming up and we are going to need all the prayers we can get. Focus, determination, and intelligence is what we are hoping for... =]

Goodnight all.
I got to study and get some shut eye.  

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig Jig

I'm finally home again!


I love it sooo much. 
My sister Megan and I caught a ride with one of our fellow NCU comrades, Jeneca. 
We all piled into her red BMW Bug and made the great journey. I was so ecstatic to be home and couldn't wait to see my family, friends, and dogs. However, my energy to leave was quickly met with the worse traffic we have ever seen. It normally would take two hours to get to Portland but instead we got there in four =/. Finally we made it to WASHINGTON. It was so weird. Even though I was in a part of Washington that was unfamiliar to me I automatically felt at home. Washington is so much better than everywhere else! =P


You guys don't know how much comfort and joy I found in simply seeing the majority of the license plates being from Washington state. 


Well we finally made it to Stanwood where our friend Jack was going to pick us up to take us the rest of the way home. It was quite awesome! Jeneca dropped us off with our bags, pillows, blankets, backpacks, and Megan's loaf of bread that she brought for Jack. If I wasn't in heals and Megan wasn't as beautiful as she is then people would think we were homeless. However, there will always be those certain stupid people out there. When we unloaded all our stuff and shielded it from the rain at like 12:30am there was this one lady who gave us the most disapproving look. We continued into the store and she proceeded to walk ahead and turn around only to give us the stink eye. hahaha. I found it quite ridiculous that she would care so much. Her look shouted, "How dare these bums enter this respectful Haggens with all their stuff. I'm really trying to have a classy shopping experience and these bums are staining my presence." Good grief. Get over yourself lady. I guess you should have shopped at Safeway or Fred Meyer instead. Don't judge and label me. hahah


Once home, Megan and I woke up Carly to say that we loved her and missed her and then we went to Stevie's room. When we woke up Stevie he freaked out. He didn't recognize who we were so he started shouting "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa..." Haha.. We tried telling him that it was just his loving sisters but he was pretty delusional at 1:30 in the morning. He eventually realized it was us and laughed. Haha. It makes for a good story though. 


Lisle and Gretle (the BEST dogs ever) are still the same. Lisle is still my favorite and Gretle is still a beautiful brat. 


It's lovely but also weird being back home. Although I have only been gone about 4 months I still find it weird that I do things automatically. For example, when I finished brushing my teeth I almost automatically put my toothbrush in my former cupboard that has now been taken over by Jack. 


I am so thankful to be home!
Yay! I really don't think I have ever been so excited in such a long time. You don't even know. I realized last night that I should be pretty embarrassed at my excitement but I was just to happy to care.  


I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your families and food everyone!

My Heart Breaks

So this is one of my more serious blogs but God definitely laid it on my heart.

Today in my Introduction to Counseling class my teacher mentioned something that practically brought me to tears. “If I have a problem, the church is the not the first place I would go… The church is really good at shooting down our fallen comrades,” she stated. How saddening is this? But it is so true! My Christian professor admits it and I see it in my own life. If something happens that doesn’t seem like it would be the “right” thing I am prone not to take it to the church. As much as I hate admitting it, regarding things that would be considered “secular,”   it is easier for me to talk to my best friend who isn’t as tight knit with Jesus than it is to talk with my best friend who has loved Jesus her whole life. It seems like for most people it is easier to talk to non-Christians than it is Christians.  This shouldn’t be! The church needs to be just the opposite. We get so caught up in what is the “right” thing to do or say that we forget about the love. We forget that people are people. Each and every one of us is full of mistakes and sin. If someone has a problem or something is bothering them the church should be the first place that people feel comfortable coming to. It should be a place free of judgment and stereotypes. It should be a place embodying the true nature of the one we say we serve. Jesus was all about love. That is the only thing that he has called us to. God simply tells us to love Him and love others. When talking with my friends I mentioned we need to “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” Daniel Jones then mentioned that he has heard it as “Love the sinner, love the sinner.” That’s what we need to do! LOVE THE SINNER, LOVE THE SINNER! That’s what we need to be about! LOVE IS ALL THAT MATTERS.

Why is it that we are so good at “shooting down our fallen comrades”? We are so quick to compare, measure, or size someone up. This shouldn’t be! This breaks my heart! That even within a congregation my own heart doesn’t long to run to the church in a time of weakness! How then can we expect others, anyone, to even consider the idea of opening up?

Especially as brothers and sisters in Christ we need to be building up and empowering each other; the church. Back home in Oak Harbor I worked as a swim instructor for many years. After every session each kid receives a progress report that tells them if they have passed or not. I’ll never forget one moment when I saw the greatest example of how we need to love each other displayed. In the water there was an older brother and sister. Their younger brother had ended his lesson, received his report card and found out that he passed. In his excitement he told his sister of his success and she simply said unexcitedly, “Oh yeah, that’s cool. Good job.” However, when the younger brother told his older brother, the oldest jumped for joy. He started exclaiming wildly, “My brother passed, my brother passed!” He even got the attention of the boy next to him just to tell him that his brother passed. He then proceeded to exclaim across the water to the sister, “Our brother passed! Our brother passed!”

I think often times we have the attitude of the sister. We simply say, “Yeah, good job” to the accomplishments of our fellow brothers and sisters. However, I believe that we need to have the enthusiasm of the older brother. We need to be so excited and bewildered at our brothers’ and sisters’ undertakings; acting as if they were our own accomplishments.

I don’t want the church to be the last place that we come to. I don’t want the church to be known for shooting down even our own members. When this world chews us up and spits us out (which it often does) let us simply pick each other up and continue in love. Please church, please, please, please let us stop our judging and let us stop our “sympathy.”

Let’s turn this around. I’m not trying to say these things to discourage or bash the church, but we have a lot of work to do. I know most of us, if not all, mean well. We have great intentions of loving on people and showing how awesome God’s love is. Why then are people not coming to the church, to Jesus, for sanctuary? Why then are Christians labeled as hypocrites? We want to incorporate or give advice pertaining to God and Jesus. And this isn’t bad. But it is so essential for us to quit the “Christianeze” that is so easy to speak and start loving on the individual. We don’t need to pretend things are alright. We don’t need to always be “right.” We don’t need to always give advice. We simply need to be real. We simply need to listen and care. I want an authentic church. I need a real church. Sometimes this world just sucks. Are we able to listen openly and love unconditionally? The church isn’t a building. We are the church. Let’s turn this around!  

Long Time, No Blog

Oh my goodness guys! I apologize. Keegan and I have slacked in our duties to keep you informed. We are very sorry.

There is so much to say but so little time to say it all.

Halloween was super fun! Keegan and I throw together costume fairly well I must say:

NCU had a halloween dance and we all were able to declare to the school population that we can't dance.



Skeeter (the one who lives in our heater) is still quite obnoxious. We yell at him all the time but it doesn't seem to help things. One of these days we will be able to muffle him.

Keegan drew this awesome picture of Skeeter

Fun story. 
I don't think I will be able to convey the funniness of this story through words but I will try my best.

Well a couple days ago Keegan was changing in her closet and when she was coming out (=]) I heard this **kurplunk bam bam crunch, cidsajFOi** I look over from my bed and see Keegan sprawled out on the floor half in her closet and half out. I couldn't help but to start laughing uncontrollably. However, even in the midst of my laughter and tears (tears were running down my face) I was able to get out an "Are you ok?" and a "I'm sorry" hahah..
After Keegan got up and recovered. I asked her what happened. She said that she had a lot of laundry in her room so she had to jump over her laundry and open the door to get out. Here is a 6'3" tall girljumping to get out of a 3' by 3' full closet. hahaha.
So.... I think we should just leave it at a "You had to be there" But believe me.. it was pretty hilarious.

I wish all of you guys could know all of our friends. The stories I could tell you would make them all the better.
Overall things are going great here. I am so ready for a break from school!!!

THANKSGIVING IS COMING!
I don't think I have ever been so thankful for thanksgiving. I can't wait to see my parents, my siblings, best friends, old friends, and all my animals. Familiarity is a gift in itself! I can't wait.
I'm leaving Wednesday!!
The count down has been going for quite sometime!

I will try to be posting some more..... but we all know how that usually ends up.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL if we don't post before hand!