Yes Please!

So! Once again I was talking with Sarah today. Which I just love to do. She informed me she has this desire to have a Great Dane once she'll settled down. Well! I then confessed... I've always wanted one of those ugly super wrinkly bull dogs. To me, they are so so cute. Maybe not cute. Special! and in need of a home.My home, one day. haha

Look at that! I'm...strangely, in love!

Yes please I want one:)

People have always said that you can start looking like your pet... I'm gonna say in this case, Dear God, oh please no. I will love that precious, wrinkly, stubby nosed face...but I have this feeling, I probably will not resemble him. HA! hope not!

                                   PS:
I just found this photo...Yea! I can totally imagine you waltzing with your beloved Great Dane one day Sarah! :) Dang, those dogs are ginormous!

I won't let ya fur-git

God is always reminding me to have Joy and hope.
I'm so easily bogged down.
And my face is pretty darn honest...
I don't stress wrinkle lines in the future
So! Here's the awesome progression of verses I read the other night:

"O God you have rejected us. You have broken us; You have been angry; O Restore us." -Psalm 60:1

"You have made your people experience hardships" Psalm 60:3

"Through God we shall do Valiantly" Psalm 60:12

"Say to God 'HOW AWESOME ARE YOUR WORKS!" Psalm 66:3

"Come and hear, all who fear God, and I will tell of what HE has done for my soul. I cried to Him with my mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue." Psalm 66:16-17

Amen.

Hallelujah- He won't Relent!

Oh the little things

"You've shown me a place I've seen, but never knew"
William  Tell's song "Just For You" came on shuffle on my iPod today and I was struck by those lyrics.

Today I was blessed by the little things.
- Samantha buying my lunch.
- Jamie blessing me with a Frappe :)
- Sarah and Jamie taking time to pray for me. Lifting me up in conversation with God and intercessing for my needs, that is truly a blessing in my heart.
- Fixing up, on a whim, a delicious dinner!
- Sarah and Jamie belting out Portuguese/Spanish phrases about Wal-mart on King Street!

S and J have helped me become a better friend, I've seen the place of true peace with very little insecurity, and pure accountability in our relationship. It's been a hard year deep down on my insides, emotionally, and they  have been patient and loving to me. Every prayer has been strengthening, and they challenge me to focus on the Lord, and reminding me of His abundant grace. I am slowly knowing a place of complete openness. This place I've seen but never knew is also offering healing.

Hairy

Yea, I just chopped my hair off..but it's time to go even deeper into the "dark side" as Jackson would say. He despises short hair on females...but i don't! so! i've decided i'm gonna go drastically shorter (as soon as my next pay check comes ) watch out!

I was thinking something like this!

JUST KIDDING!

I like Gennifer Goodwin's hair.

This is gonna be fun.

My Lovelies

Bahaha

I have quite the collection of new books. Between gifts and strong recommendations I have three amazing books sitting on my bedside table. Today I started "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. I love this quote:

"God didn't have to create so many kinds of laughter. Think about the different sounds of your friends' laughs- wheezes, snorts, silent, loud, obnoxious."

I love to laugh, I do it quite a lot. I'm told I have a very contagious laugh, some even think it melodious! hmm Well I defintely thought of friends immediately after reading those comments.

Wheezes: Eliza wins the wheezing section. hahaha Only a few people realize this... but I am a witness, late at night in bed, when we're supposed to be quite the wheezing comes out. It is sooo funny. It's then you know she's truly tickled:)

Snorts: Rebecca. Hands down. I think I only remember her snorting like a piggy a few times but last time I heard her laugh really hard she has this maybe gutteral? sound bubbling forth, sort of snorting out and then! it got high pitched and sing-songy. Adorable!

Silent: Sarah. I silently laugh when I'm being tickled and I can't breath, but I LOVE hearing her silent laugh, and making her silently laugh. haha I don't think she breaths, she's just over come with hilarity.

Loud: Jamie. baha She bursts right out! its not "oh,  ha haha , that was clever." nope its "BAHAHA HAHAHA  AHHHAHAHA" and she's usually doubling over. Oh yes, you know when Jamies amused.

Obnoxious: I don't think I have anyone who laughs obnoxiously in my life. They're mostly cute and gigglely. Or really high pitched. All in all I am SO thankful God created billions of different laughs. :D

hehehe hahaha hohoho

Sleep escapes

        So my 2011 life has been quite an interesting little ride. Through a lot of it I have found myself to be pretty darn insecure. Which just won't do! I find perspective helps me, and so does Jesus, and His book. I feel like my favorite word is "waiting," and phrase "i'm just waiting," and favorite verse to quote in my posts "take courage and wait for the Lord" but heck! it's prevalent! What's a girl to say when thats what God is leading her into? At this moment I am more anticipating what God is going to lead me into, not really what I'm into right now.

       This state that my heart is in right now is confusing. I have this lovely peace swirling around inside my chest,  but at the same moment this melancholy spirit? maybe that's the word. I just feel slightly mis-placed. Not because I don't have lovely friends and wonderful family, but because I have no prominent direction, theme or dream defining me. All that is defining me, is Jesus Christ.

     I was so relieved when I finally reached a point in my reading of "Shadow of the Almighty" to find out that Jim went through something similar to my stage right now. He was finished with school, and he was waiting on the Lord to show him where to go as a missionary. It looked like it was either gonna be India or South America. Obviously we know where he ended up, but! He had neighbors gossiping about his work status because he was just doing repair jobs around the house, and spending most afternoons reading and writing. He wasn't being lazy, but he wasn't into something extraordinary that included a fancy title. He was waiting on God. Like me, he was a little restless. I think it's hard because people do expect you to have a mission, an occupation 100% of the time. I don't know if I'll experience this again when I'm older, but I find nothing wrong with this slower pace, this ambiguous short term period of life. I am 100% confident that this is God's will.

Geeze, it feels like the rest of my life will be like this though. but I know my summer won't be like this, and my fall will most likely have a defined activity that I'll be involved in. That's where that healthy does of perspective comes in! This is just a curious span of time for me, I don't know what to make of it.

Take luck!! uh..Take it! Care for it...

I don't know if you've ever listened to Brian Regin but he's hilarious. We were listening to him in the car to church this morning. Hunter and Libby can quote the whole thing. My cheeks were sore from smiling so much. Sarah and I giggled the whole time. I used to have the CD  memorized too because the summer I was 17 at Cherokee Cove they played the CD all the time. Brain is just funny to me! I love his sense of humor. For instance this weekend a nice looking guy said to Sam and I, while we were doing the dishes "Thank you guys!" I looked at him and said "Thank you" and froze, and then went to go hide in the rinse water. haha I told Sam I wasn't really sure why I said thank you and then we referenced good ole' Brian. He makes light of the whole deal like this, where a    water for instance might serve your meal and says "Have a good meal" and you say "You too!...whenever you eat..whenever you break from working,  and if you might eat something..have a good one!" hahaha Then! He talks about saying Take Care and Good Luck... but you switch what you're saying halfway through "Take LUCK!" uuuh "Take luck...Take it! Care for it!" haha  Oh boy.

 It was a fun weekend though! Going back tomorrow with Jamie to fill in the kitchen since Stu's gone. There will be stories.

I did take my camera this time and snapped a few photos:

The ladies!

Chaco Time! Until it started snowing this morning.

Sam and Misti! and the delicious yeast rolls! 

 I may be laughing..but I took cooking those vegetables very seriously! :) I steamed, seasoned, and sauteed those babies and they were allll eatin. ha!

 Sam was the Queen of the kitchen :) Well, she is! She is the Queen. And she is eating her queenly mac&cheese.

All the volunteers! 

Yay sarah! I was trying NOT to look sleepy..then I realized its all in the eyes..no matter how big your smile is haha

 Trevor testing my hammock out. First hammock-ing of 2011! woot!

 And John,in his new hammock. Super fun.

 OH! How I love her!

She  is such a doll!!

In the terms of Glo-zelle "Peace and Blessings, Peace and Blessings" "Over and Out"

Deux pour mon peu d'amour!

The second post dedicated to my nephew!
Like my French title? woo! It means "two for my little love." Two posts that is (so far).
Ooo he's so cute I just can't stand it!

He's got the true Hodges style for sucking his thumb...his Hodges Aunts both enjoyed this pass time.

Silly Monkey Pillow Pet! 

The Lemon progression:

Checkin out the lemon.

Of course, now it's time to taste the Lemon.

His sour face. Hehe so cute- he wasn't  quite sure what that lemon was all about.

Slide fun!

Eating fun!

Auntie fun!

The Hodges Men. Handsome.

Bud Bud. Jud Jud... the Stud (stud)

This past weekend we took a trip to VA and had a wonderful visit with Tanner and Beth and Judson! 

So... this trip I really didn't get very many pictures of myself with my brother and sister.. I mainly photographed their son! hehe and he is SO cute!

 I have the most adorable collection of open-mouth pictures of Judson just staring at the camera. We're gonna start off with a post dedicated to this Judson "genre" haha. They're priceless.

Climbing the stairs!

Aunt Libby sent a cool new toy!

"What is that thing?"

"I just want a nap"

"Ahh! Another picture!"

"Huh. I'm chillin like a villain" 

Hey There!

And my favorite for this picture category!:) He's such a doll! (Can I have one?)