snowman

I finally uploaded my pictures so here is our Auburn snowman! war eagle! He has paintballs for a mouth, tennis balls covered with headphone pads for eyes, and brother's acne medicine for a nose. Ha! Can you tell we were unprepared for snowman building?

The puppies loved the snow.

The cats...not so much.

I hope everyone had a very merry and WHITE Christmas!

back

I came back to Auburn last night after spending 2 weeks at home. Being back here is bittersweet for me. I already miss my family so much. I do not like having to work the couple of weeks I am out of school. Oh well. It is life.

Christmas break (at home) was awesome. I got to see everyone I wanted to see (maybe not as much as I wanted to see them) and noone that I didn't. There are a few people I would rather not bump in to around Trussville. Wednesday my grandparents came to our house and we had tacos and opened presents. Very traditional. Christmas eve I went to Josh's house and did Christmas with his family. His mom got me this super cute bracelet that I am obsessed with. Then we went to his sister's house to see baby Caleb and give them their gifts. Josh's family is wonderful. That night we went to my grandmother's house for some Christmas eve games. A room full of 30 people playing Christmas games is a little crazy but so much fun. I got to use my new mixer to make desserts for the party :) Christmas day we woke up and opened presents. Then we went to Waffle House (welcome to Alabama). On the drive there it was snowing a little but immediately melting. On the way back, however, it was STICKING! We got probably 2 inches of snow! We made a snowman that was over 5 feet tall! It was crazy...snow on Christmas in Alabama. We spent the rest of the day watching Christmas movies and playing with our presents. Yesterday we went back to Granny's and gave gifts. I was supposed to work last night at 6 so I was going to have to leave early. I got  a text about an hour before I needed to leave town saying someone could work for me! GOD IS TOO GOOD! He knew I was stressed about leaving my family early. He knew I was dreading leaving in the middle of family Christmas. I still came back last night but I got to leave at 9 instead of 2! Merry Christmas!

Now I am back. Me and Josh both have to work this week so at least someone is in town with me. On a good note...my crazy roommate has officially MOVED OUT! Hooray! No more crazy...hopefully.

1 present

Tonight me and Josh went to Konomi (he has lived here a long time but never been) and then went to his house to exchange our Christmas presents. I thought I had done a good job of picking out presents I knew he wanted but wouldn't buy himself. He opened his and I was satisfied with my gifts. Then it was my turn. I only got one present. I had no clue what it was. I started unwrapping and HOLY CRAP! I unwrapped one of these babies!


Yep. The boy got me a KitchenAid.
I should have got him more presents! Haha. He is seriously THE BEST! I cannot wait to make all kinds of goodies. Since I burned out the motor on my hand mixer this beauty will be a nice replacement! THANK YOU JOSHUA! I love you and my mixer.

Meet Caleb

Caleb Dennis Griffin was finally born today! He weighed 9lbs 13 oz and he was 22 in long! holy cow he is a big boy and man is he cute!



His little cheeks are so chubby! My goodness. Joshua was instantly in love with the little man. And Tesney is obsessed with him. She wanted to hold him or kiss him or touch him every second. We even went home and colored some pictures for baby brother Caleb. He is beautiful. Congratulations Annilee!

copy cat

Tonight I went with Josh and his family to the Alabama Theatre. It was so much fun. Josh's uncle Doug and his friend came. His niece Tesney came too. The girl loves me. She is so stinking cute! I would venture to say she likes me more than she even likes her Uncle Josh. Tonight when she showed up she had a stick on rhinestone stuck right on her little nose. I have my nose pierced and so she wanted to have one too. It was seriously too cute. Then she made Josh ask me if I was wearing brown boots because she was. I wore black ones because I don't have brown ones but she still thought it was so cool that we were both wearing boots. She of course wanted to sit by me. I love that sweet girl. It just reminds me all the time that people are watching...even when you don't know it. Always reflect Christ. I absolutely cannot wait until Monday when we finally get to meet her brother Caleb!

falling

I LOVE this song! It is so true of our relationship with Christ. It has to be more than just something we are told to do. It is a relationship with a living God who can respond to us and become incredibly real in our lives. When it becomes that way we cannot help but fall in love.
More like falling in love: Jason Gray

Give me rules, I will break them
Show me lines, I will cross them
I need more than a truth to believe
I need a truth that lives, moves, and breathes
To sweep me off my feet

It's gotta be, more like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It's like I'm falling, Ohhhh, It's like I'm falling in love

Give me words, I'll misuse them
Obligations, I'll missplace them
Cuz all religion ever made of me
Was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet
It never set me free

It's gotta be, more like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It's like I'm falling, It's like I'm falling in love

Love, Love, deeper and deeper
It was love that made me a believer
In more than a name, a faith, a creed
Falling in love with Jesus brought the change in me

RECAP: I am finally home for a couple of weeks. Lindsey and Allen's wedding was so precious. The food was divine, and the dancing was super fun. She looked amazing of course. It has been so so cold here! It snowed all day Sunday. We went to see my whole famaily in NorthPark's Christmas concert. It was so good. They dedicated it to Jake Richey. Please keep him and his family in your prayers. God is so big. He can work miracles. Yesterday I braved the cold and checked my brothers out of school and took them to lunch at Frontera and now Brian has the flu. Hopefully he didn't double dip in the salsa. I cleaned the house a little bit because I am a good daughter then hung out with Josh last night. I picked the boys up again today and my car had icicles hanging from it. It was freezing. Tonight I am going to dinner and shopping with Mom and Granny. Should be so much fun if we can manage to not freeze to death. It has been so good seeing my friends and family. We got our grades back and I got all As and Bs! Praise the Lord! He is truly amazing.

soapbox

Today I started reading through facebook statuses (more like stalking) and I came across a girl I used to be friends with in high school. We haven't really seen each other after graduation but we're friends on facebook. She now lives with her boyfriend and parties a lot. It just got me thinking. This girl's mom said probably more than once while we were friends that I was a bad influence. She was even "not allowed" to come over to my house. Then I thought of another parent who said I was a bad influence. This parent utterly embarrassed me when they asked me to leave their house while the rest of my friends got to stay and spend the night because I was "untrustworthy". Their daughter lived with her boyfriend for a while and also partied a lot. And yet another parent said that she and "more adults in the church" thought I was trouble. Her daughter now has a baby with a man who she is not in a relationship with because he is in a relationship with somone else. See a trend here?

I have never in my life been drunk, smoked a single cigarette, done any drugs except ones prescribed to me, had sex, or many other things that might could qualify someone as a "bad influence". Maybe before you go and try to blame problems with you or your children on someone else you take a step back and think about whether the problem is them...or you.

Matthew 7:3-5 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

In high school I went to a club with 3 of my friends. We didn't dance with anyone, we didn't drink, and we got in legally. We didn't do anything wrong. However, we got a talking to from a couple of adults who thought that by us going we were wrong. I went to a boys room with a couple of my friends on a church trip to watch a movie when we were supposed to be in our rooms. We sat nowhere near each other. Apparently that makes someone completely untrustworhy. My "friend" told a boy something she did and HE told everyone else but then claimed I was spreading rumors about her and that makes ME bad enough for adults to think I am trouble.

It is interesting how people take a bad thing and make it define that person. They don't see all of the times I went to a bar or a party so that I could be someone's DD so they wouldn't kill themselves or others. They don't see all the mission trips I have been on to spread the Gospel. They don't see all of the small groups I have either led or been a part of. They don't see all of the high school girls that I have spent so much time praying over and praying with. Those things are completely irrelevant to them. But not to Christ. The things that I did for people to consider me a bad person were completely wiped away (if they were ever written in the first place) and are as far as the East is from the West.

Believe it or not, I am a pretty good person despite all of the haters. Sure I make mistakes but I have a God for that. I don't need people who barely know me to tell me who or what I am. That is a right that only Christ has. He will be the only one who will ever be able to define me. Ephesians 3:12 "In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence." I know who I am and I believe in Christ Jesus and I live everyday by faith in Him. I will answer to Him for any missteps I make make along the way. Not to anyone of this world.

Sorry, I will get off my soapbox.

the ship

HOLY COW! Auburn won the SEC Championship and now we're headed to Glendale for THE Championship! I can't believe it. I just booked mine and Josh's flights and our hotel room in Arizona! I think my dad is going to try to go with us. Then of course whoever else we can squeeze into the room we will. We don't know if we have tickets to the game for cheap or if we'll have to pay a boat load. But for Auburn this is pretty much once in a lifetime so we're going no matter what. Of course because of the game I got NO studying done so that will be my life for the next few days. Let me know if you're going to be in Glendale Arizona on January 10th 2011 because I will be :)

amazeballs

Tomorrow is our last day of classes. I cannot believe it. All that stands between me and Christmas break(and a good night's rest) is 3 finals and my OSCE. I started thinking back on the semester today and I realized I have just seen so much of Christ in the past couple of months. I have seen his obvious work in my life. I saw first hand God working things together for my good. I know that this is God's plan for my life and I have been able to give Him all the glory. Every single step that got me to this point has been all Christ and because I am so incredibly blessed I can't help but turn it right back to Him. I am sure you all know my Mammalian saga. I found out I got that D in the Spring and bawled. I talked to the teacher and was stuck with my 69.5 and I bawled again. Numerous times during the summer I cried until my head hurt because I just knew I couldn't handle the work load ahead of me because I was so discouraged because of that grade. I worked so hard to come up 3 points short. I was angry, hurt, and felt cheated. 3 points was all I needed and the teacher didn't care one bit. Josh encouraged me and told me I could do it but I just thought "that is easy for you to say. you have no idea. you don't have to take this whole super hard class again". I literally couldn't even talk about it without crying.

But God had bigger and better. He showed me so much of Himself and His love for me through that whole experience. I have seen something I thought was just so terrible, turned so good. God completely flipped the switch. I see others who are also repeating the class still struggling and I have gone from a D to an A. There is no way I can claim that. I am not doing it at the expense of my other classes either. I am doing well in everything. I have all As and Bs. You may think I am dumb but I havent been able to say that about ANY semester of college. I started off with a C in Comp I and I was doomed. I am in complete awe of God's love for me. I am incredibly blessed. I have an awesome family who loves and supports me. I have an amazing boyfriend who encourages me and believes in me even when I don't believe in myself. I have the best friends who give me comic relief. I absolutely cannot complain but even better I can't help but give praise to God for it all.
Even though this semester is coming to an end, I can't wait to see what God has in store for me. I am positive it will be amazeballs :)