Bonfires

Yesterday I posted pictures of a bonfire that I went to this weekend. I don't know why but bonfires are my favorite thing about fall. I don't know if it is the warmth that comes from them, the smell that most people can't stand but I love, the memories, or what it is.

Don't get me wrong I love the colors of fall and the cool crisp air but there is just something about bonfires that I just love. I have a lot of memories from going to different bonfires but I think my favorite is when I went to Michael and Wendi's last year during the spring. Yes I know that I have been talking about bonfires in the fall but you can have them in the spring also.

In the spring Michael and Wendi had the college group from church out to their house (which is in the middle of nowhere) for a bonfire and just to hang out. We played campture the flag, rosted hot dogs, made s'mores and sang songs around the bonfire. Everyone but myself, jennifer, andrew, tyler, chelsea, and of course michael and wendi had left for the night when the fire had started to die down. Jennifer and I were laying by the fire looking up to the sky at the stars. It was the most beautiful night have seen in a while. We were talking about the beauty of the sky and how God had created the most perfect picture in the world! Every star was placed just where He wanted it to be and just how awesome God is. This night was the night that Jennifer and I started getting really close and becoming really good friends. We talked for hours and just laughed and cut up. It was on of the most perfect nights I had had in a while.

I don't really know where I was going with this post but I just had to share my love for bonfires.

Wordless Wednesday

Wonderful Monday

So this week has already started off great compared to last week....

Last night I got to go to a bonfire for the Moo Crew (workers at Chaney's) and bonfires are my favorite! I love everything about them; the smell, the warmth, the s'mores, and did I mention I love smelling like them? Yes I am weird but I love standing infront of the fire and letting the smoke get all over me and then smelling like it for a while.

But today I got up and just decided that no matter what happened to me today I was going to make it a good day. I wore my new GAP cartagain that I got for $3 at a thrift store (wuhu!), styled my new hair cut (I got 2 1/2 inches cut off thursday), cute pair of jean, flats and my favorite scarf from Old Navy and set out for the day. When I got to work I popped in my new Steve Means cd that Bethany made for me and got started working for a little while. Then it was off to class even though I didn't really want to go. Sit through Psychology and then going to study with Timothy afterwards for a little bit. We asked our Professor if we could stay in the classroom to study since class ended early and he told us to come over infront of him and he would help us. When we did that he handed us a Review sheet that we got to keep and handed us the test and told us to go over it with him and he would explain it. Now how many times does a professor hand you the test to let you study over?? Not many! Of course we didn't get to keep it but that's okay.

The rest of my day proceed to go fairly good and then I got to work this afternoon where my day got so much better! I was messing around on facebook and was looking at things people had posted while I was away. I came across that one of my best friend's Jennifer Hail who is currently on a Semester at Sea program had posted something. I kinda got a little down because I have been wanting to talk with her "live" for a while now. Ever since she left we have been emailing back and forth about every week. After getting over that and reminding myself that there would be other times to talk with her I continued what I had been doing. I decided to check one more time to see if Jennifer was online before signing off and calling it an early day. Well low and behold there she was! I was so excited that I let out a little squek in the office and the guys all just looked at me funny. I got to talk to Jennifer "live" for over an hour! I miss that girl so so so much and can't wait for her return on December 14.

After all of this I have concluded that even if you have had a bad day you need to brush it off your shoulders and just keep on going. Jennifer told me this today and it is so true "remember that God loves you more than the number of stars in the sky, and He shows you each and every day. just take the time to look for it."

Celebration in the mist of losing a friend

On January 30, 2009 I lost two of my friends, Emily Paige Long and Brittany Shea Wells. I went to school and grew up together in the youth group at our church with them.

Shea, Emily, Shea's boyfriend and another guy were traveling down Three Springs Rd. going to the movies in Emily's car. Shea was driving and was known for driving to fast. Just like any group of young adults they had the music up loud and having a good time but Shea was trying to scare all of them by jerking the car back and forth. She did this one to many times and lost control of the car and it spun and hit a tree splitting the car in half. Shea and her boyfriend died on the scene, Emily was rushed to the hospital where she later passed away, and they other young man survived. None of them had been drinking or under the influence of anything.

It has been hard on everyone who knew them because both girls were full of energy and could make you smile when you were down. I hadn't seen Shea in a long time and regret that I didn't have a lot of contact with her after high school. But recently I have been remembering different times that I was able to share with Emily. One of those times was the last time I was able to go to church camp. We went to Crossing at Cedarmore that year. After worship we went down to our meeting area to talk with Frank about what all had been said in the message that night and just to reflect on things that day. There was a big storm that came through and we were stuck there for a long time. Emily was the type of person who could eat all the time and never gain any weight. Everyone had been talking and cutting up and then we noticed that Emily wasn't around. We all turned around and looked and she had found some donuts and was trying to hide them from us all but Emily wasn't that good at hiding things.

Also that year for some strange reason we didn't have enough beds for all of us girls so we thought hey its camp and we are supposed to be bonding so lets all push out bunk beds together and make one big bed. So that year we did and some how Emily always got in the crack and would yell out in the middle of the night HELP I'M FALLING DOWN!!!!

Yesterday would have been Emily's 20th birthday and her parents wanted to do something for it. So they invited her friends and just people who knew Emily and loved her to come out and celebrate with them at her grave site. I was a little skeptical about it because I wasn't for sure what we would be doing but I'm so glad that I did go. Her family had gotten balloons that said Happy Birthday on them and we could write her a little note on the balloons if we wanted to. We all sang happy birthday to her and then let the balloons go. It was so pretty seeing them all in the sky together and the really neat thing was that when we did let them go its like they all gathered together before floating away. And the whole way up they all stayed together.

It was something that I had never experienced before but something really awesome. Its was a celebration of her life and how she touched us. I know that Emily is up in Heaven having a great time! I can't wait until I get up there and see her beautiful smile again and get to ask her if she ever found out the answer to her question; "If God took the rib out of Adam to make Eve then does Adam have a bellybutton and is that how we got them?"



This is Emily's tombstone with her writing and her drawings. I think this is the coolest thing I have ever seen! Love you EMILY!

Its the little things in life that mean so much

So this past week was kind of an unusual one for me. There were a lot of things that I had planned to do but didn't or couldn't. One of those was going to our church's annual barn service.

After seeing how cold it was going to be I decided not to go to the barn service and go with my parent's to pick up my little cousins for them to come and stay the week with us. When we met Aunt Bev to get the kids we ate at a mexican restaurant, our families favorite. Ever since Lindsey could eat table food she has and she loves salsa! Sometimes that girl will eat it straight from the bowl. This salsa must have been a little to spicy for her because she looks at mom, in the middle of mom ordering her food and says "Aunt Beda this salsa bit my tongue" Everyone got so tickled at her even our server did and she knew that she made us all laugh.

On the way home we decided to stop by Build A Bear Workshop to let Lannie (5) and Lindsey (4) build bears for their birthdays from us. They had never done this before so we knew that we were going to be in for a treat. (I'll blog more about the trip once I download the pictures to my computer)

When we got home last night I was checking my email, facebook, blog, etc. since I had been gone all day. Well Lannie runs back to my room where I was and was like "Hey Sarah Katlyn! Can I watch Life is a Highway because its my favoritest awesome!" How in the world could I tell him no? So of course I gave in and he jumped in my lap and we youtubed life is a highway videos. After we got finished eating supper Lannie said that we wanted to wrestle with my brother. So Trent was a good sport and took Lannie into the living room and wrestled for a good while. Well Lindsey didn't want to miss out on the fun so she joined in. She informed everyone that Trent was the joker, Lannie was Batman, she was Wonder Women, and I was Wonder Women's grandmother but then turned into Cat Women.

These kids have a wild imagination but its so much fun at the same time! I'm sure before the end of the week is over so much more will be said.

Sunday Preview

This week has been so much fun! A lot of my plans from last week changed but that's totally fine. I'll blog tomorrow more about what changed and what I did do this past week. But on to my Sunday Preview :)

* the main thing this week is that my little cousins are in town!! i'm so excited about that. they are 4 and 5 and full of energy. i just want to skip classes and play with them

* i have my first women's choir concert!! wednesday we are sining at BGHS and then friday night is our concert

* we have a moo crew bonfire that i'm pumped about! well the bonfire part at least

* i get to see my amazing girls from dgroup. i didn't get to see them this past week :-(

i'm sure that there will be other random things that happen but that is the main things. hope you all have a wonderful week!

You Won't Relent

Tuesday night at BCM the band played a new song called "You Won't Relent" by Misty Edwards click here to watch When they started playing the song I knew it before they even started singing it because over the summer I had heard it when Tyler came down for the weekend. At the time that I heard it this summer I didn't pay much attention to the words. I thought it was a pretty song but didn't think much about it.

When the band played it Tuesday night I fell in love with the song! There was just something about it the song that just drew me to it. The words in it are so true
You won't relent
Until You have it all
My heart is Yours

I'll set You as a seal upon my heart
As a seal upon my arm
For there is love that is as strong as death
Jealousy demanding as the grave
And many waters cannot quench this love

Come be the fire inside of me
Come be the flame upon my heart
Come be the fire inside of me
Until You and I are one

When God is pursuing you to do his work and wanting to work in your heart he doesn't give up. He keeps at you until you finally give in and let him do what he wants to. I know this from experience and once you give control to God it is amazing what he will do in your life! There are times in my life that I wonder where God is going with things but I know that he has a much bigger plan for my life than I can ever imagine and to me that's so amazing to know!

As I think back on what my life was a year ago, I can see how God is using me and sculpting me in to the women he wants me to be. I just have to remind myself to sit back and let God take full control. God's got this!

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Preview

Just like every week in my life it seems to be really crazy! So I was thinking today of something fun to do for my blog and I thought of this.....Sunday Previews. I'll kinda give you a heads up of what's going to be going on in my week and what all I'm looking forward to. I know random and some people might not care but I thought it would be fun :)

So this week isn't going to be as crazy as some but it will be fun!

• Tuesdays are my favorite days of the week! I go to yoga with some girls from class, I have Dgroups and I absolutely love the girls in my group! We have some random people but its fun, then I eat with my best friend in the world, and to finish up the night with 180 worship with the BCM :)
• Wednesday I have a meeting with my advisor and this should be really interesting to see what she is going to say... little nervous about that. I have church and then Glee comes on :)
• Thursday is Grey's Anatomy night! Wuhu ♥ it!!
• Friday is the Hilltopper Histeria that I'm super pumped about! I love basketball season, espically when our football team is like the worst in the country!
• Saturday is another home football game....maybe painting up with some guys from the BCM....not sure yet
• Sunday I'm super pumped about!! Its our church's 9th annual Barn Service! It is one of my favorite times of the year! And my little cousins who I just adore are coming up for the week! I'm so excited to be able to spend some time with them

I'll blog more about what happens during the week but just wanted to give you a little preview

Metalfest Recap

I can't believe that we worked for 4 months on Metalfest and its over! But in that 4 months God taught not only the whole group but myself a lot!! When you work at something, want it hard enough, and its in God's time then it will happen, you just have to keep your faith in God and let him control things and not try to do everything on your own. We had so many troubles and trials, doors slammed in our faces, and jumped through so many hoops and it was all worth it! When I heard that first drum beat Saturday night I knew that we did it!! All total we had about 300 people show up for Metalfest. Originally wanted to do this and reach the high school age group but once it was moved to campus then we thought that we would reach more college students but that was the total opposite. We had people of all ages come out for it. There was even one little girl who it was her 8th birthday and all she wanted to do for her birthday was come to metalfest. Wendi and I were talking with her parent's afterwards and they didn't realize that it was a Christian rock concert but they were so happy to know that it was. They said to us "We didn't realize that all Christian music isn't all hymns and praise and worship but that you can rock out to Jesus with some rock music."

The night before Metalfest and the gals of The Bonevalley Project

Just about everyone who helped with Metalfest

Cord of 3

Burning Yesterday

This Fires Embrace

Steve from This Fires Embrace
I love this picture because it looks like his head is in 3 different places at once

The awesome and amazing T Benton

Yes T is playing a saw blade

White Collar Sideshow

God is so awesome and amazing!! We might never know if someone was reached at Metalfest this year but deep in my heart I feel that someone was touched by something that was said at Metalfest. Satan was working and trying to not allow this to happen but God and his army of angels are so much more powerful and amazing that we over came everything for this to happen. All of this couldn't have been possible without God. He is the one who truly planned this. All we did was just follow what he told us to do. I hope in years to come that we can keep this event going and it get bigger and bigger every year.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us during this event and time. We could feel your prayers everyday and especially on Saturday!

The Big Day!

So its the big day!!! Its October 3....the day that The Bonevalley Project has been planning for for 4 months! And as we like to say it.....it all started with ideas on an IHOP box on the road back home from Ichthus

I can't believe that its the actual day! For so long I had no clue if this was even going to happen or not. We were hitting so many road blocks and having so many people tell us NO that I just wasn't for sure. But through all of this God as taught me and everyone from BVP so much! We have learned patience, perseverance that just because one person says no doesn't mean that you quit, strength in each other as well as in ourselves, and how to control our tounges.

When I was walking around campus yesterday I was thinking about how much my life has changed in a year. Last October was a turning point in my life and it has been an amazing journey so far! I never knew that when I got out of that relationship that God would use my life so much like he has right now! I have grown closer to him, my friends,gotten more involved with BCM and so much more! Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be a key part of an amazing ministry that God is getting started here. I can't wait to see what else God has in store for my life and for The Bonevalley Project.