Why Thank You

Today I'm pretending that I'm here in my daydreams.

Yep, I'm delayed, but I was with my family out in Philly for Thanksgiving and was a tad distracted to post the traditional and slightly expected "Thanks" post orrr an Awesome and Awkward Thursday. Terrible of me, I know.
But there are lots of things to be thankful for.
Today I am thankful for my Jesus who loves me anyway
and daydreams.

Except that I should stop daydreaming and get on finishing my Children's Lit project, my Social Studies questions are trying to grab my attention as well. To them I both say, Can it be May?
(oh and I rhymed, a sign that I should continue on my merry way in procrastination? I rather thought so myself as well.)

And here's one more thing.
I know that it was just Black Friday and your probably tapped from all the sales and brightly colored, attractive things that begged you to bring them home with you. But in the spirit of Giving that Black Friday hopefully put you in, would you consider donating $5 to Invisible Children? Our goal is atleast a million by December 14th and only you can help us get there.
If you don't have the money, I understand, I'm a college student and I know there are a hundred worthy charities. But if you happen to find a 1, 5 or 20 laying around anywhere, child soldiers in Central Africa would really appreciate it and so would I.
Check out the Invisible Children movement on my page HERE.

Have a wonderful thankful day.
What did you thank God for this Thanksgiving?

Busy Bees

Just a quick outfit post because I've been so,so busy with Invisible Children advocacy and whatnot. It's going so well!

                          

Dress: Von Maur Sweater & Scarf: F21 Belt: AE

Need some inspiration for your day? "Don't ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. Because what the world needs is for people to come alive." -Howard Thurman (courtesy of Fourth Estate)

What makes you come alive? 

Awesome and Awkward Thursday

OK, technically it's not Thursday anymore, but it's still Thursday in California so I say let's go with it..
Awkward: 

People grabbing your attention just as you pop something in your mouth. "umm, oh hi." with lots of bagel in between. 

Not hearing what someone said and laughing because you think that's what you're supposed to do. I spent quite a bit of my Wednesday doing this.

Walking with giant paper turkeys across campus on a windy day. I tell you, I got some second glances when my feathers started blowing in the wind.

Awesome:

Developing friendships with really sweet people, girls on my floor and people I've just known since freshman year but hardly ever hang out with.

Ethan arriving safely in the states from the Dominican Republic where he was for a week. (Horray!)

Dining Commons Thanksgiving Dinner with the floor.  

New Invisible Children Fundraiser. What is it you ask, here's a hint:

My Mom

That's her!

Who Wants Some Pretty Things?

My dear friend Julianne makes these adorable headbands and hair pins- they're called Creations with a Cause. All proceeds go to Invisible Children to end the longest running war in Africa and save abducted child soldiers. They are only Five dollars a set (what a deal!), oh-so-cute and a great cause. 

Wouldn't you like one? Go on over HERE and get yourself one. Oh and you'll be saving lives with Invisible Children at the same time, serious win-win.

They come in a variety of colors and styles, handmade just to your tastes!

And now for our regularly scheduled programming, Awkward and Awesome Thursday.

Awkward:

Walking through Toledo, Ohio. Apparently there are no other women who live in Toledo, not one. 

My voice this past weekend, it sounded rather like the cookie monster. Silly sore throats. 

The fellow of rather short stature who called me "baby." I'm about a foot taller than you, sir and I've never seen you before, how would I be considered "baby?"

Leaving a voice mail while someone calls at the same time, that should-I-finish-the-message/ where-is-that-beeping-coming-from jumble of words that is now recorded in someone's cellular mailbox.

Awesome: 

My new scarf, it's warm and cozy and followed me around the store with puppy-dog eyes, I had to bring her home. 

 Getting lunch with friends! 

Meeting my  friend Julianne in Ohio yesterday! She leaves for England in less than two weeks. (I love to say she's going to England, look at my friends: world travelers!)

Peppermint ice cream in the Dining Commons- I never eat DC dessert, today I had it twice. Yipes.  

The snow, although I'm not sure he yet deserves to be in the Awesome category, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt because my new scarf is keeping me so warm. But watch it, Mr. Snow, you make me slip and fall and you're going straight to the Awkward category. 

 Those lovely Creations with a Cause from before, I can't wait for mine to come in the mail!

  

5 Things I Learned Today

1. Tiger cubs are only 3 pounds when they're born. Only 3 pounds. 

2. To go to the ATM before you cancel your only credit card and reorder it.. oops

3. Sharks never sleep because they can't stop swimming (just keep swimming, just keep swimming...).

4.  November can be warm and glorious.

5. The first hot air balloon ride was on September 19, 1783 and contained only farm animals. 

Today was Informal Non-fiction day in my Children's Lit class, can you tell?

The Fourth Estate

The Fourth Estate this past summer was such a big event that it must be covered multiple times- each time touching one of the wonderful moments, quotes, inspirations that came from such an event. An event on 650 very different people with one like mind- to seek peace and pursue it (Proverbs 34:14) and we are starting with the longest running war in Africa.

I won't give you the stats on the war that has been terrorizing Central Africa for the past 26 years but, if you'd like more information, you can see it from earlier here and here.

So onto a bit of inspiration. I was reminded of this particular bit this past weekend when I got to go down to Indianapolis to a Fourth Estate Reunion with three of my Fourth Estate buddies and a bunch of other people I love. For the first time, Invisible Children released a video of a section of one of the Fourth Estate Sessions- a talk from Gary Haugen. He's the man who started International Justice Mission (IJM)- a team of lawyers who fight for the poor and oppressed all over the world. He had some amazing things to say and I was so happy to get to see him again.

He spoke of a woman who had been in captivity as a sex slave. She had been kept in a closet of a room and raped brutally over and over again for months, maybe years. When IJM rescued her they found that she had scrawled something on the wall. On the wall that she would stare at while men abused her in the worst way she had written Psalm 27:

 The LORD is my light and my salvation— 

   whom shall I fear? 

The LORD is the stronghold of my life— 

   of whom shall I be afraid?

 When the wicked advance against me 

   to devour me, 

it is my enemies and my foes 

   who will stumble and fall. 

Though an army besiege me, 

   my heart will not fear; 

though war break out against me, 

   even then I will be confident.

What tenacious hope. That's what Gary called it, tenacious hope. I think I would have to call it bravery. That's what we need. So many of us get stuck in our lives and because our lives are so small we get scared. Stepping out and doing something that might be bigger than us is scary. We cringe, we cower, and we excuse ourselves.
But then look at this woman, this woman who had everything in the whole world stripped away and she had bravery. She had hope that God was bigger than her circumstances- He was her light and her salvation. And he came through.
God comes through over and over again and I don't know about you but I still get terrified at the smallest and silliest of things.
So, lets take Gary's challenge. Let us live in tenacious hope. Let us believe Psalm 27 so much that we act as if it were true. Let us change the world with our newfound, God-given bravery and tenacious hope.

"These three remain- faith hope and love." -I Corinthians 13:13

Awesome and Awkward

               

Jeans: Nordstrom Tank: Aerie Sweater: Modcloth Scarf: F21

It was far too blustery today for my cold and I to venture outside for pictures ^. 

In my very favorite blog, The Daybook, Sydney (the author of said blog) does "Awesome and Awkward Thursdays." I love them, they're so entertaining and so I thought I'd try my hand at one and possibly make it a regular thing. (Golly, hope she doesn't have it copywrited or anything..I googled it, we're all good.)
So here we go!

Awkward: 

Wearing my old fleece, pink earwarmer from fourth grade on my way to the shower (my ear hurt, don't judge) and two girls looking at me very curiously. "Yep, I feel it necessary to keep my ears warm while I shower..." (For the record I did remove it before I actually got into the shower).

The mosquito-flying-spider-hybrid who landed in my shower. I'd prefer it if you averted your eyes, sir Hybrid-Bug. 

Having fun running back and forth on the metra until Ethan says, "you know that there are other people in this car, right?" Well I did, but it didn't occur to me that they would mind all that much.

 Offering the washing machine I was using to another girl before I finished removing my clothes, "uhh, you left something.."

Awesome:

Eating at Nordstrom's bistro with my Mom on Monday. Nordstrom has the very best food. If you havn't yet tried it, you will be very happy when you do. 

 Washing all my socks last night so that my sock drawer hardly closes! I have a strange likeness of socks, especially the pretty-colored ones.

Lunch with my RA, Meghan today. She's so sweet and cute and kind and all sorts of other wonderful things. You should hear about her family's Thanksgiving traditions, straight out of a picture book!

My morning class being cancelled without any online assignments! Slept till ten! Ten! 

My lovely friend Calla sending me this quote, it's so beautiful:

"May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done." -A Franciscan Benediction

Trains and automobiles

See this blurry fellow and I?

That's Ethan. 

He's my...

boyfriend, 

best friend, 

guy-I-have-kinda-had-a-crush-on-for-the-past-three-years. 

Yep, that's him!

This weekend he and I went to Chicago to play and then jumped the metra and visit these two wonderful people:

                                  

That's Erin and that's Brennen, they're dandy. I've known Brennen since I was 10 and Erin and I met this summer, turns out we went to camp together as kids, went to St. Louis together in high school and finally met in San Diego in college. Go figure. It was so much fun to see them!

Well anyways, I had to introduce you to these three guys, and tell you about a terribly exciting event that ensued on our train ride back. 

Our train hit a car!

It was crazy, a tiny bump and the train stopped and then we were there for two hours while the car was removed from under the train and the tracks and engine were inspected (don't worry, the people who owned the car escaped in plenty of time). It rather exciting if you didn't think about the poor people who just lost their car and the nervous engineer. We stayed there for for two hours and got free snacks and played make a tower with the dried fruit that Ethan didn't like. Twas quite entertaining. 

We had adventures actually in Chicago too, here's the highlights: 

                 

                 

Ethan even let me take his picture! As long as kept him distracted while I was sneaking pictures of us in the bean...he wasn't so into it after that...

Well that was our weekend, how was yours?