Living My Dreams

My life lately has been very busy, but I've been having a lot of fun! Last weekend was Homecoming - my fourth that I have planned, which is crazy! Our theme this year was "Living Your Dreams" and it was such a good weekend. I think it was probably the best that I've planned yet. Everything went really smoothly and it was great! It was fun to see old, and new friends and reminisce about my time at HPU. Sometimes its easy to forget about actually being a student here, since I've worked at the school all this time.

Now, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Washington, D.C. (my favorite US city!) on a trip with students from the Model UN team at HPU. We left Austin yesterday morning at 7:00 a.m. and have already had a full schedule of events! I took some of the students around the National Mall last night, which I can just NEVER get enough of! My American pride is just always bursting at the seems as soon as the Washington Monument comes into view. We went to the Smithsonian for a bit before it closed, then walked to the White House and saw the monuments at night. It was really beautiful! This is amazingly my fifth time in DC (my 2nd this year!) but my 1st time to see the city in the fall and it is so beautiful! I love all of the trees changing colors - we don't get as much of that in Texas!

Today we got a tour of the Capitol building, which was really great. An intern from Congressman Mike Conaway's office did a great job (I must admit, it was a lot more thorough than the tours I gave as an intern for Sen. Hutchison several years ago, haha) spending over 2 hours with us and taking us all over the building. It's always fun to go there and I think the students enjoyed it too. Tonight they started their conference so I am going to the Kennedy Center to see City Dance Ensemble: Latitude. I'm not sure what to expect, but I love dancing, so I'm sure it will be great!

Deep in the Heart of Texas

This weekend I went to Dallas with my friend Candice and we had so much fun! On Saturday we met my mom and sister Jamie and headed to the State Fair! It has been years since I've been the fair and it was fun to be back. It just happened to be the Texas v. OU game, and can I just say, I have never seen so much burnt orange in my life! There were 90,000 people at the game, and I think I saw everyone of them! Whew it was crazy! That night we stayed for the Miranda Lambert concert, which was really good! I've never actually heard her music before, but she was a good entertainer, and she's a Texan, so obviously she was awesome!

On Sunday, we pick up Jamie and two of her new college friends - Allison and Erin - and headed back to downtown Dallas for the grand opening of the new AT&T Performing Arts Center. The entire arts district was free for the day and there were constant performances, so needless to say, we were very entertained. We saw dancers, acrobats, a jazz band and a Grammy award winning flutist. Here's some pictures from the weekend.

Me, Mom, Jamie and Big Tex

Mom and her new ride

Me and J before the concert

Miranda Lambert

J and her friend Allison


These crazy guys from "Anti-Gravity" - an acrobatic team that did amazing stunts!

Candice and I outside the Performing Arts Center

Books, books, books

So, as many of you already know - I LOVE books! Recently I have signed up for two new books programs that are both really unique and exciting to me, so I thought I'd share them with you.

Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger

Probably about a month ago now I heard about this program with Thomas Nelson publishers through my friend Katie and immediately I signed up! Basically here's how it works: Thomas Nelson ( a Christian publishing company) sends me a free copy of one of their recently released books, and I will review it for them on my blog (so, readers of my blog - be aware that book reviews will be forthcoming on here!). It doesn't matter whether I like the book or not, they just want me to share my opinion and post it on an additional book review website as well. As soon as I complete the review, I'm eligible for another FREE book.

I'm so excited about this and I already have my first book - it's called What Difference Do It Make? and it's written by the same authors who wrote Same Kind of Different As Me. I won't tell you anything about the book yet, so that you can look forward to that soon (probably after Homecoming, the way my life is going right now). This makes me feel important, because someone actually wants to hear my opinion on books! I read all of the time, so why not tell others about it and get free books in the process?

Paperback Swap

The other book website that I have signed up for is called Paperback Swap and it is exactly what it says it is. I have registered on the site and posted some of my old paperbacks that I don't want any more. Once I posted 10 (which suprising wasn't that difficult to find on my overflowing bookshelf), I was eligible for 2 credits - meaning that I was eligible to request two books from other members. The only payment that is involved is when someone requests one of my books, I am responsible for the shipping costs. But, as soon as the other person receives it, I get a credit for another book of my choice. I have already had someone request one of my books and I plan on mailing it off in the morning. It's kind of like an internet library - but the cool thing is that if I really love a book, I can just keep it! If it's not that great - I'll just post it back on the site and get another one.

I thought my fellow book lovers would be interested in these two neat websites! Here are the links if you want to sign up for yourself! Happy reading!

http://brb.thomasnelson.com/

http://www.paperbackswap.com/

Saying Goodbye

Today I said goodbye to my sweet friend Danielle, who is headed to East Asia to serve as a missionary. She will be gone for the next two years, following the call that the Lord has placed upon her life to serve people in a country thousands of miles away that she has never been to. I didn't think that I would get to see her again before she left, and so today was a great surprise!

I am so thankful for Danielle and for her precious friendship. We became friends about a year and a half ago, at a time when I really needed a friend. We had gone to school together for three years, but never knew each other, and it wasn't until we had both graduated that we bonded over One Tree Hill and became lifelong friends! I know that the Lord brought us together as friends at exactly the right time! Danielle was my travel buddy last summer to Europe where we went to five cities in three countries in nine days. It was an awesome trip! Now, she is embarking on a new journey and I am so proud of her and look forward to seeing the amazing things that God is going to do in and through her over the next two years!

Hopefully our goodbye today was only for about six months, because my plan is to go see her in her new home over Spring break in March. I am so thankful for modern technology that will allow us to stay connected while being far away. Knowing that we can skype, email, facebook and more made the goodbye much more bareable today. All the same, it was still hard to say goodbye.

Empty Bowls

It has been a while since I have blogged - mainly because life has been pretty busy lately and at the same time, I haven't really known what would be interesting enough to blog about. But here's something that's really neat that I am involved with right now.

Empty Bowls

I am on a leadership team that is planning an event in Brownwood on November 6 to raise money and awareness for hunger needs in our community. It's called Empty Bowls and all of the money raised is going to feed hungry people. My responsibility is publicity - so basically getting the word out. It is so neat to be a part of an event like this, outside of work, where I am able to use talents that God has given me to help others.

One thing I know that I am good at is talking - and anyone that knows me well can testify to that. I love talking with people and sharing with them things that I know. Whether that is the crazy story I saw on the Today show that morning ( I always tend to catch the 7:30 - 8:00 a.m. segment with the "you'll never believe this" human interest stories rather than the actual certifiable news), something I read in a book, a story I heard from a friend, etc. Meredith (my college roommate) used to ask me if I had a word limit that I had to get in each day because it just never seemed like I could run out of things to say.

Well, God has given me the awesome opportunity to use that gift for His glory. My job everyday is to tell others about the great things at HPU - and I love it! I actually get paid to write stories about things that are happening, update people on facebook and twitter and find new ways to tell stories - and it's so much fun!

Now, I am being blessed by being able to help with this new Empty Bowls project and get the word out about this awesome day devoted to helping feed hungry people in my community. 90 % of the profits on Nov. 6 are going to local hunger needs and the tithe of 10% is going to an organization called Heifer International which helps hungry people around the world. My biggest prayer right now is that people will come the day of the event, so if you are in town, please stop by from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. at the Depot. We are praying and planning for 500 people. The suggested donation is $10, so we could potentially raise $5,000 for hunger in one day. We are also having a silent auction, which could raise our profits even more. You can click here to read the story I wrote about the Empty Bowls project. We are also looking for lots of volunteers to serve all day that day, so if you are interested, let me know!

It's neat to be a part of this planning committe, (headed up by Dr. Gramling, Katy Blackshear and about 10 students) and see the amazing things that Lord can do through people that come together for His glory. I pray that God will be glorified through this event and that people will truly be impacted.

I'll end this post with some scripture that Dr. Gramling shared tonight from Isaiah 56:6-10:

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday."