The Joys of Babysitting...

Today I've been babysitting for family friends. They are such a cute bunch. There are three of them. One's ten, another four, and the baby is two. Their names are Jonathan, Jenni, and Justin. The baby Justin is my favorite! He is such a little flirt. Makes me want to have kids...when I'm married and that won't anytime soon. It just amazes me that Justin puts so much trust in me. We have stairs at our house, but the kids don't. The two youngest love to crawl up and down the stairs. I'm always a little worried that they're going to fall, but both of them have complete trust that I'll catch them (I'm not 100% sure myself...I hope I will).

It made me think about what if I was able to trust Christ like Jenni and Justin trust me. Because the kids trust me so much they try almost everything (to my dismay sometimes) and have the courage to explore. It just made me think about all the things that I could accomplish with God's help, knowing that if I stumble He will catch me when I fall (100% of the time). And that He will rejoice with me when I accomplish what He has set before me, the way I do when Justin walks down the stairs holding the railing (with me waiting in the wings to make sure he doesn't tumble down the stairs).

God has been showing me a lot about trusting Him that last couple of days. My favorite verse, ironically is Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and he will make your path straight." Well, I guess this is my thought for the day. Everyone have a wonderful New Years and talk to you later!

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (and yes Debby, I ended my headline with an exclamation point...what does that bring the percentage to now? he, he). The only thing I really wanted for Christmas was a digital camera and that's what I got. I am so excited!!! I just need to get motivated to go take pictures...my first opportunity will probably be New Years.

Don't have any big plans this break. Some of my goals have been to exercise and read some good books. I have only accomplished one of these goals and I bet you can all guess which one I haven't followed through with. I took a Nutrition class last semester and found out that I have horrible eating habits and that if I don't start exercising soon that I'm going to be prone to so many different diseases and health problems. I'm trying to focus on the verse in James that talks about if you know you ought to do something, but don't do it- that that's a sin.

I'm only taking 12 credit hours next semester, so I should have more time to exercise, to work, and to start a bible study for me. I'm thinking about doing a Beth Moore study...A Woman's Heart: God's Dwelling Place. I've heard some great things about it. I just need to go buy it. The break has been hard. Most of my friends have gone home for the holidays, so it's just been me and my family. It's hard, 'cause I'm used to being around so many different people all the time. God'd been showing me a lot about being content with what he has given me. Anyway, my dad ordered pizza and it should be arriving any minute...so I hope everyone has a great holiday break and talk to you all later.

Change is good.

I love the color pink. Most of the time. I think I was getting pretty sick of all the pink, so I decided to do another template. I've been trying to figure out how to add a picture to my profile. I figured out how to send my blog pictures through "hello," but I haven't figured out how to embed them in my text or the profile. If anyone can show me how to do that I would be very greatful! Well I hope every had a great Thanksgiving and hope to hear from you'll soon.

Wow, time sure flies!

I am a really bad poster! You'd think being a Creative Writing major, I would be really good at posting on a blog. Apparently, I'm not. I got back safely from Oklahoma! I miss everybody a lot. It was hard coming back because I can't really explain to anyone my connection to my friends from PI. God really blessed me that weekend and I am so thankful that I could go.

Last Friday, Refuge had a girls night and the subject was purity : in speech, dress, actions, ect. I was really nervous because I was going to speak on purity in dress. I usually do fine when I speak, but get get really nervous up until that point and then I'm fine. I had a great time and we had about 25 girls show up. The discussion was wonderful and all the girls had some really good bonding time. I love sharing my opinions (and boy do I have a lot of them)...But halfway through it I felt like God wanted me to be quiet and that I should listen to the other girls talk. It was amazing. Mostly the freshmen and new girls talked and they had some pretty interesting things to say. I was blessed.

I have one more class for the whole week and I am excited! Well I gotta do some homework. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and only about 2 weeks left of school!

I'm in Norman...and it's raining in Tucson

I am now in Norman, OK. It's been great so far. I was told before I came that it would be a surprise as to who was going to pick me up from the airport. I was very curious. When I got off the plane in Norman I was toward the baggage claim and I see this really tall guy dressed in green jumping up and down. It had to be Alex Armstrong...and to his right Debby Adams and Tony Wu. The original three that picked me up from the airport Chicago over this summer! They even had a sign with my name on it. Though, they did make fun of the fact that my suit case was reallt heavy...for a four day trip. This reason for the heavy suit case is that I packed every (or most) long-sleeved shirts and sweaters that I owned so that I would freeze. The funny thing, speaking of weather, is that the weather man said this morning that it's raining in Tucson, Arizona. Wow. I guess the rain was waiting for me to leave. Anyway, today is going to be awesome. Shopping, seeing my favorite little girl Anna, and going out to eat with everyone from the Project. God is so Good!

Look Out Norman, Here I Come!

This week is going to be a very exciting week for me...I'm going to Norman, Oklahoma to visit some very dear friends...family even! I've been looking forward to this trip for months. I'm excited because I'm going to be able to hang out with friends from Project Impact: Chicago, wear "winter" clothes, and see a real live college football game!

I'm going shoe shopping on Wednesday. I need some comfortable, closed-toed shoes so I don't freeze my toes off. I'm addicted to flip-flops and will wear them any season in Arizona (for those of you that don't live in Arizona, we only have two seasons: summer and winter). I love winter clothes, it's just sad that winters in Arizona are very short. They are nice though. School is going pretty slow this week, so I'm not as busy. The down side to that is that the time isn't flying as fast as it usually does. I guess I can be patient. Well I gotta go. I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Go Bush!

It was so depressing yesterday. My campus was in total mourning over the fact that Bush won. Not many people talked and when they did it was in hushed tones and when the name Bush was heard usaully a very profane word followed. But I was so overjoyed that he won. My sunday school teacher home schools her kids and she gave them the day off...like a holiday. I couldn't stop smiling.

Tuesday night after Refuge, a group of us went to T.G.I. Fridays and watched the results from the voting until about 11 pm. We discussed what we would do if Kerry won. Some said they would flee to Canada. Others discussed going over seas and learning 4 different languages over the course of 4 years(this was all said jokingly). I feel more secure now...not that I put my faith in one man, but I'm glad that Bush is still in office and Kerry is only in the Senate.

God is so Good! And He Does the Unexpected!

I'm not very big on Halloween. It just wasn't a thing that we did every year at my house. So last night instead going to costume parties, my friend Shannon and I were going to see a musical and have a girls night out (single friends are very scarce these days). It's a long story but we didn't end up going. Instead we went over to the Marriot Hotel, across the street from Refuge, and sat in their nice, comfortable chairs and had a really good talk. It was just what I needed. Then we were invited to come over to a friend's house and play Monopoly. I had a blast! I was the banker. I love managing money. It was really funny...I forgot how serious people can be about Monopoly!

Tonight, I'm helping out our church with it's Harvest Festival. It's another opportunity to reach out to the community and it's another alternative to trick-or-treating. I'm the candy girl this year. I get to run all over the place and make sure that all the boothes have enough candy. I love seeing all the cute little kids dressed up for Halloween. Last year this cute little toddler was dressed up as a lady bug and she was so adorable! Anyway it should be a lot of fun. I was up late last night so I think I'm going to go take a nap.

What I think about "Saved"

Instead of going to Night Fall last night, which is like a spooky haunted house/show at Old Tucson, I went over to a friends house with a bunch of people and watched "Saved" with Mandy Moore. I had heard some things about it from friends and was interested in seeing it. After watching it I was pretty much disgusted.

The basic plot of the movie is about the perfect Christian girl who gets saved when she's little. She goes to the perfect Christian school, has the perfect Christian friends and boyfriend (which is fine...that's the first couple minutes of introduction...But after that the story goes down hill). Her life is dandy until her boyfriend tells her he's gay. She tries to make him un-gay (I know that's not a real word, for all of those grammar and spelling freaks out there) by sleeping with him and sacrificing her virginity for a good cause. His parents find out that he's gay and send him to a rehab facility. She finds out she's pregnant. Her Christian friends find out and make her an outcast and the only person who accepts her is the Jewish girl who is an outcast because she hasn't accepted Christ and goes to a Christian school. It all ends happily with the girl dating the PK, her ex-boyfriend seeing his roommate from rehab, her mother dating the pastor who's married and they had all learned to accept and each other for who they were as people.

The objective of the movie was basically to mock Christians, Christian private education, and Christ. It was probably PG-13...But it had bad language, sex, drug references, ect. Not a good movie to watch in mixed company, which we found out the hard way-which probably made the movie that much more horrible. "Saved" is the outside world's view of Christians. Some of it you couldn't help but laugh at, but most of it was bad. I think the thing that disturbed me more than the movie was that we didn't turn it off. Afterward driving home with my brother, I just couldn't stop thinking about that. Why don't we as Christians flee from this type of garbage? I am so guilty of this. Why is it that we feel we have to sit through and movie like this and justify that is has some redeeming qualities [it didn't]? I'm not trying to be judgmental...I just need to vent. And maybe God brought some good things out of watching this movie for me... I feel a lot more convicted about guarding my heart against stuff like that and it drew me closer to Christ. I guess God can create something wonderful out of some thing perverted.

Sorry for the delay in Comments!

I have just been so busy lately! Things are going well for me in Tucson! The semester is almost over and Christmas is just around the corner. Last night I attended a Ramadan Fast-a-than feast. The Muslim Student Association sponsored the event at the U of A. Third parties would donate money for each person that signed up for the fast and donate it to the food bank in Tucson. So me and a couple of friends signed up to learn about Ramadan and it was a really cool opportunity to talk about our faith and watch the eclipse.

It is two weeks exactly before I arrive in Norman, OK. I am so excited! I've been saving up money for "warm" clothes. This weekend me and my mom are going to hit the mall. Shopping always makes me smile. The Star Wars Trilogy is out on DVD and I've been thinking about buying it...But I might wait to get it for Christmas.

Last weekend I went with a bunch of girls to a Corn Maze. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. It was a huge maze constructed in the shape of a very familiar wildcat in a very vacant field of corn (we weren't allowed to pick the corn). We got lost for 2 hours and then managed to find our way out.

I haven't really had a chance to read anything new yet, which has been a bummer. Well I gotta go.

The story begins...by Sarah

Hey! I started this blog by(or is it on) accident. I was trying to post on someone else's blog and here I am now creating my own. Well I don't know what I'm going to do with this blog...it might turn into something interesting. Well here's a little about me:

1) I'm a Christian. I believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for all the sins of mankind. I believe that it you realize that you are a sinner in need of a savior, and that you believe in Jesus and what He did for you, that you will have eternal life in Heaven. (If you have any questions about this please comment.)

2) I love to write and am a hopeless romantic.

3) I love to read books. A LOT! ( I should probably do a recommend booklist. That would be fun!)

4) I am an ex-yearbook nerd!

5) I love Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Sci-Fi/Fantasy in General.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully in a couple of days I'll figure out what I what to do, so until then I hope God blesses you!