I feel like I could write about eight trillion different things. But instead I'm going to type an extremely unorganized blog that might not make a lot of sense, and you're just going to have to deal with that, friends. =]

Random thoughts on going home:
-my parents really are the greatest parents in the whole world...I know I'm biased, but I really, truly believe it.
-my sister is growing up really fast and is becoming this mature, spiritually grounded, incredible young woman that I'm so blessed to have in my life.
-my brother is still one of the funniest people I know and I really do love the relationship we have.
-my high school friends are beautiful and wonderful and God had prepared me way more than I knew for the time I spent with them.
-Keila is still my very best friend in the whole world.
-my dog hates me, or at the very least did not miss me at all.
-God uses people/situations to humble me when I least expect it.
-I had a lot of fun when I lived there, but I'd never want to go back.
-God is doing exciting things in Texas.
-It was a great week...long, spiritually-challenging, and overwhelming but incredible, refreshing, and fun too.

Random thoughts on coming back to Auburn:
-it's so so good to be home =]
-it'd be a lot better if we had won last night ((or at least scored))
-I love living here
-I'm really not excited about exams
-somehow my roommate and I accidentally unplugged our fridge and now it smells and our food is ruined...goody.
-God is doing exciting things in Auburn.
-Alabama is way more beautiful than Texas.

Only 17 days till we get out for Christmas break and I drive to Dallas again. I'm looking forward to having this semester done with and spending Christmas with my family and friends. But until then, I'm excited to see what all God has planned for my life and the lives of people I love so much in the next 17 days. I'm blown away by his power and the perfection of his love.

Check out this excerpt from my November 2004 blog:

This week has been very interesting to say the least. I ruined my family's thanksgiving...
You see our dining room table is not quite big enough to fit my whole family and our food so we have these little leaf things that fold out from the sides of the table and hinge up or something like that. So i walk into the dining room @ 2:30 on thanksgiving afteroon. My mom had set up all the food, her grandmother's china plates and dishes, all of our food which she made completely from scratch...minus the turkey obviously..., candles and a beautiful flowered centerpiece. ((She usually goes all-out on holidays.)) Needless to say it was a beautiful table and my mom decided she wanted to take a picture of it. So she went into the kitchen and I decided to sit down at the table and wait for the rest of the familiy to get their drinks and w/e. And just as i gently put my hands on the edge of the table-leaf to sit down, it all went crashing down. Apparently the leaf was not hinged correctly or something so it just dropped along with all of my mom's homemade food, my great grandma's china, and pretty much most of our meal. Excluding the turkey and like one casserole. I just stood up and started crying. She worked all day on that food to make our thanksgiving like awesome and i ruined it. Her initial reaction of course was like "what the heck happened?!?" but after realizing that it was not completely my fault everyone calmed down and moved our turkey, and sweet potato casserole into the breakfast area to enjoy a small, but lovely thanksgiving meal. But if you know my family then you would know that i am probably not going to hear the end of it for a very long time. You would think that after 3 days of making fun of me, my dad and brother would have lived it down...but no. The punches just keep on coming.

...I still hear about it today.
Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm home =]
I'm excited and nervous and scared and thrilled.
Updates later.

I'm a failure.
I fail at a lot of things.
And sometimes it really brings me down.
But I read a quote the other day, and I can't remember it exactly, but it was something along the lines of - Christians and the church shouldn't be afraid of failure, we should be afraid of succeeding at things that don't matter.
There's a big lesson there.
And I'm excited to learn it.

I miss sleep.

"Would it not be an encouragement to a subject, to hear his prince say to him, You will honor and please me very much, if you will go to yonder mine of gold, and dig as much gold for yourself as you can carry away? So, for God to say, Go to the ordinances, get as much grace as you can, dig out as much salvation as you can; and the more happiness you have, the more I shall count myself glorified."
-Thomas Watson

Now I'm not sure how I feel about saying "as much salvation as you can" because I believe that salvation is a gift given only once when we believe and receive Jesus Christ...but thats not the point. The point is we have every opportunity to enjoy Christ and it makes absolutely no sense that we don't. "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him."

What if we started looking as radicaly living for Christ as the norm instead of the extreme? What if we enjoyed Christ by being compeltely satisfied in Him, glorifying Him in doing so, every single day? It's not impossible. And I don't really think its an option. When did we start thinking it was?

I know that God's timing is perfect.
I know that I am called to be patient.
I know that I need the next 16 days to prepare my heart for the week of Thanksgiving.
But oh my gosh I CANT WAIT to come home!
Yes, I am nervous. I'm not the same person I was when I left...and the relationships back home will/should be altered because of it.
But I just want to be there. I want to hang out with my parents. I want to spend time with my sister who is growing up with out me there. I want to see my brother for the first time in a really long time. I want to go to starbucks on 407 and jamba juice and which wich. I want to go to Crossroads. I want to see my dog. And I REALLy want to sleep in my bed.
I love it here and don't really want to change a thing, except maybe, just for November 22nd, move it a little closer to Dallas.
Because it's going to be the longest 12 hour drive I've ever made.

If you've never been to Alabama in the fall. Come. Right now.
Not only would I love to see you, but you would love to see it here.
The colors of fall are unbelievable.
And you have no idea what the sunsets are like. People here joke that God is an Auburn fan because the oranges and blues in the sky at sunset are so incredible.
I think it's true.
And I don't understand how people can see it, but not see Him.
And I don't understand why we aren't constantly praising Him.
And I don't understand how people can deny Him.
He's right here. Holding out His arms. Dying for us to run to Him.
He's painted this beautiful, incredible, unbelievable, unimaginable view for us - creation testifying to His glory - and we don't see it.
We turn away.

"Oh to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let that grace now like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above."

Ordered chinese food today with my roommate.
Opened up the fortune cookie...it said this: "The coming month shall bring you much happiness."

I really hope so.

Although it probably won't be through Auburn football. And it definently won't be through the three exams and two projects I have due in the next few weeks.

But I am pretty happy about the fact that I'm going home in only 20 days. I can't wait to see my family and sleep in my bed and see all my friends. I'm a little nervous though...I feel like I've changed a lot since I've been here, and I'm sure everyone else has too. So I'm a little anxious about how it will be with all my old friends.

I guess I'll find out soon enough though.
And on the bright side, it for sure won't be weird with my family and I'm SO excited to hang out with them.

Anyway, I'm mostly just rambling now when I should be sleeping or studying or writing for nanowrimo.

But I just wanted to let everyone know that Novemeber was going to bring me much happiness and you should all be jealous. =]