A Blessing In Disguise

Whew.  Today was a hard day.  I have a pounding in my head that won't go away no matter how many Advil I take and I just feel physically and emotionally drained.  But in spite of everything, I am thankful.  I am thankful that even in the midst of chaos, I know that it is all part of a greater plan.  I may not see the whole picture now, but I've got someone up there that does and is using situations in my life to guide me to where I am supposed to be.  It will all work out for the better.  So cliche, but it could not be more true.  I have never been thrown into a situation and come out worse off because of it.  Even if it takes weeks, months, years, for me to see the "light" of a situation, I still end up seeing how it worked in my favor and made my life better because of it.  Every single thing that I've been through has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

One of my all-time favorite quotes has never failed me.

There is no circumstance, no trouble, no testing, that can ever touch me until first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ straight through to me.  If it has come that far, it comes with a great purpose.

So for now, I'm going to try and drain this bad day out of my mind, free up some space on my DVR, and get to work on this half gallon of cherry vanilla ice cream.  I'm going to leave you with some of my go-to quotes when I'm feeling down, or betrayed, or just need a reminder that God is in control.

-A

A (Great) Weekend In The Water

What a great weekend.  I love great weekends.  I spent most of my time in the water this weekend, which was wonderful since this was the first time I had the opportunity to put on a swimsuit all summer!  On Saturday, Brandon and I went down to Pueblo Reservoir and met up with some friends and had a great time on the pontoon boat.  We hung out in Party Cove pretty much the whole time.  The funniest thing ever was when we would leave the cove to head back to the marina to pick people up, we forgot to pull the anchor up every single time.  So funny.  One of the times we were leaving, we hooked another boat, that was tied to two other boats, and started pulling them.  Keigan had to get in with his snorkeling googles and untangle the anchor from our prop.  I felt like such a rookie, even though I had no part in driving the boat.

On Sunday, Brandon, Hannah, Julian, Anh, Edward, Arthur, my mom, and I all headed to up Golden, Colorado, about an hour drive, and met up with some good family friends, the Gruzinskis, for some tubing down Clear Creek River.  It was a blast.  The river was cold but refreshing, and even though it was low, everyone still had a good time...even though I'm sunburned today.

Here's instagram to tell you about the day :)

I'm still bummed that it's almost the end of summer and this was the first time that I was out in a body of water in a swimsuit.  My pale skin was not loving it.

-A

The One About Anh

I'm loving having these exchange students.  It's been fun getting to know them and they are both awesome guys and this next year, I'm sure, is going to be full of laughs, adventures, and learning experiences.  But I want to write about Anh (pronounced 'ein') right now.  

I caught Anh doing math...for FUN.  Can you believe that?!
AP Calculus, no less.  Yeesh.

He has such a sweet spirit.  And he is totally the quiet-but-hilarious kind of guy.  He says the funniest things at the most random times.  I know he wasn't meaning to be funny, but we had chicken wings last night, and he at them with, get this, chopsticks and a SPOON!  I don't know how he did it.  Aside from being absolutely hilarious, he is also INCREDIBLY smart.  I've noticed (kind of hard not to cause he's always doing it) that one of his favorite things to do is math...for FUN.  Can you believe that?!  He literally will sit down at the computer or the table, math book open, and do math problems.  He is so passionate about it.  Where the heck was he when I was failing my math classes in high school?!  I'm sure it wouldn't have taken much to convince him to do my math homework for me (just kidding...kind of).

But in all seriousness, I'm noticing something cool about Anh.  He finds joy in everything he does and makes the most of every situation.  He even gets excited about math!!  Like seriously.  It's something valuable that I'm learning from him - to always look on the bright side and find the good in everything.  But not only that, but to enjoy it.  Make the most of every experience.  It's something that really should go without saying, but I forget to do that a lot of times.  I focus on the negatives in a situation cause it's easy to do.  Finding the positive side of things takes a strong person sometimes and a certain amount of determination.  I've always known that it is something I need to do but I've forgotten recently, but Anh has reminded me the importance of it.  I hope I find something I'm incredibly passionate about one day, like Anh is about math.

It's gonna be a cool year with these boys.

-A

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

We have a house full of international guests for a few weeks and I am so excited about that.  Edward, Arthur, and Hannah (sister), from France, Julian from Germany, and Ahn from Vietnam.  It definitely makes for an interesting time.  

Last night, Hannah and I took Edward, Arthur, and Julian (Ahn didn't want to go) to a Rockies baseball game.  The boys had never been to a baseball game; the only time they had ever seen baseball, according to Julian, was when he was watching funny YouTube videos of baseball 'fails.'  So it was an experience.  

We got into Denver, parked, and walked to a restaurant that rivals Chipotle called Illegal Pete's, just four blocks from the stadium.  Hannah met up with a friend she lived in France with while we were there.  I thought it was so funny that Julian ordered nachos there and when we sat down at our table, he looked at me and asked if he was supposed to eat the nachos with his hands and I will never forget the look of horror when I said yes (they eat French fries and even pizza with silverware in Germany).  We ate and walked back to the stadium for the game.  

The boys were so enthralled with the whole experience when we walked into the stadium, whipping out their cameras and taking pictures.  We walked to our seats (unfortunately in the Rockpile, the furthest seats from the field) and then the very entertaining process of trying to explain how the game worked to the boys started.  Turns out that I don't even know the sport that well...and I've come to the realization that it is a very dumb/boring sport.  I think the boys liked it at first, but from where we were sitting, it just looked like the players were just standing around the whole time, so it got rather boring.  They had Dippin' Dots for the first time, participated in 'the wave,' and Arthur bought a foam finger as a souvenir, which he said was a "very American thing."  Too funny.  And hey, the Rockies won!

excuse the bad quality, the pictures came from my iPhone

Exchange Students & A Thankful Moment

German chocolate Julian brought us.

My parents decided to host two international exchange students for the school year.  Ahn, the student from Vietnam, flew in last week and went with my parents to California to pick up Hannah and drive her back to Colorado.  Julian, the student from Germany, flew in tonight.

So there I was at the airport, with about 7 or 8 other families there to pick up kids as well, holding my dinky little welcome sign, waiting for their flight to get in.  Soon enough, a huge group of kids came walking down the hall and I knew it was all the exchange students - I could tell from the style of their clothes.  They all went toward the signs with their names on it, and Julian came up to me and I greeted him with a huge hug and a "welcome to America!"  He was so happy and upbeat, which was surprising considering he was majorly jet-lagged and had been traveling for the last 15+ hours.  I already knew he was going to be like a little brother to me.  We got his bags, got in my car and started to drive to my house.  We talked the whole time in the 40 minute car ride about everything, his life in Germany, what he's looking forward to while he's here, how excited he is for prom and to ride a school bus for the first time (funny, cause I hated riding the bus), etc., but something he said really stuck with me.

I asked Julian why he wanted to come to America and do this exchange program, and his excited response was:

"Why wouldn't you want to come here and live in America, it's like you're on vacation all the time!"

His response caught me off guard.  I definitely don't see living in America as being on vacation.  In fact, I'm always wishing I lived somewhere else and I always find things to complain about.  Then I realized, there are people out there that are jealous of the fact that I live in America. 

I guess you could call it a "thankful moment." 

I take the fact that I live in America - a free country, where I can go out with my friends without the fear of being bombed or go to church with the fear of persecution - for granted.  There are people out there that wake up every morning, having to fight just to survive.  I wake up in the morning, cranky, because my alarm clock is going off and I have to get up to go to work. 

Now yes, I realize Germany (where Julian is from) isn't a third world country and he doesn't have to deal with a daily struggle to survive, but his excitement over something as little (well, not that little) as coming to America really threw me.  I never understood why so many people dream of coming to America to live.  But for them, it stands for something greater - freedom, success, and no longer having to live in fear.

Julian's comment really made me be thankful for the opportunities I have, because I definitely take them for granted and I'm always wishing I had a different life.  But there will always be someone out there that is jealous of what you have. So embrace it. Be thankful.  Don't envy someone else just because they have something you want.  We live in a free country, so you could probably have it too if you worked for it.  Make your dreams happen.  And take a moment every day to think about what you have and be thankful.

-A

Pinterest Project // Jewelry Frame

I have officially been bitten by the Pinterest crafting bug (in case you couldn't tell from my recent blog posts already, haha).  I am so determined to create all the neat things I come across on that site and I feel like I've been living in Hobby Lobby and Michaels.  So last night, I decided to create one of my favorite things I've seen on there - this jewelry frame organizer thing.

I love the whimsical feel about it (maybe it's just the way the photo was edited) and I love that they used tree branches to add a woodsy touch.  I have been looking for a new way to organize and display my jewelry because the square cork board with thumbtacks in it just isn't cutting it anymore.  So I went to Goodwill and found a decent looking frame for only $3.  I wish it had more detail, but I was not about to spend $20+ to buy a more detailed frame from a crafting store.  

I took it home, took out the picture that was already in it, and lightly sanded some of the finishing off, but not all of it.  I wanted it too have some dimension to it and not just be all one solid color.  After sanding it, I took some teal acrylic paint and painted the frame.  While letting it dry, I measured out and cut some sticks to size (I got them at Hobby Lobby for $6 - and there were like 20+ sticks, so I don't have to buy more if I want to make some more of these as gifts).  After letting the paint dry, I spaced out the sticks and glued them down to the back of the frame using a glue gun.  Originally, I used 4 sticks, but because my frame was a little bit shorter, I cut that down to three sticks so it wouldn't be so crowded.  I am in love with the finished product!  So cool, so cheap, and it only took a total of maybe 30 minutes from start to finish.  I paid maybe around $11 for the whole thing.

On a side note,

I was very disappointed to wake up

thinking it was Thursday,

only to come to work and

find out that it's only Wednesday :(

- A

I Am So Over Summer...

I am totally over summer.  *gasp *

Yep, I said it.  I'm over it.  The heat, having to drive with the A/C on all the time, the laziness that comes with the heat...over it.  I would probably feel differently if I had actually been doing summery things like going to the lake, swimming, camping, going to Water World, going to the beach, etc., but I haven't done any of those (I am, however, going white water rafting in a few weeks and I am totally stoked for that). 

I am craving:

the brisk air, peppermint white mochas, sweaters, color-changing leaves, layers, pumpkin spice lattes, bulky scarfs, knee-high boots, neutral colors, leggings, the holidays,

and excuses to cuddle up and keep warm

Ah, just thinking about it makes me want it more. 

When summer comes around, I'm usually excited to finally be able to go outside without wearing a jacket and can finally wear some cute summer dresses.  But I wasn't ready for fall / winter to end this year.  Don't get me wrong, usually I'm desperate for warm weather, flip flops, summer thunderstorms, tank tops, and shorts, but it was different this year.  I still run my heater all day in my office so I can pretend it's freezing outside and I need it to stay warm.  I think my body subconsciously wants fall / winter too, because I have a cold, and I never get those in the summertime - only when it's chilly out and the seasons start to change.  Maybe my cold is a sign that fall is coming sooner.  I wish.  It's still only the beginning of August...we've got a long way to go.

all photos from Pinterest

- A

Instagram Crafts

I am completely obsessed with Instagram.  I love how the filters can add a whimsical feel to my favorite pictures and I love the fact that it changes the images to perfect squares.  I am also obsessed with photo booths.  They are so fun and I totally think they need to make an Instagram photo booth that allows you to print those pictures out.  I would totally have one of those in my house.  I was so excited to find this little project on Pinterest (I find the most awesome things on that site) that shows you how to make Instagram photo strips, like the kind you would get out of a photobooth.  Yay!  Now I can take my favorite images off my iPhone and print them out to display in a creative way.  This is awesome, especially since I am incredibly sick and need something productive to do since I can't really do much else.  The blog doesn't have the actual template she used, but I found this site where it outlines how to do it.  I just made the ratio 1:1 instead of 4:6 and skipped adding a border section, since I was already spacing the photos out.  I also found a list of other fun Instragram projects here, and even though some of them cost money, I think it would be completely worth it.

I ended up making a photo strip of my favorite places. 
I think I'm gonna print them and use them as bookmarks.

Updated:  Also, after poking around a little on the blog that I found the Instagram photo strips on, I found this awesome tutorial on how to make Instagram business cards.  I shoulda thought of that.

- A

I'm Having My Own Pinterest Party

 

So I logged in to Pinterest for the first time in a few months yesterday.  And now, I totally have this Pinterest crafts fever.  I went to Hobby Lobby today and bought 9 canvases, acrylic paints, and other art supplies and I am determined to make some of the things I've seen on Pinterest.  It's Friday night and I'm supposed to go to a concert with Brandon but all I want to do is stay in all night and make stuff.  Who am I?!

I bought four small canvases so
I could try and recreate this one.
I think I'm gonna try to find
some flowers or something and
use that instead of leaves.
I would share a link to
the website, but it's in Ukrainian
or something, plus the
pictures pretty much explain it all.

I'm gonna start with this,
transferring photos to a canvas.
It sounds really simple and
hopefully I won't screw it up,
but the finished product
looks SUPER cool (see the directions here).

The last one looks incredibly cool &
I'm dying to do this (just wish I had a place to hang it).
Apparently, you just put stickers or
something on a canvas, spray the canvas with spray paint,
hang white Christmas lights or the like behind the canvas,
and voila! A freakin' sweet wall hanging.
I have a feeling I'm gonna mess this up though
 . . . also because when you actually
look at the link the photo came from (here),
 it doesn't sound as easy as putting
stickers and painting a canvas.
Update: after roaming the Internet,
I found this site on how to create a canvas like this!

- A

Pinterest Project // House Decor

So lately I've been getting really crafty.  I just spent a good two hours on Pinterest and I've decided I need to make these things ASAP.   

 

These just look like so much fun to make!  

Totally wishing I lived in my own apartment / house so I could make these & decorate!

- A

Thoughts On The Chick-Fil-A Controversy

Alright.  This is something that I've been thinking of a lot lately, and with the media storm surrounding it and the constant Facebook postings regarding the controversy, I thought I'd chip in my two cents.  I figure I'm going to have a lot to say, so I decided to spare my Facebook friends another post about it there and just write about it here.

Okay, so from my understanding, the CEO of Chick-Fil-A, which everyone knows is a Christian-based restaurant in the first place, made some comments about preserving the sanctity of marriage, blah blah blah.  Surprise surprise, they're a Christian-based company.  I thought this was old news?  From what I read, I didn't interpret any "hate" or "malice" towards the gay and lesbian community, like everyone is making it out to be.  Cathy simply stated what he and the company he leads believes.  Okay.  Big deal.  It wasn't a surprise to me at all; pretty much every Christian-based organization has the same views about gay marriage.  I feel like people are so shocked and I do not fully understand why.  From the articles I read, I did not hear any hate in his statements, nor did I think that he was in any way forcing his beliefs on me.  So why are people getting all offended and crazy about it?  If you've ever been to Chick-Fil-A before, have you ever walked in and had the companies beliefs shoved down your throat?  I didn't think so.  So why is everyone making a huge fuss over this?  Just cause they publicly stated their views, which is what I assumed they believed anyway, that doesn't mean they're gonna stop everyone at the door and make sure they aren't gay or a lesbian before you can go in and get some food.

I've seen posts on Facebook calling Cathy a "bigot" and swearing that they will never eat at Chick-Fil-A again.  Uhm, okay, big whoop, millions of people will still eat at their restaurant, including the gay community (Do you really think they would kick them out of their restaurant just for being gay?  Has that actually happened?).  It also really bothers me that people are coming out and calling Cathy a bigot.  I wasn't exactly sure what the word meant, but I looked it up, and by definition, a bigot is "a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion."  Uhhhh, I'd have to do a little more research but I'm pretty positive that Chick-Fil-A hasn't refused service to any gay or lesbian that comes into their restaurant.

This is what it comes down to for me.  I am so annoyed that people are attacking Cathy and Chick-Fil-A for stating their beliefs, saying that they should be "tolerant" and whatnot.  (Oh but only tolerant of their beliefs, right?)  Some of the comments I've seen on Facebook appall me.  So they aren't allowed to have beliefs on issues and only you are?  Or everything else is wrong if it doesn't line up with what you believe?  Most of the people who comment on the issue that I'm referring to right now are all about "equality" and "tolerance" and are known to hold the belief that everyone should be entitled to their beliefs and opinions . . . guess just not when it goes against theirs. (which isn't that pretty much the essence of tolerance anyways?  Hmmm . . .)

Anyways, I'm really not trying to defend Chick-Fil-A or Cathy or whatever, even though it probably sounds that way.  I'm actually a pretty firm believer in gay rights and think that a lot of people who are against it are on the wrong side of history.  But hey, I'm not gonna get all worked up and angry about someone else's opinion and belief.  Everyone is entitled to their own.  I'm just angry that most of the people that I know are coming out and saying things that completely contradict their beliefs that everyone is equal and entitled to their own beliefs.

This quote struck me, and I feel like I should strike certain people with it too (but hey, I'm just gonna let people believe what they wanna believe):

"Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone's lifestyle, you must fear them or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don't have to compromise convictions to be compassionate."

- Rick Warren

Also, one of my Facebook friends posted this:

"I'm all for gay rights, but people need to calm down over this whole Chick-Fil-A thing.  I can guarantee if you only ate/shopped at restaurants/stores that you shared all the same religious and political beliefs with then you would be hungry and naked!"

I couldn't have said it better myself :)

- A

Recipe // Banana Bread Pancakes

So I go through these phases where I suddenly have this urge to get really creative. My most recent creative project is creating a recipe scrapbook (which is funny, cause I RARELY cook).  I’ve been working on editing recipes in a creative way and I’m going put them in a scrapbook and add some other touches to them. Anyways, just thought I’d share my favorite recipe card I’ve made so far (I originally found the recipe here).  Click on the image if you want to see it in it's original size and save it :)

Also, I put together the scrapbook page last night.  I added the Jack Johnson lyrics from his song "Banana Pancakes". . . LOVE it! :)

- A

The First One

It is officially the first day of August! Holy moley, this year has FLOWN by so far. So much has happened and I wish I could remember some of those memories (the good ones anyway). I’m starting this blog as a way to remember my days and things that are important to me. It’s going to be filled with adventure stories, photos, quotes, recipes, random finds, life memories and things I learn along my journey.

Also, August 1st not only brings me a little anxiety that the year is flying by, but it is also my little sister’s birthday! Happy 20th birthday Hannah! I love you Seester and can’t wait to see you in two weeks !



Anyways, I’m going to try this out, and hopefully be able to keep up with it.
Til next time,
- A