Live Your Life

My what a week it has been, or really last few days should I say.

My weekend was really anything but relaxing. Birthday dinners and house cleaning, and errands, and working all night long at American Eagle kept me busy! Saturday night I worked until 5am! I love the mall but I DO NOT love it that much! I usually go to first service with my parents mainly so they feed me lunch after Sunday school! So, I slept about 2 1/2 hours before getting up to get ready for church. I do the whole church, Sunday school, lunch thing and I'm PUMPED for my afternoon nap. I have it all planned out. I'll be in bed by 12:30, sleep until 5:15, wake up for small group, then go back to the mall to work at Victoria's Secret. I'm most pumped for my Nazarene Nap because it's my FAVORITE! I'm not one to ever put my phone on silent. It really only makes sense when you want 5 hours of beautiful, uninterrupted sleep, but I just don't do it.

I kept hearing my text messages go off and just kept ignoring them. About 2:30 I get a call from Jaci Bounds and ignore it. I kinda wake up and realize she's sent me a text asking me to take her small group so I respond and she calls me right back. I was thinking it was just going to be a quick conversation about small groups and I'd be back to sleep in no time. What she had to say would keep me awake the rest of the day and cause me to have a heavy heart.

From the other end I hear Jaci say in the calmest voice, "Laura, Will Bumpus died this morning." All I could say was "What." All she had to give me at the time was that he had been shot in the head and really knew nothing other than that. She didn't know if it had been an accident or what. Emotion seriously OVERWHELMED me. I laid in my bed and just cried and cried. How could life have been taken from this 15 year old boy. A 9th grader that was so funny, his own little unique person, and a friend to many. Needless to say I had to be the one to contact my small group girls with this devastating news and my phone continued to blow up for the next 3 1/2 hours with questions and concerns and heartbreak.

I didn't sleep well on Sunday night. I tossed and turned and thought about the Bumpus family and all of the 9th grade boys that lost a friend.

My heart has been really heavy the last couple of days. I'm interested to know what church is going to be like tomorrow. Wills funeral is Friday at 1:00 so I will be taking the afternoon off for that.

Live Life to the fullest everyday. Love God, and Love people. Do what makes you happy and live with no regrets!

Fat Tuesday

Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which starts on Ash Wednesday.


So...that's it! Today is my last day to eat fatty for the next 40 days! I've been trying to figure out what to give up for lent. Last year I didn't give anything up and the year before that I wrote notes to different people everyday instead of giving something up.

I've put lots of thought in to it and this year I think I'm not only going to give up coke, but flour products. Now, It may not seem like a huge thing but please realize how big of a sacrifice this is for me. I don't usually drink that much coke, really only one a week or so, but I LOVE FLOUR PRODUCTS, LOVE THEM. Like breads and rice and noodles and cupcakes....yummy yummy yummy!




So today I will be shoving those yummy things in my body, and will probably feel sick tomorrow. "You are today what you ate yesterday!" :)

For breakfast I had a sausage croissant from Sonic! I also plan to get a route44 coke with lime by the end of the day!

I will also spend the rest of my day looking for recipes of things I can make to help me survive the next 40 days. Lots of Salad and grilled chicken that is for sure!

I also promise to do my best to abide by my own guidelines and not cheat! Feel free to check up on me!

I will also be using this as a diet.....swimsuit reason is just around the corner!

So, feel free to help me out and keep me on track! :)

Love My Girls

Last night we had our Senior High sponsor meeting. It's something that I half look forward to. I enjoy seeing everyone but it's also somewhat of a burden that I have to take a couple hours out of my night to be there. I mean...I could be at home watching biggest loser. :)

But as I was sitting there last night Chris just thanked us for everything that we do and went on to talk about how important of an impact we make in our kids lives. It's something I've heard before but something about hearing it last night just clicked with me.

I love my girls SO much. Honestly I feel like there would be a small hole in my life if they were not there. The openness and honesty that we can have with each other warms my heart. Being a part of their lives challenges me to not only live a life of good example for them but to fall more in love with Jesus so that I can share that love with them!

This weekend we're going on Winter Retreat. On Friday afternoon 170 of us will load in to charter buses to make our trek to the cold campground of Sky Ranch. This weekend has been named "The Weekend of Love" one because it's Valentines day weekend, but two because we're going to be talking about love. Not necessarily mushy love, but brotherly love, Agape love. Due to the past situations in my life I feel like this is not only going to be a retreat for them, but it's really going to speak to me and to my heart.

Please pray for all of us this weekend. For safety, for good times, for our hearts.

How Old Are We?

I'd like to put a little warning on this blog before I begin to write it. I'm just so full of frustration right now I feel like cannot even think straight so it might be all over the place.

Please tell me why on EARTH guys think it is okay to have a serious conversation, or a "I don't want to date you" conversation on FACEBOOK?!??!?!

Is it that men, or should I say boys have become such cowards that they can't even get the balls to have a face to face conversation, or even a phone conversation. Instead they have to hide behind the so called social technology in order to avoid embarassment? The awkward situation? The ability to get out of it easier? What?

I for one have become very frustrated today with this lack of maturity and disappointed that someone 22 years old that I thought was better than that turns out to be just like every other boy I've met.

And even though I'd like to say that I am not saddened by the situation to not date someone really awesome I'm more sad and disappointed that it couldn't be handled in a way that was more respectful of my feelings.

That's really all I have to say. Goodnight.