what i did this weekend

Nana came to visit me! Flew in Friday, I spent Friday night, all day Saturday, and Saturday night with her. We shopped for boots, found some winter things for me, saw Fireproof on Saturday, and she came to church with a friend and I on Sunday. It was nice having her... and a little odd that I was showing my grandmother "my home".
As a side note, it was 25 degrees when we went to church on Sunday. Poor Georgia woman didn't see it coming...


You may notice that I don't usually dress like this. You may also notice that the people in the picture with me don't look so normal. I haven't fallen in with a bad crowd, don't worry. I went to an 80s party!
The party wasn't the most amazing, but the outfits were.
This is Becky, Johanna, Holly and I... they are perfectly normal-looking most days.


...And to show off the outfits, we walked down to Safeway. I think someone had to get a bag of chips. These are most of the girls. About 50 people showed up to the party total. It was loud and bright colors were everywhere. I'm still reeling from the over-stimulation.




Becky and I stopped on someone's steps to take this picture. Ugh - look what we're wearing! The tennis shoes were an amazing find at Wal*Mart, the sweaters and earrings came from Value Village, and the hair... it's not really natural. A lot of hairspray went into Becky's to make it stay that big, and my bangs were quite stiff from all the stuff Maggie used to make them curl like that (it had kind of fallen by the time this was taken).

Indelible

Isn't that a fun word?

The dictionary.com definition of this word is: "making marks that cannot be erased, removed, forgotten, or the like: indelible ink." Like permanent? Kinda. If something is permanent, it means it's long-lasting. It's meant to last a really long time. Indelible, in addition to sounding pretty neat, is something that cannot be removed or erased. It's there.

Becca and I used to write notes to one another on the bathroom mirror with a dry-erase marker. We'd wish each other a happy morning or put an important task up there. Once we had tired of the messages covering our mirror, we just wiped them off. They seemed gone, until the steam from the next morning's shower made their outlines evident. The ink of the marker had been wiped away, but what it had said was still there.

A dry-erase marker isn't the best example for the word indelible. It can be wiped away, and I'm pretty sure the outlines stop showing up after awhile. But my point is that the meaning of the word indelible goes further than just the surface. It lasts a long time.

God's love is indelible, His forgiveness is indelible, His mercy is indelible, His righteousness, patience, goodness, faithfulness... God is indelible.

What I'm asking is this: If I were to die this afternoon, would the mark that I leave on the world have any significance whatsoever? Do I love other people in such a way as that they see HIS indelible love? Am I forgiving like Christ forgave? Am I showing mercy? Am I being selfless?

Am I investing in things that are long-lasting? Am I loving, serving, showing mercy, forgiving...? If not, I'm not really doing what I'm supposed to be doing because I'm not involved in the truly important things in life. I myself do not have the ability to be indelible on my own. I'm not that great. God is great and He lives in me. Will that be shown in the way I live? It should, but it's my choice.

Because He is, so I must be.

For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
Romans 14:7-8

pearls with t-shirts

I told Mom before I left that I would continue to wear pearls with t-shirts, say "y'all" and try to throw in as much Southern-ness as I could. She held that I would return with Birkenstocks and a tie-dyed shirt. Heck no. For one, I can't afford the shoes. And the shirt? Wouldn't be caught dead. People here look pretty normal for the most part, but very few wear Rainbows and most look more grungy than preppy like back home.

Well, guess what? People around here do not say "y'all". They make fun of those who do. Especially when the offender says "y'all's" - apparently it isn't possessive (yes, I did know that it's incorrect but it's a horrible habit to say it anyway). Don't worry Mom, I'm holdin' in there! I've even caught the roommates throwing out a little "hey y'all" when they think I'm not listening. It's catchy.

And the pearl thing... I guess it's odd?
I've been told, "Hey, you know you still have that necklace on?"
"Mhmm, yeah, I know"
"Oh. Okay. I just didn't know if you knew you had pearls on with a t-shirt"
"Yep. I know, thanks!"

They don't know about Frogmore stew, talk about "That time when I had some crab... I think I was 13", and are amazed when I mention the water. I think someone needs to send a picture of the house because they're picturing some beachfront property... marsh is a foreign concept. i've been looked at funny when saying "I'm fixing to _____". I guess I should be looked at funny for that but haven't thought about it before. They say "cart" and not "buggy" at the grocery store, "pop" and not "soda", and they don't have highways... they're freeways. FREEEEWAYS, Lindsay.

And they chuckle when I pronounce the name of our town.

It's Bew-fort, y'all.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

It's 35 degrees right now. The high is a scorching 54 today. This is Christmas weather, y'all!

Oh wait. It's going to get colder? It's only October?

Eek!

I'm excited about the snow that's promised to come in just a few weeks but brrr... it's a long walk to my bus in the mornings :)

A little edit:
THURSDAY morning was freezing! Quite literally. Every morning we get up to very cold weather outside our front door. We took pictures of the inaugural frost on the ground and wrote in the ice on Dustin's car (No, it's not pink... it's Rosewood. He's adamant). Frost, people. In October. I'm not over it - I like the cold weather but I'm really getting scared. (and frozen).

I'm a first born... at least I don't disappoint.

"If you scored C, you are probably a first-born and I will probably not get along with you as well as others." - Dr. Orr

We took personality profiles last Wednesday in Intro to Ministry. You know, the kind where you rate yourself 1-4 on certain traits and from that determine if you are D, I, S or C.

I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, so when taking tests like this, I tend to gain insight into where they're going. If the answers don't seem as flattering as I'd like, I'm not above changing my little number to reflect a more appealing result. Sad, but true.

On this quiz, though, there was NO DOUBT what kind of personality I had. Instead of rating myself high on things like "talkative, fun-loving, optimistic, cheerful, enthusiastic", I was writing fours in the little boxes next to "cautious, serious, precise, factual, logical", stealing glances at the papers of the people on my right and left. They were patient, gentle, loyal, agreeable and I'm all accurate, perfectionist, conscientious.

Gee, way to boost the self-esteem.

One neat thing was that each of my roommates and I scored differently on the quiz. Molly's a D, which means dominant. Maddie's an I, an influencing personality. Amanda's an S for steadiness. I am the faithful, compliant. Which as you know, has "first-born anal-ness" written all over it (neatly, written first in pencil [just in case] and then carefully traced with a black sharpie).

The appealing "Characteristics" column contains terms like "tendencies", "desired environment", "motivating needs", "fears", "judges other by", "stress release", and "recovery needs" for each trait. It reminded me of a little animal book I remember reading that described monkeys. What they like to eat, what they're afraid of... not really sure I like being described like a monkey.

But whatever.

I heard a LOT of people saying all day: " I'm sorry, I can't do that. That's just my personality. Live with it."

lyrics

Downhere: Little Is Much

What is the measure of a life well lived
If all I can offer seems too small to give
This is a song for the weaker, the poorer
And so-called failures

Little is much when God's in it
And no one can fathom the plans He holds
Little is much when God's in it
He changes the world with the seeds we sow
Little is much, little is much

Who feels tired and under-qualified
Who feels deserted, and hung out to dry
This is a song for the broken, the beat-up
And so-called losers

Consider a Kingdom in the smallest seed
Consider that giants fall to stones and slings
Consider a child in a manger
Consider the story isn't over
What can be done with what you still have

a note to my family:

I'm missing these people (and animals) because I talked to two of them (the people) today, got two emails from one of them, sat next to someone with the same name (and red hair!) as my brother, and heard the dogs in the background. I think I talk to them more often now than when I lived at home! Becca even made an entire album and video on Facebook for me - loved it! I stole some of her pictures to put on here. Aren't they cute?
I miss y'all!