For those of you that don't have facebook. Here are a few shots from Colorado!! I have seen the Air force academy, Pike's Peak, the outside of Whit's End (it was closed), the Rocky Mountains, Boulder Co, the Denver Zoo, the Denver Capitol building (totally awesome), and hiked and walked around all over all sorts of small towns and little trails. It has been a blast. I love seeing old friends and getting to spend time with them and my little sister. I will be sad to come back. The first and last photo are from a little 100 year old amusement park that we went to on Friday night. The middle photo is the Air Force Chapel (it is AMAZING)! The chapel and the capitol have been two of my favorite places that I have visited so far. I love architecture. It intrigues me. I'll talk more about it later, but I think Stef and I are going to go play Ultimate!! YES!! Love to all at home!

Anna and I went and explored downtown Denver today. The capitol building was really awesome.

Just a quick note:

* This week (Monday - Friday) I was camping with my family in beautiful Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland. We hiked, relax, saw the olympic kayak team practicing, and saw Dark Knight (AMAZING MOVIE) at midnight on Thursday night. It was great. I love camping with my family and I can't wait to take Jared along camping with me!!! YES!

* Saturday night I went to the Delaware State Fair with Rachel Townsend, Hayley, and Jared. I stuffed my face full of all sorts of good food. I had Grottos Pizza, kettle corn, carrot cake, and strawberry pie. It was amazing. I love summer.

* Tomorrow I leave to fly out to Colorado to visit Steffy and Sarah Meadows. Anna and I are going to Whit's End, Pikes Peak, the Air Force Academy Chapel, Red Rocks, Denver, and all sorts of other fun places. I hate flying, but I look forward to being there. Funny, I miss Jared already though. What will I do with myself?!?

I'll blog again next week when I get back. I'll be back on Wednesday (the 30th). :D Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Oh, what a melancholy choice this is,
Wanting home, wanting him,
Closing my heart to ev'ry hope but his,
Leaving the home I love

Since I had a suspicion that Jared was going to ask me to marry him Friday, June 28, I had a little time to think about it. At first, I didn't think that was such a great thing because at first thought I just wanted to tell him to wait. But then I thought that I would probably just keep telling him to wait for forever, if I had told him to wait. Once I started thinking about it, I realized the only two things that were keeping me from rushing into marriage (other than school - heh) was the fear of growing up and not wanting to be the first to leave my family.

Growing up is not fun. I mean it is, but at the same time I just wanted to stay 10 for the rest of my life or maybe to stay 17 (and a senior in high school). Or to bounce between those two ages, with the knowledge that I have now. I wanted all my siblings to stay frozen in time and for my family to go camping together and to laugh together forever. However, that is not how God designed this life. We get old. We grow up. We leave our families and go own to have our own. The memories we made with our families remain, but we start to make more with new people and in new places. It isn't bad, just hard sometimes. But God is good. I know that he doesn't ask you to do something and then not give you power to do it. And things that seem like they are going to be hard are good for you because you have to depend on God alone for your strength because you know you can't do it by yourself.

As to the second reason, I have already been the first one to leave my family. I went away to school two years ago. And I am the oldest so it makes sense. I will still see them and can still have fun with them. I just won't be there whenever I want. This is probably the harder one for me to swallow. I miss my family so much when I am away at school. I miss being a part of their lives, not just them. I miss sitting in Sarah's hallway talking to her until all hours of the night, being teased by Luke, and trying to be heard at the dinner table. I miss my Dad giving me hugs and leaving me presents under my pillow, I miss my Mom's cooking for me, and Anna asking me to take pictures with her. And it is hard for me to know that I will be in the same city as them, but living a different life. I know I will see them, but I won't be there to catch every job and hear every story that happens. It makes me sad. Sigh.

I realized that if God is calling you to something you should jump right in and face your fears. He knows what he is doing and delaying that is going to just cause you more trouble. I didn't have any valid excuses for not saying yes. Skip over the next paragraph... it is sappy.

I think Jared is a great guy. He encourages me Biblically and points out things in my life that I need to work on (but he does it without making me feel less then him). In the past year he has become so much more caring then I could ever imagine. He tries to look for ways to make my life easier and encourage me. Like when I drive the 2.25 hours back to school, he talks to me on the phone while I drive. This may not seem like much, but 1. I dislike driving and 2. He dislikes the phone and 3. A year and a half ago he wouldn't have done this. He took me to see Leeland this past semester. Again, this doesn't seem like a lot either, but Jared doesn't like concerts and he doesn't like much CCM music. And he went to Delirious with me two weeks ago!!! That was so awesome because he gave up his seat for standing with me at the front. And it was probably the last Delirious concert I will go to. If you had asked me two years ago who did more work in our relationship, I would have said me. I remember talking to my mom about this and how I felt like I was the only one that ever gave anything. Now I feel like Jared is so thoughtful all the time and doesn't give me enough chance to give of myself. heh. I have no reasons not to marry him. He makes me laugh. He knows how to communicate his way through a fight that I have started. He is patient with me and he points me to a great walk with Christ. I thank God for having blessed me with him. I thank God for last summer.

God is so good to me. I trust him. I look forward to seeing what the rest of my life holds. Happy negative one anniversary, Jared! I look forward to spending my life with you.

Goodbye, my Marble.

Last July I had to say goodbye to my dear cat. My parents took her to be put down because Tiger had caught a bat and we didn't know if it was rabid. But she ended up coming back. I thought she was going to be put down, but instead last minute they just put her in a cage for six months. This time she won't be coming back. I really thought that since I had cried my eyes out last summer and had prepared for her to die that I wouldn't be as affected this time around. I think the part that makes me cry the most is thinking about whenever I used to cry. Marble would come running from whereever she was. Most people though she was a grumpy cat, but she was the sweetest, dearest cat to me. When I cried she would run over and still her little head in my face and curl up next to my head. It was so cute. She'd let me cry into her fur and do whatever I wanted to with her in those moments. I cried with her a lot over the past 14 years. She was my baby; she listened to everything I said. I'll miss her little marbled face. She's had a good life and I thank God for my funny little cat. Goodbye my furry friend. I love you.



Pictures from December 2006.

The fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. When I was little I used to ask if I could have a picnic for all the families instead of a birthday party. I love having lots of people over at my house and getting to play games and sit around and talk (the talking part has only become a favorite of mine in the past few years). This year I brought one of my friends from school home with me. I remember once that Sarah Meadows was saying that she like when her two worlds came together and got to meet. I didn't know what she was talking about then, but now I understand and agree. It is really neat.

The fireworks got rained out and Hayley, Rachel, Jared, Laurie, Luke, and Michelle and my family sat in my living room with the lights off and watched the lightning and rain outside. It was fun. I like doing random what-other-people-might-consider-boring events with my family and friends.

Hayley, me, Michellle --> my friends are both taller than Jared... weird.

My dad wears this shirt every year. He was explaining to a group of us this year that is doesn't work out very well to wear it on St. Patrick's day or Easter. Dad, also left me m&m's under my pillow when I came back this weekend. YAY!! They were peanut m&m's. Yum yum yum.

A table shot. This is the 4th for me. People eating in my backyard. Eating so much food until you burst. I love it.

Saturday, Michelle, Sarah, and I went to visit Jared's cute little house (and no Jamie, I didn't get pictures - maybe someday). Then we went and picked blueberries out and drove down to the Taylors for some board game and sailing fun. Also, really awesome food and confetti cup fun!!! I don't know what it is about confetti cups that I love, but they sure are good. Mrs. Taylors grilling is always good. She even cooked my meat well done for me. How sweet. It was delicious. Hayley even made us a cherry pie for dessert. That was awesome as well.

Sunday my Mom made me sweet corn and green beans from the garden before I drove back to college park. The sweet corn was amazing. I had at least 7 ears of corn before I left!! I left at 2:40 and arrived in College Park around 6:30. Yes, it did take that long to get back here. The traffic was awful. Boo holiday beach traffic. Michelle and I listen to Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader on the way back. Then as I was carrying in my stuff I found this in the back seat:

I flipped it over and on the back (like the picture) was a card from my dear Jared. He's so sweet. That made me smile. It is sitting next to my bed now reminding me how thoughtful Jared is. I thought I would tell you all how great he is to me. It is making me smile while I finish up these two project papers and take two final exams and have a cold. Miserable summer cold.

In my last post I forgot to say how AMAZING my ring is!! All I told Jared was that I wanted it to be traditional and classy and not too big and white gold. I know Jared is great at picking out gifts for me. He is always so particular about what he gets. I knew that he would do a great job. And he didn't disappoint. Afterwards, I asked him how long he had my ring and he asked, "this ring?" I looked at him and said, "were there others?" Sheepishly he admitted that this was the third one that he had bought for me. :D That is my Jared. My ring is perfect for me!! It is the most beautiful ring that I have ever seen. The stone isn't too small and it isn't too big. It sparkles like crazy and I love to play with it. I couldn't have imagined it any better. Jared is great. My ring is perfect. :D Weeeeeeee!!!

Anna kindly took a few pictures of us today. This is probably the best shots you are going to get of my ring until 1) you come see it in person or 2) I get my wedding photos.

Jared actually held my hand. ha ha. I can't wait to be able to hold his hand and hug him whenever I want. That will be so fun.

I know the pictures are kind of goofy, but then so are Jared and I. I hope that these make Jamie and Dasha, Mrs. Shelton, Linnea, and others in far off lands very happy. :) Oh and my ring really is incredible!! I love it more each minute. Weeeeeeeeeeee!

* My favorite number is 3.
* Jared and I are 3 years and 33 days apart.
* My birthday 6.21.1986 can all be divisible by 3.
6/3=2
21/3=7
1986=3=682

I love 3s!

So what could be better then to get engaged 33 months and 3 days after you were first asked out?!? It just added to the awesomeness!

For those of you that want the story: Last Saturday when I was home for my birthday Jared asked me to come home this weekend. He said we would go canoeing if I came home. I have been asking Jared for almost 3 years to take me canoeing, but we hadn't ever been, so of course I said yes. I came home this weekend and on Friday Jared took off work an hour early so we could leave around 3 and canoe down to Shad Landing and have an early dinner. We paddled down to Shad Landing (which took about an hour and fifteen minutes) and ate lunch/dinner. Jared packed lunch meat, cheese, bread, chips, yogurt, red grapes (my favorite, he likes green grapes), and Gatorades. Once lunch was over, we left. We outran a storm on the way back (it rained on us for a short time, but it was so hot I didn't care) and loaded up the canoe. I then dropped Jared off at his house and took the canoe back to my house and showered. I ran out to pick up movies for Anna because she was sick. Jared came and picked me up around 8 and we went to see Wall*e (which is an adorable movie). Then we headed back to my house around 11:30 and walked around my neighborhood. Jared then suggested that we go look at the stars in my field. So we walked back there and looked at the stars. There was no moon and all the stars were really hazy. So we are sitting on a picnic table out there just looking around for a while and then Jared asked me which star was the brightest and so I looked around and didn't see any that stood out, but then I turned around to look at him and he was smiling and holding the ring. So he got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him. And I said YES!! Then we hugged, prayed, and went inside to wake up the family around 1.

My mom has a picture on he blog that is sort of similar to my ring. Anna has been sick so I haven't gotten any pictures yet. Maybe next weekend when I come home.

Saturday we went to see Delirious? and that we so amazing. We had front row standing sections thanks to my Dad and Luke. It was so great to take Jared to something I greatly enjoy. It was very sweet of him to go on the 10 hour trip down to Richmond and back with my family and me. Richmond was great. We ate at an delicious little Mexican restaurant and had Krispy Kremes and saw Delirious? in this incredible old opera house called the National. The traveling was not great, but it was worth it. It was a neat concert.

So there is what I did this weekend. Any questions? Did I forget any details that you want to know?

I get to see Delirious tonight!!
I'm so excited.
Here is my favorite song, Majesty and another cool song called Wonder. :D

Majesty

Here I am humbled by your Majesty
Covered by your grace so free
Here I am, knowing I'm a sinful man
Covered by the blood of the Lamb

Now I've found the greatest love of all is mine
Since you laid down your life
The greatest sacrifice

Majesty, Majesty
Your grace has found me just as I am
Empty handed, but alive in your hands
Majesty, Majesty
Forever I am changed by your love
In the presence of your Majesty

Here I am humbled by the love that you give
Forgiven so that I can forgive
Here I stand, knowing that I'm your desire
Sanctified by glory and fire

Wonder

Is it any wonder that my heart is on the line
Is it any wonder that my words are out of time
Is it any wonder that I miss you like your mine

Oh sweet heart you've broken this sweet heart
Oh sweet heart you've broken me.

You set my world on fire
I'm turning inside out to be with you
So I'll be waiting here
And our love can live forever
Coz In your eyes I've seen who I could be
So I'll be waiting here

I also want to take time to publically thank my parents for being so awesome. I love them both very much and I can't even begin to express how wonderful they are to me. I had a lovely birthday with them. My Dad gave me a pen knife and a screwdriver and two textbooks. heh. My Mom made me cream puffs and waited on my hand and foot. She also bought be crossword puzzles. Both my parents are so dear to me. I love them so much. Thank you both for putting before me good examples of what a Christ centered life and relationship is. Thank you for sending me to college and for encouraging me and being proud of me. I love being your daughter.

My Dad is great. He will listen to me ramble on for hours and hours about school while everyone else is bored out of there mind. He likes math. I like math. It works out well that way. My Dad also leaves me presents under my pillow at random times. He came up to visit me this semester and snuck upstairs and left me a bag of ginger snaps (one of our favorites) under my pillow. It was so sweet; it made me cry when I found them after he had left. He is one of the smartest people that I have ever met and he had the best sense of humor. He has been a great example in my life and I am so thankful for his guidence.

My mother bakes and cooks me whatever I want each time I come home. Even if she wasn't planning on it and I mention that I want something else. She is amazing. I love her dearly. She listens to me talk about anything that isn't school related. She gives me hugs (so does Dad). I get so hug deprived at school. She fills my car with gas and writes me at least a note every other week at school. Her notes most often come at the perfect time and cheer me up and encourage me to press on.

I am supposed to be taking an exam right now, but I felt like telling the whole world how wonderful my parents are for me!!! I am so blessed. I thank God for that. I hope I can be like them someday. They've taught me a lot. I love them. It is neat how God gives us the parents that are best suited for us. I am so glad for mine. I couldn't have asked for more.

I know both of my parents love me very much and that is a great blessing. Even great is the blessing that they love God and have taught me to follow Him. Thank you both.

A few thoughts from John Piper:

1. Can we be set free from the fear of failure by telling ourselves that it is in our nature to fail?

In part, yes, but for the Christian there is far more. The fear of failure is ultimately conquered through Christ. We need to…

…own up to our sin—the real failure. We fall short of and belittle the glory of God by pursuing our own greatness. (Romans 1:18-23;3:23)
…change our goal. In faith, we should pursue the glory of Christ, the perfect one, rather than our own perfection. (Galatians 5:1-5)
…trust in Christ for our perfection, because we are judged according to his righteousness as he intercedes on our behalf continually before God, the Father. (Hebrews 4:14-16)

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Which brings us back to where we started. Do you really trust God this morning? Do you trust him for who he really is—a sin forgiving Savior and an infallible guide to everlasting joy? If you do, you will aim to make his counsel decisive in all your decision making.
And the counsel that you hear in Psalm 25 is . . .
First, that as you walk with him there is going to be trouble, and you will struggle with fear and loneliness and guilt and confusion.
Second, that when you do, you should come to him in prayer and bring all your struggles with no hesitation.
Third, that the basis of your expectation when you come is not that messages are promised in visions but that guidance is promised in humility and in the fear of the Lord.

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Immerse yourself in the written Word of God; saturate your mind with it. And pray that the Spirit of Christ would make you so new that the spillover would be good, acceptable, and perfect—the will of God.

Meet Wordle

This is my last blog post.
I used the word home a lot.

This is the second chapter of Philippians: http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/25476/Philippians.

This is an awesome website: http://wordle.net/

1st day being...

22

Well, after tonight half of my semester will be finished!! Next Tuesday all my midterms will be finished. I think summer classes are easier, but maybe it they are just so quick that you don't have a change to realize how much work they are. Either way I have enjoyed my two classes so far. :) I love learning.

I get to come home tonight to celebrate my birthday and see my family!! I am excited for real meals. I have determined that I should never live on my own. I love to cook, but it just isn't worth it for one person. It is so much more fun to cook for other people. I was telling my mom all the things that I have eaten in the past 9 days up here and it went something like this: stuffing, English muffins, sunchips, granola bars, frosted mini wheats and milk, yogurt, cheese and crackers, crepes, dinner rolls, baked beans, grapes, and kiwis. As I was talking I realized that I am eating a lot of carbs. Carbs seem to be the easiest food to make. Kiwis are my favorite fruit right now.

For my birthday my parents are taking me to see Delirious? next weekend! Their new album continues to grow on me while Coldplay's hasn't increased in my opinion. Sarah gave me Les Mis to listen to and that is my other new music fad right now. I have been listening to it really loud when my two roommates are gone. I love Broadway. I want to go see more musicals. And plays, I would go see plays again too. I hope the Grandi-Howards take me to more plays this year... :D

The gym has been so empty and nice whenever I have gone in the past two weeks. However, last week some girl had a seizure and today the fire alarm went off. Thankfully, both days it was relatively cool outside and I finished my run around campus. It made it a little more interesting. I found out that I can run from my parking spot on campus to the gym in about five minutes. That was pretty sweet. I usually pay 75 cents to park their for an hour. So now I can save money next year and I will just run to the gym.

Another thing, it is so much easier to go to the gym when someone is going with you or you are making someone else go. So hopefully Mom will go with me when I get home. :) I fight myself every day to go to the gym. I tried lifting today, but my chest still hurts from the car accident last week so I gave up and just ran. I wonder when that will get better. I looked online and I think I might have bruised my sternum. Anyone know how long that takes to get better? They didn't say much about it online, but the symptoms sounded like what I have. It hurts when I pull the wrong way, laugh, cough, breath in deeply, and most of all when I turn my neck and upper body to back up my car (weird).

Well, I should get back to studying for my midterms and writing these project management papers. I am beginning to like civil engineering. I especially like Reliability Engineering. I think that would be a neat career. It is under appreciate in the engineering field, but it is really interesting. I would get to break things and find out why they fail. That has always been my favorite thing to do. I love breaking things and then figuring out why they broke and how to make them better. I love learning that there are all these ways to break things that give you information to build things better and how people don't ever think to apply them. I really love everything I have learned in reliability; I would say I have enjoyed both my classes, but I had to write that dumb journal paper for my reliability class last year. That class itself was interesting. I am very happy that I decided to go to grad school. I seriously love learning all this stuff. Okay, I really have to go.

See you in Salisbury this weekend! Going away from home makes home even better when you get to come home. :D One day more all on my own...

Home home home home home home home home home home home home home home home home home home home home home!!!!

This video just makes me smile. :D
He looks so happy. I love that line about the law of averages.
Michael Crawford is singing on the Wall*e soundtrack!!
Thank you Mrs. Taylor for introducing me to the real phantom of the opera!!

And thanks to Hayley and Sarah for giving me the best birthday present ever two years ago. Seeing Phantom on stage is still such a wonderful memory. I will never forget it. It was lovely. I just smile when I think about that too. I am richly blessed.

New Blog Stuff

I started messing with things last night and then I had to fix all the mistakes that I saw. I know that there are probably many more, but I am going to bed. If you find anything that looks funny or links that don't work please leave a comment and let me know of the flaws. And I am still messing with the colors, but I am tired right now. Good night.

I really liked Coldplay's last album. I've been listening to their new album and so far I only like a few songs off of it, I really don't like two of the songs, and I don't care about the rest. However, I think this video is especially pretty. Apple was brilliant when they put this together. I really don't like Apple so that is saying a lot.

My Friday the thirteenth camping trip and car accident.

I have included pictures and maps below to help with the explanation. So my small group left this morning at 8:30 to head down to the Big Meadows area and go camping for a night. We passed Harrisonburg and headed out of Skyline Drive. I noted them both on the map. Along with a very small town of Elkton and an even smaller town of Grottos. Note those two towns they will be needed later in my story.


The next picture is of the entrance to Skyline Drive. We were following my friend Michelle (far back might I add since my other friend Rebecca is the most cautious driver that I know). And she missed the entrance to Skyline Drive... So at the top of this hill she randomly pulls into this u-turn lane (I would put her in same school of drivers as Stephanie Hornor...maybe not as spastic). I am turning around and looking at the entrance to Skyline Drive because I recognized it and wanted to see if we had really passed it. I never saw Michelle turn. Rebecca did, but when she went to stop her rug was all crammed under the brake petal and wouldn't go down. So I never saw what really happened because I heard Rebecca cry out and as I turned I flew forward into my seat belt. OUCH. We stopped immediately, but Michelle's car flew across the opposite lane of traffic and over the hill between the two roads and into Skyline Drive. Only her one air bag went off, neither of ours did. Needless to say the camping trip was ended here. Everyone was stiff and sore, but we all were walking around and talking. The park rangers were awesome, as were the ambulance drive and the fire men. They were all so sweet and talked to us for a long time. The single cop that showed up (later than everyone else mind you) was extremely grumpy and gave Rebecca a ticket for speeding and for being reckless even though we all (all three of the rest of us) tried to tell him that it wasn't her fault and she is the most careful driver that we know.

Rebecca has AAA and had to go with her car. So I rode along to go with her car and her. The tow truck the cop called was from Grottos (remember on the map where that is). He told us that Grottos had nothing in it for us to wait around in and so he was going to leave us in Elkton where at least they had a few stores to hang out in. Fair enough.

So he left us at a Pizza Hut. We used the restroom and I quizzed the cashier on what was in the area that was fun. She told me to go to a battlefield that is over an hour away (sounds promising this little town does, right?). She told us there was a Dairy Queen and gas station across the street and the other way there was a dollar general. We hung out at DQ for an hour and a half and ate our ice cream and started shaking and just wanting to find some shoulder to cry on. Then we wandered down to Dollar General for some form of entertainment (cribbage maybe?). They didn't have cribbage, but I bought cards and Sorry to play with Rebecca to take her mind off the whole day. Then we happened to look down the street and saw a Subway!! It was wonderful because we hadn't eaten all day since breakfast and it was now around 5:30 and Rebecca's parents were still an hour away. So we went in there and ate subs and played sorry.

After her parents arrived, we drove down to Grottos to pick up all our stuff from the car and then we drove the four hours back to College Park. And now I am back and about to go to bed because I am really tired and sore. Anyhow, what is a story without car pictures. Below is Rebecca's cute little jetta. The poor little thing. Her Dad said it was a lemon anyhow.

If you think about it, you can pray for Rebecca. I know she is going to take it really hard. She already has a pessimistic view on life. So I know this is going to be rough on her. She looked so sad all day and I couldn't even get her to smile, which I can normally do pretty easily. Thanks!!

Happy Friday the Thirteenth!!

This is my new favorite application on google. I have always loved looking at the satellite pictures on google maps, but now they have STREET VIEW!!! It is super awesome coolness. Can you find where in the US of A this picture is? I'll give you a hint, it is in the United States (but those are the only places so far with streets). It shouldn't be too terrible hard. I left the address in from when I was poking around different places in the country. And one more clue: it is more northernish. Out west is so depressing with no trees and all that brown. I am so glad I like in a pretty state. I like the look of the entire east coast. :)

To prove the great stalking capabilities of google maps... I give you the hospital where Sarah Meadow's works. I also found Stef's apartment, but it was too far off the road and kind of blurry.

Lisa Wright has a blog and pictures of her three adorable children!! She is Lisa Sperow for those of you who don't know who I am talking about. My old babysitter.