My sister and Annie are geniuses with the camera. They had some film to use up and asked Jared and I to pose for them Sunday afternoon. It was fun despite the rain. This is one of my favorites.

This is my Jared and me. I had the great pleasure of spending my entire thanksgiving break with him (and I basically mean ENTIRE). I did no schoolwork, but who cares about schoolwork when you have someone as great as Jared around?!? Jared knew I was sort of grumpy Saturday (for no reason that I can explain because everything was going very smoothly and I was having a lot of fun) so he spent the rest of the day doing things for me and cheering me up. He took me to get my watch fixed and he helped me quilt together the rest of my table runner and then took me over to his parents house and helped me iron the binding and cut out the borders and all the boring stuff in quilting... He let me do the fun stuff and he just sat around and helped in whatever way he could. Jared is wonderful. I so look forward to spending the rest of my life with him and trying to outdo his kindness. I think it will be fun, hard at times, but still fun.

And finally, thanksgiving was great. I did nothing, well no schoolwork. I hung out at my house a lot and of course went to the Robins for thanksgiving dessert leftovers. Jared and I watched A Christmas Carol, Toy Story, and Rudolph. We played scrabble and cribbage and did crosswords and quilted and ate tons and tons of mom's wonderful food!! I love spending time at home with my family and Jared and my friends!! It was so good to see Hayley this weekend and eat her delicious food as well. Woohoo. I love holidays. Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorites.

I love us!

"When Christoph Römhild, a Lutheran pastor in Hamburg, Germany, sent Carnegie Mellon Ph.D. student Chris Harrison a list of 63,779 cross-references between the Bible's 1,189 chapters, the two became enthralled with elegantly showing the interconnected nature of Scripture. Each bar along the horizontal axis represents a chapter, with the length determined by the number of verses. (Books alternate in color between white and light gray.) Colors represent the distance between references. Graphic by Chris Harrison, Carnegie Mellon University"

SO COOL!!

Here's the deal, I have two classes next week: Tuesday 2-4:40 and 6-8:00. So I am planning on driving up to College Park on Tuesday (leaving Salisbury around 10:30 or 11) and going to school all day and then driving home that night... So, if there is anyone that wants to spend a bunch of hours at Ikea or on campus in the library you can come with me. You can go to Ikea for hours and hours and hours and then come pick me up when you are finished or you can just come read in the library for hours and hours and hours. If that sounds like fun to anyone, leave me a comment and I will try to work it all out. heh. You know you want to take me up on this sweet deal. :D

I have this thing for ampersands... maybe because the word is so fun to say. If anyone could find where I could buy bookends that were ampersands or any other nifty ampersandy things, that would be so awesome. I want to have them all over my house. I think they are so neat looking.

Jared & Faith.
Woohoo.

Ampersand

&

Ampersand

&

Ampersand

&

This was the most amazing rainbow I have ever seen. My camera phone doesn't do it justice, but imagine this so bright that you almost had to squint. It was so bright and the second rainbow was much better defined. I was happy that my camera phone picked it up this well. But it was breath taking. Wow. (I have the photos on my flickr, but I thought it looked more amazing pasted together).

For me the coolest thing about rainbows is knowing that they are a promise from God... how awesome is that?!? We have a visible sign of his love. Amazing.

Skype me...

I have finally downloaded and installed Skype to my computer. So leave me your user names and I will add you to my contacts and maybe I will talk to you sometime. I still need to get a mic, but I could listen to you talk. :)

Oh, my user name is gth.faith or search Faith Harr.

Bridesmaid skirt???

I saw this skirt at GAP today and I love it. I think it is perfectly adorable and it is in pretty much exactly the color I want. Could this work as a bridesmaids skirt? Comments. Discuss this and let me know what shirts would look good with a skirt like this. My dress is kinda fancy so the shirt would have to be rather fancy too. The skirt is Cotton/silk taffeta. Anyhow, I'm brainstorming ideas... Leave me a comment on your opinions because I don't really care as long as Jared is there. ha ha.

Plus, we could buy it on the first Tuesday of a month and get 10% off since I am a GAP card member. Or we could talk Hayley into getting a job there again for a short time to get some sort of sweet employee discount. :)

Happy gym face!!

After over four years of the same running shoes... I finally bought a new pair today!!! 1. Because they were R'boks which have been the only comfortable running shoe that I have found for my feet and 2. Because they were only 25 bucks at Rugged Warehouse and 3. They were in my size and 4. They are purple and 5. They are official super running shoes or something fancy like that. Anyhow, I love them and can't wait to break them in at the gym tomorrow. My feet are so happy in them.

I have a sweet husband-to-be. He surprised me with dark chocolate and a new charm for my necklace for no reason at all other than to be sweet. It is a UNC charm. How awesome is that!?! I can't wait for basketball season now! Woohoo.

Also, I love my family!!

Finally, GO VOTE!!

I am coming home this weekend. But if you don't see me this is why...

Things to do:
* Meet with the photographer (Thursday)
* Finish writing my cover letter, cv, and teaching portfolio
* Meet with SU (Friday morning)
* Reformation conference (Friday Night)
* Reformation conference and party (Saturday 3:30 - all evening)
* Grade 52 labs
* Study for a math midterm (11 chapters!! Yikes) and do homework for it and work a few practice exams... bleh. Favorite class (material wise) this semester, but that isn't saying anything.
* Write Estimation and schedule for a four story office building
* homework for ENRE684.
* Women's retreat meeting (Sunday evening)
* buy mango at Sams (because I am almost out)
* Go to La Tolteca (because I really miss it - this is definitely going to have to move to next week)

Oh, and church, spending time with the family, and seeing Jared as much as possible. He might just have to sit around and watch me grade papers this weekend. Oh, and Joe wants me to either remind me mother to make him fudge or for me to buy him a Smith Island cake. I don't see either of those happening this weekend, maybe next weekend... Don't worry Mom, I made him an apple cake last night. I think he will be okay if I don't get any of the sweet things for him.

If you want to see me just let me know. I have a few free days in February and March. ha ha ha. But seriously, if you tell me you want to do something with me I will make time in a few weeks. But right now I am definitely running on like two or three weeks notice. heh. Such is life. I can't wait until it slows down again.

I should be madly studying for the FE, but I had to take a break and tell you all what happened to me today. I think it is hilarious. So let's start off by saying at the TAs meeting yesterday we were all joking around about this kid that keeps coming to my office hours. The other guy TA told me that I better watch him because he probably has a crush on me or something. We all laughed about it and built our circuits.

Which brings us to today... I packed my bag and get ready to walk out of class. And this kid gets up to walk out at the same time. We walk down the hallway together and the hallway splits. He heads one direction and I head the other (to go out to my car). Suddenly he calls out my name and comes jogging towards me. And I figure he is going to ask a question since he is forever asking me to explain stuff. ha. He looks like he is at a loss for words at first, and I thought OH NO! This isn't good. So he finally says, "I was wondering if you would have dinner with me sometime..." And I went into panic mood and all I could think to do was throw up my hand and say, "Sorry, I am engaged!!" Poor kid. He made some dumb joke about me not being old enough to be engaged and then ran off. Jared asked me what his face looked like and I really don't know. I was trying to avoid looking at him. ha.

So now I am starting to believe the other TA and I am worried that that other kid we were joking about will show up to office hours with flowers or something. ha ha. I mean, who asks out their TA? Plus I am sick and I was wearing my glasses and jeans and a t-shirt today. What is up with this? Jared pointed out that he has obviously been thinking about this for a long time, which makes it even more funny. I joke around with all my kids. Do I have to worry about all 50 of these guys having a crush on me? But seriously, asking out your TA will you are still in class with her?!? What is that! I still can't understand...

Anyhow, I have never been asked out by someone out of the blue before. I thought that was so funny and odd and strange that I had to share it with the blogging world. :D I think I will start out next semester by holding up my hand and declaring that I am getting married in July. heh. Maybe that might work. Or as Jared said I could be mean, but that is no fun. Who wants to come to lab with a mean TA?

I am going to Reality Factor this weekend with the youth group! I look forward to it. Woohoo!

Next weekend (25th) I am taking the FE. YIKES!!

I have two midterms this week! And a ton of labs to grade... That is about all that is going on in my life right now. heh. Oh, and I am trying to fill out my applications for SU.

I bought an album of Sovereign Grace's worship music yesterday. This is my favorite track off of it. I have been listening to it on repeat all day. It has mesmerized me; both the words and the music are incredible. You can listen to part of it here. I think this song is a great reminder that this earth is not our home. Our home awaits us. We will someday be in heaven, before the throne of the King of Kings, praising our creator. How glorious!

It is not Death to Die

It is not death to die
To leave this weary road
And join the saints who dwell on high
Who’ve found their home with God
It is not death to close
The eyes long dimmed by tears
And wake in joy before Your throne
Delivered from our fears

Chorus
O Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die

It is not death to fling
Aside this earthly dust
And rise with strong and noble wing
To live among the just
It is not death to hear
The key unlock the door
That sets us free from mortal years
To praise You evermore

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)
Original words by Henri Malan (1787–1864).

The grandi-howards have crab feasts for all their family to come to two or three times a summer. All five of their kids came today and some of their kids and some of their kids. Joe also invites some of his old friends. I pigged out on Trader Joe's cornbread and Popeyes spicy chicken. I got to show off my ring to all my "cousins" (Joe calls me his granddaughter since I have lived here longer than anyone else). heh. Being a part of a big family looks like a lot of fun. I hope my siblings and I get together lots of times after we are all married and have children. I look forward to that.

One thing that I love about living with the Howards is getting to talk to so many interesting people. These are people that I would never strike up a conversation with normally... like Joe's old high school friends and people that taught under him when he worked in the schools around here. It is so much more interesting then talking to people who are my own age! I love talking to people older than me. They are so much more interesting and have so much more to offer me then my peers do. I feel like time is well spent talking to people like that. I also enjoy being just old enough to carry on a somewhat interesting conversation from my part. I can talk about school and work and what I am doing. It is great. I really have enjoyed living here! It has been a huge blessing.

Oh and I bought a new music cd at Covenant Life today. It is incredible. It is called Come Weary Saints. Some really meaty praise music. I'm really feasting on it. Also, on my playlists recently have been igrace hymns cds (not the prettiest voices to hear singing - but the words are such gems). Mr. Howard and I were discussing how great and uplifting and convicting old hymns are today!! I love them. And of course GT and the Halo Express... I just bought them all on Cd (all 7 of them) and I have been listening to pure scripture for the past week in song form. It is incredible. I have felt so encouraged all week at school. A couple "bad" things happened at school and I was perfectly content and unfazed. I claim it was the music I was listening to this week. I think it has a huge influence on my life.

And thanks to Mr. Howard for the great pointers on how to make my wedding invitations look more classy. I will probably be trying some of those tips. Woohoo.

This is my favorite bouquet!!

This bouquet is lavender roses, astilbe, and agapanthus (Lily of the Nile).

Has anyone heard of agapanthus and do you know where to get it? I don't really are aout the astilbe. I don't think it really adds anything to it. I just love the lavender roses and dark blues together!! Beautiful!

I have a dream...

Since taking classes at Salisbury and transfering to Maryland, I have wanted to change the way Salisbury teaches engineering. I have wanted to offer them solutions to helping students addapt to College Park and having ways to make sure that what they learn at Salisbury will be the same as that at Maryland. I've been throwing the idea around recently about teaching once I get out of school (which is why I am getting my masters). So I found this job posting at Salisbury tonight and I was seriously excited. The one problem with it - they want someone with their Ph-D. I believe that I have the experience to be able to fill the position since I transfered to Maryland and I know people at Maryland that I could partner with.

Anyhow, that is my dream right now. I'm praying about it. You can too. I know God will give me whatever is best to serve Him, but this sure does sound fun!! I'd love to have you pray with me about this. Life is exciting, isn't it?!?

"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. "

News about me:
* I am totally in love with my ring (and Jared). My ring just gets prettier each and every day. I love staring at it in the brightly lit classrooms. It is especially nice when I am seriously bored. I didn't ever think I would like looking at a polished rock so much. heh. I never thought I would like flowers or get married right after college either. I just think Jared picked out the perfect ring for me. I LOVE solitary, round-cut, traditional rings. Man, I love it. :)

News about someone else:
(since I keep getting asked.....)
* Stephanie is having a boy.
* Her due date is January 4, 2009.
* She is feeling better than she has.
* Ben and she are in the process of looking for either a new apartment or a house.

This was my favorite dress. But I couldn't find it anywhere to try on. And the dress I finally picked out is so much cooler than this dress and not really like it at all. ha. When we first went to try on dresses they made me try on dresses with parts of this dress in them. I never liked any of them. Sigh. A few days later my mother was feeling rather depressed and told me that dress shopping would cheer her up. After visiting another store, we went to a store downtown and I started trying on random dresses. The last one I tried on was the one that I didn't ever want to take off. It was so much fun to wear. I brought Sarah and Hayley back later the next week to see it. And TODAY... I finally went and bought it. It will take four months to make, but it is going to be SOOOOOOO awesome. And no, you don't get to see a picture. You will just have to come to my wedding to see it. It is made by my favorite wedding dress designer (or the one that I liked the most of her dresses), Maggie Sottero. What fun!! And I got 10% off the dress today.

So ... I BOUGHT MY DRESS!!!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I can't wait to try it on... I think I will be driving to see it all the time and trying it on.
It is amazing!

300 days...

Until I don't have internet anymore,

get to wear my favorite dress,

and eat chocolate peanut butter cake.

Excited?

My parents, Dean, and Jared came to visit me today!! People I know (and like) are always such a welcome sight. I get to see Rachel Townsend tomorrow and we are going to see Jars of Clay, Third Day, and Switchfoot. I am really looking forward to seeing Jars of Clay!! Woohoo. Oh, and I get to hear C.J. Mahaney preach tomorrow! I have never had the pleasure of hearing him speak. I love his wife and his books. I just finished Feminine Appeal. I couldn't put it down. My favorite C.J. book so far is the Cross Centered Life. Jared gave it to me for graduation, but I left it at his house. And since I don''t go over to his house very often, I borrowed Dad's copy and have been rereading that one. heh.
So parents, good friends, great music, and wonderful preaching... it looks to be a good weekend.