Free, White, and 21!

WELL, to start off with... It is truly amazing to me how the Lord never gives up on me! Tonight I got to witness something I've been praying about all week answered by my heavenly Father and I could not be more in awe of how He works in the most awesome of ways!

In other news, I am just about finished with my Christmas break in the ATL...It's been an interesting one! I choreographed an entire show while I was here and that was a blast, but other than that we have not been doing all that much other than some true bonding time with the neice and nephews. :) And eating fantastic food...that pretty much makes it all worth it.

I am finally off the darn crutches...praise the Lord! I'm walking very well, but having to work my way back to the dancing scene, unfortunately. I go back to NC a week from Wed. and will be preparing for a workshop our team is going to be leading in the Atlanta area at the end of Jan. I am VERY excited for that! My dance team will be able to see where I've lived for the last 3 years, do this workshop at my old church, and meet my family. So cool. Look for pictures from that!

One major thing in the works is the possibility for me to go and work at a large summer family camp in Cali. this summer and I can't wait to see if/how God is going to work that out. It's pretty far away, but at this point in my life I just feel like "bring it on!" Nothing is holding me back. I have no where to go or nothing to do once this dance program in NC is over at the beginning of June and can't wait to see where God is going to take me while I'm free, white, and 21! (as my dad says) :)

Jeremiah 29:11!

Stand Out Performance

Well, it has definitely been a couple of weeks since my last post. I haven't had a lot of free time on my hands. Much has happend! The short version...

About 10 days ago we were in the middle of preparing for our Christmas dance for church this past Sun. and I fell in rehearsal and tore a ligament in my right ankle and I've been on crutches ever since. Sadly, I wasn't able to perform in the Christmas Cantata, but God has taught me a lot through it and I enjoyed watching. I was in the ER twice within 3 weeks and I wouldn't wish that upon anyone, but it really tested my faith and I am doing well now (had a hard time at first). The Christmas service went great and I got to watch and take pictures so that was a lot of fun and I got to meet and talk to a lot of people during the 3 services since I was pretty much on my own... so I really did enjoy it.

Also, in the midst of all that we had finals. That was not so fun. Lots of cramming in our free time (which wasn't much!) but we all buckled down and studied as a team and I think we did well- we just finished with our last final today.

I am now in Atlanta for the holidays. I drove on Wed. with my left foot and kept my right foot up the whole 6 hours. Yea, I really don't enjoy that trip by myself. :) And had a hard time saying goodbye to all the girls because now I am in Atlanta for a month, but I am sooo glad to be on a break and have finals behind me!

We had a super fun Christmas party the night before I left at the girls apartment and we had SO much fun. Stayed up late and did secret santa, pizza, sweets, tooks pictures, etc. It was an asbolute blast. All of the girls there have become like family and it's so weird to think that at the end of this next semester it will all be over!

Although, I am now officially in the middle of choreographing a show (on crutches) and rehearsals start tomorrow...It's is gonna be intense. But, honestly, I am so excited. It has been been a long time since I have done any choreographing and it's going to be for a great bunch of teens so I really can't wait.

Alright, well, I still have mucho choreography to work on so back to work. :) Merry Christmas!

It's About That Time

Wow, do I ever need to vent a little. Ok, maybe not just a little, but A LOT.

I am so overwhelmed right now with school and work and choreographing a show and...there's just too much to do. Too much to do with no time to do it. I don't even know where to start.

There's a lot on my mind other than just the basics. I'm undergoing a lot of changes it seems. Mostly heart and life changes. Some good, some I can't quite put a finger on, but I know it's coming...I just don't know how yet. I'm thinking long-term life stuff lately. Where am I going to be in 5 years? I don't even know where I'm going to be in 6 months...let alone 5 years! Not that I need to know at this moment, but it'd sure be nice to have a little preview.

Well, I'm reading The Shack. It's been interesting to see the responses I've gotten so far about the book. It seems people are either highly supportive or highly disapprove of it. I'll let you know what I think when I finish it. It's just that kind of book you can't really put down (I just have to for now cuz I'm in the middle of finals and need to spend my time reading text books--oh joy!)

Christmas break is coming up.....Praise the Lord!! I am so excited to see my family and friends back in Atlanta. Not sure that I'm going to make it to Michigan this break...

Unfortunately, I am in a very sarcastic mood and ready to go out of my mind at any given moment. It's been a rough day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

Thanksgiving ~ Ohh snap!

Well, this was a great Thanksgiving. I just have to state a few of my personal hightlights from Ashley and I's trip to Virgnia for the last 5 days.

1. Cooking a corn casarole with Ash (that was a first)
2. Watchinig grandpas smack grandmas' butts
3. Listening to the entire May family sing "Give Thanks" completely off key
4. Apples to Apples and Loaded Questions
5. 6 dogs, 1 cat, and 1 VERY annoying bird
7. New winter coat, hat, and shoes!
8. Spending the day shopping with Ash, Mrs. May, and Daryl...need I say more?
9. Sleeping in the same room with a bird that wouldn't shut up
10. Harmonizing with Ash to "O Come, O Come, Emannuel" in the middle of Walmart
11. Watching Ash and her brother wrestle on the kitchen floor (I guess that's what I missed out on since I don't have any brothers!)
12. Bringing home twice as much as we left with :) That's always a good thing.

In all seriousness though, I am truly thankful for Ashley at this time of my life. And I've realized just how important family truly is and how much I miss them all being so far away. Never take relationships with friends and family for granted. I have been truly blessed and thank God for giving me such an amazing support system.

Now the next 2 weeks are going to be absolutely ridiculous. All I have to say is--FINALS. Ashley and I have decided we're going to study like crazy, cut out all sugar from our diet, and pray...a lot. We'll see how this goes.

Alright, well we made it through 3 performances on Sun.! It was amazing to see how God moved through the dance and how people recieved it. We did a hip hop to a song called Stand Out and the words are very powerful and pretty blunt so we were praying that God would move in a mighty way... and He sure did! One of the other girls in our dance hit me two different times during the dance (our space was limited on the stage). It was pretty hard to keep from laughing the rest of the dance, but it turned out ok, thank goodness! :) My cousin's girlfriend and friend from an hour away came to see us and it was fun to get to spend a little time with them afterwards.

Well today Ashley and I are heading to her house in VA for our Thanksgiving break and we will be gone until Sun. We're very excited for a break, but have a TON of studying to do to prepare for our finals.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!

Contentment

Psalm 118:24 "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." That has been sinking in. It's been often recently (even in the last week) that I've had to continually remind myself of that verse. So far, this has been one of the most disapointing weeks for me since I've been here at the training program. While I was nannying over the weekend, I fell down wooden stairs and have a contorsion (internal bruise) on my right knee/calf/shin area and sprained my right wrist. I spent all day in the ER on Tues. and thankfully that is all that I did. Some thought my leg was a lot worse. I spent all day Sun. and Mon. thinking I was out of dancing for at least a month, and for obvious reasons, that would defeat the purpose of why I'm here in N.C.--I am here to dance! We are performing in church for the first time this Sun. and praise the Lord, the Dr. said I should be good to go by then.

I think the Lord was just trying to get my attention. I've gotten so caught up in the reutine of things here I was forgetting to truly be thankful for this gift of dance that the Lord has given me. Last night I had my first choroegraphing creative outburst and couldn't get to sleep until 3am. It was the first time in months and the moves were just flowing through me. It felt soooo good. I did an entire 5 min. song almost all in my head within 2 hours.... that could only have come from the Lord! It was was like He knew I just needed to be reminded that it's not about me, it's not about my choreography, or my body and what I can do with it. It's about how He created me with this gift and passion for dancing to use for His glory and nothing else! "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength!"