1 RV + 4 people + California's PCH = AMAZING

    I went to California this weekend with Andrew to visit his family. We got in an RV with his aunt and uncle and went all up the PCH until we reached San Simeon. We drove all though wine country, saw an Ostrich farm, almost blew off of a mountain, ate good food, and I found my future home in Morro Bay. I wanted to share with you some of my memories....

Above: This was our awesome meal at Hearst Castle's restaurant/winery. They had amazing food and awesome wine!!

Above: We found HUNDREDS of elephant seals along our journey and stopped for a while to hang out with them for a bit. They are FUNNY!!

Above: Allolyberry Pie. It is 2/3 blackberry and 1/3 raspberry. AHHH soo good.

Above: this may be my favorite. It was raining SO hard. But we could not pass up that view.

Above: our first winery. It was run by a mom and pop type company. And my favorite wine!

Above: This was at Morro Bay. My new home ( I HOPE )!!

Above: Yes. We found Ostrich Land. We also found out that Ostriches have a kick force of 500 pounds, that is enough to kill a lion in the wild.

Above: One of my favorites. Once again we could not pass up that shot!

Above: Just chilling out before the sunset!!


It was such an amazing trip!! His Aunt Cate and Uncle Boo are awesome. They are so much fun and made our trip amazing!! I can't wait to do the Cali trip again :)

Motto to live by...

 I heard this quote a few years ago and thought it was hilarious. It is a motto that I hope to live by. I hope that I am working so hard for the Lord and doing so much good for the Lord, that this happens.....

I love it. Blunt. Bold. and AWESOME.

Learning more about yourself...

     You cannot fully live out your life unless you can fully live out who you are, who God made you to be. This means you have to do a pretty in depth self-evaluation.  Andrew used to tell me that all of the time, and until recently I had I not done it. I was in crisis “WHO AM I AND WHAT AM I DOING” mode all of the time. But about 3 weeks ago I sat myself down, dialed God and we had a great, really revealing conversation about ME.

     There are a few things I had to come to terms with: 

Number one- I’m emotional. I just am. It is not something that I particularly love about myself because I cannot hide my emotions either, they are written all over my face. But it is who I am, and knowing that now, and accepting that fact, I am able to manage my emotions better. 

Number two- I am “spacey”. I do not really know how to define spacey but I’ll give you an example. A week ago Andrew and I were at Barnes and Noble reading some magazines and just chilling out for a few. I had a magazine through page 93 before I realized it was in Italian. Partly because another attribute about me is that I learn better with pictures, so I tend to “read” magazines like a picture book. But none the less, I do not pay attention to my surroundings really well. But Now that I know that I can better tackle the day and make myself be more in tune with what is around me. 

Number three- I am a dreamer. And don’t get me wrong, it is not a bad thing to be a dreamer, but I tend to let my dreams transport me other places in my mind, and I try to play out the scenarios of my life in my “dream land”. This can be paralyzing because if in my mind, I have a fairytale coming up, and then average life is still here, I get disappointed and tend to place blame where blame need not be. But knowing this now has been amazing because now, I can stop myself before I get too far in dream land.

     There are so many more things that God has showed me during my self-evaluation, but I am not going to share those in my blog post today. But, by looking at my life, and the attributes that God has given to me, and realizing my strengths and weaknesses, I have been a MUCH happier me this month.

I challenge you to do the same!! 

a glimpse of hope with VCU???

      As many of you know, attending VCU has been MORE than frustrating to me. With the changes in requirements for classes, advising gone wrong, and scheduling nightmares I think it is safe to say that I am ready to graduate!
      I met with an advisor today because VCU did not have my major available to select to apply for graduation online ( yes another little frustration along the way, that just so happened after a HOLD on my VCU account because I needed to pay a bill, which  you are supposed to get until 6months after graduation right? ). Anyways, my appointment went amazing. Two appointments ago I FINALLY got a woman that showed compassion and love towards me and her efforts to help me along the way, Virginia. And today when I walked into advising, Virginia was there to help me again. She walked me through everything, and I have my Passport ( a community service thing you need to complete before graduation ) all completed and my credits and GPA all line up  beautifully. All that is left to do is have the dean look it over ( WHICH I AM TERRIFIED ABOUT because something always seems to snag when I think I am along my way ).
     I am so happy that this process is almost OVER!!! I HOPE! Pray for me. But one thing VCU has taught me so well, is pressing on. It is real life here I swear. No one really to help you along your way. You have to do things on your own if you want to get out. And as much as I really dislike that, it has grown me. I may have shaved a few years off of my life because of stress, but I am able to figure things out myself now.
     So HERE'S to a great advising appointment. I will not celebrate my way to graduation because whenever I get a glimpse of hope it is taken. hahaha But anyways, seriously PRAY for my graduation process that it is a success. I need it!!

have a little faith.

      The realization has come to me that we are a generation that has lost alot of FAITH and TRUST in God. Now hear me out. How many times in the past year have you found yourself down, frustrated, confused, lost and disheartened because you have no answers. No matter where you look and go, your answers are no where to be found. Have you ever thought that maybe you need to take a leap of faith and walk hand in hand with God, and MAYBE, just maybe he will lead you to your answers along the way. That if you did not leap that you would be at a stand-still. That maybe God needed you to leap so he could properly lead you??
       I know it seems so foreign to us all because in a matter of 1.3seconds we can look up any answer to our problems on google. But for the questions of the heart, for the matters of eternity, it is not always that easy. In fact it is usually the exact opposite of that. It is hard. It is draining. and it is out right frustrating. But I feel like GAINING faith takes a little faith and trust, that you will get the faith that you are looking for.
      Take this example. I don't know about you, but whenever I am down or mad, I sometimes FORCE myself to smile. I make myself. And 9 out of 10 times it makes me laugh because I am amazed at how dumb I feel. But then a real smile comes out of my laughter. And then some since of happiness arises. I feel like that is how faith can sometimes work. We lose it a lot, and we sulk and linger in our negativity and anger that our faith has "disappeared", and in return we never gain it back, because we are not actually looking for it again. I think sometimes you need to take a leap of faith and start believing that you will find your faith again. 
      It all seems so silly, but for the past month I have been sulking. I have been upset. I have been UBER emotional, and not pleasant to be around. But this past week I made it my mission to find my desire again. To LEAP and find the faith that I will feel again. And I do. God is rocking my world again. I mean it all makes sense. In the bible people were not 100% or even 20% sure that Jesus was the Messiah, but they allowed themselves to HAVE FAITH. They leaped and found out the truth, that Jesus was the real deal. And look at Mary, Jesus' mom. She had no idea what was going to happen to her, but she had faith and was like yea God do with me as you want. And BAM we have Jesus!! Its crazy.
      So I leave you with Matthew 17:14-21...




" When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.”  Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.
Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”


     I pray that you will have FAITH. That whatever is in your path, you will TRUST that God is there. John Kavanaugh once asked Mother Theresa to pray for Clarity for him and she told him: " No, I will not do that" when asked why she responded: " Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of. I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God."