love is not what we expected.

Well hello dear ladies!

I miss you so much, and I've been loving reading everyone's posts, I need to hear from Tatum. :o) And Jamie again. :o) I cannot wait to see you all and fellowship with you. I am in dire need of it.

Summer. It has been full of everything that I have never done before. It has been full of everything that I never thought would happen. It has been change, confusion, hurt, tears, euphoric joy, quiet contentment, the thrill of secrecy and hidden adventure, knowing looks that really don't know anything...

I could go on for miles.

This has been the best and worst summer of my life. Maybe too complicated for a blog post, but all the same, the feeling swells into my chest and chokes me up at the throat and I want to burst. I am overwhelmed and happy to be overwhelmed. In a few days, it will have ended like it began and I will have the memories. Always the memories, lingering like a mist hovering over the fields in early morning, never quite touching, but there, lightly scenting the earth with its fragrance. I am the earth, you are the mist, and you make me wish I could do more than spin on my axis.

I am obsessed with clouds.

Hello, dears! I miss y'all so much. This summer has been quite wonderful, but I can't wait to hug each of you and hear about your lovely summers. Right now I am in North Carolina visiting family and friends. It is delightful and absolutely beautiful. I also have limited access to the internet and barely any cell phone service, so that is refreshing.

As to the title of this post, I have recently become obsessed with clouds. Aren't they amazing? I love how simply beautiful they are. Isn't God a wonderful decorator? Without clouds, the sky would be a boring blue. haha. Since I am obsessed with clouds, I find myself taking pictures of clouds quite often. Maybe I'll print them out for our room!

Anyways, God has been teaching me a lot this summer. I am definitely more content with being single than I was in the Spring! I need y'all to encourage me in my walk with God, though. I want God to me my first love, but I am constantly sidetracked with worldly things. hmmph.

Here are a few other random pieces from my summer:

- I have been working on t-shirt and poster designs for CAB!

- I have read several books! (Currently finishing a book of short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

My friends keep telling me I need to read Harry Potter. :) I guess I should start soon.

- I have found a few little trinkets from thrift stores for our room

- this list is quite boring.

I guess this is all I have to say for now. Sorry this post is scattered!

Harry Potter, Savannah, and Contentment...

Hello lovely ladies! The past few weeks of my summer have been thoroughly interesting. I had jury duty, went on vacation to Savannah, found a new comforter for my bed in our awesome dorm, made a skirt, visited Chattanooga, registered for the GRE (I am scheduled to take it on August 16th), and read almost all of the Harry Potter books! Jury duty was an eye-opening experience. I have a new appreciation for the judicial system. It is amazing to me that 12 people of different backgrounds, worldviews, and ages can come to a unanimous decision on anything! I was in desperate need of a vacation after the case that I was put on, so naturally Savannah was a great place to go! I had lots of fun in Savannah as well. I tried to dress as hipster possible, but alas, I was not mistaken for a Savannah College of Art and Design student. The beach, historic downtown, and all of the really cool shops in the city were so much fun! I am excited to show you girls the sewing projects that I have been working on this summer as well as the crafts and things that I have bought/made for the dorm!
My reading list is going well, but I am not as far into it as I had hoped. I am almost done with the Harry Potter series and will hopefully have all of the books and movies finished by the time Deathly Hallows Part 2 comes out. After I finish this series, I want to start on the Hunger Games series which I hear is very good! After that series I want to tackle Water for Elephants, Into the Wild, and several other books before school starts.
I drove up to Chattanooga a few days ago to visit with a few people who are in the city for the summer…That was so much fun and driving into downtown felt like driving home! Needless to say, I am enjoying the freedom of summer from homework, Organic Chemistry, and other stresses of college, but am missing Covenant fiercely as well. Visiting Chattanooga the other day was great, but I can’t wait to get back to Covenant and start my senior year!
I have been feeling rather distant from God lately because I'm not a huge fan of my home church anymore, the lack of a routine as well as fellowship with a godly group of people like yourselves, and mostly my own laziness when it comes to getting in the Word and prayer. BUT, I have been thinking about my life and where God is taking me lately and I have realized that after all these months of praying for contentment, I can finally see some "fruit" if you will. I can see now that he DOES have plan even though it may be fuzzy and random to me, it is perfect. There are some specific things and some general trends that I have been thinking about that have given me an appreciation for where my life is going and where I am currently, but some of them are hard to explain and I will give specifics when school starts! :)
I have some interesting stories for you girls that won’t suffice to tell in text, but I promise to dish as soon as we are all in the same city...Wow that was a long post! I hope it all made sense because it was kind of a whirlwind explanation of the last month and a half...I miss you girls so much and am terribly excited about seeing all of you in less than 7 weeks! I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the summer and I will see you girls soon!

Hi everyone!
Man, I really really am starting to miss everybody! I really want to hug everyone of you!
I have been enjoying my time at home so much, but I putz around on facebook and get all sentimental and want to see everybody again :) And I bet OTeam is going to be great!
Well, since my last post, I've gotten really plugged into my job! The office is made of only ladies, and they are all super sweet. I have perfected my telephone voice and am an expert at the trifold. My classes are...semi-interesting. Oh well, I wasn't expecting too much.
I have gotten involved with this awesome Bible study group, and I go to it with the other Covenant kids from my town, Kat Sullivan and Chase Foster. I'm so glad I've gotten to know them finally! I don't know why we waited so long.
Last weekend my sister and I made 101 cupcakes! We made a flag cupcake collage for the fourth of July. I have realized I love icing way to much haha, it is the best!
We had some family friends come visit us from Washington last week, and that was so fun. It is so strange that people can just move away like that. How can you be best friends with someone and then not see them for two years? I tell you what, I am so thankful for telephones.
I'm in a wedding phase... I went to the wedding of a high school friend on Saturday, and then it seems like every week someone else from Covenant gets married, and I get to oogle at their pictures. I want to get married wayyy to badly. I think that means it probably won't happen for a long time. But man, it is going to be awesome! (Esther, I watched that video you posted of Casey and Brandon's wedding probably 3 times... it is just beautiful!!)
On a semi-serious note, I think God has been teaching me more and more how awesome Heaven is going to be. I get kind of weird sometimes where I get sad when I think about Heaven because there are parts about Earth that I like so much. But I have been finding out that even those parts of Earth I like so much have things wrong with them. That might seem kind of depressing at first, but then I remember that in Heaven, all the things that I like on Earth will finally be perfected! It gets me super excited! Like, I will be able to run 100 miles without my kneees hurting, or I can swim in the middle of the ocean without ever feeling sacred or tired, and all of my relationships with people with be filled to the brim with love and understanding.
Well, I just felt it was time I posted something or other :) I love you guys soooo much! Can't wait to see you!
Oh! And that birdie is a little buddy we rescued from the grocery store parking lot! He was the teeny tiniest thing, and we took him to the animal shelter, and they said he had a very good chance. I think he is called a tern or a turn. Anyway, I thought he was too cute :)

back from prague.

Hello dears!

I hope you are all doing well. What can I be praying for? I just arrived home last night! Currently I am trying to overcome jet-lag, but I will write a full post soon. Until then, here is a picture from Prague!

Love y'all so much!

xoxo,

Liz

summer warmed the open window

Well, I'm home. Last night, the Subaru was packed full of the past 9 months and as we got closer to home, I could feel the curves in the road with the familiarity of a bird to its nest. I could see every star with rich clarity and I was thankful for the absence of city lights. As we drove up the driveway I could see Flicka in the window. Mother said that when we got closer to home, she began to cry at my door. She slept with me last night, her head on my shoulder, just looking at me as we fell asleep. :o) I couldn't have been happier.

I start work next week at the Hospital, so this week I am just settling in and getting ready for some summer courses that I will be taking. I'm mostly unpacked now, I pulled out the easel and paints and decided that tomorrow, I will set them up outside and paint our house.

After school got out, I went to my sisters for the week to work on exams. She's about to have her first baby and I am so sad that I couldn't stay to see the birth. I'm so proud of her though. She is having a home birth with a midwife and she also has a birthing pool. She is so strong and she is such a good example to me. I did a little baking while I was there and made thesecookies. So good! Also, The Pioneer Woman is such a fun website. She has a great blog and her recipe's are a lot of fun to make. She's also super funny. :o)

I got off of Facebook for the summer/undetermined period of time. I just wanted to get off the radar for a bit. Also, I'm running a 5K in about a month. I'm excited, especially since I kind of got out of my running habits this last semester. It will feel good to get back in the swing of things. :o) Anyways, I love you all ladies! I'm excited to keep hearing how your summer is going and what you're up to.

-EGE

Healthy Eats, Latin Beats, and Final Feats

Hello!

Tatum, Amanda, Liz, and Esther, I miss you guys so much! This will be quite the long separation. But I am enjoying being here with my family and falling back into the beach bum routine. I've had a great time running and zumba-ing with my mom and dad (well dad didn't go to zumba, thank goodness :) ). And I've been loving trying new recipes with my mom! With many more ingredients available here than the great hall, it has been quite fun.

Here are some things we have made so far!

Turkey-Quinoa Meatloaf

This was sooo good! It had quite the zesty kick from the pepper sauce. I will definitely make this one again. And I love the idea of swapping breadcrumbs for quinoa; it takes an empty calorie filler and swaps in for a protein packed power house!

Mediterranean Crunch Salad

This was tasty as well. And I was surprised at how flavorful it was with the only "wet" ingredient being red wine vinegar. Lots of wonderful, fresh spices in this one.

One more concoction I have been having fun with is Greek yogurt (Esther, Greek!). My mom switched to it about 6 months ago because of its higher protein and lower fat. I thought it always looked funny so was hesitant, but then finally tried it earlier this week. I was missing out! It definitely is different (it has more of a sour cream consistency), but by mixing in granola, flax seeds, and dried cherries, it is scrumptious and more filling. We've been using the brand Chobani.

I am soooo glad to be back doing zumba! My mom, Laney, and I go to a really fun class, and I love being able to pretend that I am a good dancer haha. J Lo really gets your heart pumping :)

Also this week I worked much too long on my Bio Perspectives final. For real... that took way too long. 12 pages seems a bit too extensive for a test. But I did really like wrestling though all of those ethical issues. It has been a great conversation starter among my family. And Dr. Morris wrote me the neatest response ever back! He actually wanted to respond to some of the questions I raised in my paper. It just reminded me why I love Covenant so much.

So I am all finished! It feels great :)

I hope you all are having a great start to your breaks! Liz, I can't believe you are going to Prague! Have a wonderful time and be safe!

Love to you all from Florida!

Jamie