nostalgia & back to school

I was perusing my favorite website just now, www.mp3fiesta.com, for new and exciting music. I just downloaded Amos Lee and some new Coldplay... as well as The Swell Season... should be a good time. ANYWAY. I randomly was thinking that I might like to have this really old Shawn Colvin song that I used to L-O-V-E, and in searching for it I stumbled upon "Top Billboard 100" from like, every year since 1948 or something. But looking at the top 100 songs from, say, 1997 (where I found "Sunny Came Home" - thank you Shawn C) I have just been loving looking back at all these songs that I LOVED when I was like, 13. So glorious. I mean, no one can beat "Never Ever" by All Saints; "Its All Coming Back to Me Now" by Celine Dion; Monica, Brandy, Next... oh my. I just downloaded "All My Life" by KCi and JoJo as well as a Hanson song. I had both singles in 6th grade. I am enjoying myself so much right now its unreal. I think music was better in the 90's. Deeper. More moving. How can you beat these lyrics:

"I look at you looking at me

Now I know why they say the best things are free

Gonna love you boy you are so fine

Angel of mine"

In the immortal words of Kristin Anne Foster, "this is what love is." 

Thank you, 1997.

In other, less inane news, school starts tomorrow! Now, call me a dork, but I love the first day of school. I do. I know, I'm a grown up, in grad school... my pencils are sharpened, syllabi printed, Trapper Keeper ready... Seriously, I LOVE the first day of school! I'm awkwardly excited to go to class tomorrow, to see the new kids and to start a new semester. Also my friends who were gone all summer are back... lots of fabulous new people are starting (already met some... real winners!) and its all just very fun and exciting. I can hardly contain myself. 

Oh, and if you're curious, I'll be taking: Theology 2, Family Systems Counseling, Social and Cultural Foundations of Counseling, and Research and Evaluation in Counseling. FUN FUN FUN!

Better get a good nights sleep for my big day tomorrow! Wish me luck! Oh and if you have time, enjoy some 90's music today. It's just the best.

It's time to live, my friend

Jonah Werner is incredible. I stole some more of his muzac from Thom this weekend and I am just being moved repeatedly by the lyrics of this guy. He was my camp singer when I was on work crew and saw him again when visiting Thom at CCR. I have always been a sucker for a good song lyric... but this is uniquely sticking out for me today. Check it:

"And as prisoners, we wallow in the black of our bars; and in the clink of our chains we waste. And we cry out for mercy and we plead for a passage, incessantly pacing the cage. But this hole is too dark, and this chiasm’s too deep and we’ve no way out, so we cave... to the hemorrhaging stench of the life that we’ve spent, in the end for a feast in the grave. And we toast to addiction, and we drink to the thrill, and we talk about leaving (but we know we never will.) Have you heard the door open? Man, I’ve seen people leave. I’ve even heard voices calling, crying out for me. But it don’t matter, cause too far gone are the spoils of my shame, I say, so a voice is a voice just the same… most days. But not on this day. Because on this day there was a change: and it thundered and plundered the stones and it steals out the dust, embracing the rust, as I cling to the mud and the bones. And all of one brilliant siege all I once thought, believed, became dead and it immersed alive: and the bars were no more and the walls fell to the floor and the light marched down the inside. I don’t know about freedom or hope and I’m scared like the soul of a destitute slave who’s been set free but stands still right where he is. He says, “Can I just leave? Can I just walk away?” I say, “Run away, man.” I say, “Run away, man – from your feast in the grave.”

Its time to live, my friend. Its time to live."

How incredibly true does this ring for you? I think so often I am SO STUCK in my sin and in the bondage it creates for me, that I can't see my freedom (in Christ) staring me in the face. And I so often feel just exactly like the slave - I know I'm free but I just don't know what to do. Rather, I know I CAN be free, but I think, "too far gone are the spoils of my shame." In those moments I forget about Jesus - I forget about the stones that have been thundered and plundered, I forget that God embraces the rust... even mine. To hear the words, after listening to this crazily intense portion of song, "It's time to live, my friend," just brought tears to my eyes. Sometimes I am baffled by how long it takes me (dare I say us?) to get this stuff. I've been a "Christian" for... well, a long time - and I still have a hard time internalizing God's call to just live. To run away from my sin and from the things that hold me, captive, and live. 

"Can I just leave? Can I just walk away?"

"Run away, man. Run away."

a saucy little bob

This picture homage to my hair goes out to kelly "misdemeanor" marhaver and alix "are we wearing the same underwear?" floyd. 

Love you both. 

And yes. some of these pictures were taken in the Denver Seminary Library. I am sooooo studious. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAM!

It was, recently, my Gram's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAM!!! I am so so so so blessed to have such a wonderful grandma... and to get to see her this weekend to celebrate her birthday season! (I recently bought a greeting card that says, "I like to think of it as a birthday season; of which I just caught the tail end." But I can't decide who to give it to, because I am late for most birthdays. Such a dilemma.) But, I digress. Gram, here's to you! Thanks for being so lovely!

And so handy:

Haha - I love you Gram!!

all that I know is I'm breathing

Once again, faithful blog readers, I am here to regale you with the tales of my lovely little life. In the past few days, I have started to blog several times... but to no avail. I think I have been in a funk. A week-ish long funk. My lovely core group used to laugh because someone, every week, would state during check-in that they were in a funk. We passed the funk around for 3 delightful years. Ha. Needless to say, I have become perturbed with said funk, and decided to kiss funk goodbye. Goodbye, stupid funk.Exacerbating my current state has been the disaster of yesterday: the most horrific of all things... a bad haircut. Now, I know, its only hair. HOWEVER. I went in for a TRIM, yes, a trim, and ended up looking like Carol Brady: In the process of fixing the Mrs. Brady debacle (I'm not kidding... it was bad news, and I literally said the words, "um, I kind of look a bit like Mrs. Brady. Can we fix that?"), I have quite the short little bob going on. Now, I have been repeatedly assured that it does not, in fact, look as bad as I firmly believe it does. I KNOW its not that bad - but I didn't ask for or want short hair!  So, there is little anyone can do to console me. Dramatic? Yes. But hair is a big deal. Don't try and convince me it's not. My short short hair will eventually grow. In the meantime, I wouldn't comment on my haircut if I were you. 

On a less horrific note, the summer semester is finally wrapping up and it's almost time for the next one! Normally, I would be sad to be going back to school... but I am actually quite excited. Looking forward to: new classes, less classes than my last insane semester, the valiant return of my friends who went away for the summer (cough, BECKIE, cough), new people (some I know, some I don't), etc. etc. Not to mention this heinous semester of self-awareness and discovery is coming to an END! I am legitimately exhausted from learning so stinkin much about myself. I get it - I'm crazy. Old news. Let's move on. 

Ahh, yes. My house. Looks SO fabulous. Sarah (my roommate) and I spent about 7 hours on Saturday cleaning, organizing, overhauling, and decorating! It was glorious. Last weekend, overall, was pretty fun times... went to Rob Drabkin's show at Falcon Bowl (weirdest venue ever) with Sarah, after an Olympics party complete with chinese food to make us feel as though we were in Beijing... spent Saturday re-vamping the house. Saturday night Sarah and I discovered our new favorite mediterranean restaurant in Denver, Ya Hala (ya hollaaaaaa) and then capped off the night with lots of Wichita people at Downtown Tavern. THEN, on Sunday, Thomas came through Denver and we had a 100% lovely day. And there you have it. 

I have this kind of obsession with downloading everything free that ITunes has to offer. There is a section that is updated weekly on the ITunes store that is "free on ITunes" and I just feel the need to at least try all of it. I end up deleting 98% of everything I download, but it is kind of fun. Anyway, point being, I just listened to a free excerpt from the book "Skinny B*tch"... and it was, well, interesting. I've been kind of weirdly curious what the deal is with this book, and now I know. Its a fairly crude approach to kicking women's butts into being healthy. Anyway, it was a little funny, and while I would never listen to or read more than the 17 minute free download offered, it did convince me that I REALLY need to stop drinking coffee. Dangit. New project: stop drinking (so much) coffee. It really is unnecessary. They also, in the free excerpt, referred to all pop as "liquid Satan." Interesting. Not quite ready to give up Diet Coke. Baby steps, I think.

Lastly in today's news, I am heading to the lake this weekend. Joining me will be my completely crazy family. (No offense family. I already admitted I was, too.) I'm super excited. They might be crazy, but they're mine.

Ok well, enough about me. What do you think of me?

my, my - how can I resist you?

just a couple of thoughts...
1. how is it possible that it is already AUGUST?
2. It was recently brought to my attention that given the fact that I have my blog link on facebook, other people besides the 4ish people I expect to look at it, occasionally view it. now, this does not mean (much to my dismay) that I have some kind of cult following - no no, but I still feel a little... I don't know... added pressure to appear normal and a little bit cool. just kind of funny.
3. I saw Mamma Mia tonight. And I have to be honest... I loved every last second of it. There is a part of me that would like to deny that musicals are, well, wonderful, but I can't. Because walking out of that theater I was just so happy and filled to the brim with glee. (Chels was too, apparently ABBA has that effect on people.) But in all seriousness, I love musicals. I just can't help myself.

Also, I have had "Moonboots" by Jonah Werner stuck in my head for a good week or so. If you were wondering. However, I am pretty sure that the 2ish straight hours of ABBA took care of that problem once and for all...

"so when you're near me, darling, can't you hear me S.O.S.???"

she was lipstick and luxury, chaste as a pearl...

megan and kenneth: elated!!!

megan and kenneth: (hours later) devastated. or concerned.

array of homemade goodies!
(mine is the perfectly symmetrical fruit pizza)

I just love allison and chelsea.

one of many model shots of our evening... with allison and kim

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

just a happy birthday shout out to the one and only Tracy!



whenever I feel sad, I look at this picture, and it cheers me right up. may it serve the same purpose in all of your lives.

happy birthday mommy :)

but all I ever wanted help with was you

I've decided to share with you my summer playlist.
the soundtrack, if you will, to my ever-so-glamorous life.

1. Many the Miles - Sara Bareilles
2. Tables and Chairs - Andrew Bird
(+ the rest of "The Mysterious Production of Eggs")
3. Hoppipolla - Sigur Ros
4. Nothing But the Best - Frank Sinatra
5. Railway - Dispatch
6. Unsingable Name - Mike Doughty
7. Another Sunny Day - Belle and Sebastian
8. The Offer - Katie Herzig
9. Be Here Now - Ray LaMontagne
10. P.D.A (We Just Don't Care) - John Legend
11. Viva la Vida - Coldplay (+ the whole new cd)
12. Myriad Harbour - The New Pornographers
(once you get past the name, they're really good.)
13. PIcture to Burn - Taylor Swift (can't help myself)
14. My Doorbell - The White Stripes
15. In the Ayer - Flo Rida
16. A Man / Me / Then Jim - Rilo Kiley
17. Sing to the King - Passion Worship
18. Nothing (Without You) - Derek Webb
19. The Crane Wife 3 - The Decemberists
20. Just Like the Movies - Regina Spektor

so, it is potentially a little funny that I just made my own top-20 list as though any of you care what's on repeat on my Ipod. regardless, I'm going to go ahead and push "publish post" anyway. so there.

I've been thinkin about my doorbell, when ya gonna ring it? when ya gonna ring it?

went to visit thomas in the mountains! it was WAY fun. it is seriously the greatest thing ever that I live 1.5 hours from a weekend getaway in the Rockies! what a fabulous thing about my life. in moments like that short and beautiful drive, I wonder why I would ever want to move away from this state, ever. but then there are about 36,000 reasons to move to kansas too, most of them being people I love. so lucky for me, I don't have to decide right now. ha!
anyway. allison and I left around 5:30 friday night and were at crooked creek around 7:45, after checking into the Rocky Mountain Inn & Hostel. handy thing number two about this mini-vacay: hostels. cheap cheap. love it. anyway - we got to Crooked Creek and I just was practically in love with it immediately! we met up with thommy, then allison and I stayed for Club and Jonah Werner's concert. (Fun fact: Jonah, the CCR camp singer, was also my camp singer when I was on work crew at Trail West many moons ago. so so fun!)
Allison and I slept at our hostel friday night... woke up saturday morning when the two other inhabitants of our hostel dorm room woke up (not much choice there, they were, well, not considerate) and had a nice leisurely delicious breakfast at Sharky's... this really great little dive in Fraser. We went to camp, hung out for a few hours, watched the Broken Heart play, watched Thomas do his jobs (guarding lives), and visited with some fun Wichita folks too. I was having serious flashbacks to when I was at camp as a gawky, awkward 15 year old... we LOVED the summer staff boys. COLLEGE BOYS! we thought they were so cute and such a big deal... and we would stand around on the last couple days trying to work up the guts to get pictures with them. So I get there, and I'm not kidding, within 5 minutes, this gaggle of girls comes lurking up and is like, "um, Thomas, HEY! um, could we like, get a picture with you?" and that is when I realized that Thomas, my dorky little brother, is that summer staff heartthrob!!!!! I nearly died. It was incredible. Some things (15 year old girls, anyway) never change I guess.


happy happy sunday!!!

fruition: N: the point at which a plan is realized

hello pumpkins - as per usual, it has been a while. I have never been good at keeping things up... things like journals, blogs... checking my email and responding to them... you know, general communication kind of things. It is probably safe to say that I am a pretty big time slacker. But what else is new. Lets see... what do I have to share...
Life at this moment is pretty much consumed by TH 501: A Survey of Christian Doctrine. Someone today compared this class to trying to drink from a fire hose... I mean, a survey of THEOLOGY in 2 WEEKS? 4.5 hours a day... is a lot of theology. Especially for those of us (ahem, ME) who have, well, never spent more than 2-3 minutes thinking about theology without getting a big time headache. I do, however, have a big fat crush on the professor. He is brilliant. His vocabulary has me constantly baffled - I keep Dictionary.com open just to get through class with any semblance of a clue as to what's going on. Lovely.
The class itself is really challenging. Our first assignment was to look at the statement of faith for our churches - and I was embarrassed at the thought that it had never occurred to me to even glance at this before! Or, for that matter, ever! At any church I have attended! Based on denomination I can ascertain what some beliefs might be, but goodness! You would think that the basic theology and belief system of a church would be, I don't know, a deciding factor?? And so this leads me to the discovery that much of my personal theology is pretty skewed and fairly naive. Great, right? I'm not being challenged to any kind of detrimental point, but challenged I certainly am. Even core things I thought to be true (under what basis, though, I'm not sure) contradict one another to the extent that if taken far enough, one completely negates the other. AHH! That is a little window into my brain activity this past week and 2 days... this class is so fabulously rich and thick in material I want to know - but I'll be darned if I'm not getting a good butt-whooping in the process.
OH, in glorious news, I have pretty much completed my summer of wedding-attending. Praise God. I love a good wedding, I really do, but many more and I might just lose it completely. I can only travel so many times, buy so many dresses, and be surrounded by other people's love for so long (I kid, I kid) before I just start to, well, yes, lose it. I do have one wedding in September (Robert and Meredith, in Boulder) and one in November (Ruthie Ramseyer's in Wichita!), but those are well enough spaced out that I feel like I can deal. Glorious! Jess and Brock's wedding was wonderful in Wichita - Jess looked like a princess (according to Haven Yothers) and Brock was clearly so excited and happy and I couldn't want anything more for my cousin and friend! It is so hard to believe that little Jessi is married... the days of the metallic wigs and playing house are over, I suppose. I think that is the hardest thing about watching these women I love get married... such a sad reminder that our childhoods are long-gone and our friendships (as I know them) have to change. It is, though, such a gift to see each and every one of them (Jessi, Cally, Em, Jessica, Katy, Lainey, soon to be Emily too!) ... the list goes on) having found such wonderful spouses... the kind who we talked about, dreamed about, pretended existed in the form of bed posts... haha. Goodness... this is potentially the sappiest thing I have ever written on this blog! But, I feel as though I have let the cynic in me run rampant this summer (defense mechanism, perhaps?) with all these weddings, and it was time for a little sappy to get in there too. Plus, its my blog playas, and I do what I want!
Lets see what else is notable or worth sharing...
I am REALLY looking forward to reading "The Shack" when I am done with this class...
AND seeing the new BATMAN movie... yes, its true. I love Christian Bale.
I went to Cheyenne, Wyoming on Saturday. I have officially been to the state of Wyoming! We went for Cheyenne Frontier Days... the world's second largest outdoor rodeo, plus Taylor Swift and Rascal Flatts in concert.
I am going to Crooked Creek Ranch this weekend (friday and sat) to see Thomas, who is on Summer Staff there, and to generally revel in the Young Life environment for just a little bit. I am seriously, so excited about this. Just to be on a camp property sounds like exactly what I want right now. I so appreciate those camps - and I am clearly biased - but even though it is not the camp I went to, the ambiance is the same... wonderful. Ahh. It was the first place where I understood that GOD wanted a personal relationship with ME; that I allowed Him into my life after a year of my leaders laying the groundwork. I recently got the chance to have coffee in Wichita with my YL leader from high school, Suzanne, who now lives in Germany (talk about good timing!) AND to see Jen Bruening, one of my leaders from the first time I went to camp, both of whom I love so dearly I could barely put it into words if I tried! I think I have just recently been struck by their impact on my young life... and I'm so thankful they took the time to invest in me. What a great, great blessing. My apologies for the random Young Life plug... but I love it. I unabashedly proclaim that I flipping LOVE that organization. Ha.

Ok. Well. This has been long, and well, slightly pointless. I remember in freshman english we had to do "free writes" which was basically like stream-of-consciousness writing... this was a bit like a flashback to that. So, it is what it is - and there it is. Or something.

I guess I should also say that I feel so blessed and so fortunate to be getting to grapple with the things I am (in theology, namely) - and while sometimes I'd like to play my "big baby" card, I really do feel that gratitude most of the time. I feel like I am constantly being shown the reason for things being the way they are... or glimpses into pieces of God's work in my life over my 23 years. Yes, some things I am figuring out a little late... but better late than never, I suppose. Sometimes, I'm dealing with something, and some random tidbit that some counselor or youth leader said to me will pop into my head. Seriously. And when I originally heard it, it may as well have been in Lithuanian. But somehow, now, it is illumined for me. As Alix Floyd would say... everything really is coming full circle, isn't it? Something like that.

story of my life

So, for school, we have to do this thing called a learning contract... which basically is a form of character/spiritual formation... and involves making a goal for yourself (something along the lines of "I want to become the kind of person who [blank]." within that, there are head things (reading books, studying scripture) that you put in the contract, and also actual practices that you are going to do to establish this character trait or whatever. long story short, after explaining my LC to my mentor, Deb, who is wonderful, she suggested I read this book (for the head part) called Victory over the Darkness by Neil Anderson. I am not even close to done, and I think every person in the world should have to read this book. It is wonderful! it is all about discovering/rediscovering/understanding who you are IN CHRIST - the truth about who you are, as opposed to the lies that society, the world, and the Father of Lies himself tells us. the book has lots of different scripturally based lists (such as "who i am" and "since I am in Christ...") which readers are encouraged to read out loud and internalize as truth. I am struck, as I read the book, about the obscene number of lies that I myself have internalized over my many years on this earth... it is appalling. The first time I read through this list (out loud, for effect) I couldn't help but cry because its all true. We are loved, so we follow God. We don't follow God so He will love us... He already does. We don't strive to serve God for fear he won't accept us... we are accepted, so we strive to serve God. We get things so backwards. I have to give my life story today for my spiritual formation group, and I am really dreading it. I have lived a great portion of my life thinking that my life was some kind of disgrace... I struggle, therefore I am worthless. I mean, I'm a Christian - shouldn't I be getting this right by now?? I strive for love and acceptance from God and from others alike... but I don't live in a way that accepts the truth about who I am in Christ. Let me tell you... I can be really mean and hateful, too. But I am not a failure. I am not worthless. My life is not a disgrace. So I'm going to go to that group today, and I am going to tell my life story. My broken and imperfect and still a work in progress life story. I can do this, without fear of rejection, because of who I am in Christ. There is not a glorified someday self that I am living for... I am who I am right now! My imperfect self is okay! I bought a card recently and framed it... it says, "One of the hardest things to realize is that our Someday... is right now." It is a reminder to me every day that I don't have to be living in hopes that soon in the future I'll get it all right. I'll have this and this and this, be this way, and that way, and everything will be grand. If I think about it, nothing can improve the state I am in at this exact moment... a dearly loved child of God. Nothing I do, good or bad, can jeopardize THAT glorious truth.

"I am the salt of the earth; I am the light of the world; I am a child of God; I am part of the true vine, a channel of Christ's life; I am Christ's friend; I am chosen and appointed by Christ to bear his fruit; I am a slave of righteousness; I am enslaved to God; I am a daughter of God - God is spiritually my Father; I am a joint heir with Christ, sharing his inheritance with him; I am a temple - a dwelling place - of God. His spirit and his life dwell in me; I am united to the Lord and am one spirit with him; I am a member of Christ's body; I am a new creation; I am reconciled to God and am a minister of reconciliation; I am a daughter of God and one in Christ; I am an heir of God since I am a daughter of God; I am a saint; I am God's workmanship - his handiwork - born anew in Christ to do his work; I am a fellow citizen with the rest of God's family; I am a prisoner of Christ; I am righteous and holy; I am a citizen of heaven, seated in heaven right now; I am hidden with Christ in God; I am an expression of the life of Christ because he is my life; I am chosen of God, holy and dearly loved; I am a daughter of light and not of darkness; I am a holy partaker of a heavenly calling; I am a partaker of Christ, I share in his life; I am one of God's living stones, being built up in Christ as a spiritual house; I am a member of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession; I am an alien and a stranger to this world in which I temporarily live; I am an enemy of the devil; I am a child of God and I will resemble Christ when he returns; I am born of God, and the evil one - the devil - cannot touch me; I am NOT the great "I AM," but by the grace of God, I am what I am."

By the grace of God, I am what I am.

yep, twice in one day. its my blog. I can do that.

sorry sorry, I have a couple of more things to share with the world.

1. I am getting really good at doing my own nails. now, I'm not one to brag, but I'm just like, really proud of this! really! Chelsea and I have been discussing the possibility of a counseling practice in the future - therapy and spa! I'm going to do nails and counsel at the time time, Chelsea's going to do hair... I think its going to be a booming success. seriously. mental health combined with beauty products... its like a dream come true.

2. this is great. so last night, Chelsea and I are in the car on the way out to Parker, CO where Allison was housesitting, and we were talking about where all the boys are. ha. it was a pretty funny conversation... we decided we would really like for all of the good, cute, fun and cool Christian boys to congregate in one place and then just come to us. that would be the ideal. so, we head to the house to have a fun, low key girls night, and when we get there, Allison is on the phone with her guy friend from Budapest who happens to now live in Colorado Springs. He's on his way back from a Rockies game and will be passing through Parker and wonders if he and his buddies can stop by. We say sure, clearly... and I kid you not, this guy shows up with TWELVE (yes, twelve, as in 3 guys/1 girl ratio) guys, all of whom are spending the summer at this discipleship/work deal. all of whom are pretty good looking, Christians, mostly available. Chelsea decided that God was thinking this was a pretty funny joke... after our earlier conversation, 12 guys showing up literally at our doorstep??? what are the odds??? it was completely awkward, awesome, and hilarious. after we stopped laughing behind their backs at the hilarity of the whole situation, we had a pretty fun evening playing Wii and trying to learn all their names, etc. 12. I don't think you really realize how much 12 is until they walk in the front door one by one. ridiculous.

life is so funny sometimes.

3. oh yeah. I now am an official member of the workforce... I am the newest (I mean, I think) sales associate at JCrew in Park Meadows Mall. it's true. retail is less than thrilling, I'll be honest - but the discount is to die for. so there's that.

until next time, download: viva la vida (new Coldplay... pretty good); nothing but the best - frank sinatra; young folks - peter, bjorn, and john; and lastly, answer - sarah mclaughlan. love them. oh, and watch: http://www.hulu.com/watch/19279/saturday-night-live-kaitlin-at-the-mall if you want to die laughing.

peace up...

there will be tables and chairs, there'll be pony rides and dancing bears, there'll even be a band...

it is true my dears - I am DONE done DONE with my first whole year of graduate school! that wasn't so bad... this coming weds I, Megan Greaves, will be officially available to see clients. clients = people who are seeking counseling. and will be assigned to me. as their counselor. for counseling. for help. AHH. who thinks this is a good idea?
-----
ha - so, I wrote that several/many weeks ago, back when I was merely a student. now, ladies and gents, I am a real-live therapist! I have clients! who see me for 50 minutes of therapy every week. how wonderful and terrifying is that? I am loving it - it's pretty exciting that this is what I'm going to be doing, you know, with my life! so, let me give you a little "greatest hits" of all the things I have been doing with my ever-so-glamorous life since summer started!
our first summer outing was rollerskating at skate city in Littleton, CO. Let me tell you a little bit about Skate City. On Saturday nights, it is Christian fellowship night... which involves a lot of awkward teenagers, Christian rap (so so glorious) and slow-skating to "I Can Only Imagine." Needless to say, as a group of 20-30 something seminary grad students, we found this whole scenario incredibly entertaining.
Below, you will see the lovely inhabitants of 1403 S University Blvd! also known as - my roomies. Becca, Julie, and Sarah! for Julie's birthday, after a wonderful bbq in Wash Park, we went to The Ogden for some karaoke... needless to say, a fun time was had by all!
Then, I had my last day with Mr. Bodie. So sad!!! I miss having baby time all the time... life is a little happier when there are babies involved, I think.
A big highlight... my beautiful friend Emily Lebens became Mrs. Cameron Young in Omaha, NE! The wedding was b-e-a-utiful and so much fun... open bar, live band, best friends; what more could a girl ask for? I also learned that the drive from Denver to Omaha is about as much fun as the drive from Denver to Wichita, only with a few more interesting smells. Lovely. And here are the lovely cores... Katherine, Jamie, Cally, Emily, Lori, and me. I love these women... see you all in Key Largo!
Hmm... what else... Allison and I threw a KILLER bbq in Wash Park on Father's Day... we had a fabulous turnout, I built a grill, we started a fire, we had good food, we played sports. it was glorious.
Lastly, in terms of highlights, this weekend we went to dave and busters for my friend Christopher's (left, in the hat) birthday, which was a wild time... lots of fun and games and such. a fun time was had by all. as you can see, chelsea and I took to a game where you get to drive a semi. chelsea drove, and I rode shotgun (and honked the horn)... and our friend Andrew took pictures. so fun.
so that is a picture montage of my summer thus far. sorry its been so long since my last post! I know its unforgivable... but please bear with me... I have a crazy life!! Also, I tried to do cool things with this post and have the pictures be all wonky and stuff... and I'm pretty sure I failed. But the thought of re-uploading makes me want to die. so I'm not going to. deal with it.

and so, on this not-so-sunny sunday, I am going to go finish watching Pretty in Pink (gotta love Molly Ringwald) and enjoy the remainder of my day! much love.

you might be the sweet unspiteful

so, I have been just BEYOND MIA lately. SO SO SORRY! it has been a whirlwind of baby-sitting, studying. paper writing, traveling, cleaning, housesitting, playing, sleeping, orchestrating, and so on and so forth. seriously. I am currently in the midst of the worst exam week I may have ever experienced - after traveling this past weekend for the blessed nuptials of my dear and lovely friends Cally and Adrian Chenault, I came back to FIVE FINALS - 2 yesterday, 3 tomorrow. Misery. having taken Old Testament and Groups yesterday, I've been working since then to prepare for Diagnosis, Careers, and NEW Testament tomorrow. after which I am going to sleep forever, clean my room, car, and life, do my laundry, play with my friends, and rejoin the race of functioning human beings. I anticipate it being completely glorious. But for now, I will continue to run almost entirely on caffeine. Yesterday I had a quadruple shot latte for breakfast, followed by three more (free!) cups of coffee for lunch. During my second final I was so jittery I wasn't sure if I could sit still for the whole 100 questions. Probably a poor decision - and one I likely will NOT repeat in the future. The 4-shot latte was not entirely my fault though, the barista at starbucks accidentally made it stronger than I asked, but I didn't complain. It was all very Taylor the Latte Boy (for those of you who know the reference) - only the guy was married and it was 4 shots instead of 3 and it was on accident instead of because "he loved me too." If you will.
as you may have surmised, smart readers that you are, I now must continue to study, as the finals I have tomorrow will not be easy and in order to not fall asleep during them I am going to have to at least allot SOME time for things like sleeping.

I will follow this email with a more thorough and complete update in a couple of days... I know you're all dying to know how the wedding was, how housesitting was, what I'm wearing today, if my hair is curly or straight, things of that nature.

in case you are wondering, my finals playlist includes: sara bareilles, john legend, and andrew bird. all of which are lovely and completely different. SB = pretty girly and not that cool, JL = as justin so eloquently put it "sounds like baby-making music" and AB = is pretty weird and delightful and a little bit cool.

group of besties from the power seven:

group of core group besties:

the bestie from both of the above!