Running like there is no tomorrow

So, as many have seen I did not keep up with the photo a day bit. I’ll admit it was a little ambitious to start at the end-of-a-school (FOREVER) time. The last week and a couple of days have flown by. When looking back at my past week, I had several pictures and ideas of things to share. And maybe I will do so in coming days. But tonight the Lord just impressed a story upon my heart.

I’m now 17.42 days away from graduating COLLEGE, and 45.82 days away from getting married! WOAH! Where did the time go??? Two years ago at this same time I was about to embark on a summer that would change my life. And I’m facing the same “life changing” moments again.

I thought this fit very well with my reaquaintance of running over the last semester. I ran a 5K with my dad a little over a year ago. After that, I pretty much stopped running, or atleast didn’t try as hard as before. I decided to pick it up again this semester, and taking it very slowly and gradually working up to it I’ve gotten to an even better point than where I was when I ran the 5K. I love to run now! Time really flies when you run. Four months ago, a thirty minute run would have made me throw up. Now I’m anxious to go run. Its a time to think, a time to get any stress out and just go.

Unfortunately, even though I have not been consistent with my physical running over the last couple of years, I’ve been running a marathon in my day-to-day life. I never seem to slow down and simply walk. It feels like yesterday that I graduated high school and here I am about to graduate college with a degree I never thought I would be able to get (praise the Lord for His faithfulness). I got engaged six and half months ago, and now we are almost within a month of the wedding. I’m going to be a WIFE. Its just incredible to see what the Lord has done, and I do not take credit for any of it. Because there is no way in the world that I would have gotten through this without Him. An idea came to me that sometime over the next few weeks, I need to take a walk. I need to put all distractions aside, and just go somewhere to be with Him. And then use that time to be replenished, refocus, and prepare my heart for this new journey.

Have you ever experienced this incessant sprint that we seem to be on when going through life? Some may just say its the way things go, can’t stop time, and that is true. But by golly, we can sure take an hour or two out of our day to just go and sit and be in awe of Him. So why have I not done it?

My mission: Get a calendar out and plan out several walking dates to have.

Rest on this: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to with the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:3:12-14

I did get to take a couple of pictures this weekend. They include my favorite subjects, the two babies of the family, Abbey and Hudson. I got some new running shoes this weekend, and was anxious to get them out of the box. It took Hudson two seconds to grab my old ones and this was the result:

Aren’t we all just a pair of old running shoes?

J

Just had to take a picture of my baby

Yes, i would like whip cream

One of my favorite places to go is Starbucks. Something about the feeling when I go there. And now I have a new favorite drink, just in time for summer. It is:

A yummy iced white chocolate mocha. YUM. The barista asked me if I would like the whip cream….. Silly question, OF COURSE I want that bad for your hips wonderful goodness on my drink. Starbucks whip cream is awesome plain and simple.

Since this is a two day in one post, probably the sweetest part of my day was receiving these:

This was to wish me luck on the big test tomorrow! He just brightened my day, and we are even closer to walking down the aisle (7 weeks!?!). Can’t wait to marry this man!

Until tomorrow, buenas noches!

I love to walk….

After a car accident this last winter took away the luxury of having a vehicle I’ve learned why God gave us feet. TO MOVE!! As well as the close proximity a college campus has to everything you could possibly need. The last few months I’ve been blessed to borrow my mom’s car. These last two weeks she needed the car so I’ve been going by foot. Honestly it may be one of the greatest things to happen. I LOVE WALKING. Especially right now with everything in bloom and the weather is gorgeous. I dont want to be in a stuffy car, put me outside.

In the last two weeks I have found out (through walking): it takes 6 minutes to run to the gym, 12-15 minutes if I just want to walk, there is a redbox five minutes away, school is the usual distance, don’t have to pay for all this outrageous gas prices, and I’m getting good exercise. So here is to encouraging you to walk, God gave us a beautiful planet and recently He has blessed us with sunny skies and 70 degree days (He must be making up for that       -28 degree day that we had back in February) let us enjoy it to the fullest!

Today’s adventure goes along with the theme of walking, as I walked all the way to Orange Leaf from campus. Honestly it was not that far, and I got to see the football team’s spring practice. Unfortunately I did not take a picture. But did have a lovely time with my g-little whom I have dearly missed as we have not seen each other in a very long time.

Till tomorrow… I think I’m going to go to bed early. Migraine this evening = no fun.

The FE

Today was supposed to be the kick start to my FE review. It got kicked off alright, but pretty soon I realized to adequately prepare for this test I would need all my class notes and homework from the last five years of my college career. And that ain’t gonna happen, I would have to have a library if I had kept everything from all these engineering courses.

To explain, the FE is a test all engineers have to take if some day they desire to be a professional engineer. I’m taking it because…. Well…. Who knows, maybe someday I will have a desire to be one. And it is better to take now than in a few years. Anyways, this week is dedicated to the sound studying for the blessed 8 hour event on Saturday ))

A picture a day… can I do it?

Only 61 days separate me from walking down the chapel aisle. Even sooner, will come graduation from the place I’ve called home for the last five years. Needless to say, life is about to CHANGE. And who has a terrible time with change? Me. Already God has had to come swooping in and save me from several minor hear attacks. I’m learning to trust more and more that He has a plan, even though I have no clue where that is going to take me. I’m saying this mostly in respect to my job search, which has been a tad rough the last couple of weeks. Anyways back to my purpose of this post. I had the idea as I was walking to class today of how short my time here at OSU is getting. And the fact that I have this camera that just sits at home and is not taking pictures as it should. So it is time to get that baby flashing, and start documenting these last few days that I have in “college”. Hopefully if I write at the end of each day, I can look back and see God’s unique orchestration of life. One thing has been made very clear to me the last few weeks and that is we do not live each day without a purpose or a reason. And because of that I’m determined to LIVE these days to the fullest!

Day Numero Uno: “A torn shirt”

My monday got off to a bit of an unusual start. As I was getting ready, I put on one of my favorite pink shirts to wear under a cardigan. When i went to pull the shirt sleeve down through the sweater I heard a loud “rrrrrip”. The kind that makes you cringe and want to say a bad word. I look to see this:

I was fairly sad about this, as it was one of my favorite shirts and now I’m going to have to fix it someway. But it reminded me of how torn and ripped we as human gets. There are days when I feel a million different things and not one of them is peace. And I can cry and cry all day but nothing is going to heal and make me brand new like He can. He is the ultimate healer and binder. 

He turned a bad morning into a great day and for that I’m very thankful.

It is time for bed for me! Gotta a big day of studying for the FE tomorrow! I’ll let you know how it goes. And also a picture

My sweetheart

I couldn’t go a whole valentines day without writing about my sweetheart. It’s been a great time this year. I’ve been fortunate to spend most of this beloved day with the amazing girlfriends God has placed in my life. A nice way to end my last valentines day as a single woman I’d say I can’t deny my heart anxiously awaits February 14th, 2012. In the mean time though June 4th 2011 will be one of the most extraordinary days of “love” I have experienced. Going with the theme that love should be celebrated everyday, not just one day out of the year. That will be one big celebration of L-O-V-E

Through love I have seen lives changed, even mine. I’ve seen it hurt, I’ve felt the pain of unrequited love. Love comes in so many shapes and ways. Paul even said that of faith hope and love, the greatest of these was love. Christ exemplifies the greatest love. He erases our mistakes, holds us when we are weak, and saves us from this crumbling world. And even sometimes he sends someone to share the journey of life with us. A companion. I can’t say how thankful I am that HE picked Eric. I just want Eric to know how much I love him, how he’s taught me it is more than a feeling, and how blessed that he is in my life.

Babe: can’t wait to marry you

Why am I so bad about posting?

I honestly have a million blogs that write in my head every day. But never seem to write them. I make promises to revive it, then don’t check it for over a month and a half. Ah. Life.

We have another snow day tomorrow. Perhaps I’ll get a chance, but then again I’ve said that before.

the revival of a blog

It’s the Christmas season, and something about it just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Something about the snow (not that we get that here in Texas or Oklahoma), and the shopping, and the music is so whimsical and beautiful. What a wonderful time to write?

As promised per my last small post, I’ve decided to revive the blog. A lot has taken place in the last few months, too much to write a huge blog post about or you would get fairly bored. But the most exciting highlights were: getting engaged to mr. eric frisbie (EEK!!), starting my last year at OSU, had the privilege of being a part of two of my dearest friends weddings, enjoying a summer in Oklahoma City, and so so much more!

With major life changes quickly approaching, I feel the excitement has only begun. Thus to catalog the events of the near future I would like this to be an outlet. A story of life, love, and faith. Including stories from the life as an engaged couple and the transition to an ole married couple. There are many lessons to be learned, trials to be had, and moments that will last a lifetime. 

I hope you are ready! The vision for this is still in the works. We’ll see where it goes!

A revamped Cup of Tea coming soon!

I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I’ve decided to come back to the site, with a fresh perspective and a new outlook for the purpose of the blog. Can’t wait to share!

Hope you like the site changes! Be back soon!

Adventure Week: 2010

It may have not got exactly as planned, but spring break did unfold into a great time shared with family and friends. Last year my sister and I dedicated ourselves to exploring (at the time) our new hometown of Dallas, Texas.  Now a year a later there is still so much to see and explore. We tried to think of some new things that we could do this year to spice it up. Our adventures included cooking, baking, dining, gardens, museums, stars game, and even a random snow storm. Who knew what life could bring!

DAY ONE: Celebrate your Heritage!

In the spirit of St. Patty’s Day, Aly and I teamed up to make shepherds pie. It ended up being a fairly intense dish to make. It required carmelizing onions browning meat, in full preparation took about an hour. Then bake time was about 40 minutes. So I would recommend this dish when you really wanted shepherds pie. Here are some pictures from the day:

It turned out pretty well, but I must say I was a bit tired of potatoes at the end.

DAY 2: Ft. Worth Musuem of Modern Art

On Tuesday we took a small trip over to Ft. Worth where Aly, Ryan, and me met up with Amanda for a bit of culture. They were having the Andy Warhol exhibit at the museum.  I had never been there before, but it quickly became one of my favorite museums. The inside was very neat, and the exhibit was awesome! I encourage anyone to go see it if you were in the area!

Day 3: Denton Exploration

My sister attends the University of North Texas in Denton. She has come to know the town of denton very well and likes to share it with us whenever we come to visit. On this particular day the  whole fam came, as me and aly got to go get our hair cuts! woop woop! Prior to going to the salon, the family enjoyed a nice treat at Yogurt story

  Not as good as OrangeLeaf* but, it helped to suffice the craving of it

I feel it is necessary to show the drastic hair cut that Aly got. She was a lot more daring at this hair appointment than myself. Although I did get a significant amount cut off, nothing matched hers. I would just like to say that she is TOO cute with her new do. Here is her before:

 

Iknow you will hate me for that one, but look how cute you are with it cut!ADORABLE! I admire your bravery sis!

DAY 4: Plan A.) Plan B.) and Plan C.)

What do you do when all your plans get changed, you deal with it in stride! Or you drive 150 miles around the DFW area and realize that everyone decided to vacation here this spring break. Plan A.) of the day was to go to Six Flags over Texas. It was a gorgeous day for a theme park. In our minds we thought it would be perfect, smaller crowds, no dramatic heat. But we forgot to think that maybe just quite possibly a lot of other people had the same idea. As we pulled into viewing distance of the multiple rollercoasters and superman ride, the lines of cars spilled off the exits and backed up traffic in all directions. It was a mess! With no “great” desire to attend six flags that day, the fam decided to try the Dallas Cowboys Stadium where they give tours. Just walking in was impressive. Never have I seen such a structure! Sadly they were sold out of tours for the entire day, so we will have to wait for another day to see the Cowboys taj mahal.

And this is how the stas family ended up with plan c.) the Dallas Aboretum. Not a terrible choice, it was actually the perfect activity for that day. The tulips were in full bloom and it was a refreshing color after months of drab scenery. You could definitely feel spring in the air. The Lord is so good to bless us with beautiful flowers! They never fail to come up, every spring. All the colors of the rainbow were present, He didn’t miss a stroke.

for more aboretum pictures, check my facebook

Hopefully I am not boring you with the events of the week.  I will try to wrap it up, because I’m sure a detailed list of what I did over spring break is exactly what you wanted to know  

Real quick summary of what the last few days entailed. The night of the Aboretum trip, we got to go to a Dallas Stars Hockey game. This was my first NHL experience. It was quite awesome! We got see it all, the fights, the pushing and the shoving, people getting slammed up against the wall. I don’t think there was a moment of rest in the three hours of this game. I got to take some pretty cool photos, just got to edit them and then they will be ready to share! The next day we got to do a little shopping and then movie going. Bounty Hunter was a great one! It was really funny, not quite to the caliber of Mr. and Mrs. Smith but still good. Then came the snow and the wind. I spent my last day of spring break curled up in a blanket sitting by a fire reading a good book. It was actually quite nice, it was good to relax before having to dredge back to good ole Stillwater. I got to bake this day too! I’m going to share this recipe, I’m just going to put it in another post, as I know this one is getting long. The next morning, we woke up to a blanket of white. Not the typical thing to see on a March day in Dallas, TX. Abbey however did not seem to mind.

I hope everyone had a very blessed spring break and took the time to rest and gear up for the last few weeks! We are so close to finishing, I pray the Lord gives us all strength to push through. Remember the Lord’s got everything control, He knows much better than I or you could ever fathom.

“For a man’s steps are directed by the Lord.How then can anyone understand his own way?”  Proverbs 20:24