Halloweeeen!!

Well I bought a Mac and can't figure out how to download my pictures soo I can't put any of my own pictures on here or on facebook! Depressing I know but I will learn soon hopefully! What shall I update you all on! Well I am secretary of Freshman Council..which I apparently won by quite a bit...It was most likely the candy I used to bribe everyone to vote for me but hey it worked didn't it! The position is a lot of fun! I get to sit up front, take roll, type the minutes as they happen (which gets kinda hectic sometimes), send emails, update the facebook group, and anything else secretarial!! It is nice being in a leadership position that helps all the other positions out. It is really humbling and is already teaching me that it is never all about myself! I love it! Second on thursday I found out that in my math class a 77 is a B and a 87 is an A!!! Isn't that awesome soo that grade I was upset about being a C is really a B! And then he added 9 extra points to it so now it is one point away from being an A!! It was a very exciting day when that happened! In class my pretty skinny teacher told us he lost 200+ pounds on the atkins diet! We all just starred at him in disbelief! It made me feel like a loser cause all I wanna do is lose like 10 pounds and he lost 200!! like WHAT! I went to Reese's haunted house the other night! It was actually pretty good! I think the best part was going with other girls who were screaming their heads off! I was right there with them sometimes..but ahh it was soo funny! The whole act is set up in the basement of reese, an all boys dorm identical to humes,  and they have black tarps making a maze throughout the whole thing! I went with Freshman council people! I am really making the best friends from freshman council! Legit I love all the people I have met! they are all overachievers, polite, fun people! I love it!!

Last night I went to an RUF halloween dance party! I dressed up as belle! I know such a little 5 yr old costume but see I found the perfect belle dress at good will and couldn't let the time pass me by! But I didn't actually stay at the party long so the costume didn't even really get seen! :(....It was really awkward. See I slightly got ditched and had to walk on over by myself but I ran into some friends who didnt actually let me walk there by myself but when I got there i didn't have a fun group who would be nice to me and you know how awkward it is to be at a dance party without your posse! So I left and walked home by myself pretty soon after I got there. BUT its okay cause I got to go hang out with some awesome people and watch White Chicks for the first time! It was pretty funny. I just find it weird and depressing that churches are the places that are most clique sometimes. I wish it wasn't that way and I am really trying to make sure I don't do that to new people at my church. Churches should be the most loving places I think. But that's my little rant on that!

Im missing the family! I'm thinking about going down to see them nov 6. maybe...but they are coming the next weekend or so and I don't have a ride home yet so who knows what will happen. I am soo excited they are ALL going to be coming to see me!! ahhh I can't wait to just hang out with them all day long and night and ahhhh! I love my family! Aidan is getting so big it seems now that I am far away from him! He told me he missed me on the phone the other day it was soooo cute! Oh I can't remember if I already typed this but my mommy sent me a popcorn tin for halloween! I'm actually munching on some right now! Its buffalo popcorn the best I think!! For the rest of today I am going to be doing homework, some laundry, and maybe hanging out with some peeps later!! So off I go to attack this loverly saturday!

God is good!!,
Abby

Oh the weather!

THE Weather is crazy in tennessee! Seriously, crazy! Today I was not going to be cold on my walk to jhb! I put on sweatpants, uggs, long socks, a warm tshirt, and a sweat shirt! I was soo happy today was going to be the day I would be freezing! I go to walk out the door taking those last steps in the warmth gearing up to embrace the cold. You know that feeling we all do it when we walk out of church or out of the mall..its almost like you hold your breath hoping it wont be as bad as you think and its always worse. Well anyways, I step out the door and BAM im hit in the face with HEAT!! Like full out hott sticky air....I was shocked..the one day I am prepared not to be cold im going to be burning up!!! So my new best friend is the weather channel in the morning! It was quite a humorous beginning to a long tuesday! Today was a good day. I had a biology exam which I think i actually might have done okay on but that most likely means I did not do good at all. For example got my math test back today and I was pretty positive I had only missed 2 problems so yea an a in the bag! Nope to my surprise I made a c...Im kinda upset about it but he is adding 7 extra bonus points so that will bump it up to a b! So who knows how that exam will turn out. My wonderful mommy and daddy sent me a popcorn tin full of loverly goods from the popcorn factory!! I love packages they are my favorite! It kinda makes up for the fact that I don't get gondolas that grandma brought them today! It is weird not getting to see my grandparents because im not there. I hope the rest of the family has fun with them this week! I'm beginning to miss my family again! It doesn't take me long..cause pretty much my family is the greatest!! Just you wait espy's we gonna have the best christmas' and other holidays!! I love you all! My dearest old friend and pretty much little sister Bekah Baggett came and saw me today! It was really fun getting to talk to her and show her around UT! I think she rather enjoyed it, especially 3 spoons! but then who couldn't love 3 spoons! Ruf was cancelled tonight due to the storms going on. There is a tornado warning...which I wasn't sure where we would go if we had a tornado so I texted my RA. Turns out my RA doesn't know either, so hope nothing happens. I think the worst is over and nothing happened so its all good!

Chi O just finished lip sync! How exhausting it was! It was a lot of fun it just took so much of my sleeping time! We got 5th place which is okay for being out of 13 but it is depressing that we didn't place or anything. O well we tried our best. We had Prince: here are some loverly pictures!

The whole group!

Roomie!

I feel so accomplished and blogger suave now that I have finally put some pictures on!

Well that is what is new in my life! thanks for reading

xoxo

.......a...k....e......

Sleep deprivation is not fun at all! I legit have a headache from lack of sleep! What happen to the stereotype that college will be the best four years of your life? That you won't have to go to class? That all you will do is have tons of free time? NO!! I study study study all the time! I go to class I do homework..I work in Freshman Council and Chi O and church...besides that I am in my room or the library! I can't wait till I don't have to study anymore. To be at that point in my life where all I do is live my life! But I will enjoy these four years I will just be very tired on breaks!

Side note I really really want to go to puppy zone! I keep seeing people's pictures it looks sooo cute!!
Okay back to writing my paper!
Oh I don't know if I told you but I made Secretary of Freshman Council!!!! Yea more leadership!!!


xoxo

Hi stress Hi stress it's off to the Library I go!

I AM SOOO STRESSED OUT!!!!!!

I know what you are thinking..."abby if you are stressed why are you writing a blog...?" Well electronic viewers let me tell you....writing helps me get it all out and then I can go back to working! Right now I am sitting in the library trying to continue the mountain of homework I have!! I just finished lip sync!! yea last time I will ever have to go to one of those practices!! It also means I get my life back so I can do school work. I know such a party college kid I am! I'm really resisting tell facebook that whoever brought me icecream to the 6th floor of the library would be my best friend via my status...So far I am succeeding but I really want some extra chocolate with some type of chunks in it, sprinkles, and a waffle cone! OOOO how that would just make my day! Alas i will sit here and imagine it and go to bed hungry lol! As you can tell I have some homework to do but it is okay cause it isn't too too bad. I just have to write a spanish paper, english paper, revise a science paper, make the science powerpoint, study for math test, and study for biology test.....but I can do it!

   I have been learning a lot this week! I realized recently that in some relationships of mine I've have been looking at them with conditions. I don't want to give my all and be that super nice person I know I would want if I know I that person isn't going to return the same in the end. HOW AWFUL!! Here I am a Christian who has been given the greatest gift ever and I can't manage to show a little bit of that love while I'm on earth! I am reminded of this constantly. I think it is one of the lessons God is really trying to show me. I am not suppose to love someone if they will love me back. That isn't love. Love isn't something you can turn on when someone is acting just the way you want them too. Love is loving them through their flaws. Looking at the hurt they cause you and trying to find God in that person still. We all mess up and we will all disappoint and hurt people and I would want that person to still love me. Therefore I must first love them. If they love me back thats awesome, if they don't that's awesome. Sure I will be hurt but that is my only job on earth. To love God first above all then to love the people HE puts in my life. So I'm trying! Feel free to help me out and send me messages of ways I could be loving or where I am being hurtful. I started the 365 love dare challenge book....I know silly right it's for married people. But see this is what I thought...I need to love God like I am married to him and I aslo need to love the people in my life. Finally I thought it might help me and my room mate! We are kinda in a marriage. So I started and it is amazing how much God shows you when you focus on one verse for a day or one specific day. Like today I was suppose to ask God to show me how to love people in a better way. It was like every corner I recognized a place I wasn't being loving or something would happen and I would want to react harshly...and there in the back of my head was that prayer. It was really refreshing!

     I recently had this thought... I want to be soo in love with God that a boy has to pretty much knock down a building to sweep me off my feet. I don't want to be so worried about finding that right person. (Not that I am) but there is always that nagging of the world that is like "what you don't have a boyfriend, you haven't been on dates in weeks, what is wrong with you"...It is soo annoying! So I really really want to be so focused, in love, and satisfied with God that a boy has to do something big to get my attention. I know I will never be who I am meant to be if I do not fully love God with all my mind, heart, soul, and strength. So here I go trying to love God more One day at a time!!

Home again Home again jig-i-d-jog!

It is FALL BREAK!!! I love being home! I have spent my whole time completely with the family and it has been utterly wonderful! On Thursday I went with my mommy and Emma and we all got our haircut! Then we took my youngest little sister who is rapidly growing up to get here ears pierced. She looks like a new person she has a new haircut and new earrings and she got her first pair of big girl jean sizes. Of course they are 00 that little tiny rascal! Then we met the rest of the family at Ocharleys! I had missed O'charleys a lot lol. Which yes I know is silly cause we have them in Knoxville but it was really good! Aidan, mom, and I went to Kroger to get some groceries for the weekend! Aidan gave me the pleasure of pushing him around in one of those car carts! It was soo funny I let him do all the driving and hopefully taught him the difference from his left and right. We had to stop twice for gas and bought the most random goodies! I got to stop by the football game and see some of my favorite sophomores, juniors, and seniors! I also ran into my long lost friend Hannah Moore! so we got to catch up after such a long time apart! It was soo nice to just sit and talk with an old friend! I loved loved it! Then I stayed up into the hours of the  wee morning with Lizzie! We have been watching gossip girl thanks to my  loverly friend Allison grant who let me borrow the whole 2nd season :D! Then Thursday we got up and the girls crashed moms and the boys field trip to paint a piece! They all painted mugs except for Aidan who painted a horse! They are all wonderful artists and it makes me wonder why I didn't get a little bit of those genes!! It is not fair lol! Then we came home and all hung out and made dinner. Then it was a big ole family dinner with steaks, pink stuff, rolls, broccoli and cheese, potatoes, and a delicious 5 layer pumpkin cake! It was a delicious dinner! Friday was the 22nd anniversary of the best parents in the world! they are so cute! So dad bought wii fit for their anniversary lol. We spent the whole evening all playing the games. It was soo much fun! The grandparents stopped by and it was nice to see them and spend the rest of the evening just chatting and laughing at the wii characters as we hit them with snowballs. I love being home! I am not sure I am going to be able to go back to Knoxville. I have actually been able to feel like this is the everyday norm. I like it. Sunday can take as long as possible to get here. especially since next week is going to be awfully busy! I brought some homework home that I needed to do but honestly i haven't touched it and not sure if I will....Next week we are going to have lip sync practice like no other! It is going to be exhausting especially since i am not a dancer at all and suck at it! I have also eaten soo much this weekend im going back gaining my freshman 15! But it has been good I will make up for it next week! I will hopefully see Tori and Helen tonight! :). how i miss those two! Now I shall return to chilling with my favorite family!


hasta la vista!

"There are no strangers, there are no outcasts, there are no orphans of God."

This is a song I heard on sunday and it really touched my heart! What a blessing it is to know that no matter what how desolate or alone we feel on this earth we NEVER truly are. They are lies fed to us from the devil to keep us from living the life God created us to live. No matter how abandoned I feel by friends I know I have a much greater friend who loves me stronger than a brother. His name is Jesus. Yet, I think the easiest and most effective way to show the lost the awesomeness of God is through love. Simply actions is my motto. Like it says below my title of the blog "it doesn't take a multitude just a smile and a good attitude." i wrote that phrase when writing a poem about calling people to take action and help those in need. It simply means to me that you don't have to be part of a huge organization or get 100 people to join with you in a movement to touch the world. It begins with those little acts of kindness. The letter to an old friend, some cookies for your neighbors, a lunch date with your bestie, a smile at a stranger. We never know how much of an implication our actions make on people. This unfortunately goes both ways and most of the time our hurtful rash actions make a longer lasting impression than the many little kind things we do each day. Yet, the small actions are what can brighten somebodies day. I know this is true for me. Even as a Christian I long for people to show me the love of Christ. I need it almost as much as non believers do, except that I realize where this desire comes from. Another song says "love with His hands, see with His eyes". We are the body of Christ and I need to realize what His hands should be doing and do it. For the world will know us by our love. Little things impact people in a huge way. For me I delight in the little things and I also get torn up over little things. Sometimes I find it is easy for me to forgive big mistakes but I find myself getting caught up on little stabs. I guess cause bigger things seem more put on to me and its the little things that show your daily heart and thoughts. I feel like big mistakes can be easily made while those little daily things are the ones you think about and reflects how you truly feel. I hadn't realized till college how much mean words can actually hurt. Just the simple middle school name calling names. You know the ones that are so common that many times we throw them up as a joke. Especially on the college campus everyone calls one another crude words and doesn't mean a thing by them. So it is easy for one to forget how awful they really are. Personally I was falling into this same though process just throwing sarcastic names around. Sure I thought I meant them until one day. On this day I realized how hurtful words really can be. I am from this day going to try and watch what I say about people and what names I call them because I never know if im hanging a new article in their thought closet that will haunt them or tear them apart. So i urge you to rethink about what you call people. Think about how you interact with people are you edifying them as Christ would want you to? I know it is a struggle especially as a girl I have a hard time not gossiping and saying things that only lift a person up. James 5:9 says "Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged." Im not sure how I got on this spill but I did. I guess living with people reteaches you the basic things you knew in a whole new light.

Random thought of the day: I have never quite seen the point of leaf plowers. Seriously they just move the leaves or mulch or whatever from the road to the grass. Just from one spot to the next. I can understand like after you mow or something but seriously sometimes I see these guys just blowing a pile of rubble to another side of the yard. I also never got the point of raking. I understand that yes to many leaves does get obnoxious but I personally think leaves on the ground look pretty. They are also re-fertilizing the ground right? so why not just leave them there. Why do our yards have to be spotless? its nature...Yet I don't like it when the yard is covered in leaves I can understand it then lol.
I love the crunchy sound leaves make under your feet!

That is all for today,
xoxo

Winter skipped falls spot in the line of seasons.

It is freezing cold here in loverly knoxvegas! I believe this morning it was 44 degrees! I was blocking my vision by just breathing!! I am not prepared for it to be this cold so soon! I'm pretty sure it didn't get this cold last year till like december! I need to go home this week and buy sweaters, sweaters, sweaters, and some more boots lol. College is expensive it is not fun! I feel like I am constantly needing new clothes. That is a definite advantage of wearing uniforms everyday yet makes for a disadvantage when you go to college...then you are behind!

I went to severe heights baptist church this sunday! I'm pretty sure I could hear my mom jumping on the other side of the phone when I told her I was going to a baptist church! I love her! It was really nice, I'm pretty sure the music leader use to be at bellevue. It has been really strange both of the churches that lean more towards baptist views and what I am raised with have hit on missions and spurred that passion in my heart. Not that the other churches didn't have good messages that hit home. But it makes me stop to wonder if that is just coincidence that these two churches have pegged my heart on the first sermon. This sermon was about missions and specifically about an orphanage in haiti! ahh I about died. I just wanted to be there holding some of those little kids. They were soo cute in their pictures!

This whole weekend all I've been thinking about and praying is for everyone back home at memphis. I wish so badly I could be there to share my sorrow and comfort to the families. But I know they have plenty of friends and family that are showering them with the love of God. It's a sad and tragic situation but we know that God has a plan for everything and we know that luke is in a much better place. I rejoice and am envious of the place he gets to be, complete union with the God Almighty. but I grieve for his loved ones that mourn his loss today. May God give them the grace they need in this hard time!

The flower fadeth

I have so many thoughts swarming in my head. Thoughts of sorrow, pain, joy, confusion, uncertainty, gratefulness, compassion, comfort...the list goes on. As Christians how to we attempt to explain events like the one that passes this last week to the world around us? How can we display that we rejoice that Luke is in heaven yet mourn and weep for our loss. A teacher at ECS use to say death is the only certainty in life. It is the only thing we can be sure will happen and that it so unnatural to us because we are meant for eternity. How true that is! Not one of us is guaranteed tomorrow or even the next hour! Which challenges me how would I live each day if I knew it was my last day? what would happen if I veiwed everyday that I woke up like it was my last day. If I tried to grasp every moment I could. If I stopped to help the broken or just lagged a second to hold the door a little longer. If I didn't look for a fight but tried my hardest to keep the peace. What would happen if I actually took my day to heart..but not just for one day but for every day of each year I am granted on this earth.


Yesterday I went hiking with the freshman RUF girls. It was absolutely gorgeous. On the way up we were discussing the tragic events of last years accident with Meredith. A girl in our car had actually been the one who witnessed and reported the accident. We then went to discuss with two sophomore girls how hard and weird it must have been to not be in Memphis when an event like that occurred. I find it ironic that we were discussing this being completely oblivious to the events that happened just the night before. We returned down the mountain and my phone was exploding with text messages about the event. I remember just starring at my phone not believing it to be true. Then there was the confusing rumors and deciphering through the texts to find the true story. It still doesn't feel real as if it is all a dream. I can not begin to imagine how the pruetts must feel and many others who have lost a child, a brother, a friend. I keep them all in my prayers. I can't help but wonder if God is trying to tell us something and if He is what is it. For two events to happen in a year like this to the same grade seems so strange to me. My heart grieves for the grade of 2013. They have been hit with the hard struggles of life. Yet, it is such an encouragement to see how the ECS community comes together. How within 24 hours of the event there is already a prayer and worship service for the tragic event. I pray that this can be a witness to the surrounding memphis communities! May we all keep the families in our prayers! I know God has a plan in all of this and His glory will be ultimately exalted. You will be missed Luke Pruett but we know that you are dancing on the streets of heaven and we will one day see you again. May we all stand strong in the promises God has given us.