Christmas! 12/04/2009

I decided to do my own 25 days of Christmas by listing 25 things I’m looking forward to over Christmas break!

(in no particular order..well except for the first one)

1. Celebrating the birth of my Savior without whom my life would have no purpose or hope!

2.  no school, duh.

3. Building a fort in my room with Cat (and whoever else wants to join!) and watching Disney movies to celebrate the end of finals

4. Spending time with my beautiful family

5. Christmas carols, egg nog, stolen (the best breakfast EVER – it’s a Matthews’ thing), Christmas lights and decorations, snow (hey a girl can dream right?), Christmas trees, reading the Christmas story, candlelit Christmas Eve service at Ebenezer, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, my hello kitty stocking, flannel pjs, bike rides, volleyball, backyard football, longboarding, secret santa, painting

6. Lock in at the Cox’s with my best friends in our onesies! (and hopefully some trampolines will be involved)

7. Christmas dinner at my grandparents with all the family

8. Sleepovers with best friends

9. Spending much needed quality time with my best friend Vanessa

10. Volunteering somewhere and spending time with people who don’t have the opportunity to have the kind of Christmas they deserve

11.  The wonderful Martin family adventures that await

12. Colder weather, scarves, peacoats, bonfires, hot apple cider, blankets

13. The |giv| campaign and raising money to create a safe house in India to rescue 10 girls trapped in sex slavery

14. Passion twenty ten!

15. The finale of So You Think You Can Dance…you’re probably making fun of me right now:) that’s ok

16. Reading the book of  James with my lifegroup

17. Re-reading the Harry Potter books

18. Sleeping

19. Hanging out with Bree and having an ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas marathon

20. New Years!

21. Trips to Charleston to see AG and Devin

22. The CRASH Christmas parties and working at Operation Christmas Child

23. Lighting the Advent candles

24. My mom’s, grandma’s, and GG’s Christmas cookies

25. I know it sounds weird but..going to the doctor! Hopefully I can finally find out what’s wrong with me

Out of all these things, silly and serious, number 1 is the most important.  Without God, there would be no Christmas.  There would be no anything.  For everything good and bad, rejoice in the Lord.  He is the giver of life who redeemed all of mankind by shedding his blood on a cross.  He died a horrifying death because of Love. He didn’t deserve the hell he went through.  We do.  But fortunately, we’re saved from that.  He conquered death so that we can live.  Seriously??  That blows my mind every time I think about it.  As awesome as the commercialized aspect of Christmas is, it’s absolutely nothing in light of how amazing God is.  He’s our greatest gift and without Him, we’re worthless.  Praise the Lord that He rescued us and calls us His own.  Glory to “the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”  (Romans 4:17)

This Christmas, celebrate the beginning of the life of the most beautiful man to ever grace this world: Our Savior.

You’re Beautiful 11/23/2009

This will always been one of my favorite songs; it’s on my heart today

I see Your face in every sunrise
The colors of the morning are inside Your eyes
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say
‘You’re beautiful’

I see Your power in the moonlit night
Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright
We are amazed in the light of the stars
It’s all proclaiming who you are
You’re beautiful

I see you there hanging on a tree
You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me
Now you are sitting on Your heavenly throne
Soon we will be coming home
You’re beautiful

When we arrive at eternity’s shore
Where death is just a memory and tears are no more
We’ll enter in as the wedding bells ring
Your bride will come together and we’ll sing
‘You’re beautiful’

I see Your face – You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful

Sand 10/18/2009

 

Her talent amazes me

Blessed 10/02/2009

I have the most amazing lifegroup!

Here’s Some Truth 09/29/2009

When we get to Heaven, God’s not gonna say “Hey good job trash talking that Clemson fan.  After you said all those things to them, they really wanted to know Me more.”  Nah.  It’s probably gonna sound more like this: “Hey why did you talk so much crap to that Clemson fan about that game instead of letting them know about the eternal salvation they can have through Me? After all, that’s all that matters”

Convicting? It is for me.  I love school spirit as much as the next person and I understand that some trash talk is harmless and simply a joke between friends. But there is a line.  And I’ve crossed it too many times.  Because in all honesty: IT DOESN’T MATTER. 

God’s gonna ask us what we did to advance His Kingdom – not what sports team we cheered for and whether that team won or lost.

This may seem like a stupid analogy but the sad thing is that things like these take priority in our lives over God.  Which shouldn’t happen.

Maybe that’s why I haven’t gone to a USC football game this season.

Hey guess what! 09/23/2009

I’m kinda sorta seeing a direction for my life!!

yayayayay

My Niece 09/01/2009

I just realized that I haven’t blogged since the beginning of summer! Whoa.

Anyway, here’s what I want to talk about: my niece.

Well, technically, she’s my cousin.  But her dad (my 1st cousin) is really more like a brother to me; so therefore, she’s my “niece”  

So here’s the story: Jacob and I have grown up together.  Our dads are brothers and we’re the 2 oldest grandchildren on that side of the family. Inevitably, we’re pretty close.  We hung out all the time as kids and it was so awesome to live a few streets away from each other.  I’m an only child, so Jacob is the closest thing to a brother I’ll ever have. 

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had our differences over the years, we’ve been through everything together, but bottom line: I love him.  alot.  There’s just something so great about the bond that we have.  He’s basically my favorite person in the world and I would do ANYTHING for him.

So when I found out that he and Bethany were having a baby, I was surprised but so excited for the newest addition to our family! I loved her instantly.

Kimberlyn Elyse Matthews was born on August 11, 2009 and she is absolutely perfect.  I’ve never seen such a beautiful baby (Ok, I may be a little bias:) but seriously, she’s gorgeous.)  I just love her so much and can’t wait to spoil her rotten! It’s amazing to see how much Jacob and Bethany care for that little girl – they are wonderful parents already and I know that’s not gonna change:)

Kimberlyn will be 3 weeks old tomorrow. She’s already growing so fast!! And I miss her so much.  I can’t wait till my next visit to Florence so I can go see her.

I love my family and just wanted whoever’s reading this to know how much I love my beautiful baby niece!

Florence 05/26/2009

Thought I would blog about something I’ve been thinking about lately and that is: “What is there to do in Florence?”

People (including myself) always say “There’s nothing to do here.”  The truth is that there is stuff to do, we’ve just done it all 32750148 times..so it gets a little old.  The sad thing is that everything costs money.  I mean, what broke college student wants to pay $8.50 to see a movie that’s probably not worth paying $8.50? And we could go somewhere else like the beach or columbia or charleston but then again that requires gas and who wants to pay for that all time? not me.

So usually it comes down to this: “Whose house are we hanging out at tonight?”  Or we just end up driving all around town trying to decide what to do until we finally just give up and call it a night. The plus side to nights like these is that great conversations usually happen..and I’m a fan of that.

The cool thing about this dilemma is that we get the chance to make our own adventures.  Sometimes it’s a total bust and sometimes it’s totally awesome [ .."you don't know if they have bombs! I meant to say stereotype".. ]. 

Bottom line is that I’m here in Florence for the summer so I’m ready for the adventures to begin!

Praise God 05/21/2009

 

 

That I am loved as I am and not as I should be

Snaps 05/05/2009

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Snaps is the name of the game

The name of the game is snaps

 

Bring your A game

snap. snap. snap. snap.

You might figure this out

Maybe you’ll need some help

snap. snap.

snap. snap.

Think carefully

See if you can get this

What’s your favorite tv show?

snap. snap. snap. snap.

Right now, I’m really bored

Let’s see if anyone figures out what I’m talking about

Do you understand?

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I don’t know if anyone’s played the snaps game before but I love it so if you figure it out, let me know:)

here’s a hint to the answer: it was one of my favorite tv shows of the 90’s