MERRY CHRISTMAS!

In the words of my friend Levi Miller (via a text I received this morning), "Merry Christmas everyone!! Dance all crazy! It's Jesus' birthday!!" Can I get an amen??! I love that. I got some amazing gifts this morning from my sister and husband, my younger sister and my parents. I am spoiled. I am so much more astounded, however, that Jesus came this day for us.. the King of Heaven came in the form of a vulnerable baby to break the laws of religion so that we can be free. Thank you Jesus for your life and your sacrifice, and that you are still alive and so active! I LOVE YOU!!

It is a Christmas eve tradition (that started last year) that my sister and I raid my mom's old clothes and look... well.. incredible. I'm not going to lie. ;-) Merry Christmas!

Don't know when I'll be back again

"I'm leaving on a jet plane,
don't know when I'll be back again..."

Story of my life! In about three hours I'll be heading to the airport on my way to winter! I am so stoked, yet SO sad. I really have no idea when I'll be back in Kona which is a new thing for me. Every time I've left in the past, I knew I was coming back soon so I didn't separate myself too much. This place has such a special place in my heart! AND the people!!! Oh Lord I can't even get started.

Seeing family and old friends will be incredible, however. I am excited. See you soon, Oregon!

Leaving this...


Going to this...

A Blurb.

I just got struck with thankfulness for my family. I received an amazing care package from my mom, complete with a bundle of Christmas cards to send out and Christmas cookies!! YUMMM. Now, I am looking through some old letters / cards to get addresses for people, and I came across this letter from my dad, the day he took me to the airport for Kona, LAST year. April 5, 2007. Here is a blurb.

You are a wonderful daughter. I am so pleased with the fine young lady you have become. You care about your family, your friends, other people, and God. You are very pleasant... happy. This is great not only for you, but for everyone who knows you. Keep up the good personality!

My dad makes me cry. That's it for now. :-)

Bitter-sweetness.

My time here in Kona is coming to an end very very quickly. 12 days until I will be on that jet plane. Right now is that in between stage of being SO busy finishing up the school, starting to pack and get rid of old stuff etc., as well as mentally and spiritually prepping myself to be home. I just woke up to the most amazing quiet time with God. He's really giving me lots of clarity for what lies before me at home, I am so excited! I am in tears at the thought of leaving this special place and all these special people, but also crying tears of joy for all that lies ahead. :o) Life is good!

I can't believe it's been a month since I've blogged. It's so weird because I don't have photos of my cute children and hubby like the majority of bloggers I know... ;-) So I just write. Perhaps if my camera worked I would take more photos.. lol. Right now I've got Misty Edwards "my soul longs for you" replaying through my head, so I'm posting the video of it. Pretty amazing song.



Well, bless you all!!

Playing mommy

So last Friday my dear friend Apryl and I decided to help out our friend Natalie. She has twin baby girls and her husband is in Israel for two weeks... so we strapped on her front packs and took the girls downtown, ate some sushi and walked around enjoying the sunset. It was basically glorious. There will be more of this action in the near future (tomorrow night in fact)! I love it and we felt like such moms. Amazing!

Lovesickness.

I have been struck in awe today by God's heart for marriage. I have always been fascinated by His view and intentions for marriage - the beauty of combining two separate people to become better together with God. It's always been a beautiful thing to me, but today I got hit. I was reading Jeremiah with Kate and within the first 10 chapters or so I was blown away by how many parallels God used in this book between him and his people, as a marriage.

Jer. 2:2 -
"I remember the devotion of your youth,
your love as a bride,
how you followed me into the wilderness..."
Jer 3:20-
"Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,
so have you been treacherous to me,
O house of Israel,
declares the Lord."

Well, first and foremost, this prophecy was written to an entire nation that had turned their back on God, after all He had done for them, all the times he had delivered them, and who had turned to false gods as well as Yahweh for help etc. It is a good reminder to us today. How many times (a day) do I turn my back on the One who delivered me from my wildernesses, YET he still pursues me with His unrelenting love. He is so faithful, when we are not. But besides that, I am just fascinated by His love. Like, honestly, He is a sucker for his beloved! His eyes are full of firey passion for each person on this earth, and He will never give up on us.

Back to marriage. My good friend here, Apryl, has been telling me about her newly wed sister and brother-in-law a lot lately. They are such a wonderful example of God's intention for marriage. They are fascinated with each other. They never say anything negatively about each other behind their backs. They can't get enough of each other. It hurts their hearts to not be next to each other. They never stop touching each other. His view towards his wife is "I am called to love you as Christ loves the church, and I do not take that lightly." That is so refreshing! That IS how marriage should look. While, yes, they are still honeymooners, they have a firey love and passion for each other that is long lasting. This is because they have God's heart for marriage. They get it.

How much more does God in heaven long to be with you and I all the time. How much more does it hurt his heart to be far from us (or for us to be far from / rejecting him)! God is such a man's man when it comes to loving his bride - he will never stop pursuing. How incredible! He will never threaten for divorce!

All these thoughts have encouraged and challenged me intensely. While I was made to be a nurturer, wife, mother etc. it is totally in God's hands. The phrase "don't settle" is really starting to make sense to me. I want to be pursued like Christ pursues the Church!! Holy crap, that's intense. More than earthly marriage, however, I just want to stay lovesick for my Beloved always, as much as I am now. He is the best, and he understands me. Ahhhh I'm in LOVE!

Jesus, please let me stay this passionately in love with your heart for all time!! That you would give this revelation of marriage to all who believe in you whether they are already married or not. That they would see the fire in your eyes for them.

Shadow feet.

So I have become a major fan of Brooke Fraser the last few weeks... Love her music, it is gorgeous and so inspiring. She is an incredible woman! So talented, and a huge heart for God and orphans in Africa. I love her. Here is one of her videos. I want to buy some of her stuff soon!!!

friendships.

Aww I was just looking at some of my blogs from last year and January of this year. It is so good for me to reminisce and look back at what God has done in my past. I am seriously blown away that it is November already!!? What the heck is that about? I am going home next month, for good. It's so funny because coming back here in March, it felt like there would be no end in site... haha not that I felt trapped or something, anyway you get the idea. I am so excited. Everything about this time is bitter-sweet. Going home to my family, friends, winter, money-making job, home church etc... but leaving behind LOTS of other amazing friends, constant summer, multiple times-per-week corporate prayer and hard core worship, and did I mention lots of amazing friends? :-/ Here are some I'm sad to say I'm leaving.

Natalie and Jeremy


Cedar and Acacia - Natalie and Jeremy's twin babies.



The beautiful Apryl Griffin.



Melissa Vasconcellos



Keaka-Melissa's little stud muffin.



The hilarious and Spirit filled Kate and Sammy.



Jake-to-the-Mason. I look super scary here... 7am breakfast style.



Mrs. Jenna Vega!!!!



Lord I love them all.

I was going to write more on this post, but got hit with tiredness. Good night!

My heart.

I'm sitting in the back of class.
We are learning about the book of Isaiah this week - epic.
I am sipping on some green tea and feeling good.
I cannot get the lyrics out of my head
of a song that my friend, Julia, wrote.

"Your hair white as snow,
purity consumes You,
Your feet like bronze,
step in stamps of victory

Your face like the sun
Shining in the light of your glory...

You are beauty."

Wishing I knew the rest of the lyrics because they are mind blowing.
My entire being longs to be consumed by purity.
That not an ounce of fear would rule my life.
But that in everything I do would be out of pure trust in my God.
He is mighty.
He is able.
He is trustworthy.

Lord, if everything was taken from me right now, I want to find my peace in You.
All things good come from You anyway, so why should I want anything BUT You?

You ARE beauty. Everything about you is good. There is no ounce of not good in You.

Lost in His gaze

My oh my, the Lord is so good. His faithfulness never ceases to amaze me. I love that His heart is FOR us not against us, and that when He tests us it's for our good not just to make us suffer. Our God is so good. I have felt his presence so strongly the last few days and it just makes me want more and more of Him. He has put such amazing people in my life for each circumstance I go through, to help and encourage me in my growth.

O Lord where to start?
I love You and want to be swept away by You; something you've already started to do.
My heart burns violently inside of me because of You and your beauty.
Thank you for making us in your image and that we are your most prized possessions.
Thank you that you desire no harm or condemnation for us, but only fullness of joy.
You are a joyful God.
You love love.
You love my happiness, and despise my pain.
You cry when I am broken.
Your beauty takes my breath away every time.
You restore my innocence to that of a little girl.
All else fades away when I am in Your presence.
You are the ultimate Daddy who has eyes of passion for His children.
You are jealous for me.
You are sheer perfection. You heal every hurt, you wipe away every tear, you love the unlovely.
Your desire is for me, not against me. You have no plans to ever hurt me.
I don't even know where to start, Lord!
Your gifts are wonderful, but your presence is unsearchable. There is none like you.
Thank you, dad.

New season

Song of Songs 2:10b

"Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit...
Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.'"

More to come.

Vineyard

My dream place to be with Jesus.

It's a Beautiful Day!

I just woke up to birds singing,
a gentle breeze whisping into my room,
and a soft sunrise peering its way over the Kona mountainside.

Yep, it's going to be a beautiful day!

Miscellanious.

Ahh it's a nice Saturday. Not necessarily exciting, but nice. I got to clean house today, tried to swim in our pool, but couldn't find the pool key, got Haishi's sushi, brought it home and drank it with some iced water and green tea. Feeling very fresh at the moment. And of course I'm listening to Rick Pino and that always helps. ;-)

I'm waiting for my sister and parents to sign onto ichat! It'll be so fun to see all their faces, I've only video chatted with Becca, not the parents yet. I'm getting butterflies. It's apparently 'family day' at Western Oregon, so they're all hanging out together in Monmouth. I can only imagine how beautiful that campus is in fall!

Well, I am starting to come to the realization that I'm actually coming HOME in two months! It's ridiculously bittersweet. SO good, yet SO sad. Love everyone at home, love everyone here, etc etc. But praise God anyway. God's been giving me amazing revelations of his love and desire for me. I love that He sings over my life! The phrase I've picked up from him lately is that He is a "hopeful romantic" for his people. Isn't that gorgeous?! Anyway, along with going home, I've been thinking lately about what type of job to get when I go back. I hope to have like a part time job and to be able to baby sit a lot as well. I'm thinking Starbucks (semi-reluctantly) or Curves as a receptionist! Random, I know, but I think I would love it! I guess I should pray that God would open up doors, and my mind to the perfect job for me.

Mmk, thats it for now, the fam is on!!

"Diamonds of my life"

Chorus to another Rick Pino song I love - he wrote this one to his wife...


No amount of shining stars
Could outshine your lovely heart

http://www.virb.com/rickpino/music/albums/53141

check out that link to hear it - amazing.
Can't wait for my time to come, ya know?

Back from the Roadie!

I just got back this afternoon from an amazing road trip around the island with my friend, Kate! It was a blaaaaaaast :-) I only have two photos from my phone.. not good quality at all. The rest are on her camera and hopefully I can download some on my computer soon to add on here.

Random view from a cliff...


...and natural steam vent (one of MANY) at the most active volcano in the world - right where we camped for two nights!!!


Ok, I'll try to post more soon. Blessings!

Thanks to Kesha!

I am enjoying a energy boosting iced coffee - thanks to Kesha Thomas' recipe! Hehe it is so good.

I'm also talking to my mom right now and she is describing thoroughly to me how to make good cookies, since I just vented that my last batch turned out crappy and flat, lol! I'm distracted because of how much infor she's outpouring :-) Love ya momma.

Currently, I'm babysitting a dog! His name is Hapa and he is a gorgeous Husky with bright blue eyes. My precious friend, Mel and her husband, Kumu, are at a birthing class ALL day, preparing for the little boy due October 12 (I think it will be sooner)! I cannot wait for him to come! I've been feeling him rolling around in her belly LOTS these last months and I am dying to see his precious little face. Ahh. I love babies! So Hapa is laying on the floor, chilling out as I'm getting loaded on caffine with my delicious drink! I've also been studying all day on the book of Esther which I am teaching on the 26th of this month. I'm excited, it's such a rich book. What's crazy is that God's name is not mentioned once in this book, yet it is exciting to see him at work throughout the entire story! I feel as though I could give a sermon already, after reading this book "A Woman of Strength and Dignity Esther" by Charles Swindoll.

Ok well I'm going to give my mother the phone time she deserves - peace!

New love

I've taken up yoga.

This will be me soon!

Just Soak

This man's music has captivated my soul. This video is crazy cause it's just one photo of him, so ignore the video and just soak to the song. Oh man has God used him to romance His bride! God basically speaks directly through Rick Pino. Another amazing song you should check out by him is "Your love is like" OH my word. Make me melt. Enjoy soakin in Jesus' presence!

It's THAT time of year!

According to my family back home, it's starting to feel like fall!! M'mm my favorite season! All I've been able to think about this weekend is pumpkin patches and the Dallas drive-in. The drive-in obviously isn't a fall thing, but I've been missing that end - of - summer feeling. The weather stays the same here in Kona all the time.. no season changes. BUT I'm still grateful.

I'm so sad that I've been such a slackin blogger lately. I feel like I have millions of things I could write about but I just don't get around to it. And since my silly camera is so shotty I can't take many pictures to upload. But here is a photo of some delicious banana bread I made last week - I'm a little apprehensive about the photo because it looks like meat loaf :-/


Ok well I'm off to a staff meeting. Blessings to everyone! Enjoy the end of summer / beginning of fall for me!!

THE pie!!

Here it is... I'm a proud momma. :-)



on another note, I got to skype with both of my besties in the WHOLE world today!!! Here they are:

All shopped out!

Today I celebrated my friend, Esther's birthday with my roommate Jeannie. That was really fun! We went to Vietnamese food which was.. YUMM... then we went shopping at Macy's and I got some Clinique lip gloss! So pretty, it's airkiss. And then we went to the grocery store and I bought ingredients to make an apple pie tomorrow for a roommate get together! I seriously cannot get baking out of my mind, so I'm pretty excited. Man, I guess that's all for now. I've been a pathetic blogger lately. :-( Oh well, there is grace and forgiveness.

Peace!

Delicioso

Dates + nectarines + green tea = YUMMY snack!!!

Fruit Kabobs!

I just finished hanging out with my dear friend Christina, and some other ladies for a bridal shower for her. She's getting married this Saturday and I get to be a bridesmaid. I cannot wait :) Anyway the shower was so fun, very small and intimate group. I loved how it turned out, wish I had taken photos. I made fruit kabobs with fresh pineapple, strawberries and bananas, and had a two teared platter, the top with white and chocolate cupcakes and the bottom with chocolate chip cookies. It was sweet (literally!). Also, we had some sugar free lemonade in margarita glasses, it was so fun. I can't wait for the wedding on Saturday. LOVE IT.

I best be going to bed so I can wake up at 5:30 for my workout class!!! Night!

Fascinated

I am so fascinated by the faithfulness of my God!!! I have so many testimonies of crazy things he's done in the last week, but here's one specific. Last week our school and I went to a place up in the mountains here in Hawaii, called Kalopa State Park. It's an SBS tradition to go there every year when studying Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers to act out the wilderness wandering of the Israelites. It's soooo much fun. Anyway, while we were there, we had a really awesome prayer / ministry time for the students and staff. My student and good friend, Kate, asked us to pray for her stomach to be healed because she has had serious issues with it for as long as she can remember. Every time she would eat ANYTHING with sugar in it she would get ill. So obviously she was pretty miserable and could hardly ever eat sweets. But it was such a hinderance for her, that we really pressed in for her healing. As we were all around her praying, I had my hand on her stomach and commanded, in Jesus name, that all sickness would get out of her body and that she would be restored to the way God intended her body to be. As I had my hand on her stomach I felt the craziest grumbles and movement inside of her after praying for her, it went on for a few minutes. Then, next thing we know she's eating breakfast (the next morning) and realized she had no pain... then had rice crispy treats for a snack later... and felt NO sickness. With each meal and snack I would ask her how she felt and she was in awe each time saying "I FEEL NORMAL!! Absolutely no pain!!" That was about a week ago and she's still completely healed. God is so GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's so real and active, it's ridiculous.

Yay!

I got new earrings. You like? :-)

ipod found!

I FOUND MY IPOD!!!!!!!!! In a suit case under my bed... Thank you Lord!

no title.. at all!

So I think I lost my ipod. I am so sad about it!! I haven't seen it the last two weeks I've been back in Kona, so I feel like I may have left it on the airplane or somethin. Such a bummer, especially cause I got a lot of the music on there is from friends form last year in SBS. So now I just listen to music on my computer. Man I hope it turns up soon if I didn't lose it!! Otherwise, maybe it blessed someone else -?-
I'm excited because in two hours I'm going out to coffee with my married friend, Tracy. She's pretty awesome and I cannot wait. I'm trying to decide now what I want to drink so that I will be craving it hard core and when I get it I will be soooo satisfied. :-) I'm trying to get more creative with the drinks I order (IE @ starbucks), so I would love to hear all of your guys' input as to what you LOVE to get so that I can spice up my drink wardrobe.. hehe
I am not sure if my sentence structures are even making sense right now, because I'm so caught up in listening to my favorite song at the moment.. dance with me.
Well that's it, I feel super brain dead right now.

Adios!

Cookies, anyone?

M'm I just finished baking some choc-o-chip cookies in our nice oven, and I have delicious candles burning!! So.. I took this photo on my computer so it's not as nice as with a camera... but my camera is shot. Ok well just wanted to update you! :-)

P.S. Has anyone seen the 13th year? It's a Disney channel original movie and I loved it when I was like 12.. anyway it's on now and it's really funny flashbacks. I had such a crush on the merman / teenager. haha

You Won't Relent

I LOVE this song!! It's such a powerful message about God's relentlessness to pursue our souls!

I want a treat!

Ahh I'm having one of those crazy cravings days. It happens a lot actually. It's almost 10 and I have like no snacks so I'm not sure what to do with myself. Sad day!

Another fun update: I got so sunburnt today!! All day (at the beach) I was telling my friend that I hope I don't get sunglass tan lines on my face.. and I did. My face got so burnt and it's sad. I ALWAYS protect my face but I spaced it today. So sad! Ok but I am definitely excited to study Genesis this week!! That will be amazing, we have an awesome guest speaker named Ron Youngblood. He edited Strong's Bible Concordance! Awesome. Ok well good night!



(this is the beach I went to!)

Dance with Me

Many songs will fade away
but few things will remain;
Melodies and harmonies will change
melodies and harmonies will change;
But I'm hearing a new song
but I'm hearing a new song

I'm beginning to hear the angels cry "holy"
O Love song of God, rise in me
I'm surrounded by You
Here in your glory
Oh love song of God, rise in me

I wanna be romanced by the King of the ages
I don't wanna sing of a passion I've never known
I wanna get lost in the beauty of Jesus
To dance through the night around your throne;
So dance with me, dance with me!

William.

My cute nephew. Just wanted to share the goodness.

Oh my bangs!

So I was a little bored yesterday afternoon and decided to cut myself some bangs. I wanted them to be the typical sweep- your- left -eye bangs but I made a mistake and they kinda ended up being one length.. only jagged. It's pretty funny. Hopefully my beautition best friend can help me some..

Cup Cake Land!

Kesha, this is mostly directed to you! I have been day dreaming about baking cupcakes the last week or so - thinking about the photos of the ones you've put on your blog. So I had a blast tonight with my mom making these. I have a new hobby!! The ones with pink frosting are raspberry, the ones with white frosting are coconut, and the ones with light orange are.. orange! I used an orange crystal light mix in that frosting and it ended up being sooooo delicious. :-)

Road trip!

On Sunday, my two friends, Tedi and Esther decided to go on a roadtrip. Our final destination was South point - which is the southern most point of this island, and the southern most point of the United States!! But on our way we stopped at a few other places. The first was Starbucks :-) (I got an amazing iced grande two pump cinnamon dunce, two pump vanilla latte)


The second place is a beach area called 'City of Refuge' because back in ancient Hawaiian times people who had to flee the law could get here and be exempt from punishment - that is if they made it! But we stopped just to have a looksey and took some fun photos while there.
In the lava rock we found these little crystalized pockets that looked like ice - but obviously weren't - so they dared me to taste it to make sure it was salt, and YEP it was!

Then we just took some fun photos there...




Here in Kona, where I live, it's not your typical ideal of 'Hawaii,' it covered in hard black lava rock and it's really no that pretty.. but once you start driving south it gets really lush and green. It's beautiful.

On the way to South Point we passed this fenced in yard with these two Texas Longhorns which was quite the site in the first place:

So we pulled over to look at them up close, then saw in the fenced in area behind them a ZEBRA and a donkey together...
the owner came out and told us that as of recently, the donkey is pregnant with the zebra's baby and the breed is called a "zonkey." It was hilarious. This guy was so interesting - before this zebra, he had another one that he bought from the movie "george of the jungle" haha. So random.


Now, you know you're getting close to South Point when you see the windmills. They were just beautiful.



Then at South Point, there are these great spots to jump off if you want - me and Esther waited an hour for Tedi to decide whether or not she would jump. She didn't. :-(

Here's the beautiful water below, and a sweet yellow boat.




The end!