Passionate about passion tea!!

Corny I am... but I just had to put some pics up of me and my sis with our different tea lemonades. They were the perfect and most refreshing treat after a LONG walk at Minto brown. Enjoy!

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"It's just You and me here now"

Take my heart, I Lay it down
At the feet of you whose crowned
Take my life, I’m letting go
I lift it upto You who’s throned

And I will worship You, Lord
Only You, Lord
And I will bow down before You
Only You Lord

Take my fret, take my fear
All I have, I’m leaving here
Be all my hopes, be all my dreams
Be all my delights, be my everything

And It’s just you and me here now
Only you and me here now

You should see the view
When it’s only You

This is currently the absolute desire of my heart. My favorite thing is imagining me alone with Jesus, dancing...it's a vision I've had since SBS. It's so detailed and I don't like explaining it, but I could daydream about it for hours. The song "Only You" really touched me this weekend in getting me back into alignment with the Lord. When I get past thinking about all the wrongs I've done against my Love each and everyday, imagining just Him and me here now, is so peaceful and wonderful. Sometimes I feel so distant from the Lord, but I know it's all my doing. He's never far and once I get in touch with Him and beg for intimacy with Him, all is at ease. All the bad is past and all I have is future with Him. He is SO special to me!!!!!

Feelin' cute

Today is one of those days that I feel cuter than others...maybe its because I'm wearing mostly my sis's clothes! haha...

Here's me!

YUMM!!

Ok so tomorrow is my sister's birthday so me, mom and Becca went to Baskin Robins to cake shop. I couldn't stand the smell of fresh waffle cones on an empty stomach - so I bought one. Best decision I've made all day I'm pretty sure. The ice cream flavor I chose was "Love Potion #31" It had swirls and chunks of raspberry and chocolates filled with raspberry as well as chocolate swirls. DELICIOUS. I love the raspberry-dark chocolate combination. Just wanted to let all know. :o)

No Sacrifice

I just downloaded a Jason Upton song that I've wanted the past few months, called "no sacrifice." It is amazing and pretty much brings me to tears every time! If you haven't heard it before you should look up the preview on itunes. It's my SBS's school verse put into a song - it's from Isaiah 55:8 on:

8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.

9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts."

This passage has been hitting me a lot lately as I'm getting closer and closer to going back to Kona to staff. It's a very scary thing for me! God will stretch me and use me in so many ways that I am unfamiliar with and honestly uncomfortable with. When I'm confronted with the question "what are you gonna do after YWAM" or "what are you gonna do in real life" it's so hard for me to answer. I get asked that everyday I'm sure, and my answer is that I'm being an open vessel for the Lord to use me. I'm not going to make plans on my own without his hand in it. I am here to serve him with my life, not to do what I want with it. The thing is I would love to stay home in Salem and serve the church but it's not really up to me. For now he's revealing his plan to me one step at a time and I'm taking it as it comes. I cannot plan my own future because it's not mine, it's His. That is definitely scary and uncertain...but it's what my life is about. It's funny to me that that's even hard for so many Christians to understand. What? You don't have a plan?! As far as I am concerned God is in control, not me... therefore he has a plan. We'll see what that is by the end of my life I guess. For now I know His plan is to prepare me to go into the world and make disciples of many. I'm pretty sure that's what my whole future looks like, I'm just not sure of the specifics.

Ok I had to get that out... mostly to remind myself that although it's frustrating to me not having a full on plan or job or something, it's still about Him no matter how challenging that may be!


To you I give my life, not just the parts I want to
To you I sacrifice these dreams that I hold on to

Your thoughts are higher than mine
Your words are deeper than mine
Your love is stronger than mine
This is no sacrifice
Here's my life

To you I give the gifts
Your love has given me
How can I hoard the treasures that you've designed for free?

Because
Your thoughts are higher than mine
Your words are deeper than mine
Your love is staronger than mine
This is no sacrifice
Here's my life

To you I give my future
As long as it may last
To you I give my present
To you I give my past

Because
Your thoughts are higher than mine
Your words are deeper than mine
Your love is stronger than mine
Your thoughts are higher than mine
Your words are deeper than mine
Your love is stronger than mine
This is no sacrifice
Here's my life

Ohh nephews

So my sister, Heather, her husband and 3 of her kids are visiting til tomorrow and we've had lots of fun since they've been here. It's a headache for sure sometimes, but it's fun. Needless to say the boys LOVE my photobooth and we took so many funny pics. The first one is my favorite but there's lots of good ones.




Also, here's my favorite conversation EVER between me, my dad, and the boys in the car...

Dad: "Brit, the world is a better place because you're in it....
Larry, William, the world is a better place because you're in it too!"

Boys: "Thanks grandpa! "
William: "But sometimes we're trouble makers"

Dad: "Oh really, how long have you been trouble makers?"

William: "For about 100 years"
Larry: " WILLIAM! We haven't even been alive 18 years!"

hahaha my favorite part was the last line...18 years of all things. By the way, Larry is 7 and William is 5. Oh I love them :o)

Day at the coast!

So today I definitely skipped church and went to Lincoln city with my niece Mackenzi, and my sis Becca. IT WAS GORGEOUS! I think the first time I've been to the Oregon Coast and it being WARM even the sand was warm. It was amazing. We had lots of fun too, it was such a fun day. Here's some pics!

My Valentine's Day!

Oh man, for being single, I think I had the best Valentines day EVER! It was so fun. At 3:30 I went over and babysat Marshall til about 9:30 which was super fun in and of itself. But then my BFF Amy - my other Valentine - came over and hung out with us. We made lattes on Chris' espresso machine - they were soooo yummy. Then after we left the Porter's house, Amy and I came over to my house and we watched "Look Who's Talking" haha cheesy I know!!! I was dying to watch it a couple of weeks ago but Hollywood didn't have it so I bought it off ebay for $.73!! So that was super fun. Oh and when I came home, I was welcomed by my dad who gave me chocolate from See's (he does every year) and a pink Rose and more chocolate from my sis Becca. PLUS it was my dad's b-day so we had the traditional heart shaped red velvet cake with white frosting. It was a great day! Here's some pics of my gifts :o)





Oh! And Marshall "made" me a valentine! :o)


I couldn't flip those pics for the life of me!!!! Sometimes this comp is confusing...

I did the dirty

and went to McDonalds! That's something I NEVER do but I was craving a reeses peanutbutter cup McFlurry and fries SOOO bad. Don't worry though, I got them both in smalls!
I am going to be serving in an auction for Life Church this Saturday, which should be fun. I had the meeting for that tonight at 6 and was convinced by my friend Ruth to stay for worship at least. So I did and a bit of the service and it was SO refreshing and exactly what I needed for this week. I got prayed for and grew more intimately with Jesus than I've been in a while. I physically felt God's presence the moment I asked him for it. It was surreal. I love God!!!

Photo booth :o)

Ok I HAD to add a few more...

my baby!

Just wanted to update ya'll that I got a new laptop!!!! I got a beautiful macbook in white and I'm lovin it. Still trying to work through some technical difficulties but it is so much fun. Here's a pic of what it looks like, it's not my exact one though. I'm just so excited about it :o)


On another note, I am so thankful for godly friends. I've been struggling lots lately and I'm so sick of it. I've been taking back promises I made between me and God and it's making me sick. Also I'm getting nervous about going back to Hawaii to staff...I'm going to have such a big role in student's lives and I really want to be as on track as possible. Let's just say I'm thankful for grace!! God is good. I just got back from Chris Porter's house and I was encouraged as always - plus she made me a vanilla latte which was amazing! Just what I needed.

Ummm I love Dr. Phil. I'm watching his "1001 episode" and its lots of fun. Also I'm desperately needing to work out. I think I will after I'm done blogging. I'm in my workout gear to get me motivated. It's crazy that as much as I love fitness I get unmotivated if it's been a while.

It's been a beautiful day today!! It was so warm and sunny..and of course it's not anymore. But I enjoyed it while it lasted. Ok I think that's all for now. I'm gonna work out then go shopping for v-day presents with my sister for her bf :-)
Peace!!

just for fun

So here's a pretty fun story. A few weeks ago my mom and I were shopping at Keizer Station and we went into David's bridal, because I wanted to show her the dress I saw online and LOVED! So we did and as we darted back to the dressing room to try it on the guy stopped us and told me I had to be registered and have a consultant - that would take an hour and a half. So we left bummed cause I just wanted to see what it would be like.
So this last Saturday Amy needed to go to David's bridal to try on two pieces to make a dress to go to her friend's weddings this summer. As I was waiting for her to try stuff on the girl helping her started making small talk asking who was gonna get married first and stuff. So I told her after a while that I found the dress of my dreams there online but I couldn't try it on cause I didn't want to register (obviously..I don't even have a bf!) But she kept askin me "but do you want to try it on" as she winked. I said YES!!! So we went and grabbed it and it was the perfect size and it was so much fun. I kinda had to make stuff up to the other employees as to why I was trying it on but it went ok. The employees kept putting different veils and headbands on me - I felt like a princess!! A little awkward but it was fun. SO here's a pic from it that Amy took on my phone. It was good times - hope it's still around for my big day!!

Hangin out with Marshall!

Hey ya'll! So I had a very fun morning babysitting Marshall..Here's a few pics - he had just woken up so he wasn't quite smiley yet..hahaha. He's a doll though :o)

He's checkin out the birds outside

Lookin at me like I'm crazy...so funny!

Cutie crawling to his bottle!!

Lord haste the day...

"And Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend
Even so it is well with my soul!"

I'm such a sucker for hymns. It is well is one of my favs of all time..but I guess I have a lot of favs! I just sat down to the piano and started plunkin away at this song and it was so refreshing. Some weekend soon when Amy is down here, I'm going to sight read some hymns and she's going to sing them :-) It's her idea and I think it's so cute. Well thats it for now!!

I love Oregon!

I've been browsing some pics from summer time that I've taken throughout the last couple of years. I just adore Oregon so much, it's my ideal place!

BAD hair day!!

Don't you hate 'em? I'm having one today and it's bothering me. I guess if I was willing to style it better it would look ok, but I absolutely do not feel like putting effort into it!! haha. I'm just glad there's more to life than hair. :-)

It's a pretty chill (aka boring) day for me at home. My mom went to Portland with her friend today for fun and Becca's at school so I'm just hangin out, drinkin coffee and getting a caffine high :-) But my mom left a car here which is RAD and which means I'm going shopping here in a few minutes. That'll be fun, it's time to buy more Hawaii wear...I am so sick of all the clothes I had there this last time, so I need at least a few new items to mix it up a little bit. Hopefully AE will have some amazing shorts that'll work for me. That would be cool.

I'm also blasting the Gen. Unleashed cd that Heidi gave me and worshipping along with the band. It's really fun now that I'm learning all the songs I can rock out to it..haha. It's the type of music that's getting me to think about more than myself, but to rather think about God and praise him even when I don't feel like it - or see a huge reason to. He deserves it all the time no matter how I feel. That's always a slap in the face.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I'm off to the malls to see what treasures I can find - sure wish I had a friend to shop with... :-(

oh my cream puff

...I ate way too many today! My mom bought mini boston cream pies and lil cream puffs and I couldnt turn 'em down. Oh well good thing I worked out this morning!

(by the way the ones I ate didn't look that pretty, lol)

Ah, love

So the other night I was thinking lots about romance...like humanly kind...and I thought what better place to read about it than the Bible! So, although I read and studied it lots just a few months ago, I read the entire book of Song of Songs (only 8 chapters) and I was cryin like it was to me or something. I'm just pumped to get words of affirmation from my man someday. I love hearing it from Jesus though too :-) Anyway I found such a beautiful part that I absolutely adore and I think is perfect for weddings...so I'll probably have this be my life passage when I meet my love.

Song of Songs 2:10
"My lover spoke and said to me,
'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me.
See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.
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.'"
Is that so special or what?! What a beautiful expression of true love - the winter is past and it is time for singing!! awesome.

I also love 1:15 (NRSV)
"Ah, you are beautiful, my love;
ah you are beautiful;
your eyes are doves.
Ah, you are beautiful,
my beloved, truely lovely."

The special thing I learned in SBS about the significance of doves, especially in this book, is that they symbolized focus. When doves fly, the can only focus / see what is ahead of them and they do not become distracted by the miscellanious things that may surround and potentially harm them. They are focused on their goal and are not easily distracted! Sounds an aweful lot like how love should be, to me!

ah, love (and cute heart pics for the heck of it!)

Poor Griff!

So I've been hanging with Griffin since yesterday and it's been a good time. He's unfortunately really sick so he couldn't go to school today...poor guy! So we're just chillin at my house watching kid tv. Hopefully he gets better soon! Here's a couple of pics we took on Photobooth just for the heck of it.



I'm realizing that although I LOVE kids so much and I know I will have plenty one day, I am so not ready for any right now! I mean he's 6 which is an easy enough age because I don't have to keep him occupied all the time, but it still takes lots of energy. Last night when we were sleeping at his house I couldn't really sleep at all because I kept hearing him cough and I was so worried! Not to mention the fact that the dog, Bachelor, slept on the bed with me (it's king sized so it's good!) was snoring all night, haha. I hope my husband doesn't snore....
Ok thats enough for now I think. Peace!