Day 7

"O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together."

Psalm 34:3

Happy Sunday :)

Day 6

Day 6

"Young people, it's wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to; take it all in. But remember you must give an account to God for everything."

Ecclesiastes 11:9

I thought this seemed like an appropriate verse for Saturday--the typical day of rest and fun.
I read all the way through the book  of Ecclesiastes, and I loved it so much, but I can't deny that a lot of the verses would not have worked for my whole positive and encouraging theme that I am kind of going for. But I got to this one, and I thought it was perfect! Even with the last part, which in some translations uses the word "judgement" or "accountability." I thought it was still positive, because as long as you strive to make the best decisions and to live for Him, then the terms "judgement," "accountability," or "account" do not have to be negative words at all. Because, as always, if you live for Him, He will bless you.

Happy Saturday :)

Day 5

Day 5

Sharing the love on day 5 :))

"For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then My faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken, says the Lord who has mercy on you."

Isaiah 54:10

His love for His children will endure throughout all of time, even after the end of the earth.
Have a beautiful day :)

Day4

Day 4

"Let love and truth never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them deep within your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man."

Proverbs 3:3-4

The love and truth of Christ and the gospel are the best and truest things in this world that we can put our hope in daily. If we just try to keep Christ first in our lives and make an honest effort to live our life with Him at the center of it, then we will radiate His light and the promise of His love, and others will notice. And if you do your best to daily serve Him, you might fall sometimes, but He will bless you.

Day 3

Day 3

It is officially Wednesday! Which means that today is day 3 for sharing the love through Bible verses :)

"For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that love Him."

Psalm 103:11

I picked this one, primarily for the same reason I picked the other two so far. I was looking for something encouraging or positive.  I was originally using the concordance in the back of my Bible to try and get my brain moving and get some ideas, because there are tons of verses in the Bible that I could use, but I just need to find the right ones. But, then I gave up on the concordance and decided to just browse at my leisure.

I am a freak who, when I highlight something in my Bible, I do it all to a color organized system.Passages that I have underlined in red are all about love and sacrifice, etc. Green passages are all about growth of the faith and spiritual life, and blue passages are what I like to call "refreshers." You might be able to pick up on my train of thought here--refresh/renewal=water, which quenches thirst=blue highlighter. Yeah, you get the point.

But anyways, as I was browsing, I found my color coded passages to be pretty helpful in selecting his verse for today.  I was looking mainly at the blue passages, because that's the kind of stuff I was looking for. Then I read Psalm 103:11, which I hadn't color coded at all (yet) and I just immediately thought it was perfect!

If you give your heart over to God and serve Him with everything you have, and love him with all of your heart, then He will walk beside you and show you mercy all the days of your life.

What could be more positive than that to start your day?!

Day 1 & 2

Sharing the love

Hi, all :)

So, today is a pretty good day. And I just thought I'd share something kind of fun that I've been doing.

It actually started as a joke, one of my friends had a kind of rough week last week, so when we were texting this weekend, I said, "This week is going to be great.I promise." and I promised I would text him every day this week, so I told him on Sunday night that I was totally serious and I would text him every morning.

So that's what I've been doing.Every morning, when I wake up, I text him a verse so that maybe it could be an encouragement throughout the day.Even if nothing necessarily goes wrong during the day, he knows that somebody genuinely wants him to have a good day, so it will serve as a reminder that somebody cares. Because there is no way you can have somebody text you a verse and not have it be encouraging.

"So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."

Isaiah 55:11

And I know it's only Tuesday, but I can already tell you that this is kind of fun. It's nice to take time out of your day for somebody else, just to show them that you care about them, even in a way as simple as picking out a verse. It's weird how it ends up being a kind of refreshing and uplifting thing for yourself, too.

So, two days are down!Can't wait to pick out more! :)

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Romans 15:13

"The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace."

Numbers 6:25-26

Member of a family

So, I'm a little bit of a strange bird within the church community.

I'm a little strange because it is unusual for someone to be born into a specific denomination or affiliation of the church and to stay there through adulthood. And I'm also a little strange because there are not a whole lot of people who are born right into the Evangelical Free Church. But, hey, that's me :) I raise my hand because all of the above applies.

My own father wasn't a pastor but he also wasn't in the picture for most of my life. My grandpa, on the other hand, if you will remember, was a pastor of an Ev Free Church, and he was very influential in raising me. So, I'm kind of an indirect PK, I guess. So, I grew up in the Ev Free Church that is here in Cheyenne until I left when I was in the 4th grade because my family moved to good ole TN (<--please note sarcasm).

I just moved back to Cheyenne in August for college, and it was a pretty natural decision to go to the Free Church that I grew up in. To be honest, I didn't even consider going anywhere else. But, since I was a child when I attended church here before, I was not considered a member, even though my parents and grandparents were, because you have to be a certain age to make that commitment/decision.

Well, I was raised to recognize the importance of belonging to a church family and making that commitment through membership. SO, I am becoming a member now! I'm taking a class for it (which isn't nearly as greuling as it sounds), and then it'll be official. And I have to say I am very excited about this. Before I moved back out here for school, I had people in my family tell me that they were afraid it wouldn't be all I expected it to be because you can't ever really come back "home" and have it be the way it was before.

And they are right. It is nothing like it was before, because I am older and doing different things in my life, not everything is the same, and I'm pretty much out here by myself. But that doesn't mean that it hasn't been wonderful, because it has. I love being back here, and it's not "home" like it was when I was a little girl, but it is home in a whole new way, and the place I have felt the most accepted and welcomed is at the church. Which is how it should be if you are where God wants you to be. So, I am ready to officially become a part of this church family of my own free will, and I am definitely excited for it.

It isn't much, but it's home to me :)

"The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him."

Romans 8:16-17

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved."

Ephesians 1:3-6

Oh,nostalgia..

Can I just say that I want to go to prom??

All of my friends from back home, specifically those still in high school, are all getting ready for prom this weekend and they are posting about it all over facebook. And you can be sure that, come Saturday, there will be an onslaught of prom pictures raping my newsfeed.

And it makes me want to go to prom!!
There is just something special about prom to most girls. I mean, think about it--the only times you really get to go all out and dress up like that in your life are for prom or your wedding. That's it.Obviously I can't just up and get married because I want to play dress-up. But I also can't just show up at some random highschool prom. I'm pretty sure I might be able to get arrested for that.

Anyways, you get my point. I miss prom.
Sigh.Guess I'll just have to relive my own prom memories and then live vicariously through the pictures of others on facebook.

Beautiful

Every day is beautiful, but for some reason I am in an especially good mood today. Hope you are too :)

"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.'"

Lead me

Hi,

So, I don't really do the whole two-blog-posts-in-one-day thing all that often, but I just felt like I really needed to do a follow up post from my last one, which you can see here.

Looking back to even just a few hours ago, when I wrote it from what seemed like the pits of despair in my academic career, I feel like there's just something I should add. I had a freak out moment--we all have those sometimes. But I am much calmer now, even talked to my mom about it, and she doesn't hate me, my advisor doesn't think I am the scum of the earth, and everything is going to work out.
Wanna know why?
Because if God brings you to it, He is going to get you through it. As usual, all you have to do is trust, and He will guide.

Thinking about that made me think of this song, which I usually love for different reasons, but it is pretty applicable to anything.

"I look around and see my wonderful life, almost perfect from the outside.

 In picture frames I see my beautiful wife, always smiling,

 But on the inside I can hear her saying,

 'Lead me with strong hands. Stand up when I can't.

 Don't leave me hungry for love, chasing dreams. What about us?

 Show me you're willing to fight, that I'm still the love of your life.

 I know we call this our home but I still feel alone.'

 I see their faces, look in their innocent eyes.

 They're just children, from the outside.

 I'm working hard, I tell myself they'll be fine.

 They're independent, but on the inside I can hear them saying,

 'Lead me with strong hands. Stand up when I can't.

 Don't leave me hungry for love, chasing dreams. What about us?

 Show me you're willing to fight, that I'm still the love of your life.

 I know we call this our home but I still feel alone.'

 So Father give me the strength to be everything I'm called to be.

 Oh, Father show me the way to lead them.

 Won't You lead me?

 To lead them with strong hands. To stand up when they can't.

 Don't wanna leave them hungry for love. Chasing things that I could give up.

 I'll show them I'm willing to fight and give them the best of my life

 So we can call this our home.

 Father, lead me, cause I can't do this alone."

Biggest failure of the century

Have you ever seriously, majorly messed up with something?
Cause I definitely have, and apparently now I am reaping the consequences in full.

I actually hate talking about this because I am pretty ashamed that it even happened, but at the end of last semester I found out that I was being placed on academic probation, because I hadn't done very well in some of my classes, so I wasn't meeting the college's average grade requirement.

Depressing, right?

So, nobody really told me what I was even supposed to do about it until this second semester started, and I emailed my advisor about it and he told me to come talk with him about it in his office.  So, I did that, and I don't know if any of you are familiar with what happens when you're on academic probation, so, this is how it works:  you have to send a letter to the financial aid department talking about what a good student you really are, why you got off track and what you're doing to fix it. Then you have to work your butt off for straight As because that's basically all that's going to help you. But you might be like me and have a lovely advisor who just goes ahead and tells you that you probably won't meet the required level of improvement anyways because of where you're at to begin with.

Needless to say, after that meeting, I literally had a full on panic attack. I was bawling my eyes out and calling home and literally weeping because I was scared out of my freaking mind. I've still been scared about it all semester, but my mom told me that the number one thing is that I try my best and that way, even if they say that it doesn't rate high enough, I'll still know that I did all I can do.

But there's a small problem.

Ready for the major, colossal screw-up? Remeber that letter I was supposed to send? Yeah, well, I didn't.

It's horrible, I know!But at first I was too busy freaking out for a week or so.  Then, once I started to calm down and think slightly more logically, I realized that I had no idea how to write this letter or exactly where to direct it. So, I told myself that I would look it up. Well, typical me, I forgot.  And I kept randomly remembering that I hadn't sent my letter, but I was always in the middle of something, so I would be like, okay, this weekend, I am so sending it!

Well, seriously, the next thing I knew, the deadline for financial aid information and FAFSA was passed, which meant that I was basically screwed because there was no point in sending it anymore. So, I had another little panic attack, but there wasn't much I thought I could do (because I am an idiot). So, I just kept on with my classes, trying my best and trying not to worry too much like my mom told me. Because, as far as I was aware, the worst that could happen was that they'd be like, Well, you screwed up so you don't get financial aid next year, which is something my mom and I had already talked about and decided we could work with if we had to. Not a big deal...

Right?

Wrong.

Never in my wildest dreams (which are sadly becoming a reality) did I know that whenever I got out my computer this morning to register online for my classes next semester, it would stop me in my tracks with a little message that says "You are not eligible for registration. Please contact the advising center re: acad. probation," and then it gave me a number to call.

So, you could say that now I am REALLY up the creek without a paddle and about to go over the waterfall of death.  I don't know what's going on, I don't know what to do about it, I'm terrified that they are not even going to let me come back next year, and then I don't know what I am going to do because I can't go home and live in TN anymore, but I have nowhere to stay out here besides the dorms, and my mom is going to find out that I forgot to send my letter and she is going to be royally pissed and probably hate my guts, but what else could we possibly expect from me--the biggest failure of life?

That's pretty much what I've felt like all year when it comes to school. I have felt nothing but shame and guilt, no matter how hard I've tried. And, ladies and gentlemen, I guess that's what this leads up to.

Time flies

Wow.

It has just started to hit me over the last day or so that my first year in college is almost over.  There are two weeks left of school, starting tomorrow, and I had no idea it was so close, but now summer is within sight, and that seems just crazy to me.  It is so hard to believe that, come May, it will have been a year since I graduated high school, moved away from all of my friends I've known my entire life and come out here to Wyoming to start over.

It really does seem like time goes even faster as I get older.  I had so much to adjust to once I came out here, and not that I don't have a great support group out here, but essentially I had to learn and grow from the experiences I've had on my own.  And, although some of it I learned the hard way, I really have learned so much.

Obviously I've learned a lot about school.  Like, how important it is. And how much more your grades matter when you've got money and scholarships on the line for them, and how much it majorly sucks when you screw that up.  But, stemming from that, I've learned that no matter what happens, no matter what kind of grades you get and no matter what the school has to say about them, as long as they are the best you can do, and they are a product of your best effort and time, then you should feel proud of yourself.

I have learned so much about friendship, and have definitely honed my social skills since I've been out here, too.  I mean, when you are making the choice to move to a new place, whether you are naturally outgoing, or mortifyingly shy like me, you kind of have to branch out and meet new people, or else you are going to flounder.

I've learned to try new things and go new places, even if there are people there who I have never met before.  Because you never know--they could turn out to be some of the best friends you'll make.

I've learned that sometimes a friendship might not turn out to be all you hoped it would be, but that isn't always a bad thing. It's like agreeing to disagree. You're both just two different people, so you accept it and move on, and become better people from learning that.

I've learned that, as scary as it can be to meet new people sometimes, you just need to go for it!And the best thing you can possibly do is to just be yourself :)

And I like to think that, through all of these things, I learned to take more responsibility and become more of an adult.  Not that I don't have more growing to do, because I do believe that there is always something to learn and that we, as humans, who are imperfect, always have some sort of growing to do. But I've really had to get out there, and I've certainly fallen down several times in the last year, which means I've had to pick myself up, learn from my mistakes, keep going, and keep trying my best.

And now, summer is staring me in the face, and it's time for a break before I learn even more next year.

Count your blessings

Hello, all of my imaginary little friends :)

I just wanted to share a little something that I've been thinking about lately that has kind of stuck with me.

So, I have two roommates, and then one of them has a sister who lives close by and she stays the night in our room sometimes, hangs out with us and all of that fun stuff.

She's been doing this thing, where she keeps a little notbook and takes it around with her all of the time, so that she can write in it whenever something occurs to her that she is grateful for or blessed with.

I mean, what a great way to stay positive.  We take SO much for granted every day of our lives, and sometimes we don't even realize that.  And this is something, simple as it is, that could maybe help keep things in perspective. I think it is a great idea.  At least one of my roommates, if not both of them, are going to start doing it, and I think I will, too.
I will probably update on here what I think of it after I've done it for a while, and how it is going, but I would still encourage others to try it themselves, even though I haven't started yet.  What harm could it do?

I'm kind of excited about it, actually :)

Anyways, that's my little good natured suggestion for today. You may do with it what you will.
I hope everyone has a good weekend, and a wonderful Sunday tomorrow :)

Oh boy...

Yeah....

These are my friends..

And despite their extreme weirdness...

And their ability to torture me...

I love them anyways.

But I'm not always sure why.

It is well with my soul

"When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

 When sorrows like sea billows roll;

 Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

 It is well, it is well with my soul.

 Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

 Let this blest assurance control,

 That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,

 And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

 My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!

 My sin, not in part but the whole,

 Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,

 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, Oh, my soul!

 For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:

 If Jordan above me shall roll,

 No pain shall be mine, for in death as in life

 Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

 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."

 You know me, I love a good hymn. I really like this one anyways, but I especially love love love this version by Phil Wickham.  He doesn't sing all the verses, but it's still just beautiful.

"The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace."

Numbers 6:25-26

"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.'"
-Phil Wickham

Keep faith.

Sometimes, as a Christian, you don't realize how hard it is for you to put your trust in somebody else until something comes along to show you that you haven't been fully doing that.

That's a pretty big deal, because God has done so much imeasureable good in our lives and the only  thing He ever asks for from us is our trust to be fully placed in Him.  Therefore, if you discover that, it's not that you haven't been trusting Him at all, but not fully, you have to reevaluate where you stand in your faith so you can ensure that you get where you need to be--where you thought you were.

And sometimes when you make this discovery, it isn't the easiest thing to just think, "Okay, let's think about this so we can make sure everything is right." Because a lot of the time, this discovery is brought about because of something really big--something that scares you so that you're too busy panicking and thinking something along the lines of, *&#@%^#! What do I do now?!God, please fix it!!

But the important thing to address both trains of thought is to remember that, even if you haven't been putting all of your trust entirely in Him like you thought you were, He is still your God.  He is mightier than all others and He holds all the power and wisdom to do and accomplish all things.  So, you just need to have faith in that.

And even when you're panic-stricken and not thinking entirely straight, you can still go to Him and say something along the lines of, "God, I know I haven't been fully trusting You, but I want to, and I need You now." That simple request is enough to throw Him into action and fight for you and your heart because He cares even about the little things that trouble you, and of course His heart breaks for your heartbreak over the big things, too.

"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Exodus 14:14

"He is wise in heart and mighty in strength..."

Job 9:4

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might."

Ephesians 6:10

"The Lord your God is in your midst,

 a mighty one who will save;

 He will rejoice over you with gladness;

 He will quiet you by His love;

 He will exult over you with loud singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

Perspective

So, as most people should know, unless they've been living under a rock or something of that nature, tomorrow is Good Friday, and this Sunday is Easter.

Easter is tons of fun, and I, like many people, have lots of great memories from when I was a kid of dressing up in my pretty Easter dresses, dying eggs, going on an egg hunt, good food, time with family, blah blah..You get the point.

Those things are all great, and they're a ton of fun.

But that's not what Easter is about, is it?
There have always been things about Easter that have been made commercial--the chocolate bunnies, the Peeps, the egg coloring kits, what-have-you.  But I'm sad to see that it's way more commercial now than it used to be.  People don't take to heart the true message anymore.

Because while it's great to see your family, to have a really good special meal, to make up an Easter basket, or to have an excuse to put on your best outfit and get a little dressy for the day, it's even better to spend the day remembering that the true celebration of Easter is the fact that we have new life because God gave up His for us.

Does that not seem like a big deal to you?

Picture this:
Think about the person you love most in the entire world. Doesn't matter who it is--it could be your mom, your sibling, your best friend, your grandparent, your child, whatever. That person is in huge trouble somehow, and they're dying. Not just they're going to die someday, but they are in the process of dying a painful death as you look at them.
It hurts to think of that, doesn't it? It hurts because we don't like to think of someone we genuinely love so much being in so much pain, and we don't like to think of our life without them.
So, now my question for you would be, if there was an opportunity for you to die instead of them so that it would take their pain away, no matter how painful it would be for you, would you do it?
And what if that person did really horrible things towards you? What if they hated you? What if they pushed you away whenever you tried to help, but this was still your big chance to help them, because despite all of the things they've done to you, you still care about them? Would you still die for them?

Well, let me tell you something:  you are that dying person. So am I. Or at least, I was.
And God is the one who took that opportunity to die for us, so that we can have a chance at a new life.
And in no way, whatsoever, do we deserve that.
We don't deserve it because we have done horrible things towards Him. Some people really do actually hate Him. We've all pushed Him away before when all He wanted to do was help us, but He still cared enough to die for us.

And when He died, He wasn't just dying for the people who were alive at the time, or the people from His hometown, etc. He was dying in advance, if you will, for every single person that would ever walk the face of the earth at any time. He knew that there would just be more and more generations of people who would mock Him, scorn Him, reject His word and His people, call Him a liar, push Him away, etc., but He died anyways. For everyone who would ever do wrong.

He died for you, personally. He knew the name and every detail of every life that had been and would still come, including you, when He hung on that cross. He is the only one who could die for everyone, and still keep it personal. And He did all of that because He loves us.

So, by all means, have fun with friends and family, eat good food, and dress up this Easter.  There's really nothing wrong with any of that. But without His sacrifice, you would have none of that, and we would have nothing to celebrate. So don't let all of the fun and frivolous stuff keep you from reflecting on the true meaning of Easter this weekend.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

John 15:13

"But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8

"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.  So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!"

2 Corinthians 5:14-18

Reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn't want to live there..

"I saw the autumn leaves peel up off the street,

 Take wing on the balmy breeze and sweep you off your feet.

 And you blushed as they scooped you up on sugar maple wings

 To gaze down on the city below, ablaze with wondrous things.

 Downy feathers kiss your face and flutter everywhere.

 Reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn't want to live there.

 I wouldn't want to live there.

 Weighed down by heavy lids and lunar lullabies,

 I knew you were wide awake cause you smile with your eyes.

 Downy feathers kiss your face and flutter everywhere.

 Reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn't want to live there.

 From the green belt balcony, the wildfires look so pretty.

 Ponderosa canopy, I'd never leave if it were up to me.

 To the ruby Redwood tree, and to the velvet climbing ivy,

 Painted all mahogany, I'd never leave if it were up to me.

 With a starry brush, paint the dusk venetian blue,

 Cause in the evening hush, you'll never believe the view.

 And when the leaves return, and their whispering fills the night,

 They'll freeze and burn where fire and ice collide.

 Can you feel a silk embrace in the satin air?

 If we dissolve without a trace, would the real world even care?

 Downy feathers kiss your face and flutter everywhere.

 Reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn't want to live there.

 I saw the autumn leaves peel up off the street,

 Take wing on the balmy breeze and sweep you off your feet..."

-Owl City

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhTHXZfw3vY&feature=relmfu

YES!!

Okay, so you know how I was going to get a tattoo on Spring Break??
Yeah, well, that kind of didn't happen.

BUT

As of 3:00 this afternoon I am officially branded for life!!
There was also a little change in the tattoo itself...

If you recall from one of my previous posts, it was a little meaningful thing with my roommates and I that we were all going to get "Promise" on our pinky fingers..you know, like a pinky promise.
But everywhere we called they either didn't do hand tattoos, or else they just tried to talk us out of it because they are so painful and almost always need to be touched up.

So, we finally found a place we really liked, and we decided to still get "Promise" but just on different areas of our bodies..cause the meaning is still the same, right?! :))

So, here is the most awkward tattoo picture ever:

Lesley got hers on her wrist, Meghan got hers on her ribs, and I got mine on my neck.
We pretty much let the tattoo artist invent whatever he felt like using with the font, and I'm so pleased with how it turned out!

I have to admit that I especially like how the "i" is dotted with a mini lightning bolt.I'm sure it's not what he was particularly aiming for, but it just made me think of Harry Potter.
I know, I know...nerd much?

All that being said, today was a pretty exciting and good day. :)
I love my tattoo, and have nothing but mad props for all the folks at NoCo, who were so uber professional, funny, clean, laid back, nice, what-have-you. Especially our artist, Jeremy!

I'm so happy and excited that we finally got this done.
I really do love my roommates more than anything!

"You are absolutely beautiful, my darling, with no imperfection in you."

Song of Solomon 4:7

"You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace."

Song of Solomon 4:9