HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

My cousin gave birth this afternoon to a beautiful (so I'm told) baby boy!!

Welcome to the world, Hendrix Croy Bosch!  He was born at 12:30 this afternoon and weighed 8.5 pounds! BIG BOY! : )

I cannot wait to meet him! 

I praise You, little Hendrix is "fearfully and wonderfully made!"  

   -Psalm 139:14

back to school!

Spring break has already come, and gone. It went by so fast! 

I got the chance to go back home to Orlando over the break and had such a great time with my family. I guess I have a bit of a bias opinion, but my family is the greatest!! My parents are two of the most loving, gracious, giving, encouraging, and supportive people I have ever known. They are such a delight to be around and they are great examples of what God calls us to be. 

While being home I was able to see and catch up with family and some old friends of mine. One of my best friends since Kindergarten, Kayley, came over to visit with her four month old precious baby girl. It was such a joy to be able to see them. Kayley is a wonderful mommy! I was also able to go to Disney and lay out by the pool, soaking up all the Orlando sunshine! I look so forward to returning home again, and to spending the entire summer with my family. 

two and 1/2 weeks till easter break! THANK GOD! (schools getting pretty hard now)

the creativity in me!

In the past couple of years I have developed an enormous passion for baking and

cooking. I have no idea where in the world this passion came from but it has been very fulfilling and a ton of fun! : ) But because of living in the dorms without a kitchen or any appliances, my baking and cooking has been very limited. So in the meanwhile, I have developed another passion!

I have recently become somewhat obsessed with baking/cooking websites, magazines, and books. I love looking at different recipes and pictures of foods, and dreaming about creating it myself one day. This has actually become a little activity of mine that I enjoy doing when I feel completely overwhelmed by all the stresses of life! I have a folder in my room, specifically titled "Recipes I Want to Try", filled with ripped out magazine recipes, printed off internet recipes, and names of fun cook books that I have come across. 

Well, just the other day I was at a local book store in downtown Chattanooga and of course, went straight to the cooking and baking section of books. After thumbing through several really cool ones, I came across one that totally excited me!! I saw the book,immediately grabbed it off the shelf, and began to browse through it, dreaming of trying to create everything I saw. I wrote down the title of the book, Hello, Cupcake!, and was determined to get online (find it for cheaper!) and buy the book!  

The book finally came in the mail the other day and I couldn't stop showing it off to all the girls on the hall. 

Hello, Cupcake! has dozens of really great decorating ideas for creating anywhere from the cutest cupcake to the scariest cupcake! The book is great. There is even a section in the book with ways to decorate cupcakes that actually "fool the eye", and look like dinner meals!

This book has definitely been my excitement and stress-reliever for the past few days! : )

 

cold, rainy day at the tennessee aquarium!

Saturday was an absolutely miserable day, weather-wise. It was freezing cold and rainy the entire day. The mountain was so foggy it was hard to see right in front of you. So, Lauren, one of my roommates, Brian, and I decided to go to the aquarium! For the month of February admission to the aquarium for college students was half off, so we got in for $10 each! We had such a great time. We spent a little over 3 1/2 hours there. Brian was such a trooper putting up with Lauren and I for the whole day. Lauren is SO COMPLETELY into animals, their anatomy, their origin, their behaviors, all of that, so she wanted to read every bit of information on every single sign! She was too cute. The joy on her face was unexplainable. 

After our time at the aquarium, Brian treated Lauren and I to yummy ice cream at Coldstone Creamery!! Lauren was so excited to get mint chocolate chip ice cream, her favorite flavor, from her favorite ice cream parlor, but soon she was reminded that she gave up chocolate up for lint : (   She settled with just mint!

A gross, cold, gloomy Saturday ended up being a blast! 

(enjoy the pictures!! I got a little camera crazy and took pictures of just about everything, so here are a few of my favorites) 

slumber party with the little girls <3

So tonight has been exceptionally fun! I have been transported completely back to my childhood as a little girl! I have two of the girls that I babysit, Monday- Thursday afternoons, over for a sleepover! So far we have painted fingernails and toenails, popped popcorn and ate our favorite candy, watched a girly movie, and put on our pjs and jumped on the beds while jamming out to Taylor Swift, Hannah Montana, and Jordan Sparks songs on the ipod! Gracie and Louisa were soon exhausted and actually asked for bed time just before 10:30. 

In the morning I am taking them down to the Great Hall (our school dining hall) for a big breakfast buffet! They are thrilled. I shared with them about what I used to do when I was a little girl and got scared on sleepovers. I used to lay in the bed all snuggled up and think about a BIG, warm breakfast buffet with all my favorite foods and smiling, happy people everywhere : ) When the girls went to bed they said "Goodnight, sweet big breakfast dreams! 

happy 21st birthday lauren!!!!!!!

My life is forever changed because of you!!! 

r o a d trip!!!!

This past weekend was amazing! 

My roommate, Lindsey, invited me to go home with her for the weekend and spend time at her house, with her family. Lindsey is a military daughter and has moved all over the country, as well as out of the country. Currently Lindsey's dad is stationed in Dayton, Ohio, so for now that is home. 

This weekend was my first time traveling to Ohio, and my first time staying on an Air Force Base. Lindsey family was incredible. We had such an amazing time hanging out with them and getting to relax. We arrived very late Thursday evening/Friday morning to about 10 inches of snow of the ground! I was ecstatic! The weather eventually warmed up while we were there, and by Sunday the majority of the snow was melted and gone. 

On Friday we got to sleep in, which was wonderful. We went on a 45 minute run around the base and visited Lindsey's dad at his office. We did a lot of hanging around the house that day. On Saturday we got to sleep in again, which was wonderful again! We sat around in the living room in our pjs, drinking coffee, and watching trashy television dramas that we regularly don't watch, for about three hours, then finally motivated ourselves enough to get up and go for a run! After our run, we showered and went out shopping! Lindsey scored at the shoe store, and bought three new pairs of shoes. Nothing was in my size : ( Saturday evening Lindsey, her mom, her brother, and I went to a Wright State University basketball game where the team played the #13 team in the nation! It was the biggest college basketball game I had ever been to! 

Sunday  morning we went to Lindsey's family church, South Dayton Presbyterian Church, out to lunch, and then back on the road! 

I enjoyed my time in Ohio very much. Lindsey has a great family that was truly a blessing to be around! 

chattanooga, tennessee !

places i aspire to go!

So I thought it would be fun to make a little list of the places I wish to one day travel to. I'm sure this list will be forever changing, and that I will constantly be adding to it, but I think it will be something fun to come back to some day! Some of these places I have a burning desire to travel to, others I think would just be fun! : )

places i aspire to go:

Domestically-

( i would love to at least pass through all of the 50 states!) 

☑Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California 

☑Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

☑Florida

☑Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas

☑Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

☑Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

☑New York

☑North Carolina

North Dakota

☑Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania 

Rhode Island

☑South Carolina

South Dakota

☑Tennessee

☑Texas

Utah

Vermont

☑Virginia

Washington

☑West Virginia

Wisconsin 

Wyoming

☑and Washington D.C.

Internationally- 

Africa

Egypt

Ethiopia

☑Kenya

Malawi

Morocco

Rwanda

South Africa

Sudan

☑Tanzania

Australia

Europe

France

Germany

Greece

Ireland

Italy

Netherlands

Romania 

Russia

Spain

Switzerland

United Kingdom

Central/ South America

Argentina

Brazil

Columbia

Costa Rica

Ecuador

Mexico

Peru

Islands

☑Bahamas 

Barbados

Caribbean 

☑Dominican Republic

Fiji

St. Croix

St. Lucia

St. Martin

Tahiti 

Turks and Caicos

U.S. Virgin Islands

Its only Wednesday evening and it feels like the last 3 days have been 3 weeks. Its only the second week of classes and I already feel all the homework and test beginning to pile up. Its been snowing here the last few days, but not enough for it to really stick. We prayed for a big snow in hopes of school being canceled! That did not happen though. 

Just before Christmas break I decided that I was going to become a "runner". I have always enjoyed running, but have always been very bad at it. Well over Christmas break I began to start training and had a goal of completing a 5K race. 

I downloaded an amazing sermon series on to my ipod (Mark Driscoll - Mars Hill Church "The Peasant Princess" Song of Solomon series, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ) and began to ask God to give me endurance, perseverance, and all the strength I need to accomplish the goals I have set for myself. I started off running about 25 - 30 minutes a day, which for me was AWESOME!! When I got back to school I shared my news, and my new found passion and goal with Lindsey and Cat. They were both very encouraging and were excited to continue to run with me. Lindsey and I have been running about 4/5 days a weeks, even running in the snow, and she has been an amazing support system to me. We have gotten up to running about 40 minutes each time we run, and Lindsey says I have definitely completed a 5K. Well because of her excitement , she decided to sign us up for a race! But not just any race.. A HALF MARATHON!!! Never before in my life have I imagined doing a half- marathon, and I still cannot imagine it, but for some reason Lindsey is persistent in believing that I can. THIS WILL DEFINITELY BE AN ADVENTURE!

So as of now Lindz and I are currently "training" and working on adding miles and minutes to our run each week. The race is called the Kentucky Derby Half Marathon in Louisville, Kentucky. It is not until the last weekend of April, but I am sure I will need all the training time I can get! Brian will also be actively training as he prepares of his second triathlon this summer. I'm excited to see how everything goes!