iphone story 12

first, the cheesy dog-lover pics

then, a nature pic:

people pics:

 so hipster

 me & caitlin:)

 jesse being amazing at basketball. (unfortunately he missed this shot)

happy thursday to you!

so one time, after 2 years....

i'm still in love with this man-

we still talk as much as possible-

& he still brings me flowers:) -

aren't they pretty!

still hard to believe someone could love me so much for so long :)!

(please ignore my giant box of goldfish. im kind of obsessed)

jesse & i will be celebrating by going to the shedd aquarium later this month.

im having a hard time waiting that long to give him his present.

ahhh!

happy wednesday! :)

Differences

However uneventful this spring break was for me, a few of my close friends traveled to different ends of the earth for reasons very, very different from each other (before I actually start, let me just note that i am not judging whether either trip was better, more fun, or more life changing than the other because, well, I didn't experience them & frankly how would I know?). On the first trip, a good number of high school students from my school traveled to europe to tour london, England, and other surrounding areas (I honestly don't know the details. My eyes were distracted by all the museums they were to visit while reading their itinerary). The second group, 13 to be exact, traveled from epic student ministries in waukesha, to Costa Rica where they were to teach, disciple, and grow in their relationship with God while sharing their knowledge about him to the people that they met.

I don't doubt that every person's life was changed & impacted, regardless of which trip they went on. I, being offered a spot on both trips, didn't choose either, so who am I to sit back & choose which was better?

My question is, how does site seeing, shopping, and acquiring historical knowledge compete with the extremely spiritual & encouraging (yet heartbreaking at the same time) journey experienced by the kids who went on the missions trip? If the two groups of kids knew each other, what would it look like to have them recap their "spring break vacations" to each other? one group went to benefit themselves, while the second went to benefit others. Both groups sacrificed time & money fundraising for the trips, one leaving a little extra money for shopping & the other a little extra money for soccer balls. What is the basis for comparison?!

"you only live once" (aka YOLO.. which I think sounds just dumb but ok) has been a popular phrase lately, encouraging people to take risks, to do things they wouldn't normally do, and change the way they think. It defined the way the Europe kids viewed their adventure. You only live once. You only see Europe once. Love it. Enjoy it. Spend money. Have fun! I see this as the American way to look at life. Like "oh, forget your savings, forget what matters, just have fun & nothing else."
The kids from epic though, see "you only live once" as "you only have one chance to get through to these people before you have to leave." "you only have one life to win lives for the kingdom of heaven." which, I'm sorry, has far more value in Gods eyes. The courage, the passion, & the motivation they had to get on a plane to a third world country in order to impact the lives of other humans is what God has called us to do- it is the reason he planted us here in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to go to London. To see what God has provided there. To experience the way others live. I just don't know of any of that matters when there are still empty stomachs & lost people.

iPhone story 11

in order to catch all you devoted followers up on my life,

im going to need to bombard you with pictures.

again.

my BFF is a star actress & gets to wear terrible awesome costumes!

please tip toe. seriously we love it.

pancakes : ) : ) : )

oh you know just buying some rocks from the neighbor kids.

GO BREWERS.

ew sports.

probably my two favorite living things.

stayed up really late making a dot plot of the distribution of all my shoe sizes.

then had a nerdy convo about it with C.

met some firefighters...

HE'S SO DAFDHJAFH CUTE!

maggie made these! soooo gooood!

thank God for spring break!

xoxooxoxoxoxosjdjcxoajox

draw something

in case you're unaware,

there is a new iphone app out there called "draw something."

it's basically an electronic version of pictionary.

here are some im especially proud of haha:

then carolyn just one-ups me with these:

sometimes i play a friend from work,

and well...

how we're on turn 52 im not sure!! : )

then sometimes the game has glitches: 

tell me your username & lets draw something!!

: )

i have a talented sister

Maggie

the most ambitious, creative, inspiring 8th grader i have ever met in my life.

she's also a geography GENIUS!

she won our school's middle school geo-bee a few weeks ago

& went to STATE!

she was so nervous it was adorable. 

she didn't win to go to nationals, but she still did awesome & really impressed me & my mom.

we celebrated with pizza afterwards downtown!

oh also.. this girl can DRAW!

a while ago she won an award with the art museum for this sweet 

colored pencil piece she did! 

holy crap right?!

cant wait to see what she does with her life!!

xo

my best friend

Carolyn & me

we've known each other since (pretty much) birth...

(OMG she signed my yearbook!!)

elementary school

middle school

& of course

senior year : )

(side note- pretty sure after trying on hideous 80s wedding gowns

together at the local good will that we are someday having a 

double wedding. we were crying we were laughing so hard!)

Carolyn is:

hilarious ("if we wear pantyhose, they'll never know its us!")

awkward ("so i had this dream about coffee, light sabers, & aaron rodgers")

beautiful (see above)

the nicest person ever (took maggie to the hunger games!)

smart (always points out what doesn't makes sense)

a really slow eater : )

& an amazing hula-hooper (see below)

 STAY TUNED 

this summer for out completion of our 

SUMMER TO-DO LIST 2012

here's a sneak peak!!

happy wednesday xo

my boy.

I had great plans for Sunday.

I was going to stay up & finish the Hunger Games,

go to church,

finish up any last minute reading, 

& take maggie to the movie that she's been waiting & waiting for.

yeah. that didnt happen.

i did stay up until 1 reading.

then i woke up at 7 & read til 9:30am.

then i got ready for church (had on a very cute outfit btw)

i realized i was never going to finish the book in time if i went to church

& i couldnt let maggie down so i SKIPPED church :O

well things got weird when i was sitting in my car reading with jesse in 

the passenger seat...

(starbucks was far too noisy for the concentration i needed)

& i got to a gory part in the book,

fainted,

freaked jesse out,

(only the second time he's seen me faint!!)

he drove me home,

and sat with me alllllll day.

luckily carolyn took maggie to the movie for me

& pretended to be the big sister for a couple hours.

whatta good friend!! love her.

meanwhile jesse & i watched too much TV.

(for all those wondering, apparently HG was AMAZING & HIGHLY recommended.

but that isn't coming from me. ;) )

here's jesse & mcdonalds:

xoxo

jesse & julia's mini photoshoot

then we got funny...

(awkward photo award)

happy wednesday

j u l i a