Simple Pleasures of a Summer Day

1. restful night of sleep ((into the midmorning:))

2. lunch with my mommy-moo

3. said lunch taking place at Deli News

(if I could live in a restaurant it would be there...or Mimi's Cafe because it's kinda already a house)

4. puppy kisses

5. fierce ping pong competition

6. packing for Hume this summer

6 1/2. being reminded of how BLESSED 

I am because I have so much stuff!

7. A Fine Frenzy.

 And Adele. 

And The Swell Season. 

And She & Him

8. Q-tips

9. pra(y)sing for people

10. excited to spend the evening celebrating my
amazing wonderful incredible
DAD

11. feeling all around stoked to spend my summer making coffee up at Hume Lake

and being able to encourage and bless people's bodies

 (with my gift of caffeine) 

and hearts 

(with the love that Jesus puts inside of my own)

!!!!

((delightfully content))

Accountabilidice

This upcoming school year I get the joyful privilege of rooming with an amazing young woman.

Her name is Erin Whitlow. 

 I call her Rinny.

She is in my Torrey group at Biola and became one of my first (and dearest) friends this last year. 

I am SO EXCITED to live with her.

I get really slap happy giddy dancey joyful every time I think about it!

I'm stoked to get to know her heart better and learn how to encourage

her and love others better because of our friendship.

A few months ago I was trying to figure out ways for the two of us to stay connected

 in the midst of the craziness of our semesters. 

I was falling asleep one night ((this is the time that I become brilliant))

and I came up with the idea of the accountabilidice. 

Dice are hard to paint!!!!

Basically, you roll the di and the number corresponds to an accountability question.

These questions ask things like, "How did you love someone well today?" or

 "What fruit of the spirit 'themed' your day?" 

There are some lighter questions as well, like "What was the theme song of your day?"

We'll switch out questions when we feel like it to keep it fresh and interesting.

These little dice will sit in a jar/bowl on our coffee table (my trunk) in our room.

They will remind the two of us to challenge and encourage each other daily.

They will cause us to intentionally sit together and examine our hearts, minds, and souls. 

On days when we won't have time to sit and do this, the dice will be

 reminders to us to examine our hearts on our own. 

I'm so thankful that God has placed a friend in my life whom I can be held accountable to...

even with a silly thing like painted blocks. 

((so stoked to grow is this Maddy))

Statue Search (Life Adventurous Through Photos)

I enjoy long drives along the ocean.

((no this is not the start of a personal ad))

The scenery/nature/glory of creation is so lovely...

but I also like exploring such places in creative ways.

So earlier this week, a dear friend

Hilary 

and I went on an adventure up the coast. 

Our goal: take pictures with 10 statues.

The rules changed as the day went on...from having other people take
 our picture to getting creative with the timers on our cameras.

We mostly didn't have any kind of plan...just kinda stopped when we saw cool things.


This is the lone Sailor Memorial down on Ocean in Long Beach.
The little old lady taking our picture thought our pose was cute.
That's all that matters.

The Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro was a jackpot for sure...

 I'm not sure what the story is with these two little guys...
but they were very happy indeed.

We ventured to the lighthouse down the hill from the friendship bell.

WE SAW WHALES!!!!

It was so cool, I've never seen a whale in my life...

so rad!!!

We headed up towards Palos Verdesish (I think...)

and as we were driving up a side street in a direction-less way, 

I spotted something old-looking in the trees.

It turned out to be an old truck/bed. 

Pretty snazzy eh? 

We found some random little statues along the drive...

it was so fun to keep our eyes peeled as we drove

and then veer over to the side of the street the second we spotted one.

We lunched near Malaga cove and it was quite the smorgasbord!
There was a fun little market/deli that had an amazing (GINORMOUS) BLTT
((bacon, lettuce, tomato, and turkey aka the ESSENTIALS))
We ate outside under a gorgeous tree,
sippin on our fabulous lemonade.

Ope can't forget the Seal Beach Seal!!

A classic for sure.

Overall, it was a fun day...
lots of driving and getting lost in conversation
with much laughter in between.

P.S. Sorry for copious amounts of Maddy pictures...my camera actually broke when we saw whales and I got excited and tried to hop a wall...so Hilary took the majority of the pictures

oops.

This ((School)) Year in Numbers

My first year of college is officially over...and here's the recap:

7 packages of oreos

8 room rearrangements

325 caf meals

156 hours spent discussing the classics in Torrey sessions
with 16 of my closest friends

all 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls ((in the spring semester:))

2 jars of peanut butter

30 books read and discussed

300 flashcards

54 hours spent working ((calling potential Torrey nerds))

33 units (possibly all A's:)

many many influential conversations

50ish hours spent in chapel

150ish multivitamins

34 easy macs

9 class ditchings...

several ((million)) bowls of lucky charms

4 tubes of toothpaste ((crest 3D white!!))

6 burts bees original chapsticks

many new friends

0 all-nighters ((woot woot HALLA HALLA))

22 grocery story bike ride trips

1 HAPPY MADDY GIRL

1 rubiks cube

1/2 of a sick day (PRAISE THE LORD!!!)

14 trips home

600ish tennis balls served

489,309,563,162,502,712 words exchanged in grand conversations

1 Beautiful Year 
(freshman year is OVAAAAAAA)

I've Got the Joy Down in My Heart...and Exploding Through My Fingertips

Oh my goodness.

It's another one of those incredible days.

The extremely explosively joyful ones that involve a lack of ability to communicate.

I need an emotional popsicle again.

God has created to me to very much thrive off of being around people.

It has been a good day for extraverted me.

So many rich and deep and beautiful and didactic conversations.

I feel so blessed and overwhelmed and joyful and...

words fail at capturing the sheer elation.

My body is responding with a strong desire to frolic for hours.
((I am thankful for the great people in my life who let me explode
and tolerate my claims to joy every fifteen minutes....)

The morning began with a beautiful service at church 

that perfectly captured the grandness of God's word and 

the Holy Spirit's involvement in the lives of His people.

I spent a relaxing and full lunch hour with dear

friends in rich conversation

about how we relate to people

and the way that God has created and taught

us each to do that in different ways.

A pineapple pursuit brought me to the grocery store

where I had an encouraging conversation with the lady rang me up 

((who is a Christian))

and felt blessed in blessing her.

I spent a grand hour with my good friends Deb, Allison, Kelly and Alicia.

Wonderful women whom I have grown close to throughout my life.

The evening ended with a glorious time at the Cheesecake Factory

for some fabulous dessert and solid fellowship with

my Torrey group.

Dear friends who have become my family in the last LONG months.

There are like fifty synonyms for joy and none of them are sufficing. 

I feel like it's a little taste of heavenly joy...

ultimately indescribable...

so rooted in the work of Christ in my life...

and the beauty of the people he has placed in it.

((joyxplosive is this heart))

A Snatch Awkward

This morning was a great morning: Last 8 a.m. Brit Lit class of the semester.

This midmorning was downright lovely: Extreme amounts of studying completed.

This midday was fantastic: English Group project was phe-no-me-nal, in a ginormous way.

This afternoon was...bleh mehak gah dskfljklghasioueorwuouwe.

Last Torrey Class Session of the year (sad face, sad heart).

Enjoyed praying together for one last time as a group.

It was a really good first fifteen minutes of class.

And then my body pulled a fast one on me again. 

It felt simply unstable. 

My little heart was racing... 

I started feeling nauseas...

Dizziness began to cloud my vision...

and I was staking out my route to the trash can, just in case.

This went on for nearly half an hour. 

And then I heard the words,

"I feel sick. Can I please leave?"

When I realized that those pathetic words had come out of MY mouth and everyone was staring at ME,

I started crying.

((sometimes my feelings come screaming out of my eyes))

I love me some Xenia, the members of my Torrey Group are so incredible.

So I felt bad for missing this last moment of our being together. 

But I went back to my room and schlept it all off. 

I'm crossing my fingers for a grand evening. 

((Or at least just productive)) 

Finals week, here I come.

((Tripping along slowly and deeply craving a 3 Musketeers Bar))

Love Me Some Aging

19 Things I Loved About My 19th Birthday

1. Spending Birthday Eve worshipping Jesus with dear friends in Santa Barbara

2.  Turning 19 at 12:00 at In N Out in Ventura

3.  Happy Birthday serenadation at said In N Out

((by strangers and kids coming back from prom woot woot HALLA HALLA))

3. arriving home at 2:30 a.m. to a bed full of balloons

4. sleeping in

5. quality time with Jesus praising him & thanking him for this beautiful year

6. starbucks with my sissy

7. awkward man making fun of me for making coffee-addict faces

8. running into a dear friend in her workplace

9. LUNCH AT LUCILLE'S

10. whole family all together...:):):)

11. lemon merengue pie ((instead of silly cake))

12. getting a job at HUME LAKE!!!

((making ((AND DRINKING)) coffee all summer))

13. watching Gilmore Girls

14. surprise dinner party:)

15. said dinner occurring in a random ((fabulous)) smorgasbord restaurant 

16. best bread of my life

17. celebrating the most beautiful friends that I feel so blessed by

18. drop dead gorgeous FULL moon

19. feeling so deeply loved and appreciated by my dear friends