Sing-A-Long

A lot of us got together at Ashley and Emily's Christmas/New Years party. We played a ton of games like Band Hero, Ping Pong and Apples to Apples. We tried to play pictionary but that only lasted for so long. Eventually Austin picked up Ashley's guitar and we had an untraditional sing-a-long. We sang songs by Taylor Swift, Boys Like Girls, Jason Mraz and FM Static.

Taylor Swift: You Belong With Me

Christmas Lights

After spending most of the day at the mall doing some shopping and returns we had dinner at the Mustard Seed. Yum! Then before we headed home we stopped and watched some Christmas light shows.

They were all really cool and went with the music that was playing on certain radio stations. Our favorite was the dog groomers.

Hu Hot

Reid, Stephen, Jess and I got together and had some Hu Hot. It was Reid's last day here in Spokane before he headed back out to Arizona. It was great to see him again and Stephen for the first time since summer. Jess had never been to Hu Hot before so it was a fun new experience for her. It was great to see everyone and I can't wait to see people more as break continues.

Christmas!

I had a great Christmas this year! I loved being with my family on Christmas eve and then all day Christmas day. On Christmas eve we were able to go to a Church service for the first time ever and I really liked it. Now Christmas is over just like that. Its so crazy that there is so much build up for a day that comes and goes just like that.

But yesterday was so much more important than so many remember. Watching part of the movie The Nativity made me think about when Christ came to Earth. He came and took on flesh and that made me think about how frustrating it must have been for our Creator to be stuck in a pooping, drooling baby's body. And just by thinking of that I got a glimpse of some of the everyday sacrifices that He made for us.

I bet we don't even think about the every day things that could have been so restricting for Him. Like not being able to communicate with adults because He was a baby, or when He was a teenager and really was right about everything. Just thinking about these few small things made me just that much more thankful for His eternal sacrifice for me.

Clean Water

The work Mocha Club is doing is not only amazing but it is real! So real and tangible. So many people are being helped! :)

Merry Christmas Eve!

Even More Piercings

Syd found her wallet! And guess where it was...it was in her purse the whole time! So since she found it we revisited the mall. Sammie was also in on the piercing train and she came to get her nose pierced.

Hil, Jess, Kaylee and I came as the support group. I saw Wo in the parking lot on my way in to the mall. Its so great seeing everyone!

Before.

After.

After.

Kidnapped

Reid is home!!! He was at the game yesterday but he didn't come to dinner. He is only home for a week so we needed to make sure we got some time to see him. So a kidnapping was in order. We got in contact with his mom and made it an inside job :).

We had originally planned on going ice skating and coffee but he had to be home for a family dinner so maybe we'll try that later.

It was so great to be able to catch up with him and just chill. Reid is still Reid and we love him. We miss ya buddy and we are always here for you!

I'm pretty sure he just had said something innapropriate and these are their surprised faces lol.

Yay!

ReUnited!

There was a home basketball game today and just about everyone in my class was there! It was so great to see everyone, I had missed them all so much. I think that only about 7 people were missing. After the game all the alumni and a variety of others made our way to Sherry's for some late night grub. My table happened to be my roomies from our senior trip! Oh man I love everyone so much! They are all family to me.

Piercings, Popcorn & Princesses

Sammie, JVG, Rachael, Sydnee and I were going to go to the away game but the roads ended up being too icy for a road trip so we decided to take our travels closer. We went to dinner at Red Robin and then to a movie. We went and saw The Princess and the Frog, at first I wasn't sure about it but it turned out to be a pretty cute movie.

The funny part was that the movie actually got me thinking. About how fairytale endings can happen in real life. How you can have love and be able to fulfill your dreams. In the movie they were going to be ok with their lives as frogs because they had eachother, and by having eachother her dreams were able to be accomplished. Just because someone thinks two things don't line up does not mean they can't go together and work out in the end.

While we were waiting for our movie time to roll around we walked around the mall just browsing. Jess and Syd thought they were funny and ran off for a while :) and when we met back up together the sudden urge to get ears pierced came about. Syd and Rachael had never gotten their ears pierced before so they were going to do it!

Rachael was able to do it and they turned out great! Sadly Syd had lost her wallet which had her ID in it to prove that she was old enough to get them done. So in the end only Rachael came home with new sparkles.

Before.

After.

No Place Like Home!

I'M HOME!!! After a long day of flying yesterday I finally made it to Spokane around midnight. Kathleen was so great and not only agreed to keep my car at her house but she also drove me to the Newark Airport. I got there plenty early and made it to my gates each time with no problems. We stayed up pretty late talking and it was especially late for me being on east coast time.

So for my first official day at home I went up to see my pony! Mr. Cheekers has gotten very round with all of his time off but I just know he is stoked to get working everyday! lol

Before getting to the barn I went with Jess to lunch at Panda, there aren't Panda's in New Jersey :/, and then after I went and hung around at school saying hi to everyone!

CHEEKS!

Fortune Cookie Mustaches.

Mrs. Worley, Jess, Alina and Me

We be G.

Malaria Nets.

Centenary

The Equine program here at Centenary was featured in today's Star Ledger. Which is a local paper. Check out the article.

Majoring in horses at Centenary College's equine studies center

It is a popular thing to hear when students talk about when they first told their parents that they wanted to do Equine Studies that their parents were unsure and somewhat put off by it. So when I was talking to my friend not too long ago she was surprised to hear that when I told my parents I recieved a "You can do that?" followed by "Sounds about right."

I am very fortunate to have parents and close family around me that believe in my dreams and goals. Not once have I felt that being horse-crazy was just that, crazy. So thank you.

Hungry

By Kathryn Scott

Hungry, I come to you

For I know You satisfy

I am empty, but I know

Your love does not run dry

So I wait, for You

So I wait, for You

I'm falling on my knees

Offering all of me

Jesus, You're all this heart is living for

Broken I run to You

For Your arms are open wide

I am weary but I know

Your touch restores my life

So I wait, for You

So I wait, for You

I'm falling on my knees

Offering all of me

Jesus, You're all this heart is living for

I'm falling on my knees

Offering all of me

Jesus, You're all this heart is living for

Stepping Aside

Last night Candace had fun with my hair and she put in two french braids. So I slept on them and then woke up to fun wavy hair. T. Swizzle by Candace Human. lol.

I've been thinking more. Of course lol. And I've come to a conclusion to a conflict I discussed earlier. I talked about how I have a choice of two paths before me, well I've come to the conclusion that it isn't necessarily about two different goals or direction that my life is heading. But it is about the way I will go about living my life.

The first path was all about me, and my plans. Doing what I want and what I have imagined for me. And the second is about reallly, truely following God and His will. And I am choosing to go the secong route.

This means that I will be stepping aside from all that I have ever thought was best for me. Its no longer in my hands. I am going to make my life about serving God through serving others.

Now this doesn't mean I am throwing out all my hopes and ambitions about riding. I still want to be the best I can be, with this as my career, and my biggest goal to be the Olympics. But it does mean that I will not pass up the opportunities to praise God. I will go to Africa, and I will go as often as possible. I will more focused on others than I will be myself. I will be involved with the Church and work towards making it more about community than the common misconceptions.

I am making my life about God and am taken over by His love and a growing love for Him.

Advent

What is advent? I've never really known or participated before, so this year it has been new to me. Each Monday a 3pm in the Chapel we have a short little "service." I looked up what the definition of advent was and this is what I found: Advent serves a reminder both of the original waiting that was done by the Hebrews for the birth of their Messiah as well as the waiting of Christians for the second coming of Christ.

Today we looked at peace. Last week hope. And the next two weeks are joy and love. This video was played and it really hit me hard.


Kind of makes you want to forget all about gift giving all together huh? Well it did for me. I want to redefine Christmas.

Divided Highway

I don't know what has got me thinking so much lately but daily I see a fork in the road ahead of me. Two things in my life seem to head away from each other and I have to choose to either stay on the highway or to get off.

Let me clear up the metaphor for you. My career is the fast track, staying on the highway. Making all the right decisions to get exactly what I want to get me to where I want to be in life. But staying on this road will make me miss out on all the things that are on the side of the highway.

Getting off of this road is the way of family, relationships, community. I feel that by getting off of the highway I will be more deeply involved with the people around me, meeting their needs and being their servant.

I don't want to give up my dreams and goals but I am starting to feel that certain things need to become of a higher priority for the Kingdom of God. But is that still giving up? Am I making a compromise? Does this just give people the room to tell me 'I told you so?'

When I am at Church, Youth Group, and Campus Ministry I feel like its okay to be there. Its okay to want to be one of those poor but happy people, because those people are fully living in Christ. When I am at the barn in my classes I feel like to know you are successful you have to be willing to do what you need to at all costs. And that makes me sad. I don't want to push people out of my way so I can get to the top first. I want to lift people up, not step on their faces.

I don't know what to do or to think. That fork in the road is still daunting in the distance and everyday it gets a little bit closer.

Santa!

Santa came to town! So we got a picture with him roomie style :).

M&Ms

Have you ever looked on the back of your m&m package to see where all that tasty candy came from? Probably not. But its okay I'm here to tell you that it'll say Hackettstown, NJ!

Pretty cool huh :). So Candace and I went to see if we could take a look at the fresh candy. Sadly they don't give tours because of health reasons. But we did get pictures with the m&m's and smelled the chocolate in the air.

M&M crossing.

Candace with the M.


Me with the M.

World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day. Be apart of the cure, change someone's life. It is so easy! Just $5 can provide the life-sustaining Anti-Retroviral medication. Get involved with Mocha Club today and give a one-time donation.

Smashing Pumpkins

The pumpkin that Sam and Candace bought me made the trip to Candace's house for a pumpkin demolition derby! We had fun with it :).

Before.

After.

Ocean City

Today we went to the ATLANTIC OCEAN!!! So we went to Ocean City, aka The O.C. lol. It was a really nice day but the wind made it really cold. We spent just about the whole day walking around looking at everything. I got a pretty cool collection of shells that I am going to make a frame out of.

We had Mac & Manco pizza with Curly's fries for lunch. Yum! So much food! It seems to be a theme ;).

Jess, Me, Candace & Sam.

There it is!

Ocean City.

I had to go in lol.

Candace and I.

I've done this! :)

Tons of Sea Shells!

A Monkey and a Teletubby. IDK.

Carriage Rides.

Singers.

The Pier.

Sunset.

Me, Jess, Beast, Sam, Candace & Mr. H

Amish Market

This morning we went to the Amish market with Candace's grandparents to get sprinkles for their cookie making day. We thought something exploded when we walked by this the first time!

Turns out it was just rice cakes lol. Then their grandparents were so sweet and bought me a piece of shoo fly pie. Apparently you can't visit an Amish area without having some. It was yummy.

Black Friday

Black Friday meant getting up at 3:30am and going shopping! Never before had I ever done anything close to this. I have gotten up this early before but I was at a horse show, not to shop. We stood in line at Target for an hour before it opened.

Today we went shopping at Target, BJ's, The Deptford Mall, Old Navy, Walmart, and Best Buy. And after 12 hours of straight shopping the day was done! Somehow I managed to stay on my feet and going the whole time.

Chick-fil-A.

The Damage.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Candace and I babysat Haley and Evan last night, Candace's second cousins?, and they were so adorable! We watched Spy Kids and then they were off to bed.

This morning we went to Mrs. H's condo for breakfast. It was a delicious time. Then we went to Candace's grandparent's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Yum! There was so much food! I literally ate all day long.

When we got back to the house we watched Anchorman. Funny movie :).

He is in the details.

Today is the last day before Thanksgiving break and after some hang ups I was able to sign up for my classes. My riding level classes were all full so for this next semester I have to go down to the Limit level but I do get to ride with one of the IHSA coaches Michael Dowling.

I will also be taking Practical 2 with Michael, Fundamental Theories of Riding with Heather Clark, Integrated Business Perspectives with Cheryl Veronda, and Contemporary Social Issues with Anthony Devincenzo.

With not being able to sign up right away I was really worried that I was going to have a really early morning riding class and class on Friday. But God was there in the planning and I only have one night class and it worked out to where I don't have class on Friday!

I rode Pandourasaurus today for my lesson and it was fun to work on counter cantering. After our lesson we went outside and had a total "Saddle Club" moment and posed for a pic :).

After Candace finished up with her lesson we hit the road and headed to South Jersey to Mullica Hill. I'm so grateful to the Humans for letting me come to their house and invade their family for the Holiday.

At It Again

Yet again my favorite words come in to play for today. I went to my third IHSA horse show back at Briarwood. Briarwood isn't actually a college in case you were wondering, it is just a very nice facility and they are kind enough to let us use their horses repeatedly. Today I got to do both jumping and flat! :)

For today I drew Cooper, a chestnut gelding, for my jumping class and Snickers, a black gelding, for my flat class. I haven't ridden either of these horses before so I was excited to watch them go. I was told that Cooper needed a lot of leg and that carrying a crop was a 'yes.' Oh joy.

He totally surprised me though because once we stepped into the ring he was ready to go. We started cantering and kept pressing for a gallop. Go pony go!!! Well he went. We got the 6 stride line in 5 and one of the 5s in 4. He was such a good boy and took those longer distances when I didn't think he would.

Because of our forward round we won first place! :D And apparently my chin strap was "too lose and had ground for disqualification." :/ Yikes! I had no idea. I immediately tightened that puppy up lol. In one way that is kind of a compliment because my round was so good they had to look hard for something that was wrong. Obviously it didn't have an effect on my placing but still. Now I know.

For my flat class I rode Snickers. He looked like a bit of a pokey pony when I watched him go but I just figured I'll put on more leg right? Haha just kidding. For some reason that pony trotted slower than a slug on a hot day. We were just creepin along as all of the other horses wizzed by us. Once we were cantering though it was fine, but that trot I think was our downfall. We still placed fourth though. All in all it was a good day at the show and Centenary came in reserve overall!

Taylor Duncanson and Me.

The additions.

My first place cup. :)

Jillian, my roomie's birthday is on Tuesday right before Thanksgiving break and because we are all heading out that day we celebrated early. Surprise style! :) Kathleen and I worked it out and I drove Candace and Sam over early then Kathleen brought her in later. We went to Ruby Tuesdays and it was the first time I had ever been there. It was fun and I think she had a good time.

Can you translate the code? I sent this text to Kathleen once we had gotten to the resturant. I want to know what you think I meant by it :).

"We are in the nest. Don't lay your egg next to mine, and the crow caws from the far corner on the left."