The World's Greatest Mentor's Birthday!!!

Today is Jenn's birthday!!! Happy Birthday Jenn!! I am so excited that I get to be here and spend time with you on your birthday. I value you and you wisdom and friendship so so very much. I am so thankful that you have taken me into your home, your family, and your life. Out of all my experience and memories of College Station so far, this is by far the thing I treasure most. I am thankful that you let me love on your kids and learn by watching you. You are truly invaluable to me. I can't imagine having to live without seeing you practically everyday, ever again. I that will be the hardest part of moving to Boston...I know it will break my heart. So for now, I am just going to be glad that I am here, that I get to be part of the Bacak world. Jenn I love you so much, and am so thankful for you!! Happy Birthday!!

mayish

I can't believe May is almost over!! That is insane. The end of May means that most of my friends are out doing something fun!! I am so excited for those of you who are doing fun things right now!! I hope you are having a wonderful time and I can't wait to see you after you get back, or next time I go home, whichever applies. My maymester class will be over soon and then I will start normal summer school. woohoo! I am looking forward to seeing my Mom and brother this weekend when I go down to Houston. That will be nice. I have never seen my brother's apartment, but he has seen all four (so far!!) of mine. I am glad I will get to go and hang out with him. I hope you have a great end of May wherever you are!!

connecting to community...

At the end of her hands, Heather talked about leaving CS and LH and going somewhere without being sure there is a good church with strong community where you can be connected. I have been searching for churches in Boston. I know I still have a while before the move, but I decided I might as well start looking. I found a church in Boston called Church at the Gate. I have looked at their site a bit and it seems to be promising. I would appreciate it if you would look at their site too, http://www.thechurchatthegate.com/index.html at let me know what you think. If those of you whose opinions and wisdom I value think this is worth looking into further, I may email them to get some more information. I would like to go and visit the city again soon, and so I may visit this church then. I want your thoughts and wise counsel.

Thankfulness!!

I love that I can now check my email at home once again. I don't have to find someone whose Internet I can use or go to some random place solely because they have wireless. This is great. This is especially great since I am taking a class online this may-mester. Not to mention the fact that I am doing my stuff for work at home on my computer. I am so thankful that God has pulled this all together. I spent all day Thursday and Friday telling him how thankful I am for how I have seen him pull things together in the last week. All of the things that have come together were totally from him. I could never have done all this. If you have been around me much lately, you know that the last two weeks of school were...um, well, just really stinky. I was beginning to wonder if I could make it through the summer. I am finally out of my old apartment and that situation and I am at my new job!! I have loved seeing him provide when I was sure that things would not work out. I hate that I have so little faith sometimes. At the beginning of the semester in Her Hands, Heather talked about Matthew 8:23-27. Why are we so quick to forget what we learn? I knew in my heart, that "God was in my boat" RESTING because he is so in control of the situation. Hello!!! Why don't I cling to this more often? Why do I choose to pick up the sinful mantle of worry? It is such a waste. It is so good to see him come through, even when I am the one with "little faith".
Jeremiah 29 is probably one of my most favorite chapters in the whole Bible. The whole chapter is a beautiful picture of a loving Father making plans to provide for his children. To meet their needs even though they had repeatedly fallen short. When they had messed up so badly that they had to be EXILED, He still had a plan for them. I am sure you all know verse 11, but I love what comes after that.

• "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me,and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you" , declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,"declares the Lord,"and will bring you back into the place from which I carried you into exile."

My number one goal is to be seeking Him with all my heart. I want to look more and more like Him everyday. I love that even though I am faulty and sinful and will always fall short, He continues to refine me and mold me into what he created me to be. I love that as long as I am seeking Him with my whole heart, he will keep showing me himself. I am so thankful. What a great God we have!

I also want to take a minute to say thank you to the Proverbs 31 women in my life. You will never know how many times DAILY I thank God for you. You are a blessing. I am so glad I get to learn from you.

IT IS FINISHED!!! ( or it will be soon!!!)

In the words of Jesus, "IT IS FINISHED"!!!! So exciting!! The spring semester is over!! I am so super excited about this. I just can't tell you how thankful I am. I wondered if I would ever make it. This has been a LONG semester. There were a LOT of great things in this semester (LH of course and her hands and then the Bacaks, and Jenn and the Bacaks...oh yeah, did I mention the Bacaks?, and I have some great girls to live with next year!) But, school almost "done me in" (Audrey Hepburn reference) this year. I think I had senioritis early and I suck at math people!!! But it is over now!! I want to celebrate!! If you want to help, or join the celebration, let me know!! We will hang out and celebrate a short release from the dullness of college!! If you are already done with college, then just be happy for me! Let's celebrate!!!

I'm back!!

I can not believe it has been so long since I have blogged!! I have missed it so much!! Only one more week until I have internet at home again!! So exciting! Tomorrow is relationship week and we are going to the park!!! I can't wait. It should be great. Outside, at a park!! To play, with kids and fun people!! So great. We can swing!! Okay, I have to pay attention to class now...Have a good day.

I think I'll go to Boston...

Today, I have talked to 5 people who are either going to Boston soon, or are very close to people who are. This makes me a bit sad. Sad because I am not going to Boston. Sad because I am not living in Boston yet. Sad that I have to take summer classes...

This happens to me every so often. Well, I have never had so many people say "I'm going to Boston!!" to me, but you know. I am happy for them. Boston is an incredible place. Such a beautiful city. So many wonderful things. At least for me. But, that could just be because I feel led to go there. When I get sad because I am not there now, I have to remember that right now I am called to be in COLLEGE STATION. (not Boston, yet). Right now God is teaching me things here. I can not tell you how many times he has said to me that this is a time of preparation...for whatever he has for me down the road...

So, when I get the Boston blues, I play the thankfulness game...
I am thankful for (in no particular order, and this is NOT an all inclusive list)

• Sunshine
• Bluebonnets
• Flip-Flops
• Friends
• Getting to sit and hold sweet children in your lap
• My new laptop which enabled me to write this!!!
• Living Hope of course!!
• Blue Coconut snow cones
• Fun colored pens
• Okay, just ANY SCHOOL SUPPLIES
• Christmas
• Easter
• music
• books
• the semester will be over soon
• this summer won't last forever
• I did not go to school today and get killed by some random man
• watching baseball
• MOVIES!!!
• being an Aggie
• candles
• Bubble Wrap
• Strawberry with Lime Trident Splash
• Watermelon
• Strawberries
• Barnes and Noble
• Netflix
• Amazon.com
• blogging
• that I have the world's GREATEST mentor!!! :)
• Welch's makes Light grape juice...so nice
• I have a God who loves me enough to refine me
• My God has plans for me!!
• Pajama parties
• Someday I will be able to say that I will never have to take Calculus again!! (and, yes Jenn, I should be studying..)
• I have a really cute pink cell phone
• Gilmore Girls
• great underwear
• the incredible hair dryer!!
• comfy pajamas
• homemade hot chocolate mix
• bottled water
• that gas is not $5.00 a gallon
• that there is a beautiful city called Boston that I will hopefully be living in about a year!!!

Okay so this is a small part of my list! What's on yours?

Gotta Love Those Weekends!!

I wish you could see me now. I am doing my "I am sooo happy I can sleep late tomorrow" dance!! I am sure this is a sight that would inspire much laughter...You know, I don't even mind that I have to spend my whole weekend and all my time until next Wednesday studying for a calculus test. I am just excited about not having an alarm clock...(aka my cell phone)...waking me up! I never fail to get ecstatic about this. It ALWAYS makes my day!! (Which is esp. great tonight b/c I had VERY little sleep last night.) Yay for weekends and sleeping late and then laying in bed!! Gotta love it!

Anyway, I wanted to tell you something I love about being an Aggie. I love that every weekend during football season and some other important weekends through out the year, a magical event occurs. These events are lovingly referred to as a "tent sale". I know, for non-aggies, it sounds like a hick event. But, it isn't so much. I am so thankful that C.C. Creations does this. I love getting great Aggie shirts for SO cheap. This is especially great for someone who is trying to stock up on long sleeve Aggie t-shirts and sweatshirts before moving to a cold city far away from College Station. It is exciting. I am pretty sure I will have enough Aggie apparel to last for quite a while. So nice.

My last note of the day is this:
Hot off the Press!!! BOTH of my teams won tonight!! The Rangers beat Seattle 5-2 and the Red Sox beat the Angels 10-1. So exciting. I love my baseball!! Especially when we win. :) If you ever come visit me in Boston, I will take you to a Sox game (if they are playing and you care to go..) So to end this, good night and Go Sox!! Let's Go Rangers!!

Snow in April!!!

My phone rang this morning. At work. My voice mail answered. I get off work and see I have a voicemail. I call, and low and behold, it is from my Mom. You won't believe what she had to say. She was calling to tell me to bring home winter clothes. Not to store. To WEAR!!! Yes my friends, it is supposed to SNOW this weekend!! I am filled with JOY DOWN IN MY HEART, DEEP, DEEP DOWN IN MY HEART!!! The Aggie in me says "Whoop!!". I am so excited. I love this. It will be magnificent. Yay for real winter weather. What a foretaste of glory divine!!! Just wanted to share the joy. Maybe the excitement will help those of you who have been sick feel better too.

It's Here!!

It it finally here!! It came last night! I have my new laptop!! It works great and it is so much bigger than I envisioned it being!! I love it. I even love the Vista stuff now that I got the wireless stuff on campus worked out. This is so fun! I am sitting here in the Annex listening to Rascal Flatts and blogging. So fun. It makes studying a little more interesting. I just wanted to tell everyone how excited I was! Hope you are having an amazing day!!

Meet the Robinsons

Friday I went to go see Meet the Robinsons with Emma and Jax. It was great fun. The movie was in 3-D. We got goofy looking 3-D glasses to wear. It was great fun. Emma and Jax were amazed at how the glasses made things "come to me" according to Emma. I had to laugh at them repeatedly putting on and taking off their glasses to see the difference. As we were walking into the theatre Jax kept asking for his bugglegum. Too cute. Then afterwards, Jax told Jenn "the movie was wrong" (refering to the bluriness without the glasses!) I love these kids, they are so great!! The movie was great and of course, my favorite part was the dinosaur saying "I have a big head and little arms" So great!! I laughed and laughed. I highly recommend this movie! I will definately be buying it when it comes out on DVD.

Roommates!!!

God is soo good! I have been praying about where to live next year and who I should live with. I have been asking for great roommates. Jenn has been praying too! Guess what happened Friday night??!! I was laying down with Jax and Emma watching cartoons when my phone rang....and it was Julie. We love Julie. Julie was calling to ask me if I wanted to live with her and the other Julie and Bekah next year!! Yay! I was so excited. I love these girls!! It will be great to have good roommates who love the Lord and are seeking His will in their lives. I am so excited about this! What a huge blessing. What a huge answer to prayer!!

Termination of Spring Break and day 54...You have got to be joking...

As of today, spring break is just a memory...sad day. I was taking a nap this afternoon when my roommate and her live-in-whatever-he-is walked in. Normally this is enough to make me frown. Today I wanted to cry. I wake up to the sounds of them talking about buying a dog. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against dogs. Keeping Disney last week was delightful. It was great companionship....You must understand though, that my roommate already has a cat. A sadistic, evil, horribly behaved cat. I think this cat has a good heart but b/c my roommate ignores it, the cat has resorted to evil ploys for attention. And now they are going to get a dog?!! Please tell me they are just kidding. But no. They set there talking about the $600.00 they are going to spend on this dog and all the things they need to buy for it. My roommate isn't responsible enough with her money to pay her bills...much less pay them on time. Where are they getting this dog money from? Secondly, who is going to be taking care of this dog? Let me assure you that if it yeps in the middle of the night I will be really peeved. So now I am just praying that God will bring me out of this lease with my sanity intact and all in one piece. 54 more days to go and I already feel like I am about to fall apart. Please pray that I make it through this.

Also, please pray that I will have a more Godly attitude!!

Spring Break!!!!

It is Spring Break!!! Whoop for that! I cannot tell you the joy this brings to my heart. A whole week away from the craziness of textbooks, tests, mean professors, pointless assignments....the whole educational experience. I must admit that I do miss having a routine, but it was OH SO NICE to lay in bed (almost) all morning. Not having to get up and go to work and then class means that tomorrow I can sleep late and then go visit Target and other fun errands! What a nice change. I am so thankful for this break. I got to go to the library yesterday!!! I was so excited. Reading is my passion, but I can't allow myself the luxury during semesters because I will put off doing important things to read for pleasure. I can not tell you how nice it was to walk into the library and know that I really did have time to read books, and that I didn't have to walk in feeling guilty or drive by dreaming about all the lovely books inside that I am not reading. This is so much better! On top of all this greatness, I have gotten to spend some time with the fabulous Bacaks, which has been great. Oh yeah, I got to go home and see the parents and one of my brothers too. Spring Break is the greatest!!!

P.S. I hope your break was good too!

Intimacy/Isolation

I have had this on my mind all week. I am not good at this. I struggle with this. I am not accustomed to being intimate with people. I have maybe three friends that I know intimately. I dislike this. I know this is wrong and doesn't make God happy. I want to change this, but since I am so bad at it, I don't know how to be intimate. I hate feeling transparent and exposed. So, I am inviting you into my life. Please, get to know me. I need you to. If you make an effort to do this and I look like I ate a worm or I have something slimy climbing around inside me, it is my intense discomfort which means you are doing a great job! For so long I have been okay with being alone. God says no more!! It is so easy for me to shut myself off literally and figuratively. I live mostly alone and have mastered putting up a facade. Help me tear these down!! I want my life to glorify God and I can't do that in isolation.

And, NO, that is not me in the picture...last time I checked, I was not a boy...

Last Night's Gilmore

I don't know if you watch Gilmore Girls, but I must tell you I love that show. It is so much fun. My favorite episode is in season 5. I think that is my favorite season by far. I don't know though, six was really great too... Anyway, if you watch Gilmore girls, you are probably aware that this season has been some what of a let down...I am sad that Amy Sherman Pallidino (sp?) left. In Rory terms...Sad. However, last nights episode was DELIGHTFUL!! Now, this could be because I came home and watched it after a long, grueling test. It could be because I just really wanted to see some new Gilmore...(Whatever will we do when the show ends and there is no new Gilmore to be found??!!) But, I don't think this was the case. I was very pleasantly surprised by how good this episode was. And things went really well. There was some tension, if you watched, you know what I am talking about, (I don't' want to spoil it for Jenn, even though she won't see it for at least another year probably...) Anyway, I was suprised that they didn't save the resolution until next week's episode. I know Amy would have. But I liked the way it ended. However, I was sad that they used a new person for Mia. That made me sad.

I have to say though, that I wish Rory and Logan knew Jesus. I think they are a great couple and I really love their characters, but I would love them so much more if they loved Jesus. (I have to give Lorelai points for arguing for the Bible in last weeks episode, although she could have easily argued anyother religion with the same stance....) I wonder what Gilmore Girls with Jesus would look like....I think it would be funnier. It would be more applicable to me for one thing. And then people would see how much fun people who love Jesus really have. Rory and Lorelai would probably have more fun too, since they couldn't worry about anything since it is a sin...I hope there is a Gilmore Girls showing in heaven.....Basically, I just love Gilmore girls!

Spring Break!!

Spring Break is coming up!! Praise the Lord!! I was wondering what everyone's plans for the week are... I want to know what kind of fun things y'all are doing on your week off.

100th Post!!! and Supermoms :)

YEA!!!! This is my 100th post. That has got to warrant some kind of celebration, I am just not sure what...How exciting that you have been blessed with the ability to read 100 entries worth of my thoughts. You should jump up and down and do the happy dance! I am excited!! I love blogging. It is so much fun, especially since so many of the wonderful people I love are blogging too. This is just too cool.

Anyway, on to my real purpose for writing. Halei, I told you this WOULD be posted on the blog. Here it is....I wish I had a tape recorder of this conversation, because if I did, I would just type up the transcript for you to read. You would probably picture Halei and I sitting at our little table in the restarant (is that misspelled?) talking about this and laugh. I am pretty sure if anyone else had been in the room, they would have thought we were insane...

So tonight, after church Halei and I decided to go and have dinner. So we talked about A LOT of things. Work (we are cowokers!), school, discipline problems at work, uninvolved parents, how much we love Living Hope, etc, etc. Then we got to the important (at least for this post) part of the conversation.

We started talking about how much we LOVE our mentors and how great they are. We talked about how getting to be involved with their families is such a HUGE BLESSING. We decided that BOTH OUR MENTORS ARE SUPERMOMS. They are amazing. (Jenn, I love getting to learn from you, you amaze me.) We talked about how cool it is to see their families seeking God's will above all else, and that because of this, everything seems to fall into place. Halei and I decided that we are supermoms-in-training, or at least that is our desire.

So, Jenn, thank you for holding the Bacak School of Supermom Training! Thank you for letting me come into your home and your life and learn from you. I know you are impacting the future of my marriage and my role as a (super)mom. Thanks!!

Apartment Shopping...

This weekend I am apartment shopping! I am so excited. I can not tell you how excessively lovely it will be to have my own stuff back. This year I am living with someone who already had apartment stuff...or at least that is what I was lead to believe...I mean she has furniture...but our kitchen stuff is sorely lacking (at least I have my own bed and bath stuff...). I can not wait to have my own kitchen stuff back!! I have more kitchen stuff than some people who have been married for 10 years do. I have a lot of stuff...I can't wait to have it back!! It will be nice to come home, and feel like I am at home, not like I am in someone else's home. It will be so nice to not feel like I can only occupy my bedroom. It will be nice to have a bedroom that won't fit under a microscope...I am excited. This will probably be my last move in College Station...how exciting!! Although, I realized today, for the first time, that I will miss College Station. It has been such a great place to go to school. I am thankful for the time I have been given here and the amazing people I have been blessed to know here. :)

P.S. If you have any suggestions at where to look for housing for next year, let me know, I am defianately interested in suggestions!!

Saturday!!

It is Saturday!! You know what that means!! NO alarm clock! Oh the Joy!! I just want to comment on what a beautiful day it is out today. And it is so much warmer than it has been. You can actually go outside in just long sleeves and be comfortable.So the Newsboys are coming to College Station on April 11th. I am thinking about getting tickets...Does anyone else want to go? It might be fun to go to a concert in College Station...plus we get a student discount (if you are a student....)So now I am going to go do some homework...Have a magnificent day!!