One year and a couple months happened...

... and all I did was write a blog post.

Let's call it a hiatus. (It sounds better than sometimes too busy and sometimes too busy being lazy.)

Now, I'm still hanging out in Iowa working and going to school. But a year has gone past, and I've done some things in that time! 

August:

I worked at the State Fair serving food and whatnot. It paid tuition, and I had fun! Sis was named State Fair Queen. She's gorgeous and smart and talented, so of course. I also attended the Salt Company Leaders' Retreat. It's awesome.

September and October: 

All I can think of is football and volleyball seeing as I worked a lot during the fall. I also spent time with Bible study ladies at an apple orchard and we had so much fun!

Photo stolen from the beauty on the left!

November: 

The group of gals below hold a special place in my heart, and we had a reunion for a short evening. It was the greatest. (And it should happen again, even though it's significantly harder now) Thanksgiving is always the best. I actually spent most of my Thanksgiving break with family and some friends, so it was a good time.

Photo stolen from the beauty in stripes!

December:

The semester ended, and I said goodbye to my sweet, kind, and loving coleader and roomie. She graduated and moved not too far away, so I still see her but not often enough! 

January:

New semester and classes along with a trip with friends over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. We had so much fun!

February:

I turned 21 and that same weekend got really sick! (Seriously, no correlation!!) Thankfully, my mom was around the area with my sis, and they were able to pick me up and take me home, since I was out of town. If you want a humbling experience, go to a large college ministry event and have your mom pick you up. (Thanks mom!! You're the real MVP!)

March:

I went to NYC for Spring Break! I went as a part of a mission trip focusing on social justice. We worked with Let My People Go, a ministry within the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association. A huge thank you goes out to my home church for supporting me financially and prayerfully!

Photo stolen from the tall guy on the right.
Thanks for showing us a great and heartbreaking time in NYC!

April:

Nothing super crazy happened here, other than organizing a baking party. I love baking for others, so it was fun to bake with others. In a class, a team and I edited and published our first book! I really loved doing it, and it was a huge learning experience.

May:

The beginning of May, I had the honor to baptize three wonderful friends and sisters in ChristThe semester ended, and Sis graduated high school. I went home for about 10 days, including going to the Tulip Festival to celebrate my Dutch heritage, cousin's grad party, cleaning and organizing, attend a 2.5 hour long band and choir concert, a one-hour long athletic awards banquet, seeing Sis's team win District Champs for girl's soccer, hang out with Bro as well as friends, clean more with Grandma and Aunt, set up and take pictures during the party. It was fun and exhausting, physically and emotionally.

One beauty I baptized with our pastor supervising!
Stolen from KJoy Photography.

Photo stolen from the beauty in the middle

June:

I slowed down and took one class while working and leading a new group of gals in Bible study with a strong, gracious woman of God. I got to see my sister compete at the IHSSA soccer tournament. I went home and got to say goodbye to our foreign exchange student (Miss you!!) and go to my town's parade. I tend to steal candy from the kids around me. I also got to visit my friend for her birthday!! Her mom saved some raspberries and rhubarb for me to help make into jelly and jam. It's so good, and it was easy and fun! I definitely want to do that for my own pantry someday.

She's the best. Hands down.

We loved our night in Boji!

July:

Going even slower now that my class is over. I worked at the State Fairgrounds over the Fourth. That was an adventure. I also hung out with most of the fam at the State Fair's Corndog Kickoff. It was so fun! I took a tiny trip to visit family in Minneapolis area. Their new home is lovely, and the people are incredibly gracious hosts! It was so restful.

Um, why is there a gas pump
in the Mall of America?

This corgi is the bomb.
She lives with my awesome extended fam.

August 2015:

I went home for a weekend. And all in one weekend I: picked up my brother, celebrated Grandma's 80th birthday, went to the Okoboji Bible and Missionary Conference to hear Mark Lowry and The Martins (of Gaither Vocal Band fame and they performed this! *not my recording, nor the actual performance), and heard Jimmy Needham perform too. It was pretty rad. I also worked at the Iowa State Fair while sis finished her year as Iowa State Fair Queen and crowned the next incredible woman. In the middle of that, I went to the Salt Company Leaders' Retreat. It was a great time of pause, worship, and friendship. And then school started! I'm in my last semester at Iowa State. FINALLY. 

Stolen from the beauty on the left.
She was in my group 3 years ago and leads, loves, and serves international students now!

September 2015:
School and work kept me busy and often feeling like I'm under water. Thankfully, I got the chance to go home and watch one of my sister's soccer game, hang out with my parents a little, and take my favorite kiddos to the county fair. I laughed so hard that weekend!
October 2015:
October has been fun! Weekend 1: A cousin married and the reception was so much fun! They're such a fun couple, and it was fun to see all the people, especially family, that came to celebrate. Weekend 2: A great group of girls that I have the honor of leading, serving, and loving went to Center Grove Orchard and had so much fun! I love each moment and every silly picture we took! Weekend 3: My sister has a fall break, so she took the first part to come see me! We had fun giggling at 1 a.m. and taking ridiculous pictures at Reiman Gardens. We ended this weekend with peach cobbler made by her. She's the best sister anyone could have. (yes, I'm a sappy older sister. no shame.)

Corn mazed and confused. We made it though!

We have so much fun together!

Upcoming:
The Salt Company Fall Retreat is coming up this next weekend! Please pray that all of us will take this weekend as the gift it is to rest and recharge in Christ to be fulfilled for the rest of the semester.

Well, I suppose I should write more often, so you don't have to suffer through long posts like this. Thanks for reading, no matter how far you got!

Blessings and birthdays

I made it to 20! How crazy is that?

This past weekend, the fam came down to visit! Our foreign exchange student made it to the Large Group All State Speech Festival!! (I'm so proud of her!) But Friday, sis came and we hung out at an ISU gymnastics meet. It was so fun to have sister time! We haven't gotten to spend a ton of time together, so that was super special.
Saturday we made chocolate chip pancakes (a favorite!) and met up with the parents to watch all the cool acts. We loved watching everyone; they were fabulous! Then Mom and Dad spoiled me! Mom and I bargain shopped. After a while, I went to work. From the play-by-play via text, I'm sure they had fun. They also brought down a few presents and baked goods. My apartment is still in no short supply of sweets! Grandma baked cookies, Dad baked a cake (complete with frosting and funfetti sprinkles!), and Mom baked a pie. I had made brownies Friday night with sis, so we were stocked!
Sunday church was wonderful, and we had plenty of time to eat and clean a bit before I had to be at choir rehearsal before the concert, which went wonderfully!
They fed me again before leaving. It was the best weekend I could have had! :) Thanks fam!!

This coming weekend is the Salt Company Spring Retreat! We'll have almost 700 people there!!! Pray for us as we talk about the Glory of Christ. Everyone is super pumped! (I would say I'll get pictures, but I try to make promises I can't keep)

Birthdays are so fun! Can't wait for spring to come!

Encouraging encouragement

Well, that's all folks. The title gave me away.

Every Tuesday morning, I have the extreme pleasure of waking up before dawn (thanks winter) to see six wonderful, mostly smiling faces! There's always Jesus and usually some coffee involved. I love these ladies so so so much! And today, our fearless leader charged us with writing out ways we've seen God working in one another's lives.

"But encourage one another daily as long as it is called 'Today,' so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness." Hebrews 3:13 NIV 

Aside from hearing things other people see in me (which is always welcome,) I loved sharing ways that God works in others! Reflecting on all that God is doing allows you to broaden your outward look. I don't know about you, but I love to see how God is moving around me! And He's moving in really big ways!

Also, make sure to tell that person verbally or even in writing! I love looking back and seeing how I've grown and how God has been faithful!

How will you encourage someone today?

Connection group adventures!

Well, what a semester it has been! Today I got some shots for my trip overseas. Much to my surprise, I survived. There may have been cute bandaids involved. Here's how my past however long has been:

 In April, one of my connection group girls got baptized! My church has baptized so many people within the past month; it's so wonderful to see each time!

 This past week, most of my group and I went to a super park in Ames!! It doesn't look like Ames at all, so it's fun to sneak away! We walked down the crick, traversed a path, hunted for mushrooms, probably got a little sun, and enjoyed the nature all around us!

A cute elderly man walks his dog on this path.

 We all want to return in the fall and enjoy the leaves! These ladies have been a huge blessing to me this year.  I can't even write all their fabulousness in words! I love each and every one of them!! They've grown so much this year; it's been fun to see!

This year has been so wonderful co-leading with this wonderful lady!! It's been so much fun, we're going to do it again! Can't wait to see Mia after we each have a great adventure ahead of us this summer!

Somehow, I don't think we'll both come back this pale. Oh well!

To catch you up!

Here are things that keep me from blogging 24/7:

Class and paper writing. It gets pretty crazy around here! 

L: Me, Andrea, Jamie

My friends and I went to a dance for charity, and we all look really cute so I thought you might like to see the pictures! :)

Me and Chris

Some of my small group girls!
L: Renea, Aislinn, Me, Molly, Janae

Thank you SO much!

Your prayers were definitely felt over the retreat! It was a great weekend filled with prayer and love and learning!

Katie and I think we're pretty smart!
(L: Meghan, Katie, Me, Deanna)

Dance theme: Space Jam! We're pretty cute!
(Back Row L: Me, Aislinn, Liz, Renea
Front L: Deanna, Meghan)

The next weekend, we decided to have a main street adventure beginning at Cafe Diem! :)
Sometimes, we get fancy. And by we, I mean my lovely small group girls!

I am my father's daughter: straight black coffee for me!

Prayer Does Wonders

And I need them! I will be attending a retreat through my church! I will lead my small group of ladies as we all learn more about walking with God! I'm really excited and can't wait to see what God does this weekend! Look for an update after the retreat for pictures and how your prayers help!

Some things to pray for:

• A record-breaking 625 people are attending this retreat! Pray for soft, teachable hearts for everybody.
• Staff members and speakers- Bob Thune, Jr. is speaking! I really enjoy hearing God speak through this great man! Pray that God gives him the words.
• Small group leaders- Like myself, other leaders will lead their small group through discussion, digging deeper and connecting on a more personal level. Pray that we can learn a lot as well and that God will sustain us through an emotionally-powered weekend.
• Wisdom for everybody -- James 1:5- "Therefore, if anyone lacks wisdom, let them ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to them."

Oh dear.

I'm afraid it's been too long! This year has been exciting and crazy busy and fun! Let me show you! :) WARNING: I have pictures of an injury. Not gruesome, but just a heads up.

 Longboarding is really cool here. My friends and I always joke about my lack of coordination, but I thought I could give it a try. A friend held my hands and walked as I stood and rolled on the board. It's the equivilant of "training wheels"! Then I kicked off and came back okay. I thought I had learned enough and tried to go on my own. I did really well! My friends yelled, "Great! Now bring it back!" And boy, did I try! I put my left foot on the ground, but my brain said "Nope! Not today!" and my foot stayed on the ground. My right foot and the longboard, however, did not read my mind. (fyi: momentum still works!) I fell flat on my butt and tried to break my fall with my hands and elbows. My left elbow caught the worst of it. It looked worse after these pictures were taken, but it's on the mend! My friends were more worried about my fall than I was. 

I'm a very skilled gravity tester! :)

I have the pleasure of hanging out with these lovely ladies below! We had the pleasure of helping Sarah with supper this past Monday, and she had some really fun aprons! :) Mia is not the real Mrs. Smith, and I am not a housewife. But we loved helping with (and eating) supper!

From L: Sarah, Mia, me

Cool College Commotion

Baseball!

They let me put in the number for the inning! :) It was super cool!

















President!

Can you see him? He came to Iowa State University on August 28! It was really cool to hear him speak! I don't really agree with his politics, but it was still interesting to hear his platform. Security that day was absolutely crazy, but I was glad I got to go!

Football!

Iowa State won their season opener against the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes 38-23!!! It was an awesome game! :)







Baking!

 For fun, my friends and I decided we would cook dinner and then get all fancy! My kitchen skills went to baking super delicious cupcakes! On the right you will find the secret ingredient. Yep, mascarpone cheese! Our theme was Italian, so I went to this website and followed some links to this recipe. I had never made them before, but they were super easy and sooooo good! I definitely recommend it!

I'm fairly certain 9/10 of those people are in engineering. Guess who's NOT?!?! ;)

 We had so much fun!

Back in the swing of things

School is starting! School is starting!! :) One of the main reasons I love school:

School supplies!! (Yeah, I'm a teacher's kid) :) New binders and pencils and pretty pens that write beautifully. Fresh notebooks ready for print and cursive writing notating all sorts of topics like Spanish and journalism.

What did I do BEFORE school started? (Other than not blog)

Well, I did farm-y things like freeze corn:

 And I had the blessing of babysitting my favorite kids the day before I left! :)






I even got to play hair dresser and give us our perfect "First Day of School" hair do!

I think I have a real future, don't you think?!?

Yeah, we're cute. :)  Every year I miss these girls! They are such wonderful ladies doing such fabulous things! 

Happy Fourth of July!

I love Google. (If the words in the logo are hard to read, they are: "This land was made for you and me")


So far, life is normal. I'm waitressing and doing stuff for the family. Today I'll be doing "no-bake" things. Pictures to come!

I also have the honor of playing my French horn and helping with hair and makeup for this show at the community theatre! It's looking really great! Opening night is Thursday, so come on out! The show runs this weekend only, so be there or be square! I'm not very good at playing, but I like to pretend! It's set in the 50's, so I have so much fun doing makeup and hair!! It's my favorite decade! I am not allowed to post pictures from behind the scenes until after the show, so you'll have to wait until after Sunday. But they will come as well!

I really hope you have a safe and blessed holiday! Sing a good ole' 'Merican song today! :)

I guess it's been a while.

Here's what I did instead of blog:

Planted a little bit of the garden!

Beans!

Checked on new baby kitties!

Do you see the two black ones? They kind of mesh together and the orange one on top? Mama Kitty does not approve of picture taking.

Drove the tractor!

Never mind the reflection of me. :)

Hung out with my best friends!

Yeah, I missed her face. :) Love you!!

Tried to take artistic-ish photos of my backyard!

Yes, the old plow makes for a good picture. :)

Played with my puppy dog!

Baked cookies!

Made a mess... :3

Before and after! :) Turned out perfectly!

Couldn't give away the family recipe!

Woke up early and caught the sunrise!

Red in the morning sailor take warning.

Did you know the phrase above has Biblical background? Check out Matthew 16 to read the whole story! Who says the Bible isn't relevant today? (P.S.: Thanks Dad for the new info!)

Played dress up!

We love to dress up!

Being a princess is hard work!

Rockin a smile in the pj's

He had the cutest socks! And I <3 elephants. 

Saw a turtle emerge from the road!

See it in the bottom left hand corner?

Hope you've had a cool time like I have!