Christmas!!

Christmas 2011 is officially over :( but it was super fun! Courtney and her husband got in Friday night then Joey got in this morning at 9:30. For awhile, we didn't think he was going to be able to come at all, so I was so happy he's here even if it's only for about 2 days. I absolutely love Christmas time. LOVE IT. I especially love being around allllll of my family (I have alot of it in case you weren't aware.)

Saturday afternoon we decorated gingerbread men with Mommapops (my dad's mom) with some of my cousins. This is a tradition that has been in place since forever pretty much haha. I remember doing it every Christmas of my life so far and it just wouldn't feel like Christmas without decorating those gingerbread men! Plus, they are sooooo yummy. Although my decorating skills haven't improved since I was about 4 years old, it's still a fun tradition. Then, we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church. I also really love the Christmas Eve service because there are so many people there with their families. I love seeing all families of church members in town for Christmas and seeing everyone so happy. Scott also preached a pretty dang good sermon! After that, we went to my Dad's aunt's house to spend Christmas Eve with his family. I think there ended up being about 35 people there. We ate some yummy food, ready the Christmas story from the Bible, sang some Christmas songs, and opened some presents. It was a fun time had by all. I'm pretty sure we barely made it home in time to get to bed before Santa came.

We had to change our Christmas morning schedule a little bit because Joey wasn't getting in till that morning but we were all more than happy to do so because we just wanted him here! While Justin and Courtney had Christmas with his family and my dad went to get Joey from the airport, my mom and I got the house tidied up a bit and cooked our share of Christmas lunch. As soon as Joey was home, we started opening presents. Unlike most years, I really had no clue what I was getting this year for Christmas. I was very pleased to find a Keurig coffee maker under the tree!! I will definitely put that thing to good use. I also got the complete series of Boy Meets World and Dawsons Creek, some other movies, some books(including Josh Hamilton's autobiography), a pair of cute Toms, and 160 gb ipod. I was always a Zune owner, so this is my first time having an iPod. Right now, it's converting all of my music into the right format, but that's okay because I now have an iPod! After our family Christmas, we went to Wawa and Papas (moms parents) to do Christmas with them. First we opened MORE presents then we ate lots of yummy food. My mom's aunt and uncle were also with us, which hasn't happened in a while, and it was really nice to be able to spend Christmas with them as well. The rest of the day was spent playing with our new stuff and sleeping. Christmas can wear someone out! 

Tomorrow, we will do Christmas with Mommapops and Pops and have lunch with them. It's so great having so much family in this small town and it's pretty awesome that we get to spread the holiday into 3 days! And for dinner we are going to have beans and rice at my Great Grandmothers house. I absolutely love this house and I rarely have the opportunity to go there. It's in old Rockport and there's just so much family history in it. Wawa grew up in that house and my mom spent a lot of her childhood playing with cousins at that house. There's just so many good memories soaked into that house!

I'm planning on enjoying every last minute of Rockport until I have to go back to Waco in a few weeks. I hope yall had an awesome Christmas as well and just remember that Jesus is the reason for the season!
I know that line is a tad cliche, but it really is true!








By the way- I don't know if yall have noticed, but I added things to the left side of the my blog! If you look over there, you'll notice a funny cat picture of the day and an interesting thought to ponder. Enjoy!

Home

Have I said lately that I absolutely LOVE being home?! I love being around people that I've known my whole life and I love driving around town and seeing the beautiful water all around me. I've been home for about a week and I can't believe it's already been that long!

I went to Houston this weekend with some friends and it was so much fun! We got there Friday night and then Saturday we went down to the Galleria to look around. Even though it's only 3 hours away, I've never actually been in Houston except for driving through. So it was fun to go down and see the Galleria and downtown Houston. I felt like a puppy that was just let out of it's kennel for the first time ever. There were so many people and so many places to see. It was so cool. Saturday night we were going to go ice skating down at Discovery Greens but we got there and everyone and their mom was skating on the not so big rink. So we decided to go look at Christmas lights around the super pretty houses in Houston. Today, we went to the Texans game. I had never been to a pro football game so it was really fun! Even though we were 3 rows from the top and the Texans lost, it was still a fun time had by all! 

That's all I have to say for now I guess. I suppose when I'm home, my life isn't all that interesting so sorry for the boring post! Here's a funny picture to make up for it!

Lessons Learned

I have officially completed my first semester at Baylor University and I couldn't have asked for a better way to start out my college experience! Was it hard? You betcha. College is tough, but all good things take work. I ended up having 6 finals, with 3 in one day while I was also sick. But I survived!! I managed to pull off 4 A+'s, 1 B+, and 1 B. Not as great as I wanted to do, but I'm not complaining!! I figured this post could be about the lessons I learned as a Freshman in college. I have this underlying fear that this post is going to be obnoxiously long, so I'll try my best to keep it long, but not obnoxiously long.

Lesson #1

Don't ever take Statistics in college. Ever. It is one of those classes that makes you hate your life when you leave. I somehow managed to get a B in that class and I have no idea how. Actually, I made a B by prayer and prayer alone. I went into my stats final on Monday knowing pretty much nothing. Literally. And I ended up getting a 70 on the final, which isn't good, but when you know nothing, it's pretty decent. I managed to get an 80 for the semester and I call that a success. Now, let's review. When your adviser tells you that Stats would be an interesting class to take, what do you tell them? NOOOOOOOOO

Lesson #2

I absolutely LOVE Baylor and everything Baylor has built it's foundation on. For instance, when I went to go take one of my six exams, after the professor passed out the test and everything, he made everyone stop what they were doing. He said that before we started, he wanted to pray with us so we all bowed our heads as he prayed for us to do well on the test and have a safe break. How awesome is that?! I just love that my college is like that. And of course, our sports are doing pretty awesome this season too. I mean, our quarterback did just win the Heisman award. No big deal or anything.

Lesson #3

Everything people tell you about college is true. For example:

• You're gonna be broke
• Sure enough. College kids never have money. But it's part of the atmosphere so you learn to accept it.
• It's hard
• Studying in college is not like studying in high school. Studying in high school is pretty much having your notes in front of you while you watch tv. Studying in college is spending hours in the library with no distractions while you immerse yourself in the subject.
• You're going to lose touch with friends
• I only talk to about 5 people I went to high school with on a regular basis. On the other hand, I didn't see one of my best friends for about 3 months and we're closer then ever right now. But, I also had a friend in high school that I was really close with that I haven't talked to since college started. I'm not blaming anyone, cause I definitely could've picked up the phone too, but it just happens. You get busy with school and you lose touch with people. 
• You're going to miss your family
• This one was tough for me because I'm super close to my family and not seeing them regularly was really tough. It takes some getting used to.

Lesson #4

Appreciate the things you've always had because you now might be without them. I really like living in Waco, but I really missing walking to the store and knowing seeing a friendly face. I miss knowing everyone. I also really miss my church. I've found a church in Waco, but it's just not the same. One of the things I look forward to the most when I go home is going to church on Sunday morning. Nothing replaces it.

Lesson #5

You'll definitely form some amazing friendships in college, but, at least in your first semester, the friends from back home that you stay in touch with are going to be such a blessing. You know if the friendship has lasted through the semester, then they're probably there to stay. And you can count on them to be there for you when it feels like nothing is going your way.

Lesson #6

Your relationship with God will most likely change a lot. Not necessarily in a bad way, but not necessarily in a  good way. It just depends on you and what you want in life. I know for me, it took breaking down some walls and realizing that I can't handle life on my own. So for me, it was in a good way. But it took some time and soul searching for it to get to the good part.  

Okay I'm not going to go back and proof read this post because I'm trying to stay away from everything academic on my break. Okay not really, I'm just super tired and I'm too lazy to go back and read it. So I'm apologizing in advance for my errors. In other news, I'm going to a Houston Texans game this weekend with some friends and I'm super excited!! I've been boycotting pro sports lately and only watching college so I'm breaking my boycott for this game. 

Side note- if you haven't watched this movie (Elf) yet this Christmas season, please do so soon! It's such a great Christmas movie and I guarantee that you will be laughing throughout the whole thing. 

OH. MY. GOSH

ROBERT GRIFFIN III JUST WON THE HEISMAN!!!!!!




SIC EM BEARS!!

Dreams

I actually finished all my work so I'm just gonna do the dream post now cause I probably won't be posting anything else anytime soon. I mean, it's not like I have finals to study for or anything ;) Okay so this post is obviously about dreams. Me and Briana were talking about dreams last night and how weird they are. Like in our heads, a dream could last all night, but in reality, it might be in a span of 2 minutes. Dreams are just weird. Sometimes, dreams can be flat out scary. I've had 2 really scary dreams in my life that I still remember vividly. 

Dream 1

I was about 12 when this dream happened and I was still sharing a room with my sister at the time. I went to sleep and I thought I woke up, but in reality I was still dreaming. Everything was exactly like it was when I went to sleep. I could see Courtney asleep, the door was open, and everything was exactly how I left it. I saw this man walk to the end of the hallway where our room was on one side and my parents room was on the other. He looked into my parents room and saw that they were asleep, then peered into our room and looked directly at me. He walked into my room and started slowly walking directly towards me, never breaking eye contact. In my dream, I couldn't scream or even open my mouth to let out a noise. This man was walking towards me in my own room and I could do nothing about it. In reality, I was screaming bloody murder. Right as this man was about a foot from my bed and within arm reach, my parents finally woke me up. Apparently, I had been screaming and they couldn't wake me up. It was seriously one of the scariest moments in my life. I think the thing that scared me the most was that I could do absolutely nothing to defend myself or let someone else in the house know he was there. I was completely frozen. Talking about it literally makes me tear up because it still freaks me out. I can still see him to this day walking towards me and me not being able to do anything about it. For days, I was scared to death to go back to sleep because everytime I closed my eyes I would see him walking towards me. Obviously, I'm fine now and nothing else like that has ever happened thank goodness. But his face is forever burned into my brain and I know that if I ever see this guy on the street or something(which I'm convinced I someday will), that I will immediately know it's him. 

Dream 2

This dream was when I was little, probably about 6-7. In my dream, I would wake up and walk out of my room. I would go to our back sliding glass door and it would be open. *keep in mind, we have a big back yard that backs up to a pasture* I look back into the yard and there would be this really scary wolf thing running full speed towards me. It was just a normal wolf. It was a wolf that was out to kill me, I could tell. The wolf would run full speed towards me and as soon as it was about 5 feet from the open back door, I would slam the door shut and leave only a few inches of glass between the me and the killer wolf. This dream would show up everytime I went to sleep for about a week or two. 

Don't worry, I also have funny dreams but obviously, they don't stick with me like the scary ones do. I guess dreams just kinda weird me out. I don't really understand how they work, but I don't think I really wanna know. 

Me? Procrastinate?

Sure am!! In high school I was one of the biggest procrastinators ever. I've gotten a little better because I've figured out that it's no fun to wait till the last minute to do everything. That's what this post is; me procrastinating. I really don't want to do anymore work!!

I don't really have any interesting things to say this week so I'm pretty much just posting this to let yall know that I'm still alive. I had my last day of classes today and then my first final is Friday. Then I'm coming home next Tuesday with one semester of college finished and I'll officially be a sophomore in college! I think next week once I'm home and I can relax, I'm gonna do a post on dreams and tell yall about my most memorable 3 dreams I've ever had. Briana and I were just talking about them last night, and they're pretty interesting. 

In other news, Baylor beat UT on Saturday and it was super exciting!! Even though we stood out in the rain the whole game, it was still a really good game. And it was just announced that RG3(Baylor quarterback) is officially a Heisman finalist. The winner is announced Saturday and I would be so stinkin excited if he won. Apparently, a certain guy has guessed the winner correctly for the last 9 years and he thinks RG3 will win. He definitely deserves it. 

It's also really miserable here. It's like -10 degrees. Okay not really. It's actually like 39 but it feels like 30 and it's rainy. And we're supposed to get into the mid twenties tonight and theres a good chance we'll have ice. This beach girl cannot handle that. Alright I gotta get back to homework and studying. Prayers would be appreciated as I go into finals week!

Thanksgiving Break

I'm alive!!

I'm warning you now, I'm gonna break one of those rules. This post is probably going to be really stinkin long. I might even split it up into 2 different posts. But who knows. 

Thanksgiving Break was definitely needed and I soaked every second of it in. I started my break watching Baylor beat Oklahoma which was one of the most exciting things EVER. I can't even try to put into words how pumped we were to beat them. 1. No one from Texas likes Oklahoma. No one. 2. They were ranked 5 and no one thought we would beat them. IT WAS SO EXCITING!!! Any who, Thanksgiving break was filled with family, friends, food, and lots of laughter. On Tuesday, I was able to go to my old workplace and see the guys I used to work with and catch up with them which was really nice. Courtney and Justin got in Tuesday night and the rest of the week was mainly family time.

We at our Thanksgiving lunch with my dad's family at my Aunt Anna's house. I LOVE having a big family on my mom and dad's side of the family and especially around the holidays. We had about 25 people with us for lunch then after that we went to the other side of the family and spent the evening with them. I actually value my life so I decided not to go Black Friday shopping. Friday morning I had breakfast at Arandas(yum!!!) with Mrs.Garcia. Which I enjoyed so much!! Friday night we played Just Dance for about 2 hours. I'm not gonna lie, I get into it and I frequently win. Am I good? Probably not. I probably look absolutely ridiculous. But I have fun. I'm just too white to be good at dancing. But you see, I already have some bad back problems so dancing for this long was not a great idea. I'm laying down with a heating pad on my back right this moment because I can't do anything without it hurting. Oh well. I also watched Baylor beat Tech on Saturday!! That game was one of the most frustrating games I have ever seen. *Disclaimer* If you are a Tech fan or you went to Tech, don't hate me for what I'm gonna day. I absolutely despise Tech. Think about it, do you know anyone that is a fan of Tech that didn't go there? I can't think of anyone. They play flat out dirty. If you want Baylor fans to hate you, give our Heisman candidate quarterback a concussion with a dirty hit. We'll hate you forever. Ugh, stupid Tech. But it's okay! Cause we still won and we did it in a classy way!

I told this was going to be long. Feel free to stop reading, I won't be offended at all. Actually, I'll never know if you do haha

Sunday was church! When I come home, I can hardly wait for Sunday so I can go to church with my church family and worship with them. Nothing can replace that feeling. Walking in the church and knowing that this was what made me who I am and that the people there love me for who I am. After church, I had to come back to Waco :( I guess just because I was home for more than a weekend this time, but it made me realize how much I LOVE being home and being around everyone.  It was definitely hard to come back. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Baylor. But as Dorothy says, "There's no place like home!"

*That Wizard of Oz quote was probably really lame. I apologize*

I have one more major point then I'm done, I promise! Putting aside things I have learned in my classes, I've learned one main thing at college this semester. Doing the right thing is not always the easiest thing. I've heard this all my life but I always just associated it with staying grounded in high school and things like that. But now it means more to me. I didn't want to leave Rockport, my family, my church, and my comfort zone. But I knew it was the right thing to do so I did it. Being 5 hours away has been hard, but I know this is what I'm being called to do. Life isn't always easy. 

I have classes the rest of this week and on Monday, then a few dead days for studying, then finals and I'm done for a month!! 

If you actually finished this, thanks! I appreciate it! Also, I want a new hairstyle, so if you find one, lemme know. I'm totally bored with my hair. 

Day 15- A Bible Verse

How can I possibly pick one Bible verse? Simple. I'm not. I'm gonna pick 3 or 5 or 15, I haven't really decided yet.

Verse 1

John 3:30- "He must increase, I must decrease" Like I've said before, I try to live my life by this verse. It's all about living life for Christ and not for worldly things. 

Verse 2

Isiah 40:8- "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever." I love this verse because it's saying that no matter what, God will be there. Everything on Earth can die or fade away, but God won't. He's the only one we should put our trust in.

Verse 3

Mark 15:39- And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how He died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God."  This verse never really hit me until this year in Christian Scriptures. We were studying the Gospels and the different stories in each one. I love this verse because this man was most likely one to arrest Jesus and put him on cross. But once Jesus was crucified, the man realized that he was wrong. Jesus really was the Son of God. I just think it's a moment of clarity within some of the people. It just proves that God can change the heart of anybody at any time.

Verse 4

Jeremiah 29:11- "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." This verse gave me some hope when I didn't know what to do with my future and with college. I hate not knowing what I'm doing after college, but I like this verse says, God has a plan for me and I have to trust that.


Side note- I'm really stinkin bored. I'm pretty sure like half of campus is gone for Thanksgiving and there's absolutely nothing to do. I just wanna go home already!

My bad

So in my computer class today we were talking about blogs. There were a few rules to obey by when you have a blog.

Don't give out your schedule

Don't ramble.

Don't have long posts

Don't post pictures that aren't yours

oops. 

Normalcy

So I guess the main point of a blog is to write about my life right? Notice how I've never really written about daily occurrences. But honestly, my life is pretty boring. We'll I guess not boring, but just very normal. My life has always been normal which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I remember when I had to write my college essays and we were supposed to write about something that we had to overcome. And it's definitely not a bad thing, but I haven't really had to ever overcome something. Except overcoming being normal? haha But I love that I'm normal. I've had a loving home, with family being a big impact on my life. I have a big family on my mom and my dad's side and I love that. I have an awesome church family, awesome friends, and a great hometown. I never really even got in trouble. I was always normal. Just normal. But that's not a bad thing right? 

Okay anywho. I figure I should have a post about the daily workings in the life of Erin Albin. Cause I'm just SO exciting. but not really haha

Sunday

10:15 Church at Woodway for college hour with lunch after

then the rest of the afternoon in the library depending on what the week looks like.

Then relax and just kinda hang out

Monday

9:05-9:55 chapel

10:10-11 Principles of Art and Design which is a class that does not interest me at all. It's totally not what my major deals with, but the teacher is nice and realizes I'm not an art major so its all good

Lunch

12:20-1:10 Individual and Family Development. I LOVE this class. The professor is really awesome and we discuss the inner workings of a family and everything that goes along with them. It goes right along with my major so it's pretty great

done for the day!! the rest of the day I use just kinda laying around or doing homework/studying

Tuesday

11:00-12:15 Statistics. Bleh. Hate it and thats all there is to it.

12:30-1:45 Christian Scriptures. I love this class. It's really interesting because it takes scriptures that I grew up and shows me what I didn't even notice before. And the professor is really funny and such a nice guy

Lunch and a break to kinda chill

3:30-4:45 Intro to information technology and processing. Pretty much, we learn Excel and Access

We usually go to the library and do homework and whatnot until dinner

8:00 we watch New Girl

8:30 we watch Raising Hope

Wednesday

8:00-8:50-Professional Prospectives. Too early for my liking.

9:05-9:55-Chapel

10:10-11:00- Principles of Art and Design

Lunch

12:20-1:10 Individual and Family Development

4:00 Baylor Buddies-I'm matched up with a 15 year old girl and I'm a mentor to her and meet with her for 1 hour each week.

8:00 we watch Modern Family

Thursday

Exactly the same as Tuesday except one a month I have a Child and Family Studies Organization Meeting

8:00 we watch Bones

Friday

12:20-1:10 Individual and Family Development.

Then the rest of the day we just hang out or catch up on homework and whatnot.

Saturday

Definitely sleep in!! Then we just relax and if there's a home football game we go to that.

So that's my life in a bubble. Add in studying, homework, tests, and having fun and thats my life. But this coming week will be totally different because I WILL BE AT HOME!!! I love it here but I'm so excited to be home for more than 2 days. I've missed Rockport and everyone in it!!

Day 14- A picture you love

I'm a rule breaker so I'm gonna do more than one photo. Okay I'm not really a rule breaker. I love rules and I always follow them. But it's my blog so I'm gonna do more than one picture.

*I just spent like 20 minutes picking out pictures. So I have a lot haha my life is filled with a lot of happiness, what can I say.*

 This is Kyleigh Karl and I LOVE this child! In case you didn't know, her whole family is full of die hard aggie fans. Well I got her this Baylor shirt and I've slowly converted her to a little Baylor Bear. Everytime I see this picture I can't help but smile.

 This is my kitty Darcy. Briana says the picture looks like a Gremlin but I think it's adorable. This cat has more personality then any cat I've ever had and I love him to death.

 This was in Honduras. It was our last day at the school which was super tough but we had just given every child a Frisbee with the message of God on the back. They all loved the Frisbees and were thrilled that we gave them a toy. And it makes me giggle that no matter what country you are in, bunny ears are always funny. 

 This here is Hunter and he's like a brother to me. This is when he came to visit Waco and see Baylor. I don't know if you can tell, but he wore his A&M hat all day while he was on campus. I've learned this semester that this boy will always be in my life no matter what and I wouldn't have it any other way.

 This is a picture my sister took of my great grandmothers house in Rockport. It's the house where my grandma and her siblings grew up and I LOVE that it's still standing in old Rockport. This picture just shows how my family's roots are planted in Rockport and we will always be there. 

 This is the group that went to Honduras this past summer. Minus Doc cause he was bird watching of course. Spending a week of my summer with this group was completely amazing. I feel like all of us are a family now and we all grew so much closer because of that trip. We prayed together, laughed together, and cried together. I think we all left Honduras immediately wanting to return.

 Yes, there's a gorgeous waterfall in this picture. Yes, one of my friends since birth is in this picture. But I what I really love about this picture is Doc. We asked him to scootch out of the picture for a second so we could get one of Blaire with the waterfall. So what does he do? Covers his head so we can't see him anymore. Funniest thing ever. This man is one of the most Godly, funniest, most amazing guys I have ever met. I have more respect for him then just about anyone else. Be around Doc for more then 10 seconds and you will realize why I love him so much.

 I don't have this picture up here because I love baseball so much. I have it up here because the little punk in it isn't really a baseball player. They were having a meet and greet with the hooks players so of course we were there. I was just going around to all of them and when I got to this one I thought he was a little younger then the others, but hey, thats better for me! So later on, I find out that this guy is just a ball boy and is about 17 years old. The guys told him to put on a uniform and see how many people he could trick into thinking he was a real player. touche.

 This is Briana, Courtney, and I. At the time, we were super close, but now we're even closer. I've grown up with these girls and I honestly don't know what I would do without them. 

 This here is Bekah and she's one of my best friends. This particular night, we went out for her sisters birthday and it was so fun. I'm pretty much part of their family so that made it even better.

 This group of people, plus some more not pictured, are the ones that got me through high school with a smile on my face. We had all been in school together since we were like 3 and I love that we were all still friends at graduation.

 This is me putting tape all over Megans face. Don't ask me why I did it. But it was the last week of school and we really didn't have anything else to do. It makes me laugh everytime I see it.

 My family is pretty amazing. Since we're all grown up now, we're all together only one or twice a year. So when we are together, I soak it up. This was at my graduation dinner at Mommapops and Pop's house.

 This was the night of graduation at Wawa's house. This is pretty much my second family. I know I can always turn to them whenever I need to and they will be there. 

 This is Mommapops with her great granddaughter Addie. I love this picture because it shows how loving Mommapops is. I think one of her favorite things to do is to hold babies! She can be a grandmother to anyone that needs some love!

 This is all of m aunts, uncles, and cousins on my dads side and it's probably the last time we were all together. In my head, it seems like it wasn't that long ago, but when I look at everyone, it obviously was. We're a little crazy if you can't tell. 

This is 3 generations of awesomeness! haha I'm pretty sure Courtney and I are giggling in this picture. But with this group of people, we were probably giggling the whole time. 

Whenever I look through pictures and pick out the ones I love, I'm reminded of how God has blessed my life. I have awesome family, friends, and just a great life overall. I sometimes take that for granted and I hate that I do. But there's a lot of love in my life and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Heavy Heart

I haven't posted in about a week. I don't really have a good excuse and I've actually sat down to write a new post but I started writing and realized I really don't have much to say that's worth reading. I'm still kinda new to this blog thing and everytime I sit down, I think to myself, "Who am I to think that I'm so important that people want to read what I have to say?" So I took a break from it all.  But now I'm back so we'll see how it goes.

This past week, I can't even put into words how I felt about what was going on in Rockport. *Disclaimer:I'm not giving my opinion on the Judge Adams issue* It seemed like in a matter of days, Rockport had completely turned into this small town where everyone was fighting and there was tragedy happening every minute. I had to force myself to give up Facebook for a day or so because my whole news feed was filled with people fighting about things that they weren't even involved in. For me, Rockport taught me how to live my life. The town as a whole is very loving, welcoming, and just happy in general so it sickened me when I saw all this hatred coming out of it. Then, there were news crews filming people saying hateful things about our community and elected officials and it just made me so so so sad. I love my town and I absolutely hated to see it plastered on news shows for something that didn't represent Rockport at all. I want the world to see how completely amazing this town is. And in a matter of days, there were just so many things piling up on my small town. Yes, the whole Judge Adams situation is an awful situation, I think everyone will agree with that. But to me, it became so much more than that. The nation linking my town to this unfortunate situation killed me. Along with that, it caused everyone to fight and argue about the situation when in reality, they have no place in the situation at all. What good did it do to post a status and have 50 people argue about it? None. It helped nothing. The situation is still there. A family is still going through an awful time. And now, people are angry at each other. I think as Christians, we have a duty to sit back and realize we can't do anything about it but pray. We shouldn't be out there yelling at the courthouse and officials. We need to be praying for God to intervene on everything happening. 

Like I said, I'm not giving my opinion on the situation at all. I'm obviously not trying to start any discussion about it. I'm simply saying that my heart hurts for my town and the people suffering within it. 

If you get a chance, listen to the album "Roots Run Deep" by Jadon Lavik. This guy has an awesome sound and on this album, he has redone a lot of the old hymns. I seriously can't get enough of it. 

I'm a pretty crafty person.

Actually I'm not. See, I'm not creative or artistic whatsoever. You could probably pick any 5 year old off the street and they could draw a dog better than I could. But!!! All day Saturday we did crafts in our dorm. It was me, Briana, and my friend Megan. We got all of our ideas off of pinterest.com(best site ever) and crafted from about 6-1 in the morning. It was amazing. And I learned that I'm really not as bad as I thought I was. So I'm gonna show you what we made.

 Briana made this one. It's just a medium size canvas painted pink. Then, she wrote out a "B" by dipping the eraser of a pencil in yellow paint. Super cute!!

 Briana made this one too. She taped off the edges of 2 small canvases and painted them yellow so when the tape dried, she peeled it off and there was a border. Then in puffy paint she wrote "sic em". They are held together by ribbon and a button on each end. 

 I made this one! Its a canvas painted blue and then has the verse in white puffy paint. I love this one because 1. it's my favorite verse and 2. it's very simply but very cute. 

 This one is one of my favorite! I made this one and the rest of them on here. This is a canvas painted pink then I used different color/size buttons to create an E. I just hot glued the buttons on there and there ya go!

 This one was the first one I made. I didn't mean for it to be a star, but I can't really do anything random so it looks like a star. I just taped parts of the canvas and painted over it. Then once it was dry, I peeled off the paint and it made a star!

This one is interesting so I'll have to explain exactly what I did. This was actually our second try. The first one turned out horribly. Okay first we taped crayons to the top of a canvas. Then, you just melt them with a blow dryer. Sounds easy right? IT'S NOT!!  The first one looked like this:

pretty awful right?

Well we learned that you cannot buy the cheap off brand crayons like us poor college kids did. You have to buy the legit Crayola crayons because the off brand is just too oily. It's also a lot easier to use a smaller surface. Then, you have to tape the crayons down a lot. We had a strip of masking tape across all of them, duct tape on top of that, then we had to close pin them to the board. If you don't secure them very well, then as they melt, they fall off. I'm gonna show you the other picture again so you don't have to look at that awful thing. 

Much better.

After the melted crayons dry, you have to untape the crayons and it leaves an awkward space at the top where they were. So as you can see, we painted it. We went and bought the chalkboard paint so now we have an awesome looking chalkboard! By the way, I suggest doing this outside because as it's melting, the crayon goes everywhere. It's also a good lesson in patience if you're doing this with little ones because it does take a few minutes for the crayons to start melting. 

My friend Megan also made a painting that has "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He loves me" with a picture of a little bird. It was so cute!! So we made all these into decorations for our dorm room! 

Yall have a good week!!

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You have reached the blog of Erin Michelle Albin. She is currently in mourning because the Rangers didn't win the World Series.Hopefully this mourning will only last a few days, but don't be surprised if it lasts longer than that. 

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Day 13-My goals

Alright I'm just putting on my big girl panties and doing this one. But keep in mind, I don't wanna. I came to the library to study and do my homework before the Rangers win the World Series tonight, but I ended up here. So I suppose I will do my goals. I think I hate writing down goals so much because the whole time I was in tennis (6th-10th grade) our coach would make write down short term, mid term, and long term goals about our life and with tennis. Every single year, my goals were the same. Mainly just because I didn't particularly like this guy, so I just did this to please him and get him to stop bothering me about them. But, I suppose these goals are different. I'll actually put thought into these and not just write them to get past this post ;)

Goal Numero Uno

My goal in life is to help people. Growing up, I've always known that I wanted to help people but I felt like I  was being called during high school to take that to another level and add my faith into it. Like I said before, I have no clue what I want to do, but I know I want to serve Christ. And I want to live my best for Him. Now, I don't want you to think that I'm just saying this because it's the "Christian" thing to say. It really is my passion to live for Christ and to serve Him through my career. I whole heartedly don't want people to think that I'm saying or doing something just because it's the "Christian" thing to do. So goal number one: Serve Christ through my career and my life.

Goal Numero Dos

I sat here for a few minutes trying to think of another goal. Think about it, if my first goal is to serve Christ, doesn't everything else kinda fall within that? Anywho, I guess my other goal would be to make my family and those who love me proud. And I know that if I live for Christ then they'll be proud no matter what. Hopefully. 

Okay I just went back and read this and it is much better than my tennis goals throughout the years. But I really don't see how it couldve been worse. Like I said before, I don't want people to think that within this blog, I'm only writing the "Christian" things that I think. I try to be super honest on this blog. I probably open up more on this blog then I do to most of the people I'm super close to. I'm just a normal person. I doubt, I fear, and I definitely have my faults. So keep that in mind. :)

I find it necessary to end each blog with something funny because humor is a big part of my personality. And I get most of these off of pinterest so sorry if I post a picture that I've already put on here. I guess that means I think it's extra funny.

In case you haven't noticed, I also really like cats...

Hmph

The next day on my blog challenge is to write my goals. I HATE writing goals with everything in my soul. Hate it. I know, if I don't have goals then I have nothing to work towards right? I have inward goals but I don't see it necessary to write those down. But I will. eventually. As for now, the Rangers are playing, I'm doing homework, and I'm on pinterest. So maybe tomorrow I will force myself to write about my goals. 

I'm quite excited about it as you can tell :/

So instead of reading about my goals, you can look at this hilarious picture.

Day 12- What I believe

If you know me at all, you know for the most part what I believe. I'm very forward about my beliefs and I try to show what I believe more than voice it. Although when the opportunity arises, of course I'll talk about it. But I think a major part of living out my faith is my actually living it and doing everything I do for Christ. Okay so lets get down to the nitty gritty. 

I believe Jesus Christ died for me. And I believe that Christ is the one person I can count no matter what. As much as I want to believe that people won't let me down, they do. But Christ is the one that is always there and will never let me down. No matter what. When I first accepted Christ when I was 7, it seemed really simple. But as I've grown up and matured, I've come to realize that Christianity is not an easy life. Is it worth it? Of course. But it can be really hard to give up everything in your life to Christ. Every single thing. But I've realized that it's the only thing to do in order to get through life in one piece. 

Now don't get me wrong, as hard as it sometimes to surrender everything, living life for Christ is amazing. Think about it. Not only do you have your biological family, but you have your family of God. A second family that is always there for you and will be there to pray with you, rejoice with you, and cry with you. This is one of my favorite hymns. I LOVE the lyrics because it's so incredibly true. My church family has helped shape me into who I am today. I think a lot of people don't think about lyrics until they actually see them written down so here ya go.

I'm so glad I'm a part of the Family of God,

I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by His blood!

Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod,

For I'm part of the family,

The Family of God.

You will notice we say "brother and sister" 'round here,

It's because we're a family and these are so near;

When one has a heartache, we all share the tears,

And rejoice in each victory in this family so dear.

I'm so glad I'm a part of the Family of God,

I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by His blood!

Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod,

For I'm part of the family,

The Family of God.

From the door of an orphanage to the house of the King,

No longer an outcast, a new song I sing;

From rags unto riches, from the weak to the strong,

I'm not worthy to be here, but praise God I belong!

I'm so glad I'm a part of the Family of God,

I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by His Blood!

Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod,

For I'm part of the family,

The Family of God

I LOVE it!! Anywho, Christ is my savior and always will be. I can't imagine my life without my faith. I just want to shake all those that don't believe in Christ and tell them how awesome it is. How rewarding it is. And how much it will change your life.

My grandpa always told us this and it has stuck with me throughout the yeras. If we're wrong about our faith, what do we have to lose? But if non believers are wrong about Christ, think about all they have to lose. 

Day 11-TV Shows

Okay guys, this one is gonna be a long one. I have a lot of tv shows that I have to watch. We even have our schedule taped to our wall. So get ready for a long post. Theses aren't in order by the way.

 Glee! I'm slowly starting to distance myself from Glee. The first two seasons were really good and now they're just kinda ehh. But I think they're getting better! In case you're not a Gleek (Glee geek), Glee is about a group of kids in a high school that are in the glee club. It was kinda started to give the outcasts a group to get into, but it's super funny.  Fox, Tuesdays at 7

 New Girl is possibly the funniest new show ever. It's about a girl that breaks up with her boyfriend and ends up with 3 room mates that she's never met. The room mates are all guys and shes super awkward about everything. But she's hilarious. It's a must see. Fox, Tuesdays at 8

 Raising Hope is about a baby that is being raised by her young father. They live with the grandparents of the baby and then the great grandma of the baby. The mother of the baby was actually executed right after she was. The family is really out there and kinda white trash. It's sounds really weird and lame, but I promise it's funny. Fox, Tuesdays at 9

 The Middle is hilarious. It's a clean family friendly comedy. The family is a normal, middle class family with 3 kids. The oldest son is a jock, the daughter is a total dork, and the youngest is a nerd. It's so funny to see how they live with each other. ABC, Wednesdays at 7

 Modern Family is literally one of the funniest shows I've seen. Its the dad and his young wife with her son (far left), the daughter of the dad and her family(middle), and then the son of the dad who is gay and has a little oriental baby with his partner. It shows how they interact within their family and then with the extended family. This show has been laughing sooo hard every week. ABC, Wednesdays at 8

 Greys Anatomy is a typical medical show. Of course, there's medical problems within it, but theres also all the drama that comes with the doctors. I stopped watching this show last season but I've started watching it again. ABC Thursdays at 8

Bones is another murder mystery show. Bones(left) and Booth(right) are the 2 main characters. Booth works for the FBI and Bones is a forensic anthropologist who is kinda socially awkward. They've always had a little love interest thing going on but it's never quite gone anywhere till this last season. Definitely watch it! Fox, Thursdays at 8. 

 Friends is one of my top 3 favorite shows of all times. I have every season on DVD. Briana had never really watched it so we have that on before bed and times when we have nothing else to do. It's about a group of 6 friends and their lives in New York city. Hilarious show. They show it randomly on TBS throughout the day

Criminal Minds. I LOVE this show. It's a murder mystery but on a whole new level. They deal with murders that no one else can deal with. Highly recommend this show. It's on tv pretty much all the time on A&E.

Plans

In case you didn't know, I'm all about plans. I love plans, lists, and all that go along with them. I like to know exactly what I'm gonna be doing and when I'm gonna be doing it. Now, if something comes up, I'm totally fine with changing that plan. But I like to have a foundation. This characteristic of mine is kind of annoying when it comes to college. Of course, I keep my planner so everything is written down, and I can plan out my schedule for next semester, but I can only plan out so much. I can't plan out the rest of my life because I have no clue what's going to happen. Life is going to happen and everything will change.

What I'm getting at is that I have no clue what I want to do with my life and that drives me totally crazy. I'm so jealous of those that know exactly what they want to do and are working towards that goal. Since I'm such a planner, it bothers me so much that I don't have a plan for after college. I'm not gonna say it worries me. I try to steer clear of the word "worry" because it shows a lack of faith. But in actuality, that's what it is. Keep in mind, I want this blog to be totally real. So as important as my faith is to me, it's gonna have its weaknesses. My future is one of those weaknesses. It drives me absolutely crazy that I have no clue what I'm gonna do. And yes, that is a lack of faith in God. I'll admit that. But I'll also say that I'm working on it. And I'll be working on it until God shows me what He wants me to do with his life. 

Right now, I'm majoring in Child and Family Studies and planning on minoring in Religion. But what am I gonna do with that? NO CLUE. I'm leaning towards 2 things right now:

-Adoption

   My ultimate goal would be to make adoption a less expensive project. Not quite sure how I would do that yet, but I think it'd be amazing if I could. If one family is willing to give up their baby in the hopes of a better life for it and one family is willing to take in the baby and care for them and love them, then it really shouldn't be as expensive as it is. It baffles me.

-Family Ministries

  Growing up, I was always in church. Being in church all the time gave me a foundation to stand on once I got old enough to make my own decisions with my faith. My faith has gotten me through everything and I think it'd be amazing to show God's love to families and their children. 

Like I said before, I have no clue what I want to do. But I do that I want to help people. And I want to show people the love of Christ. Mix those 2 together and it'd be perfect. So that should get me through right?