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.