Last Questions

I decided to put the last 3 questions into one post. I'm sorry I'm so incredibly boring, yall. I can't help it!!

Question: Do you make your bed every day? Did you have to when you were growing up?

That would be a negative :/ Sorry to disappoint! I'm not a morning person AT ALL. Briana tells me I give some nasty looks when I first wake up. Growing up, it took me forever to get out of bed so I was pretty much always running late. I was lucky if I was looking decent by the time I left the house, let alone with my bed made. Now, I make it on average one a week. It doesn't really bother me until the covers are all bunched up at my feet, then I have to make it. Or if we have friends or family coming into town, I have to make them think my room looks nice and pretty all the time so I have to make my bed. 

Question: What's a little restaurant/hang out/little known spot that you've found and love to visit in Waco?

That would definitely be Common Grounds. It's the awesome little coffeeshop right by campus. From my dorm, it literally takes 2 minutes to walk there. They have all kinds of yummy drinks but the atmosphere is really what makes the place so awesome. They have open mic night and also have artists come in and play. For instance, Phil Wickham played there on Saturday night. A lot of people go there to study, but I get really distracted people watching so I can't study there. But it's an awesome place!

Question: When you think of a young couple today, one that intends to get married under God and spend their life together, what in your mind defines their relationship as pure? Do you see many couples that fit this definition?

Whoah. This question is a lot deeper than I expected but it's all good! I've been thinking of ways to answer this and not be awkward or make anyone uncomfortable, so hopefully I answer it in a decent way. I think the first question can be answered in a fairly simple way. If a couple wants to get married under God and wants to remain pure, don't have sex. That's pretty much all it comes down. I don't think there really is another way to answer that, and if you disagree, feel free to discuss it with me. I'm open to hear other thoughts! The second question is a little more difficult. When I have my blinders on, I look around and get really discouraged about the number of people that fit this description. Then, I open my eyes and look closely at the Godly people around me, and I see that there are still couples that are remaining pure until marriage. For the majority of the time, it is really discouraging because I know how people my age are. In one of my classes last year, we learned that 97% of people have had sex before they get married and with Christians, it only goes down to 92%. This kinda freaked me out. I've made the decision to remain pure until marriage. So when I saw this statistic, I was a little discouraged that I would never find this Godly man that has made the same decision as I have. But it is God, so I think He's got it under control :) I'm not quite sure I really answered the second question very well so I'll try to sum it up. Looking at the world as a whole, no, not very many couples fit this description. But looking at just Christians, yes, I think there are a pretty good number of couples that choose to remain pure. 

Props to this anonymous person, it was a really good question. 

This is kind of along the same lines, but I just love this quote. I'm a sucker for a boy that loves his momma. If he can't treat his mom with respect, how is he gonna treat me with respect?

Oh!! I just remembered a story I just have to share. For my Child Development class, we have to go to a development center that is run by Baylor and just play with the kids. Technically, we're supposed to be observing them, but we really just play with them. It's pretty awesome. Anywho, I was with the two year olds this past week.  I was sitting on the playground and this little boy named Keaton came and sat on my lap because he was cold. This other girl came up and was sitting with us. I have a charm on my bracelet that is a heart with a cross carved out of the middle. Tatum, the little girl, asked me, "Why do you have a T in your heart?" I told her it wasn't a T, it was a cross. She insisted it looked like a T. That's when Keaton chimed in and said, "Tatum, it's a cross. It means Jesus." OH MY GOODNESS. That little boy just made my heart melt. It was one of the sweetest things I've ever heard. It makes me so excited to have a career that involves moments like this!

I hope yall have a good week! I have 2 tests this week, 1 test next week then SPRING BREAK!!!! So pumped!

Favorite Childhood Memory

Okay I figured I would answer one question per blog post so it won't get too cluttered. This is a good question, but also a hard one. I can't pick just one memory, so I decided to pick 2 (I hope that's okay with you Ms.Mann!). 

The first memory that came to mind was when it snowed in Rockport in 2004. Christmas is always my favorite time of the year, but the snow just made it magical. I'll never forget walking out of the Christmas Eve service at church and seeing the snow falling. We all didn't really know what to do because we were used to 60 degree weather on Christmas, not snow. We went to my grandparents house afterwards for the usual Christmas Eve festivities thinking that the snow wouldn't really stick and it would be gone in a few hours. I remember walking out of Wawa's house late that night to go home and there was actual snow on the ground! But hadn't seen the best of it yet! I remember my parents waking me up that morning and we were all SO excited. Looking out onto the yard, it was solid white. We didn't have clothes suitable for snow so we had to put socks over our hands to go out and play in it. Our dog Annie had no idea what to think of the snow. It totally confused her. We would make a snowball and throw it to her and when she would try to catch it and it would break, she would just sit there and try to figure it out. I LOVED seeing tropical Rockport covered in snow. It made that Christmas somewhat of a fairy tale for us. Technically, I wasn't a child when this happened, but oh well. It will definitely be a memory that will stick with me forever.

The other memory that will always stick with me is the Fourth of July in Rockport. Growing up, I loved July 4th. The town, of course, was always packed full of people. We would spend the day at my grandparents house with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins and whoever else happened to show up. It was a day filled with lots and lots of food, sunshine, and lots and lots of laughter. Once it got dark, we would gather up blankets, chairs, drinks, and bug spray and start walking down to the empty lot on the beach road to watch the fireworks. There would be lots of "OOOO's and AHHH's" with every blast of color in the sky. After the firework show, we would play hail (family card game) until late at night. This game could get pretty vicious and pretty loud and somewhere throughout the night, my grandpa would turn his hearing aids down to quiet us down a little bit. That's when we knew we were having a good time though. One year, we played hail for hours then moved into the computer room and played Text Twist until about 2 am. Of course, there would be tears from laughing so hard, there always was when we got together. That was my idea of fun on the 4th of July and we still talk about memories from those nights and start laughing all over again.

Now it's my turn to ask the questions. What was your favorite childhood memory?

Q&A

Okay just being honest here, but I'm bored with my blog. If I'm bored, that means yall are probably bored. Sorry about that. While I was not paying attention in political science yesterday, I was thinking of ways to make my blog a little more interesting. I decided I'm gonna answer ANY questions yall ask me. Within reason haha. On the blog, you can comment anonymously so I won't even know who asked me the question. Which could be a very dangerous thing, but I'm giving yall the benefit of the doubt. You could also put it in a comment on my Facebook. Then I'll answer questions in a blog post. I kind of have this fear that no one is going to actually ask questions and then it'll just be embarrassing. If no one asks, I'll just end up deleting this whole post and that would just be awkward for all of us. It'd be like inviting 100 people to a birthday party and no one showing up, it's just a tad depressing and embarrassing. So ask away people!

If yall are looking for some new music, I've got just the right band!! Jenny and Tyler played at chapel today and once last semester and they're awesome. They're a young married couple and pretty much the cutest things ever.  The music is on itunes so feel free to buy away!! Or you can go here http://www.jennyandtylermusic.com/ and sign up for the mailing list to get 7 of their songs for free!

Start asking the questions and save me from embarrassment please :)

Sports. And some other stuff.

First off, how bout those New York Giants?! I love Eli Manning, especially over Tom Brady so I was super excited when they won. As most of yall know, I am a huge sports fan. I've tried putting my love for sports into words and I just can't. Just know I love it. And I love the Manning family. The Superbowl is an awkward few hours for me though. Obviously, I want to watch the game, I mean, that's the whole point right? But I also have to watch the commercials. Then, there's the Puppy Bowl which is too cute not to watch. So I'm flipping back and forth and sacrificing some of the commercials to watch the puppies, but then when am I supposed to go to the bathroom?! Normally, that's what commercial breaks are for, but that's not the case here. It takes some major prioritizing I'll tell you that much. Did anyone else think the commercials were kinda lame this year? There were a few that were decent and some were even funny, but a lot of them were just plain dumb. I have to admit, I laughed out loud at the M&M commercial that was played early on in the game. There's a good chance it wasn't all that funny though. I tend to think things are funnier than they really are. Oh well. 

Oh a more serious note, I'm sure most of yall have seen the news about Josh Hamilton. Knowing Josh Hamilton's testimony, I have the utmost respect for him. After reading his book over Christmas break, I respected him even more. He has such an crazy history and he uses that to bring people to Christ. When I was sitting at my desk on Thursday watching the news, the anchor reported that Josh had relapsed. My heart sank immediately. I was heartbroken. I felt like it was my own brother that had relapsed. It absolutely killed me to hear that he was struggling again. I wasn't mad or disappointed in him. I was sad for him. I kept in mind that no one was saying how much he drank or the circumstances of the whole situation. But I knew that if he had drank alcohol, there was a bigger problem than just alcohol. He was battling something within. Immediately, there were people all over the media belittling him and use his relapse against him and against him and Christianity. I realize that these people are going to find something wrong in him no matter what he does, but when they belittle him over this, they obviously don't understand the grace of God. And Josh realizes that he messed up. I read a report the next day that said he wasn't drunk, he just a had a few beers. Now, I realize that by AA standards, that is a relapse, but it wasn't a relapse like he had in 2009. He shouldn't have even gone in the bar, but he did. I have faith that Josh will be fine and he won't let this set him back. When he first had addiction problems, he couldn't overcome it alone. That's the difference in this relapse. He has Christ to get him through it. He's not working through it alone. I realize that all this may sound completely ridiculous because I don't know him on a personal level and he doesn't even know that I exist, but I know he will get through it and put it in his past. He lost A battle but the didn't lose THE war.

Now, here comes the"and some other stuff" part of the blog. I'm starting to think that only about 20% of men actually respect women nowadays. There's one situation that exemplifies this though. I was walking back to my dorm after playing tennis last week so obviously I wasn't in my cutest outfit with my hair all pretty and whatnot. I'm walking through a parking lot and this Lil Wayne lookalike walks up to me and says, "Hey gurl, you lookin fine, danggg." Excuse me? Did you seriously just say this? Now, him being a lil Wayne lookalike makes no difference, it just kinda gives you a mental image. I would be reacting the same way if a scrawny little white guy said it to me. Anywho, do guys really think that when they say that I'm just gonna run up and hug them and start planning our wedding? No. Had they say, "Excuse me, you're really pretty. Can I possibly take you on a date some night," they would've at least gotten a second thought. I'm not asking to arrange a dowry or anything, just a little more than "Hey gurl, you lookin fine." Have a little respect gentlemen. It will get you further in life.

And then I remind myself of this little quote: 

Above All Else

I feel like it's been forever since I've blogged. The main reason for that is because I didn't have a computer :( It was quite the situation. This past week has been hectic to say the least so I figured I would start from the beginning. I have to admit, this post will probably be a little complainy but it has a good ending, I promise! So hang in there with me.

First off, I was home this past weekend to attend the Jessica's wedding shower. I'll get into this later, but words cannot express how excited I am about their wedding. But anywho, I was in Rockport for the weekend which flew by, then headed back to the Wack on Sunday. On our way home, we went through College Station to see our guys. Briana had dinner with her friend James and they got to hang out some while I had dinner with JC, Hunter, and Matt. These boys just put me in the best mood. They make me laugh more than just about anyone I know. I sometimes forget how much I miss them until I'm around them again. Monday is where all the stress started. I woke up only to find that my computer decided to die. I don't mean just the battery dying, I mean the whole stinking computer died. It wouldn't turn on so I took it to Altex here and they told me that the Motherboard died. Motherboard=thing that makes the computer do just about everything, including turn on. I was kind of panicking because all of my notes for my classes are on my computer. To add to that, I had an open note test in Chemistry the next day, so I was almost in tears. But, the guys at Altex saved me and were able to get my files off of my hard drive. I had my chem test on Tuesday and put my poor dead laptop in the mail to be fixed and returned hopefully soon.

Wednesday is when everything started to hate me. I woke up and felt like death. Okay that might be a little exaggerated, but I did feel really bad. I knew I had to study for my Child Development test and Political Science test that I had on Thursday, but I really didn't want to. I have my tennis class on Mondays and Wednesdays which I always look forward to. I love being out there and just hitting the ball with all my strength. On Wednesday, we got out early but I stayed afterwards to with my coach on my serving. In high school, my serve was my weapon. Now? Not so much, it's a little rusty. So I stayed for about 30 minutes working on my serve. In case you didn't know, I have back problems that really flare up when I play tennis and especially serve a lot. But when I'm out there, I don't think about that. I think about how therapeutic it is to be out there and hitting. Needless to say, after I finished hitting, I was pretty sure I was gonna die. Mix back pain with already being sick and it was not fun. I had to muster up all my strength to move. It was pathetic, I have to admit. I then spent the rest of Wednesday night studying for my two tests and feeling sorry for myself. I know that's not a very attractive trait to have, but at the moment, I couldn't help it. I was sick, my back was killing me, I had no computer, 2 tests the next day, 1 of which I wasn't prepared for at all, and I just wanted to go to sleep. I was working at my desk and looked up. On my desk, I have a poem that my mom sent me called Above All Else by Stormie Omartian. It's kind of a long poem but the part that stuck out said:

He's the Everlasting Father. 

 In His hands you'll never fall

   He's the One who holds it all.

Above all else

       He's the author of your laughter,

  He's the keeper of your tears

      He's the one who you must fear

  Above all else.

The main idea of the poem is that my parents just want me to love the Lord, above all else. So I looked at this poem and felt completely ridiculous. Am I really complaining about my life and throwing a little pity party for myself because I'm sick and have no computer? Seriously Erin? It was definitely a moment of clarity. After that slap in the face, Thursday was much better. I was still stressed over my tests, but I went through the day knowing that whatever happens. I was able to have lunch with Hollie on her way up to Fort Worth. And with her, she brought a laptop for me. My mom was nice enough to let me borrow hers until mine is fixed. I then went and took my 2 tests back to back and survived the day. I ended up making a 96 on one of them as well and haven't heard about the others. Plus Courtney is staying with me this weekend and I'm really excited about it. I love that we are so close to each other and get to hang out every couple of weeks. Remember that happy part I was talking about in the beginning? Well 1. I survived the week, 2. I had a good slap in the face, 3. I get to see my sister, 4. I made a good grade on my test. 

Now I just have to make it through one more week and I get to go home for Jessica and Wes's Wedding!! I'm so stinking excited. This couple is a true testimony of what God will give to those who are faithful. They give me hope to be patient for the guy that God has for me. Words cannot explain how excited I am. I don't know how I'm going to hold my composure during the wedding. 

Okay I realize this was obnoxiously long, so if you're still reading, I appreciate it! You must somewhat like me to stick around this long. It's so long that I don't even wanna go back and check for my typo's which I'm sure are there. So please ignore those. I hope yall will be watching the Superbowl Sunday! I'm definitely going for the Giants, I love Eli Manning. But I have to admit, that I will also be watching the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet every once in a while. It's on during the whole game and I highly suggest flipping over at least once to watch it!