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!

Wait, What?

Remember a few months back when I said I was one of the most well-behaved rebellious people you will ever meet? Well, it's true. If someone thinks I can't do something, I'll probably do it just because they told me not to. Had everyone pushed me to go to one college, I would've completely shut it out as an option. That's just how I work. On the other hand, if a person with authority tells me to do something, I'll do it. That's where the well-behaved part comes in. So when I told people I wanted to try and cut meat out of my diet for 2 weeks and they told me I couldn't do it, well I had to prove them wrong of course! Yes, you read that right. I'm a vegetarian for the time being. I'm not planning on doing it forever. I started this past Wednesday and I'm planning on going meat-less until I come home next weekend. I actually rarely eat red meat. My diet pretty much consists of only chicken. Surprisingly, it's been fairly simple so far. I'm not craving meat or anything, I'm just tired of being limited on what I can actually eat. Thankfully one of our dining halls on campus has pretty tasty vegetarian options. On Friday I had eggplant Parmesan for lunch and a veggie chimichanga for dinner. Pretty yummy! For the record, I'm not doing this to go on a diet and I'm not doing this because I think it's wrong to kill animals. I'm simply doing it to prove to myself and to others that I actually can do it.

Change of subject.

As most of yall know, I live with my cousin Briana and I'm not gonna lie, we have a blast. Tonight we were playing Just Dance 2 and things got a little crazy. We were doing a hip hop song and our we had a little collision. Our elbows hit soooooo hard I'm pretty sure the people across the hall could hear it. I immediately fell to my bed and Briana was bent over in pain. Our arms went numb, all our fingers were tingly and numb, and Briana felt like her hand was on fire. It was the worst thing ever. But because we're quite giggly people, we were also laughing hysterically. We literally could not breathe because we were laughing so hard but we also could barely move our arms. It was quite the scene. Our neighbors probably think we're crazy but oh well, we have fun. And hurt ourselves pretty badly in the process.

I thought I'd share a few songs with yall that I have become obsessed with. Be careful, once you hear them, you will want to listen to them nonstop. Not only is the music good, but the lyrics are very powerful and so easy to relate to. Be sure and listen to each of them, trust me, they're good!

Funny story: I wore a new pair of jeans today and when I went to go shower, I realized that they had turned my legs blue. Like actually blue. I looked like I was turning into an Avatar or a Smurf. I was in the shower forever scrubbing off layers of skin to get my skin back to it's ghostly white color. 

Yall have a good week!

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.

Isaiah 40:8.

It's that just an awesome verse!? Love it!

New Semester

I can already tell that this semester is going to be a good one! First off, I'm not taking Statistics, so it's bound to be better then last semester! I'm super excited about the majority of my classes. As of now, I'm graduating a semester early unless I decide to double major in Child and Family Studies and Religion. That being said, I try to pack as much into a semester as I can so this semester I'm taking 17 hours. But it seems like it's going to be a fun 17 hours.

*Remember that rule about not writing your schedule in your blog? Yea, I'm breaking it.*

Mondays

9:05-9:55 Christian Heritage. 

               I think I'm most excited about this class. Honestly, my inner nerd is coming out with this one. I've already read the assigned reading for the next week because I find it so interesting. So far, we've talked about the start and spread of Christianity and also martyrdom. I really look forward to Mondays and Wednesdays because I get to go to this class. It's just so fascinating to learn the history behind the stories I already knew.

10:10-11  Chapel

              All students at Baylor are required to take 2 semesters of chapel and it's zero credit hours. But, I enjoy it. It gives us a nice break from the craziness of life and gives us a chance to just be with God.

4:00-5:15  Tennis

              This tennis class was a last minute thing, but I'm excited about it. I played tennis throughout high school but I ended up quitting because it killed my back. Since I stopped playing in high school, I've missed it so much. It felt great to be out there on the court again actually playing. Of course, my back has been killing me since, but I guess it's something I have to deal with.

Tuesday/Thursday

9:30-10:45  Chemistry in Society

               Pretty much, this is the easier chemistry for people that will never take an upper level science course. It's required for our major so it's a lot more basic. I LOVE this teacher. His name is Dr.Hassel and the first day of class he walks in wearing a shirt that says, "Chemistry is a Hassel." I knew from that  moment that he was gonna be interesting. He then takes about 30 minutes out of the first day of class to tell us how important it is to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. He told that the more and more he learns about science, the more he believes that there has to be a God to make it all fit together. He was also on Oprah because him and his wife write love letters to each other every day. How cute is that?! He is such an interesting man.

11:00-12:15   Apparel in Today's Society

             Bleh. Not looking forward to this course. I'm not interested in the Fashion Industry enough to take a class on it. The professor seems super nice, it's just not my thing. Because my degree is in the Family and Consumer Sciences department, we are required to take a course out of each of the other majors.

2:00-3:15   Child Development

            I love this class so far. It's exactly what the name sounds like; we just learn about the development of children starting at conception and going through the age of 24. This is one of the classes that actually fits with my major so I'm excited!

3:30-4:45   American Constitutional Development

          Bleh.  We learn about government and the constitution, simple as that. This is a very bad class to have at the end of the day when you are already tired. 

Wednesday

Wednesday is the same as Monday except I have my Chemistry Lab from 12:20-2:00. The lab instructor is an interesting International student, so it should be an entertaining class. 

Friday

I just have my Christian Heritage class on Fridays. But starting the first week of February for 6 weeks in a row, I have a lab for my Child Development class from 10-12. Technically, it's not a lab, but it pretty much is. Baylor has a place called Piper Development Center. It is a center for children from infants up to 5 years old. Total, they have about 30-40 kids there. It is a learning center for the children but they also use it as a learning center for Baylor students. Once  a week, we have to go observe the children. We sit down and play with them, watch how they interact, and just see all the developmental stages they go through. I think it'll be fun. 

That's pretty much how my week is. Since I've been back up here, I realized how much I actually missed it over the break. I like having my routine and actually being busy. I don't think this semester will have tons of work, but it will have a lot of reading. Good thing I like reading! Right now, I'm in Austin for the 3 day weekend hanging out with Courtney. Good ol' sister bonding time! 

Living to please God instead of pleasing people is really working out so far. I've realized that it'll get me a lot further with things in my life. I know it won't be so easy with every decision, but I'm working on it.

I suppose I'll go to sleep now. But before I go, you must look at this picture of this cat I think is possibly the cutest animal ever. I wouldn't mind if someone bought one for me :)

Apparently, some people think they're creepy, but I think they're adorable! They're Munchkin cats and they have a mutant gene that makes them have super short legs. But, they don't have any heath problems as a side effect. They can run, jump, and climb just like any other kitty. So cute!!

Pleasing

I feel like it's been forever since I've posted anything on here, but sometimes, my life just isn't all that interesting. I'm not quite sure where this post is going so hang in there with me. The one thing I do know is that leaving to go back to Waco on Sunday is not going to be an easy task. I love being home. I love seeing everybody. This is where I'm comfortable. I love Baylor, don't get me wrong and I know that's where I'm supposed to be for college. I guess the right things in life aren't always the easiest.

In the past few weeks, something has been brought to my attention that I've always known and has always been very apparent in my life. Maybe because I'm having to make a lot of decisions lately that it's been pushed to the forefront. I'm a people pleaser. Which, to an extent isn't a bad thing. Now, I have to be more specific with this. I'm a people that I care about pleaser. I don't really care about pleasing people that I don't know. But I do want to please those that love me. That's not a bad thing right? Up until recently, I figured this was a good thing. Those people keep me accountable for living a Christ like life. What I've recently realized is that we shouldn't be living our life for anyone but Christ. I shouldn't live my life to please people. Yesterday, I was asked a very thought provoking question. "If God was calling you to do something that absolutely no one approved of, would you do it?" This was a really hard thing for me to answer. Everyone wants to say. "yea, if God called me to do it, then of course I will." But if the opportunity actually arose, would you? And I'm speaking mainly to myself, but it would be really hard for me obey Him if it would upset my family and friends. Also, people will let me down. It's inevitable. No one is perfect and people I love will let me down from time to time so why live to please people? Christ will never let me down. I'd much rather live for Him then people. Now, I don't want this to come out sounding bitter, because I'm definitely not. I also don't want yall to read this and then think that I'm gonna go out and do whatever I want because I'm not trying to please yall anymore. I think by living to please Christ, I will please the people that love me along the way.

Going along with this, my goal for this semester is to live my life to please Christ and no one else. When deciding what to do with my life, my summer, no matter what it is, my first thought should be, "What will please Christ and make his love shine through me" not "What would my friends and family want me to do." This won't be an easy task for me, but I definitely think its attainable.

I hope yall have had an awesome start to the year! How crazy is it that it's 2012? I'm getting old, people!

Oh! I almost forgot, my parents gave my Josh Hamilton's autobiography for me for Christmas. I LOVED this book. Even if you're not a huge baseball fan like I am, you should definitely read it. In case you don't know his story, he grew up in a very loving home and was very well behaved as a teenager. He started playing major league baseball and got messed up in drugs. These drugs starting taking over his life almost to the point of no return. Eventually, he found Christ and that was the only thing that got him past the addiction. He now very openly lives his life for Christ and proclaims it every chance he gets. The book is an easy read and you won't want to put the book down!