the lull in the storm.

i just turned in a paper, and am now feeling much better! i think i am going to let myself take a break and watch gilmore girls with emily tonight. today was not as bad as i thought it would be, for sure only because God is totally getting me through it! so for now, this finals week, i will look on the bright side: i am sitting in my chair wrapped in two blankets, i ate free bean burrito from taco bell, i am listening to a christmas playlist on pandora, and i am having a library date with james tomorrow.

good luck on finals!

and for those who finished theirs [ahem c and b]: no fair.

ugh.

one week until winter break!! unfortunately, i am not in much of a christmasy spirit. before i am able to relax and enjoy the season, i have to:

study for my math final.
study for my linguistics final.
finish an english paper.
edit another english paper.
write a reflection paper for linguistics.
write another paper for linguistics.

i repeat: ugh.

rethinking christmas music.

tonight was an amazing one for several reasons.

for starters, it was $1 taco night at chino's [how did i not know this before??], so steph and i went with hannah to catch up. it was so good, and mostly included us gushing over the fact that she is getting married in june, ordered a wedding dress, and booked their honeymoon [cancun!!]. i feel so blessed to have such an amazing discipleship leader!

also, my night class was cancelled, enabling me to go to crusade for the third time this quarter. it was christmas crusade, which just made it that much better, and it was the last one of the quarter, which made me thankful to be able to see all my cru friends again before break. james led worship tonight, and it was amazing [yayy for Jesus!!]. we did some christmas songs, which i love. but tonight, it was a little different. every year, we sing christmas songs at church, and i always love them. why? because they are fun and it is only really socially acceptable to sing them for one month out of the year. i never really viewed them as worhip songs. sure, they are about Jesus, but i just lost sight of that in the excitement of the season. tonight, the christmas music was worship. i totally felt the Holy Spirit moving, and it was so good [biggest understatement ever]. God was definitely working tonight, and i am on such a high from it! i have so much to do and am feeling a lot of stress as finals start, but in that moment, worshipping Him, i just felt a huge peace wash over me, and i know that God has it under control.

tonight was also good because james' grandparents came up to see him, and i got to meet them. they were so cute and his grandma invited me to visit them over break. i can already tell we are going to be besties [much to james' dismay]. when he introduced me to them, i went to shake his grandma's hand, but she said, "i am going to hug you!" and gave me a huge amazing hug! i just loved it.

basically, the moral of the story [as most are] is that God is good.

thanksgiving, dead week, and the boy.

okay, so i will start with thanksgiving.

my thanksgiving break was so good. on wednesday my mom came up, and we cooked at my aunt's house and got ready for thursday. i also got to go on a cousin date with katie, and we saw new moon! i defintely liked it better than twilight for several reasons, but i will spare you the details. on thursday, my dad and brothers came up, and we all had thanksgiving at my aunt and uncle's house in los osos. there were about 30 of us, which was crazy, but it was so nice to see all my extended family who i haven't seen in a while. on friday, paul and i went shopping, which is our way of bonding [yes, it's probably weird that my brother likes shopping as much as i do, but hey, he's family so i have to like him]. it was nice to catch up with him, and he bought me lunch at the oh-so-classy jack in the box. on friday night, we went to my aunt's house and played mexican train and apples to apples, which resulted in a lot of laughter, and me feeling more bonded to my extended family than i have in a while, which was really cool. on saturday, my family left, so i just decorated the apartment for christmas with stephanie and hung out, which was nice.

which brings me to dead week.

i don't have anything really due this week, but i have a lot of things due finals week that i should probably get started on. stephanie and i are definitely feeling the stress, but i am determined to not let it get to me. so this week will definitely include studying, but more importantly, i will be taking time out to spend with jesus. he's really the only one who can get me through my four papers and three finals.

now for the boy.

or, more specifically, the boyfriend. i have one. and his name is james and he is amazing. everyone who reads this already knows about him, but i just figured he was worth mentioning again. he has really been showing me what a man of God looks like, and i am very blessed by him. he is just one of the many people in my life i am thankful for this thanksgiving.

well, it is time for me to stop procrastinating and actually get some work done tonight!

it makes me happy.

that i got 2 really cute dresses, a pair of tights, and some cute bobby pins at forever 21 yesterday for $18.25.

that i can now play the song "vanilla twilight" by owl city on the guitar.

that i only have one class til the weekend.

that i am going line dancing tonight.

that i can wear my new dresses this weekend.

that i talked to caitlin and bailey on skype today.

that life is good and God is blessing me.

this is a good week.

why?

because we don't have school on wednesday.
because my mom gave me a ton of chocolate.
because God is awesome.
because i found a new song to be obsessed with (the bird and the worm by owl city).
because good things are happening.
because i am wearing purple pants.
because i have groceries.
because i decided it would be.

<3

insignificant ramblings.

my mom is coming this weekend and i am so excited!!! we are hiking bishop's peak with my aunt and cousin... which should be interesting to say the least. i will probably be the one dying while my aunt forges ahead. my family can be a little intense sometimes. but it is going to be so great to just have a girls weekend with my mom to do some shopping and just have one on one time with her!

tomorrow my bible study is coming over to bake cookies and hang out, which will be fun, but now requires me to do an intense deep cleansing of our apartment tonight. it is really scary right now... so i might be up a little late!

also, last night i was sitting at my computer when something fell on my desk really loudly, and i screamed [are you really surprised?]. turns out it was just the fire sprinkler on my ceiling that came undone, but it scared the crap out of me.

okay, time to begin operation make the apartment semi presentable. wish me luck!!