EASTER WEEKEND

This weekend was jam packed with lots of craziness! Friday was a lot of fun because I hung out with Shannon all day and we went on a bike ride with Emilio where I asked him to Lariette banquet!

Later that night Shannon, Bri, and I went to the boys baseball game against Marcus and we won!! We were freaking out in the last inning because we were only winning by one and Marcus is really good, but our pitchers did great and didn't let up any runs! 

Saturday was the boys state soccer game in Georgetown, which was a very exciting experience, but the results weren't exactly what we wanted. But that's okay because the boys had a great season and I loved supporting them at all the games. After the game a few of us hung out in Austin and went to the UT baseball game who also lost (it was not our day to go to sporting events). But it was still great just being in Austin and eating at Trudy's and getting Amy's ice cream! 

Then Sunday was Easter of course and I got some wonderful presents from the Easter bunny who hid my basket in my car this year haha. Then I went to church with my family, Blake, and Dustin and took some cute pictures in the prayer garden of course. 

seriously don't know how i'll survive next year without her

PROM

Prom was actually two weekends ago but I figured I should still post about it! So many fun things happened so I'm just going to sum it all up in bullet points...

• starting to get ready at noon with Shan and Maci was surprising fun, especially because we listened to Steve Moakler pandora all day
• all of my friends looked stunning in their dresses
• my corsage was sooooo pretty
• filet mignon, cream corn, and garlic mashed potatoes are fantastic but I was way to full to finish it all unfortunately 
• I have never danced so much, it wasn't lame like homecoming thank goodness and my calves were actually sore for the next few days
• my biggest regret is not recording Jack dancing with Maci and spinning her around in the air, that is probably the hardest I have ever laughed in my whole life
• I'm so proud of Ali for winning prom queen!!!
• cards against humanity is probably the funniest game ever and I'm surprisingly good at it
• zip lining in the dark was pretty scary
• staying up til 5 in the morning on the trampoline laughing about nothing with some good friends was lots of fun
• sleeping on a trampoline isn't as uncomfortable as it sounds, even while it's sprinkling on you
• basically the entire night was filled with laughter and it was awesome

Prom was a blast and I'm so glad I got to spend it with 50 of my closest friends (yeah my prom group was 50 people). It made me realize how much I love all my friends and I'm going to miss them sosososo much since the majority of them won't be down in Austin with me next year :'( Senior year is speeding by so fast and as much as I want to be done with school, I'm not ready to say goodbye to these wonderful people!

proud of myself for doing hair and makeup for all three of us

PROM QUEEN

the original Camp Pike girlies, miss being in the mountains with Dani and Blake

"WE ARE REFLECTIONS OF GOD'S GLORY"

Today's Jesus Calling could not be any more perfect and the footnotes my bible had on each verse was spot on.

It talks about a few different things starting with "let me control your mind". It talks about how the mind is the most restless thing in mankind. Our minds are constantly thinking and wandering to a hundred different places and we often forget to think positively. I'm not sure if that's exactly what this Jesus Calling is trying to say about our wandering minds, but the way my bible comments on the verses it makes a lot of sense and is a great lesson that I had never thought of.

This then transitions into the next topic: "I made you in my image". It gives the verse Genesis 1:26-27 which talks about God creating man and I was like yeah yeah I know that. But what I hadn't thought about was what it meant when it says "in his own image". That saying has never really stuck out to me, but my bible perfectly defined it by saying "we are reflections of God's glory". Isn't that so cool to think about? We have the ability to reflect who God is by practicing love, patience, forgiveness, kindness, and faithfulness.

Then my bible turned this around in a really cool way. We all have a really bad habit of looking at ourselves in the mirror and thinking we're not good enough right? Well have you ever thought that when you're thinking that, you are criticizing God's creation? It's crazy and I've never thought of it that way, but it's so true! The footnotes in my bible say "criticizing or downgrading ourselves is criticizing what God has made and the abilities he has given us". Think about that next time you don't feel good about yourself and remind yourself that you were made in God's image and that will help you feel more positive about yourself.

Then it goes back to the mind again with the verse Romans 8:6. We need to stop centering our minds on flesh and worldly things. We need to center our minds on God, which will fill us with peace. You never really notice how much your mind is filled with worldly things until you take the time out of your day to spend it with God. Just doing little things like reading Jesus Calling makes a huge difference and you seriously can feel yourself being filled with peace when your mind is centered on God.

BRAD, CODY, & STEVE

Oh my gosh you won't believe what I got to do last night. So about a month ago my friend Megan retweeted something about entering a contest to win concert tickets to see Steve Moakler, but then she kinda forgot about it later and bought herself a ticket anyways. Well what do ya know, they ended up tweeting her yesterday that she had won the free tickets! Since she already had her own ticket she was scrambling to find someone to take them and luckily, after persuading my parents, I got to go!

Let me tell ya, that was honestly one of the best concerts I have ever been to and was probably the best night of my life. It was in a bar so we ended up getting to stand in the front row, which was the coolest experience. Brad Cooper opened first and he was so good! He lives here in Dallas so we're hoping we can catch him at another show. Go check him out he has an EP! Then Cody Fry was next. Oh. My. Gosh. That boy has the voice of an angel. He also had like background music with this booming bass that was just amazing. My jaw literally dropped to the floor listening to those crazy notes he could hit. He has two albums out on iTunes and I highly suggest buying both. And last was Steve Moakler! He was amazing and was just so genuine and perfect oh my. They even came back out for an encore and came into the crowd to sing! There were no microphones or anything. Just plain acoustic guitar and it was crazy good. That man has the best voice live. Wow.

After the concert we got to meet everyone. I was so starstruck and it's so funny cause they aren't really all that famous. But I got to stand next to Brad in a picture and I freaked out. And then meeting Steve and Cody, I was just speechless. They are all such amazing artists and you just have to listen to them because I guarantee you'll fall in love with at least one if not all of them.

BRAD COOPER

CODY FRY

STEVE MOAKLER

Maci and I tried to take a selfie with Steve and it turned out horrible

BIRTHDAY FESTIVITIES

Wow I really am doing bad at this blog thing because I totally forgot to post about my birthday, which was a week ago!

Well, my birthday was March 31st and it was a pretty great birthday. Last year's birthday was terrible so this year I was determined to not let that happen again. My parent's got me some awesome stuff that I love (like some new chacos for camp, score). And best of all they bought me tickets to Opening Day for the Rangers, which happened to be on my birthday this year! That was so much fun being a part of it and I just really love baseball and the Rangers. Even though we lost I really enjoyed it and fell even more in love with the sport.

After the game, I went to dinner with all my friends at BJ's. And you won't believe it, but my friends' Stats teacher bought us all a giant pizookie! That was so nice of him and it was so delicious. Definitely a great birthday surprise. Then we all went back to my house and hung out and had cupcakes and sang the old Birthday Song Song (remix of the Campfire Song Song from Spongebob) that us crazy middle schoolers came up with back in the day.

The whole day was fantastic and made me realize that I'm blessed with so many great people in my life.

Oh my gosh I almost forgot! One of my favorite gifts from my birthday was my new baby cousin Breck who was just barely born on the same day! I'm so excited I get to share my birthday with him and I can't wait to meet the little guy!

JOURNALING REALLY IS AWESOME

As you can tell from the title, I have picked up a new hobby of journaling these past few days. I always heard people talk about journaling and how great and important it is, but I was never too fond of the idea. I don't know what it was, but I just never thought that it would be necessary for me to keep a journal. Recently, I realized that it doesn't have to just be a journal about what goes on day to day (which is great too so you can look back at all of your memories), but you can also keep a journal that is filled with great scripture and inspiring quotes. What I've started doing is reading my Jesus Calling book everyday and writing down notes from the little excerpts they give. Then, I write down the bible verses it gives and my bible gives little explanations of the verses at the bottom so I write those down too. It is honestly the greatest feeling and it really helps me with really understanding what I'm reading. It gets me so fired up and amazed at how great our God is and I just want to go around and show everyone and be like "Look! Isn't He fantastic!"

Today's Jesus Calling was especially great. It talks about how our weaknesses don't have to hold us back. Even though we are weak, God strengthens us and uses us to spread His word. Wow I just really love this one I have to show you what I wrote.

(by the way none of this is my own words, I am definitely not that good of a writer)

JASON ALDEAN & ELI YOUNG BAND

Oh my gosh. Last night was amazing. So remember back in October when I randomly got tickets to see one of my favorite country singers (Jason Aldean of course) and then the concert got rained out before he came on stage? Yeah. That was probably one of the saddest nights of my life. Well, this weekend they are having this whole March Madness Musical Festival thing and guess who performed last night. JASON ALDEAN. I went with Maci, Blake, and her boyfriend Dustin and we went kinda early so we could watch Eli Young Band first who was also fantastic! When they played "Even if it Breaks Your Heart" I just about died it was so good. And then when Jason Aldean came on I just about lost it. He played "Night Train" and I actually cried because that song is so stinkin good and he sings SO GOOD live. Overall the night was just so great and the concert was FREE so I'm so happy I went. It was great getting to hangout with some of my closest friends and enjoy all those country songs we know and love. Now I'll just countdown the days til I get to see Jason Aldean again.

NEW YORK CITY

Wow I am extremely behind on this post, but over spring break my family took a trip up to New York City! I wasn't all that excited about going there at first because everyone I know was going to the beach and if you know me, you know that the beach holds a special place in my heart. But as soon as we flew over the city I instantly fell in love. Our hotel was right in Times Square, which was amazing and so fun to just walk around and go in all the stores. And now I'm really missing that trip so here are some pictures from the couple of days we spent in NYC...

I have to admit, this musical was actually SO funny

The Top of the Rock

The view from the Empire State Building was fantastic

102 floors up

I refused to leave without sitting on the Met steps like Serena and Blair from Gossip Girl

The Statue of Liberty looked so tiny

Sorry for abandoning you blog, you've been missed. I promise I'll start posting more as the end of my senior year wraps up. OH! I almost forgot to mention, I got into the dorm of my dreams! I'm so excited, it's beautiful.