New York Day 1

I forgot how much I absolutely love the East Coast. The houses are so adorable and old, the towns are historic, and the water is beautiful.

Stoney Brook, NY

Setauket, NY

Port Jefferson, NY

My flight yesterday was good despite the multiple crying children. My new knockoff Beats headphones were helpful in that area. After arriving at my family's house on Setauket, NY, we had a wonderful dinner and watched Hanna. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes action, survival, and adventure movies. The plot, actors, and music was all phenomenal. 

We spent today just traveling around Long Island. We visited the Long Island Sound (pictured above) and the town of Port Jefferson. The shopping was great and I had an amazing pork and brie wrap and lemon chicken orzo soup at a local gourmet deli. The food here had been simply awesome, and tonight we're having my cousin's famous soupa and homemade tortillas. 

New York, New York!

After many prayers for the opportunity to travel, tomorrow I am off to...
Badadada!

The Big Apple! 

It will be my first time going to NYC, and armed with my new Sigma zoom lens, I am extremely excited to photograph and throughly enjoy this wonderful city! I will be visiting my lovely second cousin who dwells on Long Island in all its glamour. We'll be seeing Chicago on Broadway, going to 30 Rock (MAJOR FREAK OUT MOMENT AT THE THOUGHT OF THIS), and visiting the Hamptons. After a wonderful Christmas, I cannot believe that I am GOING TO NEW YORK CITAAAY! 

I found this hilarious article about flying during the holidays, and I will have to keep some of these things in mind. WARNING: This article may contain language that is not appropriate for children. 

Anyways, how was your Christmas? Was it good? Because Chicago has seemed to forgotten what time of year it is, considering that it's nearly 50 degrees. A white Christmas is the only Christmas worth having, if you ask me. But snowlessness beside, I had a wonderful time of family. I made the extremely intelligent decision to go shopping at Barnes and Noble the day before Christmas, and had the joy of helping a desperate woman with 4+ children with her find the Hunger Game series. I'm so happy that series is so popular. Read it if you haven't. 

Another quite popular phenomenon that I love is Adele. This is no secret, and anyone who really knows me can tell you that I'm obsessive. However, my dad got me her live DVD for Christmas, and we all watched it together today. It was lovely. Here's a clip:

 If I could have any job in the world, it would be to sing back up to this woman. So fabulous.

I also got a twitter if anyone cares. It's Heyitsmeglasses.

I will be updating every day while in NYC. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Les Miserables

I had the great pleasure of going to see my favorite musical of all time, Les Mis, for the first time professionally on Wednesday. Here's a little review.
I wasn't sure what to expect going into this because I'd been listening to the original London cast soundtrack for the past year and a half, and there is no other Jean Valjean in my book besides Colm Wilkinson. He has the ultimate voice. However, J. Mark McVey, who has played the role of Jean Valjean over 3000 times, did phenomenally. His voice was a bit high for my taste, but he made up for this in vocal power. In my opinion, it was Fantine played by Betsy Morgan, who stole the show. She had an amazing voice even though she was a lot younger than I expected. She's also from Chicago, so she has that going for her. Eponine, a character who in general annoys me, was played by Chasten Harmon. She did a great job in On My Own, but the rest of the show was spotty for her voice. The most interesting thing of the night was my discovery that I had actually seen the actor who played Marius in previous shows in Illinois. Max Quinlan played Joseph at the Marriot Theatre, which I had grown up going to.
Overall, it was a show that left me feeling extremely blessed to see. Our rush tickets for $20 were great, and the night was an amazing end to a semester that was long and tiresome.
In nine short days I will be setting off for New York to visit my aunt and I am so excited to see the city. I can't believe I'll be going to the place were my favorite show, 30 Rock, takes place, where SNL is filmed. It's amazing. We might even go see something on Broadway, and the choices are currently between Wicked and Chicago. Taking pictures is probably what I'm most excited for. I'm such a city girl it's scary sometimes. And though Minneapolis is great (though tiny), I always find myself missing Chicago. My family has always been from Chicago since before anyone can remember. It's in my blood. I mean, just look at it.

The Great I Am

This is my new favorite worship song. The word "I" is only used to say how much we want to see God.

I wanna to be close close to your side 
So heaven is real and death is a lie 
I wanna hear voices of angels above 
Singing as one 

Hallelujah Holy Holy 
God almighty Great I am 
Who is worthy 
None beside Thee 
God Almighty 
Great I Am 

I wanna be near near to your heart 
Loving the world hating the dark 
I want to see dry bones living again 
Singing as one 

The mountains shake before Him 
The demons run and flee 
At the mention of the name 
King of Majesty 
There is no power in hell 
Or any who can stand 
Before the power and the presence of the Great I am 

I know how worship songs are written and I have a great respect for all of them, but in today's Christian culture, I find we sing about ourselves a lot. We sing about what God has done for us, what he can do for us, and how we love him so much. These things are not bad in any way and they reveal and describe the awesome characteristics of God, but it's nice to find a song that leaves all that behind and simply focuses on how amazing, holy, and incredible God is. My church jammed to this song for probably a half hour today, and it was awesome to be in the moment and forget everything but the glory of God. 

Red Pandas

If you ask anyone in my family, they will tell you that I love cats. They will also tell you that whenever we see a fox, which is quite often, in our woody neighborhood I always say that I wish that I had a pet fox. They're adorable!

But alas, I have found better. A fellow from my brother floor at school posted the following clip on facebook tonight: 

I'm in love! Fox+cat=RED PANDA! I'd never even heard of these cute little guys, but here are a few facts, thanks to the ever useful wikipedia.


The red panda (Ailurus fulgens, or shining-cat), is a small arboreal mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China.


The red panda has been classified as Vulnerable by IUCN because its population is estimated at fewer than 10,000 mature individuals. 


They are generally quiet except for some twittering and whistling communication sounds.


It has a “false thumb” that is an extension of the wrist bone. When descending a tree headfirst, the red panda rotates its ankle to control its descent, one of the few climbing species to do so.

They're so cute! 

Looks like I found what to put on my Christmas list! Too bad I couldn't bring it to school with me me. This is what I will really be asking for: 

BOOM. Awesomeness. 

Islands and Dust

With today being the last day of classes, finals are really in full swing. I watched one of my very good friends graduate college this morning. Lots has been happening. 

Millions of people have gone through finals week, and yet, when the time rolls around again, it's all we ever talk about on Facebook. Of course this isn't a bad thing, and I'm sure I've posted about finals too, but let's take a little look at our perspective here. 

Right now, the big things that have my attention are finishing my Exegesis paper, finishing a classroom management plan, and studying for four major tests. The tasks seem daunting, but only when I ignore all perspectives but my own. 

This semester I had the pleasure of taking Systematic Theology 1. For all of you at home who do not attend the fine establishment of North Central University, it's basically a class where I learn what Pentecostals believe and why. For the majority of the semester, I didn't put much effort into the class. I was able to study the notes and get decent grades on the tests, so that's what I did. I regret this, but it's a lesson learned. Then one day, with about a month left of class, I started actually listening to the lecture and was fascinated. I was reminded that this was exactly why I chose to go to a school where I would not only be taught all I need in the area of academics, but where I would also be taught how to understand, synthesize, and share the Gospel. This is all of humanity's ultimate calling. 

Along with listening in class, I began to read the textbook last night. Today I stumbled upon not a great epiphany or discovery, but simply a Bible verse being explained. Isaiah 40:15 says,

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; 

they are regarded as dust on the scales; 

he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.

At the mention of an island, I instantly thought of Hawaii. Hawaii has the area of 10,931 square miles and its width is 1,422 miles. 

Now Hawaii obviously isn't the largest landmass on the planet, but the fact that this large, beautiful, breathtaking island is the size of dust to God is something that makes me stop and think. Having a God so big puts me more at ease about my little problems that won't matter much farther down the road, but at the same time it makes me feel overwhelmingly blessed that he would care for me so greatly when Hawaii is like a fleck of dust to him. 

No Expectations

I feel that the one thing humankind will never quite figure out is how to deal with each other. There's no handbook on how to make, keep, and throughly enjoy friends, and even with the best intentions, selfish desires usually take hold and leave us asking, "What am I getting out of this?" Obviously, that is the exact opposite of what should be asked. With relationships, the whole 'you get out what you put in' mentality doesn't always work. You can put in all the effort you want, and unless the other person feels so inclined, there is a chance of receiving nothing in return. But this isn't the point of relationships. The point is to enjoy the other person's company in that moment, no matter what is given back. The point is to forget all agendas and simply live to love, expecting nothing back. As people who want to accomplish things, we formulate these goals for our relationships in our heads and always think of what could be, but this thinking almost always leads to frustration when it doesn't happen or expectations that don't get fulfilled. When affection is given with the sole motivation to be given affection in return, real love cannot develop. Real love is selfless, pure, and completely free of charge.

Noah and the Whale

I went to see Noah and the Whale a while ago with some awesome people. It was my first time at Minneapolis's famous First Ave venue, and it was phenomenal.

There's something about handsome British men in full suites playing violin and singing that just makes everything okay. ;)

Styrofoam and Mirror Art

It's been forever. School rules my life but I still have time to be artful. Here's my latest creation.

Step 1: Garbage pick some styrofoam.
Step 2: Paint it blue

Step 3: Splatter the white.

Step 4: Be awesome.

Human Obsession

When I feel empty I tend to try to find things to fill myself up with. I attempt to shove music, TV shows, books, and other hobbies into the uniquely shaped space that I should be letting God fill every day. The greatest and probably the most dangerous thing I try to force into that space is people and their roles in my life. This is not saying that I necessarily worship people that I know, but I do spend far too much of the time and thought on them that rightly belongs to God.
This is not a new experience for me and I have dealt with this many, many times, but it has been only recently that I started questioning why this happens. There will be seasons where no person can get between myself and God and then there will be times where literally everyone is standing between Him and I. Seasons happen and things change, and you can insert your typical mountain top and valley of death sermon here, blah, blah, blah. But why do we become obsessed with people? Why does it seem that people can capture our hearts in a stronger and quicker fashion than God can? Why do we give into people with much less hesitation than when we give into God?
There is a simple answer to this, which is that we are humans and that we give into what we want to do instead of what we know God wants us to, but why people? God is clearly superior to any human ever in existence, and yet when we are given the opportunity to spend time with God or our best friend, we most likely choose the less divine. Human interaction and interaction with God are quite different, and God obviously wants us to have fellowship and good relationships, but why does it get so out of hand?
My main theory concerning this issue is the fact that as humans we love what we see when we look at other humans, which happens to be the very image of God.
I recently read the book Captivating by Stasi and John Eldredge, and my favorite part of the book was the explanation of how men and woman received different traits of God in their creation. I think that many times we start believing we are simply these little humans roaming the Earth and that life is just time ticking by. We forget that we contain actual traits and qualities of God and that we were made in His image.
As humans we are simply made to seek God and be completely in love with Him. Sometimes laziness gets the best of us and we settle for the next best thing, which are the qualities of God in the people around us. We're drawn to God in others, but adoring the creation without acknowledging the Creator is like trying to turn on a lamp that isn't plugged in. No matter how many times you flip the switch the result remains the same.

Face Value

School has been somewhat stressful lately, hence the lack of blog posts. I stayed up until 2 am last night doing a stupid assignment I thought I could do in one night, and while 2 am is not unusual for many college students, I am one who needs her sleep. Because of this, I don't look my best this morning, and I resorted to my Dealbreakers tee shirt and one of my grandpa sweaters. I was also late to class, which didn't bother me too much, as it is a class that I don't have much care for.

When I got to class I was about five minutes late, and everyone had already turned in their assignments at the front. I had to make the walk of shame to the front to turn in my paper as the teacher was still talking. I started making my way to the front, frustrated with how badly the last 12 hours has gone, and really not looking forward to everyone staring at me in my beautiful outfit as I walk to my seat in the very back of the room. But as I turned around instead of being filled with dread, I felt surprisingly free and happy. As I walked back to my seat it was kind of like one of those slow motion moments in a movie where the main character is having a large amount of profound thoughts in about thirty seconds. This has never happened to me. In this probably five seconds it took for me to return to my seat, I realized one great thing. I didn't care. I didn't care what these 40 people thought as they stared at my  frumpy sweater, messed up hair, and ratty chucks. They were in fact all staring at me and I stared back.

This was such a random experience that I am completely thankful for. In that moment I felt empowered, free, and overall awesome. It was a great reminder from God that my value was never and will never be found in other people and what they think when they look at me. It's nice to be reminded that I can look like absolute crap but still be loved beyond all comprehension.

To change the subject, I enjoyed a very windy photo shoot yesterday with my beautiful friend Nyadoar.

We had a lot of fun battling the wind that was threatening to literally knock us off these rocks. There was a moment when Nyadoar was sitting and I was standing and the biggest gust of wind I have ever experienced rushed over us. I had to push with my legs in order to not be knocked over, but it was simply amazing. 

Salvador Dali Pocket Watch DIY

I got the idea for this DIY from here. As usual, I tweaked this DIY to fit my needs. I found the clock on sale at Hobby Lobby, but there is also a desk version of the same style. This clock is obviously inspired by Salvador Dali's painting, The Persistence of Memory.

However, when I saw it I initially thought of Alice in Wonderland. Anyways, this is the clock before:

The first step was finding a knob that I liked. I then hot glued it to the right side. The chain was hard to track down, and since I couldn't find a plastic chain, I had to use a metal one from Ace Hardware. It was about $12 for 3 feet, and I don't think it looks as good as the plastic chain on Design Sponge, but most of my DIYs turn out nothing like the ones I find online. To make the handle I followed the steps on the DIY, but I found that the measurements for it were a little small compared to the clock I had, but I was still pleased with the outcome.