A Marathon of Information....

I have been working at UCA and making my self quite at home.  I absolutely love the people that I work with and wanted to show you what we do at work.  Last week I made sure that Josh, the photog media guy, was fully aware of my Baylor Pride!  He was late to work (like I'm never late ha) and so I sticky noted his whole computer face!  And even drew some nice drawings on some of them!  Oh how I will miss this place... But I will be so happy to return to Baylor... to my family!
















I was driving last week, I really don't remember where we were going, but Baylor was in my lap and usually he puts his head down and sleeps, but in this instance - you can see how he has turned around and faced me and just watched me drive... obviously he was very tired as his eyes are half open. hehe

My sister was Sleeping Beauty in the school play and was absolutely adorable. She played the best little princess and I have to say I am very impressed at her acting skills.  So the baby of the family can dance, sing, and now she can act - what can't she do??  She can't do sports ;) haha - naa she could probably do that too.

She even had her first stage kiss!  It was a funny one too.  The prince went to kiss her lips and went for the forehead at the last minute and then she took matters into her own hands.  I would say she takes after me:)  Taking matters into her own hands - sounds like it came straight from my book of secrets hehe

After the play - we went to iHop and I had a hole in my tire.  So I promptly called AAA (thanks GrandMary and Papa) and had them come change my tire.  The guy was so nice!  He even taught me how to change it.  He said that it is as easy as pushing a few buttons, and of course picking up the tire, jacking up my car, and unscrewing the lug nuts! ha But the dinner at iHop was the best!  I had dinner with this cutie pie!  Little Miss Brynlee.  She wanted a happy face on her pancake so I got the honors of putting the yogurt hair on it! She was so very happy and a bit overwhelmed (that half-smile) when it came out - but she ate a lot of it, and to my surprise - did not like the whipped cream!  Who doesn't like whipped cream!  I know I LOVE it! 

Some more pictures from the play. Proud Sisters!

Proud Grandmothers!!!

(Molly Turner and Marianne Gosser)

Last Friday was Senior night at NLR - Alex (my cousin) is Number 24!  I was so proud of him!  I can't believe he is already a senior and graduating.  In fact, this Wednesday he is officially signing to play baseball with the University of Arkansas.  And one of my favorite parts of being home this semester has been getting to see him play football (and of course seeing my sisters in the play and dominate Tiger Tunes) but it is also been fun hanging out with my family.  Aunt Leigh Anna and I have a ritual of watching Revenge together every Sunday night - in fact - we are already planning Skype dates while watching it when I am in Waco!  Needless to say I love my family and we always have a great time together!!!

Have a blessed Monday!   I am preparing a Blog Hop for December - if you read my blog and want to be apart of it - please let me know!  I am sending out the information this week!

Whatcha Want Wednesdays

I am moving to Waco in a few weeks and am trying to figure out the style of decor that I want to use.  I have a red microfiber couch that I am using and I have a yellow lamp.  I didn't really want to go fancy shmancy, but I wanted to go livable.  With that in mind I have found several pieces that I could see myself buying.  I have recently fallen in love with Craigslist (Furniture) and Etsy (furniture) and of course Ebay, however my favorite is Etsy.  Soo many fun things out there!

Here is the dilemma I have:

Kitchen:

I have a kitchen and nothing for it!  I have one crockpot!  Thats it haha.  I will eventually need decor in there, but to get started I need a kitchen table and chairs.  The place I am living has a bar, so I will also need bar stools.

I love the look of this barnwood kitchen table.  I feel like it will last me a LONG time and this particular table with one bench is $200 which I think is very reasonable.  And these bar stools are $30 a piece and I would only need 2!  I would most likely paint them a really fun color - (yellow?) What do you think?  If I go for this rustic chic look - will it compliment the red couch I have?


Door:

Right when you walk in there is enough room for a bench of some kind to place a basket on and a couple of hooks above it.


I love this red bench ($64) and it only measures about 34 inches long and they say it sits pretty close to the ground.  What do you think about putting this by the door and placing a wicker basket on top of it and these hooks ($9) above it.  Oh and I would love to get a framed mirror for by the door ($190 - obviously not this EXPENSIVE mirror)!  I just think mirrors are so elegant taking up space!

















Living Room:
I have the Red couch, but nothing else.  I was thinking I will need to end tables, a coffee table, a chair, and an entertainment set - maybe 2 chairs.

Going along with this shabby/rustic chic look - I am thinking about mimicking either of these 2 designs for my living room entertainment area... What do you think?

These are my thoughts - my red couch with some white and rustic pillows, 2 end tables (yet to be determined) with lamps (very symmetrical) and then to carry the rustic over into the living room - I love this barn wood table that has been sanded and refurnished.  I could easily use that as my coffee table.  For above my couch I love that barn wood and picture theme - I was even thinking of going to Staples's and getting an industrial print 3 feet by 4 feet and placing it on top of some old wood that I (doctor) up over Christmas Break.

For my entertainment set area - I was thinking of just using this bench and mounting my TV on the wall and placing things on the bench under the TV (like the picture on the left).  I don't know if I would use lamps over there - but I have tons of pictures, that I could even hang on the wall - or it could just be really simple (I might aim for simple) What are your thoughts?

After that these are just some of my other knick-knacks that I have found that I like and I would like to use somewhere in the house.

I love this curtain thing in my room:  The BIG question is if I don't have a posted bed like that will it look as cool?  And I am not quite sure I like the Sun Mirror in the middle.  But I love the black and whites over on the far wall!  Very simple!  LOVE IT!!  (my cousin Meg always nags me, I love the way simple looks, but I am ALWAYS saying I need more on the walls!)

I ALSO LOVE THE PILLOWS on this bed :)  I need more pillows on mine.  All I have is 2 yellow and one green in the middle.  And this full length mirror inside of a door - I really wanna try this - anyone with me?!

This Room is also a favorite - I don't know if I could be that chic though with the way my living room will look?

Which of the bed rooms are your favorite?  I am looking for some honest feedback here because I move in a little over a month! AHH.

HELP HELP HELP.  COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT!

You can find all of this stuff on my Pinterest - click the button at the top or just click here!

Whatcha Want Wednesdays: Home Edition

Home is where my Family is.  

I am learning a lot about my family these days.  A lot of it has to do with how close my natural family is and how involved we are in each others lives.  However, I am growing up which means I won't always live in my mother's house or be able to go to pancake breakfast at Grandmary's and Papa's - which looked so fun by the way.  

I am learning that my "family" is wherever I am.  It doesn't necessarily mean that my "family" is my crazy Gosser family - it means that it might consist of all different ages and types of people.  And I am learning to accept that.  

This is my family: We are huge and we love each other.  They are a bunch of crazy people and we have soo much fun together! I could probably do an entire blog (like everyday and all the time post) about them!   I love them so much!!!!!! 

And this is my Waco family.  

They are crazy and from all parts of the United States, but I miss them!  I love them so much and I think that my last semesters at Baylor, I took them for granted.  But that doesn't mean I can't go back.  That is what family does - they accept your faults and love you anyways.  These are some of my best friends in Waco and I can't wait to get back!!!

They sent me this during my week at Miss Arkansas.  They all have my buttons and are supporting me all of the way from Baylor.  [I am crying as I am writing this right now] Not only because I miss them - but because I want desperately to be back with them living life and loving every minute of it.  These are some of the greatest people I know!!

So now that I have already cried this morning... I want to tell you about my home.  My home where one day I will have my own family - and what I want in it!! haha

How great is this Laundry room.  I love that it has everything in it.  A desk, pictures, hooks, table tops, shelves, and the best a bench!  I know that benches are usually used to put things on - but in this case it would be a great way to divide up laundry so everyone could pick up there own and not dig through all of the laundry.  

Please tell me these pictures are not the cutest things ever!! In the foyer or greeting hall by the front door - I think that these canvas prints are a great idea!!!  I can't wait to do it.  

I also love this front door monogram.  Of course I am getting one of these ASAP - when I get married.  I think it would be fun to have a monogram bridal shower.  That would be beneficial in my opinion , especially if the bride loves monograms!!!

Can we say yes please.  To the walls.  The the bedding.  To the light.  To the picture above the bed. To the windows.  To the simplicity.  I love it!  I do not however like the computer in the room, the waste of space bed side table or the orange chair.  I would add a bench at the end and maybe bed posts on the bottom and top of the bed!  But this room definitely makes me happy :)   And then above - I love this ironing board.. it will fit nicely into my bright fun simply laundry room!  I love it!!

WHAT DO YOU WANT???

Resolution

No it is not New Years or even my birthday.  I am not trying to lose weight or change my behavior.  

It isn't Lent or a religious holiday - it is simply time to realize what God has in store for each of us.

This resolution reminds me that men are out there that are solid, strong, and bold in their faith.  These men know the importance of obedience to God's will and the love for their wife like Jesus and His bride.  

These men learn from their mistakes, answer to God, and my favorite...

LEAD their family in the law of the Lord and in forgiveness, integrity, and to honor authority. 

These are the characteristics of a man of God.  

And if I didn't know any better, I would be describing my future husband.  So if I am 24 or 34 - It doesn't matter, because those who wait patiently on the Lord shall be praised!  

This is my first Thought Provoking Thursday - and I hope you have enjoyed it because there will be more to come.  And I have never been so filled with Joy in my life.  I am also doing the James study by Beth Moore and I cannot wait to see what God has planned.  My first week - I met some incredible women of God.  It is so neat how God places people of all ages and stages, but yet some how we are all on the same road.  We are all struggling with some of the same issues and because of that... we have each other - and God has placed each other in each other's lives for 

SUCH A TIME AS THIS :)

Mid Day Munchie!!

Enjoy this little piece of sweetness!

Mafia Monday

If I haven't told you already - I love my family! And that family is sometimes referred to as the mafia because there are so many of us!! But I love it and would not trade it for anything!!

My cousin Alex just signed with the Razorbacks for baseball!! Obviously I'm ecstatic! My dreams are finally coming true. Haha Naa I'm finding that im a little old for college kids now. Out to the working world. I went to his football game Friday and had a blast!! It was raining but that didn't hold us back!! Check it out:





This is my cousin Trey - Alex brother!!! He is an incredible drummer and very talented in all things music!!


At halftime - we got a little crazy!!!!!!! Haha mom and I had a mini photoshoot!


Alex after the game!! He is such a stud!!


My charging wildcats shirt! I stole it from Laura Leigh!! I am amazed it fit!

Today I am working from home because UCA athletic department is moving to a brand new beautiful facility! I am loving working there and can see myself doing operations somewhere someday ( u of a? Baylor? Idk!!!!)

I am trusting the Lord with that. Like David says in Psalms 23 - the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want. Shepherds steer their sheep - and so is the Lord steering me!

Here are a couple of pictures of Kids Club from Saturday!! It was a blast!!

















Aren't we twins!! Haha love Baylor!!


And now that we are talking about Baylor.... My guys played awesome Saturday night and fought hard against Sam Houston!! They won with the help of KJ's interception!! And Aaron Jones became the all time leading scorer in Baylors history!
So proud of my boys!!

Have a great day!!!!!!

The Going is Getting Tougher.

You’ve heard the saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” But what happens if the going isn’t just tough, but impossible? What happens when you’re giving it all you’ve got, but all you’ve got is nothing? It’s then we often think, “What if I’m on the wrong path? It can’t be this hard, this messed up. God has promised to make a way, but all I see is a wall.”

I think at times God purposefully brings His people to this point. If you have no strength, no ability to move forward, then when accomplishments do happen, everyone knows—it wasn’t you; it was God.

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” 1Cr 1:27

In our weakness, then He is permitted to be strong, and the whole world will see Him through our trials. I feel like right now I am facing the impossible and it seems completely ridiculous to move forward. Foolish to even try. Yet we see again and again in the Bible that our God is the God of the silly and impossible. Think of the Israelites marching around Jericho thirteen times. That’s pretty silly. But they followed the journey God requested of them, and He tore that wall down.

Think of young David flinging a stone at a giant. That’s not only silly, it’s downright foolish! Yet God brought Goliath down. Think of Jesus, trying to feed thousands of people with just a bit of bread and fish—that’s impossible, too. Time after time we are shown His power in the Bible and even now if you look closely you will begin to see the awesomeness of Jesus and his miracles everyday in our life.

Why should today be any different? I speak from personal experience when I tell you that our God is still the God of the silly and impossible, right now in 2011! He is still a God who asks us to go on that difficult journey so that our faith will grow, His grace will abound, and all glory will be given to Him.



“…We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Rom. 5:3-4

So next time you face that impossible wall—know that our God is just waiting for you to hand it over to Him. All He asks of us is that we keep walking. And just like I will continue to walk in Waco, not knowing where my path will take me. I walk in obedience. And with the power of God before me, I know that my path will be prepared for me and if I trust in him all else will fall into place.

I thought I would introduce you to my friends. I couldn't find a good 700 club picture - so it is a group shot of my core group of friends.











Theses are my best friends. These are the girls that have shaped and molded me into the friend, Christian, and confident woman that I am. I am for ever grateful for these girls. To the point at hand: most of theses girls participated in Big Brothers Big Sisters, however, I did not. I never had the patience nor the "time" to give to such a frustrating task of picking up children and Mentoring to them. It was not until my senior year that I started getting involved with my cousins kid. I started to kind of like it. Well, guess what I signed up for last week? BBBS in Waco. I am really excited! I can't wait to be placed with a little kid! Yay! God is moving. I am finally ALLOWING him to move.

I drove to Dallas to go to church with Meg, my cousin, last week and the teaching was over opening the door to pure thoughts or the devil. It was really cool to think about. He said God is waiting at the door to help you, but you HAVE to open the door! Wow! You must do the opening, God will not kick down the door. You have to choose to open it. Do it!

I've decided that I will do it. I am going to give my time to God. And it will be good.

Friday is the last day in the book room and today I am in the athletic building with my office mate Ashley. She played softball here 4 years ago send is a GA with me. We have had fun so far. Tonight I will be going to this back to school party thing for the athletes with Ashley so that will be fun! I am looking forward to it.

Also I called Harris Creek Baptist Church this morning and signed up for a life group! I am branching out and I know this week will be great despite some walls that are crumbling in life. God is always enough!

Today is my Grandmother's Birthday! Happy Birthday Grandmary I am so thankful for you!










Have a Charmed day!!

Abby.

Location:Common Grounds, Waco.

It's been a while! So here it comes.

1 Thess 5:13 "Praise God in every situation for that is what is glorying to him."

That is hard to do.  Especially in a place like Waco.  That is my prayer - that I would be able to praise and thank God even in the hard times.  This is a hard time for me.  I do not see what I need to be thankful for or what I should praise God for.  However, Taylor encouraged me through that and God showed me through the movie Soul Surfer that I have a lot to be thankful for!  Be encouraged!

Oh how I love this boy.  Johnathan Taylor Clark.






More fun times in the red truck with Taylor!  This boy is so encouraging!  He text me the other day and told me

"Have a great day.  The path of the Lord is straight keep your eyes and heart on target so that when you take the wrong step your neck will hurt and you will have to straighten back out.  Gods plan for you involves me and I'm super excited.  I love you baby."

Wow!!  I hope that one day you have a guy like mine.  Every girl deserves to have a man encourage, love, and appreciate her.  He treats me with so much respect!  I am sorry I always talk about him, but this whole Long distance thing is killing me.  He is amazing and I hate that I spend Monday-Friday without him.  But that makes the weekends that much better and I know that God has a plan.

 This is just one of several carts at one of our book runs in the bookstore.  We made about 5 last week.  And this particular book run cost us of $50,000 dollars.  Books for class are so expensive!  But they are beginning to look interesting - the more I see them the more interested I become in reading and learning about the subject matter.   













After  buying the books - we put them in boxes and then on a dolly to transport them into our cars and then to the bookroom.  It is quite a process and each book run takes about 2 hours.  In this instance it took about 3.5.  This has been my job for the past 2 weeks and it is about to be finished!  I am beyond thrilled to get rid of these books!   

This is the book room.  I think we have most of the books done and finished.  It opens tomorrow from 9-5!  Woooo.  I am so ready to be finished with these books.  I have been dreaming about books.  haha - it is a scary thing!

These are over 500 athletes books.  Alphabetized and categorized by sport and last name! 








Meg came over the other night and helped me hang and decorate my room!  I love that my cousin and I are so close and are best friends!  She is amazing!  We made choc chip cookies and ate all of them.  DOn't judge.  Starting my diet and workout plan tomorrow!

Doesn't my room look good!  That is my bedside table with my pictures of Taylor on them!  And then that is my bed!  The bedding is from Target and the picture is from Target too!!  Doesn't it all look good?  I am very pleased at how it turned out.

This is our fridge door!  I love my sisters!! And that is the precious Natalie and Ben.  Their wedding is November 26 ?  The Saturday after Thanksgiving!  How precious!  He is soo in love with her!  How precious is that save the date!  It was baseball themed and it had a baseball on it.  And said we are saving you a seat for the big game! ha  Love it!  

My world in Waco is beginning to feel a little like home.  Home is where love is and where you end your day with someone you love... So it's not quite love, but it's close.  

This is where I sit every morning from 8-845.  Common Grounds. 8th street. Waco.  in front of the deer.  It reminds me of Taylor and of East Arkansas.  Have I mentioned that I miss Taylor and I love East Arkansas?  Well I do.  How relaxing is this picture.  I love sitting in front of it and praying and getting my devo on with God.  I look forward to it every morning.

It's nice to look forward to something everyday in a place I am not exactly happy with.  I still cry and I still miss home.  I don't know if I will ever like this place - but I know that I have plenty of people praying for me and wishing me the best.  I have been home every weekend thus far - so seeing taylor and my family makes me happy and is what really helps me through the week.

I am thinking about starting a morning devo/prayer time for girls at Common Grounds.  If I do this - what book should I use?  Should we just do bible stories - or should we just pray and talk about life?  Let me know what you think!















I have been reading this book by Francine Rivers.  It is such a good book and she does an excellent job at portraying some important women in the Bible.  I am reading about Bathsheba right now - and she gets a pretty negative rap about her relationship with David.   I mean she practically through herself on David and then committed adultery with him.  However, Francine writes with compassion on Bathsheba  and trys to get us to see her with more mercy from a women's perspective.  David was an amazing man of God.  We all want that right?  He was attractive and could play the harp and worship God as if God was right there with him - which is was.  All she wanted was for David to love her back and so she did what girls do best... used her looks.  She did what i took to get his attention.

I am so thankful and so blessed to have "my David" in my life.  And i understand sort of in a weird way what Bathsheba was going through.  When I first met Taylor I really did get excited and loved his fervent love for the Lord.  I wanted to be apart of it just like Bathsheba, so I understand it her passion for this man.

I hope you have/will have/or will experience this type of love for a man one day - because it's amazing.  Don't settle for less.  I am blessed to be have Taylor in my life and reading this book has helped me understand his love for the Lord and be thankful that he IS in my life.







I hope that you have enjoyed my blog post today.  
Hope that your day is better than mine.  Have a charmed day and a blissful week!
Abby