The Marathon that is Life.

I had a HUGE "uh-oh" moment this weekend.  On Saturday, I ran the Soaring Wings Half Marathon in Conway.  I did this in preparation for my upcoming double marathon I am running ( read about that here) I have been training religiously, like running almost everyday, and I follow a strict regime on what to run and when to run it.  I have been using this app called... Nike Running.  I have loved it, in fact I have told most everybody that it is the best app to run with.  Well, it was until during my race this weekend on Mile 10.. my app told me "congrats you just finished your first half marathon" First, false - this is my second.  And Second, No!!!  I am only on mile 10!!!

As I began to contemplate what was exactly going on, I began to realize that my app was not calibrated correctly and my training had been misleading!  I thought I had run 12 miles last week in RECORD time... but I hadn't.  Actually - I was slower than I thought.  I finished the race in 2:28 which is almost 20 minutes faster than my first half marathon.  I am training for that Double Race on New Years and so I have about 8 weeks to get faster and better and stronger.  It was just disappointing - so frustrating, in fact, that I almost ripped my iPhone off my arm and threw it into the ravine.  I didn't - But I was close.

The best part of the race is the new resolution I made with myself.  When I run a race, I will get a new outfit :) So this was my Under Armour exclusive outfit! Complete with matching pants and top and a very comfortable neon yellow/green sweatshirt!  It was so comfortable to run in!  The weather this weekend was perfect running weather, especially for the outfit I picked out - but I can't imagine what the weather will be like on New Years!  Hopefully, it will be mild.  Here's for hoping!

Wanted to let you know what else I did with my weekend:  

I babysat these adorable little cousins of mine!  Yes, they are apart of the Gosser Mafia!  

See I am telling you - you do not want to mess with us :)

drumrolll pleaseeeeeeee

I also got my extensions back!  What do y'all think of the "new look"?  I got them from Robin at Harrington and Co. in Conway!  She is amazing!  And they look so real!  I am getting use to the length, but Love LOVE LOVE the new look! Hope you do too!

And then finally - as I look back on the past 6 months.... I love playing the Piano!  Miss Arkansas wasn't the highlight of my summer, it is this picture.  I think it captures everything that I wanted to accomplish this year - I wanted to

HAVE FUN WHILE PERFORMING THE PIANO IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE.  

And I did just that!

Why Can't God Tweet!?

I think I told you that I went to Dallas last week and went to church with my cousin Meg at Gateway Church.  Well I really enjoyed the sermon.  He was very relatable and so funny.  So I went to the church website.  Go Here to see the sermons by Pastor Stephen LeBlanc.  This is what your screen should look like... and please if you watch any of them.  Please watch Sometimes God is Silent.

Pastor Stephen Says:  

"Sometimes God is Silent becuase we are not.  We are the servant, we are the one who is supposed to say God, I want to pour out my heart to you and sometimes we just need to stop talking and back off.  And when we back off and we turn off the electronic product de jour and the constant music and constant media - gosh you can't even watch the news without three crawls and this and that.  We are so into multi-tasking.   we are so into microwaving, but God is into marinating.  And he is saying this, listen, I still speak like I did the first seven and a half thousand years.  Come on, God needs to learn how to tweet!  God doesn't do it.  He waits until we power down.  He waits until we cultivate a place of maturity when we are ready to listen and says I am ready to listen because he will not compete on the world stage.  Psalm 46:10 BE STILL AND KNOW!"

WOW!  What a great message.  And that is only a minute of a 40 minute sermon!  Its's so great!

How many times have you wanted the answer now.  I know that recently I have been praying and wanted a straight up answer.  I wanted God to tell me know.  Even after listening to the sermon, I thought that I was doing it right.  I thought that I was praying and waiting.  Little did I know.  I wasn't.  Sometimes you just need to step back and evaluate outside the situation and prayer to see if you truly are leading and praying a life of maturity in waiting and listening.  

Listening is so hard for me.  I like decisions to be made now.  Sometimes that leads to making the wrong decision.  Making a decision that if you would have waited just a little bit you would have made a different one.  You might have seen God's providence.  

I pray today that you wait.  You see. And that you Listen to what God has to say.

This is my work place.  I was booted to a tutor room - but I am okay with that - I have a door, a plug in, and I can watch hulu and sermons all day!  I had an athlete today and I am really enjoying helping and organizing these classes.  It is a lot to keep organized in my mind but with several schedules a highliter pack and lots of excel spreadsheets _ I am able to keep myself organized and on track! God definitely placed me in this position because of my organizational skills!  Pray for my kids that they do their work and have a great semester!

From Top to Bottom Left to Right these are my kids:  Brittney, Donald, Tsuwani, and Cordarius!

Dear younger and more artistic sister,

I miss you so much.  I wish you would come and visit me in Waco, but I understand that you would rather go to Annapolis to be with... well achem, a boy!  It's really okay.  I am not bitter or anything!  But I would really appreciate some wall art for my room!  You are such a talented artist and I would love and think it was the coolest thing if my talented little sister spent time and made me a little piece of love.  You know they say that?  Art is a form of love.  Well, will you love me? haha.  I like this maybe for my room (red black and white and yellow) Love you sister

Your darling older and much wiser sister.





Thought of my good ole friend from a blog around the corner (that's a cute name for a blog if you are looking for one) at Katis Get Away.  Her little boy Ryder will one day play baseball I am sure of it.  And one day my son (who I want to name.....) okay I am so not going to tell you that because then you will like it and use it!  Stop being so nosy! hehe.  I thought these pillows were so cute especially for a little boys room!  Found on pinterest of course!

I am headed to Houston Tonight!  I am going to stay with the sweet and darling Laura Holt and precious little girls!  I can not wait!  I am counting down the hours until 5!  It will be so good to get away and be with Mrs. Laura!  She is so wonderful!  and the absolute epitome of a Proverbs 31 woman.  She is such an inspiration to me and I am so thrilled about our relationship and how I am able to be closer to her and spend some time listening to her and asking her questions.  It is important in life to find those women that are wiser than you and to sit under them and learn!  Why do you think Alexander the Great was so great?  (besides my incredible paper this summer) He was great because he studied under Aristotle who studied under Plato.  They soaked up the knowledge!  Well I want to be a Proverbs 31 woman for my man :)  So I will sit and soak. and LISTEN!

I will leave you with this:

taken from www.joyshope.com

With love you can truly find bliss.  And with bliss you will always be charmed!

Abby

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.

My week in short.

I promised I would tell you about work at Baylor - So here it is.  

BOOK ROOM:

First we have these sheets of paper (below) and one sheet equals one athlete.  Each athlete is taking classes, obviously, and we have to pull their books for when they come and get them.  So we go through the list and check for three things:  

1. no text required classes (we have to double check these in case that is a misprint)

2. Check for Double books

3. And then finally highlight the books that we do not have and can't find so that we can go to the bookstore and complete each student's book list. every sheet almost needs books from the bookstore.

Then we get to look in the BOOK ROOM for all of these books!  Sometimes it is pretty easy, but then sometimes there are soo many books and they aren't alphabetized so it is hard to find... 

 After we find the books we stick the sticky note on top of their book pile and set them in sports groups (track, golf softball etc..) We have almost made it through the women's sports teams!  Yay.  All of this most be completed by Friday at 3!  So we have a long week ahead of us...

Coming home:

So Wednesday after work I left and headed to Arkansas.  I was so ready to get home.  I only stopped once!  And then I made it to Carlisle at about 11 and I got a flat tire.  My wonderful boyfriend drove 45 minutes to pick me up!  I was so thankful for him and for his loyalty to me!  Definitely saved my mom a trip to Carlisle!  I was so happy to see him!  I will tell you one thing - Long Distance is NOT fun!  but I am praying constantly for patience, persistence, and strength!


I went and met his dad and stepmom on thursday night.  We drove to Jonesboro!  It was so much fun.  His dad made chicken - which I love - and potatoes and grilled vegetables.  On our way I decided we needed to take pictures and 'document' our road trip.  Taylor was so sweet to let me snap a few with my phone.  He really can't stand phone pics - but at least we have some.  Oh and the sweetest thing - we went to dinner last night and then to watch the Help.  By the way - if you haven't seen it!  GO SEE IT! It was unbelievably good!  Even Taylor liked it!  Anyways, he had this picture on his phone background!! How sweet is that!  love this boy.

 Went shopping at Target with my mom yesterday and bought some stuff for my room in Waco!  It took us forever to pick a bed spread but we decided on this yellow with a red quilt!  Do you like it?  I am sure I will be posting about my room decor later.  I am really excited!  My mom was so sweet - she really does not like to shop - but she was so sweet to go with me and help me pick up all of my room stuff.  It is kind of hard moving into your first house after college because you really haven't accumulated anything, well at least not from ouachita because all of the rooms are furnished.  But we got most of it!  And I want to say I can't wait to decorate - but actually I can.  I really like my time at home this weekend and do not want to go back!

Hanging out on Friday night.  This boy is soo sweet.  CHeck out how we are matching in our red rain  coats!!! 

PINTEREST FINDS!  If you do not have a pinterest account - create one!  It is amazing!

Amazing long distance quote I thought it was cute!

And of course I can't have a blog post without cupcakes!!  Thought this was a cute quote and pic!

And Baseball!  You know how much i love it - and then this is just wonderful!!  I cant wait to do this one day!  Just makes me soo happy to see that little hand on that ball!

 I hope I look like this.. yah right!

I am going to leave you with a video:  Watch it!  Enjoy it - and then pray that God gives you the strength to live day to day through the trials, the temptations, and even the good times - don't wish anything away, don't take anything for advantage - instead live life as though today is your last.  God will give you strength - and it is amazing when he does.

Especially those times that you look back and you say  THAT WAS GOD.  

Enjoy life - and live it!  Be Charmed!  God will help you through and thats wonderful.  you are not strong enough, but with God you are!

Abby