Just Another {Week} in "Paradise"

Time for another recap of this past week J

FRIDAY-

Last Friday was SO MUCH FUN! After work, I got to hit the road immediately with the boyfriend, Andrew Murphy, Paige Goodson, and Kelsi Householder! We headed out to Austin to celebrate the birth of the beautiful and wonderful newly-21 year old Torey McDaniel with about 30 other great friends. We spent the evening at Maudie’s Tex Mex Restaurant fellowshipping and enjoyed hearing stories from Torey’s doting father about how she came to be such an inspiring young lady. It was so great to meet her family and see her life in Austin and how she has walked through this past year with such grace and faithfulness. Love you, Torey, thank you so much for inviting us and sharing your life with us!

SATURDAY-

After a short night’s sleep at the McDaniel’s, the girls met up with the boys at the Austin landmark Kerbey Lane for breakfast! Although we waited an hour, I must say, the great food and even better company was worth the wait! It was so much fun to just get out of College Station for a little bit, enjoy a new city, and hang out with friends that I haven’t spent time with in far too long. The car ride back was full of slumber for me! Once we got back in town, plans were already drawn up for another night of Fishbowl…this is becoming a weekly tradition that I LOVE so very much. However, playing with a group of mostly boys who enjoy using the most obscure words does make for a rather challenging game.

SUNDAY-

After an early(er) night to bed, we all somehow made it up for church the next morning and got to hear a fun message on dating from Trey and Marcy. I so appreciate the openness and honesty that Trey preaches with- he is so humble in the way he presents, and you can just see his love for Jesus and people all over him! I love Sunday afternoons- they are one of my most treasured times of the week! I love getting to spend much-needed quality time with Clayton, just relaxing and trying our best to do absolutely nothing. It’s harder without Sunday afternoon football, but we make do J We both got to work on our Bible studies together and prepared for Coach Group later in the evening. It was split girls and guys this week, so I very much enjoyed the quality time with Rachel and Bethany, especially the gelato at Mugwalls part J

MONDAY-

Monday was President’s Day- and that was about the extent of my celebration. Maybe I would celebrate a little harder if I actually knew it was a holiday before 3pm and if I had the workday off…no such luck! Monday nights are “me-time”- I am really not a person that needs a lot of that, but a couple of hours once a week is always much appreciated and productive. Bills were paid, laundry was done, dinner was prepared, and the Bachelor was watched. I weirdly treasure these nights.

TUESDAY-

This is always the most boring night of the week. I argue that Tuesdays are the hardest- you’ve already overcome the realization that the weekend is over, and on Tuesday, there’s absolutely NO hope for the weekend, none whatsoever. And I usually have a very difficult time remembering what I even did on a Tuesday. I remember making pork chops that were overdone and spending some time with roommates…but for the life of me, nothing else.

WEDNESDAY-

I love precious time with Growth Group girls on Wednesday nights! We jumped into 1 Corinthians again this week right in the middle of the discussion on sexual immorality, and the girls did a great job hammering out some tough stuff! Hanging out with these girls is one of the highlights of my week. Not being able to be involved in everything I used to do is sometimes hard, but these girls really alleviate that for me and I so appreciate their fellowship and friendship. I went to bed early again…I was really proud of myself for working out every day this week before work. Way way early, but I really enjoyed getting off of work and being done for the evening, having time to just relax and make dinner and do what I want! We’ll see if I keep it up, but I really hope I can!

THURSDAY-

Yesterday, I got to spend lunch with Coach Group ladies at the church. Praying and fellowshipping in the middle of my work week is such a blessing! Afterwards, I went with Hannah, Courtney and Katie up to Aggieland Pregnancy Outreach center to volunteer. We babysat some rambunctious (but precious!) kiddos while their moms spent time hanging out, getting poured into, and just getting to be able to be a teenager. I really love this ministry and what they do, and really appreciated a chance to help out, even in a small way! Being around children isn’t even close to my strong point, so I must admit, it stretched me in a way that I am not used to being stretched…always good, though!

Looking forward to a weekend spent with my parents who are coming in town on Saturday! Haven’t seen them in far too long and miss them so much. Then I’ll drive back home on Sunday so I can fly out of DFW early Monday morning for my next CC adventure!

Hope you all have a safe and blessed last weekend in February! WooHoo!