Twenty-Five.

I love these things. I love reading them about other people and writing my own. So here you go:

25 things about yours truly

1. I secretly hate technology. Not really but in the realm of communication, I do. I love getting mail the "snail mail" way. I love writing letters and mailing them. Not so much with emails. I usually forget to email people back.

2. I want to be "green" but fail miserably. We have about 15 of those reusable grocery bag in our pantry. and I've used them once in the last year. I think recycling is marvelous but forget to do it. One day, I'll get the hang of it.

3. I love local stores, restaurants, farmers markets etc. I work at a local cafe and love it. I just went shopping today at a local little hole in the wall place that sells jewlery and art by local artist. and the farmers market? Don't get me started.

4. My dream life? working from home, raising a beautiful family, with a garden in the backyard that we get all our vegetables from. a simple life. I don't want the glitz and glamor. I just want...simplicity and family.

5. I have a ridiculous obsession with post it notes. I. love. them. As I'm typing this, I'm realizing that my stack is running low and I may need to make a walmart run just for post its.

6. Walgreens carries a new nail polish line thats only 2 dollars each and I'm obsessed. Finally nail polish that doesn'y cost 8 dollars a pop. Hm. Maybe I'll stop by on the way to pick up post it notes...

7. I swear by MAC makeup. end of story.

8. I only listen to country music in the summer. It just doesn't feel right in the winter time.

9. I get my news from Yahoo's homepage. Sad but true. Every day, I go and scroll through all the little headlines. If it's important, surely yahoo will cover it.

10. I've only encountered one scent of candle that I absolutely cannot stand. Orange Vanilla. It seriously makes me sick to my stomach. It's awful. and my mom loves it. yeah.

11. I can't ride a bike. I never learned when I was little and really haven't ever had a huge desire to learn. Weird, I know.

12. I'm addicted to the most shallow television show in the world. The Bachelor. I told myself I wouldn't watch it this season because it's just a waste of time. I did great until last weekend...when I watched all of the season up until this week in less that 48 hours.

13. It's past ridiculous how much will power it takes me to go through the school supplies without buying anything.

14. I want to get a passport just so that I have one. So that if I win the lottery I don't have to wait on stupid passport people to go on an extended vacation to Italy :)

15. Speaking of Italy, It's number on on my list of places I'd love to visit. Followed closely by: Spain, Africa, and Ireland.

16. I have a fish named Mr. Freckles. He's a picky little fish and his food cost more than he did. :) But I love him. and he loves me. I know because he does crazy swirl dances every morning when I get up.

17. When I get really excited or into a conversation I lose the ability to form whole sentences. My words start going all crazy and out of order. It's ridiculous.

18. I hate all thing creepy-crawly. There is not a "good" bug if you ask me. They all have the ability to send me running away screaming. Yes, it's that dramatic.

19. I think I have enough perfume to last me at least the next 10 or 15 years. No exaggeration. From where I'm sitting I can count 12 bottles. and there's more in the bathroom closet.

20. I must sleep with a fan on. If I don't I'll hear every noise through out all of Murfreesboro all night.

21. I also leave a light on when I fall asleep. Yes I'm 21. It's not that I'm scared of the dark...it's more habit? I fall asleep looking around my room thinking. I'm weird, I know.

22. I want to live on a farm. I'm talking full fledge-pig-raising-cow-milking-horse-riding-corn-growing farm. Which is odd because I don't know the first thing about farming.

23. There are two sounds that will make me cringe. First, nail files. the gritty scraping sound gives me shivers. Second, pulling cotton apart. as in, a cotton ball or q-tips stuck together. gross.

24. I don't do scary movies. at. all. not even once a year on Halloween.

25. I love series. series of books. series of movies etc. love love love them.


The End :)

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I think I was an Astronaut in my past life.

I'm not even kidding about the title to this blog. Okay. Maybe a little bit but seriously.
I just watched the Space Shuttle fly over our house and I seriously felt like I was 7 years old with how excited I got. Sad but true.

Alright. Maybe this will explain how giddy I am over this. I tried to upload the photo above
THREE times but kept hitting cancel instead of upload because I wouldn't slow down.

It's the little bitty white dot to the left of the picture a little under half way up. :) My camera phone didn't quite capture it but It was really bright in person. AND it's coming by again tomorrow. Yeah. You can bet I'll be watching.

Alright are you ready to feel REALLY small?

Just look at that. We are absolutely TINY compared to the sun.

Ready to feel even smaller?


The sun is just one of billions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
Feeling small, aren't you? Yeah, me too.

But wait.

The Milky Way is estimated to be just 1 of 125 BILLION galaxies by NASA.

Absolutely Insane.

It truly but everything in perspective, doesn't it? The world clearly doesn't revolve around us.

I'm so glad I serve the God that created every single star out there.

Psalm 19:1-4

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

² Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

³ There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

⁴ Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

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Late night meanderings...

"The point - the only point - in being a messenger is that you deliver the message as instructed. Going around giving yourself airs as 'the messenger' may look impressive for a short while, but when you don't fulfill your commission it begins to look very odd." -N.T. Wright

I've become fascinated with my first N.T. Wright book. After hearing my best friend talk about how much she loves his writings for months, I finally wandered into Lifeway last week in search of a book of his. I came out with this:


It's a commentary he has written on Romans 1-8. I'm only on Romans 3:20 but I'm hooked. For months I've been searching for a good study of the Bible and this one is definitely the end to that search. He breaks it down into usually 3 to 5 verses and then talks about them. About whats going on at this time in history, what Paul meant when he used a certain word, what Paul was referring to. It's all just absolutely fascinating. More on the book when I finish but I thought I'd go ahead and mention it.

On a slightly different note, I've been thinking a lot lately about being completely whole in Christ. Every Christian has always heard "you can't do this" or "you can't do that" unless you're first completely complete in Christ.

Me? I was the skeptic of this until the last year. I knew I needed to be complete in Christ but never felt like I could really get there. Lord knows I'm not there yet but in the last few months, I've found a renewed since of hope in Christ. We live in such a broken world and one of the hardest things I've tried to figure out is why on earth God loves such a broken people. It's always been the "struggle" in my walk.

Until it just hit my like a ton of bricks. It does not nor will it ever make sense why He does. But the fact of the matter is...HE DOES. and there isn't a single thing I or anyone else can do to change that.

I'm slowly picking up speed in my journey to "completeness" in Him. I still hit those little bumps in the road where I hear satan yelling "You're worthless! You're broken...Why would God ever love you?" but it's Christ' ever present whisper saying "You're mine. I love you with an everlasting love." that keeps me going.

I'm His and He loves me with an everlasting Love.

And on that note...

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

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**EDIT**
Comment box is fixed :)
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'It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.'

Alright. Much is going on in this wee little mind of mine. Maybe I'll start from the beginning? Stay with me folks. It may take a while to get there but I have a point (maybe two) to make.

On Tuesday Night, June 22, my church (also referred to as Kairos) held a night of worship. It was lovely. Just walking in, you could tell they put so much work in to the night to make it perfect. About half way through, they played a video that broke my heart. *ahem* Scroll to the bottom of my page, mute the lovely Josh Turner and then watch this video.

Amazing, huh? It's precisely what I needed to hear. It went directly to my heart. Everything about it. I've lived the "typical" Christian life for years. Not fake, mind you. Just typical.

This 4 minute video has broken my heart in the best way possible. I don't want to live like this anymore. I want to be a passionate Christian. One who's heart breaks for the Rahabs and Addicts of my world. For the children who beg for the church to fight for them. For the prisoners. For the Christians who lose everything for Christ. I want to LIVE worship.

I've sat back for years and let the world pass me by. Given when the "love offerings" come around for the missionaries that actually do go out into the world and fight for these people. It's not enough. I'm called to help them myself.

I could not shake this video. I watched it multiple times a day.

Fast Forward 4 Days.

Some of my Kairos Sisters and I went to the lakehouse. We all just really needed a girls weekend. A weekend to get away and relax.

Saturday Morning we all ended up on the porch after breakfast and started into a discussion of church and Christ and Kairos and a whole lot more. It was an incredible blessing to me. These girls each have such a passion for Christ. I can learn from each of them. and I did. We each talked about how that video had touched us. How we want to live worship. We talked for more than 2 hours and I felt like we could've talked for days.

All this to say, my heart is being changed. I know it's a process and it won't happen all at once. I have so much to learn about living worship instead of acting it. I need much more spiritual discipline among other things but, I'm changing. I hope the video changed a piece of you too.

That's really all I have to say about it all....I'm sure more posts will come as the journey continues, but for now...Have a wonderful week and Happy 4th of July. Thank a soldier.

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

•A few pictures from the Lake•

Where all the girl talks happened :)

My Beautiful Kairos sisters. I love these girls.

*Side note: I know my comment box isn't working. I'm working on getting it fixed. kinda. haha.

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Watermelon and Rain Showers

I beginning to doubt a single person reads this anymore. (Almost 3 months with not a single comment can do that to a blogger :) None the less, I continue with another post.

Summer is here in full swing. Complete with watermelon, summer rain showers, sun burns, late summer nights and evenings by the pool. Have I ever told you how much I LOVE summer? I think it's a tie between fall and summer as to which I love the most. Love them both.

Aside from all the obviously wonderful things about summer that I love, I'm also loving being able to get back into Kairos. For anyone who hasn't read about Kairos before on here, Kairos is a college ministry at Brentwood Baptist that some friends and I have been attending for almost a year. It's, essentially, my church. During the school year It's hard to make it every Tuesday night but I'm so glad to be back into the swing of things.

Last night at Kairos we had an "impact" night where instead of sitting and being given everything spiritually, we gave back. They had several things for us to do including helping the maitenance crew clean, writing letters to widows or soldiers over seas, doing miscellaneous odd jobs or going shopping for nonprofit organizations. It was wonderful. A good reminder that church is not about just coming and getting...it's just as much about giving back.

One last note: in 16 day's in heading to the lakehouse. THANK YOU SWEET JESUS! :)
This girl needs to get away for the weekend and I'm ridiculously excited.

Until next time-

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

ps: Blog makeover coming soon.

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Summer lovin'

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will. -Charlotte Bronte

I have a new "adventure" for the summer. I'm an avid reader and I've been anxiously awaiting summer to dig into a few new books. I went book searching this past week and while in a book store decided I needed to broaden my horizons as far as literature goes. So I made myself a rule: For every "modern" book I read, I must also read a Classical book.

I proceeded to the classical literature sections hesitantly, such books can be quite frightening! To my surprise, I could hardly pick a book...they all sounded wonderful! I eventually settled on Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre' for my first classic read. I'm three chapters in and already in love. I will keep you updated on this wonderfulness I've discovered.

*Totally unrelated change of subject*

MAC makeup. I'm in LOVE. I've been using it for a few years and every time I venture into that wonderful section of the department store I fall even more in love. Today I had some spare time and paid MAC a visit. Planning to only but one thing, I left 15 minutes later with 50 dollars left in my bank account and three things in my bag. and could have easily spent 200 more.

The goods?

MAC Eye Shadow - Color: "Expensive Pink"
•I am absolutely in LOVE with this. I told the girl who was working there that I wanted to try something new. I tend to stay on the nuetral side as far as eye shadow goes but wanted something to add a little pop...she showed me this and it is perfect. Love love love it.


MAC Eye Shadow- Color: "Hey"
This was a "safe" pick for me. I needed a good accent color for my first choice. One that would blend well and be able to tone the first down if blended right. Love love love it too :)

MAC Paint Pot- Color: Soft Ocre
This is my third time buying this product. It's my "must have". I use it as my base for eye shadows. It's amazing. I put it on my eye lids then apply my eye shadow on top of it. At the end of the day, my eye shadow looks just as good as it did when I applied it. Goodness I love this. It's worth the moola :)

I'm a MAC user for as long as I can afford it. Some people say it's too expensive but truthfully, their products are such good quality they last so much longer than cheaper brands. I had a bottle of their foundation for over a year, a tube of lip stick and lip gloss I've had for over a year and a half and still use it. The way I see it, I'd rather spend a little more once than a little bit every other month and have it add up quick. <3 me some MAC.

Alrighty friends, I had to give you an update on my two "happys" this week :)
Enjoy!

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

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Welcome, Summer...

Hello there, friends-

It's been a while....the end of the semester was super busy and I never got around to updating. but. good news....I'm officially on summer break so I'll be back to blogging in no time.

Update for you!

•Portfolio Review (round 1)- So I was honestly scared out of my MIND about reviews. I had heard that they were intense and that they tended to give harsh reviews. I worked hard to get all of my work from the past 3 years together, organized and mounted in the midst of school craziness. I turned it in and waited a few days to hear back. (torture!) Well I got my review back on Tuesday and it had some critiques on it giving me a few things to work on then on the back it said "On course to acceptance". I have NEVER been so excited about 4 little words. Never. The feedback from the professors was good and they all told me I was on my way to being accepted into the program. Needless to say, that took my stress level down at least 20 notches. This summer I'm going to work on the things they told me to work on and keep my fingers crossed to officially being accepted in the fall.

In other news, I'm sure most of you know about the Nashville flood that happened on May 2nd. I still can't believe it. I love Nashville and it broke my heart to see it underwater. Another heartbreaking situation is the lack of care we are seeing from outside of Tennessee. I'm only getting on my soap box for a minute on this but it really bothers me. NO ONE has paid attention to this disaster in Nashville. I just don't get it. *steps off soap box*

My Kairos pastor, Mike Glenn, said on his twitter today this phrase and I think it sums up Nashville perfectly.

"Bad times do not make or break, only reveal. The flood hasn’t broken Nashville, just revealed the city’s great heart."

I believe that's all for tonight...I just thought I'd let you guys know I'm still alive :) I'll try to get some of my projects uploaded on here in the near future so ya'll can see the stuff I rant about constantly ;)

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

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