Life happens...

So it's time for some updates, huh? It's been a year...or more.

Well, I'm not going to say much for today other than.....
"Do I have anything in my teeth?"




Bye for now.

Major update

I know it's been close to a month since I've updated anyone! Let's see if I can give you a run down!

I got a 5 day road trip in before Elevate started:
-After my last day of work on July 27th, I left that night at 4am for a road trip with Bill up through Indiana and on to Michigan.
-Bill got to meet some of my friends in Bloomington and Indy. They approved...or just liked him for making them laugh during Dance Dance Revolution.
-We visited his family for a few days, which was great since I hadn't seen them since Christmas. His parents treated us to a trip to Cedar Point. You can't beat that! His mom even bit her lip and joined us on most of the rides.
-We arrived back in Baton Rouge just in time for my nephew's birth. He's amazing to say the least!
See cutest baby ever for pictures!

Elevate started a week later:
The first week alone was jammed pack with stuff
-They kicked the week off with some good laughable times on the ropes course. You can't beat some good team building moments
-We ran a 5K to kick our butts in to shape...Ha (We'll be running a 5K at the end of the year and have already been spending 3 or more days a week trying to get our cardio in shape) Let's just say...I have A LOT of work to do.
-OH and I can't forget our midnight kidnapping from the 2nd year interns to do some spring cleaning at the church...yes Spring cleaning in the middle of August!! :)
-Other than all that craziness, we had several inspiration classes and topped the week off with an Elevate retreat

Cade Griffin Durbin

This little man is the best thing ever! He's about 3 1/2 weeks old now and is the sweetest thing ever...well...despite making his mark on me twice already :P Oh the joys of changing diapers :)

I'm going to be an aunt!!!

Here's a picture taken 2 months ago of my nephew high fiving his dad. Cade Griffin Durbin will finally be on his way!! They are inducing on August 3rd!!!!

"MY box"

I thought I'd share an analogy I've always thought about but finally put down on paper when I was filling out one of the questions for my Elevate application. So here's what I wrote...I've always used the analogy of "MY box" to describe my relationship with Christ. When I first became a Christian, Jesus gave me this gift. I received it and I knew this was MY box, my personal box, and it was His gift for me. This gift was wrapped so absolutely beautiful that, for a long time, I was too afraid to open it. I didn’t want to mess it up. So, I put it on my shelf and just stared at it. I enjoyed its beauty and wondered what all could be in it. I wished I could just tear right into it like I knew so many other people that have received their box did. They tore right in with no hesitation or fear and with such excitement that their wrapping paper flew everywhere. They were so ready to dive right in and experience it to it’s fullest. I would constantly compare my gift to theirs and wonder why I didn’t have what they have. Yet, I knew that I could have what they have; all I had to do was open the gift. So I would take the box down occasionally and tear slowly and carefully at the paper. This took several years, almost 5 years. At 21 years old, I finally had the ribbon completely undone and the wrapping paper finally off. Now I just had to lift the lid. Since then, I have spent a lot of time opening the lid and looking inside. Every time I have opened the lid, I would go wide–eyed in amazement, but freak out and quickly shut the lid as soon as I felt something. I’ve struggled to just let myself go and trust the crazy feeling of it. I’ve gotten to the point where I have stuck my hand in only to quickly take my hand out. He has so much for me in MY box and I’ve had enough of letting my fear control my hand! God has been so patient with me. I’m so close to just dumping the box upside down!

Tribute to the LMS SFX guys

So, here it is...my blog. Blogging is a first for me, so this could get interesting.

I'll be using this pretty much as a journal or close to one, anyway, so I can let everyone in on how things are going during my internship! I guarantee that my blogs will be completely unorganized and scattered thoughts. So prepare for that :)

So, after much avoidance, I finally got my support letters out. It's definitely a humbling experience having to raise support for my internship. Outside of sending out letters, I've been baking like a maniac trying to raise money for my internship at work. I work with a bunch of guys which is helpful for this situation. There are definitely advantages of being outnumbered with guys at work. One, they'll eat anything you bring to sell. As long as it's chocolate and smells good, we're good to go. :) Two, there's NO DRAMA!! Sooooo nice. I'm not much for the drama that a bunch of girls can bring to a work place. Where many women flock together, beware :P. So, yeah, it's very nice.

To get an idea of this...I work at a post production office where the most drama I hear is from the sound guys goofing around trying to create noises for different scenes. Today they found it amusing to turn the footsteps of a bad guy into a robot. After hearing laughter for 10 minutes, you can't help but stop what you're doing to see what it's all about. I can't help but hear everything since I share the wall with them. A few weeks ago, the guys popped their head in my door and asked if I wanted to help them record some noises. I always will take anything to get away from my job...accounting/office manager. So, they needed to make up sounds for the sound of a head chopping off (you hack at a frozen chicken with an ax...I wouldn't have thought of that). Gross I know, but it's actually kind of amusing when you're on the behind the scenes part of it. They're editting a Sci-Fi of a film made in Romania. It's called Headless...you get the point. It's about a guy that has to regain his head by stealing others. It's rather lame actually, but has been amusing listening to the guys come up with sounds for everything. We've made fun of it for several weeks now, but the director has been in town this week, so any joking has to be behind doors.

I have to admit that the environment has been fun and the sound guys have made my job much more worth while. They'll be missed when I leave. My last day is July 27th. Where did June go? As much as it'll be weird leaving, I'm EXTREMELY excited to leave and start Elevate!