My Day

To start my day off I must first tell you a little something about last night. I felt terrible! I have some sort of Upper respiratory disease and it gave me a soar throat, serve chills, a massive head ache and all around body ache. So I was at my friend sarah's house for a going away party and I was feeling so bad that I left but I went to my house instead of Chris' cause I just didn't think I could drive that far. So Because I was at my house this morning I had to wake up early to go over to Chris' and feed the dogs. After that I sat around a while and didn't really do much until about 1 when I left to go to my doctors appointment! That took forever and then I had to go to walmart to fill my prescription and get some food. I didn't get back till 430 and I knew that i wouldn't make it in time for church. So I took a shower and did my hair and make up and feed the animals dinner but that took longer then expected. So now I'm just killing a bit of time before I meet Tyler for dinner. And there you have it folks, an uneventful day in the life of Lauren.

To the people I love

For me high school was not overflowing with fantastic friends. In fact it started out quite terribly. I had a few good friends from middle school freshmen year, but then when the school's split my sophomore year, all but one left. That one was my only real friend all year. But then that friendship ended, and it ended quite hard. I've always had friends, but my "friends" have always been more of "people that I hang out with on occasion". They have rarely ever been true friends that care about me. I spent most of high school trying to forgive those who stabbed me in the back, and trying to care for those who didn't care for me. But after a few months of not having a single person to hang out with in the end of sophomore year God opened a door at CBC. It was hard to get involved and in it was hard to break into the group, but I never gave up and finally I had friends again. I say "again" but really I had friends for the first time. I had real friends. I had people who cared about me. People that noticed when I was gone. People that thought to call and invite me to things. People I could trust, and love and people that loved me back. I was still fighting that friendship war at school, but the people at cbc gave me a home and they gave me hope. I have spent the last two years of my life loving them, and thanking God for them. This is why I have cried everyday for the last week. This is why I have wanted to spend every moment with them. This is why I will never forget any of them.

On the middle ground of life

The Middle Ground: The point between start and finish.

I hate the middle grounds of life, but I feel like I'm being surrounded by them right now. They are kind of like transitions but much more than that. It's uncomfortable, awkward, uneasy, and time consuming. The only light in this darkness, is that I know that the end of a middle ground is marked by growth.

Learning to see the flashing neon lights that I've asking for.

Quite often I find myself complaining to others and most frequently to God that He just doesn't communicate with me very well....(note the arrogance in that statement) I constantly pray for some kind of sign that will show me what I'm supposed to do in any given situation, yet I never find one. Consequently I "lean upon my own understanding" and almost always epic fail at whatever it is I was doing. Usually my prayers sound a little something like this: "Dear God, PLEASE just tell me what you want me to do. But don't tell me with subtle hints and discretion but instead use flashing neon lights and signs. Wack me in the face with the answer. Amen." Now you may imagine how well that has been working out for me. But what I've noticed in the past few days is that God is always faithful, and He answers prayer. Conversely, I am not always faithful and I do not always want to hear His answer. You see, what I have been doing is looking right past the neon lights in front of me and searching behind those for the ones I wanted to see. And whats more is that when I pray that prayer, what I'm really saying is "Dear God, PLEASE just tell me what I want to hear. But don't tell me with subtle hints and discretion but instead use flashing neon lights and signs. Wack me in the face with the go ahead to do what I want. Amen." So thankfully for once the lights caught my eye and I got the message, and hopefully that's a lesson learned.

Mid-Summer Perspective

Summer is supposed to be a time of relaxation, and boredum, and sitting around not doing a whole lot. My summer was supposed to be a full month of nothing to do and then a full month of traveling around Italy, and then a road trip with Bethany. Well let me tell ya that God had different plans for my summer. Of course I'm not spending a month in Italy right now, but more then that, I'm also not sitting around doing nothing. I really think I've actually been more busy so far this summer then I was in the school year. But it's GREAT! It's so great because nothing that I've been doing has been required of me. Nothing has been stressful, and I'm loving every second of it! I still haven't quite figured out why God wanted me here this summer and not in Italy, but I'm having a lot of fun anyway. So here are some of the things I've done so far during my summer:
-Mexico 08! It was a really good year to go out on. I love all the new people I met there and I've enjoyed getting to know them further.
-VBS! I love working with kids! They are so much fun.
-College Lake weekend at the Grace's lakehouse! woohoo, that was a lot of fun and it was good to get to know all the kids in the college group. It made me feel more a part of the gang. : )
-Hanging out with so many really awesome people till really late hours of the morning, and experiencing more of the freedom that comes with being older.
-Art Class at cbc. lol even though I've only made it to a couple of the classes, it's been really cool and I have deffinatly improved since when I started in December. YAY!
-boyfriend, yep, I got me one of those. And it's really good so far!
-July 4th weekend at my boathouse! YAY, July 4th is my favorite holiday of all and this one was pretty darn good. I got to hang out with my brother alot and I loved that. And we went and saw fireworks over the water! YAY
-rolled paper triangles with Kelsey...which was alot of fun contrary to what it sounds like.
-College bible study, I like!
-Road trip to Austin with mom and Erin. We went and saw the inner space caverns, the bats come out from congress bridge, capital building, and ate at alot of really awesome unique resteraunts!
-Seen lots of movies....wanted and wall-e were really good! Looking forward to the dark knight!
-Scrapbooked mexico stuff with Shelby and some other girls!
-sang at some random church with Trevor and the band
-Started and continued to learn/teach myself how to play the guitar...I can actually play and sing about 4 songs...and I have a couple more that I can sorta play.


And I have a bunch more stuff to look forward to. This had been a great summer so far! I hope you have been enjoying yourself as well.

Wow, Stupidity is in the air

So after being out of town for a week, smashed into a 15 passenger van, I was really dying to drive my own car again! So We finally got back to the church and I packed up what I thought was all of my stuff and excitingly starting to make my way home. I made it all the way back home and realized that I had left my pillow, cowboy hat and the bag I had with me on the van. Since this bag had my phone, ipod, camera and money in it I figured i should go back and get it. So I'm on my way back; driving down the highway and all of a sudden I see flashing lights behind me. Apparently I was speeding. Now, I will admit that I probably deserve a ticket because I often do speed. I never speed excessively, but 5 over and 10 on the highway, is a normal occurrence in my car. So I pull over on the shoulder of the highway only to find out that it's actually against the law to pull over on the left shoulder (the middle of the highway). So the guy gets out and tells me to pull over on the other side. So finally I'm pulled over in an acceptable area and the guy again comes to talk to me. After explaining why I was not supposed to stop on the left side it made perfect sense, but in my defense I never knew that before. I know ignorance is no excuse, but that's the one I used. Anyway he gave me a double warning, one for speeding and one for being stupid and pulling over in the middle of the highway. He couldn't give me a speeding ticket cause he didn't actually clock me, he just knew I was speeding because I past him, obviously going faster then he. (In my defense it wasn't a normal cop car and I didn't notice him) He was actually pretty nice about it but it still kinda sucked! But at least I didn't actually get a ticket! Woo-hoo! But the worst part about this whole story is that by the time I got up to the church it had already been locked up and I couldn't get in, so the whole trip was completely pointless! Except for the part where I got to see some really dumb lady kinda get in an accident. On 407 right in front of the shops of highland village, by the church; there is all that construction and we all know that half of the road is missing there. Well apparently she didn't. And she was also dumb because she pulled out in front of the man in front of me very quickly and almost angrily. But since she wasn't aware of the missing chunk of road she went straight and ran right off the ledge and got stuck! It was pretty funny, not gonna lie. So all in all my night ended with a double warning and a slight panic attack, light laughter supplied by the stupidity of others, and a very long bath accompanied by a good book.

really freaking cool

so my parents got me an iPod touch for graduation and its really cool! So I just thought ild post a blog telling you (and sorta brag) about the fact that I'm posting this on my touch! Its really not that difficult to use the mini keyboard thing but it does take longer. Either way its still cool and fun to mess with. Anyway, tonight was spent packing for Mexico, also known as the greatest week life ever threw at you. I'll post a longer more exciting blog telling you all about my trip when I get home.

Right now I'll just leave you with a big woo hoo cause I'm a freshman again and that excites me!!!