i realize that i am terrible at keeping this site up. but allow me to explain that it's because i have facebook. haha

anyways just a quick update: we are in greece for one more week. packing and going thru stuff. we leave next friday for kiev, ukraine, our new home. i leave at the end of august to go back to bfa =) agm was a week ago and it was great fun =) here are some pics:

kelly, andersen, and i...i love these two to death =)

kurt, ande, austin and i...don't ask about the floaties. it's a long story...

the new band "i love chicken!" yeah another long story....suffice it to say that ande and i are their groupies!

yay for prayer group!!

and small group!

and my fantabulous room mate!

uh....well....=)

heck yessss austin taught me how to play pool!

the beach, joanna kelly and lydia chew....basically agm in Evia, Greece was amazing =)

well i'm back! actually i have been since tuesday...well technically wednesday since i didn't get in till like midnight. my monday flight got cancelled and then my tuesday flight was delayed. the weather was just awful. but i had a BLAST!! friday was spent walking around a little town called ridgewood which was loverly! we had coffee and bought some jewelry. i went to work with becky (she babysits) so that i could meet her little kids and the woman she babysits for. it was a wonderful time =) saturday was spent in new york city! we shopped on fifth avenue and walked up and down broadway. drove through times square and ate under the concourse rockefeller center. she bought me a teddy bear from FAO Shwarz, the ginormous toy store! yall seen the movie Big? ya know the piano in that movie that tom hanks plays on? well i saw that. it's enormous. sunday we just went to church and chilled at the house, but sunday night we went to new york again for a Jars of Clay concert!! which was just wonderful! and then monday everything was closed because of the weather but we went shopping and found some cute stuff. and then tuesday we just hung out until time for me to go. i loved being able to see backy again =) and i've decided i also love new jersey and especially new york! i went straight back to school and work as soon as i got home and then last night my friend, jessica spent the night. i went shopping with her today, and then headed over to my chem teahcer's production of "Looking Glassland" which is a version of Alice in Wonderland. while there we randomly ran into my mom's cousin and her kids who we haven't seen in like a year! so that was a surpisingly fun time! tomorrow i have church and then i am going with ms. penny to get candace from her dad's and in the evening i have a Bible study. tonight i called a friend that i haven't seen in four years. and we are gonna plan sometime to get together since we're only like two hours away. i'm so excited!

sometimes i wish i could have like two days to just sleep and rest myself. but i know that being busy is how i do the best. i think i was made to be busy. so i won't complain because i know i'd be miserable if i didn't always have things to do. know what i've learned about being busy since being the states? you have to make sure that what you're doing is what God wants you to be doing. or else it feels pointless and you get irritable. when i don't ask God to work in me and don't ask Him to allow His will to be done in my life; when i don't spend time with my Lord, it's all worthless. and what's worse, it's much more exhausting and i find myself becoming easily annoyed at things. but when God is in control of the things i do, it's fulfilling. and it's such a difference. because He then gives me the strength He knows i need and sustains me one day at a time. and when i feel like i'm gonna break down, He takes my load and bears it Himself. when God is center, the blessings received are beyond what even the best of imaginations could dream up for oneself.

"you walk on waves/you  run with clouds/you paint the sky for me to see/your majesty, your majesty is why i sing/so i'll sing a love song to you/i'll sing a love song to you/you know all my thoughts/you see through my skin/and still you come to me/i'll sing a love song to you/i'll sing a love song to you"

I'M OFF!!!

not to see the wizard, mind you, but to NEW JERSEY!! my wonderful and amazing, dear, beautiful friend that i haven't seen since last summer lives up there. i didn't get a spring break so i am taking two days off of work and school to go visit becky. and in case yall couldn't tell, i'm way way way excited! haha that's the way my girls at the daycare talk..."miss bekah, i wanna go way way way high!" yep yep, so i leave directly from work today and i'll get back late monday night. until then my lovelies....

MWAH!

it's 11:30 pm. i'm still gonna be up for a while cuz i have a whole bunch of info i need to gather out of three particular books about a man named Alexander Solzhenitsyn (a russian dude) for a paper i am writing. tonight is gonna be a late one. and i'm already tired...no matter! maybe updating will get all distractions off my mind (ha! that's wishful thinkin for ya) and wake me up some. while doing some online research on this guy i found a few quotes that i really liked:

"if one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?" that one made me laugh. cuz it's so true. and plus, it's a fancy way of my version: "take a few risks, give up control, and live life a little!" i'm thinkin solzhenitsyn was smart.

"Do not pursue what is illusory - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade and can be confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life - don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn after happiness; it is after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing" this one just made me stop and think. it's also very true.

and then i stumbled upon a page of quotes by a bunch of different people and, in skimming, discovered some lady named erica jong who said "jealousy is all the fun you think they had." kinda makes you second guess the gain and even logic in jealousy. there is none.

and now for those d-now pics i promised!

me and kat. she was one of the girls in my small group (6th grade) and i love her to death!

another girl in my group, sydney. she's amazing and she's getting baptized next week!

me, melanie, rachel, and nikki. three more of my girls. they were so much fun!

me, sydney, and abby. abby got baptized on wednesday! we got pretty close over the weekend. i'm so glad they were in my group...

rachelle, lydia, kelsey, and ansley. they weren't in my group, but they are all amazing. i gotta admit i might play favorites just a little with lydia...but what can i say? she's my sister...

...and she's beautiful

i like this pic =) we were just playin around...

me and sydney with zoe on my lap. she's my sunday school teacher's daughter (who also happens to be the lady whose home we stayed in over the weekend) and she's just way too cute!

welp that's all for now folks. i think i get a lil carried away with the pics. have a good one!