Celebration

The semester is officially over!! Here are some pictures from this year...oh how the time has flown by!

my birthday. with swollen cheeks still from wisdom teeth removal (top) &

the first UTC football game of the season. last marching season for alex! woohoo (bottom).

first tennessee vol football game of the season, first and last kiffin season for TN (top) & alex's 21st birthday at provino's (bottom).

fall break, camping with the family. here at dixie stampede (top) & halloween at the symphony...clue characters, from left, col. mustard, ms. peacock, prof. plum, mrs. white, mr. green and ms. scarlet (bottom).

beat hunger (top) & rock city (bottom).

christmas with the roomies (top) & disney with the fantastic four (bottom).

christmas with the family (top) & memories of alex's dad (bottom).

about to celebrate jon & lizzy's engagement at UPD (top) & signal point (bottom), photo credit: lizzy kiern.

one of my best friend's lingerie shower!

alex and drew's senior recital, the lighting is horrible.

I just want to say how proud I am of Alex. He has made it through four years of college and wants to graduate so badly. All he has left is student teaching in the fall. While he finished the last of marching band last semester, he will have to help with marching band in the fall at the high school he student teaches at...which will be time consuming (every friday night football game and saturday camp, plus competitions). He will still be a part of the Seth Medley Band, which has a CD out--Congrats! He does so much, I don't even know how he has time for it all. I'm sure throughout all of his recent accomplishments, his dad is so proud of him.

He has stuck with me throughout these four years--thank God! He has been supportive, even though he may have been having a tough day. He has been challenging me, pushing me to be a better person to others and spiritually. He has become a part of my family and allowed me into his family. I know I talk him up a lot, but he is so great. I cannot wait to marry him December 17, 2010.

This summer, my goals are to:

-work, work, work

-make money, money, money

-save the money, money, money

-get the wedding planned to the very last detail

-find an apartment for Alex and I to plan to live in after we're married (:D)

-spend time relaxing, reading books, and spending time with friends.

School, Please Hurry Up and Finish!

I'm so close to being done with school for this semester. I have one exam today and the last one tomorrow. SO CLOSE! Then I will finally be a senior!

It's about that time when all my friends are starting to get married. Check out my summer:

• I know someone getting married May 8, 2010.
• Alex's brother is getting married June 5, 2010.
• I'm in one of my best friend's weddings on July 17, 2010.
• Alex is acting as best man for his best friend on August 7, 2010.
• Alex and I are both in a wedding in September 2010.

That leaves two more months until our own!! So not only will I be getting prepared for my own wedding this December, but I will be attending 5 this summer! Yay for weddings! I need to save money. :P

Congratulations to all my friends: Marlene & Zach, Megan & Mark, Molly & Zach, Lizzy & Jon, and Corinne & Alex Cooze!

Time to go take my second to last exam.

Not for the Faint at Heart

Tonight, at the Maunday Thursday service at my church, they offered a time where you could wash someone's feet. I didn't have Alex with me to wash his feet, so instead I read the rest of the Gospel of Mark, after the Last Supper. I think that was ok. :P

Anyway...as I was reading about the events that took place following Jesus' arrest, like all the high priests searching for a charge against him and finding nothing, being beaten and spit upon, and then being crucified and buried, I thought about his family and friends and wondered what they were thinking and how they were feeling while all this was going on. Did they know this was going to happen or were they as clueless as the disciples? Nothing is mentioned about the family until the burial, at least in the book of Mark.

What I am wondering now is how they dealt with that. What their grieving looked like, what they thought about Jesus after that, how they imagined their lives from then on without Jesus. It may say in other books, but I don't know the gospels well enough. I will read up...

I've never been so close to someone who was grieving as I am now with Alex. Sure, my close friends have lost grandparents, but it's not the same. Some days he is great, his usual, crazy self. Then some days, he'll act like he is ok, but if I say the wrong thing, he just can't handle it and says, "I'm having a hard day, ok?" It's so hard to tell when he's struggling and when he is doing ok because he won't tell me unless I hit the wrong button. I've tried telling him that if I know he's having a rough day I can do my best to not hit push his buttons, but if I have no clue, I can't help him. That may not be the best policy but I've gone back to my normal routine, while everyday he is facing another day without his dad.

How lucky for the family of Jesus to see Jesus risen from death after he was buried! How lucky are we to know that through all his suffering, the scripture is fulfilled and He was resurrected! So tomorrow, as we go through Good Friday and remember everything that happened on that Friday, 2010 years ago, grieve because of the suffering He faced but remember what is to come Sunday morning!

"What wondrous love is this, oh my soul, oh my soul. What wondrous love is this, oh my soul."