to start off, i'm a sad excuse for a blogger. and for that i apologize. now with my faults out in the

open, i will continue to fill you in on my life from the last 4 months.

i went to london. those kids are precious and a religion that doesn't even have full assurance of salvation put me to shame. one of my fav parts was when the crafts team did tie dye with the kids, they had no idea what it was, made some reference to "hippies" and ate it up.

I'm currently a graphic communications student at this cool place and i'm loving it. turns out its

real cool walking in the will God has for you and it is so clear this is where i'm supposed to be.

I met my roommate on facebook and have yet to hear of anyone else's situation turning out as rad as ours has. We get along scaringly well and are already planning to live together next year. she also has her headphones in right now warming up to run, and looks like she belongs on a river dance team...squad? whatever. now she's practically screaming about buying a vest because she doesn't realize how loud her music is and how silent our room is. oh man.

also welcome the newest member to our dorm. beyonce bubble fesler mallett lockridge. i affectionately like to refer to her as Sparta, you should hear about the day she survived with me in charge. ask me about it sometime. lets just say it was bad enough for me to reconsider parenthood. 

but for now friends, im home for almost a month and I have full intentions to do absolutely nothing. except for getting my fill of shows while I can. but for now, live long and prosper.

cheerio!

I'm off to London for 10 days!  It's going to be mind blowing.  If you would please be praying for us that would be rad.

• Relationships amongst the team, that we would be encouraging, selfless, and patient.
• Everyone we will be meeting, that they will be open to what we have to say.
• Issues going through customs and that we won't get sent home. 
• Safety
• That we will trust God completely and that His will will be fulfilled through us.
• God will be glorified. 

THANK YOU!

(speakers corner last year)

the usual.

-we're in the car while its about to tornado down at any minute headed to walmart-

Brittany: I didn't hear ANYTHING about it storming today!

Me: Yeah! I didn't either!

Brittany: I didn't watch the weather though.

Me: Yeah, I didn't either.

King Darren.

So this
is Darren King. Drummer for a band called Mute Math, if you haven't heard them, i give you permission to stop reading...RIGHT NOW...and go listen. break. He is probably one of the best drummers I have ever seen perform. He is ridiculous. Plus, he's very attractive. He duct tapes his headphones to his head at the beginning of the show because if he doesn't..they would inevitably fly off of his head he is so hardcore. Please heck out this video, its insane.




and this one.


he gets so intense at about 1:25 for you ADD viewers.

R.I.P. Bambi

If you know me at all, you know I don't have the best driving record ever. My car, which was deemed the "no fear frontier" soon to be mocked by some wise guy as "the fearful frontier". I hate getting in wrecks because a) they cost money b) they cause embarrassment and abashment c) you automatically classified as careless. Which is annoying because I still feel that I'm not a bad driver, but I think that's while comparing myself to others. Like the boys at my school who do doughnuts and literally flip them upside down. It's ok, I've come to accept the ridicule and humor that comes with my record.

All of my incidents have been with inanimate objects except for one. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing. For instance, a mailbox, a fence, and another mailbox. I had just been in the worst one, with another car, it was my fault, AND my car had to be towed, when I was on the way home from my best friend's house. It was late, after twelve and I was driving down a good ol' almost-Blythewood road when BAM! a freakin deer! I was probably going 48 mph and the I hit the deer straight on with my dad's car and it goes literally...FLYING across my side of the road in the air a good 8 or 9 feet and lands on the grass on the opposite side of the road! I stopped screaming because I was so astounded at how high this huge animal was flying. When I inspected the damage there were tuffs of deer hair all in the grill of my dad's front bumper. Gross.

do i think its gross that we pulled over to take a picture with it? yes. do i find it disturbing how close tom is? yes. did a cop drive by and stop to ask us what we were doing during this whole thing? yes. do i ever drive on that road? not if i can help it.

What is that?
Answer: what are my first pair of ballet shoes.


Dance is one of the things in my life I wish I hadn't given up/still did. I love dance. Lyrical, (and Partner, when I was old enough) were my favorites and tap was always a struggle. Too bad being in company requires you to spend every weekday from 4-9 and every weekend from 9-4 rehearsing. So that's why I quit, in case you were wondering. My favorite partner Willie and I did a routine for Amazing Feets at the district auditorium and I'm pretty sure it's on my computer somewhere. I'll look into it. I remember one time I was teaching a little kids ballet class, as in 7 year olds, with the shortest attention spans ever. But they were supposed to be sashaying across the floor and Danielle apparently couldn't hold it. A straight line of pee across the dance floor, wiped up by yours truly. Oh kids.

please notice the picture of the sumo wrestler they have outlined, love it.

It Is Well.

I am satisfied with what the world brings
I have made my mind to make my bed inside peace
I am satisfied with all this sky can bring
I have made my mind to live my life inside of peace

[Friends & Romans -- Move]

There is something peaceful about the sound of "tranquility" Peace is such an overused word, its reduced to a slogan, something known but not fully experienced. But since we have not overused the word tranquility, it sounds so appealing, so... peaceful.

God promises us "perfect peace," that is tranquility. But its important to note that perfect peace isn't a product that He offers, but a result. It is the result of a steadfast mind, a mind that COMPLETELY trusts God.

The better we focus our mind on God, the better we trust, the more we will experience the perfect peace that comes from God alone. This peace, or tranquility, passes all understanding. I don't think perfect peace is the result of God just removing all the chaos in our lives. Instead, it is the result of a mind that is focused solely on Him.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
1 peter 4:6-7

Young Love

Today at work I was talking to my favorite 4th grader about his girlfriend. That's right, dating is definitely all the rage in elementary school...kind of sad if you ask me. Anyways, I asked him what he liked about her and he said they have a lot of things in common, and when i asked for examples, he answered me "like spongebob and jonas brothers"


so cute. this is why i love my job...
most of the time.

it feels like july!

so my family and I are venturing to Texas for Christmas. whoever decided that an 18 hour drive with 6 people in one cramped minivan, should not get anything for Christmas. but in an attempt to take up 18 hours of time, I need some book suggestions. Ready, go!

GIV

Whew! I'm so thankful that God continues to convict me of my sins and make me realize I'm not perfect in the least. I'm also thankful for Midtown. The pastors there have been doing a series on giving and what it really means to give, what God thinks about giving, and providing us opportunities to give.

This week Dustin gave some facts that blew me away. Like how at an $40,000 income we are richer than 97% of the world. NINETY SEVEN PERCENT!!! And how Americans spend 450 BILLION dollars on Christmas every YEAR! when it would take 10 billion to supply clean water to the WHOLE WORLD! Are you kidding me!

Last week the whole church gave so that about 200 kids could have a Christmas. Then the pastor says, this week we don't want your money this week, instead we want your shoes! They partnered with Cooperative Ministries to help them collect shoes to give away. And immediately I thought of how after the sermon I had to go see my little brother in a musical, then we were going out to eat as a family and I couldn't go in a restaurant barefoot! And how I had just bought those shoes a week ago [on sale], and how my mom was not going to like that so I stayed in my seat and didn't give up my shoes. I thought about how I could bring in the shoes in my closet that I don't ever wear, and still keep the ones I had on. Then the band started to play and I could feel God laying it on my heart. Not laying...God put six elephants on my heart is what it really felt like! It was the coolest thing of my life. I knew I should be giving my shoes and I wanted to, but I kept making excuses. Finally somewhere in one of the songs I took them off and threw 'em on the massive pile.

God really convicted me because I feel like that is how I handle giving in life. Sure, I'd donate to Winter Days, or put some change in the salvation army bucket because its just change, and I tithe yes, but none of that is really sacrificial giving. Giving up my brand new shoes was a sacrifice for me. I'm really thankful I wore those shoes to church though, if it had been either of my other pairs it would not have been as big of a deal and probably would not of felt like a sacrifice.

"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ" Phil. 4:8

MIA? huh uh!

ahh its so nice to have a few minutes to blog it up! I'm pretty sure I've been going non stop with something to do every other second of my day for a few weeks. Between college applications, writing essays for scholarships, quitting one job and starting another one, going to school, managing to get in yet another car wreck, three doctors appointments, and keep up with my social life of course..its been hectic. So I'm not ashamed whatsoever to say its 9:15 on a Friday night, I just got home from the fall sports banquet, and I'm staying home, watching the episode of The Office that I missed last night and going to bed!

Here are some things I've been contemplating in the meantime.

Really, why can't hot dog bun and hot dog producers get together to produce an equal ammount of both per package! There are 8 hot dogs, and 6 hot dog buns in most packages. Why not come to a happy meduim of 7?

On a more serious note, I've been thinking about the differences between the words peace and tranquility. Tranquility sounds much more appealing and meaningful. I think we've reduced "peace" to cute slogans and its something known, but not often experienced. Often I think peace is thought to be a product that God offers, but in reality, it's a result of having full, complete, trust in God. This peace, or tranquility, surpasses all the stress we manage to create for ourselves. It surpasses all understanding for that matter.

And on that note, I leave you, for The Office.

So far I have about 8 posts in drafts folder that I have started and have yet to finish. Maybe I'll just start posting all of my unfinished ones together, and they'll a) leave you slightly confused and b) all together equal 1 full, finished post.


I can however say that I'm very super stoked about my week. I start my new job at an elementary after school program tomorrow, the Copeland concert is Wednesday which is going to rock your face, Thursday is the powder puff game which I am very pumped about, and this weekend is COVE! Then, when we get back from cove, we only have 2 days of school until thanksgiving break! Yeah uh!

Well before I click save now and add a 9th blog to my collection, I bid you adieu.

please notice the picture of the sumo wrestler they have outlined. love it.



















ah, failblog. i waste a lot of time on that website. This picture made me think of my road trip to Clemson last weekend. I love Clemson and I especially love Clemson in the fall. The ride up and back was gorgeous and the whole campus was beautiful as well.

one another.

so I just thought I would share this because I found it way cool.

i went to the 7 o'clock midtown service tonight as usual and Dustin did an awesome sermon about how we are commanded to be hospitable. Not just with friends, but with everyone, Christians, non-christians, the poor, everyone! which is something that I need to work on. So i get home, walk in the door and my mom said she wanted to run something past me. A guy from our church is bringing 2 young adults up from Argentina for school, to work on their english, and for experience. One of the two is a 18 or 19 year old girl and so our friend asked if we would be willing to house her for a little while.

HELLO!

could God have been more obvious!? God's awesome right? I know. On the inside, my jaw dropped and i just kind of chuckled to myself. Hopefully she won't make fun of my lack of spanish abilities. I'm so excited about this!

feliz cumpleanos

My birthday was earlier this month and I am officially legal! whoohoo! You know how when you have a birthday EVERYONE asks you if you feel older? I have never felt older, usually most people this young don't. But this year I do! I feel pretty stinkin old. 18 is a big year, or so I'm told. I was talking to Scott via facebook chat the other day and we were evaluating the pros and cons of an 18th birthday. There really aren't too many pros as we discovered. You get to vote, and you can sign yourself out of school any time you want. The cons list however seems to be much more numerous. You can go to real, legit, martha stewart jail now, you are responsible for a lot more things now, like once you turn 18 you don't need a parent to sign anything for you leaving the responsibility of wise decisions up to me. But still, nothing too exciting comes with being 18, however I can get a tatoo on my own now! AND buy lottery tickets...whooo! I've heard the pick 3 is the way to go. I also have been planning with a dear friend to set up a library background in her living room, dress in oversized flannel vests and a pair of trousers, fake accents, and smoke a pipe for the first time. However, those plans seem to be falling through...hec hum.

I have always LOVED birthdays. And selfishly, especially my own. But suprisingly this year of all years I wasn't really too intense about it. No roller rink party this year! My birthday overall was fantastic though. I only go to school until lunchtime so that was excellent, and a friend of mine MADE me cookies!! ...not bought, MADE them! i know right? But thanks to facebook everyone can keep track of birthdays now, so all of my "happy birthday!" salutations at school was really nice too. Speaking of facebook, why is it a highlight of birthdays to see how many notifications you can get of a bunch of people saying the same thing? Because it's a self centered world, and we love to see how many people appreciate and love us. Mm hm. Maybe thats why it hurts so much when that one person mentions NOTHING about your birthday, because we feel like they're saying we have no value to them and that we aren't important enough for him to remember one day.

So my best friend threw me and Tom a surprise party last night!! I loooooooove love love love love surprises. Apparently there was a whole big plot that we were deceieived into with a mutual friend of ours tagging along for the ride to inform the party when we were coming. We were told it was a "halloween party" and it was, just with a surprise party mixed in! nice, right? check! I also feel that my awesome friend Sophie and I had the best costume of the century. We were homeschoolers. We wore these unfitted, shoulder padded, shin-length, up to the neck, little house on the prairie dresses, slicked our hair back tight with some nice bows, wore the ugliest shoes [that were strangely comfortable, go figure] and ruffled socks with our dress shoes. oh we were a sight. and we also were tied for most original/best costume! which was nice because we didn't get all frumpy for nothing! We continued to not only dress like homeschoolers but try to act like them at the party, we carried Bibles around and were going to stand off in the corner awkwardly at the beginning of the party. Not that I don't like homeschoolers, we both were actually homeschooled for a large majority of time. But we know the stereotype all too well and felt the need to convey and contrast it for everyone. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones who truly appreciated it. Eh, such is life.

It Is Well.

I am satisfied with what the world brings
I have made my mind to make my bed inside peace
I am satisfied with all this sky can bring
I have made my mind to live my life inside of peace

[Friends & Romans -- Move]

There is something peaceful about the sound of "tranquility" Peace is such an overused word, its reduced to a slogan, something known but not fully experienced. But since we have not overused the word tranquility, it sounds so appealing, so... peaceful.

God promises us "perfect peace," that is tranquility. But its important to note that perfect peace isn't a product that He offers, but a result. It is the result of a steadfast mind, a mind that COMPLETELY trusts God.

The better we focus our mind on God, the better we trust, the more we will experience the perfect peace that comes from God alone. This peace, or tranquility, passes all understanding. I don't think perfect peace is the result of God just removing all the chaos in our lives. Instead, it is the result of a mind that is focused solely on Him.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
1 peter 4:6-7

Cam the Man

I've heard some people say that the you should never favor one child over the others. And I agree, but Cameron is still my favorite. Just to clarify Cam is not my child, he's my brother, but people don't really say statistical stuff about siblings. Don't get me wrong, I love all of my siblings, but Cam is hilarious. Let me tell you why he is my favorite.

Last night I'm sitting at the computer probably on Stalkbook, around 11:38 when Cam comes out of his room, stands in the middle of the hallway and stares at me for a few seconds before going back into his room. Not 2 minutes later he comes back out, does the same thing and this time goes down the hallway to do who knows what, then goes back into his room. He continues to go in and out of his room for the next 10 minutes or so when finally I say, "CAMERON! go to bed!!" Here is his reaction. He abrubtly stops in front of the computer desk looks at me oh so solemnly and plainly says, "Please don't tell me how to live my life" and goes on his way down the hall. I'm pretty positive this was one of those you had to be there moments, so you might not find it funny, but his face was stinkin hilarious. This boy had no emotion and basically told me to get out of his face! I died laughing.

This is also the same kid that at our Christmas Eve dinner 3 years ago, when my grandma went around the table asking what everyone wanted for Christmas, 7 year old Cam said facial hair. He also pretended to pass out after I took him and his twin sister to Sonic for root beer floats. He laid out across the back seat and I said, "Cam whats up with you!" and he responds " i had wayyyy too much root beer, I'M WASTED!" And lets not forget the time my fellow babysitting comrade, Sophie & I took my 3 siblings to dinner. After dinner we decided to surpise them by going to baskin robbins for ice cream and as soon as we pull in the parking lot Cam SCREAMS from the back seat, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME WE WERE GOING TO BASKIN ROBBINS? I HAVE COUPONS!"

Did I mention that at 11 years old he already knows what college he wants to go to, and what he will be majoring in? He wants to go to Winthrop and major in teaching. Why winthrop? Right, well I asked him and he says, "The boy to girl ration is 1 to 20!! Which means Lindsey, I'll be a babe magnet!!"

This kid is out of control!

Psalm 86:5

So my teacher has started his own SSR time twice a week. For those who are confused, SSR stands for Sustained Silent Reading. Last year we were forced to take out 10 minutes of our lunch time to sit and read at the end of 4th period. For the most part SSR = naptime. So needless to say the program no longer exists and our classes are now 10 minutes longer instead. But anyways my english teacher does his own SSR twice a week for 20 minutes instead. I am a big fan. My view on SSR last year was, it's a waste! in 10 minutes you could get in about 3 or 4 pages of a book. yipee? no no, not worth it at all. However 20 minutes is awesome.

So during SSR I came across some interesting stuff. Greg Spencer gave a lecture once about the power of metaphors. Consider what metaphors people use when considering the topic of cancer. We fight cancer, we battle cancer, etc. Spencer pointed out that most metaphors listed were related to war. Spencer believes that due to the word choices that people who are diagnosed with cancer feel more burdened than they should.

"Science has shown that the way people think about cancer affects
their ability to deal with the disease, thus affecting their
overall health. Because of war metaphors, we are more likely to
fear cancer when, actually, most people survive the disease."

Interesting stuff right? so i started thinking a lot about metaphors for the remaining 16 minutes of SSR. when talking about relationships we tend to use economic metaphors. We value people, we invest time into them relationships are priceless. Hm. So basically, we tend to think of love as a commodity. When someone does something that is beneficial to us, we like them and feel they have value to us. Think about it, if someone has an opposing opinion to yours and they are so convinced that they are right, your wrong...usually your not their #1 fan. However, we tend to finance the ones who do agree and support us. We use love like money, but love shouldn't work like money. It isn't a commodity.

Happy Birthday Ashley

ASHLEY NICOLE DENT

9.13.1990 - 8.16.2006

"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight." --- Kahlil Gibran