so much is happening that i have no time to talk about it! ah!

Love, Gracie

I tell ya what! WOW! Its been a while since i posted last. Sorry about that folks! I'll do my best to update.

To start things off, i think my body picked quite possibly the worst time in the world to get sick. I have a sore throat that makes me sound like manly man. (not just a man because some men have higher voices than i do. sad but true folks. Not to say that you aren't a man if you have a higher voice than i do... sheesh. I think i have gotten myself into a pickle), my nose is doing more running than i have done all semester (exercise wise that is), but keep cool, i think it's slowing down to a jog and will be walking soon and possibly sit down (that's when i just have plain ol' boogers left for those of you that needed the details)... all this action going on in my body with the little white blood cells fighting off the bacteria makes for one very tired me. The funny part is that i was asked to sing at a coffeehouse to help raise money for a mission trip, which, of course, i agreed to because i wasn't sick when they asked me too. That went ok... no mishaps at least and i didn't crack my voice and some even said that i sounded good! Praise God! He is too good to me! Then, my mass time for leading music is sunday at 9:00am which means that i have to get up at 6:30am to be at practice eat 7:00am to make sure that all of our voices are nice and warmed up. God must really have a sense of humor because i felt like i was dying up there but offering it all up for His glory (at least it would sound sweet to Him right? and that's all i really care about anyway, lets just be honest), and some of my friends came up to me after mass and asked me if i was better because i sounded good. When i answered them in my manly man voice, they realized that i wasn't much better. The good news is that i don't have strep throat. Gloria told me so. She knows this not because she did a throat culture on me or anything sensible of the sort. No. She had one taken on herself because she is sick and has determined that since she doesn't have strep throat, neither do I. What a relief! So, the reason for this story is to make light of my sickness and laugh with God over everything that i'm sure he laughs at me about... oh, and to ask for your prayers. I have three tests this week and next week i'm leading music for a womanhood retreat so if you could please say a little prayer for me and more importantly for God's will to be done in these women's lives (the ones that are on the retreat) and that they be open to the healing and whatnot he would love to do for them. THANKS GUYS!

Speaking of God, He is amazing! I'm in love! I couldn't have picked a better guy to fall in love with either! Who else can bring the robin's back early and make the pussywillow tree bud it's little fuzzy buds early so that i can feel loved? Who? No one! that's who! He sings to me every morning while i'm walking to class through his little minstrals (the birds), and leads me on little adventures sometimes with little pokes and suggestions so that i can see something beautiful, or experience something wonderful! I am really amazed each day with how MUCH He is capable and willing to do for me if i would just get out of the way for a second. Personally, i prefer that He lead. He IS the Man in this relationship after all. He has totally taken the lead in the situation i was so upset and confused about and just made things so clear and confidant that i wonder why i didn't do this before!  Everything that i was trying to make happen (which was happening, but very slowly) all of the sudden fell into place the moment i stepped out of the way and let God take over! Amazing. Imagine! He wants to fulfill promises and to grant us our heart's desire. who knew? who knew?  Anyway, i could go on and on, but i'll save it for poetry... ha! just kidding, i don't write poetry, but if i did, i'm sure i'd write a poem about my Love.

What else? Oh, the fish. Well, Maria and I have decided on the name Elijah Tristan so that we can call him E.T. for short. Cute? VERY! Anyway, we still haven't gone out to purchase the little wonder... our selected godparents are getting very impatient and Maria and I are tempted to just tell them to get their own fish if they want one so bad, but we're being patient with them. We are trying to make them understand that these things take time, and not everyone should rush into getting a fish. They sometimes die you know, and that would be terribly anti-climatic if our little wonder died after we made such a fuss over him. You DO understand? Anyway, the beach is prettty much complete now. We have our lovely little flip-flop lights up, a rainbow on our fridge, seagulls flying around (especially when the south wind [our heater] blows), we have picnics weekly, our flipflop stickers are stuck on the happy liittle microwave (or the BBQ pit as we fondly refer to it), our hammocks (or bunkbeds if you would like to be boring about it) love to sway gently in the breeze (the south wind), and sometimes we get a little bit wet from the spray of the ocean (or when we spill something, but don't worry, it's all just sand and it will wash away fine!)! Well, that's all for now folks!

Quick summary:

-I'm sick so please pray for me
-I'm leading music for a Womenhood retreat this weekend so pray for all the women on it and for the leaders!
-God is amazing. Fall in love with Him today... i won't be jealous i promise.
-The beach is finally here, and we've decided on a name for our fish. Elijah Tristan

The end! I love you all!

Love, Gracie

Life can be so difficult and confusing sometimes, but its bearable when you have at least 15 close friends + wonderful family that immediately notice that you are struggling with something in life, and drop everything to give you a hug and demand that you tell them what is wrong, who they can beat up and how they can make it better... (ok, maybe not the who they can beat up part. I made that one up. No one should be beat up) Anyway, thanks for any prayers you guys have thrown my way! I was talking to my dad today and he said something that made me laugh. he said:

"Gracie, you need to put this into perspective here. There are at least 3 billion guys in this world, and you are going to break every single one of their hearts except for one."

Well, i guess put that way... well it still doesn't make me feel much better about this situation i'm in, but it did make me laugh a little bit. Anyway, there is nothing like hearing each and every unique perspective from each and every one of my family members and just feeling their love through their comments... my mom was ready to assemble an emergency Intercesser's meeting to try and figure out what i was supposed to do... ha! She would! My family would talk about my problems around the dinner table without me being there! I love it! It really, oddly, makes me feel very loved and makes me feel a whole lot better somehow. For those of you who have no clue what i keep referencing, just pray for me and for one other... its kinda complicated.

In other news, Maria and I have put up the sun in our room (we wrapped yellow see through fabric around our light and then had rays of fabric coming out of it...). Maria, who is on the top bunk has definitely gotten tanner since we put the sun up due to the fact that she is so close to it (being on the top bunk and all).  Our next step was to put up the ocean (or lake if you are from michigan).  We took more fabric (two different colors of blue this time... yellow just wouldn't work out too well) and put it all around our walls, (except for the walls surrounding our beach of course) in wave like patterns! It's really fun to walk into the beach every time i come home. In honor of the fact that we now live at the beach, Maria and I purchased some sunless tanner (build-a-tan if you will) to make us look more like we live at the beach because, clearly, we do. We ate our mango today because it was cloudy and snowy out so we needed that extra tropical goodness to remind us where we live. We haven't gotten our fish yet, but we have picked out its godparents and we visited the little fishies at Wal-Mart to prep ourselves... we were particularly fond of the ones that kept on shaking their behinds at us. Anyway, we are very grateful for all of the names that you have given us! We still haven't decided, but the creativity is flowing (thanks to all of your suggestions)! We'll keep you updated. The next thing that the beach is expecting is a tropical scene painted on our windows so that when we look outside, we see palm trees and seagulls. Speaking of seagulls, we are also planning on cutting out seagull shapes from colored foam and hanging them from the ceiling... maybe some background music of beach sounds? After that, we're going to make tropical objects out of foam, glue them to magnets and then put them on our fridge so that we can make up our own tropical paradise on the fridge (you know how some people have letters so that you can make your own sentances? well similar to that, but you're making a place, not a sentance). After that, we were thinking about cutting out trees from paper and putting them all around our walls (the ones that don't have waves on them already of course)... sounds pretty fricken sweet doesnt it? You KNOW you're jealous! Anyway, i gotta get goin, time for bed! Leave me some lovin!

Love, Gracie

AAAAAAAH! I'm so frustrated with myself! I just don't know what to do and i'm so confused, and everything is gray! AH! I pray to decide which direction i'm supposed to take, but nothing is coming in the time that i want it to! BLAH! Patience right? well, when more than just myself are concerned in my decisions, i feel obligated to get back to them sooner than i would for myself. Make sense? Anyway, sometimes i just wish i had no feelings involved with my decisions. PLOOP! (mix between plop and poop) Please pray for me... for clarity and guidance and truth. thanks guys!

hey everyone!

Long time no talk! Anyway, a lot has happened since i got back to school... good and bad. I was reunited with all of the piles (my wonderful second family/group of amazing friends who have labeled themselves piles), which was amazing! I missed them so much over the break! They are such examples to me of what Christian living is! whew! Anyway, then i got into the whole "get-everything-taken-care-of-in-the-first-week" deal that i always have to go through the first week. That wasn't so fun, but it made me feel very business like and professional. I even wore a suit one day to make myself believe that i was going to work. haha! This is getting boring. Some of my most favorite people are in austria right now which makes me sad, but the good news is that i'm sending my lindsey larson love a lovely package that will make her smile, and then me smile because of her excitement at getting the package!

In other news, my new roommate is AMAZING! Its so good to see her again after a year! We get along perfect! its like we never left each other! just a side note, we have a pinapple in our room that we have random dance parties with, and Maria and I just decided as we speak that our room will now be the beach. We just went through all sorts of beach ideas. I'll keep you posted. In other news, Maria and I are expecting a fish. We're new at this, but very excited. We hope that you will share in our joy as we expect this new little wonder. We will be having a guppy shower soon and would appreciate any names that you have to give us for our new little fish.

That's all for now! have a wonderful day! share share share the love and give give give me chocolate! (not sure where tha came from, but it's there so i guess we'll have to deal with this together)

Love, gracie