la la la.

hi, i love shopping. i love pretty, dressy and fashionable clothes! you probably couldn't tell that from all the t-shirts i wear, but if you look in my closet i have lots of dressy tops! i lovee dressing up but i usually only do it when i'm cleaning/organizing my room (prime time for practicing walking in heels if you ask me + a good work out for your legs!)

say hello to my new shirt and join me in welcoming my new love for Ann Taylor Loft Petites!

the ruffles are a big trend -and have been for a while - and they were all over ATL. it was awesome! everywhere i looked i saw something else to fall in love with.. i even met a new friend while i was shopping. she works at ann taylor & she goes to UK. her 2 roommates are majoring in the 2 things im considering (marketing & dietetics) what a coincidence. it was a fun day!

Though it was last years accessory i believe it will come back.. i love scarves!

i bought 2 today. one is my favorite shade of light green and the other a deep indigo & purple plaid. they were half price and i want more!

i have recently been inspired to be crafty. the inspiration comes from a work crew friend, emily. i have a veryy comfortable plain grey hoodie from Aerie that got a huge hole in the first day i had it. i never really minded they eyesore and continued to wear it. when emily noticed the hole she told me about how she likes to patch things on really plain shirts, hoodies & jeans to make them more unique which she strives to be all around. i gave it to her before we left & a few weeks later in the mail i recieved cookies and my favorite grey hoodie with a cute purple patch and other little tidbits to spice it up. I LOVE IT (its packed with all my other hoodies for college or i would show you a picture.)

but about being crafty ... i have an awesome F21 grey vest that is missing a button. ):

but i have decided to remove all the others and replacing them with colorful ones!

here's where i get to use my home ec skills from 7th grade.

i am also very thrifty! nothing i bought today WASN'T on sale! (thats a lie i bought at $16 necklace at AE .. oopsie!) i've been selling old clothes, shoes and books to platos, goodwill and half price books this month and have found many deals in the process. my last trip to indiana i got 8 new goodwill t-shirts! i also got 40% off on friends & family night at Platos where i bought 14 things for $100 including Sperry's, PINK sweatpants, AE jeans and 3 dresses. and TODAY i actually found my chemistry book for this semester at half-price books for a mere $7.98.

BEAT THAT! haha. plus todd thomas owes me a text book for a deal he made with me.

(good thing i rock at wakeboarding!)

i love deals .. and TREATS.

A cow and an apple tree button i got in a bag of assorted buttons from walmart.

that's definitely a treat!

fake family, real love.

If you know me you've probably heard me mention my Granny Gail or my "fake grandparents." When I was born, our neighbor Nancy was named my Godmother and her brother, Mark is my god-father. Sibling godparents.. that's different but I love them all the same. That makes their parents my God-grandparents, Granny Gail & Sam.

God-grandparent's is a great name for them because they are truely a God give blessing. My Granny Gail basically raised me until I started Kindergarten. They have a huge farm in Georgetown and we we went fishing, 4-wheeling, picked veggies from the garden, caught worms, went to the farmer's market, played in mud holes, hung laundry, sang country music, fed cows, talked, laughed and just had a good time. They are the most loving family. My Granny Gail taught me more about life than I could ever thank her for. She taught me the value of love and how to tell a good tomato from a bad one. I can point out a half runner from any other green bean and I know the best way to eat fried corn.. on a slice of green pepper. Though we're not blood, we're family. I can't think of a Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve supper that I didn't have at their house and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Every time I visit I get to enjoy reminiscing on the things I've said and done growing up there and all the things they did for me. When I was 4 I apparently found a magazine that had a picture of a tire swing. "I need that," I said to Sam. He parked his pick-up truck by a tree with some wire and an old tire in the back, and from then on I had my own tire swing.

I can honestly say most of my best childhood memories were made at this farm and I wouldn't be who I am or where I am without them. I was so stressed a month ago trying to figure out how, when and where I was going to find a loan or some type of money to pay for my first semester of college. One call and two visits later my college is paid for. I am so blessed to have this family and so grateful for their compassion and love for me.

I should trust what's deep inside.

So I made a plan to read through Romans, one chapter a day (excluding Sundays) until I move out. I randomly picked the book and had no idea that there would be exactly enough chapters & days, and once I set out my plan I got reallly excited! I love reading and I've been so distracted lately I definitely need something to keep me grounded.

Well, I started this adventure on Monday and naturally I am already behind. ): But last night I was feeling a bit bummed out and decided to go to sleep early. I got a call from a really good, close friend very early this morning. She said something alone lines of, "Aarika, I feel God in me. He's inside of me, I know it." I was speechless not only because I was still half asleep but also because that sounds amazing. What does that mean? What does that feel like? Have I ever felt what she's feeling? I want to feel that.

She let me go back to sleep and we hung up. I felt so confused and consumed with questions. I laid in bed thinking of everything imaginable and felt really convicted that I hadn't been helping her in any way find God or make sense of anything she's been faced with as she's making an effort to start a life with Christ. I love her more than anyone and I would do anything for her and I have left her alone to wander (and wonder.) While I'm feeling like crap for forgetting my friend I suddenly remember that I have forgotten about my reading, too. It's now really early on Saturday and I've only done Romans 1 & 2. So I crawled out of bed and read through Romans 3.

All I can say is OUCH.

Romans 3:10-18 (CSB)

as it is written:

There is no one righteous, not even one;

there is no one who understands,

there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,

together they have become useless;

there is no one who does good,

there is not even one.

Their throat is an open grave;

they deceive with their gongues.

Vipers' venom is under their lips.

Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood;

ruin and wretchednes are in their paths,

and the path of peace they have not know.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Romans 3:32

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

That goes pretty deep and every time I read it I just think.. wow, I suck! I am so selfish and ungrateful! God I don't deserve anything you could ever offer and you give me everything. You are crazy!

But the story here gets better. Romans 3:24-25 reminds me that "[I am] justified freely by His grace throught he redemption that is Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a propitiation (an offering of atonement) through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed."

WHOA! God is really crazy in love with me. Even though I fail at being humble and loving and nice every day and I do wrong things, every day God says, it's OK! I am justified freely by His grace. Jesus is a propitation because he removed God's wrath from us. IT'S GONE. So why don't I feel this? Why do I let it all still sit there and bother me. Its the past and Jesus made a way for everything I do wrong to be passed over, removed, let go, forgotten, forgiven, justified. It's gone. God knows that I will always fall short of His glory. The Bible clearly says that.

I guess what's hard for me is that I don't understand justification. I justify the things I do every day.. in a bad way. Well 55 isn't that far over the speed limit. 15 more minutes of sleep, I won't be late. I'll do that tomorrow because I want to do this now. I need this because..... They just keep coming! But the justification Paul is writing about is soo different from what I think about. One that is more difficult to understand. How does this work? Why does He do this? How do I know? Now I've just confused myself and I still don't know whether to be sad because God just told me I suck or to be happy because by His grace I've been given another chance. So I decided to sleep on it.

When I woke up I decided to take another look at it. I crawled out of bed to sit where I always sit to read and I grab my Bible that I had left open and notice the page has been turned. Romans 8:1 is highlighed on this page. "Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus."

There's my answer. I've read all these things before and I love it when you look at them again and they make just a little bit more sense. My friend needs to know these things. But how do I show her and help her when I'm still learning these things myself? I have to constantly remind myself when it comes to my faith that I'm really not that far along. I've been running hard towards a life with Christ for a year now and I feel so obligated to help and show others but I need help and guidance myself. So often I like to think, I've got this, I can keep this discipline and I'll remember and I know... no. It obviously shows when Monday I was so excited to read through Romans and here it is 6 days later and I'm 3 chapters behind.

I feel so jealous of my friend that in 5 hours of driving around feeling God, she totally understands how to be compassionate and the full force of God's love for her and for others. I know what she felt and I've felt it too. I've experienced a late night of fear and hope in the presence of my Father who let me see and feel what love truely is, but where am I now? Where have I gone? How did I get so far away? When did I get lost? Where did I take a wrong turn? Why isn't He guiding me? Why hasn't He sent people to help me? Why am I so stubborn? When will I learn? Why do I doubt?

I feel stupid that something so basic to the Christian faith has got me so stumped still but I think I needed to look back on it and really reflect and learn. I have to learn to let go and let God. Not just say it and think it but truely do it.

Truth: I'm terrified... LET'S GO!

I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

(romans 8:38-39 message)

See, I'm no king, I wear no crown.

But desperate times seem over now.

But I still weaken somehow. It tears me apart.

I hope to learn as time goes by,

that I should trust what's deep inside..

burning bright. Oh, burning bright.

my sensible heart.

-city and colour.

everything's right

Sooo about those shoe boxes I put junk in...

THEY'RE PAINTED (:

In the process I got painted also haha. I've been listening to the cupid shuffle and drinking soda allll day I get to go shopping later AND IT'S SUNNY! Looks like a good day to me. I'm gonna go wash all the paint off myself and go for a walk and enjoy all the nature I can in my neighborhood. GOD IS GREAT (:

LOVE LOVE LOVE.

happy halloween?

I don't know if you know this, but my mom has a lot of really silly clothes. Most of them are from like the 80s so that explains some of it, but some of the clothes I don't even think people wore then. Syerra's little brother and mom also has really awesomely bad clothes. Well, with the combination of their wardrobes, Syerra and I like to suprise people with a little gift we like to call trick or treating. We do it monthly (or at least try to.)

I bet you're thinking.. August just started, have you trick or treated yet, this month?
Your answer... Yes, we have. TWICE. (:

Now you're guessing.. what were you? Well we never really know exactly what we are, but if I were to describe it I would say we were.. crocodile hunter & tour guide/paleontologist aka Aussies.

Now when you think Austrailian you think silly words and a sweet accent.
Things we Googled to make this possible:
what language do austrailians speak?
what do palenontologists wear?
steve irwin
austrailia slang
quotes from our lips are sealed


The first time we trick or treated this month we were with Shannons sister, Morgan. She had a sweeet jean outfit + a snake skin jacket. (props to her mom!) She also brought us mini crocs to wrestle! For this one we only knew a few Austrailian terms like shila, wallabee, joey, crikey, crocs, the outback, & down under. But after I got off work Syerra suprised me with a page full of austrailian terms like: blunger, bloke, beaut, bacon strips, not my bowl of rice, who opened their lunch, dill, brekkie, barbie, grudies, sunnies ... these are just the ones I remember. So then we headed back over to entertain again, minus Morgan.

Oh they joys of making people laugh. Too bad Holly wasn't there.. she always cries (:

previous treats:

hey junk, GO AWAY. (:

Ok, so this is no big surprise but i'd like to tell you a fact about me. When I like something ... it becomes an obsession! I like t-shirts. I have rougly 100 of them. I like headbands .. I have about 50 of those. I also really like markers but I'm not going to count those (there's 3 boxes of them under my bed!) The typical girl likes shoes .. I like those too, I have 2 giant tubs full of them. So riddle me this, why when I have so many of all these things do I only use very few of them? Being a pack-rat by default (please meet my family) I have small collections of things everywhere! It's kind of like a game when I want to find something I haven't seen in a while. With going off to college coming so soon I figured it wold be a good idea to weed out all the things I don't need, don't use, and don't wear. Let me tell you, this is SO hard! I get so attached to everything! But I also am really obsessed with organizing!

So I'm sitting in the floor of my bedroom with 2 boxes, 3 drawers and 2 baskets of JUNK to sort through.

Really, Aarika? So... by organizing, and reorganizing I finally got rid of like 1/3 of the junk.

it's not much, but it's progress!

Here's some random things i found!

2 ipods (i only own one)

3 planners (1 from 2007 and 2 from 2008)

a package of flash cards

7 nail files

5 hot hands - hand warmers

a broken mirror (oops!)

a do-rag

mini bop it extreme

a bathroom door lock from CPK in Louisville

spongebob bubbles

a flamingo bendy straw

hilbilly teeth

a handcuff keychain

ad 17 AA batteries.

I like to keep my junk, markers, pencils, art stuff etc. in old shoe boxes. I figured if I'm taking these to college, it will be fun to PAINT my shoe boxes! It is. (:

I'll show you later!

quicksand.

Oh, a blog..

That's all I can say of that. I love to write and I love to think so this will be fun! I used to have a blog, but I was an odd child back then. Even if no one reads this I think it will be a good thing to do with all the changes coming up as i move out and start college. It's weird to think that almost everyone I know has already been there, done that, but I'm glad I have them all to guide me and show me what to do! I move into the dorm in 17 days. I'm the second person in my extended family to go to college. Needless to say they're all very proud of me and I hope I don't let them down. I have a feeling that college is going to be more than I expected but I think I'll do fine. I just can't let the little things catch up to me. I still can't even picture myself there, it's so strange. I'm really glad that God has been so faithful in so many ways this summer, from getting a spot on work crew to finding ways to pay for my first semester, it's been truely amazing and I'm so ungrateful still. I've struggled a lot this summer and instead of searching for answers to things that will never make sense I should have been looking to God for direction and comfort when so many things are changing. Looking back, I've wondered away from God this summer and I'm tellin' you, it's soooo scary! It gives me a gross feeling in my stomach. I just hate seeing how far I came from last year and that I could easily go back to that without the right people in my life. I'm so lucky to have the few awesome friends I do have and that we keep each other going in the right direction.

ACK! enough of the deep stuff!

I solved my rubik's cube in 2:40! THAT'S MY NEW RECORD! (:

Now I'm off to my first college life hang out.!