(God-Wrestler)

Well Darren tagged me awhile ago and i'm just now getting around to doing this. So here it goes, six random things about me.

1. I can't whistle! I've tried to learn ever since i was young and have never been able to do it. I have always thought to myself that i would never be able to make it as an actor or be good at music stuff because i can't whistle.

2. Breaking my leg has to the most embarrassing moment in my life. I never really had an embarrassing moment until then. Some would say its tragic but for me its pure embarrassment.

3. Like Janet Jackson i once had a wordrobe malfunction. It was my freshman year at NW i was in the play murderers in the heir and there was a scene where we all had to wear pjs. I had on pjs with an open fly like no zip or buttons and then boxers that were the same. Lets just say i felt a breeze... then a few years later my junior year in the show Anything goes, i split my pants during a scene. YEah gotta love drama.

4. I am terrified of heights, but not being up high but the idea of heights. Once i'm up high and on a stable thing i'm good, i can look around up and down. However the moment you ask we to jump from up high or do something crazy from up high my heart just flutters. I also believe that the ropes at camp won't hold my weight and that freaks me out more than the heights.

5. I hate being naked. I can't stand it. Taking a shower is the only time I'm comfortable being naked.

6. I am nervous about finding a job. I have never been nervous about that before, but now is not a job its a career and I'm scared that my education wasn't good enough for me to do the jobs i want to do.

There you go....

I Tag:
Allison Foster
Morgan Berry
Michelle Bailey
Lauren Mae
Brandon Schnieder
Mike Stecher

Rules: You need to list 6 random things about yourself on your blog (or mine if you don't have one) and tag six more people. No pressure though. This isn't one of those ridiculous chain letters

Here is a cool site about The Hometown, Cincinnati, OH.

www.space513.com


Get to know your city!

So sometimes I want to go and scream really loud, but I want to do it in a place that no one will hear. The only place I have found that I can do that in is in my Head. So there are times that all I am doing is screaming in my Head.


Lauren I think Coldplay is growing on me.

Or maybe not....

yeah I still can't groove to that
Hahahha yeah I thought this song I liked was Coldplay but it wasn't

However Landon Pigg is pretty cool.

I found him because his song is in that Kay Jewelers commercial where the couple is driving together and holding hands. The song is something like Falling in love in a coffee shop.

check it out... just google search him

Sometimes sadness is easy because it is surrender and well I REFUSE to surrender thus I REFUSE to be sad.

The only surrender I can allow is my life in Christ because that surrender is pure JOY, no sorrow, no sadness.

This weekend was almost entirely devoted to the wonderful sport of football. Not European football, not Canadian football, but good old American football. It started with the 2nd Annual Burrito Bowl, a flag football tournament. Last year a few of us went and scrapped together a team. We didn't win but we had fun. This year we put together an all star team and went undefeated to be the Burrito Bowl Champions. We each got $5 gift cards to Chipotle. However, I gave mine away to Jen since she couldn't be on our team and well I don't go to Chipotle that often.

The next football event was UC's homecoming game against Louisville. Going into the game UC is undefeated and one game back on having the longest winning streak in the nation for college football. Louisville is having a rocky season so far falling out of the rankings by the time they come to face UC. I thought UC would have a strong chance of winning the game, but I knew it wasn't going to be an easy win. Sure enough it was a long, hard, tough, and well painful game. UC fell to Louisville 28-24 ending a perfect season and there winning streak. This sucks but only one loss in a conference like the Big East is not bad at all. I have faith that this season will still be a landmark season for UC football.

OH, yes, the game was a blast! We were on national tv, ESPN U, just before halftime. We were five rows back behind the endzone in the student section. Getting there early was well worth it to have great seats and to see awesome football.

The final major football event for the weekend was the Bengals game. They played Kansas City this week. I think Kansas was supposed to be an easy win for our Bengals, but they blew it. I'm not even going to comment anymore on the Bengals. I don't even know what to say.

A few weekends ago while looking for the UC game on tv I stumbled upon a Canadian football game and discovered that one team had scored just 1 point. This was very puzzling to me knowing that in football here you the least amount of points you can score is 2. I decided to do some research and here is what I found.

Another difference that may completely confuse non-Canadian football fans is the rouge. This scoring is used only in Canadian Football. A rouge is scored if the ball can not be returned out of the endzone. Fieldgoals are live and can be returned for a touchdown. Should the defending team not return the missed field goal out the end zone a single point is awarded to the kicking team.

For example: The first team kicks to the second team. A player on the second team attempts to catch the ball in his team's endzone, but fumbles the ball and is subsequently tackled. The other team scores a rouge, as the ball became dead in possession of a player in his own goal area.

After a rouge, the team scored against next puts the ball into play at any point between the hash marks on its 35 yard line. If the point was scored as the result of an unsuccessful field goal attempt, the team scored against may elect to put the ball back into play at its own 35 yard line or at the point of last scrimmage.

courtesy of football.com

This saying has been tossed around through out time. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Some people say beauty is a something we all seek. For some they say it is natural and for others they have to work at it or create it. Our culture today is obsessed with the idea of Beautiful, our women are degraded into the belief of being beautiful. Men have found that throwing out the word beautiful is easy and meaningless. Most people today when they are told they are beautiful they disagree or don't put much value in the others comment because they don't believe it themselves.


What is it really to be beautiful though, or to really tell someone they are beautiful and mean it. We see beauty in many things. Looking at a newly bloomed rose, it's orange tint, with fresh morning dew, and rays of light gleaming through its soft skin. Wow, isn't that beautiful. Waking up early, heading to the highpoint of the city, sitting through the morning chill to slowly feel the warmth of the sun as it peaks over the Ohio river. Beauty is only to be seen. Staring into the darkness of the eyes of someone you trust making a connection that can only be felt by the two of you. That is natural beauty. Beauty can be found in much more than just the physical characteristics of another.

For me, seeing someone as beautiful is recognizing the uniqueness that God has blessed them with. Seeing the beauty of nature is seeing the glory of God revealed through his creation. I can't just look at someone say yeah they are beautiful. Me telling someone they are beautiful is almost as serious and contemplated as when I tell someone that I love them. However, once I see the beauty I can't resist acknowledging it. I can't resist telling that person they are beautiful , or that this flower is beautiful. It is a great victory to realize beauty as God created in your life. Why keep that within, share it.

What is hard for me, is realizing the beauty that I have within me. I believe that God has given me a uniqueness, a beautiful thing, but I don't know what that is. I don't believe I've ever had someone tell me I was beautiful or if they did, I like every other person blew it off because I can't believe that I'm beautiful. I pray that one day I'll have someone in my life that will tell me that I'm beautiful and when I say whatever or yeah right, they look me straight in the eye and clearly say "No, You are beautiful and this is why..."



Who knows maybe I'm looking too deep into the idea of beauty, maybe I'm reaching for something that isn't there. All I know is that in my life I have been blessed to see beauty, to see real beauty. Not just the beauty that our society depicts, but what I believe to be real beauty given by God to someone else. Even if I never get to experience it again I will never forget the beauty that I have experienced.

Psalm 27:4
One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

IT's my birthday today. I turn 23 years old. In the scheme of things I'm still young, but in the world that i exist in I feel so old. I'm in my last year of college, my 5th year at that, and that means i'm just a little old for all these young freshman coming in. At the other end i'm not old enough to be past this stage, i guess to move on to "the more mature point of life." I'm stuck here and unfortunately there are only a few people who are here with me.

This is the first time I think i've ever really thought that my birthday SUCKS. Looking back i can find landmark years and years that well were just there. I think this year should be a year that is just there, but so far it's turning into a landmark year. Approaching this birthday i've realized that the decisions i make this year are going to have a bigger effect than i originally thought.

Whats interesting is looking at my friends now. Some of them are married or getting married soon, some have graduated and moved about the country to start their careers, some have gone on to grad school, some have gone on to make it by, and some haven't changed a bit. I don't see where i fit into these categories. I think some would say that I'm doing well really make the best of these years, others I think say that i haven't changed. The question is where do i think i stand. Well honestly i don't know where I am in terms of my life at this point.

However, I know where i Stand with Christ. Isn't that more important than figuring out where i am in this earthly realm. Sadly though, Christ has me in a holding pattern, a pattern of suffering. C.S. Lewis says “We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, ''Blessed are they that mourn." So am I recieving what was promised to me? I hope so, i hope that there is more to this situation than just being in a bad part of life. Paul goes on to tell me that I should rejoice, and press on towards Christ through the suffering.
1 Peter 4:12-19
12Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 17For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18And,
"If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"^[a]

19So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

Thank God for the friends. I will say that God has truly blessed me with great friends. They all love me, care for me, and are genuine with me. I am truly thankful for the people God has put in my life in the capacity of a friend. I may not have a job, a "significant other", or a 100% healthy ankle, but I do have friends.
The friends i have are the good kind of friends, the one's who would honestly be in jail with me kind of friends. (A friend will bail you out of jail, but a real friend would be in with you.) What excites me is that God has given me the privileged of being a friend back to them. Sometimes I don't think i'm as good of a friend back but that doesn't change how they treat me. I pray that you have friends in your life like i do in mine.

It's a Wonderful Life- "No man is poor who has friends"
It may be a wonderful life after all.

...All Around, All Around, and the Green Grass----Ha green grass is no where to be found. Well at least at my house. This summer I haven't been able to put any effort into my yard. Yard work is kind of hard to do when you have a broken ankle for twelve weeks. As a result of my lack of effort my yard has ended up looking like this.

Depressing isn't it....
I think so, I love grass. I love the lush green color, the life it exudes as it grows every week, the smell of fresh cut grass, and I really love cutting grass. I find it very therapeutic to cut grass. It gives me time to really think things through. All there is when i cut grass are my thoughts and the nice hummm of my mower. I have made some of my biggest decisions while cutting grass. Needless to say this summer I haven't got to cut grass much at all, and I have noticed that I have been stressing out over things even more since I haven't had that time to think so clearly.
Let me show you the grass that I am talking about.


Now thats more like it.
One thing that I truly admire about grass is how resilient it is, how much grass perseveres through. Every year after long tough winters grass comes back to life with even more force than the year before. Even during a long drought, like this summer, the grass may seem dead, but it's just waiting patiently for it's care. Once it gets the care it needs grass will bounce back to life ever more green and soft.

I think I admire this about grass because I can relate to grass that way. Sometimes in life we hit those droughts, sometimes we don't get the care we need. How you come back from those times I think defines who you are. The grass inspires me to wait patiently and persevere through the winters and droughts in my life. Then once I come through it inspires me to go on and be more lively than I was before.

I never realized that I had this relation to grass until a few years ago. Someone told me thank you, thank you for preserving and not giving up on our situation. Until that moment I never would have thought perseverance was apart of my character. Ever since then I have gone on learning more about myself and perseverance and one thing I have found to sum it all up is this.

James 1:12
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.



James 1:2-3
Trials and Temptations
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.