Decisions... Decisions...

Flashback:

Four years ago, I was a Senior in High School. And here comes the cliche statement--- Sometimes I think about high school and it seems like it was just last week, but other days it feels like a lifetime ago. I've been thinking about where I was at four years ago a LOT lately, and I think it's because I'm in a very similar place right now. I'm about to face some pretty big decisions. In a lot of ways, I know exactly what I want to do with my life. I've always been confident in that way. Four years ago, I knew I wanted to be a teacher and I wanted to go to a "big" school. Because of this I ignored the advice of my mom, and the constant requests that Daddy Troy made for me to attend Texarkana College, and I began to apply to such places. Baylor, Texas A&M ... and as a last resort Texas State(they had a good education program... it was too far away... but it made for a good fallback). The acceptance letters started rolling in around March, and during Spring Break my mom and I started making college visits. At this point I was over the idea of Baylor(too expensive), and pretty dead set on A&M. Even so we took off to Waco, stopped for one last visit, and kept driving to San Marcos...just in case I had a change of heart.



The one thing I can say for myself as a high school student is that I was in a good place as far as my faith was concerned. I was praying like crazy for God to show me where I was supposed to be, yet I was pretty positive that my goody-goody image was no match for "The Biggest Party School in Texas..." Who is it that says God has an interesting sense of humor? ...I toured Texas State and fell in love, and later that day as we drove home to East Texas through College Station, I took a five second look at the towers of concrete that make up Texas A&M, and told my mom to keep on driving... I had made my decision.



Here I am four years later, wrapping up what most people call "the best years of their life." Once again cliche, but I totally agree. The "Biggest Party School in Texas" turned out to be a place where I have grown more in my relationship with God than I could've ever imagined. Brother Joe's standard quote "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life," has definitely taken precedence in the last four years. I've been well taken care of in that area.

For instance, I went potluck for my room mate freshman year. Terrified, I waited for months to receive word of my crazy goth, party-loving, pot smoking room mate... Only to meet Brittany Oskey, my own personal Barbie-Doll who's first statement to me after introducing herself was a long explanation about how she was a christian and she wouldn't be interested in the party scene. Believe it or not, I met more people like her... she wasn't the only one! ...Confused? "You mean you didn't have to hand out tracks to everyone you met in your dorm? ...Seriously?! There are Christians there?!" I know right! What happened to that four-year-long party I thought I was going to be a part of!?



Over the next few months I realized that not only were their "good" people at Texas State, but there were incredible people. The people I have become closest to are the most genuine people I've ever known, and the close friends I've made are like my family away from home.



SO- contrary to a lot of Atlanta, Texans belief.... I did not move off to San Marcos and become a heathen. I am still a self proclaimed goody-two-shoes, and I take complete and utter pride in the fact that I almost never break the rules--- AND I still love Jesus.. maybe even more than I did when I left!



Flash Forward:

Long story long... I am back to decision making. Right now I am stuck between two lives. One being a life I left four years ago. The only difference is that when I left Atlanta, I knew it would pretty much be the same when I came back. I knew my family would greet me every holiday, and that when I came home for breaks I would see all the friends I was leaving behind. Therefore, even though I was sad to leave, I knew that life would be waiting in the wings to welcome me home if I ever wanted to go back. The life I am about to leave is not so stationary. The family I am leaving here will scatter all over Texas... possibly farther. I WILL keep in touch with my best friends.. but for how long until it becomes impossible? This is something that is pretty much haunting me these days... I don't like to think about it at all.



Here is where I am at right now... a little freaked out, on the verge of applying for jobs... and possibly grad-school... who knows. I mean it's 2 am and I'm blogging about being freaked out and decision making... so obviously it's on my mind a lot.



BUT, there is one thing that allows me to take a deep breath and feel the panic lift. That is looking back to four years ago and seeing how God picked me up and placed me right where I needed to be, right where he wanted me. I think of how I stepped onto Texas State campus and I felt a huge sense of relief in knowing that the path was right in front of me...



As I wrap up my last semester of college classes wondering where the heck the last four years of my life went... I wait. I wait on that job interview, or the graduate program acceptance, or maybe a phone call where I get that same feeling that maybe I should turn down THIS road....yeah... I kinda hope that happens pretty soon.

Until then.



For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. -Jeremiah 29:11-13

I forgot to say Thanks... :)

Thanksgiving was Thursday, and I spent the entire week in Atlanta hanging out with my parents and extended family.

There are three things I missed about San Marcos this week-besides the obvious.. roommate, friends.. etc. Those three things are: Cable, High Speed Internet, and good Cell Phone Service! The more and more I thought about those things today on my drive home, the heavier my foot got. Before I knew it, my 6 and 1/2 hour drive turned into a 5 and 1/2 hour drive... and here I am back in my cozy San Marvelous apartment holed up in my room on the computer.

I quickly unpacked in my own very messy unorganized way, showered, ate... and finished the homework I never really worked on this week. Now what? Of course... a Thanksgiving Blog!

The sad thing is that I started to think about all the funny things that happened over Thanksgiving and I realized that nothing I did was at all "Thanksgivingy." Besides the enormous amounts of food and family, I realize that this year I did not once observe the actual meaning of the holiday. I didn't think about the Indians or the Pilgrims.. I didn't sing any Turkey songs from my preschool days... and not ONCE did I think about what I am Thankful for. So here I am a few days late... giving thanks!

1. I am thankful for my friends, that make me laugh everyday! It never fails that on the day I decide I am going to be ticked off at one of my room mates, or give up on one of my close friends... that they seek me out and make me smile. I then forget anything they ever did to make me the slightest bit irritated!! ...I am also thankful that none of them have ditched me for being far more irritating than they ever thought about being ;)

2. I am thankful for my parents who take great care of me! I am very lucky to have parents that have sacrificed a lot for me to have almost everything I could ever want or need! I'm a bit spoiled in that way!!

3. I am thankful for my brothers and my sisters-in-law, I couldn't ask for better role models and friends! I am ESPECIALLY thankful for them this year because they've given me two beautiful nieces and a darn cute nephew whom I love VERY much!

4. I am incredibly thankful for my extended family... there are soo many of them, and they are all very different... and VERY special to me! ...Some more loud and entertaining than others! I am thankful for all the memories that I have of holiday traditions, birthday gatherings, and everthing in between! .... & it just keeps growing!

5. Most importantly, I am thankful for a God who has blessed me with all these things! I am so glad that he has placed me exactly where I am meant to be in this world with these people and this life. Four years ago I was in exactly the same position I am in now, about to graduate high school and clueless about where my life was headed. Look how well that turned out for me! I can't wait to see what he has in store for the next leg of my life :) I am thankful for him because I know I can place my life in his hands and trust him to put me exactly where I need to be!


OK. Now that I've been all sugary and sweet...it's time to move on! It is time to move on because in the midst of my forgetting to be thankful, I was busy visiting with family on Thursday. So now it is time to share, and I'm sorry in advanced-because as you know, I can be inappropriate... & I do not filter :)

Thanksgiving 2009...

My mom, my dad, and I were loners this year and we all went to Aunt Judy's to have our feast with the Griffin side of the family. There were 10 kids under the age of 13, and somewhere in the ballpark of 15-20 adults...

I can't really blog about the whole day in detail because details are fuzzy and the days are running together... so I will bullet the quick bits of what I remember.

• The Cowboys won
• I put on an Aggie jersey that smelled like attic to irritate Flint...
• I found Carson on the roof
• Jana and I spotted Carson on a haystack..little did we know that he was being chased by Brown Sugar... who was really named "Classy," and he may have had to change his underwear sometime after that.
• Jennifer invaded my personal space... a few times.
• Jana may or may not be a MILF
• Mallory has retarded strength... (pet a puppy... kill a puppy), and I found her in a tree.. more than once.
• There was a lot of food..

....and it was good.

....and I did filter a little bit

The informality of family life is a blessed condition that allows us to become our best while looking our worst. -Marge Kennedy

Jennifer Jo

I'm 4 years old... home from preschool... pacing the halls of our new house. Jason comes in. I am thrilled! Not because Jason is home, but because I know how he got home. He rode home from school with Jennifer, my cousin. I run down the hall to stand on top of the toilet and peer out the window. White Nissan? Check! Sound familiar? I wrote about this is my "Aunt Judy's Back Porch" blog. Since then I have received a specific request to elaborate. ;)

So the series of events go like this... I ask my mom if I can go visit.. she says no, and I call Aunt Judy who says I can come. She puts Macbeth away and I run down the trail. That is where I spent the rest of the day pestering my cousin. I would run into her room(and this is where you can start to be amazed by the things I can remember from my days as a four year old). She had floral wallpaper and a pink striped bedspread and she had 'Good Luck' and 'Congrats' balloons all over her ceiling! She had her megaphone and gigantic pompoms in the corner and I would play with them until I absolutely drove her nuts and my mom forced me to come home.

Other than the people in my immediate family, Jennifer was probably the most influential person in my life when I was little. This might explain a lot about my personality as I am very influenced by the people around me. Because of this I tend to have multiple personalities. I think that the portion of my personality that comes from Jennifer is the portion that allows me to laugh out loud in a room full of people.. REALLY loud with no reservations. Or to say what I think without being self conscious about how other people will react. These are personality traits that I learned because that is the kind of person Jennifer is, she is confident... and I am very proud to hold a peice of that kind of confidence even if it is just a very small peice!

I spent most of my summers with Jennifer. She babysat me during the days while my mom worked. I would start my day at her house and when lunch time came she would either make me Kraft Blue Box Macaroni and Cheese, or she would bribe me to call Grandmommie and see what she was making for lunch(this worked because I was the youngest and I was impossibly cute, so we always got an invitation). After we ate, we would usually get ready to go the Indian Hills Country Club and I would get ready really fast and then sit in the bathroom impatiently while Jennifer primped and shaved her legs. We would head out to the country club where Jennifer would slather me excessively in sunscreen and then make me wait forever at the side of the pool watching all my friends play as it dried. Eventually I could pull on my floaties and jump in. I would swim until my fingers and toes pruned... and when I took breaks she would send me to the Pro-Shop to get her snacks... I never wanted to leave! As summers went on Jennifer decided I needed to become brave and jump off the diving board like all my friends. I was so scared and she would swim under and catch me... until she decided I should learn to jump off by myself, and she pushed me. I still have issues jumping off diving boards.

Something I didn't notice as a little girl paddling around in floaties at the country club was the looks Jennifer got from all the little boys I hung out with. They know her as 'Jennifer Jo.' If you've ever seen The Sand Lot then you'll remember the boys at the city pool and their infatuation with Wendy Peppercorn. Jennifer Jo was the Wendy Peppercorn of my pool. When she wasn't sunbathing in the summer she was cheering for the Atlanta Rabbits as these same boys ogled her from the stands, I wanted so badly to be a cheerleader just like Jennifer.... and I made myself her permanent sidekick, attached at the hip.

We went to the Forrest Festival together, she took me shopping, we got snow cones, occasionally I got to spend the night at her house, and we fought... a lot. I later realized that 75% of the time my mom was paying her to watch me. I like to think that she hung out with me because she liked having me around.

Well over a decade later I'm still close with my 'big cousin' but these days I consider her much more of a close friend than an idol! I love going home and visiting with her, and my extended family and watching her three beautiful kids grow. In them, particularly her middle child... I see a bit of a role reversal as I pull my car up her driveway and watch a pair of big brown eyes peering out the window and then immediately run out to greet me. I currently have 5 saved voicemails on my cell from the very person behind those big brown eyes. "Hey Lauren? It's me. Umm... I was just wondering when you were coming to my house... I was just gonna let you know... ok bye.. umm this is Maddie."

Daddy Troy :)

Monday, would have been my Grandfathers 86th birthday... I think.. I'm not so good with math! I thought about this when I walked through campus and got a sniff of some ciggarette smoke.. Winston to be more precise. It made me happy/sad...

My mind drifted into a list....

here is the list...

• Easter eggs filled with money.


• Butterfingers.


• 1$ for being sick.


• Hankercheifs.


• False teeth.


• Laughter.


• Farmers tan.


• Johnson.. and his old grey mule named Simon Slick.


• Pulling teeth with a string.


• Rocking chairs.


• The western channel.


• Money hidden in a Christmas Tree.


• Me eating too much rice... and being told my eyes were gonna get squinty.


• Cows being cussed at.
  
• Whistling and the slamming of a screen door.


• Tractors.


• Loafers.


• Coveralls.


• Applesauce cake


• Coffee.. black.


• Tradition....

Do you think they have birthday parties in heaven?

:)

Doll-babies.. Sweet-Milk.. and Homemade Hot Sauce!

I dedicated a blog to my mom, and to my Aunt Judy's back porch, and what I'm finding out is that all my family members are super entertained by my stories about the other family members.. So I'm just gonna go with it.

This one goes out to my Dad. :)

A few things that I've heard all my life that I've learned to love, appreciate... and laugh a little bit when I hear them....

Win Friends and Influence People... This comes from a book, but I'm pretty sure my dad didn't actually read the book. Even so it was a staple phrase in my years of being dropped off to Elementary School and Jr. High... and even sometimes when I shot through the kitchen...late... in High School.

"You're probably not drinking enough water..." If you've ever seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, then you'll remember how the father thought Windex was a cure for everything... dirty windows?... Windex! Wake up the morning of your wedding with a mountainous zit on your forehead? ... Windex! For my dad, the common solution is either Duct Tape, or water. Growing Pains? ...Drink more Water! Complaining about how your hair and nails won't grow fast enough? ...No drinking enough water!! Headache? .. WATER! This one is probably true, but until recently it just annoyed me because of my preference for Kool-Aide and Dr. Pepper!


"Goin' Down The River Stories..." My mom used to read me bedtime stories, sometimes. I like to complain and say my mother never loved me enough and she didn't ever read me books.. but sometimes she did. All the other times though, my dad would come in and make up his own. These were the times when I would come into the living room and complain about how I was hot, or hungry, or I couldn't sleep. Mom would usually tell me to go back to bed, but dad has a solution for everything. Solution #1- One leg in... one leg out(this cured the hotness problem). Solution #2- Midnight snack.. usually a heaping bowl of ice cream or a coke float(a really nutritious way to solve my late night hunger)... & Solution #3-Goin' Down the River Story... and all I remember about these stories is that they were all about floating down a really calm river in a canoe and after that... I usually fell asleep. Those stories are pretty different than my real life experiences in a canoe, for example our trip to Broken Bow, OK where there are pictures of me laying in the bottom of a canoe is sheer panic because of the rapid water. Other than that, my pre-college canoeing experiences are slim to none, even though a staple at our house was to have a canoe in our backyard or garage. We would take it out once every two years maybe... This is because my dad grew up an army brat and never got to have a canoe growing up(and always wanted one), so we have always had one that he either built, bought, or traded up.


Kool-Aide Ice Cubes... Red ones. My dad has always talked about Kool-Aide ice cubes and occasionally we would have them when I was little. This meaning I would have 2 or 3 and my dad would race me for the rest of the tray. I've always been pretty impressed by how fast my dad can take down cold stuff, his explanation being that Uncle Cliff always snuck in and got all the Kool-Aide cubes in the middle of the night and.. "He never got all he wanted." Because of this I gave my dad a gift certificate for a lifetime supply of Kool-Aide Ice cubes... a tub of Cherry Kool-Aide, and an ice tray in his stocking a few years ago. He has it hidden and pulls it out for me every time I come home. My mom really enjoys listening to the noises we make while eating them. :)



"That was pretty good... what there was of it.." This is a phrase you might hear him say after a small snack, or after Thanksgiving dinner when all our stomachs are protruding into the table and we can't breathe...

"Why don't you wrap this up and put it in your purse.." a common suggestion to my mother about leftover food at restaurants... I don't know why.

To finish this up... let's throw in a few words that you may have never heard, most likely because my dad made them up. (Hence the title of this blog)

• Doll-baby
• Sweet-milk
• Bow-Ribbons
• Foldin-Money
• Head Sweatin' Salsa(which apparently we all "shovel")

...just to name a few.

Dad- if you're reading this, you are either laughing or you are annoyed with me... either way just remember... Mom's was worse!!! & Although I have said multiple times that I am becoming my mother(see "Morphing into Mom")...when I wake up in the morning.. big T-shirt, hair pulled back, no make-up. I'm sometimes a bit taken aback upon glancing into the mirror, because I look just like you!! I LOVE YOU DADDY!!!!!!!!!!! :)

30 Things Update!

So, sometime last spring I wrote 30 things I would like to do before I turn 30. It's amazing to me to look back and see how much can change in a year. It's even more weird to thing of where I was, when I moved to San Marcos almost four years ago. I was one of those people who said I would NEVER change when I went to college.. but I did, for the better I think. The way I think about EVERYTHING is different, but for the most part my goals are all the same ... Love God, Love others.. nothing else matters :)

Here are some of the things from my list of 30 that I have either done or that I'm working on :)

2. Write a children's book... and teach a child to read it. I did this, but only because I had to for a class. BUT I am tutoring a 3rd grader who is a struggling reader.
7. Learn patience. I don't know that I'll ever become an incredibly patient person.. but working on this one...
8. Be accused of being the coolest aunt ever. I haven't had this happen yet, but some of the smiles and giggles I get could be translated to state this :)
11. Learn to play guitar. I did this! Pretty proud of myself.. not quite concert ready yet .. but still practicing!
13. Sing "Let's Give Em' Somethin to Talk About" on Karaoke... In front of a large crowd! Somebody spiked my sonic drink one night.. it happened.. I'm not ashamed..
15. Learn to chop vegetables like a chef. I haven't chopped off my fingers yet.. and I cook a lot.
17. Learn to throw the perfect spiral... farther than 5 yards. I think I threw a decent one 5 &1/2 one day ;)
20. Watch all of American Film's 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time. 20ish down.. a lot to go!
21. Smoke a Cigar.. (or at least take a picture holding one). Did this... it wasn't that horrible.. it's amazing the experiences that pile up after your 21st birthday!
24. Sit by myself contently all day... preferably outside.
27. Learn to country dance.. without killing some poor boys feet.
28. Give more compliments. This is something I'm still working on :) I'm doing okay..
29. Ride a horse really fast... like in an old western. Chelsea is gonna help me on this one.. I have been feeding Cort lots of carrots.. and sometimes he gives me pony rides back to the barn when I'm too lazy to walk :)
30 Learn to love more like Jesus loved. This one is impossible.. but I love it!



Now. I have ONE more I want to add to my 30 things... I want to go to a Cowboys game in the new stadium.. or a game anywhere.. I just think it's necessary... How can we arrange this?

Holla.

Let me splain somethin to ya :)

Aunt Judy's back porch. Some of my greatest memories have happened there. My maternal grandparents have seven grandchildren, and if you ask any of them about where there favorite childhood memories took place they would probably say Grandmommie and Daddy Troy's house. Going there in my immediate family was always described as going "up the hill," but being that the closest of these cousins is twelve years older than me, you can imagine that my fondest memories took place a little later, and in fact they took place somewhere else... "down the hill." By the time I was born, our family became too crowded to have gatherings at my grandparents, therefore we shifted locations to Aunt Judy's house- and that's where my story(or shall I say stories) begins.

When I was in four-year-old preschool, Aunt Judy was my teacher... she was my teacher, my aunt, and my next door neighbor. She was also the mother of my cousin, Jennifer, whom I was obsessed with(if you ask Jennifer she would probably say I still am a little bit). So every afternoon after school I would stand on the toilet in our bathroom and watch as the little white Honda(I think it was a Honda) would tear down the driveway. I would run to the kitchen, or den, or wherever my mom was and ask to go to Aunt Judy's. My precious mother would always say something to the affect of "No, she's already had enough of you today." I would then proceed to go in my tiny closet of a bedroom that is now literally used as a room for ironing, and sulk. After I sulked I would sneak away with the phone, call Aunt Judy and ask her if I could come over, and she always said yes. Immediately, she would put Macbeth away(her large and in charge St. Bernard), because I was absolutely terrified of him, and I would start marching up the trail. And I would stay there until Jennifer was absolutely sick of me or until I heard my mom screaming at me from the other side.

The other great part about Aunt Judy's house, specifically the back porch, is that you don't actually have to be there to know what's going on. Although there is about an acre between my back yard and hers, you can still hear things. You hear things because my Aunt Judy and Uncle Charlie are loud people, and they passed this trait down to their children(more-so their daughters). So when I was younger, I would go sit on my swing set, or in my playhouse, and listen... which now that I think about it seems pretty inappropriate, but I kept myself informed. ;)

You see, I'm a talker, especially around people I know well. I've never listened well in class, and I always got in trouble for talking when I was younger. Sometimes my dad would pay me to be quiet or tell me to quit "rattling." Didn't they know that all they had to do was send me next door? The only listening skills I possess were learned sitting around on a porch swing, eyes wide open and mouth wide shut. I learned things about people as a four-year old that four year olds shouldn't know... and what they tried to hide from me, they spelled... little did they know I was brilliant. I caught every word.

And one more thing. Easter Egg hunts. They actually happened in the back yard, but since I was the youngest mine was always hidden in plain sight so I'd snatch it, and then I would sit with Grandmommie and Daddy Troy on the porch and watch everyone else find their eggs. Grandmommie, my mom, Aunt Jan, and Aunt Judy would always try to coax Daddy Troy into telling the older kids where there eggs were.. it never worked. You pretty much had to be there to understand how entertaining this was.. especially the year it rained.

I'm writing all this down because this weekend I actually contemplated driving 6 hours to Atlanta, TX just to go spend two straight days on Aunt Judy's back porch. After multiple texts and Facebook posts from my cousins taunting me. "Wine and visiting on the back porch... jealous?" Heck yeah! I'm jealous. Do you know how much information I probably missed out on? Luckily I had a good twenty minute conversation with my mom this afternoon and she caught me up on the key points, even so I feel very out of the loop.

Over the past ten years, Aunt Judy's back porch has evolved into something completely different. The volume level has increased ten times(if that was even possible), you can almost count on the fact that if every member of our family is there that Aunt Judy will be "splainin somethin" to ya by sunset, and you MUST have good reflexes, because at any moment a tennis ball, football, t-ball, or some sort of toy WILL whiz by your head. The dogs have gotten much smaller. There are a lot more people. There is even more food. I love it.

Some things never change, the noise, the fun, the fellowship. These days, when I go home for a visit. one might catch me in what is now the guest bathroom staring out the window(I don't have to stand on the toilet anymore :) waiting for them to come... all the loaded suburbans filled with my favorite folks ready to take a perfectly clean house and turn it upside down. I run out the door and start making my way "down the hill." Good times to be had by all!



Since I obviously love lists... it only makes sense that I would write a list of top ten favorite porch memories, but that would be a novel with each item being a chapter.. and I'm not a novelist... I'm just a person who randomly gets spurts of energy at midnight- and it hurts my hand to write a lot in a journal, instead I type it up and share it with whoever might read it. But there is one short.. kind of funny memory that popped into my head :)

...Aunt Judy, Leon, and I are hanging out on the back porch(Leon is a wandering Basset Hound that existed about 5 years ago). Uncle Charlie walks out and says..."Get out of my chair, Dumbass!" My eyes widen.. My heart stops and little bit... and I hop up and run to the swing. He was talking to the dog. :)

27 dresses? Pfftttt... I'm soo gonna beat that.

I don't know when, but at some point in the past few years when it comes up in conversation- I have have found myself more than once making this statement... "I don't really like girls, I just prefer to hang out with guys." I have two brothers and a lot of my friends are boys and I pride myself with that for some reason... I guess I think that is cool? It wasn't until the last time I regurgitated that fact, that I realized that it's completely ironic. I dislike girls? Hmmm... I was a cheerleader in high school, in fact-I was the captain of the cheerleaders. These days I am an active member of a sorority, and I live with three girls. So, let's think about this... either I am a miserable person who is surrounded by people of a particular gender that I despise, or I am lying to myself and I really don't dislike girls as much as I've said. What is it?

Well, I know this much... girls like me. I have a lot of friends, and a lot of those friends are female. I also have a lot of female family members, and a lot of those people are married, and guess what? I've been in their weddings... 7 to be exact. I was in all seven weddings before I was 16 years old.

At my apartment, one of my room mates owns the movie "27 Dresses," I don't know who's it is but it's one of the usuals we pop in on a rainy day, so I pretty much have the key points memorized. Katherine Heigl plays Jane, a young woman who has served as a bridesmaid 27 times.... obviously there is much more to the story line than this(watching her sister be swept off her feet by a guy SHE has been obsessing over for years and having said sister steal her dream wedding, finding out her imaginary dream guy/wedding columnist writer dude is a complete jerk... and feeling like "she just found out her favorite love song was written about a sandwich..." all very relatable), but let's talk comparisons. The movie opens up with Jane in a bind, because she somehow agreed to be an attendant in two weddings on the same night... back and forth and back and forth until she is discovered and tacky wedding writer/dream guy finds her out and later realizes she has served in now 27 wedding parties!

Flash back to my life... Lauren Edwards, 21 years old, has already been in 7 weddings, and over the years a lot of my friends have mentioned that one day in the far off future they would like me to be in there wedding. Well, it's starting. In the past week I have been asked to be a bridesmaid twice, those weddings both falling within the same week(by the way I'm not bitter, I'm pretty excited about it :). The only thing I seem to be missing to completely parallel my life to this character is a themed wedding or two. I had really been holding out for some big hats or a geisha costume dress, but no luck yet. Anyhow, Jane/Kate Heigl... it's on. I'm assuming the average young woman with a lot of friends participates in about 5-10 weddings in her 20's... that's just my guess, I haven't taken and polls nor do I have any hard evidence. Either way I'm thinking I'm already well above average, because at 22 I'll have been a part of 9 weddings... that's 9 down 19 to go to surpass Jane. I'm just sayin.

God's Pencil.

I wrote this little blurb in my journal my sophomore year of college. I read this quote by Mother Teresa and wanted to write it down... ironically my pen was not working and I scribbled for a while.. licked the tip of it.. blew on the end... and then got completely inspired.. I wrote a pretty spastic entry in my journal and later typed it up.

Later I posted it on Myspace and one of my brothers called me the next Ann Lamott, and I blew it off because I have no idea who that is. Later I discovered Ann Lamott and realized she is a pretty incredible Christian author of sorts! So I am now pretty flattered by this comment and I'm going to share this little excerpt of my life with you! Enjoy ;)



Have you ever had an annoying, uncooperative pen? I have had many, partly because I'm cheap and that's all I buy, and partly because any nice pen I buy has been lost, or "borrowed." For those reasons, I have only obnoxious pens. You see, I like to write... I write stories all the time. They are usually ridiculously juvenile and poorly written with multiple spellings errors, nevertheless when I get a thought in my mind; I run to a desk or table grab whatever paper and whatever pen is available and jot down my idea. I do this so that later I can write my "masterpiece." Here is my dilemma, 99.9% of the time the pen I grab doesn't work. I am convinced this is because the pen is lazy... it has the ability to work, it just chose not to. I've never seen myself as a writing utensil until now.

I see myself as one of those Bic pens that you can buy for a dollar in bulk. The Bic pen has about three and a half inches of ink in its little ink tube. It looks strong, like it has the ability to write a novel, I think it could. However, sure as the writer sits down to begin his work, this pen stops working on page two. At this point the writer tears off a piece of scratch paper and scribbles on it, normally the first time this happens the pen will throw out some ink within seconds. The writer then takes his pen back to his work, and it NEVER fails, writes two words and the pen gives out. Does the writer toss out the pen and go find a new one? No, he keeps working with that pen, pushing down on the paper, scribbling, tapping, and squeezing every possible ounce of ink out of that pen. He could have used a better pen, there are a lot of better pens out there, but he chose that one.

"I am only the pencil in God's hand, God writes through us, and however imperfect instruments we may be, God writes beautifully." -Mother Teresa

Morphing into Mom.... all my "Jo"isms...

So apparently I'm funny... a lot of people have told me that lately... that they think I'm funny and they enjoy reading my blog. I've never considered myself even remotely funny, so this is a lot of pressure. I guess it's easy to say funny things when you don't really intend to... but now I feel like I need to come up with more funny material---hence the pressure.

As promised I wanted to write about all the ways I feel as thought I'm becoming my mother. I said I could give ten, but thankfully I don't think I'll be able to think of that many. I love my mother... but I'm only 21, I'm not ready to fully take on that role quite yet.

So, I'll give you 5...

1. I don't like people in the kitchen when I cook. I always resented this when I was little because I always really wanted to help, and when I'm bored I tend to hover... the standard phrase was, "Ya'll get out of the kitchen," and I would go to my room and 20 or so minutes later, she would call me back "Lauren! Come fix your plate..." Then we(my mom and dad, and in earlier years- Jason, and Blake) would proceed with the "border house" reaching and fast flinging of food, eat and leave the table for mom to clean up. BUT, as I've gotten older I completely understand... I just don't want people in my kitchen when I'm trying to cook, if that leaves me cleaning up the damage alone in the end, I'm okay with it.

2. "Don't touch me, I'm hot." I always wanted to sit on my moms lap, sometimes I still try and she literally acts like I've just inflicted upon her the world's most agonizing pain(not good for a girls self esteem). BUT, once again I get it... and I'm far too young for this one.

3. I doodle the names of TV characters on notebook paper while watching my shows. I don't really have much more to say about this one because I'm a little ashamed about it.

4. I like to be the first one to know things and to relay the good news... of any kind...and when I'm the first, and then someone else goes to tell the story that the other person already heard from me, it's like I've won. ;)

5. I rarely cuss... (I'm from East Texas and I refuse to say curse or swear... it's just cussin' to me) I went through a stage in middle school where I would cuss every now and again... but I just don't now- but old habits die hard, and like my mother I occasionally spit out the "S.H." word at the grocery store... but only when I've forgotten my list.

There you have it... I am becoming my mother-- but it's to be expected.
After all, my middle name is Jo :)


I LOVE YOU MOM!

Grumbling.

So let me just start this thing out by saying, I know. I know I'm a terrible blogger... but I don't really feel the need to ramble on about my life, quite honestly because I have nothing personally going on that is amusing or interesting enough to talk about. As far as anything else goes, I seriously doubt my close friends and family would appreciate me rambling about their personal lives... even though trust me, I could write a book or document a pretty hilarious Reality TV show with all the stuff that goes on in Bldg. 4 of my apartment complex. Maybe one day I will.

Now let me tell you one thing I don't know. I don't know what this blog post is going to be about. Every once in a while something happens to me and, in my head I think..."that was definitely blogworthy..." but when it comes right down to it and I'm ready to sit down and take initiative... I forget. So my plan is to just start typing and see what happens.

Ok, here's something. This week my mom emailed me the address of the new house my brother and his wife bought in Missouri(This is after she email it to HIM which she later realized... and started mumbling about how her sons already think she is strange and it's because she does things like emails them their own addresses). So, I am sitting on the couch next to Chelsea(my roommate) and I start looking at the pictures, and rather than making comments like "Oh! How nice... OoOoHhh! I like that room..." I started feeling self pity and bitterness.. and apparently grumbling out loud... Of course Chelsea leans over to look at the pictures and because she and I are almost definitely the exact same person split into two different bodies, she begins to grumble as well. And this is where I start to vent.... Both of my brothers have perfect lives... the both got great jobs, married beautifully perfect sweet skinny girls, and had beautifully perfect sweet babies, and now.... to top it all off they both live in life sized Barbie Dreamhouses. And I never even got a regular Barbie Dreamhouse. All while I sit in San Marcos, single, jobless, and on the fast-track to becoming a cat-lady. The one hope I'm so desperately holding onto is that Chelsea will be right there with me in 20 years... sitting in a rocking chair with me on our front porch... rocking and singing... surrounded by cats... and shooing away little kids that try to play pranks on us and stare as they walk down the road. Those same little kids will then go home and talk about those two freaky ladies who live together and try and decipher which one is the man, and which one is the woman in the relationship, all while Chelsea and I are in our Jammie's posted up with our laptops on E-Harmony.com.

On a positive note, I would just like to assure you(whoever you are because I doubt anyone will read this) that I am not a bitter sad person, and I only grumble to myself, my mother, and Chelsea. I do so because I can, and because I'm sure it's possible that one day I will like in a life-sized Barbie Dreamhouse with a cute husband and some nice kids... maybe even a dog. Until then... I get to grumble... because I feel like maybe if I expect very little out of my life then my expectations will not only be met, but completely surpassed.

I think that is enough for now...

Maybe soon I will blog again... and I think it's going to be something like... "The Top 10 Ways I Am Becoming My Mother...."

Until then,
Lauren :)

Don't Stop Believin

30 Things I want to do before I'm 30

(In no particular order)
1. Go to Disney World.
2. Write a children's book... and teach a child to read it.
3. Go on a mission trip overseas.
4. Travel to a few places..(Greece, Italy, Egypt, & Australia...)
5. Get married, or learn to be okay with being single...
6. Get a masters degree.
7. Learn patience.
8. Be accused of being the coolest aunt ever.
9. Get a dog from an animal shelter.
10. Own a four-wheeler... because I was never allowed as a kid... :(
11. Learn to play guitar.
12. Take voice lessons.
13. Sing "Let's Give Em' Somethin to Talk About" on Karaoke... In front of a large crowd!
14. See a lot of concerts.
15. Learn to chop vegetables like a chef.
16. Make a gormet meal.
17. Learn to throw the perfect spiral... farther than 5 yards.
18. Sponser a child in a third world country.
19. Kill a deer...
20. Watch all of American Film's 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time.
21. Smoke a Cigar.. (or at least take a picture holding one)
22. Walk through Times Square
23. Work at a Summer Camp
24. Sit by myself contently all day... preferably outside.
25. Give something up for lent that is actually a struggle... and stick with it.
26. Own a really cool outfit for every decade in the 20th century.
27. Learn to country dance.. without killing some poor boys feet.
28. Give more compliments.
29. Ride a horse really fast... like in an old western.
30 Learn to love more like Jesus loved.

I've Got The World On a String

50 Random Things...

1. My name is Lauren Jo Edwards... I was supposed to be named Lauren Elizabeth Edwards... but after fourteen hours of labor on her elbows and knees, my mother decided to tag me with her name.
2. I was 1 of 3 children, my mom is 1 of 3 and my dad is 1 of 3.. I want to have three children one day.
3. I am a Christian and I don't know where I would be without my faith.
4. Most of my best friends I have know since preschool.
5. Even though Texas State is considered the biggest party school in Texas.. I have grown more in the past three years than in the 18 years I lived in a small mostly southern baptist east Texas town.
6. If I had never met Chelsea Lavoie I would probably be at Texarkana College right now.
7. I am secretly obsessed with really juvenile things like High School Musical, Hannah Montana, and all the classic Disney Movies.
8. I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember, my aunt gave me a real school desk when I was little and I used to play school for hours and hours..
9. I would much rather spend my days with kids than adults.
10. If I am ever having a bad day I go to Target, and if I can't find something ridiculous to buy I grab something off the dollar rack to make myself feel better.
11. When I eat at an Italian food restaurant I gaze at the menu at every dish and contemplate all the great things I could order.... and then 99.9% of the time I order Spaghetti.
12. I love cookies and cream ice cream.
13. I am a nuisance to my neighboors and I'm sitting on their couch typing this as we speak.. I wasn't invited over.. I'm just here.
14. Going to the movies is one of my favorite things.
15. When I start a book I usually finish it in 24 hours.
16. I too think Maddie(Jennifer's oldest daughter) is one of the funniest most amazing children in the world.
17. I like to bake when I'm stressed out, but then I rarely eat whatever it is that I made.
18. I have dreams that I'm pregnant on a regular basis.
19. I am a true believer that there is no place like home...
20. I love theme parks.
21. I love my roomates but beyond that I don't really like girls.. yet strangely enough I'm in a sorority.
22. I rarely get along with my mother but secretly she's like my best friend.(Don't cry when you read this stalker-mom)
23. I like food too much for my own good(hence my mentioning food like 5 times in my random things).
24. When I like something.. I really love it... some call it obsession.. I call it being a passionate person.
25. I have repeatedly asked my room-mates to get me a stripper pole for my 21st birthday so that I can have fun swinging around on it during our random dance parties.
26. I am a flip flop girl... The only time I might think twice about NOT wearing flip flops is if I'm working out .. or if it's snowing... and I live in Texas.
27. I have been investing in "teacher clothes" and "teacher shoes" lately, and teacher shoes aren't flip-flops... so yeah.. blisters..
28. When I was little I distinctly remember Blake and I burying a Ziploc of pennies, making an X and a treasure map... only to hunt it later and never find it... before I die I would like to find that bag of pennies.
29. The kids in my Kindergarten class call me Miss Egworth... which somehow developed into Eggroll... and now I'm taunted by 5 year olds
30. I have known my best friend since I was 2 years old, and in preschool we used to fight over this awful blue dress at play time. Mention "the dress" to this day, and we still scowl at each other.
31. I absolutely love my birthday, and I always want it to be a big deal... I used to wake up at 2am on my birthday morning because I was sooo excited.
32. I've always secretly wanted to be thrown a surprise party...
33. I love to buy things and make things for people, and if I had a lot of money and all the time in the world I would have some VERY spoiled friends. It's the way I show love <3
34. I'm really sarcastic. Sometimes too much, and it gets me in trouble.
35. I love to smile, but I'm also a daydreamer--- in high school people used to ask me why I looked so sad in the hallway... it was just my thinking face.
36. If I could have one super-power it would be to read peoples minds... mainly because I'm nosy.
37. I don't really have a favorite color... I'm very drawn to bright green but it really isn't my favorite... I've actually never really liked the color green until recently..... Sometimes I tell people my favorite color is clear because you can see all the colors of the rainbow through something that is clear. If I am forced to choose a "real" color I usually say red.
38. I really dislike reading the Old Testament in the bible, and I'm pretty sure I will read the New Testament through 10 times before I ever try and tackle it. Even so, every once in a while, I find an Old Testament book that impresses me.
39. I hate school, and I have never studied for more than an hour for a test(those times were final exams, and they usually involved memorization or math)... This is the reason I really pride myself on my super average grades... I like to think that I'm ridiculously smart to have made it through all these years with no effort... pitiful right? But hey, they say the worst students are usually the best teachers!
40. I have an excellent memory, I might bring up something that happened in the blink of an eye 15 years ago at any random moment.
41. I love to watch old home videos, I think this annoys my family.
42. If you ever make me laugh so hard that it hurts... you WILL be my friend forever... there is no avoiding it.
43. I work in the Education Advising office, it is here(where I am now), that my patience has been tested more than anywhere else.. ever... Even so I am lucky to have quite possibly the easiest job of all time.
44. I think my grandmother was quite possibly the most loving and genuine person to ever walk the earth... and I hope that one day I will have the ability to serve people as consistently as she did.
45. I have been in 7 weddings in my life-- and I haven't even reached an age to where a lot of my friends are getting married. To my calculations, by the time I am 30 I will have topped Katherine Heigl's character in 27 dresses.
46. I'm terrified of heights, and of flying insects with big stingers.. wasps, bees, ect... terrified.
47. I think all of the children in my family are the cutest children alive.. and if you start talking about a kid you know and love.. I will try and top your story and prove that my little cousins.. and now nieces and nephews are much better than yours. I don't mean to be rude.. I just feel this way.
48. I have an abnormally large head for a girl...
49. When I wake up in the morning and I look in the mirror with no makeup on.. I sometimes see my Dad starring back at me.. and it freaks me out. I am pretty sure my hair could start turning a nice salt and peppery color any day now.
50. I am really shy. People who know me think I'm ridiculous when I say this... but it's true... I am an introverted extrovert. :)

Teacherrriffic!

This semester, I'm in my elementary "block," which is basically Texas State slang for pre-student teaching. Twice a week, I spend half a day at lecture, and the other half of the day I work as an intern in a Kindergarten class. Needless to say, I am absolutely in LOVE with kindergarten.

My favorite thing in Kindergarten is watching the reading process unfold... in just the two months I've spent in Ms. Black's class the kids have grown SO much. It's amazing!
















Last week I had an opportunity to read a book to the class as part of a Read-Aloud Lesson... I was observed the whole time, and I was REALLY nervous... but the second I got the kids attention I lost all the butterflies. The kids were awesome... I read the book- Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman, if you have kids & you don't have that book--- you are missing out! The lesson was all about making predictions and the repetitions that forshadowed them... the book is just plain fun to read! Before I could turn each page the kids were raising their hands like there was a grand prize involved saying, "Oooo Oooo Miss Edwards I know I knowwww!!!!!!!" BUT I only called on quiet friends with "bubbles" in their mouths! They figured this out and it was contagious... there were kids all over the colored carpet up on the tops of their knees(they couldn't bare sitting on their bottoms, and of course the extra boost their knees gave them made them much more visible) with BIG bubbles in their mouths shaking their hands WILDLY at me. I looked at them and I remembered being in their shoes, wishing SO badly that the teacher would call on me because I absolutely positively KNEW the answer. These days, the biggest reward is sitting in the special chair on the other side of the carpet. :)

I'll end with this....

The Top Three Things most interesting Kindergarten stories of the week.

1. I was giving a reading evaluation... the little girl was on FIRE with the capital letters.... then we get to lower case.. and she says to me "haha silly goose... whoever wrote this "p" made it upside backwards.... it was a "q"

2. A little boy slashed his finger with some scissors... pretty badly. As his finger was gushing blood I couldn't get the paper towel off and get the band aide on fast enough. As he was blubbering in pain... he looks up at me... and through the tears screams into my face... "WhyYYyy?" A memorable "first" for me.

3. Ms. Black is doing a lesson about germs... ... she let one kid stick his hand in a pan of flour, shake hands with someone and so on -&- so forth. The kids are giving pretty good responses about getting rid of germs... "You should wash your hands more..." "Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze..." then comes the shocker.... "If you build up lots of white blood cells you can fight the infection and you won't be sick anymore!" .....

Did I mention I love Kindergarten?

Becoming Auntastic :)

I am absolutely obsessed with being an aunt! I'm pretty obnoxious about it as well. For instance, every time someone even takes slight interest in the most recent additions to my family... I whip out photos. I've joked that I'm going to get one of those long clear plastic photo flaps for my wallet and string it out a mile long with baby pictures... It could happen.


The one downfall to all these babies being born at once is the fact that-as a college student, my pockets are very shallow, yet somehow I manage to purchase something every single time I pass any store with baby clothes. I was at the Polo outlet yesterday buying my dad a birthday present, and I noticed the children's section... so of course I went over. Who knew a baby polo shirt could brighten my whole day?? I know I'm not the only one who feels this way because I talked to my roommate about it later... I showed her the little shirt... (Yes I bought it!) and she flipped... she oooed and ahhed and awwwed... I started to think about how ridiculous people act around babies with all the high pitched voices and the fat squishing talk. People even say cannibalistic things to babies, like "I could eat you up with a spoon!" I thought about how less than two minutes ago I showed her the exact same shirt in a men's medium, and her reaction was a straight faced.. "Yeah... that's really nice... I like the color..." BUT... the second I pulled out the EXACT same shirt.. in an infant 6-9 months.... she jumps up.. grabs it... and turns into a raging lunatic...

I guess it's true what they say.....

...The best things in life come in small packages!