Faith, Hope, and Love

At the beginning of 2015, I tried something new. I had given up resolutions many years before, and decided to try picking a word for the year instead . My word was intentional . It felt like a good word. I wanted to be more intentional about my career, and so in 2015 I pursued different opportunities to get back into writing and the editorial world. I wanted to be more intentional about my creative hobbies, like writing and photography, and so I looked at a lot of different class options and made some new contacts. I wanted to be more intentional about my relationships--mostly friendships, but also in the romance category. And so I said "yes" to things I was tempted to say "no" to, and signed up for things at church and beyond in order to get involved and meet more people. I wanted to be more intentional about my health, and did a barre class once a week for a while. And drank more water, and ate healthy in general. I wanted to be more intentional at ...

It's so hard to blog when you are having the time of your life! The month of September was AMAZING! I literally celebrated turning 30 for all 30 days . I felt a little silly doing it sometimes. Like how self-absorbed could I be? But honestly, each day reminding me to have joy in this life that God has granted me. To be thankful for the relationships and opportunities that have been given to me. To live without abandon and enjoy both the big and the little moments. I have no clue what the rest of 2015 will bring. Or even what this 30th year will bring. But celebrating my 30 days of 30 was a great way to start it out, and I'm glad I did it. Here's the recap of what else I did! Day 8: Peter Pan Date My sweet friend and co-worker Jess started the day out with a surprise on my desk! I am not big on flowers. But purple is one of my favorite colors, and this little bouquet was such a great start to my day... which I remember not starting out so great. I remember start...

School got out at the end of May and the first chance I got I started my vacation off in style with a trip to CALIFORNIA! I had been to California once before. I was four and all I remember is going to Disneyland. And all I remember about Disneyland was a yellow submarine ride and being upset that Mary Poppins looked nothing like Julie Andrews (I mean, what four-year-old likes impostors?). So when I won a free ticket last year and had to use in by this June, I figured I'd squeeze in a trip to see some friends and explore the West Coast. First Stop: Carlsbad/San Deigo, CA When planning my trip to Cali, I decided on the location because of my good childhood friend, Valerie. Val is an absolute doll. She moved to Nigeria in '95/'96 and I remember down the long driveway to her house, knocking on the screen door and introducing myself within days of her family's arrival. We became fast friends and even when we both moved back to the States and lived in different state...

That's probably a question I should have asked during orientation. Because if the chills, headache, fever, and aches and pain I'm experiencing are indication, I just got hit majorly with the flu. I blame it on two things: trying to be green and walking to school two days in a row (I think I'll wait till Spring officially hits before I do that again) and the horrible parking at my apartment (which often requires I walk a block or so if I happen to make it home after 9 p.m... which is often). When I started sneezing yesterday, I didn't attribute it to much. But then my sinuses and head started hurting, so I figured allergies (although I've NEVER had allergies, but you can develop them later in life. So I figured why not?). I took some sinus and cold stuff last night and this morning and they cleared me up briefly and then mid-day... it hit. All the lil' 4th graders kept staring at me in pity. Because if I looked anywhere close to how I felt then it was PATHE...

I'm on the phone with my sister and she's reading me parts of her attempts at a memoir. Mostly it's just ramblings about her first memories. Of me (apparently she thought I was annoying), our sister and brother, our cousins, our friends, her birthdays. While reading it out, she happened to mention my very first blog , which was on MySpace. (I also remember having an account with Open Diary. Anyone else have one of those? I think my username was African Aggie.) At one point I wrote every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. And then one day, I deleted most of the blogs, and just kept a few random ones. (I did re-write most of the ones I deleted into a real journal.) Taking a look back is kind of like opening up a time capsule. Simple things like:  my relationship with my brother ,  a time when I actually missed College Station  (yeah, barely miss it now, haha),  kisses from Khalil  (who is now five! oh, how time flies!) This stuff dates back to like 20...

Anyone who knows me knows that I love kids. They are such a joy to be around. And everything in their world is so cute and whimsical! And anyone who knows me also knows that I love whimsical. :) I'm quite a ways away from being a mom myself, but I think about it all the time. Not in a weird "my eggs are rotting" way, but just in a blithesome anticipation of how much fun it'll be. Or at least how much fun I can have being a mom (don't worry, I'm under no delusions that it's easy). Occasionally I've come across some extremely cute "Mommy Blogs" that have made me go... "I want to do something like that..." Here are two of my most recent findings. (And even if you're not interested, I'm posting them here so I can always come back to this post when I do have kids one day.) 1. Another Lunch: This mom has a blast making her kids lunches as fun as possible. Some of them just look too cute to even eat! She also offers how-to...