girl's day out

Ok, so yesterday was a really fun day. Beckah, Jen, and I skipped classes and got off of work for a "girl's day out." I enjoyed it a LOT!

We had certificates for some free services at a salon in Madison. We got our hair cut and styled:

(My first salon haircut in a while)

We got our nails done:

My first EVER maincure! Very enjoyable!
We went out for lunch...here are Beckah and I

Adam gave us the certificates for the salon, so we met him for lunch...here are Jen and Adam

We went to the school play, "H.M.S. Pinafore." It was a cute play, though not completely logical...but it's a musical; what can you expect?!?
Jen, me, and Beckah with some of the sailors:

Ok, we didn't notice this until someone pointed it out...on the front of the "ship" was Dr. Oats! We had to get a picture with him!

Then, we went to the Late Night Skate! It was so much fun!

gym night!

Here are some pictures of our gym night on Saturday.

Titus driving the van to the gym

"Brownie," our special speaker for the night, riding to the gym

Amy and Allie, my seatmates for the ride to the gym

Shawna and Nikki

Sammi and Dominique

Crazy Titus!

Nikki Shawna, Sammi, and Allie

God was good! He brought out 4 guys who had never come to our church, and 2 of them raised their hands, recognizing that they weren't saved. Time will tell what will happen there. Between 3 cell phones going off and the tornado siren going off...twice, all of that in the middle of the message, it was an interesting night, but God was good and brought just the right people together so that it was exactly what God wanted it to be!

"Friday Funnies"

I've been keeping up with a blog called "Girl Talk." It's 4 Christian women who write this blog. Anyways, they like to post funny things on Fridays, and they call it "Friday Funnies." I thought today's was pretty funny! Check it out at "How does this thing work?"

Psalm 102

4. "My heart is smitten, and withered like grass..."
17. "He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer."

Several different difficult situations have come up in the last few weeks in the youth group at church. I'm not going to go into details about it, but verse 4 describes me a bit since these situations. My heart is heavy. Teenagers make so many decisions. Many of them can be very life-changing, sometimes for the good, sometimes not. A fork in the path can change the direction in a person's life, but it seems to be even more prominent in teens' lives. The teenage years are often when people figure out who they are and what they plan to do with the rest of their lives. I've seen a few decisions lately that seem to be the wrong path to take. Maybe it's actually God trying to get a hold of these teens and bring them closer to Him. I don't know. But I know verse 17...God loves to hear our prayers. I wish that I could make the decisions for these teens, but I can't. In a sense, I am destitute because I cannot change their actions. But God will hear my prayers! He knows what is best for them! He knows that I can only pray for them at this point! He knows them, and loves them! He hears my prayers for them and sees my heart! What a comfort it is to know, even when I can't do anything else for them, that He hears my prayers for them!

St. Patrick's Day

Today is the famous St. Patrick's Day. I hope you all remembered to wear green today! I've already seen 2 people who didn't wear green....but I've been nice enough NOT to pinch them!

Did you know that there is a similar day in Wales? It's St. David's Day. All the girls dress up in the traditional Welsh garb, and everyone eats leeks and wears leeks or daffodils on their lapels. The Welsh are known for their singing, so of course, they have a lot of singing festivals on the day. Sadly, though, this day was 16 days ago...March 1. I'll have to warn you all next year so you can prepare ahead of time. Too bad they don't have any traditions such as pinching anyone who isn't wearing a daffodil or a leek...

Here's me in my own version of the traditional Welsh woman's costume.

Not exactly what they wore, but as close as I could come up with!