Majestic Monday...

Yes, the anticipated arrival of my best friend, Alissa Jane Bess, has finally come!!! She embraced Albany with her presence last night at around 10:00 and I could not be happier! For those of you that do not know, Alissa lives in Clearwater, Fl - therefore I do not get to see her very often!! And when I do, I clearly cherish the time I get! :)

So, I woke up this morning and we met at Starbucks - like we generally do - and enjoyed our usual treats. However this morning I branched out and tried the "Perfect Oatmeal." In the words of Randy Jackson,"It was just aight for me dog!" Apparently one of the fellow employees of Starbucks was having a "going away party" this morning and CLEARLY we were the only people in Albany that were not invited! I promise you there were 20 some odd people that were crowded around 2 tables! Aside from taking up every chair they could get their hands on, they also, apparently, forgot to read the segment from Emily Post that states, "EVERYONE ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF ALBANY DOES NOT NEED TO KNOW YOUR CONVERSATION!!" But - to each his own I recon!

While we discussed everything major that has gone on in our lives for the past 3 weeks, (since of last coffe date, which was over Thanksgiving break) we both discovered that there are several movies that neither one of us have yet to view. So we have come to the easy conclusion that this MUST change! We are going to take a day and/or night and view said movies so that we can be up to date on all "good movie convos" that may take place in our near future!

I will fill you in when this special day commences!

Happy Monday!

For This Season...

With the passing of time comes change. Change in scenery. Change in direction. Change in hopes, dreams, wants, needs... the list is truly unending! I know this seems like an obvious concept - but for the sake of my blog (and your time) lets pretend that this easy, understandable concept is of great interest to you and that you have little knowledge about the changes of life! Deal?... SWELL!

If you have read any of my previous blogs you are very aware that my life has changed SIGNIFICANTLY over the past few months! God has brought me to a place of sheer surrender and has taken my wants and desires and totally transformed them! Or maybe they never changed; maybe, I am just now realizing what they are! Nonetheless, I am walking around with my head up in the clouds, some days, because I have no idea what God is doing!

However, one thing I know He is doing is bringing people into my live that have changed my course. In my eyes, these people are fanatical, extraordinary, spectacular, sold out, slaves to the word of Christ! They do not care about the opinion of man, nor do they worry about the future! They are drenched in the presence of God and I simply can not get enough of them! I strive to be just like that! I long for people to "need" to be in my presence! And not because I want people to love "Lauren Stotler," or think that "I" and great. Rather I want people to love how I exemplify Christ! I want them to see Jesus in every single aspect of my life! I want to hold them accountable the same way they are holding me accountable!

I am so stinking thankful that God has blessed me with the opportunity to meet this fine folks and get to know them, and LEARN from them while I stumble through this season of my life!

Thats all! Have a great Friday! :)

Empty Vessel...

Today is just like any other; I am still me, and God is still God. But the thing that is so different about today, is that I have a new outlook on this crazy thing called life! You see, for so long I have tried to figure out just what it is that "God" wants me to do with my life, who He wants me to be with, and where I am supposed to go. But the irony in all of that is that I am not the one that has to figure it out! He promised me that He would take care of me! Shouldn't that be enough!?! Yes, it most certainly should! You see, I do not know what tomorrow holds! Heck, I don't know what the next 20 minutes hold, but what I do know FOR FACT is that my God holds all of it! And I don't have to worry about ANY of it!

This is a really hard concept for me to grasp, because for those of you that know me, you probably know that I am a planner! I like to have my plans for EVERYTHING! Well, over the past few months, God has taken "my" plans and done away with them! I was oh so not happy about the at first, but the longer I wonder around, though it feels aimlessly, the more I find comfort in NOT being in control! Sure I can make things happen the way I want them, but isn't that what I was doing before... with my plans... that God took and revamped!

You see, God has awakened my heart to things that I can not explain! I have no idea why I am supposed to be a teach, IT WASN'T MY PLAN!!! My plan was to plan weddings until the day I died! Its what I wanted to do and its what I thought I would be good at. Well, not so much! I also have no idea as to why I am single right now! Not a clue! I had been dating the same guy for 3 stinking yeeeeears! That is a crazy long time for those of you who haven't heard how long a year is!!! But again, He took my plans and changed them all around! And now I'm left with no plan and what feels like no direction. And that is totally okay! I never thought I would be able to say that I am okay with feeling hopeless, but the truth in a hopeless feeling is that you have handed over every selfish desire to the throne of an unseen creator! ... yeah take a second and process that amazing thought!

I don't know why I am spilling my guts to you right now, maybe you needed to hear it. Maybe this is just how I express my emotions! Whatever the case may be, I want you to know that you do not have to live your life fretting over what is going to happen. The truth of the matter is that no matter how much you worry, what happens.. happens! Worrying changes NOTHING other that the acne on your face and the number on your scales!

God has this!..... just let Him

In Another World! Day 1

Well my friends, over the course of the passed two days, I have managed to find myself in a completely different world. I am no longer thriving within the confines of my cozy bed and daddys cooking. Now I am sleeping on the ground and eating food that is so strange I just rather starve.

So I guess I should tell you fine folks where I am! God has brought me and nine other individuals to Vancouver, Canada to spread the word to the Canadian people.

Yesterday was the beginning of our journey. We met at the Albany airport at a woopin 5:00 am!!! I was not a happy camper to say the least! Once we made it through security and all the checks that go with flying, we sat on the small pack of gum Delta likes to call an airplane. Nerves were flying (pardon the pun) for those that had never experienced the joys of traveling by air!

Up, up, and away!!! We were very soon in Atlanta! and I do mean soon! It was a 29 minutes flight!!! but somehow we ended up arriving late to Atlanta, so we had to run to our next flight, which was Atlanta to Seattle. We made it with literally 3 minutes to spare! but hey, at least we made it!!! As we made our way on to our next flight we noticed that this plane was exceedingly larger - compared to pack of gum at least!!! This flight was very long... a grand total of 5 hours long! And when the third hour came, the baby in front of us became very irritable.
Once we landed we went to the rental place only to find out that the van we were supposed to take over the boarder, was not allowed to be taken over the boarder. Instead they gave us 2 vans but we didn't mind at all (at this point we would have taken anything with wheels!!)
The ride from Seattle to the boarder was quite peaceful seeming how I slept the ENTIRE ride!! but once we got to costumes things got a little crazier! THEY ALMOST DIDN'T LET US IN! It was really very sad! The Canadians could not figure out why we would spend our money to fly up and do a missions trip - and they really weren't going to let us in! But God did... well He did His thing and they let us cross. By the time we got to the church where we are staying we were really exhausted. I mean whoppppiiinngggyyyyyy tired!!!!!!! to be honest with you I really dont remember much else about that night other than we got in, changed clothes, and crashed!! lucky for us the church had air mattresses we could sleep on!!! And after my head hit the pillow it was lights out.... literally.

baby, baby, baby!

Work, school, back to work, check the afternoon agenda, gym, pray I get home on a full stomach, sleep, wake up, repeat! Life these days is FAR from boring in the life of this overbooked, over scheduled, highly exhausted teen! I often wonder whether or not my life will ever slow down, then I remember that I wouldn't my life any other way!
Christmas break as however, very relaxing!! I worked most of the break but the week of new years I went to West Virginia on a ski trip with my youth group! It was a BLAST! This was really my first experience on ski (except for when I was a youngster!) And I must say, I wasn't half bad! Now let me explain "Laurens Rules for Skiing!" First, you start off VERY SLOW, then once you pick up even the slightest bit of speed up plow with your skis so that you slow down. You do this until you get to the bottom and then repeat... easy enough right??
No seriously, Christmas break was a LOAD of fun!!! But it ended ever so soon!! And now I am back to my regular schedule of work, school, work, school, work, school!
This semester I'm taking Statistics with Strickland! So far she seems SUPER sweet and really explains things on my level (which we all know is EXTREMELY LOW!!!) I am also taking English II with Ms. Gassel again! What an amazing person! She really does have a passion for her students! Next we have psychology with Daniells! I think this calls is going to be....... special! The teacher is a bit..... corky to say the least! But I'm excited to see how it turns out! I am taking public speaking "online", I know I know... How in the WORLD can you take that online! Well I am! and I have a feeling its going to be a breeze! Well at least I hope it will be! haha! and Lastly we have the EVER SO FAMOUS LATIN DANCING CLASS!!!! Which if you could not already tell, I am SO excited about! The teacher is great, the students are funny and I think I'm really going to learn alot!!!