its time for you to become debt free.

Recent incident: A little while ago, I ordered a desk from Wal-Mart that was shipped "site to store." When I arrived back in College Station on Friday, I went to the local Wal-Mart to pick up my desk and it weighed about 30 pounds. Now, the weight was not the problem here. It was the size of the box. It was a large, rectangular box that probably needed more than one person to carry it, especially up a flight of stairs. I am lacking in patience and decided that I needed to assemble that desk immediately, so I decided to haul it from the trunk of my car up to my bedroom. Well, I did pretty good getting the box out of my trunk, into the house, and to the staircase. But then the problem came. How was I going to carry this thing up the stairs? My first idea was to push it up. Obviously, that was stupid. I instead decided to pick it up in the center and hold it out in front of me. I did great. I went slow and made sure I was getting every step. Until the very last one. I missed the top step completely and the box flew out of my hands against the wall and took me with it. I hit my chin on the box and my right knee went directly into the stair. I laid in the hallway for a minute or so and then hobbled to my room to grab my cell phone to call my mom and tell her what happened so that she could feel sorry for me. Now I have a wonderful new desk, a very large bruise on my knee, and a lot of pain in my knee cap to remind me of "The Fall."

I'm not quite sure why I decided to retell this story here, but my knee hurts at the moment and I can't think of much else. Besides wallowing in self-pity, I keep wondering why I can't sleep. I came up to my room and got into bed about three hours ago and have not even come close to falling asleep. This is a pretty regular occurence for me, hence why I'm always so tired during the day. I've done almost everything I can about this insomnia problem. Let me say though, it comes in waves. I'll have about a week or two where it takes me 4 hours to fall asleep, but then magically it'll change one night and I fall asleep very easily. In everything I've read about insomnia, they call this something, but I can't remember right now. Anyways, stuff I've read says after 20 minutes get out of bed and do something else until you're tired. Check. Didn't work. I could take Tylenol PM. Check. But I worry about getting dependent on something like that. I know that they say you can't, but I think its partly a mental thing. If I take Tylenol PM every night for a month, I'm going to convince myself that I can't fall asleep without it. I've also read to avoid your bed for anything but sleeping. Check...well, sort of. That can be hard to do, but I do try really hard. Either way, none of it helps. What to do, what to do? This is how I get so much reading done. Since June, I have read: My Friend Leonard, A Voice in the Wind, An Echo in the Darkness, As Sure as the Dawn, The Atonement Child, and The Last Sin-Eater. Most of that reading took place after midnight. In a way, I kind of like it. I like reading and this gives me some time to do just that.

Okay, I'm tired of typing and this post is going absolutely nowhere. Sidenote: I just saw a FOX commercial where they showed the announcement of the winner of American Idol. It made me smile because I love Kris Allen. Okay, that's all.

Be back soon, HT

thoughts from my parents' couch

I don't have guilty pleasures. Why should I feel bad about the things that I enjoy? I should not. But, I will admit that there are some things that I enjoy that are a little bit odd, maybe immature sometimes, but I'm not apologizing. One of those things would be watching the Canadian teen soap Degrassi. And tomorrow a movie is premiering on The N - "Degrassi Goes Hollywood." Excited is an understatement. My sister and I have been waiting for this all summer and she's even baking cupcakes for the celebration. Our love of Degrassi is one of the few things left that we have in common and can enjoy together and tomorrow night will be wonderful, even if the acting isn't.

This brings me to a thought/question. I'm 20 years old. Is enjoying things like Degrassi, Spongebob, and the Fairly Odd Parents still okay? And if it is, will it always be? I'm all for doing your own thing and not caring what others think, but at some point I've got to turn off Nickolodeon and get off the couch, right?

And those thoughts take me somewhere else. I don't want to grow up. I mean, I don't mind getting older. Living on my own is pretty cool, driving isn't so bad, and I like having my own money. But I don't want to give up some of my kid stuff. I still like to color in my Little Mermaid coloring books. Channel 32 is always the first thing I turn to when I switch on my TV. I could sleep until 11 o'clock every day and not feel bad about it. I have two Harry Potter T-shirts and the theme on my iGoogle page is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I just found out that the job I've had in Bryan for the last 2 years fell through, so over the last 2 days I've been scouring the Jobs for Aggies website and applying for anything that I can deem "do-able." And I have hated every single second of it. The first day, I cried for a good 45 minutes. My mom just kept saying, "Its part of growing up" and, "This is just part of God's plan." Well, I don't want to grow up and sometimes God's plans just really upset me. That's an extremely immature statement, but please don't pretend you've never felt that way.

My roommate warned me that junior year of college is a sort of difficult one. You'll turn 21, start thinking about life after college, and it will really hit you that you're not a kid anymore. Its time to grow up. I guess I'm there and I don't like it. I just never imagined this point in my life and its weird now. I'll be fine. I'll find a job, stop watching so much TV, only wear my HP shirts to bed and keep the Little Mermaid stuff in my closet. But they're not going quietly.

don't blink.

Classes ended in May. I blinked. Now, it's August and I just ordered my textbooks for the Fall. Where, oh where, did my summer go? And is this how the rest of my life is going to be? Older friends always told me, "Every semester goes by faster." I should have believed them. This is just ridiculous.

So, what did I do this summer?

Worked at Allen Summer Camp. I had fun, which isn't something I can usually say about work. Yes, there were moments that I wanted to scream and pull my hair out, but overall, I had a good time and really enjoyed the people I was working with.

Took classes. Let's see...Psychology of Adjustment was pretty interesting. Now that I'm getting into classes for my major, school is much more enjoyable. Then Biology at Western Texas College, which was a joke. Honestly, the easiest class I've ever taken. Lastly, Psychology of Sport, which had a few interesting topics, but on the whole, it wasn't really my thing.

Watched So You Think You Can Dance. Yeah, I did this so often that it deserves its own paragraph. What a great show. And it turned out the way that I wanted it to, which is always a plus.

And I read. A lot. Reading is my favorite thing to do. I read the Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers and I can honestly say that it changed my life. I learned so many things from those books about the Lord and my relationship with Him. I just started The Atonement Child tonight, and I think that I'll like it, but it definitely won't have the same effect on me.

That's all I've got. I'm not feeling very insightful tonight. I'm just wondering why my sister isn't home and praying that my stupid dentist appointment won't be too awful tomorrow.

All my love, HT

scrubbing bubbles & jesus

Ahh, to be back so soon. With a monstrous headache might I add, but it shall not hinder my writing abilities. FYI, this would be a caffeine headache. Which means I am addicted to the stuff, mostly Dr. Pepper, and this is a problem. It's so bad for me. I digress; from the title you should know that this post is not supposed to be about my addiction to DP or my headache. Its about cleaning supplies and our Savior. A wonderful little simile for you...

My roommate (yes, the same one mentioned in my last post) and I were cleaning one night. And when I say night, I mean the middle of the night. We had talked about cleaning all day long, but didn't get around to it until 11 o'clock. Typical. Anyways, we're hardcore cleaning our house because we're about to hit the road for Chi-Town for the week and we wanted to come home to a sparkling little condo. So I took over the kitchen. I mean, I rocked it. Reorganized cabinets, scrubbed the microwave, behind the fridge; I was like a machine. My pet project of the night was our stove. The things that are on the burners (I have no idea what they're called.) were very gross. I believe they are supposed to be silver, but no, they were black. So after seeing the miracle that Scrubbin' Bubbles had worked on our sink, I decided to try it on these burner thingies. So I apply the stuff and wait for it to do its magic and my roomie and I start talking.

"You know, Scrubbin' Bubbles is pretty awesome. You just spray it on and it does all the work to make it clean."

"Its pretty awesome. Its like the Jesus of cleaning products."

And oh my gosh, you have your simile. But, let's be real, this is a legit comparison. Think about it. Scrubbin' Bubbles does all the dirty work for you. You bring it something that is messed up, dirty, no one wants to touch it. You spray on the Bubbles and let it soak in, let the object really soak up those Bubbles. Then, you wash it off and its like new. Shiny, perfect, something that catches your eye and makes you smile. (Okay, maybe not you, but I really like seeing clean things in my house.) And then, look at Jesus. You bring him the world. Broken, unperfect, dirty. He shows us an example of a perfect, sinless life and then dies a humiliating death to save our souls. Give that story to someone, let it soak in, let them really experience the Lord. Then come back to them, they've been cleansed, they are something new, their way of life catches your eye and makes you wonder where their light comes from.

There you have it. Scrubbin' Bubble and Jesus. A wonderful little simile.

I have to say. I love to write so much and haven't really gotten the chance to do the kind of writing that I love in college. So, getting to do this is fun for me, even if there is no one reading it. Jesus is so good, I hope those of you reading this did enjoy.

Adios, HT

I will begin with a funny story, then end with something to melt your little heart. I just wanted to give you a heads up of what to expect on this little journey.

My roommate/best friend and I were making the long drive to my Grammy's house on Lake Bob Sandlin about two weeks ago. She had her iPod on shuffle and we were just listening to whatever came up. An N'SYNC song came on, I think it was called "We All Need Love" or something like that. Anyways, the song is all about love and at the end of it JC sings "We all really need love" like 30 times over and over again. So, being the witty people that we are, we were making jokes like "Yeah, JC, we really do need love." You know, being hilarious. Then that song that says "What is love, baby don't hurt me" came on. I realize my retelling of this story probably doesn't do it justice, but it really was hilarious at the time.

Now comes the heart-melting. I just got an e-mail from my mom and it was a forward. Now, she sends me this crap all the time and I usually delete it but for some reason I opened this one and I'm glad I did because it was precious. Basically, some people asked a bunch of 4-8 year olds what they thought love was. I will now be reposting some of my favs.

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and talk more. "

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt - and then he wears it everyday."

Precious. I love kids.

Promising to update this more often, HT

and so it begins.

this is what my day looks like during the week. wake up at 7. go to work until 12:30. come home and think about all the things that i could be doing. probably take a nap until 4-ish. wake up and find something to watch on tv.

during all of this time, i think a lot. and that is how i arrived at blogger.com and created this page to post my thoughts. i have little else to do. and now i sit watching the cursor blink as i think of something semi-intelligent to say that other people may enjoy reading.

i've realized as of late that a lot of your college years are spent thinking about what you'll be doing when those precious years are over. i know when my friends and i get together the conversation often drifts to where we want to be in the next 2 or 3 years, the men we'll marry, and children. i love children and often find myself daydreaming about the day that i start a family of my own. but, when i talk about having a family with my family, my father always brings up the state of this world and all the reasons that he would not want to bring children into it. of course with this confession comes outrage from both my mother and i. we both love everything about babies. that's not it though. my mother and i share another trait that gives us hope for the world and makes us believe it is still okay to start a family in this day and age. what is that? it's jesus. it is the knowledge that no matter what the economy looks like, what north korea is doing and no matter who our president is, the person that is truly in charge is our God. and i have come to realize that as long as i, or anyone, has faith in the Lord they can see the hope that he brings. my prayer for my friends and family is that they can rejoice in the hope of the Lord, and that in will change the way they see the world.

i feel that was a good start to my blogging adventure. and now, laundry and packing await me. in less than 3 hours, the 100th episode of so you think you can dance will air and if you don't plan on watching it, change your plans. 

until the next time, ht.