Merry Christmas Marcie!

Hi! I hope y’all had a very merry Christmas! I have mentioned on the blog before that my friend Marcie is on The World Race- An 11 month mission trip to 11 different countries. Since she is far away from her family and friends here in the United States this Christmas, a bunch of her friends made her this video! I thought that I would share it here on the blog. It would be wonderful if you would pray for Marcie and her world race team as they continue their work in the mission field, spreading God’s love to many people all over the world! 

If you want to learn more about what Marcie is doing, she is blogging about her experiences on The World Race at 

http://marciewallace.theworldrace.org/ 

Go Dawgs! Sic' Em!

Tomorrow my Georgia Bulldawgs are playing in the SEC championship. Not only, is it the SEC championship but a trip to the BCS National Championship is on the line. 

There are some striking similarities between this season and the 1980 college football season.                               

Gurshall-- Todd Gurley #3 and Keith Marshall #4

Man, I hope this happens! GATA! Go Dawgs!

Cinnamon Roll Waffles!

Cinnamon Roll Waffles 

Saturday, I made an awesome breakfast treat for me and my mom! It was thanks to pinterest! I had seen the pin for Cinnamon Roll Waffles forever ago and never made them! They are seriously delicious and take less time to make then if you made them as regular cinnamon rolls! 

So here are directions! 

1. take four cinnamon rolls and place them on the waffle iron! 

2. close the waffle iron and let them cook for about 3 to 4 minutes! 

3. drizzle the cream cheese frosting over the top and enjoy! 

Verse for Thought

Amy started this new blog segment last thursday called blog for thought and she said she would be glad for me to do some similar posts!

I was reading my James: Mercy Triumphs Beth Moore Bible Study and the first lesson for this week focuses on James 1:19.

Source: biblelockscreen.com via Sheena on Pinterest

Well I hadn't really thought about it but reading this made me realize that I have been getting angry lately, just getting ticked off over little things. It has to do with my unhappiness with still feeling in limbo, but seriously that doesn't matter. I really have nothing to be angry about. I have a great family and I am blessed to be able to live with my parents right now, (even if it feels frustrating and weird). James 1:20 goes on to state that Anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Anger, for anger's sake doesn't really accomplish anything. So I am going to focus on being quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. 

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Basketball Season is here! . . . what you thought I was talking about Christmas? y’all thanksgiving’s still 2 weeks away! But Basketball season has arrived! Duke’s first game of the season is tonight against Georgia State. It’s at 7pm est on ESPNU! 

Being present with God.

Being present with God. Yesterday at church the sermon was on being present with God. A lot of time we focus on God’s presence. But the question we need to ask is not “Is God present?” but instead “Am I present with God? I have recently been praying to feel God’s presence in my daily life, but I think I might need to refocus my prayers and in addition to seeking God’s presence first make sure I am present. I am bad when it comes to setting a routine for myself and often do no not spend quiet time with God like I should. I am going to work on that and when I have my quiet time I am going to try and make sure that I am sincerely present in that time with God. Number’s 6: 24-26, the United Methodist Youth Fellowship Benediction says 

Source: tharderdesign.blogspot.com via Debbie on Pinterest

I have always loved this benediction. The word countenance means face. God lifts up his face upon you and gives you peace! Wow, what an amazing image that is. God is looking at you, God is present with you, but are you looking back at him, engaging with him? Are you present with God? As I continue to go through this post-college journey and I as I continue to go through life God will be there right beside me but I must make sure that I do not check out on God. 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! 

Last year, I actually went trick-or-treating (yes I was 21, sorry I’m not sorry). I had a paper due the next day that I hadn’t started BUT it was Hallo-freakin-ween! Some of my friends decided to go out and I decided I really didn’t feel like starting my paper yet. It was cold, we didn’t stay out long and I eventually had to write that paper, but it was sure fun procrastinating! 

Caroline and Madison were the best grandma’s EVER. I just dressed up in their clothes as a basketball player. Taylor was a nerd and Ali was herself. 

This Halloween, I will be in charge of handing out the candy. I also want to go buy a pumpkin and roast some pumpkin seeds! Hope Y’all all have a Happy Halloween! 

t.swift & 22

Happy, Free, Confused, and Lonely at the same time. - Oh T. Swift How you capture my life in your lyrics. This is a lyric from her new song “22”. The song is not very deep and is pretty much a party anthem dedicated to Taylor’s best friends. BUT- it is still very relatable and super-catchy. 

HAPPY- I am generally a pretty happy person. So even though I have been struggling lately with this post-college life, I still overall would describe me as happy. Even though there have been a lot of days where I have definitely not been happy, I try not to focus on those. I AM happy I graduated college and I am happy that God has a purpose for my life, even if I have no idea the specifics right now. 

FREE- For the first time in my life, I do not have school tying me down. As stressful as not having a job and feeling lost in my search for one is, I should try and embrace this unique time of my life where I am FREE. 

CONFUSED- I am confused with life right now. I don’t know what my next step should be. I try to zone out because my thoughts are everywhere and I stress myself out otherwise. I am confused at the fact that I don’t have a plan right now. I never really thought about what would happen if I didn’t have things figured out after college. Sometimes I just want to turn back time, but I know that 1) that’s impossible and 2) I need to embrace this next chapter even if I am confused and scared and stressed about making a move, not having a job or a plan for what comes next. 

LONELY- I am Lonely. I am an only child, living at home again after graduating college. I lived by myself for most of college but there was always lots of people right nearby. My best friend doesn’t live close-by (and she has a next chapter). I miss having lots of people all around. 

I understand how it is to be all of these things at the same time but I am going to work damn hard to focus on the HAPPY! 

In her liner notes, Taylor dedicates "22" to ASHLEY, DIANNA, CLAIRE and SELENA

   

Top Left- Selena Gomez, T. Swift and Ashley Greene 

Top Right- T.Swift and Dianna Agron 

  

 Bottom Left- Claire Callaway and T. Swift Bottom Right- T.Swift and Selena Gomez. 

A good conversation

I have sucked at blogging lately. I know. I have been in a funk for awhile and lately even If I’ve had something I could possibly write about I didn’t want to. 

I have been struggling with figuring out what my next step should be in this post-college life. Should I work retail or waitress? I don’t really want to but maybe it would be good for me for awhile. What about something else. Maybe there is still something else out there. Whatever I do, I know I need to do something because I am approaching the point of shutting down. I need a routine. My current routine of a lot of nothing, is not working out well for me.  

I am in a Bible Study with a few ladies and it is really good for me. The ladies are 11 to 18 years older than me, but it doesn’t matter much. After our bible study, I went out to lunch with one of the ladies. We had a really great conversation about life and it was just good to get out and do something. In this funk of not having life after college figured out, I have not done much at all. So today felt really great to get out and just have a good conversation with someone. 

this is the new study we just started today in our bible study. It is a Beth Moore study of the Book of James. 

Confusion, Confidence and Clarity

I’ve been a bad blogger. I blogged once last week! I will try and do better. I guess I have felt at a loss for what to blog about, because I really don’t have anything going on right now. I still haven’t figured out what my role in “the real world” is. I think about how hard I worked last year, I definitely had a killer workload and I thought my thesis was never going to be done. But I finished it and everything else and sometimes I can’t help but think what for? I slaved and stressed myself out last year to get to this year and ... For What? I did all that and where did it get me? I know that for whatever reason this utter confusion and lack of clarity on life is not without a purpose but honestly it really sucks. I keep telling myself that before I can find that next chapter I need to work on my self-confidence, because this entire post-grad experience has really kind of opened the door to how big of a problem that is for me. But truthfully besides admitting that and praying about it, I have no idea how I can work on and improve my confidence. I have always struggled with worrying about the future and the unknown but now I feel like I have to do something or else I am going to wake up and realize how much time has passed and I still haven’t found my role in the real world. 

Source: thequotefactory.com via Elissa on Pinterest

*Disclaimer- I know this post is a real jumbled mess of thoughts! 

Cracker

October 5th. Friday would have been my grandparents’ 65th wedding anniversary. My Grandmother died 4 1/2 years ago. She was amazing. She was a preacher’s wife. That says a lot right there. My mom always said “Daddy’s got the license but Momma preaches anyway” She didn’t need a license to preach! When I was really little she gave me those little ritz crackers that had peanut butter in the middle. One time she gave me a whole box. My mom asked where I got them from, I told her grandmama and she asked “Grandmama marks? and I said “No Grandmama Cracker!” It didn’t take long for the Grandmama to drop and I called her “Cracker” my whole life. She died about a month and a half before my high-school graduation. As much as I wish she had been there for that graduation, I really missed her so much more when she was not there in person for my college graduation. I know she was there in spirit though. And I will just keep reminding myself that all the time when I wish she was here in person. She had this amazing nature about her and I feel like she would be so so amazing for me right now in my life. While everyone else seems to stress me out, even unintentionally, Cracker would have been such a wonderful guide as I try and figure out this new chapter of life. I hate that she won’t be there when I figure out my next step, when I fall in love and get married, when I have kids. My mom and I visited her grave a couple months ago. We know she is not there underneath that plaque and grass, we know she is in heaven, but it was a neat moment to go to the spot she was buried and talk with her for a minute. 

Books! Books! Books!

I have mentioned before that my Dad sells books. However when I tell people we have a lot of books, I don't think anyone really gets just how many we have! 

Let me give you a look into our basement and my Dad's office. 

The first two sections of 16 ft wall to wall bookshelves in our basement.

The end of the wall to wall bookshelves. 

Stacks upon stacks of books in my Dad's office

My Dad's office from the doorway

SEE! I really really mean it when i say we have A LOT of books! My dad sells his book on Amazon and has over 9,000 books listed for sale. 

Here is a screenshot of my Dad's storefront on Amazon. His sellername is emarks13 and if you go to www.amazon.com/shops/emarks13 you can browse through all of my Dad's 9,234 listings! He has great competitive prices! I'd love for you to go check his stuff out! 

Get Out And Vote!

Disclaimer: this post might ruffle a few feathers, might cause me to lose followers when I don't have many to begin with. I genuinely hope it doesn't BUT if it happens so be it,  because this is important!

The presidential election is less than 40 days away. Voting is very important. As easy as it can be to be fed-up with the politics of politics, we must vote to make our voices be heard! If we wish to have any say in what goes on in our government we must vote for the people we feel will best represent us.

  If you are not registered to vote, take the time and go to www.GottaVote.com 

There are many reasons why I will be voting to re-elect President Barack Obama. At the core of all of those reasons is the fact that he cares about the entire population of the country, not just the well-off. He doesn't believe the government is a cure-all pill for its citizens but he damn well believes it should help the lives of ALL of the people of the country. 

I ask for you to take five minutes out of your day to listen to Eva Longoria's speech from the Democratic National Convention. I believe she does a marvelous job expressing why she is for Barack Obama. 

GO OUT AND VOTE! 

EMMYS FASHION 2012

EMMY’S FASHION 2012 

SO the emmy’s were sunday night and I love me some red-carpet fashion. I have my 5 best dressed and 5 worst dressed. Y’all let me just say that there was a slew of people I could have put on the WORST list and it was pretty hard to find 5 for the BEST. Well here it goes! 

WORST DRESSED LIST

Sofia Vergara

Sofia Vergara is beautiful and this dress looks like a longer version of a dancing with the stars outfit. 

Julianne Moore

How to NOT wear the NEON trend! I think this trend would look great on redheads, but Julianne does it in the worst way. Way too much. A better fitting bra and a a shorter, better fitted dress and this would’ve looked fab! 

Julianna Margulies

Overbearing Print with a harsh hairstyle. It might not have looked half bad if she’d worn her hair down

Elizabeth Moss

I thought Julianna Margulies won the award for worst floral until I saw Elizabeth Moss. This looks like a tacky floral bridesmaid’s dress from the 80s.

Lena Dunham

Lena Dunham is huge right now and this dress makes her look it. Girl’s got curves and this dress does NOTHING to flatter them. 

BEST DRESSED LIST

Ginnifer Goodwin

This red, vintage dress was absolutely amazing on Ginnifer! Only thing is this is one of the only photos I could find where she didn’t have a super-serious model face on! SMILE! 

Julie Bowen

Julianne Moore take note, this is how you wear Neon! Simple jewelry and this wonderfully fitted strapless dress showed off what an amazing body Julie Bowen has! As a 42 year old mom of 3, Julie shows mom’s can stay in tune with fashion and look great doing it! 

Jane Levy

Forget redheads in green, it can be fabulous but tricky not to look Christmasy! Blue almost always looks amazing on redheads. I love this look on Jane Levy, who I am actually not familiar with. It is simple but beautiful. She has her hair pulled back but it is not harsh and I love the necklace. 

Leslie Mann

Leslie Mann rocks this funky dress! The messy almost top-knot hairstyle works with this dress. And the blue earrings pop against the orange of the dress!

Hayden Panettiere

To me this dress is a non-traditional greek goddess dress. The wrapping has a toga feel to it and the gold seems to give it the goddess feel. I would have liked to see her hair down though.

Saturday In Athens- UGA football

Saturday my dad and I headed over to Athens for the UGA-Vandy football game. It was super fun because I hadn’t been to a Georgia game in about 6 years and hadn’t been to a home game in about 10! So long overdue! My uncle has season tickets and called my dad up last thursday and said he had an extra ticket to the game! At the time he only had one and so we were planning on getting one for me somehow once we got over to Athens. But luckily my uncle ended up having a ticket for me as well! 

      It was a night game and so we were able to get over to Athens early afternoon and visit with my dad’s friend and his wife. It was fun hearing them reminisce about the crazy antics they got up to back in the day. Stories included a car accident on the way to the braves home opener in 1981, everyone was fine but the car was not, and my dad missed the baseball game. We made our way over to campus and were able to score free parking! Free Tickets & Free Parking- SWEET! We still had over 2+ hours till game time, we hung out at my dad’s friends tailgate. I sipped on a free screwdriver, had some fruit, walked around and chit-chatted. A lot of tailgates had TV’s. So while tailgating for the UGA game you could keep up with all the other games. We were able to see Miami force overtime against GT and so that was a great way to end the tailgate! And Miami won in OT so tech losing was a great way to start the Georgia game! 

        It just might have been a sign of good things to come. I thought the game was gonna be a lot closer than it actually was. Vandy played us tight last year and we only won by five and they played USC tight the first game of this season. UGA was a 16 pt favorite and the Dawgs more then covered the spread winning 48-3! 

 Kid Terrell’s tailgate- my dad’s friends father in law’s tailgate! 

 Tailgatin’!

 Tech about to lose!

 My Dad and Me

 one of my favorite concessions! 

the best picture I could get of UGA! 

Friday Faves

FAVORITE YOUTUBE VIDEO 

- Hanson covered T.Swift’s new song and I love it. I am not the biggest fan of the song but it is dang catchy and Taylor Hanson could pretty much sing anything and I’d love it. but seriously if you can watch this video and not smile, I don’t think we can be friends, I just don't see how it's possible.

FAVORITE REALITY SHOW

- MTV’s THE CHALLENGE BATTLE OF THE SEASONS. I am pumped for this season of the challenge. I am rooting for Team Vegas. Heather and Dustin are one of my favorite reality couples, I wish she was on the show with him. Guilty pleasure for sure but I love it. If you watched the season premiere, def email me your thoughts, looks like it’s gonna be a great season! 

FAVORITE WEEKEND PLANS 

This Saturday I will be heading to Athens for the UGA-Vandy game! I haven’t been to a UGA game in forever. It has been at least six years and longer since I’ve been to a home game! I am so excited. I actually don’t even have a ticket yet but I don’t care! My uncle had an extra ticket and is giving it to my Dad and we are going to find me one somehow when we get there!  GO DAWGS! GATA! 

Vandy almost came back and beat us last year and it got pretty intense! 

- 

source-pinterest 

By the way, GATA means Get After Their Asses! 

Where the Spirit of the Lord Is- A prayer

Dear God, my heavenly Father, help me to feel your Holy Spirit in my life every day, let me feel liberty because of your presence, through the power of the trinity, Amen. 

I have struggled sometimes lately to ‘keep my head up’ and to enjoy life. I have felt suffocating pressure when it comes to the job search process and figuring out life. On Sunday, our pastor had an amazing sermon and reminded us that anything substantive takes time. We want things at microwave speed but truly worthwhile things must be cooked in the crock-pot. At some point in church I heard or read the phrase ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is’  and the praise song came to my mind. That night I listened to the song and felt struck by the phrase ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty’. God is always with us and so I should not feel suffocated by pressure but because of his presence in my life I should feel liberty. One definition of liberty is Not Imprisoned. I have felt imprisoned by the pressure, by my uncertainty, by my failing perfectionism. BUT no longer. I must remind myself everyday that God is always with me and ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty’. I wrote the prayer at the beginning of the post Sunday night. It will be a daily prayer of mine. I believe that this will help me learn to enjoy this ‘limbo’ time and help me ‘keep my head up’. 

Friday's Letters Vol. 7

Dear Life,  the weeks keep going on and on, and I’d be fine with that if I had figured out what I am supposed to do with you. I hate feeling like I’m wasting precious time but I haven’t figured out what to do!  Dear Rookie Blue, why oh why do you have to be a summer show? I hate that you won’t be back on till next summer. And then that turns into thinking of what if I still haven’t figured out this post-college life by next summer. I can’t even go there... but I do. what if ?  Dear Buddy, I am so glad that we got back into taking you to the park in the morning!  Dear Music, I love being able to sing along with you to the radio, you make me smile! Right now I'm loving "Cruise" by Florida-Georgia Line.  Dear Clouds, I love staring up at you. When big fluffy clouds are out and the sky is bright and blue, it makes it harder to be down in the dumps. So thank you for that! 

If I can't have Ryan Reynolds then I'm glad he's with Blake!

Ok so I was super surprised when I found out early monday morning that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds had gotten MARRIED! I mean the fact that they didn’t invite me... I thought we were closer than that!  

The fact that Blake is a California girl and Ryan is Canadian didn’t stop them from having a southern wedding. They got married in Mt. Pleasant, SC at Boone Hall Plantation. 

The plantation was used in The Notebook as Allie’s family’s summer home. (Mt. Pleasant is also where my mom’s family lived when she was a toddler!)

 I love these two, I like them as actors and they seem like good people! I think they are just precious together. 

P.S. It has been reported that her Sisterhood costars were there. I love that!